I’m done for!
“Alice-sama! Please become my knight!”
“You! How dare you!? Alice-sama is my knight!”
“Ufufu… please keep the jokes here to your face.”
I was standing in the middle of an empty circle even amongst the huge crowd present, trembling a little from shame.
If I had to make an analogy… I was like an unsold piece of fruit after the shops had closed.
Actually no, making an analogy like that would be rude to fruits.
“Ha…hahaha”
These were the results of me having visited St. Ferris’ Girls’ Academy rather frequently.
There wasn’t anyone who would even come close to me, let alone actually call out to me.
As a result, a void with me in its centre had formed.
“…It’s almost like barrier magic,” I muttered to myself; the situation really was dire.
“Yuno-san! You’ll be fine! There’s definitely someone amongst all these people who know how wonderful you are…!” Athena said, trying to cheer me up. Her crimson eyes were threatening to get wet again.
I took a deep breath to calm myself down and looked around at my surroundings again.
Unsurprisingly, most of Ferris’ Girls’ students were trying to recruit Alice first.
She had a prestigious family lineage, and she was the top student of our year, the combination of which made such a result seem only natural. Also, her still talking to me just showed all the other students how nice of a person she was.
Were I one of the girls here, I also would have undoubtedly chosen Alice.
However, while she was extremely popular, the other girls were being rather aggressive, so much so that she was struggling to stay in place.
Being popular wasn’t always good.
It seemed like she had finally decided to say something.
“Thank you for the invitations, but I am afraid I cannot accept. You see, I have already decided upon someone. I have admired her for a long time now, and it has always been my goal to become her sword. So please, give me no heed and look for other knights.”
What a surprise. I didn’t know she had already decided on someone.
The girls were all crestfallen.
Some of them even appeared to be crying.
“Well, all right then… it’s a pity, but we will have to give up then. Still, I am curious as to who they might be… I’m slightly jealous of them,” said one of the girls with a sad smile, walking away from Alice, soon followed by the others.
“Everyone, I really am sorry. However, I really do hope you all find wonderful knights. My childhood friend, Yuno Astorio–”
The people who were still hanging around Alice left quite rapidly.
““…””
Our eyes met.
Alice smiled happily and mouthed ‘just give up’ at me.
Stop. Please. I really will cry.
The next one. The next one will be the one, for sure.
I looked around at my surroundings again.
Alice had been the one and only centre of attention up until then, but it appeared like there were other popular students as well.
“Kraim-sama! Please become my knight!”
“Hey you! There is a queue you know! You’re being rude to Kraim-sama!”
“Ufufu… the only rude thing here is your face, am I wrong?”
I had a near overwhelming feeling of deja vu.
Having found out that they wouldn’t be able to recruit Alice, most of the girls had switched targets to this guy called Kraim.
“Ladies, please, do not quarrel over me. I could not bear it if your beautiful faces were marred.”
“Kraim-sama…”
He made it look so easy.
I had never seen him before, but he really seemed like the lady-killer type.
To put it simply, he was blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and good-looking.
He also probably had quite a good pedigree too. It was oozing out of the way he spoke and that self-confidence unique to nobles.
“I am truly overjoyed to have received so many invitations from such pretty girls. However, I must ask for your forgiveness. You see, I have already decided with whom I will walk the path to graduation.”
…Seriously? Not only Alice, but he had also already decided on someone.
…I really am pathetic.
But, just as there were people like that who attracted huge crowds, there were also people nobody even glanced at.
Wait, so, maybe it’s not just me after all…? I thought to myself, looking around, and found another person with barrier magic around them.
““……””
Our eyes met. It was Maro.
A look of displeasure flashed across his face, but then he came over to me.
“Hey hey, don’t tell me nobody’s called out to you yet? Huh, Yuno?”
“…That’s right. Same goes for you, I see.”
“Don’t act as if we’re alike. I turned down all their requests just a while ago. They were positively flocking to me, you know.”
Was that true? Well, it wasn’t impossible. He was actually quite good at magic, and his family background also had nothing lacking.
“So, why’d you refuse them all? Have you already decided on someone as well?”
“T-that’s right. Like I said, it’s not that I’m not popular,” Maro said, breathing heavily and crossing his arms.
“Compared to me, you’re already finished. I doubt there’s anyone stupid enough to call out to some incompetent impostor. But don’t worry. The two academies have the same number of students. So in the end, you’ll be paired up with someone else who found no partner. So you extras can be in each other’s company until graduation.”
I see. I do feel a bit less worried now.
I won’t not have anyone to protect until graduation.
However, if that happened, I’d definitely be laughed at behind my back until graduation.
And if I were alone, that wouldn’t be a problem. But I wonder what people would think about Athena if that happened.
So, while I couldn’t do things like see the future, mine seemed to be very not bright indeed.
“…Hm?”
Now that I think of it, I can’t see Athena anywhere.
In a panic, I looked around, and–
“Excuse me! Please become Yuno-san’s princess! He’s a wonderful person! He’s super nice and strong and he’s very cool!”
I could feel the tears forming in the corners of my eyes.
Right. Since when was I such a coward?
She was desperately trying her hardest for my sake, and all I was doing was moping around.
“Somebody! Please let me be your knight! I’m Yuno from the Astorio family!”
I shouted into the auditorium with a voice even louder than Athena’s.
Some people raised their eyebrows. Some snorted derisively. Some ignored me.
The reactions I got were most certainly not good ones. Still, it was way better than doing nothing.
As I was asking around like that, a girl came up to me.
“Umm… do you remember me?” she asked, her curly light-brown hair swaying anxiously.
I remembered her. I remembered who she was.
She was one of the two girls I had first called out to on my first visit here.
“Of course I do. I’m terribly sorry for running off like that mid-conversation.”
“N-not at all, I was the one who said such terrible things without knowing who you were…” she said apologetically.
“Don’t worry about it! It was a misunderstanding, which was only to be expected given my reputation…” I said, and she smiled as if relieved.
“Thank you for saying so. My name is Ein Stadt, but feel free to call me Ein.”
“All right. Then let me introduce myself properly as well,” I said, going down on one knee and looking up at her.
This was a battleground. I was currently winning. She didn’t have a bad impression of me, unless I was being overly conceited.
I took a deep breath, ready to say my name–
And that was when the auditorium’s large double doors opened loudly.
That was all that happened.
And yet, I still felt compelled to stop what I was doing and turn to look that way.
“Am I dreaming…? No way… the Solitary Moon is here…?”
One of the girls in the now dead-silent auditorium whispered, loud enough for it to carry.
My thought’s went something like this:
…The what now? Solitary Moon?
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