Chapter 24
“Gilliam…!! Everchess…!!!!”
Bang!!
Prince Roderick slammed his wineglass down on the table, unable to contain his rage.
He hit it so hard that he left a dent in the wooden table.
This was his dorm room. The damaged table was his, too.
But it didn't matter. To Roderick, furniture would simply reappear on its own after a while, even if he broke it.
“From this moment on, I declare the Everchess delinquent my greatest enemy!! Find out how we can bring Gilliam Everchess to ruin as thoroughly as possible!!”
The Crown Prince faction's cadets scrambled to earn his favor.
“Of course, Your Highness!”
“To show such disrespect to Your Highness! He must never be forgiven!”
“The fact that Your Highness endured such an insult proves your willpower is surely the greatest in the world!”
One of them voiced a different opinion.
“…I think it would be best not to make an enemy of Everchess.”
Everyone's eyes turned to the male cadet.
Roy Edgers.
The cadet Gilliam had defeated in the sparring class on the first day.
And the cadet who had recently gone on a dungeon expedition in the same group as Gilliam, and escaped danger thanks to the holy water Gilliam had sprinkled.
“…What do you mean by that, Edgers?”
Roy lowered his head toward the Crown Prince.
“I know this may be unpleasant to hear, but I beg you to heed my advice.”
In the suffocating silence, Roy continued.
“Gilliam Everchess may look like a delinquent who rampages wildly, but I believe he's far more dangerous than he seems. We should be wary of him, but avoid provoking him carelessly—”
Splash!!
The Crown Prince splashed the wine he had been drinking into Roy's face.
Drop by drop, the sour liquid dripped down.
“…Edgers, never appear before me again.”
Roderick said, suppressing his anger.
In this situation, Roy had two choices.
One was to bow his head and apologize to Roderick, even now.
And the other was—
“…I apologize for my disrespect up to now.”
To cut ties.
With the Crown Prince and his faction.
Roy bowed deeply one last time, then left the Crown Prince's dormitory.
“…Sigh.”
A sigh escaped him.
If word got back to his family that he'd crossed the Crown Prince, they'd surely give him a thorough dressing-down.
However.
‘…Gilliam Everchess.’
Roderick would surely continue opposing Gilliam and making an enemy of him from now on.
Roy didn't want to get caught up in that.
‘Am I more afraid of Gilliam than I am of His Highness Roderick now?’
He asked himself, then answered.
Yes.
Roy now felt it was better to cross Crown Prince Roderick than to become part of a faction hostile to Gilliam.
Roy shook his head.
‘I'm crazy.’
But he had no regrets.
——————
The academy was connected to the city just outside its main gate.
Gilliam, Maron, and Elettra had entered a private room at one of the cafés there.
In front of Maron and Elettra were the desserts they'd each chosen, and in the center of the table sat a teapot filled with black tea.
The room was quiet.
“…”
Gilliam had been lost in thought ever since they came in.
‘Liam was so cool….’
‘He really knows how to get things done when it counts….’
Maron and Elettra were still under the lingering impression of Gilliam coming to their rescue, and neither felt much like speaking.
As they ate their cake, the two women stole glances at Gilliam, who rested his chin in his hand with a languid expression.
‘…He's handsome.’
‘That expression suits him so well.’
‘I wonder what Liam is thinking about. I hope it's me….’
‘I wish he were thinking about me, but he's surely thinking about another woman, right?’
But Gilliam was thinking about Elettra right now.
Just not in the way she hoped.
‘Does Elettra have a Star of Fate, too?’
It had never been mentioned in the original romance fantasy.
But if the system generated Bond Quests when I touched a star mark…
‘Then I should assume almost every gacha target in <Astra Radius> has a Star of Fate.’
If that's the case—
She's deliberately hiding it.
‘I want to progress through a Bond Quest with Elettra, too… How can I find out without making it awkward?’
That was what I was concerned about right now.
‘This is hard.’
…No, what am I worrying about?
No matter how much I think about it, I won't come up with a good answer.
From the start, I only had one strategy. Don't worry about reading the room when it won't help anyway.
Just be sincere.
‘Have faith.’
In the bond Elettra and I had built up until now.
And that my sincerity would reach her.
“Elettra.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have a Star of Fate, too?”
“…”
Elettra stared at me.
“You know what it means to ask me that, right?”
“Yeah.”
Of course I did. It was a question that would cause her great embarrassment.
Elettra thought it over.
She recalled Gilliam's actions up until now.
He'd clashed with the Crown Prince on the first day of class.
Today, he'd personally helped and rescued her when the Crown Prince was insulting her.
And now he was asking about the secret she'd kept hidden.
A more explicit declaration of support in the succession struggle for the throne was impossible.
In that case, she could tell him.
Maron was just an extra who came along with Gilliam, anyway.
“I do. I have a Star of Fate. I've kept it hidden until now.”
“Can you tell me its name, too?”
“E-even the name of my Star of Fate?”
It was a little more than she'd expected him to ask, but…
“…The Star of Blazing Dominion. That's the name of the star connected to my fate.”
But Gilliam didn't stop there.
“Elettra.”
What?
Why was he looking at me like that?
He wasn't going to ask to see it, was he?
My star mark.
The sigil in the most embarrassing place?
