Grant Me One Wish – 3

“So, you’re saying that despite having a deeper friendship with Baroness Adamas—hm… no, with Lily than anyone realized, you’re hiding it from everyone else?”

“What do you mean ‘you’re saying’? Why are you talking like it’s someone else’s business! It’s the truth!”

Cordelia shouted angrily, apparently finding my attempt to calmly summarize the situation ridiculous. I continued speaking while trying to maintain my composure. Anyway, knowing that she was unaware of the most important fact—the true identities of Seol-ah and me—made me feel much more at ease.

“It’s half true and half false.”

I swallowed once and began reciting an excuse I’d somehow squeezed out. I just hoped my voice wouldn’t tremble.

“Well, as you know, there was that unsavory relationship between me, Lily, and that pervert.”

Here, “that pervert” refers to Crown Prince Wilhelm. It’s not a nickname I created, but one Cordelia gave him. After learning the general circumstances following the incident, she insisted that using proper titles like Wilhelm or Crown Prince was extremely unpleasant, and began calling him “that pervert” instead.

“So?”

At my words, Cordelia crossed her arms and made a “hmm” expression, as if she would listen to my excuse for now. It was incredibly irritating, but since I was at a disadvantage, I decided to endure it for a moment.

“Since then, although I haven’t explicitly told Hestia or Cordelia, there have been tangible and intangible harassment aimed at Lily. It’s too coincidental to be mere chance.”

“Really?!”

Cordelia became instantly excited by my story. This is too easy.

I feel a bit sorry for Wilhelm who became the scapegoat for my excuse, but since he couldn’t possibly fall any lower in Cordelia and Hestia’s estimation anyway, it shouldn’t matter.

“Yes. People picking fights with her, or flower pots falling from somewhere as she passes through the shopping district…”

“That’s dangerous!”

Cordelia was outraged at the fabricated incidents I made up on the spot. I feel bad for her, believing me so completely. It feels like I’m doing something wrong. Well, I am doing something wrong, covering lies with more lies.

“Yes. Anyway, since it happened because of me, I’ve been helping her out. Naturally, this has made us ‘somewhat’ closer.”

I placed special emphasis on the word “somewhat.” It means that my relationship with Seol-ah is definitely not what you’re thinking, Cordelia.

“Then why did you hide it from us?”

“It would be dangerous if you got involved. Plus, Lily also said we should keep quiet about this issue.”

“Mikhail…!”

At my words, Cordelia appeared genuinely moved.

Stop it! Don’t look at me with those eyes! It makes me feel like garbage! I had to suffer through an internal struggle of guilt.

“I appreciate you thinking of us, but! I still wish you’d been honest. Both Hestia and I value our friends more than such minor dangers.”

Her words struck me as quite sincere. Despite our relatively short acquaintance, she cares this much for me and Lily.

But why does this otherwise kind person act so unreasonably when it comes to me and Hestia?

I decided to wrap up the conversation here.

“Anyway, that’s what happened. It’s definitely not the kind of strange relationship you’re thinking of.”

“Alright, alright. So what can I do to help now?”

Cordelia suddenly asked an unexpected question.

“What do you mean?”

“Obviously, I’m asking how I can help Lily.”

“Pardon?”

Cordelia answered as if it were the most natural thing in response to my stupid question.

“What? Did you think I’d just say ‘Oh, I see’ after hearing all this and walk away like nothing happened? Now that I know Lily is in trouble, I can’t just sit by and do nothing. I’ll help too.”

“No, that’s not necessary. It’s quite dangerous.”

“What? So it’s okay for you to take all the responsibility for such dangerous matters by yourself?”

“I can protect myself.”

“If I didn’t know, that would be one thing, but now that I do, I have no intention of standing by and doing nothing.”

Despite my warnings about danger, Cordelia was relentless. As she said, Cordelia isn’t someone who would stay idle after hearing such a story. No matter how much I try to dissuade her, she’d find a way to get involved.

I resigned myself. I’ll need to tell everything to Seol-ah as soon as possible and coordinate our stories.

“Fine. I guess there’s no helping it.”

“Yay! So what should I do now?”

Cordelia let out a victory cheer. Why is she so happy about this?

Looking at her with sparkling eyes asking what to do next, I decided to give her the first mission.

“Well, first,”

“First?”

“Let’s finish the training we’re doing now.”

Cordelia’s face fell in disappointment at my words. Did she expect to do something immediately? There’s nothing like that, Cordelia.

“Right now there are only malicious and petty tricks being played, but we never know when something dangerous might happen. Building up your own skills is extremely important.”

“Yeahh…”

At my lecture, she picked up the practice sword again with drooping corners of her mouth.

“If you’re thinking of this as some kind of entertainment, you’d better quit now.”

“No, no! I’ll work hard.”

When I tested her by questioning her attitude, she jumped up in protest.

Her posture became incomparably clean and efficient, as if she truly felt the crisis. So her earlier form really was deliberate to flirt with me. How utterly vexing.

I made her train hard without rest until lunchtime.

“Good work.”

Cordelia made a gesture indicating “good job” with one hand while drinking water with the other. She must have been quite thirsty, as she gulped it down endlessly without stopping.

“If you drink too quickly, you’ll get indigestion. Drink slowly.”

She didn’t seem to hear my advice at all, as she only took her mouth off the water flask after finishing all the remaining water in one shot.

“Phew! Good work!”

“What would you like to do for lunch?”

Cordelia thought for a moment.

“Should we go out to eat?”

“As you probably know, eating too much could interfere with our afternoon training.”

I’m planning to have a proper sparring session with her in the afternoon. If she stuffs food down her throat, there’s a possibility of her revealing what she had for lunch to the training ground—an unpleasant incident. Something light would be preferable.

