-With Spade and Ace-

"Whew! We're finally done exploring both floors! Wanna go grab a bite?", asked Spade.

"Sure? Where though?"

"Hmm good question, what have you never tried before?"

"Well, these things named burgers look nice! I kind of want to try it..."

"Yeah, looks really tempting... let's go then!"

The two walked over to some random fancy burger restaurant on the side and asked for two seats. They never really paid attention to their surroundings since the both of them were like starving wolves, or they would've noticed that everyone around them were couples. The waitress who served them gave the two a bit of a strange stare as she directed them to their allocated seats.

The entire time they were eating, she at the side kept on giving them short glances, and when the two finally couldn't take it, Ace turned his head to face her as he said in a polite tone, "Is there anything you need?"

She seemed to have been startled by his sudden question and hesitantly asked, "A-are you two like that?"

They were both baffled by her response and pretended to understand what the heck she was saying by responding with, "Yeah, we're like that."

She squealed in delight and said, "Don't worry, I'm a very open-minded person and totally don't mind whichever way people bend! May I take a picture of you two?"

"Uhm.. okay?"

Then, the waitress took out a small rectangular shaped object and told them to just act naturally and smile. After taking the picture, Spade asked her what that object was ad she told them it was a phone, exclusive only to those who work here.

The two seemed to be intrigued by this... phone thing and wanted to study it more, but the manager of the burger shop they were in told the waitress to stop chatting with customers and get to work. 

They bid each other goodbye and Spade finally asked the question which had been plaguing him this entire time, "What did she mean by that and what's bend? People can bend in many different ways?"

"I'm not sure, maybe she meant if we were friends? Or if we were nobles? That maid was kind of weird, let's not associate ourselves with those kinds of people..."

"Yeah... Eh, let's just leave."

"Mhm"

When they left, Spade took a picture of the restaurant they were in with his light wristband and left to go shopping with Ace.

Even 'till now, they never noticed that the name of that restaurant was Ma Chérie, in other words, my darling. It was a burger restaurant meant for dining with couples.

What a sad misunderstanding... The princes of two kingdoms were mistaken as... that. What's more is that these two have a very big reputation to uphold...

( ͡°( ͡° ͜ʖ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°) ͡°)
#why-you-look-where-you're-going
#why-you-don't-try-to-act-cool-and-pretend-to-understand-things-that-you-don't

- - -

-With Nadina, Liam and Melodie-

"Nadina-sama, your nails look so nice, how do you maintain their shine? Oh my gosh, your hair is so luscious! Hey, hey, how about we ditch this dude and go off somewhere, just us two girls?"

"..." 911! We have a broken heroine here! Seeking help! Nadina is so done! Which god had she offended in her past life to have encountered this crazy lady? Come over~ I promise I won't kill you~

"H-Hey fellow classmate Melodie, how about we drop it and just QUIETLY go to our next destination, eh?"

"Shut it you f*cker", Melodie said as her eyes shot out ice cold daggers when she glared at Liam,  a huge contrast from the way she previously treated Nadina.

"..." What did he do? He just wanted to help smoothen out this situation!

"Liam.. just give up", Nadina said, obviously too tired to bother with those two.

Seriously.. what happened to the heroine? Did someone inject her with stimulants? And the type that's gotta be hella strong for her to be like this...

Nadina expressed that both her heart and soul were worn out.

It's only 4:00 P.M., yet Nadina and Liam both had the exact same thoughts in their minds, 'Mom, I wanna go home and rest!'

Finally, the victim of all this craziness meekly spat out a few words, "The sun is going to set soon, so how about we go back to the lobby and wait for the others?"

"Whatever you say~"

"Yes please!"

Nadina just sighed as even she, herself, did not know the reason for the heroine's change in personality. It's like you took a white lotus and dyed it rainbow.

'I'm still too young to die of stress', she thought to herself.

Truthfully, even Melodie didn't know why she was acting like this. It's just that when she woke up after Lord Fen defeated that demon, the one she felt more grateful and worship towards was unexpectedly... Nadina! 

It was weird, so she quickly went back to her dorms and thought about it all the way until she fell asleep. In the end, the conclusion she came up with was to follow her instincts, as they have never lied to her, so this situation ended up occurring. 

The three of them took the elevator down to the main floor and were surprised at the other familiar faces stationed there. On a sofa across the elevator they came out from, Lyra was smiling in satisfaction while Nicolas was collapsed on the couch looking like his entire soul flew out of his body. Myers and Reito had this weirdly distant atmosphere around them, like one of them were trying to avoid the other. On the other hand, after only half a day, Ace and Spade acted like inseparable brothers who had been through thick and thin, which greatly shocked Nadina.

