Volume 5 Chapter 18 When Things Aren't Going Well, Step Away For A While. This Is The Truth
After the midterm exams were over, a relaxed afternoon flowed by. Randy was staring blankly at the girls in skirts with Luke, watching them from a corner of the playground. Well, to be precise, he was watching Liz and Cecilia, who were wearing skirts and polo shirts.
"Wow. Lacrosse is way more intense than I thought."
"Yeah, right?"
In front of them, Liz and Cecilia were happily chasing after the ball. Position-wise, Liz was on defense and Cecilia was right in the center. They weren't the star attackers, but they looked super happy playing.
"But still, both of them are really athletic."
"I knew the princess was good, but Miss Elizabeth surprised me."
Their eyes were on Liz and the others, who were battling in front of their goal. Unlike usual, Liz was shouting loudly and working with her teammates, running around trying to stop the attacker... and she was moving way quicker than expected.
"She's fast and has great footwork..."
As soon as Randy muttered that, the opponent, pressured by the defense, had to pass the ball. Liz rushed in.
With one hand, she stretched out her stick and cut off the opponent's pass.
"Cecily!"
Liz shouted as she skillfully brought the stick back to her and ran while swinging it.
Cecilia caught the bullet-like ball and pulled away from the opponent, moving forward.
After intercepting, they countered, and in front of the opponent's goal, there was just the goalie and one defender. In front of Cecilia, there were 2 attackers.
With a clear advantage in numbers, Cecilia skillfully drew in the defenders and passed to the attacker.
"Ah, so close!"
Randy couldn't help but exclaim at the near miss. It was a great chance, but the opponent's goalie made an amazing save.
As the game switched back and forth in a dizzying pace, the intensity was surprising for those cute uniforms. It was a tougher and harder sport than expected, but still, the girls running around and cheering each other on in the field shone brightly.
"Liz has... not just footwork, but her ability to see the whole field and her instincts are incredible."
Randy watched with a wry smile as Liz blocked another attack from the opponent. She deflected the opponent's cross with her own cross. Using a defensive technique called "check," the ball bounced to her teammate's cross.
With light footwork and a wide view of the whole field, her sharp defensive instincts didn't look like someone who had been out of practice.
"Randy, I can see it. I can picture you getting rolled over by that cross in the future."
Luke grinned, and Randy snorted back, "I'll throw that right back at you."
Liz and Randy were fully enjoying their school life. There was a reason they were doing this.
Simply put, it was a little break and a change of mood.
Even though the third term was already halfway through, some projects weren't doing so well:
──Looking for Ellie's body
──Mass production of heated underwear
──Testing new heating equipment using geothermal energy
All of these were stuck in a half-finished state. They planned to introduce a sewing machine for the heated underwear, but they just didn't have enough hands. If they were going to get a sewing machine, they wanted to consider not just the heated underwear but also a dress remake service led by Clarice, Randy's sister.
At this point, it was impossible for Victor to provide the manpower. Most of the residents were busy with farming and hunting while also working in the beauty product processing industry. They couldn't afford to take people away from the beauty product industry, which was already becoming a major business.
The fact that the last step of the project was stuck highlighted the reality that new heating equipment was just a dream. Even now, they didn't have enough hands, and there were no resources to spare for prototyping.
Next was the search for Ellie's body, but to get some hints, Randy and Liz decided to examine the information they brought back from the dungeon.
They needed to decode that mysterious mural.
They decided to decipher the scattered characters drawn in the mural, but so far, they barely understood anything. The kanji that Randy was familiar with was no problem. The runes mixed in here and there were also fine since they had a dictionary.
But those were just fragmented bits of information floating in the mural, and they didn't make any sense at all.
As it turns out, they need to figure out the rest of the language. Unlike kanji or runes, these were drawn in a continuous way to represent sentences. If they can read that string, they might understand the meaningful murals too.
They thought about this and started decoding, but... that string was tricky.
At first glance, it looked like "ancient magic language," but upon closer inspection, it was more like 'something' that resembled ancient magic language.
Reading it as it was made no sense at all. In fact, none of the words seemed to form anything. Maybe it was an anagram... Ellie and Liz spent days writing down all the characters and trying different combinations, but they couldn't create any meaningful sentences.
So, Randy, Liz, and Ellie were completely stuck and decided to give up on decoding for now.
That was this morning, and after staring at the mysterious language for days, Liz was definitely in stress relief mode.
──Plans for mass production of thermal underwear
──Prototypes for new heating equipment
──Unclear if it connects to Ellie's body, but decoding the mysterious mural.
With all of that stalled, Randy felt just as stuck. It was the first time he found himself in such a situation, but he didn't feel bad about it.
Still, Liz had been helping with various projects for Victor's development. From carriage springs to beauty serums, even product development that went beyond civil servant duties.
Maybe it's time for her to enjoy some student life for a while.
