“Actually, when this conversation happened, Sain was being ostracized as usual, so I think you can trust him on that,” said Sasha.
“R-Really? Ostracized as usual, huh... I guess that does make him trustworthy.”
“...Being trusted has never felt so bad,” mumbled Sain.
Sasha’s testimony proved his innocence, but it came at the cost of his dignity.
“As for how the ‘monster’ image came about for Alicia,” Sasha continued, “I did hear a lot of people say it was because they kept seeing her smack Sain around.”
“See?! It’s your fault after all!” exclaimed Alicia.
“That is literally the opposite of what she said!”
Sain flailed his arms indignantly at her egregious attempt to shift the blame. Granted, there were plenty of times when it was his fault, but this was definitely not one of them.
“Anyway, now that we’re all nice and familiar with each other, can I start interviewing the two of you, already? Let’s start with some simple self-introductions!” said Sasha, who pulled them back on topic.
Sain was still bristling from the profound injustice he’d suffered, but he made an effort to put it behind him for a moment and straightened himself.
“I’m Sain Fostess, an intermediate first year, and I’m aiming to become the dark knight.”
“I’m Melia, also an intermediate first year, and I’m the attendant of the Darkness Dork here.”
“Stop calling me Darkness Dork, damn it,” he complained while keeping a straight face.
“Thank you for introducing yourselves. Next, I’d like to ask a few questions. The first is for Darkness Dork— Excuse me, I mean, Sain.”
“Okay, hold on. That was definitely intentional.”
“As a contestant entering the third round of the tournament, there will surely be growing curiosity about what kind of person you are.”
“Hey, you can’t just ignore—”
“To that end, could you tell us a little about how you usually spend your days here at the academy?”
“...You’re a cheeky one, aren’t you?”
He could hear Alicia and Marni snickering behind him, and he had to clench his fists and take a deep breath to suppress another wave of irritation.
“Fine, whatever,” he said, yielding. “Anyway, like I was saying, my goal is to become the dark knight, so I spend most of my free time learning dark magic.”
“Hmm, learning dark magic, you say?”
“That’s right. During downtime between classes, I read textbooks about dark magic. After school, I go either to the library tower to look for other books or the training gyms to practice actual fighting. My days off are more or less the same. Oh, I should also mention that Miss Grim here is my mentor.”
He gestured at Marni, who cautiously pulled her hood a little further down over her head as Sasha looked in her direction.
“The dark elf Marni, otherwise known as the master of the library tower, I presume? I see... So you’re studying under her. There’s a lot of talk right now among students about how you’ve suddenly gotten stronger. Is her mentorship the reason for that?”
“It absolutely is. Miss Grim helped me a great deal during the field exercises as well. Without her... I’d never have managed to come this far,” he said in an earnest tone, which caused Marni to look away in embarrassment.
“I see, I see...” mumbled Sasha as she furiously scribbled notes. Then, she looked at her second interviewee. “What about you, Melia? How do you spend your days here at the academy?”
“I’m Master Sain’s attendant, so... I’m mostly in the same places. Usually, I’m helping him do whatever he needs done, but I spend most of my time around him even when I’m doing my own thing.”
“Are the two of you together on your days off as well?”
“Yes. I’m his attendant, after all,” she answered with a tone of professionalism.
“I see that the rumors are true. The two of you are indeed very close to each other.”
“Are we?” asked Sain and Melia in unison. They eyed each other quizzically.
“Oh, I see what’s going on. A clueless pair,” Sasha muttered to herself with a sigh before addressing them again. “Many students attending Jenifa are nobility, so attendants aren’t exactly unheard of. Those who spend every waking moment with their master, though, are definitely a rare breed. Normally, they trade shifts with other attendants after school or during days off.”
“They do?” asked Sain.
“Yes. Your current arrangement is rather extraordinary.” Sasha lowered her voice to a whisper, but it didn’t hide the bubbling curiosity in her tone. “Excuse me, but would you say the relationship between the two of you goes beyond that of a student and his attendant?”
Sain sighed and was just about to deny the claim when Melia answered first.
“It’s complicated. In a way... it’s both yes and no.”
“B-Both yes and no...?”
Sasha’s eyes went wide. Sain, taken aback by Melia’s answer, hastily whispered in her ear.
“Hey, Maid, what was that supposed to mean?”
“I’m also the attendant of the holy knight, after all,” she whispered back before letting out a knowing giggle.
Technically, what she said wasn’t wrong, but it seemed like the kind of remark that was going to cause misunderstandings down the road — not that he could do anything about it, since he had no way of explaining its nuances.
“D-Details! Can you give me more details?!” exclaimed Sasha. Her gaze was intense, almost hungry.
