12. The Melancholy of a Certain Protagonist
12. The Melancholy of a Certain Protagonist
Mina Glichen was a 3rd Rank martial artist and an innocent country girl at heart.
Originally a commoner, her talent had been recognized and she'd been adopted into the House of Baron Glichen, and at last she'd succeeded in gaining admission to the Kingdom's most prestigious institution, Grandis Academy.
The baron's estate and her home village had held a festival to celebrate. Mina herself hadn't been able to attend because of the entrance ceremony and lectures, but she'd heard everyone had been overjoyed.
A letter from the baron who had become her adoptive father, and another written on behalf of the village by the chief, who couldn't write himself.
Mina, who always kept those letters close, trained as hard as her loved ones' expectations demanded.
'I have to graduate at least 4th Rank!'
She'd heard that important people freely claimed themselves 5th Rank without needing to prove it, but that had nothing to do with Mina.
Attending Grandis Academy, which gathered the Kingdom's finest talents, meant she tended to be underrated, but under normal circumstances, reaching 4th Rank was enough to live a lifetime without serious trouble—especially in a rural territory like Baron Glichen's, where the Knight Commander was only 5th Rank. Having a 4th Rank combatant added to such a territory was a significant gain.
And so Mina went to the training hall every day to hone her skills, sparred with all kinds of students without letting defeat shame her, and poured herself into her studies.
The students who'd initially mocked her as a country bumpkin, a mere 3rd Rank, were gradually won over by Mina's sincerity and smile.
Before she knew it, Mina had become something of a minor celebrity in the Martial Arts Field.
Unfortunately, she was so thoroughly good-natured that she mistook even noble students' mockery and sneers for genuine compliments, and had no idea she was well-known. She simply assumed city people were all nice.
Her disposition was almost excessively naive and positive, but one friend in particular had a great deal to do with shaping that outlook.
On her way to the training hall for her daily workout, Mina spotted that friend on the street, smiled, and waved.
"Rus!"
"......Mina."
Rus Spero. A 6th Rank swordsman who existed on an entirely different plane from Mina.
A friend she'd met on the day of the entrance ceremony, and by several measures the most famous male student in the Martial Arts Field.
Part of that was due to his near-excessive skill, but his reserved personality and slender, androgynous looks also played a role.
There were plenty of good rumors and bad ones alike, but to Mina, he was simply a precious friend.
And that precious friend, a full 6th Rank, had personally cheered Mina on, telling her she could do it.
Without fully realizing it, Mina drew enormous strength from those words.
Because Rus was a person of few words, Mina was naturally the one who struck up conversations and made invitations first, and this had once spawned a rumor in the Martial Arts Field that the two were dating.
Dating Rus. For many female students, that would surely be a dream come true.
But for Mina, it was a question that barely resonated.
Not because she thought she wasn't good enough for someone so extraordinary—that was never the issue.
More like a sense that dating was fundamentally off the table? Or that the idea had simply never occurred to her in the first place?
She felt it instinctively: they were just good friends, and anything beyond that was impossible. It wasn't a matter of emotion—it was something deeper.
Of course, if she ever said that to anyone else, they'd obviously accuse her of being disingenuous, so Mina kept the thought to herself.
The dating rumors kept trailing them, but since they only ever acted like friends, the talk eventually died down on its own.
As always, Mina was the first to suggest they go somewhere together.
".........No, I'm fine. I have somewhere to be right now."
"Oh? Where are you going?"
Rather than feeling awkward at Rus's curt refusal, Mina's genuine curiosity prompted her to ask in return. Surely Rus had his own personal business. Normally Mina wouldn't pry.
But the rather large basket in Rus's hands made it impossible not to ask.
Mina had visited the dormitory where Rus sometimes spent time alone, but she'd never seen a basket like that there. Could she be hosting some kind of party?
"Just shopping for groceries."
"Are you having a party? That basket's enormous."
"Not a party. But I am cooking. I think I'll have to feed someone quite a lot, so..."
"Huh!?"
Feed someone? Rus was cooking for someone?
When the rumor had been about Mina herself dating Rus, she'd been unfazed, but wasn't this practically a confession from Rus's own mouth?
Mina's eyes took on a sly gleam as she grinned and nudged Rus with her elbow.
"What's this, Rus? Already getting into that sort of thing?"
"......Huh?"
"You got yourself a girlfriend, didn't you? You're 6th Rank, and good-looking! If anything, I'd say it's about time, don't you think?"
"................"
Mina had deliberately mimicked the teasing tone of the aunties back in her home village, but Rus's reaction was strange.
