Chapter 8
“I'm sorry, but my lady has a prior engagement with me.”
Belver tried to calm his heart, which was pounding with worry that something might go wrong.
It had been such a close call that it wasn't easy.
He'd been thinking so much from the knight department protagonist's point of view that it hadn't occurred to him Roho would obviously be in the magic department.
The more Roho's gaze turned toward him, the dizzier Belver felt.
At that moment, a large shadow fell over him.
Fortunately, Bellatrix had stepped in front of him to shield him.
“It really will only take a moment. Can't you spare me some time?”
“Our lady has been looking forward to it.”
“I'm asking Bellatrix.”
Bellatrix stood in front of Belver as if protecting him, facing off against Roho.
Seeing how excessively wary Belver was, she figured she shouldn't let them meet just yet.
She, too, decided it would be better not to meet Roho.
For all Roho's goofy demeanor, they were coolheaded and quick to read people.
The reason Bellatrix disliked Roho was that their outward demeanor and inner nature were completely different.
Bellatrix hoped Belver wouldn't bother responding to Roho.
She didn't know why Roho was so rarely showing a glimpse of their true feelings, but she doubted anything good would come of it for the two of them.
She hadn't told him, but if she were herself, she would have ignored Roho and walked away without a word.
“Sorry. I already have plans.”
“…I see. All right. Let's talk later. It's teatime soon anyway.”
Belver answered, doing his best to seem indifferent.
Even as he spoke, he worried that his voice might be trembling.
The Bellatrix he knew never let her voice tremble, and neither would the Bellatrix Roho knew.
He worried whether he'd handled it well.
But though Roho was a little slow to react, they turned and left without a fuss.
They'd clearly wanted to ask him all sorts of questions.
Belver tilted his head, unable to understand what had just happened, then slumped into his chair as the tension left him.
“Phew... I thought we were done for...”
“Seriously. Why's Roho acting like that all of a sudden?”
“Still, what a relief. I didn't do anything wrong, did I...?”
Belver was still uneasy deep down.
He knew about Roho's relationship with Bellatrix, but not the details.
He'd tried to imitate her, but he didn't know if he'd gotten it right.
“You did pretty well, all things considered. Though you got it wrong from the start.”
“Huh? Which part?”
“First, I ignore Roho when they talk to me. How could you know that? That's my fault. Who could've guessed we'd run into them in an introductory class?”
Bellatrix let out a deep sigh.
Belver was so tense that she'd gotten tense too.
She swept her damp bangs back and checked on him.
Looking at him raised another question besides why Roho had acted so unexpectedly.
Why had he done nothing, and why was he wearing such an about-to-burst expression in a lecture hall where it was just the two of them?
He looked deliciously ripe, like a seasonal fruit.
“That's indecent...”
“What?”
This time, she genuinely didn't understand.
There were things Belver did that she couldn't understand, but they were all simply things that made no sense by ordinary standards.
But now, she couldn't figure out what part of this was indecent.
She decided this was something worth probing, and her eyes lit up.
What on earth did he think was indecent?
There was no one else here she could call indecent.
“What exactly does our commoner think is indecent? Why don't you tell me?”
“I don't want to... I can't... I misspoke...”
Belver hurriedly looked away when he saw Bellatrix smirk again.
Why did that ordinary sight seem so indecent?
Even he, the one who'd said it, couldn't quite tell.
Maybe it was because he'd never seen her with her bangs swept back like that.
She'd only pushed them back, but it made her look like a completely different person.
Her arrogant air, combined with what had just happened, made him think she looked just a little cool.
When Belver had been in that body, he seemed innocent and cute rather than cool.
He was definitely a man's man, and yet here he was thinking she looked handsome.
And the person inside was Bellatrix, who'd lived her whole life as a woman.
Belver let his gaze drift back toward Bellatrix again.
The moment their eyes met, she smiled again.
He felt his face heat up and quickly turned away.
The only times his face had gotten this hot and he'd felt this embarrassed were when he'd been subjected to indecent sexual harassment.
In that case, Bellatrix had sexually harassed him just now.
‘Is that right...? It must be...!’
It had been true every other time, so it must be true this time too.
Belver decided to remember it carefully, thinking it must be a kind of sexual harassment he didn't know about.
He couldn't believe she'd sexually harassed him in a way he'd never even heard of.
