The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

...Alice has been reading my expressions more frequently.

No, at this point, it’s not just that it’s increasing—she’s practically reading my expressions as part of her daily routine.

To be fair, it hasn't been that long since she started doing this in earnest. When Alice saw me as a kind of “competitor,” she wasn’t particularly good at reading my facial cues. To be precise, it wasn’t that she couldn’t—it was more that she just didn’t care. Even if she was interested in me, she never showed much curiosity about what I did on a personal level.

But at some point, she began to warm up to me. Now, she could even read my expressions with surprising accuracy.

If I had to pinpoint exactly when that “moment” was...

It must have been during that three-way meeting.

I already had a feeling we were growing closer before that. Maybe it was inevitable. After all, regardless of anything else, Alice and I are the same age, and I was the only peer she could really talk to in the palace.

Some of the maids were around Alice’s age, but... well, they were still just maids. And to be a maid in the palace, you had to be from at least an earl’s family or higher. These kids knew all too well how far removed they were from a princess. Getting close to her as a friend? That was never going to happen.

Alice herself didn’t go out of her way to be friendly either.

And more than anything, I always took a very gentle approach with Alice.

She’s a major heroine in the game, and since I spent the entire time playing looking at her face—well, her face was technically a mass of polygons, but still—I felt a certain familiarity toward her. That attitude showed in how I treated her.

Plus, I kind of felt bad for her.

Even though Claire, the person Alice always felt inferior to, was gone, I had popped up in her place. I didn’t tease her like Claire did, but my abilities were nearly the same as Claire’s. Actually, considering how the emperor and others viewed me, Alice might even have seen me as an upgraded version of Claire.

If I also started teasing and looking down on her, it might have crushed Alice’s spirit.

Whether or not I’m truly mature is beside the point. I just didn’t feel the urge to bully a girl who’s over ten years younger than me.

I tried to boost Alice’s confidence in little ways here and there. If she still felt distanced from me, that would’ve been quite upsetting.

Well, maybe not that upsetting, but...

“Did you not sleep well last night?”

“...”

How is she reading my expression so accurately while asking me that with such a concerned face?

It’s strange, really, because I had checked my reflection in the mirror this morning, making sure I didn’t look tired or worn out.

I had perfected my neutral expression—this wasn’t just some face I pulled out of habit. I had refined it over time, adjusting based on feedback from others until I had perfected an expressionless look.

In other words, even I couldn’t recognize my own expression sometimes, that’s how neutral it was.

So, how on earth is she reading me?

“Sylvia?”

Alice’s worried tone brought me back to the moment, and I wondered how I should respond.

Her observation wasn’t wrong.

I had, after all, woken up at four this morning.

In the past, I tried hard to deny it, but no matter how much I resisted, my hobbies always ended up reverting back to their original state.

When I quit Japanese manga and anime, I moved on to Japanese and American dramas. When I stopped collecting figures, I started assembling plastic models. Even when I tried to avoid nerdy games, I found myself buying and playing Western games.

And eventually, I came full circle. I started with military models, then Gundam models, then finally back to collecting figurines and statues of anime characters. The same went for movies—whenever I bought Blu-rays, I somehow ended up buying animated movies, and then, before I knew it, I was purchasing TV and OVA anime Blu-rays.

After living like this for about ten years, by the time I was thirty, I just gave up and accepted my true nature.

Not to mention, I spent seven of those ten years playing the Azerna Chronicles, so it’s fair to say I never truly tried to escape in the first place.

Being a nerd, of course, I spent countless hours reading light novels and web novels.

And naturally, I became familiar with the common tropes of reincarnated protagonists.

You know the ones. A protagonist reincarnates as a side character or someone with little significance to the plot but ends up monopolizing all the fortuitous encounters and items meant for the main character, eventually surpassing the protagonist.

I wasn’t aiming for something like that.

Leo, Claire, Alice, Charlotte, and even Mia Crowfield... and the characters who hadn’t yet joined the main party—they all held a special place in my heart.

I had no intention of stealing all the cool moments from those characters.

My only goal was to ensure none of the main characters ended up dying.

The problem is—

“...You mean the request has already been completed?”

“Y-Yes. I’m very sorry, Your Highness...”

No need to apologize. It wasn’t your fault.

I turned my head and glanced at the clock, leaving the trembling receptionist standing before me.

