My Girlfriend Is Too Capable
Since that day, Seron had returned to her usual self.
"Hey, Lightning Sweet Potato. Give me your pudding."
"Finish yours first before you start eyeing mine."
Her appetite had fully recovered, to the point where she was trying to steal my pudding during lunch. Doing silly, slightly dimwitted things—this was the Seron I knew.
"Your pendant... it's gone."
Seron glanced at my collar as she spoke. Just as she noted, I didn't carry the pendant when I was disguised as Hanon. I didn't want to give her any reason to misunderstand.
"I lost it."
"Hmm."
Seron didn't press further and went back to eating her pudding. But I wasn't blind to the faint, lingering melancholy that occasionally drifted into her eyes. If anything, it made her seem just a little more mature than before.
A broken heart, is it?
I had unintentionally rejected her. I wasn't sure if it was right for me—someone who wasn't the real Vikamon she remembered—to reject her on his behalf, but the Vikamon of the present was me.
As for the real Vikamon...
I had no way of knowing where he was. Whether his soul had simply vanished, or if he had somehow ended up in my original body on Earth. Since I couldn't know, I had no choice but to live as Vikamon. That was why I couldn't give Seron a proper answer.
Around the time things with Seron settled down, the boycott group grew significantly larger than before. At this rate, it was about time.
"Vikamon, someone wants to sponsor our boycott."
I figured it was time for them to take the bait. I turned my head toward Roizen, the leader of the boycott.
"Who is the sponsor?"
"It's a secret from the others."
Roizen seemed to have been sworn to absolute secrecy.
"It's the Third Princess."
The Third Princess, Iris Highsirion. Roizen carefully read my expression after mentioning her name. I had previously told him the reason for my anger—he remembered my vow to overthrow the student council to avenge Nikita's death. That was likely why he was being so cautious around me.
"Vikamon, I feel bad about this. After all, you're the main reason our boycott managed to grow this big."
Still, the sponsorship Iris offered must have been an astronomical sum that Roizen couldn't easily ignore. He was desperate to bring down the student council. Although he claimed it was for the greater good, Roizen had his own personal motives.
Revenge.
Roizen was originally a noble. However, the Drapen family, one of the four ducal houses, had dismantled his family for some reason. In the end, he lost his title, his home, and even his family name. Naturally, Roizen harbored a deep-seated resentment toward the Drapen family, which was now directed entirely at the Student Council President, Sylvester Drapen. Just as his own family had been ruined, he wanted to ruin the president with his own hands. It was a dark, ugly desire, but he kept it hidden as he looked at me.
"So, I decided to reject her offer."
...Excuse me? What on earth is he talking about?
"...Why reject it?"
"I told you. You're the one who made this boycott possible."
Roizen turned to me, his face filled with a solemn sense of duty.
"Vikamon... to be honest, I originally started this boycott out of a petty desire for revenge against the Drapen family."
He confessed exactly what I had just been thinking.
"And you, like me, stood up against the student council out of a desire to avenge Nikita. Watching you made me realize something."
Roizen clenched both fists tightly.
"We have to make this boycott succeed through our own strength."
He believed the boycott would only have true meaning if they achieved it themselves, without relying on outside help.
"If I were alone, I would have gladly taken the Third Princess's hand. But since we have all of us, we don't need to. More than anything, I'm no longer driven solely by revenge."
He looked up at the night sky, his eyes shining like a boy chasing a dream.
"The current student council is corrupt. I am going to correct it."
Roizen looked back at me, his gaze brighter than ever.
"Vikamon, with you by my side, I know we can do this."
I felt a sudden wave of dizziness.
I had prepared this boycott meticulously to fit the scenario. Perhaps I had prepared too meticulously.
Roizen, the boycott leader, had just undergone a protagonist-style awakening.
I stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. Why did he have to choose this exact moment to find his resolve?
"Roizen."
I had no choice.
"I understand how you feel."
I had to reverse-persuade him.
"But if you're rejecting the Third Princess's offer on my account, there's absolutely no need."
"But Vikamon, the Third Princess is..."
"Yes, she is responsible for Nikita's death. But I know the truth behind it. It wasn't the Princess's will; it was the doing of her faction."
I let a fierce determination to avenge Nikita flare in my eyes.
"The student council is just the first step. As you said, I must make this boycott succeed to get revenge for Nikita. Even if I have to sell my soul to the devil, I will have my vengeance."
I was willing to hold hands with the Third Princess herself if it meant achieving that goal. Seeing my unyielding resolve, Roizen clenched his fists and choked back tears.
"...Vikamon, you magnificent bastard!"
Roizen looked like the emotional protagonist of a youth drama.
"Alright. If that's how you feel, I'll do as you say."
I let out a quiet sigh of relief. Thank goodness Roizen was simple-minded.
"This works out perfectly. I was actually scheduled to meet with the Third Princess's retainer tonight."
