31: I don’t want to
“So, do you know who the pursuers were?”
Perhaps they were assassins hired by my father or by the Modell, Bridgette’s, family. Maybe it was by Lavinia, Sufia’s family, whose daughter got attacked.
I hate myself for having come up with so many candidates just by thinking about it for a moment.
I just want to be at peace.
Since I can’t easily do even this much, I would like to run away to somewhere far away where I don’t know anyone. Still, that doesn’t mean I want to live somewhere I won’t have enough to eat tomorrow.
There is no way that a stranger without any contacts can get a job, and even if they go out to the city looking for work, there’s a big chance they might get discovered.
I think this is what people mean by ‘blocked by all corners.’
“No, it was His Highness Claude who was after me.”
“Oh yeah. It should be an assassin that my father set up… ha? Why? Is it a misunderstanding? You mean His Highness, Prince Claude?”
“Yes, it was His Highness, Claude.”
I don’t understand.
Why would His Highness Claude, who is constantly surrounded by girls and courted whether he looks right or left, go out of his way to pursue Bridgette?
Indeed, Bridgette’s family, the Modells, are dukes, and with their status, it is not surprising for one of their family members to be an engagement candidate for His Highness Prince Claude.
However, that is all.
Emily, a daughter of the Urbana family, another of the four ducal families, and a family of sorcerers, is in the same age group. Although she is in a different class and magic course, they are in the same year at the same school.
There’s no need for him to bother with Bridgette.
“Why was His Highness Claude chasing after you, Bridgette?”
This makes it seem as if His Royal Highness Prince Claude is in love with Bridgette.
No, that is not possible since His Highness Claude has a variety of fiancée candidates to choose from.
Besides, if Prince Claude had a crush on Bridgette, they would have been engaged long ago.
“I am sorry. I do not know why His Highness Claude is after me.”
And to my question, Bridgette replied apologetically.
Perhaps he’s onto something with the last case and thinks Bridgette is involved? He’s wrong but not far off.
Although Bridgette had nothing to do with it, she is connected to me.
“From now on, we will be strangers at the school…”
“—I don’t want to.”
“But the fact is that His Highness Prince Claude is suspicious of you and has been following you…”
“—I don’t want to.”
32: I vowed to take care of you*
“Even as of now, we’re seated next to each other, but under normal circumstances—”
“—I don’t want to.”
Usually, she is a good listener, as she says she is loyal to me, but this is the first time Bridgette acted otherwise, although it has only been a few days.
She is also so stubborn.
“Why on earth?”
Considering her situation, maybe she had no other choice.
It may be because, at the moment, she is avoiding her friend, Sufia, perhaps out of guilt, and avoiding her classmates and His Highness Prince Claude.
Since her father caused it, she probably had no one in her family she could trust, including the servants.
The only people Bridgette knows she can trust now are Sufia, who almost got killed, and me, which means I’m practically the only person she can depend on.
At only fifteen years old, she has neither the power, the financial resources, nor the experience to investigate who was behind this incident.
In other words, I am the only person Bridgette can trust right now.
It was the reason Bridgette chose to stay by my side, even if she had to sign a slavery contract with me.
In Japan, she would still be considered a child, struggling to survive in her way, which must be quite stressful.
Thus Bridgette couldn’t bear to leave me, even if it meant deceiving others or going against the word of someone to whom she had sworn her allegiance.
Thinking that much, I let out a sigh.
Maybe I’m overthinking it, but overthinking is just fine. It’s my responsibility to take care of her.
“I get it. I lost. You’re a real pain*, you know that?”
[TLN: Another interpretation, “I vowed to take care of you.”]
“T-thank you! Master!”
I stroked Bridgette’s head as I said this, but I couldn’t even imagine at that time that h**l would begin tomorrow because of Bridgette, who interpreted my words in a magnified way.
◆
In the morning, no servants came to wake me up as usual.
No matter how much I say that the servants of the Kvist family have fallen under my control, no one’s going to believe me.
I won’t get suspected because I’m supposed to be stupid, incompetent, arrogant, disrespectful to others, and hated by both my family and servants.
And that is true not only within the Kvist family but for this world.
“Tsk, that sucks. How come I’m supposed to eat now that I’ve seen that trashy face in the morning? You’re not thinking of having breakfast with us, are you?”
“It’s the worst morning I’ve ever had. Let’s get away from here as soon as possible. The scum will get us infected.”
Kaisar was scum, but it was the family who made him like that scum.
33: Tears of joy
Since I don’t want to eat with these people either, I finish getting ready for school early and leave the house to head deep into the woods where the slaves hid.
“WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, OUR LORD.”””
I can move faster than a horse now, but if my family and others who may be hostile to me were to find out, they would be alarmed, so I always move carefully so as not to be seen.
They would never have guessed that I was at my parents’ house this morning and an hour away by horse-drawn carriage right after.
“Can’t you do something about that greeting?”
When I arrived at the base (temporary), all of my slaves lined up, bowing their heads, to greet me.
I don’t remember ordering them to do so, but as time went by, it became a scene that made me want to say, “What are you guys, a yakuza?”
However, since I didn’t order them to do otherwise, they just did whatever they wanted. It had never occurred to ask why they did it before, but I finally decided to today.
“Master not only saved our lives but also gave us the strength to face the unreasonable reality. Although it isn’t satisfactory enough, I’ll offer you the utmost hospitality and gratitude. I owe Master more than I can ever repay in a lifetime, and the only opportunity I have to express my gratitude is when you come to this house. Since a mere slave dared to insist in front of their Master, in exchange for my life, I would ask you to leave us an opportunity to express our feelings.”
