Julis and Ayato caught the black-clothed attacker between them––
"!?"
His peripheral vision caught sight of another shadow, hidden atop a nearby roof.
(There's three of them...!)
Moreover, his target wasn't Julis.
––It was Ayato.
The arrow of light flew toward Ayato.
A perfectly-timed sneak attack.
Ayato, caught in mid-air, was unable to dodge, and could only use his Lux's activation body as a shield to ward off the strike.
The arrow glanced off his Lux, skimmed off his clothes, and missed. It had been a narrow miss, and his Lux was now useless.
"Fuu..."
It seemed this group of attackers was consciously seeking every opening. Their personalities were rather contemptible indeed.
"Hey, you alright?!"
"More or less, although my clothes are down for the count."
As Julis rushed over, a tense expression on her face, Ayato gave a bitter laugh as he looked around. The attackers were nowhere to be seen.
Honestly, their speed at beating a retreat was unparalleled.
Moreover, they weren't alone. The Le Wolfe students had similarly vanished.
"...The Stjarnagarmr should be here soon. We should go."
"Can we?"
"We were just defending ourselves, so we need not worry on that point. That said, explaining is just too much of a hassle. Anyway, our hard-fought clues seem to have vanished without a trace, we can't just waste time here."
As Julis spoke, her eyes burned with fury.
"They dared to do this much, and yet we couldn't do a thing. There's no way I'm just going to forget this."
"...Madam Target, would you be so kind as to not do anything stupid?"
"Hmph."
That seemed to signify her assent.
Hmm. I'd better report back to Claudia.
"By the way, do you still have some time?"
"Hmm? Yeah, I do."
Nightfall was coming soon. Julis gave Ayato a quick look of appraisal.
"Alright then, please follow me to my room for a bit."
"...Huh?"
✱
There was no way he could just openly walk into the girls dorm.
"Pardon me...*sigh* I hate that I'm so used to this by now."
Ayato again jumped up to Julis' window and entered.
Not only was this not his first offense, it was clearly his third.
Was it really possible that the legendary security guards of the girls dorms were yet unaware?
"Ah, you're here. Please wait just a moment."
Julis, who'd returned to her room first, was busy scrounging for something. Ayato knelt in the window-frame, looking in. It was, as expected, rather spacious.
This room was like Claudia's, a Page One special.
The decor of the rooms, however, was decidedly different.
The first thing you noticed upon visiting Julis' room was the greenery.
The inside was filled with flower pots, almost like an arboretum. Their placement was carefully designed so as not to hinder movement. Several of the flowers were in full bloom, and the sight of them calmed one's mood.
"...Able to just calmly look around like this, things sure are different from last time."
What floated to the top of his mind then was the memory of that pale flesh, that underwear-clad visage-
"Alright! I found it!"
"Uwah! I-I'm sorry!"
"...Why are you apologizing?" Julis asked, puzzled.
"Uhhhh...Nothing! More importantly, what did you call me here for?"
It wasn't like he was trying to hide anything; this was an honest question.
Although it wasn't yet curfew, the sun had already set. Just like during the time with Claudia, finding himself in a young girl's room at night was bad for his mental health.
"Great, let's get started. Please take your shirt off."
"WHAT!?"
Ayato unconsciously pulled back a step, nearly falling out the window in the process.
"J-J-J-Julis?"
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"What's the problem? Hurry up..."
Julis suddenly stopped mid-sentence as she realized just how she'd phrased things, before blushing furiously.
"Y-you idiot! G-g-get your mind out of the gutter! I was trying to say I'd help you fix your shirt!"
"Fix my shirt...?"
Ayato finally realized.
The attack from the incident earlier had ruined his clothes.
"Fix my shirt, huh. You know how to sew, Julis?"
"It's not like I'm an expert or anything, but I can at least do that much," Julis answered, frowning.
"It happened because of me. I don't want to owe you anything else."
"Well, if you put it that way. Alright then."
Ayato obediently stripped off his T-shirt.
Julis pulled out a needle, and in a rather haphazard manner, started to sew.
Her technique was undeniably poor, but she'd clearly had some prior experience.
"Let me guess. Your friend taught you that?"
"...Yeah."
Julis never looked up; she simply nodded in the affirmative as she continued to work.
"I can tell."
Ayato watched for a moment longer, and deciding that Julis had things under control, started to look around.
A room entirely different from Claudia's, though just as large. It had been cleaned with great care.
Near her bed was placed an ornate desk. In the corner of the desktop sat a vase, filled with roses. By its side was something rarely seen in their time - photographs.
Leaning in for a closer look, Ayato saw what looked to be sisters, girls aged several years apart. From their appearance, it seemed they had lived quite well.
There was, however, one figure who stood out from the rest. She was attired in clothes as plain as the rest, but her bearing was evident even from that still photograph.
Adorning her face was a genuine, brilliant smile, just like the others; her hair, a beautiful rose.
"So Julis, the friends you mentioned... I'm guessing these are them?"
"Hmm...? H-hey you! Don't just look at other people's things without asking!"
Julis stormed over, snatching the photo from out of Ayato's hands.
"The one in the center; it's you, isn't it?"
"..."
Julis glared daggers at Ayato before finally sighing and returning the photo to its place atop the desk.
