༺ Marie, an ever-so-normal Countryside Girl (2) ༻
“Marie. Are you stupid?”
Although the Academy had a fresh supply of ingredients coming in every morning, there were still some discrepancies in the cafeterias and restaurants inside the campus.
One such example was the cafe with an intelligent and cute design with the glass displays full of sweet cakes, which boys were known to never be able to visit by themselves. The cafe, Marshmallow, was therefore dedicated for female students and couples.
That was further proven by the fact that most of the customers were female students in casual clothing and boys who were being forced inside by their girlfriends.
Marshmallow simply had a different target market compared to the study cafes and the ones that ran 24 hours a day, which boys tended to visit to buy coffee in the stead of energy drinks.
One of the regular customers of this cafe, Isabelle Kirmin, was having brunch with her best friend Marie Dunareff, with the menu being some basil sandwiches and two glasses of strong espressos.
Naturally, the girls were talking about a bunch of topics unrelated to food and the current topic for them was in regards to a certain boy.
“I get that you like him, but anyone will be scared out of their minds if you give that many things at once, okay?”
“R, really?”
“What was it again? Giving him a whole district of a city? A squad of wyverns? And what? A Hresvelgr? I don’t even know what to say.”
“Ugh… I, it’s not that bad! Besides, buying wyverns and constructing the office were all n, necessary…”
“Yes. And even if you add them all up, they don’t even cost as much as a monster carrier.”
It was a peaceful morning with the fresh scent of flowers tickling their nose, but Isabelle couldn’t help but scold her best friend after hearing how overly dramatic her love life was.
“A, and this is not about me, remember? I, it’s about one of my friends!”
Even though she was saying it wasn’t her, it was obviously not enough to fool Isabelle.
“…”
Isabelle barely held herself back from telling her that… the only individuals in this continent that could buy monster carriers with their money were the two princesses and her, Marie.
In fact, even Saintess Estelle and Princess Miruam would only be able to afford one by using their official funds, and regardless of how much money they were in possession of, wasting it like that for personal reasons was bound to make them a vulnerable target for the other party.
And as for Marie? There might be one news article or two with the headline, [The extravagant use of money of the high social classes disheartens the public].
They even had a newspaper company, didn’t they? It was clear that such articles would never be published in the south.
“Marie. Let’s be honest. You like Korin, right?”
“N, hnn? N, no? No? I, do not?”
“Huh, do you not like him? Then can I go and confess to him tomorrow? To be frank, he’s very famous and handsome, isn’t he? He must be super popular.”
“N, no!!”
“Right?”
“Ughh…”
Korin Lork.
He was a junior with a good reputation even among the 3rd grade female students. The only reason why no one was hitting on him from the 3rd grade was because it was a well-known fact among them that the top idol of their grade, Marie Dunareff, liked him.
None of them wanted to antagonize Marie, who was beloved by every one of them. That was the general consensus of the 3rd year students.
‘Maybe not so much for the Saintess, though.’
An exception was the senior who entered the Academy 2 years before them, who had recently returned to the academy as a 3rd year, Princess Estelle.
The only reason it wasn’t as obvious as Marie was because she was busy dealing with cases like Elder Morushtan the black mage, and the impression Isabelle received was that even the Saintess was interested in Korin.
Looking back, she also recalled the rumors that had spread at the start of the semester about the 2nd princess, Princess Miruam, chasing after Korin’s back.
‘Ehew… What’s with these competitors?’
The future successor candidate of the renowned Arden household,
A probationary sister of the New Faith, who was at the same time the strongest living jiangshi of history.
One of the top executives of the New Faith and the likely heir to the throne, 1st Princess and the 2nd Princess, whose influence was on par with that of her sister’s.
Although Marie wasn’t lacking compared to them in the slightest, it was still unquestionable that her competitors were all on another level.
“And yet look at you throwing away your advantage by being stupid…”
“S, stupid? You’re so mean!”
Isabelle took a sip of her coffee while savoring the scent of the strong espresso.
“You said he rejected the Hresvelgr, right? You better be grateful that he didn’t refund the wyverns on top of that.”
“Ughh… W, what exactly was the problem?”
“I should have known you would do this when I saw you renovating the potato warehouse on campus…”
“T, that didn’t cost that much though?”
“Wake up, Marie. That potato warehouse is so damn big that they’re giving away the potatoes in there to feed the poor. You need to admit that your use of money is not normal.”
“Haaht…?!”
Isabelle couldn’t help but sigh as she looked at the dumb look on her best friend’s face.
“Even a guy that’s after your money will be scared away by the sheer scale of your gifts.”
“K, Korin doesn’t care about my background!”
“Yeah, well… You might be right but still.”
Korin Lork’s personality was well-known and praised in the whole city, let alone the campus. He was a good-natured person, who unhesitatingly took missions for those that were struggling, regardless of how big or small the reward was.