Also, when things aren't going well, sometimes stepping back can help. If you're stuck, try to let go and look at things from a different angle. You might find that the clues are all around you, just waiting to be noticed.
To see those clues, you need the courage to let go of rigid viewpoints.
With those thoughts, Randy was absentmindedly watching Liz and suddenly noticed something and turned around. Luke did the same almost at the same time.
In front of them, 2 familiar girls were walking. They were happily strolling along the corridor near the playground...
"Lady Annabelle!"
Randy waved with a smile, and when Annabelle heard him, she jumped a little and noticed him.
"Ah, Sir Randolph, long time no see!"
Annabelle bowed her head and smiled, then peeked at the woman next to her──Catherine──like she was checking if she was okay.
Catherine looked between Annabelle and Randy, shrugged her shoulders as if to say "go ahead." Annabelle nodded to Catherine and hurried over to Randy and Luke.
Randy was smiling at Annabelle as she ran over, but he also glanced at Catherine and gave a small wave, as if to say, "You should come too."
Catherine looked a bit surprised, as if she didn't expect to be called, and said with a slight frown, "I guess I have no choice," as she walked over to Randy and the others...
"What a rare combo!"
Randy spoke to the two of them, and Catherine looked at Annabelle, saying, "Not really."
"Y-yeah, that's true. We're together at church too."
Randy felt a mix of emotions as he looked at Annabelle, who was also looking at Catherine.
Liz and Catherine, Cecilia and Catherine, and even Annabelle and Catherine all had complicated relationships because of their fiancés. Yet, the women seemed to get along really well, almost as if their fiancés didn't exist.
(Guess those guys were really awful...)
As a man, they felt pretty pathetic. They were distracted by other women and left their own fiancée behind. It was no surprise that the engagement fell apart; it was their own fault. Similar stories probably happen in modern society too.
But he had never heard of a cheating partner and the cheated-on woman getting along.
It was a strange situation, but it seemed like they had all come to some sort of understanding. It wasn't something Randy needed to bring up again, so he let out a sigh with mixed feelings.
Randy shifted his mood as cheers from the girls echoed behind him. When he turned around, he saw Liz smiling and high-fiving her friends.
Randy returned his gaze to the two in front of him.
"So, what are you two up to?"
It's not unusual at Church, but at school, it's rare for seniors and juniors to be seen together, especially since they aren't in the same club. Seeing them walk together in the hallway after school definitely looked odd.
"We're talking about the future of Church."
Catherine sighed as she spoke about the judgment Church received after the recent chaos.
In simple terms, it was about how Church lost its land, a punishment for the organization.
As a huge organization with influence across the continent, Church owned many estates. This was true in this kingdom as well. In fact, compared to other countries, the size and number of their estates were unmatched.
Besides the large estates originally assigned, there were many donated lands. Of course, many of these were rough and undeveloped... But still, over many years, the Church's estates, cultivated by many believers, were now seized by the government.
From the country's perspective, it was a rightful compensation for an attempted overthrow. But for Randy, who knew the truth behind the incident, all he could think was, "That's clever."
Sure, there was an intention to overthrow the government, but Liz and Randy were the ones targeted for that purpose. The kingdom was also a victim, and Randy understood the need to make this fact widely known.
However, using this situation to weaken Church's power and strengthen the country's foundation, Randy saw the cleverness of King Gerald as a politician.
"So? With the land confiscated, there's no way we can collect taxes. So it means we have no money."
With a sigh, Randy nodded, and Annabelle smiled wryly and said, "You know... if you were to say that straight up..."
"But there are still some left, right? Maybe you could slim down operations with donations and income from those?"
Luke frowned. Catherine sighed back, "If we could do that, it wouldn't be so hard."
"But the Church has more than just junk to deal with. Most of the taxes from the estate go to running the orphanage."
"So, since that's been cut off──."
Catherine and Annabelle nodded silently at Randy's words.
"So, you two were talking to find a way out of this?"
Randy sighed heavily, "That's something for the higher-ups to handle."
"Hey, I'm a Saint, you know. Right now, I'm at the top alongside Archbishop Ridley."
"Well, I'm also the Archbishop's daughter..."
Catherine frowned, and Annabelle looked down. Randy realized that was a bit insensitive and said, "Sorry. I forgot about that." They were both students, but also part of the Church's future.
They needed to combine their opinions and discuss further with the higher-ups.
Randy thinking with Liz about various things was very similar to getting Alan's approval... well, Randy usually got approval after the fact.
"I get that you need to make money, but... do you have any leads?"
Luke tilted his head, and Catherine pulled out a blueprint from her pocket. "We do."
Randy recognized it immediately.
"You... this──."
"Yes, it's a kotatsu!"
As Catherine nodded confidently, a whistle and a loud cheer echoed behind Randy and Luke.
They turned to see Liz and Cecilia beaming, hugging their teammates.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Donate me
Support Me with USDC
(ERC20)
Support Me with XLM
(Stellar Lumens)