Happy Free Time (1)
Gone without a trace was the gentle face she had worn at the shelter. Hoyeon was looking this way again, her eyes once more full of murderous intent and venom. The moment she recognized me, her expression seemed to soften a little—but what mattered far more was the simple fact that she had walked out of Georg's class.
How had she gotten out?
Had she known a mana breathing technique? It was plausible enough. The children of central nobles, or royalty, usually knew either magic or a mana breathing method—one or the other. That a princess would have learned mana breathing was not especially strange.
Compared to magic, which depended entirely on talent, a mana breathing technique was something you could reliably master if you threw enough money and time at it. Still… did the Eastern Continent even have mana breathing techniques?
No. It did not. Things involving mana had never even been described over there.
Wondering if I had missed something, I ran through what I knew of the Eastern Continent's setting.
There had been no holy power to suppress monsters at all, so A-rank beasts strolled around the hills behind ordinary villages as if they owned the place. The mana needed to fight such creatures, or to cast magic, was almost nonexistent. From the descriptions alone, it had looked like a demonic wasteland no human could possibly survive in.
In reality, of course, they had been prosperous enough to prepare for a war of conquest. Even their rank-and-file soldiers had all been beastkin, each of them packing power on par with—or outright exceeding—a mana breathing practitioner.
Looking at it that way, the balance was broken beyond all reason. But that was a problem for another day.
Worrying about it now would not produce any clever solution, and if I failed to connect with the heroines, the worry would be meaningless anyway. For the moment I needed to focus on keeping the original story on track and building up my own strength.
Having refreshed my knowledge of the original that way, I looked at Baek Hoyeon again. She did not look as if she needed mana breathing or magic at all.
She was a beastkin—so she had probably just forced her way out with raw strength. Whether in the East or over here, beastkin were consistently described as absurdly powerful. That explanation felt more believable.
Whatever the truth, she was still dangerous to approach. The incident with Anastasiya at lunchtime had proven as much. If at all possible, she was an irregular who needed to be written out of the story.
For some reason she seemed to regard me with goodwill, but the risk of acting on such an uncertain feeling was far too high.
If I managed to win her over properly, I might erase the events of Part Two altogether. If I failed, though, those same events would only arrive sooner. Rather than gamble the entire continent on that coin flip, it was better to grind forward the hard way toward results I could be sure of.
"Ah, so it is you. Have you lost your way?"
Whether she could read my thoughts or not, she spoke up as if nothing were amiss. That black, aura-like presence still poured off her, but there was no venom or hostility in her words. There was no need to explain what I had been doing out here, so I played along just enough.
"Yes. The paths are rather complicated."
"Hmm. Hmm. So you too, then. Good—I am not the only one who has wandered."
She had marched off with such confidence that I had assumed she was heading straight for the gymnasium. I never imagined she had set out without even knowing where the gymnasium was.
At this point, the Academy really ought to put up some campus maps.
I had researched everything in advance, so I knew where things were—but if Iris from the original story, Hoyeon, and any number of other students all managed to get lost, something was clearly wrong with the layout.
Watching her smile so faintly, as if something had put her in a good mood, I felt my resolve waver for a second.
Hypothetically speaking… maybe she could be won over?
"Very well… Have you eaten the bread?"
So she was still thinking about that. I had taken her for the type who did not care what became of other people, but she had an unexpectedly considerate side.
I still did not understand why someone like that had locked horns with Anya so hard. I had not known her long, but she was a thoroughly inconsistent person.
People like that were usually exhausting to deal with. The moment that thought landed, I got a grip on myself. She seemed emotionally unstable—so I would cut my losses cleanly. Women like that were usually dangerous.
"Yes. Thanks to you, I ate my fill."
There was no need to admit the truth—that it had barely registered as a snack. I simply gave her the answer she wanted. Maybe it was because she was a beastkin, but her feelings showed immediately on her face.
The way her tail stood straight up, for instance…
…
…I wanted to believe that was how she expressed joy. But she had held her tail exactly like that while talking to Anya, too.
That left two possibilities. Either she had been in a good mood even while radiating murderous intent at a complete stranger like Anya—or she had been in a foul mood both then and now, and for some reason was only pretending otherwise when dealing with me.
Either way, she was still too dangerous to get close to.
Hearing that he had enjoyed the bread I gave him put me in a good mood for no real reason. He never actually said it tasted good, but if he said he was full, that was close enough.
