Chapter 27
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“What?! N-nonsense?!”
“Yeah, nonsense. Woof woof.”
Was there any word more appropriate for this situation?
I stared at the blonde in disbelief, then sighed and turned away.
“Anyway, that’s not it, so don’t concern yourself with me. Take care.”
Honestly, the whole situation was bewildering in more ways than one.
Not only had I been subjected to such an absurd misunderstanding, but that perverted bastard was apparently popular enough to have followers.
“W-wait!”
But the blonde once again blocked my path as I tried to walk past her.
I stopped and glared at the blonde with the most irritated expression I could muster. Although she flinched, she refused to give up and raised her voice.
“Miss Ana!”
“Yes, my lady!”
The brown-haired girl standing beside her shouted.
“You said you clearly saw Lord Kairos call that girl out to the school’s back garden, didn’t you?”
“Yes! He definitely said he had something important to discuss!”
The brown-haired girl clenched her fists and nodded enthusiastically.
The blonde’s gaze once again fixed on me, as if asking, ‘Are you still going to deny it?’
“Important my ass….”
Still, I had more or less grasped the situation. I could roughly understand how this ridiculous misunderstanding had come about.
I looked over the blonde with the bun, the brown-haired girl with long hair, and the quiet black-haired girl standing behind them in turn, then spoke.
“We were talking about our test scores. That bastard is my buddy, after all.”
“You avoid people’s eyes when talking about test scores?”
“Exactly. Good grief, what could she possibly be so embarrassed about?”
I shrugged casually and pretended to look elsewhere. Then I looked up at the blonde seriously and spoke.
“Anyway, that bastard absolutely did not confess to me, so don’t get the wrong idea. And if you like Kairos that much, I recommend going and confessing to him yourself instead of wasting your time here. Though of course, once you learn what he’s really like, you’ll be one hundred percent disappointed.”
I had nothing more to say. For that matter, I had no idea why I was being held up here by girls like them and forced to explain myself.
“Miss Linze!”
Just as I was about to walk past them, the black-haired girl behind them blocked my path this time.
Linze, the black-haired girl, stared at me fixedly for a moment, then—
“Huh?!”
grabbed both my arms tightly.
“W-what are you doing!”
Strength on the level of an ogre poured out of her seemingly delicate frame. I was flustered. My mind went blank, and my heart began pounding like crazy.
“To persist in lying until the very end… A slightly more thorough education is clearly necessary for an impudent commoner like you.”
Meanwhile, the blonde began approaching me with a knowing smile.
Lying? Education?! Flustered by this ridiculous turn of events, I struggled and tried to shout.
That was when it happened.
“Hey, pretty ladies over there. Violence on school grounds is against the rules, you know.”
A cheerful voice suddenly interrupted. All four of us turned our gazes toward it at once.
“Ria…?”
Ria was standing there. Tutting, she wagged her finger back and forth and began approaching us.
‘Wait, is this going to turn into a fight?’
I was glad to see her. For the moment, it even felt like a princess on a white horse had appeared at the crisis point.
But once my fear faded and my senses returned, I remembered the monstrous strength Ria possessed. The extraordinary physical power that allowed her to casually lift even someone like Rene with one hand….
That ditzy-looking blonde or tiny brown-haired girl would be easy for Ria to fold in half in one move, but this Linze girl holding me was a different story.
An image suddenly flashed vividly through my mind: the two of them engaging in a monster battle right in the middle of the hallway.
I shouted urgently in panic.
“W-wait! Ria, if you fight them….”
“Oh my, Miss Ria. How have you been?”
“…Huh?”
The blonde’s voice was far calmer than I had expected.
“I’m well. I had a very delicious meal, too.”
Ria chuckled and approached us.
‘What… is going on here?’
No matter how I looked at it, they made a completely mismatched pair.
Ria finally reached us, smiled brightly, and asked,
“So what exactly did our Rene do to warrant such a hostile atmosphere?”
※※
“I apologize for the late introduction. My name is Christina Estrid.”
The blonde introduced herself as she sat across from us at a table in the student lounge, elegantly sipping black tea.
‘So she’s a young lady from a notable family after all.’
I had heard of House Estrid. The rumors weren’t particularly positive, though.
“I’m Rene La Vellia. Nice to meet you.”
I exchanged a perfunctory greeting, picked up a cookie from the table, and put it in my mouth. Christina frowned slightly and said,
“If someone has offered you tea, it is customary to taste the tea before the refreshments, Miss Rene.”
“I know. But you didn’t say anything to Ria.”
“Munch munch… Huh?”
Ria, whose mouth was full of cookies, stared blankly back at me.
Christina let out a deep sigh and continued,
“Miss Ria is an exception. She is… simply the way she is.”
Ria shrugged as though it were only natural. Christina set down her teacup and looked straight at me.
“In any case, to summarize what Miss Rene is saying, there is absolutely, truly, utterly, I swear, not the slightest hint of romantic interest between her and Lord Kairos, correct?”
“Yeah. I hate that guy enough to count him among the top few people I hate.”
“Even though you were buddies for an entire month?”
“It was a month in hell.”
Well, I’d personally experienced less than a week of it.
“It’s true. Rene can’t stand Kairos.”
