Boy And Petting

In the deserted academy cafeteria, Milia was meeting her older sister Lilim for the first time in quite a while. Since the academy cafeteria only operated during the day, the two had prepared their own tea and were talking there.

Lilim had stopped by the academy because of the incident involving the Princess, and while she was there, she had been enjoying a pleasant conversation with her younger sister Milia. However, Milia suddenly asked about Rudel.

“Nee-san, what’s going to happen to Rudel?”

“…It’s already been decided that he’ll be stripped of his right of succession. As for everything else, the academy and the royal palace… they’re still at odds with House Arses, so nothing has been decided yet.”

Lilim slightly opened her eyes and studied her younger sister’s gloomy expression.

“Even the royal palace is having trouble deciding what to make of him. Is he a problem child or an honor student…? Surprisingly, His Majesty seemed to have expectations for Rudel-sama. He called him an interesting boy.”

As they spoke, Lilim began thinking about Cattleya’s abnormal behavior during this incident. Cattleya’s hatred toward Rudel was excessive. Every report and verbal account she submitted had been mixed with her own personal opinions, making it difficult to judge the facts. That was why Lilim had been ordered to replace Cattleya as the liaison with the academy.

Because the Dragoons had become involved in the incident, Lilim had also been saddled with handling its aftermath… It had been quite a burden for her.

Thus, one Dragoon and one Senior Knight began conducting their own investigations.

After the incident, Aleist’s position completely reversed, and he became a hero of the academy. Several different agendas had overlapped, and the result was a tremendous rise in Aleist’s popularity. Cattleya had used Aleist for her own purposes, while Chlust had shifted the blame onto Rudel. Completely unaware of any of this, Aleist simply enjoyed the situation.

“I love you, Aleist-senpai!”

“Please go out with me!”

“I love you! …As a man.”

The situation Aleist had dreamed of was slightly different from what he had envisioned, but he paid no attention to that and spent his time happily fooling around with both younger and older students. He even stopped attending the classes he had previously gone to, and his grades began falling in inverse proportion to his popularity.

“This is it! This is the situation I’ve been waiting for!”

Back in his room, he pulled out his notebook and began reading through it. Many names had already been crossed out, but he still checked what was supposed to happen next.

“After this, I win the final basic-year tournament and get to meet the First Princess! If the story has already changed this much, maybe I’ll get involved with ‘Princess Aileen’ at this stage… All right! I’m fired up now, so I’ll start working hard tomorrow!”

The newly mentioned “Princess Aileen” was Fina’s older sister. In the setting of Courtois—a great kingdom that had no prince—the value of a princess was extremely high. If Aleist married her, as Chlust had said, he would move much closer to the throne.

Princess Aileen occupied the role of the world’s “main heroine.” She was even more beautiful than her younger sister, with golden hair and blue eyes, and was said to be a gentle woman who loved peace and treated everyone kindly. It was said that no man could resist being captivated by her smile. Perhaps because she had been doted on by everyone since childhood, she occupied the role of a sheltered princess ignorant of the ways of the world.

However, Aleist neither noticed nor was capable of noticing the truth. Aileen, the heroine blessed with such a perfect character setting, extended that kindness “only to humans,” and her love of peace had grown into an excessively extreme ideology… Unlike her younger sister, it was true that she was highly expressive and had no hidden side to her personality, but…

“Just wait for me, my harem! My era starts here! I can’t wait for the next tournament!”

Aleist, who admired such a princess, was human himself and didn’t possess any particularly strong ideology. Because of that, he was incapable of recognizing anything abnormal about her.

Sophina, who had begun conducting her own investigation, had now arrived at the infirmary—which had essentially become a hospital—where the legitimate heirs of the Three Dukes were currently hospitalized. The most luxurious room there had been assigned to the three of them. Before coming, she had already interviewed the classes involved in the incident and asked around about what sort of person Rudel was, but…

To put it plainly, her opinion of Rudel was at rock bottom! During his first year of the basic course, he had repeatedly hit on girls and been suspended! He had defied an upperclassman by challenging him to a match! The list went on endlessly. And yet, those close to Rudel would praise him but never speak ill of him.

That was the only thing that bothered Sophina, though it was also undeniable that the negative rumors vastly outnumbered the positive ones.

