I posted the Status updates from after Chapter 6 a little while ago. Feel free to skip them.
"Good morning, Tenma."
The voice I heard first thing in the morning was flat and monotone, like something produced by a machine. The speaker was Aura. She had only just barely survived Aina's
punishment
a few days prior.
When she first returned, she could barely even speak properly. She was constantly wary of what lay behind her, and the instant she heard a "snap" sound—like someone clapping their hands—from that direction, the expression would vanish from her face and she'd snap to rigid attention.
Thinking back on it now, the fact that she could at least produce that synthetic-sounding voice was probably an improvement.
Several days after that, when I finally managed to talk to Aura, who was starting to return to her old self, I learned that Aina's punishment had been quite brutal.
Her schedule, after parting ways with us, began with a review of basic maid techniques, followed by instruction.
The next day started with wood-chopping first thing in the morning. (Apparently, she was only allowed to use objects heavy enough to require both hands. On top of that, there was the psychological warfare of "If you don't use your whole body properly, only the muscles in your back will develop and your posture will be ruined," and the quota was entirely at Aina's discretion—so she had no idea how many hundreds of logs she ended up producing.)
The wood-chopping continued until past noon, and after a light lunch came hallway mopping. (She was taken to rarely-used corridors in the castle and made to scrub them relentlessly. No mops allowed. Aina would occasionally drop in for surprise inspections, and if even a speck of dirt remained, her time was extended. On the first day, she apparently finished earlier than Aina had expected, so she was dragged off to a different hallway.)
Finally, from the time the sun began to set until well past midnight, one-on-one combat training with Aina. (Near the end, Chris joined in, making it one-on-two at times.)
After that, she was forced to get just a few hours of sleep before heading out for a run first thing in the morning and training alongside the knights.
Since she rotated through the First Knights Order, the Second Knights Order, and the Royal Guard in sequence, the training didn't end until around snack time, and only then was she finally released. Along with the words, "You'd better start thinking about the next schedule, hadn't you?" and a smile...
"I-Is that so... I mean, how should I put it—amazing she's still alive."
Even for me, with my cheat-enhanced body, that would be a schedule I'd rather not follow. If I had to choose, hunting two or three Earth Dragons might actually be easier. Mostly in the psychological sense...
"Exactly! Completely! They're demons, absolute demons! That's why the two of them are still single!"
One of those two was probably Chris. Aura was casually spouting something incredibly dangerous at the top of her lungs, all while crunching away at the cookies in front of her like they were rice crackers.
But you know, Aura—back in my previous life, there was a saying: "Speak of the devil and he'll appear." Not that you'd understand what that means, though...
"So here's the thing! Those two, they—mmph!"
I shoved a few cookies into Aura's mouth, cutting her off mid-sentence. Having her mouth suddenly stuffed full of cookies, Aura glared at me with tears in her eyes, but the next instant her face went pale and she fell silent.
"Hi there, Tenma-kun~"
"Excuse the intrusion, Lord Tenma."
Sure enough, those two had shown up together — the very people we'd been talking about. Aura slowly turned around to check on them, but it didn't seem like either had overheard her trash-talking, as neither paid it any mind.
"Is something wrong, Aura?"
"Aura, are you slacking off again?"
Chris was looking at the wide-eyed Aura with a puzzled expression, but Aina, perhaps assuming Aura was scared because she'd been caught slacking, had a note of anger in her voice.
"No, it's break time right now. Aura was just telling me about your training."
I certainly couldn't say "I was just listening to Aura badmouth the two of you." It wasn't to protect Aura — I just didn't want to be thought of as the same kind of person. If I earned the combined wrath of Aina and Chris and got dragged into their boot camp too, that would be absolute hell.
Apparently Aura had mistaken my self-preservation for loyalty, because she was looking at me with sparkling eyes.
"I see. Well, when you think about it carefully, even Aura wouldn't dare slack off openly in front of her own master... right?"
That little pause at the end made it painfully obvious just how little she trusted Aura. They were sisters and all, but Aina's evaluation of Aura was remarkably harsh.
"About the training — I was thinking of making the next round a bit tougher. What do you think, Lord Tenma?"