“Could you show me your star mark?”
He really asked!?
Elettra's face flushed red.
“Y-you…!”
You vulgar man!!
But before she could get angry, Gilliam's words left her speechless.
“I know it'll be embarrassing for you… but it's something we need to do to move our relationship forward.”
He said it while looking straight at her.
He was sincere.
But my embarrassment was necessary for our relationship to move forward?
‘Ah.’
Elettra understood.
Gilliam's true intent.
‘He wants to make me submit…!’
He was deliberately making her do things she disliked, things that embarrassed her.
He was asking her to show whether she could endure the shame for his sake.
Like knights who underwent hardships to prove their loyalty.
‘This man is…! He's trying to tame me…!!’
A woman named Elettra.
A princess.
He was taming her.
Like a pet.
Elettra's hands trembled.
“E-even so, that—”
“Liam!”
Maron stood up.
Her eyes sparkled, unlike her usual timid self.
“I-I can do it! You said earlier that you wanted to touch my star mark, right? I'm fine with you doing it right now. Unlike Her Highness the Princess!”
Elettra screamed inwardly.
‘You idiot woman!?’
Why are you making this a competition between us here!? We'll just end up egging each other on and letting him tame us!
“Heh, hehe!”
Don't “heh, hehe,” you idiot!! If you act like that, I won't be able to refuse either!!
Elettra glared at Gilliam, her eyes glistening with tears from embarrassment.
“…Is this why you deliberately picked this place?”
“I did deliberately pick this place, but…”
‘…This is the worst.’
So he'd planned to corner them like this from the start?
Behind that languid expression, he was surely measuring the two women's obedience levels as stats.
The worst kind of man.
Of course, Gilliam had no such intention.
‘Because there's an event that takes place at this café.’
<The Scops Owl's Delight>.
A café that sold high-end desserts fit even for young nobles.
However, its owner was famous for being strict.
Unless you could properly appreciate his desserts, he'd shamelessly insult even customers who paid exorbitant prices.
But conversely, if you won the wager he proposed… you could obtain a famous sword that had no business being in a dessert shop.
No one had ever won his wager until now.
“Ugh….”
Elettra stood up, too.
“Fine. I'll show you, okay…!”
She turned her back to me and grabbed the hem of her skirt.
She stuck her rear out toward me.
Just as she was about to lift her skirt—
Knock, knock.
“Looks like someone's here. Sit down, both of you.”
“…”
“…”
“What's wrong?”
“…Nothing.”
“…Nothing.”
“The person outside, please come in.”
A pastry chef wearing a white hat.
A man who exuded strictness, arrogance, and absolute confidence in his own skill.
“I am Merkh, the head pastry chef of this establishment. Are you enjoying the cake?”
“It's excellent.”
“It's lovely and sweet.”
The two romance-fantasy characters gave appropriate answers.
But despite hearing appropriate answers, Merkh looked displeased.
“Is that so? How… superficial.”
Just like the original.
“Why didn't the male guest over there order a dessert? Were you full?”
“I wasn't in the mood for any.”
“…Is that so?”
Merkh furrowed his brow.
“Guest, would you say you have a good palate?”
The event from the original was beginning.
“I know a thing or two.”
“Then would you care to make a wager with me? If you win, I'll give you one of my treasures.”
“What is it?”
“A greatsword left to me by my father. I've forged my own path, but I still keep that sword in my possession.”
<Astra Radius> had many different kinds of weapons.
But the weapon with the highest potential among them was the greatsword.
And the sword left behind by Merkh's father was a four-star greatsword.
An expensive item that would cost tens of thousands of points if I tried to buy it from the shop right now.
If I could obtain it through an event here, it would save me a lot of time.
“But if you lose, your penalty will be…”
Merkh smiled slyly.
“The next time you come to have cake with your friends, you must come here. I'll tell you how I ended up here while I serve you.”
At his words, Maron and Elettra frowned.
‘How mean.’
‘What a twisted personality.’
The thing nobles in romance fantasies valued most.
Their reputation.
Merkh was asking for the right to tarnish Gilliam's reputation in front of his friends.
It wasn't quite evil.
But it was malicious.
“What are the terms of the wager?”
“Simple. You have to guess the ingredients in the dessert I place before you.”
“All right. I'll take the challenge.”
“Do you promise to accept the penalty if you lose?”
“Of course.”
“You understand that you'll have to identify the ingredients in the food precisely?”
The two women tried to stop me.
“Liam, you shouldn't….”
“Even if they're ingredients, isn't that way too broad?”
Their concerns were reasonable.
If he deliberately made things difficult, it wouldn't be easy for me to win the wager.
But—
“It's fine.”
【Shop】
〈Category: Daily Life Support〉
- Gourmet Analyzer (500 points)
<Gourmet Analyzer>
Description: Analyzes the ingredients in food. Use this to level up your Cooking skill!
I was taking this challenge only because I'd prepared a way to guarantee my victory.
“Since we're doing this anyway, why don't we raise the stakes?”
“Raise them further?”
Merkh looked at me like he'd found a sucker.
“Heh heh heh… As expected of a noble, you're quite bold. Please wait here a moment.”
‘Sorry.’
There's a sucker here, all right.
But it's not me.