The following afternoon, Eugene rounded up everyone involved and headed to the clubroom.

[First Emergency Conference on Ivan Petrovich Yermov]

After scrawling on the blackboard, Eugene surveyed the room with a serious expression. The little clubroom was packed with an unlikely crowd. The six members of the Hero's Party, led by Isabelle, and the “Possessor trio”—nine people in all—sat with their hands clasped, regarding one another gravely.

“Now, may I have everyone's attention?”

All eyes turned to Eugene. He cleared his throat before continuing.

“I possess a power granted to me by the Lord. It allows me to quantify exactly how fond one person is of another.”

Elpihera's hand shot up. Eugene ignored her and continued.

“It's not magic. I told you, it's a power bestowed by the Lord. If you want to dispute that, come at me with theology, not magic.”

Elpihera quietly lowered her hand. Unfortunately, there was no priest present to take her side. Just as Eugene, the clubroom's only priest, was about to continue, Esidisi raised her hand.

“Yes?”

“You don't just mean that figuratively? You really mean ‘quantify’? How do you put numbers to people's feelings? How reliable is that?”

“As reliable as my faith in the existence of the Lord God. Any other questions?”

Esidisi's incisive objection had been defeated. Eugene nodded and continued.

“Now, allow me to offer concrete proof. Miss Isabelle?”

“Yes?”

“Congratulations. Ninety-one points. Extremely Friendly.”

“Eee! Oh my goodness! That's out of a hundred, right? Mister feels that way about me...?!”

“No, that's how you feel about Boss.”

“Then what on earth is the point...?”

With a peculiar expression, Isabelle sat back down.

“The good news is, your score is the highest, Miss Isabelle. Ah, this time I mean Boss's feelings toward you.”

“Eee! Oh my goodness! What is it?! I knew it. The Lord really does exist! Praise God! Don't any of you believe in God? Are you atheists?”

“Twenty-seven points. Neutral.”

“God is dead.”

Having leaped to her feet, Isabelle sank back into her seat in a daze, embracing Nietzschean philosophy. Eugene surveyed the now-hostile room and pointed to them one by one.

“Miss Esidisi, twenty-six points.”

“Out of thirty?!”

“A hundred.”

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Revealing people's feelings like this? Without their permission? Isn't that a bit, a bit inappropriate? I, I'm not ready to hear this. Unlike humans, elves have delicate sensibilities...”

“Miss Elpihera, twenty-five points.”

“Aaaaaah!”

The three women crumpled, screaming like high school students checking their report cards. The unveiling of scores continued as he worked his way around the room.

“For reference, I'm at twenty-one. Fortunately, you're all higher than me. Also, anything below twenty is Hostile.”

“Does that mean Ivan is on the verge of becoming hostile toward Oswald and me...?”

“Let's be grateful we're not his enemies. I speak as someone who used to be one: hardly anyone with a hostile relationship with Boss still exists.”

“Why?”

“Because they're all dead. I nearly died within three seconds myself.”

“Oh...”

“Isn't that less a person and more an animal? A predator, at that...?” Yuri muttered in terror.

Oscar gave the despondent Hero's Party a look of disdain, then asked calmly,

“So what is the point of all this? As long as he isn't hostile, does it matter?”

“No, it became a problem the moment I found out there are people Boss genuinely likes.”

“Wh-wh-who? Who is this person?! Are they a demon or something?”

“Of course not. They're all human. As for what else they have in common...”

Eugene paused to choose his words. He wanted to explain as gently as possible, but that was no easy task.

“They're dead now. All of them.”

“... All of them?”

“Every one... Almost every one. Nearly everyone whose Favorability is above a certain level is already dead. Everyone he thought fondly of.”

For a moment, neither the Possessors nor the Hero's Party could find anything to say.

He had spent nearly his entire life on the battlefield. And in that brutal conflict that had set half the continent ablaze—the one they called humanity's last war.

How many people had lost their lives in that war? Half the United Kingdoms had literally been “erased.” In this age, people who had lost their parents were common, and those who had lost siblings were more common still.

After spending decades on those battlefields, how many people had Ivan seen off?

“...”

How could anyone endure that? What sort of life could someone lead once everyone they had felt even a scrap of affection for was dead? Could that be called a human life? What must each day feel like for someone who went on living even then?

Isabelle suddenly bit her lip. She remembered the curse inflicted upon her father when he killed one of the Seven Dragon Generals. That vicious curse that excised emotions from a person's heart. Perhaps her father was in the same situation as Ivan.

Yet Ivan still smiled now and then, and sometimes shed tears. Even if those moments only came when he ate food from home. Looked at another way, perhaps that meant there was still a chance.

A chance for him to live a better life. A chance to give him one.

Perhaps. And without fail.

“Yes. That's the problem. I think we can all agree that, fundamentally, Boss is a little... somewhat... very...? Broken.”

“So?”

“If he genuinely cared about no one, we'd all be at twenty.”

Eugene tapped the blackboard and declared confidently,

“Look at Miss Isabelle's twenty-seven points. That means the score can go up depending on what you do! Our goal from now on is to raise his Favorability to fifty... In other words, Friendly!”

“Friendly...!”

“Isn't that a rather paltry score?” Elpihera muttered, furrowing her brow.

Ignoring the elf, Eugene concluded,

“If we can quantify his feelings, we can find out which actions make him like us more or less! We'll use that to become important people in his life and restore his mental health!”

“Yeah!”

“You're a hero!”

Esidisi and Isabelle cheered. Lucia, who had been listening quietly, raised her hand.

