CH 21

At daybreak, when the sun has only just started rising and the skies are still dim, Irene gets out of bed and gets dressed. Rather than her chamberlain’s outfit, she changes into more casual clothes, an easy-to-move-in shirt and pair of shorts, for her daily sword training. With her short red hair along with her delicate, sharp features that are almost doll-like, her appearance is similar to that of a beautiful male knight, except that her voluminous chest, her well-proportioned limbs, and her beautifully slender legs that would even mesmerize other women give her a certain allure.

She always looks like this when she does sword training and doesn’t pay it much attention – doesn’t have time to care – but before, when aristocratic children saw her with this appearance, they’d look her up and down and drool over her. Naturally, she felt a visceral disgust at this, and since then, she’s done her training at a time when she would stand out as little as possible. Fortunately, since nobles are still asleep in the early morning, the only ones around are the maids who are busy with morning preparations and the guards whose night shift just ended, so she isn’t seen by many people.

Although it’s early summer, the early morning still feels cool and chilly. When she goes out to the open space she usually uses, she does some light warm-up exercises such as running laps. Once she’s done, she wields her training sword. At first, she slowly traces lines through the air repeating one set of movements: swing, thrust, slash, return, assume ready stance. Gradually, as if dancing, she starts to get caught up in the rhythm, increasing her speed.

As she moves at a speed that an amateur would no longer be able to follow, she thinks to herself, ‘I’ve been in incredibly good form lately, to the extent that I would have never thought possible for me until now, as if my abilities have improved. Perhaps fighting monsters has brought out my inner strength? There’s no way to tell how much stronger I’ve gotten since I haven’t sparred with anyone since coming to this academy, but even so, haven’t my sword movements grown quicker? If only I had a suitable opponent…’ As she’s lost in thought, she loses her form.

She stops and readjusts her grip on the sword as if to start over, but then, suddenly getting an idea that she wants to try out, she walks over to a tree and kicks it. The tree shakes and several leaves fall around her. She aims for one of them and thrusts her sword three times. When she picks up the fallen leaf, rather than the three holes that should be there, they connect to form one single, large hole.

“…Hah!”

She’s only seen this feat performed once, but it seems that at some point, she became capable of doing it. Seeing the unbelievable extent to which her skills have improved, she couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

After finishing training, she cleans herself, puts on her chamberlain’s outfit, and goes to Alexia’s room to wake her up. In the past, Alexia would usually stay up late reading, so Irene had a hard time waking her up in the morning, but…

“Lady Alexia, pardon my intrusion,” she says as she knocks and enters the room.

“Irene.”

Her master is already awake, sitting at her vanity in a negligee as she anxiously looks to Irene. Her hair became a mess in her sleep and her negligee is also disheveled, as if she was in a hurry. Lately, this has become a common sight.

“Um, my hair won’t stay put. Oh, why won’t it stay?”

“Lady Alexia, please calm down. I will brush your hair for you.”

Guessing that she’s so panicked that she can’t make her hair stay together, Irene takes the brush from Alexia’s hand and brushes her master’s hair. Although her master who is bad with mornings has started waking up on her own and taking less time to get out of bed, in actuality, it has only become more difficult to get her ready in the morning.

Before, Alexia never paid much attention to her appearance or prepared any more than the bare minimum to look presentable, always leaving everything to Irene. She’s lectured her many times to care more about makeup and her appearance, so she should be thrilled that Alexia has finally begun to care. However, considering the circumstances, she has mixed feelings about it.

As she braids her hair and changes into her school uniform, Alexia asks Irene with a weak voice, “Irene, does anything look strange?” She looks up at Irene through the mirror as if pleading, her eyes wavering with worry.

“How many times have you asked me this? It’s fine. As long as you put effort into your appearance, you’re beautiful, Lady Alexia.”

“Really?” As her master looks back at her over her shoulder, her expression is truly one befitting a girl of her age. Usually, her master rarely showed emotion on her face, so every day, Irene makes new discoveries of expressions she never knew her master could make.

“Yes, really. Or do you not believe my words?”

“N- no, I didn’t mean to imply anything of the sort.”

“If you are this bothered by it, then I humbly request that you tend to your own appearance,” Irene says in exasperation.

“Oh, you’re so mean today, Irene,” Alexia says, blushing with embarrassment and puffing out her cheeks, and Irene smiles back at her pouting master.

When Alexia goes to the dining hall to get breakfast, near the entrance, she runs into the noble girls who always gossip about her. They call out to her, most likely intending to make another snide remark.

“Oh, Lady Alexia, it’s been so long. We haven’t seen you recently, so we’ve been worried about you.” The girl’s nasty smile frustrates Irene, but Alexia smiles back.

“Yes, I’m continuing my extracurricular training, so I’ve been unable to attend lectures.”

“Oh dear, is that so?”

“Oh, you poor thing. But with your abilities, Lady Alexia, I’m sure you’ll finish your extracurricular training soon.”

The girls seem to think that Alexia hasn’t finished her extracurricular training and is having trouble with it. Unfortunately for them, Alexia has already completed her training assignment, contrary to their expectations. In fact, she’s been actively accepting quests almost every day. In terms of grades, Alexia is in another league compared to the other girls who only cleared their assignment. This is true for their abilities as well. The truth of the matter is that the teachers, who struggled to deal with Alexia, are mostly tolerating her since she’s been so enthusiastic in her extracurricular training.

The girls spoke sarcastically since they consider Alexia to be on a lower level than them, but Alexia pays this no attention, thanking them and leaving with a curtsy. She’s in such a good mood that she doesn’t mind their comments. As she does so, the girls, taken aback by her smile which doesn’t have any sort of underside to it, can only watch in stunned silence as she walks away.

