The Regressor's Princess Carry
As soon as I cracked my eyes open from the princess(?) carry, the first thing I saw was Elisha hugging me close, her eyes brimming with tears. I had zero confidence in facing her as she sobbed so bitterly over whatever had broken her heart, so… I simply closed my eyes again and pretended to faint once more.
It was unintentional, but I had made Elisha cry. Still, it seemed I had successfully planted a sense of caution in her. That said, I had no idea how long this would last. I had pulled similar stunts in previous rounds, yet her nature refused to change. Sooner or later, she would always let her guard down again—just like today. Even so, seeing her shed genuine tears, apologizing and reflecting (?), made me think the act hadn’t been entirely pointless.
A little more time passed. The sound of Elisha’s quiet sobs had long since faded. Had she finally cried herself out? The lingering warmth against my body suggested she still hadn’t let go of me. But I couldn’t keep pretending to be unconscious forever. I cautiously opened my eyes.
“Hehe, you’re awake?”
Once again, the first thing to greet me was Elisha’s face—her eyes still faintly red. Wait… wasn’t she a little too close?
“Are you okay? How does your body feel?”
“Um… about that…”
“If you’re still hurting, you can rest longer.”
“No, that’s not…”
I turned my head to the side. For some reason, my body and legs weren’t touching the ground. I was floating slightly above it. In other words… I was currently being held in Elisha’s arms. In the classic princess-carry position, no less.
To think I would live long enough to be carried like this by her of all people… When exactly had she picked me up? I hadn’t felt a thing.
I desperately ignored the strange looks the other two party members were sending from behind and spoke to Elisha.
“Thank you for helping me, but you can put me down now.”
“Why?”
“My body’s perfectly fine, so I’ll walk on my own two legs. Please let me down.”
“Hmm… No~!”
Elisha giggled playfully. I took it as a joke and laughed lightly in return.
“Ahaha, Miss Elisha, you really are funny.”
“……”
“Ha… haha…?”
“……”
“…You were joking, right?”
“Hmm? Who knows…”
Elisha gazed at me with an expression that could only be described as loving. The inexplicable pressure forced me to clamp my mouth shut. Still cradled in her arms, I looked up at her. In the reflection of her blue eyes, I saw myself wearing a thoroughly flustered face. Elisha didn’t avoid my gaze; she met it head-on.
A brief silence fell… then, perhaps feeling a touch embarrassed, her cheeks flushed faintly as she whipped her head away. She grumbled under her breath.
“…Your eyes are pretty.”
“…? Thank you. Miss Elisha, you also…”
“But maybe it’s because they look a little cloudy? It’s hard to tell if you’re actually looking at me properly. …Huh? What did you just say?”
Of course it was cloudy. While Elisha could see through me to an extent, she couldn’t completely pierce my authority. Therefore, the version of me that appeared in her eyes inevitably carried at least one ‘flaw.’ The slightly clouded eyes seemed to be one of them.
That ‘flaw’ also shifted depending on the condition of my authority, so even I didn’t know the exact details. Sometimes people said my hair looked glossier than usual. Other times, they claimed my lips appeared more moist. Hestia, whom I met every lunch period, had told me these things herself, so I trusted her observations.
Well… truthfully, even though I called them ‘flaws,’ the changes weren’t dramatic enough to be obvious, so I simply didn’t pay them much mind. Occasionally Elisha, Hestia, or the Saintess would notice and find it strange, but that was the end of it. They never seemed overly concerned about my changes, and the same went for Elisha, who was currently staring at me with an intensity that made me uncomfortable.
“What did you say earlier?”
“……”
Judging by the nonsense she was spouting, she had already forgotten about the eye comment. Should I be happy about that, or worried? I subtly avoided Elisha’s insistent, burdensome stare as she leaned closer.
“Can’t you say what you just said one more time?”
“…? Thank you?”
“No, after that.”
“Miss Elisha also…”
“And?”
“…You’re pretty.”
“…! !!!”
Elisha’s expression brightened with clear delight, almost excitement. Since I was still trapped in the princess carry, I could see the way the corners of her mouth curved into a perfect arc.
…I give up. I closed my eyes just like Elisha had suggested when she told me to rest. Since she was carrying me anyway, I might as well relax until we arrived.
And so, surrounded by Elisha’s smile and goodwill, I let myself drift off for a little while.
It was only after we left the North Forest that Elisha finally set me down.
“…Thank you.”
“I should be the one thanking you~!”
I had no idea what she was thanking me for… and I wasn’t particularly eager to find out.
“I’ll be right back, so wait here for me.”
Elisha left to report our results. What am I, her pet dog…? Just because she tells me to wait, I have to wait? She was the leader, so I’d listen for now, but still…
“U-um, we also have something to…”
“Sorry!”
