The Night Before the Exam (2)
The moment I threw down the gauntlet, the faces of the young ladies soured on the spot.
The Mesugaki skill's provocation is something even active-duty knights can't withstand.
There was no way girls who hadn't even managed to get into the Academy could endure it.
If anything, I should be commending them for not spewing curses right off the bat.
Not that they'd hold out for long anyway.
"Where did all that swagger from a second ago go?♡ Hahah. Hilarious♡ Puffing up big one moment, tucking your tail the next — just like a puppy, aren't you?♡"
"What did you say?"
"Less than a dog♡ Trash♡ A bottom-feeder who can't even win an argument♡"
At the barrage of taunts, even the faint smirks etched on their faces vanished, and fury rushed in to take their place.
Basking in their hostility, I smiled at the exhilaration swelling up inside me.
Mad? Are you mad yet?
Then go ahead and hit me.
Try slapping a count's daughter across the face, why don't you.
When I thrust my cheek out as if to say come on, I dare you, the woman at the front raised her hand and delivered the slap.
To her credit — she was someone hoping to enter Soul Academy, after all — she'd clearly trained somewhat, because her hand packed a decent sting.
A sharp, burning pain spread across my cheek.
But the smile never left my lips.
Hey. That makes you the one who attacked first, you know?
There's more than one or two witnesses around, so you can't even spin a lie about it.
Which means from this point on, whatever I do counts as legitimate self-defense.
Don't cry to me later about getting beaten, okay?
I clenched my fist and drove it straight into the woman's face.
I'd thrown the punch fully intending to send her flying, and yet the woman took it head-on and stayed on her feet, perfectly composed.
It had hurt, clearly — tears welled faintly in her eyes — but that was all.
"Why, you—!"
"Then maybe you shouldn't have done something worth getting hit for. Hm?♡"
Falling hook, line, and sinker for my provocation, the woman clenched her teeth and lunged at me.
From how fluidly she moved her body, it seemed her family had given her combat training.
But it didn't matter in the slightest.
You think all I ever learned from rolling around with Forsell was how to swing a mace?
That man insisted I be prepared even if I lost my weapon, so he taught me how to fight an enemy bare-handed, too.
Compared to the punches Forsell used to throw, yours are slow enough to make me yawn.
I slipped past the woman's fist and took a step forward.
First, strike the abdomen to deliver the shock.
The target was the side of the belly — the side where the organs sit.
Thud.
As if the damage had reached her innards, the woman's movements stiffened for an instant.
I didn't miss the opening — drove my fist from below, snapping her chin upward.
Perhaps her brain had rattled in her skull, because the young lady standing before me collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Pathetically weak.
With skills like that, no wonder she never mattered in Soul Academy.
Leaving the young lady sprawled on the ground where she'd fallen, I turned my gaze to the ones behind her.
Having witnessed the earlier quarrel, the two of them flinched and stumbled backward in obvious fear.
Your friend just got destroyed right in front of you, and all you'll do is watch from the back? Pathetic little extras.
Not worth my time.
"El. Maid. Let's go."
"Trash, all of you. We're leaving."
As I abandoned the young ladies and walked away, a murmur of voices rose at my back.
Didn't mean to, but I've completely stolen the spotlight, huh.
Well, whatever.
I haven't done a single thing wrong, after all.
They were the ones who picked a fight with outrageous insults and slapped me first, weren't they?
All I did was respond to it, that's all.
With this many people having watched the whole thing unfold, what ridiculous rumor could possibly spread?
Joy Partran, daughter of the Ducal House of Partran — the family spoken of as the head of the kingdom's noble faction — was walking down the street with her attendants in tow.
She had come to Soul Academy to sit the entrance exam, yet the exam occupied precious little space in her heart.
To her — a woman educated her entire life to become someone worthy of a ducal house — the Soul Academy entrance exam was simply something she was expected to pass, no question about it.
With the various tutors of the ducal household having assured her that she would pass with room to spare, she hadn't entertained even a flicker of worry about the test.
What filled her heart in its place was one thing, and one thing alone.
Tiara Mas — the restaurant that existed within Soul Academy.
Tiara Mas had been founded by a chef who once oversaw every royal banquet dish the kingdom had to offer, established after he passed his position to his successor — and it was famous as one of the finest restaurants on the continent.
Even though its prices ran several times higher than comparable establishments, Tiara Mas never lacked for patrons hoping to visit, and its tables were always full.
So no matter how powerful the noble, without a reservation made months in advance, one couldn't so much as set foot inside.
Joy had heard her siblings rave about how delicious Tiara Mas's food was more times than she could count, and the moment her enrollment at Soul Academy was decided, she had shoved every other concern aside and reserved a table.
Plenty of others had shared the same idea, and the competition had been ferocious — but like the Partran family motto said, she did not give up, and after a hard-fought battle, she claimed victory.
She had secured her dining reservation!
From the very day the reservation succeeded, Joy had lived for the day she would walk into Tiara Mas — and today was the day that dream came true.
How delicious could it possibly be? According to my brother, it's a flavor you can never forget once you've tasted it.
If a man whose palate was ruined by our family chef's cooking would go that far, the food must be extraordinary.
Recalling her brother's soft smile, Joy pouted her lips.
Her brother — the one who'd promised to accompany her to Tiara Mas today and introduce her to the dishes — had suddenly been called away by some matter.
