A Beginner’s Guide to Being a Scoundrel

Chapter 147

Chapter 147

The sparring match, tinged with a bit of retaliatory intent, came to an end. I hadn’t used mana, but perhaps because I had driven them so relentlessly, Desia passed out and collapsed unconscious on the spot, while Berdin slumped down onto the ground, on the verge of total exhaustion.

‘Not bad.’

I had attacked with clear intent, yet both of them endured better than expected. Unlike Desia, who had allowed several critical hits, Berdin stubbornly held on and, impressively, was still maintaining consciousness, which made me want to give him extra points.

“Is it over?”

But with his arms and legs trembling uncontrollably, it seemed this was his limit. Wondering if he might show the grit to stand up again, I tossed out a light provocation, and he ground his teeth as he pushed himself back to his feet.

“…I’ll go.”

Then, with a face drenched in sweat and an arm that barely seemed to move properly, he raised his sword. At that sight, I formed a satisfied smile.

If he stood up just to leave an impression on me, then he passed.

Just then, I felt a presence walking toward us from afar. I wondered who the uninvited guest might be, but when I turned my head at that strangely familiar aura, Alice’s figure came into view in the distance.

A crimson dress blending with the soft moonlight illuminating the garden. Her black hair rising above it and her dark eyes harmonized with the night, giving her a peculiar allure.

‘It’s been a while since I last saw her like that.’

She should have been in the Holy Kingdom, yet for some reason she had appeared at the gathering. Seeing how fully dressed up she was, it didn’t seem like anything bad had happened.

Just as I was about to raise my hand to greet Alice after several days apart, there was one boy among us who was staring at her with his mouth hanging open to the point his jaw might drop.

“……?”

Berdin, wearing the exact same expression he’d had earlier when Desia proposed to Petra, dropped to his knees with a thud and spoke to Alice as she approached right in front of him.

“I, I fell in love at first sight.”

I doubted my ears.

Twice? Not just once, but twice?

Thinking I might have misheard, I squinted my eyes and looked again, but Berdin, his face flushed a deep red, confessed his feelings once more.

Alice, who had been walking toward me, froze in surprise at the sudden confession and silently asked with her eyes what kind of lunatic this was.

“…These bastards.”

My face twisted on its own. I swung the wooden sword in my hand, and Berdin, struck squarely on the back of the head without any chance to defend himself, let out a short scream, foamed at the mouth, and collapsed face-first onto the ground.

The area fell silent in an instant. Lifting the hem of her dress, Alice strode over and, with an approving expression, poked the fallen Berdin in the side with the tip of her foot.

“When he suddenly said it was love at first sight, I thought he’d completely lost it.”

“I’m the one about to lose my mind.”

Birds of a feather really did flock together. I’d thought that, Desia aside, who seemed to be missing a screw or two, the cynical Berdin would be relatively normal, but apparently not.

“So. What brings you here when you should be in the Holy Kingdom?”

“More importantly, how do I look in this dress?”

In response to my question, Alice spun around in place with a proud expression. I shrugged with a look that said she was impossible to stop.

“It suits you. You look like a fairy here.”

“A fairy?”

At that, she smiled brightly, clearly pleased. Then she quickly grabbed my arm and pressed herself against my side.

“Escort me to the banquet hall.”

“Mm…….”

But I couldn’t help letting out a hesitant sound.

In the current situation, my fiancée was known to be Petra. If I were seen being this close not only with Esmeralda but with another woman as well, it would disgrace not just me, but them as well.

“I know what you’re worried about. I’ll let go once we leave the garden.”

Alice was still smiling, but was it just my imagination that there was a faint glimmer of moisture in her eyes? At her assurance that she wouldn’t do this where people could see, I nodded and started walking with her.

“Oh, are you just going to leave those two like that?”

As we moved forward, Alice glanced toward the two boys sprawled on the ground. I gave a bitter smile and shook my head.

“They weren’t hit that badly. They’ll dust themselves off and get up in a few minutes. They should take care of their own bodies.”

“How heartless.”

At my words implying I’d just leave them there out of annoyance, she let out a quiet chuckle.

“Still, you came here earlier than planned. I was going to contact you to come over a few weeks after the gathering ended.”

“I’ve already seen everything there was to see. It was mostly religious facilities to begin with, so if you don’t believe in that sort of thing, there’s no reason to stay long. When I said I was leaving, only Silvia seemed a bit regretful.”

“That girl doesn’t have many friends.”

Since she’d be coming to Bayern Academy next year anyway, it should be fine. With the title of Saintess of the Holy Kingdom, along with her looks and abilities, she’d become popular in no time.

And since she was close with our group, she shouldn’t have much trouble with academy life.

“When the gathering ends, I’m planning to return to my territory. What about everyone else?”

“We all came together. They’re probably having fun in the banquet hall right now? I asked Petra where you were, and she said she saw you heading toward the garden, so I followed alone.”

That worked out perfectly. Then I’d just need to take Diark and Werner along with the group that came here.

“…By the way, how did you get in here? Normally, no one except related parties should be allowed entry.”

“I gave them your name, and they let me right in.”

In other words, she’d used my name. Letting out a hollow laugh at the absurdity of it, I saw her nod as she remarked that power really was nice to have.

