༺ Mentor Isaac – Interlude ༻
I read White’s psychology.
‘…You don’t have gel.’
I immediately grasped her situation.
White had spent all of the gel she had and was starving.
Her oath to become more independent and take responsibility for herself likely caused her to push herself too far.
One may ask where she could use so much gel, and the answer would be… her training equipment. She has been boasting to me about her new tools, after all.
I know she meant well… But this was a little too much.
“I never knew bread tasted this good…”
Inside a dark garden. White and I sat side by side on a bench lit by a street lamp.
She was nibbling on her bread with tears of joy in her eyes. I felt a bit of pity for her.
“Did they say they’ll stay over there?”
I turned to look at a tree out of reach from the street lamp’s light.
Merlin Astrea’s golden eyes glowed.
“She said that she would keep her distance so she does not become weak-hearted. She told me to overcome my problems on my own…”
So, she had intentionally widened the distance she stood from White to control herself.
I could understand that. It would be indeed difficult for her to hold back from helping when White was suffering from an empty stomach.
Merlin likely wanted to respect White’s resolve and determination.
For reference, I knew Merlin was over there because she had suddenly bursted out of nowhere just as White was about to eat the bread and stole a bite before leaving again.
She had done that to see if the bread had been poisoned.
Though I understood the situation, seeing her hop in to take a bite and leave without elaborating had still been a little perplexing.
“…Senior Isaac always seems to be training.”
I was holding a magic tool in my right hand to continue circulating my mana. It was a simple training method I used whenever I was jogging or had some leftover time.
White took another mouthful of her bread. Her cheeks puffed up like a hamster storing its food in its mouth.
“Nomnom… Is there any reason why you work so hard?”
“It’s nice to have good grades, and you’re guaranteed to become something in the future. There’s even a sense of accomplishment you get from it. What about you?”
“Ah. I-it’s similar to me too…! Sense of improvement, yeah, for the sense of improvement!”
“Is that so?”
White’s objective for becoming stronger was to become friends with the Priestess and Saintess. It seemed like she was embarrassed to say that as her goal.
“Then why were you starving? There are more than a handful of people willing to give you gel if asked.”
An entire line of students existed who wished to become close to White. She was a princess after all.
It wasn’t like she didn’t know that.
“That’s… something I don’t want to do.”
“Why?”
“Because I feel like I will need to repay them. I don’t really like those sorts of things. Not just that, but people normally do that to use me to their advantage. Feeling the obligation to repay people like that… is terrible.”
Ah, right.
White didn’t like being indebted to others.
Moreover, she had difficulty trusting those who were kind to her and considered it uncomfortable when they did so. Rather, she thought of them as embezzlers.
There was a valid reason for such trust issues to have rooted inside White’s mind.
‘She was almost assassinated after all.’
White had personally experienced what it was like to have people be kind to her one moment, only to try and assassinate her the next.
Moreover, the person behind that request had been her mother, so the shock a child like her would have felt was unfathomable.
It was natural for her to have trauma.
…But even then.
“But I don’t think starving is a good idea.”
“It’s the result of my wrong decisions. I must handle it myself…”
What she said was indeed quite mature.
“Senior Isaac. I owe you. I am indebted to Senior Isaac now.”
White spoke while looking down at her bread.
Debt, she said. White likely had an easier time accepting it that way.
“Nomnom… I’ll definitely repay this debt one day.”
“…I’ll be looking for interest, too.”
“Yes, of course!”
White was a character essential for me to reach a happy ending.
It wouldn’t hurt me to have a favor over her. This would actually be better for White as well.
“Speaking of debt, Senior Isaac.”
“Yeah?”
“Can you lend me a guarantee… I mean gel?”
I heard a scary word come out of her mouth, but I pretended I didn’t hear it.
White had low mana and even lower grades. If she received a loan from the academy’s bank, the interest would snowball into a size that she couldn’t handle.
It had been fine for me since I had a plan, but not her.
She didn’t even have enough money to sustain herself until the next exam, so she seemed to have decided to borrow gel from me.
“…Alright. Train harder so you can get more gel. Remember that you’ll have to take responsibility if you can’t repay me.”
White’s expression brightened once her path to survival had been guaranteed.
“T-thank you, Senior Isaac…! I will make sure to take responsibility and repay you!”
I didn’t worry about White, who had one strong sense of responsibility, running away with my money.
Her dislike for debt didn’t come without reason. With her, she would do anything to repay her debts.
“But won’t you be the first princess to be indebted to a commoner?”
“Then this could be considered an important moment in Zelver’s history!”
In the middle of that humiliating moment, White smiled as if it were a light joke to her.
Seeming to have lightened her mental load, she stared straight ahead with a much more relaxed expression.
She stopped chewing on her bread. It looked like she had something she wanted to say.
“Hey, Senior Isaac.”
“Yeah.”
“I like that Senior Isaac treats me comfortably. It makes me comfortable as well.”
“It does?”
“But you are firm when you must be and strict during training. A little like a real teacher.”
“I think that’s a bit too far. I’m just a mentor.”
“I haven’t seen anyone like Senior Isaac before, though. At first glance, Senior Isaac seemed soft-hearted, but you weren’t…. Anyway, that’s just my impression.
Even as the person with the highest status in the academy, Snow White did not treat social status as something important.
She took advantage of the academy’s culture of easing the social status between students as a way for her to treat others comfortably.
