Just Think of It as a 100% Green Light

Chapter 108

'Why is she curious about me? Why? Suddenly?'

A bad feeling shot up through me.

I really had only been courteous and considerate so as not to make things awkward.

I hadn’t shown even the slightest hint of romantic curiosity, and I hadn’t said a single cheesy compliment about her looks or beauty either, had I?

"Um... why?"

At my stupid question.

"Pfft."

Sophia covered her mouth with a hand and let out a small laugh.

"That was completely unexpected."

"Sorry. Your question was just so out of the blue."

"Is that so?"

Of course.

Who wouldn’t be flustered when a man and a woman are sitting alone and she suddenly asks what kind of person you are?

"Well... I’m not really sure why I got curious either."

What was that? That was a little vague.

And instinctively, it felt less like she really didn’t know and more like she was hiding her true thoughts and glossing over it a little.

But probing any further here would’ve been even more awkward.

Asking why she’d become interested in me could easily be interpreted as maximum-cringe self-admiring flirting or a delusion of being irresistible, couldn’t it?

So I decided to cut off any pointless overthinking and breeze past the situation with a joke.

"There are quite a few people interested in me."

"I’d imagine so."

"I’m kind of... the academy’s zoo monkey, after all."

"Pfft, ahahaha!"

At my self-deprecating joke, she couldn’t hold back and laughed out loud brightly.

Even then, the way her eyes curved into narrow slits was really distinctive.

And beautiful.

While we were laughing cheerfully.

A staff member came over with a tray, set down a pretty dessert plate and teacup in the center of the table, and stepped away.

The fragrant aroma of steaming black tea filled the space between us.

Sophia carefully lifted her teacup, her face still tinged with amusement.

"A zoo monkey?"

She took a sip of tea and looked at me.

"Aren’t you being a little too hard on yourself?"

"It’s true. I’ve caused so many incidents since my first day at the academy that whenever I walk down the hall, everyone’s too busy gawking and saying, ‘Look, the Farne family barbarian is passing by.’"

At my answer, as I stirred my milk tea, Sophia’s lips curved slightly.

"What Lucius said really was true."

"What did that guy say about me?"

"He said you were truly honest and completely unpretentious."

'...What the hell did that bastard tell his sister about me?'

I clicked my tongue inwardly.

It wasn’t that I was honest and unpretentious; I was just reckless because it was a pain to read other people’s moods and grovel.

Sophia picked up the fork on the table and cut off a tiny piece of the appetizing berry tart.

"Still, I really like that about you, Young Lord. Everyone gets so flustered in front of me, trying to choose only the nice words, the pretty words, the careful words that won’t hurt me. I’m so frail that everyone treats me like a glass ornament."

Her blue eyes shimmered softly, like sunlight glittering on water beyond the window.

"But you, Young Lord Farne, don’t try to dress things up or awkwardly watch my every reaction when you deal with me. You have no idea how comfortable that makes me feel."

'Oops.'

I set down the teacup I was holding.

Somehow, the mood was drifting toward something strangely comfortable.

My only earthly goal today had been to keep decent manners and then leave coolly.

Had I acted too much like a harmless neighborhood slacker?

The self-deprecating joke about being a 'zoo monkey,' which I’d deliberately tossed out to put up a wall, had instead contrasted with the suffocating aristocratic hypocrisy she’d lived with all her life and sent her favorability soaring straight up.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

"...Is the tart to your liking?"

I hurriedly changed the subject.

"Yes. The berries are really fresh and delicious. The cream isn’t too sweet either."

Sophia gave a small smile and then cut off a slightly larger piece of the tart with her own fork.

Then she gently slid the small plate with that piece on it toward me.

"Please try some too, Young Lord Farne."

"......?"

I looked back and forth between the plate pushed toward me and her face.

A girl on a first meeting, cutting dessert with her own fork and serving it to a man without even being asked.

That’s flirting, right?

Shit?

"Ah, I’m not really fond of sweets. I had a good meal, so I’m already full."

"Are you sure?"

...I’d lost.

With her frail, wistful face, pleading, "Please just have one bite," it would be the act of a psychopath to flatly refuse with, "No."

In the end, I obediently picked up my fork and put the piece of tart she’d slid over into my mouth.

"How is it?"

"...It’s delicious."

It really was delicious, not just flattery.

The buttery, crisp pastry and the sweet-tart berry filling bursting inside made for a pretty good combination.

At my answer, Sophia drank her milk tea with a very satisfied expression.

Under the sunlight pouring in through the window, a languid, peaceful silence lingered in the café.

Not a bad time.

Honestly, since she was Lucius’s twin sister, I’d expected her to be the super exhausting, picky type, but she was easier to talk to than I’d thought and not nearly as annoying as I’d feared.

Then.

"Excuse me, Young Lord Farne."

"Yes. Lady Rohanna."

Sophia set down her teacup and leaned her upper body slightly toward me.

The scent of milk tea drifting through the air seemed to hide her frail aura just a little.

"You said earlier that you’d pay for the meal."

"I did."

"The debt you owe Lucius, you mean."

Sophia’s blue eyes deepened with curiosity.

