Its Name Was Leopan

In the middle of the main street of the academy’s residential district.

It was considered the center of commerce in a pioneering academy, and was prime real estate lined with shops run by advanced classes.

That high-society space had now turned into a scene from hell.

The Sage, who had been pretending to be a successful person until just a moment ago, now looked worse than a loser.

He was crawling on the ground with his face shoved into a bucket, echoing muddy sounds throughout the street that made even those who heard them feel sick.

The students watching nearby covered their ears and scattered like baby spiders.

The reporters were in an uproar while capturing every disgraceful thing happening before their eyes with their transmission devices.

“Wh-what, what on earth happened…?”

“That isn’t the reaction of someone who ate the finest bread, but someone who ate the worst bread…!”

One reporter noticed the half-piece of bread left on the table.

“P-please look! What is this bread!? It’s stuffed with rotten fruit peels!? It stinks!? I cannot imagine this is something a human could eat!? Could it be that the leaders of this academy eat bread worse than sewer rat feed every day!?”

“Terrible, this is far too terrible…! Even the lowest-ranked pioneering academy serves better bread than this…!”

“What exactly is the meaning of this, Weiss-sama!?”

The reporters pressed him for answers.

However, Weiss had his face still shoved into the bucket, his eyes rolled back as he lay unconscious.

“It appears Weiss-sama is in no condition to speak! In that case…”

The reporters searched for Toinette, the one who had brought out this bread.

They found her back growing smaller beyond the alley and shouted.

“Toinette-sama is over there! Chase her and ask her for the story!”

Leaving the motionless Sage behind, the reporters began running toward the alley.

However, the instant they burst out onto the next street, their feet stopped dead.

“Wow, it smells so good…! It’s the smell of freshly baked bread!”

“Yes, yes, this is the smell we wanted! Not the smell of rotten bread!”

“It seems there is another shop serving bread! Ah, it looks like that shop on the corner!”

“The bread from the shop on the main street was garbage like that, so I can’t expect much, but… let’s go!”

The reporters stopped chasing Toinette and all headed toward the shop on the corner.

There, the exact scene they had been waiting for spread out before them.

“Ooh!? This bakery is amazing! There’s a line stretching all across the street!”

“The inside and outside of the shop are packed with customers!”

“Amazing! Even though the location is worse than the shops on the main street, this many customers have gathered here!”

The reporters approached the shop as their deflating expectations swelled up again.

In front of the shop, two female students wearing triangular kerchiefs held baskets at their sides and handed out sample bread.

“Please, have some!” “It is very delicious, freshly baked bread.”

What they were handed was a palm-sized roll.

Its appearance rivaled the bread served at Eternal Toinette, and above all, its scent was wonderful.

The reporters still remembered the garbage bread from earlier, but they steeled themselves and tried eating it.

“D… delicioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooous!?!?”

An almost excessive reaction exploded. However, this was no acting.

“E-everyone! Th-this bread is i-incredibly delicious!

Even bakeries in the best district of the Royal Capital do not sell bread of this quality!”

“Hmm! I have been invited to a meal with the king and once received the world’s finest bread, but this bread is even better!”

“Wow, the students at this academy can eat bread this delicious every day! I’m so jealous!”

“Leo-kun’s bread is the best, isn’t it!” “Would you like another piece of Master’s bread?”

The female students smiled and handed them a second piece of bread.

The reporters had assumed that these girls were commoner students with lower classes.

However, when they looked closely at the faces beneath the triangular kerchiefs….

“Ah… aaah!? Could you perhaps be Monaka-sama!?”

“A-and is this not Kotone-sama!?”

The reporters hurriedly prostrated themselves.

“Wh-why would advanced-class ladies like you two be doing something like working as salesgirls at a bakery…!?”

The two girls answered with smiles like young proprietresses.

“For Leo-kun!”

“For Master!”

Apparently, the two of them were referring to the same person.

That alone sent the reporters into a frenzy.

After all, Monaka and Kotone were daughters of famous families that everyone in Leak Eight knew.

Ordinarily, being liked by even one of them would be difficult, but obtaining the hearts of both of them was close to impossible.

To compare it to chess, it was like being able to freely control even the enemy army’s queen.

In short, it was fair to call it that impossible.

“A-amazing! To think there is a fortunate student who is loved this much by both of you!”

“He must surely be an incredible leader! Could that person be Weiss-sama…? No, that does not seem to be the case. Then surely, he must be the Hero…?”

The two young ladies said “No!” in unison.

Even though many women would go mad with joy just to be rumored with the Hero, there had never been an example of anyone denying such a rumor this firmly.

The reporters’ journalistic spirit suddenly blazed up.

“The gentleman whom you two acknowledge as greater than the Hero and admire… just who is he?”

Monaka and Kotone’s faces were captured in close-up by the transmission device.

Surely, everyone throughout the kingdom must have been glued to the broadcast right now.

Wondering who had captured the hearts of these beautiful girls…!

And now, once again…!

The name of that boy made its nationwide debut…!

…Whap! The place the two princesses pointed to was the bakery’s signboard.

A huge illustration of a boy was drawn on it, and beneath it, the shop name read….

“L-Leopaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!?!?”