The doorbell echoed, leaving me momentarily stunned.
Wait, that fast?
Could it be that they were already near Schale, and the moment I agreed, they could not wait a second longer and rang the bell?
"Ah!" At that moment, Arisu cried out, "Is there a visitor? Sensei, please don't move, let Arisu, who has changed jobs into a duty student hero, take responsibility for welcoming and hosting them!"
Before I could stop her, Arisu ran off excitedly toward the entrance. As a high-performance bionic being, she had probably already memorized the entire map of Schale.
Was it unintentional, or deliberate?
"Hey! Don't… don't run around indoors!"
Neru made up a rough excuse and chased after her. The silent Saori followed as well.
I walked behind them, glancing at the newly received message, doubt rising in my heart.
Midori: Okay, got it. We'll head over as soon as possible.
Which meant they had not even set out yet.
So if it was not the Game Development Department, then who was visiting?
My question was answered quickly.
"Wah∼" Just as I was about to reach the door, I heard a very familiar voice complaining, "Neru, so you actually stayed overnight at Schale yesterday? That's so unfair, you made me go back first and then secretly ran here yourself!"
Even without recognizing the voice, just from the content, I could tell it was Asuna.
Then came Neru's flustered rebuttal. "H-huh!? D-don't slander me! Wasn't it Sensei who told you to go back last night!?"
Why so flustered? Was Neru feeling guilty?
Sure enough, faced with my world-shaking charm, even someone usually as frank and open as Neru was still a normal girl in the end. Letting her imagination run wild was only natural.
"Ara ara∼ That kind of attitude is very suspicious," another gentle female voice chimed in. "Could it be that Neru-senpai really did something strange with Master behind our backs?"
That form of address could only belong to Akane.
I quickened my pace.
"Nothing like that!" Neru snapped in embarrassment. "And what do you mean behind your backs!? Even if something really did happen, what does it have to do with you idiots!?"
"Eh, wait a second," a cool voice tinged with surprise said. "Neru-senpai, you did not actually do something with Sensei, did you…?"
Even Karin was here?
I frowned slightly. That meant that aside from when she served as Rio's personal bodyguard, with her true identity unknown even to her fellow C＆C seniors, Toki was not present.
The maid agents of Millennium had all gathered at Schale today?
Could it be they came specifically for Neru?
After a brief thought, I grasped the truth.
It must be that Asuna, Akane, and Karin had long since secretly fallen for me. All of them had resolved to treat me as their master and serve me for life, so upon hearing that their captain might have committed such despicable acts, they rushed to Schale early in the morning to confirm it for themselves.
After all, in this vast Kivotos, only I could possibly meet all the needs and fantasies these outstanding maids held toward an existence called Master but actually meaning partner.
As I was lost in such reflections, Neru grew increasingly frantic.
"I said no! How many times do I have to repeat it! If you keep spouting nonsense, I really will start punching you!"
"Ahahaha∼ so scary, so scary. ♪"
Listening to Asuna's laughter, I stepped past the corner and took in the scene at the entrance.
Surrounded by three smiling maids, Neru stood there red-faced, stomping her feet in anger. No matter how you looked at it, she seemed rather pitiful.
What caught my attention in particular was this.
Standing beside Saori, Arisu watched Neru's predicament with an expression of wanting to help but not knowing how, looking genuinely troubled.
It made one feel as though her earlier provocations of Neru had not been intentional at all.
"Ah, Master!"
Asuna was the first to notice me. She immediately abandoned Neru, whom she had just been teasing so enthusiastically, and ran over. Her smile was as bright as sunlight, her tone brimming with excitement.
"Hey, Master! I'm here to serve you with everything I have, just like always!"
This wording, this posture, she was probably really here to compete with Neru for affection.
Sigh, I truly am a man burdened with deep sins…
"Then I'll be counting on you," I replied with a smile.
At that moment, however, another voice came, unexpected and tinged with unease.
"P-please don't take away Arisu's job!"
Arisu, who had somehow followed along, wore an adorably pitiful expression, on the verge of tears.
I could not help falling silent.
"Haha∼ don't worry, Arisu-chan, right?" Asuna said with a laugh. "I won't take your job. We can serve Master together, can't we∼"
Arisu's eyes widened with delight. "Wow, does that mean the blonde maid has become a companion?"
"That's right, that's right∼ And you can just call me Asuna-senpai!"
