With Lyle and Clois jumping in for backup, Ivo looked frail and pathetic. It was hard to believe he’d been so angry just moments earlier. His annoyance and disappointment toward Yui had led to further irresponsible behavior on his part, and he seemed to realize that this had been immature of him. He didn’t have anything to say in response.
“Even though you’re angry at me, you did the exact same thing.” Yui’s words seemed to be the finishing blow. Ivo plopped back down in his chair and held his head in his hands.
A delighted Finney watched Ivo. “Aw, he’s sad.”
“You started it, Finney,” Clois said. He looked at Ivo with pity in his eyes. The way Finney had fun watching Ivo’s reaction was why Ivo had a hard time dealing with him. At the same time, Ivo did always offer up such good reactions.
“But it is true that we went through a lot of trouble because of Ivo,” Lyle said. No one there objected.
After the championship match and a semifinal match had both ended with one of the competitors not participating, Yui and Ivo, who had dropped out, and even Clois and Lyle had all been summoned by the tournament organizers. Because all four of them were friends, they had been asked why they hadn’t shown up and whether they’d rigged the results. The organizers had already strongly suspected some sort of match-fixing; they’d even expected that this might develop into the largest scandal in the tournament’s history. However, when Yui had said, “I was eating cake and I didn’t get there in time,” they’d instantly deflated.
While they had been forced to acknowledge that there’d been no cheating, they had lectured Ivo for disrespecting the dignity of the tournament by getting angry and not participating. The rest had been subject to a severe, somewhat unreasonable scolding for not properly keeping an eye on Yui.
“It was so ridiculous that they scolded us too, even though Cloey and I had nothing to do with it,” Lyle said. “And why didn’t they get angry at Yui? That part’s still a mystery...”
“Didn’t you see how the organizers acted?” Clois said. “The second she got sad, they just looked at her like she was a small, cute animal or one of their grandchildren. That’s why we got all the blowback... And hey, stop calling me Cloey!”
The organizers had originally planned to lecture Yui, the same as everyone else, but when they’d seen how dejected she looked, they’d been overcome by pity. They’d even felt a surge of guilt, as if they were somehow in the wrong for getting mad at her. So, unable to scold her any further, they had turned their attention to the other three.
“Yui has a kind of ethereal frailty to her... By the way, don’t you think Cloey sounds much cuter than Clois?”
“I’m not trying to be cute!”
“Whaaat, why not? There are advantages to being cute, Cloey.”
Every time Lyle made fun of him, the wrinkles on Clois’s forehead stood out more and more. Just when they were about to reach their peak, the door to Yui’s room opened. Everyone reflexively turned to see who it was. Yui happily stood and went over to greet the people who had just arrived.
“Cecil, Carlo,” Yui said.
“Hey, Yui,” Carlo said. Yui went up to him, and he rubbed her head somewhat forcefully. That messed up her hair, and she looked a bit irritated, but her happiness about seeing her brothers was still clearly evident on her face.
“You guys sure are lively. We knocked, but it didn’t seem like you heard, so we just came in,” Cecil said.
“Are these your friends?” Carlo asked Yui.
“Yeah.”
Cecil and Carlo looked around the room, letting their gazes rest on each one of her friends, who all bowed their heads slightly in greeting. Finney acted as usual since he was already acquainted with the twins, but the other three seemed nervous. At the same time, their eyes sparkled like they were gazing upon people they greatly respected.
That made sense—Cecil and Carlo were said to be the most powerful students at the academy. Prince Filiel had a deep trust in them, and he permitted them to be by his side on the academy’s grounds. According to some credible-sounding rumors, many different organizations were fiercely competing in order to poach them for a position after graduation. Though Ivo, Clois, and Lyle were in class A, just like them, the three were underclassmen, and while they admired the twins, they could never get close to them. With Cecil and Carlo right there in front of them, it would have been more unreasonable to expect them not to be excited.
“So, is something the matter?” Yui asked her brothers.
“Yeah, we want to ask you for a favor,” Cecil said, smiling enigmatically.
“A favor?” Yui tilted her head, wondering what it was.
Carlo brought his face close to her ear and whispered so the others couldn’t hear. “You know the spell you used at the palace? We’d like you to cast it on us. We were thinking about dropping by his place for a sudden visit.” He smiled mischievously as he spoke about crashing Filiel’s room.
Yui could easily imagine the surprised look on Filiel’s face, and her expression softened into a smile. “Okay. Hold out your hand,” she said. She put her hands out over theirs and cast the spell. Cecil and Carlo looked quizzically at the complicated magic circles etched onto the backs of their hands. They each examined them from various angles. “Be careful; the spell is only effective for about thirty minutes. When it starts to wear off, you’ll see the magic circle grow fainter.”
“All right, got it,” Carlo said.
“If I remember correctly, wasn’t it shorter when you used it at the palace?” Cecil asked.
He was right. When she had cast the spell on the king and queen, it had only maintained its effect for the length of time it took for all the sand in a small timer to fall to the bottom.
“I’ve improved it since then,” Yui replied. She had continued her research since getting back home from the palace. The spell had only lasted a few minutes in the beginning, but she had extended its effect. She had enthusiastically thrown herself into working to improve the spell before the training camp, but accomplishing this much in such a short period of time had necessitated sacrificing sleep; last night, she had hardly slept a wink, instead devoting all that time to research. Because of that, she had been battling drowsiness for quite a while.
Cecil and Carlo spotted the dark spots under her eyes, and they smiled awkwardly. Whenever Yui liked something, she had a tendency to completely engross herself in it, enough to skip meals and neglect proper sleep. Conversely, when it came to anything else, she was horribly indifferent, and sometimes, even lazy.
“I’m glad that you’re so eager, but you have to take care of yourself,” Cecil said.
“That’s right,” Carlo chimed in. “Sleep deprivation is the enemy of beauty.”
Yui nodded obediently. “Okay.”
“Well, we don’t have much time, so let’s go,” Cecil said to Carlo.
“Do you want to come with us?” Carlo asked Yui.
Yui shook her head. She very much regretted that she wouldn’t be able to see Filiel’s moment of surprise, but it hadn’t been long since she’d turned him down, and she still felt awkward about seeing him. Carlo didn’t say anything else, and Yui was secretly relieved.
“Thanks, Yui. Later,” Cecil said.
Carlo waved. “Bye!”
Cecil left the room, and Carlo followed after him. However, just as Carlo was halfway out the door he turned around. “Ah, that’s right,” he said as if he was remembering something. “Don’t even think about making a move on Yui,” he said to the boys in the room. In sharp contrast to the kind, brotherly look he’d worn when talking with Yui just a moment ago, his eyes were now filled with hostility, and his voice was deep and threatening. Yui’s friends froze in place, and the next second, they nodded their heads so vigorously that it looked like they might pop off.
Satisfied by their response, Carlo left the room, following after Cecil. For a while afterward, the boys were pale, and no one spoke a word.