“T-This can’t actually be happening, right?” A soldier said.
“The Theft-Prevention System could actually be used like this!?” Another soldier said.
It was a situation they’d never seen before or heard of.
The soldiers had thoughtlessly puffed themselves up with conceit because they had more experience, but ironically, after carefully preparing for 8 years, when they were caught with their pants down, they failed to respond quick enough, and then even became too agitated to break free.
Unfortunately for them, the ‘commanders’ of the students weren’t soft enough to miss that.
“Ah, I forgot to mention this, but I loosened the activation conditions. I also set the current to the highest setting possible, so just a slight touch will give you a world of pain. Do watch your step,” Padyuel amicably smiled.
“Padyuel, you wench!!”
Payduel’s attitude had struck a nerve with the soldiers.
Not only did the soldiers crash in a supposedly easy fight against some students, they relied on the skill inhibitor to turn the tides of battle, only to be driven into a corner again.
Both their pride and their so-called just cause were in tatters.
“Since it’s come to this, we need to at least take you out!!”
The soldiers glared unjustly and pointed their guns at Aristel, but the defenseless girl just smiled even more.
“Are you sure it’s alright for you to be minding only me?” Aristel said in an exaggerated manner.
In the next moment, a great number of shadows attacked the soldiers from every direction.
It was none other than the students, and there were so many of them that that the soldiers couldn’t even shoot.
“No!!” A soldier cried.
“That’s what you get when you’ve been looking at nothing but your feet and Ari-chan, you useless terrorists! Finish them!” Myuhi said.
At her behest, the students roared and swooped down.
Now that the soldiers numbered only 10, they were no longer able to contend against the horde of students.
Moreover, given their situation, they couldn’t even resist properly.
After being distracted by some students and being provoked by a little girl, they’d completely forgotten about their surroundings. By the time they realized their mistake, the rest of the students had already surrounded them, and their fate was sealed. They had lost.
The mine field posed no threat to the special class because they could still fly; hence, they could attack without obstruction.
That’s why the poor soldiers could only either be beaten up by the students or fall prey to one of the buried weapons.
“Once again, I wish everyone a good day… But this time, for good,” Aristel said.
With a bow fitting of a noble lady, all the soldiers were defeated and bound.
Among the weapons released by Aristel were equipment like handcuffs and shackles.
Myuhi was able to see through her intentions with just that, and so she immediately prepared a blitzkrieg strategy.
It was all for the purpose of ending the battle before anyone could notice the fatal flaw of the so-called mine field.
A stupid flaw, which was to simply blow away all the buried weapons without even touching them.
“Good grief, if I hadn’t noticed, what would you have done?” Myuhi asked.
When Myuhi, who finished the suppression and arrest of the enemy soldier, asked that with a frightened face, Aristel’s whole face beamed with a smile.
“You’re someone who’s seen the same
Myuhi was dumbfounded, but she immediately looked the other way and scratched her cheeks.
That unwavering belief that she would surely notice just because she’d seen the same thing made her feel ticklish.
A feeling made even more embarrassing because she’d actually delivered just as Aristel expected.
“…The woman in charge of the enemy team told me that I was fighting because I was in love…” Aristel smiled, and then immediately made a serious face as she said that.
Myuhi had actually overheard their conversation, but Aristel didn’t know about and continued with a faint smile.
“I was really surprised,” she said.
Pikun.
“Yeah, I bet,” Myuhi said.
One could take Myuhi’s reaction to be that of shock, but those few words were all that left her lips.
“It was completely unexpected, but… I feel so refreshed!”
Piku, piku.
“Right.”
Just as Aristel said, that bright, cheerful smile of hers indeed felt refreshed.
But the fox girl didn’t pursue the topic and just replied in that same monotonous voice from before.
Whether Aristel saw that or not, she continued all the same.
“So I’d fallen in love with Shinichi-san, huh!”
Pikuu.
“Right”
Myuhi repeated that same unsociable answer, but Aristel didn’t seem to notice and just continued to speak full of excitement.
“Apparently, this feeling within my chest is called love! My love! It’s my first time, so I couldn’t tell at all, but after being told, it sure makes sense! Whenever I saw him getting close with other women, I always felt weird. It turns out that’s what you call jealousy! My mother’s told me a lot, but I couldn’t tell what it was at all until I found out!”
Piku.
“Right.”
Aristel held her hands over her chest and treated her love and even her jealousy like treasures.
But contrast Aristel’s passion, Myuhi perfunctorily repeated the same answer over and over.
“That’s why… I’m going to make a declaration right here and now!”
“Righ— Declare what?”
Understandably, Myuhi couldn’t help but finally respond to her at that, and Aristel pointed her index finger at her.
