Arcadia found a very fiery way to support.
“All those people from here to there are friends I called! With this many, I’m sure Father won’t have to worry!”
“Hiyaah!! There are so many people!! Too many!!”
Titosso fell into a state of fear. I was just as shaken by the dread. I needed ten friends, asking for help. I had started to say it…
But the line snaking around the campus, stretching out from the shaded tent, turned out to be over a thousand people long.
“Hello, Lady! You look really great today!”
“Hehe. Do I? Pril, that bracelet on your wrist is really lovely!”
“Hehe. It was designed after my name, so I have to show it off!”
Titosso’s friend number one, Pril. As she chatted with Arcadia, her face dripping with sweetness, she approached the trembling Titosso, awaiting her fate while sitting down.
“Hey, Titosso! I heard from the lady! Let’s go see Father together!”
“Huh? Uh, yeah…”
Dragging my unwilling feet like a reluctant criminal, I headed towards where Titosso’s Ghost Papa was.
“Hello, Father. I’m Pril, Titosso’s friend.”
“Ooh! So our Titosso has such a cute friend! Why didn’t you say so sooner!”
Ghost Papa was very satisfied. He reacted with warm, proud emotions, every word Pril threw out making him glow with joy. I was beginning to feel a bit guilty, as if I had to become a real friend just to make amends.
“Hehe. What a fun father you have. Let’s be close later, too, Titosso.”
“Uh, yeah…! Thanks, Pril!”
“Bye-bye~”
Pril waved goodbye and skipped away. Before I could even feel the weight of parting with a new friend, Lady Arcadia raised her flag.
Then, the girl holding a number two ticket approached, sporting a battle-ready drill hairstyle.
“Number two in line, Kanilian Truffle. I came, thanks to Lady Arcadia’s invitation, to be your daily companion. I’m the daughter of a lord who connects the Truffle city in the Southern Sacred City-State Federation.”
“What?! Really? I’m from the Southern Sacred City-State Federation too! My father is the mayor of Canele City!”
“They say you carry expensive toys around, and indeed, you seem well-off.”
Something about her felt noble and intimidating. Overcoming that initial impression, to my surprise, we connected; with similar backgrounds and lots of common ground, we chatted like real friends. She smiled sweetly introducing me to her father, making Titosso’s Ghost Papa very happy.
“With this momentum, we’ll quickly fill up ten! Thank you, Arcadia!”
“Don’t mention it. Now you’re really going to have to struggle.”
“Huh…? Struggle?”
“I don’t know about you, but the life of a socialite is really tough. Always having to keep a smiling face and talk to people wherever you go, there’s hardly any time to put your heart down.”
“Uh, um… Lady Arcadia? I only need to get ten friends approved…”
“If I still say that since I helped with ten, I don’t have to be your friend, do you think everyone here would just go, ‘Oh, I see,’ and leave?”
Arcadia let out a wicked smile that mirrored a lich’s sociopathy, tinged with the bitter taste of society.
“You’ll end up with enemies instead. Who do you think you are to reject us? Are you really that great? We’ll see about that.”
“Eek!”
“Or you can just become friends with everyone. Titosso will be living a very hard life voluntarily. But if you’re happy with having all these friends like you wanted, then I guess it’s all good, right?”
“Your smile is scary…!”
“Oh dear, don’t be frightened, Dii. It’s not that I’m struggling to manage all the kids who follow me nowadays, or that I’m planning to thin them out, or that I have my eye on Titosso to take care of the people management or anything like that?”
…You’ve really set your sights on her!
A confirmed candidate for the secretary!
“Still, that girl is going to learn a valuable lesson. Being afraid of people’s malice won’t teach her how to deal with them.”
“Did you have all this planned out, Lady?”
“Of course. Some just want to curry favor with power, some want a supporting force, and others are simply starved for relationships. You learn to distinguish between them as you meet more people.”
“Are you trying to test Titosso by giving her such a big task?”
“Something like that.”
“How can you trust Titosso with such a big responsibility?”
Dealing with people isn’t easy. Not only is it hard, but trusting someone else to handle it is even harder. An agent might quietly insert someone into the list for their own interests or take a bribe to keep quiet about a potential threat.
Even if Arcadia had her hands full balancing her studies and network, the position she was offering was something anyone following her would covet.
“Think about it. Titosso doesn’t want to gain any profit; she just needs friends, right?”
“True.”
“Also, the touching reason is to not worry Papa, which is heartwarming.”
“That’s true.”
