176 – Doubt (6)
Damien filled a plate with thick meat and said as he looked at Olivia, who was standing next to him holding an equally plateful.
“Why do you keep following me?”
I couldn’t attend class with him, but when I had free time, like lunch, I ran to Damien.
Olivia went to the art department and accompanied Damien to her student cafeteria.
“I have to pretend to be friends with you because my fiancé gets mad.”
“….”
Even if he showed signs of discomfort, when he said something that brought up his fiancé, Damien reluctantly agreed and moved on, even if he didn’t know why.
Olivia tried her hand at following him around in her scantily clad clothes, occasionally revealing parts of her body, but Damian didn’t seem very interested.
Since he was a man like a rock, he was at a loss as to how to find a strategy. All she did was show her face often.
“Don’t I have a private life too?”
“Okay, do whatever you want. “We just need to be together when everyone else sees it.”
When Damien found an empty table and sat down, Olivia sat across from him.
He put the meat in his mouth with a dull attitude, as if he was just providing the necessary nutrients rather than enjoying the taste.
“But are you eating alone? “Do you have any friends?”
“Yes, none.”
“Why? It seems like all the other freshmen have settled in and settled in, so why are you alone? Have you ever done something that made you feel ostracized? “Are you saying you confessed to a girl in public or something like that?”
“I’m just comfortable being alone.”
From Noble mtl dot com
Then Damian’s eyes turn to behind Olivia. She followed suit and turned her head, catching her eye on a girl with short hair.
It was a face I had seen before somewhere.
From what she remembers, she was known to be quite famous in the theater and dance clubs thanks to her pretty face.
‘Is it Treeza…? ‘What was it?’
The eyes of the surrounding boys are subtly focused on the girl.
And because she was one of the new students that Rus Kus had his eye on, he remembered her face.
‘No way.’
She seemed like a blunt and emotionless person, but Damien also seemed to be a man.
“Are you sure that girl…?” .”
“Please stay still.”
Damian cut him off, took out his notebook from his arms, and gently covered the side of Gon’s face.
“… ?”
Immediately, a bright voice rang out from behind me.
“Damian!!”
She closed her eyes tightly and opened them, as if she was a little tired of Damian.
The girl from before came to her with slow steps, lowered her body and rested her chin on the table.
Then he looked at Damian and said with a bright smile.
“Damian! “It was here!”
Damian said, taking down her note covering her face.
“… “What happened?”
“Unlike usual, you are not eating alone today, are you?”
Then she glanced up at Olivia and said.
“Who is this person?”
“I know a senior. “She agreed to help with the mock sparring.”
“You are a good person! “I’m Trisha.”
“Oh, Olivia.”
“Nice to meet you!”
When the girl looked at Damian, her eyes were sad, but when she looked at Olivia, her wariness was subtly revealed.
Damian pointed out something while looking at her Trisha.
“Wipe that on your face.”
“What?”
“The black one.”
Then Trisha answered slyly, gently pushing her cheek.
“Where is it?”
Damien let her sigh, took out her handkerchief and removed the black bean husks that had stuck to her cheek like dots. Trisha smiled broadly, revealing her dimples.
“Thank you!”
“Hey! Trisha! “We’re going!”
When her group called from behind, she quickly finished the conversation and stood up.
“I’ll go first, see you later!!”
Trisha left like the wind as if she had achieved her purpose.
Damian looked a little exhausted. Olivia was dumbfounded for a moment, then she spoke.
“He’s a cute friend with a lot of charm…. “Are you two dating?”
“No. Never mind. “Because sometimes we joke around like that.”
“Friend?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t we play together?”
“I can’t handle it.”
“From what I can see, it looks like you’re handling it well, right?”
Damian silently shoved the meat into her mouth again.
I thought she was blunt and cold, but she also had a human side inside.
When I saw those two, I felt bitter inside.
Although they were just friends, they were friendly to each other, but she was being despised and looked down upon even by her fiancé, with whom she would spend the rest of her life.
Olivia, confused, stood up from her seat first, leaving Damien eating.
“Let’s spar for a bit in the evening. See you later.”
“You haven’t eaten anything, are you leaving already?”
“Yes. “I have no appetite.”
Olivia left her student cafeteria. Her unusual Southern attire was attracting the attention of her other boys, not Damian.
For a moment, a feeling of skepticism came over me.
She sighed deeply and muttered to herself.
“Why is it so twisted…? .”
As she was trudging along, she encountered a strange sight in front of the student cafeteria building.
A white wolf the size of a bull was sitting quietly in the bush. Is it okay for a wolf of that size to be in the middle of the campus? She closed and opened her eyes once, but the wolf was still there. It wasn’t in vain.
There was also a round red sparrow sitting on the wolf’s head.
A combination of two disparate creatures. And both of their eyes were turned to Olivia.
“… ?”
The wolf looked like a gentle puppy despite its bulky body, but the sparrow’s eyes were nothing short of murderous.
“What… hey?”
Feeling threatened for a moment, she flinched and walked away.
***
“Stop it!”
Olivia sat down on her floor, covered in sweat.
The sparring with Damian ended in an instant.
It took approximately ten minutes. Olivia was the first to exhaust herself as her magic power was depleted.
She was so embarrassed that she couldn’t say anything for a moment.
Her original purpose was to figure out Damien’s vulnerabilities. Because she didn’t have any significant income.
He put Olivia, her senior, on the defensive and disturbed her. He had an excellent fighting sense befitting his age.
And above all, she did not reveal her abilities well. I don’t know if he was immune to certain magic or if he was dealing with it separately, but elemental magic didn’t work for him at all.
There was no sign of fatigue. He wiped the sword roughly and put it in his belt.
