Fox

It was just that the girl usually came around noon, yet this time, she had arrived so early.

Since she had yet to reveal her existence to the public, Yae Sakura always concealed her presence and aura before Mei arrived, staying hidden in her room through the weekend noon for the time being.

In any case, it was better to avoid her for now...

With that thought in mind, Yae Sakura swiftly padded up to the second floor and returned to her room, making not the slightest sound the entire way.

With so little time, she had no chance to erase her scent this time.

After Yae Sakura hid herself away, the purple-haired girl made her way to the living room with practiced ease.

"Phew... I came a little early today..."

She was carrying some vegetables she had bought from the supermarket.

After setting the items on the kitchen table, Mei pricked up her ears and listened, but heard nothing.

It looked like he was still asleep...

"Hmm... Then I'll prepare the ingredients first and start cooking closer to noon."

The girl turned to look at the plentiful ingredients on the table, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to get to work.

However, another voice suddenly surfaced in Mei's mind, stopping her.

"...Wait, Raiden Mei."

—Since returning from the battle in Changkong City, although this Stigmata Personality had no intention of appearing before others, the frequency of her conversations with Mei had indeed increased considerably.

"Hm? What is it?"

Mei asked curiously in her heart.

The Stigmata Personality fell silent for a moment before speaking in a certain tone.

"...There is another woman's scent in this house."

"Huh?"

Mei froze slightly.

After thinking it over, she said,

"Maybe... another classmate came to visit too?"

After all, this was a girls' school. It was not especially strange for girls to occasionally come and go from Ming Yu's dormitory.

"Doesn't seem like it. That scent is everywhere, and it's still fresh."

The Stigmata Personality spoke with certainty.

Mei guessed wildly, "Kiana is still sleeping in the dormitory, and so is Himeko-sensei. Um... Could it be the class monitor or Bronya?"

Those were really the only girls who were relatively close to Ming Yu.

"...They wouldn't use perfume with this scent."

The voice in her heart mercilessly dismissed every one of Mei's guesses.

A faint floral fragrance permeated the air. Both she and Mei knew this scent well—it was as fragrant as cherry blossoms.

She even suspected that it might not truly be perfume at all.

After pausing for a moment, she took the opportunity to suggest to Mei,

"Anyway, just in case, why don't you go look around?"

What exactly did "just in case" mean...

Mei said weakly,

"Wouldn't that be inappropriate? This is Ming Yu's dormitory, after all..."

"He eats your cooking for free every day. What's wrong with taking a look around his place? Go on, go on."

The Stigmata Personality urged Mei into action.

"O-Okay..."

Of course, Mei herself also wanted to know who the owner of that cherry blossom-like scent was.

Following the fragrance, she lightly stepped onto the stairs leading to the second floor.

The farther up she went, the more clearly she could smell that refreshing, faint floral fragrance.

The dormitory layouts at St. Freya Academy were mostly the same, so Mei was not entirely unfamiliar with this place.

"Looks like it should be on this floor..."

Mei mused.

However, just as the girl was about to continue farther in, the wooden door beside her suddenly opened.

What entered her sight was Ming Yu, bare-chested.

Seeing the purple-haired girl standing before him, he froze slightly as well.

"Hm? Mei?"

After living at St. Freya Academy for some time, Ming Yu's body had long since undergone earth-shaking changes.

With ample nutrition and relentless training, his physical condition had improved by leaps and bounds compared to his days in Changkong City.

In terms of appearance, that meant quite solid muscles.

They might not have been obvious beneath his clothes, but now that he was bare-chested, Mei saw every bit of them.

"...!"

Mei had hardly interacted with any men other than her father since childhood. How could she have ever seen something like this? A rosy flush instantly spread across her pretty face.

"Th-Then, Ming Yu..."

The purple-haired girl stammered as she tried to back away, but somehow tripped herself. Losing her balance, she was about to fall backward.

Skilled in every martial art, yet defeated by level ground.

Ming Yu instinctively stepped forward and reached out. Before the girl could fall, he wrapped an arm around her waist and steadied her.

Since it was the weekend, Mei was not wearing the uniform provided by St. Freya. Instead, she had changed into a casual, lightweight outfit.

That casual attire already displayed the girl's charm to the fullest, but after directly putting his hands on her...

Well, the fabric felt even thinner than he had imagined.

