Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[Rein's POV: ]

"You look pretty already."

"I'm not supposed to, you know?"

"Why do you wanna hide this beauty, Uriel? You are popular, you are mysterious, many people in the academy think you are some kind of hidden royal princess or something and there are already rumours floating all over about you after yesterday.

People admire you and many more want to do so, but the mysterious status of the common adventurer you have restrains them from doing so.

If they see this side of you more, then perhaps-."

"You know I hate you exactly because of this, right?"

Looking up at her reflection in the mirror before us, I pushed my head forward and away from her hands.

"We were good when you weren't trying to use me as a plaything doll in the first two classes. It was fun chatting with someone who has been to places others have not.

I enjoyed it like nothing else… but then you had to bring in the rules and stuff and drag me into it as well."

She was almost done with the dressing part so she was going to move on to the makeup part after doing my hair, but, because I pulled my head away from her, she couldn't do so.

"You know there's a reason behind why we do this, why we live like we do right now, don't you?"

I continued with my hair on my own with an upset expression on my face.

"There has to be a reason two people with no background whatsoever would try to hide their powers and abilities in a place where showing off what you have is everything."

There was a bitter expression on her face as well. An expression that said she knew what she was doing wasn't something I appreciated, but it was something that she was doing for the good of everyone.

"But…"

She grabbed my hands and pulled my head back gently and took over from where I had stopped.

My long black hair in this form were pretty attractive since he made it based on the one Anna had.

The eyes I have made my overall looks look pretty attractive but completely, they weren't much different from many of the average looking ladies of our batch.

I looked pretty but that was it. The looks of this form were specifically made to not look anything unique… he had worked hard to make me look this way.

But, she wouldn't understand that.

"Just like how even a jewel hidden inside rocks couldn't hide from the experienced gaze of the jewellers, the overwhelming abilities both of you have could not be hidden from this world even if you try the most perfect disguise of this world."

She was an elf but she was no royal or aristocrat.

She was born in a normal house, raised by loving parents who had normal lives, and she had lived a happy normal life in her childhood.

Then she has a dream, a goal to see the vast world beyond the forest their tribe lived in. The vast world that she had only heard about in their folktales and the stories.

'She was a curious child that went out of their land on her own, leaving behind everything she had just for the sake of her dreams.'

And then, she travelled.

"You're prettier than what these clothes make you to be, you are prettier than how you would look after putting on some makeup, and you are prettier than a princess downing the best silks of this world and the most precious makeup available to mankind.

But you hide… and just like how this world that tries to showcase your boundless abilities through various methods, as someone who also does not like the way you live right now, I'm trying what I can to show the world what they are missing on."

She was a traveller that had travelled from south to west, from west to east, and from east to north in her hundred and fifty years of journey.

She saw all the nations there were in this world and she travelled to all the cities, all the villages, and all the places that were only known to a few of them.

She searched for the clues of cultures, for civilisations that had their own unique traditions, origins, ways, and lifestyles.

'She was perhaps one of the few individuals in this world who had lived among most of the known cultures.'

She had been with the filthiest of trolls, to the most noble fairies. She had seen the divine beasts of myths more than once and she had learned from them, recorded them in the journal she wrote, the journal that We and many other academies of this world taught to the students.

She was a famous individual that many young people of this world looked up to and it was an honour that we were learning about the languages and manners of various cultures directly from her.

But…

"I'm selfish and I know I'll only have you for this one short year, so, I have to use what little time I have with you to get the most I can."

She's a bitch. And I don't like her.

Not anymore.

"We could have been good friends, you know?"

She was done with my hair, so she was moving on to the finishing touches now.

"I know. And I would have loved that more than anything else… but we both know I wouldn't have known the Real you until the end of your time in this academy. And I cannot wait that long."

"You're an elf for nature's sake, Boök. What are four years to you anyway?"

"What are four years to a witch, Uriel?"

She was shaking her head with a helpless smile, finding my question ridiculously obvious and funny.

"I don't like you."

"It's fine. Though, I'll pray the one behind this Mask likes me when we meet for real."

"Hump."

She was a headache like that bastard headmaster of ours.

'Miss Odd is much better than all of them.'

She's actually better than even that bastard darling of mine that only smiles happily and enjoys every time I get dragged by this pointy eared bitch to some empty room like this…

"You certainly look prettier than a princess now, you know?"

"I'm prettier than many queens already, and I know that."

"And I'm sure that husband of yours knows that as well."

She smirked at me right when I stood up from the chair wearing this heavy ass dress.

"He's not the Husband yet, Miss world traveller."

I certainly looked pretty when I looked at myself in the bigger mirror on the side… it was a little more plain than shiny this time, since I was dressing in traditional eastern style, but, this wasn't anything less than the jewellery filled clothing of the west.

"I'm sure he's more than a husband already. But let's leave him be for now."

The east had many unique cultures and traditional customs. The one I was wearing right now was especially the ones that the royal ladies of the southeastern nations of the eastern continent wore when appearing before the individuals outside the royal family.

The dress I was wearing was called a (Ghuara), a silk dress of the highest quality embroidered with threads of gold and silver.

"I'm pretty sure my bastard fiancé is happily grinning right now, thinking about how he tricked me once again, and he's going to get punished for that… but, yes.

He knows I'm prettier than many queens of many nations. For him, actually… I'm as pretty as the true forms of divinities."

"Hahaha, that's a new one."

A kind of clothing that weighed as much as a few warswords, and something that was not only pretty and attractive, it was also so heavy that the royal princesses of East had to train their bodies and minds from young ages just so that they could wear these dresses after they became the official queens of the nations they marry into.

'Thankfully, they only had to endure this torture for three times every month.'

The doors of the royal palaces were closed to the outsiders, and even when meeting important guests of other nations, the ladies did not show off before them.

'The kings were allowed to marry only once and there were strict rules regarding mistresses.'

Many eastern nations had the Harem system but not the southwestern kingdoms.

They had one queen that had as much authority as the king themselves, and they possessed core decision making powers.

"Haha, as pretty as true forms of divinities. He sure knows his stuff as well, hahaha."

She was laughing right now, but since I knew her well by now, I can tell this laughter was a laugh of admiration.

'I wasn't the only one she targeted.'

Sure I'm the first choice when attractive clothings are the topic, but a culture isn't made of female characters alone.

There are males as well, and this little class of ours contains a good number of bastards that she uses however she wants.

My bastard and Captain Alpha are at the very front of the pack.

"Well well, Uriel. You gotta invite me to your wedding, alright?"

"Of course you're coming to my wedding. Who will help my bridesmaids prepare for everything if not you, hun?"

"Hmmm?"

A sudden expression of surprise overtook her face.

"Wait, really?"

"I'm not joking, if you're confused, Boök.

You're the only one I know that has so much knowledge about so many kinds of people.

There will be others beside you that will have to help my useless friends of course, so, please don't take this as a joke.

I hate you, and that's exactly why you have to be there."

"Ptffff."

There was still quite a long time left for our marriage, a little over three years to be precise, but it wasn't that long in the eyes of a normal elf.

She wasn't like me. The flow of time was normal for her.

"Sure then."

Placing hands on my shoulders, she smiled at my reflection in the big mirror.

"Count me in~."

She was a bad person. Selfish, greedy, and unbearable.

But, she was good at what she did. And, for that at the very least, I couldn't hate her even if I wanted to.