"You want to learn swordsmanship but you're a girl, and you're scared to face the boys who practiced the art of swordsmanship since childhood. Not all teachers would be able to understand what you're going through."
Um… The teacher seemed to have gotten the wrong idea. I was more interested in magic than swordsmanship to begin with, but it was a requirement for knights so I only joined this course because of it. I sheepishly grinned and slowly nodded my head.
"But as you might already know, Shuraina, you have to understand that the road might be harsher for you as a girl. I want to applaud you for beginning your harsh journey forwards."
While we were speaking, all the students had finished moving and were in two neat lines. The awkward air in the hall had eased, so the teacher's voice rang clearly through the hall. All the students were staring at the two of us. I wiped my forehead because I thought cold sweat was pouring down, but it was dry. How exhausting.
"As a teacher, I believe that once you start something, you continue ahead even if you're afraid, and trying your best until the end is what defines a true knight. If you want to survive in this place, that's the only solution. Don't be picky about your ways of survival, either! If you want to get to the top, you can't be picky about how you get there!"
The teacher passed me a sword with burning, passionate eyes. I didn't know what kind of heartwarming drama was playing in his head, but his eyes were red-rimmed with tears.
This teacher was an annoyingly good person. I slowly began to feel anxious. There was already pressure from all the gazes locked on me, but it felt like this teacher was adding on to it.
The teacher put their hand on my shoulder, and eyed the swordsmanship class students again. The students seemed touched by the teacher's short speech and were staring at me in support. The teacher looked at the male students, and said, "Oh! That's it." and called somebody over.
"Sir Hylli, please come over here."
My heart was pounding. I frantically shook my head from side to side to the teacher in a silent plea to please stop, but it seemed as if he didn't see me.
Hylli's face twisted into an annoyed expression as he slowly trudged over to where I stood. Then, he stared at the teacher with narrowed eyes.
"Are you going to make me do something annoying again."
The teacher laughed broadly at his curt tone.
"I won't tell His Royal Highness that you ditched our last lesson if you help with this."
"I wasn't ditching. I just…."
"You just?"
Because I was wary of you. Hylli glared at the teacher and sighed. It was nothing.
Apparently, Hylli had come on campus to take obligatory swordsmanship classes as the royal prince. It looked like he had skipped class often, considering that he couldn't even argue back at the teacher. Hylli pouted as he was unable to rebuke what the teacher said. His red eyes glared at me, irritated. I tried my best to cover my hair with my towel while avoiding his gaze.
"Sir Hylli, you're very good at teaching others, are you not? I ask you to assist just until student Shuraina here can duel."
It looked like Hylli and the teacher was close, but also not. Hylli looked at me and snorted. He walked towards me, walking past the teacher who was thanking him.
"Follow me."
He waved his hand to follow him, and we went away from the students in line.
The teacher seemed to be resuming class.
Hylli uncaringly threw a wodden training sword at me.
"Why are you hiding your face with a towel. It looks stifling so take it off."
I wanted to cry. I basically tried to avoid stepping on shit by getting slapped by it instead.
"Have you committed a crime or something."
He tapped my towel-covered face with the end of his wooden sword.
I was a little, no, extremely annoyed by this. I barely restrained myself from cursing at him.
"I won't be able to help you if you do not show me your skills."
Hylli swept a hand through his hair, clearly annoyed at my actions.
It looked like he thought he was pulled into something annoying because of me, and he seemed to be angry at me for it.
It looked like he would be picking at each and every thing that he didn't like throughout this.
"So why did you choose swordsmanship if this was how you were going to act."
He started taunting me when I continued to not respond, towel still covering my face.
"Oh. You. It can't be…..!"
Hylli stopped his mini tantrum, and instead started boring a hole into my head with his stare. I thought he had figured something out, so I just stayed quiet, breath stopped.
When I stayed quiet, Hylli seemed to have come to some sort of mental conclusion and let out a guffaw. His eyes narrowed into a glare.
I began to feel extremely anxious. It looked like his eyes were trying to hound some sort of answer from me. My heart pounded.
Sweat began to drip down my face and soaked my towel. I could feel my body temperature rising.
'What, did he really figure it out or something? Were all royals this fast at figuring things out?'
I gripped my clothes so hard that it was forming a wrinkle. His expression showed disgust as he saw my reaction.
"Hah, this is so exhausting."
Hylli stepped closer to my face. His eyes met my scarlet eyes, even through the small slit of the towel. I unconsciously stepped back.
