Chapter 234
Chapter 234
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: A Glimpse of the Future (1)
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“They’ve probably given the girls a good enough scolding by now.”
I’d noticed long ago that Lea and Lydia were watching me from afar.
That was why I’d deliberately stepped aside to let them handle the education of the young reporters.
“Time to head back.”
A fair bit of time had passed, so I slowly made my way toward the back alley.
Soon enough.
Scattered documents littered the ground, and on top of them knelt the girls.
“Excuse me, is something going on here—?”
I entered the alley, pretending as if I had no idea what was happening.
At that, the girl reporters trembled like they’d become entirely different people in the time I was gone.
“I’m sorry, Marquis…. We were ignorant of our place….”
Silver Rain’s voice shook with terror.
Her assistants kept their heads bowed low as well.
“No, aren’t you my favorite little reporters? What are you doing here? What’s there to be sorry about—?”
At my casual question, the girls cautiously lifted their heads.
They stole glances at the two princesses, whose eyes blazed with heat from behind their masks.
“We—we failed to recognize who you were and acted rudely…!!”
They seemed to understand little of what they’d done wrong, aside from the harsh punishment.
So I bent down to my knees and met their eyes at eye level.
“Failed to recognize me…? That doesn’t seem to be the only mistake you made.”
Fear crept into Silver Rain’s previously relaxed eyes.
She gazed at me desperately, as if begging for the right answer to escape this place.
“You don’t grasp the root of the problem.”
I glanced back at the princesses.
I gave them a silent nod of greeting and asked permission to proceed.
“…”
The noble women in their school uniforms nodded calmly in response.
Thanks to that, I could have a sincere talk with the girls for a moment.
“If you’re in the journalism club, isn’t your ultimate goal to become imperial reporters?”
“Yes….”
The aspiring reporters nodded in unison.
They looked just like a row of baby chicks.
“Then you must know Victor?”
“Oh, of course…. He’s a famous senior from our academy.”
I smirked at how they admired him.
Now it felt like we could finally communicate.
“That man always carefully selected only the facts as they were and shared them honestly with the world. He didn’t even add adjectives, for fear of overdoing it.”
I pointed at Silver Rain’s blue eyes with my finger.
Then I offered them serious advice.
“Do you think Victor would see your actions and think, ‘Proud juniors’?”
My question left the young reporters speechless.
They averted their eyes from me, ashamed of their behavior.
“Victor always ran around on his own two feet to chase down scoops. And he found them with his own efforts.”
I recalled how he’d shown up at every location where information surfaced.
“Don’t write articles based on anything you haven’t seen or experienced yourselves. Even the slightest fabrication or exaggeration can create innocent victims.”
I gazed intently at Silver Rain’s silver hair.
Then I slowly stroked it.
“If innocent victims arise, the karma will eventually come back to you.”
I’d seen plenty of people who deceived others and lived well.
But hardly any of them stayed happy until the end.
Rooper, who tormented Miya and ran a corrupt merchant guild, had fallen.
Meanwhile, an honest reporter like Victor was thriving with recognition from the imperial court.
“If you respect your senior, work just as honestly as he does. Who knows?”
I patted the shoulders of the kids who still had room to reform.
Then I flashed my signature sly grin.
“I might even pass word of you to Victor?”
The girls’ gloomy eyes lit up at the mention of being close to the legendary senior.
“R-Really…?”
“Of course. But only if you’ve done work honest enough to earn praise—.”
The Pigeon Reporters Club thanked me profusely, as if even that was a huge boon.
Their disheveled hair swayed vigorously with each bow.
“Th-Thank you…!!”
“We’ll only do honest reporting from now on…!!”
I slowly rose to my feet.
Then I turned to the princesses, who had stood silently behind us.
“Prin—er, fellow students, will you forgive them now? They say they’ll become good reporters from here on—.”
Lydia reacted first to my request.
She placed a hand on her hip and replied with a cold, expressionless face.
