There was no way Reysir could have known in advance that I was returning to the Academy today.
Therefore, if Dyuf had already arrived in the vicinity, it meant he had a purpose other than meeting me.
I didn’t know what that was yet, but…
“Why should I meet your guardian?”
“Do you really need a reason…?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“Aren’t you curious? About the person who raised me?”
“I am not curious at all.”
Zero interest.
Dyuf was a character who played a fairly significant role in Nas-e, appearing even more frequently than Hailga.
This meant I already knew as much about him as I needed to.
When I gave such a flat refusal, Reysir’s expression slumped for some reason, and he finally offered a proper explanation.
“…On the day of the graduation ceremony, you saved Helly. He said he wanted to thank you for that.”
Looking at it now, it didn’t seem like Reysir was leading the charge to set up a meeting; rather, Dyuf had been the one to suggest it first.
The reasoning was sound enough.
However, that didn’t mean I had any obligation to meet him.
“If it’s about gratitude, I’ve already heard enough from Hailga. Tell him it isn’t necessary.”
“Come on, that’s one thing, and this is another. Your father even sent me a gift as a token of his thanks for saving you, didn’t he?”
“In exchange, I never said thank you to you.”
“……Eh? Now that you mention it, you didn’t…?”
Reysir blinked slowly with a dazed expression.
It seemed he had only just realized I had never directly thanked him.
Then again, he had looked completely out of his mind that day, so it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t noticed.
“Then let’s act as if this meeting never came up. As for dinner, you can—”
“Wa-Wait! The reason Master Dyuf wants to meet you isn’t just because of what happened at the graduation ceremony.”
“Is there more?”
“It happened after we met Her Imperial Highness last time. I was so excited that as soon as I got home, I grabbed Helly and Master Dyuf and just started babbling about how amazing you were.”
“If it’s gratitude for that, then I need it even less. I’ve already heard more than enough from you.”
Yor nodded at my words, pouring out a series of cries.
“Meow meow, mrrp mrrp! Nyan, nyaaa!”
It seemed my baby dragon also thought Reysir’s expressions of gratitude that day had been excessive.
“No, I’m not finished yet. Listen to the rest.”
Reysir gestured for Yor to calm down as he spoke.
I had no intention of meeting Dyuf, not even a tiny bit.
But wondering what kind of excuse he would come up with, I gently scratched Yor’s neck to soothe him.
Once the baby dragon calmed down, Reysir spoke again.
“You see, I thought the award ceremony would become a precious memory for us. Even though you’re a ‘Young Lord,’ your familiar had only just been born, so that must have been your first time attending an official event, right? I thought we could shake off the nerves by chatting about trivial things, or talk about the items we received as rewards after the ceremony was over. I really thought it would be like that.”
It seemed Reysir had high expectations for the day of the ceremony.
It wasn’t because of the new weapons or medals granted by the Imperial Family, but because he thought he could make special memories with those he considered close friends.
“And since it was an official event hosted by the Imperial Family, I figured at least one member of your family would be there. So I thought maybe you could introduce Liolikin and me to them. Ah! Just so you know, I only felt that way because I wanted to know more about your family and was curious how you’d introduce us. I want you to know I absolutely wasn’t trying to build a connection with a Dukedom.”
“…I don’t suspect you of that, so you don’t need to explain yourself.”
I didn’t want to know what kind of expectations he had about meeting the family of this possession body.
When I turned serious with an unenthusiastic face, Reysir’s face suddenly lit up with a bright smile.
He must have interpreted my words as me saying I trusted him.
“Anyway, I was looking forward to it in many ways, but except for the moment you received your award, you were stuck right by your father’s side the whole time, weren’t you? You wouldn’t even meet my eyes…”
As those words suggested, I had used Hard as a barrier to distance myself from the original protagonist.
As I had mentioned several times, Reysir’s persistence was second to none.
Therefore, to block his approach, I had needed a barrier so high that he wouldn’t even dare to try climbing over it.
Fortunately, Hard’s reaction had been that he didn’t care whether I followed him or not.
To be more precise, he didn’t pay me any mind at all.
‘That’s why he was such a perfect barrier!’
He wasn’t considerate enough to suggest his youngest son should go spend time with his classmates.
Nor did he love Karbaldr enough to personally approach Reysir and Liolikin to thank them for protecting his child.
If I had tried to gain Hard’s attention or walked on eggshells around him, his coldness toward his youngest son might have been obvious.
But I had simply stood by his side, back straight and head held high.
Not a single word had passed between us, but since the ceremony was a formal occasion, I didn’t think it had been a problem.
‘Though, knowing Reysir, even if he saw Hard being openly cold to me, he’d probably just shrug it off and think we were a family of tsunderes.’
