"Come to think of it, Nagisa-chan is really thoughtful. She even lent you this kind of facility."
Gazing absentmindedly at the shimmering pool under the morning light, the girl dressed in the Tea Party member's exclusive attire sighed with emotion.
Then she turned her face toward me with a bright smile. "How's the training camp? Being far away has its perks, right? Did you take the chance to do anything fun? Like having the girls from the Make-Up Work Club wear swimsuits and throw a swimsuit party or something?"
Such an enthusiastic attitude was indeed quite deceptive.
If it were not for the fact that her tone in last night's Momotalk had been as cold as ever, I might even have thought the heavy sarcasm in her voice was just my imagination.
Rather, after meeting Seia before, thinking that Mika might already have some goodwill toward me was my mistake.
Though I could not rule out the possibility that she was playing hard to get to draw my attention.
After last night's Momotalk, early this morning I received a message from Mika asking me to meet her alone by the pool behind the annex.
Even so, I had assumed she would, like Nagisa, bring a few trusted guards with her. Yet when I looked around, there were only the two of us.
That probably meant this was, in Mika's eyes, a highly confidential meeting.
…So why is it that even though she clearly has something important to discuss, she still opens with this kind of barbed tone? Did I do something wrong to make her harbor such hostility toward me?
Seeing that I did not respond, Mika narrowed her eyes and teased, "You're really something, being so cold to me. You even wanted to go on a date with me before… haha. Even though I cleanly rejected you. Don't tell me you're still holding a grudge? How petty. Aren't you supposed to be an adult? I'm going to get hurt, you know."
She threw out another question that I could neither answer nor ignore.
In the end, I could only mutter in frustration, "Sorry."
At that, Mika's smile faded slightly for a moment, but quickly returned.
"Hahaha. Why are you apologizing all of a sudden? That makes it sound like I'm bullying you."
Isn't that exactly what you're doing?
Even though I was displeased with her attitude, objectively speaking, I still remembered the sight of Mika descending like a divine soldier to save me from the giant serpent that the man in black had called Binah.
Whenever I recalled the girl stepping on the serpent's head, wearing that pure, innocent smile, my heart would always start racing.
Maybe I had already fallen for Mika from that moment.
So whether publicly or privately, I was willing to tolerate her rudeness, at least for now.
Although I was still a bit annoyed, after all she was one of my future wives. I would just keep this account in mind and settle it later.
"Or are you not interested in this topic?"
After a brief pause, Mika asked casually, "Then how's the food here? Want me to send something tasty over? Swiss rolls or black tea or something."
"…I appreciate the thought, but that won't be necessary."
"Heh, what's with that? So boring."
Mika chuckled. "Your answers are way too dull… Speaking of which, have you not really looked into what young girls are interested in these days?"
Uh… if I had to say…
Me?
"Hehe, forget it. Looks like you're not very good at responding to my opening lines, Sensei. Then let's get straight to the point."
Seeing that she finally seemed ready to stop circling around, I let out a small sigh of relief, only to tense up again immediately.
She had specifically called me out here, asking me to repay a favor that had been set up so long ago.
What exactly was her goal? And did Nagisa know about this?
"Oh, by the way, Nagisa-chan doesn't know I came here," Mika said as if she had guessed my thoughts, veering off topic again. "As you can see, this is a solo operation without attendants."
I could not help but advise her, "Mika, just saying, at a time like this, for your own safety, it's better not to go out alone."
What if she, as a fellow Tea Party member, were attacked by enemies?
Having once been saved by her, I naturally knew Mika was not as fragile as she looked. But I doubted she could take on a hundred opponents alone.
Even if she could, among the hidden enemies, there was a high chance of someone as skilled as Saori.
If she were attacked, whether Mika could hold out until reinforcements arrived was uncertain.
How could I not worry?
Yet Mika looked at me in surprise and hesitated. "Eh? Are you… worrying about me?"
I asked back in confusion, "Is that strange?"
"Hehe, not at all." Mika smiled. "I just realized you're actually pretty funny. I don't really get it though, is it an age gap thing? Haha, just kidding. Anyway, back to the main topic… Let me confirm something first. Did Nagisa-chan propose some kind of deal to you?"
"A deal?"
My heart stirred, though I kept a calm expression.
"For example, let me think…" The pink haired, golden eyed girl pondered for a moment. "Like asking you to find 'Trinity's traitor' or something?"