"May I ask what kind of debt you owed him?"

*

At that curious question from Sophia, I tilted my head inwardly.

'How strange.'

Lucius didn’t tell her about this?

For all else, he was the type who doted on his younger sister to an almost ridiculous degree.

I figured he’d have rambled on and on in front of his sister about that spectacular muddy slog during the Legion Tour.

But, well, for now.

"It wasn’t anything that impressive."

Still, since she asked, I should answer.

"The village we were assigned to during the Legion Tour was in pretty rough shape. If we’d just stayed there, we would’ve ended up eating and sleeping in a contaminated place while being forced into endless purification service."

"I see."

"So I used a little brainpower. I combined that brat Lucius’s alchemy with my own abilities and finished the village sewer construction in a single day. In the process, Lucius ended up pouring in quite a bit of his own money and expensive reagents. That’s the debt, I suppose."

I summed up the situation based on the facts.

It was an honest explanation, without exaggeration or heroic embellishment.

But for some reason, her lips drew a pretty curve.

"Hehe."

She fiddled with her teacup and smiled softly.

"That’s exactly what Lucius told me."

"......???"

Countless question marks popped up over my head.

What the hell. She knew and asked anyway?

"Then why did you ask me again?"

Sophia answered in a gentle voice.

"I wanted to hear about my family from another person’s perspective."

Ah.

So it was a cute little trick from a younger sister who wanted to see how her older brother behaved outside.

Both siblings were nuts.

These were siblings?

Not to dig up dirt or anything, just “I wonder if my brother is doing okay out there”?

Swoosh.

Sophia gently traced the rim of her teacup with a finger.

Her slender white fingers sparkled especially brightly in the sunlight.

"But, Young Lord Farne."

"Yes. Go ahead."

"You, Young Lord..."

Her blue eyes met mine squarely.

"You seem like someone who doesn’t dress himself up at all."

I flinched.

In that instant, a faint, cold sensation prickled down my spine.

'...Why does this feel off again?'

Was this just a normal, everyday compliment?

Normally, it would’ve been the kind of line I’d just gobble up with an “Ah, yes, I’m rather straightforward.”

But the subtle nuance of her words—saying she was curious about me, saying she liked that I didn’t dress myself up—had been bothering me way too much since earlier.

Alarm bells kept spinning in my head.

If I didn’t cut this flow off here, it was going to get dangerous.

Put up a wall.

A very thick, shameless titanium wall.

"Haha."

I gave an awkward laugh and fired off a self-important joke that was perfect for ruining whatever chance there was.

"There was no need to dress myself up."

"Pardon?"

"Because I was so spectacularly active during the Legion Tour."

I lifted my chin arrogantly and went on.

"I was so amazing that I didn’t even need to sweet-talk things with shallow packaging."

Just a little more arrogance.

"I was incredibly cool back then. It was a limited-edition version, so it’s a shame you didn’t get to see it."

So, how’s that.

This ridiculous level of obnoxiousness.

Normally, proper and demure young ladies would be sweating by now, muttering, “Ah, yes...” and averting their eyes.

And yet.

"...Pfft!"

Sophia couldn’t hold it in, bowed her head low, and started shaking with laughter.

"Hahaha!"

Soon she lifted her head and burst out laughing with the brightest, clearest face I’d seen all day.

Tears were even welling at the corners of her eyes, which had folded into slits.

"Ah, honestly."

Sophia lightly dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a napkin and looked at me, still full of laughter.

"Ah, this is so annoying."

...Huh?

"...Pardon?"

I froze.

Annoying?

But that expression was absolutely not the face of someone who was truly angry or annoyed in a bad way.

Instead, her cheeks were flushed red, as if she found me too amusing and liked me too much.

At that moment.

Flash!

Deep in my mind, a fragment of a memory from a very long-ago past life flashed by like lightning.

-Hey, listen up.

Whether she’d been through every hardship imaginable in a past life and reigned as a master of romance.

Or whether our sister, a total romance idiot and loser, had just been bragging in front of me and me alone.

Anyway.

It was practical dating advice my sister had seriously given me while cracking open a can of beer, advice worth its weight in blood and flesh.

-If a girl seriously glares and says she’s annoyed, it just means you’re fucking awful.

-But if a girl looks at you, blushes, and says with a pretty smile, “Ah, I’m really annoyed”?

-You should just be certain that it’s a 100% green light and act accordingly.

-It means she likes you so much that she’s annoyed at herself for not being able to sway you her way, and for laughing so easily at every little thing you say; it’s very pleasant little teasing.

I stared blankly at Sophia across from me.

That delicate and beautiful young lady of House Rohanna, smiling brightly at me beneath the sunlight.

'I’m screwed, aren’t I?'

Why the hell?

What the fuck?

I screamed pitifully inwardly.

No, what did I do, buy her flowers and sing a serenade?!

I just handed her the menu, found us a quiet seat, and spouted a few bits of nonsense—that’s all!

"Do you know why I’m annoyed?"

Sophia propped her chin on both hands and asked languidly.

"Well... because I was too arrogant?"

"Ah. So annoying."

Stop.

Stop!