For today’s lunch, we got a massive watermelon. There were also a ton of oranges and apples.
Eric, who finished his lunch and was leaving the cafeteria, couldn’t believe the sight that had unfolded in front of him.
The widely influential but generally silent, powerful future Blanche duke and the famously modest, intelligent, and skilled royal prince were in front of him.
Those two political giants had come to him on their own volition.
Swanhaden was holding a watermelon at his side with an uncharacteristic sunny smile on his face.
“Hi, Eric. I called for you because I want to be your friend~”
“……”
Hylli stared at Swan’s smiling face with a scowl, but Eric looked excited as he stared at the two of them.
Eric, who had failed the Augran Academy’s entrance exam and had been forced to attend another school, had a reason for why he transferred into the school. There was a reason why he had poured in exorbitant amounts of money for an opportunity to enter the academy.
It was because all of the future leaders of the empire were all in his grade level.
Eric’s father had always chided Eric about this. Ever since you were young, you couldn’t hold the sword, you’re not smart, you don’t have magic, and you don’t have the tenacity and personality to surpass it all–but there are a lot of influential people your age, so go to the academy to make some connections.
The people in question were the successors of the DuBois family and the Blanche family, two families who helped found the empire, Cory DuBois and Swanhaden Blanche, the royal prince of the empire, Hylli Orde Ianess, and, the person with the most information and wealth in the nation, Yvnes Lunaasha.
Those four were the ones to look out for.
But all of the attempts to become close to them didn’t work out. They didn’t even have a single bit of interest in anything out of their own interests. Eric talked about girls in front of them and other things that would generally catch the interest of boys his age, but they just focused on their own work without even an ounce of care.
For some strange reason, Eric didn’t really want to share his name with Swan. He looked beautiful, but he had heard rumors about how violent he was and he had a suspicion that he would be murdered if he caught Swan’s eye. So instead, he focused on the other three.
After digging for a long time, he had learned about Shuraina. The girl that had basically made herself a religion, with Patrick from the red class and the girls as her followers. The girl who was always top of her class and seemed perfect–the one who received both the respect and jealousy of other students.
Moreover, this Shuraina West was close friends with all of the people he needed to be close with.
From what the students said, the four of them would occasionally have meetings. After accumulating a bunch of rumors and putting them together, it was some kind of fan club. However, there was just too much conflicting information for him to know for sure. The only thing he knew was that Shuraina was the key to joining that group.
The Shuraina that people praised and almost worshipped was, from what he remembered, just so-so. He had met her a few times when he was younger, but she was dirty and looked mean with low self-esteem. She was just another kid.
Even when he had approached her for Hestia, she just completely fell for him after a few compliments.
He wondered if she had changed when she grew up, but she even looked the same, save for her longer hair. Her dark circles had only gotten worse because of her studies. When he just threw her a few compliments and pretended to be honest when he confessed, he thought she had fallen for him right then and there.
Eric originally just wanted to collect information from her without confessing, but he had lost a bet with the other red students, and he had to confess to Shuraina. So he had decided to just do her a favor and go out with her.
The others stared at the contents of the bet and said that it was basically suicide, but nobody stopped Eric when he put the bet into action. For them, it was such an insane concept to even think of, and it had been amusing.
His friends just called Eric brave and hyped him up. Eric, who had enjoyed being praised by his friends, soon got too high and mighty and showed off, talking about how that incredible Shuraina couldn’t win against him.
Eric, who unconsciously felt inferior against Shuraina’s accomplishments, also seemed to think of Shushu as below him.
He had always looked more at appearance and status more than skills. For him, Shuraina really wasn’t anything impressive. She was just the daughter of a baron with a mean looking face. Eric was doing her a favor by going out with her.
People were incredulous at how Shuraina just listened to Eric, but they also worried about him. From what they could see, Eric was a bit too bold. They thought him and Shuraina were playing a joke together.
