Chapter 108
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: Surviving in the Academy (3)
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“Um, over there. Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
“Yeah?”
“Wait a moment!”
The Crown Prince Alberion, who had been leading Kairen toward the men's bath, suddenly turned his head at the urgent voice calling from behind.
“Are you really going into the men's bath?”
“……”
“Is that seriously the plan?”
Kairen, who had been desperately holding his ground, threw the question at him with a serious expression.
“Well, a man goes into the men's bath, not the women's, right?”
“You've been going into the men's bath up until now, correct?”
“Haha, this is my first time trying the academy hot springs!”
But Alberion looked at Kairen as if he couldn't understand, then answered the follow-up question in an innocently bright tone.
'That doesn't even make sense!'
Of course, that statement directly contradicted his earlier claim of using the academy hot springs whenever his health acted up, leaving Kairen utterly baffled.
“Come on, seriously. Are you really doing this?”
“……?”
“Are you really just going to boringly hop into the men's bath?”
Perhaps because he hadn't survived two years in the Belverk household for nothing, Kairen quickly racked his brain and came up with a clever idea.
“Think about it. The hot springs are completely empty right now.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“And the boys' changing room and the girls' changing room both lead to the hot springs.”
At his detailed, meaningfully suggestive explanation, Alberion suddenly perked up with curiosity and began listening intently.
“Which means...”
“……”
“This is the perfect opportunity to peek into the girls' changing room—one that won't come again!”
As Kairen finished speaking and flashed an awkward smile, that... no, now she had to be called her—Alberion—stared blankly for a moment.
“...Kairen.”
And after some time passed.
“Are you a genius?”
Suddenly grinning widely, Alberion began slapping Kairen on the back.
“You're right. It would wound my pride as the Crown Prince and notorious playboy to pass up such a once-in-a-lifetime chance!”
“R-right?”
“Alright, I'm joining you!”
In that way, Kairen had managed to stop her from heading to the men's bath while fully exposing her female body.
“Then, could you please put some clothes on now...”
“Haha, this'll be fun!”
“...Huh?”
Her face brimming with eager anticipation, she bolted toward the girls' changing room without even changing, causing Kairen's expression to turn somewhat woeful as he hurriedly grabbed his clothes.
“This is driving me crazy...”
Even in that situation, Kairen was frantically trying to make sense of what was happening.
How much time had passed since then?
“Ahem, I think I got too excited.”
“……”
“So, when are the female students coming?”
I listened to Alberion muttering with flushed cheeks, her body haphazardly draped in the clothes I'd brought, before letting out a sigh and sinking into thought.
'What kind of mess is this?'
Right now, we were in the women's changing room at the academy hot springs, crammed inside a broken locker in the corner.
'This is not the time for this.'
I'd succeeded in diverting the situation using Crown Prince Alberion's interests, but the new situation I'd steered us into was just as perilously dangerous.
Of course, her secret—that she herself didn't even know about—wouldn't be exposed to the world, but it was more than enough to tarnish the honor of both the imperial family and the Belverk Ducal House.
Maybe I should suggest we give up and head back right now...
- Creak...
As I broke into a cold sweat with those thoughts, I heard the changing room door open and squeezed my eyes shut, halting my thinking.
“They're here!”
“Shh.”
“Ow.”
In the midst of it, I pinched the side of Crown Prince Alberion—who was whispering excitedly beside me. No, should I call her Crown Princess now? Anyway, I shut her up that way.
“Heh heh heh...”
But even so, she kept staring through the gap in the locker with a lecherous grin, clearly genuinely aroused.
'No matter how I look at it, she doesn't seem to be acting.'
If that was an act, Alberion could confidently be called the greatest actress on the continent, surpassing even the empire.
'But if that's the case, why does she think she's a man...?'
It was then, as I puzzled over the reason things had come to this, feeling utterly dumbfounded.
“Hey, I saw the Crown Prince at the dorms today.”
“Really?”
“No way?”
