Became the Academy Romantic Phantom Thief chapter 115

115 – The Little Mermaid

“This is a sea horse.”

When I only heard about it, I did something, but it was literally a seahorse + carriage.

Such a big seahorse. Even his personality is mellow, and he calmly accepts even a pat on the head.

“You said the destination was the Strait of Dover, right?”

“Yes. Do you know where it is?”

“Sure. Even if they don’t know the land, they know the sea routes.”

Ariel, sitting next to me, skillfully handled the seahorses and held the reins.

“Have you driven it often?”

“Whenever I’m bored, I go out to change my mind. Then, there were many times when her mother scolded her.”

Certainly the queen looks like her coy daughter has a goofy temperament.

Anyway, I thought Ariel was a princess.

She didn’t notice at all because in hindsight she seemed to have a lot of information to guess, but she never actually revealed it.

The mermaid princess that only appeared in fairy tales.

Since she definitely thought so, her beauty, which she had been admiring over and over again, also convinced her.

“Then let’s go. She is close, so she will arrive soon.”

Are you arriving soon? To get from here to the Strait of Dover in front of London, you would have to go around the whole of Britain.

Hey!

The seahorse neighed like a horse, and she began to move forward in the current.

Only then did I understand the meaning of Ariel’s words.

‘No, even if it’s fast, it’s too fast…!’

If you miss the handle by mistake, you will fall out and become a lost child in the deep sea.

I reflect on myself, who vaguely thought of it as a carriage on land.

I’m not kidding, wouldn’t this be worth comparing with the magic engineering train? Or am I making too much fuss because of the simple difference in experience?

Still, as time passed, I got used to the sense of speed to a certain extent, and it got easier.

“Raven.”

“Huh?”

“If you will excuse me, may I ask why you must go home immediately?”

That’s it. It wasn’t a particularly difficult question, so she gave a good answer.

“There are things that must be done.”

“Are you waiting for someone…?”

“Well, even if you say that, it’s not wrong at all.”

If I don’t come to the end, the homeroom teacher will take care of the absence, so if you twist the perspective a little, it’s safe to say that they’re just waiting for me to come.

Hearing her answer, Ariel lowered her head.

“As expected… You already have a lover.”

“… Huh?”

Wait a minute. Did you mean that?

I was at a loss as to what to do with my gloomy appearance, but I also thought that it might be better to leave it misunderstood like this.

A while ago, in the palace, the queen carefully brought out a request.

‘Would you please at least make an engagement with my daughter, Ariel?’

Of course I refused.

An engagement? It may be better than marriage, but in the end, isn’t it a promise to get married someday?

It was the right choice to refuse honestly rather than cheating with lies simply to get over the situation.

Of course, Ariel is pretty and has a good personality, but no matter how much she thinks about it, she seems to have a hard time jumping over the barriers of her race. She didn’t like her enough to want to marry her in the first place.

I wish she would just keep it as an impressive dream she had one night.

The problem is that Ariel seemed to really like me. She is serious about getting married.

She honestly said how long have you met until she married ···?

I wondered if a mermaid’s idea of marriage was quite different from that of a human, but it seemed that he was quite hurt by my resolute refusal.

Even now, even though she is trying hard to pretend that she is okay, she can clearly see that she has withered away.

So, if she mistakenly thinks that I already have an owner so that she can forget about it cleanly and give up…

‘But wouldn’t that end up cheating on Ariel…?’

Ha, I don’t know.

Why such an ordeal for me who only dreams of pure and pure love?

[Quietly give up and accept your fate.]

I absolutely hate it.

The more you say that, the more you realize that only the energy is recharged.

“Isn’t it like that when a mermaid gets sad, it turns into water bubbles?”

“Yes? Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

“Whew…”

She let out a sigh of relief and brushed her chest.

I was at a loss to what to do if, like the ending of a fairy tale, I failed in love and ended up in nothing.

“Raven. Arrived.”

“Huh? Already?”

No, how long since you left did you arrive already?

“I’ll walk you to the water’s edge.”

As before, Ariel is reaching out to me.

She thought about it for a while, but when she got it right, her expression brightened up.

The light gets brighter as you go up. Seeing that it wasn’t dark, it was definitely not the middle of the night.

At the time I thought I was almost there.

Ariel let go of my hand and she waved her hand with a sad smile.

