Ch.124124. A Bewildering Morning

# A Perplexing Morning

It was a perplexing morning.

Far more so than that day when I woke up to find a hole blown through my room wall.

When I opened my eyes, Celia was sleeping beside me. How could I not be flustered?

‘What’s going on?’

Did I sleep with her yesterday? No, that can’t be right. I definitely came in and went to bed alone.

While I was pondering this question, Celia rustled and opened her eyes.

“Mmm… Ludion. Are you awake?”

“Never mind if I’m awake, why are you here?”

“Well, I snuck in.”

I see. She snuck in.

She said it so casually that I felt foolish for making a fuss.

Seeing that she had no intention of explaining herself, let alone making excuses, I decided not to question it further and just accept it.

Whatever I might say wouldn’t get through to Celia in this state anyway.

Since we’ve already become… that kind of relationship, it would be easier on my mind to just accept it.

With that thought, I absentmindedly stroked Celia’s hair.

It’s amazing how she doesn’t look disheveled even after sleeping. How strange.

While I was thinking this, Celia suddenly spoke with a disgruntled expression.

“Um, Ludion? If possible, I’d prefer if you looked at me rather than my hair.”

…Oh. What’s this?

She was cute before, but this is almost unfair.

The impact is no joke.

Normally, I would have just appreciated the moment and pretended to be nonchalant, but I’d decided to be more honest now.

I pulled the sullen-faced Celia into my arms.

“…!”

Celia’s body trembled for a moment, seemingly surprised by my unexpected move.

But she didn’t say anything else.

Because I was embarrassed too.

“…”

“…”

After staying like that for a while, we finally got up when things started getting noisy outside.

Since the bed hadn’t been particularly comfortable, my body felt stiff, and I was stretching when Celia glanced at me and burst into laughter.

“Pfft! Ludion. What’s with your hair?”

“Is it sticking up a lot?”

“Completely. Wait. Stay just like that.”

Celia said this and started doing something.

My hair flew around wildly for a moment, then settled neatly into place.

…Magic is really convenient. Though I suppose only Celia would use it like this.

“Now it’s fixed. Shall we go out?”

“Aren’t we going to sneak out or something?”

“Why would we sneak?”

Hmm. I see. So that’s her mindset.

Well, while Celia is introverted, she only dislikes unnecessary attention—she actually loves showing off.

And she’s not in a position where she needs to be concerned about others’ opinions anyway.

So we just walked out. Several people were gathering to organize the tent area.

“Gasp, Your Highness…!”

“Are you still half-asleep? The princess’s tent is over… Gasp, Your Highness…!”

After hearing this comedy-like exchange.

“Oh, Your Highness… why are you here?”

“Why are you acting like this? I’ve been gone for quite some time… Did you not know? Is that acceptable?”

Celia began her classic misdirection.

“I-I’m sorry! But we definitely…”

“I know. You took turns standing guard all night. But you didn’t even notice when I disappeared. What excuse could you possibly have in this situation?”

“We’re sorry!!”

“Well, I understand. There aren’t particularly concerning people here, so you might have let your guard down. I’ll overlook this incident, so just continue with what you were doing.”

“Yes!”

The people who had been shocked and flustered until just now hurriedly began clearing and organizing the tents as soon as Celia finished speaking.

As we walked away, Celia was grinning from ear to ear.

Hmm, it feels like she just used shock tactics to defuse the immediate situation.

If this passes, they’ll gradually regain their senses and start wondering, “But why was she there in the first place?”

Then those kinds of rumors will inevitably start circulating… judging by her smile, maybe that was her intention all along.

“Hey, Celia.”

“Yes?”

“Were those people really being careless? Or did you just sneak in too well?”

Suddenly questioning her brazen response from earlier, Celia refuted as if it were obvious.

“It’s true that I snuck in, but isn’t the purpose of a guard to catch that? Who would enter openly where everyone can see?”

“That’s true, but…”

What Celia said was correct in principle.

Fundamentally, the purpose is to guard against unexpected monster attacks, but threats aren’t limited to monsters alone.

It is indeed the guards’ responsibility to be vigilant about such matters.

But… you of all people shouldn’t be saying that, Celia.

I recalled just how unfairly good Celia’s infiltration abilities were when she became accustomed to handling mana.

I guarantee that Celia would have moved by floating in the air with mana enveloping her entire body.

And in that state, Celia… is generally not even visible.

It’s like a visual trick using mana. Think of it as wearing an invisibility cloak.

Additionally, she would have blocked all sound with mana, so she wouldn’t have made any noise.

On top of that, since she was floating in the air, the surrounding terrain wouldn’t have been affected at all.

She truly moved quietly and stealthily.

This is so unfair that even someone like Alkine wouldn’t notice Celia passing by unless she knew about it in advance and prepared for it.

And you’re demanding this level of awareness from regular guards? I couldn’t help but find it absurd.

“Why are you looking at me like that? If you have something to say, just say it.”

