Chapter 8

After changing clothes at my cheap inn, I headed to the meeting spot—the clock tower in the center of the royal capital. Kirio was already there waiting.

Kirio seemed to have changed as well; he was wearing lighter-colored clothes than during the exam, but the combination of a tight jacket and trousers that clung to his frame remained the same.

To be honest, I hadn’t pegged Kirio as the type of person to actually show up to something like this, so I was a bit surprised to see him.

“H-hey,” I said, raising a hand in greeting.

“Hello,” Kirio replied curtly.

Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all. Just a bit short-tempered.

“Sorry, did I keep you waiting?”

Leo arrived, his voice booming across the square. He hadn’t changed clothes. He was still wearing the same extravagant red and gold outfit from the exam. It was an incredibly conspicuous look for the middle of town, but he didn’t seem to care in the least.

“Ah, no, I just got here myself.”

“I see. There’s a place I’m familiar with nearby. It’s on me.”

As soon as he said it, Leo took the lead. Kirio followed, and I hurriedly trailed after them.

The place we arrived at was a small restaurant with a very aged gate.

“This shop is a long-standing establishment that’s been around for two hundred years. It’s a bit of a pain since you can’t get in without a letter of introduction, but the roast wyvern here is exquisite. Come on, let’s go.”

When Leo entered the shop, he was apparently recognized on sight, and the staff led us directly to a private room in the back.

“I’ll leave the selection to you,” Leo said practicedly. The composed, elderly waiter bowed deeply and left the room.

“Well, for now, let’s have a toast. The water here comes from the snowmelt of Pace.”

Raising a glass of water, Leo offered a toast. Kirio and I followed suit. The glasses clinked together, making a high, clear sound.

“So, do you mind telling us what you’re playing at?”

Kirio spoke point-blank after moistening his lips with the water.

“Hmm? Ah.”

Leo, having downed his glass in one breath, gave a smirk.

“There isn’t much ulterior motive. I simply thought I’d deepen our friendship.”

“W-Why us?”

Specifically, why a commoner like me? Drinking the water while wondering this, I was startled by how soft and mellow it tasted.

“I saw how excellent you both were during that magic exam.”

“Bob is excellent too, though,” Kirio interjected.

“That one’s a lost cause,” Leo cut him down flatly. “His personality is bad, but his lineage is worse. The Meijin family, I mean. What I want are friends who are talented and have no strings attached to other nobles. Given my position, becoming close with other aristocrats immediately turns into a political issue.”

Just then, meat served on a large ceramic platter was brought in. So this was the roast wyvern.

“Well, eat up, eat up. Don’t worry about manners, just dig in. That’s the best way to eat this.”

I took him up on the offer. Actually, the smell of roasting meat had been making me famished for a while now. I skewered a chunk with my fork and bit into it.

It was delicious.

The moment I chewed, juices flooded my mouth. The simple seasoning of just salt made the rich flavor of the meat stand out clearly.

“Delicious as always.”

By the time Leo said that, the meat on his plate had already vanished. He seemed to have eaten it in an instant.

“Anyway, I wanted to become friends with you. A commoner who became a scholarship student with tremendous talent, and a noble who is destitute and on the verge of having their house disappear because there is no heir.”

“Eh?”

Was he talking about Kirio? I reflexively looked at Kirio, who was glaring back with reddened eyes.

Crap, why would he say something so provocative?

“Wait, what? No, no, what do you mean by that?” I asked.

I had just realized something. “You said there’s no heir, but the heir is right here.”

If there was no heir, then what did that make Kirio?

However, as I voiced that question, both Leo and Kirio looked at me with wide, stunned eyes.

“Ah, I see. Van, you didn’t know? Well, that makes sense. It’s not the kind of thing that shows up on an exam. It’s just gossip.”

Leo nodded, as if regaining his composure.

“I see… so you didn’t know,” Kirio muttered, his shoulders slumping with a voice that sounded somewhere between relieved and dejected.

“Wait, w-what’s going on?”

“Listen, Van.”

Leo said, giving Kirio a meaningful look.

“Kirio is a girl.”

Then, he added:

“Though she has no chest to speak of.”

…adding that unnecessary bit, only to be glared at by Kirio.