Just like a detective would when revealing the culprit. Even the same sound effect seemed like it could be heard.
“I can’t lose to you!”
“…Howai (Why)?”
Taken by complete surprise, Myuhi ended up pulling out some terrible English.
Given the flow of their conversation, she could infer what Aristel was saying, but even then, it was such a huge leap in logic that Myuhi thought Aristel was joking. When she saw the passion overflowing from her and realized she wasn’t, she became confused.
“To think that we would be rivals not only in grades but also in love. You’re his caretaker, you seem to fit his tastes quite well, and I’m starting late, however! This Aristel F. Padyuel will not fall behind!”
“Okay, let’s calm down for a sec.”
Why was Aristel even talking about this? Myuhi seemed to say as she wryly smiled.
She wanted to ask where that calm girl that led their classes with her went.
But Aristel just laughed and cut down her words.
“Oh? I’m quite calm actually. If anything isn’t it─────your ears and your tail that’s not calm?”
Piku.
“Wha—?”
Surprised, Myuhi’s fox ears stood up on end, while her tail drooped down feebly.
Aristel had been getting a good look at how her tail and her ears have been reacting to her words.
“They’ve been quite restless since I brought up this topic. When I boldly talked about my love, your ears stood up on end as though they were trying to intimidate me, while your tail just dangled about aimlessly in the opposite direction. I see they’re much more honest than your expressions.”
“What!?”
“Despite appearances, I myself am a noble, and thus, have quite the observant eye.”
In the face of that smile, Myuhi was speechless.
Partly because of the discovery of her bad habits, and partly because it was Aristel who saw through her.
Apparently, she shouldn’t look down on her in that regard just because she was younger.
“My mother told me that having a rival in love would allow both sides to temper each other!”
“But I’m not really like that with Icchi…”
“If that rival is you, then there is indeed nothing to be dissatisfied with. Of course, you’re not the sort of person to hold back just because it’s me, right?”
“Look, Ari-chan, I’m really not—”
“I will fight and win this war, fair and square, on the honor of Padyuel’s women!”
“…You really have no intention of listening to me, do you?”
When Aristel pointed her index finger at her once again, Myuhi wryly smiled as though she’d had enough.
She’d realized that Aristel wasn’t going to change her mind no matter what she said, so she just gave up.
“This side of you is so what you’d expect from a noble lady,” Myuhi said.
“Fu fu… It’s a bit late to be saying this, but I’m glad I went to this school. Not only did I meet the love of my life, I also made a friend that I could compete with,” Aristel said.
“Fue? Friend? Huh? Ah, me!?”
While Myuhi was crestfallen because Aristel wasn’t listening to her, out of the blue, she was declared her friend.
This time she really hadn’t a clue why the conversation turned this direction.
“Yes! Written as love rival [1], but read as friends! The Earthlings certainly have an interesting way of looking at things!”
“…Erm, are you sure you’re not misunderstanding something?”
Myuhi felt like she’d heard a similar phrase before [2], but she couldn’t clearly point anything out, so she just let it pass.
Had there been a Japanese here, he would’ve surely thrown a tsukkomi.
“Oh, Rizet is calling. I suppose it was about time we regrouped. It wouldn’t do to let our guard down here for too long. Let’s go.”
Aristel said, and Myuhi was a moment slower to follow her.
Until now, they’ve lucked out that no raybeasts have spawned during their battle, but it was dangerous from this point onward.
That’s why they needed to regroup immediately and pay attention to their surroundings.
“…She’s sparkling.”
But while Myuhi was thinking such realistic things, when she saw Aristel’s back, she inadvertently muttered that.
That aura so full of life that could be felt even from behind was probably because Aristel had been made aware of her own love.
She even recognized Myuhi as her love rival.
Aristel was already so dazzling at the best of times, and yet she became even brighter. Having a person she wants to look at her and the existence of a rival she could compete with just had that much of an effect on her.
“…You’re wrong, Ari-chan. I’m… I’m [3] not like that at all. It may be a necessary evil, but I’m no different from those people tumbling around there. We’re all worms from the same hole.”
For someone like her to fall in love with a commoner, much less become love rivals with a noble… it was too ironic.
Though those words muttered in self-deprecation reached no one, Myuhi’s ears and tail drooped feebly and couldn’t get back up for some time.
Field Suppression Team, Beta Team──Captured
Mixed Team of 2 – A and 3 – A──Regrouping
■■’s love──????
Tl Note:
[1] – Literally, enemies of love.
[2] – Googled this, and I believe the original saying is written as ‘powerful foe’, but read as ‘friend.
[3] – The first I’m here is boku, while the second is watashi. If I recall correctly, Myuhi uses Boku for her act, and uses watashi otherwise.
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