Chapter 140: Korin Guardians (3)

༺ Korin Guardians (3)༻

Technically it was a party just for her.

Although there was the rather-shocking announcement from Korin, Alicia moved on with her usual optimistic mindset and enjoyed the party.

“Hmm hmm~. I knew it. The meat of a cow that led a happy life is super tender~”

She thought to herself that maybe she should raise cows once she started living in a mansion with a big enough garden to cater for 13 kids. Out of her 13 future children, at least one of them would be gifted at classical music, right?

“One more...”

It was right when she was about to reach out for another plate of beef that a big shadow was cast over her from the other side of the table.

“S, Sister?”

“Hmm? Alicia.”

Lunia Arden – Alicia’s sister from another mother had reached out for the same dish as her.

“Have it for yourself. This appears to be the last one.”

“N, no it’s okay. Sister, you should...”

“I told you to have it.”

“Okay...”

Alicia immediately lowered her tail and followed her words.

“Follow me. Let us sit together.”

Unable to go against her imperative tone of voice, Alicia quickly chased after her and sat next to Lunia.

“So, have you been doing alright?”

“T, thanks to you, yes.”

“You ran away with your sister’s fiance and yet you have been doing alright, hmm?”

“Hikk...”

In Alicia’s mind was a slight guilt towards her sister. Although Lunia had given her a roundabout advice and had pretty much given her permission, it was still by her own choice that she kidnapped her sister’s fiance from the engagement ceremony.

“More importantly, tell me about your school life. I am theoretically your guardian.”

Because of her status as the illegitimate child, Alicia had to write the name of her sister in the section for ‘Guardian and Caregiver’ instead of her father when entering the Academy. Partially, it was also because Lunia, who fed her ever since she was born, was more of a mother than her stepmother and her father who refused to show any interest.

“Recently, we... had an interim exam.”

“Hoh~. How did you go?”

“For my major subjects... I got B+ and two B’s...”

“Don’t tell me you have zero A’s?”

“I, I did get one A in one of the general education courses!”

“What was it?”

“Love and War! We watched a play at the theater, acted out one of the scenes, and also had to submit a report.”

“Hoh~. A play, huh.”

Seeing that Lunia was interested, Alicia began rambling about the plot of the act. It was about the female lead and her brother-in-law who fell in love after watching a play called Bridge by Richmond County... In the end, the female lead refused to push through with her feelings and eventually gave up on love, as the male lead – her brother-in-law – had to send her off.

“Oh dear... If that was me, I would have openly earned my position.”

“Me too! Love is important after all, right?”

“But what a mediocre man that male lead must be. As a man, one ought to satisfy a few women at the very least. Seems that he was not too confident of his ability on the bed.”

“Ugh... I, it wasn’t an immoral story like that! Well, I... do agree in a way, but...”

Despite blushing fervently from her direct comment, Alicia still whispered her agreement.

“But it is quite fortunate in that sense. My partner – he has acquired the Sun, has he not?”

“Umm... Yes, but is that related?”

“Ah~. Do you not know? Don’t worry about it then.”

“Sorry?”

“More importantly, how are you doing with him?”

“You mean... Mr. Korin?”

“He is your sister’s fiance that you have snatched away. I was expecting you guys to have slept together already at the very least.”

“T, there’s no way we would do something that indecent!”

Alicia immediately reacted with a shout as Lunia lifted the corners of her lips in response. It was because of how rare it was for the child, who was always so down and depressed when with her, to be so adamant and serious about something.

“Well, enjoy as you wish, but you better hurry up unless you want him to be stolen.”

“Huh? W, what do you mean...?”

“I am telling you to stop hiding in a corner like a rat that only thinks about leftover cheese. If you want something, then push open the main entrance, walk in with pride, and take what you wish with your own hands.”

“Ugh...”

Understanding what she meant, Alicia shrunk her shoulders. She still thought to herself that the only reason Lunia could say that was because she was a proud and capable hero who could do whatever she wanted by attacking from the front.

She didn’t have the delicateness of a girl, but her openness was certainly one of her greatest strengths... and she would not be afraid to try again even if she were to be defeated in the process.

‘But... It’s not like I’m going to give up, though.’

‘Well, nothing will change even if he goes to Alicia first.’

The Arden sisters were very much alike.

They were the type to be heavily encouraged by having rivals, and weren’t people that were willing to stop even if the other person were to reach the goal before them.

They truly were a wicked pair of siblings.

****

“...”

Without joining any group, Hua Ran sat by herself in the corner, watching over the events of the garden.

Josephine had started fine-tuning the swordsmen of Arden including Lunia, whereas Yuel and Kranel were bickering with each other for some unknown reason.

Erin explained her relationship with Korin through a short and simple explanation.

“Hmm. I see. That’s interesting. Korin’s master, huh...”

However, she did not tell them about Korin’s regression or the information about the future he possessed. It was because Korin wasn’t very fond of sharing stories about Marie and Alicia, who had both died horrible deaths in the original timeline.

