The clock on the wall struck exactly 5:36 AM.
This Sunday, I decided to skip my usual habit of outdoor physical training. The practical training session with Lady Aiselin was imminent, and what I needed right now was the most optimal physical condition and a cool head to calculate backup plans. I leaned back on the sofa, closed my eyes, and mentally reviewed the sequences of dynamic equations.
A knock sounded on the door. The sound was very soft, but sharp enough to cut through my train of thought.
"Who is out there?" I lowered my voice to ask, afraid of waking Kanade.
"It's me, Aiselin."
I froze for half a second. My brain immediately fast-forwarded through the variables. An eldest lady of the Shirakawa family personally knocking on a staff member's door before six in the morning? It was definitely not a trivial matter. I immediately sprang up, adjusted my clothes to be neat, and walked quickly to open the door.
Outside in the corridor, Lady Aiselin stood there.
"Please come in, My Lady." I bowed slightly, maintaining a measured attitude and yielding the way.
As soon as the door closed, I carefully observed my master. Aiselin's eyes did not look at me but lightly swept across the room. Her gaze stopped at the large bed, where Kanade was curled up sleeping soundly under the warm blanket. Immediately after, those tranquil eyes shifted to the sofa where I had just lain, still bearing a dent and a hastily folded blanket.
A very faint smile, almost imperceptible, fleetingly crossed Aiselin's lips.
I was about to speak up and ask if there was any incident bothering the Lady at this hour, but she spoke first, her voice soothing but heavily laced with the imposition of a noble:
"Say, Zero, you don't mind if I cast a soundproofing magic on your room, do you?"
A sudden and heavily implied request. Establishing an absolute soundproof space signaled a highly confidential exchange.
"No, I do not mind. Please feel free, My Lady." I replied, not showing any surprise on my face.
Aiselin gave a slight nod. She closed her eyes, her slender fingertip lightly drawing an arc in the empty space. Pale blue mana particles began to converge, oscillating at a specific frequency.
"Oh elegant spirits of the sky, protectors of silence. Cast an invisible veil, block all vibrations, and imprison the sound in this place."
The room sank into a thick silence.
Surprise brushed through my mind. From a physics perspective, maintaining a vacuum environment to completely nullify sound wave vibrations demanded incredibly intricate mana control. Why would Lady Aiselin expend energy on such a complex technique so early in the morning? A top-secret message from the family? Or a high-risk tactical change for the upcoming training session?
I was just parting my lips to ask when Aiselin immediately turned around. Her sapphire blue eyes shone with an unbelievably mischievous glint. She brought a slender finger to her lips, smiling slightly and signaling for me to keep quiet.
Leaving behind her usual majestic, aristocratic demeanor, the eldest lady tiptoed silently across the carpet, heading straight toward the bed where Kanade was still deep in slumber. The moment the distance was closed, Aiselin suddenly leaped onto the mattress, diving in to embrace the small Kanade curled up under the blanket.
Hit by this utterly unexpected physical impact, Kanade startled awake, her feline ears standing straight up in alarm. Even while tightly squeezed in Aiselin's arms, she awkwardly blurted out:
"Sir Zero, what are you doin... Lady Aiselin?"
The demi-human girl's lemon-green eyes widened to their limits upon realizing the person nuzzling into her shoulder was not me at all.
"I see you are living quite comfortably, Kanade," Aiselin smiled, her tone carrying a bit of playful poutiness.
Fluster clearly showed on Kanade's face. "Lady Aiselin, what are you doing?"
"When it's just us like this, don't call me so formally. I'll be sad."
"But..." Kanade hesitated, awkwardly darting her eyes toward me as if seeking a logical fulcrum to escape this situation.
Aiselin immediately interrupted, tightening her embrace a bit more. "I already set up a soundproofing barrier, no one outside will know. And Zero won't mind, right Zero?"
Being suddenly dragged into the center of the conversation caused the analytical machine in my head to stall for a beat. However, the survival instinct and polite demeanor of an outsider to the nobility immediately helped me produce the most optimal reflex:
"Yes, My Lady. I completely see nothing and hear nothing."
Standing quietly beside the messy sofa, I calmly observed the scene before me. All calculations, all complex hypotheses about political conspiracies or energy calculations in my head shattered. Instead, a very simple conclusion was extracted: Stripped of the perfect cloak and the title of the Eldest Daughter of the Shirakawa family, Aiselin was ultimately just a 14-year-old teenager. A girl carrying a burning desire for close friends and simple, everyday moments.
"You are so soft, Kanade." Aiselin's voice rang out with delight, completely shedding her usual majestic facade.
"Please stop, Aiselin..."
Kanade weakly protested. Pinned down on the bed, her cat tail wagged wildly in fluster. Unable to do anything else, Kanade directed her lemon-green eyes, brimming with helplessness, toward me to seek a way out.
"Save me, Sir Zero."
I smiled slightly. A sequence of behaviors outside any frame of reference of the nobility, yet an entirely harmless variable. Intervening in this moment was logically unnecessary.
"Do your best, Kanade." I replied calmly, declining to intervene in the turbulent friendship of the two young women.
Right after my words, Aiselin giggled. She used a bit of strength to completely pin Kanade down on the bed, comfortably nuzzling her face into the demi-human girl's chest like a small cat greedily seeking warmth.
Realizing the trajectory of the situation had shifted to a level of intimacy where male observation became impolite, I immediately turned away. I shifted my center of attention to the messy sofa. Leaving the noisy, teasing sounds drowning in the soundproof space, I calmly folded each edge of the blanket squarely (IT'S FOLDING THE BLANKET SQUARELY INTO THE SHAPE OF A BANH CHUNG RAHHH), returning maximum free space to them.
