Happy Monday!
Here"s the chapter, enjoy.
ED: Ignite
When I had woken up early in the morning, Akira was sleeping on the sofa.
Next to him, Princess Amelia was caressing his head.
It"s been a long time since I"ve seen Akira"s sleeping face.
「…how unusual for Akira to sleep so defenselessly.」
When I said this, Princess Amelia"s shoulders trembled a little and looked at me.
Those eyes of hers seemed somewhat sad.
Did something happen.
「Eh? Amelichan woke up early! Even though I thought that I would be first!」
「…yeah, I couldn"t sleep well.」
When I was about to ask her, I was interrupted by Ueno who woke up.
Caressing Akira"s head, she answered Ueno who was noisy as soon as she woke up.
The look in those eyes were different from before, they were now overflowing with love.
「Uwah! Such a defenseless appearance of Odkun"s is a first…no, it"s been a long time since I"ve seen it!」
Aah, I nodded in agreement with Ueno whose words were expressed differently from mine.
After all, Akira was a famous Sleeping Beauty even within our cla.s.s.
He was only awake when a teacher woke him up and when it was a scary teacher"s cla.s.s, but he was basically sleeping during all the other cla.s.ses.
It was miraculous how he was able to avoid getting failing marks on his tests every time.
Maa, only I knew about that though.
If the other cla.s.smates knew, they would kick up a fuss, saying that he was cheating.
I knew that he studied in between his part-time jobs.
「A side of Akira I didn"t know…. I want to know.」
After Princess Amelia complained in response, I immediately decided to leave as it seemed like they were going to have a girl"s talk.
「I"ll be in another room. Call me when you leave.」
「Uwah!? Asahinkun, you were here?」
I thought that Ueno had just been ignoring me the entire time, but it seems like she didn"t notice me.
「I was here since the beginning.」
I gave a short reply, and left the room.
The delivery of the prize would be around noon.
The ones receiving the prizes were Princess Amelia and Latisneil, as well as Satou, who somehow won the male category.
It seems that most of the partic.i.p.ants for the male category were muscular and macho-like bodybuilders, so almost everyone voted for Satou.
We had included it into the plan, but we didn"t think that Satou would actually partic.i.p.ate in it, and we did a double-take when we heard that he won first place.
The past few days, we each pondered over the information provided by Tsuda, and investigated it.
The more we investigated, the more information there was regarding the things that Uruk"s guildmaster Gram was involved in.
There was no longer any doubt that Gram was involved with the disappearances of the previous pageant winners.
He didn"t even bother with trying to cover it up.
Since even people like us who were just adventurers could gather this information without going through an information broker.
Oddly enough, the information brokers seemed to be aware of Kurou"s contacts, as they avoided leaking information to them which delayed his investigations into Gram"s escapades.
We didn"t know if we should tell Akira and the others or not.
「Do you have the determination?」
I nodded at Satou who was leaning against the wall right next to the room I had left.
The dark circles under Akira"s eyes, there was no way I would not realize that they grew more p.r.o.nounced by the day, and I had opposed it when Satou and the others wanted to let them know.
Of course, it would be best if we let Akira know and strengthen the guard on Princess Amelia and Satou.
However, I saw Akira today and became determined.
「We can"t let Akira know. …maa, he"s not an idiot, so he should have some kind of plan.」
「Some kind of plan?」
At my words, Satou tilted his head in confusion.
I nodded, and held up a finger to my lips.
「Haven"t you noticed? We haven"t seen Yoru since yesterday. I don"t know if he"s guarding Princess Amelia from somewhere, or perhaps he went out to get her information, but there"s no doubt that he"s doing something on Akira"s orders.」
Maa, in any case, I couldn"t think of an excuse for staying quiet.
Perhaps Satou agreed, as he nodded in response.
「Among us, you are the one who knows Akira best. In that case, it would be best to do it like that.」
I gave a wry smile.
Even though Satou had been with Akira for around the same amount of time as well.
「Leave Amelisan to Ueno-san, let"s do a final confirmation. Everyone is in the room.」
Aah, I followed behind Satou.
That sleeping face of Akira"s, I hadn"t seen it in a while.
We went to sleep earlier, and woke up earlier as well.
Perhaps it was because of that, or maybe it was because he didn"t sleep, I wonder which one it was.
No matter which one it was, it was easy to see that his health was deteriorating.
Was it because he could relax by Princess Amelia"s side?
In any case, it"s good that he"s resting, even if it"s just for today.
It was thanks to Princess Amelia.
Akira too, after meeting Princess Amelia, it seems that he"s become somewhat calmer.
Maa, that being the case, if something were to happen to Princess Amelia, he would immediately become the most dangerous person.