Chapter 33
Chapter 33
“Hey, that’s my seat.”
“Ah, Miss Alice.”
They said speak of the tiger and it appears, and before I knew it Alice had revealed herself, speaking with a sulky expression.
There wasn’t actually any fixed assigned seating, but Werner made an “ah” face and quickly vacated the seat, and she calmly sat down there and unpacked her things.
“Miss Alice, good morning. I’m Werner. I look forward to working with you.”
“…? Sure.”
At Werner’s hand extended for a handshake along with a bright, beaming smile, Alice grabbed it with an indifferent expression, shook it a couple of times, then sat down and slumped forward onto the desk.
“Hoo.”
Seeing Werner was quite a sight.
He tried to act calm, but the tips of his ears had turned bright red.
It was a slightly unpleasant look, even on a handsome face.
Then he looked at me, nodded once, and went off to find his own seat.
I could only stare blankly at his retreating back.
What was with this development?
“Um.”
And immediately after that, a familiar voice reached my ears.
When I turned my head again, Elysia was approaching hesitantly, fidgeting with her hands as she looked at me.
There was none of her original haughty atmosphere to be found.
She looked just like a girl in love, to the point that it made me nervous.
“…What do you need?”
I asked her while putting on the calmest expression I could manage.
Elysia twirled her hair around one finger and slightly averted her gaze.
Then, after letting out a small sigh, she opened her mouth.
“When she wakes up, please tell her I was sorry about what happened yesterday. And…….”
By the end, even the tips of her ears had turned red.
With a sense of déjà vu, as if I’d experienced something similar before, the heat that had risen in my chest quickly cooled.
“P-please tell her I want to get along.”
As if that was all she had to say, Elysia left without even looking back.
“…….”
Looking at Alice sleeping soundly with her head on the desk, I felt a bit hollow inside.
‘So this is because she’s the protagonist, huh.’
The people I wanted to draw in showed goodwill toward her from the very start.
I could understand Werner, since he was of the opposite sex, but I hadn’t expected even Elysia to be like that, so I felt a twinge of jealousy.
‘No, then… does that mean I can just use Alice?’
A good idea suddenly came to mind.
If I set her up as a figurehead, wouldn’t things become much smoother? Since she occupied the protagonist’s position, there was a high chance that the absolute plausibility I’d seen yesterday would come into effect whenever the story moved.
If that was the case, then if I pushed Alice into the center from the beginning and manipulated things from behind…
“Alright, alright, quiet down.”
That flash of inspiration was cut short by a teacher who had entered the classroom at some point.
Still, I could vaguely see the outline of a plan, and it felt like it would come together if I organized it just a bit more, so I pretended to listen to the lesson while jotting notes down.
However.
“Who would like to solve this problem? Ah, this class has both the top student and the runner-up, right? Let’s see… Ostia?”
“Yes.”
“For this one, the top student Ostia will explain.”
“…Yes.”
“Explain what kind of direction this evaluation of the tactic indicated at the time, Ostia.”
“…Yes.”
The entire class went like that.
It was as if the attendance sheet only had my name written on it from start to finish.
I could answer the questions thanks to system assist, but the teachers gave me no time to rest.
“…Fuck.”
Even if I was just reciting what I saw on the status window, it was a considerable amount of stress.
Every time I answered, the students around me exclaimed in admiration and applauded, but that only worked once or twice.
After repeating that for several hours, even they started to accept it as natural and let it pass.
I was only finally freed when lunchtime arrived.
Sensing that I was in a bad mood, Werner and Elysia hesitated for a moment before going off with the other kids, so I headed to the cafeteria alone with Alice.
“Well, the top student always gets favored.”
As I roughly cut into my meat, Alice spoke as if to comfort me.
For the record, she’d slept through the entire class.
When I asked if she didn’t study, she said it didn’t matter since she wasn’t originally from this world.
It was an easygoing thing to say, but it was true, so I had no rebuttal.
“Oh, right. Elysia said she was sorry to you.”
“Elysia?”
“The redhead you fought with yesterday. You were asleep this morning, so she said to tell you when you woke up.”
“Ah.”
“And she said she wants to be friends.”
At that, Alice made a subtle expression and chewed her food.
After swallowing, she spoke with a puzzled look.
“You know, it wasn’t really something worth getting that angry over, but suddenly my temper just flared up.”
She twirled the knife in her hand with a flick and stared at its tip with an awkward expression.
“I regret getting angry like that too. It wasn’t like me.”
“Then talk to her directly.”
“Women are.”
Thump.
She speared a piece of meat with the fork in her other hand and brought it to her mouth without hesitation.
After gulping it down, she spoke with a clear expression.
“There’s a way women do things. It’s different from straightforward men.”
“That sounds a bit sexist.”
“It’s not discrimination, it’s a difference.”
“…Oh.”
It sounded like something profound.
I might have been more impressed if she hadn’t smiled smugly, as if she herself had just said something amazing.
Thudududuk.
While I was eating and chatting with Alice, something suddenly fell from the sky and immediately covered my half-eaten tray.
For a moment I wondered if there was a hole in the ceiling, but it didn’t take long to realize that what had covered my tray were leftovers from someone else’s food.