She felt a little better knowing that they weren't the only group that had underwent an extremely tiring, not to mention disastrous, day and went over.

"Soooo, what did you guys do?"

"Shopping~!""Shopping..." Lyra and Nicolas said at the same time with a huge contrast in both their tones.

Lyra looked like she had the time of her life and in contrast to her mood, Liam looked no better than a corpse who died of fatigue.

"Wow, looks like the two of you sure had a very... interesting time", Nadina replied, completely able to sympathize with Nicolas. Ahh, it's really nice to have comrades who understand you!

"We...", Myers glanced at Reito and after confirming that the other didn't have the intention to say anything, he continued, "just went to explore a few things for our project. It's a secret until the presentation day so we won't be going too much into it."

"Hey, hey, bro! You and Spade sure got really close within these few hours. What did you even do? I don't think I've ever seen you two all buddy-buddy before...", Liam asked while looking at his brother, Ace.

"Oh, nothing much. We found quite a few common interests between us and just decided to take our relationship to the next step."

Everyone directed strange looks at the two after Ace finished talking. His words... why does it seem off?

"What kind of next step are you talking about...", Nadina asked cautiously while sneaking glances at her elder brother and having this silly grin on her face.

"Oh, we became best friends! Ah, sorry for not telling you beforehand Naddy! If you're uncomfortable with it, then I'll take it back a step!", Spade cried out, hoping that his sister wouldn't be mad at him for getting closer to her ex-fiance.

Ace's face darkened after hearing his words.

"Nonono, it's okay! You two just do your thing and I'll just be here... spectating~", quickly responded Nadina before Spade got any weird ideas.

Both Spade and Ace visibly relaxed after hearing that Nadina wouldn't make some unreasonable demand and force the two to separate. But why is the way she looked at them kind of weird?

If Spade knew the "tragedy" that'd end up befalling him in the future, he'd definitely slap his current self 'till he's half dead for being so stupid. Relaxed? Relax my ass! The moment she used such an odd gaze on him and Ace, he should've known that nothing good is about to happen...

But as stated, that's all for the future.

"So, other than becoming really good friends, what else did you do. It can't be that you two didn't do anything for the whole day, right?", Liam asked.

"Of course we did something! Even though we didn't have to do the project you youngsters got because we're older than you, we still took note of everything we saw so that in the future, shopping here would be a lot easier. Not to mention, the burger we ate during lunch was amazing! Definitely recommend that place!", Spade said in a 'matter of fact' tone.

"Ooooh! Where did you guys go? Show us, show us! This thing named burger sounds really interesting! What is it?", Lyra asked in agitation. After shopping for a day and being able to buy whatever she wanted, she couldn't help but fall in love with this place and was so obsessed that she wanted to know every nook and cranny of it. After all, Lyra is a commoner who grew up in a rather poor family, which meant that she wasn't able to afford much from the upper levels and could only roam around the lower ones every time she came here.

Spade tapped on his light wristband and a picture of an absolutely stunning burger. The meat looked very juicy sandwiched in between two slightly crisp, yet glossy bread. The extra toppings like lettuce and tomatoes were very fresh and gave the burger a nice aesthetically pleasing touch. All in all, everyone, yes, everyone(including Nadina), was drooling like this is the first time they've ever seen food before.

Nadina has had many high-class dishes back on earth, but damn! This one right in front of her could probably match up to one of the best burgers she's had in her life, if not, surpass it. Even the sushi she had on the top floor seemed to be on par with this. Don't forget, Ace and Spade got these on the 6th floor while Nadina got her lunch on the 7th. The higher the platform is located, the more sophisticated the products are.

At long last, Nadina couldn't take it anymore and begged her brother with pitiful looking puppy dog eyes, "Onii-chan~ Please tell me where you got those burgers! I really wanna know!"

Almost everyone got chills from looking at the "school bully" act like this towards her supposedly "hated" brother. 

Poor Liam almost broke down on the spot as well. He grieved at the fact that Melodie wasn't even the craziest one here, it was the one she had been looking up to, Nadina.

Guess that's what they mean by "like master, like servant". 

Wait, what? Servant? Why did he think that way?

Must've been because that retarded lad, Melodie, had influenced him with her insane actions.

Different front everyone else, Spade was practically squealing at how adorable his little sister was. Every time she made such a face, it just made him want to pinch her soft cheeks and protect his little angel forever and ever!

