Chapter 556

“What is?”

I asked Ulrike with my usual expression. He wasn’t fooled and pointed at my pocket.

“Why are you hiding the letter? You put it in your pocket.”

“I’m not hiding anything.”

Ulrike reached out roughly and grabbed at my other pocket. I heard a rustling sound from inside.

“Uh-huh.”

Ulrike’s eyes widened, so I answered shamelessly, “I’m not hiding it. I’m keeping it. It’s my letter, after all.”

“Then why? You’ve been showing them to us this whole time. Is there something weird in it?”

At the mention of something weird, even Leonard, who had been deliberately ignoring us, looked up.

“There’s a weird letter? Like Robert Müller’s…”

“No. It’s nothing like that.”

“Did the Stalker send you another note?”

“No. If he had, I wouldn’t have just sat here.”

I tried to persuade Leonard as politely as I could. He watched me with a trusting look, but still gave a small flick of his finger.

“Luise.”

CRACK—

“…!”

With the sound of the ground tearing apart, grass surged up and slammed into the chair. My hand instinctively reached for my holster, only to be caught by the grass. I threw up my arm and tore it away with my left hand, but even though I managed to rip it free—

THUD—

It was too late.

“Ah—no, come on!”

I gave a hollow laugh and clutched my forehead with my left hand. Despite hitting my head on the ground, it was soft. I lay sprawled on the grass with the chair, staring up at the ceiling.

Ulrike pulled the letter from my pocket, then shook hands with my grass-wrapped right hand before getting to his feet. I lay there in resignation, turning over Leonard’s skill at controlling plants in my mind.

“How does he even calculate how to move all these plants growing in so many different places…?”

I was apparently supposed to teach a mage who had already grown this skilled without anyone teaching him. It seemed completely unnecessary. It made me wonder if I was somehow leading him in the wrong direction in the Extra Chapter.

“Euaagh….”

Just then, Ulrike let out a strange noise and gaped at the letter. I had nothing to say, so I simply stared at the ceiling. If I could leave, I would have walked out of the room right then and there.

The corners of Ulrike’s mouth kept twitching upward and then dropping back down. Part of me wanted to tell him it was rude to laugh, while another part, too embarrassed to bear it, wanted to tell him to just do something already. The former won out.

“Don’t laugh. I get that it needs to be checked, but it’s nothing strange, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make me feel any more embarrassed.”

But no one answered. I swallowed in the freezing tension and waited for him to say something—anything.

As Ulrike’s expression swung back and forth between delight and shock, then delight and shock again, Leonard finally asked, “What is it?”

“It’s not anything weird.”

Ulrike hesitated to hand the letter to Leonard, but eventually carefully placed it in his hand. Leonard took the letter from him and unfolded it with a serious expression.

“So…”

Leonard read as far as the third line with a solemn look, then the corner of his mouth twitched faintly at the next line. Every time he finished a paragraph, he glanced at my face and hands before returning to the letter. I knew exactly why he was doing it, so I could only give him a hollow little nod. Compared to Ulrike, Leonard remained remarkably composed as he calmly continued reading.

Leaning against the table, Leonard finished the letter, folded it, and set it down with a look of relief. Having completed the task of dealing with the problematic letter, he turned away without even helping me up, as though he had forgotten all about me.

“Hey. Leonard.”

I called out to him seriously, with all due respect, but he didn’t answer. Right then, Ulrike sat down like Leonard and asked in all seriousness, “What do you do if a commoner likes a member of the royal family…? I mean, what if an Old Human likes a New Human?”

“There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s just how things turned out. You shouldn’t accept them just because they want you to.”

“Because they’re an Old Human?”

“No. They’re still human, after all. I mean you shouldn’t accept their feelings and apologize when you don’t feel the same way.”

Leonard said it without even asking me, taking it for granted that I had no feelings for the person in question. Most New Humans thought this way.

Part of the reason he had been so shocked by the theatrical plan Zähringen and I had devised to deal with the stalker was because of how ridiculous we had been acting, but a greater part of it was that he had witnessed a situation with almost zero chance of happening from the perspective of a New Human.

