Chapter 156
Chapter 156
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 156
Chapter Title: Fairy Enthusiasm #1
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We headed to a quiet café near the Platinum Dormitory and sat down for a chat.
Stella seemed to have something to say to me, and I had things to discuss with her as well, so it was a good opportunity.
“Theo, it’s about you and me. You’re going to appoint me as the champion warrior, right?”
Professor Stella apparently took it for granted that she would be going out as the queen’s champion warrior in this queen’s duel trial.
As she spoke, she was subtly flaunting her closeness to me, but upon reflection, I wondered if we were really close enough for people to say things like that.
Her thinking was completely self-centered.
That was Stella Belhawk.
The type of person who thinks the world stops when they close their eyes.
Someone whose mindset was more that the world owed them something, rather than them owing the world anything.
As the lady of a great noble house and a long-lived elf race, she had casually received favors from others for over a hundred years, so it was natural that such self-centered thinking had developed.
「Calm Situation Judgment!
You gain experience from the Talent 《Composed Thinking》.
All Job Experience +5」
I turned my gaze from the floating text in front of me and looked at Stella Belhawk. She was rattling on about why she should be the queen’s champion warrior.
“It’s an unprecedented incident of the queen being attacked. And it’s turning into a duel trial. There’ll be massive attention for sure. Investors will flock to it too. Just putting up one billboard in the arena would have a huge effect.”
“You’re right.”
“Fighting and winning in such a massive event means honor and glory are basically guaranteed. It’ll restore the Belhawk family’s prestige, and I’ll solidify my position within the family and escape this excommunication.”
As expected, this elf was indeed turning the horrific situation where the hunter party she had summoned might have attacked the queen—and she could bear the responsibility—into an opportunity.
I quite liked her attitude of using a crisis as a stepping stone.
But I didn’t like how she was practically demanding, “So choose me!”
“Still, is there a reason why I absolutely have to pick you as the champion warrior, Professor?”
I asked curtly, like a bee stinging sharply.
Stella raised one of her slender purple eyebrows as if she’d heard something outrageous.
“You blabbed my secret to the Draco lady without permission last time. This is your chance to smooth it over and rebuild the trust you broke. You should be grateful I’m giving you the opportunity to do me a favor.”
Stella spoke as if I should be thankful for the chance to help her. Self-centered thinking at this level was practically mastery.
But Mirna Draco wasn’t here today.
Meaning I didn’t need to go low to provoke her guilt.
“To begin with, if we’re talking about who was wrong first, wasn’t it you who intruded into my bedroom without permission? At that point, trust was already off the table, wasn’t it?”
“……”
Stella shut her mouth at that.
Then, as if wanting to counterattack, she muttered something.
“Theo, you’re different from back then. Is it because Mirna isn’t here?”
“Who knows. Anyway, if you want to be the champion warrior, you’ll need to show some sincerity to me.”
“What, are you telling me to kneel in front of you right now?”
“Who knows.”
“……”
That brought our conversation to a temporary halt.
* * *
As the talk died down and we were just sipping our tea, Stella Belhawk glanced around and grumbled.
“Where are those guys? Did they go make it themselves?”
Then, in the distance, someone came running breathlessly. It was a girl with red hair braided into two pigtails. Her ears sticking out between them were pointed like a fairy’s, but not quite as much as an elf’s.
“Pro…fessor…!”
If anything, her appearance resembled that of nymphs, the eternal friends of girls. But the star-shaped tail swaying behind her hips was different from a nymph’s.
“Professor…! I brought the cake…! I, Tartar, absolutely did not take even one bite first or get delayed by hiding it…!”
The girl was the imp Tartar. Tartar was the star-tailed imp who, not long ago, had plotted something nasty to steal Marmar’s building.
I’d heard she got hired as Professor Stella’s assistant, and sure enough, she seemed to actually be working as one.
On the plate Tartar held out was a chocolate cake, with the edge unnaturally gnawed away.
Probably what Tartar had eaten.
Stella Belhawk wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“Who told you to touch it? This is a limited edition cake I ordered for Theo here. Go buy a new one right now!”
At the elf’s shout, the imp Tartar—who already had a head smaller than average—shuddered.
Then, in a whimpering voice, she said,
“This… this was the last cake…. And I was so hungry…. Yesterday and today, I worked overnight without even going home or eating a single meal…! The wicked professor has to provide meals as promised…!”
From the looks of it, Imp Tartar was being worked to the bone in all sorts of ways under the cruel elf professor Stella. I’d vaguely expected as much, but seeing it made me feel a bit satisfied yet also sorry for her.