Something urgent had come up at the Academy, apparently.
What can you do, really?
I suppose even a brother occasionally has things more important than his little sister.
Hmph. I'll just have to rub it in later, telling him all about what I ate at Tiara Mas.
Muttering to herself as she walked along, clutching her ticket to Tiara Mas, Joy spotted a crowd gathered ahead, buzzing with commotion.
Whatever could be going on?
Looking closer, she could make out, in the heart of the crowd, a young lady collapsed on the ground — attended by another young lady and a cluster of servants.
The one lying there... isn't that Lady Meryl of Count Veynes's family?
But why does she have a bruise on her cheek?
Could she have been assaulted by some thug?
"El?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Might you find out what happened here?"
"At once."
The story her attendant brought back, after slipping into the crowd and returning shortly, was shocking.
Lady Meryl and Lady Lucy got into an argument, and Lady Meryl slapped Lady Lucy across the cheek?!
And then Lady Lucy — the one who was attacked first — refused to swallow the insult, swung her fist, and claimed victory over Lady Meryl?
What in the world...
"I asked several people, and they all gave the same account."
As Joy voiced her disbelief, her attendant added the words.
So it really did happen.
Meryl picking a fight with Lucy wasn't surprising in itself.
The two had been sniping at each other in social circles for ages.
Joy still remembered the gathering last winter's end, when Lady Lucy had dumped a drink right on Lady Meryl's face and declared, "That suits you. Thank me later. A mongrel looks her best when she's filthy, doesn't she?"
Lady Meryl must have been nursing that humiliation ever since, and struck the moment she ran into Lady Lucy again.
What had stunned Joy wasn't that the two had fought — it was that Lucy had beaten Meryl.
The Veynes family, into which Meryl Veynes had been born and raised, was renowned for its martial tradition.
It couldn't compare to Count Arln's household under the Iron-Blooded Benedic, but as a distinguished family, it wanted for nothing.
Born into such a house and raised as a knight, Meryl was a woman who boasted martial prowess surpassing even most men.
And Lucy, by contrast?
When Joy had last seen her at a social gathering, hadn't she been a frail thing, huffing and puffing just climbing a flight of stairs?
That Lucy defeated Meryl.
Had Joy not seen Meryl lying on the ground with her own eyes, she never would have believed it.
"Is this the blood of the Iron-Blooded Count, then."
It would've been nicer if she'd inherited Lord Benedic's bold, hearty temperament while she was at it.
Joy did not think particularly highly of Lucy.
In truth, few nobles in the kingdom liked her.
Who could love a girl like a hedgehog with its quills raised, wounding anyone who merely came near?
Joy herself had carried wounds to her heart because of Lucy's words more than once.
Come to think of it, is it even fair to call Lady Lucy a hedgehog?
She's adorable to look at, and she has quills — those two things match, yes.
But unlike a hedgehog that's harmless if you leave it alone, Lady Lucy wounds you even when you don't touch her, doesn't she?
If anything, she'd be a hedgehog that fires its quills.
Lady Lucy, who stirred up incident after incident with that temper of hers, has now gotten her hands on martial power as well.
How frightening.
Before, even when her frail body got her into trouble, the scale of it was never large — but from now on, the scale itself will change.
I should avoid anything connected to Lady Lucy as much as possible from here on.
And anyway, Lady Lucy is hopeless at her studies, so even sitting the Academy exam, she'll never get in.
So as long as I simply don't cross paths with her until the exam is over, I'll never get tangled up with her.
"My lady."
"What is it?"
"That young lady standing with her arms crossed in front of that restaurant... might she be the Arln young lady?"
...Wait. What?
Why. Why is she standing there of all places?
W-w-w-what do I do?
Should I greet her?
Or just walk past and pretend I didn't see her?
No. I mustn't ignore her. If I sneak past while pretending not to notice, she'll definitely decide I snubbed her on purpose.
And then the moment we come face to face at the Academy exam, she'll start firing quills at me.
Right. I'll just give a greeting.
A light one — then slip inside the restaurant without giving her even a second to reply.
Then absolutely nothing can go wrong.
Having so resolved, Joy carefully approached Lucy.
"To march up to a restaurant brimming with confidence, and then not know the place runs on reservations. Child. Is there truly something wrong with thy memory?"
'Grandfather. Shut up.'
What I'd forgotten — just one little thing — was the fact that the restaurant Tiara Mas operated on a reservation-only basis.
Come to think of it, back in the game, when I had dinner with a heroine, she'd happened to get her hands on a ticket to Tiara Mas and brought us both here.
It was a restaurant you couldn't visit outside of scripted events, so it had slipped my mind entirely.
And thanks to that, I had failed to cross the threshold of Tiara Mas.
Uuuugh. That deflating, drained feeling.
I'd walked all the way here expecting to eat this place's famous food, and now I can't even get inside?
"Lady Arln."
What now? Who's trying to pick a fight with me this time?
I don't know who you are, but you picked the wrong girl to mess with.
I am in a phenomenally foul mood right now.
I'm a bomb just waiting for someone to press the button.
Go on, then — insult me. See what happens.
I'll pour every ounce of the frustration in my heart right back at you as my revenge.
But the moment I turned my head with that thought, what met my eyes was a face I knew all too well.
Joy Partran.
One of the characters I'd cherished most in all of Soul Academy.