That Loser Escaped?
That Loser Escaped?
After the tumultuous Founding Festival came to an end, I turned eleven. That meant I was no longer a fresh, wide-eyed debutante, but a full-fledged member of the empire's high society who had completed his debut.
But apart from the year-end Founding Festival, it seemed I wouldn't be showing my face in society again anytime soon.
Why?
"...What? Bruel escaped?"
"Yes. To be precise, the soul of the black mage who had possessed him vanished without a trace, or so I heard."
The pushover who tried to ambush Kir and me, only to be captured instead... no, the black mage who had possessed Bruel's body.
The soul of that black mage, which the Temple Head was supposed to transfer, had disappeared without a sound.
"That pushover... I mean, the black mage broke through the highest-grade holy magic cast personally by the Chief Priest and escaped? How is that even possible?"
"...It's a bit awkward to go into detail, but I heard they used a honey trap. They say while the Temple Head was asleep, the black mage seduced the priests standing guard."
"Wait, the priests were seduced by that pushover? Does that make any sense?"
"I found it hard to believe when I first heard it too, but I checked and it was true. Honestly. An era of peace isn't entirely a good thing. Even the priests, who should be more upright than anyone, have grown complacent and rotten from the long peace. Tsk, tsk."
That was how Mother explained the situation to me.
I was so dumbfounded by the news—the culprit who dared attack the offspring of a Ducal House and the Grand Ducal House had slipped through their fingers—that my jaw hung open. Mother grabbed my shoulders and spoke with a serious expression.
"A black mage is still a black mage, no matter how pathetic they might be. There's no telling what sinister sorcery that fiend might use to target you next, so your social activities will be kept to a minimum from now on."
"...Yes, Mother."
"Good. That's my sweet boy."
I could only nod at Mother's declaration to minimize my social engagements.
Honestly, even if that guy possessed someone else and came at me again, I doubt they'd pose any real threat... but Mother would never listen if I said that.
The ambush incident, which I'd thought ended so anticlimactically, was ultimately blamed on a mistake by the Temple, and things simply reverted to the way they were.
Because of that, the wider radius of action I thought I'd finally gained was once again confined to the estate grounds.
'That pushover. If I ever catch them again, I'm going to kick their ass.'
* * * * * *
A few days passed after I heard the full story from Mother.
I called Kir, who had come up to the north to visit, into my room and we launched into a venting session.
"...So that's what happened. Did you hear about it too, Kir?"
"Yeah. Though I wasn't told to stay at home like you were."
"I'm envious. Honestly... I thought I'd finally be able to go out into the Imperial Capital once in a while. What is this? All because of that pushover, seriously."
"Pushover? Yune, you shouldn't use bad words like that."
"What's so bad about calling a pushover a pushover."
"Even so, a young nobleman shouldn't use such vulgar language...."
"I don't talk like this to other people. But this is the person who tried to kill you and me. It's fine to say this much."
I'd been expecting things to get a bit freer now that the black mage who tried to ambush us had been caught.
But since that black mage apparently had the cunning of a worm and managed to escape, wasn't I fated to stay cooped up in the estate?
So I was trying to blow off some steam by badmouthing that infuriating pushover with Kir, who happened to be visiting...
"How can you just sit there dressed like that, as a boy? ...Your belly button is showing, you know. Goodness."
Kir, who was perched beside me, let out a deep sigh instead. Looking at me. Specifically, at my attire.
...It was a sleeveless top and shorts, the same outfit I'd worn when I visited the ducal residence before. I don't know why she's making a new fuss now. Surely she isn't actually bothered because my belly button is showing?
"The belly button isn't the point, I told you. I'm really so frustrated I can't stand it. I mean, does it make any sense that priests got seduced by a honey trap and let the black mage go?"
"...I feel like if you used a honey trap, you could even seduce the Temple Head herself."
"Huh? What did you say?"
"Nothing. Anyway. Please, I'm begging you, just tidy up your clothes a little. If the Northern Grand Duchess sees you like this in front of me, I might just die."
-Glance, glance.
Kir kept saying things like I'd be killed if Mother found out, yet she couldn't stop sneaking peeks at me. ...Her words and actions are completely contradictory.
