Chapter 99

Chapter 99

Da?te (2)

“No, I really said I do not need ‘this sort of thing’...?!”

“Eisel, I think you do not understand, but what matters in a date is creating a distinctive atmosphere.”

“Haa...”

Even at Blanc’s kind coaching, Eisel only sighed.

“Hmhm, look at you, embarrassed... Let me see.”

Blanc said this and approached Eisel, who was looking into a full-length mirror.

Eisel, who had turned her head to avoid Blanc’s gaze reflected in the mirror, was blushing, perhaps embarrassed by her own appearance.

“This is far better than that gloomy academy uniform.”

Blanc said while tidying Eisel’s hair.

The dress she wore, and even the ribbon tied in her hair.

They were more than enough to change her image.

“As expected of our head of social affairs, yes?”

Blanc gave a thumbs up and winked toward the Black Hand’s head of social affairs. He was one of the people Blanc had called over for Eisel.

“Hut... I know every style currently trending on the continent. I brought something not too old-fashioned, yet refined, but...”

The head of social affairs, wearing a satisfied smile, twitched his “gentlemanly” mustache and approached Eisel.

“But Miss Eisel’s absurd ability to carry anything... rapture, and trembling beyond rapture... Perhaps it was my mistake to try and roughly calculate her aesthetic value. I failed to fully contain her beauty, her charm... Oh... this is a grave mistake. Please forgive me...”

Unable to stop admiring Eisel’s figure, the head of social affairs lowered his head.

At this, Blanc waved her hand.

“It is fine. Since it is her first date, too much would not be good either.”

Meanwhile, Eisel was tilting her head and staring blankly, as if something displeased her.

“How can it suit her this well...”

Blanc and the head of social affairs did not pay much attention to her reaction. They simply guessed that since this was Eisel’s first time dressing up like this, she felt unused to it and embarrassed.

“It suits you, Eisel. You have become a very lovely girl.”

Blanc tapped Eisel’s shoulder as she stood before the mirror and whispered to her.

“...Lovely, you say.”

Eisel softly repeated Blanc’s words.

“Would I lie?”

“Why are you doing this much for me?”

At Eisel’s question, Blanc tilted her head and met her eyes.

“And now she asks.”

Blanc looked at Eisel, who was staring at her, then opened her mouth.

“It was thanks to you in large part that I became branch manager, so what would I not do for you?”

Soon, Eisel nodded and murmured softly, “Thank you...”

Not missing this, Blanc smiled brightly.

Now she only had to go to the meeting place.

Eisel’s eyes were filled with worry, as if there were so many things bothering her.

“...Do not worry and go. If you are the Eisel I know, you will surely do well.”

Blanc soothed Eisel.

After Eisel left, Blanc and the head of social affairs headed to the rooftop of a nearby tall building.

Once on the roof, the head of social affairs took out a magic telescope from inside his clothes.

This was originally a very valuable item used when the information guild Black Hand was doing “work.” It was excessive to use merely to observe an academy student’s date, but Blanc’s power as southern branch manager was mighty.

—Click.

The head of social affairs unfolded the magic telescope and observed Eisel walking far down the street through the lens.

They planned to move across building rooftops while observing Eisel’s date.

To confirm whether Eisel was doing well... was an excuse.

This was merely like rest or amusement.

As a rule, when working in an information guild, one inevitably saw things one did not want to see, and learned things one did not want to know.

For such people, the fresh love story of a lovely girl was good stimulation that brought peace to the heart.

Blanc quietly recalled the time she first met Eisel.

The Eisel from back then felt quite different from now.

Eisel had suddenly barged into Blanc’s office with precious information. Blanc had felt something strange from her.

There had not been any emotion in her eyes.

Blanc could not know what storms this small girl had gone through for her emotions to be worn down to such a state.

That same girl...

...now knew how to blush, and how to worry over love.

Blanc thought.

Eisel needed to be a little happier.

It was a small selfishness, a desire to fill through Eisel the happiness lacking in Blanc’s own childhood.

At that moment, the head of social affairs, who was observing Eisel through the telescope, opened his mouth.

“...Damn it.”

At this, question marks appeared on Blanc’s face.

For profanity to come from the mouth of the head of social affairs, who was famous for being gentlemanly, had something happened?

“What is it?”

Blanc frowned and asked him.

“...Forgive me, Branch Manager. I was terribly flustered, so I slipped... It seems best for you to confirm directly.”

Shaking his head, the head of social affairs handed the telescope to Blanc.

“What could it be...”

Muttering that, Blanc accepted the telescope and brought her eye to the lens.

She was immediately able to find Eisel.

Her lovely appearance remained the same.

Eisel was speaking with a man standing before her.

First, Blanc saw the feet of the man standing before her.

Soon, she raised the telescope slightly and confirmed the man’s face, and Blanc’s mouth opened.

“Uh...”

Only then did they understand why Eisel had said she did not need “this sort of thing” despite them dressing her up.

It was the moment the question of why he had not fallen for Eisel’s appearance was resolved.

The man’s face visible through the lens.

Around his eyes were bandages.

Soon, Blanc removed her eye from the telescope and pressed her brow.

The words Eisel had spoken quickly flashed through her head.

“...He is in the same class, yes.”