“He’s clearly a hopeless person. Even his grades seem questionable when you consider his tournament results, and above all, someone aspiring to become a knight engaging in… h-hitting on women! How could he!!!”

Sophina’s face turned strangely red around the topic of flirting as she entered the room occupied by the three boys. What she saw there was…

“That’s exactly why I’m asking why anyone would use such advanced theory solely for the act of petting! It could be useful for so many other things!”

“Hey, don’t you think you’d get a really good cut if you swung down like this? It’s strange to use techniques like this only for petting, isn’t it? It’s weird, right, Rudel!”

She found the three passionately discussing the book How to Pet a Dragon. Rudel immediately argued back.

“That book has existed since ancient times, so don’t complain to me because nobody made use of it! Besides, I don’t understand why it isn’t more highly regarded either… You get to pet dragons and make them happy! What could possibly be better than that!!!”

“That’s not the point! And the reason nobody appreciates it is because the title is terrible! Who would hear that title and realize how valuable the book is? Even I would lose interest before opening it!”

Just as Rudel was about to respond emotionally to Luecke’s equally emotional rebuttal, he noticed Sophina. Unias and Luecke also grimaced at the knight who had entered their room, but once they realized she was a Senior Knight, they reluctantly addressed her.

“A Senior Knight entering without so much as announcing herself… What do you want?”

Sophina immediately answered Unias’s sarcasm.

“My apologies. I already spoke with the guards outside, and I would have asked permission to enter, but you were making such a commotion.”

The bow she gave as she answered was flawless, befitting a Senior Knight.

“I have some questions for Rudel-dono regarding the incident involving the Princess. Would you mind speaking with me for a while?”

At Sophina’s question, Rudel—still somewhat worked up—had an idea. If he demonstrated what he had learned from How to Pet a Dragon to these two, surely they would finally understand its value!

“Before that, may I ask you for just a moment of your time? I’d very much like your cooperation!”

“H-Huh? Well… if it’s something I can help with, I suppose that’s fine. But afterward, you will answer my questions.”

Sophina had given Rudel a vague agreement. She would regret doing so for the rest of her life. As Rudel approached, she remained wary, thinking that if he attacked her she would simply beat him down and add another charge to his punishment, when—

“Please let me pet you!”

“What?”

…Several dozen minutes later, witnesses saw a teary-eyed, unsteady Senior Knight fleeing from the infirmary. After Sophina, her face flushed and her movements strangely sensual, escaped from the room occupied by the three boys—

“Well!? I’m still nowhere near perfect, but surely after seeing how incredible it is… Where are you two going? H-Huh? At least listen to me!”

“…”

While Luecke ignored him and walked out of the room, Unias simply said,

“…Bathroom.”

With that single word, he left the room and didn’t return for quite some time. Rudel interpreted their reaction as—

“So even this still isn’t good enough? Then I need to improve even more! I have to master it before I meet a dragon!”

And renewed his determination.

Fina was furious when Sophina burst into her room crying and interrupted her precious fluffing time with Mii… though her expression remained completely blank.

“What happened? Did you uncover some information?”

(This knight seriously has no sense of timing! Does she have any idea what my precious fluffy time means to me…? Still, why is her face red, and why is she fidgeting—or rather, staggering around like that? Hah, if only she had cat ears and a tail in that state, it would be adorable.)

“U-Um, well… Rudel-dono was far more remarkable than I had imagined. I believe the report must be mistaken… I-I will report this matter to the royal palace, so please excuse me!”

(I-I’ll never forgive you… Rudel Arses!!!)

Watching Sophina practically flee from the room, Fina became convinced that her plan had succeeded. Completely unaware that it had actually failed, she began making her final preparations. Sitting at her desk, Fina started writing a letter.

“What is it, Princess? You’re writing a letter?”

Having finally been freed from the fluffing, Mii approached Fina out of curiosity. The tiny pattering sounds Mii made across the floor nearly caused Fina to die from cuteness.

“It’s nothing, Mii. It might not even be necessary, but there’s something I can’t afford to leave unfinished until the very end…”

As she spoke, Fina stroked Mii’s head. Mii also looked as though she was enjoying it. But!

(Pant, pant… Just wait for me, my little kitten! As soon as Master teaches me his techniques, I’ll make sure you’re completely satisfied!!!)

Her excitement had reached a dangerously high level.