Chapter 19
A Turbulent Lunch Where My Absolute Fave Was Enraged

Translated by: chocolalaEdited by: kemostt

“Why is the big shot here?!”

At long last, His Highness came to our lounge with his lunch.

When I went to the salon to meet my brother, His Highness and my absolute fave’s nemesis were already present in the room; there was a distant look in Brother’s eyes, while an unconcerned Bruno was at his side.

At my blurted-out exclamation, Bruno-kun rubbed the space between his eyebrows. It looked like he and Brother had stayed in the research building until dark last night, so he might not have slept well.

Could it be that Bruno-kun having to wear glasses was actually my fault? If that was the case, I was truly sorry. Should I find some blueberries and have them grown in a greenhouse? I had no idea if blueberries existed in this world though.

“We had a deal, little boy,” said His Highness, in a cheerful, not at all offensive tone. 

“Deal?”

“Yes, a deal. In this academy, there is an organisation within the junior high called the Junior High Student Council, that represents the students of our junior high as a whole1. This council gathers excellent students from the third to the fifth year, and together they act as an autonomous student body; Orsis and Bruno are immovably positioned in the top two of the third year of junior high, yet they refused to join the student council.”

“Oh,” His Highness explained it to me in a very emotional way, but I couldn’t understand how that could lead to us having lunch together. 

His Royal Highness, unconcerned by my curt reply, calmed his twitching face and with a serious expression added, “So, the student council is supposed to be made up of ten students: four from final year and fourth year respectively, and the remaining two from the third year, but since the top two of the third year students have turned down the position, Adrian and I, who ranked third and fourth in our batch, have to join the student council instead.  

“It is a great honour to be elected as a member of the student council. My royal brother used to be the student council president, and he did a great job. Of course, in order not to lose to him, I have been working hard in order to join the student council. And yet, these two guys just flat out refused to join, which has always been my goal!” 

“Isn’t that great? You managed to realise your dream.”

So why was he telling me about this as if Brother and Bruno-kun were the bad guys? 

When I responded with a slightly annoyed tone, His Highness dramatically claimed, “No, it was great, but also NOT GREAT!” 

Then he continued, “To only be elected after the people who were originally qualified backed out, wouldn’t that affect my reputation? And not to mention, these two men took the honour of joining the student council so lightly. As for me, I would have liked to have been able to join by my own merit. But since it came to this, there was nothing we could do, so I decided to fill in the gaps left by these two and agreed to join the student council on the one condition that they invite us to this lunch. Originally, they should have joined the student council without further ado.”

I felt no emotion at all when His Highness deliberately covered his face with one hand to express his dismay.

“In short, he’s thrilled to be part of the student council but he’s just too proud to be openly happy about it,” Bruno-kun muttered in a low voice, just enough to reach my ears, but his words made the most sense to me. 

However, those words seemed to also have been heard by Brother; he chuckled and told Bruno-kun off.

“But if that’s the case, I don’t see why Your Highness should come here. You could have just joined the student council that you’ve wanted to be part of so much. Even if they’ve refused to join, I don’t think that would lead to a deal where you agreed to join only in exchange for coming here,” I argued.

Bruno explained, “Alba is sharp sometimes. In the first place, the student council is not something to be taken lightly. Refusing to join would stain one’s reputation, and it’d also affect their family.”

“Affecting the family, is the student council that significant?” I asked in return.

“It’s a kind of mock political world. It’s a place where children learn about their own status and how to deal with the people of different families and statuses around them. I’m sure Alba is learning about these things right now at home. In the academy, this is where you learn by actually doing, not by studying theories at the table. 

“At the same time, in the senior high levels, the social disparity between families will be even more severe. If someone makes a mistake here, they, along with their family which they represent, will continue to be talked about. That’s why His Highness said that it would affect his reputation to join the student council by having only been elected after we turned down the positions. 

“But, Bruno and I never intended to work in the student council–we didn’t see the point, so we turned it down. Therefore, in exchange for them taking our place, it was somehow decided that we were to invite them here. Sorry for doing things as we please, Alba,” Brother kindly answered me.

I almost groaned when Brother and Bruno-kun took turns patting me on the head and explaining things to me in such a way.

I didn’t know that family status was so important in school. I should’ve figured it out earlier. Social status meant something like this, didn’t it? I was currently studying about it at home, and it did make me wonder just how my stepfather, a duke, was able to marry my mom, a lady from a poor baronial family. 

When I had casually asked him about it, he had only given me a very big smile as he dodged my question by saying I should just be proud to be his child. Although I felt like I was being diverted from the topic at hand, the smile on Father’s face was so powerful that all I could say was, “Yes! I’m happy to be your son.” 

I was pretty sure Father did a lot of scheming behind the scenes to marry my mother. I was too scared to ask him about the details.

But then it occurred to me. 

The MC of the game, despite being a commoner, could casually say to the capture targets, “__-sama, let’s take the magic class together.” This kind of attitude must have seemed extremely strange to the students in the academy, who had the education about social status drilled into them from childhood. 