After smoothing out the final creases so the blanket was as sharp and square as a perfect banh chung, I stood up straight. Today was a day off; I chose a comfortable yet neat casual outfit.
I turned to look at the two girls on the bed, bowing my head slightly with the most unhurried demeanor possible.
"My Lady, I request permission to step outside for a few minutes to brew a pot of hot tea for you two."
Aiselin didn't even bother to look up; she merely waved her hand lightly.
"Yeah, go ahead."
Saying that, the eldest lady continued burying her face in Kanade's chest. My unlucky maid's face was now blushing furiously all the way to her ears. Seeing I was about to leave, Kanade hurriedly spoke up, her maid instincts rising strongly:
"Sir Zero, please let me go brew the tea for..."
"You stay here."
Aiselin immediately cut her off, wrapping her arms even tighter around Kanade, completely blockading all escape attempts of the Feline girl. Realizing I shouldn't intervene any further in this "warfare," I quietly stepped out of the room and closed the door. The mana veil enveloping the room vibrated slightly. A one-way soundproofing barrier. Sound waves from the inside were completely nullified upon hitting the mana wall, but sound flows entering from the outside were not obstructed at all. A quite interesting signal-filtering mechanism.
A while later, I returned with a steaming tray of tea. I knocked on the door three times slowly.
"Come in."
Aiselin's clear voice echoed out. I opened the door and entered. The chaotic scene on the bed had ended. Both Kanade and Aiselin were now seated on the sofa in the middle of the room. Even so, Aiselin still clung to Kanade, her hands tightly hugging the girl's arm. I smiled politely, walked over to place the tray on the table, and unhurriedly poured tea into the two porcelain cups.
"The friendship between you two ladies is truly profound." I spoke gently, pushing the two teacups toward them.
"Kanade and I are best friends." Aiselin took a sip of tea, her eyes narrowing in deep satisfaction. "It's been a long time since I had the chance to be this close to Kanade."
I nodded in understanding, pulling a chair to sit opposite them, keeping a polite distance. Setting my teacup down, I got straight to the point.
"So, My Lady, there must be a special reason that compelled you to go out of your way to visit my room so early in the morning?"
Aiselin set her teacup on the table, the mischievous expression from earlier gradually replaced by a more serious and sharp look.
"There are two reasons." She held up two fingers. "First, naturally, is to be close to Kanade. And second, as I mentioned before, I want to apply the knowledge learned from you into practice. Through two one-on-one sparring matches, one between you and me, and one between me and Kanade."
Hearing the request for a one-on-one duel, my brain immediately stalled for a beat.
It's over. I silently screamed inwardly. If facing Kanade, I could still compensate for the mana disparity with tactical thinking and logic traps. But the opponent being Shirakawa Aiselin was an entirely different equation. She wasn't just a genius with a massive amount of mana; her spatial calculation capability was also monster-tier. Even more terrifyingly, that genius now held a portion of the foundational knowledge of my coordinate axis system. Fighting against a calculation machine that had just had its operating system upgraded using the very algorithms I wrote? I didn't need to solve an equation to foresee a result with a massive margin of error.
However, even though my insides were churning, outwardly I maintained a polite smile, the very standard of a dedicated subordinate.
"Yes, I understand. When shall we begin, My Lady?"
Aiselin blinked, her sapphire blue eyes sweeping around the room.
"I want us to move to the training room right now. But..." She dragged her voice slightly. "I haven't freshened up yet, and it seems you and Kanade haven't either."
I bowed my head slightly, taking a step back to yield space.
"If My Lady does not mind, please feel free to use the bathroom in my quarters."
"Thank you." Aiselin smiled brightly, then suddenly turned to pat the shoulder of the person next to her. "Kanade, let's go bathe together!"
"Huh?! B-But..." Kanade jolted, her feline ears standing straight up, her face instantly turning bright red. "My Lady did not bring clothes to change into, how could we..."
"It's fine, I'll just wear your clothes!"
Aiselin cut her off crisply. Not giving Kanade time to digest that sentence or any chance to resist, the eldest lady lunged forward, yanked open the bedside drawer, and scooped up Kanade's clothes. With an undeniable pulling force, she dragged the flustered demi-human maid into the bathroom and bolted the door.
The trickling sound of water mixed with a few flustered, embarrassed cries from Kanade echoed behind the door. I stood helplessly in the middle of the room, letting out a heavy sigh of resignation. I truly couldn't manage this eldest lady anymore.
I turned and walked toward the bed where Kanade had just slept. With absolute silence and high concentration, my hands swiftly smoothed out every wrinkle on the bedsheet. Next, I lifted the blanket, smoothing along the edges. Fold in half. Fold in quarters. Bend at a ninety-degree angle. Crease the edges.
In just a moment, the blanket sat perfectly on the bed, sharp and square like a standard banh chung. Looking at my flawless, pristine masterpiece, my mood finally salvaged a bit of peace.
…
An hour later.
After waiting for the two girls to finish borrowing the bathroom, I also quickly took care of my own personal hygiene. That morning took place in a rather strange atmosphere. The three of us sat around the small tea table in my room, having the breakfast brought by the butler. Aiselin looked extremely delighted and comfortable in an outfit a bit tight for her developing figure, while Kanade kept her head bowed as she picked at her food, her cat tail occasionally curling up in embarrassment.
Finishing breakfast, I carefully pinned the trainee badge back onto my chest, checking the second hand on my watch face. All three of us stepped out of the room, heading straight toward the eldest lady's personal training ground.
The practical combat test officially begins.
End of Chapter 20.