Ikemen ni Tenseishita kedo, Cheat ha Dekimasenshita

86 The Attendants Are Scary
 

“O-ouch… that hurt…. I’ll remember this, fu*cking black cat….” The pink-haired girl cursed under her breath as she slowly raised her face up.

Her face was smeared with the wreckage of foods she fell onto. Scraps of lettuce and bread were strewn all over her head, and her uniform was stained with ketchup and mayonnaise.

After shaking her head to shake off the lettuce and bread, without even realizing her situation, the pink-haired girl looked around as the remaining lettuce on top of her head slowly fell.

However, all I could think as I watched the lettuce fall was….

Dammit. Even though I saved that sandwich with a thick slice of bacon for last! It’s now ruined!

Admittedly, the pink-haired girl was extremely cute. Alas, I couldn’t bring myself to like her as she gave off an air of cunning fox. It was as if she was a beautiful yet highly poisonous flower at the same time.

Anyhow, the girl’s sudden appearance caused our attendants to raise their vigilance while protecting us. Naturally, that went without saying for us as well. Our caution went up with the appearance of a strange girl.

Perhaps realizing her situation, the pink-haired girl’s face turned pale, and she quickly prostate on her place.

“M-my apologies for disturbing your gathering.”

… Eh? Her reaction was different from my expectation.

“Please forgive me. I’ll leave immediately,” she said, trying to excuse herself.

“Stop right there.” Sadias, Rex’s attendant, stopped her. “You’re not allowed to leave this place without proper apologies. First, tell us your name and apologize again. Then, you’ve to wait for everyone’s verdict on your deed. You definitely won’t expect us to be so naive to the point of letting you go unpunished after you trespassed into our party without permission, messing up our meals and literally putting everyone in danger, right?”

Sadias, who had just returned a while ago after saying he had seen hell, spoke to the pink-haired girl with a cold, piercing gaze. Moreover, for some reason, he also held a whip for horse riding in his hand.

The heck. This guy is scary.

“Indeed. You must be quite skilled to be able to avoid us and sneak in this far,” Richard said, blocking the pink-haired girl’s escape route with his hand already touching the handle of his sword.

Dafuq. Why did you do that? Ain’t you being influenced by Sadias a bit too much, Richard?

Following those two; the other attendants also moved in unison and surrounded the pink-haired girl, preventing the latter from fleeing. Due to that and perhaps feeling scared as well, the girl shrunk back with a twitching smile on her face.

“Well then, let’s start by telling us your name.” It seemed Sadias was the one who was entrusted with taking over this part for he immediately started the interrogation while pointing his whip right on the tip of the pink-haired girl’s nose.

“I-Irene Plum. My grandfather is a baron.”

“My goodness. I hear that Baron Plum is a kind, honest, and devoted man despite his small territory. Yet, you, his own granddaughter is actually smearing his reputation with this monkey-like, unruly act of yours. This make me wonder… who raise you up like this?”

Oh? He actually remembered that kind of information… as expected of Rex’s attendant. I meant… the amount of information similar to that was no joke after all. Anyway, hearing Sadias’ preaching, the pink-haired girl that I now knew as Irene hung her head down.

Yet, for some reason, it seemed like she was smiling lightly instead of feeling scared or remorse….

Furthermore, I also heard Katrina was muttering, “You got it wrong, this isn’t a bullying event.” to herself while covering her face with her hand.

Eh? What are you talking about?

“M-my apologies. I just want to climb a little bit since the sakura tree is so beautiful. I have no intention to disturb your moment.”

“There should be many other sakura trees in this plaza, right? Why did you choose this particular sakura tree that is used by us for flower viewing? Depending on your answer, you might have to drop out of this academy,” Richard asked harshly.

“A-about that… Uhm… I’m just curious… since only this place has a partitioning screen. I swear! I have no idea that everyone is enjoying flower viewing!” Irene appealed, looking like she was on the verge of crying.

However, I wondered why, but it looked to me like she was faking her tears?

“Is that so? Well, even if that’s the truth, it doesn’t mean that we’re willing to let you go. The people whose gathering you disturbed just now are people with higher status than you after all,” Richard relentlessly pursued the topic.

“M-my apologies. I’ll do anything within the realm of possibilities. That’s why, please forgive me just this once.”

“It seems you don’t even know proper manner. You should stop acting like a town girl out here.”

Even Sadis looked rather dumbfounded by Irene’s reply before he turned toward us and asked, “What should we do about this?”

“I-I think we can let her go… she’s apologizing properly, after all. It’s another matter entirely if you ask me whether we forgive her or not, though.”

The one who said those words was actually Katrina. Then again, she looked as if she was bracing herself even when she said it. Still, it seemed she didn’t want to get involved with that pink-haired girl and wished that she had just left this place so she could be done with it all.

