Alvitr Saw Through Everything
"Rita, what are those in your hands?"
Rita had no intention of hiding them, so Durandal naturally spotted the bag of discs in her hand.
"Discs?"
"That's right, and they're A-Vs."
"A... V?"
A huge question mark appeared over Durandal's head.
"A... animal video? Animal videos?"
Just as expected of her. As long as she did not know what A-V meant, she would not misunderstand Rita's words.
"Just as expected of you, Captain. That is exactly right," Rita said calmly and elegantly.
"Do they... cough, do they have kittens?" Durandal asked, seeming somewhat embarrassed.
This girl seemed to be a cat person.
"Of course. Would you like to watch them too, Captain?"
"If you do not mind... I suppose it would not hurt to take a look."
"Captain? Vice-Captain? What are you two talking about?" Just as Durandal and Rita were chatting enthusiastically, Alvitr—the Unfading Blade's resident lackey—suddenly appeared.
...What timing.
"We're discussing A-Vs."
Durandal answered bluntly, while the maid beside her had already covered her mouth and begun to chuckle.
"AAAAAAAA—V?"
That highly misleading term gave their poor lackey a fright.
No, the captain and vice-captain of the Unfading Blade were openly discussing something as shameless as A-Vs in a hallway? If word got out, the Unfading Blades Squad's image would be utterly ruined, would it not?
Well... but thinking about it carefully, perhaps it was not that shameless.
After all, it was understandable to suddenly become interested in lewd things at that age. Biologically speaking, it was perfectly normal.
But...
Alvitr looked at the bulging bag of discs in Rita's hand...
Gasp—
Alvitr sucked in a sharp breath. As the technician of the Unfading Blade's Third Squad, she could roughly estimate how many discs were in that bag just from how swollen it looked.
At a glance... there had to be at least thirty. At most, there might even be fifty.
Assuming each disc was thirty minutes long, these two would probably spend the whole day in their room watching them.
If they averaged an hour each, that would be enough for the two of them to watch for two days.
The captain and vice-captain of the Unfading Blade watching such unsuitable-for-children discs together in a room... if that got out, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"What's wrong, Alvitr?"
Durandal looked at Alvitr in confusion as her expression changed three times in a second.
"Could it be that you want to watch too?"
"Uh... Captain Bianka, this, this... wouldn't that be inappropriate?"
Don't drag me into something like this!
I, Alvitr, am a decent person!
"? What's inappropriate about it? What is wrong with watching A-Vs together?" Her captain's expression did not look like she was joking at all.
A-Vs are the problem—!
Alvitr desperately wanted to shout that into Bianka's ear through a megaphone.
But... forget it. She did not want to get buried by Vice-Captain Rita.
"Hey, Miss Maid, the muscles in your face are about to cramp."
Watching the scene of the two talking past each other, the maid responsible for all this nearly lost her composure.
Of course, Liu Bai, who spoke up to remind her, had nearly lost it too... it was simply too funny.
"Cough, n-no need. If I want to watch, I can look for them online myself."
Alvitr politely declined. As an Unfading Blade technician, getting this sort of thing off the internet could not have been easier. If she looked a little harder, even those sorts of websites... cough, she would be able to find them if she wanted.
This was the power of technology!
"Online? Then why not copy some out and watch them together?"
"Captain... um..."
The captain in her memory was not such a shameless woman!
Vice-Captain? Lady Rita, save me!
...Oh, right, Lady Rita was the one who bought the discs. Never mind.
She had better not end up becoming research material for the two captains' moves...
"Uh... I just remembered that I still have work to do, um..." In her desperation, Alvitr came up with a reason her captain would definitely not refuse.
"Work? Then there is nothing to be done."
Bianka nodded. With her serious personality, the excuse of work was astonishingly effective.
However, the very next moment, Durandal suddenly looked suspicious and called out to Alvitr, who had just turned to leave.
"Wait. Isn't the entire Unfading Blade currently on standby? What work? A side job?"
Incidentally, Durandal's sensitivity when it came to work was not bad either...
"..."