There were endless positive stories about him, starting from Mr. Yoon’s sweet and sour fried chicken store, which had been a great success, as well as the boy who had been saved from a bunch of scoundrels.
In the first place, considering how that boy had thrown himself in to save Marie who had become a vampire at the start of last year, he would have long asked Marie for rewards if that was what he had been after.
‘It might be a whole big scam to get married into her family but…’
There were way too many girls that he was flirting with for that to be the case. Even players tended to focus on one girl at a time, right?
“As you said, Marie, do you think Korin was after money when he saved you?”
“Absolutely not!”
“Right? That’s just the type of person he is. He was born a good person. Do you think a person like that would enjoy seeing you spending a lot of money for him?”
“That’s true, but…”
It’s not even that much though… Marie added with a whisper.
To be fair, Marie was from an extraordinarily wealthy family, where buying out a whole street of luxuries and buying monster carriers were only considered as her being ‘slightly wasteful with her allowance’.
Isabelle decided that suggesting another method would be better than fixing her perception of money.
“Marie. There’s no way you can use the hot and cold strategy considering your personality, so just go in.”
“Go in? What do you mean?”
“You idiot. What can you use aside from money to lure him in?”
“Umm… potatoes?”
“Come on! Wake up, Potato Princess!!”
“Haht…!”
In deep frustration, Isabelle slapped her on the shoulder which startled Marie.
“Listen, Marie. With money gone, you have one charm left.”
“O, only one?”
“Maybe two. But this is the best one you can use for a teenage boy.”
“W, what is it?”
Gulp! Hearing that audible gulp even from afar, Isabelle gave her advice with a serious look on her face.
“You’re big; except for your height. That’s your greatest weapon.”
“Huh?”
She was around 160 centimeters tall, which was just about right, and her body fat was all heavily focused on certain parts of her upper and lower body. Her bodyline was so destructive that parts of her body might be censored if she were to go on TV, no matter what clothing she were to wear.
“In the end, he’s just a teenage boy. Just make up the right mood and go closer, and I’m sure he will pounce at you.”
“Korin’s not like that!”
“Hah~. Are you sure about that? Boys our age are all the same.”
“He’s different!”
“You sure? Look at Doggo. He’s going around doing all the dogs of the city. Where do you think his genes came from?”
“Ugh…!”
Isabelle was so persuasive that Marie was lost for words in response. There were a bunch of complaints from all around the city, and Doggo’s genes had already been spread across the entire city.
“B, but… Korin is a lot more mature… and responsible…”
“Korin, that little guy, is blessed with women. Besides, he’s so dense that he doesn’t even realize he’s going around hitting on girls, and that makes him even worse.”
Isabelle remembered the time when she was moving experiment apparatus after being told to do so by one of the professors.
[Huh? Senior. Isn’t that heavy? Do you need help?]
[Uhh, I, I’m alright. I can do it by my—]
[Don’t worry. Life’s about helping each other.]
Even after being turned down, he gave help without making it seem oppressive or repulsive, and nonchalantly said, ‘Instead of saying thanks, just buy me something later on if you want to,’ to set future plans.
‘I thought he was hitting on me at the start.’
But after some time, Isabelle realized that Korin didn’t mean anything from it. That was just how he was born.
“Think about it, Marie. He has more than a girl or two next to him, does he not?”
“H, he has a lot of male friends as well!”
“It’s across every grade… I even saw him having a meal with Professor Deina the other day. You know how she’s suffering in debt after the failed experiment with Fang Boars? She was forced to become a vegetarian and you know what he did? He invited her out to the steakhouse saying she needed some protein in her diet!”
“E, even the professor?!”
He was exceptionally talented at forming relationships – his nonchalant smile and kindness made him extremely easy to befriend. It was therefore very normal for there to be a lot of girls going after him.
“Everyone else is running, so are you going to be content with walking? Do you think you’ll win by doing that? Getting overtaken happens in a flash!”
“Uhk…! W, what should I do…?”
“Attack his instincts as a male, Marie.”
“Instincts… as a male?”
“You’re used to touching each other anyway, aren’t you? I saw you hugging and doing all that stuff.”
“N, n, n, n, n, noooo???”
“Really? Then can you tell me what you were doing 2 days ago at the lecture room 403 in—”
“Ahhk! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!! No one should have known anything about that! How did you find out?!”
Did this girl really think no one was going to find out about it?
“Anyway, you might think you’re being affectionate with how touchy you are, but that’s all fake.”
“F, fake??”
“It’s a forced one.”
???
Marie tilted her head with a slight look of disagreement in her eyes. She was by no means being forced to touch and hug him, so Marie couldn’t understand what Isabelle was trying to say.
“Think about it. Korin giving you blood is just to help you. It’s like emergency first aid. It’s no different from a blood transfusion service that he is doing for medical purposes alone.”