People would worriedly say, “Wow, you’re still alive.”, “Are you okay? No, really?” to him, but Eric was just surprised by all of it.
Anyway, Eric was just being nice and dating Shuraina. But now, his plans had come to fruition.
Even if it was Swanhaden and he was terrified, the royal prince and the future duke had come to him and said they wanted to be friends! For Eric, who had always been ignored by them, this was an incredible result.
He didn’t know why they were holding a watermelon and oranges and a bunch of fruits, though. Maybe they were just bringing some to be nice. His mouth stretched into a grin.
“Anyway, Eric, did you have a nice meal? Today’s lunch [dinner] was quite delicious.”
Swanhaden smiled as he cheerfully spoke to Eric.
“Uh, um, yes! It was go……od.”
Eric was sure that the reason why Swanhaden started talking to him first with such a cheery attitude was because he was sorry for telling him to ‘Shut up’ that time. Eric smiled happily and replied to Swan.
Hylli felt chills run down his spine as he watched Swanhaden’s frightfully cheerful attitude. But Eric, someone who had transferred into the school, didn’t think too much of it. He had heard rumors that Swan had a nasty personality, but it was just a rumor. Moreover, for Eric, Swan was just a blindingly beautiful student who looked like an angel. When Swan spoke with such a soft tone, it seemed like Swan had originally had a great personality.
Eric was under the delusion that Swanhaden wanted to become close to him because of Shuraina.
But Eric had no idea. Swan had only two reasons to ever be cheery. The first reason was Shuraina, and the second reason was when he was planning to shove the other party into the depths of hell.
Swan twirled the watermelon on his finger as he smiled brightly. The sun was even shining onto his form, making him look almost holy.
“It’s not just me. His royal highness next to me wants to be friends with you too, so I handpicked the fruit here so we could eat together. We need to have dessert after a meal, right?”
“Oh, should we? That sounds nice.”
The situation unfolding in front of Eric was great but also strange. Eric just grinned. Swanhaden also smiled back as he watched Eric, but his smile was now incredibly malicious.
Swanhaden needed to follow through with Shushu’s promise. His plan was that ‘Swan’ wouldn’t bully Eric. Instead, he would make others bully Eric for him.
But as he was leaving the cafeteria, he remembered that Shuraina disliked Eric. That made him so happy that he had picked up a ton of fruits. He wouldn’t bully him, but maybe give Eric a cute little threat. That was why he was here.
This was just a friendly chat with some fruit as dessert. This definitely wasn’t any kind of bullying. It was just a friendly……. Anyway. It wasn’t bullying. That was what Swan thought.
“Really? We brought all of these fruits for you so, please! Take it, okay?”
Swanhaden handed the fruits to Hylli, and Swan loosely held the wooden sword on his waist.
When Hylli threw the watermelon towards Swanhaden. Then, Swanhaden used his wooden sword to aim the watermelon towards Eric.
At Swanhaden’s powerful hit, the watermelon flew towards Eric before cracking open as soon as it hit him.
Eric received the blow from the watermelon and got it all over himself. But before he could fully process his shock, he had to dodge the apples and oranges coming his way. But Swanhaden had perfect aim, every single time.
It had happened so suddenly that Eric was completely flabbergasted.
“Why aren’t you eating it?”
Swanhaden said in a threating voice as he frowned. It was Swan’s signature threatening tone.
“This, what, what.”
“His royal highness picked out those fruits for you, you know. Are you refusing them?”
Swan, who was staring down at Eric with his arms crossed, clicked his tongue as he looked at all of the fruit that Eric didn’t catch and eat on the ground.
“You didn’t just refuse it, but you threw it on the ground?”
“No, I was just trying to block…..!”
Eric had just swatted away the fruits that had been racing towards him at frightening speeds. He denied the accusation as vehemently as he could, but Swanhaden lightly ignored it.
“Isn’t this contempt against the royal family? Hylli?”