Roizen suggested we go together. I had originally planned to send him alone, but seeing the dangerous direction his thoughts had taken today made me uneasy.
"Sure, let's do that."
I decided to accompany him. I needed to keep a close eye on him so he wouldn't ruin everything.
The place Roizen led me to was a park behind the abandoned building. Since Jerion Academy boasted extensive landscaping, it had numerous parks. The one we visited had very few lights, giving it a distinctly eerie atmosphere at night. It was what people commonly called a haunted spot.
"Brr, it's a bit chilly."
Roizen shivered in the spooky atmosphere. As we waited, a presence began to make itself known in the distance.
Click, clack. The sound of heels stepping on the grass echoed through the quiet air. Soon, a girl with peach-colored hair emerged from the shadows. It was Hania Lepiddia. She had come here on Iris's behalf.
Of course Hania would be the one to show up.
She had volunteered for this task to ensure that if anything went wrong, she would take the fall instead of Iris. She looked at Roizen first, but her gaze quickly shifted to me. Her head tilted slowly to the side.
"And you are...?"
"Ah, this is Vikamon Niflheim," Roizen introduced me on my behalf.
Hania certainly knew my name. Her confusion was entirely justified; she couldn't understand why I was here. After all, I had technically been expelled from Princess Iris's faction for causing trouble.
Just then, a breeze blew toward Hania. Feeling the wind, her nose twitched, and her eyes gradually widened. She stared at me in silence, her gaze suddenly sharp and piercing.
"Roizen."
A faint, chilling trace of bloodlust carried on the night wind. Sensing it, Roizen instinctively shrank back.
"Could you give us a moment alone?"
Roizen looked at me. The guy really seemed to view me as a true friend. When I gave him a reassuring nod, he quietly stepped back.
"Uh, sure. You two talk."
Roizen sensed the tense atmosphere, but he trusted me enough to leave us be. He walked away, his footsteps fading as he left the park. Before long, only Hania and I remained.
I could guess why Hania wanted to speak with me alone. Vikamon had been cast out by Iris. On top of that, there was the recent incident with Nikita. A clever girl like her would easily put two and two together and assume Vikamon was here as Iris's enemy.
"Hanon, what are you doing here?"
...Excuse me?
My eyes blinked in surprise. I hadn't expected her to utter that name, and my face went blank with bewilderment.
"...Hanon? What are you talking about?"
I tried to play dumb. Hania let out a sigh and scrunched up her nose.
"The scent on your body is Princess Iris's. For it to be that strong, it's impossible unless you slept in the same bed with her."
Belatedly panicking, I sniffed my wrist. But my nose couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary.
Wait, I showered thoroughly after morning training.
Besides, the night I spent with Iris wasn't even today—it was yesterday. I was wearing completely different clothes, too.
How could the scent possibly still linger?
What kind of superhuman nose did she have? Her obsession with Iris was starting to terrify me.
"And you have that tool that lets you transform into anyone, don't you?"
I had disguised myself as Hania before. Because of that, she was able to connect the dots even when I appeared as Vikamon. There was no one else in the world who would carry such a distinct scent of Iris.
I didn't see this coming.
To be precise, Vikamon was my actual body in this world, and Hanon was the disguise. But since people operate based on the information first imprinted in their minds, she hadn't realized that part.
"So," Hania said, crossing her arms with a slightly displeased expression. "What on earth are you thinking, showing up here looking like that?"
From the look Roizen and I had exchanged earlier, Hania had already figured out that I had been involved with the boycott for a long time. This only added to her confusion. Her eyes practically demanded to know why I would ever join such a group.
"...Wait."
A thought seemed to strike her, and she narrowed her eyes.
"Hanon, did Princess Iris tell you something?"
I had slept by Iris's side to help ease her nightmares. Since Hania had been staying in the male dormitory in my place at the time, she didn't know what Iris and I had discussed. Iris wasn't the type to open up to others easily. However, since I was supposedly her cousin "Hanon" and we had grown incredibly close recently, it was highly possible she had told me about the orders she received from Duke Robliaju.
"No, she didn't tell me anything."
I denied it for now. It would only cause a headache if our stories clashed later. However, my denial didn't sound very convincing to her.
"...Sigh, if you're going to play dumb, at least do a better job of it. Anyone can see you're doing this to help Princess Iris."
I had a track record of saving Iris from the assassination attempt involving Nikita. Since most of my actions had ultimately benefited Iris, Hania had jumped to her own conclusion. She assumed I had organized the boycott group entirely for Iris's sake. To be fair, a part of it actually was for her, so I couldn't exactly argue.
Hania stared at me for a moment before crossing her arms again, emphasizing her chest, though I made sure to keep my eyes strictly on her face.
"Fine. Vikamon, tell me what your plan is. I'll cooperate accordingly."
Hania was willing to do absolutely anything for Iris. Just like that, I had gained an incredibly capable ally in my "girlfriend."