Chapter 106: Girls’ Outing

“Yuri-sama! What a nice day today! You have been going to classes for one week in a row now, so I thought we could have lunch together! We are friends, right?” Nana hopped onto my desk, bringing three lunch boxes. Was she planning to give them to me? There is no way she expected me to finish two lunch boxes, right?

“Hm? Are you trying to bribe me, Nana? Do you need something?” I smiled teasingly, but she denied it, her face flushing.

“Of course not! I just want to eat with you! If possible, I want you to taste my cooking!”

“Eh? Are you saying Yuri should eat your unprofessional homemade cooking?” another student dissed her.

“I just wanted to thank Yuri for all she has done for me in New Mesa,” Nana said.

“That again? It happened ages ago. You don’t need to thank me for it, Nana.” I chuckled.

“It doesn’t matter. My respect for you is eternal, Yuri-sama.”

“Please stop with the sama…” I sighed while taking out my own lunch box. A group then formed around me and we ate together.

“A girl is sneaking chocolate into your bag, Lily,” Felicia said through telepathy.

“Again?” I sighed. I thought this would stop once I had enough attendance. But they kept on coming.

I thought they wanted to show their gratitude. But after I refused their gifts outright, they now give me gifts in secret. I didn’t understand why they did this. The ones who saved them in New Mesa were Black Lily and Shining Arrow. All I did was tell them the location. Speak of the devil—Alice hopped onto my table, bringing her own lunch box.

“Alice! How’s the fight? I heard you are going to the Darkland again. Was it scary?”

“Geez, they should stop sending soldiers and Guardians to such dangerous places. What was the Guardian Command thinking?”

“They wanted to harvest Anathema essence, of course. With it, we can make Zenith’s technology.”

“Can’t we just buy them? Our technology is still inferior to the Zenith-made ones, right?”

The girls continued their talk, shifting from politics, Anathema, food, and fashion. Francesca, who had been absent for one week after the ordeal, had started going to school again, but she was no longer a student council. We often traded glances. She didn’t know I was Black Lily, but since she knew I was close with her, she often asked me whether I was doing well. Today seemed to be one of those days.

“Greetings, Yuri.” Francesca bowed. Despite no longer staying with the conglomerate, she kept her grace. I bowed back.

She hadn’t physically changed, but her aura had. She rarely smiled these days. Moreover, since she no longer stayed within the conglomerate, she had been kicked out of the student council. She was a normal student now.

“Greetings, Francesca. May I help you?”

“Yes. I was wondering if we could have lunch together?”

“You are no longer in the student council, right? What right do you have to eat with Yuri now? Stay in line!” Nana and the others complained.

Francesca didn’t react to their lashing. With a sad frown, she said, “Nothing. I just want to spend the afternoon with her. If possible, I want to meet with Black Lily.”

“Hah? You are now a normal citizen in a shelter, right? You want to meet a Guardian just for lunch?” Camile complained.

This scene reminded me why I had once wished for Anathema to win. Humans and politics are intertwined. Even when people say politics is evil, they can’t help but entangle themselves with it. Francesca had been respected before because she was in the student council and was the daughter of Enra’s CEO. However, her father had died in exile, so she had lost the reputation she once held.

She kept her identity as a Magical Girl a secret, so Freya’s reputation was largely unaffected. Only high-ranking Guardians from Guardian Command and Guardians from Enra and Newstar knew about her heist. The internet had grieved when Freya left the showbiz industry.

“Sure. Let’s meet at one o’clock.” I nodded.

“Ehh!! Yuri-sama? Why do you want to have lunch with an exile’s daughter?”

“Why? Just because she is an exile’s daughter, I can’t eat lunch with her? Were her father’s sins inherited?”

“No, but… we wanted to have a date with you too!”

… Why did the topic suddenly turn into a date?

I held the fury deep inside my heart. Their selfishness and self-entitlement were sickening. With the trained facade I hadn’t used in a while, I answered,

“We eat lunch and breakfast together every day during recess. Even now, right? Why are you jealous?”

“... But…”

“No buts, okay. I shall eat with whomever I like. Is there anything else I can help you with, Francesca?”

“No, thank you, Yuri!” Francesca beamed and left the classroom. She might not be part of the conglomerate anymore, but I felt she had become more honest. She had less grace now compared to before, but I liked her this way more.

I was such an evil person.

“Yuri. Can I come too?” Alice whispered to me through telepathy. I nodded. Francesca hadn’t come to me for business. We just wanted to chat. However, my social skills had deteriorated lately. I didn’t think I could handle idle talk without someone like Alice to lift the mood.

As school ended, I picked her up with Alice tailing behind me. When I came to the parking lot, a few other students—whom I recognized as conglomerate sons and daughters—whispered among themselves, criticizing me for making friends with Francesca.

If it had been me before becoming a Magical Guardian, I would have been afraid of getting near Francesca. Reputation was important, it would affect my family and future prospect. However, I was a Guardian now. I no longer cared about their gaze. Even Francesca, who had done something unthinkable, could live just fine. Sure, her circle of friends had decreased, but she now worked at Guardian Command. Nothing had changed.

