CH 86

“Oh my, you don’t have to worry since I ate more than enough food.”

Sophie thought to pretend not to hear it, but when she said such a sarcastic greeting, the faces of the gold star students turned pale.

The change was too drastic⁠—like dipping a litmus paper into pure acid⁠—to the point Sophie was surprised about it as well. It seemed they were more timid compared to the person who bad-mouthed her behind her back and ran earlier.

“Excuse me.”

Suddenly, a man wearing black interjected.

He looked harmless, but the fact he wore black meant he belonged to the black star faculty. His black clothes were adorned with similar fine, silver embroidery as Gerald.

“Who are you again?”

“…My name is Keith Dudley.”

“Sophie-sama, he was among the people who greeted you on the first day! He’s already earned one black star!”

Luca explained in a hurry, but his explanation was rougher compared to when he talked about Lars.

However, Luca’s desperate follow-up was meaningless to Sophie.

“Ah, so that’s how it is. My apologies, I don’t remember you.”

“Hah…?”

Keith uttered in such a stupid voice to the girl who blatantly declared that she forgot about him with a big smile, but he immediately returned to himself and continued to speak.

“Sophie-sama, I will give a proper punishment for Lars Rydholm, so could you please not make a big fuss about this?”

Lars’ complexion became worse at Keith’s words.

“Oh my, you mean you will do so?”

“Yes.”

“Why? What authority allows you to do so?”

“Eh…?”

Keith uttered in a stupid voice for the second time, probably because he didn’t think that Sophie would ask about his authority. Even though Keith only had a single black star, he seemed to be more human-like compared to Gerald. On the contrary, Sophie couldn’t understand why he was surprised by a simple question.

“Are you the director of the gold stars?”

“No…”

There were directors for each star, and they had the authority to punish other stars. Even Sophie was aware of that much in advance. She asked him despite knowing that.

“Then, what authority do you have that allows you to punish others?”

“…It’s because I am a black star.”

“Oh my, isn’t it the main principle of ‘The King’s Sword’ that there is no superiority or inferiority between stars, with the exception of the purple star?”

Of course, that principle was just a façade and there was actually star superiority in practice. The black stars, who were fostered to enter the paladin order, had the least amount of students and their standards were strict. Although family pedigree was important, a black star with a similar pedigree would be superior to others. However, that was a bad custom that ignored the main principle of “The King’s Sword.”

It might be allowed to attach such superiority after they graduated from “The King’s Sword,” but such a thing shouldn’t have been allowed when they were still students.

There was no way Keith could say that such a principle was nonsense to the girl who wielded the purple star, so he had no choice but to stay silent.

“I will give my opinion regarding the question I asked myself. It was both a compliment and an insult at the same time. Since the people of the black star seem to already be busy with what you see today, it makes me feel reluctant to make you bother with that. I am sure it is tiring for you to be a busybody.”

“⁠—“

Just for a moment, Keith stumbled.

The gold star students, including Lars, didn’t seem to understand what she was talking about, but Luca seemed to understand what Sophie was talking about. Luca proceeded to look around.

It also happened yesterday, but the black stars kept Sophie under watch from a distance. They might think they were protecting Sophie, but for Sophie, it was nothing but surveillance.

In the first place, if they were really trying to protect Sophie, there was no way that anyone would be anyone bad-mouthing Sophie earlier. Considering how they kept their distance, how they escaped after they spoke badly of Sophie, and how they hid themselves, Sophie understood it was something that could only be done by a black star student, and it was only possible if that person was aware of their position1. In other words, the person who spoke rudely earlier was a black star student.

Sophie immediately understood who did it, but she just kept it to herself and didn’t have any intention to say it. Even if she didn’t like Gerald, Sophie had no intention to turn the whole black star faculty into her enemy. Sophie didn’t come to “The King’s Sword” just to waste her time on that.

However, since such “escorts” actually ignored the rude people who talked badly of Sophie, who was one of them, and tried to punish the wrongdoings of other stars, the story has changed. Sophie couldn’t help but want to speak sarcastically.

“That’s why you don’t have to come all the way here just to insult me. I can handle it on my own.”

“No, but…”

Sophie ignored Keith, who wasn’t convinced, and turned to Lars, who was still pale. Lars’ eyes and hair were maroon-colored, which was the most common color in this kingdom. Some might insult this color as the color of a commoner, but Sophie loved maroon. It was because they were the color of Bart and Sunny, the people she cared about.

Lars, who bore the same color, seemed to have faint freckles on his cheeks, and his round face made him look like he had a baby face. Basically, looking at his face, which seemed to lack maturity, made her think he seemed to be at the age of someone who wanted to rebel.

It was a delicate period that Sophie remembered in her previous life. Although Sophie wasn’t unaware of the subtle psychology of the rebellious phase, Sophie spoke insensitive words while understanding that.

“You are not popular with women, right?”

It was such an affirmation.

“Wha?!”

As Sophie suddenly insulted him, Lars’ pale face flushed red this time.

“Men who have a bad attitude toward women usually have a strong complex. Because you are not confident in yourself, you want to think you are better by looking down on the opposite sex. Well, no matter how much effort you put in doing that, you’re not actually getting better as a person.”

The gold star students and even Keith and Luca were taken aback by Sophie’s sudden analysis.

“I certainly have small breasts. Yes, I admit it. I am a person with small breasts! So much so that it didn’t feel any different to my previous life… err… well, anyway, there’s no bulge! But even with that, I don’t feel troubled with that, I don’t have anyone to show them off to anyway. More than anything, I’ve learned that there’s no need for me to have big breasts!”

She declared that blatantly, though they were hardly suitable words for an aristocratic young lady.

Lars turned red down to his ears as he heard such naked remarks from a girl with a cute, fairy-like appearance.

“However, women are still women regardless of the size of their breasts. That alone makes me able to love all kinds of breasts! I just love them without being drowned in lust. In other words, you, who can’t love everything, are just a third-rate man!”

If Gerald was the one who was responsible to be her escort for today, he would look at Sophie while wondering what Sophie was talking about.

However, the people here were those who barely had any experience with women, so they could only turn silent in astonishment.