In a Female-Dominant World with a 5:1 Gender Ratio, I Saved a Girl as a Kid, and She Said She Wanted to Be My Bride—Who Would’ve Thought She Was a Princess… - 12

Chapter 12: Returning the ‘Charity,’ and the Worst Kind of Attention

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(Alto’s POV)

Inside my room in the old dormitory. I was glaring resentfully at the now-empty heat-retaining soup container. Last night, in the end, I had given in to that “charity.” One sip, then another. I had drunk down that humiliatingly delicious soup. My stomach had been filled, but in exchange, my heart was crammed full of wretchedness and misery.

…I had been “fed” by that princess. A capricious “charity” bestowed upon a pitiful rat of the old dormitory. She must have been mocking me from the terrace of the detached palace, laughing as she watched the miserable look on my face while I clung to it.

…Don’t screw with me!

The problem was this empty container.

What should I do about this?

If I threw it away, would it be taken as “spurning the charity,” prompting the head maid to appear again and this time, would I really be sent off to a laboratory for good? But keeping it as it was would be just as humiliating.

“…Damn it.”

I carefully polished the container, then, early in the morning while no one was around, I quietly returned it to the back entrance of the old dormitory—to the exact spot where the maid had left it last night.

…This was the only way I could express my will. A pathetic act of resistance that said, “I ate it. But I won’t thank you.” That day, my vigilance had already reached the level of a paranoia. I slipped into the lecture hall at the very last moment before all the students finished arriving, then crawled into a seat in the farthest back corner. Every gaze around me started to feel like the princess’s surveillance.

…Calm down. I’m a mob character. Just a part of the background scenery.

I told myself that and lowered my eyes to the textbook. That day’s lecture was History of Magic. It was a boring class about how, throughout this world’s history, female royals and high-ranking nobles with magic power had developed the nation. I erased my presence and killed time by scribbling meaningless geometric patterns—completely unrelated to magic control—in the margins of my textbook.

…Hurry up and end. I want to hide in the underground archive already.

“—Then, you there, the man.”

The teacher’s sticky voice pointed at me.

…!

When I looked up, the gazes of the entire class were focused on me alone. The teacher was wearing a nasty, self-satisfied grin.

“You’re the student that got in through recommendation, right? Alto von Kirschwasser-kun, was it? Is a lecture of this level boring for a man deemed worthy of recommendation?”

…This was the worst. Had he noticed that I thought it was boring? Leonardo, sitting near the front of the classroom, was looking at me with clear amusement. That bastard. Did he say something to the teacher? Before I could respond, the teacher pressed on.

“Then, Mr. Recommendation. This is from yesterday’s material. …State the cause of the ‘Great Catastrophe’ that brought about the collapse of the ancient magical civilization.”

The entire class was stifling snickers. It was a malicious question. The textbook said nothing more than “There are various theories, and it has yet to be elucidated.” In other words, it was a question with no correct answer—one meant to make me embarrass myself.

I let out a sigh.

…Fine. I’ll embarrass myself just like you want.

Whether I answered correctly or incorrectly here, I would stand out anyway. Then the best course was to get through this as the “stupidest mob character possible.”

“…I don’t know. It wasn’t written in the textbook.”

When I answered that way, the teacher raised his voice as if to say, “See? I knew it!”

“What did you say? Because it’s not in the textbook, you ‘don’t know’? Is that the answer of a student that got in through recommendation?!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

“Maybe even the recommendation he received itself was fraudulent!”

Leonardo’s entourage jeered as if they’d been waiting for this. Good. This was fine. Now I would be labeled as “the idiot who knows nothing despite being a student who got in through recommendation.” Thinking that, I started to sit back down—

“…Kirschwasser-kun.”

The teacher, wearing a mocking smile, tried to corner me further.

“Then what do you ‘think’ about this ‘Great Catastrophe’? Go on, make a deduction using that so-called ‘knowledge’ that made you worthy of recommendation.”

How persistent. I felt a quiet anger well up at the malice in this teacher’s words.

…Fine. If you’re going that far…. Dad. I studied, just like you taught me to.

I quietly stood up.

“…A conjecture, then? This is my personal view, something not written in the textbook.”

I organized the knowledge from my previous life—physics and astronomy—together with this world’s magic theory, and the information from ancient documents I had read in the underground archive over the past few days, then opened my mouth.

“The cause of the ‘Great Catastrophe’ was not a runaway of magic power. …It was a purely ‘physical phenomenon.’”

“…Huh?”

“The ancient magical civilization overestimated magic power and deployed large-scale ‘mass weapons’ in satellite orbit. For some reason… Most likely a loss of control due to an excessive supply of magical energy… They ‘fell’ to the surface, resulting in the Great Catasthrope. That is my personal opinion.”

Silence. The classroom fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The teacher’s mouth opened and closed uselessly. He couldn’t say anything.

“R-ridiculous! Satellites? Mass weapons? What are you—!”

“Which is why this is only ‘my opinion.’ …Is that acceptable?”

With that said, I sat back down without waiting for the teacher’s reply. I messed up. I did it again. I didn’t want to stand out, but I failed to play the role of a “mob character.” My answer deviated far too much from this world’s common sense. My classmates’ perception of me shifted from “a creepy guy” to a full-blown “incomprehensible and dangerous lunatic.”

Even Leonardo’s mocking smile vanished as he stared at me sharply, as if analyzing me.

…This is the worst…!

I buried my head in my hands and somehow endured the rest of the day’s lectures. And then, that evening. When I returned to my room in the old dormitory with even heavier steps than the day before… There was a package in front of my door, noticeably larger than yesterday’s. Inside were warm soup and bread, plus a high-quality steak, and a luxury-looking dessert in a small bottle.

………….

Faced with that excessively lavish “charity,” my knees nearly gave out. I really was being watched. The fact that I had drunk the soup dry last night, and returned the empty container this morning. My answer during today’s lecture.Even that had been reported to the princess.

…It seemed my answer had really amused her idea of killing time…! This was a reward for a monkey that had performed an amusing trick. Misunderstanding the princess’s true intentions more and more, I clenched my teeth as I glared at the warm steak on the spot.

…Tonight as well, am I going to eat this humiliating “feed”…?

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