“They are a bit mean, aren’t they?” Alice smiled wryly as we flew toward the mall in my seinjet.

“Thank you.” Francesca smiled. “Can you tell me about Black Lily? She rarely does patrol missions, doesn’t she?”

“She did several patrol missions recently. This mall, for example. Want to buy some crepes? Lily likes the coffee flavor.” Alice grinned.

“Hm… I like the strawberry flavor more…” Francesca muttered.

We glanced around the mall. Colorful bags, shoes, and clothes lined up inside the fashion stores. As we climbed toward the second floor, my eyes locked onto the transparent shadow of a person. It had become a habit to activate my special scanning ability.

“She is Slifer. A dark Magical Girl who went to the same D-rank promotion exam as you, Black Lily,” Felicia said.

“Ah… So that’s why there’s no patrol quest for this mall. She took it.” I chuckled. She was incredibly shy. I wondered what she would do if there were Anathema incursions here. Could she talk and order the citizens to safety?

“Should I greet her?” Felicia offered.

“No, let’s go. She activated her stealth ability. We shouldn’t disturb her,” I said. Alice skipped toward a crepe stand.

“Yay! See, this crepe is delicious! They used my mom’s recipe, but they added their own twist. This acidic-sweet taste of the crepe, instead of just plain crunchy, coupled with the milky-sweet cream, is tasty, right?”

“Yes, you’re right. Ah, the shops there sell jackets,” Francesca said as she looked over to the fashion store. Freya was plastered as the model. Bringing Alice had been the right choice—Francesca was talking animatedly with her. I am glad I could cheer her up.

“Sorry for butting in. This was supposed to be yours and Yuri’s lunch and shopping.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t know what I was thinking, inviting Yuri to lunch without planning. I guess I’m just a bit lonely. Hehehe. I’m so pathetic, right?”

“But you have your Magical Girl duty, right?”

“Hm? How did you know?”

“Ah… sorry. Yuri told me. And I saw the report. It didn’t take long for anyone to guess that you and Freya were related…”

“I see. Well, Yuri here seemed fine with it. But what do you think? Um… about my actions?” Francesca muttered.

“You’ve been bullied inside Guardian Command as Freya too, huh?” I quickly made the connection. I never thought much about bullying. If they didn’t want to be friends, that was their right. I preferred solitude. If they came to harass me, I could just report them and they would leave. I never thought about things through the lens of a bullied child. Bullying didn’t just spontaneously happen—most of the time, the bullied person had some flaw that bullies picked on. In this case, Freya’s actions.

Of course, bullying people was wrong. Guardian Command and schools actively tried to prevent it, but that only prevented the worst situation. Most of the time, the bullied victims were isolated.

I was fine with isolation, but extroverts like Alice or Francesca might not be. Extroverts might be more vulnerable to bullying than introverts, contrary to what people might think. Introverts didn’t like socializing in the first place. That’s why people like Slifer preferred isolation and not standing out. But Francesca was used to interacting with others, both as a Pink Guardian and the daughter of a successful CEO. The sudden lack of interaction must be torturous for her now.

“Thank you for dining with me, Yuri.” Francesca bowed to me. Her mood improved little. She put up a facade, telling me she was fine now, but we saw right through it.

“If you would like, do you want to come to my house? You seem distraught. Maybe sleeping together with Alice and me will improve your mood. Your father has passed away—it must have been lonely in your house right now.”

“Really?” Francesca beamed at me.

“Really?” Alice beamed as enthusiastically as Francesca. You like it that much, Alice?

“Yes. I don’t mind. We can either have a barbecue, or maybe we can have Alice buy us steaks with her points. She has unlocked the food vault as a magical girl.”

“I will! Let’s go now!”

“That was a joke, Alice. Don’t buy food with points. It’s wasteful.”

I don’t think I am qualified to say that since I have unlocked the food vault myself. But still.

“Sorry.” Alice chuckled. We then went into an arcade center, and then we went into a toy store since Alice wanted a new plushie. It was embarrassing seeing Black Lily figurines sold in stores. Moreover, both of them actually bought one! Ugh… I am just a D-rank magical girl, but my fame was on par even with a B or even A-rank Guardian. This was embarrassing.

“I have never bought this before. You need to assemble them, right?” Freya asked Alice.

“My brother is an expert at this. If you get stuck, you can ask for his support. Don’t worry. Ah, do you have clothes? You can wear mine.”

“No, it’s fine. I have one.” Francesca answered. She must have it in her dimensional storage. I wonder if all magical girls have the same thing inside their storage. I also happen to have several pairs of clothes inside my boxable house, along with several cookies and instant noodles I bought from nearby shops. We never know when we might get stranded in the Darklands, after all.

As the sun set, we went home. It was the first time I had invited friends to come to my home.

I welcomed my friends to my house for the first time. My lips somehow curved into a smile. I was strangely excited.