Side Story - Surpass Marti (4)

In a room of the girls’ dormitory reserved for nobles of grand noble rank or higher, Fina, the room’s owner, sat on her bed with her knees drawn up, expressionlessly muttering to herself over and over. Ever since Rudel had sealed away his petting, her fluffy life had rapidly drifted away from her ideal.

Now, only Mii of the White Cat Tribe, who had become her close friend, came to visit her room. Nees of the Black Cat Tribe would not even let Fina pet her, insisting that Rudel alone was her master. Fina actually enjoyed Nees’s cold treatment and had no complaints about it, but she had begun yearning for the heavenly situation she had enjoyed when Rudel was around.

“Curse you, Black Haaair… If only she weren’t here, I’d be marching down the path of conquest toward Fluff Heaven by now!”

Sophina, captain of her guard, watched Fina expressionlessly muttering to herself and inwardly recoiled.

(What am I supposed to do? Both princesses of this kingdom are hopeless. One is obsessed with a commoner, and the other keeps going on about fluff and clearly isn’t thinking about the kingdom at all. There are only two of them… There are only two princesses!)

“That’s it! I’ll eliminate Black Hair and take Master back!”

“P-Princess! You can’t do that. Rudel-sama really likes Izumi-san.”

Mii tried to calm Fina down, but Fina pulled a knife from her desk drawer. It was supposedly a poison-coated knife that she had previously asked Mii to purchase for her.

“Th-That’s no good, Princess!”

“Don’t stop me, Mii. This is something I absolutely have to see through!”

“That’s exactly why you can’t, Princess!”

Fina explained herself gently to Mii as though trying to reason with her, but she was much colder toward Sophina, her guard.

“What are you pretending to be such a good girl for? You’re already way too old to be staring at Master like some lovestruck maiden! Wake up already!!! The only way you’ll ever get to flirt around with Master is by helping me build Master’s harem! Then I’ll get Mii and Nees all to myself… Crap, I’m drooling. Anyway! If you cooperate, I’ll let you be one of his concubines, so help me out here!”

As Fina passionately argued her case with a completely expressionless face, everyone present recoiled. Sophina began thinking about her future in her head…

“B-But something wrong is still wrong!”

“You were thinking about it just now, weren’t you? You imagined doing ○○○ with Master and got all hot and bothered, you ○○!”

Since Fina had hit the mark, Sophina found it difficult to argue back. Still, the princess’s language was far too vulgar. Just as everyone present was about to reprimand her, they suddenly collapsed. Then the room was engulfed in black mist.

“Wh-What happened to me… Princess!”

When Sophina regained consciousness, Fina was lying on the floor with the whites of her eyes showing. She still clutched what she had believed was the poisoned knife, muttering “Black Haaair…” in her sleep as she lay there. Sophina found it slightly terrifying, but immediately checked whether the princess was safe.

“Thank goodness. She’s only unconscious. But I need to get her to the infirmary right away… Huh!?”

Sophina had barely breathed a sigh of relief after confirming Fina was unharmed when the princess suddenly sprang upright.

“My? What was I trying to do?”

“P-Princess, are you all right?”

Mii regained consciousness at the same time. Then, when she saw the knife still clutched in Fina’s hand, she began crying and apologizing.

“I-I’m sorry, Princess! That knife is fake. I-I didn’t know where anyone sold poisoned knives, so I gave you a toy knife that a shopkeeper pushed on me.”

Dangerous items could not be brought inside because the Senior Knights inspected them. The toy knife had also been checked in advance, and the Senior Knights all knew what it was. Fina alone had been unaware. But when Fina saw Mii crying and apologizing like that, she said,

“It’s all right, Mii. I’m sorry for putting you through this… I made you cry because I forced an unreasonable request on you.”

(So cute, so cute… As punishment, I’m not letting you sleep tonight. I’ll make you cry out all night long!!!)

Having forgotten all about Izumi, Fina proceeded to act entirely according to her desires.

“Princess! Before anything else, let’s go to the infirmary!”

(And while we’re at it, let’s visit the psychiatric ward too.)

Outside the princess’s room, a black shadow crawled along the floor from beneath the door and hid itself in the shadows of the corridor. The Senior Knights stationed outside had entered the room after sensing something strange inside, so none of them noticed it.

