Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 37 - Chapter 4

Episode 4: The Beach and Awkward Men

Koutarou stood in front of Kotori’s camera. Even though he was like a brother to her, she was always embarrassed to look straight at him... but she didn’t feel that way with the lens between them. Not only was she doing Nalfa a favor, she’d actually taken quite a liking to photography.

“Hello, everyone! It’s time for the Blue Knight’s blast-to-the-past cooking program!”

As Nalfa’s cheerful voice rang out, Kotori pulled the camera back to get her in the frame too. She was standing next to Koutarou, for they were filming another show about cuisine from two thousand years ago.

“Lord Veltlion, what’s on the menu today?”

“Let’s see... Today we’ll be making root vegetables and Dalshian shank cooked in Lacirno wine.”

They’d filmed the first episode back at the start of summer vacation, and today would be the third installment of the series. The first and second episodes had already gotten rave reviews in Forthorthe.

“That sounds like a pretty wild dish!”

“The person who taught me the recipe, Guy Lewain, was a cook in the infantry who hailed from the mountains of northern Mastir.”

“I see. Northern Mastir is historically known for its hunting traditions and cold climate. Preserving root vegetables, alcohol, and freshly caught Dalshian was easy there.”

The Blue Knight was the biggest reason for the show’s popularity, but people were also enjoying his insight into the food culture of ancient times. Modern Forthorthe curated an annual award for outstanding documentary work, and as of right now, Nalfa had no idea she’d be winning it this year. She was just having fun making videos.

“This is how you recreate it with ingredients from Earth!”

There, Shizuka entered the frame. She was taking part in the show as a cooking assistant. In addition to helping Koutarou prepare the meal, she was also holding a flip chart listing the equivalent ingredients: potatoes, pork, red wine, and a handful of different herbs. Kotori had formerly tried to do that part herself, but filming was much smoother now that Shizuka was handling it.

“Since this is a local dish done military style, it doesn’t have any complicated steps. It’s simple to make, meaning it’s beginner friendly. I was a beginner myself back when I learned to cook this,” Koutarou explained as he peeled potatoes.

Since prepping them all alone would take too long, Shizuka was quietly helping out next to him. She peeled faster than Koutarou, showing off her skills as a member of the cooking society.

“So you learned this dish not long after meeting Empress Alaia, Lord Veltlion?”

“That’s right. Speaking of Her Majesty... while I was making this dish once, Princess Charl took an interest in the wine.”

Sometimes while cooking, Koutarou’s commentary would go off on a tangent. But rather than stop him, Nalfa would let him go. She loved the stories he would tell, so she’d just add captions later to explain the necessary cooking steps he’d glossed over.

“What do you mean?” she prompted him.

“She threw a fit asking to taste the Lacirno wine.”

“What were the age limits on alcohol like back then?”

“There weren’t any, but I knew that it was bad for children.”

“So it caused a fight between you?”

“It did. I had to promise to go horseback riding with Her Highness to calm her down.”

“Ahahahaha, I can just see it now.”

Koutarou waxing nostalgic about the royal family of yore was always a highlight of the show. And since he was mostly sharing his memories of them in connection to food and cooking, the wholesome content was always family friendly. It went over well with audiences of all ages.

“Did Empress Alaia like this dish, Lord Veltlion?”

“Yes. When I made it the second time, I added some crushed roasted nuts for flavor that Her Majesty particularly enjoyed.”

“Everyone, it seems the secret ingredient to pleasing Empress Alaia’s palate was nuts.”

The light-hearted chatter between Koutarou and Nalfa, the glimpse into life two thousand years ago, the stories about Alaia and Charl, and the cute assistant with the ponytail all worked together to make the cooking video series popular.

Since this was already the third episode, filming went off without a hitch. The video would go into editing later, but production had wrapped for the day. The whole group understood that art couldn’t be rushed. And more importantly, a fresh meal was waiting for them. Work could wait.

“This looks great!” exclaimed Sanae.

“It’s better than I thought it would be!” echoed Yurika.

They were eagerly staring at the stewed dish set upon the table. Since it had been recreated with local ingredients, it was primarily potatoes and pork simmered in wine. Its rustic origins, however, gave it a certain impact. The wine-cooked pork was tender, and the herbs in the broth had an enticing aroma. It was hard to believe that Koutarou had made something so delicious looking.

“Try it with some of this bread. This spread also goes great on both the bread and the meat, so enjoy it whichever way you’d like,” he suggested.

“I’m starving!” Sanae roared.

“Thank you for the food!” Yurika squealed.

The girls dug in with gusto as soon as Koutarou wrapped up his introduction. Their childish manners made him smile.

“What is it, Koutarou-sama?” asked Nalfa, who was serving food next to Koutarou. She’d noticed his grin and was curious about what had inspired it.

“Oh, it’s nothing... They just reminded me of Princess Charl.”

“Heehee, I see.” Realizing what he meant, Nalfa looked to Sanae and Yurika. Recalling the story he’d told during filming earlier, she smiled too.

“If Theia did that, she’d look just like Her Highness,” Koutarou continued.

Perhaps because of her bloodline, Theia already had Charl’s looks. So if she deigned to shovel food into her mouth like Sanae and Yurika, she’d be a perfect incarnation of the young princess. Theia, however, had her own opinions about this...

“I’m a grown woman, thank you!” she reminded everyone. “As if I’d behave so improperly!”

“I know that,” Koutarou assured her. “It’s just a fond memory.”

He understood how Theia felt and certainly had no intentions of forcing her to do anything she didn’t want to do. He just couldn’t help indulging the nostalgic thought.

When he relented so readily, however, Theia became a bit despondent. She immediately regretted how she’d responded. Instead of insisting on propriety since Kotori and Nalfa were present, she started to wish she’d gone through with it anyway.

“With all due respect, Princess Theia, could I possibly ask you to play the part of Princess Charl in a reenactment?” Nalfa piped up.

She was throwing Theia a lifeline. She understood the complex emotions stirring in her heart, and she also wanted to soothe the loneliness in Koutarou’s wistful smile.

“A reenactment?” Theia asked.

“Yes. I’m quite sure the viewers would love to see it for themselves. Koutarou-sama brought up Princess Charl in today’s video, you see.”

“I-Is that so? Then I suppose you leave me no choice...”

As long as she had an excuse—even a reenactment would do—Theia would take it. She thus accepted Nalfa’s offer, beaming on the inside in spite of her indifferent behavior.

“Thank you very much, Princess Theia.”

Nalfa thanked the princess even though she was really the one doing her a favor. She didn’t think of it that way, however, and smiled brightly at the arrangement.

“If I’m going to do this, I’d like it to be cute,” Theia insisted.

“Of course! Kotori!” Nalfa called.

“Leave it to me!” Kotori nodded in agreement.

The two girls then retrieved their camera bags and pulled out all of the equipment they’d stowed away before dinner.

“Okay, Your Highness, take it away!”

“R-Right...”

With the cameras and lights on her, Theia glanced up at Koutarou and proceeded to throw all etiquette out the window. She took her plate in hand and began shoveling food directly into her mouth.

She really does look like Princess Charl...

Koutarou was taken aback. Theia was already a dead ringer for Charl, so seeing her like this nearly moved him to tears.

I’ll need to thank Nalfa-san and Kin-chan later...

He couldn’t overlook the part they’d played in this. Two years ago might have been a different story, but Koutarou as he was now would never let such a kind deed go unnoticed and unrepaid. As he watched them film, he started wondering how he might return the favor. Coming up with a good present was hard for him, but thankfully, an excellent answer dawned on him...

“Say, Nalfa-san, Kin-chan, why don’t you come with us?”

“We appreciate the offer, but...”

“Would that even be okay, Kou-niisan?!”

“There isn’t much of a difference between a party of ten and twelve—especially on a private beach.”

Koutarou’s idea was to invite the girls to the beach with the rest of the Corona House crew. He figured that would be a much better reward than a gift chosen at random.

“Isn’t that right, Theia?” he asked.

“I don’t see the problem,” she replied with a nod after a moment. “Both of you are quite welcome to come.”

Though she’d been surprised by the suggestion at first, she realized what Koutarou was trying to do. She wouldn’t say it out loud, but she was equally grateful for what the girls had done.

“Nalfa will still be guarded over summer vacation as well,” she reasoned, “so it will actually be more efficient to have her with us.”

“Hey, that’s a good point.”

Koutarou was impressed. A boss, much less a royal, always needed to keep their subordinates in mind. It was wonderful that Theia hadn’t neglected to take them into consideration.

“Will you admit you respect me now?” she asked.

“I might have if you hadn’t asked me that.”

“It wouldn’t kill you to be open and honest instead of so stubborn.”

“I hear you had your measurements taken the other day and you’ve barely grown any.”

“You don’t need to be open and honest about that!”

Koutarou and Theia’s discussion grew more and more intense as it drifted off topic. Their candid energy put smiles back on the hesitant faces of Nalfa and Kotori. After exchanging a glance, they nodded at each other.

“Kou-niisan, we’ll come too.”

“Koutarou-sama... would you mind if we film everyone when they’re not in their swimsuits?”

“Ahahaha, you sure are shrewd. I’m sure that would be fine,” responded Koutarou.

“I wouldn’t mind being filmed in my swimsuit,” added Theia.

“I would! I could never get married if I get filmed sinking into the sand!” shrieked Shizuka in tears.

“Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Uncle! But pretty please don’t film me!”

It had now been more than two weeks since the battle in Folsaria, but Alunaya had used up so much mana in the fight against Darzakah that it still hadn’t fully recovered. That meant the gravitational distortion Alunaya generated hadn’t yet normalized. Shizuka currently weighed over a hundred kilograms. The wooden floor in the apartment creaked when she walked, so she was convinced she’d sink right into the sand at the beach. Having that recorded for posterity was her worst nightmare.

“It’s okay, Shizuka-sama. I won’t film you in a swimsuit, and I won’t record your feet in other scenes either.”

“Really?”

“I understand how you feel. Besides, you’ve been such a help to us with the cooking show.”

Nalfa gently smiled at the anxious Shizuka, which finally calmed her down. She heaved a relieved sigh.

“Thank goodness... I was worried I wouldn’t get to wear my new swimsuit.”

“Speaking of!” Kotori cut in. “Do you have a swimsuit, Nalfa-chan?”

“I don’t,” she replied with a shake of her head.

When packing for her intergalactic study abroad, Nalfa hadn’t included anything that she could get here on Earth. There was a limit to how much she could bring with her, after all. A swimsuit had been an easy cut since it wasn’t an all-season article, and she had no way of knowing if she’d ever have the occasion to need one.

“Then we need to go buy one!” Kotori insisted.

“Shopping for a swimsuit on Earth, huh? Now I’m getting excited.”

“Why don’t we film it, Nalfa-chan? I’m sure girls in Forthorthe are curious about fashion here.”

“That’s a great idea! Let’s do it!”

Now that Nalfa and Kotori were on board for the beach vacation, the girls began discussing various other needs for the trip. They went from swimsuits to types of sunscreen and so on. Koutarou struggled to keep up with any of it, and just as he felt he was truly in over his head...

“Oh?”

His phone dinged with a new message alert. He suspected it was Nana, but pulled his phone out to see it was actually a message from the vice captain of Nefilforan’s unit. The subject line read, “Training Request.” Since he was long lost the girls’ conversation anyway, he tapped the message to give it a read.

From: Vice Captain Cosettaunt Hyudin Hilbolace of Princess Nefilforan’s Unit

To: Commander-in-Chief of the Holy Forthorthe Galactic Empire, Lord Layous Fatra Veltlion

Subject: Training Request

Greetings. This is Vice Captain Cosettaunt. I had the pleasure of meeting you during training the other day, and I would like to thank you again for the honor.

As the subject says, I would like to extend a similar invitation to another training session with our unit. This time we will be focusing on how to fight enemies using magic and spiritual energy. As such, we believe your assistance and insight would be most enlightening. For details, please refer to the attached training plan.

So please regard this a formal request for you to honor us again with your presence. We humbly thank you for your time and consideration.

When he finished reading it, Koutarou groaned. Though the message had come from Nefilforan’s vice captain, it was most likely Nefilforan herself who’d felt such training was necessary. She must have heard from Nana what a dangerous threat Grevanas posed upon his resurrection, which inspired an urgent need to prepare for anti-magic combat. The fact that she wasted no time getting to work was a sign of her excellence.

“What is it, Satomi Koutarou?” Kiriha asked, crawling over when she heard him groan.

In response, Koutarou held out his smartphone for her to see. “Princess Nefilforan wants to practice anti-magic combat.”

Kiriha leaned in closer to get a look at his phone screen. When she did, her long hair tickled his hand. “How prompt,” she remarked. “She must have contacted you immediately after getting the report.”

At present, the People of the Earth, Folsaria, and Forthorthe were all working together. As such, news of the incident in the kingdom of magic had been immediately sent to the top brass of each faction. A more detailed follow-up document, however, had only been issued yesterday. Kiriha herself had gotten it yesterday evening, so the timing of Nefilforan’s message suggested she’d taken immediate action after reading through the entire report. In other words, Koutarou was on the money.

“Princess Nefilforan and her unit are good people. I’d like to help them.”

Reading through the message again, Koutarou reflected on the group. After first sparring with Nefilforan, Koutarou had participated in a training exercise with her entire unit. In much the same fashion she’d wanted to show Koutarou what she could do in their one-on-one match, Nefilforan had wanted to demonstrate her unit’s capability. She’d thus set up a mock battle with her men divided in two—the red team under her command, and the white team under Koutarou’s.

It was his first time with Nefilforan’s troops, but they respected and supported him. Nefilforan naturally had the upper hand given her relationship with her soldiers, so it came as no surprise that the red team won, but Nefilforan was ultimately successful in demonstrating the height of her men’s abilities. The whole exercise was so nostalgic for Koutarou that it reminded him of leading his own men two thousand years in the past. He couldn’t stand the thought of Nefilforan’s troops in danger because they were unprepared to battle against magic. He was determined to help them.

“Spoken like a true important military man.” Kiriha smiled when she heard his resolve. Since she and Koutarou were looking at his phone together, her upturned lips were dangerously close to him.

“Technically I am the commander-in-chief,” he reminded her.