“M, medical purposes alone?”
Marie wanted to tell her that it surely wouldn’t be that dry.
“You don’t need to think about anything else, Marie. You just have to do one thing, to see whether he is interested in you or not.”
– Gulp!
The sound of her gulp was buried by the chattery background noise of the cafe. However, Isabelle could easily tell what Marie was thinking just by looking at her face.
“A, and… what is that?”
“Listen carefully. When it’s just the two of you—”
****
“Uhmm… You see, apparently you need a big shed for the wyverns so that they don’t feel too stressed!
“And we also need that cafeteria! We need to be prepared to invite more people in.
“For the buildings that are already done… Maybe we can rent them out.”
I was at the Guardians office yet again. I learned the hard way how much money she could waste when I left it in Marie’s hands, so I decided to supervise myself.
“Huu… Change the owner of that building back to you, and for those buildings over there, rent them out from the Guardians… No wait, that’s not going to work out.”
Even though I had come to supervise so that there wouldn’t be any more problems, there were already way too many things to deal with in our hands. And most importantly…
“Kyaaaah…!”
It was hard to tell what it was unhappy with, but the Hresvelgr constantly let out a loud roar. This guy… how energetic and handsome…
“No. 23,000 gold coins is still way too much.”
In the game, it was accessible by using time instead of paying with money, but in real life, that Hresvelgr cost just as much as dozens of buildings.
There were a lot of things to say to Marie, looking at how she wanted to give that as a gift, and it was just way too expensive for me to accept it as a simple present.
We couldn’t even afford the price to manage that thing in the first place.
If I were to say that to Marie, she would probably say she could pay the price herself. I knew it was her way of saying thanks but… but, still… This is way too much, noona.
“K, Korin? So how does that sound? We can make it a bit smaller and rent out the buildings that we don’t need…”
“We’ll do that, and please don’t use any more money than this.”
“O, kay? Ugh. I was going to bring in some restaurants and stores, but I guess I need to cancel that…”
“What did you say just then?”
“N, nothing!”
In any case, this should be pretty much everything. We had already used up a lot more money than necessary, but by putting most of them back under Marie’s name and renting out the other ones, we were left with what we could actually chew.
In the first place, the only role of the office was to act as a mission hub where you could directly accept missions from the Alliance without having to go through the Mission Board. Marie was way too enthusiastic, and there was absolutely no need for a facility this big.
“A, actually, Korin!”
Marie walked up while fidgeting with her fingers. For some reason, her face was red.
“Since we’re here anyway… Do you want to take some rest at the guild dormitory? You’ve been trying way too hard these days, haven’t you?”
“…”
There was no time to waste. I had to practice more and get stronger even by a bit, but… seeing the look of concern in her eyes made it hard for me to turn the offer down.
“Then… shall we walk around the staff dormitory to make sure there’s nothing funny going on there?”
“W, what do you mean by that? You’re making it sound like I’ve done something incredibly wrong!”
“We’re going there to see if you have done something wrong or not. And you are already proven guilty, Senior.”
“Ugh… So mean.”
I am not going back on my words even if you roll your feet like that, okay!
Before long, we arrived at the dormitory. After creating a Guardians Guild, it was possible to sleep outside the Academy and take a few more days off so we did need a place to sleep in, but…
“This is huge.”
The room inside the dormitory that Marie made as the guild master’s room… which was right next to the deputy master’s room… was more like the suite room of an extravagant hotel than a dormitory.
“That bed looks big enough for a giant…”
“L, look. This bed doesn’t shake no matter what you do! Look, look! Kyaaa~!”
Marie threw herself on the bed, jumping up and down while shouting that out loud. Despite the consistent shock, the bed did not jiggle sideways in the slightest, as expected of a king-sized bed.
Jumping up and down the bed, Marie seemed to be trying to prove the elasticity of the bed. Something else jiggled up and down elastically instead of the bed, and it was a very embarrassing sight to see.
“Oh, r, right.”
After suddenly stopping the jump, Marie said while fidgeting with her fingers again.
“Korin, do you know?”
“Know what?”
“This is… something I heard from someone… It’s a super super interesting research…”
“A research?”
Marie said something completely unexpected with her face flushed red.
“Apparently there’s something resembling a magic spell that reduces the stress and fatigue of a stressed-out person…”
“There is?”
It indeed was a bit stressful recently. Even though I didn’t mention it, I could still feel the stress building up inside me.
Well, I did remember seeing research about de-stressing even back on Earth, so she was probably talking about something similar to that.
“What is it? Tell me.”
“B, breasts!”
“Breasts?”
“Apparently the stress and fatigue levels of boys decrease when they see big breasts! S, so, with that said…”
Her robe slithered down her white shoulder. The stimulating scent of skin stimulated my nose as her sensuous eyes looked straight into my own.
“…”
Quietly, she stared at me with a gaze of approval and permission.