『Wh-What disgustingly pitch-black hatred. But with this, I’ve stored up enough power… Rudel, just you wait. This time I’ll kill you and return the story to its proper course… Ugh, disgusting! All this fluff and lust mixed together is revolting!』

Sounding genuinely sickened, the shadow fled from the girls’ dormitory. It was the black mist that had been born from Cattleya, possessed Lilim, and even now continued gathering hatred in an attempt to kill Rudel. After collecting hatred almost exclusively from women, it had ended up taking on a feminine shadow and voice, but it still hated Rudel all the same.

At that time, Rudel was in the infirmary. He had come to visit Bargas. The graduation ceremony had already ended, and just when the fifth-years could finally relax for a while after finishing their party, Bargas had been hospitalized. His face bore bruises from being beaten, and bandages were wrapped all over his body, leaving him in a painful-looking state.

“You really do get hurt a lot, Bargas.”

“Still not as much as you.”

Bargas had been attacked by several other male students after the party ended. There were various reasons for it. His marriage to Basil, who had been treated as a servant of the Arses Family while at the academy, had been decided, and Bargas had also secured a position in the knight order maintained by House Halbades, one of the Three Dukes.

Not only was he going to marry Basil, the beautiful “big sis” admired by the male students, but he was also advancing his career to a degree almost unthinkable for a commoner. He had been recruited because his ability was recognized, though ordinarily someone would have been expected to accumulate far more experience first.

Incidentally, several instructors had also participated in the attack.

“More importantly, listen to this! The shield was finally completed the other day. Luecke is bringing it over now, so I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

“Huh!? Nobody told me anything about that!”

“I was the one who requested it.”

Basil, seated beside Bargas’s bed, answered with a smile. She had already given Rudel a sword as a gift. Made from extremely valuable materials and crafted into an excellent weapon, it had sent Rudel into a frenzy of delight mixed with guilt over receiving something so expensive.

“Y-You did?”

As Bargas became embarrassed by the unfamiliar way of addressing her, Luecke entered the room. However, he was empty-handed.

“Oh, Rudel. You were here too?”

“Yeah. I wanted to see the finished shield. I heard it turned out amazing.”

Upon hearing that, Luecke happily said, “Of course it did, of course it did,” and beckoned to servants waiting outside the infirmary. Then, to everyone’s surprise… three servants carried in a complete suit of armor and a large shield.

“Uh, could you wait a second? That’s armor, right?”

When Bargas asked again, Luecke answered with an expression that seemed to say, What are you talking about?

“Obviously. It’s a complete set of official armor for the knight order of House Halbades, along with a special shield incorporating a magic circle that I had designed. It’s incredible… Despite layering five sheets of special metal, it’s remarkably light and durable! It cost a little more than expected, but the result is excellent.”

Hearing that, Rudel spoke up as well.

“Huh? So you ended up using five layers after all? Before, you said five would be difficult because it would cost too much.”

“That couldn’t be helped at the time. I originally intended to hire him personally, but my father became interested and decided to employ him as a formal knight. Thanks to that, the budget increased, and I even upgraded the armor.”

As Basil and Bargas listened to Rudel and Luecke talk, their smiles began to twitch. The sums of money casually mentioned here and there were on an entirely different scale. It was then that the two finally realized that Rudel really was a great noble as well. At that moment, Unias came charging into the infirmary.

“You bastards never told me! Why the hell is Bargas joining that beanpole knight order of Luecke’s?!”

Unias burst into the room out of breath, and Luecke coldly replied,

“While you were lazing around, I was gathering personnel worthy of my family’s knight order. Your muscle-brained knight order has no need for talented individuals anyway.”

“You really are a damn unpleasant bastard! We can settle this right here if you want.”

Luecke and Unias both smiled, but their eyes were completely serious. Basil and Bargas desperately looked toward Rudel for help as he watched the two of them with a cheerful smile.

“I hope you two will be happy together.”

But Rudel failed to understand what they wanted. He blessed them with such a brilliantly sincere smile that neither of them could say anything more. Fortunately, a goddess of salvation then arrived for the two.

“What are you doing in an infirmary? You’re bothering everyone, so you should stop. Rudel, you can’t just stand there watching either—you need to stop them.”

Rudel reacted faster than anyone to the exasperated Izumi as she entered the room and immediately apologized. At that, the other two reluctantly stopped fighting as well. Bargas and Basil sighed in relief, but at the entrance to the infirmary, a familiar figure was glaring at Izumi.

“Y-You damn Black Haaair!!!”

“Princess, what are you doing!? Please hurry up and get examined already!”

Seeing Fina say that with a completely expressionless face, Bargas and Basil found themselves praying that Izumi would find happiness.