The Demon Prince goes to the Academy

n’t know.

While it was only for a brief moment when she entered the room, Ellen had seen Harriet’s face as she was patting Reinhardt’s head.

—She’d seen Harriet’s warm and gentle smile.

She was making an expression she would never make in front of Reinhardt when he was awake.

She would never be able to show it to him, but when he was asleep, it appeared a lot on her face.

If affection was a type of substance, then that expression and that look seemed to be oozing with it.

It almost seemed like it was overflowing.

Was it really that shameful for someone else to see that expression?

Ellen was a little envious that Harriet was able to make such an expression.

She didn’t know why she envied her.

She just wished that she could also show an expression like that.

Ellen felt like it was useless envy, though.

“B-by the way… What’s that? It smells delicious,” Harriet asked while looking at the pot Ellen had brought with her, perhaps to change the subject.

“I made soup.”

“Soup? Is it for… ”

Harriet seemed a little bewildered, wondering whether she made it for Reinhardt, but Ellen just nodded her head blankly.

She’d made it for Reinhardt, but he was already put to sleep with sleep magic, perhaps because the pain was just too severe.

She had made a lot anyway.

“Want some?”

“Huh? Ah… C-can I?”

“Yes.”

Although she’d made it for Reinhardt, there was no reason not to give some to Harriet.
The two of them suddenly ended up sharing a bowl of soup with each other in front of the sleeping Reinhardt.

Harriet’s eyes widened as she took a bite.

“It’s delicious…”

“That’s a relief.”

“Ellen, you’re also good at cooking…?”

The word ‘also’ revealed that Harriet thought that Reinhardt was also a good cook.

Harriet knew that Reinhardt and Ellen would cook something every night and that Reinhardt was usually the one who would cook.

However, Ellen was also good at cooking, but after listening to Reinhardt’s grumbling, she knew that she would hardly ever cook.

But because Reinhardt was sick, Ellen had managed to cook a whole pot of soup by herself.

Even Harriet’s taste buds, which had been accustomed to luxurious food, were satisfied by it.

Just what couldn’t she do?

Harriet ate the soup, little by little feeling a strange sense of defeat.

Reinhardt learned swordsmanship from Ellen, so he was stuck in the training room all day long if nothing happened.
She had watched that a few times already.

The curiosity she felt towards their swordsmanship training was different from her interest in magic research.

No, she wasn’t actually curious about that.
She just wanted to see what the two of them were up to all day long.
Those two naturally became closer as they kept on training with each other.

There was also another thing she had in mind.

At the beginning of the first semester, Reinhardt, who had no talent, definitely had gotten a lot stronger.
To be honest, Reinhardt in the first semester was a weird guy who tried various things without knowing a single thing and only had his hot temper going on for himself while he was physically rather weak and had 0 knowledge of swordsmanship, weak physical strength, and 0 knowledge.

However, he had learned to somewhat handle a sword.

It was all thanks to Ellen.

Harriet knew that Ellen was talented beyond compare in swordsmanship as well as close combat.

It was only natural that Reinhardt got stronger after having learned swordsmanship from her.

That was why he still sparred with Ellen.

But…

There were some thoughts floating through Harriet’s mind.

Reinhardt was smart, so he could have learned magic.

If Reinhardt had learned magic instead of swordsmanship…

Ellen was someone with no equal in the field of swordsmanship.

So Reinhardt spent all of his days with Ellen, as such, he got to where he was.

Harriet wasn’t someone to be underestimated, however.

If Ellen’s talent could be called the pinnacle of all close combat talents, Harriet’s could be called the pinnacle of all magic talents.

So, if he had instead decided to study magic with her instead of swordsmanship with Ellen…

Perhaps they would have spent their time together in the dormitory magic lab all day.

This is how you do it.
That’s what it causes.
This magic formula can be activated a lot easier if you think of it like this.

She would have kept  teaching him like that.

While he wouldn’t have been as good as herself, he would have become a wizard good enough to be put in battle.
He could have stayed with her all day until their curfew passed.

However, that ship had already sailed.

Reinhardt had made his choice.

—Reinhardt was learning swordsmanship from Ellen.

And they didn’t spend that much time together.

Harriet had thought about learning some swordsmanship in her spare time at one point.
Learning the art of the blade was standard practice for noble children, after all.

She would have come up with some kind of excuse to include herself in their practice, or she might have joined his physical training.

She would pretend that she didn’t know about her own desire to just be close to him.

Of course, she was also very curious as to what those two were doing in there for such a long time.

