"Oh, oh, oh. So Senpai came here to break away from your family and start your own path through your own efforts?"
Yukina Himeragi's eyes widened, her lips slightly parted with obvious curiosity.
"Something like that. But my family hasn't actually treated me badly. This was just something I had no choice but to do."
As they walked down the street, Cid put on a helpless expression while explaining.
"No choice?"
Seeing Yukina Himeragi's confusion, Cid thought for a moment before continuing.
"Yeah, no choice. My family isn't some powerful noble house. There's only one position as family head, and the rest of the children will most likely be sent off for political marriages. The position of family head is basically already reserved for my sister, but I don't want to marry into another family. So the only option left for me is to work hard, improve my strength, and try to establish my own household."
"Why don't you want to marry into another family, Senpai? What if the person you marry turns out to be a beautiful woman? Aren't noble daughters all supposed to be beauties?"
Cid gave Yukina Himeragi a speechless look as she walked beside him.
"How could something that lucky ever happen to me? You need to understand something. When it comes to choosing a family head, gender doesn't matter. That means the family head is usually the most outstanding person in the entire family. Because of that, everyone basically assumes the head of the family stands half a rank above the others.
Under those circumstances, the remaining children decide whether they marry into another family or bring someone in depending on the power balance between the two families.
You know how nobles are. Aside from the position of family head, which is genuinely chosen based on ability, every other position depends on things like background, wealth, or other advantages.
When it comes to political marriages, the side with the stronger family background usually gets first pick. After all, the point of a political marriage is simply to create a connection between the two families. As long as that goal is achieved, it doesn't really matter which specific individuals are involved.
But if your family is the weaker side, then when you enter the other family you naturally have very little influence. Sometimes you could die and no one would even notice.
At the very top level of nobility, everyone's status is equal, so there's no concept of marrying into another household. They simply marry normally. In those cases, the best candidates get claimed very quickly. Sometimes engagements are arranged when they're still children.
The middle group just chooses among themselves. They find someone they like and pair up.
But there's still a final group left. The worst group. Either their personalities are bad, their reputation is terrible, they're extremely ugly, or simply no one wants them. So what do you think happens then?"
"Right... what happens then?"
Yukina Himeragi had gradually been drawn into his explanation and unconsciously repeated his question. Cid gave her a strange look.
"They recruit someone to marry into the family. Of course, it won't be someone from the same noble rank. They can only choose someone from a lower ranked family. And naturally, the lower ranked nobles won't miss the chance to strengthen ties with a higher ranking family.
So don't expect the person I get matched with to be some stunning beauty. The good looking ones are usually taken already. After all, if talent isn't the deciding factor, then appearance becomes the deciding factor.
My sister doesn't have to worry about any of this. She's already the future family head. And even if she wasn't, with her talent there would still be plenty of top tier nobles lining up to marry into her family.
I'm different. I'm stuck in an awkward position. Not good enough for the top and not bad enough for the bottom. I'll probably end up marrying into another family. And when that happens, there's no telling what kind of strange person I might be matched with. That's why I want to establish my own household."
Most of what he said was true.
Some of it was a lie.
From Cid's perspective, if a high ranking noble really tried to force him into a marriage, Claire would probably be the first person to oppose it.
Even though he did not want to say it, in Claire's eyes those people were nothing more than a bunch of weird misfits who could never be worthy of her excellent younger brother.
Where that strange confidence of hers came from was a mystery.
Even if Claire somehow agreed, if he really disliked the match he could just ask Gamma for help.
Of course, that did not mean asking Gamma to marry him. He had enough self awareness to know that was unrealistic.
He simply meant asking Gamma to send one of her subordinates to deal with the situation. With the Mitsugoshi Company backing him, which noble would dare refuse?
"The world of nobles is really complicated."
Walking beside him, Yukina Himeragi sighed with emotion.
How innocent. She actually believed everything.
The real reason Cid came here had nothing to do with escaping his family. He simply felt that this place probably had many high quality protagonists.
Which made it the perfect stage for an Eminence in Shadow to appear.
As for why he made up that story, it was just a random dream he invented.
After all, the future family head was his Nee-san. With the talent he showed on the surface, that dream would never come true.
And having a dream only to be crushed by reality in the end... did that not sound exactly like the role of a background character?
"I'm doing fine, I guess. After all, pretty much everything I have right now was given to me by my family. But enough about me. I've talked so much already, so now it's your turn. Otherwise I'm the one losing out here. Why did you come here?"
