"And the winner is Arthur Luminary! Everyone, give an extra applause to Thomas Everstone who also showed an impressive performance, even though he went up against a sophomore!"
The sophomore's tournament had been... less than surprising, one could say.
In the end, Sophie and Arthur faced off in the finals, where even though Sophie fought hard, Arthur was pretty dominant. In the end, no one had stood a chance against the hero, who had pretty much surgically removed all opposition.
And even though Ms. Rose wanted it to sound like Thomas put up a good fight, in reality, that had not been the case. In fact, he had gotten crushed, even though Arthur had been going noticeably easy on the poor giant.
If anything was surprising about this tournament, it was that Peter actually managed to win a match, granted it was against Sarah. And the reason why this was surprising was that his Manual thrived on the battlefield, not in the arena.
Standing up, the doctor who had once again accompanied me was getting ready to leave the arena, and at the same time, I felt a bit nauseous when thinking about where I was about to go after this.
"Shall we go?"
"Yes..."
==========
Wearing a very uncomfortable dress shirt and a pair of black slacks, an outfit that was wholly due to a certain Jessica that said there was no way she would let me hit the town dressed in my uniform. Although it was uncomfortable, I was just happy that she didn't try to convince me to let her come with us.
So now, I was standing at the train station, with three girls and a weary giant. Out of these four, three of them blushed profusely when they saw me in clothes other than my uniform. To be fair, I had a hard time looking at Stella as well when I saw her in a tight, black dress that accentuated her curves.
With us now all ready to go, it didn't take long until we had gotten on the train and arrived in the city, with bright neon lights greeting us as the sun was about to say goodbye.
Though she was noticeably still upset after the tournament, Stella was still trying to put up a bit of a front, "So, where is the club? Sophie said that they would be waiting there, something about getting some time alone before we got there."
Even though it was her suggestion to go out, it appeared that Stella wasn't the most structured person. Luckily, we had Caroline with us, who was the opposite, "It's right down this road, and I don't think we can miss it. It's one of the most popular clubs in Mensch, after all."
"T-that sounds great!"
"Mm."
With all of my four friends happily chatting away, I tried my best to look like nothing was wrong, despite my heart screaming out because of the stress I was feeling. As much as I enjoyed hanging out with people as Zero, there was no way I wouldn't find it stressful to have everyone gathered in one place.
And the main reason for this was the fact that I had somehow convinced Sarah to join us and judging from her earlier reaction, there was a big chance for things to get quite awkward. That being said, I thought it would be fine as long as nothing weird happened.
'Surely...'
****
[Sophie's Pov]
Although it was my idea for us to head out a bit earlier, it was impossible to say that the situation wasn't quite awkward. Sitting around a large table in a private room that Adriana had managed to book us, it was hard to find the right words to say.
Around the table were me, Arthur, Adriana, Bellatrix, Anna, and someone I never thought would come with us, Sarah and on the table, we had an assortment of different drinks piled up. Knowing that someone would ultimately have to end the silence, I took a sip of liquid courage before opening my mouth.
"So, Sarah... How's your training going?"
"Oh, it's going well."
"I see..."
Instantly, silence once again descended, and I had no idea what to do about this situation. Luckily, we had a very socially awkward hero at our side, who truly couldn't read the mood.
"Well done today, everyone! And I'm so happy that everyone came out today, it's been a long time since we were all gathered like this!"
Unknowing if he realized that the only one who we hadn't been hanging out with for a long time was Sarah, I worked hard to keep a smile on my face. However, when the room fell silent yet one more time, there was one person that couldn't take it anymore.
"You guys are ridiculous! What kind of students of Ainu are you when you can't even speak honestly to each other?"
Standing up, Bellatrix the former bitch's face was twisted in frustration at us acting like middle schoolers. "I'm not going to talk about what happened, or who is wrong or who is right. And you know why? Because it doesn't matter right now! We are at a club, damnit! Loosen up!"
Though she had dropped a lot of her haughtiness, there was no doubt that Bella was still Bella. If she wanted to say something, there wasn't much that would stop her. As long as she didn't have something to lose that would be.
Seeing her acting all riled up, I felt as if the awkwardness came to a point where I was unable to hold back. "Pfft...Ha...haha!"
"Sophie... Pft! Hahah!
Seeing my reaction, it didn't take long until the rest of the group, except for Adriana who just looked at us like we were insane, joined in as we all realized how silly we had acted and just how right Bellatrix was. Even Sarah got a slight smile on her face as she turned her face to the table, not wanting anyone to see her flushed face.
"Hey! Why are you laughing?!"
The only one who wasn't laughing was Bellatrix, who was even more embarrassed than Sarah, thinking she had made a fool out of herself. To which I would answer both yes and no. Forcing myself to calm down, everything felt so much less overbearing now, as if the skies had cleared a bit.
"Aaahhh... I'm sorry Bellatrix, it's not that. You are right, we were acting childishly."
Turning my head to the princess, who met my eyes, I did what I should have done long ago, "Sarah, I'm sorry. I will probably never be able to have the same opinion as you about what happened. However, I don't want that to stand in between us hanging out and being friends."
"Sophie... I..."
"It's okay. I understand if you don't feel the same way, but it has been hurting us all to see you so lonely."
"Hmm, I don't think I ever... Ouch! Why did you do that Adriana?!"
As Bellatrix was about to say something stupid, with Adriana quickly pinched her leg to make her stop, everyone else nodded in confirmation of my words. Continuing, small tears started appearing in the corner of the princess's eyes, the girl who had put up a front for months on end, trying her best to look strong.
"This might be something that we will have to deal with in the future, but for now, can't we just try and go back to how we used to be? There's no need for you to force yourself to be alone just for the sake of it."
"I...I..."
"Didn't I tell you so many times before? You don't have to be a princess around us. Just be our friend instead."
My last words appeared to have been the last straw that was needed to break the camel's back, as she now broke down in tears, crying hysterically. "I really..."
*Don!*
"What is happening here...? Why is the one I invited crying her eyes out...?"
Without any of us noticing, a group of freshmen had entered the room, and in front of them stood a white-haired youth whose eyes looked like they could kill. A deathly pressure surged out in the room as we all froze, unable to comprehend how someone so small could exude such an exorbitant amount of power.
In front of such power, none of my classmates could make a move, none of them except for one.
"Zero, that's enough. It's not what it looks like, just let me explain."
Somehow, Arthur just stood up as if the pressure was just something everyone else was imagining, and with a smile, he walked up to the, for some reason, incredibly upset youth. "Please do. Right now."
However, before he could even begin to explain, the princess also managed to break free, most likely due to Zero not targeting her, yelling loudly to stop Zero from doing anything stupid.
"Stop it, Zero! These are my friends!"
"... what?"
As soon as he heard her words, the pressure disappeared, and Zero quickly became a normal confused kid who didn't understand the situation. Also standing up, Sarah went over to Zero with tears still present in her eyes and smiled.
"You don't have to worry. They... they are my friends. And... thank you for convincing me to come here."