Taking Young Masters and Ladies Down a Peg (4)
Eletra was a princess.
And even setting her bloodline aside, she was objectively a beauty. Which meant she had spent her entire life drowning in praise.
Her hair was a golden waterfall; the golden fleece bestowed by the gods; even the heavens would covet those locks and try to shear them off, and so on and so forth…
Her eyes were like jewels; within that blue you could see both sky and sea; even the heavens would covet those eyes and try to pluck them out, and so on and so forth…
Why the heavens would want to plunder a perfectly healthy person's hair and eyeballs was beyond him, but anyway.
Eletra was used to it. Used to praise plastered over with gaudy, overblown modifiers. That was simply the baseline of noble society and court society.
And Gilliam Everchess, for all that he'd lived as a wastrel, was still the legitimate son of a ducal house. Surely he would praise her the same way.
"Your Highness."
Gilliam met her eyes first.
Eletra swallowed without meaning to. He was serious. Looking only at his face, you could have mistaken him for a merchant tallying figures, or a general fretting over troop deployments—not a man about to compliment a woman.
"Your eyes are beautiful, and—"
Haa. The eyes again.
What flowery nonsense was he going to tack on this time? She just hoped he would spare her the heaven talk.
"—your personality is so straightforward that I find you very appealing—"
"Wait! Hold on a second!!"
"?"
"Is that all?"
No embellishments?
"No."
"Ah, of course not."
"Your face is truly pretty as well."
"?"
No, that really was all.
What is this man trying to pull?
Her eyes were pretty. Her personality was straightforward and he liked that. Her face was pretty too. The end.
Any other man would have written a poem about her eyes, a poem about her personality, and a poem about her face. Couldn't manage that? Then he wouldn't have tried at all. It looked half-hearted. She ought to have been irritated.
And yet she wasn't. Because—
He's saying it sincerely, isn't he?
Gilliam was looking straight into her eyes with that same earnest face. Upright eyes. A calm gaze. It came through. His sincerity. Far more intensely than any cascade of glittering modifiers ever could—the simple fact that Gilliam genuinely liked her eyes, her personality, and her face.
Nngh…
Meeting his gaze made Eletra's heart flutter and pound. How strange. Why was she like this?
This man… up close, his face is actually pretty decent?
She had seen him once before, from a distance—Gilliam at some party or ball, drinking and making a spectacle of himself.
Was he always this handsome? Or does he just look different now that he's acting differently?
It was hard to believe that then and now were the same person.
"H-hmm."
Eletra hid her fluster. Hid the thudding of her heart as well. And then, gracefully, as befit a princess, she decided to accept his praise.
"I'll grant that it wasn't unpleasant to hear. Is there something you want?"
She had originally planned to bestow nothing at all… but she had changed her mind.
"If you would simply allow me to compliment you a little more, that would be enough."
"Very well, I shall bestow that upon— wait, what?"
Eletra blinked. In that interval Gilliam stepped one pace closer. The distance between a man and a woman's faces—barely two handspans.
He's tall enough to be properly imposing, too…?
Looking up at him felt steadying. Reliable.
"Princess Eletra."
"Y-yes…?"
"Is there anything in particular you'd like to be complimented on?"
Who on earth asked the person herself that!?
"Or something you'd like to brag about… ah, right. Your Highness has quite the expertise in spirit observation, don't you?"
"Th-that is true, but."
"I think that's wonderful. It's surprisingly hard for a person to pick up a hobby and keep at it. Holding on to what you love without being swayed by other people isn't easy either."
A lie. Who praised something like that? How many times had she been needled to drop a trivial hobby like spirit observation and cultivate something refined instead—flower arranging, the fine arts?
"I mean it. Truly."
Here he was. Someone who would praise even that.
"Princess Eletra."
Gilliam stepped forward again. The distance between them—barely one handspan.
"You are an extraordinarily charming person."
The place they stood was a park in the noble district of the academy campus. Commoner students weren't allowed in, and every noble student was currently gathered at the party hall. Meaning no one was around to interrupt them.
What? What is with this man??
People grow wary of what they don't understand. And wariness makes you want to defend yourself.
"Wh-who are you to say that!? What do you even know about me?"
"In truth, today is as good as the first time we've met."
Gilliam looked into empty air, as if recalling someone from memory.
"Me? Beautiful?"
A vicious sneer spread across the Ice Princess's face.
"Fools who can see nothing but the surface."
A face full of self-loathing. Hands soaked in blood.
"But this much I do know."