One could see that from the way she treats me, a commoner.
Just like her exterior, which could be best described as pure white, she seemed like a white canvas that hadn’t been stained by the colors of society. That was what caused me to feel affection for this child.
With a kind smile, I extended my hand to her.
“…Let’s do well on that next exam, White.”
“Yes sir, Senior Isaac, sir.”
White smiled widely as she slapped my hand.
Clap.
The sound echoed into the night air.
* * *
Under the night sky. On the path lit by street lamps.
A female student with short white hair and a black rabbit ear ribbon, Amy Holloway, was returning to the dorms with Ian Fairytale after training. Both were in training clothes, drenched in sweat.
Suddenly, Amy noticed a silver-blue-haired male student, Isaac, and the Pure White Princess, Snow White, chatting on a bench in the garden.
Amy halted on the spot.
“What is it, Amy?”
The black-haired male student, Ian, also stopped with her. Amy brought her index finger to her lips and went ‘shh’ to quiet him.
Isaac. She heard that he had become Princess Snow White’s mentor. It was a hot issue among the students since it was difficult to imagine a situation outside of Märchen Academy where a commoner mentored a princess.
So, there was no reason to be suspicious that the two were together.
Amy used the Holloway Family’s bloodline ability, [Heart Color Discernment], to check the color of Isaac’s heart.
It had been something she had constantly been doing since the start of the first semester of her second year whenever she saw Isaac.
She wanted to memorize every part of that color.
And she wanted confirmation of whether Isaac was the Nameless Hero or not.
“…That color.”
“What?”
Blue and orange.
No matter how many times she checked, the color of Isaac’s heart reminded her of the Nameless Hero, which she briefly caught a glimpse of.
The problem was that she did not get a proper look at the color of the Nameless Hero’s heart. It was like trying to recall the color of an arrow flying by.
.
So she wished to see him just one more time.
When she thought of this subject, Amy always arrived at the same question.
What will she do if Isaac actually is the Nameless Hero?
‘I’ll need to question him.’
Whether it was for the Holloway Family or herself.
What she wanted was a happy future together with Ian Fairytale. Märchen Academy was a stepping stone for her to achieve that dream.
But last year, demons had constantly visited Märchen Academy.
On multiple occasions, the Nameless Hero defeated those demons and protected Ian. Moreover, he had even protected herself at the Astrea Duchy.
To repay that favor and to support the archwizard.
Amy wanted to discover the identity of the Nameless Hero.
“…?”
So, as she gazed at Isaac for such reasons, Amy had unintentionally taken a glimpse at the colors of Princess Snow White’s heart as well.
“Wait, what’s that?”
“Amy?”
Amy felt a chill run down her spine and frowned.
“…It’s nothing, let’s go~.”
Amy patted Ian’s back and resumed walking.
Ian seemed confused as he followed behind.
When Amy was young, she promised only to use [Hear Color Discernment] when necessary.
Because it caused her view of that person to become biased. She didn’t recall a single time where that ended well.
So Amy decided that she hadn’t seen the color of the Princess’s heart.
She had decided that she was merely the kind-hearted Princess Snow White.
While walking down the path lit with street lamps, Ian asked Amy in an anxious voice,
“I’m asking this just in case, but you aren’t interested in Isaac or anything, right?”
In which Amy responded with blushed cheeks,
“Why, are you jealous?”
***
[Meooow. This is Alice’s message.]
Alice’s Labyrinth; a space consisting of black and red checkered patterns.
On top of a staircase was the queen’s extravagant throne, where a plump purple cat in a suit sat. It was Phantom Cat Cheshire.
Standing on either side of the throne were a black rabbit and a white rabbit in suits, who were fanning the Phantom Cat with red fans.
The four paladins stood in line before the Phantom Cat to listen to Alice’s message.
[A demon from the deep oceans will appear during the joint practical evaluation. The exact location and time of the appearance are unknown.]
The suit that Phantom Cat Cheshire was wearing seemed on the verge of bursting due to the rotundness of its body.
[The Black Monster will come to eliminate the demon. But before that, the Black Monster may also participate in the evaluation. He is, after all, hiding his identity and power for some reason. Anyhow, your objective is to thwart the Black Monster’s plans! It would be even better if you guys could reveal the Black Monster’s identity!]
When the Phantom Cat raised its paws while shouting, the shirt button near its stomach popped off and exposed its furry stomach.
[Do your best to help the demons defeat the Child of Light and destroy this world! Meoow!]
The male student, Spade, clicked his tongue in disapproval.
The female student, Heart, blushed and smiled.
The male student, Clover, nodded with a fake smile that suited his kind impression.
The female student, Diamond, remained unresponsive.
[Ah, right, and one more message from Alice.]
The Phantom Cat delivered the word calmly, resting its chin on its hand.
[Do not die. You are all Alice’s valued subordinates, after all~.]
Heavy tension fell upon the room. The four Paladins blinked slowly.
Their opponent was a mysterious archwizard they could not defeat, even with the four of them combined.
They could use 9-star magic, and singlehandedly defeated the Floating Island.
But each Paladin had their resolve to accomplish the queen’s will, no matter how powerful the enemy.
They folded their left arm behind their waist, placed their right hand over their chest, and bowed forward slightly.
Then, they all chanted simultaneously.
Everything as per the Queen’s will.
***
Soon after.
The joint practical evaluation had begun.
