Chapter 174: Summer and With It, Trouble (6)

༺ Summer and With It, Trouble (6) ༻

After the one-off lecture, we headed to the academy cafeteria for a meal. As expected of the Royal Academy, the meals were of a spectacular quality and from what I heard on the way, it seemed that the Royal Academy was also getting supplies from the Dunareff Family.

“Oppa! I’m going to hang out with my friends, so you two can go back without me!”

“...”

“...”

My sister was gone and we continued awkwardly sipping on our coffees inside an academy cafe.

『Why would I date someone other than Mr. Korin?』

What she said back at the lecture room kept coming back to the surface of my mind. There was no way that I couldn’t understand what she meant by that.

I’m quite quick-witted when it comes to things like this, aren’t I?

Thanks to my sharp mind, I was easily able to deduce that Alicia was harboring feelings for me.

“Umm... Alicia?”

“Yepp! Huft! Ye— cough cough!”

She replied while coughing out her coffee. Judging from how she had been nervously stealing glances at me, it appeared that she was quite agitated by her own unconscious remark.

“Fuu... What you said back then...”

“Sorry?! What? Me? What did I say?”

“...”

Alicia shouted out loud, trying to erase what had happened from her memories. She was constantly trying to deny it, so I decided to shift the topic.

“Do you want to go training?”

First off, we had to do something about this awkward atmosphere.

***

The 6-star hotel from the Dunareff Franchise that Marie rented out was currently hosting most of the members of Korin Guardians.

Except for Alicia and I who had houses inside the capital, it was acting as the temporary home for Marie, Hua Ran... and other official members such as Dorron and Kranel, as well as the unofficial ones such as the Arden Sword Squad elites, and the Warsky mercenaries.

Including the attendants for the Dunareff Dukedom and the Arden household, more than 600 people were staying at the hotel.

As expected of the only 6-star hotel in the capital, the Dunareff Hotel was equipped with phenomenal facilities and a size that could accommodate all 600 of them with ease.

“Huu... It’s empty.”

Alicia and I headed into the renovated gym inside the hotel. It was one of the facilities that was revamped by the servants who we caught from the Tower of Mages, in preparation for the Korin Guardian’s group event.

“People should be coming in soon.”

The royal banquet was planned to be held in three days. It was likely that the hotel would start bustling with people starting from tomorrow.

“Let’s start off slow.”

I was going to stay here tomorrow and for the foreseeable future after that, so I decided to have a small practice duel with Alicia for starters.

“I, I’m ready.”

“Right.”

-Swish!

The first attack was a stab of the Ominous Snake. The Ominous Snake wasn’t the fastest stab in my arsenal. In fact, it was one of the slower ones for a spear, but...

“Huhp...!”

It had in itself a tricky and flashy style that made even Alicia react half a second late, despite her numerous practices against it. The slithering snake did not move in a straight line, hence the difficulty in blocking it.

-Kang!

But Alicia was also an elite swordsman in her own right, and a prodigy acknowledged by the Sword Emperor. As someone innately born to be a fiend of swords, she saw through the difficult paths of the Ominous Snake and retaliated in a flash.

Deflecting the spear, she struck down with the sword, to which I responded with the principles of Lan.

By slightly shifting the trajectory of the incoming attack, I spun the shaft of the spear to immediately take the upper edge. Like magnets intertwined, the opposing sword was naturally pushed down toward the ground by the spear, passing the initiative over to me.

After parrying the enemy’s attack – Lan – and suppressing the weapon – Na – I followed through with a stab – Zha.

Lan Na Zha.

Alicia had to somehow react to the practice spear that was coming straight at her chest, but it was too late for her to retrieve the sword. What was she going to do now?

“...!”

She dodged the spear by bending her back with a sudden twist. Those moves made her look more like a beast than a human, but she didn’t end it there and used the momentum of the spin to support her counter-attack.

“Hmm...”

Her moves weren’t exquisite but were rapid and intuitive.

“Let’s up the ante a little.”

Our practice duel became more extreme – the attacks became much faster and much stronger.

“Hu...!”

Alicia took a deep breath in and parried my spear with her sword. That was when I saw that she wasn’t breathing any of that out.

-Kang!

The edge of her sword came straight towards my hand that was carrying the spear. After coming to the decision that she couldn’t beat me in a medium-distance battle, she pounced, aiming for close-quarters combat.

-Kaang! Kagang!

If this was last year, I would have dominated her.

That was how big of a discrepancy there was between me and her, and I also had the experience of going against the otherworldly powerhouses of this world.

However, now that she had passed through the Sword Challenge of the Ardens and defeated the Sword Fiend in the process of acquiring Claiomh Solais, she had grown so much that she couldn’t be compared to how she was in the game.

“Slow.”

She remarked.

-Kwaang!

The rampaging sword pushed back my spear, as well as myself, with an overwhelming force... It felt like my bare body was being bombarded by aura.

“Huuu...”

Now that there was some distance between us, I stopped for a second to gaze at Alicia and found a sword fiend looking back at me with a blank look in her eyes. It was one of the unique traits of her style of being bewitched by the sword.

Even though it was a practice duel, someone weaker than me might die if they were up against her.

‘Actually maybe not.’

Actually, that might not be the case because most wouldn’t even be able to provoke Alicia into that state unless they were as strong as me in the first place.

