What else was supposed to happen?

"Yes, of course. I… it's not what you think. He gets on my nerves."

"..."

The next moment, Zane was back to his normal form, standing behind the gold-haired girl, shaking his head before smiling apologetically at Melinda and reassuring her… or at least trying to.

"You can complain however much you want. You don't have a say on the matter, Your Highness. Neither you nor your parents and not even the Emperor of Emperors are willing to educate this princess properly, so I'll do it in all of your stead."

As the girl looked away from the monstrous man and turned back to the blue-haired prince, the docile and caring feeling disappeared completely, replaced by sharpness even more severe than before.

"An insult like that won't go unpunished."

Magnus disregarded Melinda's declaration, straightening his back and glaring down at the gold-haired girl in an attempt at intimidation.

"..."

"...!"

Alas, despite the obvious size difference between the two, and even with the similarity of the natural sharpness of their gazes, Melinda tilting her head and glaring up at the blue-haired man caused him to twitch.

One of them might have been close to twice as high as the other, but there was no mistake about who was looking down on who…

Melinda went a step further and raised her hand as if she wanted to be picked for an answer inside a classroom, only to then point her index finger towards Magnus's face - even though she couldn't even properly reach his chin that way.

"Go cry to your grandfather about it. Just remember, in two hours, Bjorki is to be waiting for us right here at the Academy's gate with two weeks' worth of clothes. The food will be provided for her."

"You aren't ready for the kind of punishment you'll receive for acting that way towards members of the royal family."

The gold-haired girl scoffed, poking her finger towards the blue-haired man's face before turning around and walking away, unbothered by his icy-cold response.

"Y-YOU'LL SEE! ONCE YOU'RE BACK THE ONLY THING WAITING FOR YOU WILL BE GUARDS THAT'LL TAKE YOU AWAY!"

Encouraged by the presence of her older brother and seeing the back of the gold-haired girl shrinking in the distance, Bjorki took a deep breath and shouted spitefully.

"Mag! Let's contact Mom and Grandpa right away!"

"That goes without saying."

After nodding to herself with a satisfied expression, Bjorki turned to Magnus and called out, not even noticing that her older brother was already putting on a peculiar artifact in the shape of a ring with a light green gem.

As the two girls, the monstrous man and a hooded monster got an appropriate distance away from the gate, Melinda slowed down and looked between her friends.

"Was two hours too much time?"

She asked with a conflicted feeling.

"N-not at a-all. It w-wouldn't be good to m-make h-her wait for u-us if s-something s-stopped u-us. Young L-Lady Bjorki i-is a p-pr-princess after a-all."

"Right~! We can just enjoy ourselves~"

Catherine shook her head lightly and pointed out, making Melinda cheer out, free of doubt.

"Sorry for making you carry the baggage back and forth, Ross."

"Bu-hi."

The gold-haired girl then looked up at the hooded Pigkin Orc beside her black-haired friend and nodded apologetically, to which Ross nodded back with a gentle growl.

"Oh, by the way. Where we'll be going, you can drop the act."

Melinda added, although because of their surroundings, the person she spoke to did not respond.

And once they had their meal, they indeed returned to the Academy.

"Uuuu…. Hic…! Ghnff… uuu… Hic…! Hic…! Ghffn… Hic…!"

There, they found not armed guards but a very short girl with brown twin-tails wearing traveling clothes and a wool cap, with her face completely red, bawling her little heart out so much that she seemed ready to fall apart.

Sniffling, sobbing, and hiccuping while using the bases of her palms to wipe the hot tears streaming down her face.

Said girl wasn't alone, though. Next to her stood a certain blue-haired crown prince, gritting his teeth while holding a neatly packed suitcase that seemed appropriate for an average traveler without much wealth to their name.

The man stood two steps away from the distraught girl and seemed to struggle with an internal battle.

And the side that prevented him from comforting the crying girl, whether physically or just verbally, was winning, at least for the moment.

"..."

While the other three waited, Melinda passed by the crying girl and the furious prince without a word or even a glance of acknowledgment and went to the girls' dormitory. After a few minutes, she exited it, gently coddling a small bundle of blankets in her arms. As she returned to the others, the bundle she carried would release a characteristic jingling sound with each step she took.

"...don't you have anything to say, Young Lady Fenrioette…?"

Seemingly unable to contain himself anymore, Magnus ended up speaking up to the gold-haired girl's back, at which he stared begrudgingly.

"Eh...?"

But in response, Melinda looked over her shoulder at him with nothing but a completely clueless expression written on her face.

"I mean… Zane, if you would be so kind, could you take Bjorki's suitcase from His Highness, please?"

After a second or two of consideration, she turned to the monstrous man who seemed to be having a great time and asked.

"?!?!"

"Of course."

While Magnus stood there bewildered out of his wits, Zane nodded to Melinda with a pleasant smile and approached the blue-haired man.

Without constraining his ability too much, Zane loomed over the already intimidatingly tall Mangus and took the suitcase right out of his arm.

"Were you expecting Melinda to rub this outcome in your face or something, Your Highness?"

"!!!"

Zane leaned down and released a low growl towards Magnus's ear, making the blue-haired man flinch and tense up subconsciously.

"Tried to measure her with your own scale, haven't you? She isn't counting something like this as a win. In her eyes, no other option existed in the first place, making this outcome only the most natural thing in the world."

"...!"

The monstrous man chuckled before pulling away and sending a disgusted glare the crying girl's way while Magnus clenched his fists.

"I…"

"?"

Unexpectedly, the blue-haired prince did end up speaking up again, gaining the attention of all but his younger sister.

"...I offer my sincere apologies to Young Lady Fenrioette… My behavior during our previous meeting was… inexcusable for someone of my position…"

Magnus, clearly fighting against himself, lowered his head and apologized, positioning himself vaguely in Melinda's direction.