An Unavoidable Bitter Fate (2)
If the protagonist Justin was a character who couldn't tolerate injustice, then the main heroine Catherine was a character who couldn't tolerate being shortchanged.
He didn't know about anything else, but when it came to losses, she absolutely never took one. Ruid was certain that if she'd been born in the modern era, she would have split a bill down to the last ten-won coin.
Still, her chemistry with the protagonist was excellent. As noble characters in novels invariably were, the protagonist was a pushover among pushovers.
And Catherine was the perfect fit for the role of babysitting that pushover. Pouring cider down a throat that kept choking on injustice, she was enormously popular with readers.
"How on earth do you people run a business? Serving customers in the order they ordered is basic common sense, isn't it!"
But meeting her as an enemy, she was nothing short of insufferable. She shrieked so shrilly that his ears hurt.
Ruid's face flushed red. The truth was, he had once found scenes like this satisfying to watch. He was genuinely embarrassed now.
'Hershey, how on earth did you...'
In the original story, it had been three years of in-story time before Hershey finally crossed the line.
Good grief. He couldn't last a single day, and she endured that for three years?
He looked at Hershey with fresh eyes.
Hershey was staring blankly at him like a meerkat, eating her steak.
Observing noble etiquette even in the middle of all this — she was an angel, without a doubt.
"S-sir, if you would just—"
"If you have a mouth, then use it to explain!"
'...You're the one not giving him a chance to talk.'
The waiter was sweating buckets, utterly at a loss. Ruid pitied him.
"Explain! Why did the food go to that table first!"
"P-please calm down first. I'll explain."
The waiter wiped his brow with a handkerchief.
"Those customers arrived before you did. Naturally, they also ordered first."
"Ha! You think I'd fall for such an obvious lie?! I watched with my own two eyes as you went to our table first, then went to that one!"
"Th-that was a mistake on our part, and we came to apologize..."
Catherine, flushed crimson with agitation, was panting for breath. Ruid thought it would be great if she worked herself up into hypertension and her heart just gave out.
"I was prepared to let it go if you apologized politely. But you — no, you're hopeless. Why is it that rude people like you can never admit when they're wrong?"
They say that when people slander others, they hurl the words they themselves have heard most often.
He didn't know who first said that, but it rang terribly true.
Catherine had been shrieking rude at the man this whole time, and that was probably the word she herself had heard more than any other in her life.
Even right now was proof. That infuriating tone of voice. He and Hershey aside, it was tremendously disrespectful to the other patrons quietly eating their meals.
"I-it's the truth. I'll take responsibility for my words. Those customers really did order first, and it was in fact our mistake that kept them waiting far longer..."
"Still lying. Just be honest. You didn't want to offend them because of their status, didn't you!"
At this point it was a rhetorical setup — she'd already decided the answer. Catherine was acting as though she was unquestionably the victim. From experience, getting entangled with that breed of person led nowhere good.
'Just tune it out. Getting worked up only costs me.'
The single most important condition for happiness.
Ruid believed it was never going bald.
If he kept listening to this racket, stress-induced hair loss was guaranteed. He decided he'd show his apology to the poor waiter with a generous tip instead.
Ruid scooped up the stew, which had cooled to just the right temperature, with his spoon and took a bite.
'Unicorn stew never betrays, as expected.'
The unicorn beef stew was delicious. When he'd first heard it was unicorn meat, he'd thought it sounded grotesque, but it tasted like prime-grade beef.
In a world where detox magic destroyed every delicious element of an ingredient, this stew alone retained its distinctive savoriness, making it a reliable choice. That was why Ruid always ordered stew whenever he ate out.
"So you still won't admit your own fault?"
"Please, just listen to me! I never did any such thing! I'm a commoner, to begin with! To a commoner, a noble is a noble whether it's a baron or a duke — how could I possibly have looked down on them!"
"Enough. I have nothing more to say to you. Bring me the manager."
"Y-yes?"
"Don't make me say it twice! Bring the manager! And—"
Catherine strode over to Ruid's table, step by deliberate step.
"You two."
In the end she planted herself beside the table and spoke in a furious voice.
"All this commotion happened because of you two, and your food still goes down?"
The corners of Hershey's mouth, which had been meekly chewing her steak, began to tremble.
"You really are absolute trash. You can't even manage a shred of basic conscience, can you?"
Clang.
Hershey set her knife down with a ringing sound. She wiped her mouth with her napkin and spoke quietly.
"Can you not see that we are in the middle of a meal?"
"Who doesn't know that? That's exactly why — you clearly used your status to have your food brought out first—!"
Just as Hershey opened her mouth to respond, Ruid stepped in.
Partly because he didn't want her catching any collateral damage, but more than anything—
He had endured as much as he could endure.
"Keep it down. You're giving me a headache."
Ruid stared at Catherine with eyes of pure, undisguised loathing. For an instant, the sheer force of it made her flinch and shrink back.
"This is not a space reserved for Lady Obillion alone."
Only then did Catherine glance around. The students who had been eating were all looking at her with expressions of deep discomfort.
"I understand that a provincial noble might not know the etiquette of the Imperial Capital, Lady Obillion."
At Ruid's icy words, the nobles who had been listening in silence began to murmur among themselves.
Ruid met Catherine's eyes dead-on and continued, unhurried and measured.
"No noble of the Imperial Capital, not one of them, would ever raise a fuss over food arriving a little late. Everyone here understands that composure is a noble's virtue."
"There is no reason — and no need — to be served before you two. That waiter did not speak a single word of falsehood. We arrived more than half an hour before you did."
