Chapter 96
I suddenly jolted awake in the middle of a deep sleep.
At the same time, my upper body sprang up off the bed like a spring.
I blinked blankly, then stretched out.
“Urrgh—”
A groan escaped me.
I was sleeping so well, too. I really hated how this body had been trained to wake up on reflex the moment 7 a.m. rolled around.
Of course, if I put my head on a pillow, I was confident I could fall right back asleep in an instant.
By the way, it was just about time for the maids led by Lady Odette to burst into my room...
“Did you sleep well, Luna?”
“...?”
Then, a bright voice came from beside me.
As I turned my head with a creak, I saw Princess Celestina sitting at the table by the window, enjoying her morning tea.
The sight of her sipping tea under the morning sun was a painting come to life.
“Good morning, Your Highness.”
“Yes—good morning. Fufu.”
I blankly turned my head back forward.
I tilted my chin slightly upward and blinked.
Then it hit me.
“Ah—”
Come to think of it, this wasn’t my room.
Thanks to my bed having turned to ash and vanished, I’d ended up sleeping in the princess’s room.
Those overbearing maids would never dare pull the rude stunt of flinging open the door to a room where the princess was.
“...What a sweet deal.”
I’m saved.
In relief, I pulled the blanket up to the top of my head.
“Then, good night.”
“...”
Tomorrow was Lady Liliana’s magical engineering class, so I needed to get plenty of rest to keep my condition up.
If I slept for a full day and six hours—thirty hours total—and then went to the afternoon class, that’d be perfect.
What a flawless sleep plan. Mm-hm.
But my plan was thwarted in exactly three seconds.
“Why are you trying to go back to sleep after waking up on time?!”
“Grrng...”
The princess set down her teacup, came over to the bed, and yanked the blanket away.
“Sleep is something you can never get enough of...”
“No. You have class today.”
“Just today...?”
“...Today too.”
I let out a miserable groan, looking like I’d lost the world, but it didn’t work on the princess, whose resolve was rock solid.
Curling up like a hunchbacked dwarf, I desperately clung to the edge of the blanket again.
“Today I’m absolutely not going out. Seriously.”
“If you keep that up, should I drag you out of bed by force?!”
“Go ahead and try.”
I hid in the blanket and muttered.
“Even if you call it a favor for a friend or whatever, I’m absolutely not getting up today.”
If you keep acting soft and giving in, you’ll just become a pushover.
I really needed to teach this princess, who knew nothing about the ways of the world, that even friends have boundaries.
Besides, drag me out by force?
I couldn’t help snorting.
What could that frail princess possibly do?
Would she call in the knights? Didn’t seem like her style.
Would she use magic? Or grab my arm and tug with all her strength?
Well, with the princess’s strength, she’d get cut off at basic magic before even reaching low-level spells.
To think she’d try to overpower a great archmage with brute force. The princess really was naive...
“Luna is surprisingly sensitive, after all.”
Then a single finger suddenly poked me in the side.
Before I knew it, a shrill scream burst out of me. “Hiiik—”
In the moment I let my guard down, the princess had somehow climbed on top of me and slipped an arm into my side.
“If you keep refusing to get up, I’ll tickle you.”
“P-please wait, Princess. Let’s talk this through... hyaaaah!!”
“Hiiik! Ahaha! W-wait! This, this is really not... hyaaah!!”
“I-I’ll get up. I’ll get up, sooo...!”
“Hmmm—”
Even after I declared unconditional surrender, the princess didn’t stop and only moved her fingers even faster.
“Come to think of it, maybe it’s fine if you don’t get up, Luna.”
“?!”
“This might be more fun than I expected. I think I could get addicted.”
“No, I’m really getting up... hiiik! Hngh!”
“Fufu—Luna, this really is your weak spot, isn’t it?”
“S-stop... spare me... hyaaah!!”
*
Once I came out of the room, a bizarre sight unfolded before me.
“...?”
In the corridor outside the door, maids and knights were lined up in neat rows.
The moment we stepped out, they all dropped to one knee and bowed their heads as if they had agreed on it beforehand.
It had the solemn air of welcoming a hero who had defeated the Demon King.
“W-why is everyone acting like this? Stand up.”
Princess Celestina waved her hands in fluster, but they didn’t budge.
In particular, Head Maid Odette looked unusually moved.
“Your Highness has brought peace to Linea Hall and to Elterion Academy.”
“...Pardon?”
“We never imagined you’d be able to make Miss Lunaris go to class on time, under her own power...!”
Odette said as she wiped away the tears that had welled up in her eyes.
A stiff smile appeared on the princess’s lips.
“Though I’m not sure ‘go to the lecture hall on her own feet’ is quite the right expression.”
The end of the princess’s gaze was on me.
To be exact, it was on me, folded up like a blanket hung on a clothesline.
When the junior maids saw me being carried on Arke, stomach down and folded in half, they let out small gasps.
“What, what?”
When I shot them a sour look, the maids squeaked and covered their mouths.
They looked as if they’d developed trauma.
“Just the fact that lazy Miss Lunaris is going to lecture can be called a miracle.”
Though Odette didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.
“Princess. I know it’s rude, but may I be so bold as to ask a favor?”
