Merging Raid Teams (3)

They say that if you give a woman a night that's a shade too rough, she'll be groaning the next day with her lower back gone to pieces. My lovers, though, were physical-enhancement types with regeneration on top of that, so aside from Franc being a little sleepy, they were up and darting around with energy to spare.

I rode to school in the car of the sister who'd come to pick me up, and there they were — hulking men in black suits planted along the walls. The posture alone all but announced we're on duty, don't talk to us, and it pulled a snort out of me. These were the same idiots who couldn't even tell an ability user from an ordinary person, had come charging in, and gotten themselves smashed to pieces for the trouble.

A sweep of Spatial Perception showed me more men in the same getup, bodies reasonably hidden on the rooftops of buildings with a clear view of the school, and ability users threaded in among them. Every one of those ability users was a foreigner, of course.

"......Hmph."

I didn't fail to understand why they'd be particular about security for a princess who mattered to them. What grated was the open insistence that they were on guard — throwing their weight around in someone else's country. If they truly needed an escort, they could have hired one here in Korea, or at least kept the security out of sight.

Hoo. Calm down. Just looking at those people, my temper was sharpening, twisting out of shape in a way I didn't like.

Two of the bruisers who'd tried to jump me yesterday and gotten the life beaten out of them were standing at rigid attention in front of the school gate, watching the kids come in. As I passed, I felt eyes tracking me from behind the black sunglasses, so I whipped around — and they flinched.

Heh.

If the black-suited hulks were deployed like this, then the first line of the escort was those triplets, the second line was the suits along the wall and at the main gate, and the third line was the people on the rooftops. Was that the arrangement? I'd heard that protection details for important figures usually ran three to five lines deep, a tight system. If the princess's security was a three-line setup... was I going to have to stare at this circus for a solid month?

I sighed and checked the secret bodyguards Yeongeun had assigned to me. They seemed to be moving in coordination with the princess's detail.

At any rate, they carried riot batons and tonfas at their waists, and stun guns plus live-round pistols inside their coats. The sight of the guns brought back my older brother and sisters, the ones who had died at the training grounds, and my mood went dark.

Thanks to my sister I'd arrived earlier than usual, and the classroom was still thin. Among the kids previewing the day's lessons or murmuring quietly with friends, the princess sat at her desk with her three lackeys. Well — with bodyguards around, I'd expected them.

I was waving back at the greetings the kids tossed my way when the princess, who'd been looking at a tablet, noticed me too. She rose and dipped her head, just slightly. I glanced at her, ignored her, and walked past to my seat, and she looked a little flustered.

"Um... Sir Seoha? Have I done something wrong?"

"Nothing, if you leave out yesterday morning."

"That was not my own volition."

Volition, huh. She even knew the difficult words.

"You apologized to the kids, so it's in the past."

She looked at me as if to ask why I was being cold anyway, but I ignored her again and sat. At my prickly attitude, those refined eyes of hers drooped, and she seemed at a loss.

Well, of course. Where would she ever have been treated like this? A rare-attribute ability user and an actual princess, right around my age — people must have fawned over her from every side. A face that was pretty enough would only have made it worse.

The princess wore a troubled look, as if thinking this isn't how this is supposed to go... Even so, she hovered behind me like she was hunting for something to talk about. I had nothing to say to her.

I took out my tablet and started checking whether today's classes or the other notices had changed, and she kept stealing glances at Franc.

These days Franc didn't bother with this outfit and that so much as matching me. When I wore the uniform to school, she wore it too, and when I dressed down, she went for something in the dress family. Our uniform had been designed for practicality, so it looked a bit drab and boxy, but her figure had blown past high-end and straight into god-tier, and the way it sat on her was no joke. Because of that, the girls instinctively shied away from standing near her. Was the princess thinking the same thing?

Just then, one of the triplets standing behind her spoke in a blunt tone.

"That was not the princess's will."

"The ambassador to Korea's idea."

"We had to listen to what he said."

One of the indistinguishable triplets opened their mouth, and the other two followed. The pronunciation was awkward, the words awkward, but the meaning came through without trouble.

"The ambassador made you do it? The princess has to obey the ambassador?"

Flustered, the princess tried to shut them up, but they opened their mouths in the agreed order — the middle one first, then left, then right.

"The ambassador to Korea is also royal."

"Older than the princess."

"Must obey his words."