He was actually quite shaken by her smile but nonetheless managed to keep up the conversation. Kiriha had been sneaking in all kinds of surprise attacks like this recently. But Koutarou didn’t have any reason to stop her. If anything, he had all the reason in the world to let her continue. That was where the girls who didn’t understand Kiriha’s game came in handy—Clan first and foremost among them.

“You can save that for later!” she shouted.

Her lack of social intuition had gotten Koutarou out of many a sticky situation. At times like this, Theia, Sanae, and Yurika also often saved him unwittingly.

“You know that’s a problematic statement, right?” he replied with a smirk, though he was actually truly grateful she’d cut in.

“What about going to the beach?” she demanded.

“Our swimsuits are more important!” Theia insisted.

They were so invested in their upcoming vacation that they were disappointed to see Koutarou grinning about the idea of another training exercise. It wasn’t dissimilar to the frustration most girls felt when their boyfriends got distracted from a date and started thinking about sports.

“You girls are always important to me.”

“You... You can’t fool me!”

“That’s right! Th-That won’t work on us!”

Fortunately for Koutarou, things weren’t always so one-sided against him. He didn’t stand a chance with Kiriha, but he was on more even footing with the other girls. They’d made a connection that was only possible because he’d truly accepted them now.

The resurrected Grevanas was on the loose and Ralgwin remained unaccounted for, but it was unreasonable for the group to work nonstop. They’d decided it would be for the best to take some time to rest and relax. That was the idea behind their beach vacation, but as busy people, they had to keep it to a one-night stay. Koutarou in particular had his hands full, as he’d be training with Nefilforan’s unit the following morning.

“Having zero travel time is a huge advantage,” he remarked.

“You can thank me for that. I had Ruth prepare the transfer gate yesterday,” boasted Theia.

“I’ll thank Ruth, then. In fact, let’s all thank her!”

“Thank you, Ruth!” the group said in unison.

“Really, it wasn’t much...”

“What, you’re not going to thank me too?!”

Koutarou and the girls were currently at their private beach destination early the first morning of their vacation. With Forthorthe’s advanced warp technology, they’d teleported straight from room 106. The trip normally would have taken several hours, which Ruth had saved them. It was only natural for everyone to thank her.

“As for you, Your Highness,” said Koutarou, “I’d like to thank you for arranging the use of this private beach.”

“Huh?! O-Oh, of course...”

“Come on, everyone!”

“Thank you!” the group again harmonized.

“I-Indeed. I hope you all enjoy it.”

Unlike last year, most people now knew how important Theia, Clan, and Ruth were. They also had Nalfa the newsworthy Forthorthian transfer student in tow. With so many recognizable faces in their group, going to a normal beach could have been troublesome. There were just too many of them to protect in a crowd.

Of course, if they’d wanted to, they could have brought along even more guards to keep them all safe... but that would’ve put a damper on the fun for everyone. A private beach was a good compromise. Renting one was expensive, but it made security that much easier. Being able to reduce the guard they had with them was a huge win. It turned out that renting the private beach was actually cheaper than going to a normal one and packing it with bodyguards.

“In that case, we should thank you too, Lord Veltlion.”

“That’s right. Thank you for inviting us, Satomi-san.”

In addition to the usual Corona House crew, Nefilforan and Nana had also come along. Nefilforan wasn’t in her usual uniform, but rather casual wear. Nana, who was just behind her, was dressed the same way, albeit in a cuter fashion.

“I should be thanking you ladies for coming,” Koutarou replied politely.

“Nonsense. We get to enjoy the beach this way,” Nefilforan countered.

Nefilforan was actually present for two reasons. First, she’d brought her unit for the training session with Koutarou. Second, she would be guarding him and the girls.

Nefilforan’s unit was temporarily relieved of supervising Forthorthe-related facilities on Earth. Another unit was subbing in for them so they could take part in tomorrow’s training. In total, the unit consisted of twenty-five hundred men in four battalions that had been split into two groups. At present, the first battalion was assigned as Koutarou’s personal detail. They were keeping watch from a safe distance so as not to interfere with the fun, but they had very strict security in place. The second battalion had been assigned the duty of preparing for tomorrow’s exercise. The third and fourth battalions were off duty and resting on the beach on the other side of the mountain. Come the afternoon, they’d swap with the first and second battalions so everyone had some time at the beach.

Nefilforan herself was out on the sands because she had the morning off. When not on duty, she, too, required a personal detail as a princess. That was why she was with Koutarou and the others rather than the off-duty battalions. Right now, her vice captain—the same one who’d messaged Koutarou—was in charge. As for how this situation had come about, it was all because Koutarou suggested that they hold their training exercise in the mountains between the two beaches. He felt it would be the most effective use of their time.

“Thanks to you, I finally get to test just how waterproof this body is!”

“Nana-san, are you going to swim with us?!”

“Yes! This new body you all made for me is that incredible, although I’ll need to oil it up later so it doesn’t rust.”

“I’ll help you!”

“Ahaha, thank you, Yurika-chan.”

Nana had tagged along with Nefilforan simply to hang out and have fun with everyone, though she was technically also serving as a guard. At first glance Nana looked young and weak, but in reality, she might have been the strongest one present—especially at the beach where everyone else was unarmed.

After dropping their luggage off at the hotel where they’d be staying, Koutarou and the girls all agreed to get changed. The first one ready was none other than Sanae, who was so overeager that she’d simply worn her swimsuit under her clothes. As such, she beat even the ever-hasty Theia out onto the beach. The crystal clear sky and gentle breeze made it the ideal day for swimming.

“First in!”

Splish! Running to the water’s edge with light steps, Sanae jumped right in. The drops of water she cast into the air glittered in the summer sun.

“Hmph, I lost...” The second to appear was Theia. She was naturally hot on Sanae’s heels, but she just couldn’t make up the ground she’d lost by coming unprepared. With a frown on her face, she fixed her shoulder strap that had started sliding down as she ran. “Here I come!”

Splash! The frown, however, quickly disappeared. She was smiling again by the time she hit the water. Even if she was the second one out on the beach, the ocean was all that was on her mind right now.

“I won’t lose either!”

The third to appear was Shizuka. She refused to run at full speed for fear of how it would look, but she was still light enough on her feet that she reached the shore in no time. She jumped up high and made an acrobatic turn in the air before throwing her limbs out and landing a belly flop.

Sploosh! The splash she made was decidedly bigger than the other girls’ had been.

“Phew... How’d I do?” she asked when her sopping wet head poked up from the water.

Now equally soaked, Theia looked over and replied, “That was certainly impressive, but didn’t it hurt?”

“It sure did, but it’s not like we get this kind of opportunity every day, you know?”

Shizuka’s face was a little red—smacking into the water did hurt, after all. But even so, her expression was bright. She could only indulge in such childish antics because they’d rented out the entire place all to themselves. Shizuka wouldn’t do anything like it under normal circumstances, for she wouldn’t want to bother other beachgoers.

“Ah, I see. So it’s not about safety, really. You just don’t want to be an annoyance by being too rowdy,” Theia observed.

“Yup!” Shizuka replied with a nod. She then looked down at herself with a smile and said, “There’s also this.”

Her swimsuit was a subdued color, but it showed even more skin than Theia’s. Shizuka had only chosen it because she knew there wouldn’t be any strangers around on a private beach. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t dare to wear something like this.

“Do you think Koutarou will notice?” Sanae pondered aloud, her arms crossed.

Koutarou had a penchant for betraying the girls’ expectations. It happened less frequently nowadays, but there was still a possibility he’d disappoint Shizuka.

“He can’t ignore it again,” she replied. “We all went bolder this time.”

“Yeah, you’re right! I tried to emphasize my breasts since they’ve grown a little since last year,” said Sanae.

“And I chose a swimsuit that better shows off my figure,” added Theia.

“See?! Besides, we’ve got the ultimate weapon over there... Satomi-kun’s gotta notice!” Shizuka declared, pointing toward the hotel with a confident expression.

Approaching from that way were Nefilforan and Kiriha walking side by side. Nefilforan wore a simple swimsuit reminiscent of what one might see at competitions, while Kiriha wore a one-piece suit with an elegant design and color scheme that didn’t stand out too much. Though their styles differed, they had one thing in common—their large breasts threatened to spill out of their tops. Kiriha in particular jiggled with each step, making it clear that she’d grown since last year. Nefilforan wasn’t quite as well endowed as Kiriha, but her toned figure made her look like a model. The other girls simply didn’t have that kind of ammunition.

“I see you’ve all gotten in already,” Nefilforan remarked.

“Can you blame them?” Kiriha asked.

The two girls reached the shore as the others were talking about them. When Sanae, Theia, and Shizuka saw them in their swimsuits up close, they couldn’t help exchanging a few choice looks.

“What’s wrong, you three?” Kiriha asked, detecting their strange behavior.

After exchanging one last look with the other girls, Shizuka spoke up as their representative. “We were just talking about what great figures you and Nefilforan-san have,” she answered honestly while still strategically, as a matter of pride, avoiding the subject of breasts.

“Indeed, Princess Nefilforan has such a beautiful figure that it’s enough to make another woman swoon,” Kiriha agreed.

“Oh, but not compared to you, Kiriha-san,” Nefilforan quickly replied, blushing as Kiriha looked her up and down.

As a military figure, Nefilforan wasn’t used to being praised for her beauty and had a tendency to deflect such attention elsewhere. She was also a little jealous of Kiriha’s curves. Her personal ideal figure wasn’t that of a model, but something more feminine like Kiriha’s. Her praise wasn’t just shallow courtesy—she’d meant what she said.

“It appears my lack of exercise is my undoing,” Kiriha laughed.

She likewise idealized Nefilforan. She possessed considerable skill with naginatas, swords, and rifles herself, but not enough to fight by Koutarou’s side. Genius or not, she just didn’t have the physicality for it. Nefilforan did, however. Kiriha admired her beauty because of her single-minded devotion to the martial arts.

“Ahaha! I think we can all agree Yurika is really the one who’s lacking in exercise,” Nana jumped in.

She’d apparently arrived at some point with Yurika and Clan in tow. Nana had gotten changed quickly, but she’d waited around for her friends and they’d taken their time getting over to the water together.

“I’ve been exercising too!” Yurika exclaimed, looking down at her own stomach.

It was fortunately flat. It had stuck out a bit just a few short weeks ago, but Yurika had hurriedly adopted a diet just for this trip. She wasn’t brave enough to wear a swimsuit knowing she’d gained weight.

“I might need the most exercise out of anyone...” Clan gasped.

She’d already worked up a light sweat. She spent her days holed up in her laboratory, so just the trip from the hotel to the beach had winded her. As for her stomach, it was naturally quite slim thanks to her light appetite, though that was unhealthy in its own way.

“Well, as long as you’re aware of it,” threw in Koutarou, who’d just arrived himself. He’d finished changing quickly, but he was tasked with carrying the parasols, cooler, watermelons, and other heavy things. The extra burden had slowed him down.

“That’s unusually forgiving of you,” Clan said, scrutinizing his face. Normally, he would’ve pounced on the opportunity to make a comment about her lifestyle. She wondered why he wasn’t saying anything now.

“We’re here to have fun, so why ruin the mood? Besides, you should get plenty of exercise today and tomorrow,” he explained.

He then reached for the towel around his neck and used it to wipe Clan’s forehead for her. She was surprised by the gesture, but didn’t shrink away.

“There! Now then...”

When he was done, Koutarou put the towel back around his neck and moved on as if nothing had happened. He still had the parasols and sheets to set up, so he couldn’t get in the water just yet. Clan silently watched him walk away, her eyes wide. The other girls could instantly tell what was on her mind.

“Lord Veltlion just did something incredible so casually...” Nefilforan muttered. Even she was astonished. The gesture was nothing special to Koutarou, but it meant everything to the person on the other end of it.

“That’s right, Nefilforan-san! Lately Satomi-kun’s been doing all kinds of stuff like that!” Shizuka piped up.

Unlike Nefilforan, she was ecstatic. She understood Koutarou only meant to keep spirits high on such a fun day, but at the same time, wiping a girl’s face like that wasn’t something that “just friends” did. Moreover, Clan was princess to a galactic empire. Not just any boy would dare to behave in such a way around her. Really, Shizuka was thrilled that Koutarou was starting to show his affection for the girls.

“Does this mean... it’s mating season?”

“No, Uncle! Gosh, you sound just like an old man when you say that!”

“S-Sorry.”

“Koutarou thinks of us as family. I don’t know if he realizes it or not, but that mindset alone is special,” Kiriha explained, summarizing the girls’ feelings.

In the past, Koutarou had subconsciously pushed everyone away. But at times like this, the girls got a glimpse of his efforts to change himself. He was doing his best to open his heart to them, and because the girls understood that, they celebrated this development.

“What’s going on, everyone?” asked Ruth.

“It seemed something happened with Satomi-kun...” observed Maki.

The two of them had just walked up with Harumi. Kotori and Nalfa with her camera trailed shortly behind, although Nalfa was shooting for herself today rather than for the public. And with their arrival, all thirteen girls were now gathered.

“Koutarou was just being manly!” Sanae informed them.

“It’s happening more as of late,” commented Theia.

“Maybe that means that our charms are working,” Harumi suggested with a happy smile. As she bobbed her head, her dream-inspired ribbon swayed.

“Maybe. For both us and for Satomi-kun. Isn’t that right, Snoozy?” Maki asked.

“Meow!” the kitten cried as if it understood.

The girls’ “charms” were special tokens they each had as a reminder to take heart—to be a little braver in taking the next steps in their relationships with Koutarou. They subtly influenced the girls’ behavior in that regard, which had subtly influenced him as well. In that regard, the charms had been quite successful indeed.

“Heehee. Well, since magic is real, I don’t see why charms can’t be,” remarked Ruth.

It was a dreamy outlook, but the other girls wouldn’t argue. It was a nice way to think about things. Incidentally, Ruth’s own personal charm was a special outfit that she kept safely stored in her room. The hoodie she was wearing over her swimsuit today was from the same brand.

“I wish he’d noticed our swimsuits straight away, but oh well. I guess I have to forgive him since he’s setting up the blankets and things,” Shizuka said with a troubled look, despite the fact that she was smiling. Koutarou hadn’t done what she wanted, but he was making up for it in other ways. She knew she couldn’t complain.

