Katips-U was rich in trees, but the sidewalks were clear. The ground was asphalt and brick, but the sky was leaves and cloud. It felt like a small, idyllic town.

 

"Never! You can't get anything out of me! Down with the Overlord! Down with the—"

The rowdy student was knocked out by another wearing a black trench coat, and was dragged away by two other students wearing white armbands.

 

Mm. Yeah. An idyllic town.

 

"Now now, Nii-san, there's nothing to see there~"

"No, but, Hana, just now—"

"Now now, Nii-san, there's nothing to see there~"

"But—"

"There's~ Nothing~ To~ See~"

 

Broken record tactics are just too powerful!

 

I was following behind Hana, while Yokoso-san was following behind me. Thinking that maybe Yokoso-san was feeling a bit left out, I looked back, and I swore she had a sharp look for a moment there. I blinked, and she was smiling at me.

 

"Yes, Kaba-san?"

"Eh? Did you just call me Kaba-san?"

Her eyes widened by 0.3mm, and she slightly skipped on her next step. I didn't need Perception magic to notice these things.

I thought it was because of something in front of us though, so I turned around and—no, yeah, that's definitely something that'd make anyone skip.

 

 

There was a building that looked like a dormitory. There were girls coming in and out of a lobby entrance, while there were stores operating out of the ground floor commercial vacancies.

One of them was an all-glass front that let passers-by see the entirety of a cafeteria.

That's not what caught my or Yokoso-san's eye, though.

 

"So? How do you like it!" Hana jumped in front of me, excited like a puppy.

 

There was a huge poster with her face on it, draped over the entire face of the building. It was like one of those communist propaganda ads, but whoever designed this one caught on with the times, so the color palette was a lot "cooler", so to speak.

There was a lot of black and red. There wasn't any text. It was just Hana's expression exhibiting a lot of "You can't reach my level" energy.

If anyone told me "Your adorable younger cousin's a dictator" I wouldn't have believed them.

 

"T-That sure is a cool face you put on there! Haha!"

 

I'm dying.

 

I turned towards Yokoso-san. Yokoso-san turned away.

 

Hana hopped up to me, saying Right? Right?!

"Come, come! I think you're hungry by now. It's lunchtime, after all~"

"Hahaaaa, right, right~"

 

 

Let's just say, at this point, my brain had formed a protective membrane around itself, and I was now operating on auto-pilot.

 

Though, the moment we entered the cafeteria…

 

 

"Make way for the Overlord!" "The Engine of Reckoning comes!" "Menu #32! Shift to Menu #32, hurry!"

 

 

Such a commotion occurred almost immediately.

 

Not only that, but a platoon of honor guard formed ranks on either side of the door. They were all girls. Huh.

Ah, right. Even if the cafeteria was open to all, it was still part of the girls' dormitory, so all the students were female.

These honor guard, though… Even if they were just students, it somehow it felt like they each had been through at least two deployments in harsh battlefields overseas.

…I just had a glance of one of their ID's—I wasn't trying to be rude, I swear—and the girl was a third year student. Explains the veteran-like atmosphere, I guess…

These ones were also wearing black armbands with two red stripes. There were white armbands a while ago, so I guess there's some sort of rank structure here?

 

"ATTEEHHH—HAUGHH!"

 

All the honor guard saluted. I'll never understand what these people actually say…

 

 

Still unsteady about the whole thing, we approached the serving tables.

 

 

There was a line there. Naturally, everyone in the line sidestepped and bowed, and Hana just kept walking forwards to the front of the line. I hesitated, but, it felt like I didn't have any choice, so I followed her. I felt pretty bad just skipping the whole line like this.

 

We reached the register.

 

"The same."

"On your order!"

 

The cashier—also a student—shot a look towards his fellow part-timers and their bodies moved on their own.

Within 20 seconds, a serving of rice and chicken caldereta, along with a bottle of cold green tea, arrived in an aluminum tray in front of her.

 

"Orders complete, ma'am!"

"Very good. Serve these two behind me on my account."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Hana turned to me and smiled.

"I'll go look for a seat!"

"A-Alright, we'll look for you…"

 

As soon as she left, Yokoso-san and I stepped up to the register. There was a lot of food on display, but I felt pretty bad for the rest of the line, so I decided to go with the first thing that came to mind.

 

""Sinigang.""

 

Yokoso-san and I looked at each other in flattered shock.

This is it. The Sini-gang is here.

The cafeteria crew expertly conjured for us our trays and we hurried away.

 

"Ne, Akiino…"

"Huh, what happened to calling me Kaba-san?"

"Never mind that. Is this normal?"

 

Huh? Ah, she must have been talking about Hana and—all of this, really.

 

"This is a first for me too, you know?"

 

Her concerned expression relaxed a bit, but she tensed up again. Maybe she saw something again…

I looked around and spotted Hana waving at us.

 

"Here! Here!"

 

Ah. That's why.

 

If she weren't a dictator, I'd be really happy about this heartwarming scene. Alas, the cafeteria was abnormally quiet, as if noise was illegal to make as long as she was around.

Well. Y'know. She's a dictator after all.

 

We sat down with Hana, who had already started chomping down on her meal—though, she paused for a second. I tracked her eyes at that time, and she was glancing between mine and Yokoso-san's meals.

 

 

Guh, she probably noticed that we ordered the same thing.

 

 

"So, how long have you two known each other?"

 

Gah, the interrogation's here! Her ostensibly-sweet tone was betrayed by the sharp glint in her eye.

 

Before I could answer, however…

 

"Ah~ It's just been a few weeks~" Yokoso-san answered—in a way that I'd like to disagree with! Don't say it with that tone!

 

"Ahaaa, a few weeks, huuuh?"

 

Hana said, stabbing me with her eyes.

 

"H-Hana, it's nothing like—"

"He drops by every other day, after all~"

 

I tried to reason out, but Yokoso-san interrupted again! Hana's eyes twisted the tri-blade bayonet in my gut.

 

"Yokoso-san?! No, wait, Hana! It's nothing like that—"

"Aww, am I being denied? I'm in your harem after all~"

 

There. Yokoso-san said the weird thing. At that last part, Hana dropped her spoon, and her mouth was left hanging open.

 

"No. Right. Yes. Of course. If Nii-san has such lifestyle preferences, we are an open and liberal society, are we not? Haha. I shouldn't judge. After all, I, too, have lavish tastes that I would be embarrassed to talk about! Haha! No, no, there's no need to explain yourself, Nii-san. We are family after all. Mhmm, right! Family!"

 

She scooped up more rice and chicken calderetta and popped it into her mouth with a cutesy Mmmm! Tasty!

 

 

 

But, I knew in my heart, that I was in extreme danger.