I'd heard before that our history teacher barely got accepted to college after five years of retaking college entrance exams. Apparently, it had taken fifteen years for them to receive their teacher credentials.
I started to feel bad for them, and promised myself that I would at least try my best to pretend to study. That was when the lunch bell rang.
The classroom, which had been full of students who were deep asleep, emptied itself out as soon as the bell rang.
'Looks like everyone is true to their instincts.'
With that thought in my head, I also prepared to use the speed magic imbued in my shoes.
As I prepared to rush over to the cafeteria, Hestia stuck by me and quietly asked to go together.
I passed Hestia her bag, mentally planning to carry her to the cafeteria. However, there was another obstacle in the way. The obstacle was none other than the crown prince, who was waiting for us right outside of our classroom.
Hylli glared at me, arms crossed. Some of the female students who had not gotten out of the classroom yet were blushing as they looked at him.
The prince blocked me as I was getting ready to run and raised an eyebrow. He looked very angry.
"Before you eat, why don't we talk?"
Hylli spoke curtly. Then he noticed that Hestia next to me and softened his tone.
Hylli, who had originally stopped me to talk, suddenly lost the ability to speak when he was faced with Hestia. He kept nervously peeking glances at her.
The prince hesitantly spoke to Hestia.
"The…. Miss Hestia, would you please go ahead? I have something to talk about with her."
Hylli blushed furiously, seemingly to be in a trance as he spoke in a jumble of polite and casual speech.
Hestia watched the prince. She pouted.
"Do you have to speak to Shushu alone? You don't have anything to talk to me about?"
The prince seemed unable to figure out how to respond. He floundered before nodding.
I smacked my forehead as I watched this happen. This idiot, he was wasting a golden opportunity.
Hearing the prince's words, Hestia let out a small 'hmph' before leaving us behind.
Hylli watched Hestia depart and, mustering all the courage he could, opened his mouth.
"Enjoy, your food."
He smiled to himself after saying those words. I frowned.
"Gross…."
I was completely honest.
I was absolutely sure he wasn't such a character. Who made him like this? He was completely downgraded from the original novel.
I thought deeply about the plot of the original novel. In the original story, Hestia and the prince first met towards the end of middle school in the academy.
In other words, they met earlier because of me. We were just beginning middle school, so this was before Hylli had matured.
That must be it. We were still babies. We were even similar in height. I could only understand his position with my kindness and wide berth of understanding.
In the meanwhile, Hylli seemed to have come back to his senses. He turned his head towards me and tugged on the hem of my shirt.
Hylli's handsome but pitiful face filled my vision.
"What was that during yesterday's duel?!"
"…dueling?"
"Why are your lips twitching like that?"
"….you must be seeing things."
The prince sighed at my reaction and let go of my shirt.
The moment he let go, I dusted off my shirt. He was stupidly strong.
Hylli scrunched his face as he looked at me, then grasped at his hair.
"I'm asking you why you used magic during our duel. That's cheating."
"If you thought I was going to duel you with only a sword when I'm this weak, then that was you being prideful, prince."
He couldn't seem to rebuke that, so he just leered at me as he pouted.
"You talk too much."
Even still, Hylli seemed to think it was unfair and cotninued to glare.
I was kind of cheating yesterday, I guess? Right before our duel, I had enchanted buffs into my equipment and my body. …I had also debuffed everything that I could against the prince, so it was obvious that I would win.
The moment the duel began, he had tripped on his own feet, his wooden sword had broken into pieces, and um.... Maybe I did too much? But as the royal prince, he would have to deal with variables like that in the future. I'd have to raise him with tough love.
Hylli swept a hand through his hair, then muttered something as if he was giving an excuse.
"I could guess that you were a magician. With your below the belt attitude, I knew that you wouldn't put that skill to waste, and I was also kind of preparing for it. I had dueled against plenty of magic-wielding swordsmen, so I thought I could easily defeat you. But…"
Our angsty Hylli bit his lips.
"But, the magic from yesterday…I had never seen it before. Your magic was very inconsistent and artificial."
His voice seemed to have lost a lot of confidence.
Well, it only made sense. In the novel, Hylli was absolutely unmatched. His talent in swordsmanship was much higher than my own.
However, he lacked practical ability. I could use both magic and swordsmanship in a variety of ways. Moreover, the prince was young in both mind and body.
Why is he doing this and making me feel soft? I felt like I was hurting the feelings of an innocent child. Kind of like I was trampling a new sprout?
I patted the back of the prince, whose shoulders were drooping in sadness.
"Prince, your skills are not bad. It's also true that I cheated."
Seeing Hylli, I was reminded of my younger brother from my past life. There was a time when he ignored a classmate because he thought he was smarter, then was sad for a while because that classmate had gotten better grades than him.
