"Ah, ahem. Ahem!"
I was waiting for today's afternoon swordsmanship class.
I searched for a single person, both hands behind my back. In all honesty, I already found them. Our swordsmanship teacher had assigned Hylli to help me with my training today again. When I looked at Hylli, he avoided my gaze and looked somewhere else. I casually walked around his vicinity and coughed loudly.
"Prince Hylli."
When I called his name, he frowned. Obviously he didn't reply.
"Are you feeling okay?"
"…..what."
"You said your heart was ripping into pieces yesterday. That sounded pretty painful."
"...."
"Oh! You also said that your heart couldn't take it. Could that be some sort of illness? Shouldn't you call the royal doctor about that?"
When I repeated his words from yesterday, the prince seemed to have learned about the concept of shame overnight. His face turned an unbelievable shade of red. It looked like he had probably kicked at his blankets quite a bit last night.
Today's situation was completely different from yesterday. I was absolutely exhilarated. I had gotten so incredibly lucky yesterday. I smiled, thinking to myself about how I should treat Hestia to a meal soon.
The prince glared at me with a murderous look in his eyes.
"What is it that you want?"
The prince, who seemed to be so high and mighty yesterday, was as nervous and scared as me from yesterday.
To be completely honest, I wanted to put my face in front of his and laugh in his face. However, I held it back and decided to be the bigger person. When he asked what I wanted, I breathed in and out as I thought about it. There was something that I absolutely wanted from him, but this situation was too fun to end so quickly. I wanted to tease him for a bit longer.
"….honestly?"
I rolled my eyes in a purposely annoying manner.
"You, this....."
When he started gritting his teeth, I hurriedly changed the subject.
"Anyway, sir Hylli, I don't understand how you can change your actions so suddenly when yesterday you were telling me, who had barely entered this class for the first time, that "All women are the same! They're all disgusting!" Aren't you discriminating too much? You said I was disgusting yesterday, and you told my friend that she was a pure flower."
"…when did I say that all women are the same, and that they are disgusting."
Because I had the audio recording device turned on all day, I also had the audio files from class yesterday. I hurriedly turned on [The Prince's Shameful Past #2].
[You joined this class to gain my attention. How disgusting. Women are absolutely detestable. How can they all be the same?]
When he heard his own voice quietly speak in the hall, he lunged towards me. The other students turned their heads to see what was happening, but turned away after meeting the prince's murderous glare. He grabbed the device in my hand and quickly broke it into pieces with a wooden sword. He looked at me, triumphant.
"You can stop now. You don't have enough evidence anymore."
Hylli looked very self-confident. I put my hand into my dimension-extension pocket and took out about ten more audio files.
"Um...it looks like I may have made too many files by mistake."
Seeing the literal pile of audio files in my hand, Hylli couldn't hide his absolute astonishment. His face was definitely something to see. It was amazing how such a good looking face could look so ugly. Hylli, who seemed to have gotten the necessary treatment for middle schooler disease, grabbed both of my shoulders with an expression on the verge of tears. He opened his mouth to speak, voice wobbly.
"What is it that you want. Didn't I give you the sword, just as you wanted? I don't think there's any reason for you to collect my weak points like this."
I opened my mouth after listening to his pleading-infused request.
"Your highness, I must profess my innocence. If somebody else listens, they would think that I'm blackmailing you. I just happened to get my hands on the file. I absolutely don't have any hate towards you. I will be serving you when I become a knight. How could I do such a thing?"
I got a bit too excited. The words just kept coming out.
"Just curse at me. Tell me your grievances. This is worse."
His highness frowned and responded curtly.
"To be completely honest, there is something that I want."
I decided to tell him my real intentions after pulling back for a bit. Hylli smiled as he sighed in relief. It was a handsome smile, but for the me looking at him right now, it just looked kind of pitiful.
"Your highness, what do you think is the factor of success?"
Hylli seemed taken aback by my question, which seemed to have come from nowhere. He frowned but soon answered promptly.
"What an obvious question. Success comes from a lot of effort, and just a bit of luck and skill."
I shook my head at his words.
"That sounds like a right answer, but you're wrong. You're a bit soft, aren't you, your highness?"
Hylli's face crumpled up in annoyance when I told him that he was wrong to his face.
"You have a talent in annoying people. Then what do you believe to be the right answer?"
I smiled at his question and responded.
"Success is 1% of talent and 99% connections. Backers."
"What?"
I proudly puffed out my chest as I parroted words that I heard from somewhere.
"So I'm asking you to become my connection. I want to join the First Order of the Knights."
