episode_0043

…Alice’s ability to read my expressions has been increasing.

No, it’s not just that it has increased, but she was just reading my expressions as part of her daily routine.

In fact, it hasn’t been that long since she started reading my expressions in earnest. Alice, who saw me as some kind of ‘rival,’ was not very adept at reading expressions. To be precise, she didn’t even have an interest in it, even though she may have had an interest in me, she didn’t show much interest in what I was personally doing.

But at some point, she seemed to start feeling personally close to me, and now she’s even reached the point of accurately guessing my expressions.

If I were to ponder when that ‘some point’ was…

Was it during the three-party talks after all?

Even before that, I felt a little bit of ‘getting closer.’ Maybe it was a natural thing. Regardless of the content, I was the same age as Alice, and I was the only peer child in the palace who could talk to Alice.

There were other maids around the same age as Alice, but they were ‘maids.’ If they were doing maid duties in the palace, they were at least children of nobles above the rank of a viscount. They were children who knew clearly how far they were from the princess and me, so there was no chance of getting close like friends.

Alice herself didn’t actively pretend to be close.

And above all, I had a very sympathetic stance towards Alice.

She was the main heroine of the game, and I felt a certain intimacy internally because I saw her face throughout the game – of course, it was a polygon figure, not a real face – and that attitude showed every time I faced Alice.

Moreover, she seemed a bit pitiful.

Although Claire, the one who felt inferior to Alice, disappeared, I appeared next to her instead. Even though I didn’t actively tease her like Claire did, our abilities were almost similar. No, considering how the emperor and those around him saw me, it could be said that I was superior in the eyes of the other party.

In the midst of all this, I thought that if I made fun of Alice, her personality might deteriorate.

Whether I was really an adult or not, I didn’t want to make fun of a child who was over ten years younger than me so harshly.

I did various things to boost Alice’s self-confidence in my own way, so if Alice felt a barrier towards me, it would have been extremely hurtful.

It would have been hurtful, but…

“Did you not sleep well last night?”

“…”

When she spoke to me with a worried expression like that, I wondered how she could read my expression at all.

Well, I had meticulously checked my face in the mirror before coming in the morning. How to not look tired, how to not look exhausted.

And my expressionless face was quite successful. It wasn’t just a simple ‘I have no expression at all,’ but rather, every time someone pointed it out, I looked at my face reflected in the surroundings and corrected it in my own way, making it a completed expressionless face.

So, my expressionless face was a face that even I couldn’t recognize.

It was strange how she could read it, no matter how much I thought about it.

“Sylvia?”

Looking at Alice asking me as if she was worried, I pondered how to answer.

Alice’s words were definitely correct.

I woke up at four in the morning today.

*

My true nature is a fangirl.

In the past, I tried to deny it in any way possible, but no matter how hard I tried, my hobby eventually returned to its original state.

When I stopped reading Japanese manga and watching anime, my hobby shifted to watching Japanese and American dramas. When I stopped collecting figures, I started buying and assembling plastic models. Even when I quit playing otaku games, I found myself collecting Western games.

It was like going in circles and ending up back where I started. I would buy military models, then Gunpla, then switch back to buying cute girl models. Eventually, I settled on collecting cute girl action figures and statues as my hobby. The same went for movies. I would buy Blu-rays of movies, then find myself buying Blu-rays of anime movies, and eventually end up buying TV series and OVA Blu-rays.

After repeating this lifestyle for about ten years since my late teens, I decided to just give up and accept my true nature when I turned 30.

Even during those ten years, I was constantly immersed in Azernian Chronicles. In reality, I never really made a proper attempt to escape from it.

Anyway, being the otaku that I was, I naturally read light novels and web novels day and night.

And I think I’ve seen enough clichés of isekai protagonists to last a lifetime.

You know the type. A supporting character who was originally supposed to be a sidekick or have an important item that the protagonist should have ends up becoming much stronger and more important than the protagonist after the protagonist’s role diminishes.

I had no intention of letting that happen.

Leo, Claire, Alice, Shara, even characters like Mia Crowfield who haven’t joined the protagonist’s party yet. I had a certain affection for all of these characters.

I had no intention of stealing all the cool scenes from these characters.

I was just trying to prevent any of the main characters from dying in the party.

The problem is—

“…Are you saying that the request has already been completed?”

“Oh, yes. I-I’m sorry, Your Highness…”

No, no, there’s no need for you to apologize.

I turned my head to look at the guide who was trembling in front of me, leaving him as he was and checked the clock.

