Luckily, it seems she has some sense of propriety.
“Well, I’m glad you’re finally admitting it. So, did you come here to talk about that?”
“Ah, no!”
“Then?”
Was there anything left to say other than admitting it?
When I asked, Olivia clamped her mouth shut.
She was fidgeting with her fingers. Her snow-white cheeks turned red again, all the way up to her ears.
“…I came to keep a promise.”
A promise?
“Is that about that personal maid or whatever?”
The conversation from the video I just saw flashed through my mind.
That did happen.
I had brushed it off without much thought, but like a true light novel heroine, she must have taken the maid business way too seriously.
“Yes, yes! A promise made in the name of the imperial family is definitely…”
“Not necessary.”
I cut Olivia off mid-sentence.
Her eyes widened.
“Excuse me?”
“I said it’s unnecessary. That kind of thing.”
Olivia is the main heroine.
Getting tangled up with her would just be a headache.
The core of light novel stories is salvation.
All heroines have salvation points, and only when the protagonist solves their issues and saves them do they truly open their hearts to him.
What that means is…
‘If I take on Olivia, I also have to do the saving, right? What a hassle.’
Her salvation point popped into my head.
Olivia’s issue is “a bad fiancé.”
The main story of volume 6 is all about the protagonist posing as a fake lover to thwart the engagement with Britain’s wild Second Prince, William, and revealing the connection between William and the villain organization “New World League” in order to save her.
Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.
‘You want me to do that? No way.’
I need to cut ties here.
I can roll with the punches just fine on my own.
I’m busy enough finding a way to return to my original world while just sucking nectar at the academy.
“But the promise…”
“You don’t have to keep it. It’s better for you this way, right? How can a precious princess like you act like a maid to a C-rank student from a minor nation?”
“That’s not true!”
Olivia squeezed her eyes shut and yelled.
Oh, that hurts my ears.
“Why are you yelling?”
Olivia pouted, then with a determined look, she started speaking in a serious tone.
“If you think I’m testing you, let me tell you that you’re completely mistaken. My promise with you is tied to the honor of the Bonaparte Imperial Family and my responsibilities as a hero; I have absolutely no intention of retracting that promise.”
“I’m going crazy.”
“Why is she so delusional?”
“Is it her pride as a member of the French nobility?”
“Damn it.”
“I’m starting to understand the feelings of a protagonist in an academy story.”
“I want to slap the back of my head for commenting in the past about how ridiculous this plot is.”
“I’m really sorry to all the academy story authors out there.”
“Alright.”
“Given the situation, I have to throw a blunt pitch.”
“I don’t like you.”
“Excuse me?”
Olivia’s body stiffens upon hearing my words.
Her previously confident blue eyes are now trembling.
I cross my arms and firmly say again, “Didn’t you get that? I said I don’t like you.”
“W-Why?”
Olivia looks at me, confused.
Is it because she’s been raised as a lady expecting love and admiration all her life?
She looks genuinely shocked by my words.
“Great.”
“Would you like someone like you? You suddenly ask someone you just met to show you their phantasm weapon and then talk about taking it by force if they can’t prove their worth. I’m lucky to have won; if I had lost… let’s not go there.”
I shake my head.
In this world, a phantasm weapon is like a hero’s clone.
Saying to treasure your gun like a lover in the army is nonsense, but saying to regard a phantasm weapon like one’s lover here is absolutely correct.
The price of a phantasm weapon is equivalent to that of a destroyer ship, and a hero without one is practically on par with an ordinary hunter.
So, by suddenly asking for my phantasm weapon at our first meeting, Olivia has gravely insulted me by this world’s standards.
To put it metaphorically, it’s like saying during a date, “I’m going to NTR your girlfriend,” out loud.
Am I just going to let that slide?
I’m not a pushover.
“That’s…”
Olivia falters.
Her face turns bright red.
She must feel embarrassed even to herself.
“If you understand, then you should just leave.”
I wave my hand dismissively.
This should be enough for her to give up.
Olivia lowers her head.
“…You’re right.”
Her trembling voice escapes her lips.
“It’s all my fault.”
“So?”
“…Please give me a chance to make amends.”
Olivia clutches her checkered school uniform skirt tightly.
I can’t help but let out a sigh.
“Why should I? Because I don’t want to, leave.”
“B-but…”
“Leave, I said.”
I point to the hospital room door with my finger.
Getting involved with the main heroine stops here.
If I go further, I’ll only end up hurt.
Acquiring Durandal was purely a necessary self-defense move.
I have no intention of deeply involving myself in the main storyline of the original work.
“…Alright.”
Olivia’s shoulders droop.
I let out a breath of relief seeing her.
At least I’ve passed a major hurdle.
“Oh, and I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Did you take a bath in the bathhouse today?”
Upon hearing the question, Olivia’s face turns bright red.
Her hands start trembling.
“N-No! It’s not like that! You scoundrel! Pervert! I can’t believe I almost called you ‘brother!’ Ugh! Anyway, it’s nothing!”
Olivia jumps up from her seat, eyes tightly shut, and shouts.
Her words and expressions are like a textbook example of a tsundere.
But right now, what’s important is whether she bathed or not.
It’s about whether to take a bath.
The first scene of “Weakest Hero” involves the protagonist Yuji accidentally encountering Olivia, who is naked, in a foggy bathhouse the evening after the entrance ceremony.
It’s what you’d call a lucky peeping moment.
Olivia challenges the protagonist, who saw her naked, to a duel, marking the beginning of the story.