In that environment, how did she get someone to say something like “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” despite their status differences? I wouldn’t say anything if one argued that it was just how the game was, but when I calmly pondered about it like this, considering the wacky tone of the MC and how easily everyone around her seemed to accept her, I felt a little put off.

But then I remembered.

In the game, these four people ran the student council in the senior high academy. His Highness was the president, Brother and his nemesis were the vice-presidents while Bruno was the secretary-cum-treasurer. When I played, I’d always choose the job as the assistant to the vice-presidents, since there was a 50% chance that I’d be helping my absolute fave and experience the most blissful after-school hours. The conversation during those times would be “This document is finished,” then my absolute fave would be friendly and casually reply with “Okay.” 

Once again, the MC really did seem to be ignorant of the social status system. And I just realised the significance of the student council. Was it okay to simply volunteer to help like that?

I looked up, thinking about the two of them who had, so easily, turned down the positions of this important student council.

“If you refuse such important positions, will Brother’s and Bruno’s standings be okay?”

A stained reputation was not only limited to His Highness, who joined the student council that way, but could also affect Brother and Bruno-kun. When this thought ran through my mind, I alternately looked at both their faces, both of which remained unchanged from their usual expressions.

“There wouldn’t be a problem. It’s not compulsory in the first place.”

“It’s no problem at all, because we’ve given the school a good reason to turn down those positions.”

The two men in question continued to act as if the student council itself was a trivial matter. 

Just as I breathed out a sigh of relief at this unshakable reassurance, my absolute fave’s nemesis opened his mouth. He had been quiet until now, so my body reacted with a little jolt.

“It is a problem. Unless you have a very good reason, you can’t say no to being elected to be members of the student council. But these two…”

“Shezarr-sama,”

“Who would’ve thought, the reason they turned it down was because of the someone from the baron—”

“Shut up!”

*splash* Water from inside the cup in Brother’s hand dripped down his nemesis’s face. The latter knitted his eyebrows as he confronted Brother’s icy gaze. 

“How many times do I have to tell you to make you realise? You are the legal heir to a ducal house!”

“So what?! I’ve warned you before not to bring up this topic ever again!”

“And I’ll tell you again and again until you open your eyes. Just for the sake of someone not even bloo—”

His voice was physically stopped. His Highness held his mouth shut with his own hand. Everyone’s gaze on my absolute fave’s nemesis was stern. 

His Highness was no exception. He rebuked, “Adrian. You should learn about others’ feelings and emotions.”

“If you open your mouth any further, I’ll have to make a formal statement to your house that you have insulted our ducal house.” Brother sternly made his stand.

Bruno then added, “Or do you want to be a test subject for my new drug?” 

“Now, if I may take the liberty of informing the Duke of the particulars.” Even Sven voiced out.

The atmosphere was certainly not right for eating lunch and His Highness stood up, while still blocking Adrian’s mouth and ignoring the latter’s muffled protests.

“Sorry, I spoiled the mood by suggesting that we have lunch together. I was just trying to get to know you guys, but I guess I have to back off now. I’m truly sorry. The fault of my subordinate is my fault. I don’t ask for your forgiveness, brother, but I would be happy to talk to you normally again. I’ll leave now, if you don’t mind. If I may make an apology, I’d like you to help yourselves to the lunch prepared by the palace cook. It’s quite delicious.”

As if His Highness’s words had had an effect on him, my absolute fave’s nemesis did not continue speaking, even after His Highness’s hand had left his mouth. He simply bowed his head and walked out of the room with His Highness. He looked at Brother and Bruno-kun with a little regret, but he didn’t make eye contact with me.

Not that I minded.

“Alba.” As soon as they disappeared, my brother’s frozen gaze softened and he embraced me in a hug. 

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I understood what my absolute fave’s nemesis had been trying to say. I also knew that Brother and Bruno had turned down the positions in the student council because they wanted to focus on research. They were cooped up in the lab every day after all. And I perfectly knew that it was all for my sake. 

That son of the knight commander was simply giving a warning to Brother, who was a ducal heir, not to be derailed just for the sake of me—someone who came from a baronial family and had no blood ties to the ducal family.

I knew that.

I knew from my knowledge of the game that he was not such a bad guy and that he was just worried about Brother’s standing. But his bluntness and superfluous worry became an annoyance to my absolute fave instead, thus making him the latter’s nemesis. They were like this in the game, so I already knew.

I also knew how Brother and Bruno-kun spent so much of their time for my sake. I knew perfectly, so I had no right to be hurt by what that person had said. Originally, I was not even supposed to exist by this point in time. Brother and Bruno should’ve also been freed from this troublesome me by now. 

Alas.

I still felt a little pain in my chest. All I wished for was to be there to lovingly watch2 Brother grow from his young self to an adult with my very own eyes. Was that too much to ask?   

In Brother’s chest, I closed my eyes tightly, as if to hold back something that was beginning to well up in me.