Most of the knights were naturally not naïve enough to believe that Mrs. Macmillan’s arrival at the airport was just a coincidence.
Although they tried to delude themselves into thinking she was there to ‘see them off’ at first, looking at the sizeable carry-on bag she was dragging along, they had no choice but to accept it.
”I-It’s not impossible for her to be carrying farewell gifts in that bag, r-right?”
The rest of the knights gave the girl a disbelieving look, causing her to cough in embarrassment. “I-I was only joking.”
Of course, in sharp contrast to the rest of the knights, Penny herself was quite ecstatic. She had been trying to ‘enlighten’ Mrs. Macmillan about the charms of her princess for such a long time, and it looked like all that effort hadn’t gone to waste, after all!
When she finally got to them, Mrs. Macmillan was understandably a little embarrassed under their strange stares. “I-It’s not that strange for me to be here, is it?”
Penny quickly waved her hand in denial. “Of course it’s not! Since you are someone who has had positive interactions with the princess in the past, how could you not be qualified to come along with us?”
She patted her chest proudly. “Don’t worry, the knights take care of our own. Since you’ve finally decided to join us—”
The older woman interrupted her enthusiastic speech with a cough. “Wait a minute, I never said anything about joining your club, did I?”
Although Penny was too speechless to respond, the expression on her face made it more than clear that ‘why are you here, then?’ was probably the only thought ringing through her head.
Mrs. Macmillan was just about to explain how she had a big fight with her husband before she came here, but snapped her mouth shut when she realized how ridiculous it all was in hindsight.
Ever since Emilia left, she had been having this weird feeling that their country was slowly becoming more and more ‘hollow’, as if it was about to collapse in on itself at any time.
Of course, this was quite ridiculous considering nothing much had changed in the past decade, so she didn’t pay much attention to it at first.
When she started watching news of Emilia’s achievements in her new empire, however, Mrs. Macmillan couldn’t help but give birth to the idea of moving out.
After all, even if things were to stop improving over there, as someone who had personally taught the empress at one point in her life, her treatment couldn’t possibly be too bad, right?
When the whole student exchange thing happened, Mrs. Macmillan finally made up her mind that this was the time to make a move.
As someone who trusted her intuition very much, she didn’t want to keep delaying things, and live with regret later.
Her husband wasn’t quite as keen on the idea, however. According to him, it was one thing to follow her whims on minor matters, but if she wanted him to abandon his home and country, she was simply dreaming.
Not only did he not believe in her ‘intuition’, he even dared to accuse her of having a crush on her ex-student!
Crush? Her?!
Mrs. Macmillan was naturally furious, and immediately stormed off, intent on leaving on her own.
As the target of countless crushes herself, how could she possibly have a crush on someone else?
’Even if Emilia is extremely beautiful, witty, and kind—! Bah! What am I thinking?!’
Fortunately, Penny managed to break the woman out of her ‘outrageous’ thoughts with a confused wave of her hand.
”Hello? Mrs. Macmillan, are you still here?”
Quickly regaining her bearing, the older woman coughed in embarrassment. “Yes yes, a-anyway, umm… I-I’m not really here for any strange reason. I just had a fight with my husband and decided to separate, and thought I might as well use this chance to move out of the country, you know?”
Penny blinked in confusion. “Wait… so does that mean we have to call you ‘Miss Macmillan’ now?”
Although they hadn’t really divorced, Mrs. Macmillan still felt angry when she thought about her husband’s ‘mockery’, so she just nodded.
Had she known what kind of outrageous rumor this ‘minor decision’ made in a moment of anger would lead to among the knights, Mrs. Macmillan would surely have bashed her head against the wall while calling herself stupid.
”Breaking news! Mrs. Macmillan has divorced her husband to proudly chase after the princess as a free, single woman!”
”What, is this really true?!”
”I’ve heard this with my own ears! She told the commander to call her ‘Miss Macmillan’ from now!”
”Wow… although I know that the charm of the princess is irresistible, but wasn’t she the one to always tell the students who gave her love letters that ‘it’s just not right’ and ‘teachers and students simply can’t be together’?”
