The Noble Lady's Morning (5)
The method was simple.
Bend the thumb and index finger of one hand to form a circle, letting the other fingers spread naturally.
With the opposite hand, extend only the index finger while curling the rest into a fist.
Then slide that index finger through the center of the circle with a quick shuk shuk motion.
The universally understood gesture was complete!
It was the same motion I’d used before. Back then, Theo’s grimace—like he’d witnessed something utterly horrifying—had been hilarious.
I wondered what kind of reaction he’d show this time.
“Sex? Would that even work?”
Yet Theo’s response was disappointingly flat.
He seemed purely curious about the method’s effectiveness. This wasn’t the reaction I’d been hoping for at all.
Boring…
I swallowed my internal grumbling.
“It works. It won’t be easy, of course.”
Still, the method I’d given him was genuine. I hadn’t just thrown out some random nonsense to enjoy his reaction.
Sex.
This approach worked on every heroine, not just Faye. While it was less effective than pinpoint targeting her favorite spots during sparring, it reliably raised favorability.
You could call it something like post-nut clarity affection.
Ah. Of course, now that this was reality, things would be a little different. Dumping someone and raping them out of nowhere probably wouldn’t raise favorability.
If it was rape play, maybe, but there couldn’t possibly be a woman who actually enjoyed being raped… right? Me…?
Come to think of it, this was the world of an erotic game. Maybe such women existed….
No, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make right now.
Anyway, the important thing was that sex alone could raise favorability as long as it didn’t cross into that extreme territory.
“Still, the most effective method is sparring after all. Just fight and win. Simple and nice, right?”
“Simple and nice, but not exactly easy.”
Theo’s eyes grew distant as he pictured his future.
In the previous spar with Faye, he had essentially lost. His magic was woefully inadequate at keeping her at bay, and even in close combat he couldn’t do more than hold out briefly.
He’d managed a win with a surprise hypnosis last time, but would it work again? If Faye wasn’t an idiot—and she wasn’t—she would have prepared countermeasures. Our Faye was bright and pure, not stupid.
That left only one thing to do going forward.
“We’ll have to train, huh?”
“Haaaa…”
Theo let out a pained groan.
It’s fine. You won’t die.
Probably.
Early morning.
The morning air, still carrying the sharp chill of dawn, wrapped around my arms and legs.
“Huu…”
The cold that slipped into the space left by my soft sigh filled my chest completely. It felt like it snapped my mind awake.
Unlike the Korean peninsula—where ten out of twelve months seemed to be either summer or winter—the seasons in this game world were neatly divided into three months each.
It was April now. Spring, when the sun rose and warm air would soon follow.
But at this hour, not long after sunrise, the cold still bit sharply.
I rubbed my limbs, which were constantly losing body heat, trying to coax out whatever warmth I could.
Even at this early hour, the academy was already bustling. Guards patrolling day and night, restaurant staff hauling ingredients for breakfast, and students with deep dark circles staggering toward the dorms while making dying noises… Let’s pretend I didn’t see that last group. They were heading to the dorms, right? Surely.
…Ahem.
Anyway, all these different people were breathing life into the academy’s early morning.
And among them, the most noticeable and most numerous were, naturally, the students.
“Yaaawn… Ugh. So sleepy.”
A guy stretching with eyes barely open, still half-asleep.
“One! Two! One! Two!”
“One! Two! One! Two!”
Groups of guys running through the academy in step.
“Hey! It’s too loud! I can’t concentrate! If you’re gonna run, do it somewhere far away!”
Even a guy cracking open his dorm window to protest the noise pollution.
Their actions were all different, but they shared one thing: working hard from the crack of dawn.
Being a student at this academy required at least this level of effort.
Of course, not everyone trained in the morning. Some people focused better at night or during the early dawn hours. Those types probably found the morning noise annoying, but they could deal with it themselves.
“……”
That aside, I could feel the stares.
It wasn’t just one person. Glances came from every direction, people sneaking looks while pretending not to.
Like I’d wandered into a place I didn’t belong.
