Chapter 55: I Rejected The Happy-Bad Endings!
IRIS, her father, and Nigel all climbed into a carriage and headed home to the Chevalier estate.
Back in the ceremony room, the Baron of Pont confessed to his crimes and was stripped of his title right then and there. He was ordered to apologize to and compensate both the House of Sade and Camille’s foster family, make a considerably large donation to Chrysanthème Academy, and revoke his daughter’s enrollment.
In light of this sentence, Camille decided to forgive the House of Pont. Although the baron had deceived her, she felt she would have struggled even worse at school without Mégane and the Pont Company. Frankly, neither Camille nor Iris wanted Mégane to stop attending, but there was nothing much they could do.
“Hah hah hah! Well done, Nigel! You’ve made your father proud!”
Lord Chevalier clapped Nigel on the back with a broad smile. His son looked at him in annoyance.
“Thanks to your efforts, the House of Chevalier has revealed the new Holy Maiden’s lineage. Now this is an accomplishment befitting our honorable family legacy! As knights, we must always stand for justice!”
Father, will you stop shouting? Iris facepalmed.
“And another thing—I didn’t know you were on such close terms with her. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There’s nothing to tell. I was simply upholding my duty as a knight by coming to the aid of a damsel in distress,” Nigel declared with a straight face.
“Well, invite her to the estate sometime. And as for you, Iris…”
Oh boy, here we go.
“Clearly you possess the strong integrity of a knight yourself. You competed fairly and with honor! As your father, I can’t express how pleased I am!”
Please, just stop shouting! Iris sighed and tuned him out. Whenever he was in a good mood, he liked to hear himself talk. So instead of listening, she gazed out the window.
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BACK at the academy, Iris finally had a chance to relax. With a FWUMP, she leaped onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow. Finally! Camille’s the Holy Maiden! I did it!!! She flailed her legs in giddy delight.
By losing the competition without being betrothed to Reseda, she had completely dodged his happy-bad ending. And since Cytisus’s fiancée was still alive, he wasn’t interested in Camille—and Iris wasn’t meeting with him to have magical treatments, either. So that was another happy-bad ending out of the way.
All that remained was Nigel’s route. In HanaKoro, Iris refused to accept Camille as her brother’s girlfriend, but this Iris was all in favor of it! At the very least, no fully-bad ending would occur.
From here on, Camille would continue attending classes at the academy while undergoing Holy Maiden training in her spare time. Additionally, she would be further trained as a young heir to the House of Sade. It was only a matter of time until she and Nigel were official… Fortunately, these days, Iris could trust he wouldn’t bring about a happy-bad ending.
Don’t you worry, Camille! Worst-case scenario, if I hear he’s starting to do kinky stuff with chains, I’ll shut him down myself!
“I’m happy for you, Iris,” Sauge said suddenly, popping up at Iris’s bedside. Little fairies streamed into the room along with her.
“We’re happy for you!”
“Happy, happy!”
“Thank you so much! I rejected the happy-bad endings! WOOHOO!”
Iris shouted so loud, the fairies all looked at her in confusion. “Happy-bad…?”
At this, Iris snapped back to her senses and hastily cleared her throat. “L-Let’s have a party to celebrate!”
“I’ll make some tea!”
“Me too!”
“I want some juice!”
“Do we have cookies?”
“Cookies!”
“Yes, we have cookies and juice,” Iris reassured them.
Sauge watched them with a smile as they rushed around, getting everything set up. They poured a drink for everyone and clinked their cups together.
“Congratulations, Iris!”
“Congrats!”
Admittedly it did feel a bit strange to have them congratulate her on losing the competition, but…she had finally achieved her personal goal. “Thank you all,” she told them with a smile.
Sauge reached out and stroked Iris’s hair. “I’m glad all your hard work paid off.”
“Me too!”
But at the time, Iris never stopped to consider why her father was in such a good mood in spite of his daughter losing the Holy Maiden race. Or why the fairies were so excited. She genuinely thought they were just sharing in her happiness…