Unwanted Attention, an Unexpected Turn (2)
Less than an hour after lunch, Lia complained that she was hungry, so we stopped for snacks together. After we returned to the mansion, I sat down at the desk in my room and opened Original Note, the notebook where I kept information about the novel.
“Let’s see, the entrance ceremony part was...”
After flipping ahead about seven pages, I found the section marked [Bern Academy Entrance Ceremony].
There was a lot written there, but to sum it up, it went like this:
[Stella, having taken first place among the incoming students with overwhelming scores, steps down from the podium right after taking the freshman representative oath. Then her gaze meets Edwin’s, and the two of them—standing face-to-face with entirely opposite atmospheres—begin to take notice of one another in a strangely conscious way.]
It was an old-fashioned setup, this business of the heroine and hero noticing each other and flinching in surprise, but then again, there was a reason the classics endured. It was, in every sense, the textbook opening of a romance novel.
...I caught myself drifting into useless thoughts and shook them away. This was no time to be admiring the original story’s opening.
I picked up my pen and added a note underneath: [Lia, who took first place in Stella’s place, and I, who came in second, caused a scene at the entrance ceremony.]
[As a result, the story veered off course, and Lia and I ended up meeting Edwin instead of Stella.]
“Hmm.”
I tapped the notebook with the pen in my hand. Writing it out like that made it painfully clear that things had already gone off the rails right from the start.
That was only natural, really, since we had interrupted the original story’s first major event—the one that caused Edwin and Stella to become sharply aware of each other: a private conversation between Student Council President Edwin and the incoming valedictorian, Stella.
If I tried to make excuses for that, I could probably go on all day, but that wasn’t the point right now.
Today, Lia and I had met Edwin and struck a deal. The terms were simple: in exchange for dealing with Edwin’s long-standing wish—what we had described as a complete “root-and-branch cleanup” of corruption—we would receive his tacit approval of Lia’s and my actions.
It might sound like nothing much, but in truth it was a tremendous gain. So long as we did our jobs properly, the Student Council President, who held power enough to do anything he pleased, would have our backs. It would also be a huge help with Lia and my shared goal of rooting out the church’s believers.
Yes, it was clearly a major help—but why had Edwin been the first to propose a deal like this?
When he first found out that our talk of corruption cleanup was just a convenient façade, and that we actually had another purpose in mind, I had thought we were in real trouble. But instead of pressing us, Edwin had offered us a deal that would benefit both Lia and me.
He said that if we faithfully carried out the purpose we had put forward as our public rationale, he would overlook everything else we did.
No matter how I looked at it, the conditions were far too favorable for us.
“...Could Edwin already know there’s a member of the church inside Bern Academy?”
If that were the case, everything would make perfect sense. But Edwin was so good at keeping a poker face that I couldn’t read anything from his expression.
The guy who always turned into a big, flustered dog whenever Stella was around—I had no idea why he looked so solemn when he was with us. It would’ve been nice if his face had given something away.
“Hmmm.”
I crossed my legs and propped my chin on my hand. It was something I’d felt for a long time, but this world really wasn’t as easy as it looked.
Unlike the kind of fantasy romance story where everything always unfolded to the original leads’ advantage, Lia and I had endless variables scattered across our path.
Today alone proved it. Who would have imagined that, while we were eating in the dining hall, some thug would show up and demand our badges?
It was only because I happened to be beside Lia that nothing worse came of it. Just thinking about what might have happened if she’d been alone made me shudder.
“...No, this won’t do.”
After spending seven years at Lia’s side, I had softened a little, and my guard had become looser than it should have been. Starting today, I needed to harden my resolve again and watch over every move she made.
Having made up my mind, I closed the notebook and was about to go find Lia when a word caught my eye: Stella.
“Ah.”
So much had happened in just a few hours that I’d momentarily forgotten about it, but seeing Stella’s name made the question spring to mind all at once.
Come to think of it, what had she been doing?
According to the original story, at the same time Lia and I were meeting Student Council President Edwin, the heroine Stella should have been creating that strange atmosphere with Edwin in our place.
Where, exactly, had she been, and what had she been doing?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
At roughly the same time, in Bern Academy’s library.
Most of the first-years had already gone back to the dormitories or returned home, but Stella sat in a corner of the library, thinking of someone who was neither in one of those places nor anywhere else she wished to be.
That someone was none other than—
...Cain.
Cain Reinhardt, who was terribly curious about Stella’s circumstances.
A second-ranker by only a single step, yet he had used the entrance ceremony like his own personal stage and stolen every last bit of attention that should have been hers. What a hateful man.
Cain Reinhardt, the third son of the Reinhardt family...!
Gnash.
Before she knew it, her teeth ground together.
That third son of some little-known baron’s house—wherever he had rolled out from—had not only taken second place, but then shamelessly gone off to meet Student Council President Edwin and even chatted with him afterward.
If it hadn’t been for him, I would have been second place, and I could have met the Student Council President and made my presence known.
Stella truly believed this, and she simply could not forgive the shameless thief named Cain Reinhardt.
If he was merely another member of an obscure baronial family, then he should have known his place and stayed in it. How dare he not understand his own standing and try to obstruct her fated meeting with the imperial crown prince?
It was obvious. He had probably seen the crown prince’s beauty and developed filthy thoughts, then approached him with a plan from the very start.
