““.......””
Silence descended after their eyes met.
Rine realized why Yutia’s energy was not spread around the area.
And at the moment Penia opened her mouth at the unbelievable sight before her eyes.
Yutia, who had been silently hugging Blackie tightly while looking at the two who had appeared on the balcony—
Rustle, rustle—
Released the posture that had been restraining Blackie, who had transformed into Alon.
Then, in an extremely natural manner, she checked various parts of Blackie’s clothes and muttered.
“Mmm, the shoulder width is about this much, and the arm length—”
An extremely serious expression.
If Rine and Penia had arrived even a little later.
It would have looked enough as though, for some reason, she had actually laid Blackie down and really been taking measurements—
“.......”
“.......”
But unfortunately, the two of them had already witnessed it with their own eyes.
Yutia happily bouncing against Alon in his arms with a delighted smile.
Just as Rine and Penia were unable to open their mouths carelessly.
“......Hm? When did the two of you arrive?”
Extremely naturally, as though the fact their eyes had met earlier had never happened, Yutia looked at Penia and Rine with a surprised expression and naturally opened the balcony door for them.
“Ah, um—”
“Ah, this is Blackie, you see? I was taking clothing measurements.”
“Uh...... but earlier—”
“I was taking measurements?”
“But just now, you definitely—”
“I was taking measurements.”
Yutia smiled brightly, as though she would allow no other words.
At that, Rine responded with a slightly cold expression—
“Hmm—normally, when taking measurements, people don’t do it like tha—”
“I said I was taking measurements?”
At Yutia’s continuing words, she had no choice but to close her mouth.
Because Yutia, who had been smiling until just moments ago, was no longer smiling.
“......I see.”
“Right.......”
“Mhm.”
As Rine and Penia nodded at the chilling sensation crawling down their spines, Yutia smiled once more.
“Anyway, come in.”
At Yutia’s words, the two entered the room.
Not long afterward, Yutia brought over some light tea.
With the sound of trickling liquid, tea began pouring into the teacups.
Starting with Blackie, who had transformed into Alon’s form, now somehow back in its original form again, happily munching away on the snacks Yutia had given it.
“So then, what brings you here?”
Yutia finally opened her mouth properly.
“Uh.......”
“Mmm.......”
At that, the two fell silent.
In truth, their purpose was clear.
To begin with, the reason Rine and Penia had come here was to borrow Blackie from Yutia so they could take Alon’s clothing measurements.
So after briefly glancing at each other.
“W-We wanted to borrow Blackie for a bit?”
Penia spoke first.
“Blackie?”
“Yes. Actually, we’ve been preparing to give Lord Alon clothes as a gift for a while now.”
“Hoh, really?”
“Yes.”
At her confirmation, Yutia smiled and took a sip from her teacup.
Suddenly talking about taking measurements might have seemed a little strange.
No, it was strange.
Coming here at this hour of the night and saying something like that in the first place.
But among the people here, there was no one who did not understand the meaning behind Penia’s words about “having to take clothing measurements.”
And so Yutia—
“Mmm—if you’ve been taking measurements for an entire month, it seems like there wouldn’t be anywhere left to measure anymore?”
—said that to Penia.
Words that sounded as though she knew everything they had done during the trip.
At that, Penia subtly rolled her eyes away to the side, and this time Rine opened her mouth.
“What exactly do you mean by that? We’re only starting now ourselves.”
Immediately, Yutia replied.
“If you’ve been taking measurements for a whole month already, then there’s no need to measure anything else anymore, right?”
“As I said, we’re only starting now ourselves.”
“Then isn’t it strange that you came the moment I borrowed Blackie?”
“Ah, we also learned about that method ‘recently,’ so we measured a little in advance for about a day. Last time we only measured the arms, so we need the other measurements too.”
Rine did not yield a single word.
Yutia smiled briefly at that.
“Alright then. In that case, shouldn’t we hear the opinion of the person involved too?”
She opened her mouth.
“......The person involved?”
“An opinion......?”
“Yes. In the end, this is something you’re preparing for Teacher’s sake, but the one helping you is Blackie, right? So let’s let Blackie decide.”
[Kkyu-?]
At Yutia’s words, Blackie stopped eating its snack and widened its eyes into circles.
However, the moment Blackie realized its danger-detection instincts were not merely blaring but practically screaming as though about to explode.
[Kkyuu-?]
It tilted its head belatedly.
Whirl—
Blackie’s head spun a full 360 degrees.
Its entire body seemed to be saying, I’m an animal, so I can’t understand what you people are saying??
But unfortunately, Yutia simply picked Blackie up and placed it in the center of the table.
“There now. You just need to go to the person you want to help.”
Yutia said with a smile.
As Blackie turned its gaze toward Rine and Penia once, then looked back toward Yutia—
“Blackie?”
At the call, Blackie turned its gaze, and there was Palantia beef in Penia’s hand, the thing Blackie loved.
“I’ll give you this.”
Penia brought out one of Blackie’s absolute favorite foods.
And this time, unlike before, it was not just a tiny chunk, but a truly massive piece.
Without realizing it, Blackie began heading toward her, but—
“Blackie?”
Freeze—
At Yutia’s voice that followed soon after, Blackie’s movements stopped.
“Blackie isn’t some beast incapable of thinking, is it?”