The large pendulum clock, powered by weights, showed it was 6 AM.

That’s right. Six in the morning.

“...As far as I know, working hours begin at 6 AM.”

Indeed, the academy’s staff were supposed to start working at 6 AM.

Of course, not all staff members start at that time. There are those assigned to early morning shifts.

And some positions, like the dormitory guards, have people working through the night.

Today was Sunday.

Yesterday and today were rest days. Naturally, there were no classes for the students.

There were no classes, but there were still voluntary service activities.

In this world, there’s no adventurer’s guild, like in typical fantasy novels. The Empire is a centralized, authoritarian nation ruled by the emperor, and the other kingdoms are structured similarly. While there are some places with a nobility-based republic, they don’t outsource security to adventurers either.

This era was when the concept of “nations” was beginning to take root. The argument Alice and Charlotte had on Friday was also an indicator that kids influenced by such ideas were starting to appear.

And the best way to prove the superiority of your nation? Demonstrate how well its people live.

Security is a key part of that.

...Though, as someone who grew up in an orphanage, I wouldn’t call it great security. Still, for the middle class and above, it was a decent country to live in.

Anyway, there’s no adventurer’s guild. But they couldn’t completely get rid of the “quest” feature that’s a staple of RPGs.

Thus, the “volunteer service” system was created in this world.

Students enrolled in the academy were strong, and there were still areas within the Empire with unstable security. Whether it was local back alleys or roads between cities, people and goods were sometimes harmed by wild beasts.

Volunteer service activities were meant to prevent and resolve such issues. Of course, since it wouldn’t make sense to provide no rewards for these quests, the people requesting help would give “gifts of goodwill” as a form of compensation.

Having already received a reward from Jennifer in the past, I knew I could expect to be properly compensated for completing these volunteer quests.

“A-About that...”

But—

“I usually arrive around 5:30 AM to prepare for my shift. But...”

But, you see...

“There were some students already waiting outside, so I thought it was admirable...”

“...”

So, they were here even before the 6 AM shift started.

They completed the request and sat there, waiting.

The diligent receptionist, who had arrived 30 minutes early to prepare for her shift, saw them and processed their reward.

I slowly raised my hand and pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose.

It had been hard enough for me to wake up at 6 AM. But those crazy students had completed the task before that.

“Could you possibly tell me the names of the students?”

The receptionist hurriedly began rummaging through the pile of documents on her desk.

Technically, it’s against protocol for her to reveal the personal information of students just because someone asks. But when a princess, clearly displeased, makes such a request, it’s hard to say no.

“Well... it was Leo Grace and Claire Grace.”

“...”

Of course.

I let out a quiet breath.

“...Again.”

“Pardon?”

“Again!”

Right. Six in the morning.

That means they had already completed the task and were waiting before then.

The receptionist said they arrived 30 minutes early, so they must have finished the task before 5:30 AM.

Sure, the volunteer service activities were supposed to start precisely today. The person who posted the request on the bulletin board must have done it last night during their shift. They probably pinned the request right before leaving.

The requests were based on reports from citizens and government agencies, carefully selected to match what students could handle. So, if they wanted to bend the rules, they could have started last night.

But I didn’t think Leo and Claire would have gone so far as to cheat the system.

Isn’t “fair and square” the motto of the Grace family?

I was certain they had waited until the date changed before they started.

And, honestly, it wasn’t like the quest was urgent enough to stay up all night waiting for it. This is still the beginning of the main story. Side quests this early wouldn’t affect the main plot too much.

So, I had set my alarm for 5 AM.

I went to bed early, set my alarm for 4:30 AM, woke up, prepared, and headed out. After all, I didn’t want to ruin my image by looking disheveled after just waking up.

But I failed to wake up.

By the time I managed to crawl out of bed, it was already 4:50 AM. I was grateful that I kept my hair short, or else it would’ve been even worse. I washed up as quickly as I could and sprinted out of the dormitory at full speed.

Then I realized.

The quest location was a good two hours away on foot.

In the game, traveling between locations gets skipped over, and time doesn’t pass unless an event is triggered. But in reality, things were different.

The quest was located outside the city, where wild beasts were causing trouble.

And of course, the capital city is enormous.

Leo and Claire had gotten up at the crack of dawn, hired a carriage, and completed the quest.

...Why?