Effort Is Not Enough!!
Effort is not enough! Not nearly enough!!
Elga thought about the situation she currently found herself in.
First of all, her social standing as the world saw it was thoroughly ambiguous.
One might ask how anything could be ambiguous when she already held the title of a Grand Duke’s daughter.
But that alone was not enough. The title of young lady only carried weight as far as high society.
Claiming the person she desired was far more important—and far more difficult.
She could fall behind not only the Imperial Princess or the Saintess who occupied seats among the Ten Strongest, but even Tisha if she was careless.
Though a commoner, Tisha possessed the outstanding talent of shamanism.
The Empire was generous to those with ability. Even commoners could become nobles.
If, by any chance, Tisha became a noble, they would all stand on nearly identical starting lines.
This is the part I have to work on somehow.
There was a larger problem still. What kind of relationship she currently had with Kyle.
Every meeting so far had not been as “Kyle and Elga,” but as “the son of John Nassen and the young lady of Litorio.”
Even if she herself did not see it that way, Kyle almost certainly did.
That would not do. There needed to be further progress.
The time spent sitting together over tea and conversation. The reason they exchanged greetings whenever they crossed paths.
It all had to happen as Kyle and Elga, not as the children of their respective noble houses.
What sort of opportunity would be best for drawing closer? How can both of us do it without feeling burdened?
This was something she had been pondering for some time. And, unexpectedly, the answer had been easy to find.
It was the common thread shared by both Tisha and the Saintess. Riding that same wave would not be difficult.
Above all, Kyle himself approached that particular matter with the utmost seriousness!
Creak—.
She opened the door to the indoor training hall and stepped inside.
Those who had been chatting instead of exercising turned their heads.
“…Is that the Litorio princess?”
“What?”
At the academy they were taught that status and family did not matter.
But that was only surface-level; no one truly discarded those things.
They could not. The academy lasted only four years, and the world continued to turn afterward.
Thus the appearance of a young lady from one of only three Grand Duchies in the Empire was always a startling event.
“Junior Elga. What brings you here?”
“Did you come to work out? Well, basic exercise is always good to keep up.”
“Shall we chat for a bit while we warm up simply?”
Casually fending off those who latched onto her the moment they saw her, Elga surveyed the interior.
It was obvious at a glance. Two groups existed inside the indoor training hall.
Those like the ones clinging to her now—people simply riding a brief trend for personal gain—and those farther in who paid no attention whatsoever to her entrance and continued exercising.
Naturally the former far outnumbered the latter.
Rather than exercising for its own sake, they tried to create common ground through the hobby of training, form bonds with that common ground, and take out insurance for later.
Even here they were thinking and acting as though this were merely an extension of high society.
If it were the old me, I might have been just like them.
Internal support ultimately hinged on external evaluation and gazes.
Becoming the head of a house meant dealing with everyone outside it.
In that case it was more advantageous for someone who received favorable evaluations from the outside to take the seat.
But… not now. Yes. Not now.
She had come to understand quite a bit about that man, Kyle John Nassen.
And knowing Kyle as she did, she knew perfectly well which of those two groups he would prefer.
Weekdays or weekends, days he had gone out or days he had not—he trained.
He never rested. He constantly polished himself. He held effort in the highest regard.
Seen through Kyle’s eyes, which group she ought to join if she wanted his favor was painfully clear.
“Lady Elga…”
“Young Lady Litorio…”
She ignored every person who had come to a place of training yet refused to actually train, then walked over and mixed among those who were doing what they were supposed to do.
Most of them were male students, and even at a glance their builds looked solid.
Compared to them Elga’s frame was extremely slender, yet she felt no particular worry.
When it comes to exercise, I actually have some confidence!
She considered it disgraceful for a daughter of a Grand Duchy to do nothing but loiter at parties and flutter fans.
Insisting on carriages, panting after the slightest walk—what sort of noble dignity was that supposed to be?
Living that way she would never become anything. She would not even win the support of her own knight order.
So Elga had pestered the knights until she was put through more than basic physical conditioning.
Her father, the Grand Duke of Litorio, had not particularly tried to stop her.
Those Unsure Where to Begin Must Read This!
Of course she would not commit the foolishness of overestimating herself or growing arrogant.
Right in front of her hung the guidebook Kyle had carefully prepared.
If she wanted to draw closer to that man—if she had already decided to do so—creating a reason he would find pleasing was more important than anything else.
He should be arriving soon.
Just as she carefully began to work with a machine she was seeing for the first time, the door to the indoor training hall finally opened and the person she had been waiting for stepped inside.
