Forced Training (4)
Forced Training (4)
"...... So, you approached us to shake off the other girls?"
Alice spoke with an expression that showed she didn't know whether to laugh or get angry.
The place where we were currently sitting was a nearby restaurant.
Thanks to Jake, who ended up tagging along with our group while we were bickering back and forth as we walked, we needed a table large enough to seat a party of seven all at once, and as a result we ended up seated around a large round table.
We were seated quite far apart from each other, but I thought things had worked out for the better this way. It'd be a little less awkward.
"Honestly, yes."
In the end, Jake, who had revealed his true objective to us in order to lower Charlotte and Alice's guard, barely managed to take a seat. His position was between me and Leo. It was because the other girls were reluctant to sit next to Jake.
Given that the group consisted entirely of kids who were exceedingly diligent by nature, it seemed a punk style like Jake's didn't mesh well with them.
Although Jake himself had top-ranking grades and a diligent personality that saw him train steadily every day. Well, unless someone deliberately paid attention and observed him, that sort of thing naturally went unnoticed.
For reference, the thing Lottie hated most of all was people dismissing Jake. Because Lottie knew better than anyone that Jake was training hard in places no one else saw, she couldn't stand seeing that effort ignored and disparaged.
She was always expressionless and composed, but precisely because of that, she was a character whose emotions weren't completely impossible to read.
"From the moment they got off the train, they were squealing and clinging to me like mad."
Jake let out a deep sigh and said that.
This wasn't the imperial capital, but that didn't mean none of our classmates were around. Ah, though we hadn't spotted any inside the restaurant.
"Well, he is a ducal house's son. And on top of that, he looks like he'd be easy to sway if someone makes a pass at him."
"Your assessment is rather harsh."
Jake said that in response to Alice's evaluation, but he didn't seem like his feelings were hurt.
After all, Jake was a character overflowing with self-assurance. Not in the sense that he was arrogant, but in the sense that he never hesitated in his actions and plans.
And Jake's plans were always directed toward Lottie. Deflecting all the gazes around them and ending up happily living together, just the two of them. That was what Jake wished for.
"Hey, don't be too harsh on him,"
Leo, who had been listening to the story, said.
"Jake must have his own share of troubles."
"...... How would you know anything about his troubles?"
"......."
Because Claire immediately shot back at Leo's words like that, Leo momentarily found himself at a loss for words.
Not that it mattered, but even in the original work, he wasn't described as being wildly popular from the very start. After all, the game was about going through each episode, experiencing each and every bond event, and gradually winning the heroines over.
That absolutely didn't mean Leo's image was being received badly by the party. Even though so far there hadn't been a single other man besides Leo, no one in the party showed resistance to Leo being among them or thought it awkward.
In a sense, you could also call this a harem story's early stage.
"So you approached Sylvia?"
Alice asked Jake that.
I didn't know by what principle, but Alice was able to read my expression. She seemed to have confirmed, at least, that I hadn't fallen for Jake.
"Yeah. Because there aren't other noble girls clinging to Sylvia."
The ones the girls approached weren't only male nobles.
At this point, three weeks into the semester, two groups had already formed within the academy. The fact that factions had split the class even though the class consisted of a mere fifteen members.
Actually, this was unavoidable. Nobles gathered their power around dukes. And those dukes also banded together among themselves to consolidate power.
At this very moment, the emperor was wielding absolute power, but to receive the crumbs of that power or to seize the power itself, one's own strength alone was insufficient.
Either attach yourself entirely to the emperor, or rely on a powerful ducal house nearby. And the best way to do that was to become close with each other from childhood.
Attending school together during one's academy days was part of that process.
As a result, a ducal house's daughter often became a popular figure within the academy for various reasons. Whether someone genuinely liked that girl or not was up to the individual and couldn't be commented on, but apart from that, political aims were included to some extent in those interactions.
