Chapter 255: School Festival (1)

Chapter 255: School Festival (1)In the end, I faced a different kind of difficulty than the ones I thought of when I first decided to meet with Eleanor.

At first, I thought she had plotted a very evil scheme—mainly related to my lower body—or would force me to do her biddings—mainly related to my lower body.

But, what actually happened, every single day, until the day before the School Festival was...

“...Today too?”

As I asked so, Beatrix, whom I had been meeting for a few days—giving us enough interaction to be familiar with each other—replied with a sigh.

“Yeah.”

“...”

“I’m sorry but she said she doesn’t want to meet anyone right now.”

This was also the same thing I heard from the helpless looking Beatrix when I first visited the Student Council Room to meet Eleanor.

Yes, this had been going on for several days.

Hearing what she said the first time, even though it sounded so lame of me, I couldn’t help but ask...

“...Am I included in that ‘anyone’ category?”

“Yeah. Actually, this is meant for you, since she knew that you’d come and visit her. That’s why she specifically requested me to tell you this if you were to come.”

“...”

Her answer to that lame question of mine only served to make me look even worse.

And as someone who knew how infatuated Eleanor was with me, Beatrix seemed to be flustered by the situation as well.

Her question proved it.

“...So, did you do something that made her angry or what?”

[Well, I can’t even think which one it would be this time.]

“...”

[But I’ll bet that she’s angry at you because of what you’ve done to the other women just a while ago. I mean, considering that you did all that after giving her a wedding ring.]

I ignored the unhelpful ghost’s rambling and mulled over the situation while scratching my head.

As Caliban said, the chances that she was angry at me because she found out about that wasn’t low.

When you do something wrong repeatedly for a long time, you’re bound to get caught. If anything, it was a miracle that she hadn’t caught me yet so far.

I mean, let’s get real. There was no way that she was unaware to some extent that I had been involved with all kinds of women here and there.

...But, I don’t think that’s the case.

[Why?]

Because if that’s what this is about, she would’ve come to kill me instead of locking herself up like this.

[...]

Caliban’s silence meant that he agreed with me.

Actually, even though Eleanor seemed intolerant, she was actually extremely tolerant.

That was why she had only been sighing whenever she saw me meeting another woman.

But, the moment someone else did ‘something she hadn’t done yet’ with me, she’d definitely come to kill me.

Actually, if that were to happen, I wouldn’t be the only one who’d get my neck chopped off, the woman I was doing with would end up like that too.

Of course I haven’t done anything like that so far...

That was true, I swear!

I did all my ‘first’ intimate contacts with women with Eleanor and no one else!

Though, it felt like I was now walking between fine lines with most of them...

“...”

Huh?

Wait.

“...What?”

When Beatrix saw the change in my expression, she narrowed her eyes.

“Something came to your mind?”

“...”

Yeah...

There was one...

Someone who took away something that even Eleanor hadn’t done yet...

Well, I didn’t know if I could call her ‘someone’, but anyway, she was inside Eleanor’s body, so there was a very high chance she had a ‘contact’ with her—

“...”

Oh no...

This is more dangerous than I thought—

“...Eleanor?”

As I thought so, Beatrix’s voice suddenly hit my ears.

At that moment, I could feel my face turning pale as I turned my head towards her—to be exact, toward the person whose name she had just called, who was standing next to her.

From the way she dressed, it seemed like she had just come out of the training center inside the Student Council Room.

She was wearing a tank top and pants made of practical materials. I could see traces of her working-out all over her body.

“...What the? I thought you said you don’t want to meet anyone.”

“...”

Beatrix asked her that, but Eleanor didn’t say anything.

Instead, she silently stared at me with an emotionless gaze that was hard for me to read.

Without saying anything.

This went on for quite a while.

To the point that I was actually getting terrified.

“...Um, Elanor?”

That was why...

I decided to greet her first with an awkward smile on my face.

“It’s been a long time since we saw each other, right? Have you been well—”

Before I could even finish my sentence, she already walked toward me, making my voice unknowingly trail off.

Her movements looked daring and there was no hesitation in her gait, making it look as if she was charging forwards to attack her enemy.

Uh-oh...

**

This might be really really dangerous...

**

“...Uh, Elean—”

Before I could even say anything, she already closed the distance between us and then...

She hugged me tightly.