“How, though? I mean, sure. We know Senior's in that state... But this is Senior we're talking about. What can we do besides bury him in gifts? We barely have time to see him outside class in the first place.”

“Heh heh. That isn't my question to answer. Oswald?”

“Ah, my turn at last. Your attention, please.”

Oswald stood and approached the blackboard. Erasing everything written there, he began writing in an elegant hand, his chalk clacking against the board.

[We Can All Do It: One-on-One Dates]

“May I go home now?”

Oscar nodded with an immaculate smile. Right. First, get away from these lunatics.

His suggestion was naturally drowned out by the cheers erupting from the entire Hero's Party. (No sooner had they cheered than they eyed one another suspiciously and sat down.)

Halfway to his feet, Oscar awkwardly lowered himself back into his seat and sighed. His objection had been defeated by majority rule. Thus, democracy could never be the answer under any circumstances.

* * *

“Boss believes there's a spy at this university. He doesn't merely believe it—he's conducting a serious search.”

“So?”

“The three of us are going to help him find that spy. And to do that...”

* * *

After class, Ivan spotted three people watching him amid the students fleeing in their usual haste. The Possessor trio sidled toward him with sly smiles. Eugene led the way, rubbing his hands together and grinning shiftily.

“Boss, I've got a brilliant idea for you.”

“Hmm?”

“Well, you know. You said you were looking for a spy, didn't you? That there had to be one in this class.”

“And you failed to find one.”

Ivan understood opportunity costs. In other words, there was no need to repeat a failed method in exactly the same way. Despite his chilly response, Eugene continued with a grin.

“That's when I was on my own. But what if the three of us worked together? You know, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei split the realm between them as a trio, didn't they?”

To spoil Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei ultimately lost to Cao Cao. Undeterred by Ivan's skeptical gaze, Eugene continued.

“To look up someone's information, I have to befriend them first, right?”

“And?”

“And right here, we have an expert in ‘making friends.’”

He gestured toward Oswald.

“We failed because we each tried separately. If Oswald uses ‘making friends’ to make the relationship between a ‘suspect’ and me ‘Friendly,’ the Status window will cough up the information.”

“For the record, my job is abducting the suspects.”

“What do you think?”

“... Not bad.”

For an idea from these three, it was quite serviceable. Better still, exploiting a loophole in the Status window—as befitted Possessors—was very much to his taste.

When Ivan nodded quietly, Eugene grinned and lowered his voice.

“But there's that ‘common sense’ you know all about. There's always a spy hiding at an academy. Right?”

“Mm.”

“And usually, the protagonist exposes that spy, and the spy's plot puts the academy in danger along the way. Right?”

“... You're not wrong.”

“Then if we identify the spy ourselves first, sit back and observe, and later steer the protagonists that way naturally, wouldn't that make for a smooth ‘stage clear,’ as you put it?”

Oh.

Ivan was actually rather impressed. It had been so long—so very long—since he had encountered anyone who spoke of common sense. When he nodded quietly, Eugene's smile deepened.

“Let's handle one part at a time. We'll divide the students by their home countries. While we're searching each group for the spy, you take the protagonist from that country aside and buy us a little time, Boss.”

Eugene opened a notebook and began scribbling secretively.

Thilles - Isabelle, Oscar.

Droan - Esidisi.

Kallion - Elpihera.

Krasilof - Lucia...

* * *

Turning back the clock briefly, in the clubroom, Lundis let out a shriek as she listened to Eugene's explanation.

“Wait! Why am I not on the list of dates with him?!”

“Uh... Miss Lundis, you said you'd already gone on a date with Boss during the vacation.”

“No! That's completely separate! This is cheating! I won't stand for it!”

“Ignore the runt. Go on. This sounds plausible.”

“Please leave me out. I'd be perfectly happy just doing a little more training with Sir Yermov.”

* * *

Ivan nodded and looked at Eugene.

“Will you be all right without me? Identifying agents of hostile nations is a somewhat demanding operation for beginners.”

“Ha ha, come on, Boss. Are we really beginners? With Mind Sorcery and the Status window, we're invincible.”

“Frankly, I think we're more capable than most agents in an intelligence command, Ivan.”

“... You're not wrong.”

Ivan nodded gravely. None of the three had completed proper ‘training,’ but in all honesty, this one could be useful if put to the right use.

All three were strong enough to use Line of Fire Detection. On top of that, they had an extraordinary ability beyond all normal limits: the Status window.

Yuri's swordsmanship was exceptional enough that her practical grades exceeded Isabelle's, and Oswald was the best in his year in the Mind Sorcery school. An impeccable choice of personnel indeed.

Ivan nodded with confidence.

“Then we'll proceed with your plan.”

It had been a long time since he had supported someone else's operation, but it wasn't a bad feeling. After all, he couldn't do everything alone.

* * *

Back in the clubroom, Isabelle raised her hand as she listened attentively to Eugene's explanation.

“What if you really do find a spy or something? Mister will obviously go crazy again and start saying, ‘That bastard has to die.’”

“Oh, come on.”

At Isabelle's question, Eugene rubbed his hands together and gave a shifty grin.

“What are the odds of that?”

Common sense dictated that a university under the Counterintelligence Command's airtight, round-the-clock surveillance, with the Princess herself serving as dean, and which had been directly subjected to terrorist attacks until recently...

Surely there couldn't be a spy in a place like that. Much less a demon spy. That was what we called common sense. The obvious.

* * *

“Why is there actually one?!”

That was the scream Eugene let out in the second week of “Operation: Anyone Can Do It—One-on-One Dates.”