Harriet and I entered the restaurant where the traces of the others had led. As soon as we entered, four people who were sitting before a table with a huge amount of emptied plates, seeming unable to leave, caught our eye.
It was just as Harriet predicted.
“Hey, those idiots are really here.”
“Don’t call me an idi—! Ah. U-urg…”
I didn’t refer to her that time, but she still reacted to the word on reflex, her face turning completely red.
Every time she heard the word “Idiot”, she would think that I was calling her.
I had trained her so well.
Heinrich, Ellen, Liana, and Adelia, who went there without any gold, were all staring blankly at the two of us.
“There’s a limit to how careless one could be. You completely forgot to bring any money on a shopping trip? Should I also call you an idiot?”
“I’m not an idiot!”
-Shove
Liana opened her mouth wide as she looked at the gold coin pouch right in front of her.
* * *
Before starting their shopping spree for real, it seemed like Liana wanted to have something to eat first, telling the others that there was a really delicious restaurant in Rajak.
She knew that Ellen always ate a lot, so she ordered many different dishes from the menu, and just when they were about to leave after eating their fill, she realized that none of them brought any money with them.
And as I expected, it seemed like Liana making a fuss about being the daughter of Duke Grantz didn’t work.
So all of them just sat back down, staring blankly and thinking about how to overcome the situation.
That was when Harriet and I had appeared out of nowhere.
“Student ID tracking?”
When Liana asked how we were to find them right away, Harriet provided an answer. Adelia looked a little surprised that she actually studied such a spell.
“When did you learn that again?”
“I just learned it on the side.”
Adelia studied magic that would earn her money, but Harriet studied magic that caught her interest. She felt like she lost against her again that day. Just talking with Harriet normally made Adelia feel inferior.
Ellen’s eyes met mine.
Harriet seemed to be feeling better, so she seemed to be curious about the reason behind the change. I just gave her a slight shrug. I couldn’t really tell her the truth right then.
“Anyway, I’m glad… Thank you, you two.”
Liana sighed in relief.
Heinrich didn’t look very pleased for some reason. Honestly speaking, it was Harriet who played the biggest role there, so I wondered if I really helped her.
Liana just said, “Whatever.” as she looked at me.
“Hey, you worked hard, so I’ll buy you a swimsuit as well.”
“…So, you think I came all the way here just to get you to buy me a swimsuit? I only had 100 percent, absolutely, perfectly, pure and good intentions here, you know?”
“…You’re capable of something like that? You didn’t do this for some kind of reward?”
Liana made an overly surprised gesture as if she never expected me to do something like that.
“Even if I’m a beggar, I’m not that much of a jerk, ya know?”
“Oh, but I do know that. You have some kind of conscience, after all, right?”
“…I shouldn’t go against you, huh?”
What was the difference between Harriet and her?
Any provocation I sent her way never really struck a nerve, and—quite the contrary—I always end up with a slap to the face. Their conversational skills were just on completely different levels.
As I shut my mouth as if fed up with her bullshit, Harriet stared at Liana with admiration etched into her face.
“Liana, just what is your secret?”
“…My secret?”
“Only you are able to make that guy shut up like this. Just how are you doing it?”
“If you wanna talk about that shit, how about doing it somewhere, where I can’t hear you, huh?”
“Oh, stop being noisy.” Harriet seemed to be really curious about how Liana managed to brush me off so easily. She just looked at me and shrugged.
“He pretends to be all crazy, but he actually isn’t that crazy, you know? Just act boldly.”
“So you just let me hear everything.”
“Bold… Boldly?”
Harriet tilted her head and seemed to recall the previous day’s occurrence.
Oh, touch it… if you can.
That was probably what she was thinking about.
Harriet then gazed at me, giving me a meaningful look.
“…Hey, there’s this thing called personality, you know?”
“What? Pe-Personality?”
“Yeah, I might not be able to do anything against her, but things are different for you.”
It wasn’t about what one said, it was about who said it. No matter how much she learned from her, she would never be another Liana de Grantz. She was Harriet de Saint-Owan, so the results might be completely different.
Even if two different people said the same old joke, some would make it fall flat, and others would get reactions like, “Wahaha, you’re such a witty guy and so eloquent!” That was just how it was!
Even though it was the same joke, there would be so many different reactions depending on who said it! Isn’t that just unfair?
It’s not like I experienced that or anything.
“I have no idea what bold action you’re thinking of doing, but I advise you to just behave. Because I might make you hate me for real.”
As I smiled with quite the creepy expression on my face, Harriet’s face began to blanch.
I can’t do anything to Liana, but to you?
What do you think I’ll do to you, huh?
Harriet seemed to imagine quite a few things in her head.
“Wha… Whwhat. Y-you pervert! D-don’t come closer, you crazy pervert!”
Harriet’s face turned red, and she covered her chest as she screamed.
No, I didn’t actually say anything about that kind of stuff, you know? Why was she making a fuss all on her own?
