“Almost forgot, I still haven’t gotten Sevi’s student card voice transmission frequency.” Eulalia clapped her hands together as if she’d just remembered. “Hey, let’s exchange ours now?”
“What are you planning?” Sevitis eyed the girl warily.
Her gut told her this scheming woman was up to no good.
If she actually handed over her frequency, there was no way she’d get a moment’s peace for the rest of her campus life.
“Nothing at all. I just want to be able to reach Sevi whenever I need to.”
Eulalia put on a troubled expression for a moment, then lightly shook the lunchbox in her hand, dangling the bait.
“That way, if I ever make extra Osmanthus Silk Cake in the future…”
“Deal.”
Sevitis agreed before Eulalia could even finish her sentence.
Eulalia clearly hadn’t expected her to agree so readily. The mountain of prepared speeches she’d had ready were all blocked.
“Don’t scare me like that. Is Sevi feeling sick today? Let me check, your big sister here can heal you with Holy Light!” As she spoke, Eulalia stretched out her fair hand, reaching for Sevitis’s forehead.
Sevitis slapped her hand away with a look of disgust.
“Cut the act. I’m not done talking! There’s a condition. You have to promise me—from now on, you’re absolutely forbidden from using our past to threaten me!”
Back during the Blood Dance Forest assessment, she’d been strong-armed into joining this woman’s party because she had leverage.
If she’d just stuck to her original plan and steadily farmed Magic Cores, none of that string of nonsense would have happened.
“Sure.” Eulalia agreed just as readily, which only made Sevitis feel uneasy.
“Listen carefully. I mean absolutely no Dark History related to me, not even a tiny scrap!”
“I know, I know.” Eulalia urged her with a smile. “Then it’s a deal. Neither of us is allowed to go back on it.”
As she spoke, Eulalia extended a slender little hand toward her.
It should have been a perfectly harmless gesture, but it made Sevitis flinch on instinct.
Her long jet-black hair seemed to bristle as she jumped a full three feet in the air.
“What are you trying to do now?!”
She really didn’t want any physical contact with this woman anymore.
Countless painful experiences had taught her that whenever those hands touched her, nothing good ever happened!
Eulalia blinked her innocent sapphire-blue eyes.
“Is there a problem? Didn’t we just agree?”
Standing on the rock, Sevitis shot her a wary glare, then looked down at the hand held out with the palm facing left.
‘Is this a handshake to make peace? Looks like I really am overthinking it.’
‘Damn it. If I keep jumping at shadows like this, won’t it just look like I’m scared of her? No wait, I clearly had the upper hand in this negotiation. If anyone should be scared, it should be her!’
Steeling herself, Sevitis took a deep breath.
Like a small animal testing a trap, she reached out her own little hand and lightly tapped the tips of Eulalia’s fingers, then immediately pulled back.
Eulalia’s expression remained unchanged, her smile still in place.
‘Weird? There really isn’t a trick?’
‘I don’t believe it!’
Sevitis then changed angles, cautiously poking at the hand that was still hovering in midair.
After repeatedly confirming that there seemed to be no trap, she kept her eyes locked on the golden-haired girl in front of her, slowly extending her hand to grasp the waiting palm.
The moment their hands touched, just as Sevitis began to feel a little more at ease, Eulalia finally spoke.
“Oh my? I was only waiting for Sevi to pull out her student card to exchange. Why are you holding my hand so tightly?”
Eulalia’s eyes curved like crescent moons as she deliberately brought her nose close to the stunned, frozen little face.
“So Sevi wanted to hold my hand all along. You should have just said so~”
“……”
‘Damn it! I knew there was a trick! After all that circling, this woman just wanted to make a fool of me!’
Mortified and furious, Sevitis immediately loosened her grip, trying to pull her hand back.
But the moment she let go, the other girl seized the opportunity. She tightened her hold on Sevitis’s wrist and yanked her forward.
Caught off guard, Sevitis’s light body was pulled forward uncontrollably.
The girl’s exquisitely beautiful face rapidly grew larger in her vision. Those glossy, delicate red lips were now hovering right below her cheek.
‘Ah…’
‘This distance…’
‘If I go any further…’
‘I’ll actually kiss her…’
Her mind went completely blank. Sevitis’s first instinct was to squeeze her eyes shut, trying to escape this unexpected “attack” through sheer denial.
But the warm, soft sensation she imagined never landed on her lips. Instead, a gentle breath brushed past her ear.
“Then, as agreed, let’s keep all of this as our little secret~”
Sevitis’s whole body trembled.
“Tch… getting all lovey-dovey again…”
Sevitis’s eyes snapped open, as if trying to release the heat burning in her ears.
“I knew I heard something!”
Last time she was here, she’d heard someone click their tongue from the bushes.
This time, this guy had gotten even bolder, hiding in the shadows and mouthing off about her to her face!
Whoosh—!
Sevitis pulled a short sword from her Space Pouch without even looking back and hurled it straight into the nearby shrubbery.
But the blade disappeared into the darkness without the expected sound of flesh being pierced or a scream.
Only the rustling of leaves in the night wind answered, as if the entire commotion had been an illusion.
“Oh my, is Sevi blushing from embarrassment?”
“I am not!”
“Then are you angry?”
“Even less so!”
“Or could it be… that you actually hate it?”
“Of course I don’t hate it—”
Under the moonlight, the black-haired girl stood with her back to Eulalia, denying everything in rapid succession.
Only when the last half of the sentence slipped out did she realize she’d been led by the nose again.
But trying to force the words back now was clearly too late.
Eulalia clasped her hands behind her back, walking briskly to stand beside Sevitis.
She bent down and leaned in close, as if she’d just discovered some huge secret, drawing out her words.
“So if it’s not hate, then that means…”
“My Space Pouch moved! I’m done playing!”
Sevitis shouted, her face bright red. Then she straightened up, quickly circled around the girl beside her, and headed straight for the forest path they’d come from.
But just as she was about to step onto the path, she stopped.
Then the black-haired girl lowered her head, turned back to the large rock, and swiftly scooped the pile of lunchboxes filled with Osmanthus Silk Cake into her Storage Space.
“Since you took my stuff, you have to forgive me for teasing you just now~” Eulalia watched her from behind with a grin.
“Absolutely not! You think such a pittance is enough to win this young lady over? Not a chance!”
After shouting her rebuttal, Sevitis hugged her spoils and walked toward the path again under the cold moonlight.
Just as she was about to step into the shadows, she stopped and turned around, awkwardly tossing out a line in a voice only the two of them could hear.
“Unless… what you didn’t finish saying earlier still counts.”
The moment the words left her mouth, without giving the other girl any chance to respond, that petite, slender figure vanished into the vast darkness as if fleeing for her life.
In the silent clearing, only Eulalia remained standing alone.
She stared at the direction Sevitis had disappeared, scratching her cheek with a troubled expression.
“But… Sevi still hasn’t given me her Voice Transmission Stone’s frequency.”
The night breeze blew past. She seemed to belatedly realize something.
Eulalia extended her cool fingertips, uncertainly, and lightly poked her own cheek.
“It’s so hot… why?”
“Is it because the early autumn night is still too stuffy…”
“Or because just now… I was that close?”
Eulalia covered her flushed cheeks with both hands.
Through the gaps between her fingers, those sapphire-blue eyes seemed to hold crushed starlight, and the smile at the corners of her mouth just wouldn’t fade.
“I guess this sort of thing is still a bit too much for me.”
Weak willed boy turned girl gave up on his revenge so readily