At the cafeteria…
With Adry-sama leading the charge enthusiastically, we headed towards the cafeteria.
“Huh? Were we late? The line’s already so long…”
Hearing Adry-sama’s exasperated voice, I turned my attention away from chatting with Mariel-chan and noticed where Adry-sama was looking.
“Huh? No way…”
There was quite a queue in front of the cafeteria, composed entirely of sturdy-looking male students who seemed to be from the Knights Division.
“Well… it seems to be quite a popular place if there’s a line like this…”
Ah, Alicia-sama seems a bit hesitant.
Yeah, it feels awkward to join this queue full of guys.
“What should we do? Should we come back another time?”
As I suggested retreating, someone from the queue called out to us.
“Miss Mariel? Isn’t that Miss Mariel over there! To meet you here… it must be fate, isn’t it?”
“He-Hector-sama?!”
Leaving his companion behind and rushing towards us from the queue was Hector-sama from the Knights Division, who had served as our escort during the field collection practice.
Apparently, he had fallen in love at first sight with Mariel-chan’s delicate, cute demeanor during that time…
Since my brother had put his foot down, he hadn’t made any more forceful advances since then.
However, he apparently occasionally asked Adry-sama or Sei about Mariel-chan’s well-being during Knights Division training sessions and requested them to highlight his good points.
They ended up spilling the beans about this to Mariel-chan directly, who made it clear she had no romantic interest whatsoever and adopted a policy of ignoring Hector-sama.
Noticing Mariel-chan’s flustered reaction to Hector-sama rushing over, Alicia-sama smoothly inserted herself between them.
“Well, Hector-sama, isn’t it a weak argument to declare fate just because we happened to be in the same cafeteria?”
“Oh, if it isn’t Miss Alicia. So, did you finally become friends with Miss Cristea’s group? Did you stop being so stubborn?”
“Wha! I-I’m not… being stubborn!”
Though she couldn’t deny it completely, Alicia-sama fell silent, grumbling internally.
“Hahaha. Even though you are rivals, it’s better for classmates to get along, don’t you think? And then, we should strive to improve each other, right?”
“… I agree with that.”
As Alicia-sama reluctantly agreed, Hector-sama raised an eyebrow in amusement.
“Oh? It’s rare to see you admit something so readily. It’s good that you’ve found a good friend.”
“That’s none of your business!”
Alicia-sama turned away with a tsundere-like blush on her face. So cute~! She’s the epitome of a tsundere!
“So, did Miss Mariel and the others come to the cafeteria to eat as well?”
After Hector-sama chuckled at Alicia-sama’s reaction, he turned to Mariel-chan and asked.
“Y-yes. A-Adry-sama i-invited us, s-so we all came together!”
As Mariel-chan, who tends to be shy around strangers, answered while stuttering, Hector-sama nodded with a smile and then suddenly grabbed Adry-sama’s shoulder and turned around.