episode_0017

As I walk with Ion’s escort, I ask her something I’ve always wondered about.

“Come to think of it, Senior Ion, at first I thought you called your juniors ‘junior’. But you only called me ‘junior’.”

“Ah… haha, well, yeah.”

“Is it okay if I ask why?”

Out of pure curiosity, Ion remains silent for a moment. The reason I wonder about this is because in the game, Ion actually only addresses the player as his junior. However, the reason for this has never been revealed in the game. Perhaps the production team decided to put it somewhere and forgot.

“Well, let’s keep it a secret for now…”

“It’s not an eternal secret, is it?”

“Huh? Haha. ‘Depending on the situation’… It won’t be an eternal secret. Well…”

Ion answers with a slightly bitter smile. It depends. I find it interesting because I feel like I’m discovering a side of the game I didn’t know about, but I’m also curious as a human being.

“I guess I’ll have to wait for that situation to come.”

“Well, yeah. Of course, I’m not the one in charge of that situation…”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

I found out more about Ion from our short conversation than I had ever known while playing the game, so I wanted to take this opportunity to talk to him a little more.

“Can I sit down for a moment?”

“Huh? Are you okay?”

“It’s okay if the basic lecture starts late tomorrow.”

It was a good place to sit and chat since we were passing a lounge with a fountain between the male and female dorms.

“Why is Senior Lulu interested in me?”

“You really don’t know, right, junior? Lulu isn’t the only one interested in you, right?”

As Ion said, I am not a fool, so I know that I am getting a lot of attention from the females. However, since I have strong companions like Lulu, Ion, Bam, Hoyo, and Bandi, they don’t approach me easily, and more than anything, the fact that the Elfin Princess is showing interest in me is a great deterrent.

“Rather, I want to ask you, junior. Why are you so nice to Lulu? Aside from her appearance, aren’t most of Lulu’s actions things that males would dislike? And objectively speaking, there are females who look better than Lulu.”

Surprisingly, Ion seemed to have accurately grasped this chaotic atmosphere that seemed simple. If you look at everything, Lulu’s behavior during our first meeting was (as far as I know) immediately out of favor with the males of this world.

If a famous male celebrity in real life were to do something like that to an ordinary, ordinary woman, it would be met with fierce criticism and backlash in an instant.

Moreover, the fact that such behavior occurred in a place where there is an artificiality and stricter gender relations can be problematic in itself.

“There must be males like me in the world.”

However, no matter how much I am avoided because I am the main heroine, if you calculate the time spent playing for that long and having the Elfin Princess as a companion, Lulu as a companion, and Ion as a companion, it easily comes to several thousand hours.

Even though it wasn’t the situation I wanted, since I met him as a living, breathing person, I couldn’t help but feel affectionate towards him, and there was no reason not to treat him well.

“Even though it was our first meeting, you didn’t hate it…? If I were a male, I would have challenged you to a duel on the spot. I think you’re such a nice person.”

Ion’s deep navy eyes curve into a crescent shape. It’s a refreshing smile that anyone who sees it would find endearing.

“Then what about Senior Ion?”

At my next question, Ion became dumbfounded again. It was thrilling because he seemed like he was going to tell me something but didn’t. It felt like I was going through a game strategy, so it was quite enjoyable.

“… … …Well, I can’t just leave my friend doing something stupid.”

“Is that so? Then if Senior Lulu doesn’t meet me, Senior Ion will be like that too.”

As I said that and looked at Ion, it was really funny how Ion’s expression at my one word became like that of a 7-year-old child at the crossroads of whether to be his mom or dad.

“To be honest… No, but the memories from that time… Ugh, but still…”

I laughed and added one more thing because I saw that he was struggling so much with what I said in a light-hearted joke.

“I’m joking.”

“Haa, don’t say things like that, even as a joke, junior.”

“Well, I guess you’ll tell me later.”

Anyway, a strategy is something that has a build-up and an appropriate timing. If you get impatient, you’ll most likely ruin everything. But it’s no use for me to be like a child and ask you to tell me, right?

“Still, it’s fun thanks to Senior Lulu and Senior Ion.”

“Of course, it must be thanks to the members of the Miscellaneous Books Study Group, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then what about the 4th princess?”

“Are you the princess…”

Ion’s words make me think of the anecdotes I had with the Elfin princess.

“Please keep looking at me.”

“Are you a stalker?”

“And if possible, try to sit next to someone during class.”

“Are you a stalker?”

“And then you stare at me throughout the lecture.”

“Are you a stalker?”

Other than that, there are things like showing up out of the blue and talking to them to surprise them, embarrassing them by asking if they want to learn about the study of kingship together, and when they say no after asking if they have ever been to the palace, asking if they want to go with him to leave them speechless.

“It seems like the princess is making an appeal openly.”

“Weren’t you just kidding?”

“Is this a difference in perspective between male and female? As a female, I think it’s a very polite way to use one’s position appropriately to show interest in the junior. That, these days, they call it ‘flirting’…”

It seems that Ion has a rather sullen personality for a knight, as he seems to know even such words.

