Episode 78
If my relationship with Stia was progressing with the heavens lending me a hand,
Diana seemed almost as though she had been fated to have her life go awry because of me.
What on earth was going on?
With wrapped bread in both hands, I was facing off against a furious young lady surrounded by the private soldiers of a noble family.
People began gathering around out of curiosity.
"Didn't you hear me? I'm challenging you to a duel!"
"You... You came without your sister's permission, didn't you?"
"What does that have to do with someone like you? This duel is to settle the insult I suffered."
"Diana."
I deliberately pronounced Diana's name clearly, syllable by syllable.
Diana flinched, her shoulders trembling.
"That matter ended there.
You paid the price, and I was satisfied. There's nothing left for me to retaliate over."
"That's what you think!!"
Diana stamped her feet.
"I suffered an insult and wounds that can never be washed away in my lifetime. Because of you!"
"So you're challenging me to a duel because of that?"
"I know I can't defeat Sir Bale Noa or the Noble Hunter! You probably couldn't defeat my sister, either. This is a duel between the two of us. If I win, I'll take your life!"
Wait, I was wondering what she would stake in the duel, and she wanted my head?
She really was all over the place.
"Then you need to stake something of equal value."
"I'm a woman of House Vanguard! If I can't wash away this insult after suffering such a thing, I'd rather die!"
"Haah... So you want to duel?"
"Yes!!"
Honestly, I was tired.
Not physically tired, but I really didn't feel like being dragged around by Diana.
"Why don't you just eat this and we get along?"
"Shut up! You eat that filthy bread yourself."
She showed no sign of remorse.
For once, I was genuinely angry.
"I understand that the more you dwell on what happened, the angrier you get. But if I had made up my mind, you and everyone in your family would be dead."
"Then you'd die as well. Do you think you could handle the consequences after doing such a thing to House Vanguard?"
Diana must have been furious, because she clenched her teeth and retorted.
"Dying wouldn't simply mean dying. I'm not someone who fears the retaliation your family might exact. You know that, don't you?
Right there, I could have raped and stripped you sisters, then hung you from the wheels of a wagon and brought you all the way to the capital."
"..."
The color drained from Diana's face.
Leaving aside how provocative my words were, the message had probably gotten through.
That if I had truly lost my temper, I was the kind of person who would have done exactly that.
"So you're telling me to accept that? That because you went that far, things ended cheaply! Over nothing more than some spilled fruit..."
"That's right. It ended cheaply."
Diana seemed at a loss for words.
"It's true that you tried to take more than what was warranted by what happened between us.
And the only reason you're even allowed to complain about the unreasonable outcome after the duel is because I showed you mercy."
"Ugh...!"
"And yet you want another duel? Fine."
When my attitude suddenly changed, Diana's shoulders trembled.
I took out one of the few gold coins in my personal storage.
"Let's duel over whether this coin lands heads or tails."
"...What?"
"If you win, you can take my head."
"..."
"But if I win, I'll give you an experience that will make you think you'd have been better off dead."
"I, I..."
It seemed fear finally overcame Diana.
She must have realized she had picked a fight with the wrong person.
In the end, for all her pretending to be as gutsy as Tilia, Diana wasn't that kind of girl.
She was merely an immature girl who froze up whenever she realized she was in serious trouble.
I said to her,
"I'll give you a chance to cancel the duel and withdraw quietly."
A glimmer of hope appeared in Diana's pale face.
"On one condition. Since you bothered me, you have to apologize properly."
"N-no! Are you going to make me do that again?"
"No. Hmm... Let's just end it with a few swats on your bottom."
"My bottom...?"
"You don't know? When a child does something wrong, they lie across their parents' knees and get their bottom smacked."
"Ugh...!!"
Diana's face turned bright red.
Ignoring the spears and swords thrust forward by the private soldiers, I strode off in another direction.
"W-wait!!"
Then I chose a bench in front of Melbrit's main gate and sat down.
People glanced back and forth between Diana and me, wondering what was happening.
"Come here, Diana."
I patted my knee.
"W-who's going to do that...!"
"Then shall we duel?"
"Ugh...!"
"Heads or tails. My life, or your terrible future. How does that sound?"
"...Sob. Hic... Don't look down on me!! I'll do it. I'll cut off your head. I won't leave it to something like flipping a coin. I'll fight you right now and..."
"You'd lose..."
