“Black tea? Coffee?”
“Black tea.”
“Anything is fine.”
“Okay.”
Pastel rattled the teapot.
Melissa hesitated for a while, watching intently, then reached out.
“I’ll do it.”
“It’s alright! Serving guests is a tradition I take care of personally in the Student Council!”
Elsia looked puzzled.
“What kind of tradition is that?”
“Just now!”
“That’s not a tradition.”
“Wow, that’s not possible.”
Pastel was shocked and activated the magic circle. The water in the teapot started to boil.
High-quality black tea from the Academy was being poured in.
“Ah.”
Melissa’s mouth opened slightly. She gasped softly, shivering with excitement as the black tea leaves fell into the boiling water.
Pastel became triumphant.
Of course, it’s Melissa.
To recognize immediately that these tea leaves are incredibly rare and expensive.
But even so, she’s the kind of friend who generously adds more for the sake of serving guests.
I should add even more!
A handful of black tea leaves was tossed into the teapot.
Splash.
Melissa inhaled softly. Her hands trembled but she hid them beneath the table.
Wow, she must be really touched!
With this, the intimacy is doubled?
“Hmm.”
The devil made a sound.
“Young Craft, tea leaves shouldn’t be added to boiling water. They should be steeped at a temperature below boiling for proper infusion.”
Oh no.
Pastel looked down at the teapot. The water was boiling vigorously, and the leaves were fluttering around. It looked like a vegetable broth was boiling.
Oh no, shabu-shabu.
It looked like it would be complete if meat was added.
“If you add leaves to boiling water, all the good aroma evaporates. The bitterness also becomes intense.”
The devil suddenly criticized himself.
“I forgot to mention such common sense. Given the circumstances, it makes sense that you might not know. Have I been too careless lately?”
Feeling like someone without common sense.
But I can’t refute it because it’s true.
Pastel hesitated, holding the ruined teapot.
She looked between Melissa, who was shocked by the sight of the precious black tea leaves being sacrificed, and Elsia, who tilted her head in confusion.
This guest treatment is a complete failure.
A delicate moment passed.
Just as Elsia was about to genuinely ask if I didn’t know common sense.
Ellie, who had been watching from one side of the Student Council room, approached. She was carrying a new teapot and a stack of documents.
The teapot was quietly replaced, and the documents related to the Knight Corps were handed over.
“It’s supplementary material.”
The devilish girl nonchalantly returned to her seat to finish the paperwork.
Pastel looked down at the new teapot. Some properly measured black tea leaves floated in water that wasn’t boiling.
The aroma of completed black tea rose up.
Oh wow.
Proudly, she lifted the teapot.
Ta-da~!
Guest treatment successful!
Oh yeah.
“Everyone, have a cup!”
She served it and added a handful of sugar before drinking.
This black tea is delicious!
Pastel was very pleased with the black tea.
It was clear tea, so drinking it without magic stone powder didn’t make her spit out blood. Her body reacts to concentrated fruit juices, but not this.
Pastel’s refined taste~.
She stirred the spoon multiple times to add sugar.
Gulp.
Even more fitting to her taste!
“If you’re going to taste black tea, stop adding sugar. At that point, it’s already sugar water.”
Oh wow.
Was I actually fond of sugar water?
Shocking.
After finishing the black tea serving, she started discussing work in earnest.
“The Knight Corps is really inept.”
Pastel handed out reports with a serious expression. Reports were laid out in front of Melissa and Elsia.
“I created this key performance indicator for the Knight Corps, and there are several areas where they fell short.”
“Key performance indicator…?”
Melissa looked perplexed as she skimmed through it.
“The confidential reading is tricky, and it’s hard to quantify, so there’s a lot of subjectivity involved, but there are definitely problems with the Knight Corps.”
They barely maintain the status quo and don’t get anything done properly.
“Y-yeah, it seems that way.”
The report was quickly passed along.
“But the documents are remarkably systematic and elaborate. Is it always like this in the Student Council?”
“Right? It’s work after all.”
Pastel struggled to gradually improve things while not clashing significantly with the academy’s practitioners since the existing structure was a complete mess.
It was fortunate that Ellie merely looked at her curiously and accepted the unconventional manner of work without any resistance.
Dustyn was simply in a manual labor position.
“The North really is underdeveloped…”
Elsia became dumbfounded as she read.
“No, it seems this place is strange, not the issue of the Belmont family.”
Pastel tilted her head.
“More importantly, look at this.”
She handed over another document.
“I requested again to clarify the internal reasons for not taking action during the recent terror incident, and was refused once more.”
It was content that said not to interfere with the academy.
Melissa’s expression became serious.
“It’s suspicious to hide even the reasons.”