"...So that's why you blocked the road in front of the gate and did interviews with the reporters. Because you were told to."

The princess looked back and forth between the nodding triplets and me, then dropped her head, expression sunken.

If they wanted interviews, they could have gathered the reporters at the embassy. Coming here to study, and then blocking the main gate to put on a show of it. What the hell was that ambassador even doing? Hopeless. Absolutely hopeless.

I put nothing on my face and looked her straight in the eye.

"The reason you came to our school, to our class — it's because of me, isn't it?"

"That... yes."

She trembled, faintly, and nodded with slow care.

I'd checked the news online yesterday. That smarmy-looking British ambassador to Korea had come on and gone on at length about how the princess had come to understand and learn Korean culture — so the performance in front of the school gate had been staged on purpose, to hide what they were actually after. Ha. The thought soured my mood, and I was half a second from firing off something sharp when I swallowed it. If I didn't let it get to me, that was the end of it.

I shut my mouth and went back to checking the day's lessons, and the princess returned to her seat, thoroughly deflated.

Her kindness was genuine, that much seemed certain. But the way she obeyed the moment someone above her gave an order, and the way she wilted just because I was being cold — she seemed soft. She'd gotten close to Han Go-eun's crowd in no time, too, so it didn't look like she had any particular sense of her own rank. If she had a goal, she ought to push in the way Student Council President Lee Yu-mi did, even if it meant being brazen about it. Get gloomy because someone was cold and give up, and she wouldn't hear anything kind when she went home, either.

That was when the triplets caught her by the arm and shoved her toward me. She looked back and forth between me and them, at a complete loss, and under their urging she started to hem and haw.

The princess and the triplets didn't seem to have an ordinary master-and-servant bond, either.

"You really are hopeless."

I propped my chin on my palm and looked up at her like she was a lost cause. She only blinked, as if the words hadn't landed — she couldn't even ask me to say it again.

"You're giving up just because I'm cold to you? I don't know the details, but if you fill out the month like that and go home, you're not going to hear anything good. You know that, right?"

"Even so, to press conversation upon someone who does not wish it would be a discourtesy..."

"Ah. Sure. Good luck, then."

Not a softie. Just dense.

I'd spoken like I meant to help, even while finding her disagreeable, and I didn't understand myself. Thinking it over for a moment... it was probably that I couldn't stand to leave someone that soft-natured alone.

I waved her off, conversation over, and now she looked ready to cry. Go back, and the triplets were blocking the way; try to speak, and my cold answers had her on the verge of tears. The kids in the class were watching our side of the room like it was a show, and her face seemed to be going red.

"Hey, guys! Hi!"

"Hiii~?"

In the middle of all that, Han Go-eun and Su Yu-ri came into the classroom, and the princess's expression brightened all at once as she waved at the two of them.

"Lydia, what's with that face? Something happen?"

"It's nothing. Good morning, Go-eun, Yu-ri."

"Good morning!"

The three of them were soon chattering away. The triplets sent the princess a faintly displeased look, but she'd turned her back and didn't notice.

"Ahahaha! Seoha's always like that. That deadpan face — you can never tell what he's thinking, right? But if you talk to him, he answers every time, so just say whatever comes to mind~."

"Is that so?"

Hearing Su Yu-ri out, she turned to me with sparkling eyes. I jerked my head away, and the verge-of-tears look came right back.

"See? He reacted. Go on, go on~."

"Um, then — this afternoon, might we have tea together...!"

"I'm moving today. Can't."

"Moving? Where to?"

Han Go-eun's eyes went round.

Kids were filtering into the classroom in a slow stream. I glanced toward the back door and wondered whether I ought to tell them, right here in front of everyone, that I was moving to the Grand Blue Tower — but it was probably better to keep quiet for now.

"Near the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠training grounds. Anyway, I don't go in for refined hobbies like afternoon tea, so have it with the other kids."

"Oh, yeah?"

With that, Han Go-eun and Su Yu-ri took the princess off to their own seats. The triplets followed, and the one in the middle glanced back at me once before walking on.

After that, whatever Han Go-eun had said to her, the princess kept coming over to talk every single break. Just as a faint sense of annoyance was starting to take root, lunchtime arrived. I was coming out of the school cafeteria after eating when Lee Yu-mi caught the princess and dragged her off to the student council room.

Me? I'd noticed Lee Yu-mi outside the door and slipped back so I didn't get caught.

