episode_0016

I have no thoughts.

Because, I have no thoughts at all.

It was quite a famous sentence.

A statement that expressed the absence of any thoughts more neatly and beautifully than any other sentence.

Of course, no one knows who came up with it.

If by chance I were to meet the person involved, I felt I could genuinely applaud the well-crafted sentence.

And the reason for this was also very simple.

Sigh-

“···.”

There was no sentence in this world that could better express my current state than that one.

A monster rushes in.

I fend off the rushing monster.

Then another monster rushes in.

I stab the rushing monster.

Again, another monster rushes in.

Again, I hack the rushing monster to pieces.

As if I were a robot.

As if I were a programmed machine, dealing with the rushing monsters.

“······Was I originally this slow?”

In such repeated situations, it was natural for a being called human to grow.

Much slower.

The speed of the monsters, which initially seemed faster than anything else, became much weaker.

The forelegs of the monsters, which initially seemed stronger than anything else, became just weak.

Simply dodging the monster’s attacks.

Simply wielding my sword towards the monster’s weak points.

– Kauls’ weak point is the horn growing on its head. It’s the most imperfect part formed as a combination of horse and deer.

– ···.

– If any of you were to confront this monster, aiming for the horn would be a wise decision.

If I had not known anything about the monsters, it might have been different.

But I already knew the monsters’ weaknesses through the Academy’s preliminary studies.

Every time I cut off a monster’s horn, the hornless monster writhed in agony, halting its charge towards me.

Sigh-

Followed by a single slash.

With just this one slash, the monsters lost their lives.

“······The Academy lessons are helpful at times.”

Lessons from the Academy, which I had never found meaningful while learning, now approached me for the first time under the guise of assistance.

Even after knowing the real world, I still can’t understand it.

I never thought there would come a day when I’d find Academy lessons useful.

It was truly a strange feeling.

Something seems to be going well, and I feel good about it, but I don’t want to admit the reason things are going well.

“······She fights well.”

And the same went for my thoughts about Labilaa. When I first faced the monster, I sincerely cursed the person who had brought me here. But as I started to think that she was quite capable, any ill feelings I had towards Labilaa vanished in an instant. Is this it? That gaslighting thing. Did I unknowingly fall victim to it? To the gaslighting of the imperial crown princess, who will become the next empress. It was a convincing argument in its own way. After all, Labilaa, who will become the future empress, must have learned how to manipulate people from a young age. Perhaps without even realizing it, I had fallen under Labilaa’s influence.

Sigh-

“······Phew.”

Of course, all I could do was to cut down the monster in front of me. Even if that was real gaslighting, what could I do? What could I do other than kill these insane monsters before they killed me? Moreover, if we were to compare, Labilaa was fighting harder than me. While I carefully targeted the weaknesses of each monster one by one, Labilaa seemed to make kebabs out of the monsters with her rapier, as if the weaknesses were not important at all. Watching the fact that the tough monster hide, which my sword couldn’t properly cut through, was easily pierced by Labilaa’s rapier, made me feel a chill down my spine, despite knowing for certain that the tip of that sword wasn’t aimed at me. A genius who truly puts in effort. Excluding the protagonist, Labilaa was the most outstanding character in the original work, boasting the greatest talent.

“···.”

Seeing such a princess fighting so diligently, I found myself at a loss, unable to retreat or step back even slightly. I just silently watched Labilaa’s rapier, now dyed in a blue hue.

“······So this is why geniuses are like this.”

I simply followed the continuation of the repeated action, as if following a play.

Dancing slowly to the rhythm of the music, like a single graceful movement.

***

Sigh—

“······Haah.”

It was a sigh that escaped right after defeating the final monster.

Wow. It’s really over.

Even those numerous monsters have been taken care of.

Now that it’s all over, it felt oddly surreal.

The reverberations of the endless battle that just took place still made my hands tremble.

Clang—

My trembling hands eventually let go of the sword.

Seems like my first commission really took a toll on my body.

So I ended up sitting on the grass in the pasture for quite a while.

“Good work, Lian Trice.”

“···.”

Before I knew it, Labilaa had approached me.

“You executed this commission perfectly.”

