“Shall we order food now?”
No one objected to Reysir’s suggestion.
We ate while watching the seniors’ matches, analyzed various ways to utilize Aether Attributes, and shared our opinions…
But since readers aren’t interested in detailed descriptions of extras’ matches, I’ve decided to skip that part entirely.
So—
The next morning.
Since the second day of the tournament is simply skipped in the original work, it feels like today will pass by without any special events…!
A healing genre author should know how to cherish the slice-of-life segments.
Therefore, starting from this point, I will resume the narration.
At present, I’m riding in a carriage to the Stadium with just Vigdis and Yor—one person and one beast.
Reysir went with Liolikin to the Tower of Training, saying he’d correct Liolikin’s awkward attack movements after breakfast.
It seems Hailga will be joining the friends she watched the matches with yesterday again today.
“Kar…? Is there something you want to say to me?”
Up until a few seconds ago, I had nothing to say, but now I suddenly do.
Tomorrow is the second round, so Reysir, Liolikin, and I will be seated in the participants-only area.
But Vigdis was eliminated yesterday, which means she’ll have to watch from the general student area now.
It just occurred to me.
“Will you be watching the match alone tomorrow?”
“Sorry?”
“Ah, just to be clear, I’m not trying to meddle. I’m simply asking out of curiosity, so don’t misunderstand.”
“I’m not misunderstanding. You’re not meddling—you’re just worried that I’ll have to watch the match all alone, right?”
What?
…She starts by saying she won’t misunderstand, only to create a new misunderstanding.
Now, following Reysir, even Vigdis has become a believer of the ‘Karvald Austri = tsundere’ theory.
It’s really enough to drive me crazy.
‘Vigdis isn’t a little kid—why would I worry about something like that?’
It did cross my mind a little, but it hardly qualifies as actual worry.
I just wanted to gather information for narration’s sake, since I might be the protagonist in a first-person perspective novel.
Just in case any of the readers are curious—really, it’s all for them.
“Anyway, to answer your question, tomorrow I’ll be watching the match with Hailga’s friends!”
Looks like Hailga decided to include Vigdis in her group of friends.
Maybe because she’s looking forward to making more female friends, Vigdis’s face was bright with excitement.
Seeing that, a question suddenly popped into my mind.
“Why aren’t you going with Hailga today?”
“Because then you’d be left alone, Kar.”
“I always have Yor by my side, so what kind of nonsense is that?”
“Nya, nyang!”
Yor agreed with me, making his presence known.
“That’s not what I meant… We’re engaged, right? At the Stadium, there’ll be a ton of couples out on dates, and if we’re not together, won’t that look strange?”
Come to think of it, even the extra I fought yesterday mentioned something about a ‘date’.
I see—now that makes sense.
So, as I was nodding my head…
“And more than anything… Kar, aren’t you uneasy about being alone—well, alone with Yor—at such a big event with so many outsiders present?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Are you just careless, or are you pretending to be brave?”
“For goodness’ sake………….”
I was about to question Vigdis with a baffled look, then closed my mouth quietly.
Because I realized why she was saying all this.
‘It’s because of the fabricated poisoning incident…!’
Vigdis only gives me two choices:
I’m either completely oblivious to danger, or I’m just scared but putting on a tough act.
Either way, nothing I say will put her mind at ease.
‘So… does that mean Vigdis chose to stay with me in order to protect me from some unknown would-be murderer…?’
The thought sent a ripple of guilt through me for having lied to her.
But calming my mind was easy enough.
To her, Karvald Austri is someone she needs, and I just happen to be inhabiting his body.
To keep up the engagement, the fiancé needs to stay alive.
Thinking of it that way put my mind at ease.
“Anyway, the student-only and general spectator seats are separated, aren’t they? And if anything happens, you could always get treated by a healer waiting by the stage. So there’s no way an assassination attempt would occur.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
My explanation seemed to put Vigdis at ease as she let out a breath.
But she was still wrapped up in her sense of duty.
“Oh, and there’s another reason I should be by your side, Kar. There are lots of people who might try to take advantage of you, so someone needs to keep them in check.”
“……”
I couldn’t help feeling rather sour.
Even though she didn’t specify, I knew exactly who and why someone had said that to Vigdis.
“Whatever Reysir said is nonsense. Just ignore it.”
“Ah! How did you know Reysir was the one who said it?”
“Would Liolikin have said that?”
“Oh… so it’s a process of elimination?”
“……”
Reysir thinks I’m a pushover and worries about it excessively. There’s no way I couldn’t tell it was him.
I couldn’t bring myself to explain it directly.
So I just decided to play along with Vigdis’s ‘process of elimination’.
Just then, the carriage arrived at our destination and our conversation naturally ended.
I got out first and offered my hand to Vigdis.
She wasn’t wearing a dress today but pants, and with her athletic ability, she could get down easily on her own.
‘But if I want to hide the fact that we’re about to break off our engagement, I should at least do this much!’