“…Haaah.”
A sigh always escaped him whenever he looked at this place, yet today it felt somehow more stifling than usual.
He and Tisha had become… that sort of pair. And yet he had absolutely no intention of acting like a couple inside this sacred gym.
He had left Tisha—who might feel left out—at the library and come alone.
And these people were not doing the exercise they were supposed to do; they were just chattering away with gusto.
I get that this is a romance fantasy. I get that there’s no real reason to train like a maniac. But goddamn it. If that was your plan from the start, why the hell did you even come here? Just fuck off to a café.
He himself had started the trend. There was nothing he could do about that.
And with his stock price soaring, there were more than enough people trying to snatch even the crumbs that fell from the table.
For them, exercise was never the main purpose. Everything was about extracting other benefits.
He knew that. He fully understood it. And still he could not help being irritated.
He wanted to tell them to get out right now, but it was not yet the time. He had to endure.
Yeah. Just hold on a little longer. Once the expansion is finished, this place will be under my management anyway, right?
When that day came he would start with entrance interviews for the gym.
Whether they had truly come out of interest in training, or because they felt a genuine need for it.
Lies would not work. Those who yearned for training or desperately needed health stood out at a glance.
When it came to anything related to “training,” the John Nassen family was unmatched.
Kyle, as a member of that family, possessed that ability as well.
That guy’s out. That bastard and that girl too. …Fuck me. At this rate they’re going to start hugging. Oh, really? Go to hell. You deserve to get smacked with a barbell.
Since Kyle himself was a noble, he tried not to discriminate.
But among the people doing nonsense in the gym, the overwhelming majority were nobles once again.
And not backwater nobles either—young masters and ladies from families that actually carried some weight!
Somehow they seemed to have mistaken this place for somewhere they could do whatever they wanted.
Holding hands, subtly pressing close, then full-on hugging—they pulled every damn stunt imaginable.
The only thing you’re allowed to hug in here is the equipment, you bastards!
Shaking his head, he headed farther inside.
Fortunately, from that point on the true gym-goers were gathered.
Most of them still fit the label “gym newbie,” yet they possessed passion and perseverance.
Yes. Come for reasons like that!
You come to the gym to train. Are you here to ogle people and date?!
Daring to pull that kind of shit in this sacred place of sweat and effort—he could not stand it!
Tap-tap—.
“Um… could you show me how to use this a little?”
“Which machine? Ah, this one. The official name is the lat pull-down, but…”
Without a second’s hesitation Kyle kindly explained the proper use of the machine to the female student.
“You know pull-ups, right? It’s similar. Grip the bar a little wider than your shoulders, and pull it down with the strength of your back rather than your arms…”
Was he instantly kind just because the other person was a woman? As if. Absolutely not.
Anyone who asked about the proper use of a machine deserved kindness—that was the mark of a true gym-goer.
Someone training together with correct form, feeling even greater progressive overload!
There could be no more desirable or beautiful sight than this!!
“….”
To Elga, who had been quietly watching from behind, the scene was not beautiful in the slightest.
Do I need to keep an eye on that girl as well?
The thought crossed her mind for a moment. She discarded it almost immediately.
Both Kyle and the female student were focusing not on each other, but on the moving machine—and on the muscles that controlled it.
Feeling once again just how deep Kyle’s affection for training ran, and praising herself for having proposed the expansion of the indoor training hall, Elga carefully approached the man who had just returned to his spot.
“Um, Kyle.”
“…Oh. Lady Elga? What brings you here?”
“That’s an obvious question. I came to exercise.”
“Exercise? Lady Elga?”
He had never once seen this woman come to the gym to train.
A light of suspicion rose in Kyle’s eyes. An unavoidable reaction.
Just up ahead there were plenty of noble young ladies who claimed they had come to exercise and then spent the entire time chatting.
Disliking physical effort was a common trait that knew no gender.
Knowing that full well, a woman who had never shown her face here before suddenly appeared and declared she had come to work out.
“What’s with that look? It seems like you’re thinking I’m a woman completely unrelated to exercise.”
“…Ah, no. Of course not. It’s just because of the other people…”
Kyle’s gaze drifted toward the students slacking off up front.
Elga gave a short snort and parted her lips.
“I’ve received training from the knights of my house as well. Would you like to see?”
Right then and there Elga dropped into push-ups and performed them without the slightest difficulty.
Not the knee-on-the-ground variety. Full form. Perfect form!
“Oh…”
In that instant her score with him rose sharply.
I can allow her entry to the gym.
Of course the catch was that the score was for her as a member, not as a woman.