CH 121

[The Hated Hero Goes to the Protagonist’s Rescue]

The setting up of the venue went smoothly, and soon the banquet for the eve of the festival was about to begin.

Tayte and I took Lady Lilia to the infirmary and accompanied her until she regained her composure. Before long, Principal Abigail came and told us to leave Lady Lilia to her then sent us off to the banquet.

“It’s so lively, isn’t it?” Tayte exclaimed.

“Yeah. More than I thought it would.” I nodded.

The banquet was held in the auditorium, but tables were already set up here and there with a wide assortment of sweets and snacks served on top of them. Of course, there was juice as well, placed separately from the food.

The place was already bustling with a large number of students, and laughter could be heard from here and there.

Compared to the ball that was held previously, it was more relaxed and casual.

Still, the snacks on the tables… they looked oh-so-delicious.

They weren’t some fancy stuff, but even I, with my untrained eye, could tell that they were cooked with top-tier ingredients.

Hmm, I couldn’t wait to try them already.

“Heya, Barrett.”

As I was looking at the food, Jarvis came over.

“…………”

“Mm? Is there something on my face?”

“! N-nah, none at all…”

I ended up staring at Jarvis before I knew it.

My mind was occupied with Jarvis’s true feelings that I’d been thinking about since the other day.

Would Jarvis… continue to live while pretending to be a man forever? As a noble, she’d eventually have to get married when she grew up. I wondered what the Lekrust House planned to do about it.

“…………”

“Barrett, these cookies are delicious♪.”

“Mhm.”

“Barrett?”

“Mhm.”

“…Are you unable to get Jarvis out of your mind?”

“Mhm. ——Mm?”

Huh?

What did I—

“HUH?!”

By the time I came to myself, it was already too late.

Tayte puffed out her cheeks with a “Muu”.

“Y-you’ve got it wrong, Tayte! I didn’t mean—”

“Fufufu, I know. You were brooding about Jarvis’s true feelings, weren’t you?”

“Y-yeah… ah!”

That was when I realized.

Tayte was just teasing me.

“T-Tayte…”

“I’m sorry, Barrett. You had a really deep frown on your face, so I couldn’t help but feel like teasing you a little.” Tayte said as she stuck out her tongue. Guh, she looked so cute I couldn’t say anything.

As I was lost in Tayte’s cute gesture, something entered my line of sight.

“Oh, that’s…”

It was the sight of three people.

They were divided into two sides.

The first one was Raul and Eureka.

While the other…

“Madeline Halman…”

In【The Rise of the Weakest Holy Swordsman】she was a member of Raul’s harem… but this should be her first time meeting the current Raul.

All the female characters who were members of Raul’s harem in the original storyline had gone off the original course.

Tayte was with me.

Ms. Teixeira was with Mr. Walter.

Reina was with Mr. Abel.

And Mia was with another man.

Reina and Mia didn’t even know Raul and they already got different partners.

With that precedent in mind, I was sure Madeline wouldn’t form that deep of a relationship with him, too—

““……””

Or so I thought, but the situation seemed kind of tense over there. Eureka and Madeline were silently glaring at each other.

“D-doesn’t it look like there’s something happening between them…?”

“Y-yeah.”

It seemed that Tayte sensed it too… the indescribable sense of tension between the two girls.

Raul seemed like he didn’t know what to do, caught in between the two. As his friend, I should give him a hand.

“I’ll go there for a bit.”

“B-be careful…”

It felt like I was going into the battlefield.

…Well, in a sense, that wasn’t wrong.

No matter how you looked at it, that was a battlefield over there.

The question was… how did I get Raul out of there?

Releasing a sigh, I made my way to Raul and the two girls who were glaring at each other.