The Golden Sun's Fluffy Secret
I vaguely recalled a passing description in the novel that the Golden Sun archetype, Lucia Klein, secretly had a soft spot for cute things. She collected dainty little trinkets, adored small animals, and always slept clutching a tiny doll. It felt completely at odds with her image. Why is this actually true? I'd snorted while reading it back then. How could someone nicknamed the epitome of delinquency have a hobby like that? Yet the Lucia standing before me right now was proving that preference with her entire body, as if to shut down any doubt.
"D-don't look!"
She must have realized belatedly that she was wearing full-body rabbit pajamas. Lucia hastily covered her face. As she hung her head, the rabbit ears flopping behind it drooped forward in tandem.
They look incredibly soft.
Honestly, nothing else registered. They just looked unbelievably fluffy. The entire pajama set was covered in downy fur, and the rabbit ears were stuffed so full they practically bounced.
"Eek!"
I ended up grabbing the two rabbit ears attached to her pajamas. Ignoring her delightful shriek, I stepped inside the dorm and said,
"Let's talk inside. This isn't the kind of conversation to have out in the open."
No matter what, money was involved. This wasn't something to discuss half-heartedly in the hallway.
"Wait! You can't come in! Just give me a second!"
Lucia kept squealing with her ears still caught in my grip, but standing in the dorm corridor with a girl in rabbit pajamas was getting awkward. Quite a few people were already poking their heads out to stare.
Thud!
I stepped fully inside, closed the door, and turned back to her. Lucia was blocking the entrance with her whole body, clearly determined to keep me from advancing any farther.
"Um... Lucia, what's going on...?"
From behind her, a girl who looked like she'd just woken up shuffled out unsteadily. She glanced between me and Lucia, trying to read the situation, tilted her head once, and asked,
"...Who's this? Your boyfriend?"
The reason I'd come here wasn't just to raid the marquis's daughter's piggy bank. This girl was part of it too.
"No, he's just a friend!"
Lucia's roommate was the one who kept coming up suspiciously often. She was the informant planted inside the academy for the entrance ceremony attack, commonly known as A Brief Dream for Eternity. The key intelligence source for the succubi's plan—the main antagonists of this episode.
"Nice to meet you, Fate."
The only half-succubus who could operate even during daylight hours. Of course, unlike typical succubi, she lacked horns or a tail, but that was one of her unique traits. I offered her the brightest, most harmless smile I could muster.
"Huh... You know my name?"
Her eyes filled with suspicion the moment I spoke her name. The wariness in her voice was thick enough to taste.
"Lucia mentioned you. Said you're a good friend."
I'd naturally come prepared with an excuse, and it wasn't even a lie. While chatting about all sorts of things at the café, Fate's name had come up naturally. Of course, she was hardly the wholesome person Lucia had described.
"Well, anyway, I feel like I'm intruding. You two enjoy your cozy time!"
Fate moved to slip past us with those words, but then she paused and glanced back.
"Oh, if you're going to use the bed, use Lucia's."
I couldn't let her leave like this. As I'd said earlier, I'd come here because of her too. And I wasn't here just to see her face—I had crucial information to plant.
"I heard a rumor that the Saint will be attending the entrance ceremony. Would you like to go watch together next time?"
Fate's eyes narrowed slightly, then she smiled faintly.
"What is this, asking another girl on a date while your girlfriend's right here?"
"I heard you're a devout believer, so I thought you might be interested in the Saint."
A succubus being religious? Anyone else would have laughed at the absurdity. But if people called her that, there had to be a reason. To a succubus, the Holy Empire—whose clergy constantly tried to exterminate their kind—must have been loathsome. Still, she pretended to worship them to gather even the smallest scraps of information.
"Do you happen to know what this is?"
What I was about to do was gently rattle her information network. I pulled out the rosario I'd taken from the crown prince and dangled it. Fate's face instantly showed clear panic.
Of course she'd react that way.
A rosario was essentially an identification badge for holy knights. And its original owner, the crown prince, was a high-ranking one. At that level, he'd certainly know whether the Saint was attending the entrance ceremony. Therefore, this item massively boosted the credibility of my claim about the Saint.
"Uh... What is that? You're actually someone important?"