“What is it? Go ahead.”
“Could you wake Miss Lunaris up on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays?”
“...Oh my.”
The princess pretended to think it over, tapping her lips lightly with her index finger.
Before long, she broke into a bright smile and nodded.
“That much isn’t difficult. I rather enjoy spending the morning with Luna, too.”
At that, another small cheer rose among the maids.
Watching them cheer that they wouldn’t have to be tormented every morning anymore was a little annoying.
I slumped over Arke and pouted, grumbling.
“Hmph, I let my guard down today and got caught, but next time I absolutely won’t fall for it... hiiiik!”
The princess poked my side once more, and my body jerked up before I knew it.
“Luna. We can’t make things difficult for the people who work hard for us.”
The princess smiled brightly and repeatedly curled and straightened her fingers.
“Grrng—fine. Okay, okay.”
As I gave in with a groan under that silent threat, the maids began to whisper among themselves.
“Miss Lunaris doesn’t stand a chance against the princess, huh.”
“As expected of the princess’s grace and charisma...!”
“Still, I’m glad the lady still has a little human feeling left in her. Sob!”
Being treated as something beyond human wasn’t exactly pleasant.
As we started down the stairs, the knights naturally fell in behind us.
“Ah, you don’t need to come today.”
Then the princess stopped them.
“I have the world’s most reliable escort right beside me, after all.”
The knights’ gazes turned to me.
Their looks were split evenly between utter pity and awe.
“Are you sure that will be all right?”
“With the archmage keeping watch beside her, what is there to worry about?”
“Exactly. It’s not like I’ll get caught up in some magic or anything. Haaahm—”
After I casually chimed in from the side, the princess turned her gaze toward me.
She shot me a pointed look, as if warning me not to make another mischievous remark, so I averted my eyes and pretended to look elsewhere.
“Still, purely in terms of combat strength, you’d be right up there with the chairman as one of the academy’s strongest...”
The guard captain gave a bitter smile and stepped back.
“Then I’ll come escort you when your ‘Ancient Language Decipherment’ class is over.”
In response to the guard captain’s question about whether she wasn’t taking any afternoon classes, the princess nodded as if she couldn’t help it.
*
On the way to the lecture hall.
I fed nature mana into the autonomous staff and asked Princess Celestina.
“Are you taking Ancient Language Decipherment too, Princess?”
“Yes. After all, if you live in the imperial palace, you’ll often come across materials written in ancient script.”
The princess answered while clutching her textbook tightly to her chest.
“I want to learn it properly while I have the chance. I took it last semester too, but I still had a lot I didn’t know, so I signed up again this semester.”
The princess looked quite serious as she said that.
It was hard to call it simple academic zeal... I’d say there was something like a will to survive mixed in there too.
Come to think of it, if you want to survive in the imperial family, you’d better cling to ancient texts or whatever else you can.
Still, neither the First Prince nor the Second Prince I’d seen looked like the kind of people who’d harm their siblings.
The First Prince was physically unwell, and the Second Prince was mentally unwell.
Of course, I hadn’t met the First Princess or the Third Prince, or the other royals, so maybe those people were targeting Princess Celestina.
“More importantly, I didn’t know Luna was so interested in ancient language.”
“Ah, well.”
I answered with a long yawn.
“I recently got my hands on an ancient spellbook, but it’s all written in worm scribbles, so I need to learn how to decipher it.”
“Hmm—seeing this, it’s clear Luna really is a mage.”
The princess chuckled softly and went on.
“I couldn’t imagine you doing research... Ah! Come to think of it, you caught a really bad cold while researching magic during vacation, didn’t you?”
“Well, that was more of an unavoidable accident... Anyway, what kind of image did you have of me?”
At my question, the princess hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then said with playful eyes.
“Someone who snores and sleeps all day long?”
“That’s true.”
“And...”
The princess, who had been walking in front, suddenly stopped.
I stopped as well.
The princess wiped away the playful expression on her face and quietly looked up at me.
That gaze looked strangely lonely.
“How should I put it... You feel like a mirage.”
“A mirage?”
“Yes. The more I look at you, the more fascinating you are, and also because you seem so dreamlike...”
The princess reached out and lightly grasped the cuff of my sleeve.
“It feels like if I took my eyes off you for even a moment, you’d slip away and disappear somehow.”
As if she were trying to make sure.
“Even though you’re clearly right here beside me, sometimes you feel like someone very far away.”
“So I keep finding myself—”
The princess paused to choose her words for a moment.
Then she smiled brightly as usual and gave my sleeve a little tug-tug.
“I guess I can’t help pestering you. I want to make sure you’re really beside me.”
“...”
“So, am I really that annoying?”
I blinked blankly, then shrugged my shoulders.
“Didn’t I tell you? Between friends, being a little annoying is fine.”
“Fufu, then I’m relieved.”
The princess hugged my arm tightly, looking relieved.
“Then I can keep waking you up in the morning?”
“No, could you maybe let me off the hook for that one...”
Even as I grumbled, the princess just smiled bashfully while holding onto me.
The warmth of the arm pressed against mine was pleasantly warm.
Well—it's not bad.