My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 91: I Surrender. Banza~i!

“This is bad. Extremely bad.”

“It’s a hopeless situation, isn’t it?”

“Is this really the time to be acting so carefree?!”

At Instructor Hyōri, who had struck a pose of surrender as if this were someone else’s problem, Instructor Riju shouted loudly enough to make her already rugged face seem even fiercer.

The scene was a conference room in the Upper School’s main building.

Three female teachers sat around the round table at its center.

“Riju-san, Riju-san. If you get that angry, you’ll get wrinkles, you kno~w.”

The one speaking in that cutesy tone, with two pink ribbons tied in her hair, was Instructor Ayana, who taught Light Magic in the Upper School. The Dragon Robe she wore was a specially altered one covered in ribbons in blatant disregard of school regulations. Teacher colors were supposed to be uniformly green in both the Upper and Lower Schools, yet for some reason, her robe was a flashy, passionate pink.

“Ayana’s individuality has broken clean through the limits, hasn’t it? Though I suppose it’s strange hearing that from someone in a white coat.”

Riju glared at Instructor Ayana and let out a rough breath. Her short bob hair and round eyes only made the contrast between them all the more absurd.

“Hmph. Your head’s just a flower garden, isn’t it?”

“That’s awful, just awful! Riju-san, your personality is horrible, isn’t it~?”

Instructor Ayana puffed out her cheeks.

At that cutesy behavior, which completely ruined the tension in the room, the lines in Instructor Riju’s face deepened further. The one who stepped in to mediate between the two women, who were beginning to look genuinely dangerous, was Instructor Hyōri.

“Calm down. We were discussing how to deal with Kishō-kun, weren’t we? Honestly, you two are like oil and water.”

“What a terrible thing to say! I think Riju-san is the one picking a fight~.”

“It’s because you’re giving off such a frivolous atmosphere in a situation like this!”

With a sigh, Instructor Hyōri rose from her seat.

“Oi, wait. Where do you think you’re going?”

“If you’re not going to take this seriously, then I’ll excuse myself. I may not look it, but I’m a busy person.”

“Ah— Riju-san made Hyōri-san angry~!”

“You’re just as guilty!”

Even after receiving those half-hearted apologies from the other two, Instructor Hyōri only reluctantly sat back down.

“So then. How far had we gotten?”

“To the part where a huge faction has formed and we’re completely helpless.”

Instructor Hyōri nodded with another sigh.

“Right. A faction on a scale we’ve never seen before has been created, centered on Kishō-kun and Sōgetsu-kun. The issue at hand is how to deal with that, and it’s not an easy problem.”

“Hyōri-san, Hyōri-san. Students forming factions isn’t exactly a new development, you kno~w. Is there really a problem?”

“There’s a massive one, you fool! If a faction that huge is completed, no one’s going to think of laying a hand on that boy anymore, are they?!”

Hyōri covered her ears against the gorilla-like roar.

Resting both elbows on the round table, Ayana slumped and said in a listless tone,

“But isn’t that fine~? Even without getting so worked up.”

“Like hell it’s fine! This came down as a direct order from the Headmaster herself. Besides, at this rate, the Upper School’s going to lose face.”

“That’s exactly the problem, isn’t it? I suspected that insidious four-eyes had some scheme in mind the moment she sent him over here, but I never expected it to go this far.”

The two teachers let out heavy sighs.

Only Instructor Ayana remained completely unconcerned.

“From a diplomatic perspective, doesn’t this just mean the Upper School students aren’t going to move no matter what we do anymore~? In other words, we’re out of pawns. Do you understand what that means~?”

“That’s exactly why I’m saying it’s bad!!!”

“No, Riju. Ayana is right. We teachers can’t exactly start killing one another in Vale Tudo using students. We’re already checkmated.”

The moment Hyōri backed her up, Ayana brightened at once.

“Exactly, exactly! So let’s just give up~!”

“There’s still the third-year top student, Ryokurin. If we can guide him into fighting properly, then it’s still not over.”

“Riju-san, Riju-san. Is your head filled with muscles~?”

“What did you say?! Your head’s the one that’s just a pink flower garden!”

“Would both of you stop already?”

Hyōri’s attempt to restrain them sounded thoroughly exhausted. She let out a sigh so heavy it was impossible to tell how many times she had sighed already that day.

“Ryokurin-kun probably won’t agree. Shishiten-kun was instant-killed, after all. It’s only natural he wouldn’t want to make trouble for himself.”

“Exactly, exactly! Even if we conceded a hundred steps and said Shishiten-kun had put up a good fight, maybe Ryokurin-kun might’ve gotten fired up too. He thinks he’s stronger than Shishiten-kun, after all. But reality was cruel~.”

“Shishiten only lost because he let the fight get into sword range. If he’d focused on keeping his distance from the start, it wouldn’t have turned out like that.”

Only Instructor Riju remained set on resisting to the bitter end. The other two had already raised the white flag.

