PMZ 065: The encounter between the Everyone Big-sis and the lady’s army

 

“What’s with that outfit?”  

“Lady Esméralda and the others recommended this for an after-school date.   

When I said that, Quinby-three, who stood on my sides, added.   

“I don’t know if you are aware of this, but Alisha had a rough time during her school years, so we wanted to overwrite it with some good memories.”  

“What do you think? Isn’t she cute? Here.”  

They grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me.  

After one full rotation, I looked up to Hayato, and I could see his gentle smile before he nods.  

“Yes. She’s very cute. Thank you, ladies.”   

“Oh, no, not like that, you can call us by our name too.”   

“eh, but…”   

“It’s all right. You’re Alicia’s fiancé, after all. Please think of us as your sister.  

I am called Esmé by those who are close to me. Please call me by that name.”  

… What about me?  

I’ve never called you Esmé.  

… well, it’s okay.  

Hayato put the score back on the shelf, slung his bag over his shoulder, and put his hand on my shoulder, saying, “Okay, let’s go.”  

“Yes…, oh, Wait. Thank you, Esmé, Bridget and Cecilia. Thank you very much.”  

“No need to. Also, you don’t need to return that uniform, so don’t worry about getting it dirty!”   

“I won’t get it dirty.”  

I wonder what are you talking about? If you think of me as someone who is likely to spill her food or drink, you are mistaken.   

“Then, let’s take a detour before we go home. Is there any place you want to go?”  

For some reason, Hayato’s cheeks are reddening, and he says, “Let’s go to …… Carlos-sister’s place. We also need to prepare for tomorrow…” and opened the door.  

Then I saw Julius, whom I just passed earlier, standing in front of me.   

“……?!”  

He looked at Hayato and me in turn and backed away a little.  

Did you follow me…? Why?   

Or did you come here to talk to Esmé?  

I don’t want him to talk to her in a place where there’s no adult around, after all the things he had said to them…   

I want to say a lot of things to him, but Alisha is not supposed to know what happened, so let’s not do that right now.  

Ignore him. Ignore him.  

I looked away from him and calls out to Quinby-three.  

“So, girls, since we already here, why don’t we go home together? If you want, of course. ”  

“Yes, Alisha! I’ll go with you!”  

Lady Esmé, who seems to ignore Master Julius as entirely as I do, came out into the hallway without even making eye contact with him.  

Then, in my ear, she whispers, “This is your chance to redeem Hayato’s honor. Please show Julius how much you care for him,”.  

I understand, leave this to me.   

I reach for Hayato’s arm as he closes the door, “Shall we go home while holding hands or with our arms linked? Which do you prefer?”   

“Eh? I like them both. I can’t choose.”  

“Then, let me link my arm. I will give you a kiss on the cheek when we get home.”   

I hug his arm tightly.  

When I looked at Esmé and asked her how she thinks about this, the person who had supposedly encouraged me to do this gave me a complaint.   

“It’s embarrassing to listen to. Hayato, is she always like this?”  

I was utterly taken by surprise and couldn’t even complain back.   

“She is. Isn’t she cute?”   

“Yes, she is. But…she looks like a different person from last year.   

Last year, she was more… unapproachable. Like there was no gap in her defense.  

But even so, there was still some point that I could criticize her.”  

“Point like what?”   

“Like her unusually heavy makeup.”   

“Hey! stop it? You can’t spread my black history like that!”   

“What? It’s fine. It’s already public secret, and that’s part of who you are, Alisha.”   

“As expected of Esmé, what she’s saying is right.   

Alice, I don’t care what kind of embarrassing past you have, okay?”  

And I don’t have to reveal my dark past in public like this!   

I’m not going to let this continue.  

“… It’s not good to be open about everything. Even Her Highness said a woman must have her secret.”  

“It’s fine since the only secret is something cute like this. Hayato, please do your best, the current Alisha defense is too loose.”   

“Thank you. I’ll do my best.”  

No, no, no, there are some others too. Who said I only have one black page of history?  

~ LOVE-NOTE ~ for example, I will never reveal that, though.  

I don’t know if my plan was successful or unsuccessful, but I can feel Julius’s stare on my back.  

I hope you understand that I’m not looking down on Hayato or treating him as a convenient piece.  

Thus, we left the academy in a lively mood, and since our group had a high percentage of girls, the chatter becomes lively and livelier.   

In the royal capital, the royal palace is placed in the center, surrounded by the noble districts, and the urban area where the commoner lives circled around it.  

The aristocratic district is the first district, and the second and subsequent districts are for the commoner, but the smaller the number, the wealthier the people reside in it.  

There are 40 blocks in total, and the 15th street where Hayato lived is placed in the middle, a little closer to the center. Although aristocrats rarely come in and out of the city, it’s a nice, lively part of town where both uptown and downtown people mingle.  

I really like this free atmosphere.  

In the end, Quinby-three followed me to Carlos-sis’s store, and Hayato was once again locked in the backyard with only the girls inside.  

Possibly, Carlos-sis doesn’t allow boys to accompany girls on their shopping trips.  

After Brigitte and Cecilia said they liked Carlos-sis’s work, she was in a good mood and pulled out various items from the shelves.  

There are more kinds of not-your-usual swordsman outfit than last time.  

The three of them were not intimidated by this sister of mine, whom they had probably never met before.  

“Oh, really? That fiancé of yours is an awful man.”   

“Right? That’s too much, don’t you think? I’m thinking of calling off the engagement.”   

The strange thing about Sister is, she seems to understand both women’s and men’s hearts, and when you talk to her, you will feel like be able to laugh it off. Because of that, you can’t help but speak to her about anything.  