In any case, Alicia was currently in a selfless and mindless state. The fight against the named boss, Sword Fiend, had allowed her to reach a level further beyond.

‘Do we stop here? No, I suppose there’s no style in that.’

As a warrior and a knight, I couldn’t jump into icy water even though my body was just starting to get heated up. I readied myself to burst out the built-up heat and energy into one attack.

-KAAANG!!

“Hehe...”

Only after pouring out her feelings in both action and words did her rampage come to an end.

“U, uah...”

However, soon after, Alicia seemed to realize everything she had done.

“Auh... Ahh...!”

Her decisive proactiveness and her heated gaze were long gone – she crumbled on the spot regretting her boldness.

“...Why did you do it in the first place if you were going to be like that?”

“Ugh... Y, you don’t have to remind me that, okay?”

“...”

“...Can I hear your answer?”

“Umm... Sorry. Right now, I cannot go out with anyone.”

“Ugh... I know. You have to first deal with fighting Valtazar and all that stuff, right?”

“...Yeah.”

Ran confessed to me; Marie and Hua whispered love but I could not accept any of their feelings.

There was something I had to do and no one knew what would happen in the process. If I were to die during the fight... things might go out of hand.

I had gone back in time once, but there was no guarantee that I would be able to go back in time again after another defeat. Most importantly...

『...I love you. Sorry... for saying that so late. I love you. I really love you, Korin.』

Being separated by death was more painful than what anyone could expect. The guilt of being unable to save your loved one lasted a very long time.

That wasn’t something that could be overcome and was... something that just had to be buried down and endured.

Unlike me, these girls had no likelihood of being given another chance.

“It’s okay. I... somewhat knew this would be the case.”

“Sorry.”

“By the way, Mr. Korin.”

“Hnn?”

Alicia suddenly brought her face closer to mine. Her face was so close that I became nervous whether she was going to force her lips on mine once again but instead, she simply gave a wide and bashful smile.

“You see... if you want to, I don’t mind you going out with other girls, you know?”

“Huh?”

“I like it because it feels like I would be getting more sisters. Yeah... a hundred-people-family including kids... We would need a big house!”

“W, wait... what? Hundred people?”

“I’m going to bear 13 children, so we would fill up 100 in a flash, right?”

As I previously thought... there was something severely off about Alicia’s view on marriage...

***

“Oppa. Did something happen between you and Alicia-unni?”

“Huh? Nn? What? No!?”

Sia, who was oddly quick at reading between the lines, mumbled with a worrisome look on her face.

“Will you be alright, Oppa? I wonder, will you be able to stay alive in the future?”

“...”

She voiced her pure and honest concern. Huu... I was actually starting to wonder the same thing as of late.

“Be careful. You might be worn out by the age of 30 at this rate.”

“K, kuhum... You wouldn’t know this, but actually, there won’t be any problems in that regard...”

“That’s not what I’m saying, you idiot!”

I could have dodged the pillow she threw but I intentionally remained standing there. I deserved to be hit...

“Haa... four people, huh...?”

When did it go up so much? Why are there so many in this iteration?

Ending up with one person wasn’t the end of all problems either. Even if I did go out with someone, the future ahead wasn’t clear.

After clearing the scenario, I might be given the choice of going back to Earth. Some existence must have brought the player into this world, so there must be a way to return us back to Earth at the end.

When that time comes... what am I supposed to choose?

***

Before the start of the banquet to congratulate the victory against the Tower of Mages and the safe rescue of the Saintess, we had to stay in the waiting rooms of the Royal Palace until we received our Greatest Achievement Award.

Marie was allocated to a personal room due to her status as a young lady of a dukedom. That was nothing new, but unexpectedly enough, I was also considered a noble and was given a personal room as well as a maid.

“Would this be enough?”

“Ah, thank you so much.”

“Please don’t be, Sir Baron Lork.”

The royal maid, who was just done tidying up my hair, replied in an extremely polite manner.

Baron Lork.

Although it wasn’t a hereditary peerage, it was already a few months back that I was appointed as a vassal of the Dunareff Dukedom. It was something Marie desperately wanted to give and half-forced onto me, but thanks to that, I was being treated as a noble in the palace.

My family was shocked when they first heard that, even though I hadn’t even told them about me becoming a Grade 1 JP yet...

“Ehew...”

Whatever. What’s good is good.

For the upcoming scenarios at the end of the holiday, the main story was going to be heavily influenced by peerage... especially the status of being a Justice of the Peace.

It might seem like I was leeching off of a girl, but...

-Knock knock!

I was in the middle of getting ready for the conferment ceremony, which was going to be done in front of His Majesty and the nobles when someone knocked on the door.

-Sir Baron Lork. Her Highness, Estelle Hadassa El Rath, has come over.

A female voice echoed from outside, which appeared to be that of a maid. It was a sudden visit from Estelle, but I asked the Maid-noonim inside the room to help me open the door for her.

Soon, the door opened, and walking in was none other than the real Princess Estelle.

“Korin-dongsaeng...”

She looked miserable like a puppy out in the rain... as she looked at me while on the verge of tears.

“What do I... do?”

Right, she finally knew the truth.

I instinctively realized that the trouble from the kidnapping incident of the Saintess had yet to end.