So she already knew.
That night, Mika had not been at the Tea Party venue.
Had she planted someone beside Nagisa, or did she simply understand her childhood friend that well?
Either way, this leader of the Pater faction was probably not as simple minded as people imagined.
Though I did not answer immediately, Mika seemed to read the answer from my reaction and sighed.
"…I see. Just as I thought. Nagisa-chan really is predictable. So did she give you any detailed information? Or was it more like telling you to 'just find them'? Reasons, motives, why the Make-Up Work Club is composed the way it is, did Nagisa-chan tell you any of that?"
She fired off one sharp question after another, all precise and cutting to the core, making me reassess her more and more.
Had something about her friend made her grow? Or had she simply been too lazy to think before, which was why she had acted so… unusually opinionated?
"…I see. Honestly, telling the Sensei of Schale to shoulder such a heavy burden without explaining anything."
Her sigh interrupted my thoughts, and I said in a low voice, "Nagisa did propose it, but I already refused."
"Eh? Why?" Mika looked at me curiously. "Don't tell me it's that cliché reason of not wanting to suspect your own students?"
"It's not that there's none of that… though I don't think I can fully live up to it yet."
"Heeh~ is that so. So you do have some self awareness."
My mouth twitched. This girl really was going a bit too far.
This constant need to jab at me intensified a sense of déjà vu, enough to remind me of two old acquaintances.
"Hahaha, I'm joking. Don't take it seriously."
Mika, who did not sound like she was joking at all, laughed in a way that felt a little loud to me, then eagerly pressed on. "So what's the more crucial reason? Can you tell me?"
Since I had not fully sorted out my own thoughts, I hesitated before answering, "Maybe… limitations of my position?"
"Why are you phrasing it as a question?"
Pouting in dissatisfaction, the girl whose tongue was sharp only toward me, yet whose appearance was angelic, thought for a moment and evaluated, "Well, that makes sense. You belong to Schale, which is originally a third party unrelated to Trinity… That's an interesting answer. I see, that's fresh. But it's also correct."
She seemed to have misunderstood something.
"Then whose ally are you?" Mika asked with a smile. "If not Trinity's, then Gehenna's? I remember you're on pretty good terms with the Prefect Team. And Pandemonium Society too? Haha. That Gehenna student council president even boasted about how close she is to you in an official document submitted to the Tea Party before the last Eden Treaty meeting. Nagisa-chan even smashed her favorite tea set recently."
…That really did sound like something Makoto would do.
I was starting to understand one of the reasons for Mika's bad attitude toward me.
I defended myself. "I don't have any particular bias. If Trinity and Gehenna were to clash, I wouldn't casually take sides. That much I can guarantee."
"Whatever, I was just saying." Mika twirled her hair with her finger and nodded indifferently. "Don't worry. Even Nagisa-chan now wouldn't believe that kind of baseless rumor without evidence. Hmm… But with that neutral stance, does that mean you're an ally of the General Student Council? Or maybe you're no one's ally at all?"
After a moment of thought, under her gaze, I slowly said, "If I have to take a stance, even if it sounds like pretty words… how about being an ally to all students?"
As soon as I said that, the air between us shifted subtly.
Mika withdrew her smile and stared into my eyes in silence. I met her gaze calmly.
Come to think of it, setting aside her hostility toward me and her self centered tendencies, Mika truly was a rare beauty.
In the near silence, broken only by heartbeats and breathing, my thoughts began to wander.
Until a gust of wind brushed through the leaves with a rustling sound and swayed the small ornaments on her white wings.
"…That really is a pretty sweet line. But somehow, I don't dislike words like that right now."
A pure, sweet smile returned to her face with the breeze, her tone light and drifting. "In other words, I can consider you my ally too… right? Even though I'm in this kind of position, I'm still a student."
"Of course. I'm your ally too, Mika."
Perhaps caught off guard, she froze at my immediate answer.
But she quickly regained her composure. "…Even though I've already made it this obvious that I dislike you?"
I choked for a second. I had not expected her to be that self aware.
So her earlier harsh words were not accidental, just intentional.
"Well, it can't be helped." I sighed, no longer restraining my tone. "Even putting my duties aside, I still owe you a favor."
"Wow~" Mika nodded in satisfaction. "If that's the case, I'd actually be happier. In that case… a Sensei who claims to be everyone's ally, yet has already been paid in advance by me and forced to owe the hardest debt to repay, and has also made a deal with me. I can see it that way, right?"
