CH 9

“Rebecca—.”

When Melinda found me in the classroom, she immediately took the seat next to me.

“That girl was looking for you again. She said she made a chiffon cake today. Of course, it looked delicious.”

In this way, Melinda, who reports on Emilia’s movements, is actually a bigger fan of Emilia’s homemade sweets than I am.

“…I understand. I’ll give you some later when we meet.”

“Yay!”

“…”

It’s not that I don’t have any thoughts about my friend who is completely hooked.

***

Two weeks have passed since the enrollment. I am finally getting used to life in the Academy. Students who were not used to doing things around themselves are still struggling, but I am relatively quick to adapt.

The day after the enrollment ceremony, when I met my friend Melinda again, I learned that I had become famous.

“You’re ranked 7th in the first year. That makes you famous. But originally, you were famous because of the [Duke of Slutarch’s Jewel Daughter finally appears].”

The Duke of Slutarch’s Jewel Daughter.

A jewel-like daughter that the Duke family keeps locked up and doesn’t let out. She has a bewitching beauty that attracts attention and doesn’t let go—— apparently.

“Who is this person telling such lies and where are they from?!”

“It’s Duke-sama,”

Father!

“But it’s not true. You’re beautiful. You have teary eyes and black hair, and you’re attractive. Especially your chest is enviable…”

My friend, who seemed to be about to make an unbecoming statement, quickly covered hER mouth, but her talk continued.

First, the top 10 of [Spring] has been posted and announced.

10th place: Ray Lowe

9th place: Llewayne Huaverdon

8th place: Emilia

7th place: Rebecca Slutarch

6th place: Kyaran Goudes

5th place: Cectiara Zoff

4th place: Oswald Ceden

3rd place: Fried Neher

2nd place: Vanderlei Slutarch

1st place: Olivier Marc

With the exception of me and Emilia, all the top 10 are in the current top three and five high schools. By the way, the names are only from the game’s characters.

Out of a total of 2,222 students in all grades, 1,078 achieved it. Of the remaining 1,144, 480 were battle incapacitated or forfeited.

The average time for the achievers is 4 hours and 12 minutes, with Olivier Marc in first place at 41 minutes and Ray Lowe in 10th place at 1 hour and 18 minutes.

Emilia, who is in 8th place, is also famous like me. In her case, she is a commoner and is a rare holder of healing magic, so she is somewhat exposed to curious glances.

Recently, I asked Emilia about what happened during the “spring” event, where she was attacked by a group of students. She told me that she transferred (teleported) to the school shortly after the event and met a female student who had twisted her ankle. She helped the student recover (heal) and it turned out that the student was a hint to the goal of the event. However, Emilia didn’t meet the male student called “Hal” during the event. She used her physical strength to reach the goal alone, and after that, she got involved with a group of male students. After hearing this, I am certain that “Hal” is Ouka.

Emilia seems to have grown close to me since the “spring” event, or rather, she seems to have a crush on me. She is smart and has a sense of restraint, and her sweets are delicious, so there are no particular problems, but I am still uneasy.

I wonder who(‘s route) she intends to pursue, I thought.

It’s been two weeks since the school started. Normally, this should be a time when the events with the targets of the game would be rampant.

Instead of trying to figure out what’s going on, I decided to ask her directly, but it seems like Emilia hasn’t had any contact with any of the targets of the game. And even her “sweets” are something that she makes for the targets of the game.

Well, it’s partly my fault. There are events that could trigger the encounter, such as “Going to the backyard after being splashed with water by Rebecca(me),” but I don’t want to do that.

Still, I wonder why Rebecca would do something like that to a classmate she just met. I’ve always been curious. They say it’s because [she admires Llewayne and wants to hinder the protagonist], but in every route, isn’t she making the protagonist her enemy?

There’s no description in the strategy book about Rebecca’s motives, and although it’s just a premonition, it’s still something that bothers me.

And speaking of Llewayne, he finished right after Emilia. I think he was in quite a pinch when we parted, but it seems his abilities are quite something.

Among the students, there were rumors that [Llewayne didn’t make it into the top 5].

Of course, it’s all my fault for searching for me and even saving me twice. I already know that [Spring] (Llewayne) was 2nd place in the scenario, so it makes me feel even more guilty.

This time, the ranking would be as follows: Llewayne is 2nd, everyone else’s ranking is moved down one place, and I am not included and Lancelot is placed 10th, this is the scenario. However, I couldn’t be happy that the scenario changed because of Llewayne’s ranking.

However, regardless of our ranking, it’s true that my 7th place was due to the help of His Highness, and His Highness’ 9th place was because of “my help”. In fact, at the Academy, it’s common knowledge. Every action of each individual is recorded during events, and based on that, the Academy makes fair evaluations later on.

By the way, I decided not to worry about the fact that being embraced and warmed up would also have been recorded. Thinking about it now, it was quite embarrassing. No, it was extremely embarrassing.

Since then, I haven’t seen His Highness. He seems to be very busy with both academics and politics, and I’ve finally gotten used to life at the Academy… But.

“Even though you said we’d meet again…”

“Is that about me, Miss Beth?”

I reluctantly looked up. At least it wasn’t this person, I thought.

Standing in front of me, with a smile on his face like he was saying “We’ve met again,” was Lancelot of the Fresh Rakes (Refreshingly Prodigal). So I lowered my face again.

“What?! Can you hear me?”

“Yes. What is it?”

This attitude is sufficient for debauchery.

I only gave minimal introductions because my neighbor Melinda was giving him a suspicious look. Melinda responded with “Oh, Prime Minister’ son, Earl-sama.” but it didn’t seem to matter.

“Um, Miss Rebecca from the Slutarch family. Thank you for that.”

Once again, I tried to give a nonchalant response with “haa” but a lovely silver haired girl got in the way.

“Rebecca-sama! You’re here. I made sweets and lunch for you today, would you like to have lunch together?”

No, I don’t want sweets or lunch during a conquering event.

I wanted to say that, but Emilia seemed to be looking for me during class and was a little sweaty.

I don’t hate her for being kind. It’s not that I want her to fall in love with someone. She just has to tell me who it is when she falls in love.

“Okay. But class is starting soon.” I said.

But then I noticed the shocking truth.

They’re meeting! The protagonist Emilia and the target of conquest, Lancelot!

I can’t hide my excitement for this first encounter event. Melinda is now looking at me with a strange look.

My meeting with Emilia and Lancelot, one of her targets, in the scenario went something like this:

・A little while after I started school, I chose to go see the flowers in the backyard after class and met Lancelot, who had skipped class and was taking a nap. As expected of a playboy.

Lancelot’s first words were:

“Hey, beautiful lady, may I know your name?”

Yes, just like that——

“Hey, beautiful lady, I’m currently talking to her right now.”

Eh?

“Rebecca-sama seems bored, so your time is up.”

“I decline. It’s going to get interesting now.”

“I decline. You should have come ready to be swept off my feet.”

I shook my head.

I knew that Emilia didn’t enter the Lancelot route, but other than that, I didn’t understand much.