CH 125

[The Hated Hero Makes a Slip of the Tongue]

The search for Madeline Halman, who ran away from home.

Since I had a lot to do at the academy festival the next day, I decided to search for her at dawn tomorrow.

After parting with Joel and Eleanor, I returned to the venue.

Coincidentally at that time, Tayte came back, having finished chatting.

“Thank you for waiting, Barrett.”

It seemed she had a lot of fun; Tayte had a big smile on her face.

“Did you have fun chatting with Reina and the others?”

“Yes, but I was also a little nervous because I had a meeting for tomorrow… Putting that aside, did you go somewhere?”

“Huh?”

“Reina asked me to call you to join us, but I couldn’t find you anywhere…”

“Y-yeah, I was outside getting some fresh air.”

Grrr, I couldn’t tell Tayte about the matter yet.

As did with Jarvis’s case, it really hurt me to hide something from Tayte. I had to find Madeline as soon as possible and then tell her the whole situation without hiding anything!

The banquet ended with me having made such a resolve.

Tayte and I decided to go back to the dormitory together.

When I returned to my room in the dormitory, Marina handed me a document about Madeline, which I immediately looked through.

Still… the Halmans seemed to be quite a difficult bunch.

The young lady of the house had suddenly run away from home—or from the dormitory in this case—but they didn’t seem to be taking it very seriously.

Even though Madeline, a noble lady, had gone missing, the movements of the Halman House were very quiet. It might be because neither Joel nor Eleanor reported too many details and the House wanted to wait and assess the situation carefully.

Something else also bugged me, though it might not have a direct relation to this case.

I remembered hearing Joel’s name in the original novel 【The Rise of the Weakest Holy Swordsman】.

Was he an enemy or an ally? – my memory about that was a blur.

I wondered which one was he…

“That reminds me…”

At that time I suddenly recalled something.

It had been nearly half a year since I had come to this world.

Before I had come over, in Japan—where I lived in my previous life—the first volume of the book 【The Rise of the Weakest Holy Swordsman】had already been released. If I remembered correctly, there was talk of it getting comicalized at the same time as the book was released so the serialization should have started over there as well by this time.

“…………”

The original novel being sold over there was about Raul’s harem route, wasn’t it?

When I was nothing but a reader, I was satisfied with it, but seeing Tayte looking so happy here, I got mixed feelings.

“I wish I could get even a little information from there…”

Well, the academy arc didn’t have much to do with the main story, so it probably wouldn’t be very useful.

As I was thinking that, someone knocked on the door.

“Young Master Barrett, would you like some refreshment?”

It was Marina.

I gave her permission to enter and then took a sip of the coffee Marina had brewed for me.

“Your coffee always tastes good, Marina.”

“Fufufu, thank you for the compliment.” Marina smiled kindly.

The age difference made us look like a pair of siblings.

In fact, I’d love to have an older sister like Marina.

I mean, Reina was also perfect as an older sister. However, they had different vibes. Reina felt like a ‘capable beauty’, whereas Marina was more of a ‘kind and tolerant’ older sister. Of course, I loved both.

“Is something the matter?”

“No, it’s nothing—Sis.”

“?!”

…Crap.

I ended up calling her sister because I was thinking of strange things—

“I-if you will excuse me!”

Marina instantly turned red up to her ears and then she bolted out of the room.

…Things were going to be kind of awkward.

Should I start searching for Madeline Halman even earlier than I’d planned tomorrow?