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Translator: Tsukii

Editor: Sleep/Kiro

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 19: Accomplice

After I used demons as punching bags to relieve my stress, I tried to return to my room sneakily so I could pretend that I had never left. 

If my escort Leila found out that I went on a rampage outside without informing her, she would obviously start lecturing me. 

I love giving irrelevant advice and lectures to others, but I hate being lectured, even more so when I know the person lecturing me is right.  

I like to keep myself at an advantage.

I’m on top! Everyone else is below!

“Elrise-sama…?”

Wha?! I got discovered???

Wa- wait, Stocco! First calm down so we can calmly talk this over. It wasn’t as if I was outside rampaging! It was just a walk!

I exclaimed panickedly as I turned around, only to see that the person standing there was Vernell, not Leila.

Oh, it’s just you. Don’t surprise me like that.

“What are you doing? You seem to be hiding from someone… is it Leila-san?”

Exactly.

Damn, he is unexpectedly sharp, huh?

Anyway, why is he even wandering around the Academy at this time? The sun has already set, and summer break is going on.

My room is actually within the academy, so I can’t really help being here.

This academy has 5 floors, but the 5^th floor is exclusively used as guest rooms. It is a luxurious living space which is usually used by the royal family whenever they want to visit, so the rooms are left unused most of the time.

I personally wouldn’t mind having a room at the girl’s dorm, or rather I would have preferred that, but that suggestion was rejected and I was forced to use a guest room as my private quarters instead.

My guard Leila is always standing at the front door, she has never actually entered my room.

 (There are also rooms outside for my guards to rest)

I mean, you don’t have to stand in front of the door all the time. You can walk around outside for a bit or something. But no! No matter how much I try to tell her otherwise, she rarely ever leaves her post.

Enough… rest… rest…!

I have to hide from Leila’s eyes and return to my own room somehow.

It was simple to sneak out.

However, it wasn’t that difficult to sneak out. Leila is also human. It’s impossible for her to stand in the same place all the time.

To be precise, I sneaked out when she was resting.

While the guard who came along with me is only Leila, a few knight candidates with good grades took her place as guards when she was resting.

Actually more guard knights were supposed to have come along, but I vetoed that.

Knights are a precious fighting force in this world, dispatching a large number to guard just a single person is simply wasteful.

The original Elrise did that in the game, which resulted in many places lacking protection.

I don’t need any guards in the first place, and this place is the Academy that fosters knights, while they may be still candidates, every one of them is considered a fighting force, so frankly it’s safer than the castle.

Even so, Leila alone refused to be left behind and came along… Well, it’s impossible for a person to do guard duty all day, so there would be times when she rests and the Academy’s knight candidate representatives take her place.

So I sneaked out the moment Leila took a break.

While there is still a lookout as I mentioned earlier, they are lacking compared to Leila.

First, they watch the opposite direction, not toward the door where I could come out.

Obviously, the one they protect is inside the room behind them so the lookout watched other sides.

If the lookout faces the room where the VIP stays instead of their surroundings they will look like a fool since their back is facing the corridor.

So by using wind magic, the sound of me sneakily opening my door is hardly noticeable to the lookout.

 (Leila would have detected me by this point, even though I prevent any vibrations from spreading by using magic, she will still detect me for some reason.)¹

Next, after using light magic to reflect the light around me to turn invisible, and then casting magic on the door on top of that, all I need to do is walk out normally without bumping into any guards somehow.

The magic I cast on the door is my original “auto response” magic, where if Leila asked a question… like “Are you there?” it will automatically let out a response of “Yes, I am here” using my own voice.

And unless there is an emergency, guards are not allowed to enter their master’s room without permission.

But the problem is how to come back. By this time it won’t be a representative but Leila who guards the door, it’s hard to sneak into my own room.

By the way, it’s impossible to fly in from a window.

While there are windows, they are covered with window grids with fashionable designs as trespassing prevention.

Which is also the reason I am unable to sneak out from the windows.

Rather than me, it’s you Vernell.

Why are you wandering around in the Academy during your summer break?

“I was on my way back from returning some books I borrowed from the library.”

Heee, that’s quite a student-like reason.

The Academy is still open during summer break, huh.

Well, they do give summer break homework, perhaps they left the Academy open to allow students to borrow books if they need help with their homework.²

“What about Elrise-sama?”

Giku³!

I was… you know.

I was just taking a walk or something?

Sometimes you just feel like wandering around alone, right? Right?

And now I’m thinking about how to return to my room without being noticed by Leila.

As I told him that, Vernell gave me an unexpected suggestion.

“If so, I will help. It’s okay as long I draw Leila-san’s attention, right?”

Ooh really! That will be a lot of help! You’re a nice guy!

As expected of the Protagonist!

Now that we have decided upon a plan, let’s go. Draw her attention nicely.

There’s nothing to worry about. While Leila looks capable, she is still Stocco after all.