Tartar here was originally a little devil who’d tried to do Marmar wrong.
She was paying for her crimes now, you could say.
But seeing her suffer like this naturally brought to mind Marmar, another imp, stirring up some pity.
“You need a good scolding, huh?”
The cold-hearted Stella grabbed Tartar’s ear—the one who’d touched the food without permission—and yanked it.
Tartar couldn’t overpower Stella, who was stronger and taller, so she flailed on tiptoes in mid-air.
“Hieeek…! Th-this is imp discrimination…! My short imp ears are stretching out like a ganp’s…!”
“Ganp? What did you just say? Ganp? Don’t you know that’s an elf slur? Your hourly wage is docked 300 coins from now on!”
“Aaah, I misspoke…! I’ll never say ganp again…!”
“You just said it again!”
What a madhouse.
To end the commotion, I cleared my throat with an exaggerated ahem.
Then Professor Stella, who’d been tormenting the furious Tartar, let go with a clap of her hands.
“Oh dear, I showed you an unsightly sight, Theo. This is limited edition cake—it’s really delicious. You’re half-fairy, so you must like sweets.”
Stella Belhawk slid the cake—slightly nibbled at the top by Tartar—toward me.
Her decadent charm, laughing with a uhu-hu, was dizzyingly captivating.
But what drew my eyes even more wasn’t Stella’s bralette, but the café floor.
“Hieee….”
My gaze went to Tartar, huddled on the floor, pulling out a hand mirror to peer at her ear.
“I wonder if my ear got stretched out…. My short, cool laurel-leaf imp ear turning into the long ears of those ganps….”
Tartar poked at her swollen red ear, tears welling up.
Seeing her, I couldn’t help but feel extremely sorry for her.
Whether it was pity for close kin like half-fairies and imps, or Angmar’s blood making me fond of subordinate imps, I didn’t know.
In the end, I had no choice but to hand the slice of cake in front of me to her.
“Tartar, you eat this.”
“Aaah…! Is it really okay…?”
Tartar snatched the cake from me, overjoyed. She looked like she had to grab it quick before I changed my mind.
Watching her scurry to her seat and devour it, Stella let out a sigh.
“She’s putting on a pitiful act on purpose, Theo. You’re too soft on imps.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Imps are sly at manipulating people’s emotions. A firm hand is just right. Tweety—.”
Stella whistled sharply, and a massive blue hawk fluttered in from somewhere, dropped something into her palm, and flew off.
It was a long cheroot.
“Sorry, mind if I light up? No smell, and it’s not bad for you.”
“Go ahead.”
Cafés in this world allowed smoking.
Snap—.
Stella flicked her fingers to spark a flame, put the cheroot in her mouth, and puffed out smoke.
Not wanting to just watch, I asked her,
“You seem to know a lot about imps.”
“Don’t you know my major, Theo?”
“Wasn’t it animal health?”
“That’s my minor. My major is fairy studies. So I know a lot about imps, nymphs, elves, and little fairies.”
I see.
Hearing her talk about her major made the arrogant punk from moments ago seem a bit different.
Stella Belhawk’s eyes were fixed on Imp Tartar, wolfing down cake in the corner over there.
Sensing the gaze, Tartar quickly covered her plate.
“Th-this is mine…! Legally and lawfully delegated to Tartar by comrade Theo…!”
Then she turned her back to us and kept eating, like a stray cat awkwardly eating food it barely managed to get from a human.
Nom nom.
“This is the first time I’ve eaten something this delicious…! Even rich imp Marmar surely never tasted anything this good…!”
So pitiful.
In this world, nymphs were treated like pampered house cats, while imps were shunned like wild strays.
There were overly abundant relief foundations and laws for nymphs, but none for imps.
If someone said, “We need to help homeless imps!” they’d get scolded: “How much harm do those imp bastards cause? If you want to help, keep them in your own house!”
「Calm Situation Judgment!
You gain experience from the Talent 《Composed Thinking》.
All Job Experience +5」
My analogy was spot on.
That thought made me suddenly curious about imps. Would a fairy studies professor know?
“Imps originated from nymphs, right? Is that true?”
“Yeah. Though nymphs and imps both deny it.”
“Then why did Solomon create imps?”
“Solomon…”
I could feel Stella Belhawk’s expression darken suddenly. It hit me that she might have seen Demon King Solomon in person.
Stella Belhawk was 132 years old.
The Demon King was active about 50 years ago, so the timeline fit. But Stella tapped her long pipe into the ashtray and shook her head.
“I don’t know much about Solomon either. I was just playing around the mansion back then. You probably know more than me already, Theo.”