I’m so sleepy.
Actually, since I came to this world, I’ve never been short of sleep.
I should have something to do at night.
In this place, where there’s no phone or anything, the only thing I can do is exchange messages, and the only person I exchange messages with is Seria.
[Seria: It’s getting late. I’m going to bed now.]
And Seria, that Seria, is the model princess who always goes to bed before 10 PM.
Thanks to her, after 10 PM, there’s really nothing left to do.
With nothing to do, I go to bed early, and as a result, I often wake up at an unreasonably early time in the morning, even though I’ve had enough sleep.
But yesterday, I was dragged into Reina’s monster capture operation, and after coming back and sleeping late for the first time in a while… waking up on time for school was quite a struggle.
It was actually the first time I woke up to the alarm from the clock by my bedside. Normally, I wake up first and turn it off.
And I wasn’t the only one like this.
The model princess wasn’t exactly living a model life yesterday, either.
“Rudion. Good morning.”
“Your face doesn’t look good at all.”
“…Does it show that much?”
Yes. Your eyes are already half-lidded.
“Actually, it’s true. It’s not a good morning at all. I’m so tired.”
“Then why did you wait for no reason and try to push through…”
No matter how tired I was, I couldn’t skip the lecture, so I headed to the classroom with Seria.
I was stumbling in my half-sleepy state, looking like I was about to fall asleep any second.
If that’s the case, I could’ve just gone in and rested first. But I ended up waiting again.
In the end, I really just slept through the entire lecture. Me, and Seria.
“Ugh, what are these two doing sitting in the front row?”
From the professor’s perspective, this must have been quite frustrating. The two students who were performing the best in class were sitting right in the front, fast asleep…
One was a princess, and the other was a direct assistant. It was hard not to laugh at the situation.
Thanks to falling asleep so hard, it felt like it would’ve been better to just skip the lecture altogether. By the time I came to my senses, the lecture had already ended in what could only be described as a fantastic situation.
“Rudion, Seria? Can you two stay for a moment?”
And then, we were dragged away.
Seria and I couldn’t even respond and just followed her.
It was Reina’s private research room, where we had been yesterday. Looking at the scattered luggage from yesterday, it seemed like she hadn’t finished organizing yet.
Seria and I waited for Reina to say something, but she just kept glancing at us, sipping her coffee, without saying anything.
Finally, Seria couldn’t take it anymore and spoke up.
“Professor Reina, may I ask why you called us?”
Upon hearing this, Reina smiled and asked in return.
“Should I tell you what it is, so you’ll know?”
“…I’m sorry for dozing off during your lecture.”
When Seria apologized, Reina shook her head.
“No, that’s not why I called you. I called you for something else. Honestly, I don’t care whether you pay attention to my lecture or not.”
“Then what exactly…”
“Rudion.”
“…Yes?”
Suddenly, Reina called my name. We had been talking between the two of us, so it was a bit surprising to hear my name out of the blue.
Reina finally explained why she had called us.
“Yeah, you. Why did you go to the girls’ dormitory last night?”
She didn’t say it outright, but it was a question that made it clear why she had called us.
“…Did you find out about that?”
“Of course. It was late, but there are plenty of students studying up until that time.”
“Ah, I see…”
Now that I think about it, I realize I overlooked that. I had been so carefree and hadn’t been studying, but this place is a prestigious school.
With the midterm exams coming up, it’s natural that students would be cutting down on sleep to study.
So…
“This morning, a report was filed. It says you were loitering around the girls’ dormitory in the middle of the night.”
It wasn’t an entirely unexpected turn of events.
But Reina didn’t seem to be suspicious of me or looking at me with a contemptuous expression.
The atmosphere didn’t seem bad, so I was listening calmly when she quietly said something that only Seria could hear.
“Well, honestly, I didn’t really believe it… But seeing you two dozing off together, it’s easy to picture what happened, right? Hahaha! My, Seria, you’ve grown into quite the lady now, haven’t you?”
“…Please stop teasing me.”
Seria’s face turned bright red. What in the world did she just say to make Seria blush like that?
Reina giggled, clearly finding Seria’s reaction adorable, before slowly calming down and continuing.
“Anyway, here’s the issue. The person who filed the report conveniently left out any mention of Seria and just reported the situation.”
