Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Suspicious is Suspicious
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Suspicious is suspicious.
This is this.
Enri picked up a single rib and tore into it. The cadets around him stared as if he were some kind of beast, but he paid them no mind. Not in this moment, when the sweet and spicy sauce exploded in his mouth.
'...Damn, this is good.'
It had been over a decade since he'd last tasted Korean food, and it successfully dredged up buried memories laced with nostalgia. Even though he'd grown up well-fed as a knight of a ducal house.
Of course, no matter how amazing the food in a fantasy world was, it couldn't stop the craving for fried chicken and cola. This went a long way toward satisfying it.
A short while later, Enri finished off the now-empty lunchbox, regretfully sucking the sauce off his fingers to wrap things up. Cordelia, watching him, let out an exclamation of admiration.
"You really know how to eat! Everyone else was poking at theirs with forks... no, eating so delicately!"
"Street rat origins. I can wolf down anything."
"Street rat...? Oh, you mean you're from commoner stock?"
"Yes, low-born."
Cordelia asked as she handed him a handkerchief. Enri nodded, taking it and wiping the saliva and sauce from his fingers. It felt wrong using such a fancy handkerchief like cheap tissue, but whatever. She was the one offering.
However, the male cadets nearby clearly weren't thrilled about him using her precious handkerchief on sauce, shooting sharp glares his way.
If he were some powerless commoner or a knight without backing, it would have been intimidating enough to make him shake.
"What're you looking at?"
But Enri met their stares without flinching. Among them were familiar faces, and he racked his brain trying to place them. The problem was, no matter how hard he thought, nothing came to mind.
"Thanks for the meal. I'd love to return the favor, but I don't have anything suitable to give."
"Oh, no! It's fine! I didn't do it expecting anything in return!"
"Really? Alright then. I'll think of it as a gift to a knight I've always admired."
As he muttered that, Enri belatedly remembered where he'd seen those creepy male cadets' faces. One resembled the knight captain who'd clung to him so obsessively, another the king melting blubberously on his throne.
He didn't know the third one, but being sandwiched between those two meant he wasn't just any noble either.
And that explained why our lady had called this girl a whore and such. Seducing a knight captain's son or a prince wasn't easy pickings.
'Well, those tits are unbeatable...'
With the body of a hormonal teenage boy, resisting that temptation seemed unlikely. Noble or not. Plus, she had a figure that stirred teenage instincts and exotic culture shocks from another world to boot.
Of course nobles or royals would fall.
But not Enri.
"Perfect timing."
"Huh? Kyaa-!?"
"As punishment, you get bench privileges. Keep it warm for me."
"W-what? What do you-."
The moment he laid hands on their girl, sharp killing intent flew at him. Enri brushed off their stares and took a step toward the source of the scream.
That was enough.
His stationary body exploded into top speed in an instant. A knight's leg strength rivaled a horse's, so Enri vanished in the blink of an eye.
Once Enri disappeared, the ones who'd belatedly shaken off their rage rushed toward Cordelia.
"Lady Cordelia! Are you alright!?"
"Touching a lady's body so casually... that guy."
"Knights are all the same. No manners whatsoever."
Those were the words from the knight captain's son, the 3rd Prince, and the mage tower lord's disciple, in turn.
Cordelia, now seated on the bench looking up at them, let out an awkward ha-ha and waved it off as if she were fine.
"I need to tell Father to strip that scum of his title the moment he returns."
The 3rd Prince said. Cordelia startled and yelled for him not to.
"N-no! Stripping him for something like this...? I'm really fine!"
"But..."
"I said I'm fine! If you do something like that, I'll end up hating you, Your Highness!"
I'll hate you. Pure if pure, arrogant if arrogant—those words pierced the 3rd Prince's heart. Truth be told, a fish already hooked in the pond had no choice but to flop at the threat of no more bait.
With the excitement settled, Cordelia thought of Enri, who'd just vanished, and spoke up.
"...Knights."
"Lady Cordelia?"
"Can all knights run like that just now?"
It was an innocent question. As a magic faculty student, Cordelia knew little about knights' movements. The gazes of the 3rd Prince and mage tower disciple—who didn't know exactly either—turned to the sole knight faculty member, Christopher.
