Prologue

Prologue

Nozomi Sasahara was the 21st of her line. Her line of what, you ask? Her line of owners of an ancient inn.

In this era, human beings lived a long time, so the inn she ran, the eponymous “Sasahara,” was almost 2000 years old. 2000 years is a long time, but the inn had spent most of those two millennia on the verge of going out of business, so it was hard to say how much that counted for. It had gotten off to a great start, but the case of food poisoning that occurred shortly after the inn opened was when things started to go downhill.

After that, something went wrong approximately every decade. Once, terrorists took the owner of the inn hostage in what came to be known as the “Sasahara Inn Incident.” Another time, a boiler exploded, taking half of the building with it. Then there was when the hot springs themselves dried up, and the owner tried to fool everyone by putting bath salts into tap water. That one ended up on the national news.

At this point, suicides choosing the inn as a place to kill themselves were so commonplace that nobody even paid attention anymore. There was even a legend that one generation, suspecting a curse, had summoned an exorcist. The legend said he’d run away before even making it through the front door. How, after all that, was it still in business?

“Because it is the pride of our clan,” Nozomi’s mother had said. She’d said that many, many times, when Nozomi kept asking the same question over and over again when she was a child. “Our family carries the bloodline of the emperor. We cannot stray from our task.”

Nozomi didn’t know what royal blood had to do with managing an inn. Her mother probably didn’t either, come to think of it. But, well, if her mom said it, it was probably true.

In this era, magic and Liradans were common enough to ensure that every imperial citizen had the bare minimum of income they needed to survive. In a society like that, there were only two reasons to work. One was to give your life meaning. Another was for the sake of extra spending money.

In the case of Sasahara, it wasn’t giving them extra cash, it was taking money out of their pockets. They were running it out of simple stubbornness. This stubborn streak, however, was lost on Nozomi. If quitting was the more profitable option, there was no reason to continue. And if they really did have imperial blood, shouldn’t the government be supporting them?

Since they were so poor, no one they knew even believed they had royal blood. Which meant nobody respected them. Nozomi was getting sick of it. “Helping manage a Japanese inn” sounded fancy, but it was boring waiting every day for guests that never came. She was 16, and her youth was being entirely squandered.

But Nozomi herself was neither tall, nor smart, nor brave. She knew that she didn’t have the guts to run away from home and carve her own path. So all she was left with was the notion that she had royal blood in her veins, a notion even she sometimes didn’t believe. Her tiny body swelled with pride at the thought of being a princess, until one day she saw news that sent her pride erupting off in the completely wrong direction.

“A new Empress has been born. The new empress is a commoner, but one with the power to control the Demon King himself...” Nozomi had been eating a simple meal at her table. When she heard the news reporter, her sardines fell off her chopsticks. She pressed her face up against the mana screen to get a better look at the new Empress.

The new empress’s name was Keena Soga, supposedly. She had a round face, round eyes, and even a round nose. There wasn’t a trace of nobility about her, so it was easy to believe that she was a commoner.

“Wait, you can have a NEW Empress?” Nozomi screamed. Keena was a girl with an ordinary face, not much older than Nozomi was. She didn’t know how it had happened, but somehow, when Empress Kazuko died she’d become the new Empress.

Nozomi started to tear at her hair.

—So it doesn’t matter if you’re a commoner, as long as you have royal blood?

—Does that mean I can be an Empress too?

—Empress, like, THE Empress?

“Our new empress will continue attending Constant Magical Academy. Like the rest of the Emperors and Empresses in the past, she prizes learning even if it means continuing to be surrounded by commoners...” The newscaster was continuing to introduce Keena.

Nozomi’s head was starting to spin. She had a bad habit of getting confused over even the smallest things, and to make things worse, when she got confused, she also had a habit of turning reckless.

“I’ll do it! I’m gonna do it, mom and dad! I’m going to go to school and talk to the Empress myself! I’m gonna do it!” She said to her parents. Her parents were so stunned that they couldn’t offer more than the most feeble of denials.

“W-Wait. That’s crazy!”

“That school’s really hard to get into, you know. You’re way too stupid!”

But her confusion had taken root throughout her brain, and now there was nothing in Nozomi’s mind except the desire to meet Keena Soga. “Don’t worry! I’ve got this!” She showed them a mana screen with a help wanted ad on it.

“Now hiring... janitors?”

“I can put the hospitality skills I learned at our inn to use anywhere, be it a school or a train station platform! Being a janitor is a piece of cake!” Nozomi beamed confidently. But her parents had a more objective view of Nozomi’s talents.

“Wait, hospitality? Have you ever even done any work around here?”

“That’s right. You can’t even clean your own room.”

“That’s because we don’t have any customers!” Nozomi yelled. She knew that was always enough to shut them up.

When, as she expected, they shut up, she grinned victoriously. “Just wait, mom and dad. I’ll bring this inn back to life! I’ll get us out of this situation where it’s just us and the Liradans! If I can just talk to the Empress, it’ll all work out!” And with those parting words, she ran out of the house.

Now, the janitorial exam for Constant Magical Academy had many applicants. At a top school like Constant, even a menial job like being a janitor brought you in direct contact with the people running the school, and was a great way to make connections with future priests. When she reached the back of the line, Nozomi started to get a little worried.

—I’m not so sure I can pull this off. Even if I’m a pro, they might have some minor advantages of their own.

It was a mystery where this strange sense of pride was coming from, but Nozomi was certainly full of herself.

The exam consisted of an interview with the artificial spirit Yatagarasu, to determine your suitability for the job. Yatagarasu would check a database consisting of every action you’d ever taken in your life, and find the job that was best for you. It might seem no different from fortune-telling, but since he could look at your physical abilities, your actions, and even your thoughts, he’d never been wrong before. The one exception was Keena Soga, who’d been told she’d be a “nurse” only to end up an “Empress.” But Empress wasn’t really a job, so it didn’t count.

Of course, some people rejected the results they’d been given, for example, to take up the family business, but that always ended poorly for them. For a job exam, it was a fair way to do it. All the school had to do was pick anyone who was judged to be a “servant” or an “educator.”

The interviewees knew this too, so a lot of them had already undergone the examination. Even if you didn’t get the exact job Yatagarasu suggested for you, it was common to get a job in a related field. Nozomi, by the way, had never undergone an examination.

She stood excitedly before the three-legged crow. After conducting the exam, Yatagarasu gave a loud caw.

“Janitor!”

“What?! Only one person in 10 thousand ever gets that!”

“Janitor” was just a term for someone who cleaned a school. It wasn’t a profession. No one ever got that for an answer from Yatagarasu. Which, well, was why they’d put out a hiring notice...

“Wow...”

“I didn’t know that there were people like that...”

The other applicants were murmuring amongst themselves. There was a strange mixture of envy and disappointment in their voices. All of them had hoped to be priests or professors, and had their dreams dashed when there were no open seats. They’d used what networking and connections they had to get them here, only to be met with a natural born janitor. None of them knew what to say.

But Nozomi took it as a compliment.

—I can do this! I can do this! Ancestors, are you watching me? I’m shining brighter than I ever have before!

Nozomi’s eyes gleamed radiantly.

And thus, a new janitor was born.

Her name was Nozomi Sasahara.

And she was born to be a janitor.