Chapter 312 [Illustration]

Chapter 312 [Illustration]

The final match of Group C was over, therefore neither Olivia, who advanced to the semifinals, nor Harriet, who forfeited, had any business at the tournament grounds for the rest of the day.

“You... You really are a bad person. You know that, right?” Olivia said as she stalked Harriet.

“I’m just trying to be as bad as you,” Harriet replied.

“Th-That’s...! Still! You’re bad too!”

Olivia’s face turned bright red as she trailed behind Harriet. Despite winning, Olivia felt like she had been defeated. In fact, winning in that fashion made her feel even more defeated.

Harriet glanced at Olivia, who was chattering away beside her, and said, “Be quiet. The match is over, so stop bothering me and be on your way.”

“... Anyway, you little...! I’ll get my revenge! Just wait and see!” Olivia shouted, fleeing the tournament grounds like a sore loser despite her victory.

Harriet smiled at Olivia’s retreating figure. Despite her anger, Olivia had shown a great deal of restraint. She seemed furious enough to lose her composure and lash out, but she hadn’t touched Harriet outside the arena.

If she got any angrier, it wouldn’t have been surprising if she lost her composure and harmed Harriet, or something like that. In the end, she could not tolerate her own anger any further, so she ended up running away instead.

At least Olivia had some sense of boundaries, even if her behavior suggested otherwise.

‘She’s a strange person...’ Harriet thought.

Harriet still couldn’t figure out if Olivia was a good or bad person. However, she was certain she didn’t like her.

As Harriet exited the main stadium, she was greeted by a crowd of first-year students of the Royal Class.

Among them, Reinhart shouted, “Thick-Skull! You did it!”

Even though she had lost, they were all celebrating her as if she had won.

“I always believed in you!” Reinhart exclaimed.

“... You were the one who doubted her the most,” Ellen retorted.

“Ahem. Well, uh, ahem!” Reinhart cleared his throat awkwardly as everyone, including Ellen and the other students, stared at him.

Harriet knew that Reinhart had been anxious and restless.

Everyone gathered around Harriet, praising her for her incredible performance. Despite the fact that Olivia hadn’t used her Divine Power and had underestimated her opponent, winning one bout against Olivia was still a significant achievement.

It wasn’t just the students who were waiting to greet Harriet.

“Sweetie!”

“O-Oh, mom...”

The Duchess of Saint-Ouen hugged Harriet tightly. Harriet knew her parents had been in the audience and expected them to make an appearance, so she wasn’t too surprised. However, being called “sweetie” in front of everyone made her face turn bright red.

“You were amazing, my sweetie. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Don’t call me sweetie...”

The students stepped back and watched the scene unfold. Having them know that she was treated like this at home made the situation even more unbearable for Harriet.

The Grand Duke of Saint-Ouen was also looking on with a proud smile, clearly delighted by his daughter’s significant growth. After fussing over Harriet for a while, the Duchess, still holding onto Harriet, looked around.

“But... Mr. Reinhart?”

Reinhart’s face turned pale, and he froze.

“Uh... y-yes! It’s been a while!”

Everyone was surprised that the Duchess knew Reinhart. ‘“It’s been a while”? How does Reinhart know Harriet’s mother?’ their expressions said.

“If I heard correctly... the person you call ‘Thick-Skull’ is our sweetie, isn’t she?” the Duchess asked.

Reinhart’s face, which was already pale, almost turned green.

The Duchess smiled kindly at Reinhart, but her smile seemed to hide thousands of sharp blades.

“Is that right?”

“U-Uh, Uhh... W-Well, uh... that is... um...”

“Yes, that’s right,” Ellen answered instead of Harriet or Reinhart.

Reinhart, still frozen, looked at Ellen.

‘Are you trying to get me killed?’

Ellen ignored his gaze and looked away, seemingly annoyed.

The Duchess’s chilling smile grew even more pronounced, and the blades concealed within them seemed even sharper.

At that moment, the Grand Duke, who had been watching the situation with amusement, approached and placed a hand on Reinhart’s shoulder.

“Mr. Reinhart, would you like to have a little chat?”

“Oh, w-well, uh, you see, there’s a story behind that...”

The Grand Duke’s expression turned grim. “A story that explains why you call my daughter ‘Thick-Skull,’ huh?”

‘It must be quite a story,’ his eyes seemed to say, implying that it had better be a very good one.

“Please, just kill me,” Reinhart finally confessed, surrendering himself.

***

Thankfully, I wasn’t beaten to death, but when the Duchess of Saint-Ouen patted my shoulder and said she didn’t know her daughter had such a cute nickname, the gesture felt more chilling than having a knife to my throat.

Harriet didn’t know what to do. Both defending me or not defending me would look strange.

That was that. I had to accept that I was now paying the price for teasing the Grand Duke’s daughter and a princess of a nation-state by calling her Thick-Skull.

The Grand Duke didn’t explicitly say he would kill me if I called his daughter that again, and just looked at me with a cold, piercing gaze. His silence was more terrifying than any words.

“Sit down.”

