Volume 5 Chapter 34 Well, I Was Silent, So There Must Be Something
"So? You bet on the results of the retake, and you totally lost, huh?"
Next to the sulking Luke, Wayne is stuffing his face with the cafeteria's hamburger, saying, "Man, this free food is great."
"I didn't lose. I just chose to fail on purpose."
Randy snorts, and Wayne jabs his fork at him, saying, "Don't be a sore loser."
"Are you stupid? It's not being a sore loser. Sure, the food was a gamble, but... I just wanted to take my time and hear the story."
Randy crosses his arms, and Wayne raises an eyebrow, asking, "A story?"
"Yeah. You're close with that girl from the North, right?"
"W-what do you mean by 'close'──."
Wayne seems to choke on his hamburger, pounding his chest a few times before gulping down some water.
"That girl from the North... you mean the lady of Marquis Waldner, right?"
Cecilia tilts her head and asks, "Which number are we talking about?"
Wayne, still pounding his chest, holds up 2 fingers.
"Second... that would be Lady Irene, right?"
Randy turns back, surprised, "You know her?"
"Yeah, well, I know her name and face, at least..."
Cecilia continues, saying that Lady Irene from Marquis Waldner is 3 years older than her and Liz, meaning she's from Cedric and Miranda's generation.
"Wow. So, Sir Cedric and the others probably know more about her."
"Maybe. I think she was attending the academy, so they might have interacted."
Cecilia shrugs, saying she doesn't know much more than that, and Randy turns to Wayne, asking, "What about you?"
"How would I know? I'm just a soldier's kid, you know?"
Wayne frowns and explains that his dad is a soldier in the Marquis Waldner's army.
He usually accompanies the Knights to protect the capital and handle various missions.
He's a veteran who manages the younger soldiers... sounds impressive, but in the end, he's just a regular soldier, not even a Knight or a squire.
It's actually rare to interact with someone like the Marquis Waldner's lady, who's usually up in the clouds.
However, Marquis Waldner seems to be the type who believes that "regular soldiers are important," and he often shows up to train the regular soldiers himself.
It just so happened that Wayne, who had been around those training sessions since he was a kid, ran into Lady Irene, who tagged along with her father, Marquis Waldner.
"We're close in age. Well, she's a bit older, but... anyway, every time I came to training, she'd drag me around to play after it was over."
Wayne reminisced, but Randy and Luke didn't quite get it.
I mean, it's Wayne.
Even if he's straightforward, it's hard to imagine him being a playmate for a noble lady.
With a skeptical look, Randy said, "Really?"
"Yeah, I swear," Wayne pouted.
"No way, you being a noble lady's playmate..."
"Isn't it like being a pony for a spoiled princess or something?"
Luke shrugged, and Wayne frowned, saying, "That's not it at all." The reason he was using polite language with Luke is that many of the second group students had been trained by Luke before joining the training.
To Wayne and Egid, Luke is kind of like a mentor.
Wayne replied to Luke, "It was just regular hide and seek."
"Hide and seek? A noble lady?"
Now Randy jumped in with a raised eyebrow.
For Randy, noble ladies meant Liz or Cecilia.
Of course, Catherine is also a noble lady, but in Randy's mind, she doesn't count.
Plus, Marquis Waldner's daughter is from a prestigious noble family, just like Liz and the others.
He just couldn't shake off the image of Liz or Cecilia...
"Oh? If it's Lady Irene, I can totally see that."
Unexpectedly, a fellow noble lady gave her stamp of approval.
Cecilia elegantly set her teacup down and spoke, looking at Randy.
"Lady Irene is the daughter of the renowned His Excellency Marquis Waldner, you know? She herself is a skilled warrior known as the [Icy Dance Princess]. I wouldn't be surprised if she was a tomboy since childhood."
Cecilia picked up the cup again, and Randy and Luke exchanged glances.
"[Icy Dance Princess]? "
"Well, that's something..."
The two who were looking at each other turned to Wayne almost at the same time.
"W-what's up?"
Wayne's voice was a bit shaky, and Randy sighed.