"Bum bum bum!∼ Asuna-senpai has joined the party. ♪"
Was this… a disguise?
Watching the harmonious interaction between Asuna and Arisu, deep down I had already reached a tentative conclusion.
Arisu and Kei were probably, indeed, two different individuals. I wanted to believe that.
But I still had to test it, to eliminate every possible exception.
Even if the chance was only one in ten thousand.
"Master, could I have a word with you in private?"
After speaking to me, Akane turned to Arisu with a smiling expression. "I'm also here to join the party, Arisu-chan. I'm Akane, a second-year, and over there is Karin, also a second-year."
Arisu, who had just looked wary, immediately broke into a wide smile. "Bum bum bum!∼ Akane-senpai and Karin-senpai have joined the party∼"
Karin looked rather surprised. "Eh? Me too…? Um… then please take care of me."
In the blink of an eye, Arisu had successfully mingled with the C＆C seniors, creating a scene of cheerful harmony.
Incidentally, although Saori was not very talkative, she had already been included in Arisu's list of teammates.
And within this harmonious atmosphere, perhaps I was the only one who felt out of place…
"Hey! Why do you call all of them this senpai and that senpai, but when it comes to me it's tiny this and tiny that!"
Neru rolled up her sleeves. "Are you picking a fight with me or what!"
"W-wuh.. but Arisu clearly also calls tiny Neru-senpai a senpai…"
"Huh!? You really are picking a fight, aren't you!?"
Oh, looks like there was one more.
Feeling slightly comforted, I left the group with Akane, curious about what she wanted to say to me.
Could it be… a confession?
Because Neru, who was originally thought to pose no threat, had unknowingly progressed to the point of staying overnight at Schale with me, triggering a sense of crisis, so she decided to strike first?
That had to be it.
However, once we reached a quiet spot, Akane's first words froze me in place.
"Sensei," Akane said solemnly, "the reason our entire C＆C unit is deployed today is because we received an order from President Rio."
"Wha…?"
At first I was surprised, but on second thought, it made sense.
Rio was not the type to let me take AL-1S away unchecked. And just as she had explained in the conference room last night, C＆C was, in essence, an agent organization directly under her command alone. Neru defying her orders did not mean the others would do the same.
Still, Akane being so upfront with me left me puzzled.
Could it be that she had been swayed on the spot by my personal charm?
I gazed into her gray eyes. "What was the content of the order?"
"President Rio ordered us," Akane bowed slightly, "to follow all of your commands during the period that Arisu-chan stays at Schale."
…Rio actually gave such an order?
Handing over her most elite force to me, someone who had clashed with her just yesterday over how to handle Arisu?
Could it be… that Rio truly had a change of heart?
Or perhaps…
Akane was deceiving me, in order to carry out some hidden true mission?
There was no doubt that Akane had held a fair amount of goodwill toward me since our first meeting. But if we were to compare, Rio was the same.
Was there an ulterior motive, or was she really being this kind?
Ever since last night's incident, I felt like I had grown overly suspicious and cautious.
Still, this was not something worth agonizing over.
"Wait a moment."
After saying that to Akane, I took out my phone and directly called Rio.
After a brief ring, the call connected, and a cold, indifferent voice came through. "I sent C＆C over simply because I do not want a repeat of last night's incident."
Before I could even ask, Rio had already thrown her answer at me.
Of course, calling her at this moment could only have been for this reason anyway.
"Rio, thank you," I said, already more than halfway convinced.
"There's no need to thank me," Rio replied flatly. "Since Neru chose to betray me in this matter, the others would have followed her footsteps sooner or later. I merely shortened an unnecessary process."
"…Are you still angry?"
"I am not."
She was obviously still angry.
But in my eyes, Rio's behavior was just like that of a girlfriend in a cold war.
Even though she was indeed upset, she still could not help but worry about me…
Finding such a Rio incredibly cute, I could not help smiling, my tone softening.
"I understand. In any case, once this is all over, shall we meet?"
There was a long silence on the other end of the line.
I waited patiently, and finally heard Rio's reply.
"The seminar workload is very busy. I may not be able to make time. I'm hanging up."
With that, she really did hang up immediately.
I sent a few more momotalk messages, but there was no reply. I did not know whether she simply had not seen them yet or did not want to respond.
It seemed that reconciling with a tsundere rank EX like Rio would still be a long road ahead.