28 – Episode 3. Unintended Attention is Unwelcome. (6)
“Ah… I see.”
“I-I’m sorry. You told me not to act like I know you…! Please, let’s pretend you didn’t hear it.”
She bit her lower lip, not hiding her disappointment with my reaction. Eventually, she bowed her head and hurriedly tried to leave her seat.
“Wait a moment.”
“…Yes?”
When I called her, she stopped in her tracks and slowly turned her head towards me.
“First of all, what’s your name?”
“…Mayu.”
She stylishly speaks, while patting her short hair. She seems disappointed that I didn’t remember.
“Mayu… I’ve never heard that name before.”
It’s a name that was never mentioned in the original. Abel’s actions were usually expressed in just a line or two, without detailed descriptions.
If it wasn’t an act that inevitably involved Mine, it wasn’t even mentioned in the original.
If Abel had tried to unilaterally assault her, Mine might have stood up as the student council president. But considering the talk about medicine expenses, it seemed like there was no ‘agreement’ reached.
Even so, he’s still garbage, no matter what.
“…Is your mother still very ill? I remember giving you money for medicine last semester.”
“Well, she’s… not getting better…”
“How do you know where it hurts?”
“That’s… um…”
Seeing her hesitate to answer, it seems she hasn’t taken her to see a doctor.
Well, there aren’t many professional doctors in this world, and the understanding of diseases and the human body is relatively low compared to modern times. I also know that the prices are quite expensive.
So commoners mostly just take potions. But potions aren’t a cure-all.
They work well for external wounds like bruises, but they’re not very effective against diseases caused by viruses and bacteria.
“You should know exactly what the illness is before taking any medicine for it to be effective.”
“But the, the cost of seeing a doctor is too expensive…”
“Aren’t there doctors waiting at the academy?”
“They don’t allow treatment for outsiders, and there are so many people waiting that I wonder if we can get proper tr… treatment.”
“Then I’ll tell you.”
“Yes?”
If Sirius could have control over an entire floor of the dorm, then his influence would extend to the medical team as well.
“Bring your mother. Whenever you’re free. Tomorrow is fine too.”
“Really?”
Hope lit up in her eyes, which had been clouded with uncertainty.
“Yes. I’ll cover the examination and medication expenses.”
“Thank you… Thank you so much!”
She choked back tears and bowed her head.
As she expressed her gratitude, the students who were still in the classroom were looking in our direction.
When our eyes met, I hurriedly left the classroom.
“Then.”
When I looked back at Mayu, she was standing straight, twisting her fingers.
“Oh, I’ll see you tonight…”
Tonight…?
It took me a moment to understand the implication, and I waved my hand.
“Oh, no. Don’t come. You don’t have to come in the future. Just take it as a kind gesture.”
If she comes to my room on her own, Rena might really try to kill me.
“But… in exchange for covering the expenses…”
“Then… help me with my studies.”
“Excuse me?”
Given her difficult financial situation, it was certain that she must have been studying hard enough to receive a scholarship, despite the hardship of paying for her tuition fees.
“Mayu, are you good at studying?”
“……Yes.”
“What place did you come in last semester?”
“I was the top student.”
The top student…
I hope he doesn’t have any thoughts about messing with the top student.
This is a cliché development often seen in explicit comics.
“Oh… then you probably know almost everything. If there’s anything you don’t understand later, feel free to ask me.”
Since I don’t know what she has learned in the past year, it would be convenient to have someone to ask for help. Besides, I needed someone to help me now that I got rid of the nuisances.
“B-But, is that really okay…?”
“I said it’s okay.”
“Yes, yes…! Then… um, please feel free to ask me anything. Anything at all. I’ll answer anything.”
“Alright. I’ll count on you from now on.”
“Yes. Abel.”
After sending Mayu off first, I tapped the table with my finger and thought.
Surely, there are many students who have suffered because of Abel, just like Mayu. Even if I want to confront Abel, I have to keep quiet and behave, because if I provoke him, the damage will come back to me.