A noble family that had lost its territory, its fortune, and its standing through a series of blunders.

That was the House of Rahura.

To make matters worse, they had no children, and the house itself was on the brink of extinction.

At that point, most would have given up, but they moved heaven and earth to devise a plan for the family’s survival. However, no noble would dream of entrusting their own child to a house so close to vanishing by offering them up for adoption. They didn’t even have the financial leeway to take in a concubine.

Just when it seemed all was lost, a child was finally conceived between the head of the house and his wife.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine the depth of their joy at the time. Nor could I imagine how their minds broke when the child born to them turned out to be a girl.

Regardless, what I now knew was that the child, Kirio, had been raised as a male despite being female. To this day, her parents treated her as the male heir—no, they truly believed it.

Kirio’s parents didn’t even look back at their crumbling estate. Like a delirium-induced mantra, they repeated that as long as they had a fine heir like Kirio, the House of Rahura was secure. They liquidated what little remained of their assets to create funds and introduced Kirio as the heir at social gatherings.

All without realizing they were the laughingstocks of the nobility.

“Haaa…”

It was such a heavy, harrowing story that I could only let out a long breath after hearing it.

“It’s a famous story. They had no money, yet they were constantly showing up in high society. Still, to think they could get her into the military academy. Most likely, the tuition for this place has completely wiped out the House of Rahura,” Leo said, casting a glance at Kirio.

“That’s right. It couldn’t be helped,” Kirio said, closing her sharp eyes as if in prayer.

So, she was a girl.

Well, I certainly had thought her features were androgynous. If someone told me she was a beautiful girl, I could see it.

But because her hair was short for a girl (even if it was a bit long for a boy), and because of the male clothing and her attitude, I had assumed we were of the same gender.

“I’ve met Kirio several times in high society, and she hasn’t changed much. Even though you’re away from your parents, do you still find it uncomfortable to dress like a girl at this late stage?”

“Shut up.”

Kirio’s eyes snapped open, glaring at Leo with that bloodshot gaze.

“Oh, by the way, Van. I should tell you—the sharpness of her eyes is natural. Her prickly atmosphere is just a defense mechanism from being exposed to curious glares since she was a child, so give her a break.”

“Ah… right, yeah.”

Hearing a past like that, I had no choice but to be convinced.

“And as for her eyes turning red so easily—”

“W-Wait a minute!”

Kirio hurriedly tried to cut Leo off.

Watching her, she seemed like a perfectly normal girl. I felt a wave of regret, realizing I had only been looking at her through a strange lens because of my own preconceptions.

“She’s a crybaby. She hasn’t changed since we were kids.”

As Leo spoke, Kirio looked down in silence. Her face was flushed.

Wait, a crybaby?

Does that mean… all that time when Kirio’s eyes were bloodshot and I was terrified of her, she was actually just holding back tears?

What a letdown.

“Anyway, that’s the situation. No matter how talented you are, it never hurts to have the backing of an influential noble. So, will you be my friends?”

“Of course.”

I answered immediately. I was more than happy to make friends. Given her situation, it didn’t look like Kirio would have an easy time making friends elsewhere.

“Yeah… that’s fine with me too.”

Kirio looked up, blinking rapidly. “But, can I ask one thing?”

“Hmm?” Leo looked puzzled.

“I’ve met you several times too, Leo, so there’s something I can tell. You held back, didn’t you?”

Eh?

I looked at Leo, not understanding what she meant, only to see him flash a grin like a bird of prey baring its talons.

“You noticed? I shouldn’t underestimate you. That’s right—I held back a little during the magic exam. Merlin saw right through me and gave me a scolding.”

“Why would you do that?”

In response to Kirio’s question, Leo shrugged and then turned his face toward me.

Me?

“If you didn’t get the scholarship, you weren’t planning on enrolling, right, Van?”

“Well, yeah. I don’t have the money otherwise.”

As I answered, I realized what Leo was trying to say and was stunned. Wait, so that’s what this was?

“I absolutely wanted you, Van. So, I held back. Just to make sure you’d get the scholarship.”

Then, he gave a single wink.

“Though, it turned out to be unnecessary. Looking at those exam results, even if I had gone all out, the scholarship would have gone to you anyway.”

And so, in this way, the three of us became friends.