The large pendulum clock, operated by weights, indicated that it was 6 o’clock in the morning.

Yes, 6 o’clock in the morning.

“…I know that the working hours start at 6 in the morning.”

Yes, the working hours for the Academy’s internal staff were basically from 6 in the morning.

Of course, not all employees worked from that time. I heard that there were separate morning shifts.

And there were jobs like dormitory security that required working all night.

Today is Sunday.

Yesterday and today were days off. Naturally, there were no classes for the students.

There were no classes, but there were voluntary community service activities.

In this world, there were no common part-time jobs like an adventurer’s guild that often appeared in fantasy novels. The Empire was a centrally governed country with the Emperor at the helm, and other kingdoms were similar. There were places like aristocratic republics, but even there, security was not entrusted to an adventurer’s guild.

The modern era was slowly beginning to see the emergence of the concept of ‘nationality’. The fact that Alice and Shara had a quarrel after school on Friday was evidence that children influenced by such ideas were starting to appear.

And the best way to prove the superiority of that ‘nationality’ was to show how good it was to live in a country where people of that nationality gathered.

Security was also part of that.

…From my perspective as someone who grew up in an orphanage, the security wasn’t that great, but well, it was still a decent country for the middle class and above.

Anyway, that’s why there were no adventurer guilds. But that doesn’t mean we can completely exclude the flower of RPGs, the ‘quest’ function.

Therefore, the system in this world was all about ‘volunteer activities.’

The students entering the academy were strong, and the security of the empire was still unstable. Not only in the nearby alleys but occasionally even in the city, there were incidents of human and material damage caused by beasts appearing on the way from one city to another.

Preventing and resolving such damages was the essence of volunteer activities… Although no rewards were given in the quests, those who applied for volunteer activities had prepared their own form of compensation, considering it as a gift given out of ‘goodwill.’

I had already received a reward from Jennifer before. If it was a reward given so openly to a person, then it would surely come into my hands more securely.

“Ah, that’s…”

However.

“I usually come out around five-thirty to prepare for work. But…”

However, the thing is.

“There are students waiting in front of the door, so out of kindness…”

“…”

So, at a place where work started at six in the morning.

After completing the first request and sitting down to wait patiently.

Receiving the reward after completing the request and preparing for work diligently 30 minutes before the shift started, I left with the reward in hand.

I raised my hand slowly and rubbed my nose.

It was almost killing me to wake up at six in the morning, but those crazy students were already working before that.

“Can I know the names of the students a little?”

At my words, the staff hurriedly searched through the stack of documents on the desk.

Actually, it was not appropriate for the staff to disclose students’ personal information just by asking like this, but if someone with a clearly displeased expression like a ‘princess’ asked for it, it would be hard to refuse.

“So… it’s Leo Grace and Claire Grace.”

“…”

Is that so.

I sighed softly and muttered under my breath.

“Let me see.”

“What?”

“Again!”

*

Six in the morning.

Yes, six in the morning.

That means I had been waiting since before finishing work.

According to the staff, I had already arrived 30 minutes early and was waiting, but in reality, it meant that I had finished work at five-thirty in the morning.

…Yes, the start date for volunteer activities was from today at midnight. Those who had posted requests on the bulletin board would probably be the ones who worked last night. Since it started at midnight, they would have posted it early and left work.

These were requests selected for students to handle tasks that could be resolved reasonably. So, if they had tried to use tricks, they could have started working from last night.

But I didn’t think Leo and Claire would try to cut corners like that.

‘Fair and square’ is the motto of the Grace family.

So, they must have started acting after the date had passed.

And no matter what, it wasn’t a task worth staying up all night for. It was still early. The main story had just begun, and the subquests might have an impact on the main story.

So, I chose five in the morning as the time.

I went back to the previous day, set my alarm for four-thirty, woke up early to prepare, and then rushed out of the dormitory. I didn’t want to look like I had just woken up from a deep sleep. I didn’t want my image to be tarnished.

And I failed to wake up.

I barely managed to wake up, but by then it was already five fifty. I was grateful for sticking to short hair instead of long hair, and I quickly showered and got ready before running out of the dormitory at full speed.

And I realized.

It would take at least two hours to walk to the quest location.

In the game, skipping from zone to zone in the baseball field is possible, and time does not pass until a specific event is triggered. However, reality is different.

The quest location is outside the system, a path where troublesome beasts are hunted.

… And of course, it goes without saying that the system is incredibly vast.

So, Leo and Claire woke up at this early hour, took a carriage, and set off to handle the quest.

… Why?