Chapter 15: The Driving Force

Support Knight Squad

I open my eyes.

The kidnapping incident ended on the weekend, and Monday came.

That day, after receiving first aid from the Emergency Medicine Club and being transferred to the Support Knight Squad, the eyes of Senior Serina, whom I met…were a little scary.

“Are you awake?”

“Yes…Senior…”

As soon as I opened my eyes, Senior Serina, whom I’ve known since middle school, was sitting at a table next to me, organizing some documents.

It wasn’t boring before I fell asleep because Senior Serina was on duty.

I wasn’t short on sleep because I was forcibly put to sleep at dawn, with them saying patients should sleep well.

My left wing is wrapped in bandages.

It was scorched and burned by the incendiary rounds, so the burned parts had to be removed, and treatment such as cold compresses with medicine was needed.

That said, this alone isn’t enough to keep me lying in the Support Knight Squad for several days.

Yeah, the injuries from two anti-tank rounds weren’t something that could be endured with just painkillers.

Thankfully, I heard that Seia regained consciousness around Saturday.

It’s no wonder she fainted, as she took the impact of two rounds close by with her not-so-good body, even though she wasn’t directly hit by the anti-tank rounds.

“Well, there’s still some leeway, but let’s get ready. You’ve recovered enough to go back to school today, so I’ll help you.”

“S…Senior, that’s, I’m okay now…”

“Wings, you’ll be late.”

Just two words, but an irrefutable reason.

I had no choice but to entrust my body to Senior Serina.

I received help from other Support Knight Squad members several times over the weekend, but there was a bit of a difference between receiving help from strangers and someone I knew…

Senior Serina washed me and dressed me in the Tea Party uniform… It was a bit embarrassing…

“Huh…? Sora? What happened to your wing?”

“I encountered some Sukeban in D.U. over the weekend. They used incendiary rounds they got from the black market, so it got a bit burned. It’s not a big problem.”

Seia, who is gradually regaining her health, and I entered the Tea Party office, and Mika immediately asks about my wing.

Nagisa asked me not to tell anyone, including Mika, about Seia’s kidnapping, so I hide it and tell a lie.

“Hmm… You seemed to be taking great care of it… That’s a bit sad…”

“They said it’ll be back to normal in about two months, so you don’t have to worry. Thank you, Mika… Wait…Mika?”

She said something like she was worried…and she was approaching with some kind of dangerous hand movements.

At that time, a memory from a few days ago flashed through my mind, ringing an alarm bell.

I need to run away… It’s too late.

So, that day, I had to allow Mika to touch my still-healthy right wing until Nagisa finished her morning host duties and arrived.

“Fufu…”

“Hm? Seia? Is something good?”

“It’s nothing.”

Mika was touching my wing and talking with Seia about various things.

-Screech-

“…Please sit down, both of you… Let’s begin…”

Nagisa returned after finishing all her morning host duties…with huge dark circles under her eyes.

“Wow…..Nagisa….are you okay…?”

“…Am I okay…? Nagisa?”

“…Probably okay. There aren’t many agenda items today, so let’s get them done quickly…”

Unlike when I first saw her, Nagisa, unable to maintain her dignity, staggers slightly and can’t even open her eyes properly.

Due to the additional work caused by the public announcement date and signing ceremony date of the Eden Treaty, and the secret handling of the aftermath of last week’s kidnapping incident,

she couldn’t get help except for a few people Nagisa particularly trusts, so she worked all night throughout the weekend, and her condition wasn’t very good.

“Let’s finish here for today… There’s a little time left, but I have to leave because I have other work to do… Attendants…? Please take care of the cleanup…”

That day’s meeting, considering Nagisa’s condition, Mika was much more cooperative than usual, and there weren’t many agenda items in the first place.

There was really not much left of the Eden Treaty agenda, except for the additional work as host, only the announcement and implementation remained.

Unlike usual, today’s meeting could be finished in the morning.

Nagisa, who gets up from her seat and leaves the Tea Party meeting room…is still staggering little by little and walking with difficulty.

“…This can’t go on!”

“…I also agree to some extent.”

Lunchtime approaches and the attendants leave.

In the Tea Party’s terrace meeting room are Mika, Seia, and…? Why me?

“At this rate, Nagisa will collapse. I don’t like things like the Eden Treaty, or joining hands with those horned people, but it must be for Trinity because it’s Nagisa…

I don’t want to let my friend who is working for Trinity collapse…yeah!”

This is wrong.

It’s too late to get out of this.

If I get out, I’ll be scum.

“The reason I left you is because Nagisa trusts you quite a bit right now.”

“Yes…?”

Seia said that Nagisa trusts me.

Trust? Me? I can understand if it’s trust as a bodyguard and attendant.

But in this situation, isn’t it the nuance that she can trust me as a person? Why?

“Nagisa has always been thoughtful~ But it’s worrying that she’s been staying up all night like that every time there’s something important when she’s the host since last year….”

“So I’d like to ask you a favor, would you help Nagisa rest? You don’t have to think deeply, I just want you to help her rest properly.”

“Yeah~! So the reason I left Sora today is a notice? Ahaha☆ It’s reckless, but will you go along with it?”