“Sure.”
Hylli internally said, ‘What you do every day to me is more contemptful, though,’ but he was just as angry as Swan was towards Eric and just nodded along Swan.
Eric found the current situation incredibly life-threatening. But for Swanhaden, this was just an incredibly small, cute little threat. While Shuraina was still going out with Eric, Swanhaden wouldn’t threaten him too much.
He was just waiting for Shuraina to break up with Eric so she would stop caring. Shuraina tended to ignore anyone who wasn’t in her circle, after all.
Swan originally hadn’t planned on bullying Eric, but he had spotted him on his way out so Swan just wanted to shame him a tiny bit.
Swanhaden smacked a tomato towards Eric this time. Eric, frightened of Swanhaden’s enthusiasm, shoved the tomato that had landed on his face into his mouth.
Eric, who had realized that the mood was off, stared at Swanhaden. The angelic smile on his face had long since disappeared, leaving a frighteningly cold, chilling expression on his face.
Eric wanted to ask why he was doing this, but Swan was so frightening that he just shook in fear and ate the food that was thrown his way. He picked up some fruits from the ground and forced himself to say that it was delicious.
Hylli also wanted to vent his anger towards Eric, who had looked down on Shuraina so much. He was just standing still, not wanting to do anything that might annoy Swan. Swan was venting his anger towards Eric, but he was frightened too.
Hylli felt like Swanhaden was getting angry at Eric in his stead, so he just stayed still. He had a feeling that if he did something right now, he’d be right next to Eric getting the same treatment.
Eric was crying as he picked up the fallen fruit on the ground and shoved it into his mouth, scared of Swan’s murderous aura. Swanhaden broke out into loud laughter as he quietly watched Eric. He covered the twitch in the corner of his mouth with one hand. Swan’s eyes were hazy with malice.
“This look, it really suits you.”
Swanhaden was genuinely complimenting him, but Eric just continued to choke on the watermelon seed in his throat.
For today’s lunch, we got a massive watermelon. There were also a ton of oranges and apples.
Eric, who finished his lunch and was leaving the cafeteria, couldn’t believe the sight that had unfolded in front of him.
The widely influential but generally silent, powerful future Blanche duke and the famously modest, intelligent, and skilled royal prince were in front of him.
Those two political giants had come to him on their own volition.
Swanhaden was holding a watermelon at his side with an uncharacteristic sunny smile on his face.
“Hi, Eric. I called for you because I want to be your friend~”
“……”
Hylli stared at Swan’s smiling face with a scowl, but Eric looked excited as he stared at the two of them.
Eric, who had failed the Augran Academy’s entrance exam and had been forced to attend another school, had a reason for why he transferred into the school. There was a reason why he had poured in exorbitant amounts of money for an opportunity to enter the academy.
It was because all of the future leaders of the empire were all in his grade level.
Eric’s father had always chided Eric about this. Ever since you were young, you couldn’t hold the sword, you’re not smart, you don’t have magic, and you don’t have the tenacity and personality to surpass it all–but there are a lot of influential people your age, so go to the academy to make some connections.
The people in question were the successors of the DuBois family and the Blanche family, two families who helped found the empire, Cory DuBois and Swanhaden Blanche, the royal prince of the empire, Hylli Orde Ianess, and, the person with the most information and wealth in the nation, Yvnes Lunaasha.
Those four were the ones to look out for.
But all of the attempts to become close to them didn’t work out. They didn’t even have a single bit of interest in anything out of their own interests. Eric talked about girls in front of them and other things that would generally catch the interest of boys his age, but they just focused on their own work without even an ounce of care.
For some strange reason, Eric didn’t really want to share his name with Swan. He looked beautiful, but he had heard rumors about how violent he was and he had a suspicion that he would be murdered if he caught Swan’s eye. So instead, he focused on the other three.