And by that logic, a girl named Sylvia Fangriffon should nominally have been one of the people standing at the very pinnacle of power...... but well, weren't there rumors and a certain atmosphere? Almost no girls approached me deliberately.
Thinking about it this way, I felt a little envious of Jake. The thought that I was unpopular with women both when I was a man and after becoming a woman crossed my mind.
...... Well, putting aside such gloomy thoughts for now.
"Even so, to use a person for that kind of purpose......"
However, she still seemed displeased about the fact that he'd tried to use her friend for that kind of aim.
And, to be honest, that sentiment touched me a little.
I hadn't really done anything special since entering the academy. All I'd done was tag along when they went around and eat meals together.
Even so, how happy it made me that they treated me as one of the group for the time being. And they were characters from the game I'd loved, at that.
On top of that, from Charlotte's standpoint, I wasn't even someone particularly pleasant to look upon.
"It's fine,"
I said to Charlotte.
"No particular harm was done, so I don't mind much."
"See, I told you."
Even though I'd gone to the trouble of defending him, Jake deliberately added one more word and drew everyone's glares.
"That kind of talk—"
Alice was about to say something to that Jake,
"The meals you ordered have arrived."
and then cut herself off mid-sentence upon hearing the somewhat stiff voice of a server.
"......."
Clatter, clatter. Several servers set down the meals we'd ordered between us.
There was no separate menu. At this restaurant, it seemed the morning, lunch, and dinner menus were fixed. Since it was a place that also ran an inn catering to business travelers, the menu was probably set in stone......
"......."
Including Charlotte and Alice, the people seated around the table suddenly fell silent.
"Well then, enjoy your meal."
The server, despite seeing our expressions, gave that greeting as if it were nothing and returned to the counter.
"Uh......."
Even Jake, who until just moments ago had been speaking casually with a sly expression, had a look on his face that said he didn't know what to say upon seeing this food.
"So, this is."
I followed the other kids and looked at the food that had arrived at my place.
At a glance, its shape looked like an extremely fat sausage. Honestly, it was closer to the shape of a ball than a sausage, but since sausages were a regional food of the empire in this world's setting, that wasn't strange.
Although, calling it a sausage was still a bit odd for this food.
"It's haggis."
At my words, everyone looked at me, then looked back down at the food.
It was a dish that had been quite famous among the English foods I'd known before coming to this side. It seemed like people from various European countries considered it 'bizarre food'......
Fundamentally, this world setting was a baseless fantasy, but it still made an effort to roughly match up the locations of things like regional cuisine. Since it was the 'north' of a country that had 'England' as its motif, it seemed Scotland had been the motif here.
While everyone was staring at the food without saying a word, I picked up a fork and knife.
Well, it was still much better than some other bizarre foods appearing.
I'd never eaten haggis myself, but I'd still heard the rumors. Along with black pudding, haggis was supposed to be a food that was passably edible by Korean standards.
The taste was said to be like a mixture of sundae and sundae parts, salted and pressed together.
I'd get to taste something like home for the first time in a long while.
*
"So......."
I ate it with relish; Alice, Claire, and Leo managed to finish it more or less; Jake and Mia left a little; and Charlotte couldn't even finish half of her food.
"...... Is northern cuisine all like this?"
It was Charlotte, who hadn't been able to bring herself to say anything about the food in the middle of the restaurant. She especially wouldn't have been able to say anything since I'd been eating it quite deliciously.
She could go on about bread, saying the empire's was worse, but this dish wasn't even in the same category as bread to begin with.
Charlotte, who had learned manners as a royal, would know well how foolish it was to disparage a region's native food.
"There is bread in the north too."
"That's a relief......."
At my reply, Charlotte let out a heartfelt sigh.
Normally the mention of having to eat the empire's tasteless bread would have displeased her, but it seemed Charlotte felt that at least it was better than haggis.
Well, since Belbur's motifs were France and Belgium, it couldn't be helped.
I'd actually heard that France had its own foul-smelling sausages too, but there seemed no need to point that out here.