“When the gathering ends, none of you have any plans, right? I was thinking of inviting everyone to my territory and training together during the vacation.”

“A training camp? Is this a training camp event?”

“…Well, I guess…….”

Just as I was about to nod absentmindedly, thinking that was a fitting way to put it, I realized a chill running down my spine.

If she were an ordinary person from the Artenia Continent, she shouldn’t have been able to understand what Alice had just said.

But because I possessed modern knowledge, I almost instinctively agreed—and only then realized it.

“…….”

When I glanced sideways at her, she only wore an excited expression, as if this were amusing. There was no sign of doubt or suspicion about how I could have known what she meant.

‘It felt so natural, I completely forgot.’

Lately, the amount of time I spent doing things with Alice had decreased. Most of the time, whenever something happened, I’d been accompanying Petra, so I must have let my guard down too much.

Alice was an Earthling like me, and at her core, she was just an ordinary high school student.

‘…Should I just tell her outright while I’m at it?’

Back in the early days at the Academy, that Absolute Plausibility which constantly interfered with me had long since vanished.

At first, I worried about what might happen if I revealed the secrets of this world to the protagonist and everything went to ruin, but so many elements had already been altered.

Even if I told her now that I was from the same place as her, that I’d been working as an editor before possessing Leios’s body, could things really get any worse?

“Alice, the truth is, I—”

[Absolute Plausibility is taking effect.]

[SYSTEM: The synchronization rate required to utter this content is insufficient.]

[Current synchronization rate: 25%.]

That familiar sensation of my tongue curling inward. Stale air filled my mouth, blocking my words. At the same time, when I saw the message floating in the Status Window before my eyes, I widened my eyes.

“…What was I saying?”

Alice had stopped walking and was looking at me with puzzled eyes.

But I still hadn’t escaped the constraints imposed by Absolute Plausibility. After taking a few more breaths, I was finally freed from that bind.

“No, I’ll tell you later.”

“What the heck, that’s anticlimactic.”

She lightly poked my side in reproach and urged me to hurry up. In response, I narrowed my eyes and stared at the Status Window floating before me.

‘To think it would even block that.’

Fortunately, it wasn’t marked as outright ‘impossible.’

The message in the Status Window said that my synchronization rate was insufficient to make that statement.

Among all the items in my Status Window, this was the only one that hadn’t existed in the original work and whose meaning I hadn’t been able to grasp. When I left the Imperial Palace, it had been around 10%, but now it had somehow reached 25%.

‘Status Window.’

As I walked alongside Alice, I called up the Status Window internally. During my Academy life, I’d relied on the system assist functions, but I hadn’t checked the Status Window itself very often.

I’d occasionally looked at it late at night when I was bored, but thinking back, even that had stopped after I reached Sword Master.

[SYSTEM: Patching in progress according to a new sequence.]

[You may use the Status Window after the patch is complete.]

[…Completion: 32%.]

‘What the—?’

But the Status Window I’d called up after so long remained silent.

A patch according to a new sequence.

As I examined that closely, something occurred to me.

‘Is it because I reached Sword Master?’

I didn’t know what connection that had with the Status Window, but if I had to find a likely link right now, that was the most plausible candidate.

“…Um?”

Just then, Alice’s hand waving right in front of my eyes entered my field of vision.

“Ah, sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment.”

“…That’s a little hurtful to my pride, you know.”

“I said we’d train at my territory after the gathering, right? You’re stronger than the others, so I was wondering if I should teach you personally.”

“Personally?”

Slightly upset at the idea that my attention had been elsewhere instead of on her, Alice soon broke into a bright smile and tightly grabbed my arm again. Then she started chattering away, raising the energy once more.

The reason I’d broken up with my girlfriend before was precisely because small arguments like this had piled up.

Sensing the danger instinctively, every nerve in my body stood on edge, and I blurted out the best answer I could possibly muster on the spot.

Thankfully, it seemed to be the right answer, as there was no trace of offense left on Alice’s face.

‘Phew…….’

I let out a sigh without realizing it.

The first day of the gathering came to an end.

Since the banquet itself had begun in the evening, by the time it ended, the night was already deep.

People from all across the continent. With a few exceptions, most returned to their lodgings outside the estate to prepare for the events of the following day.

Knock, knock.

At one of the inns that a certain Sword Master had rented out entirely, someone emerged through the deep darkness and knocked on the back door.

Torches with oil still left in them illuminated the surroundings, but the figure was cloaked in a robe pulled down to the tips of his hair, leaving his face buried in shadow.

Creeeak.

Soon, the hinges groaned as the door opened. He slipped inside as smoothly as flowing water and, as if everything were planned, headed straight up to the second floor.

“It’s me.”

Standing in front of the second room on the left, he spoke softly in a low voice. The door slowly opened, and those who had already been waiting inside, likewise cloaked in robes, rose from their seats.

Swish.

When the man who had entered the room removed his robe, the figure of a man with ash-gray hair and opaque eyes emerged from the darkness.

“He has given his orders.”

Looking at each person standing before him, the man opened his mouth with a resolute expression.

“Tomorrow, on the second day of the gathering, we will carry out the Hero Assassination Operation.”