“Well, if you investigate it, the answer will be clear, right?”
Just filing a report doesn’t mean they’ll arrest someone on the spot. That’s ridiculous.
This academy isn’t a pushover, and there’s no way they would handle things so recklessly.
There are plenty of magical stones around the dormitory that act as a kind of CCTV. You just need to check them.
It’s not exactly like a real-time CCTV system with monitoring or recording, but when an incident occurs, you can check what happened by using the magical records imprinted on the stones.
Since this happened just last night, there should be a clear record of what went down.
Reina nodded in agreement with my statement, but it seemed like the issue still wasn’t resolved.
“Yeah, that’s right. But the problem I’m talking about isn’t that.”
With that, Reina pointed to Seria.
“Who’s this?”
Seria.
No, Seria Rubetia. The princess of the empire.
“I don’t care what you two do late at night. But… do you think the royal family wouldn’t care?”
Any event involving Seria within the academy is immediately reported to the royal family. That was the emperor’s will.
In the past, when Seria destroyed the ceiling of the dining hall, there wasn’t much of a reaction, but I’m sure it was reported right away.
The person who filed the report probably left her name out because, unlike me, a commoner, no one knows what could happen if you accidentally cross her. The person who reported it would also be considered an involved party.
In this situation… it wasn’t a good idea to drag Seria into it.
Even if I involve her, my mistake of approaching the girls’ dormitory won’t go away. It’ll just escalate the issue.
“Do you really want an investigation? I’ll do whatever you want. After all, I’m the one responsible for this.”
There were two options.
Either reveal the truth and drag Seria into this, or… just take the blame on my own.
“Which one do you want to choose?”
She spoke as though I had a choice, but the answer was already practically decided from the start.
“I’ll take the responsibility myself. What good would it do to drag the royal family into something like this?”
“Heh. Good. You’ve thought it through.”
It couldn’t be helped. If it hadn’t been found out, I wouldn’t have minded, but since it had been, it wasn’t easy to deny. I’d have to let it go as my mistake.
Just when I thought the conversation was over, Seria, who had been silently listening, nudged me and hesitated before speaking up.
“…Um, Rudion?”
“Yeah?”
“I… I don’t really mind if this gets reported to the royal family, though…”
What is she talking about?
Does she want to tell her parents that she was out wandering with a guy in the middle of the night?
But since I could kind of understand why she was saying this, I didn’t blame her.
“Seria, if this is because of me, you don’t have to worry about it. Even if you get involved, it doesn’t change that the mistake is mine.”
“That’s not it, it’s just… um… I don’t know. Do whatever you want.”
Seria, unusually timid, seemed to be blaming herself.
The truth was, if I had just been a little more careful, this wouldn’t have happened. As expected, the ‘alignment: absolute good’ mindset really makes her think differently.
Anyway, in the end, it was decided that I would take responsibility for this incident.
Maybe they’d consider it a mistake because I was half asleep and got lost. I had an alibi with Reina, after all, so I thought there was enough justification for it.
At worst, it wouldn’t be anything serious—just a demerit or some school service hours.
Right now, all I could do was wait, thinking about it.
“By the way, Seria, just to be sure… you two aren’t really dating, are you?”
“D-Dating?! There’s no way!”
Why are they having so much fun chatting like that? I don’t find it funny at all.
“Well. I’ll handle the rest. You two head back for today. Be more careful next time.”
“Yes.”
This wasn’t such a big deal that the disciplinary committee needed to be involved, so it didn’t seem like there was anything else to prepare.
After answering Reina’s words, Seria and I headed outside, but for some reason, Lilith was waiting outside. Her training should’ve been over by yesterday.
When I asked why she was waiting, she suddenly started saying something strange.
“Hey, is the rumor true?”
“Where’s this coming from? What rumor?”
“People are saying that Rudion tried to force his way into the girls’ dormitory and got chased out by Seria. It’s causing quite a stir right now.”
…What?
“Who said that?”
“It’s not just one person. The rumor’s all over the first years.”
Just a moment ago, I was the guy who was loitering around the girls’ dormitory.
Now the rumor had turned into me trying to sneak in.
This rumor is totally distorted. How does a rumor evolve like that without legs?