However, I knew that arguing point by point would only lead to responses like “Ludion, so what could those people have done?” So I decided to quietly submit to Celia’s logic.

“Nothing. I have nothing to say.”

“I thought so.”

She probably knows all this and is just acting this way anyway.

Right. There’s no need to tire myself out arguing about this.

There will be plenty of tiring things ahead.

Like right now.

“Celia.”

“Alkine. Good morning.”

We ran into Alkine on our way back.

She looked back and forth between Celia and me several times, her pupils visibly shaking.

She had probably gone to Celia’s tent, found her missing, and come this way.

“Can I ask you just one thing?”

“I think I know what you’re going to ask, so I’ll answer first. Yes, I slept with Ludion.”

“You, you…”

“What? We’re dating now, so isn’t that much allowed?”

The two started such an embarrassing conversation that I hurriedly intervened.

“Hey, hey, you shouldn’t say it like that.”

“Why not? We did sleep together.”

“That’s true, but… it could be misunderstood.”

“Oh? What kind of misunderstanding?”

While knowing exactly what I meant. Celia was deliberately playing dumb in an annoying way.

I was at a loss for words, but Alkine, seemingly gaining confidence from my reaction, spoke again.

“…Right. You wouldn’t have done that. Of course… even if Celia might, Ludion wouldn’t.”

“Wait a minute. What do you mean ‘even if I might’?”

“What do I mean… you seem to be asking while knowing, so I won’t explain. Anyway, Celia.”

“Yes?”

“Even if you’re dating, you shouldn’t sleep together.”

Alkine sharply pointed out something that had been overlooked because it seemed so natural.

With a confident expression, like someone who had just thought of a brilliant move.

However. Celia responded without any sign of being flustered, as if she had anticipated even this.

“Well, we’re dating for now. But more precisely, it’s practically a marital relationship, so isn’t it fine?”

“…I don’t even know where to start refuting that, so I’ll just stop.”

“Good choice.”

After hearing a response that seemed completely unreasonable, Alkine lost her will to fight and surrendered.

Alkine. Defeated.

“What are you all doing? We’re heading back right after breakfast, so hurry up.”

With Professor Reina’s call, our conversation couldn’t continue any further.

We finished our meals and boarded the carriage back to the academy.

And so, inside the returning carriage.

It would take too long to explain everything, but I thought the atmosphere would be different from when we first departed.

After all, various things happened yesterday, and relationships had changed accordingly.

But for some reason, only the arrangement had changed slightly while the atmosphere remained almost the same.

If yesterday Celia had been glaring at Lilith, today Alkine was glaring at Celia.

“Hmm…”

“Alkine. If you have something to say, say it. Don’t just stare like that.”

“I have nothing to say.”

“Then keep staring. I’ll just keep doing this.”

Despite the tense atmosphere, Celia was just holding onto one of my arms with no apparent intention of responding differently… so I opened my mouth to somehow break this awkwardness.

I addressed Lilith, who was ignoring the current situation.

“Hey, Lilith.”

“What?”

Lilith was just looking out the window as if this had nothing to do with her, and she answered without even turning her head.

I didn’t particularly mind, so I continued with what I was going to say.

“You seem less busy these days? You even have time to come along to things like this.”

Speaking to Lilith in this situation—while it was partly because she was easier to talk to than the two engaged in a battle of wills—was mainly because I was curious about something.

Normally around this time, she should be busy with a tight schedule to raise her public profile, but recently Lilith hadn’t seemed that busy.

So I was wondering if something was up… and I was right.

“Oh, that? It’s nothing special. They drastically reduced my public appearance schedule because there’s been an increase in heretic activity lately.”

But as soon as I heard Lilith’s answer, I realized something was wrong.

I had thought something might be up, but I hadn’t expected this.

Heretic activity. As far as I remembered, that wasn’t supposed to become active until much later.

They say despair is the biggest reason people turn to false beliefs, right?

Basically, the increase in heretics happens at the point when the world starts to truly darken.

So… normally this should happen after demon activity increases and Lilith’s name becomes quite widely known. But heretics are already active at this point?

‘What happened?’

I pondered but couldn’t figure out the reason.

Because the world was still peaceful.

Even while being at the academy, I could still hear news from outside.

Among the news I had heard and looked into, there was absolutely nothing that would trigger heretic activity.

What changed? Did the increased difficulty affect even this?

Or did I unknowingly meddle with something again?

No, that can’t be right. I’ve never been involved with heretics or anything related to them, so it couldn’t be because of me… Wait a minute.

‘Actually. Being involved.’

As soon as I realized it, I felt incredibly complicated.

Is it really because of me? No way. It can’t be.

“Ludion, what’s wrong? Your body got colder.”

“Celia. Tell me it’s not true?”

“What isn’t?”

“Just tell me it’s not true.”

“Alright. It’s not true.”

For now, I even got Celia to join me in denial… but it was probably a meaningless act.

The carriage just kept moving forward. Toward the academy, where we had no idea what would happen next.