So she’d ended up observing Reinhardt and Ellen’s training.

Their training was a lot different from what Harriet had imagined.

She thought that they had become close after sparring and talking a lot with each other…

But just watching them gave her goosebumps.

Ellen attacked him instantly while Reinhardt tried to hurriedly block, but he just fell, got beaten, and knocked around over and over.

As Harriet watched Reinhardt getting beaten up like that, she shuddered.

How can he do that?

Doesn’t it hurt?

No, how is that training?

Do they have to go that far?

Such thoughts appeared in her mind quite often.

There was hardly any conversation between them.

‘You’re dead.’

‘Be a bit more… gentle.
I know, already…’

They only exchanged such short sentences with each other and repeated the same routine almost every day.

Of course, there was quite the amount of subtle physical contact between the two that Harriet was deeply concerned about.

However, it was just part of their close combat and submission technique training that was closer to punching, bruising, and pounding than physical ‘touch’.
If his heart was pounding during those situations, Harriet thought, it would be due to fear and nothing else.

She thought they became friendly with each other after training, but it wouldn’t have been weird actually if Reinhardt held negative feelings towards her, in Harriet’s eyes.

So Harriet didn’t continue to watch Ellen and Reinhardt train because she felt uncomfortable doing so.

She couldn’t watch them any further because just looking at them made her feel out of breath.

The desire to learn swordsmanship had completely disappeared from inside of her.

Reinhardt just kept on falling down before getting back up again.

Ellen continued to overpower him without being swayed by any form of emotion, not even properly looking at him.
She just held the same posture and attitude towards him throughout the whole session.

Harriet thought that they were both people of extraordinary mental fortitude.

If it was her, she would have just ended up crying in some corner if she got knocked down once.
Harriet had realized how complacent it was to think of learning swordsmanship as a hobby.

She realized once again how blessed she was that she just had to sit at a desk and read some magic books.

So…

In the end, Ellen taught Reinhardt swordsmanship.

“Did you know how to cook before?”

“No.”

So, as a way to pay her back, it seemed like she learned how to cook from Reinhardt—that was what she thought, at least.

“As I thought… Did you learn from Reinhardt as well?”

“…Let’s say it’s like that.”

Ellen’s answer was rather cryptic.

Harriet was still imagining Reinhardt teaching Ellen how to cook.

Boiling potatoes, cutting vegetables with a knife, and the appearance of Reinhardt kindly informing her to be careful not to cut her fingers.

“…”

Only by thinking about it did she get goosebumps.
She didn’t even know why she was so grumpy.

However, in reality…

‘Oh, Put that in there.’

‘Heeh, you’re done.
Let’s see if this is worth eating.’

‘It’s totally bland, you know? Are you on some sort of low-salt diet or something?’

‘If it’s bland, you should add some salt or sugar, got it? Hey!’

‘Hey, I keep telling you not to stare at people like that while holding a knife.’

Harriet’s imagination and reality were completely different.
Not realizing that, Harriet became depressed for no reason after imagining Reinhardt tenderly teaching Ellen how to cook.

Although she knew that that guy wouldn’t be able to kindly teach anyone for the life of him, she didn’t consider that.

Still, Harriet’s situation was better than before.

She’d managed to force that guy, who had been locked up in the training room from dusk to dawn, to become the president of the Magic Research Society.

Every week, on a fixed day, Reinhardt would have to show his face, even though he would grumble.

That was the kind of guy he was.

He would say strange things for no reason whatsoever and even said weird things to make her angry for no reason.

However, she knew that he would always help her out when it was important.

But…

Harrit looked at Ellen, who was still eating the chicken soup.

Did Ellen like Reinhardt?

Ellen definitely liked him, she thought.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have cooked him that soup in the middle of the night.

However, she didn’t know what she was thinking because Ellen’s expression didn’t really change much.
She hardly even reacted to things, so such occasional actions as her cooking soup like that stood out even more. 

Ellen was someone so different from her–-sShe wasn’t easily shaken and possessed great mental fortitude, enabling her to endure everything no matter what it was.

Harriet felt jealous of Ellen.

Just as Ellen was envious of Harriet in some ways, Harriet was also envious of Ellen in some ways.

What did Ellen think of Reinhardt?

While she didn’t know the truth, she noticed that there was something between them at least.

She wished that the two of them were just friends.

They are just close friends, that’s all there is to it.

I know that’s all.

I know that they would never be like that.

Harriet could feel her cowardly desires welling up—the desire to believe in those thoughts.

____

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