“Kou-niisan’s kind of inconsistent,” Kotori muttered. Since she’d known him for so long, she had a unique take on things.

“Really? I think he’s always wonderful,” argued Maki.

“I do too, but...”

“I don’t think I follow, Kotori.”

There, the girls all began griping about Koutarou in their own ways. But like Shizuka’s, their complaints were entirely superficial. It was disappointing he hadn’t commented on their swimsuits first thing, but in terms of the bigger picture, he was still working for their sakes. Deep down, they were all satisfied.

Nana’s artificial limbs had a great performance record, both in her everyday life and in battle. She’d also confirmed that they could withstand being submerged in water for limited periods of time, such as when she was doing dishes or bathing. She’d never gone so far as to test them in the ocean, however. Clan had designed them to be perfectly watertight, but they’d never had a trial run like this before. Since Nana would be moving a great deal while swimming, this was a much higher stress test than simple housekeeping or cleaning. As such, Clan was a little nervous when Nana prepared to enter the water.

“All right!” she called.

Unlike Clan, Nana seemed completely unperturbed. She trusted Clan’s handiwork, and even if there were a few hiccups, that was a small price to pay for being able to live a normal life again. She’d come to the beach knowing there were risks. In other words, even if anything did go wrong, she was more than ready to forgive Clan already. She didn’t have that many happy memories from her childhood, so she was just grateful to be here having fun with everyone.

“Let’s do this!” Koutarou called to her.

“Here I come!” she called back.

With that, she took off running. The sand slowed her down a bit, but she sped steadily toward Koutarou at the water’s edge. He was waiting for her, crouched down with his hands linked together.

“Satomi-san!” she shouted, planting one dainty foot in his hands.

“I got you!” he shouted in time, and right on cue, stood up and threw his arms into the air. This sent Nana’s small body rocketing into the air.

“Here we go!”

Utilizing the momentum she’d gotten from Koutarou, Nana began spinning both horizontally and vertically at the same time. She looked just like a gymnast. But rather unlike one, she wasn’t concerned about landing. She spun around as fast as she could three times and hit the water with a torrential splash.

“How was that?!” she asked as she reemerged on the water’s surface. She was beaming just like a little girl.

“That was most impressive! I hate to admit it, but I lost!” Theia answered.

“Ahaha, so the strategy was a huge success!”

Koutarou and the girls had been taking turns jumping into the ocean to see who could make the biggest splash. When Koutarou realized partway through that he could act as a springboard, the game had escalated in intensity. It came down to a showdown between Theia and Nana, who were both extremely athletic with a good sense of balance, and Nana had just been declared the ultimate winner.

“Theia, you were too concerned about getting height,” Koutarou laughed as he walked up to the two girls.

“But going higher is cooler.”

“You just love being flashy.”

Theia had indeed focused on her vertical distance rather than her spin, so her splash wasn’t as big as Nana’s. Nana had strategically gone for maximum rotation to throw as much water as possible when she hit the surface.

“Nana-sama, I got a great shot of your jump. Would you like to see?” offered Nalfa.

“Yes, please!”

Nalfa had been filming Koutarou and the girls playing, and she brought up the footage of Nana again before handing her the camera.

“I still have some more room for improvement,” Nana mused.

“Doesn’t spinning so fast make you dizzy?” Yurika asked over Nana’s shoulder.

“I’m fine when I do it on purpose.”

“I think I’d get dizzy even if I did it on purpose...”

Yurika wasn’t as interested in the jump so much as how Nana had handled it. She had sensitive inner ears—the slightest bit of spinning made her dizzy. She’d never be able to imitate Nana’s feat, so she couldn’t help admiring it.

“How is your body holding up in the water?” Clan asked.

“It looks fine. Only number seventeen is in the yellow— Oh, it just turned back to green,” Nana replied.

“Number seventeen should be around your waist, so I suppose it’s only natural that it’d give you a warning after spinning your whole body like that.”

Nana’s fierce rotation hadn’t just been for fun; she’d also meant to test her artificial parts. There was a risk of them taking on water at the joints—especially when she was moving so violently. That was why she’d spun as fast as she could. It was the easiest way to test the seaworthiness of her hybrid body.

“But we don’t have any leaks, Clan-san. It’s amazing.”

“Only one yellow warning light after all that? You should be fine for the day, then.”

Fortunately, Nana had come out on the other side of the test just fine. This was a relief to Clan. She didn’t want a fault of her workmanship to ruin everyone’s day at the beach. The other girls knew she’d been worried, so they were sympathetic. And while all of their attention was focused on her and Nana...

“You’re wide open!”

“What are— Aaaaaaaaahhh!”

The sound of Koutarou shouting, Nalfa shrieking, and water splashing came in rapid succession. When everyone turned to see what had happened, they saw Nalfa flailing in the water. The first to react was Kotori.

“What are you doing, Kou-niisan?!” she demanded.

There were lines even between friends, and suddenly tossing a girl in the ocean was crossing one. Now that she’d come to terms with her brother’s philandering ways, Kotori was much more strict about gentlemanly behavior.

“I was just thinking that Nalfa finally let go of her camera,” Koutarou explained.

“What kind of man throws a girl for that?!”

“Uh oh, I made Kin-chan angry!”

“You get back here, mister!”

Koutarou cut through the waves to escape. Behind him, an angry Kotori gave chase. She’d been running after Koutarou and Kenji since she was a child, and she’d built up a lot of stamina over the years. She swam with beautiful form and was gradually gaining on Koutarou, whose strokes were rather artless. Meanwhile...

“Bleh! Wh-What happened to me?!” Nalfa asked when she resurfaced.

“Master picked you up and tossed you in the water. It seems he was waiting for you to pass off or put down your camera,” Ruth recounted for her.

“Oh my...” Nalfa looked a bit surprised and stared off at Koutarou and Kotori in the distance, but then started smiling. “Haha!”

“What is it?” Ruth asked.

“That means that Koutarou-sama was watching me all this time.”

“In that case, it seems Master’s punishment might be worse than his crime...”

Kotori was angry for Nalfa’s sake, but Nalfa wasn’t upset about it at all. Ruth couldn’t help but find it funny that Koutarou was now being chased down for what he’d done.

“You might be right. But let’s leave them be for a while,” Nalfa suggested.

“You think we should?”

“Kotori almost never gets the chance to play with Koutarou-sama alone after all.”

“I see... You know Kotori-sama well, Nalfa-sama.”

“We’re best friends after all. Heehee.”

Nalfa happily watched over the two of them after that. She panicked a little when Kotori finally caught up to Koutarou and they disappeared under the surface of the water for a while, though it was all fun and games otherwise.

The transfer gate wasn’t the only technological advantage Koutarou and the others had on their beach vacation. Their Forthorthian cooler was also cutting edge, and it kept its contents nice and frosty. This was especially nifty for the watermelons. Nothing beat being able to crack open an ice-cold melon.

“Okay, Nefi,” said Theia. “I will now spin you around. After that, you will have to rely on our voices to guide you to the watermelon and split it open.”

“I see. I think I understand the game.”

The first to step up to the challenge was Nefilforan. She was blindfolded and clutching a wooden sword. The watermelon was on the ground about a dozen steps dead ahead of her, but after she was spun, it wouldn’t stay that way for long. That was where she’d need the guidance of the others, but it was still a challenge to walk straight while dizzy. The seemingly simple game was actually deceptively hard.

“So Princess Theia isn’t going first? I was sure she’d be raring to take a crack at it,” Nalfa mused aloud as she filmed Theia and Nefilforan.

“She’s grown up a little, but don’t be fooled,” said Koutarou next to her. “She and Sanae are watermelon-splitting experts. They want everyone to go before them so they can show off their skills.”

“Eeheehee!” Sanae couldn’t help laughing when she heard this.

When Nalfa turned her way with the camera, she got a shot of Sanae taking a few practice swings with a wooden sword. It was rare for her not to be clinging to Koutarou when she had the chance, which only proved how fired up she was about the game.

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“I know!”

Theia had a great sense of direction and keen hearing. And in Sanae’s case, a blindfold was practically pointless. Thanks to that, they never had trouble finding their targets. Koutarou had prepared a special course with pitfalls just for them, but that wouldn’t be revealed until later.

“Here we go, Nefi,” said Theia.

“I’m ready,” she replied.

“One! Two! Three!” The other girls counted as Theia carefully spun Nefilforan around. After two years on Earth, it was finally her turn to help bring someone else into the game. “Nine! Ten!”

When the count was over, Theia gently stopped Nefilforan. From here, she would be on her own with only voices to guide her. The game was about to begin in earnest, yet something unexpected happened...

“Um... Lord Veltlion, where are you?”

“Over here.”

“Ah, so it’s that way.”

Nefilforan steadily began moving toward the watermelon like it was nothing. Blindfold on or not, she was unfazed. She located the melon by determining its location with Koutarou as a reference point, then walked straight to it.

“I believe it should be around here...”

“Wow, talk about well trained!”

Koutarou was pleased to see Nefilforan’s performance. She was resistant to disorientation thanks to her training, as her greatspear moves involved a lot of rotation. A little spinning in place wasn’t enough to shake her. She was conditioned just like a professional figure skater. She also had military training for zero-visibility situations—like blackouts and blizzards—so the blindfold wasn’t too much of a setback in finding the watermelon. She knew how to handle herself even when she couldn’t see.

“Now... take this!” She blushed a little at Koutarou’s praise when she swung her sword. “I grazed it?!”

Unfortunately, her sword slid off the side of the watermelon. Her turn thus ended with it rolling off to the side.

“You almost had it!” Koutarou cheered.

“Ahaha, but I missed it in the end,” Nefilforan said with an embarrassed laugh as she took off her blindfold.

Her failure was the result of nerves on her first try. Koutarou staring at her hadn’t helped either. He had a special effect on Forthorthians.

“Getting that close on your first attempt is pretty impressive. Don’t you guys think so too?” Koutarou asked the group.

“Well, she’s not as good as me!” Sanae boasted.

“Hmph. I welcome a new rival, but I shall come out on top in the end,” Theia declared.

“Can’t you at least try to compliment her a little?”

“Just your praise is more than enough, Lord Veltlion.”

“Why not give it another shot? I’m sure you’ll pull it off this time.”

“Are you sure? Wouldn’t the others—”

“Forget them! Just put the blindfold back on!”

“O-Okay...”

Koutarou excitedly strong-armed Nefilforan into a second attempt at splitting the melon. He was so athletics-minded that he prized putting in effort above all else, and Nefilforan embodied that quality. He had high hopes for her, and she wasn’t about to disappoint him. In truth, she was eager to show off a little herself.

After Nefilforan split the melon in half on her second go, the girls took turns trying their hand at it. A woozy Yurika had to drop out after getting spun around, Maki pulled it off without any trouble, Harumi hit the melon directly but wasn’t strong enough to split it, and so on. When it was finally Kotori and Nalfa’s turn, Koutarou helped out with the filming. But as the game continued, the girls began to notice something...

“Hey, have you noticed?” Shizuka whispered to the others. She’d been paying attention since before their vacation even started, so she was unsurprisingly the first to pick up on it.

“You mean Koutarou?” Kiriha asked. She’d realized what was on Shizuka’s mind earlier in the day, so quickly understood what she meant and why she was whispering.

“Yeah, it feels like our efforts are finally paying off!”

“Our efforts?” Maki cocked her head at Shizuka’s excited exclamation. She still didn’t get what she was talking about.

“Haven’t you noticed? Satomi-kun is fidgeting!”

Shizuka had detected that Koutarou was growing restless. His eyes would wander to his watch, his phone, the sky, and then back again. As time passed, his attention drifted away from watermelon splitting.

“He’s even wearing those sunglasses he never does. It must be to hide his eyes! Ugh, he doesn’t have to be sneaky about it, you know?”

Shizuka was certain his restlessness was because of them. He was a teenage boy surrounded by beautiful girls in swimwear. She couldn’t blame him for not knowing where to look. Her theory was that he’d been too distracted by the beach to really realize the position he was in, but as the day wore on, he’d grown more and more flustered.

“So Satomi-kun is fidgeting over me...” Maki looked down at her body. She’d followed Shizuka’s advice and chosen a brightly colored swimsuit that accentuated her chest and figure, so she was pleased that Koutarou had noticed. A smile blossomed on her face.

“If that’s the case, this is certainly a welcome development. It’s important he sees us as friends and comrades in arms, but if he sees us as women now too, that’s worth celebrating,” Kiriha said with a smile. She wasn’t entirely convinced yet, but the thought made her happy. She’d been thinking about him that way for over a decade, so it would mean a lot to her.

“It has to be! Our gang-up-on-him strategy is finally breaking through Satomi-kun’s dense defenses!” Shizuka declared.

“I highly doubt I’ve caught Veltlion’s eye looking like this...” Clan whined.

Unlike Shizuka, she was anything but confident as she awkwardly glanced down at herself. Her chest was flat enough to give Theia a run for her money, and she didn’t even have muscles to make up for it like Theia did. Clan had worn a swimsuit as revealing as everyone else’s to fit in, but she didn’t think she had the looks to capture Koutarou’s gaze.

“Don’t worry, Clan-san. When you all made this body for me, Satomi-san did his best not to look. That means he’s conscious of it, doesn’t it?” Nana offered.

She was quite certain of that much. Koutarou had always treated her artificial body as the real deal, so she couldn’t imagine that he would react any differently to seeing Clan—regardless of her figure.

“I think so too.” Harumi nodded in agreement. “In Satomi-kun’s case, he’s only reacting to the swimsuits because we’re the ones wearing them.”

As far as Harumi knew, Koutarou wouldn’t get flustered by just any girl in a swimsuit. The fact that he was responding to the girls was a sign of how he saw them in particular. In other words, he was interested in them.

“I hope you’re right...” Clan sighed. She wanted that to be the truth, but she was so unconfident that she had a hard time believing it.

“Given how Master wiped your face earlier, I think you are underestimating yourself, Clan-sama,” Ruth encouraged her.

“I’m sure Satomi-kun’s heart fluttered when he saw your swimsuit!” echoed Shizuka.

