The Princess Special
I hadn't seen the third-years, including Yvette, since the start of the second semester. Naturally, introductions were in order, and Luna—who essentially acted as the CT Club's vice president—stepped forward.
“Let me introduce you. This is our third-year senior and one of the CT Club's original members, Iveticia.”
“Nice to meet you. I'm Iveticia Layrans. Please call me Yvette. I came by the clubroom after a long time to see all you adorable juniors.”
Yvette was an incredibly friendly person. The first-years except for me welcomed her warmly and introduced themselves one by one.
“There are quite a lot of first-years this time. It's nice to see the clubroom so lively again after so long.”
“Yvette, how many people were in your year?”
When the ever-curious Savian asked, Yvette thought for a moment before answering.
“Hmm. There were two pilots—me and Whina—and one operator… and no mechanics, so three in total!”
“Only three?”
“Yes. Is there something strange about that?”
“Ah, no. It just seems like a really small number.”
“It probably does. There used to be more, but everyone quit before they even reached second year.”
Savian looked like he wanted to ask more, but Luna gave him a slight shake of her head. He closed his half-open mouth, and Yvette smoothed out her slightly furrowed expression before clapping her hands together.
“Oh, right. I also went on a mission in Karmanu together with Rendel and Luna. I bought this while I was there.”
When Yvette unwrapped the gift she'd brought, an elegant cake was revealed. It looked delicious, but no one reached for a fork right away. I knew exactly why.
While Yvette was sending puzzled glances around, I suddenly stood up as if I'd just remembered something.
“That's right. We have some Karmanu snacks here too. They're not too sweet, so I think they'd go well with the cake. Shall I bring them out?”
“Uh, well, that's—”
I shot a quick glare at Carson, who was trying to say something, while keeping a bright smile on my face. Thankfully, true to her carefree nature, Yvette didn't notice his warning.
“Oh, it'll be like a Karmanu tea party.”
“I'll bring them right away.”
I hurried to the break room and arranged the snacks in the order I'd prepared beforehand. After hiding my true intentions by placing ordinary cookies on top, I carried the tray to the table.
A gag scene? I'm being completely serious here. It looks like the production team decided to slap some weird background music over my tea party setup. I'm just trying to treat my senior with all my heart, but the sabotage is way too much.
Meanwhile, Yvette was talking about her exploits in Karmanu.
“The other members of my year were really reluctant to enter Karmanu's territorial waters, so when the scramble order came, I was the only one who launched. I piloted Celeon all night long to reach the destination, only to find these small unmanned high-speed boats firing at something.”
I'd already heard about the coastal fortress assault from Rendel, but hearing it from Yvette's perspective felt fresh, so everyone listened with rapt attention. I gently set the snack tray on the table and focused on her story. It was interesting, but I also had to time my interruption perfectly.
The top part of the tray I'd brought out contained normal-tasting snacks, so everyone was happily munching away. But no one reached for the secret weapon I'd deliberately left in its packaging.
Yvette naturally picked up a cookie and continued her tale.
“The other third-year water-attribute Aindium pilots and I operated under the codename Kelpie. Naturally, I—the second-ranked student in our year and a CT Club member—took the role of leader.”
“Ooh.”
The operators, mechanics, Savian, Yui, and even the usually stoic Mikhail hung on her every word, clearly inflating her ego. Perhaps that was why the normally tight-lipped Yvette got carried away and began slipping into dangerous territory, breaking her promise to me.
“So when I returned, the transport ship was gone, Rendel and Luna had disappeared… I had no idea how to report this to the Karmanu side.”
The club members tilted their heads at the story's different progression from what Rendel had told them. At that exact moment, I quickly tore open the packaging of the cookie I'd been holding and offered it to Yvette.
“Senior, please try this.”
“Hmm? Thank you.”
Without the slightest suspicion, Yvette accepted the snack I held out. And the moment she took a bite—
“!!”
Her eyes widened as she stared at me. I met her gaze with an innocent, beaming smile, as if I had no ill intentions whatsoever.
Today's snack is~?? Karmanu special mint chocolate & spicy ginger double mix cookies!
This bizarre combination was, sadly, perfectly suited to my—well, probably Ruwina's—taste buds. Even before I arrived here, it had been selling like hotcakes under the embarrassing nickname Princess Special. It was the perfect gift for someone you weren't on good terms with… or so the demand suggested.
Plain mint chocolate might be tolerable for some people. But this had the addition of ginger—a flavor that even most adults had strong opinions about, usually leaning heavily toward dislike. The resulting taste was truly peculiar. And I happen to love it. Everyone else just doesn't understand.
Yvette couldn't spit it out or swallow it. She covered her mouth with her hand. When she eyed the teacup in front of her and reached for it, Luna tried to stop her, but it was already too late.
“Ah, senior—”
“Ugh.”
The intense, strange flavor of the cookie combined with the strong floral aroma of the tea made tears well up in Yvette's eyes. If it were me, I would've sprinted straight to the bathroom. But Iveticia Layrans was the eldest daughter of a proud count's family. According to her character setting, she wasn't the type to act arrogant or unpleasant; she was a noble who practiced noblesse oblige and would never carelessly throw away or leave food behind.