“What kind of bold thing were you thinking of doing for you to react like that?”
“N-no! No-nothing really. I didn’t say anything!”
“Then why did you call me a pervert?”
“I-I… I don’t know!”
No matter how much Liana taught her, it wouldn’t change anything.
Her and my personalities just perfectly complemented each other.
Anyway, they received their money, so they ended up shopping for swimsuits, which was their original purpose.
By the way…
I really don’t think that the actual Middle Ages have anything to do with Medieval Fantasy, but wasn’t that just too much?
There were specialized swimwear stores, and I couldn’t even tell the difference between the fabric they used and the fabric we used in modern times, you know? I knew synthetic fibers and modern clothing were also pretty blatant, but what the fuck?
Well…
What should one call this world, which had a lot more modern aspects than medieval ones? What kind of crazy world did I create?
As I thought, my conclusion was still the same.
If I thought any more about that, I’d lose.
There were swimwear stores.
And we were there to buy a swimsuit.
Anything else didn’t matter!
Our purpose was to buy a swimsuit for Ellen, but Liana also tried some on while looking for one for Ellen to see if she saw one she wanted to buy for herself.
“How is it?”
When she tried on a swimsuit, she would ask me and the others for our opinion.
“Uhm, that’s… Erm, very… I think it suits you very well.”
“Look properly and tell me. How can you even know that it looks on me when you aren’t even looking?”
Heinrich stumbled over his words, telling her she looked good even though he didn’t manage to look at her. The cold sweat rolling down his face increased even more after he was to look at her properly first before opening his mouth. After hearing Heinrich’s reply, Liana looked at me next.
“Hey, look at me.” “Oh, it looks good on you.”
“…You didn’t even try to look, did you?”
“Well, what clothes wouldn’t look good on the beautiful and noble young lady Grantz?”
“Are you trying to piss me off?”
I looked elsewhere and answered quite half-heartedly, so Liana just asked the other kids if the swimsuit looked good on her. Ellen would just wear whatever Liana picked for her, no matter what it looked like.
It seemed that she didn’t feel any way about what she was wearing as she looked in the mirror. Of course, our young lady Grantz was obviously superior in height and style, but Ellen couldn’t just be dismissed either. Adelia and Harriet were looking at her in a bikini.
“Wow…”
“I-I should also… exercise more…”
Both were looking at her with clear envy in their eyes.
She was wearing a basic black bikini.
“It suits you.”
I couldn’t look at her for long because I started feeling strange.
It wasn’t that I liked her, more like I felt guilty?
So I just said that it looked good on her, which was the truth.
After that, Ellen looked at herself in the mirror for quite some time.
* * *
Liana and Ellen changed into a lot of different swimsuits as if they wouldn’t get tired from trying on every single one in the store. Adelia and Harriet also looked around for one they might take a fancy on.
Of course, I also chose something for myself, though I just picked some swimming trunks that seemed to fit properly, although I didn’t try them on.
“Can you only buy one after you tried on dozens first?”
I really hated shopping for extended periods of time! If you just walked around for two hours going from store to store only to realize that you liked the one you saw first, you’d feel like you wasted a ton of time.
Although this was like some kind of modern medieval fantasy, there was no need for something like that, so why was it still like that?
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Liana tilted her head as if she didn’t know what I was talking about.
“What do you mean by ‘buy one’?”
Liana pointed to the stack of swimsuits she had tried on.
“I’ll buy all of them.”
Ah.
The Duke of Grantz, who had mansions all over the continent, was well aware of the young lady’s spending.
* * *
In the end, both Ellen and Liana bought a lot of swimsuits.
“What if something you bought now doesn’t fit you anymore later on…”
“I’ll just buy new ones.”
“I see.”
What if it didn’t fit anymore? Just throw all of them away and buy new ones.
Rich people really were on a completely different level with a completely different way of thinking.
Because we finished our errand, we could go back to the mansion and play around again, whether we’d be swimming or resting.
Liana was on an outing with her friends, so it was somewhat understandable that she didn’t bring one of her attendants along. She might have thought that Adelia would feel out of place.
So, both Ellen and Liana were carrying their own full shopping bags.
Ellen was a complete monster, so she wasn’t really struggling with carrying all that stuff.
“It’s good that you have enough money to live the way you do, and yet you didn’t even think of taking it with you?”
“…I know.”
A clumsy beauty.
She was always messing up something in some way.
“Give it here.”
I took half of Liana’s luggage. If we were talking about strength, I was second after Ellen there. When I just took half of her stuff, Liana stared at me and held out the rest of it. “Hey, just take everything while you’re at it.”
“Girl.”
“I-I’ll take it!”
“Huh… Sure. Thanks.”
In the end, Heinrich von Schwarz took the rest. Of course, Harriet, Adelia, and Liana split up again as I was wondering just how little strength she actually had. I felt a small amount of pity for her as we followed them.
In fact, they bought quite a lot of things.
