CH 43

Her Highness is a Hard Worker

Translated by Hikaru

Edited by Mel

Episode 09 “Her Highness is a Hard Worker”

After school, the four of us left together, as usual, and went back to our respective dorms.

When I returned to my room in the boys’ dormitory, I immediately jumped out the window. After activating 《Toughness》 to soften the impact of my landing, I headed for the girls’ dormitory where Mize was staying, avoiding the stares of people as much as possible.

“Desu desu-, tto!”

I was singing a song unconsciously. As soon as I realized, I closed my lips and pulled myself together.

It seems that the song I heard during my lunch break has stayed with me more than I thought.

I took a quick look, but there were no enemies lurking around.

At this time of the day, just after school, the castle town is bustling with students as many of them leave the school. It’s not a good time for covert action. The bandits who were after Mize might refrain from conducting their operations during this time

In less than ten minutes, Mize came out from the girls’ dormitory.

Until a few minutes ago, she had been wearing the school’s uniform, but now she was wearing gym clothes.

Mize passed other students on her way out and headed toward the school.

She was headed to the training ground.

“Well, today…”

I held my breath and observed Mize.

She was practicing magic.

“To a certain extent, I’ve come to be able to use《Tough Rage》. It’s about time to learn some remote fire magic… but first, let’s learn some protection magic…”

Mize practiced while mumbling to herself.

Magic is not something that can be learned overnight. The first step is to accurately recognize the magic power circulating in your body, then practice until you can control it at will. Once you are able to manipulate magic, you need to learn the type of the magic you want to master, and then practice using that knowledge to activate it.

By repeating this process over and over again, one can finally master magic.

Mize was doing this work with tremendous concentration.

The magic that she is practicing now is the close combat magic 《Hard Shield》.

It is magic that creates a hard shield made of magic power in front of you and prevents your opponent from hitting you.

If used correctly, the outline of the shield would be clear, but the shape of the shield that Mize created was distorted. It would not be able to withstand the magic of an opponent, or even a bare handed attack. Mize also sensed that the magic did not work, so she erased the shield at once and created a new one.

“……”

Over and over again, Mize invoked the same magic.

She was dripping with sweat and breathing hard.

Alone, without asking for anyone’s support, she immersed himself in her practice.

I didn’t want to interrupt her, so I turned on my heels.

I’ve already confirmed that there are no enemies inside the school. It wouldn’t be a problem if I took my eyes off her for a while.

“Hey.”

As I was walking down the corridor, I was approached by a male student wearing a white uniform.

His face was familiar.

“I believe it’s the Guard’s …….”

“I’m glad you remember me.”

It was the male student who belonged to the Paternalistic faction of Mize’s Guard.

I wonder if this guy is simply using the name of the Guard to stalk Mize… If you put it that way, I’m just like him.

“Why don’t you take a closer look? You won’t be able to see into the training ground from here.”

“I don’t want to distract her from her focus. Both the Paternalists and the Purists are of the same opinion on this.”

Apparently, the Guard also has a sense of minimal moderation. It changed my perception of them a little.

“Does Mize always practice magic like this?”

“Yes, she does. As far as I know, she practices like this at least five times a week.”

“Five times? You mean all the days when we have class?”

“She also comes here on holidays. In that case, she practices like that all day long.”

He said somewhat proudly.

I gave him a short “I see” and walked out of the school building.

–I didn’t know that.

I didn’t know she was always doing this after school.

I had no idea.

She once told me that she had entered the Bildarz Academy to become an adventurer.

If you want to be an adventurer, you have to learn a lot of magic.

I guess that’s why she’s working so hard right now.

Seeing Mize selflessly practicing her magic, I was momentarily reminded of myself. When I had just been picked up by the agency, I was like how Mize is now, dripping with sweat and desperately practicing magic.

But we are not the same.

I had no choice but to do what the instructor ordered. I was only doing it because I didn’t want to be physically punished.

Mize was different.

She is training herself of her own volition and desperation. She found out what she wants to do and is pushing herself to make it happen.

That’s it – she’s living her own life.

“It’s… awesome.”

What she’s doing is something I could never do.

It’s exactly what I’m trying to do right now.

I felt a mixture of envy and respect.