A relationship based purely on exchange of interests, without any emotion mixed in.
Rather than happiness, perhaps reassurance would be a more accurate word.
I tried to guess her thoughts, but had to admit with regret that I still did not truly understand Mika.
No matter how she saw it, she was someone I would protect, and someone whose heart I would one day steal. That would not change.
"Then, as a show of good faith in this deal," Mika stepped closer and casually dropped a bombshell, "let me first tell you who the traitor in the Make-Up Work Club is."
"…What?"
In that instant, the scattered clues I had gathered converged around the implication in her words, forming a shocking possibility.
Seemingly satisfied with my reaction, Mika smiled enigmatically, then composed herself.
"The 'traitor of Trinity' Nagisa-chan mentioned, the one she's desperately trying to find and expel. Though in reality, it's entangled with some slightly complicated bigger issues… Watching Sensei get spun around by Nagisa-chan like this… how should I put it, I feel a bit sorry for you."
She paused. "Don't look at me like that. Even though I do dislike you, one thing is one thing. After all, it was originally my proposal for you to become the Make-Up Work Club's advisor. Did you know that?"
"It was you?"
Mika nodded. "Yes. Nagisa-chan was actually strongly opposed. Saying it would be a waste to use up a hard earned favor and so on."
I was somewhat skeptical of that statement.
Was it possible that Nagisa simply liked me too much and did not want to drag me into this mess?
Still, from different perspectives, the same event could be viewed differently. That was not surprising.
What concerned me more was something else.
I asked, puzzled, "Why me?"
Mika raised an eyebrow. "Obviously because you owe me a favor. And besides that, Seia chan trusts you a lot… Personally, I also wanted a third party force that doesn't belong to Trinity or Gehenna to get involved."
I see.
At the moment of Seia's "death," she had transferred the trust she originally placed in Seia onto me.
Although the two of them often clashed like oil and water, they were indeed sincere friends.
…So she also redirected her dissatisfaction with Seia onto me.
Thinking of that possibility, my gaze toward Mika softened instantly.
"What's with that weird look? I didn't say anything strange, did I? Did I go too far off topic? Anyway, back to the traitor."
There was no more suspense, no heavy atmosphere.
Mika simply smiled faintly, as if speaking of something trivial, and calmly told me,
"Trinity's traitor is Shirasu Azusa."
In other words, the one who had secretly supported Azusa's transfer into Trinity was none other than a true upper echelon of Trinity, the representative of the Pater faction, a Tea Party member.
The girl standing before me.
Misono Mika.
My first reaction was relief.
If I had acted rashly and handed my collected clues to Nagisa, the Tea Party might already have descended into internal chaos.
"You don't seem very surprised?" Mika tilted her head curiously.
"Not exactly. But since you're willing to tell me, there must be a reason."
"Let me remind you, it's better not to trust me too much," Mika said helplessly, then began to explain. "But you might already know, that child wasn't originally from Trinity. She came from a school that split off from Trinity long ago, a branch… Arius Branch School."
"Arius?"
I felt like I had heard that term a long time ago.
Mika nodded slightly. "Yes, you know about it. When we first met, I mentioned it. I've always hoped to reconcile Arius and Trinity, but Seia-chan and Nagisa-chan kept opposing it."
With that reminder, I recalled it, and my impression of Mika changed further.
She had actually managed to find the school that had been expelled by Trinity at its founding as a show of force, even reached some sort of agreement, and arranged for a student transfer?
In a sense, Mika was truly not someone to be underestimated.
With that, many suspicious points now made sense.
Perhaps all my previous deductions could be overturned.
At this point, Mika muttered as if to herself, yet also as if asking my opinion,
"…Hmm, thinking about it carefully, I'm not even sure whether she can be called a student. Can someone who isn't learning anything be called a student?"
I pondered briefly but did not address that question. "So by telling me this, what do you want me to do to repay the favor I owe you?"
"…Hehe."
Mika laughed softly and praised, "That's a very good look in your eyes. Really. It makes one look forward to it. I suppose there's no point in glossing over it… Alright, I'll be direct."
She glanced toward the annex, as if her gaze pierced through the walls to see the so called traitor studying diligently inside.
Then she finally voiced the request she had been building up to.
"I want you to protect that child."