“Please get along with Korin. He’s a strong boy, but needs someone to support him because of that.”

The girls all nodded in response. Each and every one of them had received a large amount of help from Korin, and they were already dying to be more helpful than the others. They had been willing to devote themselves to his cause even without Korin’s master reminding them about it.

“That boy; he’s been getting bags under his eyes. He is a foolishly stubborn and straight-forward man, who always tries hard to help other people.”

Erin voiced her concern for him with a voice of remorse. It was originally supposed to be her job and her job alone, so how could she not be fond of her disciple, the young hero who volunteered to shoulder that by himself?

『I don’t think of you as my master though, Erin.』

“Htt...?!”

“Chairman?”

After suddenly recalling something, Erin accidentally spitted out a bit of her tea, which made Marie turn to her in concern.

“M, my bad. It went down the wrong pipe. Oh dear... That wasn’t very courteous of me. Anyway, that boy...”

『Can I kiss you?』

“Huu... No.”

Her white skin started to be painted red. Every time she thought about Korin, Erin couldn’t help but flush her cheeks so in the end, she decided to get up.

“Ah. He must be washing the dishes by now. He has been doing everything by himself so I will go and lend him some help.”

“L, let me go as well!”

Erin quickly turned around in an attempt to conceal her flushed face as the three girls immediately went after her. Even though Erin had hidden her face pretty well, the three girls instinctively picked up on some strange points.

At the kitchen next to the garden, the four ladies found Korin, who was dozing off on a chair with his head dropped flat on the table.

“...He’s sleeping.”

“He must have been tired. I guess he would have been, because he woke up before sunrise today to prepare the dishes.”

Remembering how he had been diligently preparing for the guests from early in the morning, Marie regretted not helping out earlier.

Although she had helped him out a ton, she still blamed herself, as expected of a girl who wanted to pour out everything unconditionally at the person she loved.

“It’s very rare for him to be so defenseless. It’s my first time seeing Mr. Korin sleeping like this.”

Alicia, on the other hand, seemed interested at the sight of Korin sleeping without a care in the world. She crouched down, rested her elbows on the table and rested her head on her hands, watching him sleep with a wide smile on her face.

“...”

Meanwhile, Hua Ran felt a myriad of emotions. Just by looking at his face, her heart palpitated furiously and that made her feel confused because it was her first time experiencing such a thing.

“You will get sick if you sleep in a place like this. Let me move you somewhere else.”

Erin lifted him up in one swoop and placed him down on the couch in the living room. Instead of a blanket, she cast her robe over him and murmured while gazing down at his face.

“Why is he so handsome, I wonder~”

“......Chairman?”

The girls turned their eyes to Erin, who continued with a big smile on her lips.

“Look at my disciple. Isn’t he handsome? Look at his tall nose, big eyes, and lips... Fufu. I wonder who his master is~”

She sounded like a master who was very proud of her disciple, but...

Her face was extremely bright; her cheeks were flushed in red and her eyes were filled with affection. Looking at her expression... the girls felt an unknown feeling of déjà vu.

“Haht...”

What was with this uneasiness that they were feeling? They wondered.

They did not know the nature of their uneasiness, but what was certain was that all three of them had felt the same thing.

****

With the interim exam over, the Academy was very rowdy and bustling with noise. However, the people in our group had more things to do apart from our lessons.

My master, Erin Danua, became the new chairman and we were going to receive lessons from her in an order in preparation for the raid of the ‘Treasury of the Danann’.

“So today is going to be the first day.”

In the chairman’s office, Lady Josephine said with her eyes on us while standing next to Erin.

Me, Marie, Alicia, Hua Ran, Ren, Ron and six others including Dorron.

Both in the game and in the last iteration, getting lessons from Erin Danua was a quick way to raise the skill level of the party members. After the winter holidays, it was possible to have the party members get much stronger thanks to the teacher, Erin Danua.

It happened in a flash during the game with the text changing from 『They have started their training』 to 『The training has been complete』, but I had first-hand experience from the last iteration on how impactful and meaningful her lessons were.

Erin Danua, my master, was an inborn teacher, who had exceptional talents at teaching.

“Then let’s go.”

As soon as she said that, Josephine activated her dimensional spell and we arrived at the training area of our office in a flash.

“You have come.”

“Miss Lunia.”

When we got there, we saw that Lunia and the Five Swords were already carrying out their training routine.

“Now, before I start teaching you, shall we start with a simple duel between each other? I need to scan through everyone before we begin.”

It was similar to how it went in the last iteration. Erin would see how everyone moved, identify the problem and the reason and give everyone individualized lessons.

Her guidance was surely going to be helpful in raising everyone’s ability including my own.

“Before that,”

Someone stepped up before Erin continued with her words.

“I would like to see how you fight, teacher.”

Lunia Arden.

Unlike the other members of the party, she was a strong named character who would only enter the party when specific conditions were met. She was the Sword Master, who was perhaps furthest away from being taught out of our entire group.

“How about a simple bout of swords before we begin?”

She said, raising a letter of challenge to Master Erin.