Since her body was soaked by her sweat, my clothes were also drenched by it. A fragrant aroma wafted into my nostrils.

Then...

[ Sensing a movement of ‘Demonic Aura’! ]

The Demonic Aura was charged.

Actually, describing it that way was a little inaccurate.

“...”

That’s even worse than before!

As Lucia’s face went pale, the Sword Saint continued with a sigh,

“I understand that her position is a little special, considering that the only person she could confide in ever since she was a child was Lady Tristan...”

“...Is that so...?”

She didn’t know what it was, but now she finally felt that he was about to say something normal.

After Lucia let out such a response, the Sword Saint continued to mutter with a gloomy look.

“Mm. She’s never shown it because of her position, but she’s someone who’s craving for love...”

This was something that Lucia had heard about before.

Apparently, Cecilia the 11th, the ruler of the empire, had a tough childhood from a very young age due to her political opponents.

Most of her family died when she was a little, so she grew up with almost no one on her side.

“That’s why I understand her feelings of wanting to find someone who can love her, I really do, but...”

The Sword Saint let out another deep sigh.

“...But why did she choose that damned playboy of all people?”

“...”

I can’t refute that.

Lucia thought as she barely managed to maintain her twitching smile.

Considering what that man did to her sister and her a few days ago—she meant no offense to Dowd—the Sword Saint was hitting the nail on the head.

“B-But still, that man has quite a lot of good things about him, you know?”

Lucia struggled to say while sweating profusely.

“He’s a much more considerate person than anyone thinks, also, he’s quite reliable! When he does something, he’d do it properly. In my eyes, there are quite a lot of things about him that make him popular with women—”

“With all due respect, Saintess.”

“Yes?”

“How the hell do you know all that...?”

“...”

“It feels like you’re telling me your personal feeling—”

**

Yes, yes I am!

**

Just think of it like that!

Lucia gritted her teeth while thinking so, but she couldn’t exactly say it out loud.

“T-Then!”

Instead, she did her best to change the subject while drawing Divine Power.

“I-I’ll show you the proof myself!”

The application of Divine Power was quite diverse, and one of its applications was the ability to show a ‘playback’ on certain events that had happened somewhere else.

Of course, even though she possessed strong enough Divine Power as a saintess, using such an absurd ability would dry her out of her Divine Power, but her desire to end this dangerous confession as soon as possible was way bigger than her worry of exhausting herself.

And so, she drew her Divine Power, trying to search for the most recent scene of ‘Dowd and the empress together, all while doing her best mentally calculate everything.

She figured that if the Sword Saint were to see that the empress was enjoying her academy life, he might be less worried about her.

After all, even the headmistress mentioned that the empress had been smiling more ever since she came to the Academy. As long as Dowd hadn’t lost his mind, there was no way that he’d do anything strange to the empress.

That was her intention.

And it was such a good and kind intention too.

But, inside the miraculous ‘scene’ Lucia had created, the empress, who was in another place now, was shown.

-In public, you always acted so elegantly, so pitiable, all while wearing the mask of benevolence...

-Look at you, being handled roughly by a lowlife like me. And look at your expression. It seems like you’re really ‘enjoying’ this, aren’t you?

- ...Y-You—

To be exact...

The sight of Dowd, who was degrading the empress openly, and the empress, who was twisting her body around, as if not knowing what to do with him, was shown.

“...”

“...”

A heavy silence filled the chapel.

Ah.

I made a mistake.

When Lucia realized that...

“...This damn lowlife.”

She could hear the Sword Saint’s murderous voice from across the confession room.

“...Saintess.”

“...Yes?”

As Lucia replied in a stiff voice, he uttered his next words, still sounding like he was about to murder someone.

“When is the Elfante’s School Festival again?”

Uh-oh...

This is turning into an even bigger deal!

Lucia thought so while breaking out in a cold sweat inwardly.

●

Finally, the day of the School Festival.

“...”

[...]

“...”

[Say something.]

“I don’t know.”

[Look, I understand how you feel, but...]

“I. Don’t. Know.”

I stubbornly said so, trying hard to deny the reality in front of me.

You know, I never expected that things would go smoothly.

Because, it never had, ever since the first time I became Dowd Campbell.

But still...

[My sooooon—!]

“...”

[Why won’t you look at your moooom—!]

How was I supposed to accept that this five meter giant robot was my actual biological mother?!

...I wish this was all just a one big joke...!