“Wait, wait! I understand, so you don’t have to die! I don’t want you, girls, to die every time you express an opinion. On the contrary, you can keep pointing out things you think are wrong!”
“Ahh… Master’s merciful words, I am filled with emotion right now!”
How did this happen?
I feel like this has been happening a lot lately.
“In the first place, there can be no such thing as a mistake in Master’s thought! And yet, to lessen the severity of my blunder, Master said he thought wrongly just to protect me! Oh, Master! Not long ago, I wished I had never been born, even contemplating suicide, but now I feel deeply grateful that I am glad I was born!”
“T-that’s good to know.”
“Yes!!”
I was about to leave the place with a slight, or even quite a bit of reluctance when I got surrounded by onlookers shedding tears of joy.
It’s no wonder that the sight of this scenario frightened me to the depths of my soul.
We are all a little frightened when we witness incomprehensible things.
So it’s inevitable that I would be terrified.
However, when Bridgette and the maid, Melissa, who were standing beside me joined them, muttering, ‘Indeed, I know that feeling,’ I vowed to instruct them later.
34: My stomach hurts
When I finished eating my breakfast as it was, I left Melissa in charge of this place and headed back to the school with Bridgette.
It was good that I was on my way, but Bridgette didn’t appear to want to leave me at all.
If we both were to go to school together, I have no idea what people might think. Because of my notoriety, there is a high possibility that Bridgette would get subjected to abusive language, slander, and other forms of harassment.
“You know what? Maybe it’s time for us to keep our distance?”
“… Ey? Why do you say so?”
When we were close to school, I asked Bridgette to separate from me, but she tilted her head back with a, ‘I don’t understand why you’re asking me to leave,’ expression on her face, and then she just replied with her own words.
“Well, Bridgette, you wouldn’t like to be seen going to school with me, right? I don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to do just because you’re a slave, which I don’t think I’ve to remind you again.”
“…? T-then it’s okay to go to school together!”
Something is not right.
Yes, we are supposed to be speaking in the common language in the empire, but I don’t feel like we are having a conversation.
“If I go to school with you, you might get dragged into the trouble I face daily, Bridgette, you know?”
“I’d rather want it to be.”
“What if they start an impossible rumor that I’m making you do this or that because I have your weakness?”
“Oh, that’s convenient for me too, so I’ll just let it slide. I’ll do this or that thing tonight to make the rumors true!”
“Why do you look so happy? I mean— You’re close, too close, don’t push your chest against me!”
“Seriously, what are you so shy about, Master? If you are afraid for the first time, why don’t you just say so? It’s all right. Because it’s my first time too!”
“No! We were just classmates sitting next to each other until now, so why is this happening today?”
“Ey? Because yesterday, Master told me that I should enjoy my school life the way I like it.”
Misinterpretation.
Miscommunication.
Misperception.
I’m no longer surprised at how I always got reminded to report, contact, and consult, no matter how old I was…
I didn’t mean it as a stranger, but as ‘just another classmate’ like before. That, however, didn’t seem to be the case for Bridgette.
My stomach hurts.
This makes me scratch my head and wonder how this happened.
35: They’ll insist on this one too
“I understand. Let’s go to school together.”
“Yes! Master!”
It’s a seed I sowed.
I don’t want to be the one to do the worst possible thing, that is, to wipe the higher-up’s failure on the bottom.
[TLN: The employees get blamed for the higher-up’s failure.]
I tell myself this and reluctantly agree to go to school with her.
What has become has to be done.
Besides, it’s just one more thing to bad-mouth me for anyway.
An extra rumor now won’t change my position in the school anyways.
I think that Bridgette will be subjected to such rumors as well, but for better or worse, she would be my rumored victim. So as long as I pretend to be ignorant, there will be no problem with this.
Perhaps if some scum were to come to me and use this as an excuse to coerce me or ask me to have an adult relationship with Bridgette, I would crush them. And I’m sure if someone tries to harass her while she is alone, she’s strong enough to crush them with ease.
“Sigh…”
And I let out a sigh imagining the school life to come.
My arms are entwined around her as she presses her b***s against me, insisting on the softness peculiar to this woman.
From the outside, we may look like a baccouple. But, because Bridgette has a strong sense of justice and I am notorious, anyone would see the scene as ‘Kaisar is forcing Bridgette to do something terrible because he’s holding her weakness.’
[EN: I couldn’t quite find much, but I believe that by ‘baccouple,’ the author means "Idiot couple".]
“I mean, what’s the point of holding my hand in the first place?”
“That’s because I want to. I hope that’s not too much to ask?”
“I understand.”
I don’t know what I’ve understood, but I’m a man.
All I have to do is stand firm and wait and see what happens.
And, of course, we were the perfect target for the ladies that live on gossip when we arrived at school holding hands—it must have looked like I was forcing her to serve me—.
By the time we got to class, the rumors that I had come to school with Bridgette in a questionable manner, forcing her to be my servant, had already spread around.
“Bridgette!!”
When we entered the classroom, the voices of our classmates, which could be heard in the hallway until a few minutes ago, suddenly disappeared, and His Highness Prince Claude’s voice calling Bridgette’s name echoed through the quiet classroom.
“Are you okay? Bridgette! Why didn’t you talk to me before this happened? Wasn’t there such a relationship between us, Bridgette!?”
“This has nothing to do with you, Your Highness. Would you please leave us alone?”