At that moment, the girl's warm, soft body pressed against his arm. Though there was no direct skin contact, it felt even more intimate than if there had been.

Their eyes met at close range. He could even clearly see the fine eyelids revealed by Mei's fluttering lashes, as well as the faint shimmer of moisture trembling deep within her eyes.

The atmosphere instantly fell silent.

Only a few seconds later did Mei come back to her senses. She hurriedly broke free from Ming Yu's embrace, her cheeks burning so hot they seemed ready to drip blood.

"Th-Thank you... Ming Yu!"

She covered her face with both hands, her voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, only daring to steal glances at Ming Yu from the corner of her eye.

"...Mei, go downstairs and wait for a moment. I'll change and come down."

The girl nodded like a pecking chick and dashed back to the first floor.

He was not some abstinent character. Naturally, he could not possibly have no reaction at all to a beautiful girl throwing herself into his arms.

Especially a well-endowed young lady like Mei...

What a stimulating thing to happen first thing in the morning.

Ming Yu shook his head, returned to his room, and looked for some clothes.

Although he had only just gotten up, the cherry blossom scent in the air gave him a rough idea of what Mei had come to the second floor to look for.

Hmm... Should Yae Sakura's existence be made public to the others?

He had previously harbored concerns because of her identity as a Pseudo-Herrscher. But now, with a genuine Herrscher like Mei living at the academy long-term, along with Yuna, who had recently been rescued from Chiba Academy, Yae Sakura's identity was no longer quite so unusual.

Of course, he had never thought revealing Yae Sakura's existence to Theresa and the others would pose much of a problem.

What concerned him more was a certain Schicksal Overseer far away at the Mediterranean headquarters.

Ming Yu truly could not tell how that five-hundred-year-old Schicksal Overseer would view and deal with Yae Sakura, who came from the same era as him.

So, for now, it was better to keep her identity hidden.

After changing clothes, Ming Yu did not immediately head downstairs. Instead, he first went to Yae Sakura's room and lightly knocked on the door.

Though Mei had already gone downstairs, even if she did not press the issue, the Raiden Queen inside her probably would not let it go.

There had to be some explanation for the source of that cherry blossom scent.

For now, he needed to come up with an excuse to muddle through...

A short while later, beside the dining table on the first floor.

"What a cute little fox..."

The purple-haired girl looked with great interest at the little creature Ming Yu had brought down from the second floor.

Red-and-white fur, along with a faint cherry blossom fragrance.

Captured by the adorable little creature, the girl completely forgot what had happened upstairs moments ago.

"Yeah, I found this little animal in the eastern forest when I was doing morning training with the class monitor before. I just hadn't gotten around to telling you all."

Ming Yu explained from the side, feeling somewhat guilty.

—Though it had been a little rushed, he had at least had Yae Sakura transform into a fox to deal with the situation.

"Eep~"

The little fox gave an obedient cry and swished her tail. Then she leaped down from the table, gracefully walked over to the sofa, and curled herself into a ball there.

In any case, Mei did not seem to think too much about it. This matter would probably pass just like that.

Hmm, if anyone else came to his dormitory in the future, he could use the little fox as an excuse too.

At the dining table, Ming Yu ate the breakfast Mei had prepared while casually asking,

"By the way, Mei, how has Kiana's special training been going lately?"

The special training Theresa had launched for that girl in a blazing rage should have shown some results by now, right?

"Um... Well, her combat technique training has barely passed, but she's been terrible in every other aspect..."

Mei said helplessly,

"On the recent exams, biology, geography, chemistry, physics, history... Kiana scored only twenty-one points total across all five subjects."

She had even gotten a perfect zero in history.

She was truly dead last.

"..."

The corner of Ming Yu's mouth twitched.

Yeah, that fit his image of the tuna.

He remembered that the top four places in that exam had been taken by him, Fu Hua, Bronya, and Mei.

It would be nice if that girl could train and study as seriously as they did...

It was not as though he had never considered persuading Kiana to be more serious, but unfortunately, after coming to St. Freya, she had vaguely developed an attitude of giving up.

Perhaps a wanderer who had drifted for so long had finally found a place to belong. Though she had once said that becoming an A-Rank Valkyrie would let her find Siegfried, it seemed she no longer wanted to find him quite so badly.