Breaking the Pride of Young Masters and Ladies (4)
Eletra was a princess. And even setting her bloodline aside, objectively speaking, she was a beauty. It meant she had spent her entire life drowning in praise. Her hair was a golden waterfall, the divine golden fleece, something the heavens themselves would covet and try to shear away… Her eyes were like jewels, containing both sky and sea within that blue, and the heavens would covet them and try to pluck them out… Why the hell the heavens would want to rob a perfectly ordinary person of their hair and eyeballs was beyond me, but whatever. In any case, Eletra was used to it. To praise slathered with gaudy, over-the-top modifiers. That was simply the baseline of noble and court society.
And though Gilliam Everchess had lived his life as a notorious scoundrel, he was still the son of a duke. He would surely offer compliments in exactly that manner.
“Your Highness.”
Gilliam met her eyes first. Eletra unconsciously swallowed. His expression was dead serious. Looking only at his face, you’d mistake him for a merchant calculating ledgers or a general weighing troop placements rather than a man about to praise a woman.
“Your eyes are beautiful—”
Ha, eyes again. What kind of flowery nonsense was he going to pile on this time? She really hoped he would skip the part about the heavens.
“—and your personality is so refreshingly straightforward. It’s very likable—”
“Wait! Stop right there!!”
“?”
“That’s it?” No extravagant modifiers?
“Nope.”
“Ah… I see?”
“Your face is quite pretty too.”
“?”
No, that really was the entirety of it. What is this man even trying to do?
Beautiful eyes. Likable because the personality is refreshing. Face is pretty. End. Any other man would have composed at least one poem per topic—eyes, personality, face. If they couldn’t manage that, they probably wouldn’t have bothered at all. It should have looked insincere. She ought to have felt irritated. Yet she didn’t. Because.
‘He’s saying it… with complete sincerity?’
Gilliam was staring straight into her eyes with that serious face. Honest eyes. A calm, steady gaze. His sincerity came through more powerfully than any torrent of ornate modifiers ever could. The fact that he genuinely liked her eyes, her personality, and her face.
‘Ugh…’
The moment their eyes met, Eletra’s heart began to thunder. How strange. Why was this happening?
‘This man… up close, his face is actually quite handsome?’
She had seen him once from afar before—at a party or ball where Gilliam had shown up, gotten drunk, and made a complete fool of himself.
‘Was he always this good-looking? Or does he look different now that his behavior has changed?’
It was hard to believe the man from back then and the one standing before her now were the same person.
“Ahem. Hmm.”
Eletra hid her embarrassment. She hid the frantic beating of her heart. Then, gracefully, like a proper princess, she decided to accept his praise.
“It wasn’t unpleasant to hear. Is there something you desire?”
She had originally planned to grant him nothing, but… her mind had changed.
“Just let me offer a little more praise.”
“Very well, I shall grant—huh?”
Eletra blinked. In that instant Gilliam had taken one more step forward. The distance between their faces was now barely two handspans.
‘His height is nicely tall too…’
Looking up at him felt just right—stable, reassuring.
“Princess Eletra.”
“Yes…?”
“Is there anything you’d like praised?”
Who asks the person in question directly!?
“Or perhaps something you want to boast about… Ah, right. Your Highness has considerable skill in spirit observation, don’t you?”
“W-well, yes.”
“I think that’s wonderful. It’s surprisingly difficult for someone to maintain a single hobby over time. Not being swayed by others and sticking to what you genuinely enjoy isn’t easy.”
Lies. Who in the world praises someone for something so trivial? She had been scolded endlessly to drop worthless hobbies like spirit observation and instead cultivate flower arranging or artistic appreciation.
“I mean it.”
There he was. The person who would praise her for exactly that.
“Princess Eletra.”
Gilliam took yet another step forward. The distance between them was now a single handspan.
“You are an incredibly attractive person.”
The two of them stood in a park within the Academy’s noble residential district. Commoner students were not permitted here, and every noble student was currently gathered at the party hall. No one would interrupt them.
‘What? What is with this guy??’
People grow wary of what they cannot understand. And when wary, they want to defend themselves.
“What gives you the right to say something like that!? What could you possibly know about me?”
“In truth, today might as well be our first meeting.”
Gilliam gazed into empty air, as if recalling someone from memory.
“Me? Attractive?”
A vicious sneer spread across the Ice Princess’s face.
“Idiots who can only see the surface.”