At Aina's shocking declaration, Chris recoiled with a strained expression. I was probably making a similar face myself. As for Aura, she stood completely frozen with a look of utter despair, not moving an inch... She wasn't going into shock, was she?
"About that, Aina... could you ease up a little? I appreciate your enthusiasm, but having someone be completely useless for several days straight is pretty rough on our end too..."
For several days afterward, Aura's sore muscles
and general exhaustion
caused real problems with her work. When I told Aina this, she looked deeply apologetic.
"I'm sorry — I didn't realize it went that far. I'll be sure to follow up properly after training from now on."
She bowed her head, but I never said I'd lighten her menu. Aura hadn't noticed that, and behind me where Aina couldn't see, she was doing a small fist pump.
"So, what brings you two here?"
I decided to put the matter of Aura aside for now and ask why they'd come together.
In truth, it was unusual for them to visit the mansion together. It wasn't that they didn't get along—quite the opposite—but Aina was basically a maid assigned to the Queen, and Chris was a member of the Royal Guard who served as the King's personal escort, so the only time both of them showed up at the same time was when they were accompanying the King or the Queen.
Then again, Aina was also the mansion's head maid (provisional), so she did come by frequently…
Maria
I sometimes worried whether she was being properly taken care of.
"I just happened to have the day off for the first time in a while, so I tagged along with Aina. Aura, could I get some tea? And some snacks too."
Saying that, Chris plopped down in a nearby chair and started lounging. She was popular among the junior knights—both male and female—but if they saw her like this, quite a few of them would probably be disillusioned.
"Aura, mine too, please."
Aina, on the other hand, gave me a polite bow before sitting down neatly in a chair. She then pulled three pouches from the Magic Bag inside her jacket and placed them on the table. They made a clinking sound when set down, so they must have contained coins.
"Tenma, this is payment from the auction. The auction coordinator mentioned that you hadn't come to collect it, so I brought it on their behalf. Please verify the contents."
When I checked, each pouch held three hundred gold coins—nine hundred in total, worth nine million gold.
"The final bid was ten million gold, but after deducting a ten percent tax, that's the amount you'll receive. Also, this was my own decision, but I had them use regular gold coins instead of large gold coins. I thought those would be more convenient in general, but if it's a problem, I can have them exchanged without any processing fee."
"Oh… come to think of it, I did put something up for auction, didn't I? I completely forgot after the whole Earth Dragon incident and that Quartet mess… Actually, couldn't that coordinator have just delivered it here directly?"
"No, that's impossible. His Majesty personally ordered that nobles and royal castle personnel with no prior relationship with you are forbidden from making contact with you, Tenma."
Chris kept feeding me information I didn't know, all while munching on cookies. So that was why, whenever I visited the royal castle recently, only the knights I'd trained with before would talk to me… Honestly, I'd been worrying that I'd gotten too chummy with the King and the others and they were starting to dislike me for it.
As I casually stuffed the received pouches into my bag, I noticed Chris staring at me blankly with a cookie hanging from her mouth. I thought I heard her mutter something like "Maybe I should take up permanent employment at Tenma's place…" but I pretended not to hear.
Chris, who had likely muttered that offhandedly, was now writhing in pain after Aina jabbed her in the ribs (estimated severity: high).
"By the way, what are your plans for the rest of the day?"
"Nothing in particular, so I'm just gonna lounge around here~... that's fine, right?"
"I don't have anything to do, so I thought I'd watch how Aura and Jeanne work."
Lately,
someone's
influence had made Chris less reserved. She seemed to want to relax at home and had already asked Aura to bring her a refill of tea and snacks.
Aina, as usual, seemed intent on training the two of them. She shot Chris a withering look and stood up from her chair. Since she did this every time she came by, I simply nodded and gave my permission.
On her way to bring Chris the refill, Aura happened to overhear Aina's remark and nearly dropped the tea and snacks.
"That's fine, but we'll be having guests soon. I'll be heading out once they arrive... well, I guess that shouldn't be a problem."
They weren't the kind of guests you had to stand on ceremony for, so they wouldn't complain even if Chris was lounging about. Besides, even if I left Chris at the mansion, Grandpa and Jeanne would be there, so it would be fine.
