Chapter 7: It Truly Must Be Fate
“Mister, drawing your sword against a girl is very rude, you know~”
A pink-haired girl descended from above and effortlessly deflected the incoming blade.
The girl turned around, her amber eyes slowly sweeping across Dolores’s face.
From the silver hair to her features, and finally those dark golden eyes.
She narrowed her eyes slightly, the corners of her lips curling into a meaningful smile.
“My my~”
She lifted her left hand, slender fingers brushing aside the loose strands near her ear.
“Miss~ it’s so late already, yet you still haven’t gone home.”
“That’s very dangerous, you know~”
“……”
Dolores felt like ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through her heart.
Why is Philly here too?!
Showing up during patrols earlier was one thing, but why is she still awake now?
Was she specifically camping here waiting for her?
And what’s with that look in her eyes?
Why does she look like she’s staring at prey?
Don’t tell me…
She’s taken a liking to her?!
In the game, countless girls had fallen victim to Philly’s “demonic claws.”
She flirted with every girl she met, and somehow always managed to make them completely devoted afterward…
The moment Dolores thought of that, her body unconsciously leaned backward a little.
“Hm?”
“Miss~”
Philly tilted her head and stepped half a pace closer.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Are you scared?”
“Don’t be afraid~ I’ll protect you, okay~”
Dolores took another step back.
Scared?
Of course she was scared!
Nobody was more terrifying than this female playgirl!
“…Thank you.”
“I’m fine.”
Out of basic courtesy, Dolores still forced herself to thank her.
Philly froze for a moment before smiling even more brightly.
“You’re welcome~”
Her voice sounded light and cheerful, almost like she was singing.
Yet her eyes never once left Dolores’s face, as though she were admiring a delicious dessert.
“Do you know something, Miss~?”
She twirled a strand of hair around her finger.
“Tonight, I kept tossing and turning, unable to sleep.”
“I just had this feeling that something important was going to happen~”
Dolores’s face darkened.
Here it comes.
Philly’s classic playgirl line number twenty-three:
Fate.
“So I decided to go out for a walk~”
Philly stepped even closer.
“And under this beautiful night scenery, I just happened to meet you…”
She suddenly leaned in close enough for Dolores to see the faint blush tinting her cheeks.
“It truly must be fate~ Miss~”
Dolores really wanted to pull out her sword and stab her.
Fate my ass!
Clearly it’s your yuri radar going off!
The moment it detects a beautiful girl nearby, you immediately come sniffing around!
And fate?
You’ve probably had eighty or a hundred ‘fated encounters’ already, haven’t you?!
“Oh right, I wanted to say this earlier.”
Philly raised a finger and lightly tapped beneath her own eye.
“These dark golden eyes are really beautiful~”
“They match your silver hair perfectly.”
Her gaze lingered over Dolores’s face, as though she could never get enough of looking at her.
“…I think I fell in love with you at first sight~”
Love at first sight?
You say that to every girl you meet, don’t you?!
Seeing the nearly heart-shaped sparkle in Philly’s eyes, Dolores hurriedly tightened her cloak.
“Eh?”
“So Miss is also from our academy?”
Noticing the academy uniform beneath Dolores’s cloak, Philly placed one finger against her lips in a thoughtful pose.
“My deepest apologies.”
“To think I failed to notice such a beautiful girl at the academy before.”
“That was truly my mistake~”
“Oh, and I forgot to introduce myself.”
“My name is Philly Granwell.”
“May I ask for your lovely name, Miss~?”
“……”
Dolores was starting to lose it.
She desperately wanted to leave this place.
Hey, Captain Uncle behind you, stop standing there and save me already!
As though understanding her silent plea, the squad leader suddenly pointed at Philly.
“It’s you!”
“Perfect! I wanna fight you too…”
He raised his sword again and charged forward.
“Tsk, Mister, you really are very rude.”
Philly turned around and struck him with a heavy blow, knocking him all the way back against the wall.
Dolores instantly seized the opportunity and ran.
By the time Philly turned back around, Dolores had already disappeared without a trace.
