“——So, then. Have you heard anything, Ou-kun?”
”……Since when did you and I — the Student Council President, no less — get that friendly?”
After class, ambushed at the school gate by Student Council President Milfonti, we’d ended up trooping into the Council room.
I could have ignored her and gone home, but once she dropped Karen’s name, I couldn’t very well walk away.
I’ve been messing with that girl plenty, lately.
The topic apparently concerned her — so here I was, Mashiro and Alice in tow.
“Were you unhappy with the nickname? Then, how about ‘Uga-uga’?”
“It got more uncool. What the hell is ‘Uga-uga’? ‘Uga-uga’?”
“Doesn’t the sound have a cute ring to it? Uga-uga.”
“Not in the slightest.”
“Hmm, troubled……. Then how about ‘Darling’?”
“Student Council President Milfonti? I’m going to get angry, you know.”
The protest came from Mashiro.
Lately I’ve gotten the impression that the moment she steps on a particular landmine, she shifts into Angry Mode.
The trouble is figuring out where the landmines are buried…… but I’m sensitive to that kind of thing, so I should be fine.
In my past life I spent a lot of time reading faces in order to play the role of a nice guy.
I’m confident I could tap-dance the field and not set anything off.
It’s just — Mashiro used to be so timid, and now she’s already snapping at people on my behalf. The speed of her growth makes me happy.
“Fufu. You’re loved, Veret-kun.”
“Yeah. Mutually.”
I fell for Mashiro’s boobs, got to know her personality, and ended up liking her even more.
Her expressions shift in rapid succession and never get boring to watch, her boobs are huge, she’s full of ambition, and I love the way her chest is fit to burst out of even the largest-size uniform.
“M-mou. Ouga, you’re a perv. You’re staring too much.”
“Heroes love women, hmm…… in that case, how about my chest? You’re welcome to stare at the Student Council President’s chest — the chest everyone admires.”
“Looking at impoverished things just makes the heart impoverished, doesn’t it.”
”…………”
“Hiiieek!?”
A sharp crack — the handle of Milfonti’s teacup snapped clean off, contents spilling across the table.
Pressed back by the pitch-dark aura leaking off the Council President, Mashiro instinctively clung to my arm.
Ahh, soothing, soothing.
The girl-power gap really showed itself, didn’t it.
Honestly, what is this size…… a property tax on these wouldn’t be out of place……
”…… Well, then. Now that the atmosphere has warmed up, let’s set the jokes aside and return to the main topic.”
It’s chilled to the bone, isn’t it?
Sparing further commentary, the topic she finally raised was the same one she’d asked us about at the gate.
“Miss Lebetsenka was absent from today’s General Student Assembly without notice. None of you know anything, correct?”
“Hearing it from you is the first I’m hearing of it. She seemed fine this morning, though.”
“Then something must have happened after that.”
“Something happened? What makes you think so?”
“She is a serious and strongly responsible person. I don’t believe she would abandon her duties without notice.”
The Council President’s read on her is correct.
Karen has a personality that hates inconveniencing other people.
Enough so that she’ll shoulder things she dislikes if it means only she has to bear it.
“You wouldn’t have dragged us in here if that was all.”
”…… Fufu. Saw through me, did you? The truth is, I got worried and went to visit her dorm room as well, but there was no answer……. Where in the world could she be?”
“You checked inside properly?”
“Of course. But no one was there, you see?”
”…………”
“You’ve apparently been getting friendly with her lately, so I thought you might have an idea…… Veret-kun?”
”…… Ah. Probably just missed each other. There’s no way she’d leave the academy grounds. Not given her position.”
“I agree. But — if you find her, please let me know.”
“Got it. That much I can cooperate with.”
If I can build up a favor for something this easy, I might as well spare a little time.
The class material today was already territory I’d covered anyway.
I don’t need to review, and my after-school hours were sitting empty.
That should wrap things up.
I stood up from my seat and was about to leave the Council room—
“Are you aware that she is being tormented by Crown Prince Arnia?”