“Right? Totally suspicious and utterly incompetent.”
“Isn’t Craft the cause of saying not to interfere?”
Elsia said this as if it was obvious.
“Craft, who gained administrative power over Sky Island through the academy, is naturally trying to meddle with the military authority of the Knight Corps, so they are putting up resistance.”
Pastel suddenly felt unjust.
“I’ve never had such bad intentions?!”
I didn’t get the academy by wanting it; it was just a fluke!
Elsia stared at her blankly.
“So are you just going to leave the Knight Corps as it is?”
Pastel put her finger on her chin, deep in thought.
Hmm.
She said brightly.
“No!”
I’ll show them a lesson!
Swish swish!
Elsia watched her quietly.
Pastel suddenly felt even more wronged.
“This is different! This is not the same!”
She waved her arms.
“The order of events! The order of events is different!”
It’s not the diligent and good Knight Corps being disturbed by greedy Craft, it’s the incompetent and bad Knight Corps that Pastel, who cares about the students, is dealing with!
Oh wow.
In the end, dealing with them was true.
Pastel rolled her eyes and looked back at Melissa.
Melissa!
My best friend! My dear friend!
You’ll believe me, right?
Melissa looked at her suspiciously.
“Are you trying to secretly incite the Knight Corps into doing this? Like a scheme to secure a justification?”
Ahh!
That’s totally something the Craft family would do!
She waved her arms fervently.
“In any case, the order of events is different! Just once, trust my pink, cute appearance!”
Elsia immediately countered.
“That’s Craft’s typical method.”
“That’s right.”
Melissa seemed even more skeptical.
Ahh!
Pastel flailed about, hurriedly pushing aside the documents. She quickly pulled out a new document.
“In any case, the academy has decided to overthrow the Knight Corps! We’re going to exploit their weaknesses before their hostility is fully directed at us!”
Thump thump!
“That’s an utterly cruel idea—”
She shouted, ignoring Elsia.
“The Knight Corps is showing only passive resistance because the president of the academy has died and there’s plenty of leeway! Internally, they probably haven’t unified yet.”
So we’ll slightly skip the administrative procedures and secretly appoint an acting president while preparing a dagger to strike at the Knight Corps from behind.
Once the acting president is chosen, we’ll strike before the Knight Corps even feels it.
“The president of Sky Island should be appointed by the Emperor, but since that hasn’t happened yet, the professors are gathering to choose an acting president for now.”
This procedure was prepared by Professor Horace, a senior in smuggling.
“What we need to do is produce the dagger for the acting president.”
A few months ago, ancient ruins were discovered on Sky Island. With a massive scale and various monsters present, the Knight Corps had been assigned to conquer it.
However, the ruins have been silent without any proper progress reports. Although they protested that the management of the ruins is officially the academy’s authority, the Knight Corps continued to linger in this strange situation. This was before the ambitions of the Craft family spread in whispers.
“Given that they remained silent during the recent terror, there’s a high possibility that a spy from the cult exists within the Knight Corps. The ruins would definitely be of interest to the cult.”
It might not be so, but it’s worth probing.
“We’re going to sneak into the ruins with a small elite team behind the Knight Corps. And if there’s anything suspicious, bam!”
Thump thump! Bam bam!
It’s justice being implemented!
“Is that elite team…”
Melissa looked back and forth between Pastel and Elsia.
“Yep! Just three of us!”
The basic principle of information control is minimizing personnel.
Since Elsia is a victim of the cult’s terror, she can be trusted, and Melissa is just Pastel’s best friend, so she can be trusted too!
“If it’s a bit difficult, you can back out.”
If it’s an official matter, so surely, I’ll keep watch.
“I just happened to feel stiff and intended to warm up by tackling some pirates, so this works out well.”
Melissa readily accepted.
Eek.
What am I supposed to say if she mentioned that she intended to warm up by killing people?
The successor of the Southern commander is relatively intimidating every time this happens.
She subtly shifted her gaze away.
“And you, Elsia?”
The silver-haired girl nodded.
“I’ll join too. I originally came to the Student Council to help out my supporter.”
Wow.
Coming to help a friend!
So sweet!
“Great!”
Pastel jumped up energetically from her seat.
She raised her arms high.
“Party formation!”
Oh yeah.
Then she suddenly paused, realizing something.
Aren’t they on bad terms?
Is this party really okay?
Looking back and forth between the two, she noticed Melissa was lightly sipping her black tea.
“I don’t mix personal feelings into public matters.”
Elsia merely stirred her teacup, not countering.
“Awesome!”
Pastel raised her arms again.
“Party formation!”
Ruins.
Ruins, ruins.
It’s an exploration of the ruins~!
Yay!