Suddenly, from outside the locker, conversation about the perverted girl grinning lewdly right next to me began.
“Why did that idiot show up again?”
“Gasp.”
“L-Lower your voice...!”
And sure enough, things started unfolding exactly as I'd feared.
“This is the women's changing room—why should I lower my voice?”
“W-well, that's true, but...”
“If not now, when would we talk about this?”
The female students glanced around cautiously for a moment before chilling their tones and diving into gossip.
“He's been held back at the academy for three whole years, and he still thinks he's hot stuff. I don't feel like saying anything nice about him.”
“True that.”
“I wish he'd stop hitting on the girls.”
Alberion's lecherous smile beside me had frozen into a stiff mask.
“...I heard from the seniors that he can't even perform as a man!”
“What? Is that true?”
“Yeah. Apparently, he always bolts at the crucial moment...”
But there was nothing I could do to stop the girls' dagger-like barbs.
“There's even a rumor he's impotent!”
“Pfft!”
“Eek!”
As mocking snickers leaked through the locker gap, Alberion hung her head completely.
“Ah, to think such a person is the empire's Crown Prince...”
“The future of the Shinehart Empire looks bleak.”
“Tell me about it.”
Those final, piercing words from the girls rang in my ears and her own as their footsteps faded away.
“……”
And then, the awkward silence began.
“...Yeah, I know.”
In that silence, Alberion, still hanging her head, suddenly spoke in a trembling voice.
“I know that there's something off about me.”
She muttered that, then turned to me with tear-filled eyes.
“You know what, Kairen?”
“……”
“I'm not really interested in women.”
Followed by her somewhat pitiful confession.
“I was just living promiscuously, hoping I'd get chased out of the Crown Prince position I never wanted.”
“……”
“But it seems my mother and little sibling... don't want that either.”
Tears began dripping from her eyes as she said that.
“But I... I don't want to be emperor.”
In this awkward situation where I couldn't interrupt or keep listening comfortably, I could only nod with an uncomfortable expression.
“It's not just that I don't want to. There's a reason I can't...”
But that seemed to comfort her, as she continued in a choked voice.
“So, about that...”
She hesitated for a moment, then suddenly gripped the waistband of her bottoms.
“Argh, no point hiding it anymore!”
Before I could stop her, her bottoms slid down between her legs.
- Swish...
She showed herself off like that, then spoke again with slightly frightened eyes.
“Earlier, my underwear hid it, so let me confess properly this time!”
“...No, you were naked earlier too?”
I wanted to point out her clear disconnect from reality, but on second thought, now wasn't the time.
“I'm telling you this because you're my one true friend...”
I wanted to turn my head away right now, but the cramped locker offered no space.
And closing my eyes would mean ignoring Crown Princess Alberion's trembling, courageous confession.
“I...”
For those reasons, I ended up seeing her bottoms—already seen once before—again.
“...am indeed impotent.”
Of course, having already realized she was a woman, there was no new shock, but her follow-up was devastating.
“A body that can't carry on the imperial line...”
Not content with just her pants, she pulled down her underwear too, leaned forward slightly with eyes squeezed shut, and muttered that. Her expression was just as destructive.
“...Hic.”
I had no idea where to even begin bridging this gap in perception.
“...Wait, something feels off.”
Meanwhile, at that moment. Women's changing room.
“Don't you hear something from in there?”
The female students, having vented about Crown Prince Alberion to their heart's content and heading to the hot springs, suddenly felt a sense of unease.
- Gasp...!
And right after, the sound of someone sharply inhaling from the distant broken locker.
“I definitely heard it just now.”
“No way...”
“N-no, right?”
At the noise, the girls heading to the hot springs hurriedly covered themselves and grew serious.
“……”
A brief silence began.
“Should we check it out?”
In the silence, one girl mustered her courage, muttered that, and started walking toward the locker.
“……Gasp.”
“……Hic.”
At the same moment, Alberion and Kairen both widened their eyes and sharply inhaled in unison.