“D-Do you really think so...?”

“You bet I do!”

Their reassurance put a reserved smile back on Clan’s face. She still wasn’t confident, but she wanted to believe they were right. Their opinion meant a lot to her.

Just about then, a beeping noise began blaring. It sounded like your typical smartphone alarm, so everyone stopped what they were doing to check their phones.

“Oh, it’s time!”

It turned out the alarm was coming from Koutarou’s. After looking at his phone screen, he grinned from ear to ear. His big, bright smile made his entire expression readable in spite of his sunglasses.

“Sorry, but I have to go for around two hours. I’ve got a date to keep!” he said.

He then happily ran over to the parasol he’d set up for himself. While the girls wondered what was going on, he pulled out a meter-long shoulder bag made of strong synthetic fabric. It contained all his precious tools.

“Ah, it’s high tide!” Kiriha said. She’d pulled out her own phone to figure out what he was up to.

“See you later!” Koutarou called out.

At this point, he was already running off, practically skipping down the beach. Watching him go, Kiriha finally realized why he’d been so fidgety.

“Koutarou, where do you think you’re going?!” Theia demanded.

“Wait up! I want to come too!” Sanae shouted.

“Then come on already!” he shouted back.

Even with the girls calling after him, he didn’t stop. He fled across the sand like it didn’t bother him at all.

“What’s this all about, Kiriha-san? Where is Satomi-kun going?” Shizuka asked with a puzzled expression.

She wasn’t the only confused one either. The other girls all crowded around. With a small sigh, Kiriha ventured an explanation.

“He’s going fishing,” she said. “It’ll be high tide soon.”

“What’s that mean?” Yurika asked.

“The water level isn’t constant. When it reaches its peak, that’s called the high tide. It’s typically ideal for fishing.”

“And that’s coming now?” Theia asked.

“Indeed. Which is why Koutarou ran off to go fishing.”

“What about the ‘date’ he was talking about?” Sanae asked.

“He probably promised to meet up with some of the fishers from Nefilforan’s unit.”

There were plenty of ways to enjoy the beach. The girls were having fun swimming, but fishing could be just as much fun. Kiriha suspected Koutarou had run off to meet some of the off-duty members of Nefilforan’s unit to get some angling in too.

“That means...” Shizuka muttered, her voice flat and her face as grim as if she’d peered directly into hell. “You’re saying Satomi-kun was restless because he was looking forward to going fishing?”

“Most likely.”

“And he kept looking out to sea because...”

“He was trying to spot fish with the help of polarized eyewear. Perhaps he was watching the tide come in too.”

“And he was looking at the sky because...”

“The weather plays an important role in fishing.”

“And finally, he kept checking his phone because...”

“He probably couldn’t wait for his alarm to go off.”

The girls all fell quiet. They stood practically frozen in place. The only sound to be heard was the gentle lull of the waves rolling in and out. The silence was short-lived, however...

“Why’d you leave me behind?! You just earned yourself a scorpion hold!” cried Sanae.

“Wh-What did I put on this embarrassing outfit for...?” mumbled Clan.

“Why does that brute always trample all over our feelings?!” demanded Theia.

“Give us back all the excited hope we felt this morning!” roared Shizuka.

“That’s a scary face you’re making...”

The beach was soon filled with angry shouting. The girls had all been excitedly looking forward to this beach trip ever since they’d first made plans, and they’d all put in work to get ready for it. Their hearts had been pounding since they’d arrived this morning... and all their dreams were now dashed into the ocean.

Meanwhile, as Kiriha suspected, Koutarou was meeting up with a few members from Nefilforan’s unit. Like him, they were fully geared up to go fishing. Some of them had even brought boats and autonomous drones to help find fish. But due to the tense expressions on all their faces, they certainly didn’t look like they were friends about to go fishing.

“Lord Veltlion! Thank you for—” one of the men began.

“You can forget formalities! Theia and the others will be right behind me, and these little guys can’t hide us from Sanae’s spirit sight for long!” Koutarou interrupted.

“We’re doing our best, but Sanae-chan’s psychic powers are too strong, ho!”

“So we recommend that you make this quick and get fishing, ho!”

“Understood! First of all, the procurement of supplies is on schedule. The transport unit arrived at gathering point A at 1130 hours and received the shipment. At present, they’re moving to gathering point B,” the man reported.

“Update from the scouts! The commander is making her way here!” another man cut in.

“We’re running out of time!” Koutarou shouted. “How are the bases coming along?”

“Base A and Base B are proceeding as planned, but Base C has fallen behind slightly. We should still make it in time for the exercise tomorrow, however.”

“Well done! I think that’s all we have time for, so forget everything we just talked about and let’s get fishing!”

“Yes, my lord!”

Koutarou finished his discussion with Nefilforan’s troops in a hurry and they all began preparing to fish. It was a pastime they all enjoyed, so once they got to it, they were single-mindedly focused on it. Sanae wasn’t constantly using her psychic powers to read others’ feelings, so Koutarou figured as long as they didn’t act suspicious, no one would be any the wiser about their secret meeting.

After the girls stormed the rocky fishing area to politely protest Koutarou’s behavior, peace returned to the beach. Everyone enjoyed casting a few lines together, then they all returned to the sandy part of the shoreline. From there, they spent the afternoon swimming, playing volleyball, rowing boats, and so on. All in all, it was a leisurely day at the beach. They wanted to keep playing, but the sun was already starting to set, so Koutarou and the girls reluctantly returned to the hotel.

“Hey, I found something good, Koutarou!” Theia announced on their way back to their rooms after eating. She was still eager to have fun, so she dragged Koutarou along with her.

“What is it?” he asked.

“This thing! What was it called again?”

“Oh, a ping-pong table.”

“That’s it, ping-pong!”

Theia had discovered the hotel’s rec room, which included an arcade, a ping-pong table, a dart board, and even a mahjong table. Hotel guests were free to use the facility as they liked.

“What’s up?” Shizuka asked.

“Your Highness?” Ruth asked too.

The two of them followed along with the other girls shortly behind them.

“The hotel has a ping-pong table. You should play too,” Theia insisted with a smile, handing Shizuka and Ruth paddles.

Shizuka was athletic and good at sports. While Ruth wasn’t, she still enjoyed them nevertheless. But more importantly, like Theia, they were both eager to keep having fun.

“Shall we play doubles, then?” Shizuka asked as she took a few practice swings. She had great form thanks to all her practice during gym class and other school activities.

“I doubt anyone could beat them if we put Landlord-san and Theia on the same team, so why don’t we pair up Theia and Ruth-san?” Koutarou suggested.

“Okay, then it’s you and me, Satomi-kun,” Shizuka agreed.

Theia had an innate skill with physical games. Her reaction time and kinetic vision were incredible assets. She was also a fast learner and quick to pick up tricks. As such, not even Koutarou was a match for her when playing normally. But when she was paired with Ruth, their team was on par with Koutarou and Shizuka’s.

“Let’s do our best, Your Highness.”

“Indeed! We cannot tarnish the Mastir family’s undefeated reputation!”

Theia and Ruth took their places across the table from Koutarou and Shizuka. The eyes of all four players were ablaze with motivation.

“Your referee and scorekeeper will be me, Sanae! And Kiriha will be providing commentary!”

“Not that I have any experience commentating on ping-pong.”

“It’s fine! You just have to look like you know what you’re talking about.”

“Heh, then leave it to me.”

The other girls circled around to spectate. Like the players, they were smiling. They too were still eager to have fun, although Nalfa and Kotori specifically were now concentrated on filming. In their cases, they were mostly concerned about getting good shots.

“Let’s say either side can score. First to six wins, then we can swap players,” Koutarou suggested.

Sticking to the formal rules of table tennis would make the match take far too long, and it would put the less experienced players at a disadvantage. Koutarou wanted to set some house rules that would best facilitate a large group taking turns.

“No objections here. Let us begin!” Theia cried. And with that, she lightly tossed the ball up into the air and smashed it with her paddle.

Ping! A dry sound rang out as the ball went flying. It bounced from Team Theia’s side of the table to Team Koutarou’s. It was moving straight for him. Fortunately he was waiting for it, and returned it with a swing of his own paddle. Pong!

“What?!” he yelped.

Koutarou had aimed for Ruth on the diagonal, but the ball ended up sailing in a completely different direction.

“One point to Team Theia! Get it together, Koutarou!” Sanae called.

“It wasn’t his fault,” Kiriha interjected. “There was a really strong spin on that ball.”

“Oh, so that’s why it flew thataway?”

“It slowed down slightly when it bounced, so it must have been a backspin.”

Theia had dexterously scraped the underside of the ball when she served it, putting a spin on it that destroyed Koutarou’s sense of where it would fly when hit back. That was the reason his return had been unsuccessful.

“Don’t go all out right away!” he bellowed.

“Ahahaha! Tigers know no mercy, even when hunting rabbits!” she roared back.

“Oh yeah? If that’s how you’re gonna play this, then I’ll have to whip out a few tricks myself.”

“A few tricks, you say? Let’s see them already.”

“Don’t come crying to me later.”

“Here’s the ball, Ruth,” said Kiriha.

“Thank you very much,” she replied.

Each team was set to serve twice before switching to the other side. It was Ruth’s turn now, so she accepted the ball from Kiriha and adjusted her grip on her paddle. She only had a little experience with ping-pong from gym class, but her diligence ensured she had textbook form. Her textbook form led to a textbook hit—her serve bounced once on her side of the table and then just over the white line on the opposing team’s side.

“That was pretty good, Ruth-san!” Shizuka called, diving after it and extending her paddle.

Ping! She managed to catch the ball, which then flew in a wide arc and bounced off Team Theia’s side of the table.

“Urk?!”

The big bounce worked against Theia. Because she was so short, it took a great deal of effort to catch it. She jumped up high and threw up her paddle as high as it would go.

Pong! It sailed in another wide arc back to Team Koutarou’s side of the table. It bounced up high in the same fashion too, but things played out differently from there.

“Now’s my chance!”

Koutarou was much taller than Theia, so a high ball for her was a normal one for him. He saw the opportunity in front of him and swung his paddle hard.

“How’s this?!”

Ping! Table tennis balls were light and quick to lose momentum, but Koutarou’s smash seemed to defy physics. It roared through the air, almost seeming to speed up as it reached Theia.

“Did you think you could beat me with that?!” she shouted.

Pong! As expected with her keen eyes and superb reflexes, she managed to return Koutarou’s smash by a hair. It just barely landed back on Team Koutarou’s side of the table.

“I didn’t think it’d be that easy—but don’t forget I have Landlord-san on my side!”

“You can count on me, Satomi-kun! Hyah!”

Ping! Because Theia’s return had been weak, there wasn’t much force behind the incoming ball. Shizuka smashed it back with all her might. Theia was still off balance from her save, and Shizuka wasn’t merciful enough to overlook that. The ball sailed right past Theia as she recovered. Ruth saw what was happening, but Theia was between her and the ball. She didn’t stand a chance of reaching it.

“One point to Team Koutarou! Good job!” Sanae called.

“Theia-dono has the overwhelming advantage in terms of skill, but her height is a weakness. Koutarou and Shizuka clinched a strategic victory here.”

Theia’s eyes and hands were quick, but she had to move more than anyone to hit the ball back thanks to her size. If her opponent returned the ball too fast, it was hard for her to be in the right position—especially with Shizuka on standby, waiting to smash it. That was an unfortunate drawback of playing in pairs for Theia. If it had been one-on-one, she likely would’ve been able to save that ball.

“Hear that? You’re short, Theia,” Koutarou taunted.

“Arrrgh!” she growled. “You always take the low blow!”

“Please calm down, Your Highness. I am with you.”

“Th-That’s true... I almost forgot. Let’s work together!”

Theia’s excitability was working against her in a doubles game—after all, she was trying to play it like a singles match. With Ruth on her side, however, they could shore up their defenses and put up a good fight.

An intense battle unfolded from there. Koutarou and Shizuka largely relied on power, so they ended up backed into a corner against Theia’s and Ruth’s more precise play style. Still, there were times Team Koutarou’s smashes broke through. Since the teams had been hastily formed, they were both at a disadvantage in terms of coordination. So all else being equal, raw power was a huge asset to Team Koutarou.

“That’s another point for Team Koutarou!” Sanae called. “It’s now five to five, so the next round will decide the winner!”

“I hadn’t expected this, but the two sides are evenly matched,” remarked Kiriha.

This game of technique versus strength was now at match point. A win would normally require a two-point lead, but they’d agreed ahead of time that the first team to six points would be declared victorious.

“We’ve got this in the bag. Your serves are weak,” Theia teased.

It was Team Koutarou’s turn to serve, and their fierce offense was hard to put into play that way. Because they had to bounce the ball once off of their own side of the table when serving, that meant they couldn’t open by smashing the ball. Theia knew that and taunted them accordingly.

“Who cares? It doesn’t change how short you are,” Koutarou taunted right back—and it seemed to score.

“What was that?!” Theia cried, her face red with anger.

“Oh, so that’s what this is...” Nefilforan muttered to herself, nodding.

“What is it, Nefilforan-san?” Harumi asked, noticing the gesture.

There, Nefilforan flashed a small smile and explained, “It’s just like before. I was surprised that Theiamillis-san and Lord Veltlion behave this way, but now I think I understand why.”

“And why’s that?”

“I’ve never seen Theiamillis-san make that face before. I think it’s a sign of absolute trust in Lord Veltlion.”

Theia was born and raised a princess, meaning most people she’d interacted with throughout her life sought to use her position in some way. It had left her so guarded that she was denied a normal childhood. Nefilforan had grown up under similar circumstances, so she understood it quite well. Yet when Theia was around Koutarou, she behaved just like a child— and Nefilforan believed that was because Theia was comfortable letting her guard down around him.

“Theiamillis-san is the only one who knows the truth, but I must say I agree with you, Nefilforan-san.” Harumi nodded with a gentle smile. She acted like a child herself around Koutarou at times, so she believed Theia’s case was similar.

“You’ve done it now!” Theia shouted. “I’ll never—”

“And while you’re open, here,” Koutarou interrupted, batting the ball her way.

“Your Highness!” Ruth shrieked.

“Nooooo!”