“Don’t worry so much, I won’t eat that much.”

Cordelia snorted at my words. She certainly didn’t eat much compared to her height and regular exercise. If anything, Hestia was closer to being a big eater.

“Let’s just clean this up and go.”

Cordelia hummed a tune as she tidied up. I helped out beside her.

Although we’d be coming back to use it in the afternoon, she insisted on cleaning up before leaving. She was surprisingly strict about such matters.

“You’re quite diligent, considering we’ll be coming back in the afternoon.”

“What if someone comes to use it while we’re gone? Besides, it’s only natural to clean up after yourself.”

I thought it unlikely that any student would appear at the training ground during lunchtime, skipping their meal, but since her argument was fundamentally correct, I kept quiet.

“Done! Shall we go?”

Just as we finished cleaning up and were about to leave the training ground, a familiar voice stopped us in our tracks.

“Wait a moment!”

“Hestia?”

“Baroness Adamas?”

What Cordelia and I saw were Hestia and Seol-ah carrying a sizeable picnic basket. Where did they get something like that?

Hestia was smiling awkwardly, while Seol-ah seemed disinterested. Cordelia’s expression was half pleased, half annoyed.

But more importantly, this is bad. While Hestia’s visit was within the realm of expectation, I never thought Seol-ah would come.

If Cordelia brings up our earlier conversation and discovers a discrepancy between my story and Seol-ah’s, the issue I had carefully managed would explode even bigger.

“Baroness Adamas, what brings you here…”

“I invited her to come along.”

Hestia answered my question. Seol-ah was yawning and looking away, still sleepy despite the sun being high in the sky.

“It’s not that I was worried about what you two might be doing. Since it’s the weekend, I thought it would be nice for the four of us to have lunch together, so I prepared this.”

Hestia, perhaps feeling guilty for no reason, explained at length why she came as she carefully set down the picnic basket she was carrying. She opened the lid of the basket. It was filled with sandwiches.

They don’t look store-bought.

“Did you make these yourself?”

“Yes. When I asked the maids, they let me borrow the kitchen.”

She answered shyly.

I stared at the sandwiches for a moment, then opened my mouth without saying anything. Hestia, who had been looking at me with a questioning gaze, soon blushed and carefully took out a sandwich to feed me. It was a delicious sandwich with fresh, crisp vegetables and savory ham.

Cordelia and Seol-ah looked at us as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have.

“Sorry. As you can see, my hands are a bit…”

It doesn’t feel right to eat with hands that were just holding a sweat-soaked sword handle.

“Then you could go wash your hands.”

I ignored Cordelia’s sarcastic remark and praised the sandwich.

“This is really delicious.”

“Thank you.”

“So you went back after finishing exercise and made these until now? That must have been tiring.”

“I’m fine. Not tired at all.”

Hestia lifted her thin arms to make a pose as if showing off muscles. Of course, there was nothing there except thinness and softness. How can such thin arms be attached to that chest? It’s a complete mystery.

Perhaps annoyed by our affectionate display, Seol-ah abruptly cut in.

“I’m hungry, shall we sit down now?”

She was exuding the aura of someone who had been dragged out while sleepy against her will. She seemed eager to finish eating, clean up, and get some rest.

I could completely understand; if a friend dragged me out on the weekend while I was sleeping, citing some strange reason like feeling awkward about going alone, I would act the same way.

Since there were quite a few students who ate simple meals prepared in advance at the training ground, there were simple washbasins and drinking water stations in the corner. We could even see some students still in the corner, earnestly chewing something.

When Cordelia and I quickly washed our hands at the basin and returned, the two had laid out a picnic blanket from somewhere and were waiting for us.

“Let’s eat!”

Cordelia grabbed a sandwich and started eating before even sitting down properly. Hestia nagged that she would get indigestion, but as usual, Cordelia didn’t pay any attention.

“Mmm, it’s good.”

Cordelia also gave a thumbs up. Hestia, seemingly unaccustomed to praise, smiled shyly.

Throughout the meal, I was pondering how to convey the earlier incident to Seol-ah. I glanced at her sideways while chewing on a sandwich.

However, in this situation, there was absolutely no opportunity. The four of us were sitting in a circle with the basket in the middle, so anything would be immediately noticeable.

I tried my best to express something through eye contact and hand gestures, avoiding the eyes of Hestia and Cordelia, but it was in vain.

Seol-ah looked at me with a blank expression as if wondering what on earth I was doing. Well, explaining such a complex situation through eye contact and gestures would be impossible.

It would be best to just prevent Cordelia from bringing up the topic in the first place.

“Come to think of it, Lily. If something like that was happening, you could have consulted us—”

“Danger!”

No sooner had my thought finished than Cordelia tried to ask Seol-ah about earlier, but those words never finished. That’s because I tackled her and threw her far away.

“Die! You filthy slut!”

A sword struck the spot where I had pushed Cordelia away from. Stone fragments and dust from the ground made a mess of the sandwiches Hestia had worked hard to prepare.

“Step back! Cordelia! It’s those people I mentioned earlier! The ones targeting Lily and me!”

I shouted as I stepped forward. Seol-ah is quite perceptive, so just hearing this much should allow her to coordinate our stories after the situation ends. At least, I hope so.

The ones who attacked us were the students who had been quietly having their meals in the corner earlier. Their eyes no longer showed sanity. Excessively swollen muscles and grotesquely protruding veins. It’s the same symptoms as the student who injured Cordelia before.

Once could be coincidence, but twice is hard to consider a coincidence. It really does seem like there’s something genuinely targeting us.

Shit, why is this actually real?