It’s a classic boy-meets-girl scenario that every light novel embodies.
If we were to equate it to an anime, this would set up the first episode.
“It’s a shame if the naked bath scene is omitted from a light novel.”
I thought of the content from the first episode of the anime and said, “Make sure you do it. After dinner tonight.”
For Olivia to get involved with the protagonist, a lucky peeping moment is essential.
After that, the protagonist will handle the rescue on his own.
Yuji behaves like any typical light novel protagonist, always nosy and overly friendly.
“I’ll do it even without you telling me!”
Olivia shouted with a trembling voice.
She bit her lip and pulled a box out of her bag, handing it to me.
“It’s a hospital visit gift. Eat and rot your teeth.”
I opened the box she handed me.
It contained a set of exquisite handmade sweets.
“I prefer fried chicken, though.”
I couldn’t resist throwing in a trivial yet potentially annoying jab.
I had to find a way to sever any bond with the main heroine.
“Shut up! Just accept what I give you!”
Olivia retorted, flustered.
That’s a good sign.
I grinned, and Olivia turned her head, saying, “Then I’ll take my leave.”
“It was dirty being together, let’s not meet again, Olivia.”
“Who are you to say that?”
“Just go.”
“I was going to leave anyway!”
Click clack.
The sound of heels echoed as the hospital room door closed.
Once Olivia vanished, silence filled the room.
By now, she must have definitely given up on being some kind of maid.
Of course, Olivia couldn’t turn hostile towards me.
The mistakes that occurred between us were entirely her problem.
‘There’s no way the prideful Olivia could ignore the fact that she initiated the rudeness first.’
So, she had no choice but to grumble just now.
But I had no intention of indulging her whining.
We weren’t too close, but not too distant either.
That was the most desirable distance between us.
After all, she would soon meet the handsome protagonist, and forget about an extra like me.
That’s how it should be.
I took one of the sweets I received as a gift. I peeled off the wrapping and took a bite.
The sweetness filled my mouth.
“Still, fried chicken is better…”
I got Durandal.
Successfully maintained social distancing from the main heroine.
And I also provided a chance for Yuji to meet up, so it’s been quite a fulfilling day.
Is this the butterfly effect?
In the evening at Shuo Hero Academy.
At the start of a new semester, cherry blossoms in full bloom under the setting sun.
Olivia lay face down on the bed in her assigned special dorm room, burying her face in the pillow, skipping dinner.
“Fool, idiot, sea cucumber, moron, anemone, pervert, scoundrel!”
Thump thump.
Olivia muttered as she punched the unfortunate pillow.
Next to the bed, her shadow, maid Bella, stood like a statue.
“So annoying, this is too much…”
Olivia’s cheeks puffed up.
The events of the day replayed in her mind.
“Done.
Kim Deok-Sung.
To apologize for his rudeness and keep her promise, she gathered her courage and bought a luxurious sweet cake set as a hospital gift in Harajuku.
But what she got in return was cold indifference.
Bella subtly mentions, “Didn’t the Princess wrong him?”
“Well! Yes, but…”
Olivia trails off, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
She knows full well.
How rude she truly was.
Telling a hero to surrender his weapons is quite the insult.
Though it was said in the context of retrieving her brother’s weapons, that’s her perspective.
From the other person’s point of view, it must have been a tremendous insult.
“…You’re right. It’s my fault.”
Olivia’s shoulders drop.
She feels hurt.
But there’s no denying his words.
Providing a chance for reconciliation is entirely up to him.
It’s not her place to meddle.
The blame rests solely on her.
She merely thought that, naturally, he would accept her proposal.
‘What a misunderstanding.’
Olivia buries her face in her pillow.
She thought she was different from the other candidates.
She believed she understood the sense of responsibility that comes with the hero’s power.
‘But I’m the same.’
However, that wasn’t the case.
Even she, prideful in her uniqueness, turned out to be no different from any other student.
Olivia realized this only after visiting Kim Deok-Sung.
Her face turns beet red.
She felt ashamed of her own sense of superiority.
“Princess, what are you planning to do next?”
Bella’s calm voice reaches Olivia’s ears.
“Hmm… Regardless, I was wrong…”
Olivia continues, “…I need to meet him again.”
Her expression intensifies.
She has come to understand that she is no different from those she had so scorned.
But she can’t just give up here.
If she knows she made a mistake, she has to correct it.
Her dear brother, the Black Prince Raul would surely say the same in this situation.
“If I don’t meet him and apologize properly…”
Let’s keep apologizing until she connects with him sincerely.
Olivia resolves to do so.
If Kim Deok-Sung heard this, he’d probably think she’s lost her mind.
“Well thought out.”
Bella, the maid who has served the princess for over ten years, smiles faintly.
Carrying the heavy expectation of following in the footsteps of her brother, the Black Prince, Olivia had lived like a machine since childhood.
The reason Olivia came to Japan’s Hero Academy instead of the Academy in her homeland of France was due to the Emperor’s decision, wanting her to experience a bit of freedom from her sense of duty and live like her peers.
The Emperor’s decision was indeed right.
Only after coming to this faraway island nation in the Far East could the French princess wear the face of a normal girl.
‘I should thank Mr. Kim Deok-Sung.’
A look of satisfaction crosses Bella’s face.
At that moment.
“Bella.”
Olivia calls her.
“Yes, Princess.”
“Do you happen to know what seasoned chicken is…?”
Seasoned chicken sounds better.
The last blunt remark Kim Deok-Sung made still echoes in Olivia’s mind.”
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