Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: Shortest-Lived Has-Been
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“Yes~ And so, this is Amelia, who became Adel’s girlfriend for the day!”
“………”
Gulp—
I emotionlessly picked up the glass in front of me.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, I brought it to my lips.
…I wish it had been the same high-proof liquor as before… but unfortunately, this time it was just juice.
“Uh… um… who might you be…?”
It was Seros who broke the silence.
Seros asked Amelia, flustered and sweating profusely.
And at that gaze, Amelia answered very proudly.
“I’m Amelia!”
“…Ah~”
The response somehow lacked substance.
“Top student…? Could you explain this…?”
“Explain what.”
“I mean… this whole situation.”
Seros pressed one hand to his forehead and tapped the table with the other.
Only then did I lift my head and scan the table.
“………”
To my right, Carnel, completely passed out.
To my left, Amelia, beaming with a grin.
And I, sandwiched between them, was enduring the gazes of the S Class students quietly watching me from across the table.
“…Gulp.”
I silently brought the glass to my lips once more.
Sweet orange juice.
The banquet hall was overflowing with fine liquors…
But this was the only drink the busy staff had brought after I said I wasn’t much for alcohol.
…Orange juice looked pretty, but it didn’t really quench my thirst.
-Kyuu!
-The mask is gone!
-Huh…!
“………”
Fluffy fur, a body the size of an acorn, eyes sparkling with curiosity.
As if they’d been waiting for the chance, Laphia’s spirits all clung to my legs and arms, rubbing their cheeks against me.
“Ah…! My spirits!”
Laphia reached out in surprise, but it was already too late.
The spirits hid behind my back when she approached.
“Pfft… The spirits don’t like Third Place?”
Seros burst into laughter, and Laphia silently clenched her fists…
I quietly pressed a finger into the cheek of the spirit on my shoulder, pushing it away.
The spirit went ‘Kyuu…’ and pulled back, then climbed down to my lap again.
“Ahem… Um… Amelia?”
“Yes!”
“What’s your relationship with the top student?”
“The top student!”
“The Adel next to you.”
Amelia pondered with an ‘Hmm~’ for a moment, then rested her chin on a V-shape made with her thumb and index finger.
…By the way, no one at this table knew that Amelia was Carnel’s mother.
I had tried to mention it…
But Amelia had shushed me with ‘Shh! It’s a secret!’ and blocked my mouth, so it failed.
“Our relationship with Adel is…!”
Amelia leaned forward toward the center of the table.
As her blue eyes sparkled, building tension…
The S Class students unconsciously perked up their ears.
…She’d already said ‘girlfriend for the day,’ so what more was there?
Or perhaps she was preparing something even bigger?
“It’s exactly…!”
In the moment when everyone held their breath.
Amelia’s lips parted slowly…
And just as our relationship was about to be revealed…
“It’s a secret…!”
That’s right…
It was an enormous secret.
“Ah~ Okay.”
Deflated reactions came from here and there.
I shook my head and picked up my glass.
The sweet orange juice wetted my mouth, but it didn’t go down refreshingly.
Poke, poke.
I cautiously prodded Carnel, who was slumped beside me.
Poking her side… calling her name… tugging her sleeve…
“…….”
Carnel didn’t stir.
With her head buried in the table, she only let out steady, soft breaths.
I finally sighed and stood up.
“Huh? Top student, where are you going?”
“The restroom.”
Seros asked from behind… but I answered naturally.
Of course, that answer was a lie.
“Phew…….”
The place I arrived at was the banquet hall’s outdoor terrace.
The night air brushed my head with a cool breeze, chilling me down to the depths of my mind.
“This is really chaotic…….”
So maybe that’s why.
The thoughts reared their heads again.
I leaned my arms on the railing and shook my head.
“The so-called ‘Cabbage Operation’…….”
What a bizarre naming sense.
To be precise, it was a plan to socially destroy Alpartz so thoroughly that not even a mouse or bird would notice…
But its important operation name just had to be ‘Cabbage.’
Of course, this weird name was cheerfully given by Amelia.
“…Will this work?”
Amelia’s plan was simple.