To that colleague who simply refused to give up, Instructor Hyōri said in an admonishing tone,

“At the end of the day, he cut Shishiten-kun’s practice sword clean in half, didn’t he? That means Kishō-kun’s [Sword Aura] really is off the charts. What does the specialist think?”

“Gh… well, that is…”

The hesitation in her answer itself was proof that even Riju had recognized that power.

“Riju-san, Riju-san. Let’s just give up already~. Even the Headmaster will understand~.”

“I agree with Ayana too. If we struggle any further, won’t we only make the wound deeper? I imagine that’s exactly what the Lower School teachers want.”

“But are you sure that’s all right? If this worsens our relationship with the General Consort-sama, even the Headmaster could fall, you know.”

Apparently that struck a sore point, because Hyōri let out a low groan.

“After all, it was the General Consort-sama who placed Seiran-sama in the position of Alliance Consort. The possibility isn’t zero, and that’s what makes it troublesome, I suppose~.”

“Hyōri-san, Hyōri-san. Why exactly do the General Consort-sama and the Headmaster hate the transfer student-kun so much~? I’d think having this much ability would be more than enough.”

“Hmph. Isn’t it obvious? Because he’s a half-dragon with no aptitude attribute.”

“Riju-san, Riju-san. I wasn’t asking the muscle-headed gorilla~.”

“What did you say, you—?!”

“Ahh— enough already! Do you two have some grudge against me?”

The teachers of the Lower and Upper Schools were like dogs and monkeys, but Riju and Ayana were just as bad. Caught between them, Hyōri was at the end of her patience.

With another sigh at the fact that her colleagues could not unite for even a moment, Instructor Hyōri removed her spiral glasses.

“Anyway, I think we should wash our hands of this matter.”

◇◇◇◇◇

There was a small forest on the Upper School grounds.

It was a dim little wood with a leveled promenade running through it. A narrow stream flowed beside the path, and the murmur of water mixed with the chirping of little birds. Clusters of blue flowers blooming in winter grew among the rocks.

“Brrr… it’s freezing. What was Kōran thinking, calling me out to a place like this?”

Teeth chattering from the cold, Kishō muttered under his breath.

There was not another soul on the promenade, no matter whether he looked ahead or behind. The little forest was deserted.

Elsewhere in the Upper School there were gardens with plenty of sunlight, and even greenhouse gardens. If someone wanted to enjoy nature, those were the places they would normally go.

Even the negative ions from the stream, which might have felt soothing in summer, had the exact opposite effect in winter.

In short, it was ridiculously cold.

When he happened to look up at the sky, he saw a round-bellied bird flapping desperately overhead. Its clumsy, near-panic flight was so graceless that calling it elegant would have been a lie. It flew so sluggishly that it would have been helpless if a predator had set its sights on it. The fact that such a bird could survive here probably meant there were no dangerous predators in this forest.

Kishō lowered his gaze to his feet.

The moment his attention dropped to the wood grain of the path—

Crack!

An unpleasant sound of a branch snapping came from overhead.

“Wha—”

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

The instant he looked up, something fell directly onto him.

Something hard struck his head with a thud, and the next moment a heavy weight crashed down over his whole body.

Before he knew it, Kishō was flat on his back on the ground.

His head spun.

“Ow, ow, ow… What on earth just happened?”

Just as he tried to rise, he felt a weight pressing down on his abdomen and frowned.

“Ow, ow! I failed~!”

What had collapsed across his stomach was a dazzlingly pink woman.

Two ribbons decorated her short bob haircut. The Dragon Robe she wore was neither teacher-standard nor student-standard, but an outrageously flashy, passionate pink. On top of that, it had clearly been modified with magic, and little ribbons were attached all over it.

“Oh my, oh my? Could it be you’re the rumored transfer student-kun~?”

The woman tilted her head while still straddling him as she raised herself up.

She looked about twenty years old. In dragonkin age, maybe that meant around a hundred. The shortness of her hair reminded him a little of Ōka, but the deep valley of her chest definitely did not. In a certain sense, the situation was undeniably erotic.

Flustered, Kishō hurried to sit up.

“An.”

The force of his movement drew a provocative little sound from her.

“My, my. Transfer student-kun is bold, isn’t he~? This is an adult technique called the face-to-face seated position~.”

“Never mind that—please get off me already!”

She was an extremely strange woman, but that did not change the fact that she was beautiful. Being caught in a position that close, almost embracing her, was more than enough poison for a young man. Blushing and unable to look properly at her face was only natural.

“Good, good! You’re innocent and cute, aren’t you~?”

She leaned toward his ear and breathed softly against it.

His spine arched involuntarily. Only then did she finally let him go.

When she rose to her feet, she looked up into the trees overhead and muttered in complaint,

“Muu~. I wanted that plump little bird for tonight’s side dish, though~.”

Brushing the mud off his rear, Kishō stood too.