Theia had been angrily shaking her paddle at Koutarou, which he took advantage of. He’d served the ball while she was unprepared, leaving her unable to react in time. The ball thus fell off Team Theia’s side of the table, scoring the final point for Team Koutarou.

“Hahaha, looks like we win!” he declared.

“Satomi-kun, I don’t think that was...” Shizuka hesitantly interjected.

“Landlord-san, all that matters is that we won,” he argued.

“Silence, you coward! Do you really think I’ll let my own knight get away with such a craven stunt?!”

“I can do whatever I want against you.”

“What?!”

In the short moment that Harumi and Nefilforan had looked away, the match had concluded in spectacular fashion. Theia’s excited shouting alerted them of this, and they both exchanged awkward smiles.

“But it certainly is intense, isn’t it?” Nefilforan remarked.

“I’m a bit envious. I think this is Satomi-kun’s way of doting on her,” Harumi observed.

“Yes,” Nefilforan agreed. “I think so.”

By this point, Theia and Koutarou were already caught up in a wrestling match. It was so fierce that Maki immediately put up a barrier to keep people away and any sound from getting out. Yet in spite of the brawl, there were no hard feelings between Theia and Koutarou. They’d be on perfectly good terms once it was over. That was simply the nature of their relationship. It was their own special way of spoiling each other. Nefilforan, who’d finally come to understand this, watched on with a smile... albeit a slightly envious one.

Despite all appearances, ping-pong was a rather demanding sport. By the time everyone had played their fill, they’d all worked up a sweat. As such, the group decided to head to the baths after their game. They all wanted to wash up before relaxing.

The girls cleaned themselves up and got into the women’s bath. The water was supplied from a hot spring some hundred meters underground. A good fifteen-minute soak was recommended for healthy skin, and the girls spent that time chatting. They were currently talking about the evening’s impromptu ping-pong tournament.

“Still, I was surprised by Nefilforan-san’s performance,” said Maki. “It was your first time playing, but you were so good at it.”

Indeed, Nefilforan had struggled in her first match, but she’d learned quickly and demonstrated surprising competence in her second. The feat was so remarkable that several of the girls were astonished.

“We have racket-based sports in Forthorthe too, though nothing as compact as this ping-pong,” Nefilforan explained.

Though she’d spent most of her youth training in martial arts, she wasn’t a stranger to other physical activities. Depending on her training regimen and the season, she’d often take up hobbies like swimming, running, and a variety of ball games. Among them was a sport similar to tennis. It had been difficult for her to appreciate the difference between the smaller racket, ball, and playing area at first, but her experience still helped her out in the end.

“Forthorthian sports, huh? I admit you’ve got me curious,” Shizuka remarked. She was athletically inclined, so the topic naturally interested her. She wanted to know how alien sports differed from the ones on Earth.

“Then I invite you to the Hazy Moon,” offered Clan. She wasn’t wearing her glasses in the bath, so she looked a bit younger than usual. “You can play whatever you like in the gymnasium.”

“Really?! I’d love that! Though I am kind of surprised... You don’t seem like the type to have a gym on your ship, Clan-san.”

“It wasn’t by choice. It’s regulation.”

According to Forthorthian regulation, ships equipped with space distortion drives were required to have exercise facilities relative to their size. It took a passenger ship fifteen to twenty days to reach Earth, and being cooped up on a ship for that period of time was both mentally and physically unhealthy. As such, both rec rooms and spaces that emulated the outdoors were mandatory. This stipulation dated back to the beginning of Forthorthe’s space age, and it was just as important now as it had been then.

“If you’d like to learn a few sports,” offered Nefilforan, “I’d be happy to instruct you.”

Shizuka had paired up with Nefilforan during their table tennis matches in order to teach her the basics. So if Shizuka wanted to try out Forthorthian sports too, Nefilforan thought it would be a good opportunity to repay the favor.

“Are you sure?! That would be great!”

“I look forward to it.”

“Me too!”

Nefilforan and Shizuka continued to chat away happily, but someone else in the bath looked rather unhappy. It was none other than Theia, of course, who was still stewing over her humiliating defeat.

“That Koutarou is so irritating! He should’ve waited until I was ready!”

Over an hour had elapsed since their match, yet her anger smoldered. She knew she’d let her guard down, but she just couldn’t let it go—a rare sight these days. She was also girlishly irritated by the way Koutarou had treated her. In other words, she was unhappy he’d said that he could do whatever he wanted against her.

“I know what you mean! Satomi-san is such a bully!” Yurika cried in support. She, too, lamented Koutarou’s insensitivity on a daily basis. She particularly hated his methods for waking her up, which were extreme, to say the least.

“But that’s your fault for not waking up on your own,” Sanae said matter-of-factly. Theia was one thing, but she felt like Yurika was a different story.

“I-I still think there are better ways!” Yurika insisted.

“Why not just set a whole bunch of alarms?” Sanae asked.

“I don’t have the money for a whole bunch of alarms!”

“Didn’t you finish repaying your debt the other day?”

“Erk...”

Sanae’s remark was cutting, but true. If Yurika really didn’t like how Koutarou woke her up, she had the means to do something about it now that she was earning a respectable income. She could move out if she wanted, or buy a sophisticated alarm among other things.

“You like Satomi-san waking you up, don’t you, Yurika-chan? You just don’t like the way he’s doing it. But it’s still better than an alarm, right?”

“N-Nana-san!”

As Yurika’s mentor of many years, Nana could see through her. Nana currently looked a little older than normal—likely thanks to her hair up in a towel as she soaked in the bath. Despite Yurika’s pleading, she wore a composed smile.

Kiriha stepped in to explain, “In reality, Koutarou has his reasons for his extreme methods.” She understood why Koutarou couldn’t just gently wake Yurika.

“And what might those be?” Maki asked. Knowing there were more complicated circumstances at play piqued her interest. Maybe it was something they had in common, after all.

“Primarily, well... anything less extreme doesn’t work.”

“That’s true. Yurika doesn’t wake up even when you shake her,” Maki admitted. She was thinking of an incident where she’d been unable to rouse Yurika after she’d fallen asleep in class.

“That means that the usual method of poking her in the cheek won’t work,” Kiriha continued. “A greater stimulus is necessary, and that’s where the problem lies.”

“What do you mean?” Yurika asked. She too had taken an interest in what Kiriha was saying.

“It’s a question of where to apply said stimulus.”

“Anywhere would be fine.”

“That’s because you love Koutarou.”

“Oh...”

A wave of understanding washed over the girls. “So that’s what it’s all about,” they collectively thought.

“Yurika doesn’t mind being touched by Koutarou. She’d probably be fine, or even happy, with a wake-up kiss. But from Koutarou’s perspective, the acceptable places to touch Yurika are limited—basically to your hands, face, and head. Anything else goes beyond the bounds of friendship and crosses into lovers’ territory.”

“So that’s why Satomi-san...”

It was all starting to make sense to Yurika. It wouldn’t be a problem if any of the other girls did it, but Koutarou was a man. He was reluctant to do anything that might be seen as taking advantage of her.

“So until Koutarou decides who to go out with, there’s only so much he feels he can do. That forces him to extremes. To keep you from breathing, he only needs to touch your mouth and nose. And he doesn’t even need to touch you at all to dump water on you. Now, let me ask you all this: can any of you remember Koutarou ever touching you in a way that could be considered problematic for a male friend?”

“You’re right. I see... So Satomi-kun’s always been considerate about that.” Maki nodded along.

Barring special exceptions, Kiriha was right. Koutarou would pat their heads or hold their hands, but he’d never touch anywhere else like their chests or legs. That was reserved for lovers. Koutarou knew that the girls were more to him than just friends, but he would never abuse that. There was a line in the sand he refused to cross.

“So putting hot sauce in my mouth and stinging my nose is friend territory...” Yurika mumbled.

“Koutarou’s really getting creative, isn’t he?” Sanae commented.

Yurika was in a particularly sticky situation. A girl normally wouldn’t ask a male friend to wake her up in the first place, so she’d been forcing Koutarou to toe the line all along. Nana was worried about that. She had no desire to see him put in an awkward position.

“You’ll just have to start waking up yourself, Yurika-chan,” she said, hoping Yurika would resolve to buy an alarm clock.

“I have to disagree.” Unexpectedly, Kiriha shook her head. She had a serious look in her eyes as she touched her hand to her forehead and then placed it over her heart. “Considering our roles and desires, we’re going to need Koutarou to make up his mind soon. Now’s the time for Yurika to push harder.”

Koutarou’s sword was now bound to Kiriha and the other girls, who also shared a strong bond with one another. That made it impossible for him to single any one of them out. Yurika pulling away from him would only make it harder, and Kiriha believed now was time to step forward rather than fall back.

“But how am I supposed to do that?” Yurika asked. She struggled to understand how exactly to do what Kiriha was asking of her.

“Since our daring swimsuits didn’t work out as planned today, we’ll need to consider even more drastic measures.”

The girls hadn’t worn bold swimsuits to the beach just for fun—it was an attempt to excite Koutarou. That was what Kiriha really meant when she talked about pushing him. But based on the day’s results, they were one step short of success, which was why she felt the need to go a little further.

“What would be more bold than those swimsuits?” Harumi asked, slightly blushing. She’d chosen an especially bold bathing suit by her standards, and she couldn’t imagine something beyond that.

“I believe we need to prepare lucky undergarments,” Kiriha replied.

At that, the other girls tensed up. Nefilforan, Nana, Nalfa, and Kotori weren’t especially involved in the conversation, but even they couldn’t ignore the gravity of the situation.

“Y-You mean for Satomi-kun?!” Shizuka nearly cried. She was the first to recover her wits and desperately wanted to know what Kiriha meant. A misunderstanding here would be grave.

However, Kiriha nodded firmly in response. “That’s right. It also means that all of us need to steel our resolve and prepare to act on it.”

The moment Kiriha said that, two moods overtook the room. Half of the girls became agitated, and the other half froze up completely.

“Then what are we waiting for?! Time to go on the offensive!” Theia shouted.

“It might not be very effective in my case, but I like this idea!” Sanae agreed.

“Sounds good to me. I was just thinking about getting some new ones,” threw in Shizuka.

“M-M-Master t-t-taking off my clothes...? Waaaaah!”

Theia and Shizuka were clearly in favor of Kiriha’s plan. With her psychic powers, Sanae didn’t personally see much of a point in it for herself, but she felt it was worthwhile for the others. Ruth, meanwhile, sounded like she was opposed, but the giddy smile on her face betrayed her true feelings.

“It’s too early for that, Kii! We’re still only teenagers!” Clan objected.

“Clan-san is right! We need more time to build up our relationships!” Harumi rallied.

“Wouldn’t Satomi-kun be upset if we did that...?” Maki asked.

“I can’t let him see me in my underwear, lucky or not! That would show off even more than my swimsuits! I need more time!” Yurika whined.

Clan and Harumi were staunchly against this plan. They were old fashioned in their ways and they believed in taking things slow. Maki’s objections were less complex—she simply didn’t want to go against Koutarou’s wishes. As for Yurika, she wasn’t willing to hop on the bandwagon until she was done dieting.

“I understand your concerns,” said Kiriha. “In truth, I’m reluctant to proactively show off my underwear as well. It would probably only have the opposite effect on him.”

“Then what are you thinking?!” Clan exclaimed.

“Two things. The first is to prepare ourselves. I’m sure you can understand that much.”

“You mean giving ourselves the courage to take the next step, I imagine. What’s the second thing?”

“Accidents can always happen—always.”

With those words, Kiriha yet again spiked the tension in the room. The girls all froze.

“K-Kii, what kind of accidents are you talking about?” Clan asked hesitantly.

“For example... what would happen if Koutarou went to dump water down Yurika’s shirt and pulled a little too hard?”

“So that’s what you meant! That’s our Kiriha!” Theia roared.

“We should use our numbers to our advantage,” Kiriha continued. “We can multiply the opportunities for accidents by nine.”

“That’s a really wicked grin, Kiriha-san!” observed Yurika.

“Oh my!” shrieked Ruth. “If it’s an accident, then there’s nothing anyone can do about it! Aaah, an accident with Master... Waaaaah!”

“N-N-No way, no how!” objected Clan. “That’s like adding fuel to the fire!”

“Kiriha-san is right,” argued Harumi. “Our relationships with Satomi-kun should be more romantic!”

Chaos ensued from there. The pro and anti factions clashed, and their peaceful bath time was overtaken by shouting. If there had been any other guests, there would definitely have been complaints. Fortunately, however, they’d rented out the hotel the same as the beach. The girls were so focused on the matter at hand that they were completely oblivious to their surroundings—the result of spending an entire relaxed day to themselves.

You have no idea what you’ve got coming, Koutarou!

As the heated debate continued, Sanae’s thoughts turned to the subject of the conversation himself. Unbeknownst to him, all manner of traps were being laid and she couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he walked into them.

Wait... Where’s Koutarou? Did he already leave the men’s bath?

Sanae scanned for Koutarou’s presence, but it wasn’t anywhere nearby. She didn’t search any farther, however, as the current discussion seemed more important at the time.

Their second day at the beach was set to begin with the training exercise Nefilforan had invited Koutarou for. The group had come to the beach on vacation, but this was unfortunately the only time he could work it in. Since the training was ultimately for his benefit—and the girls’ protection—he had no complaints about it. If anything, he was happy to be working with Nefilforan’s unit. Nefilforan was personally supposed to come pick him up early in the morning to begin the exercise. Yet something strange happened when the girls gathered in the lobby for breakfast.

“Good morning, everyone. May I have a moment of your time?” called out Nefilforan, who should have been long gone for training.

“What are you still doing here, Nefi?” asked Theia.

“Well... have any of you seen Lord Veltlion?” Nefilforan asked in turn.

“Koutarou? Is he still sleeping...? He’s even harder to wake up than Yurika.”

“I checked his room, but he’s not there. He’s not answering his phone either.”

“That’s unusual for Veltlion...” Clan remarked.

According to Nefilforan, she’d gone to wake Koutarou up, but no matter how much she’d knocked, there’d been no answer. She’d heard from the other girls that he was a heavy sleeper, so she’d proceeded to the front desk and requested a spare key. She’d then gone back to roust Koutarou, but found his room empty.