Leonard was relatively well-versed in all sorts of subjects for his age, so his understanding of Old Humans was also unusually good. Most of them, like Ulrike, couldn’t even begin to grasp it.

Of the hundreds of difficulties in this dystopia, I was at least lucky enough to have someone whose way of thinking matched mine in this one respect. If it hadn’t, everything would have been unbearably difficult.

Ulrike sat there with his mouth hanging open, one hand on his head as if someone had temporarily taken control of his mind. Then, struck by the realization all over again, he said, “Haha… Wow, so this is… that thing.”

“A love letter?”

At Leonard’s clarification, Ulrike snapped his fingers with an audible click.

“Yeah! Like in Effi Briest. When that happens, people write back to the address on the letter to say they’ll come visit. Are you going to send one?!”

I was now lying in the grass with my left arm beneath my head, and I gave a slight shake of my head.

“No.”

“You’re just going to ignore it?!”

He shouted as though I absolutely had to send a reply, so I answered with a reluctant look on my face.

“Why would I send a reply when I’m only going to say things that might hurt their feelings? If you insist, I could at least thank them for the sentiment, though.”

“But how can someone fall for you without even meeting you in person? How? It says here that they thought your speech was impressive and commanding, but that’s it, isn’t it?”

“There’s no way for me to know that. But there are plenty of people like that in the world, so don’t be too amazed.”

“There are?! You’ve been staying home for a long time, but you sure know a lot.”

How did he even come to that conclusion? Feeling my heart sink, I gave a vague answer to brush off his sharp observation.

“Thanks. I’ve learned that indirect experience is important.”

“Right. Right… I can read the writings of these esteemed Old Human scholars all I want, but I still don’t really understand…”

Ulrike answered, only half-focused on the letter. He noticed the letter smelled faintly of fruit and brought it closer to his nose, only to suddenly realize something as if he’d been struck by lightning. Perfuming letters was apparently common among the wealthy as a way of showing off their riches, so it shouldn’t have seemed strange, but everything about it still seemed fascinating to him.

“How long are you going to keep reading?”

I didn’t understand why I was the one feeling awkward when I wasn’t even the person who had written the letter. Ulrike was reading it with his mouth hanging open, like someone who had just discovered some new invention, before suddenly remembering something and closing the letter.

“That’s rude, isn’t it?!”

“It is.”

“They say your eyes look like cherry blossoms.”

“Yeah. I read that too…”

So this was the same country that had been cursing me for my eyes just a little while ago…

I was happy to know that there were people who thought positively of me in their own way, but with the subject of my eyes coming up everywhere I went, my shoulders trembled despite myself. Perhaps Leonard was thinking along the same lines, because he spoke up.

“We should still make sure this isn’t from the Archbishop of Freiburg. It would be safer to confirm that the person actually lives at that address and that the handwriting is really theirs. That’s okay, right, Lukas?”

“Of course. That’s what I was going to do anyway. Thanks.”

Just then, Ulrike leaned down beneath the table and asked, “Lukas. Can I open another letter?”

“…No.”

“Then you open one!”

Ulrike tossed the basket over beside me.

I swallowed and caught it. Just as before, I read through the letters of support sent by citizens from all walks of life, keeping a smile on my face, until I had to stop again at one particular letter. I kept my smile in place naturally and set it down just as I had the others, but Leonard, watching from across the table, tapped his fingers against the table.

How did he know? My heartbeat? Or my facial muscles? That friend of mine had really grown.

I gave up on hiding it and muttered, “I’ve really been lucky lately…”

“There’s another one?! But you’re a New Human!”

Ulrike clapped his hands and nearly toppled backward over his chair. Seeing him like this, there was no doubt he really was my friend. I shifted my gaze awkwardly before protesting, “That’s a good thing.”

Leonard nodded in agreement.

“It’s not a bad sign. You said earlier that you wanted to emphasize your image as a student.”

“I did.”

“It’s true that the fact that you’re essentially royalty makes it harder to present yourself as approachable. Ordinary people don’t usually send letters to royalty saying whatever they please. Doesn’t this suggest that people have started to see you in a more relaxed, approachable light?”

