Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Had Bentley been holding a grudge against me all this time?
Ever since I turned into something vaguely resembling a half-elf, we’d started clashing constantly.
And that had continued for an entire year.
Back then, he only threw in the occasional irritating remark.
Now he openly took jabs at me whenever he could.
“Don’t get conceited just because you’re a little pretty.”
“There are tons of girls prettier than you in the cities.”
“You’ve been spoiled by the lord your whole life, so you’d never survive the real world.”
Yeah.
In the end, what Bungbung was really trying to say was simple.
Stay locked up in the castle forever.
Was that concern? Or just bullying?
To me, it felt a lot more like the latter.
And honestly, treating me like some greenhouse flower when he was weaker than me was ridiculous.
If it were Lord Eden or Sir Rekun saying those things, fine.
But hearing it from another orphan like him?
…The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I got.
Ever since I gained the Eyes of the Elf, even Sir Rekun had become softer toward me.
Maybe his half-elf children back home kept coming to mind.
Or maybe I reminded him of Lady Selene when she was younger.
He’d start scolding me, then awkwardly clear his throat a few times before turning away.
Seeing that, you’d think Bentley would mellow out a little too, but every time we met—
“C-common face!”
That had become my new nickname lately.
Apparently I had “a face you could find anywhere.”
Though honestly, I couldn’t completely deny it.
I did have the most common brown eyes and brown hair imaginable.
The standard fantasy-world color palette.
Still, it felt unfair.
That wasn’t something I chose.
The only things that affected appearance were charm stats and traits.
It wasn’t like this was a game where I could suddenly choose rainbow mohawks and glowing tattoos.
If character customization were actually possible, I wouldn’t have been born a girl in the first place.
…Still.
Even then.
Did I really count as “plain”?
It wasn’t like I desperately wanted people calling me beautiful.
But I didn’t want to be called ugly either.
I even tried understanding Bentley’s perspective by checking whether he had some kind of grudge against half-elves.
Apparently not.
So all that remained was confusion.
…Did he just hate me that much?
The more I thought about it, the more that seemed like the answer.
If someone already disliked a girl, them getting prettier wouldn’t suddenly make them like her.
If anything, it would just make them more irritated because she attracted more attention.
Bentley’s attitude carried this nasty undertone like:
“A country rat should stay a country rat forever.”
Yeah.
That had to be it.
“…Still, I thought we’d gotten a little closer.”
Maybe I’d been the only one who felt that way.
Maybe my rough personality had rubbed him the wrong way from the beginning.
Either way, it was disappointing.
No matter what Bungbung thought, I really had tried getting along with him.
But whatever.
No matter how hard you try, there will always be people who dislike you.
Sure, it’d be nice if everyone got along.
But that was just idealistic nonsense.
If everything worked out perfectly, nobody would say relationships were difficult in the first place.
Though honestly, things would’ve been fine if the relationship had simply stayed bad.
But then—
“Hey… are you upset with me or something? Why’ve you been acting so cold lately?”
Bentley, this bastard.
Was he actually insane?
“I-I mean, if you’re upset, at least tell me! Why are you being so petty!?”
Petty?
He was calling me petty!?
If I were actually petty, you’d already be a rag by now, you idiot!
He was the one who started acting hostile first, but the second I responded with indifference, he suddenly switched to acting meek?
What kind of twisted logic was that?
Did he seriously think I was easy to deal with?
I treated him nicely, and now he thought he could walk all over me?
……
Yeah.
Girls were difficult, but children were even worse.
Every little thing they did managed to surprise me in new ways.
Still, I tried calming myself down by repeating that he was just a kid.
But—
“Do you wanna die?”
In the end, maybe my brain had grown younger too, because I finally snapped.
Logically, I knew it wasn’t worth it.
But my body had already stepped forward before I could stop myself.
“What exactly are you trying to do here? First this, then that—make up your damn mind!”
I’d been holding things in for a while, and his attitude was genuinely frustrating.
Though to be clear, we didn’t actually start throwing punches again.
“Y-you’re just a girl anyway!”
Nowadays, Bentley usually spat out something like that before immediately running away.
Come to think of it, considering his age…
Wasn’t he right in the middle of puberty?
A textbook case of teenage emotional instability.
Thinking about it that way, his behavior became a little easier to understand.
Losing to a girl probably felt twice as humiliating to him.
So retreating was his way of avoiding danger.
“I believe Bentley-hyung has been under considerable stress lately.”
There was no denying that.
Bentley really had become more withdrawn.
Whether that was because of me or something else, I didn’t know anymore.
At this point, I’d already stopped caring.
Bentley, Bungbung, whatever.
I’d accepted that he and I were never going to get along.
“So what?”
I answered in an especially prickly tone.
No matter how much I tried treating people warmly, I wasn’t some saint like Eden.