“Haha…I understand. Well…I also agree that Nagisa seems to be in danger…”

“Then it’s decided! See you later~ I think I took up a lot of your time~ Have a good lunch~”

Mika and Seia finish talking and leave.

Thus…the battle for Nagisa’s rest was about to begin.

“So…what do you mean by asking me to tell you how to make your boss rest?”

“Ahaha…well…it’s a bit complicated…you know, the other day, Senior Hanekawa was saying that she was having a hard time and that she would somehow make her rest…”

I know how to rest myself, but I don’t know how to make others rest.

While I was thinking about what to do, I remembered a conversation I had with Ichika on Momotalk until dawn a few days ago.

I remembered a conversation where she said that Hanekawa seemed to be buried in work and about to collapse, and that she wanted to let her rest a bit, so I urgently looked for Ichika.

“First of all, do you know what that boss likes?”

“Well…I don’t know…”

Although we maintain a slightly playful and light atmosphere when working at the Tea Party, we don’t know each other well because we haven’t had deep conversations about ourselves.

“Is there anyone you can ask?”

“There is.”

“Then try talking about it first. Those people are usually always tense, so once they relax, they might start resting.”

“Hmm, it’s certainly the most basic but good method…but I don’t think that person will be tempted by that…”

“Then it’s also okay to push recklessly or subtly relax the tension. On my duty day, I finished my shift and lured my senior to go eat dessert, and made her rest.

Thanks to that, the remaining work became my responsibility, but it’s a case where I succeeded once, so how about trying it?”

“Hmm…it might be a bit difficult…”

Then it seems difficult to use this.

I don’t know what Nagisa thinks of me, but at least I think I’m not in a position or relationship to recklessly demand something from Nagisa, so it’s a bit of a stretch.

Wait, relationship…?

Work…?

“Thank you, Senior. I know what to do! I’ll buy today!”

“…? Did you suddenly think of something…? Wait….uh-oh! Sora! You did that last time too, and this time too? This time I’ll buy!”

No way.

I have no intention of letting my senior spend money, at least when she’s with me.

The debt that suddenly arose several months ago is a debt that I won’t be able to repay even if I spend my whole life, so it’s like pouring water into a broken jar with a hole in the bottom, but shouldn’t I repay that debt?

So, that day after school, I spent time chatting with my senior at a cafe and parted ways before the sun completely set.

It’s because I have a place to go, although it’s a sudden purpose.

I paid for it.

The place I moved to is…a tea leaf shop in the outskirts of Trinity that specializes only in tea leaves and is often used by some of the higher-ups of Trinity.

Here, I’ll get the item that will be responsible for Nagisa’s rest.

It became the evening of the very next day after meeting with Ichika.

-Scratch, scratch-

“…Nagisa, I brought the documents.”

“Ah…yes, thank you, Sora.”

Host Assistant Attendant Duty System.

The host work starts a little early in the morning, and because there is a lot of additional work, one person each day, among the applicants who are evaluated as trustworthy by the current host, takes turns assisting the host.

The host of the Tea Party is happy to have a volunteer worker, and the applicant attendant gets some benefits and bonus pay within the school.

It hasn’t been long since I joined the Tea Party, but I became a bit serious about the Eden Treaty, and I thought I’d earn a little pocket money, but I didn’t know it would be this helpful.

-Scratch, scratch-

“Ugh…”

Nagisa’s eyes are about to close and then open again several times, and Nagisa’s hand stops for about 3 seconds and then starts moving again.

Yeah, Nagisa is also getting close to her limit.

I don’t know how many days she’s been staying up all night, when it’s hard to stay up all night even for one day.

It may be a bit out of the blue, but in the distant past, before Trinity, when Trinity was not yet integrated into one huge academy, when Kivotos had not yet established a proper system and barbaric things happened frequently,

primitive plots such as assassination frequently occurred between the various academies currently belonging to Trinity.

And the method used in that assassination was….

“Nagisa, I brewed some tea. You seemed tired, so I brought it.”

“…Thank you for your concern, Sora… It’s almost over.”

-Sip-

“…? Sora, this tea…type…is…”

-Thud-

Poisoning, by putting poison in drinks or food.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I put poison or sleeping pills in it, it’s just lavender tea, a tea that simply has the effect of relieving tension.

I didn’t say it was black tea from the beginning, did I?

And usually, people don’t fall down immediately after drinking a little of this.

Nagisa was already exhausted from overworking her body for several days, so she just drank the lavender tea, which has a different color and can be seen as not black tea at a glance, without even looking at it.
It is.

“Wow….Sora, assassinating a key figure in the Tea Party? Bold…”

As soon as Nagisa collapses on the desk, Mika and Seia open the door to the office and come in.

“Wow…don’t joke around, Mika…well, Nagisa is asleep, so shall we start working?”

“…I’ll have to apologize to Nagisa later…I’m sorry for getting you involved in this, Sora.”

“Well, in the end, I did it voluntarily, so let’s say I’m an accomplice?”

So, from a bodyguard who solved the Tea Party kidnapping case, to a bodyguard who assassinated? the Tea Party host, I assisted the other two with their duties.

So, another day passes.