Chapter 22

Chapter : 22

Navier Loveone settled into a corner of the library with mixed feelings over Raphael’s unbelievable support.

After only a few meetings with him, she knew perfectly well that Raphael did not hold even a speck of affection for her. So she had tried to make a deal.

She would help him end up with Bishot, and in return, she asked him to help her as well.

She had expected him to accept, but that expectation had been neatly shattered. Even so, separately from that, Raphael had said he would help her end up with the Crown Prince.

That alone was a development she never could have imagined, and now it had gone beyond even that into the absurd.

“On the evening of Friday the thirteenth, read a book in the middle of the ballroom. Make sure you do it somewhere everyone can see you.”

Raphael had ordered her to do something utterly insane.

He had emphasized again and again that if she failed to do this one thing, his support would end there. Just thinking of it made the blood rush to Navier’s face so fiercely that she felt as though she might burst.

He wanted her to actually do that?

That truly was impossible.

All her life, she had been painfully conscious of the eyes around her, forever striving to blend seamlessly into whatever circle she occupied. For someone like her, a social queen and a natural center of attention, he was asking the impossible.

To read a book at a ball.

That was the most absurd act Navier could possibly imagine.

She would have to ignore the eyes of everyone around her completely and accept that she herself would be smashing the very mood of the ball to pieces.

“This one thing will hit immediately. Absolutely.”

Navier wavered over whether she ought to trust Raphael.

Ordinarily, it would have been such idiocy that it would not even merit consideration, but in the end she steeled herself with the desperation of someone clutching even at straw.

Raphael was not the same as the man she had heard of in rumors.

And that difference was, on the whole, for the better.

“Haa…”

She decided to trust him once.

Just once.

Up until now, the Crown Prince had never once attended any ball held inside the Academy.

If, by some chance, he really did appear that day, then she would read the book.

“Haa. I’m going out of my mind.”

After confirming that no one was around, she muttered a curse under her breath and took on a new source of worry.

If she was going to attend a ball in order to do something insane, then what dress should she wear? Should she wear something flamboyant, the way she always did?

But then she would stand out even more.

On the other hand, if she went that far and still failed to draw any notice, the loss would be enormous. Could she really accept that?

“I really am going insane.”

Navier took a deep breath and calmed the rising agitation within her. There was so much she needed to prepare.

She forced her drooping eyelids back open with all her strength. Straining, she pinned her eyes to the letters on the page and committed the contents to memory.

It was currently midnight.

Ordinarily, she would already have gone to sleep by now after inventing some excuse or other.

Even if her height had stopped growing, bones were said to keep developing until thirty, so was it not important to get enough sleep for proper growth?

And what about her skin? Everyone knew the saying that beauties slept a great deal.

Besides, people always said that getting plenty of sleep improved learning efficiency too, so why did she have to stay awake now of all times?

Raphael had answered that himself.

“You have to become a madwoman. And you can’t let anyone catch on that you’re only pretending. Everyone has to believe you truly are one. If you can, then become one.”

Raphael, for all that, did at least have a brain. He understood that reading a book in the middle of a ball was not normal. As he explained it—

“If you’re reading a book even at a ball, then how passionate about studying must you be? That makes you nothing but a fool who knows only study. But if a fool like that fails to take first place in the class? Impossible. You have to take the top spot.”

It was not a demand that violated logic.

The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed, and Navier found herself agreeing.

“It’s not completely impossible.”

The Academy gathered talented people from across the Empire, but that was only within the bounds of their specialties.

There were not many who burned with ambition over their grades in elective courses as well. And even if there were, they would naturally prioritize their major subjects.

Navier judged that she was already standing several steps ahead of the others on the starting line.

The situation favored her.

So if she worked hard enough, even someone as foolish as herself could hope to beat the competition.

That was why she was still up so late studying subjects like history and Imperial Studies, things she had never touched in her life before.

“Ah.”

Her fingertips froze in the act of turning the page.

Perhaps her concentration had frayed from studying so long, because an unwelcome thought intruded. And not just any thought, but the worst possibility she could imagine.

What if—

What if, after shedding tears of blood to stage all of this so perfectly, the Crown Prince did not appear at the ball at all?

At that point, surely it would be acceptable to seize Raphael by the collar.

---

During one of the elective classes, the inevitable happened.

“Pfft.”

I hurriedly clamped a hand over my mouth at the sneer that slipped out before I could stop it.

No, but the professor was standing right in front of us spouting utter nonsense.

He was claiming that Cedric achieved enlightenment during his battle against Heinz and thereby rose to the level of Sword Master, but that was not what happened at all.

No—more fundamentally, how could Cedric, who was still only a Sword Expert at the time, possibly have survived against Heinz, who had already been an Archmage? It was impossible on a purely practical level.

People usually distinguished a Sword Expert from a Sword Master by whether or not they could use an Aura Blade, but Cedric was a special case that transcended that standard.

Even without being able to wield an Aura Blade because of a constitutional limitation, his swordsmanship had already been at the level of a Sword Master.

If it had not been, there was no way he could have survived Heinz’s magic all the way to the end.

The professor claimed that Heinz held back because Cedric had once shown him a kindness, but that too was wrong. Cedric had already become a Sword Master during his earlier battle against Mallok in the demon realm.

