“Anyway, the decision is made, so let’s leave this here and move on to the next topic…”
Did she think there was no point in clinging to her worries?
Instead of continuing to show her anxiety and seeking comfort, Hailga suggested a change of subject. However, she didn’t get straight to the point, opting instead to stare intently at her childhood friend’s face.
It was only natural for the recipient of such a gaze to feel puzzled.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Do you have something to say?”
“Rei, you… do you like Senior Risi? Since when?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t dodge the question. Give me a straight answer.”
“No, I’m asking because it’s so absurd. I’m not dodging anything.”
Just looking at his bewildered expression, one could tell how flabbergasted Reysir was in this moment.
Nevertheless, Hailga could not escape the swamp of her own misunderstanding. In fact, she sank even deeper.
“If you don’t even like her, then are you saying you were hitting on her?!”
“Hitting on her? Me? Senior Risi??”
Reysir’s voice rose in pitch. He didn’t seem to have the slightest inkling as to why such words were coming out of Hailga’s mouth.
“Back in the seminar room. You told Senior Risi that you’ve been watching her for a long time, and that you spoke up because you were worried about how pained and exhausted she looked. You even said you two should get to know each other from now on, and now you’re playing innocent?”
“…Isn’t your memory being a bit subtly distorted?”
“Maybe the exact wording wasn’t that, but wasn’t that the gist of it?”
“No!!”
Reysir raised his voice, looking as if he might die from the injustice of it all. Watching him like that actually felt somewhat refreshing. He was always making me feel embarrassed with his strange misunderstandings, so this served him right.
“Then what was it?”
“She was wary of me because she thought I was a total stranger, so I just wanted her to realize we weren’t meeting for the first time! I just told her let’s get to know each other in the sense that she should at least remember my face since we have to train together and enter the Demonic Realm together!”
“So you’re saying you gave her your personal history and comforted her kindly just because you were worried about a senior whose name you didn’t even know…? There’s a limit to being a busybody…”
“Ah! That ‘busybody’ thing wasn’t my idea. It was Karbaldr’s.”
I was listening to their conversation with interest when my possession body’s name suddenly popped out of Reysir’s mouth. If I stayed silent, I might be misunderstood as having given Reysir a secret mission to seduce Risi.
I had no choice but to speak up and explain.
“I simply felt that if that senior ruined the atmosphere of the lecture and neglected her training, she would become a nuisance when we entered the Demonic Realm. I only wanted to prevent that in advance.”
“I’ve had enough of those tsundere-style excuses. Just explain why you didn’t step up yourself and made Rei do it.”
I wanted to protest that it wasn’t a ‘tsundere-style’ excuse, but it didn’t seem like she would listen. Instead of wasting my time and the story’s word count, I decided to swallow the injustice and move on.
“…If someone like me, a member of a Dukedom, said that ‘the creation of the Awakened Special Class shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing,’ it would feel like I was speaking on behalf of the Imperial Family’s orders, which would likely increase her resentment. I simply judged that it would be more appropriate for Reysir to step forward instead of me.”
“That makes sense. We know the Tsundere Young Lord was also deeply shocked when he heard about the special class, but that senior wouldn’t know that.”
Hailga nodded and replied matter-of-factly, not caring one bit about my grievance. Well, I suppose I should be grateful she believed that much without misunderstanding. I decided to accept that as a mental victory.
“So, to summarize the conclusion… Rei wanted to perfectly carry out the task the Young Lord finally asked of him, so he treated Senior Risi with as much kindness as possible?”
“Right! That’s it!! Hitting on her… that was a truly outrageous misunderstanding!”
Reysir looked truly happy as he said that. He seemed to think he had finally cleared his name.
“Regardless, I feel bad for Senior Risi.”
“Huh? Why her?”
“Because she’s probably caught in a happy dilemma, wondering whether or not to accept your feelings while mistakenly thinking you made a move on her.”
As this conversation showed, Reysir still had one more mountain to climb.
“Come on, there’s no way. Just because you misunderstood doesn’t mean others will be so quick to jump to conclusions.”
“Really? Vigdis was the one who first brought up the ‘hitting on her’ thing, though?”
“……What?”
As if he finally realized the gravity of the situation, Reysir froze like a stone statue.
If a third party misunderstood, you could just explain it away. But if the person involved was the one misunderstanding, things would inevitably become awkward whether you explained it or not. It was a truly troublesome situation.
“Ha, ha, ha… Even so, there’s no guarantee Senior Risi misunderstood… right?”
“Why do you think her face turned red when she was talking to you?”
“Because she felt embarrassed about not remembering someone she’d seen often in the library?”
“No! Look, Rei. People in this world don’t blush at the drop of a hat over trivial things like the Tsundere Young Lord does…!”
Hailga looked at Reysir with an expression beyond pity—one of utter misery—as she lamented. I could fully sympathize with her feelings, but…
“Can you two not have a conversation without using me as an example?!”
“Tsundere Young Lord. Who is the culprit behind this current disaster?”
She seemed to be expecting the answer to be ‘me,’ for pushing the task of comforting Risi onto Reysir, but not a chance.