“This is also a word that another junior told me. It was a word that was used a lot in their region, and I heard that it was gradually spreading in Hwangdo.”

“Then, I guess Lulu-senpai’s actions toward me can also be called ‘plotting’.”

“In fact, I think that a female who has seen a junior even once cannot help but flirt.”

“I don’t think it’s that bad…”

“I think so.”

“Then what about Senior Ion?”

“… … …”

He becomes a dumb person who has eaten honey again. He is either a good or bad person, and since he doesn’t answer at all, we can’t know his true feelings. There is a saying that silence is affirmation, but I don’t really trust that.

“You know it’s going to be a ‘tri-conflict’ soon, right, junior?”

“Yes, I know.”

Ion eventually chose to change the subject. He is quite skilled at avoiding the subject in a way that is not typical of knights.

“Thinking about going?”

“No, I don’t have the talent to do that. And although it’s for freshmen, I know it’s mostly a debut stage for promising female freshmen. I don’t think it’d look good for a male to get involved.”

“I see… Since my junior seems quite talented, I thought he might be fun to play as a dark horse. To be exact, a dark jaguar.”

Haha, Ion laughs.

“Am I talented? Hmm…”

Objectively speaking, players’ statuses increase honestly as they learn something, and since the game was remade, players can acquire almost unlimited traits while the original was limited to 3-4, so it makes sense that if you have talent, you have it.

“If that’s what Senior Ion said, then it must be like that.”

“Aren’t you trusting me too much?”

“There’s no reason not to believe it, right?”

“Actually, it was Lulu who told me that my junior was talented…but with someone like Anastasia, all kinds of information would flow to her.”

“Then what do you think, Senior Ion?”

Ion seemed to hesitate for a moment at my question.

“I think… I have talent. The information that flows to Lulu is pretty accurate, and since I’m a reporter, I tend to look at it that way. When I see my junior’s movements during basic physical education class.”

Her navy blue eyes turn to me again.

“If you weren’t talented in healing magic, I would have asked you to consider becoming a knight.”

“Is that so?”

It seems that the game’s multiplier was also affected, and since the study set is effective in all lectures as long as you have it, the increase in physical status was quite large, so Ion seemed to have figured it out.

“It was fun today, senior.”

“I would like to thank you for hanging out with Lulu, junior.”

After exchanging greetings, Ion disappears into the darkness, and I also go up to my private room.

Although I didn’t show any signs of fatigue on the outside, I drank quite a bit of wine to match Lulu’s, so I was still a bit tipsy.

However, my body doesn’t seem to be that affected by the alcohol, and I feel lethargic and tired. However, I feel like the intoxication has gone down a bit while I was sitting and talking with Ion.

When I arrived at my private room, exhausted, I barely took off my clothes and collapsed on the bed. When I opened my eyes to the sound of the alarm clock, morning came in an instant.

“Should I say that I’m glad I don’t have a hangover…”

I throw the clothes I took off like a shell into the laundry basket and prepare for the lecture.

I still felt a little tired, but after washing up, even that seemed to have completely disappeared.

Finally, I sit down at the dressing table, tidy up my clothes, and head to the restaurant, where I see a familiar back in front of me.

He is of moderate height, has gray hair that falls to his shoulders, and brown ears that hang down to the sides. It looks like Bandido is going to the restaurant to eat breakfast.

“Senior Bandi.”

“Wow! It’s Ain.”

When I approached him and put my hand on his shoulder, Bandi jumped in surprise, but then smiled bashfully when he realized it was me.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I like it. What about you, senior?”

“I’m fine too.”

As we enter the restaurant with Bandi, exchanging morning greetings, the interior is deserted.

The Academy Restaurant has excellent food and quality, but I can’t understand why it’s not popular.

“Well, most people just eat what the servants bring them in their rooms.”

“I see.”

“Besides, most males are like that, but you’re a special case because you always eat at restaurants.”

“There are males like that out there somewhere.”

“There just so happens to be a male like that here.”

Breakfast was light and filling, especially this toasted bread.

“Now that I think about it, Ain, it seems like you’re eating more and more.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, at first I think I ate similarly to other males, but now I’ve gained a lot more. Is it because of basic physical education?”

As he said that, Bandi pointed at me and started to rub his shoulders and arms. His body looked really soft.

“When I first met you, you were really skinny, Ain. Now you look a little better.”

“You were paying attention to my body.”

After saying that, I wondered if something was wrong, so I looked at Bandi’s face, and as expected, he was in a state similar to a red beet.

“I, I, I didn’t mean to… I, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no, Senior Bandi. I just had a weird choice of words. I wanted to say that you have a good eye for detail.”

In fact, I said that because I realized while working at the miscellaneous book research group that Bandi’s eye for detail and brains were quite good.

It was morning, so the words just came out without thinking.

“Sigh, I thought I was going to be criticized for sexual harassment again.”

“No way. That won’t happen.”

“No, Ain. There are some females who act like that more than you might think. It’s fortunate that you’re under the watchful eye of Her Highness the Princess.”

Bandi continues, munching on broccoli.