Chapter 21
It took Morgan a few days to regain her composure.
Despite everything, the thought of living in the same space as a princess from another country was unsettling. She regretted making such a hasty choice without being even 100% certain what Lydia was like.
The first day after she moved in.
In the end, Morgan worried all night.
“Ugh….”
She’d washed in warm water for the first time in ages and eaten a delicious, filling meal. She’d put on freshly ironed pajamas. She was exhausted from moving, and her eyelids felt as heavy as lead.
But she couldn’t fall asleep.
All she could do was sigh deeply.
“Phew….”
Morgan had hurriedly holed up in the magic lab, her private space, but her mind was in turmoil. The soft bed in the magic lab felt even more uncomfortable than the dusty blanket in the storeroom.
“….”
‘I got swept up in the moment and said we’d live together. But I never imagined we’d actually be staying in the same space. Why is she so free-spirited when she’s a princess?’
Even when Lydia saw Morgan slip away in the middle of a meal to eat alone, or walk down the hallway after bathing in a disheveled state… she simply nodded and said, ‘Mm.’
She didn’t yell that Morgan was being disrespectful,
or call her a lowborn.
She didn’t even seem uncomfortable.
“….”
She’d known Lydia was easygoing,
but hadn’t expected her to be this informal.
The princess’s maid, Mirian, had also smiled quietly and said elegantly, ‘Please call me anytime if there’s anything I can do to help, Lady Morgan.’
That was why Morgan was worried.
‘Just how lenient are her standards that she never gets angry? What would I have to do to make her angry?’
Back when Morgan had to walk on eggshells.
The other high-ranking nobles of the Republic had been very assertive. They laid down their own rules for those around them and enforced them strictly.
-Anyone who walks noisily in this house will be flogged.
-The thought of you looking at me while I eat is revolting.
-Anyone who dares climb to the second floor of this mansion, I’ll show them pain beyond their imagination.
It had been exhausting,
but at least it was easy to know what not to do.
Lydia, however, was hard to read.
Whenever she saw Morgan, she quietly smiled and made statements rather than giving orders. If Morgan said no, she quietly backed off and never forced her.
It was so warm and safe that it frightened her.
“….”
Morgan’s reason, honed by reading countless books, concluded that this was ‘normal interaction.’ But her life kept raising endless doubts about that conclusion.
‘Really? Truly? To me, now? This is just a business relationship, isn’t it?’
Morgan finally made up her mind. Then, as her eyelids slowly closed, she mumbled herself to sleep.
“Starting tomorrow… I’ll have to test her….”
Lydia.
Lydia de Gallia.
“Li…dia….”
My friend who isn’t a friend.
Just how far am I allowed to go? I’d rather you punish me and yell at me so I know. For someone with commoner blood like me, your way is too lofty and difficult.
Otherwise,
I’ll have no choice but to test you and keep watch.
“Mmm, Lydia….”
…Still.
Please forgive me.
Forgive my anxiety.
“….”
Morgan didn’t fall asleep until dawn was breaking.
*
Lydia was pleased.
Over the past few days,
Morgan seemed to have settled perfectly into the annex.
‘What a relief. Morgan really is a strong girl.’
Lydia smiled fondly.
Then she looked at her friend.
Morgan glanced back with a haughty expression.
“What are you looking at?”
“Hmm.”
“….”
After class at the academy, Morgan had returned and drawn a bath before the owner of the house, Lydia. Then, with nothing but a shirt covering her dripping-wet body, she boldly wandered around.
‘Until recently, she bathed after Mirian and only walked through the hallway fully dressed. I guess she’s completely let her guard down now.’
What a relief.
“….”
Suddenly,
Lydia noticed Morgan’s shirt sleeve.
“….”
“…?”
Morgan tilted her head at that look.
Even in this situation, she still kept her wrists completely covered. They must be crisscrossed with scars like iron bars.
The game had described them so vividly that Lydia couldn’t forget them.
‘She’s comfortable otherwise, but she doesn’t want anyone to see her self-harm scars.’
It was understandable, really.
Expecting someone to casually accept a past like that would be strange. Lydia herself would have been shocked if she hadn’t seen Morgan’s exposed body in the adult game.
‘Honestly, even as a gamer, I was horrified when I first saw them.’
Now, though, she understood.
And accepted it.
‘I’ll have to be careful about her wrists from now on.’
Lydia nodded and said,
“Did the hot water work properly?”
