Chapter 20
"You're a little late, Sis?"
When I said I'd play with them for a little while,
the children who were still there swarmed around me, begging to join in. I ended up playing a few simple games with them, so I got back later than I'd expected.
Chris was nowhere to be seen. When had he managed to escape?
What a jerk.
When I told her why I was late, Eah chuckled, said I'd worked hard, and held out a bag.
"I made these today, so don't give any to that mean Chris. Eat them all yourself."
The bag was full of colorful, round cookies she'd apparently made during class today.
They looked more appetizing than I'd expected, and I wanted to try one right away, but dinner was coming up, so I set them on my bed for now and left the room with Eah.
When we arrived at the dining hall, Chris was there waiting for us.
When Chris spotted us, he greeted us warmly, perhaps feeling bad about running off earlier.
"You're here, Karin. You had a rough time earlier, huh?"
"If you knew I'd have a rough time, you should've helped instead of running off like that."
"Haha... Sorry. You know I don't like kids."
Come to think of it, I remembered how he always frowned whenever he saw kids noisily whining to get what they wanted from their parents.
"Now that you mention it, I guess you did. In exchange, I get to eat all of Eah's first cookies, right?"
Remembering the cookies Eah had made earlier, I said it playfully.
If he clung to me and begged for even a little, I'd share some then.
"Ah... That's right, you had cooking class today. It's fine, I'll eat them alone."
"Huh?"
I'd meant to give him some, but he must have felt really guilty about running off on his own.
"No, I was joking about eating them alone. Let's have some together later."
"No, I don't really like cookies, so it's fine."
He usually ate snacks with us just fine. Did he dislike cookies?
"Ah, I'm hungry. Let's just go eat first."
Chris seemed in a hurry to get food, which was a little strange, but so what? Let's eat.
We got food on our plates, sat down, and chatted as we ate.
Usually, lots of people would look at us curiously or come up to talk, but perhaps because of what happened today, no one approached us.
Thanks to that Delat or Dallant or whatever, I got to eat in peace, entirely by accident.
After we finished eating, I said goodbye to Chris as he headed to the men's dorm, then returned to ours with Eah.
When I entered the room, I picked up the cookies on my bed.
"You're going to eat them now? Sis, you ate quite a lot at dinner. Is there even room for those?"
"There's always a separate stomach for meals and snacks. And once you reach Expert, you don't have to worry about your weight anymore."
"Wow, that's unfair. I wonder when I'll get that strong."
She seemed more interested in eating a lot than getting stronger...
"Let's rest a little, then go train."
As I said that, I opened the bag of cookies Eah had given me.
When I opened it, the delicious smell of cookies tickled my nose.
I felt happy just thinking that Eah would start bringing me snacks often from now on.
But that feeling soon came crashing down, and I began to understand Chris's strange reaction.
"Sis, they're good, right? It was easier than I expected when I learned today. I'll make them often and bring them over from now on."
"Hahaha..."
Had she always been this bad at cooking? Come to think of it, ever since we'd started traveling together, Chris had taken care of all the meals...
The cookies tasted sour, with some strange flavor like cosmetics. I couldn't even imagine how she'd managed to make something like this.
To put it simply, they were horrible.
She'd called my cooking alchemy and whatnot, but at least what I made tasted good. This was...
"Does it taste weird? I worked really hard on them..."
"No, they're delicious. Look, I'm eating them, aren't I?"
With tears in my eyes, I kept reaching for the cookies.
Chloe, who was training in the training room as usual, welcomed us.
Remembering how Chloe had defended me earlier, I opened my heart to her a little more and treated her warmly.
"Chloe, you're really diligent too. Do you train on your own every day?"
"Of course. I'm not some piece of trash who relies on their parents' names without putting in any effort."
Come to think of it, she'd seemed to dislike other nobles on the very first day too.
Back then, I'd thought she was sick of nobles groveling to her because she was the daughter of a duke, but now it seemed she simply hated nobles.
"The nobles of the Empire are rotten these days. They only work to increase their own power. The lord of Eldor was the only decent one, but now he's no different from the others."
So the state of Eldor's streets really had changed because of its lord.
I'd promised to visit again someday. What should I do? Still, I made a promise, so I guess I should see him, right?
"I heard you helped my big sister. Thank you."
"Oh, of course I had to help. Besides, even I can't easily beat someone from a count's family, and you gave me quite a show."
I thought the title of Count had become so common that they were a dime a dozen, but I never expected the daughter of a duke to say that even a count—not a marquess—was hard to deal with.
"Honestly, people say Deus is a place where nobles and commoners live as equals, but it's not that simple."
We're fine while we're inside Deus, but once we graduate, we'll be outside its rules, so I guess that was only natural.
The maid who beat up that noble earlier had done so because she was affiliated with Deus. If she'd just been an ordinary Expert-level knight, there would've been a huge incident.
It didn't matter to me, since if things went badly, I could just return to Edren.
"By the way, miss, let's be friends and speak casually. We look about the same age."
"Oh, but..."
