◇◇◇ Carnivorous Beast

After school on the same day of the wand incident, Fiene walked over to Lieselotte’s seat. The few classmates that remained in the room quickly scattered when they saw her do so. Fiene noticed them leave out of the corner of her eye, but simply bowed her head to Lieselotte.

“Lady Lieselotte, thank you very much for what you did earlier today.”

“What a strange one you are. Who in their right mind would thank another for a scolding?” Lieselotte scoffed after uttering her icy words.

“No, I was in the wrong. The fact that you call out my mistakes as soon as they happen really helps me, Lady Lieselotte.”

Fiene raised her head and smiled. A faint blush could be seen on Lieselotte’s cheeks. Bashfully, she began mumbling excuses.

“It isn’t as if I do this for your sake. You’re so ignorant that I simply instruct you so as to maintain the esteem of our class and school.”

“Which means you consider me a real part of our class, right? Lady Lieselotte, you’re the only one who would ever say that.”

There were plenty of students at the academy who gave Fiene no more respect than a roadside pebble. A commoner without a family name may as well have been a forgettable weed to them.

Although Lieselotte’s reprimands were harsh on the surface, they indicated how much she cared for Fiene. This attitude was so phenomenal that it filled Fiene with deep gratitude.

Lieselotte averted her eyes from Fiene’s thankful gaze. Her snow-white cheeks grew redder by the moment.

“I can’t help but think Prince Siegwald cares for you as well,” Lieselotte said. Her mouth twisted into a pout, leaving Fiene with a troubled smile.

“Yes, but the prince is, well... How do I put this? I feel like he’s equally nice to all his subjects. It just so happens that I’m especially pitiful, so he tried to shield me by acting as my friend.”

“Perhaps at first. But now, one can hardly deny you hold a special place in His Highness’s eye.”

“I mean, I’m pretty sure he respects my strength, but there’s no way that he sees me as a girl! Besides, I don’t think there’s anyone stupid enough to try and get in the way of you and the prince—at least, not at the academy—so don’t worry! Everyone already knows how passionate you two engaged lovebirds are!”

“L-Lovebi— I, um...”

Fiene’s unflinching smile directly contrasted with Lieselotte’s moping, the latter of whom grew more and more embarrassed.

Their classmates had fled the scene, not wanting to get caught up in the marquis lady’s bullying. However, their warrantless imagination was nothing like reality. In fact, if anyone was being teased here, it was Lieselotte.

Still, the two of them speaking in private was enough to give birth to new misunderstandings. Or perhaps the girls who’d fled the classroom earlier had reported their imagined harassment.

“Liese, are you bullying Miss Fiene again?” Baldur stepped in between the two girls as he called out to Lieselotte.

“Bal!” Lieselotte responded with a low growl in turn, glaring at her cousin. The atmosphere was tense, but Fiene heartily laughed at the boy’s misconception.

“Nope, we were just talking about how madly in love His Highness and Lady Lieselotte are.”

“Ah... So you were swooning over His Highness again?” he asked Lieselotte. Then, he turned and said, “I apologize that my cousin is always showing off her fiancé, Miss Fiene.”

A refined lady seeing a commoner like me as a rival is weird, but not as weird as a viscount and upperclassman who lowers his head to me, Fiene thought. All she could do was laugh off Baldur’s serious apology.

“What in the world are you saying?! Me, swooning?! I-I would never! At any rate, the two of us aren’t like that!”

Lieselotte had flushed crimson and tried to deny Baldur and Fiene’s rapid back-and-forth. However, Baldur’s reaction was one that bordered on pity.

“It’s a well established fact that you’ve been single-mindedly pining for His Highness all your life. And for his part, it seems His Highness has finally seen through your act. He’s been incredibly sweet to you recently. You two love each other,” Baldur concluded.

“H-His Highness is kind to everyone!” Lieselotte said. “I’m sure that his soft demeanor toward me is but a part of his responsibility to his fiancée...”

“That might be part of it,” he said with a sigh. “That man acts as a prince, through and through. But from the outside looking in, I can’t see you two as anything but a couple that’s stupidly in love.”

“I...I...I!” At a complete loss for words, Lieselotte could only stammer.

“You know,” Fiene said, “recently, His Highness has been watching over Lady Lieselotte with a tender gaze. He’s like a lion watching a kitten accidentally scratch something with their claws. ‘Aww’ is written all over his face.”

“Agreed. That about sums it up,” Baldur said.