“What a shame. I was going to break all ten fingers so they’d have to take off their shoes just to hold a pen—.”
“Eek, eek…!!”
The girls shrank back in unison at her words.
Then Lea chimed in.
“Oh my, junior. That’s too cruel. It’d be just right to drop them from the fifth floor about twenty times—no scars left behind.”
Lea, the active-duty soldier, said this from the shadows, her blue eyes gleaming.
Like the leader of a pride of lionesses.
“No wounds, and it’d be perfect, right?”
I swallowed hard at the princesses’ merciless demeanor.
Then, grinning like a crafty fox, I slipped between them.
“Come on—. They get it by now. Everyone makes a big mistake when they’re young, right? That’s how you mature.”
Lea glanced up at me at my brazen words.
Then…
“Hmm—. Veil, you’re so gentle even when disciplining kids?”
Her mature eyes curved into a suggestive smile.
“I’m looking forward to it. Wonder how well you’ll raise your own children.”
At Lea’s words, Lydia sidled up to my side as well.
She whispered softly.
“Since I’ll be the one earning the money anyway, it’s perfect—.”
The Third Imperial Princess, who commanded the capital’s most populous district.
The First Imperial Princess, mistress of its wealthiest quarter.
Their sweetly vicious whispers sent chills straight down my spine.
“Hahaha…. Shall we head out now? The air in this back alley isn’t great.”
“Yes, ‘health’ is the top priority, after all.”
As I urged them on, the princesses prepared to leave.
They glanced back at the girls still kneeling in punishment.
With eyes fierce as beasts, they issued a warning.
“Eek, eek…!!”
The girls bowed their heads low before the conqueror’s aura they’d never encountered before.
They held their breath until the princesses’ footsteps faded completely.
――――――.
“Th-They’re gone…?”
“Yeah, seems like it….”
“Phew…. That was close….”
Silver Rain and the aspiring reporters massaged their numb thighs from kneeling so long.
Then they began picking up the gossip sheets scattered on the ground.
“But…. Those seniors looked kinda familiar, didn’t they…?”
“Yeah, they had that celebrity vibe….”
Familiar as if they’d seen them often in the papers—strikingly beautiful.
The trainee reporters had sharp eyes.
“The blonde senior was especially cool. Such a great figure too….”
“I liked the petite one. When she stretched her leg out next to my face and stomped down…. So badass.”
Silver Rain stared off into space, as if awakening to emotions she hadn’t known.
“A cute face in the athletics world…. I wanna check the roster….”
“Senior, the marquis just told us not to do stuff like that anymore….”
“I’m just…. curious, that’s all….”
Silver Rain replied to her recovered assistant in a half-hearted tone.
Finally, they all reviewed the documents they’d managed to gather again.
“Found all the scoop material?”
“Oh, no…. A few are missing…?”
The black-haired assistant with bangs over her forehead answered awkwardly.
“Which ones are gone?”
At the president’s question, the assistants listed the lost info.
“The sorcery and occult compilation.”
“Mine’s the new costume project in the works at Norton Casino.”
Silver Rain let out a deep sigh.
She checked exactly what they’d lost.
“The hypnotist’s hypnosis orb…. And the new servant costumes the casino’s preparing this time.”
The club president shrugged off the hypnosis orb as some quirky item.
But she questioned her assistant about investigating something lewd like host girl costumes.
“Hey, why’d you look into costumes?”
“B-Because everything else was so boring…. Thought we could sell it to the boys and make some money….”
The president’s jaw dropped at the absurd business savvy.
But because of the promise with Veil, she decided to forget this info for now.
“Jeez…. What kind of outfit has the boys so interested….”
Silver Rain shook her head with a click of her tongue.
Then the long-banged assistant lifted her gloomy lips.
“Dunno exactly, but they say it’s super unique…. Concept was ‘bunny,’ I think…?”
“What—? Bunny—?”