"Uh... well... my family told me to come here."
Her eyes drifted to the right on their own, and she started stammering. The look on Yukina Himeragi's face made it obvious she had something she could not say.
"Your family told you not to talk about it?"
Cid could tell what was going on at a glance. At first, he had assumed she was just another girl sent here by her family to join the social circle, but now it seemed there was more to it than that. Still, he decided to pretend not to notice.
"Eh? Y yes, yes."
"Alright then. Tell me this instead. Do you want to become a Peerage member or a King? I can give you some advice. I'm not bragging, but I do have a few information channels at school."
That really was not Cid bragging. With Asagi Aiba as his convenient source of information, there was barely anything happening in the school that could be hidden from him.
Since this whole thing was his fault to begin with, he had already decided he would help Yukina Himeragi whether she wanted to become part of a Peerage or become a King.
"Peerage? King? What are those?"
Just when Cid was feeling completely confident, Yukina Himeragi's question hit him like a blow to the head. He stumbled and nearly fell over.
"You don't know?"
"S-should I?"
After steadying himself, Cid turned to look at Yukina Himeragi. The confusion in her eyes made it clear that she truly had no idea why her family had sent her to Saikai Academy, this semi noble school, in the first place.
"You can think of Peerage and King as something like the marriage arrangements I was talking about earlier. The King is the side with the better family background, while the Peerage role is basically just a different name for marrying into another family. The difference is that here, family background is replaced with personal strength. After all, this world still respects power above everything else. No matter how famous you are, if you don't have the strength to back it up, then you're not worthy of that reputation.
So your family sent you here without even telling you something that basic?"
"Well... um..."
Yukina Himeragi's cheeks turned completely red, and her gaze shifted helplessly from side to side.
Wow. Just what kind of weird parents do you have? Did they seriously think Saikai Academy was just an ordinary Magic Swordsman school? What exactly did they send you here for? The students here are either children of major factions or true commoner geniuses. Did they really think this was just a place to study?
"Forget it. You still have the evaluation they gave you during the entrance exam, right? Let me look at that first."
"Okay. Thank you, Senpai."
As she spoke, Yukina Himeragi took out a sheet of paper with writing on it from her backpack.
Cid took it, glanced over it once, then looked at Yukina Himeragi with a very strange expression.
"Senpai, what's wrong? Is there something wrong with my evaluation?"
"No, nothing's wrong. Actually, not only is there nothing wrong, it says you're very strong."
Cid looked away from Yukina Himeragi again.
"Phew. That's a relief."
No, it is not a relief at all. This is way too strange. Why do you have A minus level strength, yet your faction did not even give you a set of pieces? You are only a first year.
It was not as if reaching A- guaranteed you would get pieces. But for a Human to reach A- at that age, they would usually be treated as a treasured prodigy by whatever faction they belonged to. And yet here she was, being sent out to compete with commoners for pieces. Was that really serious?
The more Cid thought about it, the stranger it felt. He could not help sorting through all the information again in his mind.
Sent to a semi noble school without any real information. Extremely talented. Yet the faction she belongs to did not give her a set of pieces. Innocent and easy to fool...
Cid glanced at Yukina Himeragi, and an unsettling possibility appeared in his mind.
Could it be that Yukina Himeragi had already been promised to someone else as a Peerage member, so her faction had sent her out?
No, no, no. That had to be too absurd. What kind of faction would be rich enough to hand over a disciple with that level of talent to someone else as a Peerage member?
Cid shook his head, trying to throw the thought out of his mind, but then his steps suddenly stopped.
Seeing her Senpai stop walking, Yukina Himeragi was just about to ask what was wrong when a violent explosion in the distance cut her off.
"Boom!!!"
The moment she heard it, the absent minded look on Yukina Himeragi's face vanished and was replaced by the expression of a warrior, sharp and strikingly beautiful.
"That is... the presence of magic power. (Whispering)"
"Senpai, I have something I need to deal with right now. You can give me the student ID tomorrow."
With that, she tightened the guitar case on her back and ran toward the source of the explosion without waiting for Cid to respond.
"Eh..."
Cid raised a hand and put on a show of surprise, but in his mind he was already sorting through the information Yukina Himeragi had accidentally revealed just now.
That magic power... it seemed to be the same magic power of the watcher he had sensed at Kojou's house a few days ago.
Someone connected to Kojou?