Neither of them spoke with any intention of teasing Lieselotte. Fiene had simply given her honest recollection of what had happened earlier that day. Baldur’s nonchalant agreement was the final straw to totally rob Lieselotte of her speech. She bit her quivering lip with tears in her eyes.

“See?” Baldur said. “If nothing else, Miss Fiene has the common sense to know that trying to get in the way of your love is a fool’s errand. Don’t pick on her or use her as a roundabout way to gloat about your relationship again.”

Still shivering, Lieselotte could find no response to her cousin’s exasperated words. Perhaps the conversation had revived the prince’s gaze in her mind. Whatever the reason, she could no longer bear to stay.

“E-Excuse me!” she shouted in frustration. She rose from her seat and glared at the two of them one last time before making her escape out the classroom door.

“Now then, Miss Fiene, where do you intend to go today? Shall I escort you directly to the dorms?”

Baldur apparently had no plans to chase his fleeing cousin. After Lieselotte left the room, he promptly turned to the young girl the gods had bid him to protect.

“Nope. I want to get some exercise, so I was thinking of hunting monsters in the mountains behind the school. It’ll be outside of the campus, so you don’t have to come with me, Sir Bal.”

“The mountains are still part of the school’s property. Let me accompany you as a guard.”

The knight-in-training’s response was as deadpan as ever. Fiene had already begun walking at a brisk pace to shake him off, but he quickly followed behind her. She looked up at him with complicated emotions.

Truthfully, exercising was just an excuse for Fiene. Her main goal was to procure some meat for her dinner. Dragging around a young viscount who was only a few steps off from being an official knight for a cause as stupid as hers didn’t sit well with her.

“I’m strong, you know? The monsters in the mountain can’t even compare to me.” Fiene deliberately chose her words to sound arrogant as she peered up at her companion.

“I know,” he said somberly. “That’s exactly why the gods’ prophecy is so grave. An enemy is going to appear that threatens your safety despite your monstrous strength. For the sake of the kingdom, I don’t want to leave you on your own for even a moment.”

“Monstrous” isn’t a very becoming word to use to describe a lady, Fiene thought in response. Still, she acknowledged that she was far stronger than average; besides, she wasn’t a proper lady and had no intention of ever being one. With a short sigh, she quickly proceeded toward the mountains.

Fiene and Baldur had been acting in tandem for a month and a half now. Though there had been some distance between them at first, their relationship had begun to slowly shift.

At first, Baldur had honored Fiene as his liege, whom the gods had ordered him to protect. He’d spoken to her very formally and suggested that she call him simply by his name or nickname. As a commoner, the thought of speaking to nobility in this way had caused her to kick up quite the fuss. Eventually, the two of them got to know one another and settled into a friendship between a senior and junior student.

While making their way to the mountains, Fiene was lost in thought. Marquis Lieselotte Riefenstahl saw her as a rival; Viscount Baldur Riefenstahl treated her with reverence. As she pondered why, an epiphany struck.

“Do the people of House Riefenstahl think that might equals right?” she asked worriedly.

Fiene thought that an esteemed aristocratic family subscribing to the philosophy of wild beasts was ridiculous. Yet the low-born girl with an unknown background had only one saving grace: her skill in combat.

“Isn’t that obvious?”

Baldur didn’t even blink. He merely confirmed her suspicions, causing her eyes to open so wide that her eyeballs nearly fell out.

“...Are you stupid?”

Insolent words passed Fiene’s lips. She quickly covered her mouth, but unfortunately Baldur had heard her loud and clear. He nodded again.

“Our family originally attained its status through combat, so there are very few of us who bother to use our brains. Whether it’s magic or swordsmanship, we’re taught that spirit, tenacity, and our senses are what we need to succeed. Most of us live off of instinct alone, and only a few Riefenstahls think before they act.”

Baldur didn’t seem upset at all. Perplexed, Fiene silently blinked at his explanation.

“Liese is the type to use her head and weave a well-balanced array of spells into her combat—and she even employs all sorts of tactics. But she’s the exception and not the rule when it comes to House Riefenstahl.”

Fiene was happy to hear that Lieselotte was not among the ranks of her muscleheaded kin.

Baldur watched her sigh in relief, only for a thought to spring to mind. “Speaking of which, are you not going to holster the wand she gave you?”

Fiene looked over her own attire. As usual, she was wearing a school uniform and a robe. The wand was hidden in her robe’s inner pocket—it wasn’t exactly ready at the draw.

