I'm Fine Unless It's a Star-Grade Potion

Chapter 62

Inside Ibelin's carriage.

I was enduring the most awkward silence in the world.

…….

…….

What the hell was so important that you dragged me all the way here to say it?

I was in the middle of eating.

I glanced at Ibelin, who was seated across from me.

She was pretending to look out the window while only her lips kept moving.

She would try to speak, swallow it, then try again and swallow it again.

…….

…….

Ah, shit, my mealtime.

This really wasn't going to work.

I couldn't take it anymore and opened my mouth.

"What is it you want to say?"

"...!"

Ibelin jerked in surprise and turned her head.

Her red eyes wavered, and she seemed about to say something before shutting her mouth.

She repeated that three times.

"Um, uh..."

"……."

"N-no. I mean."

Wow.

She's broken again.

It's not like she's some ancient desktop from the '80s.

Why does it keep glitching out and then coming back?

Do I treat her like a faulty appliance or something?

Would beating the hell out of her snap her out of it?

Hmm.

Probably not, huh?

Of all things, even my father couldn't cover for that.

'That said, I can't exactly ask her why she's doing this.'

It wasn't hard to infer that there was another point to this.

If she's hesitating to say it, odds are it's something uncomfortable to hear.

If I bring it up first with, 'What is it? Go on and say it!' all I'm really doing is offering to share responsibility for an uncomfortable truth.

Am I crazy?

I stood up and said,

"May I head out now?"

"……."

Ibelin hesitated.

Her hand clenched tightly around her skirt before slowly loosening.

"...Yes. Please do."

Oh.

She's surprisingly letting me go without a fuss.

I breathed a sigh of relief inside and turned toward the carriage door.

But then.

"And..."

Ibelin added hurriedly.

"If you need anything to recover, just say the word. I'll get it for you with my authority."

"...Pardon?"

As if.

So I can ask for help and get roped in?

I smiled lightly, still holding the door handle.

"I'm fine. Unless it's a star-grade potion, that is."

I tossed out a stupid joke, gave a light farewell, and stepped down from the carriage.

Creak.

The air outside was refreshing.

Finally, freedom.

"Ah, the food's probably gone cold by now."

I muttered and hurried toward the dining tent.

Damn it, stew is disgusting once it's cold.

But when I got back to where we'd been eating, my bowl was nowhere to be seen.

Not only my bowl, but Lily, who had been eating with me, was gone too.

What?

Did someone swipe it already?

No way. These guys aren't a bunch of beggars, so why would they steal my bowl?

What the fuck?

While I was thinking that, Lily came back from over there.

Carefully carrying my bowl, steam rising from it.

"Hehe. There was an extra pot and what looked like a brazier with some embers left, so I said I'd wash it for you and warmed it up."

Nice.

This is why people keep dogs.

If my heart's warming up this much, then she really is a saint.

Lily was looking at me with a face that said, 'Aren't you going to say anything?'

"Thank you."

Lily said with a bright smile.

* * *

Left alone in the carriage, Ibelin stared at the closed door for a long while.

Phew.

"I couldn't say a single word."

Her self-muttered words drifted through the empty carriage.

Before coming to the Region Tour, Ibelin's mind had been full of self-loathing and stress.

Professor Iris and Cassian.

It was because she felt an immense wall between herself and those two.

She had been called a genius since birth, and even after entering the academy she had proven that she was better than not only her classmates but even her upperclassmen.

Yet she had genuinely felt inferior.

It was a humiliating experience.

But after arriving at the Region Tour, that self-loathing and stress vanished like a lie.

As a member of the imperial family, feeling inferior to another person was something she could never accept, but...

To a dragon?

Feeling inferior in magic might even be considered an honor.

"It's only natural, really."

Ibelin muttered it as if reassuring herself.

And because of those thoughts, she wanted to get close to Cassian.

By now, she had to get close to him.

It was clearly written in the founding myth.

The First Emperor had been friends with a dragon.

Perhaps the Leopold imperial family was the one closest to dragons.

No, it had to be Leopold.

But when she actually faced him in person...

"...I still can't say a word."

Ibelin looked out the window and gave a self-mocking laugh.

She envied the other students around him who spoke to Cassian so casually.

That saint Lily stuck to Cassian like a puppy and casually tossed out, 'Have you eaten? Did you sleep well?'

And that weird guy named Lucius kept trading jokes with him all day long.

They treated Cassian as just another person because they didn't know the truth.

But after learning his true identity, she couldn't even imagine treating him as a normal human being.

'Why couldn't I pull it off this time?'

It had definitely been possible two days ago.

The moment Cassian showed displeasure at her treating him with deference, she had been able to instantly put on her usual lofty mask.

This time, it was impossible.

Every time she tried to open her mouth, her throat tightened and her heart shrank.

