Was this... supposed to mean she should tell stories with this giant megaphone?
The corner of Durandal's mouth twitched. With Elysia staring at her in concern, she didn't answer right away. Instead, she asked, "Where did you even get this? The sanatorium shouldn't have anything like it, right?"
Elysia didn't hide anything and repeated the conversation she'd had with Pardofelis at noon.
"So? Isn't this killing two birds with one stone?! It saves your throat when you're telling stories, and it helps Eden lay out the bait!"
Seeing the look on Elysia's face that practically screamed, 'Praise me!', Durandal sighed to herself.
Why hadn't she gone out during lunch to buy a speaker? Even one of those little portable voice amplifiers teachers liked clipping to their belts would've been better.
But as things stood...
Durandal couldn't bring herself to reject Elysia's good intentions, so another enormous megaphone ended up sitting on her desk.
As Durandal reluctantly began telling Journey to the West through the megaphone, Elysia quietly pulled out the phone she'd prepared in advance.
She snapped a picture of the priceless scene, then sent it to the group chat labeled [Schicksal Family] with the caption: [Shocking! Rare footage of Schicksal's leader!]
The moment the picture went through, the previously silent chat exploded to life.
Everyone saw that the sender's nickname was [A Maiden as Dazzling as Flowers] and immediately realized who'd just posted embarrassing evidence of Schicksal's leader. One after another, people popped out of hiding to join the fun.
--+--
Sweet and Spicy Girl: "Whoa~ Vice Leader is amazing!"
Haven't Been a Girl Boss in Months: "Whoa~ Vice Leader is amazing!" +1
Don't Disturb My Sleep: "Same as above." +1
Making a Hua Figurine Right Now: "Same as above." +1
Hua: "I feel like this might be a little inappropriate."
Snek: "Elysia, aren't you afraid Durandal's going to settle the score with you afterward? You're so doomed~"
--+--
Elysia raised an eyebrow as she read the messages, especially when Hua—the honest soul who'd simply used her real name as her username—broke the chain. As for a certain doctor going by [Snek], Elysia couldn't have cared less.
So what if Durandal came to settle the score afterward? They'd deal with it afterward, and that'd be that. What was there to be scared of?
This was called flirting between girlfriends, thank you very much.
With that thought, Elysia decided she might have a duty to educate this rookie when it came to romance.
Before she could open Mobius's private chat, however, a shadow suddenly fell over her.
--+--
One minute earlier, Durandal had sat down and started telling the story through the megaphone. She hadn't gotten very far when her phone chimed.
Worried she might miss something important, Durandal took out her phone while continuing the story. To her surprise, it was only a group notification.
And why would a group message trigger a notification?
Because someone she'd marked for special alerts had spoken.
Naturally, the only person on Durandal's special-alert list was Elysia—and Elysia had secretly set it up on Durandal's phone without telling her.
Durandal hadn't thought much of it at first and almost turned the screen off after a glance. Yet for some strange reason, she suddenly wanted to know what picture Elysia had sent, so she opened the chat.
Durandal's face immediately darkened.
She hurried through the rest of the Havoc in Heaven story, ending with Sun Wukong being trapped beneath Five Elements Mountain by Tathagata Buddha. Then she announced that today's storytelling session would end there and walked straight toward Elysia.
Elysia had never imagined that the special alerts she'd secretly set on Durandal's phone would expose her mischief ahead of schedule. The moment she looked up and saw Durandal's deeply embarrassed and irritated expression, she knew she was in trouble and immediately tried to slip away.
But who was Durandal?
Her eyes and hands were far too quick for that. She caught Elysia on the spot and dragged her toward an empty corner.
"Elysia, don't you have anything you'd like to explain to me?"
A dangerous light gleamed in Durandal's bright blue eyes.
Elysia shrank back slightly. Instead of trying to argue, she obediently lowered her head, tugged at the corner of Durandal's clothes, and whispered, "I know I was wrong~"
Durandal was speechless.
With an apology that sincere, what was she even supposed to say?
Of course, from the angle Durandal couldn't see, there wasn't even a trace of guilt on Elysia's lowered face. Instead, a sly smile tugged at her lips.
She knew Durandal better than anyone. Durandal was the type who responded to softness, not force.
As long as Elysia admitted fault right away, especially in a place like this, the whole thing would surely be dropped for now.
Clearly, Elysia had completely forgotten how badly that same approach had backfired on her with Durandal before.
She also hadn't noticed that Durandal had already finished today's storytelling session. Elysia had assumed Durandal had only come over midway after noticing the problem, planning to collect a little interest before returning to finish the story.
What she hadn't expected was for the story to have reached the perfect stopping point. Durandal could leave whenever she wanted now.
And with nothing else occupying her thoughts, Durandal didn't need to see Elysia's expression to figure out what she was really feeling.
After all, understanding between girlfriends went both ways. There was no reason Elysia should know Durandal responded to sweetness while Durandal remained clueless about Elysia's mischievous habits and little schemes.
"Give me your phone."
Durandal held out her hand. It was the first time she'd ever asked Elysia to hand over her phone.
"Huh?"
Elysia looked puzzled at first, then realization dawned. Durandal obviously wanted to delete the photo she'd taken.
Elysia didn't mind at all. The photo had already been sent to the group. Even if Durandal used her group-owner privileges to retract the message afterward, so what?
Who knew how many people in the group had already quietly saved the picture to their phones?
Worst case, Elysia could just ask one of her ever-reliable groupmates to send her a backup later.
"Here!"
With that thought, Elysia cheerfully handed over her phone without the slightest concern.
But after taking it, Durandal didn't touch Elysia's photo gallery. Instead, she opened the [Schicksal Family] group chat, typed out a message, and hit send.
[This is Durandal. You know what I mean.jpg]
The chat had already gone back to mindlessly repeating the same message after Hua and Mobius's interruption.
It fell dead silent in an instant.
You could've heard a pin drop.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL