Standing Out (3)
Not long ago, when we were preparing to enter the dungeon, Cartesia came up beside me without anyone else noticing and quietly whispered, “Um... hey. Could I ask you for a favor?”
“A favor? What is it?”
“We’re going to be entering the dungeon together in a little while, right?”
Cartesia seemed embarrassed just bringing it up, so she fiddled with her two fingers and spoke in a small voice. “If we do enter the dungeon... could you move exactly as I tell you? Not one step off, just the way I say.”
Watching her ask so cautiously for some reason, I tilted my head. “So you want to play the leader in this dungeon run?”
“S-surely you’re not thinking I’m being too presumptuous... right? I mean, I know full well I shouldn’t be doing this, but... long-term, I think this is the right way to handle it right now...!”
Before I’d even said a thing, Cartesia panicked and started blurting out excuses.
“...No, I don’t really mind if you take the lead.”
I was only a little puzzled. The Cartesia I knew wasn’t the kind of person who enjoyed standing in front of others, unlike Ricardo.
“And if it isn’t today, there aren’t many chances left to earn Professor Drossel’s trust. He’s one of the few people in all of Rutra who’d stand on your side without hesitation...”
She wasn’t the type to mutter a bunch of meaningless things like that, either.
And most importantly—
“You’ve been acting kind of weird since a while ago. You hiding something from me?”
“...W-what? How am I weird?”
“You weren’t interested in this class at all before. You were only taking it because it’s mandatory for first-years, weren’t you? But suddenly you’re talking about leading us, which you never do, and telling me to challenge a dungeon with the same difficulty as Eli’s... You keep making all these strange requests.”
I still remember it clearly. Before she ever got close to me, Cartesia would attend this class and always sit in the back, wearing the expression of someone who’d rather be anywhere else.
For her to suddenly act like a different person and throw herself into the monster practicum with that kind of enthusiasm was strange, no matter how I looked at it.
And even though she hadn’t shown it in front of Professor Drossel, the idea to challenge a dungeon on Eli’s level and settle things head-on had actually come from Cartesia, not me.
Her plan was something like this: if we could publicly crush Eli in front of everyone, then we could damage the image of “genius” she’d built up for herself in the academy.
“Th-this is just something we can’t help. I didn’t want to make such a huge show of it either, but the only place I know the strategy for is the highest-difficulty dungeon.”
“...What?”
For a moment, I couldn’t make sense of what Cartesia was saying, and I frowned.
Even if she knows the types of monsters and how to handle them, the gimmicks and clear methods of the dungeons in this class should be kept strictly secret from the cadets.
That, of course, was only natural.
In this class, each cadet was graded on how quickly and accurately they cleared the dungeons, so if the strategies leaked outside, it would be unmistakable cheating.
“Ah, ahaha! W-well, actually... yes! When I was at the Imperial Palace, I once overheard His Majesty being briefed on the highest-difficulty dungeon. So I thought it’d be better to challenge the one I knew even a little about. And besides, that way we can keep that bitch Eli in check while we’re at it...”
It didn’t make much sense, and yet somehow it was oddly convincing.
How was I supposed to verify whether something that came out of the emperor’s mouth, while he was shut up inside the Imperial Palace all the time, was true or not?
I could only nod along and say I understood.
“...But can you really handle it? You’ve never been the one to take the lead in something like this.”
Even if she had strengthened my talent, I still couldn’t help worrying.
“Don’t worry. Maybe not as much as you, but... I’ve seen my fair share of hardships too. I’m definitely not going to be the one dragging you down in some little dungeon like this.”
Cartesia said it to me with that same self-assured look on her face.
Hardships, my ass. Coming from someone who’s lived her whole life as a princess, she sure talks big. But I didn’t say that out loud.
It was obvious she was only acting this way because she wanted to help me, so I figured I should meet her halfway and support her too.
This is how people learn their way through life, I guess.
And so, I left everything in Cartesia’s hands and entered the highest-difficulty dungeon.
And then.
...So this actually works.
19 minutes and 43 seconds.
That was the time it took Cartesia and me to clear the dungeon, and the moment we broke the existing record.
****
It really does work.
Meanwhile, Cartesia, who had cleared the dungeon with Sian in record time, stole a glance at his face and found herself silently clicking her tongue.
She had already cleared this dungeon dozens of times, and though she’d given directions at the right moments, she hadn’t honestly expected to break the record on the first attempt.
To be frank, even Cartesia hadn’t foreseen this.
I knew Sian had talent, but I never imagined he’d be this good even at this fledgling stage...
The “talent” Cartesia meant wasn’t Life Return, his ability to strengthen the talents of others.
She meant the talent for combat, the very thing that had kept him alive to this day ever since he’d first picked up a sword and thrown himself onto the battlefield as a mercenary, even as a child.
Yes, she knew. People around the empire went on and on about Sian’s four younger sisters, calling them geniuses and once-in-a-century talents, but the truth was that Sian himself possessed a far more overwhelming and violent talent.
Because I saw it with my own eyes when that talent bloomed in full.
But that was a story from the future, one that hadn’t arrived yet. It was only one piece of Sian’s potential, not proof that he was already that strong now.
The Sian of the present still wasn’t strong enough. But if not now, there would be no opportunity to take revenge on those four bitches who betrayed him.
So she decided this was her moment to step forward.
Something no one in the world knew—not even the emperor—was that she was strong.
Of course, she couldn’t openly use that power with all the eyes around them, but even so, at the level of mere cadets, she was far beyond anything they could handle.
And now that she looked again, Sian in the present was far stronger than she’d expected.
No matter how precisely I gave the right commands at the right moment... I never imagined he’d not only keep up, but actually synchronize with me like that.
If it had been anyone of ordinary skill, they wouldn’t have been able to keep up with her movements, let alone swing a sword in time with her instructions.
This means I might even be able to revise the plan going forward...
As Cartesia pondered the matter, she soon came up with one good idea.
Of course, that idea was, naturally, entirely for Sian’s benefit.
She had already decided that, for her entire life, she would look only at Sian.
The humiliation I took today is only the beginning. Soon enough... I’ll drag you all the way down to the bottom, so you’d better look forward to it.
As Cartesia thought that, the sharp edge of her gaze was aimed at Eli, who was looking at Sian with a dazed expression.
****
This is impossible.
19 minutes and 43 seconds.
Looking at Sian’s record—nearly a full minute faster than the one she herself had set today—Eli stared at him as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
That blank, indifferent expression, as though doing something like this was only natural.
Had Sian’s claim right before the practicum began—that he’d easily surpass Eli’s record—really not been empty boasting, but the truth itself?
Was that why he showed not even the slightest change in expression after breaking the record?
I... I thought Oppa was... just a useless bastard...
He had gone to war with a sword from childhood and returned alive, but that was all.
Compared to the talent she possessed—talent even Duke Orphega had acknowledged—Sian’s must have been something trivial, she had decided.
That was why she couldn’t understand it.
She had thought Cartesia’s eyes must be the strange ones for following so pathetically after a Sian who, to her, seemed utterly unremarkable.
But now, in front of everyone, Sian was proving his worth.
And that was precisely what was shaking something fundamental inside Eli right now, deep in her heart.
No. Not yet... I can’t be sure yet. Maybe today was only a coincidence. So... I absolutely can’t acknowledge this.
Thinking that, Eli forced her eyes away from Sian.
If she didn’t do that, she felt like she’d keep looking at him without meaning to.
Thump.
But at the same time, Eli instinctively realized something else.
Her heart was beating harder than usual today.
...And for some reason she herself couldn’t explain, it grew even worse whenever she looked at Sian’s face.