After Alexia finishes breakfast, she goes to the school library for independent study. Meanwhile, Irene goes to do other things so she doesn’t get in Alexia’s way. After her late breakfast, she cleans Alexia’s room, does her laundry, and other such tasks. Chamberlains, who are the nobles’ personal assistants, usually leave this work to the school maids, but it doesn’t take long to do, so the diligent Irene always does it herself. Once she’s done, it’s almost time for extracurricular training, so she heads to the library to call Alexia. Alexia is usually focused on reading when she’s in the library, but lately, she’s been restless and fidgety whenever this time approaches.

“Lady Alexia, I apologize for bothering you while you’re busy. It’s almost time for extracurricular training,” Irene greets her master with a wry smile.

“Of course, I’ll leave at once,” Alexia replies somewhat hurriedly and quickly returns to her room. Seeing how fast she’s moving, Irene spontaneously bursts into laughter.

When they get to their meeting place, the Adventurer’s Guild, Alexia’s eyes wander all around the room nonstop. Then, she spots him and breaks out into a wide smile. Looking at her, Irene feels that this must be what is meant by a smile that blossoms like a flower. Then, Chaos notices them and gives them a small wave. In the end, they stayed in touch with Chaos even now that they’ve completed her extracurricular training assignment.

“Teacher, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Sorry I’m late.”

“No, we only just got here.”

Ever since then, Alexia has been calling Chaos her teacher. Chaos was embarrassed and asked her to stop (and Irene couldn’t stop herself from laughing at how flustered he was), but Alexia stubbornly refused and continues to call him that. Since he’s her master’s mentor, Irene also started to treat him with respect, but Chaos didn’t like that, so he talked to Alexia about it and Irene went back to treating him the way she did before. To someone who doesn’t know the circumstances, this probably looks like a strange relationship where the chamberlain speaks rudely to her master’s mentor.

They depart for the quest at once. Along the way, Alexia and Chaos often engage in friendly conversation. Someone who doesn’t know them would probably see this and think they were spending a bittersweet moment together, but the reality is slightly different.

“I heard that when the evil god was sealed, people and gods joined forces to seal it. Their battle was so fierce that the people and gods who were present had no choice but to seal it, apparently. It seems that they sealed the evil god by separating the vessel, which is its body, from the soul.”

“I see, so it was divided into body and soul. I wonder where it was sealed?”

“The body was sealed in a temple in the north of this world, and the soul was sealed in another world or something.”

As Chaos talks about things that Irene has never heard before, Alexia is intrigued, her eyes sparkling with curiosity as she asks questions and prompts him to continue. Today, she’s excited to hear about the legend of the evil god. For a conversation between a girl and a boy, there isn’t even a bit of romance unfolding. Although she knows that such a relationship is undesirable from a chamberlain’s perspective, no matter how little Irene knows of romance, she’s amazed to find that there’s nothing between them, considering how Alexia was this morning. But on closer reflection, Alexia has spent half her life doing nothing but study every day. Unlike other children, she never amused herself with fashion or games, and in terms of conversation topics, all she can manage are stiff conversations about things she learned from books, such as magic or history. There are a lot of things that Irene can’t understand no matter how well she listens to their conversation, so in that sense, Chaos’s existence as someone who can hold a conversation with her is a valuable one to Alexia.

The monster hunting quests have turned fierce since Irene has started participating now that they’ve finally gotten rid of their difference in strength. Monster hunting with Chaos is, in a word, strange. Instead of hunting the minimum number of monsters that the quest requires, it seems that the goal is just to defeat a lot of enemies that they wouldn’t be able to win against in a one-on-one fight. Because of this, if each person doesn’t sufficiently fulfill their role in their party of only three people, it’ll put a heavy burden on others. Her role is to use her speed to draw enemies’ attention and create an opening. Alexia deals with enemies by putting them to sleep and paralyzing them, limiting the number of attacking enemies, and Chaos basically annihilates them all at once.

Alexia’s magic is now indispensable to their party’s fights, and she seems to be aware of this, the sense of accomplishment showing on her face. The fact that until recently she was mocked as talentless almost doesn’t seem real anymore. It’s become a daily routine to spend three or four hours doing this and then part ways with Chaos at the Adventurer’s Guild.

The more she thinks about it, Chaos’s existence is incredibly important for Alexia. Until now, she was nothing more than a wingless, flightless bird. Chaos is undoubtedly the one who became her wings. Considering this, it’s no wonder that Chaos, the one who saved her, holds a special place in her heart. It’s also true that, as a chamberlain, she wants to see how far this bird who’s just begun to flap her wings will fly. However, if she and Chaos become lovebirds…

“Lady Alexia, what does Chaos mean to you?” Irene asks Alexia when they return to Alexia’s room at the academy.

“Teacher is, well… He’s a trustworthy mentor, a reliable… older brother to me, I suppose.”

Perhaps since she lost her family’s affection as a young girl, she can’t tell if what she’s feeling is romantic love or not? From Irene’s point of view, it’s most likely…

Since she’s the daughter of a count, she could never be with Chaos, who is only a commoner. If she notices that fleeting desire, it surely won’t be long until she realizes this and is overcome with sadness. Normally, in Irene’s position, she should prevent this by advising Alexia not to become close with Chaos.

However, doing that would be like plucking the wings of a bird that’s just begun to fly though the sky. If Alexia loses Chaos, her progress will come to a halt. Considering the harsh environment that Alexia has been in for all these years, Irene can’t make a decision. She just wants these tender moments to last as long as possible. She also thinks that, as a person, Chaos would be better for her than all those noble boys who never lent her a hand during difficult times. Though, since he’s only a peasant, the jealousy towards him wouldn’t die out easily.

‘What should I do about this situation…?’

The red-haired chamberlain’s misery has not yet brightened.