The silver-haired girl couldn’t help but snort.
“A casino usually goes for sexy outfits. What’s with the bunny out of nowhere?”
“Yeah, bunnies are cute.”
Silver Rain scoffed, figuring it was an obvious failed project.
Her assistants agreed.
The three girls shrugged it off as a good thing and quickly forgot about the casino scoop.
「――――――」
Exiting the back alley, I walked alongside the two masked female students.
One wielded magic, her shirt straining at the seams, her skirt so tight it forced a modest gait.
The other had black twin tails and a slender, petite build.
I could sense the faint mana of their escorting knights even from afar.
No matter how you looked at it, they seemed far too suspicious to be mere academy girls.
“What in the world brings Your Highnesses here…?”
I asked, and Lydia flashed a seductive little devil smile.
With the mask on, my eyes were drawn even more to her red ones than usual.
“Your Highnesses? I’m just a student from this district—.”
(‘What student introduces herself as ‘this lady’…?’)
I sighed inwardly and looked to Lea.
But the First Imperial Princess went even further than the at least petite Lydia in appearance.
“I’m a student dispatched from the Magic Tower.”
(‘What student has flesh so full it gaps her buttons, with black lace bra peeking inside…. No…. Yeah, no….’)
“Understood. So, what brings you two here?”
I smiled brightly like a male student, playing along with their act.
“Heard there’s a skilled fortune-teller nearby—.”
Lea said leisurely, hands clasped behind her back.
A secret paper document was tucked between her knuckles.
“I had business in this entertainment district anyway—.”
Lydia was the same.
Each princess had her own secret.
(‘Both look plenty suspicious at a glance…?’)
“Very well. Since we’ve run into each other, allow me to escort you personally.”
The princesses rejected my confident offer in unison.
“Huh? No, we can go by ourselves.”
“Yeah, Veil. Enjoy your rare day off.”
Something fun occurred to me at their forced rejections.
So I flashed my foxy sly eyes and said.
“No way—. I’m the expert on the capital’s north side—. I can show you shortcuts too. Isn’t time precious for Your Highnesses—?”
The two hesitated at my cheeky attitude.
Then they calmly stated their destinations.
“I’m headed to the alchemist’s workshop.”
“Too bad, I’m going to the entertainment district on the opposite side—.”
Lydia stepped back slightly, desperately hiding what she was up to.
The document in her hand read ‘bunny.’
“Then you two go on ahead. I’m going the other way, so I’ll head off alone.”
The youngest princess hid her smirking lips and turned away.
She exchanged finger signals with Lea, then followed the distant Eastern knights farther off.
“Entertainment district…. Don’t tell me you’re planning a big casino in the north…?”
As I gazed calmly at Lydia’s retreating figure, Lea slipped her arm through mine.
With expert finesse.
“Well, since it’s come to this, let’s just go together, us two.”
Her ample flesh brushed softly against my arm.
The smooth, warm sensation felt like static electricity.
“Why so awkward? Act natural, like a girl and boy student.”
Lea said, pretending it was just for the disguise.
But her eyes smiled leisurely.
(‘Looking at her, she’s gotten more sly than me lately….’)
I scratched my cheek awkwardly with a finger and walked beside her.
We stopped in front of the alchemist’s workshop I’d once visited with Irina.
「Just 1 gold to see your ‘future’!!」
「Plenty of alchemy equipment in stock!! Cheap prices!!」
“Is this the place you needed…?”
Neat writing on the chalkboard sign in front of the workshop.
We gazed at the ad together as we reached the door.
“Yeah, they say there’s an intriguing ‘item’ here.”
Lea pulled the doorknob herself.
Watching her, I pondered the words ‘future’ and ‘item’ for a moment.
(‘My future, huh….’)
I’d experienced going back to the past.
But my future? No idea….
I just hoped it wasn’t the same hassle of running around battlefields like before.
Ideally, something laid-back like lounging at home as a jobless bum….