Ria backed me up while munching on a cookie. Only then did Christina sigh and nod as though she had no choice.
“If even Miss Ria says so… I suppose I have to believe you.”
After that, Christina did nothing but take sip after sip of her tea. As expected, she had no intention of apologizing.
Well, it was unlikely that a young lady from a family of that caliber would bow her head to a commoner. I took a sip of Brotone’s distinctive fragrant black tea, then changed the subject as though I hadn’t expected an apology.
“So what were you planning to do to me if Ria hadn’t shown up?”
It was something I had been wondering about since earlier. No matter how I thought about the high-handed young lady’s “education,” it couldn’t have ended well for me.
“Tear your uniform to shreds and throw you in the middle of the athletic field, I suppose.”
Ria said it casually.
“…Huh?”
What had she just said…? I turned to Ria with a blank stare.
“I would never do anything so barbaric!”
Christina slammed her teacup down and shouted angrily. Ria laughed and shrugged.
“Miss Ria, honestly….”
Christina looked at me again with a deep sigh.
“I was only going to take you somewhere deserted and frighten you a little. I’m not some barbarian.”
“Three people dragging one person somewhere remote and threatening them still sounds plenty barbaric to me.”
Perhaps she had no rebuttal, because Christina pretended not to hear me.
I put another cookie in my mouth and continued.
“If there was a misunderstanding, the noble way would have been to formally challenge me to a duel.”
In mage society, there was a very convenient and useful system called dueling. It was a powerful binding mechanism that compelled the loser to fulfill the winner’s demands.
Christina stared at me silently, then, for some reason, hung her head with a deep sigh.
What kind of reaction was that supposed to be? As I tilted my head, Ria cut in at just the right moment.
“Rene, come on. How could she challenge someone ranked twenty-first in the entire school?”
It was true that the name Christina Estrid hadn’t appeared on the top-twenty list….
“She’s still the young lady of House Estrid. A direct descendant of the famous archmage Hakon.”
Overall school rankings weren’t determined solely by magical output. If output alone were what mattered, Rene, who had no limiter, would have ranked first.
To be honest, it was difficult to understand why the young lady of House Estrid would hesitate to challenge Rene, who appeared to be an ordinary commoner.
“…That again.”
At that moment, a feeble voice escaped Christina. When I turned, I saw her hanging her head, looking completely dejected.
“Hey! Are you done talking?”
Ana, who had been standing behind Christina like a shadow, shouted angrily. Linze also cracked her knuckles and took a step toward me.
“E-everyone, calm down. Rene really doesn’t know any better, so she didn’t mean anything by it.”
Ria, looking flustered, hurriedly stopped the two of them. She thumped me on the back a couple of times, then leaned close to my ear and whispered.
“Christina’s magical ability is exactly on par with mine.”
“What? She’s at the same level as you, Ria?”
That suddenly made perfect sense.
“Shh!! Lower your voice!”
“…It’s all right. I’m used to people looking at me like that by now.”
Christina continued in a feeble voice. Ria and I both turned toward her.
She let out a deep sigh and slowly closed her eyes. Then she opened them wide, faced me with a serious expression, and spoke.
“It’s true. My magical ability is abysmal. I’m not even as good as my younger siblings who have only just begun learning magic, let alone my older brothers and sisters.”
Her expression grew even more serious.
“That is why I need Lord Kairos. If things continue like this, I will… remain the shame of House Estrid.”
“My lady….”
Ana placed a hand on Christina’s shoulder, her face on the verge of tears. Linze also turned away with a troubled expression.
“So you’re planning to take that bastard Kairos’s brilliant genes and raise children who’ll at least become proper mages, is that it?”
I finally understood the situation. So it wasn’t simply that she had fallen for Kairos’s face?
“Rene, could you perhaps phrase that a little….”
Ria whispered quietly once more.
“Yes, that’s right. To other people, it must seem like a truly pathetic and low-class reason.”
Christina spoke with astonishing calm. She was about to launch into a long-winded declaration beginning with, “But even if others despise me….”
“That’s admirable.”
But there was no need to hear any more. I had clearly understood what she truly felt.
“You!! Teasing my lady to the very end…!”
“I meant it sincerely. I’m not teasing her.”
Ignoring Ana, who was trembling like a cat, I looked at Christina.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea. Instead of being crushed by reality and giving up on everything, you’re finding your own solution and taking action on your own initiative.”
To be honest, I liked her tremendously. She was the type of person I admired: someone who worked hard and never gave up, no matter the circumstances.
I smiled brightly and continued.
“All right, then. I’ll set you two up.”
“…What?”
Christina and Ana, Linze, and even Ria all opened their eyes wide.
“You said you want to marry Kairos. I’ll help you.”
I swallowed my cookie and continued firmly.
Besides, if Christina and Kairos got together, I could completely sever that damn pervert’s interest in me.
He had stubbornly denied it, but anyone could see that he was interested in Rene.
“How can you….”
“Just trust me. I’m an expert when it comes to romance, too.”
“You were?!”
Ria was aghast. I merely shrugged in silence. Of course I was an expert—I’d read several hundred romance novels by now.
I nodded vigorously with an even more resolute expression.
“One month. Within one month, I’ll make the two of you unable to live without each other.”