"No Problem!", Spade said after he barely restrained his instinct to pounce on her and put up a picture displaying the front of the restaurant. 

Like the two, Melodie didn't understand what the two words mean, so she accidentally read the words out loud in attempt to try and comprehend them, "Ma Chérie."

"Pu!"

Lyra, the only other person who understood the beautiful language of French because she'd always listen to Nadina ranting about how fancy it was so she should use it to name all her expensive objects, spat out the milk tea she was drinking after hearing those two words to the unfortunate person beside her, Nicolas.

Nicolas: "..."

F*ck! I really do owe this girl in our past lives, don't I? Keep saying the craziest one here is Melodie or Nadina, blah blah blah, I totally disagree! The girl beside me is absolutely nuts!

"Ma Chérie?!", she yelled, "Do you two even know what that means?"

Everyone apart from Nadina looked at her with a blank look.

"Lyra, you understand the meaning? Quick, tell us! Secrets are meant to be shared after all!", Liam urged.

Spade and Ace were also quite curious about the meaning behind the name of the place they went to eat, so they also perked their ears up, ready to listen in.

Lyra could only helplessly turn to Nadina for help, but she was already on the floor from excessive laughter and fangirling. Her stomach was cramped and she had tears streaming from her eyes, but she simply couldn't stop.

...

Best friend, huh?

Who said friends would always help each other out?

When you need them the most, they're... on the floor laughing.

Lyra sighed to herself, lamenting about the harsh life she's got.

If Nicolas found out about Lyra's dilemma, he would be able to write a book as large as the oxford dictionary about all the unjust things in life. And then, he'd just bawl his eyes out on top of it.

"M-Ma Chérie... uhh, kinda means...", Lyra was a stuttering mess because she really didn't want to have the two poor dudes face this cruel reality, but at the same time a weirdly pleasant feeling rose in her chest.

"Just spit it out!", Myers said, as was getting quite impatient.

"It means 'My Darling', okay?!"

...

The whole place instantly turned so quiet that even a pin drop could be heard.

Everyone held their breath and no one dared to make a sound as they all set their eyes on the two victims of this.

Similarly, Ace and Spade had baffled looks plastered all over their faces as they tried to digest the information stuffed at them.

It all makes sense now! No wonder they were getting these weird looks from the waitresses and other customers! This entire time... they didn't go to some fancy burger restaurant. They fricking went to a couples-only dining area!

When they realized this fact, both of them were as red as tomatoes. The "handsome school idols" and "model crown princes" had utterly ruined the reputation they had built up because they could read the damnable sign for a restaurant!

How ironic is that?

"Pfftt-"

Seeing the look on their faces, everyone burst out laughing. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the two most aloof people in their school suddenly break out of character due to a stupid mistake.

Nadina was already on the floor, so the fact that everyone else was also taking joy in their misfortune only made her laugh harder. In fact, she was laughing so hard, she forgot to breathe and almost suffocated herself.

As the more mature one, Ace calmed down after some time and said in a serious tone, "I should have a good talk with the owner of this place and ask them to make everything understandable, lest something like this occurs again."

Then again, he said all that with a smile on his face, so it didn't seem like he minded it much.

It was great that Ace was able to accept the piece of news, but Spade felt like he had just gone on the craziest roller coaster ride of his entire lifetime.

He wanted to cry.

His dear little sister had just seen his embarrassing and shameful side and now his image as a reliable big brother was completely ruined! It took years to build up and he didn't even know if it was possible to repair!

...

Let's just say Spade was the type that didn't really care for anyone else's opinion unless they were his little sister. Plus, he never had a "dependable" image in her mind anyways. If anything, she thought of him as a big doggy who liked to pamper others more so than a person that is to respected and looked up to.

After Nadina finally stopped laughing, a wave of fatigue washed over her, as well as the rest of the group.

She sighed and pat her brother on the back with a consoling look full of pity plastered onto her face. 

"You know what? How about we just... go home."

"Good idea"

Everyone felt exhausted (once again) after a day of "fun", so they head back to the academy, hoping to get some sleep in before class starts again the next day.

- - - - -

[Preparing to attack...]

[Target: Plane 105]

[Realmkeeper: Nadina Loctine(Hearth)]

[Artillery missiles: 100% loaded
Energy cannon: 100% loaded
Atomic Bombs: 100% loaded
Combat Mechas: 100% loaded
ZX29 COTP: 100% loaded
Mothership: Full Health]

[Commencing plan 2768]

[Countdown: 357 hours, 34 minutes, 21 seconds]