The princess returned around the time the warning bell rang and fifth period was about to start, looking a little drained — and even then she came up to me, asking what my hobbies were, what I did after school, fishing for some point of contact. I told her my hobby was playing with my girlfriend, and that after school I played with my girlfriend. She short-circuited and stood there blank until class began.

"The move all done?"

Sixth period had ended, and I'd just picked up my bag and stood when the call from Hwayeon came through. The princess had been about to come over and speak, so I put a hand out to stop her and answered.

"That was quick."

I signaled the kids that I'd head out first, and everyone waved except the princess. So I started walking... and she bowed to them and came running after me.

"Ah, the princess is chasing me. See you in a bit."

I shut off the Authenticator, and the princess came up beside me, smiling brightly as she spoke. Her eyes, though, held a strange expectancy.

"Might you be going to Time River? If it would not be an imposition, I would like to meet Time River's boss as well."

"You were going to show up with a tail like that? That's past an imposition. It's a nuisance."

"Urk."

She looked a little hurt at that, then turned and told the triplets behind her to dismiss every bodyguard. The one on the right soon quickened their pace, approached the man who'd stood at the gate that morning among the black suits gathering nearby, and could be seen saying something to him. Then the princess pointed at the triplets.

"I will send all the bodyguards away. But these children are no different from family to me. So could you not allow me to come with the three of them, at least?"

Ah. I'd meant I didn't want her coming, but she seemed to have taken it as dismiss the escort and I'll let you meet them.

I was still turning over what to do about it as we stepped out the school gate, when a Western man and woman climbed out of a black Mercedes waiting some distance off and came toward me.

The man was ordinary enough — dull blond hair neatly set, a dark gray suit. The blonde woman following him wore a skintight red dress that barely covered the swell of her breasts. Her back was entirely bare, the cut plunging to just above her rear, the whole thing extremely revealing, and the killer heels made her hips and ass shift with every step in a way that felt openly calculated.

Confident in her looks, she wore a subtle smile, tilted her head a little, and spoke.

"Mister Seoha?"

I'd expected English. What came out, unexpectedly, was Korean.

Mmm. This was going to be a hassle. I could feel it. And right then the plainclothes bodyguards Yeongeun had stuck on me rushed in like lightning and seized the pair.

"W-wait! What is the meaning of this?! You rude—! Where do you think you're touching?!"

"Wh— what?!"

What was this.

Out of nowhere their arms were twisted behind them and cuffs clapped on, and the Western pair started thrashing, angry and bewildered — but the bodyguards didn't so much as budge, binding them tight. I was watching, a little dumbfounded, when a man with his hair cropped short in a sporty cut stepped forward, looked at me, and bowed at the waist.

"Pardon the intrusion, Blue Genius."

"Uh, sure. But is it all right to just cuff them and haul them off like that?"

"These individuals violated an order forbidding approach to a person of national importance, so we are arresting them. They will be punished afterward under international law."

At that, the woman flared up and shouted.

"We came in our capacity as envoys! By what right are you arresting us?!"

"You can hear the reason when you get there."

The Western woman twisted and fought, rough about it, and the hem of the short dress rode up, baring a pair of pitch-black panties — a grown woman's, unmistakably. Franc saw it and frowned. The woman herself didn't even notice; she was too ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flustered, and at last she tried to get something out.

"L-look here! We are Swi—mmph!"

But the bodyguard who'd pinned the Western woman... was a woman herself. Anyway, since the captive kept trying to make a racket, one of the detail produced a roll of packing tape and sealed not only the woman's mouth but the mouth of the man who'd been standing there quietly.

"Were you waiting for those people to approach?"

"...I apologize for the disturbance."

The male bodyguard looked past me at the princess with a heavy, sunken gaze, then saluted me and left.

I watched them go, then turned. The princess and the triplets were staring after the Western pair being dragged off, startled.

Hmm. From the bodyguards' reaction, they'd deliberately let those two approach... It felt like friction was building between people trying to get to me and people trying to stop them. Ah, whatever. Yeongeun would handle it.

Come to think of it, those bodyguards had guns under their clothes, and the outfits and the rest of it were too much to pass off as ordinary security from some private firm. National agents, maybe? Thinking it over for a moment, the princess's situation seemed to snap clearly into place.

"Ahh. So access is being blocked like this, which means there's no ordinary way to get near me — that's why they sent the princess over on the excuse of studying abroad. To win me over."

