The Rival's Suspicion
Ozier de Rectour, the younger brother of the Giant Slayer Marianne, had been quietly observing his older sister for the past few days. And he had come to a firm conclusion. Something significant had changed in his sister—something he knew nothing about.
*
“Sister, you seem to be in a good mood lately. Did something happen?”
“Hm? Oh, it’s nothing special. I’ve just been raising a rather useful junior.”
“A useful junior? You don’t mean the one you mentioned before…?”
“That’s right. Agnes’s fiancé, Artin from the Ludwig barony.”
Thud!
Ozier, who had been lying on the sofa reading a comic book, was so shocked that he rolled right off it. Yet he sprang back up immediately and glared at Marianne.
“Sister, you’re still paying attention to that guy? He’s my rival…!!!”
“Rival? You really need to choose your words better. Agnes rejected your confession, and Artin is happily dating her. Who in their right mind would call that a rivalry?”
Struck by Marianne’s brutal reality check, Ozier clenched his fists and trembled, but he had nothing left to say.
“I-I’m like a cheetah that hasn’t started running yet… Once I get serious, Agnes will definitely fall for me too…”
“I don’t think Agnes likes men with that kind of arrogant personality.”
“…!”
Ozier made a face like he’d been stabbed in the chest and collapsed back onto the sofa. The sorrow of unrequited love pierced his lungs like a blade. It hurt so much.
“…By the way, Sister. You’re going to teach that Artin guy again today, right?”
“Of course. This is the perfect chance to crush that old Heavenly Demon hag’s nose. The chance to add the title ‘Heavenly Demon Slayer’ right after ‘Giant Slayer’!”
Watching Marianne hum cheerfully with an excited expression, Ozier stared at her with a suspicious look.
“Then why are you staring into the mirror and putting on makeup? You’ve never done that except for formal ceremonies.”
Having watched her fiddle with her hair and apply powder to her face in front of the mirror for a while now, Ozier asked in a puzzled voice. Marianne’s shoulders began to tremble violently.
“…Huh? W-what are you talking about? I put on makeup sometimes too, don’t I? It’s not like I’m doing anything too extreme.”
The fact that his sister—who had never once looked away from the mirror while talking to him—stuttered made Ozier’s eyes narrow even further with suspicion.
“But Sister, you always said even lightly applying anything to your face was annoying and just washed with cold water every morning. Wait… that thing on your lips. Is that lip balm?”
“N-no! It’s just that Agnes said the weather’s been bad lately and told me to put it on so my lips wouldn’t crack!”
In truth, Marianne’s makeup wasn’t heavy at all. Considering the amount of cosmetics normally recommended for noblewomen of this era, it was actually quite minimal. However, Ozier—who had lived with his sister his entire life—knew the truth.
His sister, who had always lived as a warrior and claimed that powder and such didn’t suit her, considered training martial arts in a muddy pit because it was supposedly good for the skin to be the best skincare routine of her life. Because she refused makeup so stubbornly, even their parents had stopped forcing it on her. She only applied it herself when there was a major event and she felt pressured to do so.
“Well, from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like you’re going to teach a class. It looks more like you’re going on a da—”
—Bam!
Suddenly struck by Marianne’s heavy body blow, Ozier collapsed to the floor on the spot.
“You little brat! What are you even saying?! Keep talking nonsense and see what happens!”
“W-wait, Sister… I think my ribs are brok—”
“Stop exaggerating! I held back and hit you gently! I’m going to class!”
*
That day, Ozier was discovered unconscious by the servant who came to clean his room. If he hadn’t already stepped into the realm of superhumans, he probably would have been found as a corpse rather than merely passed out.
Recalling that painful memory, Ozier took a long sip of the tomato juice in front of him.
“…Artin Ludwig. There’s definitely something about that guy.”
It was clearly abnormal for his sister—who was more manly than most men—to behave like that. The fact that both Agnes and now his sister were reacting this way meant the boy was definitely hiding something.
Ozier resolved to tail Artin and uncover the secret he was concealing. Right now, he was sitting in a café, secretly watching Artin as he took a short break with his friends.
“Just look at him. How could the third son of a barony build that kind of network in such a short time?”
The people around Artin were all either currently at the center of hot topics or already famous throughout the academy.
‘Shao Mei, who’s already famous as his childhood friend, Zorba, the unicorn Unicor, Violet—the granddaughter of the Archwitch—Hero Cayen… and even Her Highness Princess Agnes Ermengarde…’
As he looked at Agnes standing beside Artin at the center of the group, Ozier’s face flushed slightly. Ever since he first met her at a ball when he was only seven years old, he had been nurturing his feelings for her in secret.
‘…That princess suddenly fell into a dramatic romance and even rejected Prince Richard’s order? No way. There’s definitely something going on.’
The problem was that he couldn’t figure out what kind of power Artin Ludwig possessed. At one point, he had suspected that Artin was using the Rose Pavilion incident to command a ‘succubus,’ or that he had made a deal with a ‘demon’ to gain power, or perhaps that he was using the power of a ‘bicorn’—famous for bewitching women.
After all, history recorded many rakes who had obtained power that way and thrown the world into chaos.
‘…No, that’s going too far.’
However, Artin was already the famous contractor of a unicorn, and he had recently been appointed as the Companion of the Hero, receiving the Goddess’s blessing in front of many VIPs. That meant all three previous guesses were completely wrong.
‘…Whatever. If I keep watching him, I’m sure I’ll find the answer. I will definitely rescue both my sister and Princess Agnes from your demonic clutches, Artin Ludwig!’
Ozier made the firm resolution once more and gulped down the rest of his tomato juice.
“…Mm. That guy really is suspicious.”
