Mavis smiled as she saw the auburn-haired boy slowly walk in their direction.
"Speak of the devil."
The blue-haired girl, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes in displeasure.
Noticing this, Mavis let out a short sigh and shook her head.
Turning her attention back to Blaine, Mavis waved her arm.
"Hey! Sir knight! Over here!"
Hearing someone call out to him, Blaine noticed the waving girl and approached her.
"Hey there, Blaine! It's been quite a while," Mavis greeted, "I don't think we've seen each other in nearly a year."
Blaine nodded his head in acknowledgement.
"Time truly does fly… Oh, right, that reminds me. My mother wanted me to check on you and let her know how you're doing. She was quite worried about you since you haven't returned to the capital in quite a while."
When Blaine remembered Mavis's mother, Maggie, a fellow knight of the Royal Gaurd and a close friend of his mother, a tinge of nostalgia filled his heart.
Mavis then looked at her blue-haired friend, who was busy looking through her phone, then turned her attention back to the statue-like young man.
"Hmm… Since it's almost noon, how about we all get some lunch? Both of us are exhausted and hungry after the exhausting checkpoint procedures to enter the city."
Blaine once again threw a silent nod.
Mavis's smile grew as she grabbed her unwilling blue-haired friend by the arm.
"Well then, Blaine, please show us to the cafeteria if you would."
As the trio got lunch, Blaine turned his attention away from the energetic Mavis to the bespectacled blue-haired girl by her side.
Seeing how close Mavis was to her, Blaine had already pieced together that she was none other than Princess Cecelia Varene, the person he was tasked with protecting.
Cecelia and Mavis were close growing up and shared the same passion for research and innovation.
Given that Alford told him that the princess would arrive disguised as a member of the Royal Magitech Division, it was a logical deduction.
The princess looked almost unrecognizable.
She had dyed her signature golden hair with a sky-blue hue, on top of wearing comically large fake glasses.
While it wouldn't be enough to fool facial recognition technology, it was more than enough to trick most people.
This was the best she could manage without putting on copious amounts of makeup, which must be constantly reapplied daily to create a genuinely intricate disguise.
Just as Blaine was studying Cecelia, the latter was also watching him.
However, her gaze was filled with undisguised annoyance.
It wasn't long before the trio made their way over to the building's mess hall.
The army's mess hall was practically open around the clock, as many soldiers had to work at odd hours.
Functioning buffet-style, the cafeteria was equipped to handle hundreds of hungry soldiers at once.
Finding a spot to eat during the lunchtime rush was quite the ordeal, to say the least.
It was so bad that Blaine usually stuck to making his own food.
Standing in line to grab their meals, Mavis turned to Cecelia with an exasperated look in her eyes.
"If only you could leverage your position to let us skip the line…"
Cecelia threw her friend an incredulous stare.
"As if I would do something so selfish and mean-spirited. These people risk their lives every day to protect our country!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know… But I'm hungry…" Mavis complained as she rubbed her empty stomach.
It wasn't until after ten minutes of waiting that the three finally received their plates of food.
Furthermore, by some miracle, they managed to find enough empty seats at a nearby table to sit together.
Cecelia and Mavis sat beside each other while Blaine sat across from them.
As the three enjoyed their meals, Mavis couldn't help but feel uncomfortable by the awkward mood.
Cecelia and Blaine didn't seem too keen on talking, leaving only her to liven the atmosphere.
Suddenly remembering something, she looked at Blaine before turning to Cecelia.
"Oh, right! Have you ever tried Blaine's cooking?"
Perplexed by the sudden question, Cecelia raised an eyebrow.
"No, I don't think I have. Why?"
"Well, you should! His food is still some the best stuff I've eaten."
"You ate his food? When was this?" Cecelia asked.
Even Blaine felt a little confused.
He most certainly hadn't ever cooked for the black-haired girl before.
"About four years ago, I'd say? When Blaine joined the Royal Guard at the age of twelve, he was the youngest ever to do so… Well, in history. Even Sir Alford only joined when he was sixteen."
At Mavis's words, Cecelia shakily clenched her fist under the table.
Without noticing this, Mavis continued, "To celebrate his induction, the knights had a potluck celebration. Blaine here brought a homemade apple pie, which… Well, saying that it stole the show was an understatement. Even the small amount my mom brought back for me was earned through her blood, sweat, and tears."
Blaine vaguely remembered people complimenting him on his cooking but was slightly surprised by the scale of praise Mavis heaped on him.
"Well, anyways, since the two of you will be working together for the foreseeable future, you should use that chance to monopolize his cooking."
Cecelia narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
She threw a look at Blaine before turning back to Mavis.
"It's quite alright. I don't want to trouble Sir Blaine."
Although Cecelia worded it like she didn't want to bother the boy before her, Mavis could tell that her friend simply didn't want to take anything from Blaine.
No matter what Mavis did, the wall between them seemed impregnable.
Mavis internally sighed.
'Well… At least I tried.'
One clearly didn't like the other, while the other simply didn't talk.
Making the two of them get along was a herculean task that was far too hard for one person alone, so the three of them ended up eating in silence.
Before returning their empty plates and getting up to go their separate ways, Cecelia looked at Blaine and reluctantly opened her mouth to speak.
"The mission starts at midnight. We'll be meeting in the parking lot."
Without sparing him another glance, Cecelia turned away and left through the mess halls's red wooden double doors.
Mavis threw Blaine an apologetic look.
"Sorry about that… She's still hung up on last time's accident… On top of other things… While you can't really be faulted for any of this, that accident did end up setting our project back by a couple weeks of work. She's not a bad person, so please don't hold it against her."
Blaine nodded his head.
"Nothing fazes you, does it? …While everyone changed as they grew up, I think amongst everyone, you changed the most."
Mavis gave Blaine a sad look before quickly erasing it with a bright smile.
"Anyways, I'm gonna go catch up with her. Take good care of her, and yourself, for that matter."
After Mavis quickly left to go catch her friend, Blaine was left standing there alone.
He pulled out his phone and checked the time.
There were only twelve hours to go.