Cecilia emerged from the meeting room with a throbbing headache. She had just spent several hours smiling politely while world leaders debated her existence and connections like she was a natural resource to be managed.

The fluorescent lights of the hallway seemed harsher than before and the air was too dry. She wanted, desperately, to return to her temporary apartment and bury herself in Oathran’s cooking and Arkai’s chest muscles and Eastiel’s ridiculous karaoke machine.

That was when she saw them.

Three figures stood in the hallway, their postures patient and their expressions calm. But—their faces were so familiar that Cecilia’s exhausted brain stuttered and rebooted like a malfunctioning phone.

Professor Hargrave? Professor Ialdi?! P-Professor Suna?!

They’re... they’re same Professors, no, the same people—

They were the people she had known in the School Romance scenario, the Athenaeum, the magic academy where she had been a student and they had been her teachers!

She had speculated, back then, that they might be dragons in the real world too. Seeing Baswara, Lazuardi, Serayu, and Jenggala all appear as academics in that world, she had assumed—

But here they were, in this world. Still very human and very much not dragons.

Ivy walked out of the meeting room a moment later, her blonde hair catching the harsh fluorescent light and somehow making it look like a deliberate stylistic choice. The three "Professors" turned toward her immediately.

"President, is the meeting concluded?" Hargrave asked, his voice the same gravelly rumbling she remembered from the Athenaeum.

Ivy smiled and turned to Cecilia. "Yes. It’s concluded." She gestured toward the three figures. "Ah, Lesser Goddess, these are my beloved right hands. Mr. Hargrave, PASC’s Defense Minister. Mrs. Suna, our Chief Justice. And Mr. Ialdi, our Secretary General."

She paused, her blue eyes sparkling. "Ah, right. Next time, let me introduce you to our Chief Minister, Mr. Qinryc Lukas. He is a brilliant person."

Cecilia’s mind was racing. This was unexpected.

In the real world, she had not yet had the chance to search for Hargrave, Suna, Ialdi, or any of the other professors from the School Romance scenario.

But to think that they had such a deep connection with Ivy in this world, it hinted certainly that they might be Ivy’s closest confidants in the real world as well.

And if that were true, then in the Athenaeum world too, Ivy must have existed there. She must have had a connection to the academy. She was Damon’s age, after all, far senior than Cecilia in that world, just like in the real world and here.

It was safe to say that if she got closer to Ivy Cassia in the real world, she would have the chance to meet these people again.

"I look forward to that, President Cassia." Cecilia smiled.

She lied. This woman had spent the entire meeting mentioning ongoing disasters across the world, famines from corruption, outbreaks, messy border conflicts thanks to monsters, humanitarian crises... all while watching Cecilia with those bright eyes, gauging her reactions.

Was she implying that the world desperately needed her power and that Cecilia should feel obligated to help? It almost felt like she was being led by a noose. Could it be that Ivy knew that Cecilia was weak to the desire to help people?

It almost felt like she was being guilt-tripped. Which was entirely unnecessary, because Cecilia’s own feelings had already tripped her into guilt without any outside assistance.

She could handle the weight of responsibility any day. But this was not her real world and her real body. She had held back that reservoir, yes, but only thanks to the System’s Gacha rewards.

Without the mana potions and the magic stones, she wouldn’t have been able to do any of it. And she didn’t know how to recreate them. Not yet.

Forget it. She would talk to Damon later about trying to reverse-engineer the mana potion and the miracle elixir. Perhaps this world had the technology.

At first, she fully expected that her best contribution would be to give them the tools to help themselves. But to make it possible, she still needed her own power to lean on.

She could ask Oathran to produce magic stones from his own excess mana, or locate a magic stone mine, or—something. There were options. She just needed time to think.

"Please go to rest for today, Lesser Goddess." Ivy’s voice broke through her spiraling thoughts. Lilyca had emerged from the meeting room and was now standing beside them, her smaller hand reaching for Cecilia’s. "Ah, Saintess, too. Please go rest."

"Thank you, President!" Lilyca chirped, her silver-white eyes bright and cheerful.

Hmmmmmmmmmm. This woman intimidated Cecilia far too much.

"Thank you, President Cassia." Cecilia inclined her head, her smile still fixed in place.

She walked side by side with Lilyca, the young Saintess’s hand warm in hers, while the two white-robed priestesses followed at a respectful distance and Cha SoHee led the way back toward the residential wing of the facility.

The hallway stretched before them, devoid of world leaders.

But Cecilia still reeled.

"Lesser Goddess," Lilyca said, her voice bright and casuall, as though she were about to comment on the weather. But— "Because you are here, it seems that All-Memory and All-Oblivion have been quite quiet for a while now."

Cecilia’s stride faltered.

...

...

...

"Huh?"

Girl, can you please stop giving me revelation jumpscares?!

***

The three men had been busy.

When Cecilia had left for her meeting, the government facility apartment had been a perfectly respectable, minimalist living space. Now, several hours later, it was unrecognizable.

The lights... the kitchen—the living room?!

When the door opened and Damon Iondora stepped inside, a tablet clutched in one hand, coming to discuss important matters, his jaw fell open, and stayed on the ground.

He raised one hand, his finger pointing shakily at the transformed space.

"This—" Damon stuttered, the apartment had just been flipped upside down and shaken for loose change! "You—!"

What were they doing to a government facility?!