"Was this the reason why you applied for swordsmanship?"
All this while, I thought the prince was going to interrogate me for my identity. His sudden question regarding why I joined surprised me. What reason...?
"Don't pretend you don't know. You kept peeking my way, and weren't you pretending to be dainty and frail while avoiding doing the drills you were assigned?"
Pretending to be dainty and frail? Was hiding my face behind a sweat-soaked towel stinking of sweat some sort of way to look dainty and frail? What a weird thing to think as frail.
He even looked inhuman, was his vision inhuman too? No, was he just not human at all to begin with? I stared at the prince with a pitiful gaze.
"You joined this class to gain my attention. How disgusting. Women are absolutely detestable. How can they all be the same."
I couldn't speak after listening to the prince's absolutely groundbreaking bullshit. He said exactly the kind of thing an asshole main character from a novel would say.
I frowned. Was he saying this because he was an actual character from a novel, or was this something that was specifically wrong with him?
He looked assured that this was the absolute truth.
What, it wasn't that he figured out who I was? He kept on staring at me, so I thought he figured me out with some sort of main character buff.
My heart had shriveled up like a fully-eaten freeze pop. It slowly came back to its regular size.
"I will pretend to have not figured you out, as today is the first day of class. Return immediately."
Once my anxiety had calmed, I suddenly found the haughty prince in front of me absolutely laughable.
Was he this much of a comedic character in the original novel? It felt like someone had sketched out a haughty show-off male main character and it had come to life.
No. There was something missing from the perfectly cold, haughty male main character. Why did the royal prince look so stupid all of a sudden?
"I'm sorry to disappoint, but I can't do that."
"Now that I have figured out your goal, your plan has failed. Return."
Hylli grabbed the training sword from my hand. I tried to remain calm, but the scene from yesterday, of him trying to snatch my sword away from me, played in my head as my anger grew.
"And you, sir royal prince, who are you to choose my future and my future plans as you please? And I didn't even say anything to begin with, so why are you making up stories all by yourself?"
Hylli stared at me with a strange look in his face as I suddenly began to speak. I spoke in the nastiest voice I could.
"Oh my.....it can't be? Sir, do you assume that you're so wonderful that every single woman in the world will automatically love you or something?"
Hylli frowned, as if hurt by my words.
"It's not that, but why else would a girl like you join a course like this filled with only men? Then tell me. Why did you join?"
I responded to his obvious question with my fingers in an 'o' shape.
"For wealth and prosperity."
"....?"
"If I become a knight, then, even if the kingdom's economy collapses, won't I still be paid a steady pension? I'll also be receiving a high position and a mansion to boot. I also heard that my credit score will go up, and I'll be able to do more things financially as well. Wouldn't it be crazy for me to waste that kind of opportunity provided by my country? What, I can't get those benefits just because I'm a woman? We all pay taxes when we're legal adults. How unfair."
"....?"
After speaking, I paused. I spoke too frankly. I felt like I was too worked up, so I stopped speaking and collected my breath.
If he's the royal prince now, then he'd one day become the royal king. Then, that would mean he would be my boss. Knights were supposed to be righteous and principled, but I said too much.
Damn it. I responded with bullshit after listening to the prince's bullshit. When I raised my head, he looked stunned.
"Is….is that so. It was a more impure reason than I originally assumed."
What's impure about money? The prince looked at me as if he couldn't deal with me, so I glared right back. Then, Hylli returned the sword back to me.
Judging by his response, it looked like I wouldn't be getting kicked out for now. Moreover, it didn't look like he figured out my identity too.
"Anyway, it feels like I've heard this voice before."
…..oh no. The thing that I worried about had happened. My heart, which had just returned to its normal size, started shriveling up in fear again.
I tried to pretend that nothing was wrong, but my voice started to shake slightly.
"What? Nonsense! What about my voice?"
I overreacted out of panic. I'm so lame, even for me.
Hylli stared at me suspiciously.
"….I wouldn't be able to forget such an annoying voice like yours. It even feels like I've heard it recently."
I stared into the distance and shifted my face away.
"Oh! Thinking about it, dinner is right after this class. I've heard great things about the food on campus, so I'm very excited about that. I need to help the cafeteria ladies put their hats on, so I'll be on my way."
I'm just spitting anything that comes to mind. My voice rose in pitch as my heartrate sped faster and faster. I had a tendency to overreact when I was panicking.
"Why would you go there? And there's still an hour before meal time."
I tried to step backwards to run away. Hylli grabbed my shoulder.