It seemed that his confidence had taken a steep nosedive and was about to reach an underground geyser at this point, so I spoke up. The situation was slightly different, but it reminded me of Seyoo and made me sad.
"In this world, there are a lot talented people. However, there are less people who accept that cheating can be used as a strategy, then use that knowledge to better themselves."
The prince looked up after hearing me say something. I had only demeaned and teased him before this.
Did you cry? His red eyes seemed to be a bit moist.
"I can use my sword and magic in a variety of ways and utilize it as needed. On the other hand, my physical and athletic skills are a lot behind my classmates."
The prince seemed surprised that I admitted my own weaknesses.
"If you help me improve in that regard, I will help you win against my 'cheating strategies'. Then, I'll see you in the afternoon."
I left after speaking. I was too hungry.
Hylli, you bastard, if you have anything to say then do it after eating.
I was sure that the tastier meals were already out. Telling myself that a warm meal was impossible at this point, I began to walk to the cafeteria. Hylli grabbed my arm and blocked me from leaving again.
To block someone trying to eat not only once, but twice. This was requiring an immense amount of patience on my part.
There was a saying that a person has to be patient and understand up to three times, but if someone actually does do that three times in a row, that just means they're a pushover. I couldn't take it anymore and was about to throw a fit, but Hylli was faster.
"Aren't you late to lunch because of me? The food that's left in the cafeteria probably isn't very good. Follow me."
That day, I truly experienced the support of the royal prince for the first time. The food I ate that day broke the record for the most delicious food I had ever eaten in my life until that moment.
I put butter and jam on a warm baguette, and crammed beef into my mouth.
I watched the prince who was quietly and calmly eating his meal, seemingly deep in thought, and was reminded of what I saw a few moments ago. To be exact, seeing how much of a pushover he was when he was with Hestia.
' Do you have to speak to Shushu alone? You don't have anything to talk to me about?'
The prince had nodded to that question like an idiot.
To say he wanted to speak alone to another girl to the girl he liked? And he was so happy that he talked to her that he was smiling from ear to ear.
I frowned as I asked him a question.
"You've never been in a relationship, have you?"
Although we were only in our first year of middle school, most people married immediately after graduating the academy. Everyone dated and did more before they graduated.
At my question, the prince's eyes widened. He seemed to think for a moment, before nodding as he quietly chewed on his food.
I watched the innocent prince look at me as he chewed on his salad. He reminded me of the baby deer I had seen in the zoo as a child.
Originally, the prince was supposed to be my dueling partner until I became used to dueling.
However, Hylli had asked the teacher if we could train by ourselves, and it was decided that we would continue dueling until graduation.
The other students watched us dueling together with suspicious eyes, but soon stopped being suspicious as Hylli detested being connected with me in any way.
After hearing that I lacked muscle, Hylli got excited and made a 'Muscle-building Program' for me.
He touted that he had tried his best to formulate this plan and puffed out his chest proudly.
In his hand, he had a wrinkled piece of paper. He seemed to have really tried, just as he said. There were traces of things being written and erased multiple times.
".....is this truly a training program that can be done by a human."
I carefully read through the piece of paper. It looked fake, so I read it twice. I read it three times, because I thought it was a joke. Then, I read the paper out loud.
The muscle-building training was written out as thus.
1. Pushups: 1000x
2. Situps: 5000x
3. Downward strikes: 2000x
4. Upward strikes: 2000x
5. Squats: 3000x
Hylli tilted his head. He really didn't seem to know what was wrong. No, maybe he was pretending not to know. Did he already get smarter?
"Don't be too touched."
No, I think he's just stupid.
"Your highness, this is too much. If you hate me, just tell me."
The prince seemed baffled at my despondent expression.
He took the paper back and read his program again.
It looked like he was checking for any mistakes. However, he returned the paper back to me and looked confused.
"This is what I did when I was approximately 9 or 10 years old. Anybody can do at least this much, can't they?"
"….how naïve and ignorant."
"What!"
He must've thought that everybody could do it if he could. Wow….
Hearing me argue, Hylli frowned as he refuted my claims.
"If someone is being too mean, it's you, Shuraina! Look at the program you gave me!"
The prince held out the "Royal Prince Magic Endurance Program' sheet I meticulously wrote out. Then, he shoved the paper in my face and started to yell. His voice was so loud, I could hear it ringing.
The program I planned out all night consisted of the following:
1. Enduring enhanced punches: 200x
2. Enduring blows in a weakened state: 200x
3. Just enduring blows: 200x
4. Enduring blows from enhanced training swords: 200x
I read through my program.
"Wow, it's perfect."
The prince flew into a rage at my words and began yelling.
"Perfect my ass! Isn't this just getting beat up?! The person who's being mean is you!"