We got caught.

In conclusion, both me and Vernell got caught and scolded together.

Damn, only at a time like this you’re being Leila. Be more Stocco, you.

The tactic itself wasn’t bad.

Vernell will try to strike a conversation to draw her attention, and as she is drawn away from the door, I will sneak back inside. It’s supposed to be like that.

I see, that’s a flawless plan. If you ignore the fact that it’s impossible~ ⁴

… Well, you see. The 5^th floor has become my private floor. So the moment a common student like Vernell enters, he’s already marked as a suspicious person. That’s an obvious result.

But the game version of Leila was more lax on her guard though.

As I said before, (real) Elrise has visited the Academy several times in the game. And like me, she stayed on the 5^th floor during that period.

And, Leila also guarded (real) Elrise like she now guards me… In the game, Vernell could visit the 5^th floor during his free time, and he would converse with Leila, and gain her favorability for it.

Anyway, if this goes on Vernell might be punished by Leila for being a trespasser, so I have no choice but to reveal myself and the plan. By doing so, Vernell avoided being labeled as a criminal, but he also got scolded with me as the result.

Sorry Vernell… It’s totally me dragging you down here. Sorry.

But well.

Doing something stupid together like this feels like I’m a kid again, and it is fun in its own way.

I remember how I did stupid things as a kid along with my friends back then.

Stupid friendship between men is also quite good.

…now I think about it, since when did I turn into a loner?

I still had friends when I was a child, but as I grew up people started finding out how weird I am… oh well.

Well, thanks Vernell. It was fun.

Next time let’s do something without getting caught… I mean, on a level that won’t get us scolded.

Ah, but I guess it is okay to use a more intimate honorific now.

I did it all the time in my mind but I usually call him Vernell-san when speaking. So from now on you are Vernell-kun.

Let’s do better next time, Vernell-kun.

◇

—for Vernell, it was a happy coincidence.

As students of Magic Academy, many tasks were assigned to them to be completed during their summer break.

The knowledge of being a Knight, the names of past Saints and what they did in their lives, the history of the world… About the tyranny of past Witches, records of wars that happened in the past.

There’s also literature, arithmetic, etiquette, how to escort a lady, table manners, and knowledge of being an attendant.

Such things are required to be known by all students.

After raising their fighting prowess to the minimum acceptable level, for those who wish to become a knight, such high level knowledge is also necessary.

Knights are not merely there just for the sake of fighting. They are there to protect and to support the Saint.

Therefore, Knights are required to be more capable than those who serve royalty, all of this knowledge needs to be mastered by the students within 3 years, along with practical skills.

And what is required above all else, is the student’s own desire to improve.

Summer break is by no means a period gifted by the Academy for students to rest for a long period of time.

If they were really resting during all the time granted to them, they will have their qualification as a knight trainee mercilessly taken away from them.

The one the knights are protecting is the Saint, who is more important to humanity than anyone else.

As such, having a spoiled attitude is unacceptable. If they are not alert, the Saint may end up being assassinated by demons or the Witch, such a thing is definitely not allowed to happen. 

If that happened, it would become like the era 2 generations before Elrise… when that generation’s Saint died, humanity’s age of darkness was unnecessarily extended.

That’s why if they let their guard down just because it’s summer vacation… such a person won’t be tolerated.

Completing all the assigned work is the obvious thing to do, if they are unable to do even that they will be expelled from the Academy immediately.

What you do with your free time, and how you become better than the others. Those are the things that the Academy pays attention to.

Obviously Vernell is not aware of such circumstances, but all he wants is to be strong enough to be entrusted to stay by Saint’s side. He doesn’t care about anything else.

And the person he tries to match up to is Elrise, who is known as the greatest Saint of all time.

Since it is so, he is well aware that an ordinary amount of effort won’t be enough to let him reach her side.

That’s why he gathered as many materials from the library as soon as the 1^st day of summer break to be able finish all his homework as quickly as possible.

Because he wanted to spend the rest of his summer break doing as much training as possible.

After his work was done and he returned the books to the Academy’s library, when he was about to go back to his dorm to start his training… He found Elrise sneaking around.

“Elrise-sama…?”

 “Fuah?!”

As he called her out, it seemed like she was surprised to the point that she let out a cute sounding yelp she normally wouldn’t have.

She is normally calm all the time, so such a side of the Saint feels fresh to him.

Looking at her expression that everyone else might never see, Vernell couldn’t help but feel a bit superior.

“A- Aah. So it was Vernell-san. I was surprised…”

 “What are you doing? You seem to be hiding from someone… is it Leila-san?”

As Vernell asked that, it seems like he guessed right since Elrise stiffened.

As Vernell thought about how to change the topic, a question was thrown toward Vernell.

“By the way, why is Vernell-san here?”

 “I was on my way back from returning some books I borrowed from the library. What about Elrise-sama?”

