Chapter 31: Question

After a class that was like a typhoon that caused confusion for all the students.

“It usually tastes pretty good, but today’s food is really not good.”

“……If your highness thinks so, why don’t you eat at another restaurant?”

“Well, it’s not like it’s not edible. This is edible.”

I was eating lunch with Layla, who followed me as usual.

“Ugh, this really is not good. Do you usually eat at restaurants like this?”

“……Why did you come here again?”

Across from Layla, Ellis was squinting and complaining after tasting the food.

Was this the one plus one reason or something?

Why does the number of people keep increasing by one every time we eat lunch?

Even though there was clearly no mirror nearby, I felt like I could see my current expression.

A very grumpy expression.

Perhaps my expression was frowning because I didn’t like the current situation.

As if she had confirmed my expression, Ellis, who was already frowning, frowned even more.

“Why did I come here? Of course, it was because of the bomb you dropped earlier.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t that bad of a bomb…….”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t take your side, but even from my perspective as an observer, your comment earlier was a bomb.”

“…”

Hmm. Now that the two of you are refuting each other, I have nothing to say.

Did I misunderstand?

I clearly said that Ellis didn’t like Layla that much, and that Layla didn’t like Ellis that much either.

I definitely did.

Looking at the current situation, the two of them were the best partners for each other.

Ellis, who had no idea about my thoughts, nodded as if Layla was right.

“I said it was a bomb. Do you know what the other students’ expressions were like when they heard your suggestion?”

“……How was it?”

“It was like a group cognitive dissonance. I told you, not a single person understood what you were saying.”

Ellis was strongly asserting her opinion.

Layla, sitting across from her, nodded slightly as if she agreed with her opinion.

As if that was right.

As if there was nothing wrong with that.

If she hadn’t been a princess, she would have gone right over and slapped him.

Her expression was so angry that she would have been rejected.

“You were even rejected.”

“…”

“Edgar Tristan would have been whispering even if he had accepted, and now he was rejected.”

Ellis’s sharp sentences were eating away at my already slightly cracked mentality because my plan had gone awry.

Ellis was right.

To cut to the chase, the offer I made to Edgar was rejected cleanly.

-I will reject.

-… .

And it was very clean.

There wasn’t even any talk of negotiation; he was rejected outright.

I first realized that Edgar Tristan was such a clean person.

Clearly, in the original, he was a villain who always went around with the guy named Philip and showed all sorts of ugly things.

As I vaguely recalled the character Edgar Tristan in the original, Layla, who had been quietly listening to Ellis, opened her mouth.

“In fact, it would be even funnier if Edgar accepted your offer.”

“…”

“He already lost to you in a duel once, and you even declared war on his lover.”

“That’s right, the princess is right. If Edgar had accepted your offer, wouldn’t I have suspected that it wasn’t a trap?”

Ellis glared at me, saying that I hadn’t expected even this much.

‘……There’s no way I didn’t know!’.

It was very unfortunate for Ellis.

That was the plan I had made from the beginning.

Edgar, who was in the same party as me, intentionally lowered the party’s score in order to interfere with me.

That was the plan I had first thought of.

Since he had already thought of a countermeasure for it, he put it into action.

‘……This practical test is an individual competition.’

That would be the case.

This time, the practical exam was hidden behind the fancy word of cooperation, but the evaluation was completely individual.

No one knew this.

Except for the professors who prepared the exam and me who read the original, no one could have predicted it.

That they would cheat on the students in the exam.

Who would have thought that Sacred Academy, which evaluates students’ abilities fairly, would have thought of such a trick?

This was an incident that appeared in the original.

It was a memorable incident because it appeared so significantly.

A student who had an inferiority complex suggested a party to Damian, who worked hard.

Damian, who had thought of the student as a friend until then, happily accepted the offer.

The rest was as everyone expected.

The student who joined Damian’s party turned into a ghostly troublemaker who interfered with the party members as soon as the exam started, but Damian, the main character of the novel, did not give in to such interference and ended up getting a good score on the exam.

