Chapter 47
“Oh? Gideon? What’s that bandage on your neck? Did you get hurt again?”
“Ah, it’s nothing serious.”
It was just past eight in the morning.
As usual, I ran into Layla early in the classroom.
And the moment she saw me, she immediately asked about the bandage around my neck.
“It’s just a small injury.”
“Hmm, really? When I saw you in the infirmary yesterday, it looked like only the left side of your neck was hurt. How did it end up spreading to the right?”
“…It’s a bit complicated to explain.”
It wasn’t just an excuse—it truly was a little hard to explain.
After all, saying “Lisa suddenly bit my neck this morning and then ran away” wasn’t exactly something I could say out loud.
‘Well, if I were to be honest, I could just say it plainly… but for Lisa’s sake, I’d better not.’
Come to think of it, Lisa seemed to always run away right after drinking my blood.
She did the same the first time, and again this morning—bit my neck once, then got startled and bolted off.
Without saying a single word, face flushed bright red.
‘It’d be nice if she at least said something afterward. Feels kind of like… being eaten and tossed aside?’
A truly pointless thought passed through my head.
But honestly, it wasn’t even a metaphor—this was literally a case of being eaten and discarded.
“Hmmm, Gideon. You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you? If you start keeping secrets from me too, I think I’ll be really hurt.”
“I’m sorry. But this isn’t just my issue, so it’s a bit difficult to talk about openly.”
“Then at least show me your wound. Even Jason made a weird face when he saw it yesterday—what kind of wound is it, exactly?”
“Hmm…”
I hesitated for a moment but soon began unwrapping the bandage around my neck.
If I didn’t show her, Layla would definitely get sulky.
‘Layla said the reason she liked me was because I treated her honestly, without keeping any distance.’
While everyone else kept a polite distance and hid things from her, I was the only one who treated her simply as another person—without pretension.
If I suddenly acted secretive now, she would, as she said, be terribly disappointed.
Even if I didn’t care about others, I couldn’t afford to get on Layla’s bad side.
Despite how she looked, she was still a Princess of the Empire.
“Ugh, wow. That must’ve hurt a lot. But this… what bit you?”
Layla frowned as she examined the wound closely, then tilted her head.
“Was this from a monster bite? No, wait. Looking carefully, it kind of looks like human teeth marks. But why are the fang marks so big—ah.”
Layla soon made an expression of realization.
As expected, she had roughly guessed the situation just by looking at the wound.
Layla might have been pure and innocent, but she was by no means stupid.
“Ahh… so that’s why Jason and Lisa reacted that way?”
She nodded, muttering to herself, then looked at me with a surprisingly serious expression.
“Gideon, does that mean you’re getting married to Lisa now?”
“…That’s quite a straightforward question.”
I let out a dry laugh as I rewrapped the bandage around my neck.
“I can’t give you a clear answer to that yet. Things between Lady Lisa and me have gotten… complicated, so even I’m not sure how it’ll turn out.”
“Hmm, sounds really complicated. Okay, I won’t pry into the details. But promise me one thing.”
“What kind of promise?”
“When you and Lisa get married, invite me! I’ll be the host, give the congratulatory speech, sing the blessing song, and tell Lisa to throw the bouquet my way!”
“Ah, well…”
It was such a Layla-like demand that I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“If I ever do end up marrying Lady Lisa, I’ll make sure to do that.”
“Hehe, you promised, okay?”
“Yes, I promise… though I’m not sure if we’ll really end up getting married.”
“Really? Is something difficult going on between you and Lisa?”
“Yes. I’m fine, but it seems Lady Lisa needs some time to think about… our relationship.”
“Hmm, I see!”
Despite her energetic reply, Layla looked like she didn’t fully understand.
But I just smiled faintly and let it go.
“When I get the chance, I’ll try to talk things through properly with Lady Lisa.”
“Uh-huh, do your best. Still, that’s strange though. I heard that people from the House Balmuth only bite the ones they love. Doesn’t Lisa biting you mean something like that?”
“Normally, yes, that’s true. But in our case… it’s a bit different. Lady Lisa drinking my blood was… something close to an accident.”
“Sounds like something really complicated happened. I won’t ask for now, but tell me once everything’s settled, okay?”
“Understood.”
That was indeed for the best.
Sorting things out cleanly with Lisa—that came first.
Once that was done, I could explain everything all at once.
‘Still, I have no idea how I’m supposed to solve this.’
It was something that had never happened in the game, so there was no clear answer.
But thinking back on all my in-game experience, I could at least see a few possible paths forward.
“Enough about that, let’s change the subject. Oh, right—my father contacted me yesterday.”
“…His Majesty the Emperor, you mean?”
“Mm-hm! He called to ask if I’d been hurt or anything. I told him I was fine, and we ended up chatting for a while. But somehow, your name came up.”
“My… name, Your Highness?”
I suddenly got a bad feeling.
No, seriously—why would the Emperor, the ruler of this Empire, know my name?
It gave me the same kind of chill as when a university professor remembers your full name out of nowhere.
