Apparently, Her Highness Princess wants to keep her relationship with me a secret (what does she even mean by 'her relationship with me'?) - 4-2

4-2

The Masked Lady

“Itoze… to think, a baron’s son like you got accepted by the class before me…?”

“Tomorrow, the classmates will be wagging their tails to get close to you. There’s no one in this class who is better at Martial Prowess than you, Harold.”

“I-Is that so…?”

Even I was surprised when someone approached me during the lunch break.

Baron’s son like us, are always being treated as a nuisance in Westminster, because of which, we were never ever got acknowledged as a proper classmate between our fellow students, at least not ever in my memories. I had never been in the same class as Harold, but from what I heard, he received the same treatment I did.

“So, Itoze, have you already accepted an offer from any team yet?”

Guess he was quite surprised, Harold asked, eyes wide in disbelief.

“In the end, they couldn’t control the outbreak, because of which the lunch break turned into a complete mess because of recruitment going between classmates.”

“…Same here.”

“In Class C, several of the leader types—like Will—gathered after school to decide the class team formations. Our class only unites during times like this, you see.”

“Will… oh, that annoying Zazarith… We were in the same class last year. I can’t count how many times I wanted to knock him down on his stomach so bad.”

Will was indeed a neurotic man, and he was especially harsh toward baron families like ours.

“Class C has Jina sama, doesn’t it… I’m jealous.”

“What’s there to be jealous of? Anyone who teams up with Jina sama or Princess Emma will have a seriously hard time.”

Jina sama is the type who doesn’t care about grades, and Princess Emma isn’t someone you’d expect to be an asset in combat.

“Just why. Working alongside Jina sama is an honor in itself. And that Princess Emma is a Roman royal. She must have inherited that eerie magical quirk as well.”

Ah, now I see. Harold doesn’t know that Princess Emma doesn’t have any magical quirk of herself huh.

The next morning, as I left the dormitory and walked leisurely toward the school building—

Inside the building, rumors buzzed—that, ‘another one of His Excellency’s games had begun’ or so, and also that, the second-years had got caught in his “baptism,” There were a lot of upperclassmen who exchanged insults about the His Excellency because of this as well.

His Excellency’s games… No one could blame them for thinking it in that way.

Everything that man does is always sudden and outrageous. Apparently, last year’s, now third-years were constantly at his mercy. Many students were expelled just from being caught up in his whims, or so the story goes.

A mere whim from His Excellency could lead to expulsion—those terrifying rumors made everyone take everything related to him seriously. Yesterday’s recruitment battle was proof of that.

When I entered the classroom, there was a crowd gathered in front of the blackboard.

“…”

I glanced at them from side and walked away. I headed to the back row, by the window, where no one could see me—my designated spot. Among the crowd, some classmates cheered and patted each other’s shoulders.

—I can’t enter that circle. After all, I’m just a small existence to be even worthy. In this school, people like me just get carried along like those drifting clouds.

“Orgot, I’ll tell you your team.”

Will Zazarith. Among his friends, they simply called by the name Will.

His black hair was slicked back with hair gel, and his nervous but adamant eyes. Come to think of it, yesterday, the class decided that Will would organize the team formations.

Now then, with whom would I be paired with…?

“I stayed up all night thinking about this. Look.”

Will came walking up to my desk and slapped a paper onto my desk. While clenching his fist so hard that it trembled, and because he created a noise from that, every attention in the class was drawn towards us.

On the paper were several circles written in important looking handwriting—inside those circles where a number of names grouped together.

Ah, I see. So these are the teams huh.

I go and find the place where my name is written… and who will be my teammates—

“…”

Looking at that, I doubted my eyes.

I looked up at Will, standing across the desk.

“What the heck is this… isn’t my a three-person team, not four.”

“I took the class numbers into account. One team had to be three-men. We knew that.”

Considering the class size, it was inevitable that one team would have only three members. Even so, even if I were to consider that, this team composition made absolutely no sense.

Jina sama, Princess Emma… and me.

I just don’t get it, it’s just too incomprehensible. Why would a baron’s son like me be grouped with the two people standing on the top of the class hierarchy?

“However this is—”

“Orgot. Let me tell you one of the conditions for my promotion to the third year.”

Will put pressure on his gaze and bore them onto me.

“To make sure that not more than five expulsions are produced from this class.”

“…”

Even though, if it were so. To think that Will, who is always nasty when it comes to me, thought of this? That same person, who is ever more hateful when it comes to me? That same Will is expecting me to protect Princess Emma and Jina sama to the end of it.

Just like how Harold was saying last night, to be in the same team with the class hierarchy, nope — in the same team with two of the top school’s hierarchy. Moreover, there are many, many students who take pride in being in the same team with them, even in this class.

Jina sama’s combat skills were abysmal—she barely advanced to the second year, even with the duke family’s influence propping her up. Her magic trait was common and unsuited for combat.

…….  You gotta be kidding me. Are there going to be raining spears aiming at me today.

Princess Emma was an unknown. She hadn’t participated in any combat classes since returning to the academy—no one could count on her.

“Orgot. I want you expelled from this academy more than anyone else. But letting you both be expelled because of His Excellency’s games and whims is just unacceptable for me.”

At some point, the noisy class had gone completely silent. Although among them, the talk of the matter, neither Jina sama nor Princess Emma were present, but everyone watched our exchange carefully.

“Use that worthless strength of your’s and protect them with all you’ve got. This is an order to you, a baron’s son clinging to his bone to remain in Westminster. Fail, and I’ll make sure you have no future.”

“…”

Rational, my ass.

Your personal grudge is all over this.