The academy’s dress code mandated that all students wear a robe with the school’s emblem on it during class. However, what one wore underneath the robe was left up to the students. There was an official uniform (a blazer, with slacks for boys and skirts for girls), but this wasn’t enforced.

Lieselotte and many other female students elected to wear full dresses instead. On the other hand, Fiene could always be seen in the official uniform.

Fiene’s financial straits had previously been so dire that she’d worn horse-riding clothes meant for exercise underneath her robe at all times. When Lieselotte had found out, she’d said, “The very existence of a lady in such wretched clothing will tarnish our school’s reputation.”

What awaited Fiene were school uniforms that seemed normal at first glance, yet a single touch was enough to tell that they were woven from some material that she’d never even seen before. She’d received three whole sets each of the summer and winter variants. Although she’d considered returning them, they were so perfectly tailored to her proportions that both the bust and height would fail to fit Lieselotte. Fiene wore them to school every day with a heart full of appreciation, and today was no different.

However, the wand that Fiene had received in a similar fashion was stashed away in her inner pocket. She didn’t use it very frequently.

“Um, it’s just that this wand seems super expensive, so I figured I should keep it safe. I tried to return it to Lady Lieselotte, but she tsun de rais’d me by saying, ‘You expect me to accept a wand that you’ve already used? A hand-me-down, so to speak?’ But it’s so shiny that I can’t bring myself to use it unless I need to for class. Plus, now that I took off the ribbon, I’m scared that it might slip out of my hand.”

“Waiting for Liese to back down is hopeless. Just use it. There’s nothing more pitiful than a tool that’s never used.”

Baldur apathetically cut through Fiene’s internal struggle. Yet she hung on in spite of his stoic judgment.

“But I don’t even really need a wand in the first place. Well, I guess except when I’m supporting you, but...” At the very least, I don’t need to have it on hand at all times, was what Fiene had planned to say. But she trailed off when a question came to mind. “Wait a second, you don’t use a wand either, do you, Sir Bal?”

All that Baldur had around his waist was his sword, without a wand in sight. In fact, Fiene had never once seen him wield a wand.

“That’s because this sword doubles as a wand,” he said, placing his hand on the sheath.

“Wow! That’s so cool! Where’d you buy it?!” Fiene asked with stars in her eyes. She would love to get a pair of brass knuckles or a knife that could do the same, but Baldur slowly shook his head.

“This is an heirloom that belongs to the Riefenstahl marquisate. I’m slated to marry into the main family, and the current head fawns on me. Maybe it’s because he only has daughters. Regardless, he’s letting me use it before I’m wed just because he likes me.”

Baldur had a fiancée. This revelation filled Fiene with a disquieting sensation, though she herself couldn’t put her finger on why.

“...Oh,” she muttered, suddenly incredibly displeased.

“Is something wrong?” Baldur peered at her with worry in his eyes.

“Not at all. I thought that it must be tough to be a noble, is all. A commoner like me could never understand what it’d be like to get engaged when you’re still a student.”

That’s right, it was just a bit of culture shock, Fiene told herself. Still, her tone of voice was clearly unhappy.

“I can’t understand it either. Or rather, I can’t accept it.”

Fiene was dumbfounded to hear Baldur immediately and glumly concur with her. She looked up at him curiously.

“Is there any reason for you to be dissatisfied? I’m sure Lady Lieselotte’s little sisters must be beautiful.”

Fiene’s question put a grim expression on Baldur’s face. He looked like he had just bit into a disgusting, bitter insect.

“I won’t deny that the daughters of the main branch are all gifted with natural charm. But I’ve grown up with them my whole life and they feel like my own sisters. More than that, the head of the family told me to take one of the twins just below Liese, but both of them broke down in tears and begged me to choose the other. The youngest of the household told me, ‘I can marry you if I really have to,’ but she’s only nine...”

Baldur looked genuinely upset. He certainly didn’t look like someone discussing his marriage candidates. Seeing him vigorously scratch his head in frustration, a wry grin cracked onto Fiene’s face.

“Well, I’ll be forced to take one of their hands in marriage eventually, but...thinking about it makes me want to throw away my life to hole up in the mountains.” They had finally reached the entrance to the mountains they were headed to, and he looked up at the peaks as he spoke.

“Is it really worth abandoning the title of viscount?” Fiene asked with a chuckle.