A flinch, as if something had struck home. The phrase "girlfriend" was visibly getting to her.
"Girlfriend...... Right. A girlfriend, that's what it was."
"Rus?"
"......It's nothing. I think I just realized why I panicked earlier."
"??"
Had she made a mistake?
Caught off guard, Mina glanced around the nearly empty street, then whispered to Rus.
"Uh, so it's not?"
"Strictly speaking, no."
"S-sorry. I jumped to conclusions."
"It's fine."
From the way he said it, Rus truly seemed fine. His expression was complicated.
This wasn't something to press further on. Acting on that intuition, Mina frantically cast about for any topic to change the subject to—anything would do.
Her eyes landed on the apples piled inside the basket.
"W-wow! Apples! Rus, you like apples too? I love them!"
"I hate them."
"Oh...... you do?"
"It's not the taste I hate. Seeing apples just brings back old memories."
Old memories?
Rus knew Mina to an almost uncanny degree, but Mina had never heard a thing about his past. For a moment her eyes sparkled.
But the mood was clearly not one in which she could ask, so she resolved to save it for another time.
More to the point—if he hated apples, then why?
"There's someone who likes them. It's...... complicated."
"O-oh?"
"Every time I see an apple, the past from that day comes back to me and I start to hate it. But when it comes to that person, I'm happy to buy apples for their sake. Even with something as small as an apple, it makes me feel miserable and elated at the same time."
"............."
"......Sorry, I talked too long. I'll go now. Someone's waiting."
"N-no! I'll be off, then!"
Leaving Rus waving with a forlorn expression, Mina hurried away at a run. She simply felt she had to get away quickly.
'That look on Rus's face just now.......'
The face Rus had worn while staring at the apples was an expression Mina had never seen before.
Emotion that deep, that heavy, that sticky—she'd never encountered it.
Mina Glichen.
......For the first time, she felt genuine fear of her precious friend.
*
I made a rational choice.
I absolutely did not sell out for money.
'Fifty times the rate—what's that come to per month?'
Right now I'm giving it my all dusting, sweeping, and cleaning the room His Protagonistship will be moving into, but this is pure goodwill.
Goodwill, I tell you.
'Keh, now that's a protagonist.'
I had him pegged for big things from the moment he offered five times the tuition at the entrance exam site. No doubt about it.
If we weren't stuck in this godforsaken academy-on-the-verge-of-bankruptcy situation, I probably would've tried to approach him on my own initiative.
'Should I prepare a welcome drink, too? Splurge on a mid-grade Elixir, maybe?'
More to the point—those groceries His Protagonistship just went out to buy, those should go on my tab, right? Should they......?
For now, I'll keep quiet and offer to cover it when the subject comes up.
While I was meticulously dusting, a question popped into my head.
'But how does he have that much money, anyway?'
In <Dark Kingdom>, having that kind of money at this point in the story was impossible. Granted, that's just the game's narrative.
The real world wasn't a game where you're stuck in a rural village and forced straight to the academy with no detours. He'd probably found some way to earn well along the way.
But still, there are limits.
'If he could say, without much hesitation, that he'd pay fifty times the average monthly rent, that means that much money is no problem for him. I saw the Imperial Bank check myself.'
Fifty times. However cheap Grandis Academy's dormitory fees might be, at that multiplier you're talking about a serious amount of money. Hell, more than serious—it's a fuckton. You'd have to go for the academy's most expensive dormitory to hit that range.
And he's fine with spending that every month without feeling the pinch. He can't even earn anything now, since he has to stay at the academy.
Did he pull off some big score?
'Like a rock salt mine, maybe?'
Heh.
My own thought made me laugh. The rock salt mine the Chairwoman had futures-traded was in a tiny kingdom at the edge of the continent—how would His Protagonistship even get there? Besides, a rock salt mine isn't something just any random person can invest in. Salt is so precious that the state strictly controls it.
......Not that that kept it from collapsing in a mysterious accident, which still pisses me off, but anyway.
More importantly, that isn't the only rock salt mine on the continent. And he's the protagonist, so he must've worked something out. By that logic, the fact that he's 6th Rank is already a bigger question. Right now, I shouldn't be worrying about where His Protagonistship's money came from—I should be figuring out what to do with fifty times the rent.
'Putting it all into the budget makes sense, of course.'
But, honestly.
After being openly called out earlier about the state of my dormitory and lifestyle, I'm pretty damn embarrassed. I'm actually wondering if I've been living too shabbily.