"I'm friends with your big sister too, so it'd be easier for you to get along with me if we talked casually. I'm not the sort of person who'd throw my weight around with friends just because I graduated, so relax around me."
"If you insist... then okay!"
Ah, if they became friends that easily, Chloe would end up on the receiving end of Eah's touch—stronger than her Master's (?)—and I suddenly felt sorry for her future.
"Don't worry, Sis. The only people I want to touch are you and Maria. Hehe."
Seeing Eah standing behind me as she said something so suggestive, I ran through a few simulations of how I might resist, but soon gave a bitter smile and simply surrendered myself to Eah.
Chloe, watching us, flinched and asked,
"You two are like that?"
After training, I asked Chloe if she was going to the bathhouse today too. She flinched, made an excuse, and ran off to her room.
She'd clearly denied it, but I just said, "I see," and she still seemed to be misunderstanding us.
Eah wanted to keep things simple today too, so she just suggested we return to the dorm.
"Ugh, how can something taste like this?"
When we got back to the dorm, I stuffed the remaining cookies into my mouth while Eah went to wash up, so she wouldn't be disappointed.
As I ate and wondered what I should do, a good idea suddenly occurred to me.
"Ah! I can just put them in my inventory!"
Surely she wouldn't check the things in my inventory. Besides, only I could see the inventory screen.
There were so many that even after I'd stuffed myself, the pile barely seemed smaller. I repacked the rest, put them into my inventory, and set up a category for them too.
Clack.
"Ahh, that feels refreshing. Hm? Did you already finish all the cookies?"
"Of course. They were so delicious I ate them all."
"I'm so glad you like them. I'll work even harder and bring you more. Hehe."
Anyway, hadn't she said she'd run an inn when she quit adventuring?
I decided that no matter what it took, I'd make her as strong as I was now.
So she couldn't even think about running an inn.
"Sis, you were just thinking something really rude, weren't you?"
The seven days passed faster than I expected.
During that time, I lazed around until three, then studied mana and history, ate dinner, met Chloe in the training room, and trained Eah. That routine kept repeating.
I'd spent a happy time living just the way I wanted, doing a little of everything in moderation, but today was the last day of that too.
Rattle.
With a sigh, I opened the door to Class A and went inside.
The students, who'd been chatting noisily before I entered, fell silent the moment I walked in.
The atmosphere made it feel as if I were some kind of school bully, and I sighed again.
"Katrina, over here."
Chloe, who'd been chattering beside Chris, saw me and waved.
When had those two gotten so close?
I felt a little annoyed for some reason, but I composed myself and sat down beside Chris.
As soon as I sat down, a few students came over to me.
"Um, I'm sorry about what happened the other day. I was afraid you'd retaliate, so I couldn't help you even though you were clearly in trouble. Please forgive me."
Honestly, I was already so disappointed that I hadn't been thinking about it anymore, but I never expected them to come apologize.
"Well... I accept your apology."
Still, I didn't particularly want to be friends with them, so I answered vaguely and sent them back to their seats.
Rattle.
Soon the door opened and Professor Kuruad came in.
"Good to see you all. Since Katrina is back today, I'll say this again: don't abuse your position. And no matter how angry you are, violence isn't allowed."
When the professor said that if they had a problem with someone, they should tell him and he'd arrange a spar, the students answered energetically.
"We'll have class at the training grounds again today, so change and gather there."
Once everyone had gathered at the training grounds, Professor Kuruad began the lesson.
"For the past seven days, I've been looking at each of your swordsmanship styles and giving you guidance."
So the lessons up until now apparently hadn't involved anything you could really call progress.
Well, anyone in Class A probably already had some kind of swordsmanship style of their own.
The nobles must've learned their family's swordsmanship, and even commoners must've learned through one means or another, which was why they were in Class A.
"Starting today, I'll pair up students with similar skills, based on my assessment, and have you spar."
Since I hadn't been tested yet, the professor said he would personally spar with Chris and me.
Even so, the professor was a Master himself, so he must have known I was one too.
I was only a low-ranked Master, so that was fine for me, but Chris would be a lot for him to handle.
After finishing what he had to say, the professor called out names and paired everyone up.
Then, after assigning Chloe a partner, he added that if she finished quickly, she could come over to us.
Chloe's skills, which I'd seen in the training room up to now, were considerable. She already seemed to have surpassed the level of a student, so he must have said that for a reason.
"Chris, I'll go easy on Katrina, then take you on."
"Yes, Professor."
He was going to face me and then Chris? That was a serious blow to my pride.
I hadn't exactly been working hard because I lacked motivation, but I was still a Master. Did he really think so little of me?
"Haha, just like Chloe and Chris, your thoughts are written all over your face."
At the mention of Chris talking about me, I glared at him.
"You'll find out anyway, so what's the big deal?"
His sly grin was pretty annoying.
Knowing how close he'd gotten with Chloe from the fact that he'd told her too made me even more irritated.
"I didn't tell him. One day, he came up to me and said he found it amusing that your thoughts show on your face."
Am I really such an easy elf? Maybe I'm not easy; maybe everyone else is just perceptive.
"Karin, just accept it now."