“That’s how lost I am,” Baldur said, still bleak. “I don’t care much for titles anyway. But I do truly wish to live up to the expectations of Marquis Riefenstahl. He’s taken care of me for so long... Honestly, what am I meant to do?”

Fiene realized that Baldur had kept this news under wraps because he was still unsure about it himself; he didn’t know who he was to marry, or when, or even if he wanted to marry them at all. Fiene smiled merrily and pointed at the path ahead.

“Then how about we go and blow off some steam? Want to go for a trial run holing up in the mountains?” Until we find some tasty meat was left unsaid.

Fiene’s invitation caught Baldur off guard for a moment, but his bewilderment quickly turned into a savage grin. He put his hand on the grip of his sword. Noble houses, status, and the future—his future—could wait. For now, he would let himself be a beast, drowning in the heart-racing thrill of combat.

The pair of battle junkies didn’t need to share a single word to come to the same conclusion. They lined up together and sprinted forward. Just a moment ago, the commoner girl and noble boy had had their differences, but these two birds of a feather were in perfect sync as they ran into the den of monsters that lay behind their school.

————

The mountains behind the academy were prone to amassing mana. When minerals, animals, or plants were exposed to mana for extended periods of time, they twisted into hellish, bloodthirsty monsters.

Their aggressive instincts often led them to attack humans, and the crown encouraged anyone who could use magic to hunt them when possible. Naturally, the students of the academy were no exception: eliminating dangerous monsters was an expected part of their training.

At regular intervals, the whole student body was rounded up to clean out these mountains. Thus, there were only relatively weak monsters who hadn’t had time to grow.

Also, despite their name, monster meat was just regular meat. It was perfectly safe to eat. That was why this was Fiene’s favorite place to hunt.

Like always, she pressed on without a hint of uncertainty. She ran, punched, kicked, punched, kicked, punched, punched, and punched some more, with only joy in her heart, tearing through the mountain as she pleased.

“This is so much fun!” she hollered in bliss. Beside her, Baldur laughed heartily and nodded along.

Fiene’s incredible strengthening magic allowed the duo to blaze past human limitations. With a dependable partner to watch their backs, the two of them enjoyed themselves to their hearts’ content.

“Hrm? I haven’t seen any meat today.”

In spite of their satisfying rampage, Fiene suddenly stopped when this thought came to mind. Up until then, they’d been butchering a ton of plant-based monsters and a handful of mineral-based ones. Not once had they seen one that originated from an animal; those had enough presence of mind to move quickly in combat.

“Ah, I see,” Baldur said. “I suspect a strong monster has appeared in the area.”

When a powerful monster manifested, weaker ones were forced to hide away in their dens or flee from its territory. Either way, they weren’t able to roam around freely.

Once Baldur came to this conclusion, he calmly explained this to Fiene. She didn’t even flinch; in fact, she couldn’t have looked more thrilled.

“That means there’s a super strong monster around here, right? We can’t just not hunt it!”

Baldur nodded along with Fiene’s merry declaration.

These mountains were scheduled for a school-sponsored mass hunt soon, and it was enclosed in a barrier to prevent monsters from getting out. The appearance of a strong monster wasn’t that big of a deal.

Still, the crown offered bounties for dangerous marks; also, the barrier wasn’t there to be used as an excuse to look the other way. Motivated by the reward and knightly honor respectively, Fiene and Baldur decided to face off against a foe that they judged to be quite the beast.

“Miss Fiene!”

“Huh?”

Daydreams of extra cash were cut short when Baldur called out to Fiene. Still in a daze, she could hardly keep up with what was going on. He stepped forward as if to shield her and drew his blade. Following his gaze, she saw a grizzly bear. It had ash-gray fur and an ominous red glint in its eyes. With much caution, it slowly began to approach.

“Um, you’re in my way...”

Fiene was tiny even for a girl, and she was totally hidden behind Baldur’s large frame. She poked her head out to confirm the bear’s whereabouts and immediately attempted to head toward it. However, Baldur cut her off with his spare hand.

“Supporting magic,” he ordered, still locking eyes with the grizzly.

Fiene was irked by his attitude. Although she showed it with a pout, she simultaneously noticed the bear move.

“Tsk!” She clicked her tongue as soon as the grizzly bolted toward them.

Realizing that they had no time to argue, Fiene rapidly cast a slew of supportive spells on Baldur. She placed the palms of her hands on his wide back and prayed. Shimmering light danced around him, invigorating his arms, legs, and core.

