Chapter 106

Chapter 106

I stirred up one heck of a ruckus in the water.

As soon as Vertus and I entered the water, the three stooges of Class A (Erhi, Connor Lint, and Kaier) also jumped in. Aside from Delphine, all the members from Class B who were in the water were boys as well.

Then, after a little while, a surprising pair began to approach the water’s edge.

“U-Um... I... I kindly decline...”

“Why? It looks fun, doesn’t it? Let’s go in.”

“I-I am embarrassed...”

Charlotte, in her swimsuit, was pulling Scarlett, who was also in a swimsuit, toward the water. They were wearing the standard swimsuit given by the Temple, that was not anything like a bikini, but more like a school swimsuit.

Still, the boys’ gazes still drifted their way, and their expressions turned to blank stares. Since both of them were incredibly beautiful, it was unavoidable.

Erhi, perhaps because he still remembered being hit by Scarlett, couldn’t bring himself to look in that direction.

“Can we join in too?” Charlotte asked as she approached, and Scarlett’s face turned bright red.

“Of course, Charlotte!”

Ludwig warmly welcomed them, and Vertus cracked a smile.

As soon as Charlotte entered the water, Vertus scooped up a bucketful of water and splashed it towards her.

“Ahhh!”

Charlotte, drenched in water, glared at Vertus, who had splashed the water at her.

“What are you trying to do?” Charlotte demanded, while Vertus giggled.

“This is just how you’re supposed to play while in the water,” he said. “Are you seriously mad? You can’t be.”

Splash!

“Ahh!”

“Don’t tell me you’re really going to get mad. Are you mad just because of a couple of splashes of water? Can’t you take a joke as a joke? Are you that twisted?”

Splash!

“Stop it, you jerk!”

Charlotte was on the verge of spewing some harsh words.

“Hey, hey, if you came in to play, you should play. What’s the point in getting angry? Hahahaha!”

Vertus suddenly burst into mad laughter and continued to splash water furiously at Charlotte, who screamed and started splashing back.

“Ahhhh! You lunatic!”

“Guys, help me out!”

“Please, don’t bully Charlotte!”

Charlotte eventually sent out a plea for help, and Ludwig and Scarlett, among others, began to attack the imperial prince.

“Wah! Whoa!”

The scene that unfolded was both fierce and not fierce at the same time. Vertus wasn’t pretending to be nice; he was openly picking on the princess. Since he was doing it more in a teasing manner, rather than making it a serious confrontation, it created more of an amusing atmosphere than a tense one.

This was something completely different from the original development I had orchestrated, and I couldn’t tell if this scene was harmonious or menacing.

‘Maybe you two can actually get along.’

“Guys! You guys should help me too!” Vertus exclaimed.

Eventually, the chaotic scene turned into a full-fledged class battle.

***

The fierce water fight ended in victory for Class B, who had the numerical advantage.

“This is the worst...”

Charlotte, despite having gained the upper hand in the battle, was now suffering from reddened eyes and nose due to Vertus’s persistent attacks on her alone. It seemed she had inhaled a lot of water through her nose. Of course, Vertus had the same issue, having swallowed a crap ton of water as well.

“We may have lost, but we surely fought well,” Vertus said with a giggle, and Charlotte glared at him with narrowed eyes.

Though they were supposedly out for each other’s lives in order to claim succession to the throne, at that moment, they just looked like normal siblings.

Charlotte glowered at Vertus. Her gaze was chilling, and she muttered ominously, “Let’s play ‘watermelon splitting’. The loser gets a flick on the forehead.”

“You want to play that all of a sudden?”

Vertus seemed a bit taken aback by Charlotte’s abrupt suggestion.

Charlotte truly seemed to want to give Vertus a real beating.

‘More importantly, though, how do you even know the game of watermelon splitting?’

“Are you scared you might lose?”

“Ahahahahaha!”

Vertus burst into laughter at Charlotte’s provocation, then looked down at her with a sinister expression.

“Of course not,” Vertus said.

“Bring the watermelon!”

Both Vertus and Charlotte, though kind and gentle towards others, were of completely opposite personalities when talking to each other.

***

A watermelon was left alone on the sandy beach. Charlotte and Vertus stood across from each other, the watermelon in between them. They would spin around ten times, and the first to break the watermelon got a chance to give the other a good flick on the forehead.

Both of them had their eyes covered with towels.

“U-Um, guys... Don’t you think this is a little dangerous?” Ms. Mustang said.

Ms. Mustang seemed anxious as she watched the students gear up for the watermelon-splitting game with bats in their hands.

“The one who breaks the watermelon first after spinning in place ten times wins!” Ludwig said.

Ludwig acted as the referee, and everyone gathered around to watch the impromptu watermelon-splitting contest with a mix of nervousness and fascination.