Leonard said this as he picked up the letter I had just read. I nodded. Ulrike listened with the same sharp look he had whenever he was in class, then shrugged.

“Someone from a ruling family who does what the people want in front of the people probably does come across as open and genuine. So I guess the first step you wanted to take has already worked.”

“Exactly.”

Good. The best approach would be to keep building the image of a politician in the press while making myself seem approachable to the public.

“It’s a relief, but… I guess these letters were censored in Prussia before they got here?”

I said this as I looked at the letters, all of which had been slit open with a letter opener. Leonard answered, “They were checked by the Bavarian post office, too.”

It couldn’t be helped, but if these letters had really been sent by people with nothing to do with the actual enemy, I felt bad for them. Even if they understood the situation, given the circumstances.

I tore away the plants Leonard had moved aside for me and got to my feet. After checking the time, I gestured for my friends to leave.

“You’re here.”

The moment we arrived in Berlin, we ran into Narke, who had been waiting for us there.

There was nothing to gain from being seen traveling around with Leonard, so I wanted to stay with as many of my friends from the 101st Unit as possible. It would have been nice if Elias could have been there, too, but I was sure all five of us felt the same way. None of us wanted him to be arrested and made to suffer.

I didn’t know how Prussia was sharpening its knives, nor how far we could resist fate, but if there was anything we could do, we had to give it our all.

Zähringen was still in Baden, but he would be returning to Berlin soon. That was at least some comfort for me, and especially for Leonard, who was probably exhausting himself trying to protect Elias from the Empire.

Whether we realized it or not, all of us looked more haggard than we had before Easter. If we got the chance, spending as much time together as possible would probably be good for our mental health.

Ulrike hugged Narke and said something completely unnecessary.

“Did you know, Narke?”

“What~?”

“Lukas became a Kavalier.”

Taken literally, it meant a medieval knight, but without translating it literally, it could be understood as someone with a sense of chivalry¹. I gave Ulrike a reproachful look and shook my head as he told Narke what was written in the letter. Narke looked puzzled despite his smile, though he seemed to have more or less figured out what was going on.

Ulrike understood what I meant and clamped a hand over his mouth. Even so, he couldn’t hide his delight, grinning as he stepped away from Narke and gestured for us to come over as well. I patted Narke on the back. Leonard did the same.

Pie, who had been perched in Narke’s robe, jumped onto my shoulder as well. He buried his face between my jacket and shirt, then tried to settle himself somewhere he clearly couldn’t fit. I picked him up and put him in my pocket. Narke walked beside me and asked, “Did you have a good talk with Sir Lamour?”

“So you knew about it, too.”

“Of course.”

Narke gave me a faint smile before looking ahead.

“You look a little more relieved.”

“Do I?”

Narke glanced at me and simply smiled. After a brief pause, he whispered in a lowered voice, “I’m glad. I hope you’ll have many more memories like that from now on.”

“Actually, thanks to you, I just made another one.”

At that, Narke let out a bright, refreshing laugh. It didn’t last long. He lowered his eyes, then looked ahead as he usually did.

We walked all the way to Imperial Central Hospital instead of warping there. Along the way, a yellow paper caught my eye, and I turned my head toward it.

“Huh.”

My friends heard me and turned as well, their eyes widening. I looked down at the navy double-breasted jacket and light blue shirt I was wearing. There I was on the front page of the yellow paper, wearing the exact same clothes. Half skeptical, I walked over to the newsstand and bought a copy.

“…Was that just taken?”

I muttered the words, then immediately dismissed the thought. No way. Surely not. It must have been taken while I was traveling from Prussia to Bavaria. Where? Had there really been anything worth reporting on a day as uneventful as today? Besides, I wasn’t even of age yet. Wouldn’t they need permission from my school and the authorities to publish my face in a newspaper?

In the photo, I was smiling as I talked with Ulrike. The new photo was also taken from a slight angle, but unlike the previous ones—where I was shown from the waist up with my fist raised during a speech—this one was cropped at the shoulders, giving a close-up of my face. It was a photo taken for a different purpose.