Hearing my answer, Aina immediately grabbed Aura and left the room. Chris looked curious about who the guests might be, but set about refilling her tea and snacks all the same.
After chatting with Chris for about ten minutes, Jeanne showed up with three guests in tow.
"Sorry I'm late, Tenma."
"Sorry to barge in~"
"Yo~"
The three guests Jeanne had led in were the trio of future heads. I'd been waiting for them today because they'd asked me to come along to a particular place.
"Alright, let's head out then... wait,
Sis
?!"
Lion had barged past Jeanne to enter the room, but the moment she saw Chris, she froze in surprise. Come to think of it, what did "big sis" even mean?
I ignored the stunned Lion and looked at the other two. They were similarly surprised — though not to the same degree as Lion. It was more the kind of surprise you'd feel running into an acquaintance in an unexpected place.
"Long time no see, Chris
Senior.
"
"Long time no see."
Following Albert's words, Cain also bowed in greeting. The three outranked Chris in class and position, but in terms of actual power, Chris seemed to have the upper hand.
"Oh? The guests were you three? It's been a while — I've heard
all sorts
of things about you three. Apparently you've barely grown since your student days."
In stark contrast to Chris's cheerful tone, the three grew meek and quiet. Their faces even looked a little pale.
"Wh-Why is big sis here?"
Having rebooted, Lion pulled me into a corner of the room and asked in a hushed voice.
The other two also looked like they wanted to ask the same thing, but Chris had them cornered and they couldn't move.
"Why? Because I had free time, obviously. Chris and I have known each other for quite a while now."
We'd met when the Orc King attacked, so it had already been five years. Even with gaps of a few years in between, our first meeting had been memorable (the King's doing,
to be precise),
which was why she was one of the people I'd grown close to since coming to the Royal Capital.
Come to think of it, she was the first woman I'd properly gotten to know outside of Kukuri Village's residents... If we'd been the same age, it would sound like the setup to a romance novel, but with an eight-year age gap, it wasn't like that at all. More like a friendly older sister, really... Recently she'd been getting anxious about her lack of romantic prospects, though...
Besides, she originally only came to the house as the King's bodyguard, but ever since Aina started visiting, she began showing up on her own too. And having been influenced by the household's laid-back atmosphere, she gradually lost all her sense of restraint. The result was the lazy, tea-and-snacks-demanding Chris we had before us today.
Aina had scolded her about it numerous times, but since Grandpa and I didn't mind, she'd mostly stopped nagging about it lately. Well, the worst offender for lounging around was the King (and lately Lyle and Luna too), so by comparison, Chris was actually relatively normal.
The conversation had gone off on a bit of a tangent, but when I roughly explained everything, Lion's face turned grim. I'd probably made a mistake bringing up the King. In a way, it was like a top-secret matter — or rather, a shameful skeleton in the closet that went by the name of one.
So, where are you planning to take me today?
While heading back to where Albert and the others were, I asked about today's destination, and Lion answered in a strangely cheerful voice.
"Oh, right! We were in a bit of a hurry! Forgot, forgot! So, sis, sorry about this, but I'll be taking my leave now—"
He said, pushing against my back as he tried to leave the room. Albert and the others, looking relieved, started following behind us, but things didn't go that smoothly.
"Suspicious, isn't it... I'm coming along too! Surveillance... guidance... No, a guardian is necessary, after all!"
While casually saying something rather harsh, Chris drained the rest of her tea, beamed with a full smile, and rose from her chair.
"Hahaha, sis, no matter how you say she's not an adult yet, this is Tenma we're talking about. He doesn't need a guardian."
Hearing Chris's words, Lion laughed and slapped my shoulder. That got me a little irritated, but then I noticed Chris, Albert, and Cain all looking at Lion with pity in their eyes, which calmed my irritation somewhat.
"Well, setting the idiot aside—you three don't have any objections, right?"
"No, ma'am!"
Hearing Albert and Cain's synchronized response, Chris wore a satisfied expression. It really made me curious how such a hierarchy had formed in the first place. Since the two of them had sided with her, Lion reluctantly nodded as well.
"So where were you planning to go? Don't tell me you're thinking of sneaking off to the red-light district at this hour?"