The orphanage sponsorship records discovered after the princess's death. So unlike the Ice Princess famous for hating people that almost no one believed she had truly been the one sponsoring them. Unfortunately.
"Your Highness is a far more charming person than you yourself believe."
Gilliam smiled. And Eletra—for reasons she couldn't name—couldn't look away from that smile. She felt as if she might drown in those honey-sweet eyes.
…What is with this man.
Foul. Looking straight at her with those eyes and smiling like that—foul. Saying those things while smiling like that—also foul. There had never been anyone like this before. This was a first. A man like him. It felt like something strange was happening inside her chest.
What on earth is he thinking, saying things like that?
Eletra was genuinely curious. But if she could have peered into Gilliam's head, she would have been deeply disappointed.
Compliment Points: +100(200 → 300)
Oh yeah.
Even the princess showed promise. Promise as a Compliment Point vending machine.
Any points I can farm, I should farm whenever I can.
If today was the day after the entrance ceremony, then next week would be the first dungeon practical. He needed to prepare in advance for the ambush event that would break out there, too.
If he had been a hardcore veteran who had actually played Astra Radius himself, he could have prepared perfectly. He might even have handled things so the ambush never happened at all. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. He had merely transmigrated into a romance fantasy set against the backdrop of Astra Radius. He had read through the compiled setting notices, but there were limits. Which was all the more reason he had no choice but to grow stronger in every direction.
"Princess Eletra."
"H-hmm?"
"This is a bit late to say, but that dress suits you remarkably well."
"R-really?"
Compliment Points: +20(300 → 320)
"I only mentioned it in passing earlier, but I also sincerely believe your face is pretty."
Compliment Points: +50(320 → 370)
"It's also true that I like your personality. I tend to dislike underhanded people, you see."
"You don't think I'm prickly?"
"You're prickly, but soft underneath—and don't you actually root for people weaker than yourself?"
"W-weeeell…"
Compliment Points: +80(370 → 450)
"All in all, Princess Eletra, you are extremely appeal—"
"I-I-I'm going nowwwwwwwww!!!!"
Eletra fled in a flustered scramble.
Did she break?
He'd only been using this for a day. It would be a problem if she already short-circuited.
Nothing I can do about it.
It was getting late; maybe he should head to his room for the night. But then he realized one problem.
Where the hell is my dorm room, anyway?
Being a transmigrator was inconvenient like this. The original never mentioned which building or room number Gilliam's was.
As he stood there glancing around vaguely, a man's voice came from behind him.
"……Hey."
Mag… Mog… Magnum—the one who had been thoroughly humiliated by the princess back at the party hall—was glaring at him. Lucky break.
"Do you happen to know where the men's dorm—"
"You damn Everchess wastrel!!!!!"
Magnum clenched his fist and charged. Not so lucky after all.
Well, doesn't really matter much.
He had been planning to invest in stats anyway. He called up the stat window in his mind.
Strength:F
Agility:F
Mana:F
Accuracy:F
Resistance:F
As expected, pathetic. A random seven-year-old boy walking by would probably score better.
Upgrade Agility by one rank.
Agility: F → E
100 Compliment Points consumed (Remaining: 650)
He felt his body grow a layer lighter. At the last instant he twisted aside, dodging Magnum's fist by a paper-thin margin.
"!!!"
Magnum was stunned. That was not the kind of movement you'd expect from a good-for-nothing who did nothing but drink and whine all day.
It's still only E-Rank, though.
And then Strength as well.
Strength: F → E
100 Compliment Points consumed (Remaining: 550)
He hooked Magnum's ankle and, with his newly strengthened muscles, drove a palm into the man's back.
"Ghk…!"
And if he threw in a skill on top of that—
Lesser Shockwave
Completely off-balance, Magnum went tumbling wretchedly across the grass.
"Gyaaaaah!!"
Gilliam sighed at the howling man.
"Sheesh…"
Pathetic. But—
…He's pretty sturdy, isn't he?
He walked over to the fallen Magnum. The fight had already gone out of him, by the look of it.
"Hey, Magnum."
"Khrrgh…!"
Magnum glared up at him, face twisted with shame and humiliation.
"Go ahead and mock me if you want!! Call me a useless bastard who lost even after a sneak attack!!!"
"…So you were self-aware? Honestly, you were kind of a useless bastard."
"GYAAAAH!!! Who actually does it when you tell them to!!!"
"Man, you're loud…"
But the reason he had approached this guy wasn't to mock him.
"Hey."
"?"
"You might have talent as a tank."
He looked like he'd take hits well.