I could empathize, though, since I felt the same way. Still, despite feeling really pissed off because she ruined our meal, our wrecked food wouldn’t come back even if I shouted angrily at her. Furthermore, she did apologize properly. Anyway, like Katrina said, accepting her apology was another matter entirely. Since she had apologized and all, I shouldn’t deal with this matter in a childish manner.

“I approve. Just get the hell out of here already.”

“Agreed. I feel the same way. Not to mention, she look rather filthy.”

Luke agreed too. Since the person herself had no ‘ill will’, there was no reason to pursue this matter further. Especially without clear evidence, because I could see this situation turning into a never ending arguments if we did so.

Nevertheless, Irene’s eyes got wide open in shock when we reacted like this. It seemed she had never expected us to let her go this easily.

“… Why, does the yellow have short hair? He should’ve had long hair. And, why does the green… not wear a white robe?”

Nevermind. It seemed I was wrong. Instead of feeling shocked by our reaction, she was shocked by other incomprehensible things. Or at least that was what I managed to garner from her muttering. It was so confusing that even Katrina seemed to be truly perplexed when she heard the pink-haired girl’s remark.

C’mon, what in the hell is happening here? I just want a peaceful school life, is that too much to ask for?!

“Okay then. We accept your apology, but you should quickly leave this place.”

“Yeah, that’ll be for the better….”

“― Wait.”

When Sadias, who had received confirmation from Rex, was about to chase her off, Elliot of all people stopped him from doing so.

“I have a question for you. Are you the girl who infiltrated into the ‘Rose’s Maze’ of royal castle around ten years ago?”

Katrina, who was sitting beside him, looked at Elliot with a shocked expression on her face at that question. She might even want to say something at that time.

“Er, y-….”

“― If that’s the case, I have a question for you too. Does that mean you’re the mad dog who pushed Muriel-sama and as a result injured Theodore-sama by doing that?” Richard cut in before Irene could answer it positively with an obvious whole-faced smile on her face. He was asking that question with a cold, murderous glare in his eyes.

“If you’re talking about that brat from back then, I’m more than willing to turn her into the rust of my sword,” He then added with his hands touching the handle of the sword hanging on his waist, ready to unsheathe it at any moment.

“Er, eh, uhm… you’re mistaken.”

“I see— my apologies for showing such an unbecoming attitude and intruding on your query, Your Highness Elliot.”

Once he received such confirmation, Richard stepped back immediately and apologized to Elliot.

“… I don’t mind. That matter is truly a disaster for your master after all,” Elliot said, forgiving Richard’s intrusion to his conversation. The old him would be enraged immediately, but I guess he had truly grown into a magnamious person befitting a ruler. With that being the case, all of his retainer could be at ease for now.

“― I just want to thank her a little bit if she really is the girl from that time. It’s just as you say back then, I can finally get along with my dear big brother.”

“Your Highness Elliot….”

Katrina looked like she was moved to tears by Elliot’s admission….

Wait just a minute. Did he want to get along with Frederick all this time? Eh? So Elliot didn’t hate Frederick? Eh?

“But I won’t forgive you for disturbing our party. We will deal with you if you do something like this again.”

“Y-YES…!”

She should perceive it as a strict warning, and yet, Irene seemed to be delighted with that? She must have had a few screw loose in her head.

“Then, please sign this document. Here, and here too,” Frederick said, coming from the side as he offered a document for Irene to sign.

Really, I had been wondering what in the world was he writing since a while ago, so it turned out to be this document.

“Eh, y-yes.”

After being urged like that, Irene obediently checked the document and signed it. Upon receiving it back, Frederick folded the copy of the document, tucked it into the envelope, sealed it and gave it back to Irene again… along with a snapped branch of sakura tree.

“Give this letter and branch to the girls’ dorm’s security. It’s the adult that you see beside the gate. Then, be a good girl and return to your room, okay?”

“YES!”

Irene took the letter and the tree branch happily as if it was her treasure, and walked away toward the girls’ dorm with a light gait still in her messy appearance from her fall and our scattered foods.

“… What did you write in that letter?”

“Written apology. This table and the other utensils are something that you guys prepared for this occasion, but the sakura tree is the property of the academy. I explained in that letter that she had vandalized the academy’s property and then made her sign the letter, so it was valid. The academy might punish her with suspension or house arrest for three days. I also included the commotion she caused in the boys’ dorm the day before yesterday,” Frederick explained nonchalantly.

Man, he must be so pissed off right now.

“You can file a notice about her breaking your utensils to the academy later, but what are you going to do? You can’t expect a lot of money for compensation since she comes from a baron family….”

“So that’s why you prepared two letters.”

We couldn’t help but laugh when he showed a blank paper with only Irene’s signature on it. Let’s save that for later.