Maybe my soon-to-be-ex-fiancée thought the same, because instead of acting clumsy as usual, she naturally took my hand and got down from the carriage.
Then, when I let go of her hand—
“Um… but are you sure you don’t have anything to say to me?”
Vigdis repeated the same question she’d asked in the carriage, as if there was something I absolutely had to say.
Me?
I racked my brain but couldn’t think of anything, so I looked to the wise little dragon for help.
But Yor just shrugged, as if he didn’t know either.
“…I’m wearing the new clothes I bought recently—how do I look?”
Maybe she got frustrated seeing me and Yor exchange confused glances, because Vigdis finally gave up on hints and asked outright.
I’d thought maybe I’d missed something important, but it was nothing much.
‘She just wanted to show off her new clothes, huh.’
Maybe it was because she went shopping with Hailga, or perhaps because it’s not such a dangerous time when Demonic Realm rifts appear unexpectedly.
Or maybe she was worried about how Count Shalbrady would react.
What she was wearing now wasn’t the usual straight-cut pants, but wide-legged trousers that could almost be mistaken for a skirt at a glance.
No frilly ruffles or heavy jewel decorations, but instead, bright embroidery adorned the fabric.
It had a mix of modern sophistication and noble elegance.
Historical accuracy seemed long gone, but that wasn’t new.
After all, this novel isn’t an alternate history but a fantasy set in an imaginary world, so I decided not to worry about it.
“They suit you much better than the casual clothes you wore last time. They look comfortable, too.”
Glancing down, I saw that she was wearing boots rather than heels.
It might not be a perfect battle outfit from head to toe, but it was good enough.
“I’m glad it looks that way.”
Vigdis smiled proudly, clearly pleased with her new clothes.
She complimented my outfit in return, but it was probably just courtesy.
Since I hadn’t chosen or bought these clothes myself, I didn’t really feel any satisfaction and just let it pass.
“Excuse me, Karvald Austri!”
While waiting in line to enter the Stadium, someone suddenly called out the name of my vessel.
As I mentioned before, it’s common for strangers to suddenly speak to me in a familiar tone.
So I assumed it was another case like that.
“Huh? Isn’t that the guy you faced in the match yesterday, Kar?”
Just as Vigdis said, it was someone I’d seen yesterday—it felt ambiguous to call him a ‘stranger’.
But it didn’t feel right to call him an acquaintance either.
One thing’s for sure: he wasn’t approaching to take advantage of my vessel’s status.
And then—
“That’s right! You must be Karvald Austri’s fiancée, right? Nice to meet you!”
“Ah, yes… But what brings you here?”
“Thanks to you, Karvald Austri, I got up the courage to confess. As a result, I now have a lovely girlfriend, so I came to thank you! Hehe.”
Though he probably didn’t mean to, it was clear he was putting me in an awkward situation.
Ignoring my advice to disregard Reysir’s nonsense, Vigdis glared at the extra with suspicion.
After hearing his answer, she glanced at my face with a strange expression.
“…If you’re here on a date, just go enjoy it. Don’t bother us and get lost.”
“Oh! Now that you mention it, you two must be out on a date as well. Sorry for interrupting. I’ll be off—have a great time!”
The extra didn’t linger but left promptly, heading to the back of the line with his girlfriend.
Not long after, we showed our student IDs to the staff and entered the Stadium.
Since academy students don’t need to buy tickets, but just show their IDs to enter, there aren’t any assigned seats.
So we just took the best available empty seats and sat down.
“What was that all about, what he said earlier?”
Vigdis couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked me.
I thought she might just let it go, since she isn’t as persistent as Reysir, but no such luck.
“It’s nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, then you can just tell me, can’t you?”
“…After he lost to me in yesterday’s match, he was whining that he was going to confess to someone he liked if he won, but since he lost, everything was ruined. I got annoyed and told him that the match results had nothing to do with whether he succeeded in confessing.”
“Wow! You did a good thing!”
Even though I deliberately used negative words, Vigdis clapped her hands and admired me.
Seeing that, I felt uncomfortable.
If Vigdis was this impressed, I could only imagine how Reysir would react.
“Don’t tell Reysir about this.”
“Why not?”
“…Just don’t.”
“Is it because you’re afraid he’ll tease you?”
“……”
“Were you really that worried? I was only joking.”
Seeing her round eyes as she said that, I couldn’t help but suspect that Vigdis was teasing me, too.
But I couldn’t ask her directly.
If I tried to confirm it, she might start having as much fun teasing me as Reysir does.
“If Reysir starts spouting nonsense and being a pain, it gets exhausting. I just want to avoid that in advance.”
“All right. Then for the sake of your friendship, I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“Friendship? There’s no such thing as that between me and Reysir.”
“Why not just admit it already? The way you keep acting just makes Reysir want to tease you even more.”
If that’s the case, Reysir sure seems to enjoy teasing me a little too much.
Whether Vigdis’s guess is right or not, I’ll never recognize Reysir as a friend.
So, with silence, I ended the conversation.