Calling Each Other 'Self'
"Ugh.."
After taking the young lady's surprise collarbone kiss attack, my mind had gone completely hazy. Even now, a full day later.
"Hey, does seeing my face make your heart race now? Do you finally see me as a woman?"
The clear attacker-defender dynamic from yesterday had completely flipped after the young lady's aggressive charge. I'd woken up to her dropkick first thing in the morning, then spent the entire ride to the academy in the mana car getting teased nonstop.
"You're not answering, so I guess it's true? Too bad~ I have no intention of marrying a mere butler, you know?"
But I'm not the type to take a loss lying down. I couldn't just sit there and take these attacks. After racking my brain for a counter, I found the one point where she'd overextended.
"I never asked you to marry me, though?"
"..What?"
Got her. "How could a mere butler like me ever dream of marrying the young lady? Unless, of course, the young lady herself strongly desired it."
Watching her face flush with embarrassment, I gave her a small smile. "Or perhaps… you do desire it?"
A single sharp remark that dug straight into her chest, and her expression twisted. Yeah, this was the taste. This was why teasing the young lady was so fun.
I'd barely had time to feel relieved that my usual edge had returned when she shot back, "Then what about you? If you had the chance, would you marry me?"
She looked flustered for a moment before grinning and counterattacking. The amateur move here would be to panic or demand an answer first.
"I would welcome it with open arms, of course. But does that mean the young lady is willing to go as far as marrying me?"
When you push hard against someone trying to play coy, they always get flustered. "N..no? It's not like I have to marry you specifically.."
As expected, she trailed off, twisting her head this way and that. She was going to end up like this anyway, yet she still tried to seize the initiative. Annoyed by the sight, I deliberately sat right beside her and pressed close.
"That's a problem. If the young lady doesn't take me, I'll have to remain single for life." Then, resting my head against her shoulder, I added, "Would you at least keep me as a concubine later and build a reverse harem for me?"
Her face took on that familiar 'I'm dying of embarrassment' expression. "I-I wasn't planning on keeping any concubines in the first place!"
..Hmm. At this point, wasn't she deliberately leaving openings just to get teased? I eyed her suspiciously while gently placing my hand over hers.
"Then am I the official spouse, young lady? Or should I start calling you 'darling' now?"
"Are you insane?! You crazy bastard! Are you even a butler?!"
She pounded on my back while shouting. As always, this young lady's hands were ridiculously heavy. The poor child who'd be born to her someday would have to endure that back-smashing.
"Can't I call you 'darling' when no one else is around? We're close enough now that— Gah!"
In the end, a fist drove into my solar plexus. A punch that made breathing difficult—one that would've easily set a new record on an arcade punching machine back in the modern world. An ordinary person would have their ribs crushed by this.
"You're way too forward.. darling.."
I said it teasingly on purpose and got hit even more. She scratched her cheek a few times while watching me rub the sore spot, then muttered, "..Later. I'll let you call me 'darling' a little later."
It was only a future promise, but I'd gotten a definite answer. I was about to tease her more with it when—
"W-we've arrived!"
The coachman's voice announcing our arrival at the academy made me drop the idea.
"What happened here stays buried forever. If you tell anyone, I'll kill you."
After threatening the coachman in a terrifying tone, the young lady scrambled out of the mana car like she was fleeing. No, why was she treating an innocent coachman old enough to be our parent like that? Anyone could see this was abuse of power! She'd be in serious trouble if she were born in the modern era.
'Guess I'll have to clean up after her again today..'
After apologizing to the coachman on her behalf, I hurried after her.
"Wait just a moment, darling!"
"I told you not to call me that, damn it!!"
She ran away as fast as she could while I chased after her.
***
Right now, I stood before the door to the principal's office.
The principal of Starlight Academy strictly followed an unspoken rule that all academy principals must obey. They were an ultimate-level powerhouse, yet never intervened in incidents. They possessed considerable information but made no preparations against it. Most of their personal details—including abilities and background—remained shrouded in mystery.
In the end, the principal remained an unsolved plot thread even in Starlight. '..I wonder if it was revealed in Stardust?'
At the moment, the principal was away on a long business trip. That worked out perfectly. If they'd been here, I wouldn't have even dreamed of stealing the hidden piece.