“Well, this is awkward.”
At the careless voice coming from beside me, I slowly turned my head.
A man with light green hair, oozing the typical aura of a delinquent, was shaking his tray with a sneering smile.
“My hand slipped, you see.”
He’d poured it so thoroughly that there wasn’t a single scrap of food left on his own tray.
His intent was obvious.
My heart turned cold.
‘I’d completely forgotten.’
I’d left the Imperial Palace, but I was still in a situation where I was coming face to face with the other princes.
Compared to when I was in the palace, their direct interference had decreased, but they still pulled petty tricks like this by sending their lackeys.
But to pick a fight this openly on the very first day.
When I glanced at the color of the tie he was wearing, I saw it matched Darius’s year.
So he’d been sent to get revenge for yesterday.
“You…!”
Alice ground her teeth and jumped to her feet, but I reached out and stopped her.
Then I set down my fork and knife and spoke calmly.
“That can happen.”
With that, I picked up my tray and walked toward him.
The extra whose name I didn’t even know watched my reaction with a grin.
The ones behind him, looking amused, were probably part of the same group.
‘I’ll remember all your faces.’
People like this needed to be crushed while they were still sprouts.
Otherwise they’d grow like weeds and only become a nuisance.
Thududud.
“What are you doing?!”
I dumped all the food from my tray straight in front of him.
Food splattered everywhere, and the man recoiled in shock, afraid it would get on him, but before he could react, I lunged forward and grabbed the back of his head.
“…!”
His eyes went wide like lanterns in a horrified expression.
But it was already too late.
I whispered into his ear in a low voice.
“Even so, you shouldn’t do that.”
I put strength into my hand and slammed his head into the floor, already filthy with food.
He twisted his body at the last moment, as if he had some skill, but I lightly kicked the shin of the guy supporting him, knocking him off balance.
Bang!
The sudden commotion drew all eyes in the cafeteria.
I was satisfied with the gazes stabbing into my back, but he seemed otherwise, flailing his arms and trying to break free from my grip.
“…One more time?”
Bang!
I drove his head down even harder than before.
His body shuddered, then his limbs went limp.
Seeing that there was no more movement, I let go of his head and wiped the food off my hands onto his uniform.
“Senior?”
“…Ugh?”
When I called out to the person standing awkwardly behind him, he stepped back with a pathetic sound.
He seemed to realize his own disgrace a moment later, clenching both fists with a bright red face.
“This seems to be your friend, senior. As you saw, he slipped and collided with me and fell over. Could you help him to the infirmary?”
He looked back and forth between me and the fallen man a few times, then bit his lip, conscious of the surrounding gazes, before hoisting his friend up and leaving the cafeteria.
Seeing three or four others scurry off with them, I felt ten years’ worth of pent-up frustration drain away.
“That felt great.”
Alice gave me a thumbs-up as if to say well done.
I grinned, brushed off my hands, and picked up the tray I’d set down.
The scattered food would be cleaned up by the attendants who managed the cafeteria.
It was unfortunate, but I had no obligation to clean that up myself right now.
Alice also stood up and returned the dishes with me.
The atmosphere in the cafeteria was still unsettled.
Students whispered while looking at us—more precisely, at me—and some even subtly stepped out of my path, keeping their distance.
This was a warning to the other princes and their idiot underlings.
If they picked a fight carelessly, they’d be humiliated badly.
“Will you be okay dealing with the aftermath?”
Alice asked while glancing around.
Even if she tried to act otherwise, was she worried about me?
“Did you forget my status?”
In this world, strength and status were king.
And at least within the Academy, I stood at the very top of both.
After lunch, afternoon classes resumed.
They said the first week of the semester for new students was an adjustment period, so no practical training or outside activities were held.
Even yesterday’s sparring, limited to just our class, was probably due to the protagonist’s effect.
“…….”
Alice claimed it was spring fatigue and was already wandering deep in dreamland.
Sleeping while leaning her face toward me, making soft breathing sounds, she looked just like a baby and was unbearably cute.
As I pressed and poked her soft cheeks in play, I could feel the gazes around me whispering and watching.
‘Has it already spread?’
It seemed the incident in the cafeteria had swept through the campus.
But that aside, classes after lunch were still sleepy.
Especially since my seat was right by the window, I was getting hit directly by the warm spring sunlight, and even my own eyes were starting to close.
“Excuse me for a moment, Teacher Hermann.”
Just then, class was interrupted by an unexpected visitor.
I’d been half asleep, so I rubbed my eyes and looked toward the door, only to see Delke, our homeroom teacher, standing there.
“Ostia, come with me for a moment.”
“…….”
At his voice calling my name, the drowsiness washed away as if it had been swept clean.
With every gaze in the classroom focused on me, I stood up and slowly followed behind him.
We headed down the long corridor toward the teachers’ office, decorated with antique ornaments.
But Delke passed right by it and led me into an empty classroom.
“What on earth happened?”
Delke looked at me with a serious expression, completely unlike his usual air of finding everything a hassle.
…I hadn’t expected to see this side of him so soon.
But my plan hadn’t changed.
In fact, even this situation was part of it.
That was why I opened my mouth with a calm expression.