Chapter 281: Worsening everything

“…How are you doing, Miss Elariel?” My maid asks me as I come back from class with red, tear-filled eyes, not having been able to pay attention to the lesson at all.

And anyway, the content about sacred magic doesn’t interest me, nor do I have any affinity for it. I’d prefer a practical combat class with magic, where I could stand out with wind, earth, or storm magic.

“I want to be alone, get out of my room for now,” I tell my maid, who simply nods and leaves the room. As soon as she’s gone, I pick up the pieces of the broken bow.

“…” I can’t help but cry looking at it. It’s an important family heirloom, and I managed to render it useless in less than a month of having it in my possession.

’My dad is gonna kill me if he finds out about this…’ The worst part will be if he finds out that I bet the family heirloom on a silly wager, and after losing the bow, the person who was supposed to be the owner went and broke it right in front of me.

If she at least hadn’t broken the bow, I could try to negotiate to get it back, but now that it’s shattered into so many pieces, there’s no way to recover it.

And I can’t even lie about it, my father would find out the truth one way or another. He only agreed to ally with the humans to recover this bow, and now it’s broken because of my fault.

There’s not a single person in the world who could repair this relic, even if it was just a small broken piece, fixing it would be almost impossible, but now that it’s broken into more than 7 pieces, repairing it is totally impossible.

First, because there’s no way for them to obtain the material the bow is made of, and second, the mana cost the weapon would need to even start the repair process.

“I-I should say something to him…” If I hide this for too long, my father will find out I made this stupid mistake.

But how was I supposed to know that a human could break such a high-level weapon so easily? And worse, how was I supposed to know that a human could stop the attack of this artifact with her bare hands without any effort?

I only said those things to Professor Pandora because I thought it would be cool to show some authority as an elven princess, I never thought my little joke would turn into something so bad.

’I-I need to fix this, mom and dad can’t know that the family relic was broken because of my fault’ I get up from the bed with the bow pieces, thinking about what to do.

’I-If she broke it, she must be able to fix it’ I decide to swallow my pride and go to the teachers’ lounge. I can’t show this broken bow to my family, if the bow can be repaired, I can just say nothing happened, even if someone talks about it being broken.

Professor Pandora is the Grand Duchess, she must have all the money, influence, and materials to at least try to repair the bow to the point where it functions again.

I rush out of my room to the teachers’ lounge in a hurry, I need to somehow get the bow repaired before my family decides to contact me.

Arriving at the teachers’ lounge super-fast, I just open the door, finding Professor Pandora in a strange situation.

“…”

“Tsk, what are you doing here instead of being in the principal’s office receiving your punishment?” Professor Pandora says with disdain, moving away from the Mermaid Princess. I’m almost absolutely certain they were about to kiss.

They were embraced, and Professor Pandora had her face extremely close to the Mermaid Princess.

“…I-I want you to fix my bow…p-please…” I say hesitantly, I can’t leave this as it is. I decide not to pay attention to what I saw.

“Why would I fix the trash I broke and discarded?” She says, stepping on my pride. This bow that is so important to my family is called trash by her.

’Damn humans’ I bite my lip, containing my anger. Honestly, I don’t like this girl, she gives me a bad feeling, I really didn’t want someone like her as my teacher.

“S-Sorry, ok…I-I was arrogant and disrupted the class, b-but this bow is important, a-and I need it whole again. C-Can’t you fix it?” I say, swallowing my pride.

My family will be extremely disappointed in me if I no longer have this bow, and all because I begged them to let me use the bow at the academy.

If I hadn’t begged and thrown a tantrum, the bow would be safe in the palace, but because of my fault, it’s in horrible condition now.

“Do you think I’m some kind of Blacksmith? I don’t know how to repair weapons,” she says, not caring about my situation.

“C-Couldn’t you at least try? I-It’s a bow that is shaped and based on mana, maybe you could fix it or find someone with the materials and techniques to repair it, just enough to make it work again,” I say, placing the bow pieces on the desk while the Mermaid Princess looks at me like she wants to kill me and then leaves the room.

“You’re really an inconvenient person,” Professor Pandora says to me, watching the Mermaid Princess leave the room.

’D-Do they have some kind of secret romance or something?’ What could that shark find interesting in this pale, weird human?