He found himself hating her a little for sexually harassing him even in this situation.
Thinking of it as sexual harassment gave him a little confidence.
He wasn't wrong.
His reaction had been perfectly natural.
“That's sexual harassment...!”
“Is it? Then I'm sorry. Let's get going, too.”
“Okay...”
For some reason, Belver felt defeated by how readily Bellatrix apologized.
Even not knowing what that sense of defeat was made him feel dejected.
Could he really not know what this sense of defeat was?
He decided to bury the truth forever, along with his burning cheeks.
“Oh, right. There's a tea party in about a month, so keep that in mind.”
“What's a tea party?”
“A social gathering for the daughters of the tower masters.”
“What?! Can't I skip it?!”
“Of course attendance is mandatory. You think I went because I wanted to? I'll teach you everything you need to know over the next month, so just don't cause a scene.”
“You think that's easy?!”
Belver glared resentfully at Bellatrix, who had just dropped a strategic weapon straight on his head.
He knew there was no choice if attendance was mandatory.
The problem was that his head and heart were at odds.
“Lady Roho will be there too...?”
“Probably. Roho always attends, so I'm certain they'll be there this time.”
“Ah... I'll be sick that day...”
“Even if you're sick, you have to go.”
“I hate you, Lady Bellatrix.”
“Even if you hate me, you have to go.”
“I really hate you!”
“Hmph!” Belver strode ahead, making a show of being sulky.
He knew himself that it was an unreasonable childish fit.
He'd walked ahead so she wouldn't see his face, which had flushed red with embarrassment over what he'd just done.
He was so embarrassed he had to rationalize it to himself.
‘I was just stating my opinion clearly. I didn't do anything wrong.’
It was true enough.
Expressing one's opinion was important when communicating with others.
It was just that his opinion was, “I hate you! I hate you! Anyway, I hate you!”
Bellatrix watched Belver walk ahead and let out a quiet laugh where he couldn't hear.
His behavior made him look every bit the girl he appeared to be.
And look at him keeping just enough distance and walking ahead so she wouldn't notice he was embarrassed.
His ears were bright red, too.
It was also obvious he was slowing down a little, as if he thought they'd gotten too far apart.
If he was going to do that, he should just walk with her.
“Come here, my little lady. Let's walk together.”
“I'm not! I'm a man among men! A real man's man!”
“I don't know what that means, but I know it suits a commoner least of all.”
“It does suit me!”
Bellatrix once again confirmed Belver was a girl through and through, and quickened her pace.
It was obvious he wanted to be with her, but felt awkward about having walked ahead first and couldn't come back, so she had to be considerate.
She decided to hold back on teasing him for now.
It was about time to tease him again, but she wondered how fun it would be to save it all up and unleash it at once.
“What are we doing now?”
“Good question. How about dinner?”
“Sounds good!”
Belver was delighted at the prospect of dinner, completely unaware of Bellatrix's wicked scheme.
They'd skipped lunch, so it was about time he got hungry.
He also wanted to enjoy the food of a fantasy world.
It was all stuff he'd only seen in novels and games.
Bellatrix watched Belver cheerfully ponder what to eat.
She wondered where such a pure girl had come from.
He was a stroke of unprecedented good fortune for her.
He'd even wiped away all the things that had been troubling and tormenting her at once.
Plus, teasing him was the best, like having a little sister.
She resolved to keep doting on him from now on.
Now she understood what the Blue Tower girl meant whenever she said her little sister was so cute.
He was so cute she could go crazy.
Still, if she held back the teasing too long, she'd burst, so she decided to tease him a little.
“Oh, right. You remember what we're doing tomorrow, don't you?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, tomorrow. Did you forget?”
“No...”
“I'll be looking forward to it. Wear the one in the back corner of the drawer.”
In a flash, Belver's face ripened fresh as a seasonal fruit once again.
He knew what was in the back corner of the drawer.
He'd seen it while dressing by himself that morning.
Black, sexy underwear that could only be called scraps of cloth.
She'd just told Belver to wear that.
Those scraps of cloth that even ordinary women probably wouldn't wear—to a man's man like him!
“That's sexual harassment!!”
In the end, Belver couldn't hold back and caused a scene in the middle of the street again.
The combo included him startling himself afterward and hiccupping.
“Hic.”