Oh, right. The two people in front of her were her direct superiors.
"This poor girl..." Liu Bai completely lost it and laughed loudly at the side. Since no one could hear him anyway, he said, "She would have been better off saying she was going to train."
Rita nodded elegantly without losing her composure.
...She wanted to laugh too.
"Uh, well... cough, our squad leader asked me to look up some information."
Pass the buck, pass the buck.
"Miss Rita, tell me, have the two of you turned into perverted nymphomaniacs in that girl's eyes by now?"
Perverted... nymphomaniacs...
Liu Bai's single sentence froze Rita's expression.
"That really is a bit troublesome."
Rita tilted her head and muttered. She had been too engrossed in watching to remember that this would damage her reputation.
"Since Squad Member Alvitr does not wish to watch animal videos, then we shall not force her. Go look up your information."
Considering her image, Rita finally spoke up to smooth things over.
Animal videos?
Animal video?
Was this a warning not to spread it around?
Alvitr revealed an understanding expression. Got it! As a member of the Unfading Blade, she had received professional training too.
No problem! She would keep this matter absolutely airtight! Even if the Bishop subjected her to torture, she, Alvitr, would never say a single word!
"I'll bet fifty cents that you and her are talking past each other too."
Liu Bai was having so much fun that he was floating upside down.
"That girl does not believe you at all. This is really like spilling milk on your panties."
Hilarious, absolutely hilarious.
Liu Bai's odd description made Rita's lips twitch slightly.
You are the one who spilled milk on your panties!
"They really are just animal videos... look."
Rita thoughtfully opened the bag, allowing Alvitr to see the animal covers on the discs.
"That's right! They're just animal videos!"
Alvitr patted her chest and promised.
Just as expected of Vice-Captain Rita!
She had actually printed camouflage onto the discs beforehand, so she could easily use that excuse to brush things off if anything happened.
If the captain and the others had not told her personally, she never would have imagined that these discs printed with adorable little animals were actually A-Vs.
As for animal video?
That was definitely an excuse they had thought up in advance too!
What normal person would abbreviate animal video as A-V? Had their head been caught in a door?
At that moment, Alvitr felt as though she had seen through everything.
Fu Hua's Growth
"Rita, I think the best way to handle this now is to silence her permanently. Have you decided what to plant? I think an apple tree would be nice."
Watching Alvitr hurry off at a brisk jog, Liu Bai made the suggestion to Rita.
Just from the way she was anxiously fleeing the scene, it was obvious that the girl had not listened to Rita's explanation at all.
In response, Rita rolled her eyes at the air. Did he not realize whose fault it was that she had made that joke in the first place?
Though she had made that joke to Bianka because she had suddenly felt playful...
"I think planting some flowers and grass would be better."
Still, to be fair, Rita admitted that she was somewhat tempted by Liu Bai's suggestion.
"What is wrong with flowers and grass?"
Even now, Bianka had not realized that anything was amiss.
A pure child who did not even have the term Adult Video in her mind was truly rare.
"It is nothing. I simply suddenly feel like doing some gardening." Rita gave Durandal an elegant smile. "Let us not mention it. I suddenly remembered that I still have some maid duties to attend to. As for watching... another time."
Although Durandal's bluntness was adorable, if someone really asked about this and Durandal blurted out, "Rita and I watched A-Vs together"... please forgive Rita, but her heart was not quite strong enough for that.
For the moment, she had no desire to suffer a social death.
But speaking of social death... should she tell Durandal what A-V actually meant?
"?"
Rita glanced at Bianka, who tilted her head with an adorably blank expression, and immediately surrendered.
No, at this point, Rita simply could not bring herself to say something like, "A-V actually means Adult Video, that kind of lewd video."
She had better not ruin her image in Bianka's eyes...
Though she thought it was unlikely, what if Bianka had developed a misunderstanding similar to Alvitr's?
"Please excuse me."
"Oh, oh, goodbye, Rita."
The atmosphere just now had felt a little strange somehow... was that just her imagination?
It seemed that Miss Bianka was gradually beginning to catch on too.
Before you continue