CH 81

After returning from Duke Kreff’s house, I sit down on my bed. No useful information was obtained. Well, as expected, if there was such dramatic progress in one day of investigation, information would have leaked from somewhere else, to begin with. The fact that such information has not come out until now means that it is not a simple story that can be found just by a little bit of searching.

Thinking about it normally, even if the nobles disliked each other, it would be impossible for them to harass others so blatantly. They might harass and pull each other’s feet when it’s not noticeable, but it would be quite the fight to bring a head-on conflict to a margrave.

Perhaps it’s no longer the point, my being the Third Prince’s fiancée…

What the hell? I don’t think there is such a big conspiracy. It’s not a manga or a novel, and if the reality is full of conspiracies like that, no one can sleep in peace.

…… There isn’t one, is there?

Enough. Sleep, sleep. I’m going to sleep now. Good night.

Let’s be in good spirits as we risk life and limb this morning!

“Let’s go, Flora dear,” Mother said.

“Yes!” I said.

I still haven’t been able to get a hit on Mother, let alone face her head-on. It’s about time that I can’t excuse it as my physical age. Even so, if I can’t compete with Mother at all, then this world is full of superhumans from the perspective of earthlings… of course, there are no heroes in this world who can reincarnate or transfer to another world… if earthlings are inferior, no one would bother to come there, let alone not having cheats.

I still can’t reach Father’s level. The only time I was able to get him, that blow was about the size of a scratch, and I did it when I performed buff magic in front of him for the first time and caught him by surprise. Since then, Father seems to have tightened up a bit, as my sword has never reached him again. This House has monsters as its leading couple.

I dodge a thrust. And then I move forward. I can’t do just that. I can’t believe it’s the sound of a spear thrusting when it goes “Boh!” like an explosion, it grazes my head at tremendous speed.

Even if I dodge the thrust, the pullback is so fast that it feels like I’m being attacked from behind. At times like this, weapons like the halberd show their power. Since it has blades and claws, it would be over just to be hooked by a spear returning from behind me. After all, it’s not training. It’s life or death…

When I tried to move forward in line with the pullback, Father’s blade approached me to mow down my torso. That’s right… recently, I’ve been training with my Mother and Father both against me. Since I came to the royal capital, I can’t train with the usual four people, so it seems that Father and Mother will take over instead.

Impossible……. this is still easier with the usual four people. What kind of hell would it be to deal with both Father and Mother at the same time?

I dodge my father’s sword that was approaching my torso. Don’t fight straight ahead. I should have grown a lot, but I still can’t even fight Father on an even plane. He blows me away the moment I block his attacks. It’s almost like I’m under the illusion that I just need to get stronger since my Father and Mother will get stronger as well.

No matter how hard I try, I can’t catch up. Am I really getting stronger? It’s like I can’t catch up with my parents. I don’t feel like the gap has even narrowed.

“There…!” Father yelled.

“Fuhn…!” I gasped.

This is bad… Father’s swinging at my feet. Mother is on an angle to pierce my chest. How to dodge both of these at the same time…?

“Kuu….!” I hiss.

I rotate while flying off in a straight line horizontally, in the direction of the spear’s approach, dodging the leg sweep and thrust at the same time. But I’m still spinning and floating in the air.

“Fuh…!”

In addition, Mother’s thrust comes again. How fast can she pull it back…? I landed on the ground with both hands and immediately strengthened both arms with buff magic and flew back with all my might. Even though it’s hard to fly off with just my arms, the burden on both arms is not a waste because I can escape at a speed that can avoid Mother’s spear. I can hear the sound of my arms creaking.

“What would you do without a weapon?” Father asked.

“-!”

Father pursues me as a fly backward using both arms. I let go of my weapon when I launched myself. But now I’m squatting on the ground. At this rate…

“Earth!” I yelled.

“Nuh?” Father grunted.

I create a spear with earth magic. I’m always trained with a sword, but I also practice with a spear. However, for some reason, during the morning and evening combat training, I was only allowed to wield a sword. If you create weapons with my magic, I can use spears or whatever else I want. Father didn’t say anything when I used magic to draw a new weapon. If you can use a spear with better reach, there are still ways to fight.

