If You Have a Conscience
However, the princess’s reply once again defied my expectations.
“Ah, that wasn’t what I meant. It was simply a gesture of goodwill on my part, so be sure to thank me from the bottom of your heart.”
To anyone listening, it might have sounded like she was making a grand show of her generosity.
But after receiving help like this, to be told that mere gratitude was enough—no other repayment required—how magnificent was that?
My estimation of the princess as a person rose higher and higher.
“Then I shall engrave this grace upon my bones and never forget it.”
That was what I said.
If I could settle it with words alone and no further repayment, I certainly wasn’t going to refuse.
The princess regarded me for a moment before speaking again.
“You truly are different from the other noble scions.”
“Is that your roundabout way of saying I accepted your favor without a shred of hesitation?”
“…There is a little of that as well. You are a curious one. Everyone else is busy bowing their heads before me, yet a mere count’s son speaks so boldly.”
She added that the last part had absolutely not been meant as sarcasm.
Well, by the standards of the twenty-first-century Korea I came from, the people of this world were the strange ones.
I neither understood the loyalty they showed the imperial family nor particularly wanted to.
“In any case, I would like us to grow closer from now on. Think of today’s matter as a small gift toward that end.”
“I have no idea why the President would want to become friends with someone like me, but I am honored.”
I meant it.
Not the “honored” part—the part about having no idea why she wanted to get close to me.
If I had been an ordinary noble scion, I might have assumed she was trying to pull me into her faction.
After all, her rival for the throne—the imperial prince—had already done the same, gathering noble students into his own camp inside the Academy.
But as I had said more than once, I was a Wallenstein.
Bringing the Wallenstein house into her faction would only damage the princess’s image.
So for the moment, I truly could not understand why she wished to befriend me.
“Still… why would the President want to grow close to the likes of me…?”
“Does one need a reason to become friends?”
Well, when she put it like that, I had nothing left to say.
While I was still choosing my next words, she spoke again.
“Ah, no—on second thought, there is one thing you can do for me.”
“What is it?”
“…From now on, do not ignore my words. Things like standing up and leaving first the way you did last time.”
After a brief hesitation, that was what the princess said.
I suddenly felt sorry for her.
This princess must have been stewing over the incident from the day before yesterday more than I realized.
Given her status, perhaps that was the first time something so absurd had ever happened to her.
Of course, while I was thinking those apologetic thoughts—
my face was busy fighting back a smile.
“Urgh…! Stop laughing and just answer me!”
“Ah, yes… heh!”
“Y-you’re really—!”
The princess’s face flushed slightly.
And so the meal came to an end.
Before she left, she had one last thing to say.
“Come to think of it, it’s strange. I never expected you to have a personality like this.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
“No, it’s just… the you I saw in the recordings was always scowling, with curses hanging off every word.”
Well, when you spent time around those dog-like bitches, that was inevitable.
The way I was speaking with the princess right now was my real personality.
If I hadn’t vented through swearing at least that much, I probably would have clutched the back of my neck and collapsed months ago.
But I could hardly say any of that in front of the princess, so I changed the subject instead.
“Did you watch every single recording of me? The way you’re talking, it sounds like it…”
“M-mind your own business.”
With that, the princess quickly made her exit.
What in the world was that about?
The afternoon classes were just as hopeless for concentration as the morning ones.
Where Felice had filled my head in the morning, the princess now occupied every corner of it.
No matter how much I turned it over, I could not grasp her true intentions.
I understood that the reason she had helped me was simply her goodwill—her desire to grow closer.
But why would an imperial princess of the empire take an interest in me of all people?
Most of the vast territories and wealth the Wallenstein family once held had been confiscated.
The renown of being one of the three ducal houses that helped the emperor found the empire was long since buried under the stain of traitor.
The old Wallenstein dukedom might have been one thing.
But drawing the current Wallenstein count house into her faction was an obvious blunder.
Well, the princess must have her own thoughts about it.
As long as it did not interfere with me or my plans, that was enough.
My plan to live a happy life in this world, that is.
Still turning the princess over in my mind, I made it through the rest of the afternoon classes.
Around me, the whispers and sidelong glances were blatant enough to hear clearly.
