“Ehehehe~ Well then, since Keti has gone to such lengths to come up with an idea for us, actually, Mama also wants to revisit the days when I was still an innocent young girl~ Keti, you must be looking forward to it, right~ Seeing what Mama looked like at fifteen or sixteen~ And then inevitably falling in love at first sight, or something like that, ah~-~”
As she spoke, the big sister with the purple jellyfish hair suddenly hugged her chest and began twisting in place.
Keti, standing beside her, immediately fell silent. After a moment, she wiped the sweat from her forehead, “Uh…That said, does this mean Layla has agreed?”
The silver-haired beauty immediately looked over at Sylvia. The elven girl, on the other hand, seemed a little hesitant.
After thinking for a while, she finally raised her head and asked Keti, “But, there’s only one bottle of potion here, right? Keti, you said it was very hard to make. In that case, with just me and Layla…”
“No problem, no problem~ Even though it’s just a small bottle, it’s actually enough for two people… I’ll just divide it into two little bottles when the time comes. Sylvia, um…Please…”
The silver-haired beauty looked at the elven girl with teary eyes, while Sylvia seemed to be fighting a fierce inner battle, but…
She just couldn’t bear to ignore the desire in her heart to help Keti, so in the end…she still nodded. “As long as it’s something Keti wants to do, I’ll help you.”
“That’s great! Whew… Really, thank you both so much…”
With the two girls nodding their agreement, the silver-haired beauty finally let out a long sigh of relief.
She had thought they would definitely ask for some conditions, or maybe make her return to the team or something, but… absolutely nothing!
This was the first time!
Even Keti, who had always been reluctant to rejoin the team, felt a bit embarrassed now. She scratched her head, then said,
“If you need my help with anything later, just let me know, hehe…”
“Of course, after all… Keti-chan is our most important… friend.”
Sylvia nodded expressionlessly, while Layla suddenly propped her chin on her hand, then wagged her slender index finger and said, “Nonono~! Keti-chan is my child~”
The scene immediately fell silent.
After a long moment, Keti gave an awkward laugh and waved her hand, then suddenly turned serious and asked, “By the way… since you two are both attending school now, what about Alice? Why isn’t she here?”
“Ah, about that…”
Layla, who had just been joking, now looked a bit troubled. After all, she couldn’t tell Keti, “Actually, it’s because we never told Alice your true identity. If she found out, she would’ve come here ages ago…”
Right? She’d sound like some sneaky, untrustworthy woman—though, honestly…
If Sylvia hadn’t insisted on following her, she wouldn’t have wanted to bring this taciturn, yandere elf along either! It totally interfered with her plan to spend quality time with Keti-chan.
Originally, after saying those lines earlier, she had planned to pull Keti into her embrace, let her rest her head on her soft, plump thighs, and stroke her squishy chest to coax her into a nap!
But with this girl sitting beside them, guh… there was no space to do any of that!
And besides… if she really tried it in front of her… Layla was honestly a bit scared this elf might sneak into her room at night and pull a knife on her. Better to steer clear of this little witch’s sharp edges, ugh—
“It’s Alice-chan. Ever since she was attacked by the succubus last time, the Hero Party has suspended its activities. Layla and I had nothing to do, so we decided to come to the Magic Academy.”
“I did hear from Layla about suspending activities before, but… isn’t this kind of like the team is about to disband? You guys are still living at your base, right?! You haven’t actually broken up, have you?!”
The silver-haired beauty immediately started to panic. After all, she’d always thought her departure wouldn’t have much effect on the Hero Party, but if her leaving led to the whole team dissolving…
Then, it somehow just wouldn’t be the same.
“That’s not it at all, it’s just a pause. We’re all still at the base, it’s just that Alice already graduated, so she isn’t interested in school. As for what she’s been up to lately, um… actually, we haven’t figured it out either.”
Layla scratched her head, a bit embarrassed. But, this was basically the truth.
Ever since Alice was attacked by the succubus and saved by Keti, she’d been acting like she’d suffered some shock, holing herself up in her room all the time.
No one really knew what she was up to.
But, whatever. Tsunderes will be tsunderes—she still wouldn’t come looking for Keti, even after all this, hmph~ Layla felt that, in matters of love, her feelings for Keti were definitely the deepest~
“Whew—then that’s good. I never expected things would turn out this way…”
Keti let out a long breath, then suddenly stood up and said her goodbyes:
“I got up a bit early this morning, so I want to go back to the dorm and get some rest. I still need to find the other contestants this afternoon. After tomorrow, we should all be training together for the tournament, so you guys should go take a nap too.”
“Mm… Okay! Ah, wait, Keti, don’t forget Mama’s homemade lunch~”
“Oh… ahem, I-I’ll accept it.”
In the end, the silver-haired beauty went along with Layla’s pace, taking the big sister’s bento before leaving the room.
Layla and Sylvia also walked out of the office, but… they weren’t in a hurry to head back to the base.
Instead, the two of them started chatting quietly in the hallway. Sylvia watched Keti’s departing back, then after a moment, turned her head and asked:
“Keti-chan actually pulled us into this competition. It looks like… she really wants to get into the Magic Tower.”
“Mm~ that’s right, that’s exactly it. Mama could feel it too—the fiery passion burning inside Keti! Ah… it’s just as urgent as how I wanted to get into the school quickly to be by Keti’s side!”
Layla nodded vigorously. But… this strange way of referring to herself was something Sylvia still couldn’t get used to. After a half-second of silence, she finally couldn’t help but ask:
“Speaking of which, even though you told me about coming to the Magic Academy together, I still don’t get it—why not stick to the original plan of convincing Keti to rejoin the team?”
“Honestly… we’re at the age of talking about marriage, and yet here we are, attending a first-year prep class full of fifteen- and sixteen-year-old kids. It’s kind of weird.”
“And also, Layla, what’s with this bizarre role-play of yours? This ‘Mama’ stuff… is it really okay? Are you sure… there’s nothing wrong up here?”
Sylvia pointed at her own head, showing an utterly speechless expression. However, faced with her doubts, the big sister with the purple jellyfish hair only let out a gentle laugh.