A High School Girl Loves Her Sweets (2)
"Wh... where did you get that?"
Joy's voice was trembling.
Joy, whose untouchable coolness had always made her seem like someone no one could easily approach, was visibly shaken. To the girl who was hopelessly obsessed with anything sweet, this ticket must have looked like a diamond in the shape of a sheet of paper.
No, maybe something even more extravagant than that.
After all, Stoffe's Special Ticket wasn't the kind of thing you could acquire just because you wanted it.
If it were something money could buy, would a duke's daughter be drooling over a mere piece of paper like this?
'I happened to come across it.'
"Why do you care, Airhead Lady? A chance just happened to come up, so I grabbed it."
"That's impossible. I searched everywhere—I did everything I could—and couldn't get one, and you just *happened* to come across it?!"
Joy had a point.
Normally, getting this ticket required clearing a whole string of tedious side quests given by an NPC who happened to be Stoffe's best friend.
It was so notoriously painful that the established meta was to accept the reward item—which raised a character's affection without asking any questions—and skip clearing those quests entirely.
'You might not know this, but...'
"Maybe an Airhead Lady wouldn't know, but this ticket lets you bring one companion along."
"...What do you want?"
Joy planted both hands on the desk and leaned her face in close. Her eyes, burning with heat, glowed as though they wanted to devour whatever was in front of them and reduce it to ash, and I, having no desire to be caught in that fire, had to quietly shuffle backward.
'I don't want anything.'
"What am I, some pathetic money-grubbing loser to you, Airhead Lady?"
I had no intention of demanding anything else from Joy.
Using this to wring something out of her would basically be blackmail, wouldn't it?
I don't know about anyone else, but with you, Joy, I don't want to do that.
You're my favorite character, after all!
If we could just go eat Stoffe's dessert together and I got to see you smile, that would be enough for me!
And if raising your affection along the way meant we became actual friends, I'd happily die of happiness!
So there was nothing else I needed. Nothing at all.
I said all of that with complete sincerity, but Joy showed not the slightest sign of believing me.
"Lady Aln. Let's not have a pointless battle of wills."
'But it's the truth!'
"So suspicious. Maybe you're not an Airhead Lady after all—maybe you're a Delusion Lady?"
Watching me shrug my shoulders, the Airhead Lady hung her head, let out a sigh, and then raised her face again.
"You know... I don't think you're the terrible person the rumors make you out to be anymore, Lady Aln."
Really?
I call Arthur the Pitiful Prince. I beat down a third-year senior. I blackmailed Vishy. And I'm speaking down to you in casual speech right now?
And you still think well of me?
I was beyond pleased with Joy—genuinely grateful, even.
But why bring that up all of a sudden?
"Still, you wouldn't hand over something as precious as Stoffe's Special Ticket out of pure goodwill. Even Phoebe wouldn't go that far."
Huh? Is it *that* precious?
Precious enough that even the Saintess would hesitate?
In the game it was usable only as an affection item, so I never realized—it was apparently a legendary artifact.
I'd assumed it was valuable, sure, but I figured it was on par with a Tiara Mas reservation ticket. Apparently it was on a whole different level.
"And it's not as if you owe me a debt that great. If anything, I owe you far more—you saved my life. So tell me. What is it that you want?"
Even when I said I wanted nothing?
Why won't you believe my words?! I just bought you food, and you think I'm going to wave a blank contract around and lord it over you forever?!
Think about it logically...
Well.
It's hard to say for certain when I have no idea what the original Lucy Aln got up to before I possessed her.
The girl's accumulated karma wasn't exactly a one-or-two-item list.
Anyway!
Even your claim that I owe you nothing is weird, Joy!
'I'm the one who took you to Tiara Mas!'
"Have you forgotten, Airhead Lady? I'm the one who took you to Tiara Mas."
"That was more than repaid when you saved my life, I'm told."
This conversation was going nowhere.
It was a different flavor of frustration from talking with Frey, the spacey weirdo she was.
How was I supposed to convince her?
<Thou art a girl, Lucy. Simply ask for something—anything at all.>
'I told you, there's genuinely nothing I want!'
It really was a situation where I had nothing to ask of Joy.
Everything she could do for me, I could already do for myself.
Grandpa once told me that in situations like this, making some reasonable request of the other person was, paradoxically, the kinder thing to do.
That she was terrified of owing a one-sided debt of the heart, he said.
That a single modest favor was actually a form of consideration.
Having understood Grandpa's explanation at least somewhat, I started racking my brain for a good favor to ask.
Nothing too big—if I asked for something huge, the burden would fall on *me* instead. Something moderate.
Ah. That would work.
'Joy...'
"Fine, got it. You beg so persistently, so I suppose I have no choice. Airhead Lady. Come run a dungeon with me."
Anyway, I'd been feeling guilty about dragging Vishy along by threats again—I kept remembering how she'd suffered being jerked around by me.
Joy, unlike Vishy, wouldn't just fill out the headcount; she was a pick who'd actually contribute to clearing the dungeon. A perfect fit.
"A... dungeon?"
Joy couldn't bring herself to nod easily at my request.
Why was she like that?
'Is there a problem?'
"What's this, Airhead Lady? You can't even do this much?"
Maybe she'd already promised to run a dungeon with acquaintances, or something along those lines?
Or maybe there was some reason she couldn't enter dungeons at all.
If so, then so be it. I'd just have to think of a different favor.
