Chapter 399: This girl...

"Hey miss, just listen to me, will you? That girl is a close friend of mine, and being new to the academy, she doesn’t know much about it. How about you—"

"Giving away the personal details of the students is against the academy rules, no matter who the person asking for them is."

The staff member gave me a long glance before shifting back to her work.

Her attitude was rubbing me the wrong way, but knowing that it would be useless to argue with her, I retreated from the place.

Before leaving the Levaith duchy, a messenger from Syma had arrived, and that was when I got to know that it had been a day since Sophie had arrived at the academy.

Still, even after trying to search for her, I couldn’t find the girl.

She would be there to attend the classes from the next day, but I had to first take her to meet the headmaster and approve her admission—

Wait.

Even after arriving at the academy, the headmaster hadn’t called me, and the way in which the staff member had tried to protect Sophie’s identity meant that she had already been officially admitted to the academy.

So... had she met the headmaster?

The thought wasn’t exactly a pleasing one.

Sigh.

Taking out my device, I quickly messaged Diana to meet me.

Aside from the dormitory for the girls, where would Sophie even stay at?

"Is everything alright?"

Hm?

A feminine voice called out from behind, prompting me to turn around.

A girl with snow-white hair and equally white eyes stood before me, with no expression on her face whatsoever.

The question might have felt like it was asked by someone who was concerned for the other person, but analysing the voice on a superficial level, there was no warmth in it.

"Why wouldn’t it be alright?"

The girl standing before me was none other than Yennifer Alistair, the second princess of House Alistair and the one Ana had mentioned about.

But why would she even ask such a question—

"You looked flustered?"

Huh?

Did I?

I must have become a little agitated after thinking about the questions that the headmaster might have asked Sophie.

Still, with there being no message from him, I just hoped that Sophie’s connection to Arthur wasn’t revealed.

I trusted Alfred’s device to hide Sophie’s mana signature, but still... against someone like the headmaster, I couldn’t help but get the feeling of uneasiness.

"Do you call this as being flustered?"

Pointing towards my face, I asked Yennifer with an amused voice.

I might have been a little agitated, but that in no way meant that I was flustered.

"No."

Hm?

I couldn’t help but stare at the Alistairian princess, as her answer was a bit... out of the syllabus for me.

"Then... why would you pop before my face out of nowhere?"

Though I had planned to have good relations with the girl, the situation with Sophie was already weighing on my mind, and I was in no mood to joke around.

"Logically... I was behind you, and it was you who had turned around to look at me. So, shouldn’t it be you popping before my face?"

"..."

Sigh.

"If you are done, then... get lost."

I had enough of the theatrics.

Giving Yennifer a last glance, I turned around before making my way towards the girls’ dormitory—

"What is it?"

Stopping in my tracks, I slightly shifted my head to look at Yennifer, only to find her following me from behind.

The tone of my voice was calm, yet there was a hidden edge to it, which I had been intentional in portraying so as to make Yennifer understand the gravity of the situation that she was in.

"You said you are alright, but that doesn’t seem to be the case to me."

Haa... this girl—

"Hey—"

"Are you searching for Sophie?"

"..."

My eyes narrowed, but before I could speak, Yennifer took a step towards me.

"She had asked me to accompany her to the market, and so... I was on my way to the dorms."

Yennifer shrugged her shoulders before beginning to walk ahead of me.

"If you want... you can tag along."

I had considered Sophie as an introvert, so asking Yennifer to accompany her to the market, just after arriving at the academy, felt a little far-fetched to me.

I could have been wrong in my analysis of the girl, but that could never be this off the mark.

"Was it you who approached her first?"

"Hm?"

"I don’t think she would have willingly asked you anything."

My words made Yennifer shrug her shoulders once again, as she took out her device for a moment and observed it for a second longer, before putting it back into her pocket.

"Am I some criminal to be interrogated—"

Swoosh!

"Tell me... how did you know I was searching for Sophie?"

Closing the distance with Yennifer in a blink of an eye, I stood before her with my hand placed near her abdomen.

"Don’t play with me, dear... the consequences won’t end in your favour."

"..."

"Trust me... I never lie."

Well... at least that was a lie.

I had no interest in being hostile to the Alistairian princess, but for some reason, her mere presence had begun to bug me.

My relation with Sophie, or at least the relation that I had described before the headmaster, should have been known only to him, so why was it that Yennifer was aware of it—

"Sophie told me... shouldn’t that be the obvious answer, or why else would I know about something like that?"

Yennifer’s eyes stared into mine, as if I was the dumb one here.

And—

Sigh.

Maybe I was being dumb at the moment.

My analysis regarding Sophie was based on what I had noticed about her within the limited time in which I had interacted with the girl.

It could be entirely possible for her to be a talkative person—

"She had been searching for someone when I was about to enter the dorm, and that was when I had inquired about it."

Yennifer spoke while swatting my hand away from her abdomen.

Fair enough.

"She is in the dorm, right?"

"Yes—"

"Let’s go then."

There was no use being anxious about it.

I could simply ask Sophie about everything that had happened since her arrival at the academy.

The headmaster... he was supposed to be my guardian and not some master that I had to actively fear.

Sigh.

Was this some sort of caution in my subconscious mind, making me react in such... pathetic way?

Contrary to my expectations, Yennifer didn’t resist as she began to walk towards the dorm.

Maybe she simply didn’t care for how I reacted to her, or... she had a decent will to suppress her true emotions and only portray those expressions that, according to her understanding, were... the most strategic for the present moment.

I, on my part, was leaning towards the latter.

This girl... in the brief conversation that we just had, I couldn’t help but find her a little more interesting than I had expected her to be.

"What’s the relation between the two of you?"