Time For Some Villainy

The next few hours after Ember left were vaguely unremarkable. After chatting with Eria, Pelsiton, and Ivan for a while, Elric headed back to his room to iron out the rest of his plans for the week.

After a couple of hours of chatting with his parents, Elric was assigned to drive Eria back to her home. Just like what Ember had originally planned to do, it seemed she was staying in a dorm room, but she had actually booked it on time.

The girl was going to be attending a different college than the couple, though, one that had a bit more focus on a normal environment.

Still, with the city and region of Annandale being the entertainment capital of the country, there would still be a number of prospective performers around her.

As the duo hopped into the car, Eira immediately started chatting.

"So, SSSU? If you are going to be going into management stuff, why did you choose there over NSU? I'm pretty sure our management program is better."

"A bit closer to home, and I can make better connections here. I wouldn't say your program is better."

"Well, we'll have to see, then."

Elric tilted his head when he heard the girl's words.

"What do you mean?"

"Well… that's a secret~"

She leaned over toward Elric, but he shifted over in his seat to avoid her.

"Hmm, you're no fun."

Relaxing in her seat, Eria turned to look out the window as they drove through the city.

"Let's work together again if we get the chance. You should've clearly realized that I'm a girl by now, right?"

Elric's arms stiffened a bit as he heard her words. He'd been planning on questioning her, but hadn't expected her to bring it up herself.

"Yea… can I ask you how you got into our group chat?"

Eria gave a small chuckle.

"Yea. I'm pretty sure the invite I got was meant for my brother, our phone numbers are only off by a single digit. At first, when I was invited I thought it was just a bunch of people pretending to all be 'The Boys", some sort of roleplay server."

Eria's eyes shimmered with intelligence as she continued speaking.

"So I just joined in on the fun. Turns out, it's a bit different than I expected, but I've really enjoyed my time there, and I don't want to get kicked out for lying. Since I already had a good cover, I figured why not stick around?"

Elric nodded along to her explanation. She had definitely gone a bit too hard at the party, even at the beginning when she whispered into his ear and tried to catfish West. Still, it was totally something that one of The Boys would do, if they could cosplay well enough.

"You must've been worried about all that stuff on your profile, then."

Eria tilted her head.

"What do you mean? My confirmed skills?"

'?? can she not see those warning notices?'

Elric recalled the girl's profile page.

–

Eira/QuittingCosplayNow's The Boys Stat Page/Chat Group Profile (Assembled by a moderator)

-

(!)(!) Potential Spy (!)(!)

-

QuittingCosplayNow (Rank C)

…

…

…

-

There were multiple places plastered with 'Potential Spy', something that would definitely alarm him if he saw it on his own profile.

'If she can't see it… interesting. I trust what she's saying and the story she gave, but I guess it's always better to be cautious.'

"Yea, I was talking about that."

Eria grinned as she pulled out her phone and tapped on it a few times.

"Nah, I just think this 'Potential Spy (D)' one is funny. Any spy who gets revealed should be ranked with a low score!"

Elric pulled their car out outside the gates of the university, and Eria continued speaking as she picked up her bag to leave the car.

"There's nothing you need to worry about! I'm not good enough to be a spy. Ah, please don't reveal me to everyone, though. I still want to hang around and chat."

Without waiting for his response, Eria departed the car and walked swiftly toward the dorms. Internally, she gave herself a pat on the back.

'Hm, I did that perfectly! The explanation I spent all morning coming up with worked perfectly, he definitely believed it!"

Eria rubbed her chin with her hand.

'Now then, how can I gain more of his trust? It'll be a bit tough without trying to seduce him, but I can definitely do this!'

New plans started to form in the girl's mind, but her thinking was cut off when someone approached her.

A tall girl with dark brown hair and a pair of scholarly glasses scanned Eria up and down before nodding.

"Well? Were you able to get in?"

Eria shook her head, and the scholarly girl frowned.

"Hmph, it'll be a lot harder, now. We need to find some weakness in the Nellies Agency branch team, and infiltrating the villain chat was the best way to do that. Now we'll have to act without sufficient info.

"I've managed to form a few connections, I could ask them if they know anything, but-"

"Then do that. Our company is already struggling as is, we don't have the resources to take on the Nellies agency if they call for help."

The scholarly girl tapped on her phone a few times, then frowned when she read the info on it.

What she was worried about wasn't anything entertainment-related.

It was for a school event.

The college-level track competitions would start the week after school started up, and the runner this girl's agency backed was fierce rivals with one supported by someone they'd identified to be a member of The Boys villainous group chat.

The scholarly girl frowned as she looked at Eria.

'This girl isn't ruthless enough yet… I'll have to give her a talking to. In the face of success, there is nothing you should hold back! Even if you think of someone as a friend, if they are in your way, crush them!'

If Elric had been there and heard the girl's thoughts, he would wonder if this girl was secretly his father.