Yutia’s words.
With a smile that seemed to see through Blackie’s intelligence perfectly.
Blackie, who had definitely been walking toward Penia, abruptly turned and moved—
“Oh my—so you wanted to help me?”
—straight toward Yutia.
“.......”
“.......”
The exhausted eyes of Penia and Rine turned toward Yutia, who was holding Blackie, which somehow looked utterly drained.
“Oh my, why are you looking at me like that?”
“......Isn’t this fraud?”
“How so? Blackie made its own choice.”
Yutia smiled.
As though saying, Do you not like it? Then perhaps you should become stronger?
After a brief silence.
“As it happens, this works out perfectly.”
“......Works out perfectly?”
“Yes. There was actually something else I wanted to discuss. About the settings for Teacher and all of you. Or rather, I suppose you could say it’s about my setting.”
—she said.
“......What kind of setting?”
Penia asked, filled with suspicion.
At that.
“Professor Stonia and Taylor Alon are people {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} who promised each other a future together.”
Yutia said with a smile.
####
“What? What do you mean by—”
At Penia’s deeply flustered reaction, Yutia replied.
“Just in case, it’s true, you know? Professor Stonia and Alon were people who had promised each other a future together. Of course, because of Divine blood, the family collapsed, so it all became nothing, but originally—”
She spoke while looking at Rine and Penia.
“Rather than becoming engaged to Colina, he was supposed to become engaged to me.”
At Yutia’s words, silence descended for a moment.
But only briefly.
“But in the end, he got engaged to me.”
Penia quickly opened her mouth.
“More precisely, you mean you’re only about to get engaged now, right? The real engagement is with me.”
Rine immediately corrected her words.
At that, Penia flinched for a moment, but continued speaking again.
“Ah, anyway—we’re already doing fine, so wouldn’t adding another setting here just make things strange?”
“I agree with that too.”
Rine nodded in agreement with her words.
However, Yutia looked at the two with a thoughtful expression.
“Mmm, actually, I agree with that as well.”
She quickly acknowledged it.
“?”
“?”
The two showed confusion at how easily she agreed.
However.
“But isn’t that only something you can say under the assumption that the acting is actually working properly?”
At Yutia’s next words, the two immediately looked blank for a moment, and Yutia continued speaking.
“To be honest, I don’t particularly dislike the position of being Teacher’s fiancées either. In some ways, it really is a good setting that lets you stay close to Teacher.”
“.......”
“But—if you can’t act properly, then people are bound to become suspicious, aren’t they?”
“......We are acting properly, though?”
“Mmm—I doesn’t look that way to me? You always do the same thing every time.”
Yutia’s words.
At that, Rine and Penia immediately tried to respond, but soon closed their mouths.
She was certainly right.
To begin with, both Rine and Penia had built their characters around the setting of being fiancées.
But even now, after nearly two weeks of academy life had passed, their acting always flowed in the same direction.
In practice, all they ever really did was argue over Alon about who was the real one and who was not.
Of course, both of them felt somewhat wronged about this part.
To begin with, whenever either of them tried to make progress, the other side interfered.
“If this keeps up, you’ll probably get exposed. So rather than getting caught like that, it would be better for me to step in and properly take on the role myself.”
“......You sound pretty confident in your acting skills.”
“Of course.”
Yutia said with a smile.
Another silence followed after that.
“Then let’s do this.”
Suddenly, after thinking about something, Rine spoke.
“How?”
“To be honest, I think this is something Godfather should decide, not us. So let’s ask Godfather.”
“That—”
“However, Yutia only arrived recently, so let’s give it some time. Would two weeks be enough? And after that, we’ll ask Godfather directly to choose.”
After saying that much, Rine held her breath and looked at Penia and Yutia.
“......Who will become the fiancée.”
She opened her mouth.
“......Alright. Let’s do that.”
“I don’t mind either.”
With Yutia and Penia both agreeing, the late-night conversation finally came to an end.
####
The next day.
Alon woke up as usual and recalled the plans ahead.
‘......First, Yutia said she’ll create a temporary magic club using her professor title, so we’ll naturally gather there. After that, under the excuse of club activities, we search for the ritual site.......’
Alon recalled the rough plan he had discussed with Yutia yesterday and was thinking over what should be added or removed from the plan, and how to make the setup feel plausible.
Just then—
“Alon.”
Soon, together with a feeling at his arm that had now become slightly familiar, he heard Rine’s voice.
“Rina.”
Feeling the skinship that had been gradually growing bolder lately, he called out Rine’s disguise name and turned his gaze toward her.
At that moment—
Peck.
“?”
A somewhat unfamiliar sensation briefly appeared and disappeared against Alon’s cheek.
Everything had happened far too quickly.
“??”
At that, without realizing it, Alon brought a hand to his cheek and turned toward Rine.
With eyes slightly widened in blank surprise.
And what he saw there was—
“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s something we do all the time.”
Smiling casually while poking at him playfully.
......Though she looked calm at first glance, separately from that, her ears were so red it almost looked like they might burn right off.
And then......
“......Huh???”
In the distance, Penia, who had been running over enthusiastically after spotting Alon and Rine, froze stiff.
“......Ha.......”
And Yutia as well, who had not gone to work yet and had been leisurely watching Alon heading to school from far away.