Chris stared at the three of them with cold eyes.
"No, absolutely not! I was just planning to show Tenma around the academy."
"The headmaster had asked me to drop by at some point, so I figured this would be a good opportunity."
"That's right, sis. We're not going anywhere suspicious. Besides, even if you went to the red-light district at this hour, most of the shops are closed... If you're going there, you go at night."
Lion laughed heartily, completely unaware that he had just dug his own grave.
The other two immediately distanced themselves from Lion, maintaining an attitude of "this has nothing to do with us."
"Well, all three of them are already adults, so it's not really my place to say anything... But I'll be reporting this to Lady Maria, just in case. If any bad influences start hanging around Tenma-kun, it'll cause all sorts of trouble."
Chris's words left the two of them looking as though they'd just received a death sentence, but Lion, as always, remained completely oblivious.
"Well then, shall we head out? But the academy's right in the middle of long break, isn't it? What would we even go there for?"
"No, the headmaster apparently said today is an official school day — students from every department except the nursery division are supposed to attend."
"That said, only students in or near the Royal Capital would actually show up, so I doubt it'll be very many."
"Ah, so that's why Lion's been so excited. He probably wants to show off that Tenma and House Haust are on friendly terms. Make an impression on the kids first, then let it trickle back to their parents through them."
At Chris's pointed remark, Lion turned away and started whistling. Not that it matters, but it's funny how people pull that same act in this world too. Though in my previous life, the only ones who did that were manga and anime characters.
"What a clumsy way to dodge the subject. Well, whatever — it's not my place to meddle. Just don't overdo it, or Lady Maria will start keeping an eye on you. Be careful."
After driving that point home, Chris headed for the entrance.
Lion heaved a sigh of relief at having been let off easy, but —
—the final boss's
—true terror was clearly something he didn't understand. It was too amusing to warn him about, though.
Chris stepped outside without hesitation and climbed straight into the carriage the three of them had arrived in. For the record, the carriage was a four-seater, and they boarded in the order of Chris, me, Albert, then Cain — the last one in, Cain, pulled the door shut.
"Hm?"
Lion tilted his head at the closed door. The original plan had been to take only me along, so a four-seater carriage was perfect — but now that a guardian had tagged along and Lion had shown up late, he'd been left out in the cold.
"Sis, what about me?"
"That spot's open, isn't it? Squeeze in there. Or — here, there, or run behind us… Pick one."
What Chris called
"that spot"
was the driver's seat — and if you crammed yourself in, there was probably room for one more. For reference, "here" meant on top of the roof, and "there" meant the step used to climb into the carriage.
"…Fine. Sorry, but I'm hopping on."
Of those options, Lion sensibly chose the driver's seat. The carriage apparently belonged to the Duke Sanga household, and since Lion seemed to know the driver well, he didn't hold back in the slightest.
The academy was built in a location fairly close to the royal castle, and if anything, it seemed to be constructed even sturdier and more spacious than the castle itself.
According to Chris, the academy had four divisions ranging from the Early Years Division all the way up to the Senior Division, and each could hold field trips simultaneously, serve as an evacuation shelter in times of need, or even function as a fortress — so it had been built with considerable size and durability in mind.
Incidentally, the four divisions were the Early Years Division (ages seven to nine), the Junior Division (ages ten to twelve), the Middle Division (ages thirteen to fifteen), and the Senior Division (ages sixteen to eighteen) — essentially the equivalent of lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school, and high school from my previous life. The academy was publicly operated, meaning it was a national institution.
There were no restrictions on enrollment for either commoners or nobles, but tuition was steep, so nobles made up more than seventy percent of the student body.
However, since that would be unfair to commoners, a recommendation quota (with tuition waived) had been established for commoners, and nearly twenty percent of incoming students were commoners admitted through recommendations. There were also nobles in the recommendation track, but they accounted for less than ten percent of the total.
The upper limit for recommended admissions wasn't fixed, but recommendations were only available for the Middle Division and the Senior Division, and only tuition was waived — things like class supplies still had to be paid for out of pocket.
Because of this, every year there were students who earned a recommendation but had to decline admission because they couldn't scrape together the money for supplies and boarding fees.