“Oh, uh, yes.”

In the end, I found myself sitting at a table in a restaurant inside the Temple with the Saint-Ouen family. The Grand Duke had briefly greeted Charlotte and Sabioleen Tana, who were familiar faces, and then decided to have a meal with his daughter. For some reason, I ended up as part of their group.

I hadn’t intended to follow them, and they didn’t explicitly ask me to follow them either. The Duchess had just dragged me along naturally, wanting to talk to me as we walked, and we ended up at the restaurant.

‘What is this? What kind of situation is this?’

Harriet was just as bewildered. ‘Why is he here? Why did mom bring him along?’ said her expression

We both sat there as though in a trance, moving our forks and knives mechanically as the food was served.

‘Let’s not say anything. Let’s not ask any unnecessary questions. One wrong word, and things could become irreparable.’

What was all this? Meeting Harriet’s parents alone in Arnaria was one thing, but I was now sitting together with them? Even if Harriet and I were engaged, this would seem out of order.

“So, sweetie, when did you learn to do that?” the Duchess asked.

“Yes, I’m curious about the details of the mechanics behind it,” the Grand Duke added.

Fortunately, neither the Duchess nor the Grand Duke seemed to have much interest in me for the moment, which was a relief. Harriet’s performance in the second bout against Olivia had far exceeded their expectations.

“Oh, well... I haven’t given the technique a name yet. It’s based on the principle of applying scroll magic to the human body,” Harriet explained, rolling up her right sleeve. There were no visible tattoos, but as she concentrated, blue mana lines began to appear on her arm, forming the shapes of runes.

The Grand Duke examined the complex runes and nodded in understanding.

“Runes, is it?” the Grand Duke remarked.

“Yes,” Harriet confirmed.

“Are you saying you reverse-engineered modern magic into runes?”

“Yes.”

The Grand Duke was likely the only one who truly understood how difficult that was. He stared at his daughter in disbelief, clearly astonished by the incredible feat she had accomplished.

Harriet smiled subtly. “I didn’t do it alone. The others at the Magic Research Club helped a lot. The idea came from someone else.”

“The Magic Research Club...?” The Grand Duke looked at Harriet, then at me.

“Yes, the one he suggested we form,” Harriet said, pointing at me.

The Duchess and the Grand Duke turned their gazes towards me.

I had boasted that their daughter would achieve something remarkable within the Magic Research Club. Although this was not what I had envisioned, Harriet had indeed accomplished something extraordinary with the help of the other club members.

In the end, I had been proven right.

The Grand Duke and Harriet discussed her newly developed magical technique for a while. Most of it went over my head, but I had an idea of what they were talking about, thanks to Louis.

Harriet had essentially turned her body into a living, functioning magic circle, but I couldn’t fully grasp how using magic via a magic circle reduced casting time as opposed to using regular magic.

“Harriet, this system of magic is probably something only you can use. Ordinary mages won’t be able to reverse-engineer modern magic into runes, memorize all the details, and recall them as needed. This method eliminates the Mana Manipulation stage in casting, but makes the computational process even longer,” the Grand Duke explained.

“... Yes, I suppose so,” Harriet agreed.

In the end, the method relied on an exceptional mind to compress the process. For an ordinary mage, this method would be more of a hindrance.

It skipped the practical steps required for Mana Manipulation, but increased the complexity of the formulas instead. For Harriet, it allowed near-instantaneous magic use, but for others, it would be an impractical endeavor.

The opponents in the tournament semifinals and finals wouldn’t be easy, and she also had to prepare for Miss Temple.

Olivia sluggishly got up from her bed and opened her wardrobe. She had sold everything except for the essentials. The wardrobe contained only her school uniform and some plain everyday clothes.

‘If only I had the dress I wore to the sponsorship gathering...’

She had sold her belongings to help others. The dresses and accessories that her foster father had bought for her for various events were all gone. There was no real reason to go that far, but she couldn’t find a reason not to either. She believed that her true needs couldn’t be fulfilled by material possessions, and so Olivia had done what she did.

Olivia looked into her wardrobe, devoid of anything but her school uniform, and sighed, laughing weakly.

***

The Grand Duke and Duchess of Saint-Ouen left in the evening after their meal. The Grand Duke was clearly a busy man, and it seemed he had made time specifically for Harriet’s tournament.

“What?” Harriet said abruptly after seeing her parents off.

“... Did I say something? I didn’t say anything,” I replied.

“It’s the perfect time to say something! What are you going to say? Just say it already!” Harriet shouted, her face turning bright red.

It was as if she knew I was holding something back, not wanting to say it in front of her parents.

“... M-Mom calling me that... You’re going to tease me about it...”

Even as she spoke, her lips trembled. She probably thought I would mock her for being called “sweetie” by her mom.

“What’s there to tease you about? You are a sweetie.”

“See! You’re teasing me!”

Her reaction was priceless. This made me want to tease her even more.

“Come on, say ‘goo-goo ga-ga.’ I bet you did it when I wasn’t around.”

“No, I won’t! I don’t do that! Not even at home!”