A tsundere Hard.
It was an idea I had come up with myself, but it was a combination of words that definitely shouldn’t exist in this world.
“I did think about approaching you first to say something…. But I was afraid your father would misunderstand and think I was using you to get close to a Duke. I didn’t want to be seen as an opportunist by your father, so I couldn’t bring myself to go over. So I just watched you from a distance, and you felt like someone so far away. I felt like such an insignificant person….”
The smile that had been blooming on Reysir’s face just moments ago withered away.
It seemed his mood had darkened while recalling his feelings from that time.
Maybe I shouldn’t have avoided Reysir at the ceremony.
I hadn’t achieved my goal, and I only ended up feeling unnecessary guilt.
“Why are you telling me all this instead of explaining why your guardian wants to see me?”
“Ah, well… I went to the ceremony all excited, but I came back feeling totally drained. So Master Dyuf and Helly asked me what happened. That’s why I told them… as a sort of consultation….”
Watching Reysir answer with an embarrassed look gave me an unpleasant feeling.
Even though I hadn’t met him yet, I had a hunch that Dyuf wouldn’t view me very favorably.
Just as I was concluding that it would be best not to meet him after all—
“Also, since Master Dyuf was selected as an Academy professor this time, I had to tell him about how you bullied me during the first semester last year. I thought it would be better for me to tell him directly while also defending you, rather than him hearing it from someone else.”
Words with the underlying meaning of ‘even if you refuse today’s meeting, it won’t matter because Master Dyuf is going to see you anyway’ flowed from the mouth of the original protagonist.
I was sure Reysir didn’t mean it that way.
However, that was how it sounded to my ears, and it was the reality of the situation.
‘So Dyuf is here as a professor…?’
Come to think of it, in the last chapter, Reysir had said, “All the people I want to protect are here at Valhalla Academy, aren’t they?”
There was no way Dyuf wasn’t included in ‘all the people he wanted to protect,’ so I should have realized it right then.
I wondered why I hadn’t immediately recognized that line as foreshadowing.
‘Why? Because in the original work, there was never any mention of Dyuf being offered a professorship at the Academy!’
According to what Ragfrid told me, the First Imperial Princess, Fjodra, had succeeded in winning Hard’s support.
I had also heard that she used the authority for personnel reform she gained to fire most of the combat-oriented professors and fill the gaps with new talent.
But.
‘Dyuf isn’t a combat-oriented character.’
According to the original settings, he was a scholar who majored in botany.
I suspected that during the month Reysir spent at the Academy, Dyuf had also been staying here, observing the plants growing around the Grand Hall.
His Aether Attribute was the ability to manipulate plants, which suited his major.
While he could use it for long-range attacks and had traveled and fought in the Demonic Realm with the original protagonist, his physical abilities were total trash.
In short, there was no connection between the mass dismissal of combat professors and Dyuf’s appointment as a professor.
‘The original protagonist, who was supposed to have dropped out, decided to stay and continue his studies, and now an original supporting character is suddenly appointed as a professor…?’
I couldn’t shake the ominous feeling, and a groan escaped my lips.
“Once you meet him, Master Dyuf will quickly realize you’re a kind and warm-hearted kid, and he’ll like you! I don’t think it’ll happen, but even if he says something mean to you, I’ll block it all, so don’t worry!”
Seeing the original protagonist say such things without knowing what I was truly worried about just left me speechless.
Besides, I didn’t even know why I was supposed to care if Dyuf liked me or not.
“Anyway, to conclude. Aside from wanting to thank you, Master Dyuf said he just wants to meet you and have a conversation. He said just hearing my stories isn’t enough to get a sense of what kind of person you are or if you really consider me a friend.”
“……”
“I told him clearly that you’re just a tsundere, but he said he doesn’t understand those kinds of terms young people use these days.”
“………”
“Oh, right. And if possible, could you refrain from telling Master Dyuf that you don’t consider me a friend? I know that even if you say that, you actually feel pretty close to me, so I’m looking forward to the day you acknowledge me as a friend… but I don’t think Master Dyuf would understand that…”
As he spoke with a hesitant attitude, Reysir’s face turned bright red.
He looked exactly like a teenager feeling embarrassed by parents who meddled too much in their social life.
“Did you say he was coming to my room at 7:00 PM?”
“……!! Can he? You’ll meet Master Dyuf?”
“Since your guardian has entered the Academy as a professor, isn’t it practically impossible for me to avoid meeting him until graduation? If we have to cross paths anyway, it’s probably better if you’re there too.”
“I think so, too.”
“Then, I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah, see you later~!!”
Although I had accepted the request to meet Dyuf, I was filled with a sense of dread because I had no idea what kind of conversation would take place over dinner.