“Unfortunately, I can offer no further details. All I can say is that we’re sort of special. Our relationship is a little more than just a student and his attendant,” replied Melia, purposefully opting for a vague and suggestive answer.
“This... is a heck of a scoop!”
Sasha gulped as she scribbled even more furiously in her notepad. The interview continued for some time, as Sain and Melia answered questions about topics that ranged from their hobbies and talents to what they were doing before they came to the academy. They kept their responses fairly innocuous. For obvious reasons, neither mentioned a word about their holy knight activities. For questions that couldn’t be answered honestly, they played off each other’s lies to craft a cohesive fiction.
“All right. Last set of questions,” said Sasha as her pen came to a stop. “What are your thoughts on your next opponents? Do you feel confident that you’ll win? If so, is there any reasoning you’d like to share?” she asked, gesturing at Sain to go first.
Sain pressed his thumb to his chin and contemplated his answer. His opponent for the third match was the younger of the Eldis twins, Yuria. After collecting his thoughts, he gave a frank reply.
“I think it’s going to be a tough match for me. Yuria is a formidable opponent, and slugging it out toe-to-toe with her is unlikely to work out in my favor. Furthermore, she’s also the clever type, so I doubt I’ll have much luck trying to outwit her.”
“You seem very familiar with Yuria’s characteristics. Do you know her well?”
“Yes. We battled each other during the field exercises. At the time, I was fortunate enough to have the help of my friends here and thereby claimed victory. This time... it will be one on one. I’ll need to have a plan going in.”
“A plan, you say?”
“I feel like she’s not used to close-quarters combat. If I can get in her face, I might have a chance.”
“I see...”
Sasha dutifully wrote his answer into her notepad.
“What about you, Melia? Your opponent is the student council president, so...”
“Well, at this point, I don’t think I need to say much about him,” she answered. “As pretty much everyone knows, he’s one of those master-of-all-trades-and-jack-of-none types. Trying to outsmart an opponent like that with some sort of cheap trick tends to backfire, so I intend to face him head-on.”
“In other words, it’s going to be a clash of raw skill and power. How confident are you that you’ll win?”
Melia paused for a second before replying.
“No comment.”
Sasha nodded with understanding at her deflection. Then, after flipping through her notepad to confirm she didn’t forget to ask any questions, she stood up.
“Thank you very much for your time today! The contents of this interview will probably be talked about by the commentators before tomorrow’s match, so look forward to that!”
She bid them an energetic goodbye and ran off.
“So, the battle expo is only getting started,” mused Sain as he watched Sasha and her blue ponytail disappear into the crowd. “It looks like tomorrow is when things really start heating up.”
There was undoubtedly a lot of fierce competition in store, and the news club was out in force interviewing contestants to capitalize on the audience’s enthusiasm.
“I’m a little thirsty from talking so much,” said Melia.
“Yeah, let’s find some place to relax for a bit,” concurred Sain.
He looked around for a spot where they could get some rest.
“...Everywhere’s full of people,” muttered Marni.
It was three in the afternoon — exactly when fatigue was starting to kick in for the visitors and everyone felt like taking a break. Stores with seated tables were packed full, outdoor benches were already claimed, and even the stairs in front of buildings were occupied. Just as they were starting to dread the prospect of having nowhere to go, they heard a bright female voice nearby.
“Thank you very much, Master, and we hope you come again!”
It belonged to a girl who was bidding goodbye to a group of four men who had just stepped out of a cafe with a pink sign.
“Huh. Isn’t that the maid cafe Sain got all fascinated with in the morning?” asked Alicia.
“...It looks like four seats just opened up,” added Marni.
A waitress dressed in a monochrome maid uniform stood at the entrance. It was indeed the store on the flyer Sain had gotten before his first match, and the four men leaving meant there were exactly enough open seats for them. However, with Sain having bungled his interaction with the maid earlier in the day and hurt Melia’s feelings, walking in there now seemed like a great way to make things very awkward. Three pairs of eyes inadvertently shifted toward Melia.
“...It’s fine. Don’t mind me,” she said. “In fact, I’m also sort of curious about how the maids in places like these work, so... feel free to go in.”
“R-Really? Okay, well, let’s go, then?” suggested Alicia.
Seeing that Melia wasn’t bothered by the incident in the morning anymore, they relaxed and headed toward the maid cafe.
“I mean, Sain did say that Melia’s the one and only maid for him. After a statement like that, there’s no way he’d be interested in some random maids in a cafe, right? Melia’s leaps and bounds beyond them,” Alicia added.
Sain nodded.
“Right. What happened this morning was a misunderstanding. I was caught off guard. That’s all. They might be wearing maid uniforms, but they’re mere amateurs on the inside. They’ve got nothing on a professional like yourself,” he said in an attempt to sweet-talk her into letting his earlier blunder slide.