“Yah!” I cried.

“Too lax, Flora dear,” Mother said. “Have you forgotten about Mother?”

When I tried to stab Father, Mother was approaching from the opposite direction. But of course, I can’t forget about her. Rather than Father, who I can keep track of just fine, Mother needs more of my attention. Never forget to watch out for her.

“Fuh!”

“Hah!”

As soon as I gain distance and time by thrusting at Father to dissuade him, I immediately face Mother in the opposite direction. Skypiercers and halberds are indeed troublesome weapons. However, because of their various attachments, they are heavier than a normal spear and are difficult to handle. A normal spear should be more advantageous if it’s just to stab at each other.

“Heh… knocking down Mother’s spear with yours, are we?” Mother said.

Like she said, my spear collided with my mother’s halberd and knocked it down. I was able to intercept the shaft of Mother’s spear without touching the blade.

“But we’re not done yet,” Father said.

“Earth!” I yelled.

Damn it! I stomp my feet and activate earth magic. A wall of dirt forms between me and my father, who was approaching from behind. My father’s huge sword threatens to cut me through the wall of dirt, but I’m no longer there.

“Yah…!” I cried.

“Hmm… not there yet,” Father said.

“Huh? … Uu-ugh!”

I should have turned around to Father’s side by blindsiding him with the mud wall, but the pommel of Father’s sword smashed into my stomach. I stopped breathing and collapsed on the spot.

“That’s it for today,” Father said.

“Kaha…! Geho…!” I wheeze. “… Yes. Thank you very much.”

I didn’t reach them today, either. Am I really getting stronger? I don’t feel like I’ve become stronger even though I’ve been training for 10 years. From the point of view of earthlings, this world is full of superhumans, and it breaks my heart. Even so, I have no choice but to swing my sword today and tomorrow so that I can at least protect myself.

Today’s breakfast is a Japanese set of white rice, tofu, and miso soup. I feel a little unsatisfied, but this is just about right. Thanks to the fact that soybeans can be cultivated, it became possible to make tofu. Tofu can be made by squeezing soybeans to make soymilk and adding bittern while warming it up. It’s not as easy as it sounds explaining it, so I went through a lot of trial and error and many failures beside, but I’ve finally completed what I can call tofu.

In addition, bittern is easy to obtain because it is produced as a by-product when salt is made. The soybeans leftover from soy milk are okara, otherwise known as soy pulp, so there are many ways to use them still.

“Are you eating that again, Flora dear?” Mother said. “All the dishes you make are delicious, but Mother doesn’t like these.”

At my breakfast menu, Mother shakes her head. Japanese food is not very popular. Well, I don’t want them to understand it, and I didn’t create it with the intention of spreading it elsewhere. I made it because I want to eat it, so if I can eat it, that’s fine.

“By the way, why are you and Father still here, Mother? When are you going back to Carruzan?” I asked.

My entrance ceremony is already over, so there’s no need to stay forever. Father and Mother must be busy, and they can’t afford to hang out in the royal capital forever, either.

“My! You’re telling Mother to hurry up and return to our territory, Flora dear… Mother is sad. Yoyoyo…” Mother fake cries.

“I didn’t say that, but I thought both you and Father are busy,” I said.

My mother is over-dramatically sobbing, so I follow up in a hurry. I know she’s not really crying, but if you leave her unattended, she’ll start pouting for real, so it’s best to do damage control immediately.

“Both Maria and I will stay here for a while,” Father said. “We’ll be with you for training until we return to our territory together, so don’t worry.”

“…… Okay,” I said.

Well, you’re not worried about that at all, are you? Rather, it would be better if we all returned to our territory as soon as possible if it’s about training.

After finishing my usual breakfast like this, I headed to school.

Looks like I got here first today too. There is still no one in the classroom. It seems that the quintet doesn’t intend to come before me and harass me then. I come after training every morning, so it should be easy to come earlier than me…

“Why are you here again? Is a savage so free from the morning?” a member of the quintet said.

“Good day to you,” I said.