Faced with the stares, Christopher let out a short groan before carefully shaking his head. That movement just now—reaching full speed off a single step wasn't easy, even for a knight.
Even his father...
Realizing that, Christopher was shocked at the knight's skill. It was indeed worthy of representing the duke.
"Not something just anyone can do. At least... knight captain level."
"I see! So he really is an amazing knight! Why not ask him for some pointers later?"
"P-pointers?"
Christopher panicked at the absurd suggestion of learning the sword from another territory's knight when his father was the kingdom's greatest swordsman. But he lacked the guts to refuse in front of this innocent girl's face.
"...I'll consider it."
Though he'd never actually try to learn from him.
...Probably.
"D-don't come any closer-!"
Riel, a magic faculty cadet at the academy, swung her staff wildly to fend off the approaching goblins. But she'd never properly wielded something so heavy before, and her swings were a total mess.
And now her stamina was draining, slowing her swings bit by bit. At this rate, she wouldn't even be able to lift the staff soon.
This whole mess was that damn boyfriend's fault over there. He'd whined so much about wanting to try an outdoor quest just once, so she'd reluctantly agreed...
"Kwaaaack-!"
And now he'd taken an arrow to the ass and had been rolling around screaming since. Utterly useless. Pitiful enough to kill any affection.
"I said stay back-!"
She bellowed at the goblins closing in, but they just cackled at her and her man.
If she'd stayed a bit calmer, ignored her boyfriend's arrow, focused on chanting, or better yet, dated a knight faculty guy instead of a magic one, things wouldn't have gone this far.
But spellcasting required serious concentration.
It wasn't something you could pull off amid panic, anxiety, pain, or fear.
Magic faculty's mandatory meditation class wasn't for nothing. Calmness and composure were a mage's virtues.
Whoosh-.
Thud-.
-Kekeke.
"Ah, ahh-."
After swinging and retreating for so long, she finally lost her staff. The "war god of the battlefield" mage devolved into a frail girl.
Riel squeezed her eyes shut and trembled. She had no idea what came next. Stabbed by that rusty skewer? Or kidnapped to become a goblin broodmare for life...?
As terror brought tears and snot streaming down, right when she felt dampness under her skirt where she sat—
—Squelch!
A sharp rupture echoed in her ears.
Goblin shrieks followed, from the little devils that had hounded her.
-Kiieeeeek!
-Kek!
-Kiyak! Kiyaak!
After the screams, silence swallowed the area. Riel opened her eyes very slowly, like a scared child peeking after the monster retreats.
A knight stood there. A green-haired knight.
"Are you alright?"
"Uh, uh- y-yeah, f-fine. Fine... eek!"
She tried to stand while shaking but felt her leg give. Enri stopped her, pulling a spare potion from his pouch.
"Drink this. I'll handle those guys."
"Those guys...?"
Following Enri's chin gesture, Riel spotted her boyfriend, passed out with his ass fully exposed. The filthy thing pointed right at them.
The green-haired knight approached Bell, yanked the arrow out without checking his breathing, and poured potion on it. The pain woke the fainted Bell.
"Grrraaah-!?"
"Oh, you're up. Hang in there."
"Kwaaaack-!"
"Told you not to do stupid stuff outside... Goblins have keen noses; they smell blood easy."
Warnings about being careful next time fell on deaf ears. In her ears rang only the harmony of an angel from heaven.
It was just like the fairy tales from childhood. Like the novel hero, white knight on steed rescuing the princess. Riel tidied her clothes, gripped her wobbly legs, and staggered to Enri's side.
"K-kn-knight, sir?"
"Oh, feeling better now?"
"F-fine! That's not the point right now..."
Riel asked Enri with a pounding heart she'd never felt before.
"Do you have a girlfriend!?"
Enri's expression hardened slightly as he answered.
Hearing it, Riel burst into tears and bolted from the spot.
It was toward the populated area, so Enri let her go without chasing.
Cute face, nice figure, but Enri had to reject her confession. Because.
"A non-virgin? You think I'm easy...?"
He couldn't accept the confession from someone who'd just been banging that guy right there.