After digging for a long time, he had learned about Shuraina. The girl that had basically made herself a religion, with Patrick from the red class and the girls as her followers. The girl who was always top of her class and seemed perfect–the one who received both the respect and jealousy of other students.
Moreover, this Shuraina West was close friends with all of the people he needed to be close with.
From what the students said, the four of them would occasionally have meetings. After accumulating a bunch of rumors and putting them together, it was some kind of fan club. However, there was just too much conflicting information for him to know for sure. The only thing he knew was that Shuraina was the key to joining that group.
The Shuraina that people praised and almost worshipped was, from what he remembered, just so-so. He had met her a few times when he was younger, but she was dirty and looked mean with low self-esteem. She was just another kid.
Even when he had approached her for Hestia, she just completely fell for him after a few compliments.
He wondered if she had changed when she grew up, but she even looked the same, save for her longer hair. Her dark circles had only gotten worse because of her studies. When he just threw her a few compliments and pretended to be honest when he confessed, he thought she had fallen for him right then and there.
Eric originally just wanted to collect information from her without confessing, but he had lost a bet with the other red students, and he had to confess to Shuraina. So he had decided to just do her a favor and go out with her.
The others stared at the contents of the bet and said that it was basically suicide, but nobody stopped Eric when he put the bet into action. For them, it was such an insane concept to even think of, and it had been amusing.
His friends just called Eric brave and hyped him up. Eric, who had enjoyed being praised by his friends, soon got too high and mighty and showed off, talking about how that incredible Shuraina couldn’t win against him.
Eric, who unconsciously felt inferior against Shuraina’s accomplishments, also seemed to think of Shushu as below him.
He had always looked more at appearance and status more than skills. For him, Shuraina really wasn’t anything impressive. She was just the daughter of a baron with a mean looking face. Eric was doing her a favor by going out with her.
People were incredulous at how Shuraina just listened to Eric, but they also worried about him. From what they could see, Eric was a bit too bold. They thought him and Shuraina were playing a joke together.
People would worriedly say, “Wow, you’re still alive.”, “Are you okay? No, really?” to him, but Eric was just surprised by all of it.
Anyway, Eric was just being nice and dating Shuraina. But now, his plans had come to fruition.
Even if it was Swanhaden and he was terrified, the royal prince and the future duke had come to him and said they wanted to be friends! For Eric, who had always been ignored by them, this was an incredible result.
He didn’t know why they were holding a watermelon and oranges and a bunch of fruits, though. Maybe they were just bringing some to be nice. His mouth stretched into a grin.
“Anyway, Eric, did you have a nice meal? Today’s lunch [dinner] was quite delicious.”
Swanhaden smiled as he cheerfully spoke to Eric.
“Uh, um, yes! It was go……od.”
Eric was sure that the reason why Swanhaden started talking to him first with such a cheery attitude was because he was sorry for telling him to ‘Shut up’ that time. Eric smiled happily and replied to Swan.
Hylli felt chills run down his spine as he watched Swanhaden’s frightfully cheerful attitude. But Eric, someone who had transferred into the school, didn’t think too much of it. He had heard rumors that Swan had a nasty personality, but it was just a rumor. Moreover, for Eric, Swan was just a blindingly beautiful student who looked like an angel. When Swan spoke with such a soft tone, it seemed like Swan had originally had a great personality.
Eric was under the delusion that Swanhaden wanted to become close to him because of Shuraina.
But Eric had no idea. Swan had only two reasons to ever be cheery. The first reason was Shuraina, and the second reason was when he was planning to shove the other party into the depths of hell.
Swan twirled the watermelon on his finger as he smiled brightly. The sun was even shining onto his form, making him look almost holy.
“It’s not just me. His royal highness next to me wants to be friends with you too, so I handpicked the fruit here so we could eat together. We need to have dessert after a meal, right?”
“Oh, should we? That sounds nice.”