The “freedom” she showed felt like “hope” to me, as I still didn’t understand my own life very well.

That “freedom” should never be tainted.

That’s what I thought, so…

“—Don’t you dare mess with that.”

“Ugh!”

In the alleyway just past the school gate, I found an enemy and was dealing with them.

“Mize is working towards her goal right now… Don’t you dare waste her hard work.”

I went behind the man and clamped down on his neck to silence his voice. I continued to apply pressure to the carotid artery to stimulate the nerves. Eventually, the man fainted.

I put my index finger on the back of the man’s head as he collapsed to his knees.

《Magic Bullet》

With a faint ping sound, the man’s brain splashed out.

It was already dark outside, so this should be easy to camouflage. I contacted Chris via the『communication paper』 and asked her to take care of the body.

This man was probably planning to attack Mize when she returned to the dormitory. The bandits seemed to have some knowledge of Mize’s routine.

This man was also wearing a reddish-brown cloak, just like the man I had defeated last time.

The bandits who are trying to take Mize seem to be a well-established organization that can at least unify their equipment. When I stripped off the cloak and checked the man’s equipment, I found multiple daggers and poison. These are tools that assassins like to use. Perhaps the bandits have expertise in assassination.

“…Maybe they’re a nastier enemy than I thought.”

It’s not just about kidnapping Mize. Not only do they have the tools to kidnap Mize, they also have the tools to kill anyone who stands in their way. It might be better to take action before they get serious.

I shrunk my black cloak and put it in my pocket before leaving the alleyway. Just as I returned to the path to school, I saw Mize coming out of the school gate.

Do I need to hide?

No, I need to ask her something.

I should probably hide, but I don’t have all the information I need to be an escort yet.

I’ve been running into her morning, noon, and night, which might make me look suspicious, but it’s probably the last time we’ll see each other like this for a long time. If I don’t interfere too much in the future, she won’t think I’m suspicious.

“Tweight-san?”

“That’s odd.”

I raised one hand in greeting to Mize, who looked at me in surprise.

“What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Taking a walk. What were you doing at school, Mize?”

“I’ve been doing a little… studying.”

So practicing magic is part of your studies. It seems that I don’t have a hobby to show off my efforts more than necessary.

“It’s dark outside, so I’ll walk you back to the girls’ dorm.”

“What? But wouldn’t that bother Tweight-san…”

“Let’s continue our walk. I was going to walk some more anyway, so it’s perfect.”

“I see. If it’s… please do.”

It was a bit forced, but I decided to accompany Mize back to the girls’ dormitory.

“I’ve seen you around a lot today, by the way.”

“Yeah, I know. Well, it’s all just a coincidence.”

To tell the truth, I’d like to know a little more about Mize’s daily life in order to establish a schedule for the escort, but I’ ve got the basic routine pretty much figured out today. From tomorrow onwards, monitoring from afar would be sufficient.

“I’m not sure if it’s the same for the women’s dormitory, but I can see the school from the windows of the men’s dormitory if the room is on the fifth floor or higher.”

“Yes, that’s what my acquaintance told me, although my room is on the fourth floor.”

“I’m sure you’re right… Well, the fact that you can see the school means that your room faces the main street. It’s a little noisy around here in the morning, so sometimes it’s hard to sleep in a room facing the main street. Do you ever have that problem, Mize?”

“I don’t really feel that way because my room is located directly opposite the main street. Oh, but a friend of mine said the same thing as Tweight-san. On holiday mornings, I’m usually woken up by the sound of the fruit vendor’s voice.”

Mize says, smiling.

After exchanging some random chit-chat, we arrived in front of the girls’ dormitory.

“I’ll leave you here.”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

After watching Mize enter the women’s dormitory, I went around to the back instead of going to the men’s dorm.

“Fourth floor, directly opposite the main street… That’s the area?”

I shrunk my body so as not to be seen and observed the room on the fourth floor at the back of the women’s dorm.

A few seconds later, a light came on in one of the rooms I was observing. I couldn’t say for sure, but I would guess that was Mize’s room.

Just to be sure, I’ll wait until all the rooms on the back side of the fourth floor turn off the lights.

A few hours later, after confirming that the last room’s lights had been turned off, I returned to the boys’ dormitory.