And most of all, even fifty times the rent won't make a meaningful difference when poured into the academy's finances. Well, having it would certainly be better than not—it's a small amount on the macro scale, but a big amount on the micro scale, you might say.
On top of that, this dormitory is registered in my name, not the academy's, thanks to the Chairwoman's goodwill.
Which means there's absolutely no problem if I just quietly pocket His Protagonistship's rent.
'What to do.'
Is it really appropriate for the Finance Director of an academy on the brink of bankruptcy to be having these thoughts?
If I just close my eyes to it, I could break free from the boiled-potatoes-and-low-Rank-Elixir lifestyle and, as His Protagonistship said, eat plenty of the things I actually like.
"Nah, forget it."
The hesitation didn't last long. I laughed it off and tossed it aside along with the thought.
Allow myself a luxury once, and the second and third times will come that much easier. The way I'm living now isn't going to kill me. I need to save every coin I can.
Wasn't that the logic behind the academy terror plan in the first place......?
Uh.
'Come to think of it.'
Wasn't the Chairwoman supposed to come to the dormitory tonight to discuss things? And now Rus is here too?
No...... hold on. Even if he decided to move in, there's no way he'd bring all his things over in a single day, right? He'll need time to pack up at his old dormitory. It'll be fine—
Thud!!
"......Student Rus?"
"My belongings."
"Have you already brought everything......?"
"I didn't have much to begin with."
Not true. That's a ton. And what's this?
Eggs?
"Why so many eggs?"
"......I had a reason to buy them. You haven't eaten yet, have you?"
"Pardon? I haven't, but I'll need to head to work soon."
"You should at least have lunch. Sit down."
Normally the landlord outranks the tenant, but right now the dynamic is different. I obediently seated myself at the table according to His Tenantship's command.
Now that I thought about it, it'd been quite a while since I'd sat here and eaten anything. As I stayed seated, the protagonist began cooking with practiced hands.
Pretty good at that, huh?
"You seem quite comfortable with this kind of cooking."
".........There were circumstances."
Hm, now that I think about it, this is kind of infuriating.
This kid is 6th Rank, good-looking, loaded, and even cooks well? Is this what being a protagonist means?
He's an academy student, so he's bound to have plenty of romantic entanglements with female students, too. The only women I ever meet are my direct superior at work, the same old faces I've been sick of for three years, and thieving witches trying to game the budget.
Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to pick a fight with the benefactor who's paying me fifty times the rent, but still, it's a little......
"Here."
"Well, fuck."
"Excuse me?"
"I said well, fuck."
I take it all back. What is this?
Just as a dish, it looked ordinary. Steak with a fried egg on the side. A little heavy for lunch, but it had been so long since I'd seen anything other than boiled potatoes that my mouth was watering.
I cut into the meat without further delay.
'Why is it melting?'
Isn't it normal for my first thought upon seeing this to be not "that looks delicious" but "how much did this cost"? This is something The Protagonist bought on his own, right? I don't have to pay for it, right?
I hesitated briefly, then inhaled the steak and fried egg.
Clink, clink!
"How is it?"
"Mm, mm!"
"......Eat plenty. There's dessert, too. Apples."
What is this? Is this what a protagonist is? The taste was enough to make me repent every petty thought I'd just been nursing.
Come to think of it, we're both men anyway, and all he's doing is living in the next room. What's the problem? If anything, getting to observe what the protagonist does up close is a benefit, isn't it?
And above all, considering how little time I actually spend in the dormitory, there really is no issue.
Having convinced myself of this, I was savoring the taste of meat for the first time in a long while when I heard something being poured out.
"Student Rus? What are you......?"
"Throwing all of it away."
"Pardon? But why—those Elixirs are perfectly good."
"I'll buy and restock everything myself, so throw these out."
"Ah, understood."
If he's buying and restocking them himself, that's a different matter. I only drink them occasionally anyway, and if I think of it as the protagonist drinking them himself, there's no guilt.
More than anything, I just wanted to eat the steak. Why was it so good?
Rus's actions didn't end with pouring out all the low-grade Elixirs.
"I'll tidy this up, too."
"Uh."
"And re-paper the walls here."
"Wait."
"Lay a carpet over there, and the bathroom will need repairs. While I'm at it, I'll fix up the garden as well."
"Student? The, the money—"
"I'll handle all of it, so Finance Director, shut your mouth and eat your food."
"......Yes."
What is this? What is this feeling?
In my head, questions like 'Is this right?' and 'What about the Chairwoman coming tonight?' are swirling around.
But right now, all I care about is demolishing the steak and fried egg, and the apple that tastes so good with each bite.
I'm just happy......