"No! I can do it. A dungeon run? I can handle any of them."
The very moment I was straining to come up with an alternative, Joy shouted.
I wanted to tell her it was fine, that she didn't have to force herself—but her eyes burned with far too much resolve for that.
Hmm. Even if I told her here that she could decline, it would just get filtered through the Mesugaki skill and come out as a taunt anyway.
'Then it's a promise?'
"Airhead Lady. I'll trust that you're not the kind of scrub who breaks a promise."
"Of course, Lady Aln."
If going to the dungeon started to look awkward later on, I could always ask for something else instead.
Let's just move on for now.
'By the way, Joy...'
"Oh, right—Airhead Lady. Didn't you say you had somewhere to be?"
"...Ah!"
She hurriedly checked a nearby clock, frowned slightly, and then called out to me.
"We can talk about the details later!"
So it wasn't some flimsy excuse to get away from me after all—she really did have somewhere urgent to be?
Trimming her hair in front of the mirror, Joy let out an involuntary sigh.
To think I folded to a sweet tooth and agreed to enter a dungeon! There's no way that's acceptable!
Joy still dreamed of that day when Agra had interfered with her.
Time had passed and the dreams came less often now, but the visions themselves never faded.
Perhaps that was why. Joy was afraid of entering dungeons.
She couldn't help it—something told her that the moment she set foot inside one, exactly the same thing as back then would happen all over again.
Joy knew, of course.
She knew the odds of something going wrong at Soul Academy were slim, given all its grand pronouncements of safety.
She knew that if she was that worried, all she had to do was bring along someone capable of handling any danger.
But what could she do?
Just looking at the gates that led down into a dungeon made her breath catch in her throat.
That was why Joy had refused every single suggestion from the people around her to try a dungeon.
She was still in the grip of those nightmares.
Frankly, this isn't on me. Lady Aln is the one who's strange here.
She was thrown into a situation where a single mistake could have meant death.
And in that situation, she willingly shouldered two burdens—me and Liz Youngsik.
She took the front line to keep the two of us alive.
She was the first to charge forward every time danger appeared.
How can someone like that stroll into a dungeon like it's nothing?
She must have been more frightened than anyone—so how can she look so composed?
It doesn't make sense.
Both Liz and I can't take a single step toward a dungeon out of sheer terror, yet this woman can sit there and laugh?
And when she entered a dungeon with the Third Prince, she got caught up in Agra's interference, didn't she?!
She brushed past death yet again, didn't she?!
And yet she can bring up dungeons like it's no big deal. I honestly cannot understand you.
Is there something other than human blood mixed into the Aln family line?
"Ah. I messed up."
Joy had curled her hair in the opposite direction from usual, and scowled at how strange her lifelong rolled hairstyle now looked.
Annoying.
And it was more annoying because she couldn't deny that this was entirely her own fault for falling to the temptation of that thing called Stoffe's Special Ticket.
But that ticket was worth it.
Stoffe, the finest dessert artisan on the continent, who no longer worked in the trade because he devoted himself to training successors.
The Special Ticket was the one and only way to eat a dessert made by his own hands.
Being able to say you had eaten a dessert made by Stoffe was prestige enough to boast about even in high society, where all the great noble houses gathered.
And now that opportunity had landed right in front of her.
How could she possibly let that slip away!
For anyone else it might have been possible, but for Joy—who didn't merely like sweet things but openly, publicly professed her love for them—letting it go was simply not an option.
Right. What's the point of regretting it now?
The dice are already thrown.
Think positive.
Going with Lady Aln means her knight comes too, right?
With Lady Aln's abilities combined with an Aln family knight's strength, whatever problem arose, we could punch through it.
Even inside a dungeon, there'd be no cause for danger.
So it's fine.
No useless worrying—just look forward to enjoying Stoffe's dessert.
Come to think of it, though, it was strange.
How did Lady Aln get her hands on that nearly unobtainable ticket?
I tried everything and couldn't even lay eyes on one, you know.
Judging by how triumphantly she'd grinned while pulling it out of her pocket, it clearly hadn't been easy for her either.
Does Lady Aln have some secret route only she knows?
Recalling the moment Lucy had made her the offer, Joy found herself smiling despite herself.
She'd suddenly started talking down to me back then, and it threw me completely off balance.
I'd never once heard casual speech from anyone outside my family and the Third Prince.
She could be rude, sure, but she had always used honorifics—so when she suddenly switched to banmal, I genuinely doubted my own ears.
But looking back, I suppose she was simply giddy from finally getting her hands on that impossible ticket.
Lady Aln, who was always so aloof and curt, got swept up in the moment and bragged to me?
And her inviting me to visit Stoffe's shop with her—surely that was because she saw my taking her to Tiara Mas as a debt she wanted to repay, right?
The old her would never have felt so much as a flicker of gratitude. Everything of yours is mine, and everything of mine is mine, after all.
She really has changed so much.
It was almost impossible to believe this was the same Lady Aln who used to bare her fangs at me the moment I stepped into high society.
If only Lady Aln would fix that speech habit of hers, people's perception of her would change so much. Such a shame, honestly.
Still, seeing her win the Third Prince's recognition through actions rather than words, the way people looked at her was bound to shift, little by little.
Maybe one day there would come a time when far more people saw Lady Aln with favor.
I hope that day comes soon.
Though with everything Lady Aln has done over the years, it won't be easy.