Crystal hadn’t looked through the message contents before handing the phone over to Emilia in a hurry, so when the girl’s grim expression dissolved into a playful smile, she couldn’t help but be a little puzzled. “Is everything alright?”
”Mhm… our dear Noelle is a bit too serious, so she got worried after seeing a few clowns jumping around. Don’t worry, I’ll go console her later.”
Emilia continued chatting with Penny and her knights without a care in the world, and Crystal was still trying to figure out what she meant when she was nudged by a dissatisfied Dixie.
”Why did you look so panicked before? I got worried for no reason!”
Hearing the grievances in the dark-haired girl’s voice, Crystal could only raise her hands in surrender. “Don’t blame me. I just saw Noelle mention ‘Urgent’, so… y’know…”
Dixie couldn’t help but roll her eyes in exasperation. “For a genius, you sure are silly. Wouldn’t Noelle have called directly instead of sending a message if it was really so urgent? Given how little she chats, she probably just doesn’t know how to phrase herself properly in a short text.”
Crystal blinked. “I guess that makes sense.”
Although Noelle was a bit too young for her to already be out of touch with current technology, the way she phrased everything so professionally meant it was possible that there was a greater room for misunderstanding.
As for getting any hints from Emilia… With her playful nature, figuring the crimson-haired girl’s true thoughts out using her somewhat unreliable ability was basically impossible.
Crystal knew that all she would usually get would be compliments for either herself or whoever was the closest to Emilia at the time.
And the best outcome would be if the little beauty could be caught while was preening herself, being both shy and proud, but that was a secret Crystal intended to take to her grave.
Penny’s excited squealing abruptly broke Crystal out of her thoughts.
”What?! P-Princess… a-are you serious?!”
Emilia tapped the petite girl’s nose, smiling in amusement. “Why are you so shocked? Isn’t it normal for smaller clubs and committees to cooperate with bigger ones during the annual events?”
The ponytailed girl looked stunned for a while, but she quickly shook her head in denial. “N-No way, even if there are only a few people in the committee of our princess, it is still the best and most illustrious bunch in our school!”
But as if afraid that Emilia would retract her previous offer, the petite girl coughed and continued without giving anyone the chance to respond. “T-That being said, i-it will be our greatest honor to cooperate with you, princess! What would you like us to do?”
Emilia couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “That depends on what everyone is comfortable with. We don’t want to make a joke of ourselves in public, after all. What did you have planned?”
Penny seemed to have never expected such a question being thrown her way, and turned to look at her closest friend in dismay, who in turn pretended to be deaf and blind.
Unfortunately, while the ponytailed leader was hoping someone would find a tactful way of responding to Emilia without making them look like fools, one girl in her group seemed to have no consideration for their ‘image’ at all.
”Princess, allow me! We planned to hold a great exhibit that would showcase your talents and beauty to the world, as well as a power show to dissuade those who might have bad thoughts for you.”
Seeing Emilia look a little confused, Adele cleared her throat to elaborate, completely ignorant of their commander’s horrified look. “The showcase would be held using the best of our high-resolution images, with select members getting to take their pick and elaborate on how much they love that particular shot and why.”
Penny was extremely grateful at that moment that Adele hadn’t actually seen any of the ‘selected images’, otherwise it would have been impossible for even a fanatic like her to say it all in front of Emilia with a straight face.
Unaware of the ‘conspiracy’, the ‘pure’ little traitor of class B continued explaining everything to Emilia with a smile. “The power show, on the other hand, would be divided into a specialized talent show, an open tournament, as well as a challenger round.”
Emilia hummed thoughtfully. “Did you get enough time approved to be able to do all this?”
Adele nodded. “Mrs. Macmillan didn’t have any objections.”
The crimson-haired girl couldn’t help but wonder if the poor woman wasn’t just left speechless. ‘Ah, whatever… I’m sure they will sort it out somehow.’
Penny coughed awkwardly after pulling Adele back. “T-Those plans aren’t final yet, princess. Please tell us what you need, we’ll definitely be able to work around that instead!”
Emilia thought about it for a while before nodding. “Actually, since you took the time to get the approval and everything, you should go ahead with the events you planned anyway. I only need four people.”
”Eh? S-Sure!”
The crimson-haired girl smiled. “Although I’ll be teaching them everything they need, it would be better if they were interested in riding a horse, or maybe already proficient in it.”
The ‘knights’ turned to stare at each other in dismay. Although some of them did come from families that raised horses as either a sport or a hobby, none of them had any actual experience riding one.
But thinking of being able to get ‘hands-on’ training from the princess herself, the fire in their hearts quickly overwhelmed reason as they made up their minds.
Penny could already feel the cold sweat on her back when she imagined the fierce competition she would have to go through if she wanted to be a part of the select four.
”D-Does the princess know how to ride a horse?”
Emilia nodded with a smile. “Mhm. Although it has been a while, I much prefer the company of a horse to it riding a bike or a car.”
Crystal could only roll her eyes at the excited murmurs from the ‘knights’. ‘Is it really so exciting to ride on a horse together?’
The blonde girl tried to imagine being able to hold Emilia in that kind of situation, and she couldn’t help but smack her lips. ‘Dang… guess it really is quite tempting.’
Penny couldn’t help but chuckle nervously. “T-Then… will the princess be organizing a race?”
Emilia shook her head with a smile. “No. To be honest, I was a bit confused between Polo and Vaulting before I came here, but after hearing of your plans, I decided there’s nothing wrong with doing both. It’s going to be fun, anyway.”
Seeing her dumbfounded look, the crimson-haired girl could tell that Penny had absolutely no idea what either of those terms meant. “Polo is a simple ‘get that object into the goal using sticks’ game, with two teams of four people on horses. And you can think of vaulting as gymnastics, but on a horse.”
Penny could barely imagine herself being able to pull the first one off, but when she tried to picture herself ‘vaulting’…
’Would it be too horrifying for the princess to see a Penny pancake? No wait, more importantly, wouldn’t it be sad if I couldn’t follow her around properly in the future if I got my neck broken or something?!’
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