The situation unfolding in front of Eric was great but also strange. Eric just grinned. Swanhaden also smiled back as he watched Eric, but his smile was now incredibly malicious.
Swanhaden needed to follow through with Shushu’s promise. His plan was that ‘Swan’ wouldn’t bully Eric. Instead, he would make others bully Eric for him.
But as he was leaving the cafeteria, he remembered that Shuraina disliked Eric. That made him so happy that he had picked up a ton of fruits. He wouldn’t bully him, but maybe give Eric a cute little threat. That was why he was here.
This was just a friendly chat with some fruit as dessert. This definitely wasn’t any kind of bullying. It was just a friendly……. Anyway. It wasn’t bullying. That was what Swan thought.
“Really? We brought all of these fruits for you so, please! Take it, okay?”
Swanhaden handed the fruits to Hylli, and Swan loosely held the wooden sword on his waist.
When Hylli threw the watermelon towards Swanhaden. Then, Swanhaden used his wooden sword to aim the watermelon towards Eric.
At Swanhaden’s powerful hit, the watermelon flew towards Eric before cracking open as soon as it hit him.
Eric received the blow from the watermelon and got it all over himself. But before he could fully process his shock, he had to dodge the apples and oranges coming his way. But Swanhaden had perfect aim, every single time.
It had happened so suddenly that Eric was completely flabbergasted.
“Why aren’t you eating it?”
Swanhaden said in a threating voice as he frowned. It was Swan’s signature threatening tone.
“This, what, what.”
“His royal highness picked out those fruits for you, you know. Are you refusing them?”
Swan, who was staring down at Eric with his arms crossed, clicked his tongue as he looked at all of the fruit that Eric didn’t catch and eat on the ground.
“You didn’t just refuse it, but you threw it on the ground?”
“No, I was just trying to block…..!”
Eric had just swatted away the fruits that had been racing towards him at frightening speeds. He denied the accusation as vehemently as he could, but Swanhaden lightly ignored it.
“Isn’t this contempt against the royal family? Hylli?”
“Sure.”
Hylli internally said, ‘What you do every day to me is more contemptful, though,’ but he was just as angry as Swan was towards Eric and just nodded along Swan.
Eric found the current situation incredibly life-threatening. But for Swanhaden, this was just an incredibly small, cute little threat. While Shuraina was still going out with Eric, Swanhaden wouldn’t threaten him too much.
He was just waiting for Shuraina to break up with Eric so she would stop caring. Shuraina tended to ignore anyone who wasn’t in her circle, after all.
Swan originally hadn’t planned on bullying Eric, but he had spotted him on his way out so Swan just wanted to shame him a tiny bit.
Swanhaden smacked a tomato towards Eric this time. Eric, frightened of Swanhaden’s enthusiasm, shoved the tomato that had landed on his face into his mouth.
Eric, who had realized that the mood was off, stared at Swanhaden. The angelic smile on his face had long since disappeared, leaving a frighteningly cold, chilling expression on his face.
Eric wanted to ask why he was doing this, but Swan was so frightening that he just shook in fear and ate the food that was thrown his way. He picked up some fruits from the ground and forced himself to say that it was delicious.
Hylli also wanted to vent his anger towards Eric, who had looked down on Shuraina so much. He was just standing still, not wanting to do anything that might annoy Swan. Swan was venting his anger towards Eric, but he was frightened too.
Hylli felt like Swanhaden was getting angry at Eric in his stead, so he just stayed still. He had a feeling that if he did something right now, he’d be right next to Eric getting the same treatment.
Eric was crying as he picked up the fallen fruit on the ground and shoved it into his mouth, scared of Swan’s murderous aura. Swanhaden broke out into loud laughter as he quietly watched Eric. He covered the twitch in the corner of his mouth with one hand. Swan’s eyes were hazy with malice.
“This look, it really suits you.”
Swanhaden was genuinely complimenting him, but Eric just continued to choke on the watermelon seed in his throat.
