Refuse Harem
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Prius
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 083 – Dear Tenma, I am Currently in MukaPun State! III
Sophie visited the gold star classroom with Luca in an uplifting mood, but her mood gradually sank as the class progressed.
What the… is this…
Sophie sat in the backmost seat of the classroom so she wouldn’t get in the way of the class, and she was shocked as she listened to the lecture.
The number of gold star students was about 40.
The majority of the aristocratic sons of this class were of a baronet or baron family, with a few from a viscount family and even fewer from a count family or higher. Every aristocratic family with a pedigree of count or above would later serve in the royal palace.1
Most of them were around the age of 13 to 16.
The reason why the range of the ages of the students was smaller compared to the other stars was because the gold star was the sole star in “The King’s Sword” where buying stars with money was allowed.
No matter how often it was repeated to her that one could buy their star with money, Sophie was actually quite excited to visit the class, thinking it would allow her to listen to the most advanced lecture in the kingdom. But the contents of the lesson spoken by the instructor were not only based on old2 information, everything was taught for the profit of aristocratic society, so it couldn’t be said to be rational teaching.
This is the level of the gold star that is supposed to foster people to move the national economy…?
All the business deals that Sophie made were between individuals, so each contract was made with respect to each party’s interest. However, what the instructor taught them was entirely about giving preferential treatment to aristocrats and cold treatment to commoners.
If this situation kept up, it wouldn’t be weird for conflicts to arise between the aristocrats that were taught like this and the dissatisfied commoners who had talent but had no chance to utilize it.
It might be okay now, but if bad harvests and a recession continue for a long time, it might lead to a revolution.
Previous revolutions and riots that happened in her past life flashed through her mind.
To be honest, she was horrified, but it wasn’t a problem a mere little girl could do something about at the moment.
Well, let’s stay quiet for a while. The gold star students also didn’t have a good feeling about a female purple star anyway.
There were a number of students who occasionally glanced back, and all their gazes were filled with curiosity.
When she thought about the future that awaited her, Sophie sighed softly and continued to listen to the class silently.
After the morning class ended, everyone left their seats and moved toward the dining room for lunch.
Luca, who stayed with Sophie the entire time, was holding a basket that a paladin passed to him. It was the lunch made by Sophie, but it was treated as if it was made by her maid and the paladin went to all the trouble to bring it to her around this time. It was a very wasteful use of a paladin.
“Sophie-sama, where will you have your lunch?”
“Let’s see, I guess I’ll have it in the courtyard since the weather is nice. Does Luca always eat in the dining room?”
“Don’t worry about me. I often don’t eat my lunch.”
“Oh my, that’s not a good thing to do during your growing period! Even Luca would feel troubled if you stop growing tall like Nicole did, right?”
Luca tilted his head at the unknown name.
“Um, who is Nicole-sama?”
“I cooked a lot of… I mean, my maid cooked a lot of food, so let’s have it together. Well, let’s go.”
“Eh? No, I’m okay with not eating!”
Sophie proceeded toward the courtyard all while pulling the reserved Luca.
It was a warm day with nice weather, but the benches in the courtyard were vacant, probably because everyone went to the dining room.
After sitting on the bench, Sophie opened the basket and took out some sandwiches from inside then passed one to Luca.
“Sophie-sama, you really don’t have to worry about me!”
“Tell me your impression after you eat it. Please tell me if there is something to improve.”
Luca was a bit panicked at Sophie’s smile and words that didn’t allow for any refusal.
Gerald would stay expressionless and would never eat it even if Sophie offered it to him, but Luca seemed to think that it would be rude to refuse Sophie and proceeded to eat the sandwich. Although Luca was a boy of similar age to Sophie, his appearance as he chewed on the food looked cute.
“Uwah… it’s delicious…”
His plain muttering also sounded cute.
It resembled the figure of Michal, Sophie’s little brother, when eating. It made her want to encourage him to eat more.
It seemed Luca really liked what he ate as his face relaxed as he ate it deliciously. But then he noticed something in the middle of it and raised his voice.
“I’m terribly sorry, I ended up eating this much…!”
“Today’s sandwich ingredients are teriyaki chicken and vegetables on top of other ingredients that are usually put on an egg sandwich. That teriyaki chicken makes use of ‘black drops,’ and the ‘black beads’ are used as secret seasonings for the egg sandwich.”
“Teriyaki?”
According to Bart, Sophie explaining about cooking was her favorite method to steer the conversation away from the topic prior. Luca blinked confusedly at the words he heard for the first time.
“Both of them are the seasonings sold by the Linier merchant group, but did you feel any discomfort about the taste?”
“No, it tastes really delicious!”
“Oh my, I’m happy to hear that. I’ll bring more next time, so please tell me your impression about it.”
“Yes! …I mean, you don’t have to go through all the trouble!”
“By the way, can Luca leave the academy normally?”3
It was Sophie’s style to not hesitate to cover the other’s opinion and pretend not to hear it. If it was Bart instead, he wouldn’t let her steer the topic away, but not only did Luca not get used to Sophie yet, he also felt reserved towards her, so it was easy for Sophie to do it.
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I love how she tried so hard to change the topic!
Thank you for the awesome translations!!
she still insisting on it… why not convince him that it’s normal for woman to cook instead?