The Shut-In Prince’s Splendid Social Debut — Me, a Villainous Imperial, Have Spent the Last Fifteen Years Fighting the “Wicked Thoughts” Eating Away at My Mind. When I Finally Returned to High Society, There Were Way Too Many People I Didn’t Recognize — - Chapter 36: Lala's Training Plan

◇◇◇◇

My name was Lala Lirure Lorietta.

I was the daughter of the prestigious Lorietta Count family.

From birth, I had possessed no “Role Archetype.”

I was one of the so-called “Role-less,” an existence people scorned.

The future of noble children judged to be “Role-less” was usually miserable.

First, they were stripped of their noble status. If it was a girl, she was given away to an influential commoner; if it was a boy, he was cast out from the family.

Naturally, I too had been set on that path.

My family had still tried to protect me, but there had been limits.

Pressure had come from the Freylack Marquis family, the parent house of the Lorietta family.

—”We cannot keep someone unfit to be a noble within the First Prince faction.”

I had been told that directly at a faction meeting.

In other words, “exile.”

For the nobility of this country, the words of one of the “Seven Stars” carried more weight than anything else.

—”However, it would be too pitiful for a daughter of the Lorietta Count family to be cast out into the wild.”

Saying that, the Freylack Marquis family brought forth an engagement with a certain western merchant house.

That had probably been the predetermined route all along.

The other party was one of the great merchants of the “Silver Pact Market,” the First Prince’s stronghold, and an influential figure within the First Prince faction.

The purpose of the engagement was to further strengthen the unity between the “Silver Pact Market” and the western Azellan nobles.

I had been chosen because I belonged to the western nobility and was a daughter they would not mind removing from the family register.

Naturally, I had no right to choose.

I had thought I would simply be given away like that.

But before it came to that, Father enrolled me in Hero Academy.

As he investigated that great merchant’s reputation, one disturbing rumor after another had surfaced.

He moved because he could not bring himself to hand me over like that.

If I could graduate from Hero Academy, then even if I was “Role-less,” my noble status would be preserved.

Father had gambled on that faint possibility.

It was his last act of resistance.

That was why I too had clung to that possibility.

…But reality had not been so kind.

There had not been a single student around Lv. 10 like me.

Though I had been surprised that there was someone even lower than me at Lv. 1.

What added insult to injury was—the “Level Attainment Exam.”

If the combined level of a pair did not reach 50, expulsion was mandatory.

And then, to make matters worse, my partner had ended up being Yoan-sama, who was Lv. 1.

That person who had made such a vivid debut at Military Minister Serbul’s Engagement Anniversary Party.

It’s over, I had thought.

…I had cursed my own fate, wondering why hardships just kept coming one after another.

And yet Yoan-sama had reached out to me, crushed as I was.

What had surprised me was that he had been far more positive than I expected.

…But that positivity had been frightening.

Because if anything happened to Yoan-sama, the responsibility for it would all fall on me.

I had faced the day of our dungeon run in the worst possible state of mind.

And as one might expect, we had immediately fallen into a desperate situation.

We had been surrounded by monsters on the very first floor.

I had thought Yoan-sama was going to be devoured and killed.

However, in the end, that fear had been needless.

Despite being Lv. 1, for some reason, Yoan-sama had been stronger than me.

…I had not understood what that even meant.

I did not remember much after that.

My legs had given out, I had been unable to stand, Yoan-sama had carried me on his back, and then…

…Aa, ah…!

It had felt as though my face were about to burst into flames.

I had remembered something unbearably embarrassing.

For someone who was supposed to be a noble young lady to expose such disgraceful behavior…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Forget it, forget it, forget it, forget it, forget it…!

…What had happened after that?

Ah, right.

He had told me—”You are not ‘Role-less.'”

…Honestly, I had not been able to believe it.

I had been examined in the past by an expert who studied “Role Archetypes.”

Because of that, I had thought there was no way Yoan-sama could understand what even an expert had failed to grasp.

And yet, some part of me had been drawn in by those words.

If I truly did possess a “Role Archetype.”

If I really could become useful to someone.

That hope had begun to sprout within me.

However, that faint hope had then been shattered by Yoan-sama’s next words.