“...You little—”
Stella continued the line of reasoning that Cain would have been horrified to hear and deny, then reached for a book titled Understanding Elemental Magic.
I’ll take my revenge...
Already having decided that Cain Reinhardt was a vile, depraved sodomite, Stella declared vengeance.
That vengeance would take the form of defeating Cain Reinhardt in a duel, stripping him of his Student Council position, and claiming that place for herself.
If she did that, she would be able to save the Student Council President from Cain’s grasp, where he clearly had no intention of hiding his obscene desires. And as a bonus, her fated meeting with the Student Council President would finally come to pass.
“Chapter One, the simplest and most effective kind of elemental magic is...”
In the empty library, Stella began reading the opening lines of a book whose difficulty seemed more suited to someone in their second year, and silently made a vow.
Cain Reinhardt...!
She would absolutely get revenge on that treacherous bastard.
...Cain had no idea of this, not even in his dreams.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Ah, forget it.”
I leaned my chin on my hand for a while, thinking, then shook my head. I hadn’t even properly seen her face to begin with, so how was I supposed to know?
Bern Academy was structured a little like a blend of a modern high school and university, so unless we had shared a general lecture, there was no real chance to see the people in other majors.
In other words, the only time I had been in the same space as Stella today had been the twenty minutes of orientation. There was no way to know anything more than that.
I uncrossed my legs and tapped the notebook lightly.
“Well, she probably had her own reasons.”
Lia and I had already pushed the story far off course by taking first and second place, so maybe she had gone to the library in line with her original characterization as a studious person.
There was no answer to be found by worrying over it, so I decided to stop thinking about it. And then one of the clichés from a fantasy romance novel suddenly came to mind.
...
You know how, in those kinds of novels, the original heroine sometimes develops jealousy toward the villainess who stole her place and resolves to take revenge?
Could it be that Stella was burning with resentment toward Lia?
“No, no way...”
Even if the original story described her as somewhat prone to jealousy, Stella was fundamentally a broad-minded woman. She’d even loved the Empire’s first crown prince, Edwin von Edward, despite his obnoxious personality.
So she wouldn’t go mad with revenge like some fantasy romance cliché and plot to harm Lia.
“Yeah, that’s probably right.”
With that conclusion, I turned the page in my notebook. Since the subject had come up, I might as well check the events scheduled for tomorrow, too.
[March 3. The day after the entrance ceremony.]
[While conducting practical training designed around battles against the various monsters lurking across the continent, Edwin—who accompanied them in the role of supervisor—will discover a hidden chamber in a cave together with Stella.]
[That place, which appears at first glance to be a simple altar, is in fact an important site where Stella is tested as a “Saintess,” recognized as such, and further given a clue to the location of the holy sword “Caliburn,” prepared for the guardian knight who will protect the Saintess.]
[The incident I have arbitrarily named “Saintess Awakening” will become the reason Edwin and Stella are inevitably entangled from that point on, and it will establish itself as a crucial link connecting the two even after they graduate from the academy...]
Bang!
“Cain! What are you doing?”
“...”
I was so focused on the information I’d written down that I jumped in surprise. But just because I was startled didn’t mean I had to show it; that was the sort of mistake only an amateur would make.
Keeping my poker face, I calmly closed the notebook and slid it onto the bookshelf. Then, with a slight frown, I said to Lia, “Lady Lia, you forgot to knock again.”
“Ah, did I? Sorry, I keep forgetting things these days.”
“There are things you can forget and things you can’t. How do you forget to knock? What if I’d been changing clothes?”
“Huh? I mean... th-that would be good, wouldn’t it?”
“...”
What on earth was supposed to be good about that?
Seeing Lia blush to the tips of her ears over a question like that, I was about to launch into a lecture, but I decided against it. It would only hurt my mouth to keep talking.
“Anyway, what brings you to my room?”
“Oh, right. Cain, let’s go out and have some fun!”
“Go out and have fun? Lady Lia, have you forgotten that practical training is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon?”
“...Ah, was it?”
Lia murmured in embarrassment, with a face that said, Oops!
I stared at her, then crossed my arms by myself.
I distinctly remembered making a schedule and handing it to her, and she’d forgotten it that quickly. This was no good. It seemed I needed to give the slackened Lia a little dose of tension.
“Lady Lia, let’s go.”
“Go? Where? Wait, you mean to go have fun together?”
“No. I’m not talking about going out to play. I’m talking about going to train. You have no other plans today, and plenty of time, do you not?”
My training methods, heavily influenced by my master, were, without question, Spartan.
Lia, who had spent so long with me that she knew this very well, started backing away.
“...C-Cain. Sorry, but I just remembered I really do have something urgent to take care of, so today I can’t train, ka—kya!”
Before she could escape, I slipped a hand behind her knees and lifted her off the floor in one smooth motion. Lia let out a shrill cry and clutched my coat tightly with eyes like a startled rabbit.
“C-Ca-ca-ca-Cain?! What are you doing!”
“If I didn’t do this, you’d just run away, wouldn’t you?”
“I-I won’t run! I won’t, so just put me down already!”
“No. Not until we reach the training grounds.”
She would pay for interrupting my thoughts, and she would pay thoroughly, in body.
With that meaning in mind, I looked at Lia steadily.
...Her cheeks turned red.
“Now then, let’s go.”
“Mm, mm-hmm...”