My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 073.3: Interlude: Alice

On the first floor of the Lower School Main Building, there was a School Store.

It was a neat little shop tucked away in a corner of the building. They sold writing utensils, notebooks used in classes, and daily necessities. At lunchtime, bentos were piled up like a mountain on the counter, and students formed a long line. The bentos sold as a set with a bamboo cylinder water bottle were quite popular because of their variety and good taste.

There was also a cafeteria on the second floor of the Main Building, and many students used that as well. However, for Kishō, who was a complete lone wolf, crowds simply did not suit his nature. That was why his only choice for lunch was exclusively a School Store bento.

That day, too, Kishō visited the School Store. To avoid the crowd, he arrived long after the class had ended. Sales seemed to be going well, and the mountain of bentos piled on the counter had dwindled to flat land, with barely a shadow remaining.

Now, what should I choose today—or rather, what was left? As Kishō looked down at the few remaining bentos, a giggling laugh was heard from the opposite side of the counter. When he raised his face, his eyes met those of a clerk with blue eyes.

“Ah, wait, Alice-san? Why are you here?”

It was Alice, dressed in a Western waitress uniform and working as a salesgirl at the counter. She broke into a smile and said,

“I was hired by the academy through Instructor Fūyō’s introduction. While working as Instructor Fūyō’s assistant, I work as a salesgirl here during lunch.”

“Ah, so that’s how it was. But are you okay? Dragonkin meals have poison mixed in, so if you eat carelessly, you could die, you know.”

“Ah, that is fine. I receive thorough explanations of the ingredients, and I cook what I eat myself.”

“You are reliable, aren’t you, Alice-san.”

“That’s not true.”

Alice showed a shy smile. And, glancing up at him,

“I was invited by the Princess, you know.”

“Eh? To what?”

“She asked if I wouldn’t join Kishō-kun’s ‘flock’.”

Kishō choked dramatically. Perhaps it went down the wrong pipe, and he coughed terribly. Kishō apologized after regulating his breathing.

“Sorry. Kokuyō is a weird person, you see. Or should I say she has intense preconceived notions, she occasionally goes out of control. So please don’t mind it.”

“Dragonkin are a species that lives by forming ‘flocks’, right?”

“Ah, that’s right. It’s a strange culture that is difficult for humans to understand, isn’t it.”

“Kishō-kun, do you dislike me entering the ‘flock’?”

“Eh?”

Stared at by eyes that were moist for some reason, Kishō panicked.

“No, no, it’s not like I dislike it or anything. A ‘flock’ is, in short, something like a harem. Isn’t that somewhat unpleasant?”

“But, I was taught that it also has the nuance of an organization sharing a common destiny.”

“No, well… that is true, but…”

“I have become a person all alone in the world, so I have nowhere to go. I also don’t know until when I can work as Instructor Fūyō’s assistant.”

Her cobalt blue eyes, clear like the blue sky, clouded sadly.

—Merchant’s daughter Alice.

In the merchant city of Westport, she lived with her parents, the three of them.

Her mother passed away several years ago. She, who went on a stocking trip with her father, was attacked by a pack of demonic beasts controlled by Elesia Ichnosis on the way back from the city of Lacrè.

Due to this incident, she lost her father, and she herself fell victim to the murderer’s poison fangs and lost her ego.

Now she can live without issues like this, but Kishō could not measure that sadness.

Possibly, did I hurt Alice? Feeling so, he rattled on quickly out of impatience.

“No, that’s wrong. It’s not that I dislike Alice-san or anything like that. I, you see, was taught since I was small to love only one woman. Look, humans also have a monogamy system, right? So I have a very strong resistance to making a ‘flock’ too. So, I have no intention of wanting to reject Alice-san or anything.”

Kishō mixed gestures of his body and hands while waving both hands. In front of such a desperate appearance, Alice, who had looked sad, softened her expression.

“Kishō-kun, you’re cute.”

“Eh?”

“Hehe. It’s a joke. I also want to be loved single-mindedly like the Princess.”

“What was that? Don’t scare me. My lifespan shortened by three years…”

The remaining three bentos were held out to Kishō, who squatted down weakly on the spot.

“Now, customer. Which bento will you purchase?”

In the end, Kishō purchased the usual grilled fish bento. He left the place while feeling his face burning. And the left-behind Alice muttered in a whisper,

“I also want a boyfriend like Kishō-kun.”

◇◇◇◇◇

Dragonkin were full of handsome men and beautiful women.

