I’m so sleepy.
Honestly, ever since I came to this world, I’ve never been short on sleep.
There’s gotta be something to do at night, right?
In this place where there’s no phone or anything, the most I can do is exchange messages, and the only person I exchange messages with is Seria.
[Seria: It’s getting late. I’m going to bed now.]
And that Seria is a well-behaved princess who always goes to bed before 10 PM.
Thanks to that, after 10 PM, there’s really nothing to do.
With nothing to do, I end up going to bed early, and because of that, even if I wake up after getting enough sleep, it’s often still early in the morning.
But yesterday, I got dragged into Reina’s monster capture operation and came back late, so for the first time in a while, I went to bed late… Waking up in time for school was quite a struggle.
It was actually the first time I woke up to the alarm clock by my bedside. I usually wake up earlier and turn it off.
And I wasn’t the only one like this.
Even the well-behaved princess had a not-so-well-behaved day yesterday.
“Rudion. Good morning.”
“Your face doesn’t look good at all.”
“…Is it that obvious?”
Yeah. Your eyes are already half-closed.
“Actually, you’re right. It’s not a good morning at all. I’m so tired.”
“That’s why I told you not to push yourself and wait…”
No matter how tired I was, I couldn’t skip the lecture, so I headed to the classroom with Seria.
Staggering in my drowsiness, I was on the verge of falling asleep.
If it’s like this, you could have gone in first and rested. But no, you had to wait again.
In the end, I was really sleepy during the lecture that day. Both me and Seria.
“Wow, what are you two trying to do, huh?”
From the professor’s perspective, it must be really annoying. The two people with the best grades sitting in the front row, both dozing off…
Especially since one is a princess and the other is a direct assistant. It must have been hard not to laugh.
Thanks to being so sleepy that it would have been better to skip the lecture, I found myself in the fantastic situation of the lecture being over when I came to my senses.
“Rudion, Seria? You two, come see me for a moment.”
And just like that, we got dragged away.
Me and Seria couldn’t say anything and just followed her.
Right into Reina’s personal lab from yesterday. Seeing the bag we brought yesterday still lying around, it seems she hasn’t cleaned up yet.
Me and Seria…
I waited for Reina to say something, but she just kept looking at us, sipping her coffee, and not saying a word.
Finally, Seria couldn’t take it anymore and stepped up.
“Professor Reina, may I ask why you called us here?”
Hearing that, Reina smirked and shot back.
“Do I really have to spell it out for you?”
“…I’m sorry for falling asleep during your lecture.”
When Seria apologized, Reina shook her head.
“No, it’s not about that. I called you here for something else. Honestly, I don’t really care if you sleep through my lectures or not.”
“Then what…?”
“Rudion.”
“…Yes?”
Suddenly, Reina called my name. We were in the middle of a conversation, so hearing my name out of nowhere was pretty jarring.
Reina finally revealed why she called us.
“So, you. Why did you go to the girls’ dormitory last night?”
It wasn’t a direct accusation, but it was clear why she called us.
“…You caught me?”
“Of course. It was late, but there are plenty of students who stay up studying at that hour.”
“Oh no.”
Thinking about it, she was right. I’ve been slacking off and having fun, so I overlooked it, but this place is one of the most prestigious schools out there.
With midterms coming up, it’s only natural that students would cut back on sleep to study.
So…
“A report came in this morning. Someone saw you lurking around the girls’ dormitory late at night.”
This kind of development wasn’t surprising.
But Reina didn’t seem suspicious or scornful of me.
The atmosphere didn’t feel too bad, so I just listened calmly as she whispered something only Seria could hear.
“Honestly, I didn’t really believe it at first… but seeing you two together, it all makes sense now, huh? Ahaha! What, Seria, you’re becoming quite the lady, aren’t you?”
“…Stop teasing me.”
Seria’s face turned bright red. What on earth did she say to make her react like that?
Reina chuckled as if she found Seria adorable, then slowly composed herself and continued.
“Anyway, here’s the issue. The person who reported it conveniently left out the part about Seria.”