Alpartz’s mentality was already on the verge of collapse.
Outwardly, he was pretending to be fine…
But in reality, he was barely holding on by a thread with his shallow pride and vanity.
Even now, at this very moment, he was desperately scraping together his dignity to mend that broken mentality.
But—
One more shock… and that thread would snap with a ‘twang.’
“And….”
The role to deliver that finishing blow.
That was exactly…
The role of ‘lovers’ that Amelia and I were playing inside the banquet hall.
“No matter how I think about it…… it’s weird.”
It’s true that I appeared in the middle of the banquet hall as Carnel’s partner.
I drew everyone’s attention and even led Carnel by the hand up to the upper floor.
And not long after that…
Carnel disappeared, and now another woman was sitting beside me, pretending to be my lover?
“…Am I the only one coming off like trash?”
Looking at the situation, it was inevitable.
—“Huh? Who’s that woman?”
—“What’s his relationship with her?!”
—“No way he hooked both of them?”
Such suspicions would surely creep up…
“Tch….”
I figured it would work out somehow… and pressed my arms harder against the railing.
Even if everything seemed a mess… maybe Amelia would bring a trump card from somewhere.
Or… in that chaos, she might bring even greater chaos.
***
“Why…….”
Thud!
Alpartz slammed his glass down on the table with a loud bang.
“Damn…….”
Alpartz bit his lip without realizing.
Blood beaded up, but that didn’t matter.
What mattered was…
The fact that he hadn’t become the protagonist of this banquet hall.
Moreover, the man who had taken that protagonist role…
Had ruined the stage he’d perfectly designed and then casually vanished.
“It was perfect… definitely…….”
The plan had been perfect.
Flawless.
From the guest list for the banquet to the timing of encounters…
Everything was a device to make the figure ‘Alpartz’ stand out.
Even failure would have been fine.
Because he had prepared a ‘next’ as a fallback.
But…
“If it turns out like this… there won’t even be a next…….”
The stage for the next act itself had collapsed.
His role was stolen, and the center of the story became someone else.
…On that stage… there was no longer a place for him.
“Just where did it go wrong….”
Alpartz lifted his head from the corner of the banquet hall.
The nobles had already forgotten him and were laughing and chatting away.
“…Ah.”
A scene suddenly flashed in his mind.
Under the lights pouring from the ceiling, that man leisurely parting the crowd and walking in.
The one who casually kicked his face away.
The one who offered his hand to Carnel… and joked with the crown prince, laughing.
“…….”
The one who flashed the imperial seal…
And brazenly called the emperor of the empire—its sun—‘uncle.’
And…
The expression as he looked down on him with a mocking smile and stuck out his tongue.
As all those moments flashed through his mind…
Red veins crept into Alpartz’s eyes.
“…That bastard.”
The reason everything had gone wrong.
A variable outside his plans and calculations.
And that variable had snatched away even his chance.
From start to finish, the entire stage he was meant to stand on.
That name was…
“…Adel.”
Grind—
Alpartz’s teeth ground together.
Rage wrapped around his head, his hands automatically clenching into fists.
But at that moment…
“Did you see? That partner of Lady Delbar from earlier….”
“Why? What happened?”
“He was with… another woman?”
“…For real?”
Whispers drifted into his ears.
Not far away, familiar noble heirs exchanging intriguing words.
A trivial conversation… but one that could spark a major misunderstanding.
“…….”
Alpartz’s eyes changed in an instant.
A faint gleam flashed within them.
An opportunity.
“Kehehe….”
Alpartz covered his mouth with one hand and laughed.
His lips curved up in a disturbingly supple manner.
“Ahh… God hasn’t abandoned me yet.”
Not yet.
The ‘next’ was still there.
Alpartz put strength into his steps and rose from his seat.
And then…
Slowly… gracefully, he ascended the stairs toward the upper floor where Adel was.
To climb back onto the stage once more.
However…
───Bang!
The banquet hall’s doors burst open roughly.
Gazes turned all at once… and soon the silence shattered.
“T-The Duke of Delbar…! The Duke of Delbar is entering…!!”
The master of the Delbar ducal house.
