Chapter 38: Air is something you just breathe.

“Yulan! Lunch just now?”

“Yeah, got held up helping out… Is this seat okay?”

“I’m fine with it, but…”

While gently stopping Violet from standing, he glanced around the mostly empty table with the tray in one hand. It was spacious enough for one, three, or even more people without feeling cramped.

If it had been just Violet, he would have nodded without hesitation. Eating lunch together with Yulan was practically routine.

But right now, Violet wasn’t the only one at this table.

A quick glance revealed Claudia with a stiff expression and Mirania wearing a strained smile. They seemed to understand what Violet’s hesitant tone implied without her finishing the sentence.

Yulan turned to the two of them, and by the time he opened his mouth, a friendly, charming smile was already in place.

“Would it be all right if I joined you both?”

“Ah, sure… I don’t mind,” Mirania replied.

“…No problem,” Claudia said curtly.

“Thank you!”

His voice sounded bright—probably because he genuinely was in a good mood. To Violet it felt a little forced, but then again, Yulan was usually like this around her, so she let it go.

He naturally claimed the seat beside Violet. Once his large, hearty lunch was lined up next to hers, her single sandwich looked even smaller.

“Vio-chan, just a sandwich again? You won’t have any energy if you don’t eat properly~”

“You only think that because we’re different genders and builds. I’m getting plenty of vegetables, and nutritionally there’s no issue.”

“That’s only because Marin-san makes up for it at home, right?”

“…………”

“Bullseye~”

In the end he always gave in with a “can’t be helped” sigh and respected her choice—Yulan was hopelessly soft on her.

The easy banter unfolding right in front of them was shocking to Claudia and Mirania, who both harbored complicated feelings toward Violet and Yulan, but Violet didn’t notice, and Yulan noticed and simply didn’t care.

The area had already been drawing attention; now that Yulan had joined, curious stares intensified. An eerie, hushed tension hung over the entire cafeteria—most people wouldn’t dare approach. Only Yulan and Mirania seemed aware of it.

“Yulan, you said to call you once I found seats… What the heck is this lineup?”

And yet, one blissfully oblivious soul barged right in.

The newcomer, wearing a puzzled frown, was Gear—Yulan’s friend whom Violet had met the other day. He clearly couldn’t grasp the relationships among this odd assortment of faces in this atmosphere.

But the ones who wanted to ask questions were on this side.

“Um, Gear… what is that?”

“What do you mean? It’s my lunch.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.”

He answered as if there were only one possible interpretation, but that wasn’t the point at all.

He was obviously here to eat, yet the trays Gear was holding—one in each hand, two in total—and the mountain of wrapped bread piled on them were completely outside Violet’s realm of common sense.

(Wait… you’re eating all of that?)

That was her honest reaction.

“You bought that much again… I’m not responsible if you can’t finish it.”

“This is nothing.”

“I’m talking about time, not your stomach.”

“It’ll be fine—even if I’m a little late.”

“That’s exactly why I told you not to be late!”

With a light clack—quieter than expected from the visual—Gear sat down. Probably because it was all bread, it was far lighter than it looked.

Weight didn’t matter much for filling the stomach, so it was still an outrageous amount either way.

“…Huh? Vio-chan, you already knew Gear’s name?”

“Yes, when I asked him to pass a message to you the other day.”

“Didn’t I tell you?”

“You didn’t.”

Out of Violet’s sight, Yulan’s foot lightly kicked Gear’s shin. It didn’t hurt, but the message that he’d soured Yulan’s mood came through loud and clear.

He was thorough about never letting Violet see or sense this side of him—truly impressive. But if you let every sudden shift bother you, you couldn’t be Yulan’s best friend. Besides, Yulan never showed his real self to people he didn’t trust anyway.

Still, Gear thought, it wouldn’t kill him to be a little considerate at times like this.

“It’s not fair that I’m the only one who knows Princess Violet’s name.”

“First, fix that way of calling her.”

“Then just Princess?”

“That’s not the problem.”

It was rare to see Yulan being dragged around by Gear’s pace. Violet was used to seeing him wag his tail like a loyal puppy—actually, he was always like that around her.

But right now, with a close friend, his speech was noticeably more casual. Perhaps the “normal” him around Violet was the special version, and with everyone else he was a bit rougher. The fact that he didn’t bother hiding it from Gear meant he trusted him to a certain extent.

“So what should I call her? Vio-chan like you do?”

“Why do you always go to extremes…”

“Do I look like the type to call her Lady Violet?”

“That would be normal.”

“I don’t know that kind of normal.”

His carefree tone and the way he ripped open wrappers while steadily demolishing the mountain of food made him utterly alien—or rather, singular—in this academy.

And now gathered here were the academy’s top two (plus royalty). Gear was royalty too, but considering he was an upperclassman, shouldn’t there be at least a little more tension?

“Anyway, what about you guys? Are you two friends with Vio-san?”

He continued on his own merry way, oblivious or indifferent to the mood.

Violet felt a reluctant smile forming as she watched the two of them huddle together whispering—Yulan was deliberately keeping the conversation from reaching her, of course.

Gear grumbled a bit more, but Yulan had never expected it to change anything. He forcibly swallowed his displeasure, decided there was no helping it, and switched mental gears: right now Violet was the priority.

The sharp look he’d been giving Gear vanished completely; the moment he faced Violet, he was back to the same old loyal-puppy smile.

He was so happy, so delighted that an aura of pure joy radiated from him, as if tiny white flowers were floating around him. It had to be her imagination.

Whether Gear noticed Yulan’s bliss or not, he plowed ahead at his own pace.

“By the way, you two over there—are you acquaintances of Vio-san?”