Seraph's Ambition: How a Failure Became an Enemy of the Divine Beings

第5話

As if awakening from a dream, Chance was brought back to his physical body. Yet unlike any nightmare he had had before, the sorrow and disappointment and fear all remained in his soul. Confirming what he already knew, Chance looked down at the Crystal Ball. He nodded disappointedly to himself, before turning and bowing to Miss Toranova, thanking her. Returning to his seat, he kept his head down, feeling multiple people’s eyes on his back. Some were mocking glares that looked down upon him for his results, others were pitying glances, while others still were looks of concern, as if worried about what this might do to him.

Finally, Chance made his way back to his seat. Slowly, he sat down beside Cecilia. She leaned over. “Are you okay?”

He gave a sad smile in response, “Not exactly. I have to admit that even though I was somewhat expecting it, it’s still disappointing to find out that I have no talent whatsoever.” He decided to hold off on telling her about what he saw during his time inside that Crystal Ball.

“I know it probably won’t mean much coming from me, but I’m sorry you didn’t get the results you had hoped for.” She reached over, grabbed his hand, and squeezed it, surprising him. Cecilia giggled at the blush that began to creep up his neck.

Trying to regain any manly pride he had left, Chance cleared his throat and said, “Well, I guess on the bright side, I’m not gonna have to go to school anymore.”

Cecilia rolled her eyes at Chance’s lame attempt at a joke. “You’re hopeless,” she said, “now pay attention to Miss Toranova’s speech, Mr. No-more-school.”

Reluctantly, Chance did. For the next fifteen minutes, he listened to Miss Toranova give encouraging words to future students, alongside warnings to not misuse their newly attained magic. When she was done, the entire audience, both testers and spectators gave her a resounding round of applause. Then she bowed and in a puff of smoke, disappeared off the stage, effectively dismissing everyone.

Deciding it would be best for his health if he were to distance himself from the princess before she was swarmed by her many fans and any guards sent by the king and/or queen, Chance squeezed Cecilia’s hand one last time and whispered a hurried goodbye, before stealthily making his way out of the Colosseum.

He was making his way towards the exit when Treila Longleaf, the dryad girl from earlier, popped out directly in from of him from one of the branch hallways. She walked up to Chance, stopping within arm’s reach. Unsure of what was happening, but knowing that the girl in front of him was the daughter of nobility, Chance waited. He had learned his lesson when Cecilia had pulled her rapier out earlier. Nobles were not the type of people who understood his sense of humor.

Treila looked Chance up and down for a moment. Utterly confused, Chance asked, “Umm, can I help you- mmm… mmm!” Cutting him off, Treila reached up and grabbed his shirt. Pulling Chance down to face her, she claimed his lips. Behind her, Chance saw Lydia running towards them but come to a screeching halt, her face covered by a mask of shock. Behind him, he heard someone yelp in shock and the clanging sound as if they had dropped something. Finally, just when Chance thought he was going to pass out from lack of oxygen, Treila let go and stepped back.

Instantly, both Lydia and the person behind Chance, who was Cecilia just as he expected, both rushed up and started shouting at Chance, who was still trying to catch his breath and figure out why a random noble girl had randomly approached him and French-kissed him, tongue and all. After a moment, the two girls seemed to come to a realization that they were both shouting at Chance for the same reason and came to a halt examining each other. Lydia’s eyes widened when she realized that she was staring at the princess, but otherwise she did break the pair’s deadlock. Deciding that it would be deadly to stay in the middle of the two, Chance slowly began to back out of the line of fire, but was stopped in his tracks when all three girls said, “Freeze.”

Chance now had three sets of eyes all focused on him, and he decided that waiting for one of the girls to speak would be the best option. Lydia, completely outraged at what she had just seen, decided that would go first. “What the hell happened to no dating unless you did well on the test?” She asked, her voice quaking with barely restrained anger. She continued, “And how may I ask, do you know these two ladies?” She spat out the word ladies clearly stating what she thought of nobles.

“I would like to know the same thing? And what did this girl mean” Cecilia voiced her opinion and Treila merely nodded her ascent.

Chance desperately racked his mind for an escape route while he spoke, “Cecilia meet Lydia and Treila. Lydia meet Princess Cecilia and Treila. Treila, meet Princess Cecilia and Lydia. Lydia lives with me at the orphanage. Cecilia, I met today and was getting along yesterday. Treila… Well, Treila just popped out and kissed me. Well, I’m done. Thanks, Bye!” Chance bolted off towards the exit, rushing past Lydia in front of him. He heard them all shout at him, but kept running, deciding that the risk of ignoring them was far outweighed by the risks presented alongside staying with them. Deciding it would be best, he reached the entrance and blended with the crowd, carefully trying to make his way home.

~~~

Watching him leave while ignoring their calls, all three girls let out deep sighs of frustrated disappointment. After a moment, however, they each turned to look at one another, mentally sizing each other up. Going on a gut feeling, Lydia struck first, “Why are you two so interested in Chance?”

The pair froze up at the question. After a moment, Cecilia spoke up, deciding that now was not the time to back down, “He’s the first boy to treat me as more than some object. Even with my sword at his throat, he still treated me like an old friend he had pissed off. I can’t help but feel a bit smitten by that.” Cecilia gave a faint smile upon realizing that although the event had only happened earlier that day, it felt like it had happened years ago. She quickly came back down to earth and asked Lydia, “How about you?”

"I’ve been with him almost our whole lives, I’ve been there through all of the hard times he’s gone through. I know how he thinks, how he acts. Most of all, I live with him! And that aside, I am not a noble like you two are. That makes me on the same level as him, socially.” Lydia looked smug as she finished, turning to the Dryad, “What about you, what’s your flimsy connection to Chance?”

Treila tucked her light green hair behind her ear before saying, “I’m his childhood friend from my family’s branch dojo here in the city. I loved him for a very long time, but a few years ago, I had to return to the countryside with my father. I only came back today for the testing.”

The three girls stared at each other, trying to decide whether to accept one another’s stories. Deciding that she needed to address the one gaping hole in Treila’s story, Cecilia addressed the Dryad, “If you were such good friends, why did Chance not know who you were?”

“When I knew Chance, I was studying at the dojo under the name Trei. Not to mention, in the five years since I left, I’ve grown a little bit.” Treila patted her breasts softly in emphasis. Lydia looked down sadly at her own lacking breasts. Compared to the two girls next to her, she might as well have been flat as a board.

Shaking her head free of those depressing thoughts, Lydia stared at the two girls and said, “No matter what, Chance isn’t going to let a single one of us get close, especially now that he’s failed his testing.”

The three girls lapsed into silence at the thought before Cecilia raised her head back up, a coy smile on her face. Treila noticed it and asked worriedly what it was for. “Simple,” Cecilia replied and whispered her plan to the girls. Soon, they began to speak hurriedly in hushed tones, refining the plan as the same coy smile appeared across all their faces.