Later, I should ask the servants to find out what Abel has done at the academy.
The servants may not know everything, but at least it’s better than me knowing nothing at all.
I organized my thoughts and glanced briefly at the minimized quest window. It seemed like there wasn’t anything particularly prompting about the quest at this point.
Maybe my direction aligns with the quest, that’s why, I thought and got up from my seat.
* * *
“How about here?”
Rina suggested having lunch outdoors.
It seemed like she was considering my discomfort from having breakfast at the student cafeteria and trying to be considerate.
Accepting her invitation, we ended up at the courtyard in front of the Knight Department. The place was as well-maintained as the garden in the palace, with Spanga’s servants laying out mats and setting down their lunchboxes.
“Not bad.”
“Right? I also like this place.”
“Then I should start liking it here too.”
“W-What?”
As I laughed and spoke, Rina turned her head, blushing slightly.
Seeing her blushing at such a trivial remark, it seemed like she hadn’t heard such things from a guy before.
I should tease her like this more often and enjoy her embarrassed reactions.
“Alright, come and have your lunch. The chef I brought made the dishes herself.”
“There’s no doubt about Spanga’s chef’s skills.”
I remember being in Spanga and enjoying the different dishes served every day, the pleasure of having delicious meals.
“But why are you wearing workout clothes?”
She was wearing black workout clothes instead of her school uniform. It was the attire often worn by Knight Department students during training.
“Oh… I finished early and just came back from morning exercise with the others.”
“Putting in a lot of effort, I see.”
“That’s right. We have to surpass the princess.”
“Don’t exhaust yourself too much and end up unable to use your strength during the actual sparring, okay?”
“What if I don’t?”
“I’ve said it before, but opportunities come only once. You must win in the sparring scheduled for the day after tomorrow.”
The reason it was said that the opportunity was only once was not just due to explosive growth.
The nobleman was a genius in a protagonist-like manner. Once he saw the flow of the Cheongsan River, he would immediately understand and master it. If it became familiar, it would no longer be a skill that was effective for the princess.
That’s why, if he couldn’t defeat Miné in this opportunity, there would be no next chance. I also have limitations in what I can teach.
“And don’t forget to hide your swordsmanship until the sparring.”
“I got it.”
Surprisingly, she answered smoothly when it came to matters related to swordsmanship. Does she think of me as a teacher?
“By the way, have you greeted the princess?”
Lina asked as she skewered the meatball with her fork.
“No?”
“Then, shall we go greet her today?”
“I’ll greet her when I spar later.”
“What if you get marked in the royal family?”
“It’s not like I haven’t been marked already. What difference does a little more marking make? Anyway, it’s inevitable.”
Miné’s senses were so keen that there was a possibility she could easily notice the dark elves watching. So, it was necessary to avoid being together until the surveillance at the execution ground loosened.
“If you want to work in the royal palace, what about adjusting your attitude?”
“What should I do to make you survive.”
“I dislike incompetent men.”
“That’s how it is.”
I chuckled.
It was a meaningless remark anyway.
Even if I wanted to become unemployed, there was no way the quest would leave me alone. If I were to be incompetent, my family would surely criticize me, saying that I was tarnishing Sirius’s reputation.
In such an environment, it was impossible to be unemployed with a clear mind.
“…Well, you can’t really be an incompetent man.”
“Thanks for the high praise.”
So, with such trivial talk, we spent our lunchtime. By the time our hands frequently reached for the lunchbox, Lena brought up another topic.
“Did you know there was a new student entrance ceremony today?”
“Do you know about it?”
I nodded as I put orange pudding into my mouth with chopsticks.
Since Lena and I had moved up to the second year, it was natural for the first-year students to come in.
“And one savage race student entered.”
“Savage race? Ah… You mean the beastkin?”
Beastkin.