Fortunately, they were still sensible enough to stop their ‘discussion’ as soon as the older woman got within earshot.
Of course, while they had been gossiping about ‘Miss Macmillan’ what the knights really feared was that she wouldn’t be the only teacher to follow them to the empire.
To be more specific, they just didn’t want to continue co-existing with Mr. Jefferson.
Luckily, there were no more surprises waiting for them before the flight was ready to go, and they finally headed back to their long-awaited ‘reunion’ with the princess.
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Although Emilia had already received news of their arrival, the crimson-haired girl wasn’t able to receive the knights in person, and could only send her ‘secretary’ to welcome them instead.
Of course, while she couldn’t take the time to go all the way to the airport, she could still make a few adjustments and meet them in her villa.
The knights naturally wouldn’t miss the opportunity to see her given the chance, and all of them took the offer to go over when Emilia’s secretary mentioned it. Naturally, ‘Miss’ Macmillan didn’t want to be the odd one out either, and also agreed.
She thought it wouldn’t be right to not go greet her ‘student’ empress even when asked, but the older woman never realized that her ‘readily accepting’ was just another nail in the coffin for ‘Miss Macmillan is chasing after the princess’ as far as the knights were concerned.
Fortunately, while Emilia was slightly surprised to see one of the teachers following the students, since she knew Mrs. Macmillan wouldn’t be a problematic element, the crimson-haired girl didn’t make too much of a fuss and only greeted her with a smile. “I’m sorry for not coming to pick all of you up in person, there was just too much work.”
How could the knights hold a grudge against their princess? As far as they were concerned, the fact that she came to greet them right as they entered through the villa’s main gate was already too much.
Penny couldn’t help but clutch at her moved heart while ‘accidentally’ falling into Emilia’s arms. “Ahhh! Princess, you don’t need to worry about us!”
The other knights quickly agreed while staring at their commander enviously.
”That’s right, you shouldn’t tire yourself working too hard! We can always come over to see you some other time, can’t we?”
”Yeah! Even if our arms and legs were to be chopped off, we would still come crawling over somehow if you called!”
Emilia couldn’t help but giggle in amusement at their exaggerated response. “You all are still just as silly. Ahh, before I forget, I’ve already had some rooms prepared for everyone, but some might have to share since we don’t have enough. If some of you could decide among yourselves who would be—!”
Looking at their enthusiastic faces ready to pounce on the first chance to ‘volunteer’, she almost sighed. “You know what? No need to tell me now, just relax and discuss it slowly among yourselves during dinner later, and just report to Penny later. She will be keeping all the keys until then.”
Penny almost purred happily when she felt the soft hands of her beautiful princess pat her gently on the back, but the envious glares from the other knights thankfully managed to keep her from committing crimes in broad daylight.
She didn’t fear being punished or suffering ‘retribution’, of course, but Penny simply couldn’t accept the idea of not being able to molest the queen of her heart in the future. If all her bones were broken, just how was she supposed to sniff and grope her princess?
Fortunately, Emilia took her away from the crowd and into her private study soon enough, and Penny breathed a sigh of relief while snuggling into the gorgeous girl’s embrace.
”Ahhh~ I’ve missed you so much, princess!”
Emilia ruffled the ‘adorable’ girl’s hair with a smile. “It hasn’t been that long, has it?”
The ponytailed girl couldn’t help but whine. “But every minute I couldn’t see you felt like a year, no, a century!”
Feeling a little amused by her antics, Emilia squeezed the petite girl’s chubby cheek. “Okay, I get it. I’ll give you some candies later to make up for it, alright?”
Penny jumped enthusiastically while hugging her princess tighter. “Yes!”
The blonde girl couldn’t help but squeal crazily in her head when she managed to ‘inadvertently’ cop a feel of Emilia’s slim waist.
The crimson-haired girl didn’t think much about it, and only hummed happily at how easy it was to satisfy Penny. Just a few candies made her jump in so much joy?
Unfortunately, she still had to get back to work soon, or Emilia might have taken the time to tease this ‘innocent’ kid some more.
”I’ll play with you later. But first… wasn’t there something ‘extremely important’ that you really wanted to tell me?”
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