The Setting Sun
At Andrea's instruction, Rouge was the first to sing.
What she chose was a celebrated piece of vocal music by a genius composer of the Federation — a work famous enough to rank among the continent's finest.
The vast energy pouring from Rouge's core took the form of song and filled the clubroom. Her overwhelming volume was enough to make one mistake the place for some grand opera house, and the beauty of her melody set Andrea's heart trembling.
"Hah — you pass... No, wait, just please join us!"
Crushed by that sheer vocal power, Andrea planted her forehead against the floor. Rouge, who had intended to join the Opera Club from the start, beamed and slipped into membership without a hitch.
The second to sing was Noir.
She chose a traditional folk song of the Empire. She lacked Rouge's overwhelming skill, but as a noble she had studied music to a respectable degree. Her performance was nothing extraordinary, yet she finished it with solid, unobjectionable competence. With a little training, she could easily be cast as a lead.
"Blanc, was it? You're the only one left."
And so Blanc's turn arrived.
Just how well could this delicate girl sing? Watching Blanc clear her throat, Andrea began to brim with anticipation. When the girl spoke with Noir, her voice was clear and pure as a rolling jade bead. Even if her technique proved mediocre, a voice like that would surely produce something above average.
Noir, too, watched Blanc prepare and felt a flutter of expectation. She had occasionally caught Blanc humming under her breath, but this would be the first time she heard her truly sing — and Noir, who wanted to know even a little more about her maid, was intensely curious what song she would choose.
"Well then... I shall begin...?"
In Noir's eyes, Blanc was a maid so close to perfection it was almost absurd. Cooking, cleaning — everything she did was flawless, every gesture free of error. Given how pure her speaking voice was, her singing had to be perfect as well!
"I'd have to know, I'd have to know, my Maid~♬"
"Eh...?"
"Eh...?"
"Uh...?"
That day, Noir learned a truth.
There is no such thing as a perfect human being...!
"I'd have to know, I'd have to know, my Maid~♬"
"Gyaaaaah...!"
Rouge and Andrea, both sensitive to music, let out screams at the demonic singing they were hearing for the first time. What in the world was this song...?!
It was agony! The sheer frustration of listening was agony...!
It wasn't simply that she couldn't sing. When the pitch should drop, she went a step lower still; when it should rise, she climbed a step higher than the note demanded. Just when it seemed she might finally land it, the pitch would slip by the narrowest, maddening margin. Those tiny misalignments stacked and stacked until the song was completely warped!
It was a singing ability designed to drive a person insane...!
If she had simply been terrible, that would have been one thing — but through all those endlessly wrong notes, her voice itself remained dazzlingly beautiful. It was enough to make anyone lose their mind!
"Ahaha... So even Blanc has things she can't do... Noir? I think the Opera Club might be a bit much for her...?"
"Pardon? Why is that...?"
"Huh...?"
"Isn't that side of Blanc terribly cute? If anything, the contrast with how she usually is makes it even better...?"
"Noir, have you lost your m—"
"WHY~~!!!"
Crash—!
The instant Blanc hit a high note, the clubroom window shattered!
Tone-deaf she might be, but her high notes soared to absurd heights for no good reason! Andrea and Rouge clapped their hands over their ears against the sudden assault, while Noir gazed at the singing Blanc with sparkling eyes, as if listening to the sweetest melody in the world.
In the end, the only one who managed to join the Opera Club was Rouge.
Blanc was thrown out of the clubroom by Andrea, and Noir — who refused to join any club without her — was thrown out right along with her.
"Was my singing truly that dreadful...?"
Perhaps it was guilt over getting her young lady expelled on her account, but Blanc's voice — always so composed — trembled, if only slightly.
Ah, Blanc was downcast!
That those philistines who couldn't recognize true beauty had wounded her...!
"Of course not. Rouge and Senior Andrea just don't understand what real beauty is yet."
Noir patted the dejected Blanc's shoulder and comforted her. Horrifyingly, that statement was not mere consolation — it was packed with genuine sincerity. To Noir's ears, Blanc's singing fell only a little short of average, and yet, separately from that, it had felt utterly beautiful.
Had Andrea or even Rouge overheard Noir's answer just then, they would have slapped their foreheads in sheer disbelief. But what could be done? From the moment they cast Blanc out, those two had become, in Noir's heart, beauty-illiterates who had blasphemed against art itself.
"Then which club shall we look into next...?"
"Hmm. Maybe we should try the sports clubs this time?"
The sports clubs, as a trial experience, would put prospective members into practice matches. Plenty of other clubs were running all sorts of trial programs to reel in new recruits as well, so the two of them decided to simply follow their feet and try every club they came across.
"S-stop those first-years...! G-gyaaaah...!"
"S-save me, please save me...!"
And so the two of them began demolishing every club in sight.
It started with the ball-sport clubs — soccer, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, and more. Noir ranked among the strongest even when measured against the entire student body, not just the first-years, and Blanc was already an assassin of master caliber. Individually they were already beyond student level; together, with the understanding and coordination forged over long partnership, they were devastating.
The club members were only students. Of course they stood no chance against those two running wild. A few veterans who had already reached professional standards tried to stop them, but even they were toyed with by Blanc and Noir's perfect teamwork.