That was exactly why I'd said I needed to return it to the crown prince. If I held onto it too long and he found out, it would be a complete disaster.
"But is it okay to use that kind of status to hit on girls?"
Still, there was nothing better for feeding Fate false information. Testimony from someone presumed to be a high-ranking holy knight, backed by a rosario that proved his identity.
Of course, there's a chance Fate and the other succubi might feel something off about the Saint attending the entrance ceremony.
There hadn't been enough time to manufacture further proof, but the Saint really was coming. And whether the information was real or fake, the mere fact that they had to worry about it would be an enormous burden.
The Saint is born with a powerful resistance to demonic attributes.
That was why the succubi had planned their entrance ceremony terror attack under the assumption that the Saint wouldn't be there. Conversely, Eden Holloway had come to this academy after noticing the succubi hiding among the students, intending to secretly hunt them down.
But if both Nihil and the crown prince are in bad shape, even the Saint might fall to the succubi.
Therefore, I needed to subtly plant the awareness that the Saint would be present, lowering the intensity of their attack as much as possible. To them, this operation was merely a stepping stone. There was no need to overexert themselves and risk exposure. They all knew that if the incident grew too large, support would come from the Holy Empire itself, far beyond the Saint's level. So even if they had to carry out the plan, it was better for them to significantly reduce its scale.
In the original story, they used too much power during the entrance ceremony and ended up getting their tails caught by the Saint and the Holy Empire.
That meant I could at least reduce the intensity of the incident that would occur during the entrance ceremony. Fate, who had been listening intently, gave a polite bow as if she'd heard good news and scampered out.
"I'll think about going together. Have a nice time!"
That was the right reaction. I'd essentially warned her that if they weren't careful, their entire race could be wiped out by the Saint. As I watched her retreating figure, Lucia's grumbling voice came from behind me.
"I believe in religion too..."
She kept muttering under her breath, clearly upset about something.
"You keep pushing me away, but you ask someone you just met out on a date?"
Ah, so that was the problem. I pulled a lemon candy from her bag, popped it into my mouth, and pointed at the two beds.
"Which one's your bed, Lucia?"
She pouted and pointed to the one on the right. When I sat down on it, I noticed an adorable teddy bear tucked in the corner. It looked quite worn, but the holes had been carefully stitched, and a tiny ribbon had been lovingly attached to its head. You could feel the deep affection behind it.
"Uwaaaa! Uwaaah!"
But my appreciation for the doll didn't last long. Lucia noticed me touching it and snatched the bear from my hands.
"Hmm... There really are a lot of things in here..."
Aside from that, there were quite a few cute items. Miniatures, various dolls besides the one I'd briefly held, animal figures, snow globes, and more.
"Uwaa... What do I do..."
She seemed terribly embarrassed that someone had discovered her taste. Hadn't Fate already seen all this? It didn't bother me at all. Besides, when you thought about the bizarre hobbies of the male leads who liked Heidi, this was...
Nothing to be concerned about at all.
Yes, compared to them, this was downright wholesome.
"It's cute and cozy. I like it."
Lucia cracked open her tightly shut eyes and looked at me.
"...You think I'm cute?"
What kind of nonsense was that?
"Not you. The interior. The interior."
Me thinking that Golden Sun was cute? What ridiculous nonsense. Anger flared up for a moment, but since I was the one asking for a favor, I had to hold it in. Lucia, apparently flustered by the sudden praise for her taste, asked me awkwardly,
"It doesn't... bother you too much or anything?"
"Well, there is one thing that bothers me..."
It wasn't anything major—just the round, fluffy tail attached to the back of the rabbit pajamas she'd been wearing. It had been bouncing and swaying with her every movement, constantly catching my eye. It would probably be more comfortable for both of us if she changed into normal clothes.
Seeing Lucia tense up at my words, I said,
"Could you take those clothes off?"
"Wh-what?"
She immediately clutched her chest with both hands. Wait, why was she reacting like that? It made me sound like I'd committed some kind of sexual harassment. As she flailed about, face turning bright red, a voice full of contempt finally escaped her.
"T-telling a grown woman to take her clothes off! You trash!"
"What the hell is this crazy Golden Sun saying?"
As expected, no matter how I looked at it, this girl was undeniably pure evil.