Chapter 67
Leon!
After class, just as I was heading to the cafeteria to eat, Helena ran over from the other end of the hallway.
Helena? What brings you to the Magic Department?
What do you mean, what brings me? I came to see you. This place is so huge that finding someone here is no joke.
Ah, I didn’t even think of that.
If this were modern times, one call would have solved it.
In a place like this, where there was no proper way to contact each other, it wasn’t easy to meet up once you were apart.
From now on, we’ll have to set a place and time to meet in advance.
Then I’ll come to the Magic Department every lunchtime from now on.
Would that be okay? I heard it’s a bit of a distance.
This distance is nothing. Besides, Princess Edelheid is here too, so I can’t exactly have you coming and going at my whim. It’s easier if I’m the one who moves.
Just as I was about to nod at her considerate words, Renoa, who had been listening from the side, suddenly cut into the conversation.
“A wise decision, Lady Vise. If you’d told Leon to come find you, you probably wouldn’t have met until graduation.”
“Ah, yes….”
Helena and I were used to letting her words go in one ear and out the other.
Elodie poked her head out from beside me.
“Um, Lord Leon. Who is this lady?”
“This is Helena, a colleague from my apprentice knight days. Helena, this is Elodie, a female student in the same department.”
“So you were a knight! Ahem, I’m Elodie. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Helena!”
With her trademark sociability, Elodie smiled and offered her hand first.
“Oh, y-yes…. Nice to meet you too.”
Taken aback by her unguarded friendliness, Helena hesitated, then carefully took her hand.
“She’s kind of a fascinating one.”
“Elodie does have that side to her.”
Kind of like a shooting star.
The kind that pops in your mouth when you eat it.
A character with a unique charm.
“Ah, you’re all still here. I was worried you might have left without me, so I’m glad I wasn’t late.”
Soon, Aiter approached from the other end of the hall after finishing another class.
At that moment, Helena’s facial muscles locked up.
“L, Leon. Could that person be…?”
“Yeah. He’s the one you’re thinking of.”
“Hm? I see a face I don’t know. An acquaintance?”
“This is Helena of House Vise, a friend from my apprentice knight days. Helena, this is… you know who he is, right?”
Helena, stiff as a board, dropped flat to the floor in a blur.
“The eldest daughter of House Vise, Helena, greets Your Highness, the Prince!”
“What a spirited friend.”
“She’s lively, so she’s nice to have around.”
Helena lifted only her head while still prostrate.
It was obvious even to the naked eye how flustered she was, her pupils shaking wildly.
“L-l-l-Leon? Why are you talking so casually with His Highness the Prince?”
“We’re friends now, right?”
“Hahaha. The moment we leave the academy, I’ll cut your head off.”
“Hahahahaha.”
Beside us, Renoa squeezed her eyes shut and sighed, while Elodie grinned from ear to ear. She just laughs a lot.
“Lady Vise, you don’t have to be so formal here either.”
“However….”
“I dislike that more than this. Does that make sense if I put it that way?”
Here, “this” meant my attitude, and “that” meant speaking formally.
With that one line, Helena seemed to understand the situation immediately.
“…Understood. Then I’ll speak casually with you at the academy, Your Highness.”
Of course, the words coming out of her mouth were still completely frozen.
Helena barely managed to straighten her trembling knees and get back to her feet.
“Good. Looks like we’re all here, so let’s go eat lunch. I’m hungry.”
Aiter smiled brightly and took the lead.
Behind him, Renoa walked with elegant poise, and Elodie followed along, humming softly.
Helena was still completely dazed.
“What is it? You still can’t seem to collect yourself.”
“That’s what I want to ask! Why are you with His Highness the Prince, Leon?”
“I don’t know. He came to me first.”
“T-that guy?! You’ll get into serious trouble talking like that!”
Unlike my calm self, Helena kept looking around like a criminal who’d just committed a crime.
“It’s fine. He’s kinder than you’d expect.”
“How would Leon know that?”
“Hmm, intuition?”
“I’m going to lose it. I feel like my lifespan got cut in half because of you.”
I can’t say I don’t understand Helena’s reaction.
After all, it wasn’t just some noble, nor even a prince—it was an imperial prince.
For a slave like me, even looking him in the face would be sacrilege. He was like the sun itself.
If I hadn’t known what Aiter was really like, I never would have acted this way either.
But I know his true nature.
If Aiter were the kind of person steeped in bloodline supremacy, an Empress route like Elodie’s wouldn’t even exist.
At the very least, I can treat him casually here at the academy.
The stares around us were a little annoying, but after everything I’ve been through, something like that won’t shake me.
“Helena, you should try it too. When else are you going to get to be friends with royalty?”