“Lala, your ‘Role Archetype’ is…………………………………………”

“————”

He had announced such a shocking “Role Archetype.”

And I had thought—

—There was no way such a ridiculous “Role Archetype” could exist!

That was my last memory.

Then I had thought something else.

—I see. This is a dream.

Partway through, it had already started to feel strange.

Yoan-sama being strong despite being Lv. 1, me going through something so embarrassing, suddenly being told such convenient things as “You are not Role-less,” and then, in the end, being told I was a .

It had all been strange after all.

But if it was a dream, then it made sense.

Right, right.

If it was a dream, then I just had to wake up.

Thinking that, my consciousness had begun to rise.

◇◇◇◇

“Uyu… So it was a dream…”

I woke beneath the morning light.

It felt like, I knew it.

Of course that was how it had to be.

There was no way a “Role Archetype” called existed.

And had there not also been that nonsense about my “Role Archetype” being the strongest?

That could not possibly be true.

Today as well, I was still the same—”Role-less.”

However, I felt sorry for Yoan-sama.

Because if all of that had been a dream—then I would not be able to graduate from the academy after all.

A little while after I had begun getting ready for the morning—

Jii. (Doorbell)

The entrance chime rang.

(…Who could it be this early in the morning?)

I opened the front door.

Standing there was a young man with slightly long blond hair and beautiful sky-blue eyes.

“—Good morning, Lala. Your complexion looks good today. I’m glad you seem energetic.”

“…”

—It was Yoan-sama.

For some reason, he was wearing a tracksuit.

“…G-Good morning. …U-Um, why is Yoan-sama here…?”

“Morning practice.”

“Morning… practice…?”

I repeated those mysterious words as though trying to make sense of them.

“Yes. Yesterday, we found a mountain of things Lala needs to improve. Even though there are still two months until the deadline, that still is not enough. So I thought we would start doing morning practice every day from today onward.”

“…U-Uyuu?”

Yoan-sama said it cheerfully.

What in the world was happening…?

Perhaps because I had only just woken up, my head still had not caught up.

“I also gathered the equipment needed to complete your strongest build yesterday. Preparations are perfect. Wow, I’m getting excited…”

Dark circles stood out beneath Yoan-sama’s eyes as he said that.

“W-Why are you the one getting excited…?”

“Why? Isn’t it obvious…?”

I had a bad feeling about this.

And then Yoan-sama drove reality home with the final blow.

“—Because I can personally raise Lala, who has the ‘Role Archetype.'”

It had not been a dream.

Which meant—

Yoan-sama really was stronger than me,

that unbelievable “Role Archetype” was real,

and that humiliating incident too… all of it had been real.

“~~~~~?!”

“Then get ready right away. Once morning practice is over, we’ll head to school as we are, so keep that in mind.”

Yoan-sama said that with a smile.

Naturally, there was no way I could disobey him.

And so, from that day on, my days of harsh special training with Yoan-sama began.

◇◇◇◇

Early morning.

I had come to the academy’s spacious training grounds.

The purpose was special training for Lala, the navy-haired twin-tailed girl.

“Lala, move your feet more!”

“…U… yu… ue… Haa… haa… zee… zee…”

I had Lala doing side-to-side jumps.

Legs and hips came first, above all else. Basic conditioning.

“Right, dodge!”

“…Fubyue!”

At that moment, I thrust out the “Bunibuni Stick.”

Lala failed to dodge, and it smacked her in the face—pechin.

The Bunibuni Stick was a drop item from a certain monster in “Paradise”—just as the name suggested, literally a squishy stick. I had forgotten what the monster itself was called, though.

“Let’s cut down the number of hits you take.”

“Haa… zee…… U… yu…”

Lala barely managed a response and faced forward again.

“Good!”

“…Ffu…!”

This time, she dodged.

“See? You forget to swing your arm when you dodge. After avoiding the enemy’s attack, swing the ‘Trumpet.'”

“…Haa… haa… …Nngh…! …Ei…!”

Lala clenched her teeth and swung the “Trumpet” in her hand.

Pupii, a clumsy sound rang out.

“Yes, yes. That’s the rhythm.”

Since she could not do hit-and-away, which was the basis of combat, I was making her learn it with her body.