 “I was… just taking a walk. Sometimes I feel like walking around alone or something… and now, I’m thinking about how I could get back without being discovered by Leila… since I sneaked out earlier while she was resting.”

Elrise answered Vernell’s question while averting her glance.

She basically has a guard follow her everywhere she goes.

It’s a natural thing to happen considering how important she is, but she might feel suffocated at times.

Even if she is the Saint, she had such an aspect to her too.

She always felt so far away before, now that he came to know she is also human just like he is, he feels happy that he feels closer to her.

“If so, I will help you. It’s okay as long I draw Leila-san’s attention, right?”

 “Eh? Is it okay? … But I feel bad for it. Leila is sometimes too serious to take a joke…”

 “It’s okay. Let me do it. It’s a knight’s duty to lend the Saint a hand when she is troubled… Well, I’m just a student who is not even a candidate yet though”

Then the two of them proceeded while wary of their surroundings, and reached the 5^th floor. 

Not far from them there is a guest room, and in front of it’s door Leila stands guarding with her indomitable stance.

Leila Scott… She is a person who Vernell admires, in a different meaning compared to Elrise.

The position that Leila is currently in, is the position that everyone who has faith in Elrise wishes to aim for.

She is the person who stays closest to Elrise and is entrusted to protect her. It’s the highest position that every knight aims for.

Vernell respected Leila, but he is also envious of her.

The position she is currently in, is the position he desires to be in.

Even so, it’s something for the future. He is currently still just a student.

What he has to do now, is to do his best to help Elrise return to her own room that is protected by such a great knight.

“Elrise-sama. I will draw Leila-san’s attention now, so during that time…”

 “All right, I understand.”

As she agreed to Vernell’s suggestion, Elrise laughed. 

“Elrise-sama?”

 “Ah, no. Somehow this feels funny. Doing things like this together, it feels like how kids would play. If I had friends, it might feel like this, and I find it fun.”

It was a smile that matched her age, instead of the divine-like smile she usually makes.

Vernell instantly turned his face and looked back toward the front.

…that was dangerous, he thought.

He seriously thought both his breathing and his heart would stop at that moment.

If he looked at her smile longer, he would stand there in a daze without being able to think about anything else.

　“O- ok then… I’m going.”

As Vernell said that, he marched forward.

But this was a restricted area where only the Saint and her guards are allowed into, so a 1^st year student entering would look suspicious.

Vernell immediately got caught, and Elrise revealed herself to protect him so that things don’t go overboard, but the plan ended with failure.

And the two of them were scolded by Leila.

　—

“We got scolded.”

After that, both of them were heavily scolded by Leila.

The scolding lasted tens of minutes before they were finally released, Elrise then looked toward Vernell.

“I’m sorry, Vernell-san. I got you involved with this.”

 “No, I’m the one who suggested this… Haha.”

In the end, he helped her with nothing.

Vernell felt down about such a fact, before Elrise whispered to him.

“But I had fun this time. If there is a next time, let’s do some things that won’t make us end up being scolded.”

 “Next, time…?”

 “If it’s not troubling for you.”

 “It- it’s not troublesome at all! Definitely!”

As Vernell hurriedly said so, Elrise smiled in satisfaction, and Leila brought her back to her room.

Just before the door closed, she turned back once.

“See you tomorrow… Vernell-kun.”

The door closed as she left those words, Elrise’s figure could no longer be seen.

Vernell was stunned for a moment, but Leila waved her hand to tell him to get out, thus he regained his mind and walked down the stairs.

The last word Elrise spoke repeated over and over in his mind.

Vernell-kun… it’s no longer Vernell-san like a stranger, it’s Vernell-“kun”.

This is proof that he took a step forward. He could feel the distance between them shortening.

On his way back to the dorm … Vernell was so happy that he jumped and raised both of his hands in the air.

---

A/N:

“Differences with the Game”

“Game version’s of Stocco”
– She did her guard duty since there was no other choice.
– She honestly wanted to quit being the Guard Knight.
– Or rather, she wanted to quit being a knight altogether.
– That pizza was way too selfish and hard to tolerate it. Die already.
– Using the title and stature of the Saint to do all that she liked… wasn’t she the one who must be cut down more than the Witch…
– I don’t want to protect such a thing… please die when I’m off duty.
– In the first place, that thing that I’m escorting, is it really the Saint?
With these conditions she had 0 motivation. Even so, she barely continued her duty out of obligations.
Thus the reason she didn’t take vigilance regardless of who came to the 5^th floor, and she’s happy that Vernell-kun came since she could let out her complaints.

“This world’s Stocco”
– She escorted Elrise out of her own will.
– She’s glad she became a Guard Knight.
– She wished Elrise relied on her more.
– I have to protect her at all cost…
– Elrise is definitely Saint (Conviction).
– Motivation: MAX
Who came to the 5^th floor? Regardless of who it may be, no one shall approach the door.⁵

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