Hm?

I had always known that the disciplinary committee had quite the fighting force at their disposal due to the very nature of their committee, but seeing their actual strength first hand had left me surprised.

I was currently sitting in a decently spacious room, with the least amount of furniture around me.

The only thing in the room was chairs... all of them arranged in clean files, as the members of the disciplinary committee sat on them, waiting for the orders from their leadership... that was Ashlyn and Ana, and now to some extent even I could be considered as someone who was at the top of their leadership, after all one of my conditions for supporting Ashlyn was being able to order the students of her faction including herself to complete my demands, though I had given Ashlyn the freedom to change the terms of my demands if in some case they were a little too extreme for her... morals.

I, along with Ashlyn and Ana, were sitting in front of everyone, on the three premium chairs that had been arranged for us.

There was also a small table before me, which was decent enough to cover the area before the three of us.

As I stared at the members of the disciplinary committee sitting before me, for some reason, all of them tried their best to avoid my gaze.

They didn’t outright ignore me, but neither were they enthusiastic about being in my presence.

Still, despite whatever thoughts my seniors had in their minds, none of them let their emotions be visible on their faces.

Well... that was fair enough.

After all, I had given them quite the intense... training in live combat the last time we had met.

"Are you planning to recruit any students from amongst the first years?"

My words made Ashlyn raise her head from whatever papers she was reading at the moment.

Ashlyn didn’t reply immediately, as she pondered over my question.

"There had been a student from your class who had applied for the disciplinary committee even before we had begun the recruitments from our side."

Ashlyn had her index finger placed on the side of her lips, with her eyes closed... as if she was in deep thought.

"I think it was a girl named... Yennifer Alistair."

Hm?

Alistair... as in—

"The second princess of the Alistairian Empire."

"So, have you selected her?"

I couldn’t help but be curious about this princess.

In the original game there were many characters who had been important for the main storyline, but were quickly forgotten after they had served their respective roles.

And there had indeed been a mention of the princess of House Alistair—

"I had sent a student to summon the princess."

Ana, hearing our conversation, turned my way before uttering the words.

"I have met her before. She is a smart one."

Ashlyn’s praise only made me more curious about the girl.

At the moment the main focus of D.X. had been its complete expansion in the Veltran Empire, as all our main forces were concentrated there.

But that didn’t mean that our influence was weaker in the territories of the other empires.

On the contrary, the progress in the Elven territories including the Eloran Empire had been commendable, and even the vampires, werewolves, and dwarves had been infected by the bases of D.X.

As for the territories owned by humans, aside from the Veltran Empire... D.X. had also taken a firm root in the Alistairian Empire and the rest of the middle powers amongst human empires, though the progress on that front had been a little slow.

Though that wouldn’t be the case for long, as after the culling, now every new member recruited had to go through the same process, thereby the loyalty of the soldiers could now be considered decent enough as compared to the clutter that had earlier existed in D.X.

Julien had purposefully reduced the pace of expansion before, as there were many chances of the new bases being compromised in the foreign empires due to rapid expansion.

Now there was no need to fret over such minor issues, and so... D.X. had finally begun to spread its wings with its entire might.

The Alistairian Empire was a strong power among the humans, and was second only to the Veltran Empire.

Maybe establishing a decent contact with their princess would be good enough... at least for now—

Hm?

Though I had always tried to limit my mana sense while in the academy, as sensing students capable of using mana sense would result in them sensing me in return.

And I had no interest in people thinking of me as some stalker who keeps using mana sense to know what the other students in the academy are engaged in.

Still, at the moment there was no need for me to use mana sense, as I could clearly hear the sound of an explosion somewhere nearby.

"What?! Huh?... okay."

Ana’s sudden exclamation made me look at her.

Some among the committee members as well as Ashlyn seemed to have heard the sound of the explosion too—

"There had been some argument between student Noah and the vice president, and in a fit of rage the former had attacked Victoria."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"They are fighting right now, and Ella has asked for our help to stop them."

Ana completed her statement, but even the girl appeared to be shaken by the words that she had just uttered.

The rest of the committee members seemed shocked too, and well... their reactions were justified, as it wasn’t every day that the vice president was attacked on the grounds of the academy, and that too by a first year no less.

And honestly, I couldn’t blame them, as the news had managed to surprise me as well.

What could have happened for the protagonist to attack his own heroine?

As if there could be anything more entertaining than that.

Involuntarily, a small smile managed to crawl on my face, though I was quick enough to compose my reaction.