“…….”
“…….”
After lunch, on the train back to the Imperial Capital.
There was an awkward silence hanging around me.
Actually, to be precise, the passenger car itself was quite quiet.
When I visited the Kingdom of Velbur in my role as the Emperor’s proxy, it was natural for my escort to be on par with the Emperor, so the only people in the car with me were the Crown Princess Alice, and Prince Jayden and Lucas. If you think of it as a single room, it means that a spacious compartment was exclusively used for just us.
But now that I was on the train as an academy student, I couldn’t be treated any specially compared to the other students.
Of course, we had the whole compartment booked from the academy. The noble class A only had fifteen members, so having booked a whole compartment meant there was a lot of extra space. Still, it was just an ordinary first-class cabin, so there were empty seats everywhere, but it felt awkward to move around and do something.
After escaping from Rena Meyer and finishing my meal, I had locked myself in the room, and as soon as it was time, I headed straight to the train station, where I was greeted by none other than Rena Meyer herself.
It seemed I had arrived nearly 40 minutes early, but Rena had come out even earlier to wait for me.
Actually, she might not have been waiting for me specifically. Her diligent personality might have led her to come early just to wait for the train.
When our eyes met, her expression was still as expressionless as ever.
Thunk.
Once again, there was a salute so stiff it could produce sound effects. I could hear the clack of her heels connecting firmly with the ground.
“…You don’t need to salute every time we meet. Now that you’re in the academy, we are just classmates.”
“Understood.”
…
That stiff tone.
I just couldn’t get used to it.
It wasn’t the first time I met an expressionless character. If it weren’t for this situation, even Roti, who often hangs around with Jake, had that expressionless maid character vibe.
But… how should I put it? The feeling I got was a bit different. Roti was someone awkward about expressing emotions. This was true even in the game, as she wouldn’t dissolve into expressions of joy or laughter even when closer to someone. So… I guess you could say she was similar to Charlotte in personality. However, she was just a bit more focused on safety and didn’t want to cause any problems.
That’s why she reacts as if annoyed or troubled every time Jake clings to her. Even though there was a separate factor—her infatuation with him.
There wouldn’t be a reason for people to be shocked if Roti smiled. It’s just a natural expression that would show up when closer to someone, not a character reversal.
On the other hand, I was playing the role of a character with ‘suppressed emotions’…
For some reason, I felt a similar vibe coming from Rena Meyer. It was like a mask of expressionlessness.
“…….”
“…….”
40 minutes were before the train even arrived. Being the northernmost train station for civilian use in the Empire, the train showed up 30 minutes early to wait. There was, of course, Rena Meyer’s home in the autonomous region slightly further north, but the border area wasn’t exactly what you’d call safe for civilian trains to travel.
“…….”
“…….”
With two expressionless characters standing together, the conversation just wouldn’t flow.
I wondered if she felt as awkward about me as I did about her?
“…Is it your first time visiting the Empire?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
At least when I spoke, she responded immediately. And her demeanor was oddly military-like. More like seeing a fresh recruit, maybe. Her demeanor was rather strict.
…Not that she was a soldier, though.
“The atmosphere will be very different from that of Riclant Autonomous State, are you alright with that?”
“Yes, I’m very much looking forward to it.”
Though she certainly didn’t look particularly excited. With that expressionless face, it was hard to gauge her emotions.
…Is this how the others feel when they look at me?
Thinking back, I had once woken up early to try and catch Leo and Claire on their way to a quest.
Would their reaction have been like this the moment they saw me waiting with the body of the quest target at the entrance?
“…….”
Well, perhaps not.
Since Claire had greeted me with immense joy every time she saw me. Even in that early morning, she had greeted me with a beaming smile.
Leo had been the uncomfortable one.
…Did I overdo it?
While I was lost in thought, the train arrived at the station. Until then, Leo and his party still hadn’t shown up. In the game, they always arrived just before the train was set to depart after completing the quest for meeting the Sword Saint.
Meaning, I had to wait alone with Rena Meyer on the train until the party arrived.
While we weren’t the only students arriving early, none of the others felt the need to strike up a conversation with us. With the Crown Princess, who could kill people without hesitation, and an expressionless student whom no one had seen before together, how many people would dare to approach us?
Usually, I would have felt comfortable with the fact that no one spoke to me, but right now, I desperately wished someone would say something.
Hoping that during the train ride, Rena Meyer would choose to sit a little distance away from me, I found that hope to be in vain.
As soon as I picked a seat by the window, Rena Meyer sat squarely in the seat across from me.
“…….”
“…….”
And then silence.
There was no way I could just get up and move. No matter how expressionless she was, emotions do exist, and if I did that, it would surely hurt her feelings.
In reality, if I had usually sat alone, I might have thought, “Oh, that’s just how that person is,” but I tended to hang around with friends wherever I went. Of course, I wasn’t the leader of that group.
Whenever I sat here, Leo, Claire, Alice, Charlotte, Mia Crowfield, or even Jake would naturally gather near me.
But if I were to leave her here and move to a different seat to sit with my friends…
…That would definitely feel like I was ostracizing someone.
“…….”
“…….”
So I had no choice but to endure the awkwardness. Even though Rena Meyer seemed expressionless, she appeared to express her emotions through her actions… or so I thought. I had no certainty about it.
Perhaps she was the first academy student I had a conversation with, and I felt a kind of camaraderie… but again, I had no certainty.
I must have sat there in silence for about 20 minutes.
As other students began to flow into the train, the atmosphere slowly became lively. Though, the number was still under ten.
Now that I think about it, just counting the protagonist party, that would constitute more than a third of the class… In the original work, there was never a depiction of anyone in the party being ostracized in the class, but thinking about it this way, it seemed like the largest group.
In fact, if they wanted to ostracize someone, they would certainly have the power to do so.
Now I realize it was more like a major social clique.
About five minutes later, some kids came rushing into the train.
It was the kids who had finally climbed down from the mountains and taken a car with Jennifer only in the morning.
Thinking about it, since Jennifer, the teacher, was with them, they could have taken their time and still gotten on the train to return to the academy. Perhaps they were the type who absolutely had to adhere to their promised schedule, trying to make it on time.
“Sister!… Huh?”
Claire, who had come over to greet me cheerfully, was taken aback when she saw Rena Meyer sitting opposite me.
As soon as she noticed Claire, Rena Meyer stood up from her seat as if she were repulsed. Without needing me to introduce them, Rena Meyer rendered a faultless military salute, which she had already displayed twice before, and spoke.
“I am Rena Meyer. I greet the Crown Princess.”
“…Huh?”
Claire murmured in shock once more.
I wanted to wipe my face with my hand, but I held it back.
…So embarrassing.
It was embarrassing even for me, not being the person involved.
It seemed that Rena Meyer mistook Claire, who called me ‘sister’, for another Crown Princess.
…Ah, well.
Among the aristocrats of the Empire, they knew I was the one who had no drop of Fanggriffon blood, but in smaller nations with relatively less information, that was probably unknown. Even so, the Empire never publicly rolled out that I was an “adopted child.” The nobles probably kept it hushed up when meeting outsiders.
For the autonomous state, they must have been overwhelmed just handling their internal problems to have the capacity to investigate the lineage of the royal family next door in detail.
“…….”
With Rena executing her splendid military salute, the atmosphere inside the train froze for a while.
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