As someone who knew the settings of all the characters in the series, she was the perfect target for this trap.
“Senior, what's wrong?”
I pretended to be surprised and grabbed her arm. Yvette forced the cookie down with a miserable expression, unable to even get angry.
I laughed inwardly at the forum users' overreactions and continued speaking to Yvette.
“I'm sorry, senior. I just really wanted you to try my favorite snack…”
“Cough. It's fine, Luna. Cough.”
I grabbed the coughing Yvette's arm and stood up, shouting.
“Senior! Are you okay?”
“Ah, I'm fine—”
“I'll take you to the infirmary!”
Despite her carefree personality, Yvette was too kind to refuse. She let me drag her out of the room. Her face grew paler and paler as her stomach truly began to rebel. I escorted her to the infirmary and stayed by her side, nursing her until she fell asleep.
I feel a little guilty, but this is all because you messed up first, senior. If you'd kept your promise, none of this would have happened.
**
Although Yvette's visit caused quite a commotion, no suspicion fell on me. I think the key was that I took her to the infirmary, cared for her diligently, and then returned looking dejected while collecting most of the cookies. Or maybe it was because I forced myself to eat the remaining ones when I got back?
There was no avoiding the rumor that I had weird taste buds, but that was something the original Ruwina would have caused even if she'd been here, so I decided to just accept it.
However, one unexpected thing happened.
“Senior?”
“Luna. Come on in.”
A few days later, when I entered the clubroom, I found Rendel eating the Princess Special cookies. I'd left those for myself.
“Senior, those are…”
“Oh, these? Sorry, were they yours?”
“No, it's fine if you eat them. But… don't they taste strange?”
“The more I eat them, the more addictive they get, somehow.”
“Right?”
As expected of the protagonist. His adaptability is incredible. Looking back at all the previous series, none of the protagonists had picky appetites. Maybe it's just a characteristic of the Aindium series.
I sat across from Rendel and polished off the remaining cookies while we chatted. When the other club members came in later and saw us, they looked horrified. But as long as we were enjoying ourselves, that was all that mattered. Don't you think?
*
Two weeks had already flown by in the second semester. Peaceful, ordinary, and enjoyable school life continued, but a small seed of anxiety had taken root in a corner of my heart.
It felt like the next major event was about to unfold soon. The forum updates had slowed down too, so it seemed like they were skipping over a lot of the daily life parts.
I continued my studies, training, and club activities while never neglecting to monitor the forum.
「First-year Class 8 student Luna Adelst. Please report to the staff room.」
It had been a while since the headmaster called for me. On my way to the staff room, a teacher guided me to the building where the headmaster's office was located.
“Excuse me.”
When the guards standing in front of the door opened it, I saw familiar faces.
“Hello, Grand Duke Windsor. Headmaster.”
“It's been a while, Princess Ruwina. Or should I say princess now?”
With Line's victory now certain, I had officially become the princess of Karmanu. A man like me, a princess. It felt incredibly strange, but since this was the position the original Ruwina was meant to have, it wasn't hard to accept.
“What did you call me here for today?”
“It's about that thing the princess sent us the other day.”
Windsor pulled a single sheet of paper from a folder. It was a copy of the clinical trial subject recruitment flyer I'd found on the transport ship and carried around until it was crumpled. The mark on it had looked familiar, so I'd shown it to Line—the direct victim—and the well-informed Windsor, giving them a heads-up. I told them it was probably connected to the enemy forces.
“I've been waiting. What were the results?”
“Hmm. How should I put this… It's a bit difficult to say it belongs to a specific group.”
“Then?”
“I will explain, Your Highness.”
The headmaster took out a book and placed it on the table.
“The History of Religious Development?”
“Yes. The exact same symbol appears here.”
The page the headmaster showed me indeed contained the same symbol I'd seen on the document. Judging by the book title, it seemed to be the work of a specific religious organization.
“What religious order uses that symbol?”
“It's not tied to any one specific order. It was widely used in the distant past, and even now, quite a few religious groups still use that symbol.”
“Ah.”
So it couldn't be used to pinpoint a specific force. But on the forum, it had clearly pointed to something. Posts directly related to the enemy forces couldn't be viewed and had their text censored, but there weren't even any posts speculating about its identity.
It was probably made clear in the anime. “Are there any places that mainly use that symbol these days?”
“At least not within Alitus, apparently.”
“Couldn't it just be an ordinary clinical trial recruitment flyer? Maybe someone brought it on board by mistake.”
If I hadn't known anything, I might have agreed with the headmaster's guess. But I trusted the forum. Even if it was a bit mischievous. No, they were a bunch of guys who loved stirring up drama and embarrassing people by throwing out as much bait as possible. Since it was a gathering of people obsessed with the Aindium series, if the information had been wrong, a debate would've erupted immediately and the correct answer would've been found. I knew this well because I used to be one of them.
“I see. I guess my hunch was off.”
Therefore, I would keep this secret to myself with confidence for a while longer.
I needed to gather a bit more evidence and information before passing it on to the protagonist, Rendel. That was probably the role given to me.