"––That's right. Those are my friends."
Having answered, Julis returned to her seat and resumed her needlework.
"Despite how I look now, I was quite the tomboy when I was young."
"How you look now..."
When she was young...? Rather, it should still be the case...
"You have something to add?"
"...Never mind. Don't let me interrupt you."
"...When I was young, I'd often run away from the palace. The reason, more or less, was that I was just bored. Even if I'm of royal blood, we're just a branch family anyway. When they restored the monarchic system, it seems they found that all direct descendants had since passed on, and thus it fell upon us."
Julis' hands never stopped their work as she continued her story.
"One day, however, I ran somewhere particularly far and got lost. As I wandered the roads, I found myself in the slums. Although Lieseltania isn't a dangerous place, but for a well-off young girl to find herself in such a place...well, you can imagine."
"How were your powers back then?"
"Ha. About the level of a cigarette lighter, if that. Absolutely useless. Well, actually, given that I hadn't any combat experience back then, even if my abilities were as they are now, they'd still have been of no value. Anyway, long story short, some rather unsavory types found me, and chased me into alley. All I could do was cry in helplessness. In that circumstance, when all seemed lost, those girls saved me. Can you imagine how I felt at that moment? To me, they were both savior and hero."
Julis voice was filled with emotion.
They weren't just her feelings back then, but had remained so even until now.
"It wasn't until we'd returned to the palace that I learned they were from an orphanage in the slums. Every time I'd leave the palace, I'd head straight there. At first, they were, of course, distant; however, I persisted and we became fast friends."
As she continued to speak, Julis' voice took on an increasingly nostalgic tone.
"Did they know you were a princess?"
"No, I didn't tell them. The Sister knew, though."
"And your family?"
"Of course people talked, but by that time, my parents had already passed, and so I didn't care what they said."
"Then...?"
"Hmm? Oh, you didn't know? The current king of Lieseltania is my elder brother, the previous being my father. Admittedly, my memories of them are rather fuzzy by this point."
"So that's how it is..."
Ayato had lost his mother as well, and thus he well understood how hard it was to know what to say in such a situation.
"Investigating afterwards, I was shocked to find that that orphanage had been founded via a fund that my mother had left behind. I felt it was surely the workings of fate."
Julis' hands suddenly ceased their movement.
"The money she left for the orphanage has long since been exhausted. Every year, new orphans arrive, and so each new year is harder than the last. And so I came here. This time, it's my turn to help them, my turn to protect them. What they need most, after all, is money."
"B-but––"
"Let me make something clear. No one asked me to do this. I'm doing this of my own free will, for my own sake. The dream I'm fulfilling is my own."
Julis spoke with great feeling, her determination staunch and resolute.
No wonder no one had asked it of her; she was that kind of girl.
The question Ayato wanted answered the most was not that, however.
"That wasn't quite what I was asking. Is there really no other way?"
"Other way?"
"I mean, there's no other way for you to obtain the money you need? Aren't you a princess?"
Julis shrugged, and answered.
"The money belonging to the country isn't for me to spend. Our living expenses are dispensed from a fund with a predetermined use. Our country has long been but a mere puppet of the Integrated Enterprise Foundation; there's not a chance in hell they'd approve the 'wasteful' expenditure of money that would net them nothing in return. That was why the fund my mother left behind was cut in the first place. Our people are decidedly indifferent on the matter."
The Integrated Enterprise Foundation had but one focus, economic activity.
To this end, they'd even gone so far as to warp humanity's sense of morality and ethics.
They'd spared no expense in slowly but surely altering public opinion, and slowly but surely brainwashing the world.
––That was the founding principle of this city itself.
"They lavish money on my person, but I personally have no money to use as I will. I have to earn it myself. Fortunately, I was born a Strega. Furthermore, my title as a princess helped me find admittance at this school. This ornament of a title definitely has its uses."
Julis mocked herself with a scornful, bitter laugh.
"The existence of this city is repulsive. Students fight, and the world watches. Desire lurks at every corner, and it has grown fat by devouring the dreams of others. And yet it is for that very reason that this is the place where all wishes stand within reach. Here I will make my stand, and here I will realize my dream - that is why I fight."
As she finished speaking, Julis laid out the shirt in front of her.
It was a little ––no, very poorly–– done, but it met the minimal standards for repair.
"Good. Now bring this along home with you."
"...Mm. Thank you, Julis."
"This way, we're even."
"Definitely."
This wasn't somewhere it was safe to linger any longer anyway.
At that moment, Ayato noticed another object, folded away in the corner of the desktop. A handkerchief.
That handkerchief had brought the two together. Ayato now understood just where that handkerchief had come from.
Julis followed his gaze, and smiled as she gently took the handkerchief into her hands.
"This is something my friends at the orphanage gave me on my birthday. It's a joint work by everyone there. This ugly part was done by my best friend."
The other party was, without a doubt, a most important person to Julis.
Smiling bashfully, "this is my treasure," she said, returning it to its place.
That sad smile filled Ayato's heart with pain.
An important existence, one that must be protected–– a life calling.
"I'll see you tomorrow then."
Putting on his shirt, Ayato waved farewell, and jumped through the window.
(...A reason for fighting, was it?)
Ayato muttered to himself deep within his heart.