Harriet’s face turned even redder as she fumed. Sure, I knew she wouldn’t actually do it, but she was so easy to rile up with just the smallest bit of provocation.

Getting angry and stomping her feet like that already made her seem like a child. She had grown stronger, but her mental state was still the same, which was amusing.

“Come on. Just once?”

“No! Why would I do that at my age!”

‘... Why is it so cute when a seventeen-year-old says “at my age”? She really is like a baby!’

If I provoked her any further, she might actually start casting spells using those mana tattoos all over her body and beat me up, so I decided to keep my mouth shut. Even teasing had its limits.

The streets were still bustling as we made our way back to the Royal Class dormitory. The crowds would only grow larger until Friday.

The final match of Group C of the Open Tournament had become quite a hot topic. The fight had been on a totally different level compared to the other matches.

A first-year student casting spells at near-instantaneous speed, and a fifth-year student taking all those spells head-on and charging through them like a tank...

It was impressive, to say the least.

“But... isn’t it weird?” Harriet muttered quietly as we walked.

“What’s weird?”

“... Mom calling me that. Don’t you think... it’s weird?”

‘What? Is she still thinking about that?’

Harriet seemed genuinely embarrassed by it. Well, perhaps it was a pretty big deal for her. The Grand Duke and Duchess of Saint-Ouen seemed to treat Harriet like a child no matter how old she was.

But that’s just how it is sometimes. I chuckled at Harriet’s embarrassment.

“What’s so weird about parents loving their child?”

“...”

The Grand Duke, who pretended to be stoic but clearly adored his daughter, and the Duchess, who couldn’t stop hugging Harriet and calling her “sweetie”... Harriet seemed to be mortified by it, but I found it heartwarming.

Even so, I still wondered why I had been made to witness the whole scene from start to finish.

“Of course, spoiled kids often turn out to be brats,” I said.

“W-What are you trying to say?”

“You’re not one of those brats, are you?”

Despite growing up in an environment that could have easily spoiled her, Harriet had turned out fine. Her parents’ love wasn’t a crime, and she wasn’t a brat—at least not now.

“Seriously, you say nice things, but why do you always have to put it like that? ‘B-Brat’? I’ve never heard anyone call me that in my life!” retorted Harriet indignantly. It was funny how I was trying to say that her parents were good people and she turned out well, but it had come out like that.

‘Maybe I have a condition that prevents me from saying things nicely?’

Seeing her get all worked up and red-faced made it hard to stop, though.

We continued bickering in such a manner as we headed back to the Royal Class dormitory. It was a winter night, and it was cold.

“It’s cold,” I said.

“It’s winter, you idiot. Of course, it’s cold,” Harriet replied.

“Do I have to be called an idiot just for saying it’s cold?”

“Maybe not others, but you of all people shouldn’t be saying that, and to me especially! After all the times you’ve teased me for no reason!”

Harriet started up again, but this time, she had a point; I was the one who started it.

It felt like a particularly cold night, though. It was the middle of winter and it was nighttime, and we were both dressed lightly. Our breaths came out in white puffs as we walked.

I wondered how much colder it would get. Of course, this wasn’t the Arctic, and the weather wouldn’t be that harsh.

But then again, magic was considered a divine force in this world, so there was no need to be cold if you could use magic.

I nudged Harriet, who was walking quietly beside me.

“Hey, it’s cold.”

“... What about it?”

“I said it’s cold.”

“So what?”

“Do something about it.”

“Why should I?” Harriet looked at me, puzzled by my demand.

During our time on the deserted island, Harriet had summoned an orb of warmth to keep everyone warm in their tents.

‘Incantation and all that aside, magic is truly the best.’

Harriet pouted at my request, then closed her eyes gently. I thought she might be summoning that heat orb again.

But then...

Swish.

“...”

Harriet suddenly took my hand. Her head was bowed so low that she couldn’t even look at me.

This felt like déjà vu. When I had first awakened my Mana Reinforcement and was in terrible pain, Harriet had sung a lullaby instead of using a sleeping spell on me. When I realized it was a misunderstanding, she had almost wished she’d died right then and there.

Was she misunderstanding me again, thinking I wanted something else instead of her magic?

“No, hey... that’s not what I meant. I meant magic—”

“I know.”

Her words made my mind go blank.

“I’m... not that stupid...”

Her voice trembled as if it might shatter at any moment. This wasn’t déjà vu. She knew I was asking for a magical solution, but had chosen to hold my hand instead.

Harriet, still with her eyes to the ground, led the way, holding my hand. She wasn’t gripping it too tightly. She couldn’t bear to hold it tighter, nor could she let go.

I followed her lead, letting her guide me.

“How was I today?” Harriet asked.

“You were amazing,” I replied, sincerely and without pretense.

“...”

“...”

We didn’t say anything more. We just walked in silence.

The dormitory was quite a distance away, far enough that we would usually take the tram. But Harriet walked past the tram stop and kept walking.

It felt as if she wanted to walk forever, as if she hoped the place we had to return to would never appear.