CH 212

[Marina, Blunder]

After the birthday festival, I returned to my room in the dorm.

“I’m ho—ooome?!”

As soon as I entered the room, I encountered an unexpected situation.

“Ah, welcome back, Young Master.”

Marina, my maid, greeted me as usual—except, her eyes were wet with tears. Speaking of, I didn’t see Priim and Rebecca around… no way, did they fight?

“M-Marina?! Did something happen?!”

“Huh? –Ah.”

When I asked in a panic, Marina traced her finger around her eye and finally noticed she’d been crying.

“P-please forgive me for showing you such disgraceful sight, Young Master!”

“N-no, you don’t need to apologize… So, what happened? And where are Priim and Rebecca?”

“W-well…”

Marina stammered—buuut, turned out the reason she had cried was completely different from what I had imagined.

“A n-novel?”

“Yes. I just finished reading a romance novel that has been popular lately… I was so moved that I couldn’t stop my tears…”

“I-I see.”

I was relieved that nothing terrible happened.

By the way, as for my other two maids, seemed like Priim had asked Rebecca to help with her martial arts training.

“Who’s the author–‘Steel Princess’? Never heard that name before.”

“That wouldn’t be strange since they seem to be a dwarf that lives on a distant continent.”

“A dwarf, huh… I thought they were all about blacksmithing. Didn’t expect they write books too.”

Monsters were often talked about on the continent where we lived, but demi-humans were a rare sight here. Even beastmen like Priim, who relatively often interacted with humans, were pretty rare.

“By the way, what kind of story is it?”

“…Pure love.”

Marina spoke with an enchanted expression.

Right…she had a bit of a girlish taste.

This was something I heard from Rebecca, but it seemed that when it came to gifts from men, she loved to receive original poets and original songs the most.

“I-I see.”

“It tells the story of a couple overcoming the barrier that stands in the way of their love… it’s so moving that I can’t help but cry.”

“Barrier? Oh, is it status differences?”

“I-it’s similar, but not quite…”

Hmm?

She had been talking fluently, but now she suddenly started stuttering?

…Don’t tell me…

“Marina… that book, it’s not adult-rated, I hope?”

“N-n-no, it’s not?!”

Why would she stutter if it wasn’t then…? Then again, I was having a hard time imagining Marina would bring such a questionable book into her underage master’s room.

“I-I got it. Sorry for misunderstanding you.”

“N-no, please, I should be the one apologizing for losing my composure. Ah! I have to go brew your coffee.”

“Oh, thanks in advance.”

Marina left the room to make me coffee.

I went on to check my schedule to prepare for tomorrow, but then I suddenly saw the book left on the table.

I wasn’t particularly interested, but I found a short synopsis written on the back cover and looked through it to see what it was all about.

Hmm, it seemed that the main plot of the story wasabout a tragic love due to status differences.

“She really loves these kinds of stories—hm?”

I felt a sense of incongruity while reading the synopsis.

The cause was the names of the main lead and his partner.

“Aren’t they both… men’s names?”

Right after I muttered that unconsciously, there was a shattering sound behind me.

It was from a cup of coffee that had dropped on the floor, and the one who did was Marina who was standing stock still with a pale face.

“M-Marina?”

“…It’s not like what you think.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not like what you thiiiiiiiiiink!”

Screaming, Marina tried to jump out of the window, but I managed to stop her by clinging to her waist. Soon after, Priim and Rebecca came back and calmed Marina down after hearing her scream.

――As for the truth, she had gone to pick up a book she had ordered from a bookstore in the royal capital, but it turned out the package contained a completely different book, so she had been going to return it when she decided to give it a short read and got completely hooked and opened the door to a whole new world.

“Haa… it’s not like you at all…”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Marina received a scolding from Rebecca.

As I was watching this rare sight…

“I’m confiscating this book.”

“““Huh?”””

“! I-I will just be keeping it safe! I have no plan to read it! Not at all, yes!”

Rebecca denied it, but she was clearly flustered.

…I’m begging you, please don’t spread your strange hobby to other maids at the academy, alright?