"If you won't take my word for it, then go ask the people around you."
Panic was written plainly across Catherine's face.
"A-asking is pointless — of course they'd all take your side...!"
"No matter what evidence or proof you bring, I doubt anything could convince Lady Obillion. So go on believing that, for the rest of your life."
He really did think a person ought to say what needed saying when the moment came.
It felt as though a ten-year-old knot in his chest had finally come undone. He felt incredible.
Catherine had turned to stone, frozen in place, unable to move.
"Let's go, Hershey. The food's lost its taste."
"Ah, y-yes, of course."
Before rising, Hershey glanced down at Ruid's bowl and hesitated. More than half the stew remained uneaten.
All Hershey had wanted was to repay Ruid, to spend a pleasant hour in his company.
Instead, an uninvited guest she had never asked for had ruined everything. Having that precious time interrupted left her intensely displeased.
But Ruid had already settled the matter. If she pushed further just because her own feelings were hurt, it would come across as disrespecting him.
Hershey swallowed her anger down and rose from her seat.
They were just passing Catherine when it happened.
"Why are you two acting like the victims? The victim here is me."
Catherine, her head bowed low, muttered the words.
"You're still saying that..."
Hershey, already fuming, stopped in her tracks. Ruid, who simply wanted to leave, sighed.
"There's no proof, but the suspicion is obvious. You two are the bad ones here. You, you're the bad guys!"
Catherine's voice shook beyond her control.
Hershey couldn't understand it.
Their only crime was sitting quietly. They had done nothing at all. And yet Catherine had gotten angry all on her own, argued all on her own, thrown a fit all on her own, and now, unable to contain her own rage, was carrying on like this.
'What exactly did we do to deserve this? Don't tell me it's because Ruid dropped her from the roster? How pathetic can you get. What's wrong with eliminating someone in a survival exam?'
The more she turned it over, the hotter her anger flared. Hershey, unable to resist the momentary impulse, spoke.
"Insolent billion."
"……!"
At the words she hated most in the world, Catherine's eyes went wild. She yanked the magic wand from inside her coat and leveled it. Hershey went pale.
The use of magic was forbidden on Academy grounds. It was a strictly enforced rule. Whoever struck first, both parties would be punished without exception. Ruid's expression hardened as well.
His warning came out sharp and cold.
"Lower that wand, Lady Obillion."
But if she'd been the sort to heed warnings, she would never have kicked up this fuss in the first place.
Catherine ignored him and shouted.
"Ice Pistol!"
Four jagged shards of ice came hurtling at Ruid. It was the most powerful spell she was capable of casting — a 3rd Tier magic.
Ruid took no countermeasure whatsoever. Chin held high, one hand tucked casually in his pocket, he simply watched Catherine.
And that alone—
"You call this magic?"
Catherine's spell stopped dead in midair, right in front of Ruid.
Ruid touched the frozen icicle with his hand. When he applied the slightest pressure, it snapped. He turned the shard of ice this way and that, examining it, as he spoke.
"The mana's empty, and the structural composition itself is garbage. Worst spell I've ever seen in my life."
He closed his fist. Catherine's magic crumbled to powder and scattered.
"Th-that's impossible."
Catherine's eyes went wide with disbelief. She had been furious, and in truth, she lacked the skill to cast the 3rd Tier spell Ice Pistol with a single word, so the casting had been sloppy — that much was fair.
But it shouldn't have been neutralized this easily. At the very least, it should have struck Ruid's barrier.
More than anything—
Catherine couldn't even tell what magic Ruid had used to suppress hers. A great crack ran through her magical pride.
"Casting such trash-tier magic — I'm impressed, in a different sense. If I'd thrown something like that, I'd have just died of shame."
Ruid's indifferent eyes and flat tone, as if he were looking at a lump of mineral, pierced her heart like an arrow driven deep.
Tears welled up in Catherine's eyes before long.
"You... who even are you...?"
'Now she's wringing out the tears too.'
Ruid felt nothing but disillusionment.
Seeing no further need to respond, he turned to Hershey.
"Hershey. Let's go."
Hershey wore a dazed expression.
"Ah — yes."
No one had ever gotten angry on her behalf before, and it left her flustered. As she walked, she stared blankly at Ruid. A thought came to her.
'...He was cool. So he has a side like that, too.'
She had always thought of him simply as cute. But the way he'd stood up just now — that had been genuinely impressive. Hershey's face flushed red. It felt as though she'd fallen into danger and been rescued by her prince.
'Sh-shall I suggest we go get dessert?'
Thanks to that unpleasant uninvited guest, they hadn't even managed to finish their meal — dessert was out of the question. Just as she was steeling herself to work up the courage and propose it—
She heard someone running up from behind.
It was Justin. Having rushed over in a panic, Justin planted himself in front of Ruid.
With that characteristic look in his eyes with justice written all over it, he placed a hand on Ruid's shoulder and spoke.
"...No matter how much of a genius you are, you have no right to trample someone's dignity. To crush it underfoot. Go back and apologize. Right now."
Ruid found Justin repulsive.
'Justice, my frozen ass. Then why didn't you stop any of it from the beginning?'
Ruid scowled and slapped Justin's arm away.
Then he brushed the dust off his shoulder. He looked at Justin the way one looks at an insect and spoke.
"Go eat dirt."
Ruid shoved past Justin and kept walking.
The expression on Justin's face as he passed—
Gritting his teeth, a face twisted in unmistakable fury.
In that fleeting instant, Ruid felt it.
He and the protagonist were, from the very start, fated never to coexist.
And that bitter enmity he had tried so desperately to avoid — it had already begun.