"Are we going to the equipment room now?"

Felyn took the coffee Adeline handed him. The heart-shaped sticker on the cup read, "Do your best today too (^-^)."

Did Adeline write this?

Seeing Felyn's gaze fall on the sticker, Adeline quickly moved closer to interrupt his line of sight, afraid he would become suspicious.

"Yes, I've already asked for leave from the teachers. We'll go count the items now and see if anything is missing from the delivery. The committee members are all there."

Committee members?

Felyn thought of Dorothy. Could she be there too?

He leaned in close to Adeline's ear, covered his mouth with his hand, and prepared to quietly ask if the princess was there.

But this action made Adeline's shoulders stiffen, and her steps became somewhat chaotic.

The pink on her neck slowly began to spread, falling into Viloti's amber eyes behind her.

Viloti's leather shoes made a crisp sound on the ground as she quickened her pace, wanting to squeeze in next to Felyn.

"M-Miss Viloti..."

Linda gently grabbed Viloti's sleeve with one hand, mustering the courage to squeeze out those few words.

My best friend finally has a chance to be so intimate with Felyn. I, Linda, must naturally do my best to protect the best Adeline in the world!

"Is something wrong?"

When Viloti's gaze fell on Linda's face, the words Linda had been repeating in her mind suddenly got stuck in her throat.

Linda's lips parted, and her golden ponytail also began to droop slowly.

"N-Nothing. I just think the weather is really nice today hahaha..."

Adeline, this is all I, Linda, can do!

Even though I didn't accomplish anything, didn't do anything at all, you have to believe me, I tried!

If I had said, "Miss Viloti, look how good Adeline and Felyn's relationship is, let's not disturb them," I would definitely be killed by Miss Viloti.

Adeline, at this moment, had no idea what was happening between Linda and Viloti behind her. Her world was filled only with Felyn's breath by her ear.

Felyn was very close to her, so close that her hair could wrap around Felyn's shoulders, so close that her heartbeat could be heard by Felyn.

"Adeline?"

Adeline's blue-gray eyes darted around, just not daring to look into Felyn's eyes.

She took a step forward, pressing her chest against Felyn's shoulder, her nose almost touching Felyn's cheek.

"The princess isn't here, don't worry, Felyn. I'll notify you if she comes."

Adeline's voice was laced with honey.

Being so close to Felyn in front of Viloti, and speaking secrets that only she and Felyn knew, this feeling...

It's amazing!

Adeline was thrilled, but the pink-haired young lady was not!

Annoyed as she was, Viloti didn't make a move to pull Felyn away from Adeline's gentle offensive.

Felyn was flirting with another girl, but she couldn't disturb him.

Otherwise, Felyn would be unhappy.

But Miss Adeline, aren't you going a bit too far?

Just because your chest is a little bigger, why are you so arrogant?

While maintaining her ambiguous posture with Felyn, Adeline took the opportunity to glance at Viloti.

The blue-gray and amber gazes collided in mid-air, seeming to make the sunlight a little more dazzling.

When the four of them arrived at the equipment room, many students were already busy there.

"There's quite a lot..."

Felyn glanced at the originally spacious equipment room, which was now filled with chairs and items needed for the charity performance.

The venue for the performance was within Saint Andros Academy. A part of the school would be opened to the public, allowing the citizens of Seiva to come and watch.

The giant poster for the performance had also been printed, and several students were using sigils to move it into the equipment room.

If the poster were any longer, the equipment room wouldn't be able to fit it.

"Is the poster this big?"

"Yes, this took a lot of budget to make." Adeline casually took out a much smaller version of the poster and handed it to Felyn.

On the left, Zervanie was wrapped in a black and gray fluffy dress, the hem sprinkled with diamond-like sequins. Her fingertips rested on her chin, revealing her standard energetic smile.

On the right, Dorothy wore a pure white princess dress, her white lace gloves extending to her elbows. Her hands were crossed over her chest, and although her smile wasn't as vibrant as Zervanie's, it exuded a sense of eternal tranquility.

Felyn wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he felt as though their gazes were colliding in mid-air on the poster. Zervanie's slightly raised eyebrows and Dorothy's tightened jawline made the sense of competition between the two beautiful girls even stronger.

"It was done on purpose." Adeline seemed to see through Felyn's doubts, her finger placed on the point where their gazes met on the poster.

"It was even arranged by the princess. She said that competition attracts more attention."

The fan groups of Zervanie and Dorothy starting to compete against each other would indeed easily create a buzz.

But was it really okay for a charity performance to have such a strong smell of gunpowder? He felt like the two of them might start fighting on stage.

"It's a bit hot. I'll go open the windows."

Adeline opened all the windows in the equipment room. The wind was quite strong today.

The cool autumn breeze blew away the stuffy air.

Viloti squinted as she watched Adeline's actions, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

The work of counting things wasn't troublesome. It just required checking if the quantity of each item matched the quantity on the list.

Adeline occasionally glanced towards the storage room, while also keeping an eye on Viloti's movements.

To become more intimate with Felyn, Adeline had read many romance novels.

She found that most romance novels had a plot where the two were accidentally trapped in a confined space.

In that predicament, their feelings would rapidly heat up due to the crisis and the enclosed space.

And the lock on the equipment room's storage room door had broken yesterday. Once closed, it couldn't be opened, and not many people knew.

If a gust of wind happened to blow by...

As soon as Adeline thought of that scene, her heart began to race.

The morning passed quickly, and the work was basically coming to an end.

Most of the people had left for lunch, leaving only Felyn and the other two in the equipment room.

Viloti, who had been sticking to Felyn all morning, had also left his side and was now on a call with someone using a communication sigil.

A good opportunity! It's going surprisingly smoothly!

"Felyn, there's one last thing in the storage room that needs to be counted. Will you go with me?"

Adeline pointed to a small door in the equipment room, blinking her eyes rapidly, awaiting Felyn's response.

"Okay."

Perhaps because the two beautiful girls had been keeping each other in check all morning, Felyn didn't feel that anything was amiss.

However, as he walked to the door of the storage room, his body subconsciously began to sound an alarm.

A small room with only one exit, which would be pitch black if the lights weren't on.

Many novels often have such plots, right? After the male and female leads go in, they get trapped inside for various reasons, and then their feelings for each other heat up.

It's similar, too similar.

So similar that Felyn subconsciously thought Dorothy had appeared nearby, wanting to lock him in.

But Adeline wasn't Dorothy. She most likely wouldn't do such a thing... right?

"Felyn? What's wrong?"

Adeline had already walked into the storage room. Her hands behind her back were tightly gripping her skirt, a little worried that her plan had been seen through.

This was the first time this young lady had done something bad, and she was very nervous.

"Nothing, I'm coming."

Hearing Felyn's footsteps entering, Adeline nervously turned to face the wall, afraid her flustered expression would make Felyn suspicious.

"Adeline, what needs to be counted..."

The voice behind her suddenly disappeared, but the nervous Adeline didn't notice the abnormality at all.

"Just the things on this cabinet, just count them."

Then, Adeline heard the sound of the wind slamming the door shut.

Did the plan... succeed?

Adeline turned her head and saw that the door was firmly shut.

But the plan was only half successful.

The door was closed, but Felyn was gone.

Only she was trapped here!

"Miss Adeline, are you okay?" Viloti's emotionless voice of concern came from outside the door, sounding more like mockery.

(End of Chapter)