492 My First End Of Year School Gala

"Ehehehe…"

"Hehehe…"

"Mnnn…"

I did my best to keep my thoughts to myself while the three girls around me continued to giggle during our carriage ride.

In case you were wondering… Yes, I ended up just letting all three act as my escorts to the party.

Well… I say escort loosely because it was going to be two of them holding my arms while the last one would be holding my tail.

The three of them had a long discussion about who would be holding which body part of me and it ended up taking quite a long while before they finally agreed on it.

As for me… I didn't really care as long as they were happy.

"Ahhhh~ Aster's tail~ Can I lick it?" Lisa pleaded while caressing along the length of my tail.

"No," I answered her curtly, trying my best to distract myself with the view outside the carriage.

Lisa made a distressed groan but I maintained my stance on the rejection.

I'll let her lick it later when we're in bed, not now… If I did, I would probably be pinning the Infrid to the floor with myself ploughing into her repeatedly.

Yeah… Let's just get through the graduation party first before we get into that…

The carriage soon came to a stop and the doors were opened by a servant whom I assumed to be under the employ of the Royal Family.

All three girls rushed out before me and turned back to offer their hands to me with an array of smiles.

Odeta had a confident and proud look; Lisa had a flirty and thirsty grin; and Delmare's gaze was filled with adoration and anticipation.

I reached out both my hands and let the three of them take a hold of me, allowing me to step out of the carriage slowly.

They then positioned themselves as they had agreed before this. Delmare would take my right, Odeta my left and Lisa would be the one that is holding my tail and trying her best not to perv on it.

Judging by the giggling coming from behind and the slow strokes along my tail… I would say that was at least partly successful…

The four of us then made our way down the path towards the entrance of the palace, creating a rather weird sight that drew quite the attention from the others.

Well… At least that's what I inferred from the various surprised expressions from the people around us.

My companions did not seem to mind the attention at least so we entered the palace without any issues.

Through there, we were then guided to a hall that I was already quite familiar with since I'd met a certain princess for the first time in that very same place.

The hall was already filled with various students and a herald announced our arrival to the occupants of the room.

"Announcing Lady Aster and her companions! Miss Odeta, Miss Delmare and Miss Lisa!"

At this point I could tell that a lot of this was purely prepared for theatrics meant to highlight the norms of noble society.

There were quite a number of students who looked quite obviously out of depth amongst the crowd. The older students mostly muddled along while relying on their past experiences while the younger ones tried to emulate their peers as best they could.

I say this because when I entered the hall, I could quite clearly see a number of them standing a little taller or even walking a little softer at the sight of me.

I'm going to guess that was my Authority Projection at work.

Aside from the students, there were also other nobles mingling amongst the older students, most probably searching for retainers that they could employ.

My three 'escorts' brought me to the end of the hall where two people I did not expect to see were seated.

"Ah, Lady Aster. Welcome," King Justinia greeted with a nod of her head. "Congratulations on completing your school year."

I took a step away from the girls to curtsy to the King and Queen, "Thank you for your invitation, your Majesties."

Queen Levianne cupped her face with a hand, "Ara~ Hearing little Aster speak so distantly after making love to me so thoroughly the other day is a little sad."

The King shot her a look but that only made the Queen giggle remorselessly.

Good thing no one else heard that…

The King turned back to me and sighed, "It's nice to see you again, Aster. How is Tiara?"

I straightened myself, "Mmm… She's quite settled in at home at least and Aria is learning how to be one of our maids as well."

"That is nice to hear. So have you decided when you would be visiting us again for that reward of yours?"

"Ah… Umm… Not yet…"

King Justinia nodded as though unsurprised by my answer, "There's no rush. You can just drop by whenever with Tiara."

I curtsied again, "I will, sister Justinia. Although I'm surprised you would show up for a small gathering like this…"

She smiled at me, "It is not an exaggeration to say that the greatest minds of the Kingdom come from the Academy. And as hosts of the party, it would not do to not at least show ourselves."

"Being a King sounds tough."

"You got that right. Don't let me hold you here, Aster. Enjoy the party."

The Queen added, "And if you get bored, just come find Mama~ I can bring you to one of the resting rooms and I'll spoil you again~"

I decided not to comment and simply curtsied again.

With our greetings to our hosts complete, we vacated the spot to allow the next pair to greet the monarchs while we mingled with the crowd.

We didn't get to go very far before a girl came up to us and curtsied. Ah, it was that girl who went after me during the speech.

"Well met, Lady Aster. I am Cassandra Emberwood, second year Special Class student."

Ah… That's right… One of the major points of this party… For the Special Class students to mingle.

I curtsied back, "Well met, Lady Cassandra. These are my companions, Odeta, Delmare and Lisa."

She nodded at them in greeting but said nothing to them which was normal for our current situation so it wasn't meant as an insult.

I was wondering what the second year student wanted from me when she pulled out a small notebook from within her sleeve to present to me.

"Could I… Ask that Lady Aster give me your autograph?"

I honestly wasn't expecting that.

Seeing no reason to reject her, I absentmindedly signed my name in the notebook.

As I handed the notebook back to her while ignoring the scrutiny my companions were sending her way, I asked, "Umm… Why did you call me 'queen' back in the school hall?"

Cassandra accepted the notebook I returned with both hands, though she did look a little confused at my question.

"It's because you are the Queen of the school of course."

I blinked at her.

"What does that mean?"

The girl looked at Odeta for a moment before turning back to me, "Oh. I did not realise you were not privy to that. Umm… It's just an unofficial term that we give to students that most of us have set as our role model. Kind of like an unofficial tradition if you will. I believe two years ago, we had a Prince attending the school and he was given the King title while he was here too."

Ah… Ok…

"Was Daniel the King before me or something?"

"Ah… Well… No… This is a little complicated, Lady Aster… And I'm admittedly not the best person to explain such a custom to you… I just know that you qualify for the title and there are quite a number of criterias involved you see…"

Huh… So it's like some kind of unofficial and separate election made amongst the students while the student council is an official one? Ugh I don't want to know…

I don't know how something like this went over me… But now I'm beginning to suspect that I'm being purposefully left out of the loop by someone… I wonder who?

Putting that aside…

"Umm… Cassandra? What do students like us usually do at a party like this?"

She perked up, "Ah! I sometimes forget that you're still a first year, Lady Aster. For us, this is a place where we can discuss anything we want. For example… I would like to know how you manage to get your level of control over your Pyromancy, Lady Aster!"

I blinked at her.

She took that as a sign that meant her question wasn't clear enough and started to elaborate, "Sometimes when I cast [Fire Blast], the flames that I summon would be too wide and burn things that I do not wish to burn unintentionally. Do you have a way to limit that?"

Ohhhh… This is basically a more convoluted form of a forum isn't it?

Then again, we are students of a magic school after all.

I raised my finger, "Ah, you see… Most of the time the spells we cast have to do with intent and the mana we put in. So if your intent is unclear and the mana you feed your magic is more than necessary, you may risk your magic behaving a little differently than what you might want."

She thought about it, "But… To be doing all that while chanting and also directing where you want the spell to go… That sounds like it would be quite impossible to do perfectly on the first try…"

I tilted my head slightly, "This is why we're in a magic academy and given the resources and space to practise aren't we? All you need to do is to keep practising until you can do it like it's second nature."

"Mm… I see… I suppose I failed to consider it that way… Then could I ask another question?"

I nodded for her to go ahead.

She then asked, "Could… Could Lady Aster pat my head?"

…

What.