Still, it felt awkward to refuse a request like this from Kir, whom I'd agreed to stay friends with. So I brushed the wrinkles out of my clothes and fixed my outfit.
-Shake, shake.
"There. Happy?"
"Phew... Yes."
Only after my belly button was covered did Kir let out a sigh of relief.
Yet Kir was still staring at my stomach area with eyes full of lingering regret.
When I stared back at her as if to ask, "What's with that look?", Kir gave an awkward cough.
"Ahem. Hmm. Anyway, how can a boy walk around in clothes that show so much of his armpits and thighs? You're not even a debutante anymore, you know? It's okay to show your fiancée... no, me, your friend, but you absolutely must not do this in front of others."
'This sounds like a repertoire my mother and sisters use all the time.'
"Why did the topic suddenly veer into my clothes? We were just talking about that pushover black mage, right?"
"This is far more important. In the first place, in front of the Northern Grand Duchess...."
And so Kir launched into a long nagging session, saying things like 'no matter how close your family is, you shouldn't bare your skin so openly in front of women' and 'the only person you should show that much skin to is the woman you'll marry.'
It was similar to the things I'd heard from my mother and sisters at least a hundred times before, so I let it flow in one ear and out the other. As the lecture showed no sign of ending, I let out a deep sigh.
'...I guess there's no choice. It's not very manly man of me, but I'll have to use my secret weapon.'
"If you keep nagging, I won't teach you how to dance?"
"...What?"
"Didn't you come to visit because you wanted to learn dancing from me? If you keep nagging like this, I won't teach you."
The secret weapon I pulled out was... threatening not to teach her how to dance.
When I crossed my legs smugly after that threat, Kir's eyes went wide.
"...You did say you'd teach me to dance. But were you planning to teach me dressed like that? In your room? Just the two of us?"
"Huh? Of course. I was dressed like this when I taught you at the ducal residence before, too. Dancing is about muscle and joint movement, so teaching in comfortable clothes like this is easier for both of us."
At my words, Kir's face flushed slightly as she pondered for a moment.
After worrying for a long while, Kir finally spoke as if she couldn't win.
"...I won't nag, so please teach me how to dance."
"Hoo. You won't complain about my clothes from now on?"
"......I won't complain when it's just the two of us."
"Heh. That's the spirit. Wouldn't it be so much better if you were this agreeable from the start? So, what kind of dance do you want to learn?"
"......Ballet."
After that, Kir said in a meek voice that she wanted to learn ballet.
"Ballet? I'm not very familiar with it either, so I can't teach you without a textbook."
"Th-then...."
"Ah. Then how about we review what we've already learned today? I'll show you the things I demonstrated last time, one by one again."
"...O-okay."
And so we practiced ballet. I would demonstrate a move, Kir would watch meticulously, and then try to follow along.
Kir showed such enthusiasm, watching my movements so closely I could feel her breath on me. I wholeheartedly demonstrated various postures for my academically passionate friend, with slightly exaggerated motions to make them easier for Kir to understand.
"Th-this wasn't what I meant...."
"Hm? Can't see well, Kir? Hup."
-Stretch.
"Can you see better now?"
"...Y-yeah."
When I thought she couldn't see well and spread my limbs even wider, Kir's face instantly turned bright red.
"Yu-Yune. Let's stop this already!"
"Eeek!?"
"...Heeik!?"
-Thud.
"Oww... Kir, are you okay... Huh? Kir!? Yo-your nose is bleeding!! I'll go call Chloe!"
"I-I'm fine! I'm fine, so don't you dare call the butler! I'll wipe it with my handkerchief!!"
I was startled by Kir's sudden scream, tripped, and ended up collapsing on top of her, and because of that, Kir's nose started bleeding. There were several mishaps like that.
But that was how Kir and I practiced ballet together in my room until the sun went down.
"Whew... That's it for today. I'm tired."
"Th-thanks for your hard work, Yune. But next time, this kind of thing...."
"Oh, right. Bring a ballet textbook next time you come. Even I can't teach you moves I don't know."
"......Okay, I'm counting on you next time too."
After that, Kir promised she'd visit again and play next time before leaving.
"Oh, and Yune. The fact that you're teaching me to dance like this... it's a secret from everyone else, okay?"