“I think… Bentley-hyung simply worries about you, Sera.”
…More importantly, I still couldn’t get used to this guy’s bizarre way of speaking.
The thirteen-year-old beside me had a deep voice and large build that made him seem far older than he was.
And on top of that, he constantly spoke in an archaic knightly manner.
The boy standing beside me now was Conrad, one of the knight trainees.
Combined with how mature he acted, every conversation with him made him feel strangely unchildlike.
“Your character concept is really solid.”
“…Character? Concept? What language is that supposed to be?”
“…Never mind.”
Though honestly, calling it a “concept” wasn’t even accurate.
Conrad’s speech pattern was practically the standard way knights talked in this world.
Still, right now, all I could think was:
This feels like talking to a kid completely obsessed with roleplaying settings.
“…My head hurts.”
Seriously.
Around here, that kind of behavior wasn’t considered cringe roleplay.
It was considered proper knightly education.
“Come to think of it…”
Apparently even Sir Rekun had spoken like that when he was younger.
And he still talked that way to Lady Selene.
Did women actually like that kind of speech?
Should I try it too?
Since I was planning to become a knight anyway, and considering the way Lady Selene practically melted every time Sir Rekun opened his mouth, maybe it was worth considering.
Anyway, Conrad would probably be considered the ultimate model student in modern terms.
His strange speech and rigid posture were all products of that personality.
In simpler terms:
He was basically the medieval equivalent of someone who followed every rule in the handbook.
A strange kid who valued laws and principles despite growing up an orphan.
Of course, that didn’t mean I disliked him.
He could be a bit stiff, but he was kind and sincere.
“So surely you understand too, Sera? Bentley-hyung simply isn’t the honest type.”
Without anyone asking him to, Conrad was already defending his companion.
Definitely a good kid.
Still, this part was hard to accept.
“You’re saying he’s acting like that because he worries about me?”
“Correct.”
Since when did concern involve insulting someone nonstop?
If a heroine talked like that and called herself a tsundere, readers would demand she get killed off.
And male tsunderes were just annoying as hell!
“Hey. Do you actually hear yourself?”
“And why would that not make sense?”
“Seriously…”
I shook my head with a sigh.
Honestly, Conrad might’ve been huge, but he was still a kid.
At this rate, how was someone that oblivious supposed to survive society?
“You get told you’re bad at reading the room a lot, don’t you?”
“…Heh heh.”
The hell was that old-man laugh?
Was this guy secretly on his second life or something?
“To think I’d hear that from you of all people.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Regardless, the outside world truly is dangerous right now, so I do not believe leaving the territory would benefit you.”
That part, at least, I could agree with.
When Conrad said the outside world was dangerous, he didn’t just mean harsh medieval living conditions.
He meant the increasingly chaotic regional powers surrounding the territory.
There was the centaur chieftain.
A serial killer.
Some insane mage.
Basically, everything outside Kaltenberg was lawless territory.
And now that Sir Rekun remained quietly inside the domain, people were starting to think the old knight had finally weakened.
Honestly, if anything, this unrest had started late.
In some remote backwater untouched by the Empire’s authority, regional warlords like that were inevitable.
Since those were exactly the types who might attack once Sir Rekun left, I’d been keeping a close eye on things too.
“But even if that’s true, isn’t it kinda ridiculous for someone weaker than me to keep trying to protect me?”
“Weak or strong matters not. If someone is your comrade or your family, then worrying about them is only natural.”
“…What?”
Was he seriously defending Bentley just because they were fellow trainees?
I was about to frown at his backtalk when—
“A knight’s wife worries for her husband when he marches to war. A child worries for parents who leave home to earn money. Humans naturally worry for those they cherish, regardless of strength.”
……
That single sentence shut me up completely.
Thinking about Eden and Anna worrying about me…
It made me feel strangely grateful.
…Conrad.
This guy really was on his second life, wasn’t he?
The way he spoke and thought didn’t feel thirteen at all.
Still…
“Even so, wouldn’t it be better if he said things more nicely?”
“That, I fully agree with.”
“Right? Words matter. You should think about how the other person feels too.”
“I agree with that as well. However, there are times men simply cannot express themselves properly. I hope Lady Sera can show Bentley-hyung some understanding.”
“Huh?”
What did being male have to do with being bad at communication?
“You’re seriously using that as an excuse? Guys can be nice too, dumbass.”
“…Which one of us is truly oblivious here?”
“……Hmm. Not me, so you? Or maybe Bungbung?”
“Good grief…”
What was with that look?
Why was he staring at me like I’d committed some unforgivable sin?
“Normally, I wouldn’t say you lack awareness, but when it comes to men… Lady Sera truly understands nothing at all.”
What the hell?
A former man like me didn’t understand men?
…What kind of nonsense was that?