No one answered.

"They couldn't walk up to me in the open, so the ambassador put the princess on display in front of the reporters at school and stepped out front himself to sell the study-abroad story."

Whether I'd hit the mark or not, the princess looked sunken, and the triplets — who had just watched bodyguards appear from nowhere and drag the pair away — stood there with nothing left to say.

Looking at the deflated princess, it occurred to me that if I played this right, I might use the opening to ask about the Phase Power inside her. And she was a princess, in name if nothing else. Grinding her down and ignoring her forever wouldn't be good for diplomacy, either. I wanted to ignore her and be done with it, but if my handling of this might spark diplomatic friction, that was its own problem.

I switched the Authenticator back on and called Hwayeon. A puzzled look crossed her face.

"All right if I bring the princess there?"

"Then I'll head straight there."

Permission in hand, I shut the Authenticator off, flagged a passing taxi, and spoke to the princess, who still looked dazed.

"The black car following behind is yours, right? Destination's Noble Sky Park in Irwonbon-dong, so I'll see you there."

With only that, I climbed into the taxi with Franc and we pulled away. The princess and the triplets hurriedly got into the car that had been creeping along behind us and started following.

"Might you have taken an interest in the princess?"

I stole a glance at Franc's face. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠It wasn't jealousy. She was asking out of curiosity, exactly as the words suggested. Relieved I wasn't walking into some needless misunderstanding, I answered.

"The princess is an attribute ability user. She might even be light-attribute. I want to check."

"A light attribute!"

Only then did curiosity show on Franc as well. Though somehow, the Spatial Perception I had and the Spatial Perception Franc was seeing seemed a little different.

Was it the presence or absence of the Mana Sieve? I'd have to look into it later.

The taxi ran about twenty minutes and pulled up at Entrance 1 of the Grand Blue Building. The princess and the triplets got out of the black car that had followed and came up beside me. She looked up at the building, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then at the four wings and the wide shopping district, and her mouth fell open.

"Th-this is the new base?"

"Yeah. Let's go in."

We passed through the mall section and down a somewhat narrow corridor, and came up to a door with a notice on it.

The man on guard asked for identification, so I showed him what Hwayeon had given me yesterday. He looked flustered and stepped aside.

"C-confirmed. You may enter."

The entrance was sealed with opaque reinforced glass, and without my doing anything at all the door opened with a soft whoosh. There had to be a separate station inside handling the doors. I walked through unhindered, but two guards stepped in front of the princess and the triplets coming after me.

"One moment, please. The four of you don't have passes, so..."

"Hey! Pardon me. Are you Princess Lydia Isla Marietta?"

Had Hwayeon told them ahead of time?

I turned back at the sight of them blocking her party. The guards, determined to do the job properly, it seemed, took passports from the princess and the triplets, checked them, and bowed from the waist.

"You are on the list. Forgive the discourtesy. Please, go on in."

The princess was back at my side in a moment, a hand pressed to her chest.

"They take their duty very seriously. Good people."

"Yeah."

I answered vaguely and strode down a corridor that was half a maze. No chance of getting lost, thanks to Spatial Perception. That was something, at least.

A short passage later, a large hall opened up, laid out like a garden with trees, flowers, and grass. One of those indoor parks that were fashionable lately? People sat on benches in quiet conversation or moved along the paths, and the moment they saw me they went stiff. Then, all around, they either shot to their feet or stopped dead and bent at the waist.

"...I really wish they wouldn't do that."

Wearing an awkward look as I took the excessive greetings, I approached the elevator for the office wing. The people waiting there turned at the sound of footsteps, startled, and hastily backed off.

"Uh, you don't have to do that. We can ride up together."

"No, sir! Pardon us!"

And every last one of them, man and woman alike, fled backward.

What the hell. Was I infectious or something?

I was staring blankly at the retreat when the princess started to giggle. Franc wore a wry smile of her own. They could have just ridden up with us. Why...

The elevator looked big enough for a good forty people, and here it was carrying only me, Franc, the princess, and her three lackeys. Needlessly uncomfortable.

Through the transparent outer wall I watched people hard at work, and we rose to Hwayeon's office on the thirty-ninth floor. She was sorting documents, and when she saw us come in she stood.

"Come on in, Seoha. Welcome, Princess Lydia Isla Marietta."