“Did something happen?” Nalfa worriedly asked. Koutarou wasn’t the kind of guy to vanish for no reason, so his disappearance was cause for concern.

“I asked the front desk if he’d left a message, but they had no idea he was gone,” reported Nefilforan.

“Hmm, that is worrying. Clan, can you do something?” Theia asked.

“Give me a second. I’ll track the location of Veltlion’s cell phone... Here we go. This is strange, though. It looks like he cut the power.”

Koutarou had gotten a phone of a Forthorthian design, fitted with all kinds of functions and technology to protect him—including tracking. Clan defaulted to that, but it appeared he had his phone turned off at the moment. She couldn’t identify his current location because of it, and his last reported location put him in the hotel before dawn.

“Where were his last coordinates specifically?” Theia asked.

“In the front lobby,” Clan replied.

“Then he should be visible on their security footage,” said Kiriha.

“I shall request their assistance!” Theia declared, running off toward the front desk.

Guests weren’t normally given access to security footage, but the hotel was likely to cooperate under the circumstances. They were aware of their current guests’ prestige, and they’d already allowed Forthorthian security to be stationed within the building. As such, Theia quickly returned with good news.

“They’ve given me access to their files,” she announced. “Here’s the password.”

“Let me bring it up. Just a moment...” Clan connected to the hotel network via her bracelet computer, then used the borrowed password to get admin access to all the security recordings. “It was before dawn... so here.”

“Huh?” asked Sanae. “But there’s no one there...”

As she said, the cameras showed an empty lobby. The lights were in night mode so the footage was quite dim, but there was clearly no one around

“His phone wasn’t cut until a little later, so let’s advance the footage.”

Clan fast forwarded, and after a few minutes on the counter ticked by, there was movement at the elevator.

“That’s Koutarou! Slow it down!”

“Okay, okay... That should do it.”

“Karama and Korama are with him too. I was wondering where they’d run off to, but it seems they’re with Koutarou.”

Clan returned the footage to normal speed when Koutarou stepped into the frame. The haniwas were on either side of him. The dim lighting made it difficult to discern their expressions, but they seemed to be walking along happily.

“Hang on, what is Satomi-kun holding?” Shizuka asked when she spotted something odd.

She couldn’t make out the two strange objects Koutarou was carrying because he was moving and the lighting was poor, but when he stopped in front of the camera and turned off his phone, Maki got a good look at them.

“That’s Maximilian and Henrietta... but he doesn’t have Geraldine,” she observed.

“Maximilian? Henrietta? Geraldine?” Ruth cocked her head upon hearing these unfamiliar names, which was only natural since she’d never seen Koutarou with them before.

“Maximilian is his net and Henrietta is his cage. He also has a bottle for sap that he calls Geraldine. They’re the three tools Satomi-kun uses to catch bugs,” Maki explained.

Koutarou had given his treasured tools code names because a certain someone had an extreme reaction to them, but the names had stuck over time. He’d grown fond of them, so he still used them to this day.

“Heh, so first it was fishing and now it’s bug hunting,” Theia said with a thin smile, her voice steeped in fury. The strange combination was intimidating.

“Not to mention he’s skipping training,” said Ruth, who seemed calm, but her voice was ice cold. The other girls shuddered, wondering where the usual warm and fuzzy Ruth had gone.

“Listen, we don’t actually know he’s out hunting bugs,” Nefilforan reminded them.

She was skeptical that was the case. She felt it was more likely that he’d gotten in an accident. She was even worried he might be hurt and stranded somewhere. But even if he was bug hunting, Forthorthe owed the Blue Knight so much that she hardly considered it an offense.

“You’re being too naive, Nefilforan-san!” Shizuka shot back with lightning reflexes. “You don’t understand the kind of tunnel vision he can get when it comes to fun! That’s how he was able to ignore all our flashy swimsuits yesterday! Didn’t you expect some kind of reaction from him?!”

“W-Well...”

That was enough to make Nefilforan hesitate. As a Forthorthian woman, she naturally wanted to impress the national hero with her beach body. She didn’t want to do anything untoward, however, so she’d spent a tremendous amount of time picking out her wardrobe—swimsuit included—for this trip. But in spite of it all, he’d hardly looked her way. He was fixated on fish and bugs instead, and that was an undeniable disappointment.

“It’s interesting that Veltlion didn’t bring Geraldine with him, though,” remarked Clan. “Did he set up a trap in advance? Or does he have men from Nefilforan’s unit helping him out?”

If he didn’t have all day to spend bug hunting, the easiest way to capture a beetle was with a trap. That was where the bottle of sap came in. By pouring sap in spots where beetles were likely to gather, he could effectively lure them out. The beetles also held still while eating, making them easy to capture.

“Come to think of it, Koutarou wasn’t around last night either!” Sanae exclaimed, clapping her hands together in realization.

She’d realized during their bath that he wasn’t nearby, so she’d gone looking for him after the fact. She’d wanted to play some more, but when she couldn’t find him even then, she’d given up and gone to bed.

“So he did lay a trap in advance... That explains why he seems so happy,” Kiriha commented as she reviewed the footage again.

Koutarou and the haniwas looked like young children full of excitement for the day as they left the hotel. They were eagerly chatting away as they bounded along with light steps.

“All right, ladies, let’s chase down that fool!” Theia proclaimed with a dangerous gleam in her eyes.

“What? Aren’t we going to play more today?” Yurika asked, but despite what it sounded like, she was a little miffed too. She wanted to remind Koutarou whose sake she’d really gone on a diet for.

“There are some things that are more important than playing! It’s high time we show him what we’re made of!”

After fishing, ping-pong, and now bug catching, Theia was starting to lose it. Just how insensitive could Koutarou be? Even his big, dumb grin on camera was grating her nerves. But who could blame her under the circumstances?

“Uh-oh, Theia never backs down when she gets like this...”

Sanae didn’t particularly care that Koutarou had ignored their swimsuits, but she was unhappy that he’d run off to play and left her out again. She was ready to catch him and put him in a scorpion hold, but the roughhousing was the worst she’d unleash on him.

“He’s left us no choice, Your Highness. We have our pride to consider as women, after all.”

“Wow, even Ruth’s on board?” Shizuka remarked. “There’s no stopping this now.”

Fury burned bright in Ruth’s eyes. Whether it was fish or bugs didn’t matter. She was irritated that they were more important to Koutarou than her. Really, her anger was a form of jealousy.

“Kotori-san, was Satomi-kun like this when you were children too?” Harumi asked.

She’d kept her cool and wanted to know if there was any basis for this behavior. Maki and Kiriha, who’d also remained calm, turned to her and listened intently for the answer.

“Hardly. I’ve never seen him like this...” Kotori had known Koutarou since she was a child, but she had no recollection of him ever acting this way. “If anything, I find it hard to believe that Kou-niisan shirked a promise to run off and play.”

“Agreed. I find his actions strange as well,” Kiriha agreed with a nod. There was actually something else that bothered her as well. Why did Karama and Korama go along with Koutarou without asking me? It makes no sense...

Karama and Korama were loyal servants of the Kurano family. They were automatic dolls made with spiritual energy technology, so their devotion was absolute. Kiriha found it rather odd that they’d run off like this. They should have at least left a message.

“What are you doing?! We’re moving out! We need to capture him as soon as possible!” Theia announced.

“Kiriha-sama, Princess Theia has departed,” Nalfa said, tugging on Kiriha’s sleeve as she pointed to the girls filing out the front door.

That snapped Kiriha back to her senses. “Ah, forgive me. Let’s go after them,” she replied with a smile as she began walking after them. “What do you make of all this, Nalfa?”

It was a pretty vague question for Kiriha, but after smiling for a moment, Nalfa didn’t hesitate to answer. “There’s so much we don’t know right now, but there’s one thing I’m sure of.”

“And what’s that?”

“Koutarou-sama loves everyone very much. It’s enough to make anyone envious.”

“True... Perhaps that’s a clue.”

Nalfa’s answer was equally vague, but Kiriha was satisfied. She thus pulled out her phone and, as she and Nalfa chased after Theia and the others, made a call to a certain someone.

Meanwhile, Koutarou and the two haniwas were in the mountains just like the girls suspected—but they weren’t alone, and they weren’t catching bugs. They were currently surrounded by soldiers in a simple, makeshift command center. The soldiers all belonged to Nefilforan’s unit, and they all wore very serious expressions.

“Report in from the reconnaissance unit! The princesses’ party has left the hotel according to schedule and Lord Pardomshiha has deployed unmanned equipment to conduct a search,” one announced.

“Have the reconnaissance unit fall back, then! Ruth-san can easily detect people at twice the normal range!” Koutarou ordered.

“Satomi-san, is that even possible?” Nana, who was standing at his side, asked. She understood the superiority of Forthorthe’s equipment, but both sides in this instance should have the same technology available to them. Wasn’t he being overcautious?

Nana had joined up with the rest of the Nefilforan unit the night before in preparation for the day’s training exercise. She was more or less acting as Koutarou’s adjutant. She served as the bridge between Koutarou and Nefilforan’s unit in the name of facilitating teamwork. No matter how elite Nefilforan’s men were, a change of commander was always a difficult shakeup. Nana was essentially present to mitigate the challenge, and the question she’d just asked was truly one on everyone’s mind.

“Ruth-san is always analyzing input from multiple sources, so she’s capable of discerning things from the tiniest bit of data—things that other operators would pass off as anomalies or noise,” Koutarou explained.

“So her precision is greater even though she’s using the same equipment we are,” Nana mused in understanding.

“Worse yet, once Sanae’s found us, she’ll be difficult to shake. We won’t be able to lose her without these two,” Koutarou continued.

“Ho! We’ll need a spiritual energy field against Sanae-chan, ho!”

“Class II Stealth Mode would work too, ho! But either way, things will be tricky from here, ho!”

Unfortunately, the haniwas were Koutarou’s only resource against Sanae. If they’d been at Kiriha’s side, he would’ve been found and caught right away. That was why he’d preemptively asked for their cooperation. They’d left Kiriha in exchange for a few new RC parts.

“The others are just as much of a threat. Theia and Landlord-san have excellent vision. Make sure the retreating units are careful not to let any reflective surfaces flash light their way!” Koutarou ordered.

“You all heard him!” Nana echoed. “We’re up against the strongest units in Forthorthe, possibly even the universe. The goal of our training this time is to stop their advance and protect Lord Veltlion! So keep your eyes open! The smallest mistake today could be fatal!”

Theia and the others were their opponents for the sake of this exercise. Koutarou had joined up with the rest of his team early in preparation for it. They were up against a unit of ten girls, excluding the photography duo of Nalfa and Kotori and including Commander Nefilforan. Those ten girls, however, had all proved their mettle during the civil war. Between them, they’d defeated countless foes. They also had an array of magic, spiritual energy powers, and technology at their disposal. In the worst case scenario ahead of them, Ralgwin would appear similarly equipped, so the girls actually made for excellent practice enemies.

“Understood!” Nefilforan’s unit rallied in response to Nana. They were all taking this quite seriously. They knew how invaluable the day’s exercise could be and how many lives it might save in the future.

“Still, Satomi-san...” Nana whispered. “Won’t this seriously anger them?”

“It’s not training if it’s not serious,” Koutarou whispered back. He figured that the girls would indeed get angry at first, but that was a critical part of the process, so he stuck to his plan with steely resolve.

“You’re going to get it later...” Nana reminded him.

“Then I’ll just prostrate myself or do whatever else it takes. Besides, the real point of all of this is protecting them.”

“Satomi-san, don’t you think you could be a little less awkward?” Nana asked, smiling like a child.

She was starting to understand why Yurika had fallen in love with him. He never hesitated to throw himself into the thorniest of thickets for the girls. Nana figured that Yurika wanted to protect him from those thorns, or even pull them out for him.

“I’m like this because I really can’t, Nana-san,” he said.

“Ahaha! You really are going to get it later, Satomi-san,” Nana repeated, smiling just like before...

But this time, she was thinking that he might have it coming from more than just the nine girls.

Thirty minutes had passed since the girls left the hotel, yet they still hadn’t managed to locate Koutarou despite using every means at their disposal.

“It looks like Koutarou met up with someone here, but the aura gets really weak moving forward,” Sanae observed.

“That would be Karama’s and Korama’s doing,” explained Kiriha. “They’re cloaking auras.”

“He must have joined up with my unit. I’ve lost contact with them,” reported Nefilforan.

“Go figure. Satomi-kun is the commander-in-chief, after all,” remarked Shizuka.

They’d gradually come to an understanding of what had happened. Koutarou had woken up early and gone to meet Nefilforan’s soldiers, and they were now making their way across the mountainside with Karama and Korama’s help.

“Curse you, Koutarou! You’d go this far for beetles?!” Theia raged.

“Sanae-sama, can you follow Master’s aura?” Ruth asked.

“It’s not impossible, but it’ll probably take me a while. There’re a lot of phony trails around.”

With her psychic prowess, Sanae could undoubtedly track down Koutarou. It would be for naught, however, if it took her hours to do it. Koutarou would be back from bug hunting by then. They’d need a faster method to find him.

“It’s slight, but I’m detecting some mana,” Maki volunteered.

“It’s not from Signaltin. I’d know if he was using it,” Harumi added.

“Then it has to be Nana-san’s Encyclopedia!” Yurika exclaimed.

“You mean she’s in on this too?!” Clan shouted.

This was the most shocking reveal yet. The epitome of a just magical girl, the prodigy Nana herself, had teamed up with Koutarou for his shenanigans. The girls could hardly believe that she’d agreed to such a thing.

“Kiriha-san, do you have a moment?” Nefilforan quietly asked as she approached Kiriha. She was whispering so that the other girls wouldn’t hear her. Something was bothering her.

“Certainly,” Kiriha replied in kind.

“Given the commotion this has all turned into... do you really think it’s just a simple case of bug hunting?”

Kiriha looked surprised for a moment but soon smiled and shook her head. “No. It feels like Koutarou used fishing, table tennis, and bug hunting as bait to lure us into pursuing him.”

Koutarou had been acting strangely the previous day. Kiriha couldn’t imagine that he was really that insensitive—which suggested he had other intentions. She believed he wanted to rile the girls up.