"You... if she's such a lady, she's definitely doing fine."
With a look of disbelief, Randy heard Wayne say, "I don't get that."
"Isn't it just too quiet?"
Wayne, with his shoulders slumped, was talking about the time when Catherine was running things at the academy.
Both Cecilia and Annabelle didn't pay much attention because their relationships with their fiancés were pretty cold, but it seems Arthur and Irene's relationship wasn't that bad.
Irene, who was even called [Icy Dance Princess], and the somewhat muscle-headed Arthur probably matched well.
"Speaking of which, I heard that up until around the start of the second semester, Lady Irene was sending letters to Sir Arthur..."
Cecilia murmured as if recalling it, probably having heard it from Dario back then.
"Apparently, she said it's fine to play with fire, but keep up with your training..."
"That's not exactly a letter from a lady."
Cecilia gave a wry smile, and Randy returned the gesture.
I mean, saying 'playing with fire is fine' is pretty generous for a lady, but telling him to 'keep training' is just wild.
"Anyway, at first, she was giving that guy Arthur some advice."
Luke said with a sigh. Wayne nodded, "Yeah." It seems that their fiancés complaining was a well-known story at the academy. The connections between the ladies spread rumors, reaching even regular students like Wayne... In that kind of network,
"Seriously? I didn't know that."
Randy, feeling left out, made Luke sigh again.
Avoiding Luke's glare, Randy cleared his throat and turned to Wayne.
"I see. In this situation, [North Wall] has been really quiet──"
"Curious, huh?"
Wayne frowned, and Randy shifted his gaze to Cecilia, saying, "I get that, but..." Cecilia, caught off guard by the sudden attention, tilted her head for a moment but then nodded big and said, "Oh, I see what you mean."
"I haven't heard anything about Lady Irene or His Excellency Marquis Waldner having any issues..."
Randy was thinking that since they were both nobles from the same territory and old families, they might know something.
Cecilia responded to that.
Cecilia shook her head, saying she hadn't heard anything in particular, then lowered her voice to continue,
"The Marquis Waldner territory is a crucial spot for guarding the border with the Empire.
Even if something did happen, the chances of it leaking out are extremely low."
Cecilia shrugged, and Randy nodded again, saying, "That's true."
During that whole commotion, the Marquis Waldner had kept silent.
To Randy, they were just the person he was supposed to negotiate with until now, but now he had something new to worry about.
Randy could think of a few reasons why they might have stayed quiet.
"The Empire, huh..."
Considering the most plausible reason, he had a feeling that getting the Marquis Waldner's cooperation would be quite a challenge.
They were proud nobles guarding the border.
Any actions that might stir up trouble domestically could give the Empire an opening.
Had they been wary of the Empire and maintained their silence? Or maybe they had already given up on their country and were making deals with the Empire.
Cedric might have some information.
No, he probably hadn't fully grasped the situation, which is why he had taken the initiative like that.
He needed to be ready to respond to anything immediately.
(Thinking about it that way... this is gonna be a tough negotiation.)
In the face of such a challenging situation, Randy couldn't help but sigh.
"I thought Wayne might know something that could lead to taking down the North Wall."
With a sigh, Randy looked at Wayne with a mischievous grin, saying, "Guess I was wrong about that." It's your fault things got even more complicated.
As Randy made that face, Wayne downed the now-cold soup in one go.
"Wrong or not, I won, so it doesn't matter."
Wayne, with his lips all puckered up, is telling Randy that if he's gonna go north, he needs to pass the retake exam first.
"Got that test again today, right?"
"Yeah. Just 2 subjects today."
Randy, flashing a peace sign, is sticking to his plan of taking the subjects he chose and the required ones in the morning, then gradually aiming to pass the tests in the afternoon.
He's gotta do it this way 'cause there's just not enough time to attend classes and take tests.
Like the other students, Randy only tackles a few subjects each day.
He waves goodbye to the 3 of them, saying, "Alright, I'm off," and heads out to the terrace.
There's a lot on his mind, but Randy managed to get through the subjects he struggles with all on his own.
With that experience under his belt, he leaves with a confident stride.
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