Let’s take freshly-picked fruit as an example.
While they might not be ripe, you could still feel their youth and sweetness a little.
That refreshingness, sweetness and sourness could also be found in the air I was now desperately trying to force myself to breathe in.
“Ara, is he from the Knight Academy?”
“Ufufu… How cute.”
The couple of well-endowed Onee-samas laughed elegantly.
That’s right.
I was… currently standing– in front of St. Ferris’ Girls’ Academy’s front gates, unable to move a step forward.
“…Is it some kind of defensive magic?”
I couldn’t take the last step…!
It was a girls-only school, so boys were prohibited from entering, but that shouldn’t have applied to students from the Magic Knight Academy.
And while I was aware of that fact, it didn’t make the wall towering over me any smaller or less steep.
And that was when–
“Honestly, I knew this would happen,” a goddess, also known as Alice said, having come over to me while I wasn’t paying attention.
And then–
“Woow… What a pretty place! Isn’t it, Yuno-san?” said Athena, her crimson eyes shining as she looked at the building.
She was way prettier than the building though.
Helped along by those two, I finally managed to step inside the grounds of the academy.
“…Whoa that’s bright.”
The inside of Ferris Girls’ was an incredible sight to behold.
A huge, open room with white as the base colour.
The hallways and walls were decorated with golden and silver ornaments, making the place so bright that I instinctively closed my eyes.
But this was not the time to be amazed.
There were groups of beautiful girls all over the place.
And the moment they moved, the flowery scent of perfume assaulted me.
And, amidst all that sensory overload, two students seemed to be coming towards us.
“Ara, Alice-sama, a good morning to you.”
“Everyone, Alice-sama has come to visit.”
“Alice-sama has come to visit?”
And with that, Alice was surrounded by a large group of elegant beauties in an instant.
Unsurprisingly for her, my childhood friend began talking to them all with just as much elegance.
“A good day to you, everyone. It has been a while.”
She made it look so easy.
“By the way, Alice-sama, who might your two companions be?”
They all turned to look at Athena and me.
I froze like a goblin being stared at by a dragon.
“…Erm, my friend Yuno Astorio, and the god Athena with whom he made a contract not long ago.”
““““……””””
I could feel my life getting shorter at much more than the normal rate with every passing second.
“My, so she’s the rumoured beautiful Athena!”
“I-incredible! She really is like a goddess of beauty!”
“Eh? Eh?”
Athena became confused from being under a concentrated fire of compliments, making her even cuter.
I smiled to myself, and looked up at the sky blocked out by the ceiling.
This was how this place differed from the Magic Knight Academy.
The moment Alice had dropped my name, the girls had swept their eyes over us, realised in an instant what to do, and begun to praise Athena.
I didn’t get insulted at all. Something like that would have been impossible in our school.
…Which should have been a good thing, but… but why, why wouldn’t the tears stop…!
And then I came to the realisation that I had been the one who had gotten myself into this mess in the first place.
This is not good. In fact, it’s very bad.
“Y-Yuno? I’ll be going to go talk to some people I know, okay? You’ve already managed to get in, so you should be all right now, right?”
Her concern for me hurt.
I gave her a small nod.
And Athena… was still surrounded by a gaggle of girls.
Changing directions, I made to escape as fast as I could.
“…Gathering information comes first.”
Walking along with heavy steps and having had a change of heart, I began concocting a plan to improve my situation.
First, I’d try to talk to as many students as I could in order to improve my public image.
Steeling myself, I approached two elegantly smiling students in a corner of the corridor I was walking down.
“A good day to you, madamoiselles. What fine weather we have today.”
“Ara, a good day to you too. Are you from the Magic Knight Academy?”
“Are you perhaps also a first-year, like us?”
When I called out to them, the two girls smiled elegantly at me and responded politely.
Got’em hook, line, and sinker.
Don’t you underestimate me, I’m not the third son of a knight for nothing!
“Indeed. I am visiting here to gather information for The Introductions.”
“Ufufu, how admirable. Do you have someone in mind?”
“Oh no, in fact I’m somewhat at a loss, since everyone I seem to see is so beautiful,” I said, and the two of them smiled happily.
Now then, the right mood: check. It’s now or never.
“Have you two, by any chance, already decided on who you will be choosing?” I asked, and the two of them appeared to fall deep into thought.
“Not yet. We can’t really decide either.”
“Naturally, Alice-sama would be our first choice, but others will have had the same thoughts, so the competition for her will be fierce.”
I see… well, that’s Alice for you. Extremely popular.
“Alice…-san really is popular, isn’t she. Oh right, now that I think of it, what do you think of Yuno Astorio?”
I didn’t miss the split second when their expressions crumbled.
“He really would not do. He gets a pass based on lineage, but I heard he is really violent.”
“Indeed. I agree. I also heard that he is the weakest person in the whole of the Astorio family.”
“…R-right you are. Hahaha, he must be having it rough.”
Someone please punch me. Hard enough to erase this conversation from my memory.
“Now that I think of it, what is your name? See, I am in fact a little curious about you. I’m–”
Goodbye, beauty whose name I know not. I must go now.
I sprinted down the corridor as fast as I could.
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