After all, the build Lala needed to aim for was one where evasion was life itself.

After a while, Lala collapsed—patari.

“I… I can’t move… anymore…”

I was a little impressed.

Lala’s sense for physical movement was disastrous, but she seemed to have grit.

To put it in game terms, she felt like the type who would steadily grow if she kept putting in the effort.

“You did well. Let’s take a ten-minute break.”

“Fue…”

…Now then, as for why I was putting Lala through this kind of training—

—it went back to class sorting the other day.

The [Universal Glue] I had attached to Anima, the A Class homeroom teacher.

It seemed to have reacted to Anima’s [Level Psychic Photography], and the analysis had completed successfully.

The result was this.

——
Anima Ray Melfi @ Alfhein
　Undifferentiated Magic Detected
　→ [Innate Analysis] Activation Complete Progress… 100%
——

—[Innate Analysis].

It seemed this magic allowed one to check the status of others.

In other words, an appraisal ability.

And when I looked at Lala, who had been called “Role-less,” this was the result:

――――
Lala Lirure Lorietta Lv. 10 (Max 60)
Status (Aptitude Values):
▼ Vitality 121 (12)
▼ Mental Strength 185 (18)
▼ Strength 31 (3)
▼ Dexterity 64 (6)
▼ Intelligence 182 (18)
▼ Faith 99 (10)
▼ Agility 62 (6)
Equipment: Lorietta Family Short Sword, Chainmail
Magic Power: First Tier
Magic Alteration: First Tier
Attributes: Sound Wave / Enchantment
Sword Arts: None
――――

I had not been able to suppress my surprise when I saw Lala’s “Role Archetype.”

—.

Back in the ERT era, “Bard” had been a support job.

However, as a support type, it had been a subtle one.

Because completely superior options such as “Enchanter” and “Priest” existed among support jobs, at first glance it looked like nothing more than an unfortunate class.

Pupii.

However, “Bard” possessed one particular form of magic that no other support class had.

That was precisely the reason Bard had risen to become the strongest job, and the Bard’s true power was concentrated entirely in that single point.

Pupii.

I did not know how much it differed from the ERT era, but I wanted Lala to complete that build, the one that had shown overwhelming strength back then.

That was why I had started training her, but…

Pupii.

“Fu! Yoan-sama… swinging this ‘Trumpet’… fui! What meaning… ei!… does it even have?”

It seemed things would not go quite so smoothly.

What Lala had been swinging around and producing those strange sounds with all this time was the “Blood-Crying Magic Flute”—commonly known as the “Trumpet.”

It was a drop weapon from the Revill Mosquito, a monster in “Paradise,” and one of the endgame weapons. Yesterday I had run around with bloodshot eyes trying to get it.

For the record, Revill Mosquitoes were absurdly fast and appeared in swarms, so I had simply drawn my “Spirit Armament” and wiped them out.

“There’s no meaning in swinging the ‘Trumpet’ itself.”

“Eeeh…?”

“Don’t you feel like you should somehow be able to fire magic?”

“Uyuu… I don’t understand at all…”

Even after having Lala swing the “Trumpet” over and over, no magic had come out.

(Hmm. In ERT, ‘notes’ used to come out from the tip, though…)

Was there some trick to using magic?

Since I had been able to use Dark Magic and Overcoming Magic from the very beginning, I could not really explain the theory behind magic use.

“…Ya!”

Pupii.

(As expected, I’ll have to ask someone knowledgeable about magic to help.)

Fortunately, there were plenty of people around me who seemed well-versed in magic.

Next time, I would ask one of them to teach her.

Kin-kon-kan-kon…

The sound of a bell came from the direction of the school building.

“Lala, let’s call it here for today’s morning practice.”

“…Fuaaa, it’s oveeeer.”

Lala lost what little strength she had left and collapsed onto the ground.

“Lala, once the morning classroom lessons are over, we’ll start again this afternoon. By the way, until I’m satisfied, I won’t let you go into the dungeon, okay? So keep at it properly.”

I gave her a smile—nikkori—the princely smile.

“…”

Lala let her mouth fall open—angu—and slumped her shoulders.

The training menu had only just begun, but I decided to keep that part a secret from Lala.