While a certain someone was whispering sweet nothings with Miss Sirin, things at St. Freya Academy were anything but calm.
---o---
"Seele, are you just going to stand by and watch?" a girl with her hair down, ending in four spiral curls, asked her other self, her beautiful light-gray eyes fixed on her.
Not long ago, they had both received an invitation from Raiden Mei.
The girl named Raiden Mei had been proposed to by Li Zihan.
After accepting the proposal, the usually gentle Miss Mei, for reasons unknown, had aggressively invited a whole host of girls to be her bridesmaids.
As everyone knows, to ensure the bride and groom remain the center of attention, there are limits to the number of bridesmaids and groomsmen at a wedding.
Even for someone with a great many friends, it's best not to have too many. When a simple wedding is met with a massive entourage of "brothers and sisters," the overall aesthetic of the ceremony can be significantly diminished.
Generally speaking:
For a small wedding of under 100 guests: 1 pair is sufficient.
For a medium-sized wedding of 100 to 300 guests: 2 to 3 pairs of bridesmaids and groomsmen are appropriate. This number of close friends can perfectly manage the occasion.
For a large wedding of over 300 guests: 5 pairs are recommended.
However, no matter how large the guest list, it is best not to exceed 5 pairs, lest the massive entourage steal the newlyweds' thunder. If the wedding banquet is exceptionally grand, it is better to hire a professional service team to organize the event.
Miss Mei, who had no intention of inviting people she didn't know well and couldn't even scrape together a hundred guests, had invited an entire bridesmaid brigade in one fell swoop.
Sirin, Bronya, Ana, Seele, Wendy, Ling, Yae Sakura, Rita...
The number of bridesmaids was completely off.
Sister Mei, this is a show of force, isn't it?
Bronya thought to herself. Back in Uruk, she had been filled by her boss almost every night, after which she had apologized to Sister Mei.
If I'm not mistaken, this so-called bridesmaid list is actually the list of romantic rivals that Sister Mei is aware of.
Bronya, who knew full well that her lover had other girls in another world, felt a pang of displeasure.
Although she didn't really mind that scoundrel having a harem, was his hunting range really this wide?
And...
Most importantly, every single girl felt that he was incredibly attentive to them.
Time magecraft... what a truly broken form of magic.
Bronya, who had Li Zihan's magic circuits implanted in her, held up her arm and sighed, looking at the limb engraved with the very same magic crest.
Whatever. Now isn't the time to think about that.
Her gray eyes once again turned to one of the central figures in this incident.
—The girl who, in another timeline, should have been proposed to right about now, before heading to an Anti-Entropy prison to bail out her guardian Cocolia, journeying to Siberia, and then getting married.
---o---
"That sort of thing..."
The soft-voiced girl recalled the invitation Miss Mei had sent. Her delicate brows furrowed slightly before smoothing out again.
"It doesn't really matter, does it?"
"Doesn't matter?"
Bronya frowned, a look of utter bewilderment, the kind reserved for truly incredible things, rising on her usually expressionless face.
"Big Brother is amazing. He's the kind of person who arranges everything perfectly," the girl with sky-blue eyes said softly, stating her deepest impression of her lover.
"For him to suddenly propose to Sister Mei, he must have his reasons."
"Little Fool, do you really trust that guy that much?"
As her eye color shifted, a somewhat seductive voice emerged from the girl's lips, tinged with an air of exasperation, as if hating iron for not becoming steel.
"That guy might be a genius, but he's a dyed-in-the-wool pervert."
"It's entirely possible that his brain got flooded with sperm and he made a short-circuited, erroneous decision."
Calling oneself "Little Fool" in such a disappointed tone might have seemed schizophrenic under normal circumstances.
Fortunately, the subject of this display was an adorable and beautiful young girl, so rather than appearing neurotic, it was actually quite pleasing to the eye.
"Seele, I think you should fight for it, too," Bronya, who was extremely close to Seele, added her own persuasion.
"A wedding... that kind of thing is very important."
"It's something you need to fight for."
As she spoke, a complex mix of emotions churned within her.
Encouraging the most important person in her life to marry the man she also loved... no matter how you looked at it, it was a strange thing to do.
Was it a sweet sacrifice?
A little, perhaps.
But it didn't feel as happy as she had imagined.
The girl placed a hand over her chest, trying to understand her feelings.
---o---
"I still don't quite get it, Little Fool. Why do you trust that bastard so much?" the voice, now tinged with a seductive charm, emerged again from the girl who had just been speaking so softly. Her tone was one of helplessness.
"Because... Big Brother said he would never lie to me or my other self."
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, the girl whose eyes had turned blue again spoke these words.
"And he promised my other self that he would go back to Siberia, apply for a residency permit, and prepare for our wedding."
Having said this, she fell silent, allowing a shy blush to spread across her face.
"..."
Sensing the change in her other self, Black Seele fell into silence.
After a long moment, she finally spoke.
"You believe in your Big Brother, just as you always have."
"Because Big Brother always does what he says he will."
The girl who believed in the boy who had pulled her from the endless void had a light of trust shining in her eyes.
"So, all I have to do is believe in him."
He does what he says he will?
That's certainly the boss's style.
Bronya thought, standing to the side.
She remembered now. The boss was a person who would never lie.
At the very least, he would never lie to his lovers.
Therefore, Seele, who had already received his promise, only had to believe in him and wait, and she would be rewarded with a grand wedding.
A strange sense of emptiness washed over Bronya.
Seele and the boss never needed her to play matchmaker. They had their own tacit understanding and would reach their own conclusion together.
Holding a wedding, entering the hall of marriage, having children...
Seele's happiness never required her help to achieve.
So, what was she supposed to do now?
Continue to stay by the boss's side as his secretary? Or remain by Seele's side as her older sister?
It was truly... a difficult choice.
Since Seele has already found her happiness...
...then it shouldn't be a problem if I stop assisting her and start pursuing my own happiness, right?