Phew—I love napping the whole class away. I let out a yawn and looked around the classroom. “Huh? Where’s Sensei?” Usually she stayed in the room until I woke up, but maybe something had come up. Whatever. Time to leave.
I left the classroom and walked down the hallway. I must’ve left at the exact time that the heroes’ classes ended because as I rounded the corner, I ran into Ryuto.
“Hey.”
“Hey, Ino...” At once, he turned away from me.
Hm? Is there something on my face? “What’s up, Ryuto?”
“Mm.”
Then Aoi and Tamaki appeared from around the corner, just in time to see Ryuto bent over and shaking. Aoi looked at me and began to speak, but then...
“Hello, Ino— Pfft!” She made a sound like a balloon that had lost its air, bending over and clutching her belly. Huh. Stomachache, maybe?
“What are you two doin— Pfft!” Tamaki let out a similarly strange sound and began laughing.
“Is there something on my face or something? There is, isn’t there?”
“Inori, u-uh...” By this point, Ryuto had mostly recovered. Still red in the face, he addressed me. “Drawing what you learned in class on your face probably won’t help you with studying.”
“Pfft!”
“Ryuto, st-stop! Aha ha ha ha!”
They were mocking me, completely and utterly. At last, I used Omniscience to see my face. Someone had drawn on it. Plus, for some random reason, the quality of the art was rather good. How kind. The perpetrator had even signed their own name. Aegiana Itze.
Most likely, the captain had visited while I was sleeping and drawn on my face. I won’t stand for this. It’s time for revenge. However, there was no way I could get revenge on her by myself. She was too powerful. I needed some allies.
“Aren’t they mean, Nala?” I had just explained everything that had happened with Ryuto and the others. “I told them how I wanted to get back at the captain. Then I asked them to join me, but can you guess what they said? ‘You got what you deserved,’ ‘You got your just deserts,’ and ‘Apologize to the princess.’ Awful, right?”
“You certainly got what you deserved. You got your just deserts. You should apologize to the princess.”
I see how it is, Maid A. You’re my enemy too. By now, I’d washed the art off my face. Yes, the paint was water-based, so the prank wasn’t too mean, but it was the principle of the thing.
“I want revenge, Nala! Innocent people shouldn’t endure unjust crimes! It’s time to rebel! We will tear down the tyrannous captain and—”
“Sit.”
“Huh?”
“Kneel on the floor. Now.”
After that, she lectured me. I had no clue why this world had the same cultural norms as Japan in this respect, but maybe that had come from the first heroes. Was that really something to pass down through the generations, though? At any rate, Nala was mad that I’d brushed off all of Sensei’s hard work to sleep.
But it wasn’t my fault I was a vampire! It was in my blood. In my very DNA. Do you want me to die or something? If I’m hungry, I gotta eat. If I’m sleepy, I gotta sleep. This was the natural order of things.
“By the way, Nala, would you be interested in helping me as Maid A?”
“No. Go ask someone else. And what does ‘Maid A’ mean, anyway?”
Someone else? But who? I wasn’t very friendly with the people here. Aside from this one maid and the heroes, I only really knew the king, the queen, and...
“So, I want you to help me, Sensei—Your Highness.”
“You know, I have to wonder sometimes... Are you stupid?”
I hadn’t really expected her to diss me.
“But who else am I supposed to ask?”
“It’s weird to ask me in the first place. Aegiana punished you for sleeping in my class.”
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Let’s talk strategy. For my revenge, I’d decided not to use any of my cheat abilities. It’d be beyond ridiculous if I exposed myself over something as stupid and petty as this.
“Now then, we know that she is a very skilled fighter. There’s no way we win in a head-on attack. We need to be crafty.”
“So you really expect me to assist you?”
“My first instinct is to use the same method that she did—target her while she’s asleep.”
“Setting aside your phrasing... Isn’t it your own fault that you fell asleep?”
Would you mind keeping your comments to yourself?
“At any rate, pulling this off at night will be difficult. She patrols the castle at night and barely sleeps. Even if you are able to infiltrate her room while she’s sleeping, she would wake at once and, in the worst-case scenario, probably kill you.”
What is she, a hit man? I discarded my plan at once. I wasn’t about to die for this. This meant my only option was to go after her during a natural interaction in the day.
“During the confusion of training, I’ll go after her with a brush.”
“What happened to drawing on her face? It sounds like your goal is simply to get paint on her.”
That would be enough to put my mind at ease.
“However, I think you’ll find that difficult as well. She must oversee the training of the three heroes at the same time.”
Hm? Three? What about me?
“Plus, since there’s a chance that someone might attack during training, she must have her guard up considerably. It would probably be best if you tried to go after her when she’s less guarded.”
“I see... But is she ever unguarded?”
“Aegiana likes baths.”
“Wow, didn’t see that coming. What an archetype.”
“Archetype?”
“Don’t worry about it.” This could be a great source of gap moe. It’d be even better if she had stuffed animals on her bed. “So you’re saying that I should go after her when she’s taking a bath?” She’d be defenseless without her weapons, and she’d let her guard down. This is the best time to... Wait, hang on a moment. “Uh, wouldn’t I die? Like, socially?”
“Oh, so you realized that on your own.”
A friggin’ trap?! That was fine, though. I wanted to avoid the bath anyway, since it had mirrors. Regarding the information about her liking baths...I’d need to confirm that later with Omniscience. But I’d only be confirming the veracity of Sensei’s claim, that’s all. I swear.
“Okay, so the bath’s out. Do you have any other information or rumors about the captain, Second Princess? I’ll give you three silver pieces for it.”
“What do you take me for? At any rate, I’m not sure I’ve heard any rumors...”
“How about rumors about her having stuffed animals on her bed or something?”
“Never, but also, how would that help your plans?”
It looks like her gap moe stops at baths.
“Hm, let me think... A time when she lets her guard down... Information about Aegiana... Wait, why am I thinking so hard about something this ridiculous?”
Oh, now you realize.
“Besides, why are you so upset? I’d thought you were the type of person who wouldn’t care if their face was drawn on.”