And… the ultimate trump card of Amelia’s ‘Cabbage Operation.’
“F-For real?”
“The Duke of Delbar…!?”
However—
Alpartz knew none of it.
How foolish his footsteps ascending to the upper floor were.
How vainly the hard-earned position could crumble.
***
“Ah, there you are!”
Whoosh, I turned my head to see platinum blonde hair.
Energetic footsteps pattering do-do-do toward me.
At the sight, words slipped out unconsciously.
“I see you’re feeling better.”
“Hmm… Thanks to someone.”
I averted my gaze and pretended nonchalance.
As if I knew nothing… I raised my glass and wore a faint smile.
“More importantly, did I interrupt something?!”
“…?”
“Your time with Carnel!”
“Hmm… Not really?”
Carnel had passed out before doing anything anyway…
So Amelia hadn’t interrupted a thing.
“I see!”
At those words, Amelia nodded repeatedly in relief.
And so, I stood on the terrace, chatting with Amelia about this and that.
Then…
“Hmm… It’s about time….”
“Time for what?”
“My trump card!”
“…Trump card?”
I’d suspected, but she really had a trump card.
I thought it fortunate.
…And then.
“You…!!”
“……?”
I turned my head… and saw something.
Light green hair.
Yellow eyes gleaming within.
Yes.
That was exactly…
“Cabbage.”
“Ooh…! The evil cabbage has appeared…!!”
And hearing that…
Alpartz approached with a scowl.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing…!”
“What.”
“You kick someone’s face out of nowhere, then dare… dare….”
“Dare?”
“You steal the woman I admire… and now, now you’re flirting with another woman?!!”
I quietly shifted my gaze.
I could feel eyes gathering behind Alpartz.
“Aha….”
I smirked inwardly, realizing Alpartz’s plan.
His desperate struggle to get a ‘next’ somehow…
His scheme to make me look like trash.
I nodded a few times and turned my gaze back behind Alpartz.
And……
“…Huh.”
My expression faltered for a moment.
…Because I’d witnessed Amelia’s ‘trump card.’
I hurriedly turned to look at Amelia.
“Hee.”
Amelia wore a mischievous impish smile.
And… drawn by that smile, I mirrored it.
“You…! Are you even listening to m─!!”
Alpartz raised his voice and approached.
At that moment, I wrapped my arm around Amelia’s waist, twisted my body, and turned my back to Alpartz.
Making it look like…
A desperate struggle to protect my loved one from a threat.
And… the performance was perfect.
────Crackle-crackle!!
“Wh-What….”
Bone-chilling cold that froze even breath.
It wasn’t yet the season for the first snow…
Yet fragments of white snow scattered, carried by the night air.
And…
Step.
Step.
Footsteps breaking the silence.
“Wh-What is this….”
Alpartz’s eyes bulged.
He tried to move.
But…
He couldn’t.
His body was frozen, and even the sweat trickling down his spine froze in an instant.
Alpartz painfully turned only his head.
And… at the end of that gaze—
“Count Vaisel.”
A chilling voice.
A tone that froze even the heart.
“Th-That can’t be….”
Snow-white hair as if laden with fresh snow.
A brilliant golden glow.
No one here had ever seen his face.
But…
Anyone would recognize at a glance.
This man was…
The master of Delbar.
Kaiderion von Delbar.
“D-Duke….”
“What do you think you’re doing to my wife right now?”
Where there is light, a shadow inevitably follows.
And now, at this moment…
The shadows drawn to the brilliant light called ‘Delbar’…
Focused all their gazes on one spot.
“Did he just say… wife?”
“No way… for real?”
“He’s insane… He tried to mess with the duchess…?”
Ah—
I swallowed the creeping laughter.
“…….”
Alpartz was done.
Completely done.
In this banquet hall drawing the attention of all noble society, being marked by the most powerful house…
Meant there was no more ‘next,’ no more ‘chance.’
Alpartz von Vaisel’s life as a noble effectively ended at this moment.
“He’s the shortest-lived has-been…!”
Amelia’s playful whisper tickled my ear.
I chuckled softly and nodded.