“May I ask what His Majesty said?”
“Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything bad. He just praised you, saying thanks to your efforts, the other students didn’t get hurt. Oh, and right—something about an award. What family was it again? Perigit? Anyway, they apparently made a request to the Imperial Family that you should be given a reward.”
“The Perigit Family… ah, yes. I see.”
The Perigit Family—that meant Catherine.
The student I had saved, the one who’d later apologized to me.
It seemed she hadn’t forgotten my help and told her family about it.
“So what does that mean for me?”
“If nothing goes wrong, you’ll probably receive an award. It won’t come directly from the Imperial Family, but the Academy will present it to you on their behalf. From what I heard, both you and Lisa will be awarded after the school trip.”
“After the school trip… so, that would be around May, after midterms?”
“Huh? No, it’s supposed to be in early April.”
“…Pardon?”
Her words caught me off guard.
In my memory, the school trip episode took place after the midterms.
And midterms had been at the end of April, so how could it be early April now…?
“Oh, you probably haven’t heard yet. There’s a senior from the Student Council in the Potion Brewing Club—they said the school trip’s been moved up a lot.”
“What?”
“Yeah. They even told me why—remember the monster escape incident from the day before yesterday? The Academy’s atmosphere got really tense, so they decided to bring the school trip forward to lighten the mood.”
“Ah, that was the reason?”
In short, they were trying to divert the students’ attention.
There was bound to be a lot of talk about the monster escape, so using the school trip as a distraction made sense.
And from the higher-ups’ perspective, it was probably a convenient move too.
‘Lysquare Academy’s school trip isn’t exactly small-scale. Once they announce it, even the Imperial upper ranks will have no choice but to focus on that.’
There had likely been a flood of complaints from the Imperial Family—things like, “Investigate and punish everyone involved in the monster escape incident.”
But if the Academy suddenly declared that the school trip would happen next week?
All that noise would be drowned out by attention toward the trip itself.
‘Right… now that I think about it, this kind of schedule change did happen occasionally. Not often, but still.’
Out of twenty characters I’d played through, at least once the trip got moved up.
‘But I’m sure it wasn’t tied to any special scenario. It was just—“The school trip’s been moved up,” and that’s it.’
Still, that meant the school trip episode was now happening next week.
Which meant preparations had to start today.
‘If I go into that episode unprepared, I’ll be in trouble.’
There wouldn’t be an enemy as strong as that Lycanthrope from the other day, but there were a few nasty ones that could make things painful without proper preparation.
And on top of that…
‘As a member of the Disciplinary Committee, I’ll have duties too.’
Whatever the case, I was still a committee member.
And during the school trip, the Disciplinary Committee always had a lot to handle.
I’d have to prepare for that as well.
‘I’d better meet with Lisa as soon as possible.’
She’d said she needed some time to think and told me not to come to the committee room for a few days, but that couldn’t be helped.
I needed to discuss school trip preparations with the Committee President right away.
“…What am I going to do, really?”
When lunchtime came, Lisa went straight to the Disciplinary Committee room.
Then she slumped over the desk, lost in thought.
“I can’t stop… thinking about it.”
That morning, she’d run into Gideon by chance—and without realizing it, had bitten his neck.
She’d quickly come to her senses and pulled away, but not before drinking a few drops of his blood.
And that intoxicating taste still lingered on her tongue.
“…This is driving me crazy.”
All morning, her mind had been filled with thoughts of Gideon.
She wanted to taste his blood again—and, beyond that, other things as well…
“No, get a hold of yourself. You can’t be like this.”
Lisa shook her head against the desk.
She could feel her body and mind growing more unstable by the minute.
“I heard that we become obsessed with the first person who offers us blood, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad…”
Part of her wanted nothing more than to drink Gideon’s blood freely.
But she refused to lose to her instincts.
She didn’t want her obsession to ruin Gideon’s future.
“…I’m thirsty. And hungry.”
To avoid running into Gideon, Lisa deliberately skipped going to the cafeteria even though it was lunchtime.
If she saw him there, she might lose control again and bite his neck—just like that morning.
‘But… I can’t avoid him forever.’
Gideon was a Disciplinary Committee member—her pick, even.
She’d told him not to come for a few days, but it’s not like he could stay away forever…
“Lady Lisa, are you inside?”
“Huh? Gi–Gideon?”
“Ah, you are. I’ll come in.”
“W–wait!”
Despite her protest, Gideon opened the door to the Committee room.
The white-haired boy entered with a smile.
“I didn’t see you in the cafeteria, so I figured you’d be here. And I was right.”
“W–why are you here? I told you not to come for at least three days.”
“Something urgent came up that we need to discuss. But before that—have you eaten yet? I thought maybe you hadn’t, so I brought some food. Would you like some?”
As he spoke, Gideon took sandwiches and several pieces of lightly cooked meat—Lisa’s favorite—from his bag.
Even though she was starving, Lisa couldn’t focus on the food at all.
Her mind was consumed by the urge to sink her fangs into Gideon’s neck again—and by the effort it took to calm her wildly pounding heart.