That said, graduating the Senior Division with excellent grades meant a high-paying career wasn't out of reach even for commoners, so there were parents who would take on debt just to enroll their children. Well, among those who entered that way, fewer than half actually graduated, though...
Beyond that, the boys would work hard trying to get hired by noble classmates in their year, and the girls would put on aggressive performances trying to catch the eye of a noble as a concubine or mistress — it sounded exhausting, to say the least.
Albert and the others seemed to have had similar experiences, and they'd actually scouted out a number of promising classmates in the past.
Incidentally, Chris had apparently been more popular with the girls than the boys during her school days, so her academy life had been rather devoid of male attention.
As it happened, Lion, the one who had leaked that information to me, had gotten a thorough scolding from Chris after we disembarked from the carriage.
"I mean, I was the unreachable flower of the academy, you know? Because of that, none of the boys would come near me, and before I even graduated I was already set to join the Royal Knights as a candidate..."
That's what she'd said. Incidentally, Chris was the daughter of a baronet family, but she'd cut ties with them. The reason was that they'd schemed to mooch off her connections through Chris... Now that Chris held a higher standing herself (equivalent to a baron), her family couldn't push back too hard.
As we chatted about all this, we made our way from the academy's carriage lot toward the Headmistress's office.
Along the way, every time we passed female students from the Middle Division or above, we were met with shrill cheers — and if my count was right, about half of those were directed at Chris, forty percent at the trio, and the rest at me.
Each time the cheers went up, Chris shifted to stand right beside me, presumably under the Queen's orders to keep female students from getting too close... Finding it a little disappointing was, I suppose, only natural for a man.
"You're making such a strange face, Tenma... Ah, it's because those three are popular, isn't it!"
Chris leaned in to peer at my face, clearly under some sort of misconception. For my part, I wasn't exactly puzzled by the fact that the three of them were popular.
After all, Albert was a lookalike of his handsome father, and the other two were at least above average in appearance — but the most noteworthy thing about the trio was their titles.
They were the next heads of a duke, a marquis, and a border count. With those titles, even if all three were ugly, they'd still be more popular than ordinary people — that much was certain.
But Chris's way of thinking seemed to be different.
"Those three are, in a sense, shadow idols. For people in the know... Ah, but I think anyone who's looked at me or Tenma is probably a decent person. Besides, in Tenma's case, his name is out there but his face hasn't really spread yet. By the time you go back, you might be mobbed by women who came specifically for Tenma.
Women.
It could get chaotic. When that happens, let's just use those three as sacrifices and slip away."
Chris said something awful so casually... Wait, shadow idols? That makes even less sense!
What's more, the way Chris treated the three next-generation nobles like subordinates and called female students "women" sent a chill down my spine.
It seemed the three walking ahead had been eavesdropping on Chris's conversation — their shoulders subtly drooped — just as a group of girls about elementary-school age appeared from the side and they nearly collided.
It was a close call, and they almost ran right into each other, but the three dodged immediately, so no one was hurt.
"All three of you! That was dangerous! Sorry about that, are you oka— oh?"
Chris scolded the three, then stepped in to apologize — but she seemed to notice something.
Curious about what had happened, I peeked out from behind Chris and...
"Huh? Chris... and big brother too? What are you doing here?"
At the center of that group of girls was a familiar face.
"Oh, it's Luna. Yeah, I came along with those three to tour the academy."
At my words, the three who had been about to apologize froze in surprise, then dropped to one knee and bowed their heads. Chris also bowed with her right hand over her chest, so the only ones standing normally were the four girls including Luna and me — the commoner.
The girls who had been walking with Luna looked at me curiously since I wasn't bowing, but Luna didn't say anything in particular, so they kept quiet.
"Oh, I see. So those three are Lord Albert, Lord Cain, and...
Li...
on? Ah, please raise your heads. None of us are hurt since the three of you dodged out of the way."
And with words from Luna that sounded more ladylike than usual, the three stood up while once again offering their apologies.
However, two of the three were subtly trembling. Looking to the side, Chris was trembling too.
"Luna, Ri—
—on—
that's not it. Ri—
—on—
got it?"
At my correction, the three who had been trembling finally couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.