“So you think so too... Perhaps this is the training exercise, then.”

“I’d say the odds are good. I can’t think of any other reason Nana would be cooperating with him.”

“In that case, they see us as the enemy here... An enemy equipped with magic and spiritual energy technology.”

“Indeed. If we assume that Ralgwin now has magic and spiritual energy technology in his possession, then we’re really the only people who could possibly serve as sufficient stand-ins for training.”

Nefilforan was now fairly well acquainted with the girls, so she was accompanying them in Koutarou’s stead. Meanwhile, Koutarou understood magic and spiritual energy technology but didn’t have them himself, so he was a good instructor to teach Nefilforan’s men how to deal with both. Essentially, Nefilforan and Koutarou swapping places was the most effective arrangement for this training exercise.

“So, what’s our victory condition?” asked Nefilforan.

“To capture Koutarou within the allotted time. Theia-dono is essentially a ticking timebomb at the moment, so we need to brace ourselves.”

“Most excellent. This is exceptionally well thought out.” Nefilforan said, praising both Koutarou and Kiriha.

Koutarou had taken each of the girls’ abilities and personalities into account for the exercise. Kiriha had seen through his plans and intended to help move things along—proof of a mutual understanding between them and the strong bond they shared.

“Still, I can’t imagine that Koutarou came up with this all on his own,” Kiriha mused.

“I see... My two adjutants must be working with him,” Nefilforan offered up.

Koutarou knew the girls well, but it was hard to believe he’d come up with such an involved training program by himself. Nefilforan had two adjutants who would have been more than qualified to help him plan and implement something of this scale.

“Now, if this is training, they should be launching an attack on us any minute,” Kiriha warned.

“Why is that?” Nefilforan asked.

“Koutarou is under the impression that we’ll hesitate to make a move, so even if it’s for show, he’ll attack in order to force our hand.”

What Kiriha said made sense, but she was merely making an educated guess. There was a good chance that the more cautious members of the group would feel like they didn’t have enough information to go off of and would thus adopt a wait-and-see approach. Kiriha predicted that Koutarou would use force to change their minds.

“I can under—” Nefilforan began, but was interrupted mid-nod.

“Kiriha, come quickly! Yurika and Theia fell into a pitfall trap!” Sanae yelled out.

Her shocking report made Kiriha’s eyes open wide. “Nefilforan-dono, they’re coming!” she shouted.

“Everyone, prepare for battle!” Nefilforan ordered. “Make sure your weapons are in training mode!”

As the girls were reeling from the news of what had happened to Yurika and Theia, a rain of bullets came streaming from the treeline. They were marking rounds that stained what they hit with orange dye. As Kiriha and Nefilforan expected, this was all part of the training exercise after all.

“Everyone, get down! The enemy already has us in their sights!” Theia called as she summoned her beam rifle from the Hazy Moon.

The rifle had a long barrel and a scope, making it useful for sniping. As marking rounds flew over her head, she pointed her gun in the direction the fire was coming from. The pitfall effectively served as a trench for her to take cover in. Otherwise, her face would have been orange by now.

“Your Highness, I’ve calculated the bullets’ point of origin based on their trajectories!” Ruth reported, diving into the pitfall with Theia. She quickly transferred the data from her unmanned scouts to Theia’s rifle.

“At last!”

Taking aim at the projected location, Theia repeatedly pulled the trigger. The enemy fire quickly ceased. Her rifle was in training mode, so she hadn’t caused any actual damage, but the rules of engagement stipulated that participants stop moving once hit in training exercises. It seemed her shots had found their marks.

“This is getting interesting, Koutarou! You’re trying to fight us off to buy time to catch bugs, aren’t you?!” Theia’s eyes were blazing. Falling for a simple trap like a pitfall had done a number on her pride.

Seeing this, Harumi grew a little anxious and called out to the photography duo. “I’m afraid things are going to become quite chaotic soon, so please fall back. Satomi-kun wouldn’t want you caught up in this.”

“O-Okay.”

“Let’s go, Nalfa-chan!”

Kotori and Nalfa thus hurried away. Regardless of what Koutarou meant to accomplish with this exercise, having those two noncombatants around would only make things harder. Of course, Harumi had no intention of making things easier for him...

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Sir Knight?” she muttered as her hair started glowing silver.

She was gathering her mana in preparation for the next attack. But unlike Theia, she remained calm. She’d realized that this was likely all part of the training, but she still felt like it was rather out of character for Koutarou. Nevertheless, he clearly wanted a fight—so she decided to oblige.

The girls quickly turned things around and put their power on full display for Koutarou and Nefilforan’s unit. They’d started at a disadvantage—pitfalls and rifles trained on them—so the other side never expected them to recover and strike back so easily. The scene was pandemonium.

“They’re returning fire!”

“Daiger and Roundott are down!”

“Already?! We should still be out of range!”

“Explosive rounds or not, how can they hit at this distance?!”

“A message from Lord Veltlion! ‘Kiriha-san is most likely reading our position with Ruth-san, Sanae, and Sakuraba-senpai’s help. Theia will also shoot on instinct from above, so don’t intercept them at by-the-book locations’!”

“You mean they’re just using standard tactics against us?!”

“There she is! That’s Princess Theiamillis! She’s hiding against the sun just like Lord Veltlion said!”

“When did she get up there?!”

Nefilforan’s unit was getting one-sidedly hammered from outside their effective range. The veteran soldiers had found plenty of good cover on the mountainside, which was why they’d chosen to take up position here...

But unfortunately, Kiriha had used a detailed map provided by Ruth to mark such places they’d be likely to hide. Next, Sanae and Harumi had used their psychic powers and magic to search for signs of life in the suspicious locations Kiriha had singled out. Then Theia shelled them from the sky.

No matter how defensible the position, it was still vulnerable to attacks from overhead. Moreover, they couldn’t return fire because Theia was out of their range. They should have been out of her range as well—but she had an advantage firing down from above. As a result, Nefilforan’s unit had no choice but to abandon their position.

“They’re coming out, Aika-san!” Shizuka called. “It’s just like Kiriha-san said again!”

“She never ceases to amaze me,” remarked Maki.

“I’ll be going all out this time, so show me what you’ve got!” Nefilforan rallied.

The three of them were leading the direct assault against Koutarou’s team. Shizuka hadn’t transformed, but her fists still had the power of cannons. Maki was already brandishing her staff in the shape of a greatsword. Nefilforan was in her battle gear and armed with her greatspear. They were all outfitted for training purposes, but their energy was the real thing.

“Commander?!”

“Mobile infantry, to the front!”

Nefilforan’s unit was still in disarray after Theia’s bombardment, with their armored infantrymen who should have been leading the charge scattered all over the place. The commander on scene hurriedly tried to reestablish formation when he saw Shizuka and the others appear.

“Short Teleport! Modifier: Effective Area, Minimum!”

“What?!”

“Is this the dreaded Yurika Attack?!”

“Shut up and get down!”

Before they could get into position, something strange happened. Eight grenades appeared out of nowhere. They formed a circle around the unit, effectively trapping them in place.

“The rest is up to you, Yurika,” said Clan.

However, the grenades didn’t explode. Instead, they disappeared just as suddenly as they’d appeared. They were actually just holograms Clan had generated. The girls really had no intention of resorting to grenades.

“Sleep Cloud! Modifier: Auto Homing!”

As Koutarou’s team dove for cover, the men left themselves completely vulnerable to Yurika’s attack. Since this was a training exercise, she’d chosen a sleep agent, and the barely visible cloud of gas blanketed the prone soldiers.

“I’m confident this was the safest play,” Clan assured her.

“I feel like I’m losing something important in exchange though...” Yurika whined.

“That’s true.”

The soldiers affected by the gas fell unconscious one after another. Fortunately, since they were already on the ground, they weren’t hurt in the process. Clan had intentionally incorporated the hologram grenades into the plan to be sure of that.

“To think we’d be bested this easily... We were prepared to make a counterattack, but this is insane...”

Yurika’s poison gas hadn’t put all of the soldiers to sleep. There were some who resisted its effects and some outside of its range, but the few of them that remained had no way to oppose the girls.

“This just goes to show everything they have going for them... We’ll be up against enemies like this in the future.”

“I finally understand why the commander said we needed this training... We were totally had.”

“We’ll have to consider this location a loss. We have others yet.”

In the end, the remaining soldiers surrendered. In all, it took the girls less than two minutes to take their position. It was an overwhelming, lightning fast victory—and this was exactly the kind of terrifying experience Nefilforan wanted her unit to have. She wanted them to know just how frightening magic and spiritual energy technology could be.

Shouting and tension filled the command center where Koutarou was stationed—and rightfully so. His team of Nefilforan’s troops vastly outnumbered the girls, but they were the ones being overwhelmed.

“There’s no response from position G-3! It’s been one minute and forty seconds since they reported that they were engaging!” an operator screamed.

Hearing this, Koutarou looked down at the map on the table in surprise.

“They only lasted a minute forty... I thought I knew how strong the girls were, but this exceeds even my expectations...”

An hour had elapsed, and several of the defensive positions Koutarou and his team had set up in advance were now overrun. The map showed their held territory in blue, and about 30 percent of it had already turned red. Theia and Nefilforan were particularly fierce opponents. Nefilforan had an incredible capacity to lead an offensive charge, and Theia supported her with deadly accurate cover fire. Harumi was also bolstering them with magic, so they made short work of smashing through enemy lines.

“They’re falling for the pitfall traps less often now,” the operator reported.

“That must be Clan’s doing...” Koutarou muttered.

Though it sounded like a joke, pitfalls were a surprisingly effective countermeasure against magic or spiritual energy users. If robots dug the holes, they left no residual feelings or mana behind. Sanae could easily track any humans making traps, so relying on robots to do the digging was Koutarou’s best plan to thwart that. If the girls were starting to avoid the pitfalls, however, he suspected that Clan had begun surveying for cavities in the ground. He’d have to do something to get a step ahead of them again.

“Okay, let’s have the reinforcements move up,” he ordered.

When up against enemies equipped with magic and spiritual energy technology, a critical element of strategy was to ensure that the soldiers knew as little as possible. They’d be taken to their locations via a transport vehicle and then relayed further instructions from the command center. That way, Sanae and Maki couldn’t extract any information from them.

“Satomi-san, be careful not to move our troops in similar patterns. They’re probably following in the footsteps of the last detachment we used.”

“Ah, you’re right! I’ll be careful!”

Koutarou was devising strategies based on the girls, and Nana was offering oversight and advice. Under their guidance, Nefilforan’s unit was putting up a good fight. They’d lost plenty of ground so far, but the girls had yet to find their base of operations. At this rate, they should be able to hold out until the time limit was up.

“Perhaps it’s time I deploy myself, Satomi-san,” suggested Nana.

“Kiriha-san is probably expecting one of us to make a move now,” Koutarou responded.

“In that case, we’ll likely be caught in Yurika-chan’s or Ruth-san’s web and the queen spider will attack.”

The “queen spider” was none other than Shizuka. She possessed unparalleled physical power, but if the girls failed to dispatch her at the right moment, they’d suffer heavy losses for it. The worst case scenario for them would be if Nana showed up while Shizuka was busy elsewhere. Nana had once fought against all seven leaders of Darkness Rainbow on her own, and even without most of her mana now, she could still possibly defeat them. She was the reason the girls hadn’t sent Shizuka out yet. Their plan was to hold her in reserve until Nana or Koutarou appeared—that was why Nana referred to her as the queen spider.

“Make sure you never let Landlord-san hear you say that.”

“It’s just a figure of speech. But if you have the leisure to be worried about offending our enemies, then I suppose we’ll be all right for a while.”

Koutarou and Nana didn’t have a lot of experience fighting together, but they got along well. Koutarou figured that was thanks to having a close friend like Yurika in common. He felt like he’d known Nana for just as long. There was an amiable air between them in spite of the situation.

Meanwhile, a sense of dread began to overtake Theia and the other girls. They’d so far been unable to extract any critical information from their defeated opponents and pin down Koutarou’s location. They tried magic and spiritual energy, but Nana and the haniwas were interfering to keep them from getting any leads. It was getting under the girls’ skin even though the battle was largely proceeding in their favor. The pitfalls everywhere were another source of irritation. Clan was actively scanning for them now, so they were less of a problem than they had been at the start... which only made falling in one all the more grating.

“Grrr, how haven’t we found Koutarou yet?!” Theia growled with a sour look on her face as she crossed her arms. After having fallen in several pitfalls, her hair was now matted with mud and leaves.

“He’s not revealing himself,” Maki said calmly. As a former member of a paramilitary organization, she was experienced with this kind of endurance situation.

“Any clever ideas, Kii?” Clan asked, turning to Kiriha for help.

Kiriha, however, just shook her head. “There’s nothing we can do unless they slip up. Since their team is spread out all over the mountain, we can’t pinpoint Koutarou’s whereabouts.”

Ruth had sent out her drones to scout out nearby defensive positions, yet there was no sign of Koutarou. It was possible that he was hidden in with the other soldiers, but raiding each of the encampments would take too long. There were plenty more of them around too. The girls needed some kind of clue to advance in the right direction, but Koutarou just wasn’t yielding. It appeared that Kiriha was having a hard time getting a handle on the situation.

“I think we’ll have a difficult time as long as Nana-san is with him,” said Yurika.

“Indeed,” agreed Kiriha. “Nana’s knack for strategy is quite impressive. She was probably the one who came up with these positions.”

“Heeheehee,” Yurika giggled bashfully.

“What are you acting proud for?!” Theia scolded her. “How about trying to surpass your master instead?!”

“O-Okaaay!”

The girls were functionally at a standstill right now because, in truth, Kiriha was holding out on them. She’d received a report from her subordinates that contained critical information on the situation, and after debating about what to do with it, she’d decided to keep it to herself. She meant to push farther into the mountain before storming into Koutarou’s main camp.

“Oh? Did something good happen, Kii?” Clan asked when she noticed Kiriha smiling.

She replied with a laugh, “Something good is about to happen.”

“Huh?” Clan cocked her head at that vague answer.

Kiriha had uncovered Koutarou’s true intentions and was now tacitly cooperating with him. In a sense, she’d betrayed the other girls to join his cause.

