Part 2: The Lodestar Girl II

Prologue: Mia’s Fantasy Academy

“It truly astounds me, Your Highness, that you can’t even answer questions as simple as these.”

The stupid four-eyes looming over Mia looked at her like she was daft before rolling his eyes in exasperation. Mia, meanwhile, had her head down. She offered no retort. All she did—could do—was to stand there, trying hard to still her trembling shoulders. It was truly a pitiful sight to behold.

For her, that is! Those shoulders, you see, were not trembling from frustration...

“Oho ho ho...”

Mia looked up from the ground to meet the four-eyes’s gaze. Her face was set in a wide, triumphant smile.

“Oh, but I can! These questions are simple indeed!” she declared with panache before blazing through them, answering question after question with the greatest of ease.

The posterior pair of his four eyes widened in astonishment at her performance.

“Oooooho ho ho! They’re so easy I’m practically falling asleep!” She yawned for effect. “I’m surprised you even bothered giving me these questions. Oh, don’t tell me... Could it be that you don’t know the answers? In that case, shall I teach you how to get them?”

She folded her arms and, in the smuggest way possible, turned her chin up at the man behind the glasses—Ludwig.

“No, that will not be necessary,” he replied with sudden deference. “I see now that Your Highness is in possession of an intellect greater than one such as myself could ever muster... With my newfound understanding of your boundless wisdom, I must humbly request that you take up the venerable role of educator at the newly-built academy.”

“Oh? So, you want me to teach? Ah... Is that why you asked me to return to the capital?”

“It is indeed, Your Highness. And should you be so willing...” He took a knee and presented an ornate pointing stick to her. “This is for you.”

It was wonderfully designed with a mushroom mascot attached to the end. The second she took it in hand, her surroundings changed. She was now in a grand library with a solemn air. The vast chamber was filled with books and artfully adorned with beautiful flowers, from which a sublime fragrance wafted. Mia, an empress of boundless knowledge, was the undisputed master of this space, her presence extending from wall to wall. A flash—of light, or inspiration, or perhaps both—danced across her glasses, and she extracted a book from its row of neatly aligned neighbors.

“Hmm... This is quite the well-written book. Not that it matters much to me, since I know everything already. After all, I’m a princess of intellect, and a teacher at this academy!”

Her chest swelled with pride. The next instant, Bel appeared, a thick tome held open in her hands.

“Miss Mia, I don’t get this part!”

“Which part? Show me. Hmmm... Ah, I see. It goes like this, and this...”

“Wow! You’re so smart, Miss Mia!”

“To think that you should add to your gifts by being such a talented teacher... I, Ludwig, am humbled to the core, Your Highness.”

Soon, ranks upon ranks of people joined Ludwig and Bel, lining up to beg her instruction.

“I’m so popular... Oho ho ho! Ahhh, it feels so good it’s almost like a dream!”

Presumably, at this point, it’s not even necessary to point out that she was on to something there.

And so, as the gentle shaking of her body slowly registered in her sleep-addled mind, she quietly opened her eyes.

“Mm... Hm? Where am I?”

As her blurred vision gradually came into focus, she was faced with an unfamiliar ceiling. Soon after, Anne’s face appeared.

“Ah, are you awake, milady?” she said with a tender smile.

“I don’t... What was I...”

It occurred to Mia that her head was resting on something soft and warm. The sensation helped her put her memory back in order, and she finally remembered what had happened. She’d lain down, head in Anne’s lap, before the gentle rocking of the carriage had lulled her to sleep.

“My, I seem to have dozed off, haven’t I? I’m terribly sorry, Anne. You must be tired.”

“Not at all. What matters is you getting some proper sleep. I hope it was restful. I noticed you were smiling though. Did you have a particularly enjoyable dream?”

“I did indeed. So enjoyable, in fact, that I’m a little disappointed it was a dream. Oh, that reminds me!”

She shot upright and hastily pulled out her diary.

“I’d better write this down so I don’t forget... It might come in handy later!”

With a furious passion, she scribbled the events of the wonderful dream she’d just had onto its pages. After documenting it in detail, she let out a sigh of satisfaction.

“I had no idea teaching others could be so enjoyable. Hm... Being a teacher might not be so bad an idea.”

She recalled the missing passage from the Princess Mia Chronicles.

“Why did the part about the academy disappear, I wonder... Along with the new cold-resistant strain of wheat that never even existed in Bel’s future... It’s best to have as many back up plans for securing food as possible if I want to make it through the famine next year, so losing the academy and the wheat might be a real problem...”

Technically, so long as she maintained the current stockpile and secured Forkroad & Co.’s distribution routes, surviving the famine itself was probably a manageable feat. For Mia, who was, to put it nicely, extremely risk-averse, “manageable” wasn’t enough to keep her from feeling uneasy.

“As for what to do about this... Hm!” She nodded to herself. “You know what? I think becoming a teacher at the academy is actually a pretty good idea! That way, whatever the problem is, I can be there to solve it myself!”

...An objective observer would point out that she might very well end up “solving” the wheat breeding project, and maybe even the academy itself, into oblivion, but neither observer nor objectivity were present at the time.

“Milady, what are you writing?”

“Hm? Oh, are you interested in this, Anne? It’s my diary, and I’m writing down the dream I just had...”

Three days later, their carriage reached the imperial capital, Lunatear.