He seemed good at hiding himself. He was not an ordinary person.
The most absurd thing about Damian was that he had no interest in the sparring itself. He was so excited and overwhelmed that he seemed like a student who always sat in the back of class, slept face down, or stared out the window, but got good grades.
“You… “You’re a lot more skilled than I thought.”
Her sparring date was right around the corner, but what would Lucus yell at her for returning without any results?
They may get angry and threaten to cut off all support to their families.
I was feeling quite depressed, but Damian saw this and came closer.
Then he handed me a glass bottle filled with orange juice and some beef jerky wrapped in a cloth.
“I heard that it is not good if your magic power is depleted. “Please at least eat this.”
“This…” .”
“You missed your meal, right?”
“Ah….”
I felt like I was unexpectedly caught off guard. Damian was picking on Olivia’s weaknesses without even realizing it.
Then, I felt a noise coming from between the trees surrounding the sparring area.
Damian and Olivia simultaneously turned their heads to the place hidden by the shadow of the tree and checked the target.
A strange person appeared there.
She was a woman with long blonde hair, and she covered her body with a robe. On her face she wore a wooden mask with slightly asymmetrical cutouts for her eye sockets.
“… ?”
“… ?”
She didn’t seem particularly hostile or came for a surprise attack.
Olivia asked.
“Damian, do you know someone?”
Damian looked at the unidentified woman, looked a little embarrassed, and nodded at her.
“Yes… “I think I know.”
Then she left Olivia behind and approached the masked woman.
The woman took out her note from her arms and handed it to him.
After that, she took out potions, towels, water, and snacks one after another and handed them over.
She spoke in a voice so low that the woman could barely hear.
“I heard you are training….”
Damien said, tapping her own face with his finger as if referring to her mask.
“Thank you, for that… “Did you make it yourself?”
“Yes….”
“… “When you go back, take a good look in front of you.”
The woman nods her head vigorously.
Seeing the affectionate atmosphere emanating from those two made me feel strange again.
After finishing her business, the masked woman turned back to the forest.
She turned and hit her head on the tree because she couldn’t see clearly.
“… !”
She looked very sick, but she suppressed the sound of pain and walked away again, covering her face with both hands.
Olivia asked Damian with a puzzled expression.
“Who… hey?”
“… “I am a friend.”
Damian didn’t have many friends, but most of those few friends seemed like good people. And those friends really liked Damian, and Damian seemed to really care for them. She could feel it without having to dig deep.
It’s probably because Damien is a good person. He was a person whose warmth radiated from every little action.
Olivia Has she ever voluntarily done anything for her fiancé? Looking back, she said she was not cool except once or twice.
And now it occurred to her that she sincerely hoped that Damian would beat Ruscus.
“You know, I… “I have something to tell you.”
“Yes.”
“Actually… “I came here at Ruscus’s instigation to find out your weaknesses.”
He reacted calmly even to the sudden confession.
“I see.”
“Aren’t you angry with me?”
“It’s okay if you tell me my information as is.”
“Ruscus is strong. Even though you have great skills, it’s probably not enough. Ruscus will prepare thoroughly for you. Also… “
“If you do this to me, Senior Ruskus will not remain silent. Compete with me and report back what you find out. “I’m fine.”
“… Well, then you!”
“Senior, you won’t be able to handle his hysteria, so please keep your distance for a while after the sparring.”
Damian was speaking as if he knew everything about Olivia’s situation.
“… What?”
“Let’s finish this and disperse.”
***
After leaving Olivia behind, I remained alone in the training center on a moonlit night with no one around, lost in thought.
I took out the note Luna gave me from her pocket.
It contained information about Olivia and Ruscus that Luna’s spirits had gathered.
[…] I heard it from the floating spirits that were floating near Olivia. Senior Olivia approached you with orders to find out your weaknesses. I don’t think it was her intention. Due to family issues, she is tied to senior Ruscus, and she takes advantage of this to say that she uses senior Olivia and assaults her on a regular basis. And he is preparing a plan to shake Damian’s position in the principality and replace him.]
I have no worries that my position in the principality will be shaken. The events in Barbisia are only partially known, and in fact only the princess’s relatives know about them. Therefore, outsiders could have mistakenly thought that there was a gap between me and the princess.
From Noble mtl dot com
Princess Vivi I know is not a great person who abandons people so easily. She was a stubborn, strong, and loyal person.
What I was worried about was Olivia. It’s a pity, but I couldn’t directly intervene in her s*xual quarrel with others.
Anyway… I guess Princess Vivi received my letter well.
***
Princess Bibi had gathered her young servants together in a large conference room and was having a heated discussion.
“I definitely didn’t ask you to send a letter. It was only a subtle recommendation. But… She said he sent the letter voluntarily. “Do you deny it even after seeing this clear evidence?”
A young servant girl said while sweating.
“However, even a subtle recommendation can become pressure depending on the status gap. Moreover, Damian is a polite and kind person. “I may have just sent it to say hello.”
“You are mistaken. He has always been a cocky and arrogant man since I first met him in Eternia. A man with such a temperament ‘voluntarily’ sent the letter. “Are you denying that you still care about me?”
Another female servant remonstrated.
“My thoughts are the same as yours. “The expression ‘I often thought of Princess Bibi’ in the second paragraph of the letter should not be used to describe someone who has no feelings.”
Bibi’s face changed color.
“Well, do you think so? “I definitely agree with this part.”
Then someone knocked on the conference room door. Soon after, the door opened and the attendant peeked out her face and carefully conveyed her words.
“Count Ruscus III has a word to convey to the princess….”
Bibi shouted nervously.
“I’m busy right now, so tell them I’ll see you next year!!!”