He even got first place.

He even got first place in the entire practical exam.

Of course, Damian’s party members who saw that scene asked the professor what criteria he used to give Damian such a score.

-Stupid, this test was evaluated entirely on an individual basis.

-……What did you say?

-Of course, it was a countermeasure prepared to deal with trash like you who treat your colleagues like water.

Did Sacred Academy seem that easy?

With that statement, the professor expelled Damian’s party member from the academy.

‘……It’s refreshing even when I think about it again.’

It was the most refreshing development in the world.

It was an episode that deliciously unfolded the departure of an unlikable character to the point that readers went wild.

That episode was really fun.

It was probably the episode that I found the most fun and empathized with Damian while reading the original.

Anyway, it meant that this test was also a significant incident in the original.

‘……If only Edgar hadn’t refused.’

It meant that if everything had gone according to my plan, my bet with Erica Perleino would have been easily resolved.

Ellis, who had no idea about my thoughts, was still poking me with her sarcastic tone.

“I’m just curious. What on earth were you thinking when you suggested a party to someone like Edgar?”

“…”

“I knew you weren’t a very smart person to begin with, but this is a bit much.”

“……It hurts. Beat me gently.”

“Why on earth did you suggest it to someone like that? You should have just told me and pretended not to win…”

Ellis, who was excitedly throwing a one-two punch, was cut off.

“Pretending not to win?”

“…”

“No, why are you talking so annoyingly?”

I looked at Ellis, wondering about that, and it seemed like a single word was written on her face as big as a door.

Mistake.

An expression that clearly said the wrong thing.

-Ellis is really amazing.

She’s usually more cool-headed than anyone else, but when she realizes that she made a mistake, her face suddenly turns red like snow.

It was an expression that made me think of Damian’s comment in the original work.

“……Aha, that’s it.”

“Your Highness?”

“Oh, you don’t need to know. There was one thing I was curious about, and now I feel like that question has been answered.”

What was even more annoying was Layla, who was nodding next to me with her sapphire-colored jewel eyes shining, as if all her questions had finally been answered.

What the hell.

What on earth did she realize to make such a satisfied expression?

It was really killing me when my questions piled up on top of each other.

There was one thing I was curious about, and now I feel like that question has been answered.

What was even more annoying was Layla, who was nodding next to me with her sapphire-colored jewel eyes shining, as if all her questions had finally been answered.

What the hell.

What on earth did she realize to make such a satisfied expression?

It was really killing me when my questions piled up on top of each other.

Among these numerous questions, there was one question that quietly came to mind.

“…… Now that I think about it, you haven’t answered properly yet. So why are you here having lunch?”

“. . . . . . I told you earlier. Because you set off the bomb.”

“No, I mean. Even if I set off the bomb, why are you here worrying about it with me?”

“It’s because of me…”

Ellis raised her head, which she had lowered as if she was extremely frustrated, and shouted.

“Because of me?”

“……Why have you been doing this since just now?”

That confident voice was cut off like deja vu as she lowered her head again.

Where did you learn such strange things?

Could it be that you’re getting revenge on me for what I said last time?

While I was seriously thinking about what I did wrong, Layla, who had been watching the situation, changed the subject.

“Well, this isn’t important right now. Isn’t the important thing right now to find your party members?”

“……You’re not wrong.”

“You rejected my offer, and looking at you now, I don’t think you’ll party with Ellis Akstra. Then who do you plan on partying with?”

I was speechless at Layla’s coldly piercing sentence on the current situation.

I didn’t know.

I didn’t think Edgar Tristan would have any intention of revenge on me.

This was still a question.

There was no way that Edgar, Erica’s lover, hadn’t heard the news about his lover.

Why on earth would he reject my offer, which could potentially solve both his own revenge and his lover’s revenge at once?

The question posed was not easily resolved.

In the end, I wasn’t able to come up with an answer until lunchtime was over.