Esmé shared her annoying episode of today’s event and laughed even though she was angry.   

“But hey, you’re bad too, you know. Slapping a man in public is not a good thing to do. You’re going to get a lot more backlash than you think.”   

“The first person to speak ill of others was him. And I’m sure he meant it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t explain the reason for his conduct.”  

“Are you stupid, there’s no need for a reason for cheating. It just means that he’s not rational enough, also naive.  

Let me guess, that girl… she’s the opposite of you?”   

“How do you know?”  

“Because that’s the case, Every. Single. Time. Understand?   

Some men need both a woman who will accept them for who they are and a woman who will admire them for who they are as the ideal man. One woman can’t provide that. That’s exactly what’s happening with you guys. He is spoiled, that jerk.”  

“…Yes. He’s a real jerk…”  

Esmé had cooled down; then she looked at the products in a bit of a gloomy mood.   

Brigitte and Cecilia were pleased with their choice of matching berets, tie collars, bustiers, and pleated miniskirts in different colors. They smiled and said they would wear them at the next mock battle.  

By the way, I wonder what the banned Demon King is doing.  

I wonder if he’s being forced to read erotic novels between men again. I need quickly to finish this and take him out for ice cream as an apology.  

“So, Carlos-sis. Tomorrow, my adventurer friend is throwing me an engagement party… What should I wear? It’s my first time, so I don’t know.”   

“Oh, that’s right. I’m going too. Betty was screaming because the number of people who wanted to attend the party seemed to explode. Well, that should be expected.  

Who wouldn’t be interested in a fairytale story about a downtown star getting engaged to the country’s top princess and even become a noble?   

What was your question again? Oh, yeah, what to wear. If it’s an engagement party, you can wear a little bit of fancy dress, but this time, the main character is the main attraction, so the guests are incredibly excited. I’m sure the dress will be more festive than the usual.”  

She then brought out a white dress that was hanging on a wardrobe.  

“If you want, you can wear this one. I bought it because I thought it would look good on you, but later I realized there was no way I could sell a dress to a duke’s daughter.   

The quality is not bad, and it’s decent enough to be worn by the nobility’s lower ranks. It’s also adjustable in width so that you can wear it according to your body type.”  

“I’ll take it then.”   

It was decided in an instant.   

If she expects me to wear it, there was no other choice but to respond to that feeling.  

At a glance, it was a standard mermaid line dress that was neatly spread out from the knees down, and the hem did not drag. I’ve never worn a dress in this shape before, but if it can fit me, I think I’ll go for it.  

“Oh, are you sure it’s okay to decide this quick?”  

“Yes. I’m not sure what to wear, but I think this dress is perfect. So, I’ll wear it. Besides, I planned to have a date with my uniform after this, so I don’t want to waste even a second.”  

Then Carlos-sis took another look at what we girls were wearing.  

“I’ve never seen academy uniform before. It’s the first time I’ve seen it this close up.   

… I’m deeply moved by the fact that Hayato is a student wearing the academy’s uniform. … I could never have guessed this before. I guess you could say that this is the miracle of human relationships. You could never predict how it extends to unexpected places.”  

The city’s most famous sister(40-ish) looked at us, and we giggled.  

Bridget and Cecilia bought the twin corsets, and I bought a white dress.  

When I went to the backyard to call Hayato, he was still holding his head in his hands with Miss Carlos’ book collection spread out.  

“You read it again? You never learn, do you?”  

He’s still as straightforward as ever in the weirdest ways.  

He closed the book with a slightly drained look on his face and gently put it away on the shelf.   

“I don’t have anything else to read,” he said. “I thought it was okay if I skimmed through the graphic parts.”  

“From the looks of it, you clearly not okay.”  

“Yeah? I’ve been enjoying the royal palace knight story, it’s pretty realistic. …Oh, I don’t mean realistic in that sense.”  

“Stop, you don’t have to go into detail. I’m sorry to keep you waiting, but I’m done.”  

“Oh, you bought it? let me pay.”  

“Don’t worry about it, more importantly, let’s have a date before dark, okay?”  

We left Carlos-sis’s store together.  

Quinby-three seemed to like her a lot, and they promised to come back and visit her again.  

After that, Lady Esmé tightened her expression as if she had made up her mind and said,   

“I’ll leave you for now. But please let us attend the party tomorrow. Also please inform Betty that we’ll only be there for a moment, so there’s no need to worry about seating or food. See you tomorrow.”  

After saying that, she got into the waiting carriage of Marquis Hardy with Bridget and Cecilia and left for the noble district.  

“Will Lady Esmé be alright …?”  

“Hm, at the very least I don’t think she will make bad move, since she is someone who have strong sense of responsibility. Still, I wonder what she will do.”  

I was curious, but it was not my place to interfere in the affairs of other people’s homes, so I switched my attention to my uniform date.  

“… let’s go to the ice cream shop in Fountain Square. I want chocolate this time, too.”  

“I’ll have milk. Let’s split it.”  

“Sure.  

Also, I want you to put ice cream on your cheek accidentally, so I can say [I can’t help it] and lick it.”  

“I won’t do that. What’s wrong with you? Don’t tell me you are influenced by those novels.”  

“B-But… the image is burned into my head, and if I don’t overwrite it with something, I’ll keep seeing it.”  

“You unexpectedly understand the contents well for one speed reading session, aren’t you?”   

“It’s precisely because I read it too fast…”  

“If you know what kind of book it is, you shouldn’t have read it.”  

I secretly consider his request. I might be able to do it in our home. For now, I will just hug his arms.