THE next day, Zara and Mell’s Romance Support Squad met up after work once more. Orange sunlight streamed through the break room windows as night began to approach. The other members of their unit had already gone home, so no one could disturb their meeting.
“All right, let’s begin.”
They started by recounting the events of their previous meeting. Ulgus had made a lethal mistake when he accidentally tagged along on Zara and Mell’s date.
This time, they needed to guide them to a place for just the two of them.
“Didn’t you have a strategy in mind, Vice Captain Velrey?”
“Yeah, I did.” Velrey held up tickets to a concert. She had five in total, with two of them designated for special box seats. “I’m going to give these two box seat tickets to Zara and Medic Risurisu.”
“That’s perfect! A concert might feel nice and romantic for the two of them!”
Velrey, Ulgus, and Garr would take the other three tickets to watch over Zara and Mell. The tickets had become a part of the strategic efforts of the Zara and Mell’s Romance Support Squad.
“Where did you even get these?”
“I won them in the shopping district’s raffle.”
“Ah, that’s right, I forgot about that.” Ulgus also received a raffle ticket when he purchased shoes, but he only won a piece of candy as a consolation prize. “But are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Don’t mind what?”
“You don’t want these tickets for a date of your own, Vice Captain?”
“No, it’s fine.”
Velrey stared off into the distance.
Realizing he may have brought up a subject he shouldn’t have, Ulgus glanced at Garr.
Garr patted him on the back gently, telling him not to worry.
Two years ago, before Mell even joined the squadron, Velrey had informed them she got engaged to a man she met through an acquaintance. But after that, the topic of their wedding never came up again. Ulgus had accidentally stumbled right into the question that no one dared ask.
“Sorry, I told you all when I got engaged, but I guess I never explained what happened after that.” Velrey wrinkled her brow. She had a grim expression on her face once she spoke. “To put it simply, we called things off.”
“I-I see…”
“Yeah. It happened pretty soon after the engagement. It’s actually been two years now, but I never told you guys, did I?” Velrey asked if she could tell her story, so Ulgus and Garr nodded. “We broke up because he wasn’t faithful.”
“What…?! He has you for a fiancée, and he still cheats?! He must be an idiot.”
“Yeah, I really couldn’t believe that man.”
Velrey explained that, on her way home after an expedition, she caught him entering an inn with another woman. She stood outside, waited for them to exit, and immediately hounded him with questions.
The man insisted that it wasn’t cheating if they weren’t even married yet.
“But that wasn’t something I could forgive.” She broke things off with him on the spot, and that was the end of their relationship. “It feels like you can’t know anyone’s true nature unless you have a long relationship with them.”
Garr and Sly both nodded.
“I must be a bad judge of character.”
“That’s not true.”
Velrey explained that the person who set them up had been a boss of hers. Since the boss always took good care of her, she accepted the marriage proposal as soon as she heard it. The man, on the other hand, saw marrying her as a way of getting a promotion.
“Well, men like him just make up ridiculous reasons to cheat even when they’re married, so I’m glad things fell apart in the end.”
“I guess…that’s true.”
When she finished, Velrey bowed her head deeply and thanked them.
“Wh-What’s wrong?! Why are you bowing?”
“I’d been feeling really pent-up with all these emotions, but now that I’ve told you guys, I feel a lot better. Thank you, Ulgus, Garr, Sly.”
Indeed, one could sometimes get relief by sharing their feelings with another. Ulgus thought he had screwed up badly when he mentioned the subject, but now he was glad he stumbled into it in the first place.
“Sorry, we got off topic, didn’t we? The plan was to give Medic Risurisu and Zara these concert tickets.” Velrey would give them the tickets tomorrow. “I’ll try my best to make it look natural.”
“Yes, that would be great.”
With that, Zara and Mell’s Romance Support Squad was dismissed.
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✦ ✦ ✦
VELREY succeeded in her mission of giving the concert tickets to Mell and Zara.
Their busy schedule continued until, finally, it was the day of the concert.
Velrey, Ulgus, Garr, and Sly sat on the third floor.
“I wonder if Medic Risurisu and Ahto are here yet?”
They looked up at the balcony hanging over the first floor, but couldn’t spot them.
“Those seats must be protected so that you can’t see into them from above, huh?”
“I think so. Sorry, I don’t usually come to places like this.”
Garr and Sly had sat in the private box before, but didn’t know what it looked like from the outside.
“Well, I’m sure they’ll enjoy the concert, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I agree.”
The stage lit up for the opening performance. The concert consisted entirely of rhythmic, drumming battle hymns. Velrey’s eyes glazed over at the sheer intensity of songs coming one after another. This was by no means the type of romantic music that made couples want to cozy up with each other.
After the concert…the group gathered to discuss what went wrong.
“I’m sorry, I had no idea the concert would be nothing but battle hymns.”
“No, they were all really cool songs, so I had a fun time…although, I guess that doesn’t help anything.”
Velrey’s strategy had failed too.
“We’ll just have to try again next time.”
“Yeah, good call.”
The next volunteer raised their hand to submit a plan. It was Sly.
“Do you have any good strategies in mind, Sly?”
Sly made a fist and pounded her chest proudly when Ulgus asked that. She seemed to be saying, “Leave it to me!” Then she began to lay out her plan with hand gestures and body movements. She first transformed into many little stars and began to stretch up toward the ceiling.
“Um, is that supposed to be the starry sky?”
She gave a thumbs-up. Then Sly made another star shape and moved from left to right.
“Is that…a shooting star?”
Sly gave a thumbs up to Velrey this time.
Next, she retrieved a calendar from Garr’s breast pocket. She used a pen to black out the square with the current date, then drew a single star on the next day, followed by a group of stars on the next. Finally, on the third day, she drew a meteor in the box.
“Sly, are you saying there’s going to be a meteor shower three days from now?”
Sly grinned and gave her biggest thumbs-up yet.
“Now that you mention it, it’s almost time for the Griffinids.”
“The Griffinids?”
“Yeah. It’s a night where beautiful meteors trail across the sky, just like a griffin sailing overhead.”
“Wow, I see!”
It was an annual event that took place at the start of summer.
“I’ve never heard of that before.”
“It’s hard to see in the royal capital, since there’s still a lot of light at night.”
“Ah, I see. That makes sense.”
Velrey described the beautiful meteor showers she used to watch in the harbor town where she was raised. Mell and Zara might be able to see it too, since their house was outside of the royal capital. It would definitely be worth mentioning to them.
Sly was up for the challenge this time. She was going to use Garr’s calendar to try to convey this information to them. Mell always understood what Sly wanted to say, so they knew she’d be able to get the message across.
The next day, Sly called Mell and Zara over and began to explain the Griffinid meteor shower. Ulgus was reading a newspaper, trying to act like this didn’t concern him. Still, he was very nervous.
“Oh, the Griffinid meteor shower? It will be visible two nights from now?”
“How lovely!”
Mell and Zara expressed their interest. Ulgus surely had a smile on his face behind that newspaper. He was absolutely confident that the pair would experience a romantic night together. However…
“Let’s invite Charlotte and Sir Aiskoletta to watch too.”
“Sounds great. We should make warm drinks for the four of us.”
When he heard that, Ulgus tumbled right out of his chair. The loud thud echoed inside the break room.
“Oh no, Ulgus! Are you all right?” Mell called out to him.
“June! Gosh, did you doze off in that chair?”
“No…I’m…all right…”
Sly had put her entire body into this plan, but she seemed to have forgotten about the couple’s housemates.
How did it end up like this…?!
Every member of the Zara and Mell’s Romance Support Squad in that room shared the exact same thought.
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