"Brother..." Luo Mio began, "Where is Xiao Kong's brother now?"
Void fell silent, then slowly answered.
"By my ear..."
Luo Mio failed to catch the hidden meaning in Void's words.
"By your side?"
"Mm."
"Um..." Void's voice rose slightly as she asked, "Then, um, I-I... can I talk to you from now on too?"
Hearing the little angel's somewhat pleading words, Luo Mio smiled. "Of course you can."
The little angel's tone immediately turned excited upon hearing Luo Mio's answer. "Really?"
"Really."
"Yay!"
The joy in the little angel's voice reached Luo Mio's ears.
It brought an indulgent smile to Luo Mio's face on the other end of the call.
It wasn't that I disliked children. I just disliked children who weren't as adorable as this little angel.
I admitted it. I was a face-and-voice addict.
After all, how could a child with such an adorable voice possibly harbor bad intentions?
The two of them continued chatting for a few more minutes.
Then the door to Room 44 suddenly opened.
Ikki walked in, carrying the food he had bought.
He saw Luo Mio chatting through the Student Handbook with a relaxed, cheerful expression on his face.
Luo Mio also spotted the returning Ikki and said apologetically, "Sorry, Xiao Kong, I'm going to eat now."
"Eh?! Is that so..." Hearing Luo Mio's apologetic words, Void said with some regret, "Then okay."
"Mm."
Void immediately added, "P-please do your best in the future matches too."
"Mm, I will."
"Bye-bye. Let's talk again later, Void."
"Mm, bye-bye."
Luo Mio then hung up and looked at Ikki.
"You're back."
"Mm." Ikki lifted the bag in his hand.
Ikki sat beside Luo Mio and watched him snap apart a pair of disposable chopsticks. He asked curiously, "Who was Miohua talking to just now? You looked pretty happy, and you were speaking Chinese."
"You could tell?"
"Mm. I studied some Chinese martial arts before, while researching sword techniques."
"I see."
"So, was the person you were talking to Chinese?"
Hearing Ikki's curious question, Luo Mio set down his chopsticks, folded his arms, and curled one corner of his mouth upward.
"An angel!"
"Eh?" Ikki looked confused. "An angel?"
"That's right! I..."
"Met an angel!"
Ikki scratched his cheek with his index finger.
"The angel you're talking about was the person you were just speaking with?"
"Yeah! Let me tell you, she's a huge fan of mine!"
"A huge fan?"
"I'll tell you all about it."
After hanging up, Void stared blankly at the phone in her hand.
"What? Still haven't snapped out of it?" Edelweiss looked at the dazed Void and smiled.
Hearing Edelweiss tease her, Void came back to her senses. She turned her head away shyly and huffed, "I snapped out of it ages ago. I-I was just wondering why the phone didn't explode or something."
Amused by Void's tsundere tone and lame excuse, Edelweiss said, "All right, all right."
Then she looked at Void and asked, "Are you happy?"
Hearing that, Void looked at Edelweiss's gentle smile.
"Mm, very happy!" Void answered. Her exquisite, adorable face lit up as Liuli's golden eyes narrowed into crescents, a faint blush colored her cheeks, and her lips curved into a radiant smile.
Such a bright, dazzling smile...
Since meeting her, Edelweiss had never seen her smile like that before.
"Then you'd better train your abilities properly from now on. Otherwise, you'll end up like today again, unable to control your power and crying."
Edelweiss teased.
Void's face immediately flushed with embarrassment.
"I-I know that! And I didn't—I didn't cry!"
After all, her spatial ability was innate, and she could manipulate space as naturally as breathing.
Except for some extremely delicate operations, of course.
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Hmph! Edelweiss, you big idiot!" Void made a face at Edelweiss, then summoned a Void Hole and stepped inside.
Edelweiss shook her head with an amused smile, then walked off into the distance.
