Check out advanced chapters on P@treon: [email protected]/CosmicKaminari
----------
"Are you saying I am no good?"
Chiaia rounded on Kaito immediately, pointing at him.
"Yes. That is exactly what I mean."
Kaito did not try to soften it.
"I am about to become a fully licensed Seikishi, and you, someone who cannot even pilot a Seikijin, are telling me I am no good!"
Chiaia pointed at herself in disbelief.
"How do you know I cannot pilot one? I simply do not bother with those little toys."
Kaito's expression was one of pure disdain. Chiaia fell silent. Even Lashara, standing beside her, found she had nothing to say to that.
"All right, let's move. We will be here until dark at this rate."
Lashara stepped in before things could go any further.
"Hmph!"
Chiaia snorted loudly at Kaito.
Kaito snorted back just as loudly.
"Are you two children?" Lashara looked at Kaito, genuinely at a loss.
He was somehow both an unreliable adult and an unreliable child at the same time. How he managed both at once, she could not say. She decided not to think about it and kept walking.
Twenty minutes later, in the Headmaster's office.
Kaito watched with undisguised enjoyment as two young women took careful verbal shots at each other from opposite sides of the room.
"I heard Swan was attacked. I was very worried, Lashara."
A girl with long brown hair spoke gently, her eyes soft with apparent concern.
Lashara looked at her with a flat expression.
"Hmph. You say one thing and mean another."
The girl showed no irritation at this. She simply continued.
"I was terribly worried that others might get caught in the trouble around you and be hurt. Isn't that right, Yukine?"
The silent, short-haired girl standing behind her gave a small nod.
"Hmph. Sorry to disappoint you."
Lashara crossed her arms.
Kenshi looked between the two with open confusion. Chiaia, catching this, leaned over quietly and said, "She is Maria Nanadan, Princess of Havoniwa. Lashara's cousin."
"Are they not on good terms?"
Chiaia's expression became complicated. "There is some history there."
While Kaito and Sakuya watched with interest, the two cousins continued their polite war of words until the Headmaster arrived and processed the admission permits for Lashara and her group.
Just as they were about to leave, Kaito spoke up.
"You all go ahead. I have something to discuss with the Headmaster."
Lashara looked at his expression, swallowed whatever she had been about to say, and replaced it with a simple warning.
"Fine. But come back early."
"Of course. After all, I still depend on your generous support, don't I?"
Kaito smiled at her. Lashara left without dignifying that with a response.
Once the others had gone, the Headmaster's office held only the three of them.
"So then, what is it this gentleman wished to discuss?"
The Headmaster asked with a patient smile.
"Actually, it is like this..."
The next day.
"Pfft... hahahaha!"
Kaito was doubled over, clutching his stomach, staring down at Chiaia below.
She was dressed in the formal Seikishi investiture attire: an outfit that defied description, complete with cat ear headwear and a cat paw sceptre.
Even Sakuya, who had maintained perfect composure through virtually everything, allowed the corner of her mouth to twitch.
"Kaito, what are you laughing at? This is a formal ceremony!" Lashara looked at him with genuine bafflement.
"Haha... it is... haha... precisely because it is formal... haha... that I cannot stop!"
"Is it really that amusing? It looks perfectly normal to me."
Lashara turned to Kenshi. "What do you think?"
The corner of Kenshi's mouth was also fighting a battle of its own. He managed a response with some effort. "It's... it's fine..."
Kaito sidled up beside him with a conspiratorial expression.
"How about it? Are your eyes deceiving you? I happen to have something useful."
He produced a pair of binoculars from inside his jacket and held them out.
"I... I don't need them. You can keep them, Kaito."
"Still, those seniors really do whatever they want."
"Ha! You will get used to it."
The ceremony concluded. Kaito still wore the expression of someone who had not quite had their fill.
They returned to their quarters. Everyone, worn out from a full day, was asleep before long.
The next morning.
"Right, I'm off!"
Kenshi waved at Kaito and the others with genuine enthusiasm and left without a backward glance.
Kaito watched him go.
"Sakuya, if all workers were like him, every employer in the world would be a happy person."
Kenshi had, through a combination of Lashara's scheming and his own earnest nature, ended up taking on paid work at the Holy Land. He seemed to have no objection to this whatsoever.
"Heh heh. He probably has his own reasons for enjoying it."
Sakuya, as ever, did not comment on others' choices.
"That is probably true. Anyway, I should get going as well."
Yes. Kaito was going to work.
The day before, he had given the Headmaster a small demonstration. The Headmaster had, on the spot, offered him a position as fencing instructor with responsibility for the third-year students' swordsmanship training.
Inside the classroom, the air was buzzing.
"Did you hear? We have a new fencing instructor."
"Really? Is that actually true?"
"Of course it is. My information is never wrong."
A pink-haired girl turned to look behind her. "Princess Aura, have you heard anything?"
"Nothing specific," Aura replied with a calm smile. "But I suppose we will find out soon enough."
"That is true. As expected of Princess Aura."
"You are being too generous."
The classroom door opened. A man and a woman walked in.
Aura was on her feet immediately.
"Mr. Kaito! Miss Sakuya! I had no idea the new instructors would be the two of you!"
Sakuya gave a slight bow. "My greetings, Princess Aura. Though I should clarify, I am not the instructor. My master is."
Every male student in the room had, at some point in the last ten seconds, stopped looking at Kaito entirely and was now staring at Sakuya.
Kaito had been thoroughly sidelined in his own introduction.
"Ahem. My name is Kaito. You may call me Kaito-sensei. If there are no questions, please follow me to the training ground."
He gave Aura a small nod and walked out.
The moment the door closed behind him, the room erupted.
"We only got his name, but Kaito-sensei is genuinely handsome."
"He really is. If I could somehow..."
The male students within earshot were considerably less enthusiastic. "He's just a teacher. Probably got in through the back door. Looks like the type."
If Kaito had heard that last part, he would have turned around and given the boy a sincere thumbs up.
"Let's see how long that smug look lasts once I make him look like a fool in front of everyone."
"Ha. Exactly."
Aura, walking quietly at the back of the group, had heard all of it. Her brow had drawn into a small, tight frown.