“Are you someone from the academy? You don’t exactly look like it…”

At the moment, his entire impression of her was simply: pink, and obscenely so.

Receiving Kishō’s suspicious stare, the woman spun once on the spot and struck a pose. Sticking out her tongue playfully, she declared,

“I am the former Magical Girl, Magical☆Ayana! And now I teach at the Upper School.”

At some point, a wooden wand had appeared in her right hand, and she thrust the tip toward him with a smug smile.

“Ah. You’re exactly the kind of person I absolutely should not get involved with.”

For some reason, the dragonkin gathered around Kishō all tended to have especially strong personalities. The instincts he had developed from dealing with them were sounding a clear warning:

This one is the most dangerous so far.

Silently, he turned on his heel.

“Wait, wait! Please wait~. Ignoring me is cruel, it really is!”

She clung to him like a satellite, and just when he thought she had stepped away, she spread both arms and blocked his path.

“It was just an unfortunate accident. I think we can leave it at that. Do you still have some business with me?”

“I’m very interested in you~.”

“I’m not interested in you, so. Sorry, but goodbye.”

He feinted right, then darted left.

The self-proclaimed former magical girl matched his feint with quick footwork.

“And if you try to run away, I’ll catch you~.”

The next instant, she hugged him.

“Waaaah! What are you doing, you’re supposed to be a teacher!”

“This is the surest way to keep you talking~.”

The absurdly erotic female teacher rubbed her cheek against his. Still hopelessly inexperienced with women, Kishō pushed her face away with all his strength.

“No, no, no! What happened to the honor of Dragonkin women?!”

“I left it back in my hometown~.”

“That’s not something you can just leave behind!”

Even while being shoved away hard, Ayana kept trying to force her face closer. She did not care in the slightest that her features were being distorted from the pressure as she pushed forward. The struggle was becoming difficult to control. If his strength slipped even slightly, their lips might actually collide from the momentum alone.

Recalling that kind of unwanted accident with genuine fear, Kishō shouted at the top of his lungs,

“I get it! I won’t run, so please let go!”

Apparently satisfied by that verbal promise, the self-proclaimed former magical girl finally loosened her grip.

Kishō quickly put some distance between them.

“In the first place, weren’t the female teachers all hostile toward me?”

“I’m not especially hostile, you know~?”

“Well now. I’m not so sure about that.”

Under Kishō’s suspicious glare, the cutesy teacher puffed out her cheeks as if genuinely hurt.

If Tsukino had done it, he would have thought it honestly adorable. But given that this was a woman over a hundred years old serving as an educator, he could not shake a certain sense of disappointment.

That disappointing teacher, Ayana, suddenly raised both hands in the air.

“We’re out of pawns, you see~. So we surrender. Banza~i!”

Together with all the little pink ribbons hanging from her robe, she waved both arms toward the sky over and over with her whole body.

There was not a shred of dignity befitting a teacher in the sight.

“Somehow… you kind of resemble Fūyō-sensei.”

“Haa? What did you just say~? Me, the same as that drunkard little brat~?”

The color of her eyes changed instantly, and a dark aura wrapped around Ayana.

Remembering that the teachers of the Upper and Lower Schools were supposedly like dogs and monkeys, Kishō shuddered at the sudden shift.

Then the scolding began.

At first it sounded serious, but most of it turned out to be complaints about the Lower School teachers. Since he had already heard plenty of the same kind of complaints from Fūyō, Kishō just let it pass in one ear and out the other while nodding.

“—Wait, wait, wait! Are you even listening properly, transfer student-kun?”

“Yes, yes. I’m listening. Since Fūyō-sensei is working hard to drink milk every day and make useless strugg—I mean, to increase her height, please don’t be too harsh on her.”

Perhaps having vented enough, Ayana’s face brightened again.

“Anyway, anyway! I think we Upper School teachers won’t be hostile to transfer student-kun anymore, okay~? Hyōri-san said so, and… well, Riju-san may still be questionable, though.”

“That rugged teacher, huh.”

“Yes, exactly! Riju-san is muscles all the way through to the inside of her head, so logic doesn’t work on her. Please be careful~.”

Those were some brutal words to toss out so casually about a fellow teacher. Weren’t those even harsher than the complaints about Fūyō? Kishō thought.

Still, the fact that he had been acknowledged by the female teachers was good news.

“I see. So does that mean the obstacles blocking my marriage to Kuroyō are gone?”

“That won’t be so easy.”

That voice did not come from the cutesy teacher floating there in front of him.

It came from behind.

Turning toward the familiar lively tone, Kishō saw a tall girl standing there with her arms folded—Kōran.

In the first place, she was the one who had called him out to this forest, and if he overlooked how absurdly late she was, then her appearing here was less a surprise than the inevitable outcome.

And Kōran cut straight to the reason she had summoned him here.

“Mother still hasn’t approved. It looks like things may get a little troublesome.”