One thing was certain, though—this café that Artin frequented made excellent tomato juice. At least when it came to taste, he seemed to be a man worthy of recognition.
“Excuse me, three more tomato juices please.”
*
“Haaaam… Another day of private lessons all afternoon, huh…”
I stretched widely, shaking off my fatigue. Lately I seemed to be suffering from chronic exhaustion because I couldn’t sleep properly at night either. Well, it couldn’t be helped. Every night I was busy making up for lost dates with my women, so I was essentially living on three hours of sleep.
I downed the tonic Agnes had prepared for me and slowly looked around the Alchemy Club Room. My eyes landed on the state-of-the-art alchemy equipment I had bought with points some time ago.
“…It feels like a waste to leave such good tools unused. Should I make something simple?”
It wasn’t that I had intentionally left them alone. I simply hadn’t had any time to use them while training, attending classes, and going on dates.
“…But I left them for weeks and there’s not a speck of dust? Does someone come in and clean?”
It was strange. The Alchemy Club was only a nominal club; in reality it was basically our private social club. There shouldn’t be anyone willing to do such tedious work.
—Creak!
“Hello~! Artin! Shall we study hard again today?”
“Ah! Hello, Professor Senia.”
When Professor Senia arrived carrying an armful of books again, I hurriedly ran over and took the load from her.
“Oh my, Artin really is considerate! Did you wait long? I was looking for good books and ended up a bit late!”
“It’s fine. I was just resting while looking at the alchemy equipment. You have to rest when you can.”
“Really!? You were looking at the equipment~? Hehehe.”
…What was that? The moment I casually mentioned the equipment as an excuse, Professor Senia began grinning slyly and twitching her ears.
“…W-why are you looking at me like that?”
“No reason. Just… didn’t you notice anything strange about the equipment?”
“S-strange?”
“Yes! Something strange!”
I didn’t know what was going on, but Professor Senia was asking me to notice changes in the equipment like a woman asking if anything looked different today.
‘What? From the outside, nothing seems to have changed.’
The only strange thing was that there wasn’t a single speck of dust…
“…Did you clean the equipment for me, Professor Senia? There wasn’t any dust at all.”
“Ding dong dang! As expected, Artin is quick-witted! My assistant, Claire, and I have been taking turns cleaning every day! How could we let such amazing equipment just sit there?”
“Ah… I see… But why Claire?”
“Hm? You didn’t know? Claire joined our club last time!”
What the hell is she talking about? Why did Claire join our club?
“You really didn’t know? Zorba used his authority as vice-president to let her in. He said he’d tell you, but I guess he forgot.”
“Ah… That Zorba guy… I see…”
I didn’t know when Zorba had become the vice-president of this club, but he had snuck Claire into our group without me knowing…
‘…Well, I was the one who asked him to look after her, so I can’t really complain, can I?’
Recalling how I had asked him to take care of Claire and Cayen last time, I let out a mental sigh.
“Hehehe.”
“…W-why are you acting like that, Professor?”
However, it seemed Professor Senia wasn’t finished. She twisted her body slightly and kept glancing at me.
“Say, Artin. Don’t you think it’s such a waste to let such amazing equipment rot away?”
“…Well, yes, but why…”
“Right? You think so too, don’t you?! Equipment will deteriorate no matter how well you maintain it if you don’t use it! It’s such a waste to let it sit unused, don’t you agree?”
“P-Professor? You’re really close… very, very close…!”
When I gave a small nod of agreement, Professor Senia moved right up to my face, twitching her ears violently as she stared at me. It was an incredibly burdensome situation, but at the same time I could feel an overwhelming softness pressing against my chest. Her uniquely sweet scent tickled my nose and strangely excited me.
“So… um, Artin…♡”
“Y-yes?”
“Could I… borrow those pieces of equipment for my experiments too? Hm? The labs provided by the academy require sharing equipment, the waiting list is long, and it feels so wasteful to clean them after others… right?”
Before I knew it, Professor Senia had backed me against the wall in a classic wall-slam position. She smiled slyly as she began revealing her honest desires.
‘That’s right, she’s a professor too…!’
This alchemy equipment was officially purchased with mine and Zorba’s personal funds. So of course Professor Senia would have felt awkward using it freely. Had she been so kind to me and helped me all this time just to build up to this…?
‘…No, Professor Senia doesn’t seem like the type to act so calculating…’
Even now, she was pressing her enormous breasts against me—breasts that couldn’t even be hidden by her robe—yet she herself didn’t seem to notice. Her eyes were blazing purely with passion for the equipment.
“Y-you can use them! You don’t need my permission, so feel free to use them whenever you want!”
“Really? You really mean it, Artin?! Kyaa! I’m so happy! Each one of those pieces of equipment costs more than a year’s budget! My lucky disciple! You know how much Teacher loves you, right♡”
“Whoa?!”
Overjoyed, Professor Senia pulled me into a tight hug and began rubbing her cheek against my head.
‘I-I feel like I’m going to suffocate… but if I die like this, it would be incredibly happy…’
Thanks to that, my face was completely buried in her cleavage. I became utterly intoxicated by the voluptuous charm that even her stuffy robe couldn’t hide. In short, I had my nose buried in the sweaty cleavage of her robe, savoring her scent while rubbing my face against those massive breasts.
‘…It wouldn’t be a problem if I stayed like this for just a little longer, right?’
I tried to rationalize it to myself and decided to enjoy this skinship at my leisure. A generous thirty minutes should be enough, shouldn’t it?
“Kyaa! Kyaa! Our Artin is the best!”
‘Professor Senia is the best…’
Since there were no unhappy people here, it seemed everyone had reached a happy ending.