“······No. You’ve put in a lot of effort, Your Highness.”

It wasn’t just lip service.

Just by looking at the corpses of monsters scattered around where Labilaa fought, I could tell that she contributed much more than I did to completing this commission.

A real monster.

Perhaps the monsters weren’t the ones lying around, but rather the blonde woman standing next to me.

It was a disrespectful thought to have about a princess.

Fortunately, Labilaa didn’t seem to notice such disrespectful thoughts.

“No. I wasn’t talking about myself. I was only referring to your efforts in fulfilling this commission.”

“······Is that so?”

“Yes. Due to the gap in our abilities, there’s nothing to be done about it. I don’t think you’re weak enough to be bothered by such a small difference.”

Depending on how you hear it, it could sound impolite.

The gap between us is inevitable.

Only a weak person would despair over such a gap.

In summary, that was the essence of Labilaa’s statement just now.

If someone takes pride in their own abilities or has a strong sense of self-worth, they might get angry at such a statement.

“······Thank you.”

Yet, the words that came out of my mouth were a sincere expression of gratitude.

Because my counterpart was Labilaa.

Labilaa Phon Felias was considered a genius who might appear once in a hundred years. A statement from someone moderately strong might sound like a provocation, but the words of someone so strong that you couldn’t even look at them sounded like a sincere acknowledgment.

The difference lies in the speaker. It’s very important to me who is conveying those words.

In the original world view, being acknowledged by the second strongest character was something only a fool would not accept.

“I didn’t expect Your Highness to evaluate me so highly.”

“It’s natural. I watched your last match very closely as well.”

“Did Your Highness also watch it?”

“Of course. I watched it from beginning to end with Elise Arkstraw.”

Why does Elise keep coming up? She seemed to dislike the princess, but such thoughts quickly vanished without a trace.

“…I was drawn here too.”

The other party was the princess. Even if it’s the Arkstraw family, known as the imperial family of the back world, one cannot defy the royal family.

Suddenly, I felt like I should treat Elise well. Maybe she’s living a harder life than me. I live comfortably and when I die, it’s over, but Elise has to suffer more after meeting the protagonist.

I feel a slight sense of guilt, feeling like a despicable person for interrogating Elise about her identity and using her as a hostage. While feeling this way and bowing my head slightly, Labilaa, who had been silently watching me, spoke up.

“Anyway, from then on, I was certain that you were an extraordinary person.”

“So, I’m thinking of making a proposal to you from now on. Do you have any intention of accepting it?”

With the previous light atmosphere completely gone, Labilaa asked me in a very serious tone.

“…Could you tell me what the proposal is?”

That’s how I responded, but inside, I was feeling extremely uneasy.

What are you trying to say by digging into the details like that?

Usually, only really important or serious things are said in situations like this.

As worries continued to grow like this, Labilaa, who seemed unaware of my concerns, nodded and said, “It would be nice if you became my person while attending the academy.”

“…”

“As compensation, I will help you achieve one of your goals. Of course, it goes without saying that any goal I absolutely cannot fulfill won’t be considered.”

Whether the atmosphere had become too serious for her own liking or not, Labilaa finished speaking with a smile that seemed like a joke.

It was an extremely radical proposal.

There would surely be many people who would want to become the princess’s person without any compensation, and even more so to have a goal achieved as compensation.

If I were an ordinary person, it would have been an offer I couldn’t refuse.

“There’s no need to answer right away, so take your time to think it over and give me your answer later.”

“I decline.”

“What did you just say?”

“I’m sorry, but I believe I must decline the princess’s offer.”

…I mean, if I were an ordinary person.

Labilaa looked at me as if she couldn’t understand at all.

“What’s the reason? There must have been something lacking in my offer.”

“The goal I have is not something the princess can fulfill.”

“Is that so? Then I can’t help but listen. What’s your goal, so great that I can’t fulfill it?”

“…To die comfortably.”

“What?”

Labilaa seemed bewildered, as if she thought she hadn’t heard me properly.

“To live comfortably and then, when it’s time to die, to die comfortably.”

“…”

“That is my only goal that you cannot fulfill.” My response didn’t change.