In short, the play was terrible.
And of course it was. They’d only had a day to rehearse it and put it together, so it was short by necessity, the script didn’t have a chance to come together, and as for the acting… Well, it was amateurish and not even worth watching.
However—
“Ah! Hah! Hah! That was terrible!” Colette cackled. “Especially that shriek at the end. I should get a prize for not bursting out laughing then and there!”
“The plot was horrendous, too,” Albert agreed. “I can’t believe they actually had God appear and resolve everything just like that…”
“I didn’t really get it, to be honest,” Melissa said.
As we took a light lunch in the cafeteria, it was surprisingly fun to rip on the horrible play we had just wasted our money on. When I was watching it, I just wanted it to be over as soon as possible, but I could talk about it with my friends like this all day and not get tired of it.
“Mm—look at the time. We’ve been chatting longer than I thought,” Colette remarked.
“Oh—oh… I guess I shall have to wear that wretched uniform again…,” Albert wailed.
But time flies when you’re having fun. Before we knew it, the time for our second shift at the café was fast approaching. I considered the possibility that time had passed so quickly because something I dreaded was up ahead, but that would be the wrong conclusion. It was because I was enjoying spending time with my friends.
I giggled softly and said, “It’s just for today, Prince Albert. If you turn off your brain, you just might have a little fun with it.”
That’s right. Today would never come again. So he and I might as well give up and be dumbasses. Gone were the days where you couldn’t show your face in polite society after you make a drunken ass of yourself at a party! At least we got to dress semi-decently.
“Er, um, w…well, yes, I suppose you’re right, Miss Mylene.”
“True, you won’t get many chances to cross-dress when you go back to the castle.”
“Melissa?! Please, lower your voice if you’re going to say things like that…!”
For all Albert’s indignation over Melissa’s quip, his flamboyant reaction was actually the one drawing all the attention.
The onlookers wouldn’t dream that mysterious beautiful girl could possibly be the prince, but from the way he was acting right now, it was only a matter of time before a couple of them figured it out.
Well, I guess he learned his lesson. I’ll throw him a bone.
“Melissa, do you have—”
—a minute? is how I was going to finish the sentence.
But then it happened.
A loud, boulder-splitting crash boomed through the air, followed immediately by a deep rumble of lightning that shook our very cores.
“Wha—what’s that?!”
“What was that noise?!”
The students in the cafeteria shot to their feet and looked up at the ceiling in search of the mysterious noise and rumbling.
I know that sound… It was an explosion. More accurately, the sound of an explosion smashing something.
“Mylene…”
“Shh! Hold still just a minute.”
The first person to notice the anomaly was Colette. It was no ordinary rumbling. It was an attack. Someone had intentionally destroyed something. The battle training she’d received as the princess of a military empire had instantly clued her into what was happening.
As panic started to settle in around us, we held our breaths and waited for the next noise. And after a while…we heard the sound of a bell.
It was our emergency alarm bell. That meant the school authorities had also caught on to the abnormality of the sound.
“What’s going on…?! Oh, Miss Mylene, do you have any idea…?”
“Not yet. Except…I believe the school is under some kind of attack.”
That was the anomaly we were facing: Somebody was attacking an academy filled with sons and daughters of the nobility.
Yet another explosion rang out. The cafeteria was now in a full-on pandemonium.
“What?! No…!”
“Eep! Wh-what’s happening? Where are the guards?!”
With the second blast, it was clear that this was no accident or coincidence. Even the other students knew it now. It was crystal clear that they were in an extraordinary situation, and they were freaking out.
“Is it them…?” Colette growled.
“I can’t be certain. However, I’m afraid we must do something about it.”
I had refuted Colette’s theory on the grounds that we had insufficient information, but she had a 90 percent chance of being right.
I still thought this was all happening too soon. Colette’s mysterious kidnapping was a big part of this assumption, but these were the guys who weren’t ready to take that plunge because it was too soon. If they attacked this famous prep school filled with the children of the world’s leaders, there would be no nation they wouldn’t make an enemy of.
The tactics just didn’t match…which meant this was either the work of some other group, or maybe our Bastards of the Moon weren’t as monolithic as we thought.
Either way, I didn’t like the idea that Gods of the Moon weren’t the only fuckers crazy enough to pull a stunt like this.
“Who’s them…?” Melissa asked.
“Once we’re out of this mess…I’ll tell you,” I said.
Now that Melissa was entangled in our mess, there was no point in keeping her in the dark. But I didn’t have time to give her the whole spiel right now.
“I’m going to go find out what’s happened. Princess Colette, Prince Albert, could I have you both please keep everyone calm?”
I wasn’t too fond of the idea of sitting on my ass while more people got hurt. I had to find our enemy one way or another—and crush them.
To ensure I succeeded, I needed Albert and Colette to keep everyone in the cafeteria calm so—
“Screw that. I’m coming with you.”
“Me too, Miss Mylene. Now is the time to put my hard training to work!”
I thought they might insist on tagging along…
Motherfucker.
“Um, listen, you two…”
“Don’t say it’s because we’re royalty,” Colette snapped. “By that logic, shouldn’t we stay by your side, where we would be the most protected?”
Albert nodded eagerly in agreement.
Shit…these damn kids. Why do they always have to be in lockstep when it’s inconvenient for me?
But they did have a point. Colette and Albert were much stronger than any of the other small-fry students around us. They wouldn’t get in my way, either. If we were up against two Pearlman-level opponents, that’d be another story, but either way, it didn’t look like I could beat our enemy alone.
“Understood. We don’t have time to argue—come.”
In the end, I caved and let them join me. It would suck if a third explosion blasted us all away while we were bickering.
“I…I’m coming, too!”
“No, Melissa, you stay here. We don’t have the bandwidth to bring along somebody who can’t fight—I hope you understand.”
“Mmf!”
I just couldn’t drag someone into a battle if they lacked sufficient combat ability. Melissa had nowhere else to turn and was backed into a corner, so she pursed her lips and grunted, unable to argue.
“All right, Princess. Before we depart, give a reassuring word to our fellow students.”
“Hum? Oh, of course—attention, brothers and sisters!” With the pomp of a military general, Colette shot her arms out. Her sonorous cry carried a dignified air, filling the crucible of pandemonium with silence in the blink of an eye.
“You are surely in disarray over the sudden events! Fear not—we shall go summon the professors in your stead! Please, wait faithfully for just a little while!”
Colette’s declaration filled the cafeteria with clamor once again. But it hushed quickly, until the chaotic hall was once again peaceful.
It was no exaggeration to say that her ability to control a situation like that came down to pure charisma. With a satisfied snort, she turned her shining eyes toward me.
“Nobody works a crowd like you, Princess Colette.”
“He-heh! Damn straight!”
She would have been perfect, if not for her impudence, but that just gave me something to look forward to ten years from now.
That being said, the students in the cafeteria were now safe. Nobody would unthinkingly cause a ruckus.
We needed to act quickly.
Once we were out of the cafeteria, my eyes fell on the empty hallway. Usually, people would be walking through it at this time…so it felt eerie.
“It would seem nobody’s ambling about aimlessly,” Colette observed.
“They’re smart,” I answered. “Good on them for realizing their lives are in danger.”
If anyone were in imminent peril, we would hear at least one person screaming. But since there wasn’t, that proved nobody was wandering around thoughtlessly.