Was She Actually Not That Bad of a Person?
I stared in utter bewilderment at Amari, who had shown up out of nowhere at the crack of dawn and was now thrusting a practice sword at me.
“Didn’t we agree not to do this?”
“Do what, exactly?”
“You said you wouldn’t hold a grudge. You even swore on your own honor and your family’s name. Can’t you even last a single day?”
At that, Amari’s face flushed bright red again. Her voice grew much louder and sharper than before, as if I’d said something completely outrageous.
“I-it’s not a grudge! I’m not here for revenge!”
“Then why are you here?”
Amari’s expression twisted with humiliation as she subtly avoided my gaze.
“Th-that’s… you… ugh…”
“Speak up! I can’t hear you!”
“Ughhh… Y-you…! Yesterday I confirmed that your skills are genuinely superior to mine right now! So I’m honestly admitting it and asking to spar with you so I can improve. Why? I never said you couldn’t do that!”
Huh. Why was she acting so out of character? In the game, she was the type to sneer, “What could that bitch possibly have that’s better than me? I’ll never acknowledge it!” while trying to sabotage the heroine. Yet here she was, openly admitting her own shortcomings. It seemed she truly couldn’t break a promise made on her own name and her family’s honor.
Glad I took out insurance. Thinking that, I accepted the practice sword Amari held out. As long as she wasn’t scheming to drown me again, there was no reason to refuse.
I stood up, faced her before our match, and tossed out a remark.
“This is unexpected. I figured you’d go looking for the old man since he’s here.”
“The old man?”
“You know, the one you call Sir Luke.”
“To speak so disrespectfully of my master… Haah, never mind. If I react to every little thing, this will never end. Why did I come to you instead of Sir Luke? Simple. I can’t even beat you. Challenging him right now would be like a baby sparrow trying to follow a stork.”
Hearing Amari continue with these surprising statements, I spoke with genuine admiration.
“This is really unexpected. I thought you’d rather die than admit it.”
“Are you trying to provoke me again!? You’ve taken up the sword, which means you accept the spar! So unfold your aura again!”
“Yes, yes.”
I did as Amari asked and manifested aura over the practice sword once more.
“Hold still for a moment.”
Instead of immediately attacking, she stared intently at the aura, then began circling me slowly, analyzing how I had created it.
“As expected, there’s almost no trace of your personal mana when you use it. So how are you producing an aura on the same level as mine? It’s like it just fell from the sky… How is this even possible?”
She’d said she wanted to spar, yet instead of sparring she was circling me with wide eyes like a scientist who’d encountered a research subject. Watching her, I suddenly felt the urge to mess with her a little.
“You’re not pretending to analyze me so you can catch me off guard, shout ‘Die!’ and smash my skull in, then say something like ‘That makes it one win each, so it’s a draw,’ right?”
Amari, who had very dramatic reactions, turned beet red at my words. She jumped back and delivered yet another priceless reaction.
“Wh-what did you say!? What do you take me for!? Hey, you! The way you’ve been talking since yesterday makes it sound like I’m some pathetic, dirty leech who can’t accept defeat and keeps clinging to you! Just because Sir Luke acknowledged you, you think you can say whatever you want!?”
Watching her flail around like that gave me a strangely thrilling sense of satisfaction. There was no real reason to poke at her while she was quietly analyzing, but the reason I’d provoked her anyway was… well… because her reactions were big… and it was fun…
I grinned mischievously and met Amari’s eyes.
“Of course it was a joke. There’s no way the young lady of a ducal house would do something like that. By the way, maintaining this aura is getting tiring. Can I get rid of it now?”
“Don’t lie.”
Amari cut off my request sharply.
“You’ve barely used any of the mana inside your body, have you? I don’t know how it’s possible, but you’re drawing the mana needed to create this aura straight from the natural world. Your body’s mana hasn’t decreased at all, so how could you be tired? Don’t think you can treat me like an idiot just because you beat me in skill. I endured you treating me like some grudge-holding troublemaker and even made a promise, so the least you can do is keep showing me the aura like you agreed.”
Hmm, she really left me no room to argue. With no choice, I gave Amari enough time to thoroughly observe and examine my aura.
Even after staring at it for a long time, she still couldn’t grasp the underlying principle. Eventually she gave up on analysis and chose to clash blades directly. Just like yesterday, she lost. This time, instead of simply seething with resentment, she quietly reviewed the process of her defeat and fell into thought.
Looking at her like this, it’s hard to believe she’s the same person as that crazy fighting fanatic…
Surprisingly, Amari wasn’t showing the extremely vicious side I’d feared from her academy days. It was probably because we were in the imperial palace and she was restraining herself, but at least from what I’d seen so far, while she had a fierce competitive spirit and extremely high pride, she also knew how to accept results and even use defeat as fertilizer for her own growth.
