Chapter 71: While Everyone Was Asleep (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 71: While Everyone Was Asleep (1)
“A date?”
How should one react when asked out by their lover?
Should they rejoice, their heart fluttering with pleasant excitement?
Or perhaps, though happy, should they avert their eyes and hesitate, overcome by shyness?
Or maybe, like a bold woman of action, they might suggest leaving right that second.
The reaction varies by person and the nature of the relationship.
In fact, even if the same words are spoken to the same person, the reaction today might differ from yesterday’s, and tomorrow’s might be different again. That is only natural in human relationships.
And if that relationship is as intimate as that of a couple, the changes can occur even more rapidly.
In that sense, I could say one thing for certain.
“…What are you trying to pull this time?!”
Daisy’s reaction was absolutely not that of a normal woman being asked on a date by her boyfriend.
No, beyond just being abnormal, it would be more accurate to say she looked like a fraud victim facing her scammer.
It was a relief, really.
I had been a bit worried because Boradori kept making comments next to me about how I sounded like an extra trying to seduce a RoFan heroine. Looking at her reaction, though, there was absolutely no chance of that happening.
“Your boyfriend just asked you on a date. You’re being quite harsh.”
“You’re the last person who’d ever do that! And suddenly! Calling me out when everyone else is asleep—how could I not be worried?”
If you just listened to the words, it was indeed a concerning statement.
However...
“Isn’t that statement worrying in a slightly different direction?”
“What on earth are you… ta-talking… about?”
Daisy, who had been shouting with a face flushed with anger, began to lower her voice as the implication of my words dawned on her.
“……”
Her face turned even redder than before. She groaned for a long while, then—
“I-it’s not… that, right?”
Whatever she was imagining, she muttered it softly while staring at the ground.
“Of course not. Am I crazy?”
“……That’s the answer I wanted, but for some reason, it’s incredibly annoying.”
When Daisy looked up, her eyes were smiling, but the corners of her mouth were twitching. Honestly, she gets mad even when I give her the answer she wants.
“So. Why the date?”
“It’s a repayment. If I received a date request during the Founding Festival, it’s only natural to return the favor, right?”
“And your real motive?”
“The guys behind those dark mages we caught last time are scheduled to appear soon. I heard they’re coming out during the Night of Magi.”
“Ah. So you need the Saintess’s power?”
“That’s about it.”
I see.
Daisy beamed with a bright, radiant smile.
Unlike a gambler whose hands are faster than the eye, I survived because I was a knight whose hands and eyes were both fast.
“Excuse me?”
As I stepped closer and grabbed her hand, Daisy’s face flushed. Of course, it wasn’t out of shyness.
“Would you mind letting go?”
“I’d rather not.”
At the tips of Daisy’s fingers, which I held firmly… that familiar magic sword was hanging at her waist.
Carrying a sword at all times was exemplary behavior for a swordsman, but the display that particular sword had put on was still a trauma for the first-year students of the Swordsmanship Department.
“Sometimes, you just have those days where you really want to swing a sword.”
“Spoken like a model swordsman. Have you decided to transfer to the Swordsmanship Department?”
“I’m considering it. But right now, there’s just one specific person I want to cut down.”
Was that the heart of a murderer rather than a swordsman?
“Things you can cut will be out if you just wait a bit. Just hold it in for a little while, Saintess.”
“Wow. You only call me ‘Saintess’ at times like this.”
Seeing Daisy let out a deep sigh and relax her hand, I carefully let go and gave her a smile.
“I’ll take that as an acceptance of the date.”
“Seriously, I picked the wrong boyfriend.”
Too late for that. You chose this boyfriend; now you’ll just have to grin and bear it.
Gerard Rias - Imperial Academy Vigilante.
The Demonic Realm. A land where ordinary living creatures cannot survive.
However, humans are both fragile and resilient. They survived even in the Demonic Realm, building walls to block enemies and reclaiming the land to grow crops.
The cursed, forbidden land where no one could live eventually received the name Rias and became a core region recognized by the Empire.
And there was a man who inherited the name Rias and ruled that land: Gerard Rias, the second son of House Rias.
“Hmm.”
At a young age, he had been evaluated as having achieved great mastery in both sword and magic. However, his father, who already had a clear successor, sent Gerard to the Academy to see the wider world.
There, Gerard realized just how vast the world truly was.
In Rias, he had been praised as the greatest talent in history, even surpassing the eldest son. But among the students he met at the Academy, there were monsters whose levels he couldn't even gauge.
Ellen, Arwen, Asran.
Love rivals who happened to fall for the same woman and belonged to the same club.
…And at the same time, they were among the few he could cautiously call friends, excluding Taylor, his childhood friend from the territory who had entered the Academy with him.
None of them used both sword and magic, but it was impossible to beat them in their single respective fields. In fact, even using both, victory wasn't guaranteed.
Perhaps Asran was the only one he had a glimmer of hope against?
His friends were strong enough to make Gerard think such things, but in the end, even they were defeated by a single man.
Adam Smith.
A guy who was a friend of a friend, whose name he had never even heard of, had snatched away the most beautiful flower that everyone else could only gaze upon.
Of course, he heard later that they were a fake couple.
