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Of course, Crystal didn't agree with what Emilia said at all. She felt like Emilia was someone who would keep insisting that she wasn't 'good' at all even as she was saving the world from an alien invasion.
Compared to her attitude at the start of the school year, it felt like Emilia had gotten more and more unruly with every passing day. It was really a wonder how she maintained a good image in the school with her attitude.
Crystal sighed. 'Then again, it's really no wonder if her image is good, with Penny and her knights working so hard.'
Of course, she was also an 'honorary' member of the 'club', so what could she say?
Emilia's request to her was actually not that hard for her to fulfill. She just wanted her to go with her to take a look around and see if she could find anything worth looking into. The actual 'heavy lifting' would still be left to some 'Noelle' girl she kept mentioning.
Crystal couldn't help but sigh. "If this 'Noelle' is so capable, why not just let her handle it? You don't even have to ask me, right?"
Emilia smiled. "Noelle is, after all, one of my employees. I cannot be too unreasonable with her. Anyway, I already owe her a dinner date, how can I make her work overtime?"
The blonde girl had absolutely no idea what kind of compensation packages the White Deer family offered, but if it included dinner dates with the owner's daughter, the treatment the employees received was really too good.
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Michelle Reeves was a bright young girl, full of hopes and dreams when she first started her classes at the 'Sullivan's School of Fine Arts'.
Of course, it was not the 'best', but it was still one of the better colleges in the country, and the reputation it had acquired despite being newly established was nothing to scoff at.
However, her dreams quickly turned to nightmares, and she found herself wishing more and more that she could just stay at home and never have to go to college again.
But one look at the sky high debt she had acquired from her loans made her realize that it was impossible, and she could only bear with it and hope the boys who were bothering her would soon forget about it.
Unfortunately, things only seemed to escalate from there, as a combination of bad rumors and mockery slowly filled her mind with nothing but negativity, suffocating her every day from dawn to dusk until she eventually broke apart and decided to end it all.
To think that all of it had started just because she rejected a boy, Michelle still couldn't believe it.
In the past, she had seen many boys being rejected, and many girls being turned down, but it had never developed like this. So why was it that when it was her turn, things had turned out this way? Was it really all her fault?
Even the gods seemed to want to see her suffer, however, because she failed at even ending her own life, and ended up being tied to a hospital bed instead.
And now, every day would start with staring at a white ceiling, and end with a nurse checking her status before calling it a night.
Of course, she had been visited by some officers after her 'accident', a man and a woman, but she knew better than anyone who much they didn't care about her just from their faces. They were all too happy to leave 'regretfully' after discovering that she couldn't respond to their questions at all.
Today, however, months after she had been hospitalized, Michelle received some 'unexpected' visitors.
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With how stubborn Emilia was, there was no way for Crystal to deny her despite her lack of confidence in herself being able to help in this case at all.
What she worried about most was not that she would mess up and embarrass herself, but that she would end up making a mistake that would prevent Michelle from getting the justice that she deserved.
However, when she finally saw the girl with her own eyes, her previous doubts seemed to vanish as she felt a determination in her heart.
How could she just give up without even trying?
She believed that Emilia wouldn't lie to her, and if the difference between this girl getting the justice she deserved or not was to be determined by her attitude, Crystal would of course have to give it her all.
Emilia watched with interest as the heroine approached the girl lying on the hospital bed, first introducing herself before asking some general questions.
Of course, since the girl had never managed to utter out a single word since her accident, how could she possibly respond?
Emilia believed in Crystal's ability, however, and continued to listen patiently as the girl dictated a few 'events' going on outside, mixing some questions in between. She didn't seem too bothered by the fact that the girl on the bed couldn't talk back.
After a while, she stood up and bid farewell to the girl before leaving the room with Emilia in tow.
"Well, what do you think?"
Crystal sighed. "I don't know what to do, Emilia. I think… I'll end up disappointing you…"
Emilia couldn't help but raise her brows in interest. "Why do you say that? We've just started, right? Anyway, I just brought you here to take a look, there's not much 'proof' we can get from her anyway."
The blonde girl shook her head. "No, I mean, that girl… It's not that she 'can't talk', but that she doesn't 'want to'. I couldn't even make her talk when I knew that, so—"
Emilia's eyes went wide as she grabbed the heroine's hands. "Really?!"
The heroine looked at their intertwined fingers, having already forgotten what she was going to say next. "U-Uh, right?"
Emilia chuckled.. "Well, just being able to figure that out is great enough! You haven't disappointed me at all. As for how to make her talk… leave that to me!"
