Lunch With Childhood Friend

After finishing the aptitude test, I decided to have lunch, since there was still some time till the next test.

I enjoyed the lunch made by Kyuubi under a tree shade.

「Kai.」

I raised my face hearing the voice calling out to me, I saw my dearest childhood friend standing in front of me, combing up her long blonde hair.

「Oh, are you having lunch too, Lyla?」

Though I might be able to fix my speech habit right now, I wouldn't be able to fool her. So I just stuck to my usual speech.

「Yeah. Can I sit beside you?」

「But of course, I'm not a cruel man who could refuse such offer from you.」

I agreed, putting on mug look on my face.

「…」

Lyla then sat by my side and stared at me intently for a while.

「Is something the matter?」

「Yup, Kai has grown up after all. There's a saying that men grow up in just a while you're not seeing them, but still…」

Lyla nodded as she muttered those ambiguous remarks.

「By the way, what about Lumine? Aren't you coming with her?」

「Yes, she went to the office a while ago. It seems to be related to the result of her summon aptitude test. Thus, I had my lunch ahead of her.」

A~h, so it was the matter about her being the only one who could touch that dog-like being called Kouma. She might've won the summon aptitude test by a huge margin. In short, as long as she didn't make a blunder during the practical test, she would definitely be accepted into Babel.

「I see.」

Maybe because I hadn't seen her for a while, I had a hard time finding a topic to talk about and could only do small talk.

Lyla let out a chuckle and then took out her lunch from her bag and started eating.

The awkward situation happened only when I reunited with her. Currently, I could ask for Lyla and co's current situation.

It seems Lyla had long since planned to leave our birthplace, Lamour. She told me that she wanted to know how much she could do without Hellner's house's protection.

Surely, for better or worse, Lamour was conservative. Except for someone like me, those who came from distinguished families in Lamour such as Lyla had an extremely limited range of choices from employment, marriage, even their private life. Studying abroad might be her attempt to resist such a lifestyle.

Anyhow, since she chose this path herself, it shows just value of this choice for her. For her who was growing up in the rigid environment in Lamour, filled with those old fossils, Babel was a good change of pace for her to see the world.

「By the way, why are you suddenly changing the way you speak, Kai?」

And just like usual, she loved to ask awkward questions out of nowhere.

「Uhm, just a change of pace…」

Even though I replied immediately, I don't think this would be enough to convince her. Or so it was supposed to be――

「Change of pace huh… You're right. Maybe that's a good idea.」

Lyla was easily convinced with my impromptu answer. It seems she evaluated my reply was logical.

Nevertheless, it was good that she was content with that answer. I mean, it would be a whole pain in the a*ss if she wasn't convinced by that answer and kept trailing me.

When I was about to say something to her to divert her attention, our surroundings turned noisy.

When I turned toward the origin of the noise, I saw a blonde-haired youth walking across the garden while being surrounded by girls who raised shrill voices.

「Is that, Somni Barrel-sama!?」

「E~~~H!? Winner of one of the 4 sacred martial arts tournaments!?」

「I did hear rumors about him taking an entrance exam at Babel this time, but it turned out to be true!」

「Despite being the same age as us, I heard that his achievements in that tournament allowed him to become the youngest escort knight of prince Gilbert! Isn't he way to awesome!?」

It turned out, he was an unlucky youth who forcefully advanced to the final of that tournament by the scheme of the adults around him. Despite the person himself unaware of those schemes, the adults around him kept imposing the youth with achievements beyond his abilities. In a certain meaning, he was a pitiable youth.

The blonde-haired youth noticed us and walked in our direction.

「If it isn't the cowardly incompetent swordsman? You're taking the exam too, eh?」

Lyla, who sat beside me pouted and was about to refute but, I stopped her――

「Unfortunately, I am.」

I replied so while shrugging my shoulders.

「Never show yourself again. You're a shame for Amelia kingdom.」

「Yeah, I guess we agree at something.」

Somni frowned upon hearing my answer; however, he just turned around and left along with the girls around him.

「Kai――」

I patted Lyla on the head upon realizing that she brought her face closer to mine, as if she was about to say something,

「It's okay.」

I reassured her to calm her down.

「AH, GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER!」

A willful and noisy girl ran toward us, hugging Lyla and baring her teeth just like that Kouma, as if trying to protect Lyla from me.

Are you her fricking guard dog? was what I retorted inside but, I just raised my hand and rose from where I sat,

「Well, it was fun talking to you. Let's do our best in the coming test.」

I headed to the examination venue for the next test after I bid farewell to them.