As we were trying to get out of Rajak, I overheard some people making a lot of noise in the crowd.
-Why did you drink so much in the middle of the day!? Huh?
-I’m… I’m alright…! Yeah!
-Have you been to the bar of that bitch Airi or something again?! I just don’t get it!
-I’m not…! Urg, drunk.
-You’re going to ruin your whole home, you idiot! Only drinking and not working!
What could I say?
Although I didn’t run into Airi, I sure could hear her name floating around everywhere.
Her liquor business was going so well that she was even getting customers in the middle of the day.
-Clank!
-I’m going to find that fox bitch and kill her!
That was…
I heard stories about households being led to ruin everywhere.
She was doing fine, right? She wanted to make a lot of money, and she actually managed to do just that.
Making a lot of money was good and all, but if things kept going like that, wouldn’t she end up stabbed in some alley? Of course, she had told me that she was confident in her strength and skills.
‘Since I had a lot of free time on hand, maybe I should just go to Rajak on my own and visit her.’
With those thoughts, I left Rajak.
* * *
After returning to the villa, We went to the beach like before. Ellen and Liana wore their new swimsuits and played on the beach like before as well, although they decided not to explore the underwater world.
I lay on a sunbed and watched them from afar. I didn’t really feel like going into the water that day.
—Adelia, Ellen, Harriet, and Liana.
I drank something as I watched the four of them having fun.
Harriet seemed to be in a much better mood than the day before, so all was good. I just sat back and blankly watched the scenery.
I was thinking about just working out. However, it was quite funny for me to work out there when I planned on thoroughly resting.
“Hey.”
Heinrich von Schwarz called out to me.
“Huh, what?”
“Aren’t you going to play?”
That guy was wearing his swimsuit as well as a shirt. Of course, I didn’t wear my swimsuit because I didn’t intend to go swimming.
“Not today, at least.“
“…Really?”
Was it too much for him to be all alone with the girls? He just stood beside me and murmured quietly.
“Did… Did really nothing happen in the Darklands?”
“Yeah, I said so, right?”
“But it’s the Darklands. Isn’t it dangerous?”
He seemed to be wondering if I just didn’t want to talk about what happened in the Darklands or if really nothing happened. “We didn’t even go to the dangerous places, to begin with.”
“…If you didn’t plan on going anywhere dangerous, why did you go there in the first place?”
Hmm.
Why was he asking me that?
“Did you want me to gamble away my life? We just thought it would be better to be careful.”
No matter what I said, it would only be lies anyway, so I felt too lazy to even think about it properly. I didn’t care what that guy thought of me.
“So, you were making a huge deal of going to the Darklands, but acted like a coward and didn’t do anything there?”
I glanced at Heinrich. He seemed a little dazed when I looked at him.
“Oh, well.”
“Hah, if it were me, I would’ve at least taken a Goblin’s head with me.”
“And how do you think you’d do that?”
“Look, I’m not the same I was before.”
–Fuooosh!
After concentrating for a bit, a fire was lit in the middle of the sand. I didn’t want to pay him any attention, but it seemed like his activation speed and level of control had risen considerably since that one night I saw him practice.
It seemed like he had put a lot of effort into his ability.
“I see. You must have worked really hard.”
Heinrich seemed a little taken aback by my casual reaction. Perhaps he was hoping that I would be a little more surprised.
It seemed like he wanted me to be envious or something like that.
However, I could already do what Heinrich just showed me with the Flame of Tuesday. Even if I didn’t have the Flame of Tuesday, I would have no reason to react strongly.
My ability was my ability, and his ability was his ability.
“So, you finally realized that it would do you no good to argue with me like before.”
With that, the boy walked towards the beach with a grin on his face. There were a few things I wanted to hurl at his turned head.
Want me to wipe the floor with you?
Why the fuck are you trying to build some kind of rival relationship with me?
If it were the past me, I would have hit him right away, but I didn’t really want to. I felt too tired already to get angry over such trivial disputes.
I felt like my mentality had reached the next level.
* * *
After swimming, everyone washed up and had some dinner. They didn’t look as tired because they didn’t decide to swim all day as they did previously.
However, all of them seemed to plan on going to bed early because they wanted to be up early the next day.
“Will you be okay?”
“…Yes.”
Ellen was also plagued by nightmares the night before. I asked her because there was no guarantee that she would have such dreams again, but Ellen just vaguely nodded her head.
By the way, there was still a lot of time left, so I was thinking of going back to Rajak to meet Airi, but I would have to tell the others that I’d go on my own.
I thought about it before going to sleep, and right before I slipped into unconsciousness…
-Knock, knock
Someone knocked on my door. I thought it was Ellen, so I went to see, but it was actually Liana.
“Come out.”
“…Why so suddenly?”
“Just come out.”
What did she want from me in the middle of the night?
Liana grinned at me.
“One should have a drink on nights like these, you punk.”
‘Ah.’
‘Big sis.’
‘You’re the best, big sis!’
____
Chapter end