But if I thought about why her personality had been so twisted in the game…
Is she the type who goes blind when she falls in love?
In the game, Amari only started acting out after the man she liked began getting closer to the heroine. For someone who had trained her whole life, only to have her achievements stolen by some nobody from who-knows-where and still maintain some composure, reaching that state could only be explained by a personality that threw all caution to the wind when it came to love.
I didn’t know which route the heroine would take in this world that had become reality, but if Amari ended up happily paired with the man she liked, it looked like all three of them were going to suffer. Well, that had nothing to do with me.
After piecing together the various circumstances, I realized that the prologue of the game I knew began one year from now. I remembered that during the first academy introduction, Princess Serena was twenty and Duchess Amari was nineteen. Right now they were nineteen and eighteen respectively. During their dormitory life at the academy, I probably wouldn’t have to stick to her as closely as I did now for guard duty. I could spend my time helping with simple imperial tasks and only get busy again during breaks when Serena returned.
I really made the right choice accepting the princess’s guard position!
I was grinning from ear to ear at my excellent decision when Amari, who had been continuously analyzing the cause of her defeat, suddenly stood in front of me and blurted out,
“What are you doing smirking and flaring your nostrils all by yourself? It’s unpleasant.”
“Oh, was I doing that? I was just imagining my bright future and it slipped out unconsciously.”
“I don’t care about that. Show me again how you dismantled my aura earlier. It disappeared like it had simply evaporated into thin air. This is the first time I’ve seen anything like it, so I need to analyze it properly.”
That day, aside from the time I spent following Serena’s schedule as her guard, every remaining minute was taken hostage by Amari as I played the role of aura launcher. We held a total of twenty-seven sparring matches in a single day.
The result was twenty-seven wins out of twenty-seven matches. After her twenty-seventh defeat, Amari—sweating profusely and looking nothing like a ducal young lady—flopped spread-eagle onto the training ground floor.
“Haa… haa… You monster…”
“From my perspective, Your Grace is plenty monstrous yourself. In just one day you’ve already figured out how to concentrate more mana on the weak points of your aura to protect them.”
“You know how ridiculous that sentence sounds, right? I’m pretty sure you’re the only person in the world who would talk about ‘weak points in an aura.’ Honestly, even hearing it now, I have no idea what you’re saying.”
“Then how did you think to pour extra mana into the weak spots?”
“I just focused on the exact moment your attacks broke my aura. It felt like a glass pane that kept getting cracks in the exact same place.”
People called Amari a genius, and sure enough, she was showing this much insight in just a single day. On top of that, at least when it came to training, her personality didn’t seem as vicious as I’d expected. Sparring with someone other than the old man was surprisingly enjoyable for me too.
Because sparring with the old man only ever ended with me getting beaten to a pulp.
The sweet taste of victory! Still, continuing any further would make it too late, and more importantly Amari looked quite exhausted, so I suggested we call it a day.
“Your Grace, training is good, but if we keep going you’ll collapse from exhaustion. The sun’s already setting, so how about we stop here for today? If I spend my entire first day on duty just sparring with you, I’m afraid the princess will scold me for slacking off.”
“Th-that’s…! Y-you’re right. Ahem…! Fine. I did gain some satisfying results, even if only a little, so I’ll withdraw for today. But if you have time tomorrow, you’ll have to spar with me again.”
“Wait, what? I thought today was the end of it!”
“I told you not to hold a grudge. I never said you couldn’t request a spar.”
“…This feels plenty like holding a grudge to me.”
“It’s not!”
Amari stomped her feet in genuine frustration. Well, compared to the kind of grudge I’d been expecting, this was honestly too comical to even call a grudge…
“Just so we’re clear, guarding the princess takes absolute priority if her schedule comes up.”
“I know that much.”
Amari gathered her sword and armor, stood up, and began walking toward the room where she was staying. After taking a few steps, she spoke in a slightly quieter voice without turning around, her back still facing me.
“Well… it was actually kind of fun today.”
Then she left the training ground with slightly quicker steps.
Watching Amari’s retreating figure, I muttered to myself.
“If only she were normally this kind of person, I wouldn’t have to worry so much.”
The next day.
The imperial palace was unusually noisy from early morning, so I woke up sooner than usual. When I looked outside the window, I saw an especially large number of people bustling around near the main gate, forming orderly lines.
Is some important guest arriving? No, if it were that kind of guest, Serena would already be standing in formation over there… but I don’t sense her mana.
Neither the Emperor nor Serena was present. That meant it probably wasn’t a foreign or domestic dignitary. Yet the welcome preparations seemed far too extravagant for anything else.
At that moment, I realized there was only one possibility left and frowned.
“Ugh, shit…”
And my prediction was confirmed by the knights near the main gate.
His Highness the Crown Prince is returning!