Diana was cornered.
Perhaps because her first impression had been so firmly established, it was terribly cute to watch her act arrogantly, get taught a lesson, and then tremble in fear.
"Come on. Shall I flip it? Heads? Tails?"
"H-heads, t-tails... tails...!"
"Good."
As I prepared to flip the coin, Diana suddenly approached and clasped the hand holding it tightly.
"What is it?"
Diana was on the verge of tears.
"C-cancel... the duel..."
"What? I can't hear you."
"I was wrong... Please cancel the duel... Sob..."
"You heard her, didn't you? Go back."
"Lady Diana..."
"I-it's nothing! I don't need your help. Go back quickly."
"But..."
"I said go! Are you trying to embarrass me?"
The private soldiers of House Vanguard had no choice but to turn and leave in response to their lady's firm attitude.
"Shall we pay the price, Diana?"
"..."
Diana lay across my lap.
Everyone looked on furtively, wondering what was happening.
"Say, 'I'm sorry for picking a fight with you' every time you get hit. Understood?"
"W-who agreed to something like that?"
I smacked Diana's bottom.
I didn't hit her hard. I knew that lightly spanking her, as if disciplining a child, would only maximize her humiliation.
Smack!
"Sob...! I-I'm sorry for picking a fight with you..."
"Who are you sorry to?"
Smack! I struck Diana's cute bottom again.
"I'm sorry for picking a fight with you, Decal...!"
Smack!
"Hic... Sob... I'm sorry for picking a fight with you..."
Diana was teary-eyed as she took ten swats.
"Well done."
After standing up, Diana clutched her skirt in a crumpled fist and breathed heavily.
"Are you all right?"
"Shut up...!"
"Heh heh..."
Snap.
I snapped my fingers.
The hand clutching her skirt slowly fell to her side.
Leaving Diana in a trance, I pondered for a moment.
I had thought she was the arrogant, prideful type like Bella. But Bella had been bold enough to actually threaten me by putting Isti's life on the line, so
the submission suggestion had been rather fun in its own way.
But the same submission suggestion wasn't suitable for Diana.
Because Diana's essence was that of an immature girl.
Having grown up relying on her accomplished and powerful sister and the prestige of a noble family, she talked about staking her life, but she had no actual resolve to do so.
Then what would be good for correcting such a twisted child?
Bestowing love upon her. If I was bestowing something, would that be a reward?
"Diana. What do you think about being praised?"
"It's only natural. I'm a young lady of House Vanguard... Being good at things is only natural. Being bad at something... is impossible."
Just as I imagined, she was shackling herself.
"But you've received quite a lot of punishment from me by now."
"..."
"What am I to you?"
"I wish you would just die... Everything got twisted because of Decal..."
Good. Let's start here.
"Diana. By now, you're sick and tired of receiving such humiliating punishments. Aren't you?"
"Yes..."
"There isn't anyone you hate as much as me in your life."
"...That's right."
"So, if you're a young lady of House Vanguard, you should be able to earn recognition even from someone like me.
「Receiving my recognition is the thing that brings you the greatest joy.」"
This seemed weaker than a submission suggestion, but it was one of the truly chilling and frightening suggestions.
I had chosen it as a suggestion capable of reversing the loathing Diana had harbored toward me until now.
The human desire for recognition was truly powerful.
The moment the suggestion took root and she began believing that she had to receive my recognition... Diana would become beyond saving.
On top of that, I imposed one more fatal suggestion.
"「When you receive a reward from me, all your suffering will be compensated.」"
"A reward..."
Along with recognition, the rewards I gave her—even something as trivial as a word of praise or a touch, like patting her head.
On a grander scale, a gift I had prepared personally. Everything I called a reward would be imbued with meaning for Diana.
It seemed excessive for an immature girl like her.
Of course, I felt no guilt.
Clap.
I woke Diana with a clap of my hands.
"Just you wait until next time... This isn't over."
After dismissing her soldiers and bowing over my legs, apologizing, apologizing—even after taking a spanking on the butt.
Perhaps unwilling to lose with her words to the very end, Diana left behind a line like some villain from a long-outdated melodrama before departing.
I had set the trigger.
It would activate at any time, given the slightest catalyst.
I bit into the bread that was my share.
“Tasty.”
“Oppa!”
Karen recognized me and came running over.
“How did it go?”