“What a cold-hearted Miss~”
Philly murmured softly before shifting her gaze back toward the squad leader.
“Mister, you made me lose the lovely girl I liked most…”
The smile remained on her face.
Yet somehow, that smile sent chills down people’s spines.
The nearby guard watching the scene instantly sobered up from fright.
He hurried forward while frantically waving his hands.
“M-Miss, p-please calm down!”
“Our captain just drank too much and lost his senses!”
“H-He absolutely didn’t mean to hurt you…”
“A-And Captain, stop causing trouble already and let’s go home…”
He quickly walked toward the wall, trying to drag the captain away.
Instead, the captain shoved him straight onto the ground.
“Don’t stop me!”
“I hate it most when people interrupt my conversations with cute girls~”
Philly’s voice remained gentle.
“But since Mister wants to spar with me…”
“Then I’ll gladly oblige~”
Dolores ran for a long time.
Only after confirming that Philly hadn’t chased after her did she finally stop, bending over with her hands on her knees while gasping heavily.
Too terrifying!
That female playgirl was way too terrifying!
Judging from that situation earlier, if she had stayed even one second longer, Philly probably would’ve dragged her straight back to the inn.
A loud crashing sound suddenly echoed from behind her, as though something had been struck violently.
That squad leader was probably doomed.
Dolores silently mourned for him for three seconds.
Thank you for covering my escape.
I’ll remember you.
She straightened up and leaned against the wall, one hand covering her forehead.
That female playgirl actually tried adding her to the harem too!
Wasn’t it just because she looked slightly prettier and had a slightly better figure?
Tsk~
Actually, for that female playgirl, that probably was more than enough reason.
No, wait.
Dolores suddenly realized something.
Since Philly had been reborn, then she definitely shouldn’t have met Dolores in her previous life, right?
So when Philly first saw her, shouldn’t her first reaction have been wondering who she was?
But what happened instead?
The moment Philly met her, she immediately started flirting without caring who she was at all.
Was Philly’s brain completely controlled by a yuri radar or something?
Didn’t she notice anything strange?
Later, when Philly realized she was wearing an academy uniform, Dolores originally thought Philly had finally sensed something wrong.
But instead, Philly didn’t care in the slightest and kept flirting anyway.
Where’s your sense of caution?
Did monsters eat it?
What if she really were some incarnation of a Demon God who stabbed you in the back?
Dolores suddenly felt this version of Philly was extremely unreliable.
This game was already notoriously difficult to clear.
With Philly acting like this, could she really defeat the Demon King and save the world?
Why did the future suddenly seem so dark?
“M-Miss… is the captain really just asleep?”
The guard stared nervously at the completely motionless captain on his back.
“Of course~”
“I saw Mister drank too much and couldn’t sleep, so I simply helped hypnotize him a little~”
“Ahaha…”
The guard laughed awkwardly.
Earlier, Philly had delivered a fully charged smash directly into the captain’s back.
Just hearing the impact alone made him wonder if the captain had already exploded into pieces.
“It seems you’ve also had quite a lot to drink.”
“Would you like me to help you too~?”
“No need, no need!”
“I’m completely sober now!”
“Look, I still need to carry the captain home, so I won’t disturb your rest anymore!”
“I-I wish you sweet dreams!”
Watching the wobbling guard flee the scene while carrying the unconscious captain, Philly couldn’t help letting out a soft laugh.
Although that lovely girl had escaped, at least she now knew the girl was a student from the academy.
Once they returned to the academy, she could simply look for her there~
That lovely girl really resembled the statue of the Silver Radiance Sword Princess at the academy.
The Silver Radiance Sword Princess had always been Philly’s ideal type.
In the past, Philly often wished she had been born ten or twenty years earlier.
That way, she could have pursued the Sword Princess herself.
After reincarnating so many times, she had finally encountered a girl who looked so similar to the Sword Princess.
Hehe~
This life truly feels full of hope~
At that thought, Philly’s tongue lightly swept across her lips.
A gleam of anticipation shone within her amber eyes.