Which wasn’t entirely wrong.
This was in front of the male dormitory, after all.
“Haa…”
I let out another sigh.
This one wasn’t from the cold. It was packed with irritation.
I hadn’t wanted to come all the way here and wait either. I knew I’d get these kinds of looks.
I’m pretty, after all. Standing in front of the boys’ dorm from the early morning was bound to draw attention.
That’s why I’d originally suggested meeting between the male and female dormitories. With equal numbers of guys and girls there, even someone as pretty as me wouldn’t get such intense stares.
I had been waiting there.
But.
But here’s the thing.
That was already thirty minutes ago.
The appointed time had passed by thirty whole minutes.
Not thirty minutes in broad daylight—thirty minutes in the morning.
People regularly skipped meals just to sleep thirty extra minutes in the morning, yet he’d made me waste that golden time waiting.
For the first five minutes, I waited quietly. There was such a thing as “Korean time,” after all. It wasn’t exactly a compliment, but being five minutes late was common enough, so I let it slide.
For the next ten minutes, I did some light stretching by myself. Standing still was cold, and the morning air felt even icier against my body since my beastman traits meant I couldn’t layer up much.
And after the following fifteen minutes passed, I’d reached the mindset of fine, let’s see exactly how late this bastard plans to be.
There was a reason I’d changed locations and started waiting in front of the male dormitory.
Think about it.
A beautiful girl waiting in front of the dorms since early morning. Everyone’s wondering who she’s waiting for, and then some nobody they’ve never seen before walks out and joins her.
What would happen?
Obviously not a “couple extermination squad” chasing the protagonist like in some manga. That trope was twenty years outdated even in Japan.
But he would definitely get bombarded with questions. Things like “What’s your relationship?” and “Why did you make her wait?” would come flying at him nonstop.
For Theo, who disliked chatting with people, those questions would be incredibly annoying.
Between the normal glances, I could feel sticky ones mixed in—rude stares full of complacent thoughts like with this many people around, she won’t notice me looking.
It didn’t feel great.
Still, imagining Theo getting flustered by the incoming barrage of questions made enduring a few sleazy stares worth it.
So who told him to be late for our meeting?
I waited another five minutes.
By then the gazes that had started as curious about the pretty girl had gradually shifted to pity.
That was when I finally spotted Theo sprinting frantically through the dormitory doors.
“S-sorry! I completely forgot!”
He must have rushed out in a panic—his hair was still flattened from sleep and his shoelaces were completely undone.
Seeing those signs of haste almost softened my anger… as if. My rage gauge was functioning at full capacity.
Right. Stay calm.
Exploding here would be the move of an amateur. In the worst case, it might even backfire and make Theo look pitiful.
What does a master do?
Smile instead!
“You’re finally here! I’ve been waiting forever!”
I raised my voice pitch higher than usual. The bright, cheerful tone that came out sounded exactly like something Faye would say. It was so cute that even I was startled.
This… is me?
Without showing my surprise, I ran over to Theo.
I reached up and fixed his flattened hair, then knelt to tie his shoelaces for him.
“W-what? Why are you acting like this? Did someone hit you with mental magic on the way here?”
Naturally, these were all things I would never do under normal circumstances.
Behaving like some outdated anime heroine made my stomach churn with disgust.
But I endured. This was burning revenge—a fierce determination to make Theo suffer for forcing me to wait over thirty minutes in the freezing morning.
Theo seemed to notice my behavior was unusual and responded with obvious discomfort.
Still, since he wasn’t fully awake yet, he apparently hadn’t realized my true intentions.
“Yep! All better now! Let’s go quickly! We’ve already lost so much time!”
I grabbed the hand of the still-dazed Theo and started running.
My original plan had been to link arms here, subtly press my chest against him, and pour fuel on the fire. But now that he was actually in front of me, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Embarr… It’s not that I’m embarrassed. Really, I’m not. It’s just… something. How do I put it? Um… ticklish….
Anyway, there was that.
I ran while feeling countless stares boring into my back.
Our destination was the hideout!