055 – Stereotypes
“I, uh, should get going, Mister Han.”
“See you tomorrow, Ella.”
They say a first kiss tastes like apples, but I didn’t notice anything like that.
Only Ella’s scent lingered in my mouth.
If I had to put a name to the flavor… I suppose I’d call it the taste of Ella?
“Heh heh heh… I’ve ascended the stairs to adulthood, you see.”
“Adulthood?”
“Precisely. I am now a full-fledged adult.”
Madam Yibora, are you watching?
Your son has become a proper adult in this other world.
Goddess Livera, are you watching?
Please, avert your gaze. It’s a bit unnerving.
“What’s the criteria for being an adult, anyway?”
“Whether or not you’ve experienced a kiss, of course.”
“…Why is *that* the criteria?”
“When did you experience your first kiss, Isabella?”
“…Doesn’t exist, something like that.”
“Still a greenhorn, then.”
“Hmph… I’m older than my master!”
“My darling Isabella. Let your big brother give you some comforting pats. Come here.”
“Ehhh.”
She reacted as if she disliked it, but she naturally settled into my embrace, and I stroked her as I carried her back into the room.
Ever since the Heart Harvester attack, Isabella’s need for skinship seemed to have increased a little.
That aside…
‘Ella’s mother ordered her to get pregnant…’
Julia Alrayne discovered that I was the individual who requested Eloise’s earldom to be promoted to a duchy.
As compensation, perhaps? At any rate, she granted Ella permission to conceive…
“…This, I think I saw it on, uh, Hitomi.”
“Hitomi, what’s that?”
“It’s like Pandora’s Box, containing humanity’s future and its abyss.”
“Pandora, who’s that?”
“Someone who opened a box she wasn’t supposed to out of curiosity.”
“Why did she open a box she wasn’t supposed to?”
“I guess she was as bored as Isabella-ssi.”
“Aha.”
It was the moment I truly understood who Ella-ssi resembled, secretly having someone’s seal stamped on a marriage certificate while they were asleep.
‘Well, still, it’s a good thing from my point of view, though.’
To put it dramatically, Ella-ssi drafted a marriage certificate without the other party’s permission, but…
To interpret it positively, it meant Ella-ssi didn’t want to let me go so much that she’d draft a marriage certificate without my parents even knowing.
I decided to accept this as just the inevitable ‘fate’ of an alpha male.
“Hehe… I can’t help it, I suppose. Should I call it the destiny of a charming man who’s made countless women cry?”
“Did Master make women cry?”
“In a way, yes.”
“That’s bad.”
“…No, I didn’t *actually* make them cry…”
*
“Did it go well?”
“Mother…”
“A grandson? A granddaughter?”
“Mom! Who knows if it’s a girl or a boy on the day of conception!”
“So, you’re pregnant?”
“I said I’m not!”
I desperately pushed away my mother, who was looking at me with a gaze full of anticipation…
“What did she say?”
“Wh-what did…!”
“Wasn’t there anything like, ‘Our Ella is just the best’?”
“It was her first time, and it was my first time too…!”
“First experience?”
“Mooom!”
My mother, stubbornly sticking to me, wouldn’t stop grilling me about how far things had progressed with Mihyeon-nim.
“Look at this kid. Do you even know how amazing your boyfriend is?”
“I know! I know much more than you think…!”
“He’s a man who even persuaded His Majesty to upgrade the Marquisate to a Dukedom, you know. Hold on tight, got it?”
It’s true I don’t want to let him go, but…
Seeing my mother so obsessed with Mihyeon-nim makes me feel strangely apologetic…
“That’s it. I’m inviting him to the residence soon.”
“…Mother?”
“Listen to your mother, Ella.”
I am sorry, Mihan-nim.
Please, understand.
Our mother… is someone even my father, who guards the northern border, cannot overcome…
“…Where is Father now?”
To distract Mihan-nim from paying attention to Mother, I asked about Father’s whereabouts, who was nowhere to be seen, hoping to shift the topic.
I understood that he came from the northern border to the mansion because of the Duke’s investiture ceremony…
But for some reason, Father was not visible in the mansion, which raised a few questions when.
“That is…”
The mischievous expression on Mother’s face abruptly darkened and at the same time.
“…He went to the gate. …Vampires, who have been quiet for decades, have suddenly…”
I could hear a tale that was far from lighthearted.
*
Eterium metal weaponry, which I expected to be commonplace, was almost nonexistent.
Or, upon reflection, it was only natural.