“What…? Uh… yeah.”
“I see. I’ll go wash up, then.”
“….”
Just as she was passing by while loosening her academy uniform tie,
Morgan blurted out,
“…Dinner. From now on, I’ll eat at the table, too.”
“?!”
Lydia was surprised for the first time in ages.
It was one of the few things that could still surprise her since becoming a Sword Master. It was more shocking than the demon worshippers transforming into their third-phase forms.
‘Oh, wow. She’s opened up this much? Arti’s picking up Sacred Sword techniques faster, Mave’s now honing her own swordsmanship…. Good things keep happening lately.’
Lydia took off her clothes and answered readily.
“Very well. You may eat first while I wash.”
“No, I’ll eat with you.”
“Then wait a moment.”
“…Yeah.”
Morgan answered and went into her room.
Then she sighed.
“Phew….”
‘This is strange. I keep crossing the line, but she doesn’t react.’
Even when she went and bathed on her own,
walked around dressed so rudely,
or ‘dared’ to ask a princess to dine with her….
Lydia never got angry.
“What is this?”
Morgan was confused.
“….”
But,
she didn’t dislike it this time, either.
She’d always assumed she was supposed to dislike things.
‘When is she going to get angry…?’
Actually,
Morgan’s mind had already finished calculating.
-Lydia never gets angry over someone’s personal habits.
“….”
But her heart was pounding with anxiety.
Thump
Thump
“….”
Maybe
it wasn’t only anxiety.
That’s why she was showing her ‘weird way of eating.’
Because she knew Lydia wouldn’t get angry.
You coward.
“…Idiot.”
And just as expected,
Lydia smiled faintly at Morgan, seated at the table.
“It’s been a while since you and I ate together.”
“…It’s only the second time. And it’s only been a few days.”
“Hehe, since I’ve been getting up before dawn, the day seems to pass so slowly.”
Even when Morgan held her fork in a reverse grip and tore at her food during dinner, Lydia didn’t get angry. Instead, she’d prepared a fork that was lighter and easier to hold than usual.
Morgan deliberately pretended not to notice the consideration.
“…You’re going out early again tomorrow, right? To hang out with those nobodies.”
“That’s right. And they’re not nobodies; they’re my friends.”
“….”
“Morgan, you’re my friend, too.”
“…Hmph.”
But Morgan’s heart couldn’t pretend not to notice.
Thump
Thump
“….”
When it was this safe,
her heart beat like this.
‘…I just found out.’
It was a very strange feeling.
“….”
Morgan fully let her guard down a few days later.
It was around the time the sores in her mouth had healed enough that they no longer hurt.
Now, even when she ate hot food….
“….”
It didn’t hurt.
But little by little,
something seeped into her heart.
Thump
Thump
“….”
The next day.
Morgan gazed at the dawn breaking and let out a quiet exclamation.
“Oh….”
The dawn spilling across the academy’s vast, verdant grounds was magnificent. It felt as though the curtain were slowly rising on the stage of the mighty gods.
Morgan thought without meaning to.
‘Seeing it like this, Arien Academy’s grounds really are something. Those noble lords must’ve spent a pretty penny. …Why haven’t I really noticed this scenery until now?’
Before she could find the answer.
Lydia strode ahead, her hair tied tightly back. Her golden hair swayed and shimmered.
“Come on, let’s go, Morgan.”
“…Yeah.”
They headed slowly toward the clearing.
Hearing each other’s footsteps,
simply keeping each other company without any particular purpose.
“….”
Morgan’s heart was still pounding.
Thump
Thump
Like the faint sunlight at dawn.
The feeling glowing slowly beyond the deepest darkness in her heart was wistful and intense. Above all, that light shone a brilliant gold.
‘Is this a reflection on the dawn? If that strict, inflexible old man Edmond graded this paper, he’d probably mark it up for having too many poetic flourishes.’
“….”
No….
That wasn’t it.
Maybe.
What had seeped into her heart wasn’t the dawn, but—
“…This is…”
At that moment.
Lydia said to Morgan,
“It’s a novel feeling to have a friend walking beside me like this. Living together lets me experience something new.”
“…Are you complaining?”
“No, I mean it’s reassuring.”
“Hmph.”
Morgan took a breath with a prim expression. The dawn air flowed coolly into her lungs.
“Phew….”
Not yet.
She didn’t want to decide just yet.
She wanted to watch and see, very slowly and leisurely.