In other words, I wanted to become a high-ranking civil servant. I spread my fingers that had curled up in embarrassment during my speech, and looked at the prince's reaction.
Hylli had a strange expression on his face. For a moment, it seemed as if he was seriously considering my offer. Getting anxious, I continued to speak.
"Even if I had excellent skills, I would be unable to go further than the Second Order as a woman. If I do not have the skills for it, then I won't even try for it. However, if I do have the skills to join the First Order, but am unable to do so because of the fact that I am a woman, then I would like to request for your help."
I thought that my intentions were clear and well-expressed. There weren't many times that I was serious, but I tried my best to be serious and honest this time. Hylli didn't seem to care about the embarrassing mood of the conversation and listened closely as the royal prince.
"Pretty confident, aren't you? It sounds like you have the skills to join the First Order."
"I may not be right now, but I think it should be possible by the time graduation comes."
Hylli seemed to stop looking at me with derision.
He huffed and let out a small smile, then threw me the training sword in his hand.
"Fine."
He picked up a sword that was lying on the ground and raised it towards me.
"Raise your sword."
At his order, I positioned myself to duel. I felt like I was in the middle of a boys comic because of the sudden duel, but decided to play along. Hylli looked at me and smiled pridefully.
"Before I listen to your request, would you listen to one of mine?"
Sure, I nodded.
"Your friend from yesterday...….I wish to become close to her. If you promise to help, I will help you."
The prince rushed to continue.
"And break those audio files!"
"Wouldn't that be two requests?"
At my teasing, Hylli's face turned red and promised to become my backer if I listened to those two requests. Well, then. To speak two different things with one mouth. I promised to follow those two requests and nodded.
Then, he laughed heartily and spoke.
"So be it, I promise to train you so that you can join the First Order of the Knights."
The prince said such a cool statement and continued on with the duel.
However, he was immediately put to shame as I won the duel.
'....I….didn't forget to record this, right?'
History class is so boring, no matter when I take it. The subject itself is kind of boring to begin with, but the class was also boring because the teacher just read directly from the textbook. But right after this class was lunch, so I tried my best to bear it.
When I turned my head to check, Hestia, who had sworn to not fall asleep this time, was already wandering the world of dreams. Even if Hestia was the main character, she was still human after all: seeing the whites of her eyes as she tried to keep her eyes open was very realistic. I liked it. But I did feel a bit bad, so I should close her mouth for her.
I'd started getting a lot of meandering thoughts during theory class in the morning. The reason was, there was a male student from my afternoon class that had started to affect my daily life. I started doodling little snails in my history book, head full of thoughts.
Whenever my thoughts wandered away from me, I drew cute snail drawings out of habit. My book was filled with them.
Oh, there's no need to worry about my grades because I'm good at studying.
Honestly, I already came to the academy with the basics of history.
In my previous life, all of my classmates were busy taking after school classes and spent all day taking extra classes. That made me anxious, and I gained a habit of studying ahead to make sure I was on the same level as my classmates.
Because studying ahead had become such an ingrained habit for me, I had the privilege of enjoying myself while other students studied.
The teacher held a book in their hand and read an explanation of how Black Dragon Noirell contributed to the establishment of the kingdom. I could see them walk this way.
I elbowed Hestia, who was still asleep.
"Hey, the teacher's coming."
Smack!
The teacher smacked Hestia's forehead as they passed by.
Smack!
I also received a smack on my forehead as I laughed at Hestia.
"Teacher, I was awake."
As I looked at the teacher with a wrongly accused gaze, the stick-thin teacher pointed at my snail drawings with their long wooden stick.
"Miss Shuraina, I wonder why you're drawing snails instead of taking notes."
I grinned sheepishly and apologized to the teacher.
"I'm sorry. I'll have the notes completed by tomorrow."
The history teacher, Mr. Devon, clicked his tongue and frowned. It felt like I picked the wrong opponent. Guessing by my very much alive intuition, I could tell that the teacher was directing his anger at the dozing students at me.
"A famous scholar once said to not push everything 'til tomorrow, Miss Shuraina."
I responded to the teacher's words with an apologetic expression.
"Is that so."
Smack!
The teacher smacked my forehead again. I put my hand on my face and asked what I did wrong. The teacher just told me that I made them angry.
They seemed like they were going to continue nitpicking, then paused as they seemed to think about something. Then, they asked, "Miss Shuraina, you had good grades, right?"
I just nodded my head. The teacher pouted and turned their attention back to the textbook, and then muttered.
"This is why smart kids are....tut tut."