I had to keep biting down on my lip through the lecture, unable to bear the thought of a history professor talking so seriously about all this while not knowing even the background.

“What’s wrong with you? You look like a madman.”

Navier, who was sitting next to me, whispered that softly.

At the word she tacked on at the end, I had to grit my teeth once more to keep from laughing.

Lately, Navier had been acting friendly toward me. Not as though she truly considered me a friend, perhaps, but at least as someone in the same boat.

Outwardly, at any rate.

Presumably because it benefited her.

“Shut up. Be quiet.”

“I’m only doing this because I think I’m going to fall asleep otherwise. I feel as though I’m going to die of sleepiness.”

“Don’t sleep. If you’re going to sleep, do it after class. No, after class you should go back and review. Just endure it.”

“I know that much too. But this isn’t the sort of thing that becomes bearable just because you decide to endure it. Honestly, you really do speak without thinking.”

“Then give up on all of it.”

So, bickering quietly with Navier, I endured the class on Understanding the Thousand-Year History of the Ruin Empire while barely holding back the explosive laughter threatening to burst out of me.

Afterward, before parting ways with Navier, I reminded her to study hard, then headed for my next class.

Introduction to Giant Beast Hunting.

“The giant beast we’ll be discussing today is called Chaurus…”

The professor proceeded to explain a monster I had killed dozens of times in the game.

It looked like a boar, but had hide so thick that it simply ignored attacks below a certain threshold. To break it open properly, one needed either a specialized skill or a special weapon.

Once you managed to inflict damage on it even once, though, it turned soft and was easy to kill.

The professor talked about that thing for an entire hour, and I responded with the occasional thoughtful “Hmm,” while pretending to concentrate.

In the middle of that, Leo tapped me lightly on the arm and pointed at Agares. Agares was taking small sips from a cup of water.

At the sight, Leo widened his eyes as though he had seen something he should not have and whispered,

“He’s drinking water.”

“So? He can do that. Why?”

“No, I thought he only drank blood.”

“Shh.”

To tell him to be quiet, I jabbed my elbow into Leo’s chest. Leo froze, clutching near his heart and coughing.

How was this even real?

We lowered our voices to the faintest murmur, like ants whispering, while recalling what had happened the other day.

Even so, Agares still heard. He flicked a glance our way, then frowned.

Wow. Those ears really are sharp.

“What should we do?”

“How would I know? You were the one who said it. I was sitting quietly.”

“He won’t actually hold a grudge over something this small, will he?”

“How should I know?”

“Oh, come on. If he takes something like this to heart, that would be awfully petty.”

After class, I went straight to the training hall and sparred.

Leo had apparently learned it from somewhere, because he tried using Force Release, clumsy though it still was. It was exactly the sort of pitiful Force Release Katarina had warned me about. His body tensed before he used it, making it obvious what he was about to do.

“I told you, you can’t do it like that. If it’s that obvious, the other person can react immediately.”

“I know that too. But when I try to hide it, the force weakens when I really need the power. Besides, I’ve got one secret weapon.”

Leo demonstrated Force Release once again. Right before the motion, his muscles tightened and power gathered into him.

“Huh?”

But amusingly enough, Leo then swung with exactly the same speed and exactly the same force as usual.

It was just his ordinary attack.

“That way, I can pretend to use Force Release and then cancel it. It lets me play mind games. If I can do that, then it doesn’t matter if people can tell when I’m about to use Force Release. In fact, if I use the mind game properly, it might even be to my advantage to make it obvious.”

“Well, it’s your choice. Do what you want.”

That was what I said, but inwardly I was rather pleased by his answer.

He was improving.

In his own way, he was growing by thinking hard about how to beat people stronger than himself.

I fought Leo three times that day, and I won all three.

The matches lasted longer than before.

---

I checked the calendar.

Friday the thirteenth.

The day I had arranged with Navier.

Both she and I had tasks we needed to carry out. Navier had to sit in the middle of the ballroom reading a book, while I had to stop someone from attending the ball at all.

I had not told Navier this, but in the Original Work, Bishot had been meant to become the star of that ball. Originally, Ian, after becoming close to Bishot, drew her along to the event, and that was where she met the Crown Prince.

I had bent the course of events already, but it still felt too dangerous to relax.

If Bishot attended the ball for any reason whatsoever, then all the bricks I had stacked up until now would come crashing down in an instant. I needed to make sure the matter was finished completely.

Recently, from checking on Bishot’s movements, it seemed she had stopped selling alchemical reagents.

That was because Gilbert had, properly enough, delivered the support funds.

I had even worried that Bishot might realize I was behind that too and refuse it, but fortunately, she had accepted it without issue.

So, through Gilbert, I had arranged for a club meeting to be held by force today.

Attendance itself was technically voluntary, but given Bishot’s personality, she would definitely come.

I had spent money to gather some rather valuable alchemical materials and arranged for everyone to be allowed to use them freely.

For someone like Bishot, who loved alchemy more than anything else in the world, it was the sort of event she would burn to attend.

“Hello.”

Just as expected, Bishot greeted me in the club room with a cold expression.

Seeing her like that actually made me glad.

“Mm. Long time no see.”

I pretended to be making and assembling something appropriate while watching Bishot.

At first, she looked uncomfortable because of someone present in the club room, but before long she was completely absorbed in alchemy.

Still, I wonder whether Navier is doing all right.