Judging by her bright expression, it seemed she had done well.
“Yeah! I watched you do great. It looked like the interview went well, too!”
“The interviewers weren’t just staring at your breasts, were they?”
“Good grief. Oppa…”
I handed Karen the bread I had bought to take away.
“Eat. I bought it for you.”
“You bought it for me?”
Karen blinked, then quickly sat down beside me and pressed herself against my body.
“I’ll enjoy it. Oppa!”
“Finish it, then we’ll go.”
“Okay!”
Perhaps because she had done well on the exam, Karen seemed to be in an excellent mood.
“It’s delicious.”
As Karen munched on her bread, she spoke as though she had just remembered something.
“That boom was you, right, Oppa? I thought it was your magic.”
“That’s right. It was my Overcharging Fireball.”
“Amazing! That’s my Oppa, all right. A mage who caught a Sin Wolf really is something else.”
“You caught it with me, didn’t you?”
“I only helped out. Ah, Oppa. Hold still.”
What?
Karen picked up a crumb of bread stuck to my mouth and put it in her own.
“It was stuck to your mouth.”
“Urgh…!”
Damn it. I wasn’t used to this at all.
I felt like I was going to die from the sheer embarrassment.
Having sex shamelessly in the interview room after casting Unrecognizable was fine, but this sort of sentiment was far too unfamiliar to me.
This wasn’t some old-fashioned romance movie, either. Ah, damn it. It felt like my body was on fire.
Perhaps she noticed my reaction, because Karen grinned.
“Oh? Oppa, are you embarrassed?”
“S-Shut up.”
“So you’re weak to this kind of cheesy, lovey-dovey stuff? Hehe~. How innocent.”
Good heavens.
It was the first time in my life that a woman had called me innocent.
“I’ve discovered a new side of Oppa before Isti did.”
“Says the cock sleeve…”
“You’re just saying that to hide how shy you are, right? I know everything. Normally, you would’ve started by fondling my breasts. Heehee♥”
“Guh…!!”
I lost…!
Realizing that the more I spoke this time, the more I would lose, I simply kept my mouth shut and ate my bread.
“They said the results would be announced tomorrow. Do we enroll right after that?”
“I asked, and they said there’s a three-day preparation period. We can enroll right away if we want.
Then we’ll be assigned to the preparatory class and receive basic training first, I think. They said our ranks will be decided there.”
“Ranks… Do you know anything more specific?”
“Melvrit’s evaluation criteria are broadly divided into two things: martial ability and intellect. And, more generally, various miscellaneous skills that are useful on adventures.
Things like searching, cooking, constructing camps, and carrying luggage.”
“So that’s why there were applicants who weren’t used to fighting.”
“Yeah. Apparently, not everyone enjoys fighting. They say only about a third of all the students at Melvrit pay attention to martial ability.”
Karen seemed to have heard a great deal from the applicants and examiners.
We had spent the same amount of time in the same place, yet the difference was enormous. What had I done?
Received fellatio once and ejaculated inside her once…
…That could certainly be called a productive use of time, too. Absolutely.
“How many people make up that third?”
“Hmm… About five hundred?”
What?
With facilities of this caliber, the total population was only a little over a thousand?
So it really was true that they were suffering from a chronic shortage of personnel.
“So Melvrit’s rankings run from first to five-hundredth. They’re continuously updated at regular intervals, so it seems to be structured in a way that lets students in the upper ranks receive special privileges.”
“Is the numerical competition only for martial ability?”
“There’s probably a ranking based on written exam scores too, like the test we took today! But apparently, the martial rankings are the ones that always draw attention.
Maybe that’s because it’s not a facility for selecting excellent students, but one for selecting candidates to become heroes?”
That made sense.
Being intelligent was certainly helpful, but the most important thing was whether one had the ability to support the hero fighting on the front lines.
Melvrit’s ideal recruit was probably someone who possessed basic miscellaneous skills, achieved excellent academic results, and also excelled in martial ability.
…Thinking about it that way, it was no wonder the selection process was so fiercely competitive.
I wonder what rank I’ll get?
I had seen how the fifth-ranked person fought, so I wasn’t expecting anything higher than that. Still, I hoped to make it into the top hundred.
“Shall we head back now?”
There was no telling when Isti would come out.
“Okay.”
We returned a step ahead of her to Elin’s inn, the Elves’ Rest.