Chapter 155 – 155. Time to Choose (1)
Ding—dong—.
The bell announcing lunchtime rang throughout the academy campus.
At the same time, the professor closed the booklet he had placed on the table and silently headed toward the front door.
The students waited until the blunt gait was completely out of sight.
Finally, the moment the front door closed again, teenage boys and girls got up from their seats and gathered in groups of twos and threes and made their way towards the restaurant or café terrace.
“…”
Except for one of them.
Elena Schubert, the sky-haired girl with her chin resting on her hand with a blank expression.
The students who followed her clung to the girl who still had her textbooks open, as if she didn’t know that her class was over.
“Um, Elena?”
“…”
“Class is over, Elena.”
“…”
“Hey~? “Elena, you are~?”
“…”
“Elena!!”
A girl shouted in frustration at Elena, who remained silent.
When he showed his blushing face, only then did Elena give him a creaky look.
The lady from before resumed the conversation with a forced smile on her face.
“Class is over, Elena. Would you like to go eat with us?”
“… Ah.”
Elena reacted late to the word meal and closed the textbook.
It was at that moment that her familiar, Sally, who was hovering around her feet, also tried to move her steps.
“… No. Just eat it and come back.”
Speaking in a weak voice, Elena collapsed into her seat again.
“I have no appetite at all. “I’ll be resting here, so you can go on your own.”
“Yes? Ah, anyway…”
“It’s okay.”
As she said that, the girl smiled as usual.
At first glance, it seemed like a refreshing expression, but the worry filled with it was difficult to erase even with a smile.
“Ele…”
The girl spoke to Elena again.
When she saw the Duke’s daughter with her arms resting on the desk, she seemed to give up and went ahead, leading the group of followers.
“…”
Without even looking at the boys and girls, Elena was staring blankly at her blackboard.
Elena suddenly burst into laughter as she looked towards the plane filled with various theories and runes used in magic.
“Heh, ehehe… Tessia… ♡”
In the girl’s mind, a scene she had witnessed the day before was vividly recalled.
It was a scene where an amethyst-colored sage and a silver-haired saint whom he admired intertwined their bodies.
“Teshia’s hot holy water… I feel like it’s still in my body… ♡”
The girl mumbled while touching her smooth cheeks.
Even as she recalled what might have been an embarrassing moment, the girl’s cheeks warmed with heightened emotion.
“Rumble.”
As if she couldn’t help it, Sally lifted her front paw and placed it on Elena’s thigh.
Normally, Elena would have regained her sanity through the alternating actions of pressing down.
“Hehe, hehe… ♡”
Contrary to Sally’s wishes, her master showed no signs of escaping from her delusional world.
“Kkuoig, kuoong!!”
In the end.
“Gurgling! “Get your mind together!!”
Bye!
A dull sound followed Sally’s strange cries.
Sally’s body, large and heavy as a familiar, struck Elena’s side.
The impact caused Elena to bend her body and fall out of her chair.
“Kuheh!?”
Letting out a loud scream, Elena crashed and rolled across the classroom floor.
The light blue girl, who managed to come to her senses, glared at Sally who was sitting in her chair.
“What are you doing, Sally! “What if you hit a defenseless person that hard?”
“Cow wow.”
“I was still sane! It was a good time with Tessia!”
“Kkkk…
“… “Isn’t it too much to say you’re not interested?”
Sally looked down at her owner, puffing out her cheeks.
After a while, Sally turned her long body around and began to search for something in Elena’s bag.
“Why, what’s wrong? What are you looking for?”
Elena tilted her head as if she was anxious.
Before she could do anything, Sally looked at Elena again, holding a piece of paper in her mouth.
“Kooong.”
It was a notice of test results.
The number ‘7’ was written on paper that had been specially coated with magic to prevent tampering.
It didn’t mean scores.
It was evidence to show what rank Elena ranked in the entire school in this exam.
Originally, the only number to be written here was ‘1’.
The results, befitting a daughter of the Schubert family who had never once missed the top spot, had to be recorded.
However, Elena’s grades are currently ranked 7th in the school.
Her numbers were not low by any means, but when compared to what she was a month ago, it was clear that she was in an unusual decline.