A face full of self-loathing. Hands stained with blood.
“But I do know this.”
The orphanage sponsorship records discovered after Eletra’s death in the original story. It was so unlike the Ice Princess—who was infamous for hating people—that almost no one believed she had truly done it. Sadly.
“Your Highness is far more attractive than you believe yourself to be.”
Gilliam smiled. For some reason Eletra could not look away from that smile. It felt like she would drown in those honey-colored eyes.
‘…What the hell is this guy?’
Foul play. Smiling like that while staring straight at her with those eyes was foul play. Saying such things with that smile was also foul play. There had never been anyone like him before. This was a first. A man like you. It felt like her chest was going to do something strange.
‘What on earth are you thinking when you say things like that?’
Eletra became genuinely curious. But if she could have peeked inside Gilliam’s head, she would have been terribly disappointed.
‘Nice.’
Even Her Highness had potential. The potential of a praise-point vending machine.
‘Any points that can be farmed should be farmed whenever possible.’
Since today was the day after the entrance ceremony, the first dungeon practicum would be next week.
‘I need to prepare in advance for the enemy raid event that happens there too.’
If I had been a veteran who actually played Astra Radius, I could have prepared perfectly. I might even have prevented the raid from occurring at all. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I had simply transmigrated into a romance-fantasy novel set in Astra Radius. Although I had read every single setting compilation post, there were limits. For that reason, I had no choice but to grow stronger in every possible way.
“Princess Eletra.”
“Y-yes?”
“Now that I mention it, that dress suits you very well too.”
“R-really?”
“I only mentioned it briefly earlier, but I truly do think your face is beautiful.”
“It’s also true that I like your personality. I tend to dislike scheming people, after all.”
“Don’t you think I’m prickly?”
“You are prickly, but you have a soft heart. And you cheer for people weaker than yourself, don’t you?”
“U-um…”
“To summarize, Princess Eletra, you are very—”
“I-I-I’m leaving nowwwwwwwww!!!!”
Eletra fled in a frantic hurry.
‘Is it broken?’
It had only been used for a single day. It would be problematic if it broke already.
‘Can’t be helped.’
It was getting late, so I decided to head to my room. Then I realized one problem.
‘Where the hell is my dorm room?’
Being a transmigrator really was inconvenient for things like this. The original novel never mentioned which building or room number Gilliam’s dorm was.
As I stood there looking around, a male voice called out from behind me.
“……Hey.”
It was Mag… Mog… Magnum—the guy who had been utterly humiliated by the princess at the party earlier—glaring at me.
Lucky me.
“If you could tell me where the men’s dormitory—”
“You worthless scoundrel of Everchess!!!!!!!!!”
Magnum clenched his fist and charged.
Guess I wasn’t lucky after all.
‘Well, it doesn’t really matter.’
I had been planning to invest in stats anyway. I summoned the stat window in my mind.
Agility: F
Mana: F
Accuracy: F
Resistance: F
As expected, it was pathetic. A random seven-year-old boy passing by would probably have better stats.
‘Upgrade agility by one rank.’
100 Praise Points consumed (Remaining: 650)
I felt my body become noticeably more agile.
At the last possible moment I twisted, dodging Magnum’s fist by a paper-thin margin.
“!!!”
Magnum’s eyes widened in shock. The movement was clearly not something a worthless drunkard who only whined and complained should have been capable of.
‘Still only E-grade, though.’
I upgraded strength as well.
100 Praise Points consumed (Remaining: 550)
I hooked Magnum’s ankle and drove my strengthened fist into his back.
“Gah…!”
And to finish it, I used a skill.
Skill Activated
Having completely lost his balance, Magnum tumbled miserably across the grass.
“Graaaaagh!!”
I sighed as I watched him writhe.
“Jeez…”
How pathetic. Still—
‘…He’s pretty sturdy, huh?’
I walked over to the fallen Magnum. His will to fight already seemed thoroughly broken.
“Hey, Magnum.”
“Ugh…!”
Magnum glared at me, his face a mixture of shame and humiliation.
“Go ahead and mock me!! You ambushed me and still couldn’t win, you pathetic loser!!!”
“…So you were aware of that? Honestly, it was pretty stupid.”
“Graaaaagh!!! Who actually does it when you tell them to!!!”
“You’re loud…”
But I hadn’t approached him to mock him.
“Hey.”
“?”
“You might have the makings of a tank.”
It seems like it’d suit you well.