A few hours after the battle first began, the sun was now high overhead and the girls were closing in on Koutarou. They’d struggled to discern his location, but they were now about to reach the command center.

“Koutarou’s here! There’s no doubt about it!” Sanae called out.

“Using the haniwas to cover for Nana when she left was a terrible mistake! Let’s storm the base!” bellowed Theia.

Koutarou had kept hidden all this time, but he’d eventually slipped up. When Theia and the others began moving toward the command center by sheer chance, he’d deployed Nana with the haniwas to keep her hidden from sight until she was as close as possible—which had inadvertently allowed Sanae to spot her with her spirit sight.

“But they know we’re coming now!” Sanae argued. “Koutarou’s falling back! I guess I stand out too much!”

“Shizuka-san, Maki-san! Advance with me and Theiamillis-san! Let’s go!” instructed Nefilforan.

“I approve!” declared Theia.

“What should we do about Nana-san?!” shouted Yurika.

“She has a detachment in tow, so we’re faster! We can capture Koutarou first!” responded Theia.

Koutarou had abandoned the command center and was now racing back down the mountain. The girls gave chase, with Nana in hot pursuit behind them. They ordinarily would have changed directions for fear of a pincer attack, but Theia chose to stay on the offensive. With Shizuka, Maki, and Nefilforan at her side, they had a powerful forward team capable of capturing Koutarou in one fell swoop.

“Satomi-kun’s fleeing with a small group of people. Can we catch up to him?” Harumi worriedly asked.

Theia answered with unwavering confidence, “Not a problem! He’s heading toward the private beach, and he can’t retreat into the ocean!”

Koutarou was getting closer and closer to the water at this rate. Once he hit it, he’d be stopped in his tracks. He could try to flee up or down the beach, but it would cost him precious time. Theia was assured of their victory the moment he’d started heading for the beach, and it seemed she was on the money.

“Theiamillis-san, we’re reaching the end of the forests!” Nefilforan cried.

“I can see him! There’s Koutarou!” Theia cried in turn.

“Where, Theia-chan?!” Shizuka asked.

“In the middle of that group!”

“Over there, huh?!”

“I can see someone holding Maximilian!”

The first to spot Koutarou was, as expected, Theia. Shizuka and Maki then quickly picked him out. He was running toward the beach with a small squad around him, but the girls were gaining on him now. Theia’s lips curled into a grin now that victory over this extended game of hide and seek was within her grasp.

“Shizuka, Nefi!” she rallied.

“Leave it to me!” Shizuka answered.

“I’m charging in!” Nefilforan shouted,

Shizuka and Nefilforan closed in on the back of Koutarou’s squad. The soldiers were all carrying in excess of fifty kilograms, so they slowed considerably in the sand. The girls reached them in no time.

“Yurika!” Theia called.

“On it! High Mobility Flight!” Yurika called back.

“Here I go!”

Yurika cast her spell on Theia, whose running momentum now carried her into the air. Theia freely soared through the sky and shot toward Koutarou like a bullet. Shizuka and Nefilforan had already taken out the guards behind him, so there was no longer anything between them. The soldiers ahead of Koutarou turned and hurriedly took aim at Theia, but she was swiftly upon them.

“Koutarou!” she roared.

“Whoa!” he shouted.

Theia tackled Koutarou with a speeding hug that sent them both rolling across the sand. They finally came to a stop just as they hit the water’s edge... And so the girls’ team won the day’s training exercise.

“Jeez, don’t be so reckless,” Koutarou complained to Theia. Both of them were covered in sand. He felt her final attack had been excessively forceful.

Theia, however, completely disagreed. “This was your fault!” she yelled, all of her frustration from this trip coming to a head. First there was the swimsuits, then ping-pong, then bug hunting... She’d simply hit her limit.

“But—” Koutarou continued to complain, but he was stopped mid-sentence.

“It’s! Your! Fault!” Though Theia had been wrapped up in the thrill of the chase just moments ago, there were now large tears welling in her eyes.

I guess I did say I’d prostrate myself or whatever else it took... Recalling what he’d said to Nana earlier, Koutarou abandoned the idea of complaining. Instead, he reached over and hugged Theia.

“I’m sorry...”

“It’s too late to apologize now!”

Theia turned away, clearly still angry... yet she didn’t try to break free from Koutarou’s embrace. Rather, she hugged him right back. She was acting like a child.

“It’s okay to be angry, but would you look over there for me for a sec?” Koutarou said, pointing behind her.

If she won’t forgive me after seeing this, then I really will have to prostrate myself...

“What are you saying?! Nothing could possibly make me— Wait, what’s this?!”

When she looked behind her like Koutarou asked, Theia saw large homemade signboard that read: “Thank-You BBQ to Celebrate Commander Nefilforan & Friends’ Hard Work.” Just past the sign was a full spread for a barbecue meant for hundreds of people.

“Wh-What’s all this?! What is the meaning of this, Koutarou?!” Theia turned back to Koutarou in shock, her body trembling. She couldn’t process what was happening.

“Please give us an explanation, Lord Veltlion!” insisted Nefilforan.

She and the others were just as confused. They ran up to Koutarou with hurried steps.

“The short version is that I was a diversion to distract you from all the party prep,” Koutarou explained to the puzzled girls.

In truth, Nefilforan’s unit hadn’t contacted him just about the training exercise. They’d also wanted to hold a surprise party for their commander in order to express their gratitude. They were worried that she’d been overworking herself ever since the coup. However, she was their superior officer and a princess. Holding a party for her without proper consideration for the political climate might net them the censure of higher officials. That was why they’d asked for Koutarou’s help. As the supreme ruler of Forthorthe, no one would dare criticize him for holding a simple party.

After hearing the soldiers out, Koutarou had decided to lend them a hand. When he thought about it, however, he realized that Theia and the other girls had been overworking themselves too. And so he increased the scale of the party to accommodate everyone with a full-blown barbecue. He and Nefilforan’s unit had then gone about meticulously making plans so that none of the girls would notice. Part of those plans involved Koutarou playing the role of a decoy, distracting their attention from the events going on behind the scene. He agitated them on purpose, saying inconsiderate things and ignoring them to draw their ire and attention. Thus the prep work had all gone off without a hitch.

“So was the training another diversion, Lord Veltlion?” Nefilforan asked.

“Partially. It had the added bonus of keeping you all busy, but the training itself was the real deal. Aside from the excuse of the setting, it was all serious. I hope you all learn from what went down here today,” he replied.

“So that’s how it is...”

Koutarou’s mysterious behavior had all been for the sake of the party. He hadn’t really abandoned the girls to go fishing or bug hunting—he was just trying to goad them. He’d also arranged things so that Nefilforan would be separated from her unit that morning. As the truth slowly sank in, the tense atmosphere between the girls relaxed and their expressions returned to normal.

“It seems like Kiriha-san figured me out halfway through, though,” Koutarou admitted.

“What makes you think that?” she asked.

“There’s more food and drink here than there should have been. You pulled some strings behind the scenes, right?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’m never a match for you, jeez...”

“I trusted you from the start, Koutarou!” Sanae chimed in.

“Nuh-uh,” said Yurika. “You said you were gonna put him in a scorpion hold for leaving you behind.”

“You’re imagining things.”

All the hostility directed at Koutarou softened into something sweeter. Not one of the girls was still angry. The revelation made them all rather thankful for him and Nefilforan’s men.

“All right,” said Koutarou. “Let’s go, Theia.”

“Hmm? O-Oh, yeah.”

Still holding on to Theia, Koutarou stood up. He then set her down on the beach and used the towel around his shoulders to wipe the sand off her face.

“That should do it. Also... I’m sorry for my rudeness today and yesterday, Your Highness.”

Koutarou couldn’t deny that he’d picked on Theia in particular to incite the girls. His plan wouldn’t have worked without repeatedly provoking her, and he understood how taxing that had been for her. That was why he felt the need to apologize.

“I won’t forgive you.”

“Give me a break.”

“I won’t forgive you unless you escort me today. I’ll consider that sufficient punishment.”

“Understood. Let’s start with getting some food, then. I’m starving.”

“That’s what you get for throwing yourself into things you’re not used to.”

“You can say that again.”

Theia ran up to Koutarou, who’d started walking ahead of her, and clung to his arm as she peered up at him. He started to tease her, but recalling the events of the last day or so, he thought better of it. The other girls followed after them. They were all hungry too.

“Sakuraba-senpai, you were awfully calm the entire time,” remarked Shizuka. “Did you know what Satomi-kun was planning or something?”

“Well, you see, Kasagi-san... I just believed in Satomi-kun without putting any more thought into it than that. I didn’t know anything until we got here either.”

“I get that. I just wanted to do whatever Koutarou wanted,” Maki replied.

“You could stand to want a little more for yourself, you know?” commented Clan.

“Master had me completely fooled. But now that I’m thinking about it calmly, of course it wasn’t real...”

“You just have a jealous streak in you!” threw in Sanae. “There’s no way Koutarou would like fish and bugs more than you.”

“You were the one threatening to put him in a scorpion hold, Sanae-chan.”

“I told you that you’re imagining things... Anyway, when did you figure it all out, Kiriha?”

“When I learned that Karama and Korama betrayed me.”

“We didn’t betray you, ho!”

“It was all for your sake, ho!”

“That’s why I suspected something of this nature.”

“Ah, of course,” said Sanae. “The haniwas would never turn on you.”

“Our loyalty is unwavering, ho!”

“But we did get some parts for our RC, ho!”

“We sure did, ho! We’re going to do some modifications, ho!”

“You’ll probably just end up selling it later,” laughed Shizuka.

“We got some great footage this time, didn’t we, Kotori?”

“Yeah! But it’s a shame we can’t show it to anyone.”

“We get to keep it for ourselves. It’ll be a great memory.”

“Then let’s film even more!”

“Yeah!”

The large handmade sign also served as the entrance to the party. The girls cheerfully chatted as they passed under it... All but one of them, that is.

“To think the men would do this for me...” mumbled Nefilforan. She was bewildered that all this commotion had been for her.

While the soldiers were worried about her overworking herself, they’d never had the opportunity to do anything about it. There weren’t many officers who outranked Nefilforan that they could ask for help planning something either. They’d patiently been awaiting a day like this for a long time, and when Nefilforan realized that, she was so moved that she struggled to keep her tears back.

“I think it’s okay for you to cry today, commander,” said Nana.

“Nana-san...”

“You all think so too, don’t you all?” she asked everyone else present with a smile.

The soldiers began shouting in agreement and encouragement.

“I’ll be able to brag about seeing my oh-so serious commander crying for generations to come!”

“I was reluctant to deceive you, but it’s a privilege to see you happy!”

“We were really on edge the last two days, so I’m relieved it all worked out!”

“Forget about your worries and enjoy the party!”

“I brought in local specialties from my hometown just for this occasion, so please try some!”

The soldiers opened their hearts to Nefilforan, honoring her with smiles and salutes. They had the utmost respect for their hard-working commander. With that, she was finally unable to bear it any longer.

“You’re right... I think I’ll forget about being a commander and princess for just a day.”

Tears trickled from her eyes. She tried to wipe them away, but more kept coming. So she gave up and let them overflow. It was a glimpse of the young girl Nefilforan really was.

“Okay, guest of honor coming through!” shouted Nana as she pushed Nefilforan along.

“N-Nana-san?!”

“It’s fine! Everyone, make sure she has a good time!”

“Gladly!”

Nefilforan’s unit cheered for her as they gathered around. Nana dragged her right into the heart of the part. She would enjoy herself to her fullest, just like her subordinates wanted.

The barbecue started early that afternoon and lasted well into the night. The adults ate and drank to their hearts’ content, while the younger group ate, relaxed, and played around. Everyone was having fun, but the party also ran so long because the soldiers were trading off security shifts throughout the event. They couldn’t just abandon their guard duties.

“Nana-san, what kind of food is this?” asked Nefilforan.

“It’s a local dish called yakisoba,” answered Nana. “It’s beloved by everyone from children to adults.”

“Yakisoba, hmm? Let me have some.”

“Here you go. Help yourself.”

The soldiers weren’t concerned primarily with having fun themselves. They just wanted Nefilforan to have a good time. And in that sense, the party was a huge success. Even if they all had to work, they got to see her smile, so it was well worth it to them.

“Koutarou-sama! What is this? What kind of dish is this?” asked an excited Nalfa.

“It’s called Pagalona... Oh, wait, that’s the name of the sauce. Two thousand years ago, you would grind up long and thin potatoes and then...”

The menu for the party was extremely diverse. The main course was both Earth and Forthorthian-style barbecue, but there were also tents set up where everyone could try various dishes from different planets. The most popular one was the tent serving dishes from past Forthorthe. There had been a long line outside of it since the party started.

There were also people lined up to get a commemorative photo with Koutarou, so he and Nalfa had their hands full with that. Nalfa was having the time of her life shooting, however, and Koutarou was happy as long as the soldiers and the girls were happy.

“Boys really are awkward...” Shizuka muttered to no one in particular as she watched Koutarou run around. In her eyes, he’d worked the hardest over the past two days alongside Nefilforan’s unit. Preparing all this must have been a lot of trouble, she thought.

“Mmm, this is delicious!” she then said with a smile after popping a piece of deep-fried fish into her mouth. It was part of yesterday’s catch, courtesy of the fishers in Nefilforan’s group—and even Koutarou, who’d snagged quite a few himself.

Harumi, who was eating together with Shizuka, gave her a calm smile. “Is it awkwardness, or is it really just an earnest kind of kindness?” she asked.

“Fair enough,” Shizuka giggled as she went for seconds of the fish. She knew what Harumi was trying to say, but she still thought it was fair to call it awkwardness. And she was content to enjoy every delicious bite of it.

“But with the way Satomi-kun is now...” Harumi trailed off.

She was softly staring at Koutarou, however, so Shizuka could read between the lines.

“Sakuraba-senpai, does that mean what I think it does?” she asked.

“I think the answer is already clear. Don’t you?” Harumi replied.

“You mean... getting lucky underwear?”

“N-No!”

The surprise party that Koutarou and the soldiers had worked so hard to set up would go on for a while longer. They’d all take the energy it gave them and apply it to their duties, both the following day and beyond.