My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 073.4: Interlude: Fūyō's Day

“Fuaaaaa.”

On top of a king-size bed, a minimum-sized little girl stretched mightily.

The setting sun was shining in from the window.

The time seemed to be past noon. She drank too much last night. Rubbing her aching head, the little girl sat up.

A little girl’s required sleeping time was ten hours a day.

An age where she gets sleepy if she doesn’t get enough rest. She was an adult dragon lady over a hundred years old.

If she was drinking until two o’clock late at night, waking up was past noon.

That was why Fūyō’s classes were all in the afternoon. If one became the highest rank of the six Princess ranks, one could push through that much selfishness.

“It would be terrible if I fell asleep during class, after all~.”

When she muttered so to no one in particular, there was a response from around the wardrobe.

“While saying that, you were dozing off the other day too, weren’t you. A complaint came from Instructor Mi’on, you know.”

“Ugh, that is true but… more importantly than that, why are you entering a person’s room without permission~?”

“The one who said you couldn’t wake up alone, so help you, was Instructor Fūyō, wasn’t it. Here, this. A change of clothes. There is no more time, so please be brisk.”

A blonde girl dressed in a Western waitress uniform held out the green dragon robe she held in both hands. It was the girl she hired as an assistant. Her name was Alice. Twisting her head which was still half-asleep,

“Come to think of it, that was so~.”

When she started preparing hurriedly, Alice helped her with dressing.

She was a competent assistant.

◇◇◇◇◇

Fūyō hated classes. Because they were boring.

Even if there were students who gazed out the window looking bored, students who fell asleep, or students who hid and started eating lunch early, Fūyō did not warn them. If anything, she intended to skip class together with them. No, she had actually slept together with them. Naturally, she was scolded later. By Instructor Mi’on.

Fūyō was in charge of Wind Magic and several classroom lectures. This day too, when she finished the classroom lecture and was walking down the corridor, lively voices were heard from outside the window.

The window frame was at about the same height as Fūyō’s head. Even if she tried to look outside, she couldn’t see as she was. So she jumped lightly and clung to the window frame. Clinging as if putting her entire weight on her elbows, she directed her gaze outside the window. There were familiar faces there.

“That’s why I’m telling you Ōka and I aren’t in that kind of relationship!”

“That’s right, Yū-chan. We are just friends.”

“It’s okay, rest assured. I understand properly.”

“Rest assured about what!?”

“That’s the kind where you absolutely shouldn’t rest assured, right.”

“The two’s breathing is perfectly in sync, like a married couple who have been together for many years.”

At the sweet and sour scent of youth, Fūyō trembled.

She certainly had such a time too. There was a master she decided to follow, and she was pushing forward toward glory together with congenial comrades. Such brilliant days.

However, that was a story of the past. Her former master and comrades were no more.

The survival competition of Dragonkin was intense and cruel. Once a conflict broke out, the strife did not end until one of the flocks perished. Like that, strife was repeated daily, killing each other inside the vessel called Dragonkin society, and only the survivors reigned as supreme rulers.

Those who could master glory were only a handful.

The vast majority became losers and disappeared from the front stage.

And Fūyō was also one of such losers.

Dragonkin society was not so sweet that one could live alone having lost the place to turn to called a flock.

Even Fūyō, if she hadn’t been picked up by His Majesty the Dragon Emperor, would have lost her life in solitude. And that was the same for the other teachers. That was why they hated their own powerlessness. They hated the powerlessness of not being able to protect their master and comrades deeper than anyone. Isn’t a weak person just like a mirror reflecting oneself?

“Surely, that Instructor Meika loathes Kishō-kun also involves circumstances around that area, doesn’t it~.”

Swinging her legs that were stretched out danglingly greatly, Fūyō floated her body with just the power of her arms and landed quietly from her toes. Brushing off the dusty cuffs roughly,

“That is why, it is necessary to prove that oneself is strong~. I would like Kishō-kun to do his best~.”

While receiving the voices of the trio still making noise on her back, the little girl left the place.

◇◇◇◇◇

“Uu-n, uu-n…”

The bookshelf stood soaring as if to cover her field of vision.

Standing on tiptoes, she tried extending her fingers, but she couldn’t reach the target object at all.

She had already been using a stepstool for a long time. If anything, she had stacked two vertically and was even challenging it in an unbalanced state. But, alas, the little girl’s hand only cut the empty air.

Whether stacking them roughly was a disaster, or the reckless posture was a disaster, the stepstools stacked like building blocks swayed.

“Wawa…”

The little girl dived from her face to the floor with a thud as she was, and hit her nose hard. Rubbing the tip of her nose with reproachful eyes, she stood up. Looking up at the target object shining in the sky, Fūyō sighed.

“Muu. I am troubled~.”

This was the library in the Lower School.

The ceiling was high, and bookshelves were fitted tightly up to the limit.

Fūyō, who ran out of measures, looked around to seek help.

Passageways surrounded by bookshelves extended straight to the left and right. However, figures of teachers or students were not found. So the little girl started looking around the whole library.

