Soon he came inside where the reception was and saw the group waiting. He realised that they lacked a person and seemed to be waiting for any random person to show up as it was required to have a minimum of 5 people in a party before registering.
Calling it the Lady luck he walked towards them leisurely and chuckled, "Heyyy! Isn't this our classmate David and the famous school flowers?"
Suddenly all 3 girls looked at each other for a second before they glared at me.
Then, one by one they spoke without giving David any chance, "Were you following us?" ..Eve spoke.
"We need alone time, please leave!", followed by Aushima.
"As expected of low-class, dare to speak against nobles without any respect, such a bother", spoke the last one, Jasmine.
I knew the moment they made eye contact with each other and stopped arguing amongst them, they had reached a tactical agreement which was quite easy to guess.
It was a temporary truce to remove outsiders, It was like their natural defence mechanism that their obsession for David had developed, to avoid contact with all other boys as their minds already considered themselves as David's women.
But as an experienced novel reader and business strategist how can Elandor give up so easily, he had used many tricks in developing business which included blackmails, extortions, kidnapping etc.
He smiled and amusingly thought, "hmmmmm… the lasses wanna play and oust this young master as soon as he came, then let's play fire with fire."
What he wanted to do was attack the core while at the same time turning allies into foes.
The plan was to sympathise and align with David and then instigate discord in the girl's group so they turn against each other.
He ignored their snobbish remarks and went straight to David.
"To be honest, I also need a group to register, why not as old classmates join together, David ?"
David started checking him from head to toe muttering in his mind that this boy's strength seems to be okay, but need to make sure he does not have any ill intentions against me and my girls.
"I didn't expect an orphan like you to have a backing to make you qualify to enter here", David spoke with his calmest tone.
Elandor knew that this was the so-called routine of protagonists of testing the waters, first they try to insult and sneer at others, then guess other's true personalities based on their reactions.
He laughed in his mind, "haha! didn't expect you to play trick as soon we meet, as expected of a true protagonist."
"It's just that I have no one to rely upon and was lucky enough to earn pity of someone who recommended me here, seeing you all waiting I thought you guys also needed a member so I took my chance, you know how rarely I talked to anyone during school, as a result, I was left out of much of our class groups who were planning to join guild together", he spoke while giving his saddest expressions.
That's it, just speak like you don't have any backing to lower his mental defence then make him feel sympathetic towards you.
He will see you as someone who doesn't have anyone to rely upon and it will make his protagonist's natural tendency to be a hero jump out which usually likes to make people grateful after receiving help.
As expected David chuckled, "It's ok...I was just testing you, my intention was not to insult you.
You know how dangerous the outside world is, can't take people who can backstab each other."
Seeing the situation developing favourably, he decided it was time to take care of the girls, else they will surely stop him from joining.
So he nodded at David and then looked at three girls before speaking "Lady Eve, lady Jasmine, why every time I see, you both are always being insulted by Lady Aushima."
Yes, this was his plan to isolate one of them, the other two will feel advantageous and will try to eliminate the one being isolated.
He wanted Aushima, the cyan-haired beauty to be his first girl. He thought Lolli and busty one can come later, first need to grab the ideal waifu.
As expected, all three had the response that he wanted.
Since they hardly talked to outsiders, both Eve and Jasmine thought that from an outsider's perspective, Aushima was the one deliberately starting arguments with them to avoid their progress with David, and as if found a long-lost ally they quickly agreed with him, "Elandor you are right it's always this fake cousin sister trying to separate me from David", spoke Jasmine with her cute Lolli face.
"Yes, I always thought why we are arguing whenever we are together, it seems it was all this little blue-haired strategy, hmm playing tricks against David's one and only childhood friend, how naive are you fake sister", hummed the oversized busty Eve.
Aushima soon realised that, unlike the usual situation where there was always infighting amongst them, it suddenly became a 3v1, she felt being wronged and glared at Elandor fiercely.
"Why are you trying to get in my way, you lowly commoner... know your place!"
Her natural yandere mindset suddenly sensed a danger while looking at his calm eyes and her natural defence mechanism helped her realise, surely can't let this dangerous guy join the group, else I will be at a disadvantage.
She looked at David, "I can't allow him to join us, he does not seem to be a good person."
"Why are you taking your anger out on me Lady Aushima when it's clear it's you at fault as spoken by lady Eve and Lady Jasmine", the trick worked and both Eve and Jasmine looked at each other then showed a knowing smile, like they were comrades who had fought thousands of wars together and their expressions turned ecstatic at the prospect of welcoming their new ally, their eyes secretly spoke to each other that if we get him, we will be 3v1 and can break this deadlock.
Taking advantage Jasmine hurried, "Yes, Aushima … why are you opposing Elandor …. only because he speaks the truth?"
"I know the truth hurts like a knife to vixens like you, Elandor we were just lacking one person, it's lucky we got you and as a fellow classmate we can trust you", speaking she smiled triumphantly at Aushima.
Eve was also quick to change colours, "Elandor we were just lacking a support like you in our party please join us", her support carried different meanings and she too smiled at Aushima liked they won a big battle.