But the Flower Arrangement Club was full of people Daisy could have asked to be her fake boyfriend. The fact that she chose an outsider she didn't even know forced Gerard and the rest of the club members into a state of deep shock.
Furthermore, because of the eyes around them, didn't they say they met regularly and even went on dates?
Because of this, Gerard tried to keep an eye on the two of them while pretending not to, but the Academy was larger than expected, and he lost track of them more than once or twice.
Left with no choice, Gerard even asked Taylor—his most trusted confidant and an expert in such matters—for help, but to no avail.
Of course, Taylor, who knew his industry colleague Adam’s situation, had simply made up appropriate excuses. But since Gerard never imagined Taylor would deceive him, he simply bit his lip and endured.
But now, things were different.
The name of this land was Rias. It was the home where Gerard had lived his entire life.
Therefore...
“What?”
Even without Taylor, he had eyes and ears everywhere here.
“They say they are going on a secret midnight date.”
“……!”
Gerard could only gape at the shocking news delivered by his informants, who usually disguised themselves as servants cleaning the estate.
A date.
And a midnight date at that!
“S-surely.”
Gerard usually maintained a stoic demeanor, but he was a twenty-year-old man. Moreover, he was the one who would have to lead the family immediately if anything happened to the eldest son.
In other words… he had received his sex education a long time ago!
“It is… presumed to be such an occasion.”
It was only natural for him to think in that direction upon hearing that a couple of legal age was sneaking out of the Academy in the middle of the night for a date. He had heard that students occasionally dropped out of the Academy due to pregnancy!
“Urgh!”
He had let his guard down because they said it was fake. To think they were already moving to that stage!
“Ellen, you idiot.”
The face of his friend, who had insisted Adam wasn't that kind of person and claimed he was harmless, flashed through his mind. It’s always the ones who act like they aren't who are the craziest.
“W-what should I do?”
He wanted to go and challenge him to a duel immediately, but unfortunately, he couldn't win. His opponent was a monster that even Ellen wasn't sure of defeating. In fact, Ellen had said that when they fought seriously during their return to the Academy, he had lost!
“……”
However, the possibility of defeat was nothing to Gerard. What he feared more than defeat was...
—It wasn't Mr. Adam who asked for the date; I was the one who asked.
—It’s an act between two consenting adults; is there a problem?
...Daisy saying those words and meaning them. If that were the case, what did it matter if he could overpower the man named Adam with strength? Daisy herself liked him.
“N-no, that can’t be it.”
Muttering that it wasn't true, countless delusions began to bloom in Gerard’s head.
And so.
“I hear Daisy is going on a date.”
“What? Is that all?”
“In the middle of the night, while everyone is asleep!”
“Wh-what?!”
Unable to bring himself to confront Adam or Daisy directly, he called together his comrades in similar circumstances to share the information.
“W-what do you mean by that?”
Ellen, who was the most shocked of all, shouted as he fell backward in his chair and scrambled back up.
“A-Adam would never do that!”
Looking at Ellen, who insisted he trusted Adam and Daisy with a face of total disbelief, Gerard threw out one more piece of information with a grim expression.
“The day they’re meeting is the Night of Magi.”
“Gasp!”
At that, Ellen’s face turned pale, and he collapsed.
“Is that true?”
Esid looked cold, but his eyes were trembling slightly. For Esid, who was skilled at maintaining a poker face, to show such agitation meant the shock he had received was beyond imagination.
“On the name of Rias.”
If his father had heard him, it wouldn't have been strange for him to slap Gerard for staking the name of Rias on such a thing, but Gerard was just that serious about the situation.
What kind of day was the Night of Magi? For those who handled mana, it was a dangerous day where one wrong move could turn them into a vegetable. That was why all classes were canceled and leaving the Academy was forbidden from the moment the sun began to set!
On such a day, meeting secretly...
When everyone else was holding their breath and staying quietly in their rooms, what would they be doing?!
“Th-that guy!”
Asran, who had reached a conclusion similar to Gerard’s, stood up, grinding his teeth. Arwen stopped him as he looked ready to find Adam and settle things right then and there.
“Why?”
Asran roughly shook off Arwen’s hand, but...
“If… the one who wants this isn't Adam, but Daisy, what do you plan to do?”
He froze at the sound of Arwen’s voice, which was laced with terror.
Daisy? That Daisy?
Hearing Asran mutter those words, everyone thought the same thing.
I’m scared.
Each one of them was a figure with powerful influence not only in their own country but also abroad. Even setting that aside, they were individuals with the ability and talent to be idols to their peers.
But in the end, they were just beginners who had only recently been considered adults and were experiencing love for the first time. In fact, because they were people who had never experienced rejection, their fear of being rejected was greater than anyone else’s.
And so, since a problem had arisen...
“M-maybe we could just watch them secretly?”
“Th-that’s a good idea!”
“Right. If they do something improper as students, then we can…”
As someone once said, they were the "Golden Generation" of RoFan, after all.
“W-we’re just acting as a vigilante group.”
“Right, a vigilante group upholding the Academy’s discipline!”
“By the way, is there such a regulation at the Academy?”
“If there isn't, I’ll just become the Student Council President and make one!”
They were capable of carrying out things that normal students wouldn't even dream of, without a single moment's hesitation.