“Kkurrrruk, kuung. “Kkeui-ik, kirrrruk.”
Sally cried, shaking her head from side to side.
Elena looked at her report card fluttering in her familiar’s mouth and snatched the paper away.
“It can’t be helped. “For me, it was like a dream.”
“Crook, cluck.”
You can raise your grades at any time.
Elena has the talent to do that, and she has worked hard to make it possible.
But Sally’s worries weren’t just about numbers.
“Kyuuuuu…”
“… Those kids are not my friends, Sally. Classmates who just cling to me, the duke’s daughter, as they please. That’s just it.”
Elena said, making sure there was no one in the classroom.
“That’s why everyone calls me that. ‘The Duke and Duchess’s Pets’. “Isn’t it a truly disgraceful nickname?”
“Kkkk.”
“Still, those kids follow me around because they like it. No matter how indifferent you pretend to be, they cling to you and make you feel like hypocrisy. It’s completely different from Tessia.”
“…”
Sally couldn’t bear to refute Elena’s words.
This was because Sally knew very well how ugly those young people called followers were behind the scenes.
I’ve heard those young people gossiping about Elena, and there were even cases where some of them tried to steal Elena’s wallet.
There are even students who curse at Sally because they think she doesn’t understand human language.
If you ask which side, Sally doesn’t look at those people kindly either.
So much so that she even thinks about burning it with her own fire.
But.
“Kyuuung, kurrrruk…” …”
That doesn’t mean I want Elena to distance herself from human society.
There are a lot of people in the academy.
There are people of different races, different social statuses, and sometimes there are people with extreme age differences.
Living among them, Elena must form relationships with humans.
You have to learn how to get along with other humans.
Sally always thought that way.
That’s why Sally really didn’t like this situation.
It was because she felt that her precious younger sister, Elena, was gradually being devastated by her only human female.
“… Kkukkkk.”
Sally grumbled and spit out the paper that was in her mouth.
Without even looking at her report card that landed neatly on her desk, Sally walked out the back door of the classroom on all fours.
“Uh, where are you going, Sally!”
“Kyurrrruk, kyuiing.”
“What!? “What if I get lost?”
Elena’s voice called urgently from behind her, but Sally only gave a curt reply and walked toward her hallway.
She moved quickly so that Elena wouldn’t follow, and Sally alternated between her long legs.
“… Tesia Rupilberg.”
The reason why precious Elena was ruined like this.
Shouting out that name, Sally barely managed to relax her strength to get between her eyes.
Forgetting that the students’ attention was on her, the red-haired girl ran towards the place where the female lived.
***
“I guess it was a bit too stimulating for a child.”
Ariel muttered as she walked steadily towards the restaurant.
Carelessly brushing her amethyst-colored hair with her hand, the wise man immediately strengthened her weakened heart.
“No. It was that kid who first declared war. There is nothing wrong with me. Yes, this was just self-defense.”
The question immediately followed, “Does the word self-defense really apply in this situation?”
However, if she were to think about such things, she would feel like she had really lost, so Ariel quickly decided to change her mind.
This is a girl who boldly declared an all-out war against the warrior party.
If this amount is not repaid, the nickname ‘Sage Ariel’ is certain to cry.
It was that time when Ariel was heading to her restaurant, trying to rationalize herself.
“… Huh?”
Just in front, something was running at breakneck speed.
For a moment, Ariel was wary, wondering if it was an enemy attack, but the wave of her magic that followed was able to relax her body.
Long, flowing red hair.
A very exotic dress that seems hard to find on the Isis continent.
A woman’s body that is slim yet sufficiently bulging.
Even though it was the first time she had seen her face at the academy, Ariel knew what it was right away.
Then, the moment when the red girl crossed next to her.
『Your master will be anxious.』
“… !”
Ariel gave the girl telepathy.
Geek!!
The red-haired girl barely stopped her body on the floor, screaming due to the friction.
It ran so fast that a shock wave caused wind to blow through the hallway.
“It’s dangerous to run in the hallway. Try to walk as slowly as possible.”
“…”
The red-haired girl snorted as she stared at Ariel.
Then she began to walk in the opposite direction where Ariel was heading, walking slowly like any other female student.
“… It really walks.”