Beings that walked on two legs like humans but had the ears and tails of animals. The exotic creatures commonly referred to as the beastkin by the imperial people lived in the area bordering the eastern border of the empire, like indigenous people.
However, as the imperial conquest war began, the beastkin were the first to be absorbed into the empire. Despite resisting in their own way, they had no choice but to kneel before the current imperial knight commander.
It wasn’t like the Suin tribe became slaves.
The Emperor provided them with human culture, inducing gradual assimilation, and respected the Suin tribe’s territory.
The Emperor’s skill was to facilitate their assimilation by providing appropriate deals and distance, rather than oppressively suppressing them to utilize their power one hundred percent.
While refraining from interference to make it so, the Emperor’s tendency was to use it to the advantage of the Empire whenever a case of the Suin tribe with special talents emerged, just like now.
“Yeah. Do you really have to call them savages?”
“Well… It’s better not to call them savages in front of the Suin tribe.”
When the Suin tribe is referred to as savages, they perceive it as a discriminatory remark, similar to calling them uncivilized.
“Do I have to care about that?”
Should I say she’s being naive at times?
She’s quite cynical.
“It’s nice to get along. Who knows? It might be a big help later.”
She says that, but she’ll actually receive great help later from the genius of the magic circle who enrolled this time.
“I did hear that she was a great help during the conquest war… But do you know more about the Suin tribe than that?”
It’s admirable to correct it right away even if it’s an uncomfortable answer. That’s probably why I can’t hate Lina.
“I’ve studied a little.”
“You?”
From Noble mtl dot com
“…Are you subtly looking down on me?”
“Would I say that even after looking at your grades?”
“What’s wrong with my grades?”
“You don’t even have a single B on your report card.”
“Is this for real? It’s seriously too much without B.”
“Honestly, even if I get an F right now, it wouldn’t be weird at all. The professors know everything, even if they pretend to give a C.”
“…”
There’s nothing to say.
It was fortunate that I had the status of a noble. If not, instead of a disciplinary warning, I might have been expelled immediately.
There’s no way to fix the already ruined grades, so I’ll just have to work hard from this semester onward somehow.
“Setting that aside… I heard the Water Elemental Emperor recommended that person.”
“That’s right. Bringing an elemental into the academy is an unusual case.”
“Especially when our department is Magic, and she enters as the top student? If the Emperor himself recommends, she must be an incredible genius, right?”
She is a genius. Being able to perfectly implement a liquid diet is not an easy task even for mages considered outstanding in the empire.
However, just because she is an elemental, people around her expect her exceptional talent to be belittled and persecuted.
The protagonist helps her, so later, I ended up following Miné around like a woman in love.
“Let’s go see her sometime.”
I’m a bit curious about what elementals look like.
* * *
“Yan.”
I called Yan by opening the window, and she descended from the sky as if falling.
“Why are you calling me?”
Was she on the dorm roof or something?
This is not a stray cat or anything…
“Here, take this.”
I handed her a paper bag filled with food. Yann took it, looking puzzled but accepted it without resistance.
“What’s this?”
“These are the foods I had the assistants buy at the market. Go and eat with the kids.”
It was filled with foods that could be eaten without cooking, like bread, fruits, and jerky.
“Of course, you must be starving. I’ll have the assistants bake some cookies later. It seems like you like them.”
Yann stared at the contents for a while. Was she suspicious that the food might be poisoned?
“I’ll tell you in advance, there’s no poison in it.”
I picked up an apple from inside and said, then bit into it right away.
“You… are really a strange guy, Abel Sirius.”
“It’s not strange if you take it and eat.”
“…Make sure to eat well.”
She murmured quietly and quickly hid her traces.
If I stack up favors one by one, surely a positive response will come back. It’s better to ease her guard if possible.
“Geez…!”
I stretched and headed to the bathroom to wash.
Then, I suddenly saw the toilet and had a ridiculous thought, ‘How do they handle their waste?’ as I unbuttoned my shirt.