WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 56: Did the Dopamine Hit?

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“There’s someone I’ve wanted to introduce you to for a while.”

“Introduce us...?”

“Who is it?”

I turned toward the bedroom.

The room where we’d been noisily playing a board game until just moments ago.

“Your Highness, would you come out?”

I called to the girl beyond the thin door, who must have been listening to our conversation.

I kept my voice gentle, as if to tell her it was safe to come out.

“...Viktor.”

Creeeak.

Before long, the closed door opened.

Yet only a voice came through, its owner still hidden from view.

“Is this really... all right?”

“Your Highness has been watching them too, haven’t you? These two are people you can trust.”

“Still...”

“I’m sure they’ll become good friends for you too.”

“......”

A brief silence hung in the air.

Then Carmilla cautiously poked her head through the crack in the door.

Silver hair like moonlight. The crimson eyes blooming amid it reminded me of magnolias.

Her worried eyes blinked as she looked toward us.

“......”

“Come over here.”

She stood frozen with hesitation, but when I called her, the princess scurried over.

She stopped behind the sofa, as though hiding behind me.

The two girls across from us stared wide-eyed.

They had thought there were only three people in the room, yet another person had appeared.

“Who...?”

I introduced her lightly.

“She’s the person I serve.”

“You should consider it an honor. Ordinarily, I would never associate with lowly humans such as yourselves...”

“Her Highness is pleased to meet you too. She’s shy, so she isn’t very good with words.”

“V-Viktor! How rude!”

Thump, thump.

Her soft fists struck my shoulder in complaint.

Regardless, the two girls across from us examined Carmilla.

“Someone Sir Viktor serves...?”

“Huh, you’re...?”

Ranne was clearly full of questions.

Alice, on the other hand, seemed to recognize Carmilla.

That made sense. Alice had met Carmilla during the practical exercise.

“You were with Viktor when you helped me back then...”

“Hmph... So you do recognize me.”

Only then did Carmilla introduce herself.

“My name is Carmilla Blandir. A pureblood vampire, heir to the Blandir Dynasty, and the master of Viktor, who stands here before you.”

“V-vampire? A pureblood one, too...?”

Perhaps it felt too far removed from their lives.

The two were briefly taken aback.

Humans and vampires had not interacted for a long time.

All that was vaguely known was that the two sides were in the midst of negotiating a non-aggression pact.

‘To people who’ve never encountered one in their lives, vampires must feel like something from a distant myth.’

They probably did not even know the New Kingdom had been founded and the harmony between the two sides had been broken.

Perhaps only the imperial family and high-ranking nobles knew that much.

The Empire was likely beginning to prepare for war as well.

‘We’ll leave the heavy talk for another day and just let them get acquainted...’

I gave them a vague explanation of my relationship with Carmilla.

I left out the heavier details, such as war and rebellion.

For now, I wanted them to grow closer.

‘It’s about time I put together the protagonist party.’

I continued.

“She’s a vampire, and a member of their royal family. I’m temporarily serving as her aide.”

“An aide? Sir Viktor, do you have ties to the vampire dynasty as well?”

“Something from long ago.”

“To have ties deep enough to serve a princess of another nation... Just what sort of past do you have...?”

“Her Highness is in hiding due to unavoidable circumstances. Please keep everything concerning her strictly confidential. I’m introducing her because I decided I could trust you two.”

“O-of course! This is quite a shock, but...”

“Y-yes... Me too...”

Trust.

The two nodded as if responding to that word.

Ranne and Alice turned their attention to the silver-haired girl.

“I-I’ve heard a lot about vampires, but this is my first time seeing one in person.”

“Me too! And she’s royalty... Though if it’s Sir Viktor, I suppose it makes sense.”

They exchanged a few casual remarks.

“Hmph. Don’t get too friendly.”

Carmilla suddenly puffed out her cheeks.

Something clearly displeased her.

She tightly grabbed my arm from behind the sofa.

Perhaps hugging me was too embarrassing, so she timidly clung to just one arm.

Despite her prickly expression, even her white earlobes were flushed red.

“All of you, stay ten steps away from Viktor.”

“Your Highness?”

“Viktor is my retainer. That makes him practically mine.”

Her lips protruded in a pout.

Had we left her out of the conversation for too long?

Even from those few sharp words, I could tell she was sulking.

“I won’t hand him over to other women.”

“W-what...?”

Alice’s pupils shook, apparently flustered by the contact.

Carmilla glared at the two of them, especially Alice.

“I mean don’t flirt with him.”

“...Your Highness.”

What a bombshell declaration.

I could only let out a long sigh.

Meanwhile, her fingers wriggled around my arm as though she had done nothing wrong.

“It’s Viktor’s fault.”