“If Dii, who can distinguish friends, has chosen a kind-hearted friend, then surely just learning how to pick the right people will be helpful.”
“Ah, I see… huh?”
All good, but unnecessary footnotes were added.
“Me? Picking and choosing friends?”
“Oknodie only likes good guys, right?”
“But Jiang is nice yet bad?”
Hestia too, and Jezel. Didn’t she get close to all necessary people without a discrimination of traits?
“I’m not talking about the problem of good and evil that people think about, nor a threshold for extreme actions. It’s about the mindset towards people.”
Nice kids and bad kids. Arcadia had her own standards for distinguishing this.
“But still, I worry. What if that timid girl feels the malice of people and can’t endure it till the end?”
Arcadia’s worries would soon be revealed. The first two passed the test consecutively, but…
*Number of friends shown so far – 3 / 10
Pril and Kanilian Truffle.
After counting the first two, not a single name has been recognized as friends by Titosso’s Ghost Papa from the hundreds that followed.
Titosso was feeling under pressure.
“What’s the big deal about friends? Just chatting once is enough to be friends!”
“Uh? Umm, yeah, hehe.”
Overflowing with social butterflies.
“What’s your relationship with Lady Arcadia?”
“Uh, we’ve exchanged greetings here and there…”
“That’s not really a relationship, is it? What makes Lady Arcadia pay special attention to you?”
The curious noble children were all out in full force.
“Uh, can you say something nice to the lady? I can give you this. Okay?”
“Br-bribery?! I can’t accept something like that! I’m not authorized to guarantee anything if I say good things to Lady Arcadia.”
“Are you saying your sincerity isn’t enough? You’re really greedy.”
“It’s nothing like that!”
“Fine. If you don’t want it, just say so. Do you have to make me seem like the bad guy? You’re really something.”
Exhausted students couldn’t believe that the recruitment of friends was that sincere.
“Ugh… I’m really tired…”
“Are you okay, little one?”
“I’m fine. Papa, you’ve worked hard too…”
Titosso could see that it wasn’t just her who was disappointed by the lack of pure motives in everyone else’s expressions and her father’s gloomy behavior.
The lady must not be trying to torment her, but a little resentment bubbled up. Still, fussing in front of her father would only cause more worry.
To ease Papa’s concerns couldn’t yield the opposite results, so Titosso smiled broadly.
“See, Papa? I’m a total socialite! Look at all these friends I have!”
“Is that so… But this Papa can’t help but worry. I wonder how many real friends you could have, if you just built superficial and light relationships.”
“Not all of them are light friends, right? Even if I meet a thousand, if I can make one real friend, I don’t think it would be wasted time.”
“You’ve grown up enough to speak maturely. Our little Goo Titosso has really matured.”
“I was surprised too seeing you today, Papa. I always thought you were just loud and embarrassing, but you’ve shown a more mature side.”
I’m grateful. Please keep being close with Titosso.
Even such commonplace words were rare from the Papa she had always known to be a silly man.
Perhaps it wasn’t just herself who had grown.
Papa had grown too.
Just as she worked hard to be a good friend for someone, Papa also strived to be a proud Papa he wouldn’t be embarrassed to show to others.
“Thank you, Lady. For creating such a good opportunity.”
“Did your father enjoy it?”
“Not fully, but he seemed alright with it.”
While Lady Arcadia and Titosso engaged in conversation, a flash of light suddenly sparkled in the alley.
“Eh? Isn’t that where Papa was…?”
As Titosso and Arcadia dashed over in surprise, Oknodie was there, holding a letter.
“Oknodie? Where’s Papa?”
“He wanted me to deliver this!”
Upon opening the letter, Titosso found a greeting wishing her well for her upcoming school days, alongside a pair of rings.
– A friendship ring to cherish your friendships.
– Share it with your closest friend.
Titosso pondered for a moment before extending one of the rings toward Lady Arcadia.
“Lady, this may not seem sufficient for your help, but could you accept this ring?”
Titosso offered shyly, and Lady Arcadia awkwardly smiled while glancing at Oknodie.
Oknodie was overcome with shock, emotions flooding his face.
A player missing out on an event reward right before their eyes.
It was naturally a shocking moment, but Titosso’s gift wasn’t over yet.
“Is it okay not to give Oknodie one? It said to give it to my closest friend.”
“I’m fine. The other one is for Oknodie!”
“Eh…? Then what about Titosso’s share…?”
Titosso nervously twirled her hair, shyly confessing her feelings.
“I’d be happier thinking that you, Lady and my most treasured friend here, are wearing this ring and thinking of me.”
