At the Opera Epiclese lounge.
After brewing some tea and eating small cakes, two hours passed just like that. Furina's affection toward Nolan had already reached Level 9 with another 280 points.
As for Clorinde, hers had reached Level 8 with an additional 380 points, increasing extremely quickly.
After the leisurely afternoon tea was nearly finished, the opening ceremony of the fashion design competition was also about to begin.
Once the opera house doors opened, the audience seats gradually filled up one after another.
The chamber of commerce had decorated the stage and surrounding areas with various fashion design elements, making the whole place look very stylish and trendy.
Nolan and Clorinde followed Furina to her exclusive seat. She sat there, while Nolan and Clorinde had to stand slightly behind, acting as guards.
Although there were no chairs for them to sit on, from this position they could see the entire theater stage as well as most of the audience seating area. The view was extremely open.
After all, this was the privilege of the Hydro Archon.
Nolan also spotted Chiori and Navia in the audience. They seemed to have come together. Naturally, Charlotte was there as well.
As a journalist, an event of this global scale was certainly worth covering.
However, Nolan could not go greet them for the time being. The range of his ability to continuously attract girls to develop affection for him was limited, so it was better to focus on maxing out Furina's and Clorinde's affection first.
Very soon, the opening ceremony of the fashion design competition began. The host first thanked everyone for attending, then invited Furina to say a few words.
Naturally, Furina delivered some standard remarks, congratulating the successful opening of the event and expressing her anticipation of seeing distinctive and innovative works during the competition.
She was very experienced when it came to making such speeches.
After speaking, Furina sat down again, crossing her snow-white right leg over her left. Her elbow rested on the armrest while her right cheek leaned against her hand, looking rather relaxed.
This was her usual demeanor.
When Furina finished speaking, the audience naturally erupted into enthusiastic applause.
The host then officially began introducing the details related to the fashion design competition. The entire process, including several celebratory performances, lasted about an hour.
After the opening ceremony ended, the official account of the fashion design competition posted a promotional video simultaneously on the "Akasha Internet" to attract more designers to participate.
When the event concluded, Furina asked Nolan to teleport them back again. Soon enough, the group returned to the Palais Mermonia.
Actually, he would have preferred to take the aquabus back slowly. That way they could stay together longer and continue drawing their affection toward him.
Now that they had returned directly, he needed to find a new reason to stay close to the two of them.
Thinking about it, Furina and Clorinde's affection toward him was already quite high. When it was around dinner time later, inviting them to visit his home should probably not be refused.
That way they could spend several more hours together. Afterwards, he could play some games with Furina. If they played a little later into the night, their affection would probably reach max level.
While thinking about this, Nolan followed Furina and Clorinde into the Hydro Archon's office.
Although Furina seemed to wander around everywhere most of the time, she still had to handle some documents that only the Hydro Archon could deal with, as well as stay informed about the situation of various departments throughout Fontaine.
However, given Furina's personality, she obviously would not obediently read such boring documents.
She casually lay down on the sofa, stretched lazily, and instructed Clorinde, "Clorinde, check if there are any new documents that have arrived and read them out for me."
She was completely treating Clorinde as both bodyguard and secretary.
"Understood, Lady Furina." Clorinde clearly seemed used to this kind of task already. Probably only when Focalors was around would Furina make a bit more effort to handle things herself.
"Being the Hydro Archon really seems easy. Quite enviable," Nolan joked as he sat down beside her.
"Hmph. This is called balancing work and rest. As the Hydro Archon, of course I can't pile all the work onto myself. What if I collapse from exhaustion?" Furina said with her arms crossed, sounding quite reasonable.
"Fair enough. After standing so long at the opera house earlier, I also feel like balancing work and rest a bit."
Nolan leaned slightly forward as he looked at Furina.
"W-What are you trying to do?" Furina's face flushed slightly under his gaze, and she spoke with a bit of flustered confusion.
"Hehe. If possible, can I borrow your lap for a bit?"
With a smile on his face, Nolan slowly leaned his body toward her, eventually resting his head on Furina's snow-white thighs.
A soft sensation came from the back of his head, as if he were being gently enveloped.
"Hey! You guy, don't just lie down without asking! I haven't agreed yet!" Furina clenched her small fists, saying in embarrassment and annoyance. "Get up already, you're heavy!"
"Would you like to come to my place for dinner later? You haven't visited Focalors yet, right?"
Nolan extended an invitation to Furina.
"Focalors? Hey, don't change the subject!" Furina wasn't fooled at all. She pushed at Nolan's shoulders, trying to make him get up.
"Alright."
Seeing that his attempt to change the subject had failed, Nolan obediently got up. Furina patted her legs and gave him a dissatisfied "hmph."
At that moment, Clorinde walked over with several documents she was about to read for Furina and said to Nolan:
"Please refrain from doing such disrespectful things to Lady Furina."
"…Mm, I understand, Clorinde." Nolan seemed to deeply realize his mistake and lowered his head deeply.
Seeing that Nolan looked rather dejected, Furina softened a little and said, "I-If you're really tired, I suppose it's not impossible to let you lean on my shoulder."
"Thank you, Furina."
Hearing that, Nolan happily leaned against her shoulder.
"Lady Furina?"
Clorinde wanted to say that the two of them looked a bit too intimate like this. If word got out, all of Fontaine would probably be shaken.
But since Furina herself didn't seem to mind, it wasn't her place to say much.
After thinking for a moment, Clorinde sat down beside Nolan and said, "If you lean on Lady Furina like that, she'll get tired. Why not lean on my shoulder instead?"
"Oh?" Nolan didn't expect Clorinde to say that on her own initiative. "In that case, thank you, Clorinde."
He didn't stand on ceremony. He shifted his head and rested it on Clorinde's shoulder. Furina suddenly felt her shoulder become light again, and for some reason she felt a faint sense of displeasure, as if she were no longer needed.
She gave a small huff and looked toward Clorinde.
"Hurry up and check the documents. If there's nothing important, we'll go over to Nolan's place and take a look. Who knows whether this guy has been bullying Focalors."
(End of Chapter)
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