Who would use a metal with the property of absorbing Ether as a weapon?
“Hmm…”
Who would pay for an Eterium metal weapon that couldn’t be strengthened by filling it with Ether?
They would only use Eterium metal for something like a rampart, to absorb impacts…
“Is there a place where I could commission a decent piece?”
Myaaong~
So, inevitably, I would have to commission a custom order from a good smithy…
“No, no.”
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind, and I immediately dismissed all thoughts related to ordering Eterium metal weaponry.
Because…
“Does it really need to be a weapon?”
Myaang?
“That’s just a preconceived notion. Can’t I just carry Eterium metal around like a cobblestone and smash it down on them?”
We are not attacking the Heart Harvester with an Eterium ‘weapon,’ but with the ‘properties’ of Eterium itself.
There was no need for Eterium to take on the shape of a plausible weapon.
“That’s right. We’ve been trapped by fixed ideas all this time!”
As I looked at Isabella-ssi, admiring what I thought was a brilliant idea–
“Aish… tsk tsk… A young person’s mind has already gone haywire.”
“Is he talking to a cat? In the middle of the street… Aigoo, so pathetic…”
“Mom, what is that mister doing?”
“Don’t look at things like that. Let’s go home quickly.”
“…”
Our cat is a talking cat.
She can converse with me, you know??
No, just because your cats can’t speak human languages doesn’t mean my cat can’t speak human languages! Shed that preconceived notion!
“Myaaong~”
Granted, for a soliloquy, it was rather loud.
But I was conversing with Isabella, not muttering to myself, so I was simply indignant.
‘If it weren’t for me, they’d all be vampire fodder, and this is the thanks I get…’
Unbeknownst to anyone, I was, in fact, one of the heroes who saved the Magic Kingdom.
After all…
Wasn’t I the one who personally prevented a Trueblood vampire from igniting a war in the Magic Kingdom?
I shouldn’t be treated like some afterthought!
“…But nobody knows, darn it.”
Sigh…
A generous alpha male like Mihyun has to persevere.
“Let’s buy the ore and get back before it’s too late.”
I had slipped out during the academy’s lunch break to find the smithy.
My plan was to quickly purchase the Ethereum metal ore and return to the academy, but then…
“!!”
Everyone who had been disparaging me abruptly shut their mouths the moment they spotted something, and began staring in a single direction.
I, too, turned my head towards where everyone was looking, and saw…
“…?”
A military carriage bearing the imperial crest, speeding this way.
‘…This is the road to the academy, isn’t it?’
Not an imperial carriage… a military carriage with the imperial banner flying high, heading for the academy.
What could that possibly mean?
‘…Conscription?’
They needed to rapidly produce combat-ready personnel from within the academy and transport them to some urgent battlefield?
Furthermore, I had some prior knowledge of a situation that required a large-scale reinforcement deployment.
Namely…
“…Isabella?”
Myaaong?
Isabella… in a voice of breathtaking allure, was summoning vampires.
“…Surely not?”
“What?”
This has nothing to do with me.
None of my business.
It’s surely a place fraught with danger.
“…”
I could pretend I didn’t notice.
I could act as if I had nothing to do with this, for my own safety… but…
“…If they’re conscripting reinforcements all the way to the academy, it must mean Alexander is already on the front lines, doesn’t it?”
The situation I caused might be affecting Ella’s father as well.
‘Just need to confirm. If it’s not, then I can just relax and go back. But if it really is Isabella’s doing… well… Isabella will take care of it, right?’
I raised the Eloise family’s badge high, waving it eagerly towards the Imperial military carriage passing by.
So vigorously did I brandish the badge, the carriage halted directly before me.
“We are currently heading to the Academy for conscription.”
“You can take me with you.”
“Understood.”
Ordinarily, they would have passed me by, a nobody, without a second glance.
But I possessed the means to definitively prove my identity.
The driver, without suspicion, ushered me inside the carriage.
Climbing aboard, I gave the surroundings a swift once-over.
“…”
“…”
“…”
I could see the eyes of those who had been tearing me down shift wildly.
‘I hadn’t intended this.’
An unintended misunderstanding, perhaps, but the outcome was satisfying enough.
“I remember all your faces.”
“!!!!”
“!!!!”
“…!!”
Having delivered my small vengeance, I retreated into the carriage’s interior.
“Serves you right.”
Of course.
Remembering their faces changed nothing.
They’d just stew in their anxiety, and maybe learn not to judge a book by its cover.
“Infiltration.”