I looked at the title above it and felt the blood drain from my face. No—then the heat rushed straight back up. The thought of the backlash this would bring left me utterly flustered.

[Preußische Schülerinnen schwärmen für verbotenen Schwarm²]

“…….”

“What’s with the headline?!”

Ulrike cut in, shouting aloud. I was so dumbfounded that I nearly collapsed on the spot. Someone had clearly been pulling strings with the press. Who? And why? It was obvious. I knew exactly who it was, yet my mind refused to process it.

Put more mildly, the headline was saying that Prussian schoolgirls had started taking an interest in a forbidden idol. The person in question was, of course, the one in the photograph, and the whole thing was obviously nonsense. I had no desire to figure out how to properly process this blood-pressure-raising wording, so my brain was going to treat everything I disliked as a foreign language from now on.

“Gasp…”

My friends made strange noises as they read the headline. One thing was certain: the press was trying to shape my image into some sort of romantic idol for teenage girls. If it had been an idolization based on my abilities, that still wouldn’t have been the kind of image I wanted, but considering the political path ahead of me, it would at least have been better than this. This was going in a completely different direction. The purpose was different, too.

I looked around at the people passing by and pressed one hand against my cheek. The leather glove helped cool the heat in my face. I saw Narke covering his mouth, trying to hold back his laughter. My mind went completely blank, and I shook my head once.

“This isn’t it. This is definitely not it. This is wrong. Is this really the time to laugh?”

“But it’s funny.”

“Don’t you know what kind of backlash you get from overdoing the marketing like this? It’s blatantly obvious they’re trying to screw me over.”

“No, no, how could there possibly be a backlash against you? It’s not exactly false, either. You saw that two of them came in earlier! Who knows how many more there were among the ones you hadn’t opened yet?!”

Ulrike patted my shoulder as he tried to comfort me without even making an effort to suppress his laughter. He was laughing so hard even his eyebrows were drooping, and by then he was practically crying. Every few words, his voice rose as he tried to yell his point across properly.

I reached out to cover his mouth, then remembered that I was a mage and cast soundproofing instead. A sound almost like a sigh came from Leonard.

Ulrike’s attempt at comforting me was not comforting in the slightest.

Narke laughed like Ulrike, then caught his breath and whispered, “He’s really not wrong.”

“Why are you joining in?”

“Donnaiolo³.”

Narke said just one word. I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant, but I knew what sort of subject he’d be this confident about. It seemed he’d softened Ludovica Schneider’s outrageous remarks in Italian. For a moment, I wondered if he had somehow read the same thing in my head just now.

I glanced at Leonard, who seemed to have understood the meaning and was touching the corner of his mouth with a puzzled expression, then signaled to Narke to keep quiet.

Narke nodded.

Ulrike asked, trying to hold back his laughter as he read the article.

“Apparently, they’ve received a lot of letters asking the Prussian authorities about you.”

“The yellow press certainly has a lot of information. How much is ‘a lot,’ exactly?”

“I don’t know. But isn’t this the image-making you were talking about, Lukas? The subject is ‘Prussian students.’”

“I said we should emphasize that I’m a student. I never said I wanted to emphasize this kind of thing. And by ‘student,’ I meant the image of a student politician, not this kind of student appeal.”

I pulled another yellow paper from the newsstand. It had another photo of me in the same blue clothes, along with a similar headline. The photo was exactly the same, as if someone had simply passed it around. I narrowed my eyes and asked, “This one, too?”

“This one too… [Der Herzensbrecher, der die Herzen preußischer Schülerinnen erobert hat⁴]… Hahaha!”

Ulrike pulled out another yellow paper, glancing at me as he did. I cast a soundproofing spell around him, but he dodged it. This one wasn’t much different, either. The headline claimed that I was popular among Prussian students. This one and the other one were saying the exact same thing with different words.

Narke covered his mouth with his hand, laughing in disbelief as he muttered, “Herzensbrecher…”

“Someone fan Lukas with something.”