“Wouldn’t investigating that clear everything up?”
Just reporting it and dragging me in? That doesn’t make any sense.
The academy isn’t a pushover, and where on earth would handle things so recklessly anyway?
There are a ton of magic stones near the dormitory that act like CCTV. Just check those.
It’s not like they have real-time monitoring or recording functions like actual CCTV, but if something happens, you can use the recorded magic imprinted on the stones to figure out what went down.
Since it was just last night, the situation should be clearly recorded.
At my words, Reina nodded in agreement, but the problem still didn’t seem resolved.
“Yeah, that’s true. But that’s not the issue I’m talking about.”
As she said that, Reina pointed at Seria.
“Who’s this?”
Seria.
No, Seria Rubetia. The princess of the empire.
“I don’t care what you guys do together late at night. But… do you think the royal palace will feel the same?”
If anything involving Seria happens within the academy, it’s immediately reported to the royal palace. That’s the emperor’s will, after all.
Even when Seria blew up the cafeteria ceiling before, there wasn’t much reaction, but it was probably reported ages ago.
The person who reported it likely left her name out because, unlike me, a commoner, messing with her could lead to who-knows-what. The reporter would probably be treated as involved too.
And in this situation… dragging Seria into it wasn’t a great choice.
Even if I involved her, my mistake of approaching the girls’ dormitory wouldn’t disappear. It’d just make things worse.
“Do you really want an investigation? I’ll do it your way. I’m the one responsible for this mess anyway.”
There were two options.
Reveal the truth and involve Seria in this mess. Or… just take the blame myself.
“Which one do you want?”
She spoke as if I had a choice, but the answer was pretty much decided from the start.
“I’ll take the blame alone. What’s the point of dragging the royal palace into this?”
“Hehe. Good. You’ve thought it through.”
What can I do? If I hadn’t been caught, it’d be one thing, but now that I have, it’s not easy to deny it.
I’ll just have to take the blame.
Just when I thought the conversation was over, Seria, who had been quietly listening, poked me and hesitantly spoke up.
…Hey, Rudion?”
“Yeah?”
“Um, I don’t really mind if this story gets passed around the Royal Palace…”
What is she even talking about?
Do you want to tell your parents that a girl was running around with a guy in the middle of the night?
But I kinda get why she’s saying this, so I didn’t really scold her.
“Seria. If you’re doing this because of me, don’t worry too much. Even if you get involved, it doesn’t make my mistake disappear.”
“No, it’s not that… Ugh… I don’t know. Do whatever you want.”
Seria, who rarely shows such timidity, seems to think she did something wrong.
Honestly, if I had been a bit more careful, this wouldn’t have happened. But then again, someone with a “Trait: Absolute Good” thinks differently.
Anyway, in the end, it was decided that I would take responsibility for this incident.
If I just say I got lost while half-asleep, maybe they’ll cut me some slack?
I have an alibi since I came back late with Reina that day, so I think it’s justified.
At worst, it’s just a demerit or some community service within the school.
For now, all I can do is wait and think about that.
“By the way, Seria. Just asking… You two aren’t really dating, are you?”
“D-dating?! That’s impossible!”
Why are they chatting so happily? I’m not having any fun.
“Well, leave the rest to me and head back for today. Be more careful next time.”
“Okay.”
This incident isn’t big enough to warrant a disciplinary committee meeting, so there’s no need to prepare anything extra.
After responding to Reina, I walked out with Seria… and for some reason, Lilith was waiting outside. Training should’ve ended yesterday.
When I asked why she was waiting, she suddenly started saying something weird.
“Hey, you guys. Is the rumor true?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden? What rumor?”
“That Rudion tried to force his way into the girls’ dorm and got chased out by Seria. It’s all over the place now.”
…Huh?
“Who said that?”
“It’s not just one person; the rumor’s spread all over the first year.”
Just a moment ago, I was just someone loitering near the girls’ dorm.
Now, I’m suddenly the guy who tried to sneak into the girls’ dorm.
The rumor’s way too distorted. If word of mouth can transform three times over, what are we supposed to do?
