This Is Not Me\*a\*oma

Iz-sensei's private lessons have continued past that first day.

In fact, whenever the gun club wasn't meeting, I was pretty much always taking Iz-sensei's private lessons.

By now, without Dea-kun or Fletta-chan even needing to keep an eye on things, it had become a genuine one-on-one private lesson, just the two of us.

"A magic tournament…?"

"Yes. There's going to be an inter-school magic tournament soon, and… I was thinking of recommending you, Karina-san. With your ability, you'd undoubtedly win the firepower division."

"Well, holding back is the harder part for me, after all."

That's right. Thanks to Iz-sensei's dedicated instruction, I'd finally learned a beginner-level spell. I actually managed to learn one!

But, oh no! I happen to have an absurd amount of mana, so Fireball — the beginner spell Dea-kun used too — ended up with the size and power of a hellish inferno!

I blurted out, "This is not Me*a*oma — it's Mer*!" but needless to say, that earned me some serious looks of disgust.

The shockwave nearly obliterated the training grounds, but I managed to store it with Spatial Magic in the nick of time to prevent that.

… For the time being, if I dole out this leftover shockwave bit by bit, I won't have any trouble starting fires.

"Since there's a firepower division, is there also a precision division or something?"

"There's a precision-shooting division, and a research division as well."

"If it's just hitting targets, sweeping them all away with one absurdly huge fireball would be… against the rules, I guess, huh."

"Against the rules, indeed… It would be unfair to the other students who are working in earnest, so I can't recommend you for that one."

Iz-sensei can have a sharp tongue toward underperforming students, calling them dropouts and whatnot, but it seemed she was conscientious about things like this.

"Huh, here I thought you'd say something like, 'Mow them all down and show them the gap in your power～.'"

"That's for the firepower division, but cheating isn't right, is it?"

"But I can do precision shooting too, you know? With Spatial Magic."

"Now that you mention it, that's true…? Oh my, then maybe there's no problem after all…"

Hmm? Iz-sensei put a hand to her chin and pondered.

"For that matter, if I show off Spatial Magic in the research division too, it'd be a huge hit — maybe I could take the triple crown?"

"… Can you explain it? That Spatial Magic of yours. To a level where someone else could reproduce it?"

"Ah, nope, can't do that."

Spatial Magic requires an enormous amount of mana as a prerequisite to begin with — apparently, an ordinary person would burn through not just their mana but their very life force and still be unable to use it. Iz-sensei broke several measuring instruments looking into it for me.

(Note: I replicated the broken instruments and returned them.)

"Well, I don't intend to enter, though."

"You're not entering? Those with power have a duty to demonstrate that power and protect the people, you know?"

"I'm not even a citizen of this country, so telling me to protect the people… I'm not a noble, either."

"Mm-mm… Then let me prepare some kind of reward."

The conversation's shifting, isn't it?

"Oh ho. And what sort of reward might that be, Iz-sensei?"

"Here, with the resolve of leaping from the World Tree, I'll part with the lenses from Lakto-sensei's old glasses!"

"Oh, looks like that's time for today's private lesson, thanks for your hard work～."

"Karina-san, we're not finished talking yet!?"

"Common sense says a reward should be something the recipient is happy to get, no? The only person who'd be thrilled by Lakto-sensei's glasses is you, Iz-sensei."

"How could you! As if Lakto-sensei would suit only me so perfectly!"

I never said that, never said that.

But you know, this Iz-sensei — she takes that condescending attitude toward Dea-kun, calling him a dropout, yet otherwise she's just a normal, cute maiden in love.

Even the dropout name-calling seems to be mostly meant as a way to light a fire under people… under Lakto-sensei, that is.

Lakto-sensei is an excellent teacher, so surely he can raise even a dropout into something splendid! That's why I'll be the villain who makes him look good～!! Please, use me to your heart's content!!! Kyah, working together! At this point it's no exaggeration to call us husband and wife～!

And on the day Lakto-sensei raises the ones I called dropouts into something fine, his reputation will skyrocket by exactly how much I'd dragged them down～!! The good wife's support! This is what they call the good wife's support behind the scenes～!!

… is what's going on.

She's a maiden in love who's got a lot of things skewed!!!

… Oh, by the way, I learned this information by sneaking into Iz-sensei's private room and peeking at her diary, so keep it a secret.

I mean, she keeps calling Dea-kun a dropout. So you can understand wanting to get my hands on a weakness or two, right?

Well, I already knew she was head over heels for Lakto-sensei.

… As for how to sneak into the room, it's simple.

I copy the whole room into my storage space, all of it at once. Then I slip into the copied room and rummage around to my heart's content. The bed smelled nice, and I've already located where she hides her special-occasion underwear.

An elf lady teacher's private room… once I was done investigating, it felt like a waste, but I disposed of it. Because she was a good girl. If she'd been a bad girl, I'd have brought my wives along and turned it into a playground.

It actually left me feeling a bit guilty, so I decided to let her off the hook for calling Dea-kun a dropout. Yeah.

"Well, come back once you've thought of a reward that'll satisfy me."

"Then how about we bathe together, and I'll wash your back, Karina-san… wait, that won't do, will it, something like this."

"Let's hear more about that."

I ended up entering the tournament.