“Ready... On your marks... Begin!”

It seemed like the students from Class A were scattered around, some resting or heading to their bungalows to sleep early.

“Don’t they ever get tired?” Harriet muttered incredulously as she watched the spectacle unfold.

It seemed strange to her that, having maintained such intense energy while on the deserted island, they seemed to get even more excited when told to rest.

“I guess they’re just excited,” I said.

I was lying on a sunbed, observing the scene, while Harriet was sitting on the sunbed next to mine.

“Anyway, if you have something to say to me, just say it.”

Harriet’s face turned red, visible even in the dim night.

“Wh-What! I... I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“Nothing, huh? Okay then, if you say so.”

“...”

Lying there quietly, she approached hesitantly and took a seat next to me, then spent quite some time hemming and hawing, not saying anything coherent but not staying completely silent either. I had a good guess as to what she wanted to say.

Finally, after much hesitation, she opened her mouth.

“Uh... Th... Th-th-thank you.”

‘So you’ve been agonizing all this time just to say that, huh.’

It seemed she wanted to express her gratitude for how I had continually looked out for her during the mission.

Of course, I looked at Harriet and cracked a smile.

“Hehe, is that so?”

“... Why are you laughing?”

“What exactly are you thankful for? And how thankful are you? Can you describe in detail what it was that I did that you’re so thankful for?”

“Wh-What?”

“Since you’re so thankful, surely you must have a reason. What are you grateful for?”

As I snickered and stood up slowly to question her, she started inching back.

“Hm? Tell me, what exactly were you so grateful for? Huh? Let’s hear it.”

As I switched into teasing mode, Harriet grimaced. “Eek! I knew it! I hate you! You’re the worst!”

“Oh? Didn’t you just say you were thankful?”

Her face turned beet red.

“Get lost!” she yelled at me, then stormed off to her bungalow.

***

This was a long-awaited break. The time at the Temple seemed almost to be a relentless succession of training days, so having a moment where I could just zone out and do nothing felt extremely rare.

The mission had been intensely demanding, far beyond the usual rigors of training, and this extended break felt like a just reward.

Ellen, having enjoyed exploring underwater with a water-breathing spell, requested that Harriet cast the spell on her again.

“... You find that fun?”

“Yeah.”

After sending Ellen off, Harriet cast the water-breathing spell on herself as well, and went into the sea with Adelia. When they returned, they seemed thrilled, chatting excitedly about their incredible experience.

As for me, I embraced this rare respite by spending most of my time sprawled on a sunbed, eating and then just sprawling some more. Once we returned to the Temple, the relentless schedule and training cycles would resume, and days of rest like these wouldn’t come by any time soon.

Hence, I was totally devoted to resting.

That meant that, aside from eating and sleeping, I was basically continuously sprawled out.

“... Are you a mollusk or something?” Charlotte commented as she approached me. It was already Saturday, and I still remained in that same state.

“Hm? Why?”

“It’s just that you’ve been slumped over here since yesterday.”

Lying on the sunbed like some kind of specter appeared quite peculiar to her.

“I figure I’ll be grinding away again once we get back, so I’m doing absolutely nothing while I still can.”

“Ha, that’s an interesting way to put it.”

Charlotte’s splendid golden hair was tied into a ponytail. Her hair was so rich and voluminous that it seemed any style would suit her well. She did not seem to be planning to swim that day, since she was wearing a white sleeveless dress. Charlotte sat down next to me, sipping her drink.

Charlotte had taken down an orc. Although her supernatural power was a secret, it was formidable enough to kill an orc.

However, ever since the mission’s end, Charlotte seemed to be wearing a constant air of dissatisfaction.

“Did you take down the orc by yourself?” I asked.

At my question, Charlotte seemed to zone out for a moment, before she nodded slightly.

“How I did it is a secret, but yes.”

The students of Class B had been taken out one by one, and the mission had concluded with Charlotte taking down the orc on her own.

“Why do you ask that?” Charlotte asked, tilting her head slightly as if wondering why I would ask such a thing.

“It just seems like you’re not too thrilled about it.”

I was only willing to push that far, and not ask anything unreasonable. While Charlotte and I had grown friendlier, delving into sensitive areas still felt inappropriate.

A powerful ability, but one that had to be kept secret... Charlotte seemed to contemplate a moment, then smiled lightly.

“Um... I kind of dislike relying on my supernatural power,” she said, giving as much away as she seemed willing to, before smiling.

“... Is that so?”

Whatever her ability was, it seemed Charlotte disliked her own power.

When faced with the approaching orc, she had lost her composure and used her supernatural power. Although this resulted in the orc’s defeat, she disliked having to rely on her own supernatural power to solve the problem.

‘A supernatural being who dislikes her own abilities...’

Charlotte’s abilities only grew more intriguing the more I learned about them.