It seemed they would need more time to adjust to one another.

* * *

A week passed after that.

Before I knew it, I’d been at the academy for over a month.

I continued my daily routine, which had changed very little.

Attending lectures, working the Class E shuttles, fooling around with the princess...

-I heard they seem to be plotting something after the speech.

-The top student of Class B has been meeting with several assistant professors, and Class B students have been spreading nasty rumors about Sir Viktor...

Just as Ranne had told me before, the atmosphere at the academy was growing ominous.

Had it been because I hit them with the force of an eight-ton truck last time?

The Class B lot seemed seriously irritated.

-I don’t know the details, but they looked like they were preparing something.

Still, nothing major had happened yet.

More precisely, it felt like they were lying low while waiting to set something big off.

‘It should be about time...’

Even with an unseen gallows approaching, I felt excitement rather than danger.

Every situation was spinning in the palm of my hand.

All I had to do was wait for everything to bear fruit.

Then, as I went about my days...

“Hmm?”

Something big finally came.

“My, what have we here?”

The scene that greeted me when I entered the classroom was quite different from usual.

The Class E students, including the shuttles, sat with their mouths tightly shut.

A few had bruises on their cheeks or around their eyes, as though they had been beaten.

“Hah...”

The air was frigid.

And among the students, I saw several outsiders.

“What brings the students of Class B to our classroom...?”

They were Class B students.

It seemed only the stronger ones had gathered here.

The second- and third-ranked students were there, along with everyone else in the top ten.

“Oh, you finally showed up?”

The leader of those thugs had bright yellow hair and bronzed skin.

“I thought my neck was going to snap from waiting, you fucking bastard.”

The top student of Class B, Caitlin Lettus.

She had been waiting for me while perched on my desk.

Her eyes crackled with their usual electricity, static popping through the room.

“I got bored waiting... so I taught a few mouthy ones a lesson.”

She sneered.

“You’re okay with that, right?”

I remained standing at the front of the classroom.

The shuttles who met my eyes bit down hard on their lips.

Their bruised faces were filled with frustration.

“B-bro...”

“I’m sorry, we...!”

It did not look as though they had been beaten badly.

More like they had been casually toyed with.

Still, their pride had clearly been ground into the dirt.

“What an unusual way to welcome someone.”

“You took so long to show up, I thought you might’ve run away.”

Caitlin rose as though to kick my desk aside.

Both her attitude and gait were decidedly thuggish.

She swaggered up to me.

My white clown mask was reflected in her yellow eyes.

“Don’t they say the protagonist always appears last?”

“Hah... Your mouth is still running pretty well, isn’t it?”

“If I lose that, I’m as good as dead.”

“I’ve been going easy on you, and now you think I’m a dick?”

“No matter how I look at you, you don’t seem like a dick... Unless you’re actually a man? Are you some blond, tanned little femboy?”

“What the fuck are you even talking about?”

Grab.

A hand clamped down on my collar.

Stinging static ran through my clothes.

“How about you start reading the room?”

“No one’s ever told me I’m bad at reading the room.”

“Then you’re doing this on purpose?”

“Oh dear, you finally figured it out? You’re the one who’s bad at reading the room.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

Smack.

Caitlin frowned deeply and let go.

“Hey, trash.”

The Class B students sauntered closer.

They surrounded me, radiating killing intent as if to pressure me.

“You have no idea how much effort I put into arranging this so I could deal with you myself.”

Thump.

A light fist struck my chest.

Caitlin’s lips twisted into a smirk.

“I challenge you to a ranked duel, asshole. Two days from now, at the public training ground, in front of every first-year student.”

Her bright yellow pupils brimmed with mockery.

“Go ahead and embarrass yourself in front of everyone.”

“......”

A ranked duel meant at least three professors had approved it.

In other words, I had no way to refuse the challenge.

I had fallen right into their trap.

Was this what they had been preparing for over the past week?

I put on a grave expression and gently rubbed the edge of my mask.

“What? Scared? Want to get on your knees and beg?”

“......”

She kept trying to provoke me, but I held it in.

Otherwise, I felt like the expression beneath my mask would give me away.

I took a deep breath.

Then I gave my answer to her duel challenge.

“Hey...”

The corners of my mask split all the way to my ears.

I had tried my best to hide it, but it seemed everything had spilled out in the end.

“Want to put something on the line? A duel by itself sounds boring.”

“What? Put something on the line?”

Caitlin frowned as though asking what nonsense I was talking about.

But I was already grinning from ear to ear.

Suppressing the laughter about to burst out, I said,

“The loser... becomes the winner’s lackey from then on.”

“What?”

“They do whatever the winner wants.”

There it was.

My dopamine.

Footnotes:

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