In a city, there were one or two reputed beauties, but in the academy of the Dragonkin, it could be said that most of the female students one passed by were of that reputed beauty class.

That was the same for male students. There were people who were breathtakingly beautiful, cute enough to want to hug, or fearless and manly wild types.

However, their eyes were all cold and sharp.

Was it disgust toward powerless humans? Although no harm was openly inflicted, the passing Dragonkin all directed cold gazes at Alice and passed by. If you asked if she was being scorned, that was a little different. If anything, indifference—Alice thought they probably had no interest in her from the bottom of their hearts.

It was an academy like a lump of unfamiliar alien culture, fundamentally different starting from dietary habits.

That made Alice feel anxiety and loneliness where she could see nothing around her, like wandering in darkness by groping. The circumstance of being all alone in the world without relatives also spurred the loneliness.

However, in such total darkness, there were people who reached out their hands.

Instructor Fūyō, who hired Alice, who had nowhere to go, as an assistant. And, the one who arranged the talk with such Instructor Fūyō was the Princess. According to her,

“We are already comrades. In that case, helping is natural, right?”

For Alice, it was the first meeting. A breathtakingly beautiful girl declared so with her chest puffed out. She visited to thank her for helping her and talked just a little. Even though it should have been just that connection, to have her said even that they were comrades, Alice was happy enough to cry.

She said that the way of thinking that power was everything was outdated.

There were things she could do precisely because she was a merchant’s daughter. Put that talent to use, she said.

We need that power. So let us go together, she said.

A single ray of light suddenly inserted into the darkness etched by loneliness. It felt as if it were a guidepost leading to glory.

She was surely a person who could think without being bound by common sense. Discrimination due to difference in species, discrimination due to difference in status, discrimination due to high or low ability—discriminatory thoughts repeated as if natural all over the world; this person did not have them. Just one point, “Cherish comrades,” this alone seemed to be her unwavering belief.

Alice simply admired that magnanimity, and that was why she became interested in the thing called a ‘flock’. She became interested in the boy called Kishō, whom such a person fell in love with from the bottom of her heart and tried to serve.

He was a gentle boy. And he had the nostalgic scent of a human.

Unlike the boys of this academy, he treats Alice as a single human being. Perhaps not used to handling girls, the parts where he averts his gaze while being a little shy and converses were very cute, feeling like an adolescent boy.

Yes, he was cute. And, not leaking from the example of Dragonkin boys, she thought he was a very cool boy. However, not just cool, inside that he contained solid kindness, and every time they met, he worried about Alice in some way.

She thought she harbored goodwill toward him from the time of their first meeting.

And, as she understood the circumstances later, the favorability increased further.

Human society was mainly monogamous, but nobles adopted polygamy, and even for commoners, in wealthy merchant families, keeping one or two mistresses was common sense.

Despite that, while being surrounded by Dragonkin girls who were all beauties, he looked only at the Princess without glancing at others at all. Alice thought that was an amazing thing. He said it was because he was half-human, but when placed in the same situation, she wonders just how many humans could take the same action as him. Isn’t looking elsewhere what makes a greedy human?

If it’s a girl, anyone wanted to be loved single-mindedly. So she wished.

Alice thought he might be an ideal boy.

But, that was why it was also a little lonely. Because he was single-minded, he won’t turn around to look at her. Even though the trigger for harboring affection should have been in that single-minded love, the contradiction was that she wanted him to turn around and look at her. This might be selfishness.

If he became a human who keeps girls around and immerses himself in joy, she might become disillusioned. If he discarded the Princess and had a change of heart toward her, this feeling might disappear and vanish.

She doesn’t know the future.

However, as long as she held this contradiction, this love will likely never be fulfilled for a lifetime.

In that case, Alice thought.

If it won’t come true anyway, isn’t it also an option to watch over the whereabouts of the two’s love?

There was a concept called a ‘flock’ in Dragonkin society. It was a mysterious concept natural for Dragonkin. It was like a family, like an organization, and also like a country.

The Princess said Alice was a comrade.

So Alice just had to join inside that naturalness.

Since we were comrades, being together was natural. Like that, next to him, watching over the heartwarming two—their future—isn’t bad either. She felt like that.

Anyway, she was a person all alone in the world with no one to turn to.

For now, just trying to leave her body to the flow also seemed interesting.

Because, isn’t it so? Alice thought. That a girl took the initiative to try to make a harem was a rare event not seen no matter where else you go.

While gazing at the back figure of Kishō leaving the School Store, Alice was thinking about such things.