Though they only appeared through other characters' monologues, the academy principal was said to possess overwhelming martial prowess.
"Hopefully I won't have to meet them."
I really didn't want to run into them if possible. In fact, I'd prefer they stayed completely uninvolved in the story, just like in Starlight. What if the principal got involved and turned out to be the final mastermind? That would just add one more ridiculously strong opponent to my death note.
I already had plenty of formidable names on the list of people I needed to kill. I didn't want to add another.
"Hoo.."
Even though I was entering an empty room, I felt strangely tense. It made sense—I was sneaking into the room of someone who could be called the strongest in the world. Even though I'd done this countless times in the game, why was I so nervous now?
I took one more deep breath, then quietly knocked twice on the door.
Knock knock!
As expected, no response came from inside.
"Excuse me.."
Following the anticipated reaction, I carefully opened the door and poked my head in like a rabbit, glancing around. No one was there. Nothing new seemed to have been added from Stardust either.
"Thank goodness.."
I quickly slipped inside, shut the door, and locked it. Honestly, I'd been worried sick about what I'd do if someone was inside. This was a huge relief..
"Alright, what I need to do is.."
What I had to obtain from this room was a small glove called the Blood Ghoul. Perhaps because it was hidden in the principal's office, it came with an absurd amount of unnecessary lore. By feeding it the owner's blood, the user gained the ability to manipulate surrounding blood—[Blood Control]—for free. It was an incredibly overpowered skill. Of course, it came with the penalty of gradually eroding the owner's sanity.
'That penalty doesn't apply to me, though.'
There was equipment that could expel the madness the Blood Ghoul forcibly injected. A gold brooch with a purple gem that sparkled like the young lady's eyes, which I'd barely managed to obtain by pestering her today.
Floyd's Spouse
A brooch given as proof to the spouse of a Floyd family member. Its additional effect granted complete immunity to all status ailments—an item that equally nullified both buffs and debuffs. Used well, it was medicine; used poorly, it was poison.
'But once I start using the Blood Ghoul..'
The fact that I could wield the Blood Ghoul—which would drive its user insane after ten days—without any risk made the other buffs largely meaningless.
'Still, there's one thing that bothers me..'
The fact that I'd taken the proof that only the young lady's spouse could possess. In this game, a family crest given by a family member was practically a symbol of love meant only for someone truly precious. You could only equip one, and they all had significant effects. It felt a little uncomfortable to have obtained something like that just by begging repeatedly.
But since the young lady seemed to like me too, maybe it wasn't that big of a deal? ..Or was it?
"The various puzzles are.. fakes anyway, so they don't matter."
The strange thing about this principal's office was that while it contained quite a few hidden pieces, none of them were useful except for the Blood Ghoul. Instead, there were items that seemed to say 'take this and get lost,' along with various puzzles to obtain them—all of which were traps.
"This is the real one."
I tapped the torch hanging right beside the principal's office door and extinguished it. This was the condition to obtain the Blood Ghoul—extinguishing the eight torches in the office in a specific order.
"This one.. and this one.."
One by one, I extinguished the torches in the correct sequence.
"Agh.. what was it again.."
It wasn't entirely smooth sailing. Even though it was a direct implementation of something from the game, facing this kind of sequence puzzle in reality rather than on a screen felt.. disorienting, to say the least.
"..But seriously, how did anyone figure this out?"
Every time I obtained the Blood Ghoul, I wondered the same thing. What kind of person was the first one to find it? What kind of lunatic would think to extinguish torches one by one in a room filled with nothing but useless junk? They were either incredibly lucky or completely insane.
Hisss!
After extinguishing the final torch and waiting a moment—
Rumble!
A section of the wall where the chair had been collapsed inward.
"Whoa.."
And there, in the center, was the Blood Ghoul radiating a sinister aura. A dark red glove caked in dried blood. Seeing it exactly as it had appeared in the game made me feel slightly pleased, and I approached it.
"This is really something.."
The moment I carefully reached out and touched the Blood Ghoul—
Bang!
A small explosion suddenly erupted from the glove, and I was thrown backward. This wasn't part of the plan. Preparing to flee at any moment, I stared into the thick smoke created by the blast.
"Did you wake me?"
Soon, a clear woman's voice echoed from within.
..What? Who are you?