Ulrike flipped back the hair on my forehead and teased me. I was starting to break out in a cold sweat, so I took off my jacket. Even processing this as a foreign language had reached its limit. In truth, it hadn’t worked at all. Still, the exact meaning of each individual phrase didn’t matter. What mattered was the context: some shameless media manipulation was taking place. I was already dreading what kind of trouble this would cause me later.

Leonard, who had been standing behind us, finally let out a helpless laugh after holding it in for as long as he could.

“Ha…”

“Funny?”

“No. Actually, it’s serious.”

Leonard immediately sobered and answered seriously. Ulrike, who had quietly laughed to the point of tears, looked surprised and carefully asked, “Why? It’s a little embarrassing, sure, but is it really that serious?”

“Unless Lukas is in the entertainment industry, this kind of publicity is unnecessary. If anything, it’s a disadvantage.”

“You really get it.”

At my flat response, Ulrike shifted his gaze and gave me a look that clearly asked why it was a disadvantage. Leonard folded his arms, tilted his head, and answered, “Lukas being young was already a handicap. Right now, no one has any confidence in his political experience or career, so if he wants to receive recognition beyond what’s expected for his age, he needs to carry a weight greater than his years. He should be approaching ordinary citizens in a familiar way, while using the same tone as the speech he gave yesterday in the press to establish his position. But articles like this make him sound less like someone who could become a politician in the future and more like a celebrity who’s gaining popularity among teenagers through gossip. As if they’re introducing some passing craze that’ll shine for a while and then disappear.”

“Ah, I see. I get it now. They’re being sneaky about it. There wasn’t anything like this until yesterday.”

Ulrike frowned as he answered. Even so, he snorted again when he looked at the headline. I bought every type of yellow paper they had and gestured for everyone to hurry along.

“Exactly. And they didn’t even have enough time to actually measure what students prefer. Whether the trend is real or not doesn’t matter. They’re exaggerating a few cases to create the result they want. If this keeps up, it’ll be easy for people my age and politicians to develop a negative impression of me. It’s the perfect way to plant a negative image without actually insulting me.”

“You don’t need to worry about people developing a grudge. They probably won’t be able to argue against it very much.”

Ulrike tried to comfort me seriously, the corners of his mouth twitching. I really can’t trust a New Human’s sense of judgment.

Just as I was thinking that, Narke let out a snort. I rolled my eyes and shrugged, feeling like I could only sigh in despair. I never expected Ludovica Schneider to trip me up like this.

Leonard tilted his head at his words and said, “I think so, too. But at a time when you need to establish yourself as someone who could become a politician in the future, deliberately highlighting something completely unrelated to your abilities and diverting the attention you’ve built up toward something else is an attempt to undermine you.”

“Especially if it’s this organized. It’ll be even more of a problem if this kind of propaganda continues for a while.”

Ulrike nodded gravely at Narke’s agreement. Leonard looked at me and asked, “Who else could it be?”

There was no need to think about it. There was only one person who would come up with such an outrageous way to mess with me.

I simply said the name, and Leonard nodded as if he’d expected it. Ulrike looked confused as to why that name had suddenly come up, then snatched the newspapers from my arms and unfolded them. Apparently, he thought the answer would be somewhere in them.

“Pfft…”

Apparently, the headline made Ulrike want to laugh again, because he covered his mouth and held his breath. I could see Leonard and Narke biting their lips beside me. Narke had stopped trying to hold it in and was openly laughing now.

I glanced at my so-called friends laughing beside me and gave up, smiling helplessly.

No. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t give up.

I widened my eyes again and looked at my friends.

“Guys, come on. Let’s deal with this first.”

Translator Note

1. Basically the German word for a gentleman. ↩︎
2. Roughly means ‘Prussian Schoolgirls Swoon Over Forbidden Crush.’ ↩︎
3. Italian, means womanizer. ↩︎
4. Roughly means ‘The Heartbreaker Who Won the Hearts of Prussian Schoolgirls.’ Though, Herzensbrecher is better translated as ‘heartthrob’, even though it literally means ‘heartbreaker.’ ↩︎