“Yes, it seems Miss Eisel’s partner is ‘Student Zeto,’ the blind swordsman who was said to have been active during this open class... This is a problem.”

In any case, they were members of an information guild.

They possessed simple information about students who had made their names known during open class.

“Haa... You are right, it is a problem.”

The dressing up they had prepared for Eisel with great effort had lost all meaning.

Eisel had not told them who her partner was, but from her perspective, Blanc understood why she did not want to say. Whatever else, the Black Hand was an information guild.

Blanc had no intention of handing even the smallest information about Eisel over to the guild, but it seemed she had not given Eisel that much trust.

“Then... the ‘fireworks’ we prepared...”

The head of social affairs carefully spoke while gauging Blanc’s mood.

At this rate, the “special event” they had prepared for Eisel’s date could be considered to have turned to bubbles.

Unable to hide her emptiness, Blanc clicked her tongue once and looked at Eisel.

Whether the conversation was going well, Eisel’s expression had brightened greatly.

“Well, Eisel can still see them, so...”

From now on, everything depended on her.

***

Perhaps because it was the weekend, people bustled along the streets inside the academy city.

Generally, academy students wore uniforms whether it was the weekend or a weekday.

“I did too, but...”

It was convenient, after all.

The only time I wore clothes other than uniform was when I left the academy, and then it was clothes that were easy to move in and a robe to avoid attention.

The shortness of the dress bothered me.

This was my first time wearing such clothes too.

Worried that the ribbon might be strange, I checked through the glass of shop windows as I walked.

“Wow...”

“Who is that?”

“Is that not Eisel Ludwig?”

For some reason, unlike usual, the gazes of people around me were focused on me.

As expected, did I look strange even to them?

It suits you.

Lovely.

Blanc, who provided the clothes, had said such things.

It was not that I did not understand the meaning, but perhaps because I was not used to it, at least in my eyes, it only felt strange.

Even if that was true, it had no meaning to Zeto anyway.

To him, appearance had no value.

Still, this also meant Blanc had not separately investigated me further, so I felt gratitude toward her.

A date.

This was the first time, even including the previous round, that I had come to have a formal meeting like this with Zeto.

Even though I had not yet met Zeto, my entire body was trembling.

“How did I normally walk...?”

Now, even my gait bothered me.

After walking a few more steps like that...

...together with the bell of the clock tower announcing the appointed time,

his figure came into view over there.

“...I thought he would come in uniform.”

Zeto in my eyes looked quite different from usual, just like me.

He was wearing neat and clean casual clothes, and perhaps he had put effort into his usually calm hair, because it was swept back.

My chest tickled.

If I spoke honestly, Zeto was very handsome.

“Just looking at how women gather around him...”

Usually, around the time I reached such thoughts, I would grow irritated, but... today was different.

“Zeto, have you been waiting long...?”

Soon, I approached Zeto and called him.

“No, I just arrived myself.”

He said that and smiled.

Then Herald, who had been inside the shop, heard Zeto’s words and laughed heartily.

The meeting place was in front of Herald’s shop.

“Kahaha! Just arrived, my foot... He came here about thirty minutes ago and kept asking the time. I was wondering who on earth he was meeting, and it was Eisel?”

At Herald’s words, Zeto scratched his head.

Because Zeto did not carry a separate watch, we had set the appointed time based on the bell of the clock tower... but it seemed he had come early and waited.

That was why I was not irritated.

The fact that he had dressed up for me and waited for me was giving me a sense of security.

It was a small thing, but I felt terribly good.

In the middle of that, my gaze went to Zeto’s hair.

Perhaps because it was his first time sweeping it back, or because he could not see a mirror, it was a little clumsy.

If I tucked back that one loose strand, it would probably be fine.

Soon, I stepped closer to Zeto.

“One moment.”

Zeto was far taller than me, so to touch his hair, I had to stand on tiptoe.

Zeto stood still and waited for me.

Like that, I managed to tuck back the one strand of hair that had stuck out.

“...Done.”

Naturally, my eyes turned toward Zeto’s face.

“Uh...”

Only now did I realize the distance between our faces was extremely close.

Zeto’s lips stood out strangely.

I thought this felt just like the moment before a kiss.

“Thank you.”

Zeto’s kind voice came from right in front of my nose, and as he said that, he suddenly took hold of my wrist.

Then he sniffed at my wrist.

“Is this perfume...? It is a faint scent that suits you well, Miss Eisel. It seems similar to the scent of ‘Obshion’ I smelled last time...”

At his actions, flowing so naturally, my face heated.

The perfume was one of the “dress up” items Blanc had prepared.

Among the various perfumes, I had chosen one made from Obshion.

“Hee... How did you know that was the most expensive one?”

Blanc had said that to me when I picked the perfume.

“Zeto really does notice right away.”

His sense of smell was excellent, after all.

But having him openly smell the scent of my wrist, of my body, was terribly embarrassing.

Quickly pulling my wrist free from Zeto’s grasp, I needlessly hid it from him.

Then I turned my head and said.

“...Th-then shall we go now?”

All of it was for the sake of lifting Zeto’s curse.

And for the sake of winning love.

Herald, who was glancing at this from inside the shop, stopped wiping a table and murmured.

“Ah, youth. Youth, I say.”