The third prince pursed his lips, still not ready to accept my answer. That was very rude, not something a royal should have been doing.
“Has anyone told you you’re too well-behaved?”
“Nobody has ever once told me anything to that effect. Thank you for the wonderful lunch.”
Without giving him a chance to stop me, I got up and put the garden behind me.
Man, that really was a good meal. Maybe Colny and I can do something like this in the future.
As we continued to practice for the festival, attacks from the noble faction kept coming. They really didn’t learn. If this kept up, the attacking students would have to skip the festival. Were they sure they wanted to do this? Well, they didn’t have my sympathy or concern.
Then one day, I got a call from the institute in Peylon.
“It’s dooone!”
“Woo! I knew you could do it!”
The magic tool I had asked for was complete. Construction had already begun on the temporary arena hooked up with the mana interference device. Peylon’s research institute was providing technical support, but the actual building was being done by a crew from the royal capital. Every year, the academy commissioned them through the guild, and they had the know-how to get it done quickly.
But more importantly, the new magic tool was ready.
“I already knew the ins and outs of the mana interference tool. After all, I made it. Making something that could mess with that was easy.”
She sounded underwhelmed. She was always one to prefer a challenge.
“I can’t thank you enough. Could you prepare a few and send them to Bear?”
“Can do. How many?”
“Uhh, about three hundred?”
The festival arena was huge. Covering every bit of it probably required about that many interference devices, so we would need around as many of our own devices to counter them.
“Are you guys on the brink of war over there or something?”
“No, there’s no battle happening. I told you, these are for the festival!”
“Yeah, but...”
Nielle trailed off, grumbling something.
“As I said, I need three hundred,” I said definitively. “Get them to Bear as quickly as you can.”
“All right.”
That settled the magic tool issue. Though seeing a few hundred show up might catch Bear off guard. Or maybe they’d show up in a magic storage bag.
After that, preparations continued. I continued to repel attackers. Both my individual part in the concert and our overall coherence were improving. Everything was going well.
Not long after my conversation with Nielle, the day of the festival was upon us. Just like the previous year, Colny and I waited at the gate to greet Thand and Sheila. We were just a few in a crowd of students doing the same thing. Loks couldn’t join us because he was a prefect. Too bad for him.
“Do you suppose Sir Yuin will be showing up?” Colny wondered. “I can’t wait to find out.”
Yuin? Oh, the black knight. The whole festival thing sort of wiped him from my mind.
Even while we waited, my head was filled with thoughts of the upcoming mystic-jockeying exhibition. Apparently a solo run like what we had planned was a first for the festival. They said it might become a staple event if the reception was good. Did that mean I was going to have to run next year? And the year after that?
Just as this occurred to me, a carriage bearing a familiar crest pulled up in front of us.
“Colny! Lera!”
“Brother!”
“It’s been too long, Ville.”
Ville descended from the carriage looking a little haggard. Being the crown prince’s aide couldn’t have been easy.
I was wondering if he was going to be followed by Thand, but next was the black knight. Both of them were on the unkempt side, sporting no tie, just a jacket. Not only that, the black knight was wearing a black shirt, like some sort of number one club host. Not that I had ever gone to one of those places. If the black knight was number one, then Ville was number two. Just the pair of them would be enough to make any establishment flourish.
Perhaps because of the heat, the black knight had his top two shirt buttons undone. Between that and his overall rugged looks, he was inciting choruses of squeals from the nearby girls. That number one host—I mean, the black knight—came up, took my hand, and gave me a gentleman’s greeting.
“It’s wonderful to see you again, Miss Lowell.”
“G-Good day to you.”
Now that he mentioned it, the last time we’d met was when he and Ville came to deliver their warning to me. About a month had passed since then.
“It’s good to see you two again,” Thand said, getting out of the carriage.
“What a relief it is to have such fine weather today,” Sheila said, following behind him.
It was scorching out, so both of them were dressed lightly. Sheila’s dress was especially lovely. It was a very seasonal cream-yellow, made with thin, light fabric, and lace around the shoulders, chest, and sleeves. Just the sort of fine taste I expected from her.
Colny and I led a tour around the festival, same as last year, but having Ville and the black knight with us garnered some stabbing glares. Thinking back on the adoring cheers they had received at the hunting festival reminded me just how popular these two were. They really could run a host club.
They had been enough to make Miss Cucumis Melos and Ribbons sneak into the festival, even. Since the former girl was from another faction, and the latter wasn’t in good standing with the royalists, neither of them had received an invitation. If Ribbons hadn’t gone on the offensive at me and just attended the academy normally, she could’ve been here to see the black knight.
Being with both him and Ville—and notably related to neither of them—meant I was getting a far worse response than Colny from the nearby girls. As much as she got along with Ville, she was his sister. If anyone was looking to marry Ville, then getting on her good side was a smart move. Therefore, all the spiteful, jealous looks were directed only at me, much to my despondence.