Chapter 6

I couldn’t say anything as I watched the crazy bastard, who had swung his sword just once, wearing a much more refreshed expression than before.

It wasn’t even a real sword, but a wooden sword that had split a scarecrow clean in half, and the guy had the nerve to say, “Easy, right?” Probably no one else in this world could pull off such an absurd feat and say something like that.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Grandfather Capeldeor, who had been watching from the shade and had his jaw hanging wide open—perhaps having already grown fond of me—hurriedly called out to Carusien.

“A-ahem. Sir Carusien.”

At Grandfather Capeldeor’s words, Carusien glanced briefly at me and opened his mouth. Huh? Why was he looking at me?

“You can speak to me comfortably as well, Grandpa.”

I-insane!
This guy was definitely a madman.

At his words, I looked toward Grandfather Capeldeor. He was clutching the back of his neck with his face flushed red, a reaction slightly different from the one he had given me earlier.

“N-no one asked you to call me grandpa, you brat! From now on, you will address me as Vice-Master Capeldeor! Sheesh! Though Lady Armienne can call me that whenever she likes. In any case, you are out of the question!”

“………….”

Tsk, tsk. I understood, though. How completely different it feels to be called oppa or grandpa by a girl who looks like a cute granddaughter, versus being called the exact same thing by a gloomy guy standing right next to her. Imagining being called that by a man who had just cleaved a scarecrow in two with a single stroke of a wooden sword was enough to make even me shudder.

Still, if I hadn’t been there, he might have found it cute, but trying to pull off the exact trick I had just used?

“I… understand.”

If this were a fantasy game, this kind of sound effect would definitely have echoed in my ears:

Seeing him looking that thoroughly dejected, I chuckled without realizing it. Carusien flinched once more at my laughter. Why on earth did he keep trembling every time he saw me smile?

“Ahem, ahem. Anyway, Sir Carusien, from my perspective, I think this might be a bit too high in difficulty for ‘our’ Armienne.”

I had no idea how it had only been a few minutes since we met and he was already calling me ‘our Armienne,’ but since Grandfather Capeldeor was a capable vice-master of the Magic Tower and would soon be my magic instructor, I actually felt quite pleased. It honestly made me think, Wait, am I, a guy, better at acting cute than most girls?

The problem was Carusien.

Wearing an expression that showed he couldn’t understand it at all, he effortlessly swung his wooden sword again with one hand.

This time, the head of the innocent scarecrow was split apart by the exact same vertical slash as before. Every time I saw it, it felt mystical and gave me goosebumps. I’d probably believe it if someone told me it was magic instead of swordsmanship.

Swish-swish-chop—

“Is this difficult?”

Crazy.

Was there anyone for whom that wasn’t difficult?! I wanted to scream that out loud right now and smack the back of that guy’s head, but I held it in. Then, I quietly approached him.

“By any chance, could I try it once as well?”

“Hmm, alright.”

I took the wooden sword handed over by Carusien and examined it. I wondered if it might actually be a real sword shaped like wood. Or perhaps there was some kind of mechanism where a blade popped out the moment you swung, but after tapping on it, I found it was a wooden sword made entirely of one-hundred-percent pure wood.

“Hm.”

This time, I reached out and touched the scarecrow. Stuffed full of tightly woven straw and boasting a sturdy build, it felt like it would be difficult to slice through cleanly like that even with a real sword.

“…….”

The conclusion was that Carusien was an overpowered, cheating character.

No matter how much of a novel protagonist he was, this was just too ridiculous. I didn’t know who the author was, but they clearly weren’t in their right mind.

“What are you doing, not swinging it?”

The madman, completely unable to understand my behavior, urged me on. Still, now that I was doing it, doing my best was the polite thing to do.

I recalled how Carusien had gripped the wooden sword earlier and thought about how he had swung it. That certainly didn’t mean I could pull off what he did. However, there are times in life when you have to try even while knowing something won’t work just to move on to the next step.

And right now was precisely that time!

“Hah!”