"Young lady!"
"I'm going...!"
Blanc, who had completely shaken her markers with shadow magic, lofted the ball into the air and called to Noir. Hearing her, Noir cloaked her body in white flame and rocketed skyward.
"Don't come near me, you lunatics!"
Wrapped in white fire, Noir spun in midair. The added rotation made the flames burn even fiercer as she poured them into the ball. A sphere of white flame, heavy with overwhelming fire, streaked toward the goal.
Getting hit by that wouldn't be a joke — you could actually die...!
The goalkeeper flung herself sideways. The white-flame ball Noir had kicked slammed into the goal, and at the same instant—
BOOM—!
A massive explosion rocked the athletic field. White fire surged upward, belching thick smoke. Where the goal had stood, nothing remained but a crater, as if a meteor had struck...!
"I-is this soccer...? Yeah, I'm just gonna try a different club..."
"Soccer is dangerous... Like, actually dangerous..."
In front of a crowd of hopeful recruits, a club had been utterly crushed by a pair of first-years. Every time those two played a "trial match," explosions went off and people got hurt.
This was sports...?
Were Aegis sports really this dangerous...?
The watching applicants turned their backs and left on the spot. Even the members who had played alongside the pair declared their intent to quit, citing sheer terror.
But it was fine!
If they could just get those two into the club, a golden age would dawn!
"Hmm. Not as fun as I expected...?"
"Indeed. The seniors' skill level is far too low."
No club, however, managed to welcome the black-and-white duo as new members. The two of them, never once considering that their own level might be the problem, simply dismissed the clubs as beneath them and walked away without a second glance.
"Haaang...♥"
"N-no more... I can't take any more...♥ B-but this feeling... I've never felt anything like this... My body won't stop...♥"
Having lost interest in sports, the two began touring the various cooking clubs. Blanc moved from one to the next, presenting overwhelming dishes of every kind. With every bite of her cooking, club members collapsed in ecstasy. Wherever Blanc passed, endless moans erupted. Eventually a student who happened to walk by reported the scene to the student council.
Summoned on the complaint, Blanc was charged with public indecency and ordered not to cook on campus without the student council's permission...!
"Blanc, are you okay?"
"Yes, I am quite all right. There was nothing those clubs could teach me in any case, so there was no real need to join."
"Really? That's a relief. Where should we go next, then?"
"Hmm. Come to think of it, aside from the Opera Club, we haven't tried any of the arts clubs."
"Then let's try the art side next!"
By the end of that day, more than twenty clubs had failed to recruit a single first-year thanks to Blanc and Noir's dojo-crushing style of club trials. Six official clubs were demoted to unofficial status for lack of new members.
Word of it began to spread through Aegis only later.
"Hmm... I suppose it's only natural for Aegis clubs — the first-year slots fill up so fast..."
Evening had begun to settle. On the first-floor corridor of Aegis, the two of them — having spent the entire day touring clubs without finding a single suitable one — were still wandering the academy, checking whether any clubs remained unvisited.
But at every door they were turned away with the same line: the first-year roster was full. They weren't even allowed trial experiences. In the end, empty-hearted, they had no choice but to head back to the dormitory.
"Sorry, Blanc."
"Pardon? Why are you apologizing?"
On a street painted red by the gathering dusk, Blanc could only be bewildered by Noir's sudden apology. This was the young lady who always treated her as more than a mere maid. No matter how she thought about it, there was nothing for Noir to apologize for — and so Blanc simply could not understand.
"I wanted Blanc to have a more enjoyable school life, but things aren't going the way I hoped. Haha... No matter how hard I think, I can't find a club you'd actually like."
"Young lady..."
Blanc looked into the eyes of Noir, who had turned back to offer that apology. In those familiar sea-blue irises, quiet waves rose and fell. Blanc could guess just how much consideration was held in that gaze.
"Fufu..."
Blanc did not serve Noir simply because she was her young lady. It was because her young lady was Noir — because it was Noir who cherished her so dearly — that Blanc could take such joy in serving her as master.
"If that is your concern, please set it aside."
"Hm?"
"Simply remaining at your side is more than enough for me to enjoy life at this academy."
If Blanc had been someone else's maid instead of Noir's, could she have lived this happily? Whoever her master might have been, she would still have devoted herself fully and taken pleasure in the life of a maid — but she could say with certainty that it would never have been as happy as being Noir's. And so Blanc truly believed she was fortunate to have become Noir's maid.
"So please, young lady — do not worry about me. Merely staying by your side is happiness enough."
"Blanc..."
I see.
Blanc was enjoying academy life after all.
Thank goodness. She was enjoying it.
"Hehe. Then I guess we don't really need to join a club?"
"Yes. It would seem so."
"Hehe..."
"Fufu..."
Noir and Blanc faced each other and smiled.
Behind them lay Aegis Academy, reduced to chaos by their rampage — the wailing of clubs that had lost their first-years, the students still unconscious from Blanc's cooking, moaning in ways that could easily be misunderstood. Leaving that hellscape behind, the two of them gazed at the red sunset that lit Lyceum so beautifully.
"Blanc, look. What an incredible sunset."
"Fufu. What a magnificent color."
"Hehe. It really is. It's just like..."