A long time ago I had offered to treat a friend to a meal and gotten back, If you're buying, I wouldn't even take a steak. After that I had only ever been the one being treated, so I had never known how this felt. Buying something for someone else, even like this, left me with a strangely complicated feeling.
I had told that friend that if he would not accept food from me, he should at least stop stealing drinks from my fridge—only for him to insist that that was different from being treated. His face floated up in my mind for a moment.
He had been an irritating guy, but he had also been my only conversation partner.
Even when I got into university, he had said something halfway between a taunt and congratulations—Figures you'd end up at a place like that. I might have been missing him a little.
Anyway, there was no point in holding a latecomer any longer, so I decided to send him on his way. Master would forgive him generously enough, but that did not make being late acceptable.
"Very well. If you have eaten your fill, that is enough. I have delayed you needlessly. You are late—go on at once."
I had thought the conversation was over and he would simply leave, but Han Dogeon still had something to say. He called me back.
"Your Highness. May I ask one thing?"
"Princess? You may call me by name. Humbling yourself is well and good, but within the Academy are we not all students alike?"
Being treated with that much formality was awkward in its own way. Receiving the deference due a superior even outside my homeland pricked my conscience more than a little.
And knowing he was the protagonist only made it worse. The idea of this polite young man having no filter whatsoever in bed created a sense of dissonance so vast I almost short-circuited.
"…Then, Hoyeon?"
No. Absolutely, categorically, no. That was definitely not right.
"Th… that is rather too familiar, is it not…?"
Even I could tell I was being completely inconsistent, but hearing a man call my name so freely made the tiger spirit I had just managed to settle stir again.
It was not that I hated hearing it. It was just… like that. I did not know how to explain it either. I felt bad for being so picky, but coming from a face like his, that kind of casual address just felt… creepy?
"Then I'll call you Lady Hoyeon."
"Yes, that much should be fine."
"Yes, Lady Hoyeon. Then I have one question. During class… you weren't insulted or rebuked by the professor, were you?"
Being spoken to formally again was basically the same as before, but this level felt about right. That said, what a strange question. As if Master would ever do something like that.
"I know not why you would ask such a thing of a sudden, but no. Not at all."
"Then I'm relieved… He's infamous for any number of reasons. He's the man who once beat the Empire's Crown Prince senseless for having no manners, so I was worried something might have gone wrong."
Why was he worrying about that? What a strange guy.
And he had beaten the Crown Prince senseless for being rude? Master's teaching methods were a little rough, and he did look scary, but he was a kind man. That could not be true.
Clearly some ill-mannered punk of a noble had mouthed off to Master, gotten disciplined for it, and then—still failing to learn his lesson—spread malicious rumors. That had to be it.
Rumors always grew exaggerated and twisted as they spread. Still, beating the Crown Prince senseless was an absurd exaggeration.
Noble society really was a nest of underhanded schemes. Master had surely taken up the rod only because he had no choice, for that punk's own good—and those same nobles had seized on it to smear him. The sheer pettiness of it made me shudder.
"I know not why you would worry over such a thing… but I shall thank you nonetheless."
I was not so shameless as to snap who are you to worry about me at someone who was genuinely concerned for my sake.
When I offered my thanks, Dogeon's expression twisted for a moment—then he, too, bid farewell and stepped into the gymnasium.
Ah, right. I had meant to ask where the library was. Am I an idiot?
Dogeon had gotten lost and wandered through the entire fourth period himself, so he probably would not have been much help anyway.
That aside—I had been feeling a gaze on me for a while now. It was similar to the one Golden Sun had fixed on me, but subtly different.
Golden Sun's stare had been the crushing weight of someone itching for a fight. This one was more like a cultist on a street corner, scanning passersby in the hope of snagging an easy mark.
I had felt it from the moment my conversation with Dogeon began and had ignored it, assuming it would leave soon enough. It showed no sign of going anywhere.
Uneasy, I glanced around to see who kept staring at me—but there was no one nearby. Only the trees stirring in the wind. No human presence at all.
And yet someone was definitely watching me. I wanted to shout, but class was in session, and I was too scared for that. So I spoke in a small voice instead.
"…Show yourself at once."
As if anyone would actually come out just because I said that. I was probably just not feeling well and imagining things. Feeling a flash of genuine paranoia—actually believing for a second that someone was there—made me feel pathetic.
And what kind of line was show yourself at once, anyway? As if a thief would stop just because you yelled freeze.
I let out a quiet sigh and started walking.
"…I never expected you would actually find me."
There really had been someone there.