As a mage, postponing the answer to a problem was foolish. But rushing to an answer was foolish, too.
So,
for now, she just wanted to stay like this.
“…You’re an idiot.”
“Me?”
“No.”
Me.
*
An alley in the shopping district.
Instructor Zach hadn’t attended class today. He was just trudging along with his hands shoved in his pockets.
The reason he’d stepped away from the freshmen’s class was simple.
‘Those little chicks have been training like mad ever since they started talking to Lady Lydia. Now they do a good job on their own without me having to yell at them.’
Instructor Zach wore a quietly pleased smile.
‘Well, if I were one of those little chicks…. The moment I saw Lydia, I’d be as loyal as a new recruit. She’s someone who can’t help but shine.’
As a citizen of the Kingdom of Gallia,
she was royalty he couldn’t help but be proud of.
And a member of the Ember Knights who shone brighter than anyone.
“….”
Instructor Zach grumbled.
“…Hmph, since when did I become so patriotic?”
Even as he said that,
the huge, muscular man in his middle age smiled.
The thugs in the back alley were so terrified of that fearsome grin they cringed.
“Eek?! Instructor Zach?! What are you doing in a remote place like this…!”
“Hey, run.”
“He’s walking around with his teeth bared like a bear….”
“That’s the killing intent of Gallia’s hero, all right.”
Leaving the young punks behind, Instructor Zach wandered around the back alleys. He moved like a bear lumbering about.
But his eyes kept scanning his surroundings.
‘According to the hint Mirian left me, there should be a black-painted door beneath the shadow of one of the buildings around here….’
“!”
There it was.
Among the many plank doors,
one painted especially black stood out.
It was positioned just so that it was concealed by the shadows.
Instructor Zach opened the door.
Creak—
And then.
He saw the dusty interior of a tavern.
Two women were inside.
One was Mirian, wearing tight-fitting leather clothes. The other was a woman in a black dress, smiling seductively.
They were seated, one in a patron’s seat and the other behind the bar.
Instructor Zach beamed at Mirian.
“Mirian! It’s good to see you in person.”
“Hello, Sir Zach. It was a shame we could only communicate by notes lately, wasn’t it? Hehe.”
“Good grief…. I don’t like meeting by taking such a roundabout route. This isn’t the style of an elite northern soldier.”
“Hehe, I was frustrated, too. But there are surprisingly many watchers inside Arien Academy.”
Instructor Zach shifted his massive frame and sat beside Mirian. Naturally, the woman in the black dress entered his field of vision.
He addressed her, his tone a little more awkward than when speaking to Mirian.
“…Lady Beatrice. It’s surprising to see you come here in person instead of the commercial district.”
Beatrice replied with a seductive smile. Despite her decadent appearance, her voice was bright and lively.
“Hey~ how’s our old man doing? Diapers treating you okay?”
“…Ahem.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t sulk.”
“Get to the point.”
“Hehe, you’re sulking, aren’t you? Aren’t you being a little too honest? Our old man’s great as a soldier or instructor, but he’d never make it as an intelligence agent. Hoho!”
“….”
“The reason I, who used to run the back alleys of the Saint-Rowa commercial district, came here…!”
Beatrice smiled as she looked at Instructor Zach, who had firmly shut his mouth, and Mirian, who was smiling warmly. Unlike a moment ago, her smile had the decadent air to match her appearance.
“Is to see our adorable princess! Honestly, everyone’s just pacing around, desperate to see that girl. I’m jealous of Mirian.”
“….”
“….”
“And….”
As she said that,
Beatrice slipped her fingers into the cleavage exposed by her black dress and pulled out a note. It was an intensely seductive, languid gesture.
“…I also came to tell you that the examiner sent by those old fogies in the Holy Theocracy will be arriving soon. They act all holy, but they make plenty of use of the back alleys on the frontier, don’t they?”
“The Hero’s examiner…! Damn it, did that bastard Albert rat him out and get them called in after all…!”
Instructor Zach frowned.
Mirian spoke anxiously.
“Could you find out who the examiner is, too?”
“Hmm, right.”
Beatrice muttered in a displeased voice.
“It looks like two of them are coming: the Second Captain of the Holy Knights, an ‘Inquisitor,’ and a ‘Prayer Priest,’ considered one of the most extreme hardliners even within the Theocracy.”
“…?!”
“…?!”
It seemed
our dear princess’s plan to raise a hero was about to get a little….
“…more troublesome.”