After Edelweiss left, a police officer drove a patrol car over to the location of the telephone booth where they had first been.
Looking at the broken wireless phone,
the officer scratched his head.
"This equipment was just replaced yesterday. How did it break already?"
Peeping
"Ahh."
A spoonful of rich, delicious curry and soft white rice entered his mouth.
Luo Mio was having lunch in the hotel restaurant, with Ikki, Touka, and the others seated at the same table.
Stella scooped up a mouthful of rice, chewed it, and looked around.
"It feels like there are fewer people than at the previous banquet."
"Isn't that obvious?" Shizuku elegantly lifted a bowl of soup and took a sip before saying calmly, "After all, most of the people still here have already gone through four or five battles and won them."
Just as Shizuku said, the students still in the hotel had gone through five or six matches and possessed considerable strength!
The students who had left had already lost two matches and forfeited their right to compete.
Touka swept her gaze around before looking at everyone and saying, "The matches after this will probably become harder and harder to handle. Everyone, do your best."
"Yeah!"
Stella's eyes brimmed with fighting spirit. Then she looked at Ikki, froze, and asked, "Ikki? What's wrong? Your expression looks strange."
Ikki gave an awkward laugh.
"What is it, Brother?" Hearing Stella's words, Shizuku also looked at Ikki with concern.
"Do you need me to examine you?"
As a Water Mage, Shizuku could thoroughly examine another person's physical condition.
Ikki shook his head and smiled bitterly. "...It's just that someone seems to have been following me lately."
"What?!"
"What?!"
Stella and Shizuku instantly shot to their feet and shouted at Ikki.
"Hey, you two, watch your image!"
Luo Mio scooped up a mouthful of rice and looked at Stella and Shizuku, who had stood up without any regard for their appearances. He swallowed the rice.
"Everyone nearby is looking over."
Only after hearing Luo Mio did Stella and Shizuku realize that the students around them, who were also having lunch, had turned to look because of their shouting.
Both of their faces immediately flushed, and they sat back down.
Then they asked Ikki,
"When did you realize you were being followed, Brother?"
Ikki said, "Probably about a week ago. After Miohua's match with Ouma, I started noticing it now and then."
"Eh?!"
The two cried out in surprise again, though this time they were not as loud.
"F-following, you mean the kind where someone stalks behind another person like a pervert every day, takes pictures, and threatens them into doing anything... right?"
"Hahaha, Stella, that's a little exaggerated." Shizuku waved her hand, though the slight twitch at the corner of her mouth revealed her inner anxiety.
Hearing their conversation, Ikki explained, "I didn't sense any malice in their gaze, so I ignored it. But they seem unwilling to give up."
Listening to the three of them, Luo Mio looked at Arisugawa. "Alice noticed too, didn't you?"
Arisugawa nodded as well. Having once been an assassin, he was extremely sensitive to things like gazes.
"Mm. But since neither you nor Ikki planned to pay them any attention, I didn't say anything."
Hearing the two of them, Stella said in astonishment, "Miohua and Alice noticed too?"
Luo Mio shrugged. "Since Alice and I accompany Ikki whenever he goes to train or compete, we noticed it long ago."
"Though I don't know who that gaze belongs to, I'm guessing she's one of Ikki's female fans."
"I think so too."
Arisugawa agreed with Luo Mio from the side.
Luo Mio then looked at Touka, who had been quietly eating lunch with her head lowered.
"Big Sis probably noticed too."
"Eh?!"
Hearing Luo Mio's question, Touka raised her head and smiled. Fine golden lightning flickered in her eyes as she said, "Well, that gaze has been directed at us the whole time. It would be hard not to notice."
"Eh? Touka noticed too?" Stella said blankly.
Hearing Touka's words, Shizuku finally understood.
"What Sister Touka means is that the person following and peeping at Brother is in this restaurant right now, isn't that right?"
Touka smiled and nodded.
"Is that so?"
Before you continue