Apparently, Her Highness Princess wants to keep her relationship with me a secret (what does she even mean by 'her relationship with me'?) - 3-5

3-5

Combat Art Location 《Vajra》

“Mary Lymph, Itose Orgott. Both of you, step forward!”

The new shoes were bought with the reward for completing Princess Emma’s request.

When walking up on the polished floor, it made a satisfying squeaking sound. I pulled an all-nighter yesterday, —but no problem at all.

Completing requests is important, but Combat Arts are just as crucial.

“This one match will decide your lives—fight with that level of resolve!”

Combat Arts are the subject where Westminster Academy puts the most emphasis on.

Teachers passionately support each student, and the opponents and locations vary depending on the individual. If the Combat Arts class overlaps with other classes, Combat Arts always take priority.

“Now then, begin your combat!”

The teacher standing between me and her raised a red flag.

That was the signal to begin the combat.

“Do your best, Ricchan! If that Sphynx was able to pull off a miracle, you can do it too!”

My matches were often held in the relatively small Eighth Gymnasium, one of the many battlefields prepared at Westminster Academy.

The venue of the combat arts was chosen based on the fighting style of me and my opponent.

“Un, I’ll give my best!”

My today’s opponent was a girl from a marquis family.

Her magical quirk was liquid manipulation. When the match began, she kicked over the buckets of water that had been prepared around her.

Water spread across the floor.

“Oh—Water, thicken.”

—This is just the worst. Even though these were brand-new shoes…

“I’ve seen his combat style before as well, but on actually facing him head on, he’s something else… There’s no way, it’s impossible! The White GrimReaper is way too scary… uwaaah… I thought I was gonna die…”

“There, there. You should not cry, Ricchan.”

The match was over in an instant.

On contrary to me closing the distance right off, she tried to block my approach with her magical quirk, but my own quirk was enhanced vision. Not to brag, but it’s performance is really good.

As I could see all of her movements, so making her surrender was easy.

Well, since I deliberately lost to Sphynx back then, this makes it six consecutive wins. I’m finally getting back on track.

“Orgott, good work there. As expected, at that level, they don’t stand a chance against you.”

As I was leaving the area, the supervising teacher called out to me. The number of teachers specializing in Combat Arts at this school— are an unusually in large numbers. Some even get employed just for teaching them new combat techniques.

Their main task is to check how I won and how fatigued I am after that, and then immediately schedule the next match depending on that.

“About your next Combat opponent, when would you like it?”

“Anytime is fine. I could even go again today.”

“Well, today’s impossible. The opponent won’t be up for it. More importantly—you are doing a good job at hiding those dark circles under your eyes. I understand how you feel, but don’t push yourself too hard.”

I stayed up all night working out a strategy against Harold after all. Maybe that’s why?

After cleaning myself up after that Combat class, I headed to afternoon classes. As there was still some time before class started, so the classroom was sparsely occupied.

“I~to~se-ku~n! Hey, hey, I heard you know! How you won against your combat arts opponent today, and you even had two matches back-to-back! Amazing!”

Sitting right next to me was Jina-sama—one of the leaders of Class 2-C.

“J-Jina-sama… A Very Good morning to you.”

Innocent, cheerful, light and fluffy as a cloud, impossible to even catch a hold on her—moreover, whimsical like a cat. Her graceful movements and cat-like appearance only added to that impression.

“Un~, good morning! No rather, isn’t it already afternoon, Itose-kun!”

“Ah… right. Sorry.”

She’s one of the few people who interacts with me so openly.

“Jina! That’s Princess Emma’s seat. She’ll be back soon—move already!”

“You’re so noisy~, Will. Are you on edge because you have a match against Itose-kun coming up? It’s your third time, after all~?”

Her teasing voice makes her opponent’s anger flare up instead.

“S-Shut up! Don’t talk nonsense!”

“You’ve already lost twice, haven’t you~. Now, if you lose the third time, it’ll be really bad for someone pretending to be a class leader, right?.”

“Don’t make baseless claims!”

Will, from a duke family, kicked his desk in frustration.

“Ugh, so barbaric! Westminster is just the worst right~! Nothing but crude men like him.”

Jina-sama and Will were the two top figures of Class 2-C. Apparently there are going on rumors that Princess Emma would either intervene or form her own faction.

“On the other hand, you’re so different, Itose-kun. Your fighting style is just so beautiful.”

“N-No, that’s not…”

Please stop, Jina-sama. I beg you, don’t drag me into both of your mess… Or so I hope but, Jina sama would deliberately and frequently call out to me, just to tease Will.

By the way, the one who gave me the nickname White GrimReaper… was Jina-sama.

“Say, Itose-kun. If you’re free after school, how about going on a date with me?”

“…”

This person just drops bombs like this from time to time. Just who do you think you are inviting on a date with you, Jina-sama? Do you even realize your own position? Just like right now, the way Jina sama would call out and talk to just anyone casually, makes her incredibly popular. Also, the number of male students aiming for her from the shadows are way too many.

While I figuring out how to politely refuse her in this freezing up atmosphere, there was a dull thud at the classroom entrance.

“…Ah, I’m sorry! Even I got surprised by that…”

At the door, Princess Emma stood frozen—her textbooks scattered across the floor.