I greeted the quintet as they came in but as usual, no greeting came back. It’s not like I want to be intimate with these guys, so it’s fine, but…

Even so, my plans have gone awry… according to my plan, if I entered the school, I should have been able to have fun with cute schoolgirls every day, but…

Come to think of it, it’s always been that way in my social circles, too. I thought I would be able to get close to the ladies in the noble society, but in the end, I almost never show up in the noble society. Even if I go to events every once in a while, I don’t have any good memories just like the first time, my debut.

That’s strange. Born into a high-ranking aristocrat, specifically a margraviate, and I look like Mother, so I shouldn’t look that bad, even though I’m saying this myself. But why am I not blessed with friends?

Is my personality the problem? Even in my previous life, I acted sociable on the surface, but in reality, I was no better than a shut-in forcing myself to go to work… I wonder if it’s not going well because there’s a problem with my personality…

While I was thinking about such things, the surroundings became noisy. Before long, the students gather and class begins. “I didn’t get harassed again this morning, so I wonder if things will calm down~”, I was hoping as I attended lessons.

I go to the dining hall during my lunch break. In this school, lunch is supposed to be eaten in the dining hall. That said, you don’t have to eat food from the dining hall. Just like in Japanese schools, you can’t just sit here and there and eat whatever you want, but you can bring your own food or choose from the dining hall menu.

Are they eating what’s basically a boxed lunch brought by a butler or a maid? However, I don’t know if that should be included in the category of a mere “boxed lunch.” Authentic dishes are arranged in front of you, not simple things like Japanese boxed lunches. It seems that some of the higher-ranking people rent the kitchens of the dining hall and have the cooks brought in to make the meals on the spot.

I eat the boxed lunch that Katharina brings me. But sometimes it might be good to order food from the dining hall. My boxed lunch is completely on the Japanese level. My lunch in the dining hall is clearly strange.

Most of the people in Classes 3 and 4 seem to be ordering food from the dining hall. However, since the seats in the dining hall are limited, students in Classes 1 and 2 occupy most of the space, while students in Classes 3 and 4 take turns using the narrow space left.

By the way, the school building and dining hall are prepared separately for each grade, so there are only first-year students here. Furthermore, the dining hall is bigger and more luxurious than the school building. What the hell is this school even for…?

After eating a small boxed lunch compared to the luxurious dishes around me, I return the empty box to Katharina and leave my seat. House servants are allowed to enter the dining hall. They can’t enter the classroom unless they have something to do.

When I parted from Katharina and walked towards the school building from the dining hall, I saw a female student with several other students walking from the side opposite me. Surrounding that girl was the trio who had been gossiping about Ludwig, me, and Helene behind my back, at the entrance ceremony. Was that trio a group from Class 3?

But that doesn’t matter. My eyes were glued to the female student who was leading that trio. My heart beats every time that schoolgirl approaches.

A wig with vertical drill curls in a brilliant shade of blonde. A bright red dress with a tight skirt like no other in this world. I guess she ordered something new and similar to the one I gave her. The dimensions of her body have changed completely, so there is no way she can wear the previous items. The design has also changed slightly.

Still, I can’t mistake this girl. I finally called out to her when she was almost in front of me:

“Good day, Alexandra!”

I didn’t expect her to go to this school too… certainly, if you’re a high-ranking count, you’ll meet the requirements to attend this academy. Isn’t it strange if House Lingerburg, the most prestigious among the vassals of the Margraviate of Carruthers, couldn’t attend this school?

“Will you get out of my way?” Alexandra said. “And also… from now on, please don’t talk to me again.”

“…… Huh?” I asked.

I can’t understand what Alexandra means. Alexandra and the trio of Class 3 students she led passed me by as I was stunned and my head turned blank in an instant. The trio smiled and chuckled at me as they did.

Why is this so? Alexandra? I and Alexandra shouldn’t have broken up badly. Both of us wanted to be together, but due to unavoidable circumstances, we were separated.

But what about Alexandra’s words and attitude now?

She should have known it was me. Even so, she stared at me with cold eyes and even told me not to talk to her ever again, then she left as if she had no interest in me.

My head is blank and my thoughts are incoherent. In the end… I wonder what happened to Alexandra even though we were finally able to meet again… unable to settle my thoughts, I went back to the classroom in a daze.