No doubt it was because I had spoken with the princess in the dining hall today.
Ha. That was exactly why I had suggested going outside to talk.
I had planned to ignore it the way I usually did, but today the volume was simply too much.
Doing that as a group right in front of the person in question—if you actually experienced it, you would lose your mind.
Mannerless bastards.
Some of them were even spouting nonsense about how I was sucking up to the princess because I wanted into her faction.
I wanted nothing more than to shout at all of them to shut up, but that would only get me labeled a personality disaster, so I decided against it.
Wait a second.
On second thought, was there any reputation left here that could fall any lower?
So I simply shouted.
“All of you, shut the hell up!”
“Eek!”
In an instant, every whispering mouth snapped shut.
But who the hell just went “eek”?
It was definitely a man’s voice. What kind of grown man goes “eek”?
When I turned around, there stood the owner of that high-pitched shriek.
Leo Epsilt.
And behind him, my former party members.
“Heh!”
I let out a short bark of laughter.
Had my shout actually startled him?
What a pathetic bastard.
At my open mockery, his face flushed crimson.
Yet somehow he managed to cling to his composure.
He spoke to me in a low voice.
“Louis Wallenstein. Follow me.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and walked away.
I pointedly sat right back down.
At that, he marched over with his face still burning and snarled at me.
“I told you to follow me, Louis Wallenstein. We need to talk.”
Well, I had toyed with him enough.
I already had a pretty good idea what this was about.
Curious to hear whatever nonsense he was about to spout, I followed him out of the classroom.
Leo Epsilt and my former party members led me around behind the school building.
The moment he confirmed no one else was nearby, he seized me by the collar.
“Louis Wallenstein! What the hell have you done?!”
“Hey. Whose body do you think you’re putting your hands on? Want to roll around on the ground again?”
“You win with underhanded tricks and you still have the nerve to act proud?!”
Even as he said it, Leo Epsilt quietly released my collar.
“Expelled from the party? What in the world is that supposed to mean?!”
“That’s right! Cancel it right this instant!”
Leo Epsilt bellowing at the top of his lungs, and the Saintess whining beside him.
It was a combination that genuinely pissed me off.
I almost launched into my usual stream of curses, but the conversation with the princess earlier came back to me.
She had pointed out that in the recordings I opened my mouth only to swear.
Even while talking with her I had nearly slipped a few times.
Being around these people naturally turned my language foul, but the more I thought about it, the more it irritated me that my speech patterns had changed because of trash like them.
So I made an effort to return to the cleaner way of speaking I used to have.
“What do you mean, ‘what’s that supposed to mean’? I was the core of this party. I made the plans, I handled the fighting—everything centered on me. If anyone should leave, it should be you.”
“Don’t talk nonsense! The combat was all this body’s responsibility! You were nothing but dead weight holding the party’s growth back!”
“That’s right! You just rode on everyone else’s coattails, and if you had a conscience you wouldn’t say something like that!”
Leo and the Saintess’s perfect one-two punch left me momentarily speechless.
Those two ought to be tanks instead of Hero and Saintess—what flawless taunts.
Conscience? Con-science?
“Good heavens. Where else are you going to find someone with as much conscience as me? You’re worse than those rotten priests who stuff every scrap of conscience they have into the church donation box.”
When I twisted the knife as hard as I could, Esther’s aura turned murderous.
“Did you just insult the Church?”
“Lucky for you, you’ve got enough brains to understand that much.”
“I’m going to report this officially to the priests of the faith—”
“Report it to your goddess if you want. But can you even do that?”
The moment the word “goddess” left my mouth, Esther’s expression twisted with genuine rage.
And that was exactly what I had wanted.
I was always the one getting pissed off; it was about time she got a taste of how I felt.
“I never could believe a woman who hangs off a man and whines all day was actually a Saintess.”
I spoke while picturing how she had always clung to Leo’s side.
“Let’s settle it today. If you’re not really a Saintess you won’t be able to speak with the goddess anyway. And if you can, then the Church has a serious problem for picking a whore like you as Saintess.”
I said it with a broad, beaming smile.
At last, the enraged Esther began to summon her holy power.