episode_0009

As I jump up, the big thing in front of me laughs and grins.

“Sorry, Ain. You were so absorbed in something that you didn’t hear me coughing.”

The big thing that appeared right away was the Elfin Princess. What was particularly big was, of course, her breasts. And if my eye level was exactly the same as the princess’s breasts, then that was a problem…

“Hwa, Your Highness the Princess.”

“Did you return to being the princess again in just one day?”

When I raised my voice in embarrassment, the Elfin Princess frowned and crossed her arms to show off her large chest.

“Elfin Princess.”

“Next time I like Elfin.”

Only after I corrected her did the Elfin Princess smile faintly.

“Ain, what were you doing here?”

“I was just… thinking about registering for classes.”

In response to my answer, the Elfin princess takes out a piece of paper from her bosom and hands it to me. I wonder what it is, and when I open it, I see a registration form filled with lectures from Monday to Friday…

“…Aren’t you having a hard time?”

Apparently, there was a friend who signed up for this class when he was a college student and didn’t know anything about it, and then dropped out after a month.

“Isn’t it just listening to lectures every day?”

Since it wasn’t exactly wrong, I couldn’t find anything to say in rebuttal, so I folded the course registration form neatly and returned it.

“What about Ain?”

“I haven’t organized the application form yet… So I was going to upload it now.”

“Then let’s go together.”

The Elfin Princess, judging that she would naturally follow, immediately turned around and left the classroom. I sighed faintly and followed her with quick steps.

As I leave the classroom, the guards waiting at the entrance follow me, and it looks as if the guards and the Elfin Princess are trying to restrain me as I head to the Academic Affairs Office.

“Look at that, the 4th princess and… that handsome male I saw yesterday.”

“Why are you taking me away?”

“Isn’t it because Her Highness the Princess has become a burden?”

“Then there’s no reason to arrest him?”

“The male refused and got caught.”

I can’t hear what they’re muttering, but it probably isn’t good. As I’m dragged like a criminal to the spacious table at the entrance to the Academic Affairs Office where I’m supposed to fill out the forms, the Elfin Princess nods.

Since I had already confirmed my course registration, it didn’t take long to fill out the course registration form. After filling out the form and turning around, the Elfin Princess was holding out her hand as if it was a given, so I just handed the course registration form to her.

“Is it okay to listen to this few lectures?”

“…I think the Elfin Princess listens to it too much…”

After answering like that, I covered my mouth with both hands. The expressions of the guards standing behind the princess became fierce.

“I see. Ain has a strong opinion.”

The Elfin Princess says that and hands me back my application form. The problem is that she also handed me her application form.

“I said I take too many lectures. Then, Ain, please recommend me. Tell me how I should organize my course registration form.”

I was shocked when I received her application form. This is why the mouth is the root of all evil. I should have just nodded my head, thinking, “Alright?”

When the Elfin Princess looked at me with her arms crossed as if to say, “Let’s see where it goes,” I took out a new course registration form and placed it next to the Elfin Princess’s course registration form.

‘The Elfin Princess also used a sword…’

The reason I said something after seeing the Elfin Princess’s course application form was not simply because I attended many lectures.

First, add 4 days of basic lectures to the princess’s course registration form. (She took all 5 days of basic lectures.)

‘There is an event where the Elfin Princess collapses from overwork around the end of the first semester.’

And I’ll put the knighthood in the time slot before lunch. This way, I’ll have some time to rest between the basic lecture and knighthood.

‘If you raise your intimacy with the princess, you can help her when she collapses from overwork and remain in the academy. If not, you will have to quit the academy because of that…’

After lunch, there are short classes on different days of the week: economics, writing, history, and politics, in that order, from Monday to Thursday.

‘She insisted on entering the academy despite the Empress’s refusal. That’s how much the princess wanted to enter the academy.’

Lastly, I made Fridays all free classes. The advantage of free classes is that you get credit for the lectures you attend, but if you have something to do, you can take a day off on your own without any problems.

When I handed the newly written course registration form to the Elfin princess, she accepted it and raised one eyebrow.

“…It’s been greatly reduced?”

The Elfin princess speaks as if she is uncomfortable, but we already know that this is her ‘learned attitude’. Since she is a member of the royal family, she has been taught to speak and act in a way that intimidates her since birth, and this acts like a shield that prevents people around her from easily approaching her.

“Just as I expected…”

Although I had hoped for it, it was a well-known fact that the reason the princess collapsed from overwork was because of the densely packed course registration form she had filled out first, and also because the Elfin princess was studying ‘Kingdom Studies’ separately.

“The Elfin Princess thought there would be more to learn besides the academy lectures. For example… the study of the throne.”

If you don’t do anything to the Elfin Princess, she’ll go through all that ridiculous curriculum and practice her swordsmanship and royal studies until late at night. And there’s no weekends. She’ll go through a murderous education program all week long and end up getting sick after just one semester.

At my words, the Elfin Princess opens her eyes slightly, barely perceptible. She seems to be quite surprised by my (presumed) prediction.

“I think this level of lecture is enough for the princess.”