Rena and Tia said they had things to discuss between themselves and disappeared as well. Before I knew it, I was left alone, sitting in lonely silence.
With even Elisha gone from my side, not a single person spared me a glance. That was only natural—when she wasn’t nearby, my ability functioned normally. We would probably receive a generous score for the practical. What Elisha had taken with her was the head of a dire wolf. For freshmen, it was a fairly troublesome monster to handle, so our party that had defeated it stood a good chance of earning decent points.
If we had brought back Barba’s corpse instead, we might have scored even higher… but Elisha had smashed the creature so thoroughly that almost nothing remained. While we technically could have scooped the remains into a sack, the other students—who weren’t yet accustomed to monster corpses—might have found it nauseating. Not to mention the professor’s evaluation of Elisha would shift from ‘promising talent’ to ‘severe violent tendencies.’ That would be problematic. Anyone would recoil at the sight of Barba’s pulverized remains.
That woman… her emotional swings seemed to be getting worse by the day. Just in this single practical, she had started off in a good mood, but the moment I collapsed her expression changed completely. Then she raged at Barba, shed tears in sorrow, and suddenly switched to a blissful, happy face. Getting angry at Barba made sense—her teammate had been injured, after all. But the way her emotions flipped back and forth in such a short time felt like a real problem.
Like I said before, repeated regressions inevitably take a toll on the mind, but still…
“Hehe, I got our score~! They say we’re in first place so far!”
“……”
It looked like I would need to take some measures.
The practical ended without any major incidents. As expected for the first one, a few students had sustained minor injuries, but not a single person had been hurt badly enough to threaten their life. Good. An accident on the very first day would have been disastrous. Planting trauma in the freshmen this early would be a terrible idea. Growing sprouts needed room to breathe.
After all the other parties finished their reports, the professor wrapped up the class at an appropriate time. Tomorrow was a holiday, so it seemed the professor was eager to finish quickly and rest as well. With group activities over, it was time to part ways with Elisha. We exchanged a light handshake and a promise to stay on good terms before separating.
“…You can let go of my hand now.”
“Get back safely.”
“Y-yeah…”
Anyway, we parted. Even though I hadn’t done much, my body felt strangely exhausted as I dragged myself back to the dormitory.
Today had been the first time I properly conversed with Elisha. Aside from the moment she suddenly hugged me on the first day, we hadn’t even had a chance to talk before. Whenever we happened to cross paths, I had always pretended not to notice her.
I set aside thoughts of Elisha—whom I probably wouldn’t see for a while—and focused on the upcoming freshman duel that would begin right after the weekend. The freshman duel, which started immediately after the holiday, would last two days. Freshmen would engage in light sparring with assigned opponents. Every combat department student had to participate without exception. As someone taking the ‘Comprehensive Combat’ class, I was obviously included.
Each participating student had to spar at least once with the opponent assigned by the Academy. After that, they could challenge others. Of course, the challenged party had to accept for the match to take place.
My assigned opponent was a guy named Pascal Myers. Objectively speaking, he wasn’t exceptionally strong, but as the heir of a fairly well-known family, he had received proper training and inherited techniques from his house. Pascal would cause some annoying trouble later… but that was a matter for the future. Right now, I needed to focus on the duel itself.
More precisely, on the ‘someone’ who would be observing it.
If I recalled the conversation I had with Hestia during lunch, I could make an educated guess. The person who had shaken the entire Academy since morning—the Great Pioneer, Paern. Of all people, he would be observing my duel.
And if Paern was moving, it essentially meant his negotiations with the headmaster were complete. From now on, he would be hunting for any trace of me with fiery eyes… I had never been caught before, so I wasn’t particularly worried, but the important question was why he had chosen to observe my duel specifically.
He obviously hadn’t come to see me. Nor had he come to watch Pascal Myers, the one I was sparring with. While the Myers family held some renown, it wasn’t nearly enough to warrant attention from a member of the Great Pioneers. Ridiculously enough, it was pure coincidence that our match had been sandwiched between far more significant bouts.
Right before me was the Hero Hestia’s duel. Right after was the Saintess Arie’s. …What a cruel bracket. Being stuck between them and treated as the ‘breather match’ was absurd, but what could I do? I could only blame my terrible luck.
Paern would observe Hestia’s duel, then mine against Pascal, and finally the Saintess’s before leaving the arena. I wasn’t sure of his exact reasons for observing, but my guess was that he wanted to gauge the current level of the Hero and the Saintess. Since he moved with the sole purpose of capturing me, it seemed he was even willing to borrow their hands—despite neither of them being proper Transcendents yet.
Of course, whether the Empire’s loyal Hero and the unpredictable Saintess would actually cooperate was another matter… but that wasn’t my concern. All that mattered to me was finishing the duel safely without drawing attention.
However, this time… I was considering doing something a little interesting.