“Traveling by luxury cruise liner for a school trip is so freakin’ awesome!!”
There were, in fact, three cruise ships docked in the royal capital’s harbor, one for each of the three groups the student body had been split into. All three ships were set for different destinations. Each was over three hundred meters in length and was equipped with leisure facilities. Their interiors had already been thoroughly decked out to welcome their aristocratic guests. The ships had obviously cost an arm and a leg to construct and decorate.
Given how rare this kind of opportunity was, we made the most of the moment by taking a stroll inside to revel in the ship’s opulence.
Marie’s excitement had peaked. “I mean, look how incredible this is!” she continued. “I thought it was silly to spend five days and four nights total just traveling to and from our destination, but since we’ll be spending them in luxury with so many ways to enjoy ourselves, I can overlook the travel time.”
As she’d indicated, it was two nights and three days each way—the same amount of time we’d have in our actual destination. Technically, most of the trip would be spent traveling. I’d initially thought that was ridiculous, too, but seeing this cruise ship in person chased away any dissatisfaction I’d felt.
“They’re treating us way better than I expected,” I said.
Maybe I hadn’t banked on this level of luxury because the words “school trip” brought up memories of the trip I’d gone on as a student in Japan. That didn’t even begin to compare to this. There was also the fact that no game events took place during the traveling part of the school trip—there wasn’t even a single background image—so I had no idea what to anticipate.
“Everything about this ship is entirely too inefficient,” Luxion complained. “If this is adequate to impress you, I could easily install similar facilities inside Partner.”
Marie grinned. “You’re pretty competitive, huh? I won’t stop you. I’d love to see Partner’s interior fancied up more.”
“Don’t egg him on any further than you already have,” I warned her. “Anyway, do you have any acquaintances on board? I’ve got Mr. Lucle and a couple guys from the usual group of poor barons’ sons.”
Unfortunately, my best friends Daniel and Raymond had been assigned to a different group for the trip. The only person aboard whom I was particularly close to was Lucle. As for other acquaintances, there was probably only Deirdre—though I wasn’t sure if I could really call her an “acquaintance,” since we’d soon be relatives. The problem with Deirdre was that she was a little too ostentatious, which made it hard to get close to her.
Marie froze in the middle of the hallway. All the color had drained from her face, and she chewed her lip nervously.
“Wh-what’s the matter?” I asked, worried about her complete change in behavior.
“I’ve got three of them—Ellie, Cynthia, and Betty.” As their names left her mouth, her face stiffened.
Her reaction definitely made sense now. Ellie was a bookworm if ever there was one. The issue was that she had no interest in anything else, not even her own well-being. She had difficulty functioning by herself. Cynthia was the epitome of laziness. She locked herself away in her room to sleep all the time. Betty, on the other hand, had a penchant for painting but was apathetic to everything else. Marie had taken to looking after those three. Actually, maybe “looking after” was an understatement. Those girls couldn’t even function without her, so she was really like a mother hen keeping chicks in line.
“What about Brita and the others?” I was referring to another trio of girls Marie was acquainted with. You could consider Brita their leader.
Apparently they weren’t aboard this ship, though. “Brita was over the moon, saying, ‘I’m going with Lord Chris to the water capital of the world!’” Marie cradled her head in her hands.
“Chris? As in love-interest Chris? I didn’t realize they were all fans of his,” I said.
“They’re only into him because he’s popular right now.” Marie lurched forward, and the two of us continued walking.
“Come to think of it, Miss Olivia’s in our group,” I said. My mind had naturally wandered to the protagonist. With the final boss out of the way, I was curious as to whom she’d spend most of the trip with. “So are two love interests: Prince Julius and Jilk. Who would you say she’s likelier to end up with?”
I thought Marie would enjoy this kind of discussion, being a girl, but her face hardened. Not long ago, she’d hoped to snag one of the love interests herself; I wondered at first if that was why she didn’t find the topic fun.
Marie was quiet. She lifted a finger and twisted a lock of long, flowing hair around it. “I haven’t seen them.”
“Haven’t seen who?”
“Prince Julius and Jilk,” she snapped impatiently, giving me a look. “I haven’t seen either of them. I saw Olivia, so I know she’s on board. But among the girls, a rumor’s already going around that Prince Julius and Jilk aren’t here.”
Now that she mentioned it, I realized that I hadn’t glimpsed either of them since we boarded. My eyes moved to Luxion, who hovered near my right shoulder.
He performed a scan to identify everyone on the cruise ship, his red lens flashing several times. Once he finished, he reported, “I do not detect Julius or Jilk’s signals.”
“Where’re the other three?” I blurted after I digested his response. “I mean, Chris is definitely in a different group, but how about the other two?”
“I do not detect them, either.”
I was sure at least one of them had to be on this ship, so Luxion’s ultimate response that they were all absent was a shock. “You’re kidding me.”