“… Did you decide that this level was just right for me, Ain? ”

But when the unexpected answer from the Elfin Princess came back, and the guards clenched their spears fiercely, I quickly lowered my head. Damn, how strict.

“I apologize for the inconvenience. That’s not what I meant. It’s just that studying and resting must go hand in hand.”

“Tell me more.”

I can feel myself breaking out in a cold sweat. Even though I know this is just the Elfin Princess’s bluff, I can still feel the majesty and pressure she exudes, as well as the discomfort of her guards… No matter how advanced this VR game is, this is strange.

“Learning something is also close to labor. Just sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture is not like sitting comfortably. If you have focused or exerted your energy somewhere, it is essential to take a break afterward.”

I can feel my body and voice shaking. I wonder if my body has become younger and my mind has become younger, but it is difficult to adapt to this kind of reaction to even a slight threat…

“Working too hard on your head and body because there is so much to learn and master is not ‘studying hard.’”

“…”

The Elfin Princess moves closer to me, arms folded, her massive breasts almost touching my nose and forehead.

“Just selling the princess’s future to fill the present…”

I gulped and swallowed dry saliva.

“…It’s a self-destructive act.”

I feel my body lifted into the air with a thud, thud sound. One of the guards who heard me grabs me by the collar.

“You disloyal bastard, there is nothing you cannot say to the princess!”

I can see the students near the Academic Affairs Office hurriedly scattering around the area due to the commotion we are causing. It’s suffocating…

“Stop it, Humpty.”

When the Elfin Princess tried to stop me, the guard roughly put me down. With a thud, a sharp pain coursed through my body and I coughed out tears and saliva.

My body is shaking more than before. Oh, I see. It’s not me who feels fear. This body, unable to keep up with my mind, is acting in a way that befits its age… I try to calm myself down by holding my trembling arms.

“I apologize instead, Ain.”

The Elfin princess held out her hand. I wondered what to do, but I took the hand she offered and stood up with difficulty.

“Ain’s words are, if I follow this schedule, I can take the Academy education and the Imperial Studies at the same time without any problems?”

“Yes.”

The Elfin Princess, who had been looking at my face for a moment with a complicated expression, wiped away the tears I had shed and brought her face next to mine.

“…I’m sorry, Ain.”

The Elfin Princess apologized to me in a voice that even the guards couldn’t hear, then turned around and went into the academic affairs office.

That’s why I don’t get angry even though the Elfin Princess is being overbearing.

To begin with, that kind of overbearing and authoritarian attitude is not her original personality. As I said before, it is more of a learned behavior.

Besides, those guards who always escort the princess. Their primary purpose is not to escort the princess. That would be their third purpose.

They are just there to monitor the princess’s every move and report to the empress. That is to say, the princess is always under the empress’s surveillance at the academy.

And if she makes even one mistake, it will immediately reach the Empress’s ears and take away her reason to be at the Academy. After all, the Empress was against the Elfin Princess’s admission to the Academy in the first place.

“Oh my god…”

I finish washing my face and go into the office. I have no intention of becoming close to the Elfin princess. It doesn’t matter to me if she collapses from overwork and leaves the academy.

But I just couldn’t ignore her when I saw her acting as if she was alive and breathing right before my eyes. It wasn’t something I did on purpose.

When I entered the Academic Affairs Office after a time difference with the princess, the princess Elfin had already submitted her course registration form and disappeared, nowhere to be seen. Instead, the assistant professor who was receiving the course registration form was in a daze due to the aftereffects of meeting the princess, so I also quietly submitted my course registration form and quickly left the Academic Affairs Office.

There was a commotion because of the Elfin Princess, but on the contrary, the mood that had been depressed until just now has improved a lot. Rather than saying it has improved, it would be more correct to say that it has been forgotten a little.

As I left the temple of knowledge, I started walking towards the east, wondering what to do.

To the east of the Hall of Knowledge, there are mainly club buildings, and there tends to be a lot of sub-heroines or characters that are not main or supporting roles.

Among them, if you go to the back of the innermost club building…

“Ah~ I miss seeing that pretty girl again yesterday.”

“Are you talking about Baron Youngsik Ain Frostgarm?”

Countess Hoyo’s daughter, wearing a red coat to add some flair to her casual attire with her Academy uniform loosened up, is staring into space while smoking a magic herb (a cigarette that looks like it has the effect of clearing the user’s mind, but is not a harmful substance).

Next to her, Marquis Bandi is almost completely absorbed in a book. What on earth is she reading?

“But you know, we came to the club room as soon as we opened our eyes today and we haven’t left the club building since then.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Why are we like this?”

“But Hoyo, if you hadn’t held the ‘I woke up to find out I was a dragon, so I’m friendly with humans’ evaluation from this morning until now, you could have gone on a journey to find Baron Ain Youngsik.”

“But!! ‘Snow Dragon’ has made a sudden development this time! This is something that needs to be discussed closely among the members and a lengthy feedback sent to the author…”

Well, to be honest, I don’t understand a single word they’re talking about. I figured that if I kept listening, I wouldn’t be able to understand anything, so I showed up.

“Did you find me?”