“Ha?!”
Once again dragged out of bed, Alice felt this scene was eerily familiar.
Still not fully awake, she blinked in confusion.
Moments later…
Suddenly jolted awake!
The girl’s mouth dropped wide open, completely losing the calm and composed demeanor she had before.
She panicked so much that the silver-haired faceless doll she was clutching slipped from her hands and fell to the ground.
She still hadn’t fully grasped Layla’s meaning.
After a while, she took a deep breath, then asked Layla with a trembling voice, “W-what do you mean? You found Keti?”
“Uh…not yet, but I found a very important clue! Remember the Mistress Landlady who rented the place to Keti Studio before? I got some info from her — it seems Keti has a Stray Cat around him!”
Panting heavily, Layla’s emotions were still unstable.
After a moment, she sat down, drank a glass of water, and hurriedly told the other two girls everything she’d heard from the Mistress Landlady in painstaking detail.
“…So, basically, that’s it. A silver-haired girl we don’t know appeared by Keti’s side, and their relationship is really close! Rumor even says…there’s nightly revelry, gurgle—!”
“And we can’t find that Stray Cat or Keti at all right now, so I rushed back to discuss a counterplan with everyone!!”
The purple-haired big sister with jellyfish-like hair was clearly completely rattled, even starting to feel a vague sense of regret deep inside.
Why did it have to turn out this way…It’s exactly what I feared…
If, if I had insisted when Alice wanted Keti to quit the team back then, if I hadn’t thought about sneaking away…
Now, now Keti wouldn’t have been snatched away by some other Stray Cat…sob…
Flustered, she felt utterly at a loss for good ideas, and could only pin her hopes on Alice and Sylvia.
Now was not the time to waste energy fighting with old teammates.
With enemies at the gates, they had to unite first.
At the very least, they had to rescue Keti from the clutches of that white-haired loli bad woman!
Layla thought she had already provided enough information, but after hearing her, Sylvia still remained silent, bowing her head even lower.
On the other side, Alice also seemed off…silent, lost in some kind of deep thought.
Uh…after a while, Layla blinked in confusion. Why did it suddenly get so quiet here?!
Half a beat.
K…ran off with another woman?
That thought echoed repeatedly in the mind of the blonde twin-tailed girl, until finally Alice felt her heart stop.
N-no…no way!
It can’t be!
That idiot Keti, although he’s a notorious flirt, but…but…
He always remembered the promise between us!
Especially when he quit the team, I even asked him, confirming his feelings just now.
Keti can only be mine, and only mine.
A Knight must protect the Princess forever, no matter how many wildflowers or weeds appear around Keti, in the end, the victory will belong to the childhood sweetheart…
W-what kind of joke is this?
After spending twenty years together with Keti, how could I possibly lose?!
Hmm…of course, that’s not to say I like Keti, I just know him so well after all these years…
Keti, Keti definitely likes me!
Alice had long been certain of this.
Otherwise, why would he be so good to her?
But…now you tell me Keti’s fallen for some other girl, a Stray Cat I don’t even know, and ran off with her?!
Shouting: “Heh, heh, heh…”
H-how could this be?!
Thinking of this, Alice suddenly jumped off the sofa and lunged at Layla!
She pinned the purple-haired jellyfish-headed nun down fiercely, the brave girl baring a pair of impatient little tiger teeth, and angrily shouted at Layla: “I told you to stop looking for Keti! Why do you keep going after him again and again?!”
Startled, Layla’s mouth twitched.
After a moment, she spoke helplessly:
“Please, this isn’t the time to argue about this. If I hadn’t gone, we’d still be foolishly waiting here while the Stray Cat devours Keti! Now’s not the time to fight among ourselves, Alice-chan…”
“Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense! You just made this up! Heh, as his childhood sweetheart, I know Keti well! That guy would never casually sleep with a woman he barely knows!”
“You, running off every day for so long and now making up stories like this, it’s obvious…obvious you just want to lead us on a wild goose chase so you can sneak away alone. You’re the Stray Cat! Don’t think I don’t know, back when you quit the team, you were thinking the same thing!!”
Growing angrier, Alice suddenly ripped off the trench coat Layla was wearing, revealing… a black lace bikini underneath…
Both girls instantly blushed deeply.
After a moment, Alice, still trembling, grabbed Layla’s snow-white buns and shouted in frustration: “Y-you…you seriously said you didn’t find Keti, but this is solid proof!”
“Wearing something this shameless underneath—what else are you sneaking off to do? Don’t tell me you’re going out for late-night exposure or something?!”
“Wha…w-what?! N-no way——!”
For a long time, poor Layla’s cries of utter shame echoed throughout the stronghold, making the atmosphere extremely complicated…
Layla wanted everyone to fight the Stray Cat together, but didn’t expect Alice to disbelieve her entirely, immediately suspecting her first.
After a while, watching the two girls wrestling on the floor, the blindfolded girl who had been silent suddenly slowly raised her head.
Then, the green-haired elf’s lips curled into a cold smile, and her soft laughter gradually became more abstract and eerie…
“Gigglegiggle…hehehehehe~”
This ghostly, chilling smile made Alice and Layla on the ground instantly sober up quite a bit.
Goosebumps rose across their backs as they mustered their courage and looked at Sylvia, who had always seemed like a blank slate girl before.
“Stop fighting. It’s just that Keti-kun cheated…it’s fine, because…Sylvia already knows where that Stray Cat, about to be loved hundreds of times, is hiding~”
Listening to unwelcome school while reading this is peak