“Let me see this piece of crap,” Professor Pandora says as she approaches, and I give her space. I can only pray that she can repair the bow or say she knows someone who might be able to fix it.

She touches the bow, and I feel a strong concentration of mana as the bow begins to reassemble, but it turns completely black and purple.

I’m shocked that she’s able to repair the bow without having the material to fix it, it’s simply unbelievable.

“W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” I yell at her, as she just left the bow with these strange colors and an equally strange aura.

“I fixed your bow, are you blind or something?” She says, looking at me as if I were stupid.

’Shit, shit, shit…now not only has it been broken, it’s been modified…this is it, I’m going to be disinherited from my family,’ I’m done for. My mother always said I had no responsibility, and it seems she was right.

“O-Okay, just give it back to me,” I can try to return it to normal somehow and hide it.

“…” Professor Pandora hands me the bow with a malicious smile, and soon that black coloration and strange aura start to fade, and I sigh in relief as it returns to its normal color.

“…N-No…” I can only murmur when suddenly the bow dissolves, disappearing completely as if it had melted and evaporated.

“…” Now I’m without the bow, and I don’t even have the pieces of it.

“Hmm, it seems ordinary weapons can’t withstand that. What a shame, isn’t it? My grade 7 sword, a beautiful red blade, also went through that. How sad for us both. Now get out of my room,” Professor Pandora says with a malicious and mocking smile.

I just look at my empty hands, I’ve lost my family’s heirloom. I can’t believe it, this bow has been in our family for over 29,000 years, and I lost it in less than a month.

“…”

“Don’t cry in my room, get out of here. Maybe this will teach you a lesson not to pick fights with those you shouldn’t,” Professor Pandora says, pushing me out of the room.

“…” I see the Mermaid Princess waiting outside. She looks at me coldly.

“Do you feel uncomfortable?” She asks me, to which I nod, trying to hold back the tears. It’s humiliating for another princess to see me crying.

“Pandora is quite cruel and not very patient with things that can be resolved by doing bad things at the exact moment they happen. You shouldn’t have messed with her,” she says.

“…”

“I know elves have a good alignment, while humans have a neutral alignment and demons have an evil alignment. Pandora must make you feel uncomfortable because of that.”

“But your family should have taught you not to mess with what you shouldn’t. You’re not on elven territory.”

“W-What do you mean?”

“Choose your allies and enemies wisely. Pandora doesn’t care about you, but if you irritate her enough, you’ll regret that choice, and even your family won’t be able to protect you.”

“…”

“I suggest you just accept everything silently until you can return to your territory during the holidays, and don’t forget that Pandora doesn’t fulfill other people’s requests. It was naive of you to come here thinking she would help you.”

’Is she giving me advice because we’re both princesses?’ I wonder, trying to wipe away the tears.

“W-Why were you two so close to kissing?” I ask.

“That’s none of your business, elf. Go back to your room,” the Mermaid Princess says coldly, and I feel as if the ocean is on top of my body, it’s hard to breathe and it’s heavy.

“And never, ever talk about what you saw here, or I’ll make sure you disappear from existence,” she threatens, and I can only get up and run back to my room.

’T-This school is full of crazies, I-I want to go home’ I think as I run to my room. I deeply regret the moment I accepted to come to this strange place.

I should have stayed home and let my older sister come instead, but I had to arrogantly volunteer to come just because I wanted to see what it was like outside those forests.

I deeply regret it, I hate this strange place full of such completely strange people.

And now I’ve made my situation even worse because of my naivety. I don’t even have the fragments of the weapon to give to my family.

’I-I think if I try hard, I can hide that I lost the bow until at least the holidays when I’ll have to go back home…I just need to show results’ I think nervously about a plan.

If I discover important things about the humans, I might be able to make up for the loss of the bow. If I provide very valuable information, maybe my father will forgive me for losing the family’s weapon.

’S-So I should try to get any relevant information from big nobles like Grand Duchess Pandora, Princess Evangeline, or Duchess Celeste’ I need to make up for the loss of the bow.

First, I’ll go to the principal’s office as Professor Pandora asked, and as soon as I get back to my room, I’ll try to find out anything useful I can.

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