“Is it Reysir, who unintentionally toyed with someone’s heart by being confusing? Or is it the Imperial Family, for creating something like the Awakened Special Class?”
“…You have a shameless side to you, Young Lord. I didn’t know because you’re usually so quick to get embarrassed.”
“Hmph.”
Even while Hailga and I exchanged these words, Reysir was still struggling to face reality, looking for a way to look away.
“Liolikin, what do you think? Did it really look like I was hitting on Senior Risi?”
“Uh, I didn’t have that misunderstanding.”
“Right?! It didn’t look like that, did it?”
“Yes…! I mean, isn’t it just that you always talk in a way that’s a bit cringey and burdensome, Reysir?”
“……?”
“I don’t know why Hailga misunderstood, since she already knew that.”
“……”
Unfortunately, Reysir’s escape from reality failed miserably; instead, he was dealt a finishing blow.
“Yeah… you’re right… Liolikin made a very good point. From now on, I shouldn’t attach much meaning to what Rei says…. You should be careful too, sister.”
“Yes, I will.”
“I should tell Senior Risi as well. I’ll tell her to be careful not to get the wrong idea because Rei tends to throw out flirtatious-sounding words everywhere without realizing it.”
“That would be for the best.”
Judging by the conversation between Hailga and Vigdis, it didn’t seem like Reysir would need to correct Risi’s misunderstanding himself. Instead, it felt like the difficulty of conquering the heroines of the original protagonist had just gone up, but that wasn’t my business, so I decided not to care.
“Hey, Karbaldr? Do you also think I talk strangely?”
“If it were just your talk, that would be one thing, but your actions are the same.”
“……”
Reysir looked as if his soul had completely left his body. It seemed the fact that he had been ‘flirting’ (?) all this time was quite a shock to him.
“Well… it just means that you’re not being a hypocrite and that your sincerity in caring for others is well-conveyed, doesn’t it? Though it does leave room for overinterpretation, that’s something that will be resolved naturally once people get to know what kind of person you are.”
“…Do you really think so?”
“I do. Furthermore, the only women you’ve been close with so far are Hailga and Vigdis, right? So there shouldn’t be any other victims besides Senior Risi.”
“What about you, Karbaldr?”
“……?”
Why was my name being brought up all of a sudden? As I tilted my head in confusion, the protagonist of another novel added an explanation.
“You know… during the break, after we met the First Imperial Princess and were headed to the Gate facility… I held your hand and poured out a bunch of burdensome words, didn’t I? And then when we met again on the day of the award ceremony, you were avoiding me… Was that perhaps…”
The male-oriented fantasy protagonist trailed off while checking my reaction. I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at the sight. If the male protagonist of the original work started liking another male, that would be a complete departure from the genre. Because I knew this, I would never fall into the same misunderstanding as Risi.
“You’re worrying about something truly ridiculous. It’s not like I didn’t know your usual way of speaking… and above all, there’s no way two men would have that kind of misunderstanding with each other, right?”
“Ah, really? Then I can keep treating you the way I always have, Karbaldr?”
“Just because I don’t misunderstand doesn’t mean I don’t feel burdened, so don’t do what you did last time.”
“I’ll try. But you know, I was actually holding back quite a bit back then.”
“……”
I didn’t know what he wanted me to do with that information. Was he telling me to get used to it because he intended to keep acting burdensome in the future?
As I looked at the original protagonist with a sour expression, the following conversation drifted into my ears.
“What exactly did Reysir say to Master Kar for them to be talking like that?”
“I wonder…? According to Rei, he was just so happy to get a firm answer that he’d get his fief back that he repeatedly thanked the Tsundere Young Lord and rambled on about why he was so grateful…….”
“Eh…? It wasn’t just that…! He was like, massaging his hand. Putting his forehead against the back of his hand. He said things like he felt he absolutely shouldn’t let go, or that his heart was fluttering.”
When Hailga gave a lackluster explanation to Vigdis’s question, Liolikin, who had been in the carriage at the time, reported what he had seen and heard.
Vigdis’s face was instantly dyed with horror, and Hailga’s face hardened as she apologized to me.
“I’m sorry, Young Lord. I thought perhaps the Young Lord’s father looked down on Reysir and was pressured you not to play with him. I guess I had some sort of inferiority complex. In reality, our local idiot was just being rude to the Young Lord….”
“It was a reasonable suspicion. Besides, it’s not like I suffered any actual harm from it, so there’s no need for such a formal apology.”
“If the Young Lord feels that way, then I’m grateful… but you know, you’re actually quite generous, aren’t you…?”
“Don’t you start too. Dealing with Reysir alone is more than enough.”
“Got it. Then please continue to handle Rei well and stay on good terms.”
“……”
I had concluded that there was no point in struggling to keep my distance from Reysir anymore. However, I couldn’t bring myself to readily agree to Hailga’s statement.
So, instead of replying, I avoided her gaze and took a sip of the lemongrass tea I had ordered instead of an Americano—only because I was being mindful of Reysir, who was worrying about my health.