“…I’m good. I’d like to live a little longer.”
***
We joined up with Helena and headed to the dining hall.
On the first day, Aiter had only sat in his seat and waited for his food to be brought to him.
But after realizing how awkward it was to sit alone in a crowded dining hall, he started getting it himself.
“Who’s the person next to the prince? I’ve never seen them before.”
“Who knows. If we don’t know them, they’re probably not from a high-ranking house. That blue-haired one was a commoner to begin with, right?”
Whispers from students around our broad square table drifted to us.
The prince’s every move is by far the academy’s top gossip item.
Naturally, we around him couldn’t help drawing attention too.
Today, that attention was on Helena, the newcomer.
“What do I do… Everyone’s staring at me.”
Maybe that was why Helena couldn’t eat in peace and was busy worrying about everyone else’s eyes.
“Do you all always eat in an environment like this?”
“It’s the fate of a popular person. Still, you get used to it after a while.”
“You can actually get used to it?”
“Yeah. I got used to it from gladiator bouts in front of thousands of people.”
“Ah….”
Helena’s gaze toward me turned into the kind you’d give a pitiful person.
From my standpoint, with eyes following me wherever I went, this much attention was a regular occurrence.
“You aside, the others seem fine.”
“Haha. It’s a blessing to have the people take an interest in us.”
“It’s so amazing that so many people are watching me!”
Aiter and Elodie answered in turn. Helena then shifted her gaze to Renoa next, but—
“I don’t have the luxury of worrying about other people’s stares.”
Truly, answers full of each person’s distinct personality.
“Will a day ever come when I can be that calm too?”
“Who knows.”
Maybe not getting used to it was a good thing. The atmosphere needed at least one person who still felt raw and unfiltered.
We were leisurely enjoying our meal while chatting about this and that.
“What’s with that boy? He’s got something around his neck that looks just like a slave collar.”
Oh, dear.
Talking about me again.
Such is the life of a popular person.
“Right. A slave. He’s Edelheid’s slave knight.”
“A slave? Ugh, disgusting. Why is a slave even at the academy?”
“I don’t really know. I heard he wasn’t a slave, but came here as a familiar under contract or something.”
“Is that even allowed?”
“No idea. They probably used their family’s power. It’s not like the ducal house has done dirty things just once or twice.”
But this felt a little different from what I usually heard. It was closer to gossip behind someone’s back.
What courage, gossiping when the person in question is right behind them.
Renoa didn’t seem to care and kept eating in silence.
Even then, the slander continued.
“They say that slave knight is incredibly strong. He even beat the commander of Edelheid’s knight order, and recently he defeated the young lord of Rubellius too.”
“But lowborn blood can’t be hidden. How could they even think to bring that sort of trash into the academy? I knew something smelled off.”
“Exactly. A slave is lower than a beast, and their taste is something else, aren’t they? Look at that dog collar around his neck. It’s really tacky.”
Hmm, it’s been a while since I’ve heard insults this blatant. I don’t think I’ve heard anything like this since I became a knight.
“That’s going too far.”
“Exactly! Lord Leon is such an amazing person!”
“This won’t do. I’m going to go say something.”
I held Helena back as she was about to stand up.
“It’s fine. To begin with, it is true that I got in through a loophole. And it’s also true that sitting with a slave is uncomfortable in this day and age. It’s something I should just accept.”
“But….”
I’m used to it, so it doesn’t affect me much.
And I don’t want any more trouble. As a slave, I have no business trying to preserve honor.
I’m satisfied as long as I can get by without trouble.
“But… are you really sure you became a knight purely on skill?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Just look at that face. It’s absurdly handsome—maybe it’s used for some other purpose at night?”
“Gasp! Don’t tell me he even does nighttime bed service?”
“Maybe. The more vulgar they are, the more beastlike they act in bed, they say. Daytime guard knight, nighttime pet on a leash. I can see exactly what’s going on.”
But their filthy jokes only got more and more outrageous.
If I left this alone, it would bother the people around us too. Just as I was thinking that and about to stand up—
-Scrape.
Renoa pushed her chair back and stood up. Bowl in hand, she walked over.
I thought she had finished eating early and was going to throw away her leftovers, but where she went was behind the girls who were gossiping.
“Young lady?”
The moment a sense of unease flashed through my mind, it didn’t take long for it to become reality.
-Splash.
Renoa poured the food over the girl’s head.
“Eek! Wh-what is this?”
Dumbfounded by the food shower, the girl flailed before spotting Renoa behind her.
“P-Princess Edelheid? What do you think you’re doing?!”
Renoa looked down at the protesting girl with a piercing stare.
“…Ah.”
She said it flatly, as if tossing out a single remark.
“I thought it was the trash can.”