“This is where I am. If you go further, humans might find out.”

“Thank you.”

“No. Rather, I am very grateful. Raven is the hero who saved our Merrow.”

Ariel then took out from her bosom a sparkling pearl larger than her fist.

“Here is the Millennium Pearl.”

“Did you keep holding it?”

“Yes. I should have returned it from the beginning, but… I’m sorry.”

That’s because of the prophecy, so I don’t really care now.

Much larger than normal pearls. I received the Millennium Pearl and put it into my bosom first.

“It’s really goodbye now.”

“Sure. Enter carefully. Don’t forget the whale doll.”

“Yes…”

Ariel’s voice filled with regret.

She’s here, if she drags on for nothing, it will only give her a bad effect. The moment she turned around and was about to leave, she shouted at Ariel and grabbed me and stopped me.

“Raven!”

“Why is that?”

“Can we meet again someday…?”

That was a very vague question. Even if we want to meet again, we both don’t even know the other’s home address, so how can we meet?

At most, it’s just a one-night stand that only knows each other’s names.

“Perhaps. If there is a chance, we will meet again.”

“Until then…”

I’ll wait for you.

The words behind them were scattered like foam in the sea, but they clearly reached my ears.

After saying goodbye to Ariel, I continued towards the mainland.

In the scenery I looked at from the top of the water, I could see the sky at dawn just beginning to break.

***

After coming up to the beach, I moved like crazy to the academy.

Thanks to that, she narrowly managed to arrive within the test time.

It sounds so obvious, but I wasn’t prepared for the exam at all.

It was something I had been prepared for to some extent from the moment I first decided to save the pearl.

But if there’s a problem, it’s probably that I couldn’t even sleep or sigh because I stayed up all night aside from preparing for the exam.

I have been enjoying a great adventure in the deep sea until just before.

Of course, there was no way I could concentrate on the exam in such a bad condition.

Thanks to that, the first class was completely ruined.

I don’t even remember if I solved the problem properly or what the problem was in the first place.

As it’s break time and I’m sitting blankly, a fantastic quartet gathers near me.

“Hey. Be really honest. Didn’t you oversleep?”

“Cro. Your complexion looks really bad. Did something happen?”

I threw out the excuse I had prepared as calmly as possible.

“Actually, I stayed up all night yesterday to study for the test… I couldn’t stand it and fell asleep at the end.”

“Ehh. Are you foolishly late for being late and failing to manage your condition?”

“hahahaha…”

To be honest, I just hit rock bottom because of studying for the test, but there’s no way for them to know right away, so there’s no excuse like this.

Then she came over, Sharon brought her face closer and she started sniffing.

“The smell of salt.”

Flinch. The four words Sharon spat out made goose bumps run down her neck.

I came in with the utmost care not to be seen. How do you know that as soon as you see it?

It is clear that he is a detective from his true nature.

“Huh? The smell of salt?”

“Sniff. Sniff sniff. Now that I think about it, I think it smells a bit salty…”

Hearing that, Yulia and Rachel also tilted their heads in a strange way.

This is dangerous. Unless you hurry up and come up with another excuse.

Or should I rather be honest?

I went all the way to the island of Ireland to look for pearls and almost died. I was grateful that the mermaid saved me, but in fact I was trying to kill the mermaid. I shook off the fact that you liked me and came back.

Even though this all happened in one night.

I’m sure you’ll trust me.

I can never tell the truth. If you do, you will definitely be treated like an idiot.

After thinking about it for a long time, he hesitated.

“That… I heard that salt helps memorize.”

“Eh?”

“It’s the first time I’ve heard of such a thing.”

“What is the source?”

Effortlessly avoiding the burdensome glances of the three, he made numerous excuses.

“I don’t remember exactly, but I heard something like that somewhere, so I just studied while eating salt to wake up just in case. It didn’t mean anything special.”

“Hmm…”

“Cro. Too much salt is bad for you.”

Fortunately, I was able to pass without major problems as if my efforts were not in vain.

“Oh, when the teacher comes to you, go to the office for a long time. Maybe it’s because of the attendance.”

“Ugh… Okay.”

I want to take a little break during this golden break. I can’t help it.

On the way to the teacher’s office after leaving the class with a heavy body.

“Hey. A long time?”

I met another strange guy.