I swung the wooden sword with every ounce of strength I had. Right now, it felt like I might actually be able to do something!

Thwack—!

“Ugh!”

Naturally, my wooden sword couldn’t leave even a tiny scratch on the scarecrow. Accompanied by a dull thud, I had no choice but to let out a groan from the recoil of the wooden sword I had swung and take a step back.

It was impossible, after all. I could already guess what this genius of swordsmanship, Carusien, was going to say. Why is that difficult? Can you not even do that? Something like that, probably.

However, the words that reached my ears from behind were different from my expectation.

“Well done.”

“…Pardon?”

What? Is this some new kind of sarcasm I’m unaware of? But Carusien’s deadpan expression, completely devoid of a smile, made me realize he was a man incapable of jokes or teasing.

“Even if it were me, I wouldn’t make the absurd demand to cut down a scarecrow with a wooden sword from the very start. What I demonstrated was solely a vertical slash, and while unexpected, you pulled that vertical slash off quite well, my lady. In my opinion, you have a talent for swordsmanship.”

“…I see.”

How should I put it, though? I received a compliment, but the feeling was oddly complicated. Carusien, as one of the male leads in a romance fantasy novel, was extremely handsome. But from my perspective, seeing that just made my stomach hurt and drove me up the wall. Why on earth was this punk so good-looking? It was enough to make jealousy flare up.

Anyway, a man handsome enough to spark jealousy was genuinely praising me. It was a weirder sensation than getting nagged.

I didn’t hate it, but it certainly wasn’t something I loved, either. Still, that feeling gave me a strange sense of relief.

‘Thank God. I never dated a girl before so I used to wonder if I might be gay, but I guess I’m not.’

At least I wouldn’t fall for a man.

Thus, after all sorts of twists and turns, my first meeting with Carusien came to an end. The defining trait of this unfriendly, woodenly blunt man right up until the lesson ended was that he would flinch every single time I looked at him with a smile. Why on earth was he acting like that?

After finishing my shower, I stood in front of a full-length mirror. A beautiful woman gazed back at me from beyond the glass.

Even now, though it had truly become my body, it left me in awe. The villainess Armienne—who could arguably be called the second protagonist of [Harmiel]. She possessed an unreal level of beauty, the kind that immediately told you she was a character straight out of a novel.

I was certain that no matter how many times modern plastic surgery was repeated over and over, a woman like this could never be born.

That was just how gorgeous she was. I reached out a hand toward the Armienne in the mirror, then yanked it back in a panic.

“Ugh, insane.”

What on earth was I about to do just now? Barely stopping myself from almost falling in love with the person in the mirror, I flushed and slowly looked over myself once more.

Armienne’s current age was a mere fifteen. In some ways, it was an age for puberty, running around here and there, and getting into trouble, but fifteen in this era was quite fully grown. However, since I was someone well aware that human beings continued to grow up until the age of twenty, I couldn’t even begin to imagine just how much prettier Armienne would get.

Even now, looking at the me in the mirror, a golden-ratio figure with curves in all the right places caught my eye.

“Drool.”

I nearly started drooling at the mirror again before quickly shaking my head. Then I hurriedly shoved the mirror aside. If I kept staring at it like that, I was going to develop a case of narcissism out of nowhere.

“Ah, bliss!”

After pouring top-tier bath salts into warm water, scrubbing down, and slipping into a fluffy bed, it was practically heaven. As I picked up a novel out of sheer habit, a thought crossed my mind.

‘If Armienne is a person this stunning, just how drop-dead gorgeous must Harmiel be?’

My heart felt like it was going to flutter just from looking at my own reflection, so I worried whether my heart might actually explode if I ever laid eyes on Harmiel.

Heh, no way.

Living as a man in my past life, I had never felt a single flutter of emotion even when looking at celebrities. Believing there was absolutely no way I’d ever think that way just from looking at a woman, I slowly closed my eyes.

I had a dream that night. In the dream, that goddamn Carusien showed up and nagged me.

What a cursed bastard.