Although they’d long since known about her, none of them had expected that Emilia’s ‘alien friend’ could just pop into existence instantly. They just assumed that she must be off doing whatever needed to be done to help the crimson-haired beauty with her missions, similar to what Justine had been doing up until recently.
Cynthia’s ‘angry’ words immediately interrupted their scattering thoughts, and everyone couldn’t help but focus back on this elusive ‘partner’ of their favorite crimson-haired beauty.
Not to mention Noelle and Sam, even Dixie and Crystal couldn’t quite connect the word ‘Elder’ with the cute little girl in front of them. After all, even if they knew she might not be the age she appeared to be, treating someone who appeared so much younger than them like an elder was still hard for them to accept.
Cynthia was naturally not oblivious to the skeptical gazes she was receiving, and she couldn’t help but stomp her foot on the carpet angrily. “W-What’s with that look?! Disrespectful! Emilia, you tell them…!”
Her petulant and childish behavior probably didn’t help the raven-haired girl’s case.
Of course, Emilia didn’t scold anyone for being disrespectful, and even ruffled her partner’s hair adoringly. “With how cute you look, can anyone really be blamed for not being able to think of you as anything but a little sister?”
The raven-haired girl squeaked in indignation. “Wha—?! Little sister…? Little sister my butt! Emilia, I thought you would at least back me up in front of others!”
Somewhat mesmerized by how adorable they looked when puffed out in anger, Emilia couldn’t help but reach out to squeeze Cynthia’s cheeks, much to the raven-haired girl’s disbelief.
To her credit, though, the crimson-haired beauty did ‘scold’ her partner’s ‘enemies’, even if it was mostly to cover up her own embarrassment. “Y-You girls, don’t bully my little Cynthia too much, no matter how adorable she looks. Okay?”
“T-That’s not helping me at all?!”
Luckily or not, Crystal and the others were too busy giggling at Emilia and Cynthia’s antics to care about the previous shock of the girl simply materializing out of nowhere.
Otherwise, with how astute Crystal usually was, she would definitely have started suspecting that, unless Cynthia could just teleport anywhere instantly regardless of the distance, she probably had to be staying ‘quite close’ to Emilia most of the time.
Perhaps close enough to ‘observe’ everything, even.
Naturally, with how familiar Emilia was with her partner’s tolerance levels, she would never tease Cynthia past a certain point, and had already started soothing the agitated girl’s emotions.
“Look, Cynthia, you think they’re like children in front of you, right?”
Although her thoughts were more along the lines of ‘insignificant mortals’ than ‘children’, the raven-haired girl thought the analogy was probably close enough, and nodded.
Emilia grinned. “Well, isn’t it only to be expected that children would just follow their instincts and do as they please? Facing such a pretty, youthful girl such as yourself, can they be blamed for not being able to treat you like an elderly grandmother figure?”
Obviously, while it was true that most people would be mesmerized by Cynthia’s beauty, one can never underestimate the ability of humans to get used to something.
The raven-haired girl was undoubtedly gorgeous, but her beauty was more along the lines of being ‘utterly adorable’, as Emilia had very aptly put it.
With the four of them being already soaked in the crimson-haired beauty’s much sharper and almost hauntingly gorgeous features day and night, it was already good enough that they couldn’t pick a fault with someone’s appearance.
It was naturally impossible for them to be caught staring at someone because they were so mesmerized by their beauty.
But still, who could have expected Emilia’s ‘little sister’ would have a fetish for being treated like a grandma?
Unfortunately, it was only after she saw everyone looking at her with weirdly amused smiles that Cynthia realized something was wrong. ‘W-Wait a minute, who wants to be their grandmother?!’
But by then, it was too late.
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A few minutes later, Sam ruffled the indignant little girl’s hair with a grin. “To be honest, I was a little jealous of this other ‘family member’ of hers, but now that I know it’s you, well… I don’t really mind. So what if my little sister has a little sister? It’s all good since she’s so adorable!”
Crystal also giggled and joined in on the teasing. “Doesn’t that also make her your little sister?”
The taller girl hesitated. “Well, it’s a little different…?”
Their subject in question could only gawk at them in horror. ‘W-What mannerless mortals… how dare they treat me like this?!’
With the number of her ‘bullies’ suddenly tripling, Cynthia felt like her head was going to explode. Fortunately, Noelle and Dixie were still quite polite, and did their best to suppress their amused smiles.
But although the raven-haired girl sulked throughout the time she was out, the hostility she had in her heart against these ‘mortals’ was undoubtedly reduced. Though she would never admit it, even to herself.
Anyway, as far as her partner was concerned, Cynthia couldn’t really hold a grudge against her considering her own ‘betrayal’, so she could only pinch her nose and tolerate their nonsense.
Fortunately, their flight’s scheduled landing saved her from further distress soon enough, and Cynthia used the excuse of her limited ‘summoning time’ to get Emilia’s nod.
Samantha blinked. “I didn’t go too far, did I?”
Emilia shook her head with a smile. “Not at all. Being doted on by big sister is already a privilege, how could you go too far?”
The older girl was relieved that she hadn’t scared her little sister’s little sister away. “Oh good. By the way, where does she normally stay?”
Although Emilia understood that Sam’s only thought was to ask her if her partner wanted to stay with them on a more permanent basis, her question did remind everyone else of something they had previously overlooked.
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