As she recalled that sensation, Ibelin suddenly widened her eyes.

'Could this be... Fear?'

An intangible aura naturally exuded by a superior species toward an inferior one when the difference between them was vast.

She had only read of the concept in ancient texts; she never expected it to feel so vivid.

'Right. That makes sense.'

Ibelin nodded with a look of absolute conviction.

The moment she tried to approach him with intentions bordering on hidden desire, Fear did not allow it.

Because wanting to get close to him was, in the end, an approach for her own benefit.

If a superior species instinctively blocked such impure intent...

'It must mean I need to conduct myself in a manner befitting his station.'

And then there was the last thing he had said in passing.

'Unless it's a star-grade potion, that is.'

There was no way that was an empty remark.

It might also mean she should offer tribute.

"It can't just mean to go fetch one."

Ibelin looked out the window and mouthed the words.

"He wants a star-grade potion."

'Why did he specifically mention a star-grade potion?'

Ibelin began to ponder those facts deeply.

* * *

The next day.

Clatter, clatter.

Inside the carriage on the return trip from the Region Tour.

In the end, the monster-subjugation experience was canceled.

I thought they'd probably still go through with it as planned, given old man Wilhelm's stubbornness, so I was a little surprised to see it get canceled so cleanly.

Thanks to that, the entire fifteen-day Region Tour schedule was over in an instant.

I'd handled the civilian support in a day, and the monster-subjugation part had been scrapped after three days of waiting.

The carriage was still rattling along, but I'd taken the motion-sickness medicine Lucius gave me, so my stomach was fine.

Of course, since I got it for free, I snagged another bottle and gave some to Lily too.

Lily swallowed it with a "Hehe, thank you!" and by now she was probably looking out the window with a perfectly normal face instead of being pale as a sheet.

Anyway, thanks to Lucius, I didn't get carsick.

But instead, I felt like I was about to get terrible indigestion.

Of course, that was thanks to Lucius too.

Because Lucius was looking at me with a broad grin.

I knew exactly what that grin meant.

He wanted my answer.

He'd said I had until the Region Tour ended.

I really did not want to accept the blind date he was offering.

And it was his little sister's blind date, no less.

Still, his goodwill toward me didn't seem fake, so I couldn't help thinking about it.

As a rule, if you mistreat someone who's being kind to you, lightning's liable to strike you later.

"Hey."

"Yes. Go ahead."

"You weren't trying to get close to me from the very start, were you?"

"Would you believe me if I said yes?"

"I asked because I'd believe you, idiot."

Damn it.

Maybe I should just tell him to be my lunch partner for a year.

Lucius replied calmly.

"Wanting to get close to you came later. At first, it was more like thinking it'd definitely be a gain just to know you."

"What's the difference between those two?"

"Why ask when you already know?"

"……."

"The one you're thinking of is right. The attitude of 'I want to get close to this person even if I have to put up with a complicated entanglement' and the attitude of 'if there's even a single point of contact, the relationship can probably be leveraged for more gain than loss' are very different."

I knew that.

The former is genuine; the latter is calculation.

In other words, he's saying that at first he was calculating how to use me, but then it became genuine.

"That's why I'm asking. I get that you suddenly developed some human affection toward me."

"What I'm saying is, isn't that way too much of a jump for that to become wanting to introduce me to your sister? Even I, who isn't exactly the kind of guy to get swept away by emotion or impulse, am pretty rational."

Exactly.

When I talk to him, it's great not having to beat around the bush or speak in some complicated way.

"That's right."

"Fortunately, this is something I can answer clearly enough that you won't feel like asking again."

"Oh?"

Lucius set his notebook on his lap and looked straight at me.

"It's simple. My sister and I have extremely similar tastes."

"...?"

"That's probably why my little sister will also take an interest in Cassian."

"……."

It was an answer beyond my imagination.

And kind of fucked up, too.

"Wait a second."

"Yes?"

"So what's your logic? Because I'm an interesting person to you, your sister, who shares your tastes, will also find me interesting?"

"Exactly."

What the hell.

What kind of filthy logic is that?

Lucius continued with an easy smile.

"I'm serious. If you see my sister, Lord Cassian, you'll be shocked too. You'll say, 'The difference between a man's handsomeness and a woman's beauty really is only a sheet of paper.'"

So in the end, isn't he just bragging that he's handsome?

"More than anything, she's got such a great personality. Quiet, kind, and considerate of others."

"...Fine. I'll at least try meeting her once."

"A wise decision."

"But one condition."

"Go ahead."

"Do not sit in. If you start live-commentating from the sidelines with, 'My little sister is pretty, right?' I'm seriously flipping the table right there."

"...That's really a shame, but understood."

So he really was planning to come. That crazy bastard.