"Hm...? Pfft. Got it. I'll keep it a secret for you, just this once."
Was she embarrassed that a girl was learning ballet? She added that it was a secret from others, and then left.
'Pfft. For all that talk about being ladylike or whatever, Kir is still Kir. If I can just cleverly steer her away from that marriage proposal, maybe we could actually stay as really close friends?'
* * * * * *
While Yune was playing with Kir and had completely forgotten about the black mage.
In the Imperial Capital, inside a shabby old mansion, a long coffin lay.
The coffin began to shake slightly before clattering open.
"Cough, cough! Haa... I really thought I was going to die, no joke."
What was revealed inside was a girl with pitch-black hair and blood-red eyes.
If a highly learned person saw her, they would recognize that the black energy seeping from her mouth every time she coughed was Demonic Energy.
They would further realize that she, who emitted Demonic Energy, was a member of the Demonfolk, a race that had been exterminated over five hundred years ago and whose traces had vanished from this world.
Yet, contrary to the cold-blooded and heartless reputation of her kind, her eyes were brimming with tears.
Then, she began to mumble some incomprehensible words.
"If I plunge the Human Realm into war and dye the world with human blood, my power will grow stronger? I just have to act as it's written, and it will show me the future to accomplish that? What a total load of garbage. That book."
Not a single trace of the cruelty expected of a demon could be felt from the grimacing, mumbling girl. Only a childish naivety lingered.
Afterward, she trudged through the ruined mansion.
The place she was heading towards was a spot where a pointlessly large and imposing chair sat.
She plopped down onto the chair, leaned back against it, and stared up at the ceiling, which was riddled with cracks.
"...Should I just give up? World domination. What can I do all by myself without any minions? With nothing but a bogus book like that."
She spat out the words with a listless expression and a defeated tone.
But soon, she contorted her face and ground her teeth.
-Grit.
"No. It's too early to give up. If only because of that little brat. That insolent mutt."
Gnashing her teeth, she recalled Yune's face.
Yune, who had remained brazenly alive, far from dead, even though she had followed the book's instructions to the letter. Yune, who had slowly but surely begun to distort the future written in that book.
In a desperate attempt to correct the future, she had even descended personally into a viscount's son's body to assassinate the young lady of a ducal house. But Yune blocked even that, capturing her instead.
She had barely escaped, enduring the humiliation of stripping and acting coquettishly before those women...
But her pride was already deeply wounded. So deeply that she couldn't even fathom giving up everything and running away.
-Pushover. Push-over~♡
"Tha-that bastard. Of all people, I'll never forgive him."
Remembering Yune naturally brought back the way he had grinned at her with that infuriating expression and called her a 'pushover~'.
So she glared straight ahead, grinding her teeth, as if Yune was shimmering right before her eyes.
"Yunes von Nordkirchen. Yunes. I will never forgive you, of all people. I swear this upon my name, Hermine, the next Demon King. I will definitely make you into Cerberus's meal...."
That was how the girl, Hermine, swore her revenge.
However.
-Flashed by.
'So it really is a woman.'
The image of him baring his chest to her also began to flicker in her mind.
So a slight blush tinged the cheeks of the girl who was recalling the chest of a human man she had seen for the first time in her life.
"...It'd be a waste to just feed him to the hounds. Maybe I'll just make him my slave for life. Hmm. That would be even more humiliating for a human man, right?"
After that, she began spouting all sorts of depraved nonsense while grinning vacantly.
In her mind unfolded thoughts befitting a demon. Yet deeply regrettable ones.
"Yeah, I'll make him do this or that... and kindly educate him on who the real pushover is. Mmhm. I like that. Kehehe."
Letting her imagination run wild as if she might drool, she grinned and then pulled out a book that had been behind the chair.
"To do that, I'll have to kidnap him first. But since I have no money and no strength, breaking into the Grand Ducal House's estate is a pipe dream. I guess I've got no choice but to target him after he enters the academy, right? Most of the book only talked about academy stuff, after all."
Then, she buried her nose in the book she had condemned as a sham and began to read.
Especially the part about the 'Imperial Academy Overturn Plan,' which occupied a large portion of the book, along with the countless annotations scribbled within it.