One moment, one strike—Baldur had leapt forward faster than the eye could see. The beast’s head had been lopped clean off.

“Sir. Bal.”

Without skipping a beat, the to-be-knight had begun the process of confirming his kill. Yet a deep, deep, razor sharp voice cut into his ears.

“Why did you do something like that?!”

The flame of rage in Fiene’s eyes flickered as she marched toward him. Confused, he cocked his head.

“I’m strong,” she said. “Not only am I strong, but I can heal myself instantly. Even if my arm is cut off, or my stomach is pierced, I will never die.”

Fiene’s compounding fury could be felt as she stacked on brutal word after word. All Baldur could do was awkwardly nod. If you know that, then why?! This question and unfiltered anger filled her mind to the brim. She let passion take hold and began to shout.

“Sir Bal, you’re weaker than me! And you suck at healing magic! What are you going to do if you die trying to protect me again?!”

Seeing Fiene scream with tears in her eyes left Baldur discouraged. He stared at his feet in shame.

“Huh?” On the other hand, Fiene now tilted her head at her own words. She found it mysterious that she’d used the word “again.” Maybe she was just that emotional right now.

“I concede that I have never won against you, Miss Fiene. Truth be told, I don’t ever see myself being able to beat you.” Baldur spoke softly, his eyes still downcast.

“Then—”

He looked up. His strong gaze pierced straight through Fiene, robbing her of her words.

“But that isn’t because I’m weaker than you. It’s because I’m weak to you.” Baldur’s straightforward, brazen, and forceful declaration left Fiene at a complete loss. “Well, I agree that I need to work on my healing magic. That will be a battle for another day.”

“Right, sure, that’s fine. You can rely on your companions as long as you’re aware of your weaknesses, so that isn’t an issue. Let’s put that aside for a second. Sir Bal, you said something really strange just now. What was it? You’re weak to me?”

Thinking that she may have misheard him, Fiene rewound the conversation to confirm what Baldur had said. He tilted his own head to mirror hers and began speaking like he was explaining something so obvious it didn’t need to be said.

“That’s right. I’m particularly weak against you. Rather, is there anyone alive who could bear to point their sword at a girl as lovely as you?”

Faced with what amounted to a pickup line, Fiene was on the verge of punching Baldur to shut his mouth. Yet somehow, she managed to tighten up and stop her fist from flying forward. Instead, she brought up an unpleasant memory from before she entered the academy in a desperate attempt to debate him.

“What are you even saying?! ‘Lovely?!’ Besides, I’ve met people who tried to kill me without a second thought. Several, in fact!”

“They must have been demons or the devil himself. At the very least, I could never do that.”

“Urk! W-Well, doesn’t that make you a failure as a knight if appearances are enough to sway you?!”

“Appearances? It’s more that it’s you, Miss Fiene. Should the need ever arise, I could cut down any girl that matches your charm so long as it isn’t you.”

Nothing I say is going to convince him. At this point, Fiene finally blew past her limit of humiliation. Realizing the futility of her actions, she crumpled up and buried her face in her hands.

Oblivious, Baldur continued to smack her with compliments. His face was still as stoic as ever.

“...Now that I think about it, I genuinely doubt that there’s any human as pretty as you.”

Stop. Shut up already. The unbearable mood had Fiene screaming internally. Not realizing that he was already a step past flirting, Baldur continued on as solemnly as could be.

“Basically, what I want to say is that you are my only weakness, Miss Fiene. Against any other living being, I’m not as weak as you think. Please, don’t worry and let me protect you.”

“...Okay.” After being complimented to death, Fiene could only muster a single-word response in the teensiest, tiniest voice possible.

What followed were a few seconds of pure quiet. The first to crack from the awkward silence was Fiene.

The anger that Baldur had sweet-talked her despite being slated to marry swirled together with the shame that she’d been swept up by it. All her emotions came together in a single shout.

“Oh jeez! Unbelievable. Sir Bal? Are you for real?”

With that said, Fiene took off. A ton of thoughts bounced around her head. “Meat!” and “I should bring back some of the carcass to prove we hunted a big monster,” and “Wait, I guess Sir Bal was the one who killed it, so it isn’t my problem, right?”

Despite her zooming brain, the foremost priority in her mind was to get the heck away from this sickly sweet mood.

“So this unbearable feeling is why Lady Lieselotte tries so hard to be tsun every day!”

Although Baldur gave chase only a few seconds later, Fiene’s tearful soliloquy failed to reach his ears.