Was it around the time five minutes had passed? Discovering a familiar face, she called out to that male student triumphantly.

“Wait a minute, Kishō-kun there~.”

“—Kishō turned around, but there was no one there.”

Since the little girl’s bun hair was around Kishō’s waist, if he turned around as he was, it might certainly become a blind spot. However, he seemed to be fixing his line of sight to the front intentionally.

“Do not say rude things like a narration~!!”

When Fūyō became indignant and swung up both arms with a flail, he took out a candy ball from his cuff as if he knew that. It was milkshake flavor, highly popular among children.

“I’m sorry. I’ll give you this so please forgive me.”

The little girl, who snatched the candy ball as if tearing through the wind, threw it into her mouth at a speed invisible to the eye, and started doing nom-nom. Very sweet. She was satisfied.

“Can’t be helped then~. Just this time, okay~.”

Fūyō said things like that, blowing a teacher’s wind and reminding him. However, there was no dignity in the little girl showing a melting smile.

“Well then, I’m off with this.”

“Wait a minute~!”

Pulling Kishō who tried to disperse hurriedly, the little girl came in front of the aforementioned bookshelf. Pointing at the book on the top shelf, she announced.

“Please help me take that book!”

! Pointing diagonally upward. Looking up at that spine shining golden (so it looked to Fūyō), Kishō said.

“Ah, this is nostalgic. I did this often when I lived in Algant too. When running around with a balloon in one hand, there are quite a few children who fall. Then it often gets caught on trees of about that height. I used to get it down for little girls who started crying.”

“Instructor is not crying!”

“The one you deny is not the ‘little girl’ part, huh…”

When he turned his gaze to the mountain of collapsed stepstools, he muttered, “I see.”

“If you jump, can’t you take it?”

“Because it’s barely below the ceiling, if I jump I’ll hit my head~.”

Actually, she had already tried once and hit her head, but that was a secret.

Bringing a stepstool, Kishō got on top of it lightly and reached out his hand. At the point of five centimeters more to the target, his fingertips cut the air.

“I see. This is impossible for Instructor, huh. Please wait a little.”

Saying so, he stood on tiptoes, adding further height. He captured that spine into range at once. Like that, acquiring the target object disappointingly easily, he held it out in front of Fūyō.

“Wah, thank you~.”

When she was with an expression of satisfaction, for some reason her head was patted.

Normally, it was a point where she would appeal desperately that she was not a child, but right now the elation of having obtained the secret book was winning. Perhaps Fūyō trembling with emotion was suspicious, Kishō tilted his head wonderingly and peeked at the cover. And seeing that title, he said in a whisper.

“How to grow taller by drinking milk?”

◇◇◇◇◇

Healing the fatigue of labor with alcohol was the style of an adult dragon.

When she went to the BAR frequented by female teachers, there was one prior customer. She, a heavy drinker just like Fūyō, had already emptied three bottles from an early time before the night grew late.

“As usual, first to arrive, aren’t you~.”

Sitting alone at the counter seat and having a drink at a high pace was Instructor Meika, characterized by vertical drill hair and thick makeup. She directed her gaze to about several tens of centimeters above the bun hair.

“Oh my? The voice of a little girl from an empty space.”

“Tha-t’s-why-! Do not say things like Kishō-kun~!”

Flapping her arms in protest, Fūyō protested fiercely. And climbing onto the counter seat as she was,

“Beer. Without poison.”

She passed the order to the bartender.

Seen from the entrance, Instructor Meika sitting at the innermost seat of the counter looked here dubiously. Fūyō made the first move on that question.

“Because Alice-chan washes my dragon robe, you see~. If by any chance I spill poisonous alcohol, she might touch it by mistake~.”

“Is it necessary to be that considerate to a human?”

“Because it is His Majesty’s intention to accept even other species~.”

She gulped down the beer placed on the counter in one go. Just by the amount of missing poison, it was a little unsatisfactory.

Picking at the tip of her drill curl, Instructor Meika said irritatedly.

“Please remove the poison from my share too.”

“As I thought, Instructor Meika is kind, isn’t she~.”

“Little girl, don’t say cheeky things and drink silently.”

“I like the parts that aren’t honest too~.”

In the BAR of the Lower School, a system where the bartender chose snacks on his own discretion was adopted. Snacks for alcohol were placed one after another in front of Fūyō.

When she popped the fried chicken served on a small plate into her mouth, a somewhat mild taste spread in her mouth. That the stimulation when eating was small was because the poison had been removed.

“As expected, a pro~. To remove it as a service without being told~.”

The bartender bowed lightly in silence.

“Helping each other, and living life while caring for each other. This is exactly the form a flock should originally have, isn’t it~.”

“What are you saying keenly all alone. It is still too early to get drunk.”

“I thought I wanted to hear the story of Instructor Meika’s youth~.”

“Haa!? Such shameful memories, I forgot them long ago.”

“Is that so~? As for me~. There was a big boy in my classmates and—”

Like that, the night grew late, and in the end, Fūyō got dead drunk, and while having Alice, who came to check on her out of worry, assist her, she embarked on the way home.