——when fresh information made me stop in my tracks.
By that womanizer of a prince…… I see.
So Karen really has been carrying him in her heart, deep down.
This whole mess today must have been an impulsive reaction to him not even looking at her.
My read on her using me as a decoy stallion was correct after all.
”…… Ah, of course.”
”——! I knew it. I was certain you, of all people, would have noticed. Word of your recent activities has reached my ears, you see. So — though you’d kept yourself apart from your fellow students, you suddenly began approaching her…… Am I wrong?”
”…… Well, who can say.”
She’s seen through that much…!?
I flicked my eyes to Alice — out of Milfonti’s line of sight, she made a tiny × with her fingers.
In other words: we aren’t being surveilled.
She had built her deduction from nothing but her own information and arrived at the truth.
As befits the head of the kingdom’s premier Magic Academy.
She’s more capable than I’d given her credit for. I revised her threat level sharply upward.
“Everyone may turn a blind eye to his conduct. But I, personally, cannot let it pass.”
So as a fellow woman, the prince’s behavior is something she can’t overlook.
Council President Milfonti has no need to curry favor with anyone, and she doesn’t look like the sort to pick men by their faces.
Which is exactly why she can deliver a critique this honestly.
The reason she’s speaking openly to me is that she’s certain I share her view.
“Which brings me to it. I have a proposal for you.”
“A proposal?”
“Yes. Whether you accept or not — would you hear it just once?”
She said a moment ago that she’d heard rumors about me.
…… And honestly, this matter. It’s the kind of business that only a villain like me could take on.
”…… Whether the proposal benefits me. I’ll be the judge of that, if you please.”
Seeing me lower myself back into the chair, she smiled, pleased.
“On that score, there’s no need for concern.”
“——Within this academy, the Milfonti — we — hold the highest authority, after all.”
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Dark. In the dark, dark.
Quiet. A lonely space where nothing but my own breathing and the sound of me sniffling reaches my ears.
Aah…… this narrowness is calming.
It’s been since I was small that I’ve done this.
I never became strong. I just thought I had.
What’s the meaning of my existence? What’s my life?
I feel like I’ve been repeating the same unanswerable self-questioning forever.
”……!”
The click of a key turning.
…… Whose turn is it this time?
When Council President Milfonti came, I’d kept my silence to the end.
I must have caused her enough trouble that I’ve been kicked off the Council.
But it’s all right. Either way, Father is going to drag me back to the estate.
In that case, until then, I just want to be alone and rest.
In the dark like this, forever and ever——
“Thought you’d be here.”
——Huh?
A single shaft of light streaming in.
A voice I knew. A voice I’d always want to keep listening to.
When I raised my face, he was there, wearing an exasperated expression.
“Ah, eh…… how did you……?”
“You always used to hide in a closet whenever something upset you. Figured this time’d be the same.”
“Y-you remembered……?”
“How many times do you think I went looking for you? It’s burned in. I couldn’t forget if I tried.”
“Ah, ahaha……”
I’d stayed in his memory.
That fact alone made me happy.
It wouldn’t have been strange at all to have been hated and erased.
The way he was shrugging at me, exasperated, exactly as he used to — that made me happy.
“Looks like even the Student Council President didn’t think to check inside. ——Hey, what are you doing?”
“N-no, well — I was crying right up until now, and my eyes are puffy, and it’s embarrassing to be seen……”
“Don’t care.”
“Ah—”
He pulled me by the hand and led me right out, easily.
I nearly stumbled — and got pulled, as if drawn in, into his chest.
I ended up clinging to him, started to pull back — but before I could, his hand patted me gently on the head.
“I’m used to your crying face. No reason to mind now.”
”……Yeah. You’re right……”
I pressed my face into his chest and slipped my hands gently around his waist.
The way he used to comfort me, long ago.
”……Thank you, Ouga.”
Relieved, hiding nothing, I let a sobbing voice slip out once more.