Dixie furrowed her brows deeply when Emilia called her in, because the scene inside was completely out of her expectations. "Princess… why is she sleeping in your bed?"
Emilia shrugged. "I don't know why she fainted, but she's probably just too stressed from the day. I could only carry her to the bed. Don't worry, she'll wake up soon."
Dixie almost rolled her eyes. Worry for who, that insolent little brat?!
Why was her princess so innocent? The short haired girl could only sigh. "You carried her yourself? Don't dirty your hands like that, Emily… You could have just called me in, and I would take care of her."
Emilia smirked. "By dunking her head in a bucket of water, right?"
"Uh…"
Dixie couldn't deny having had that thought.
Emilia rolled her eyes. "She's such an adorable little girl, Dixie, how can you be so harsh on her?"
The short haired girl could only raise her hands in exasperation. "She's a beast in sheep's clothing, Princess!"
Emilia blinked. "Eh, why do you say that?"
Of course, Dixie really didn't have any logical arguments in her favor. Anything she managed to point out, she knew Emilia would be able to justify it for Penny. Truly, her princess was too weak to cute things. "I-It's just an instinct…"
Emilia nodded. Although she did coddle Penny more than the others, maybe because she was perhaps the cutest, most childish girl in their group, she'd have to make sure to not let her knight think she was just ignoring her advice.
It's not like she really trusted anyone but herself fully, anyway, so making this promise was easy. "Alright, I'll be more careful then."
Dixie breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that was probably the best reassurance she was going to get. "That's good."
Emilia glanced at her watch, and it's already been half an hour since Penny and Adele came to her, and more than forty minutes since Koko left. "Anyway, where's Koko now?"
Dixie shrugged. "Probably still talking with her mother to arrange our meeting. She said she'll be back as soon as she's done."
Emilia nodded. "Well, let's see how it goes. Although I do kind of understand why you want me to convince her to put in a bad word for that cosmetic company, I don't know if she'll really listen to me, you know?"
Dixie smiled. "Don't worry about that, Emily, as long as you talk to her, that's fine."
It wasn't that she was overconfident in Emilia's ability to convince Koko's mother, it was just that she felt good about things going either way.
If the woman helped them out, it would let them deal a blow to one of their 'enemies', and if she refused… well, that just proves that Koko isn't good enough to be around her princess, right?
And in case that really happened, she could always work together with Emilia to figure out another way, most likely using the White Deer's own resources. With how much that elder sister of hers seemed to favor her princess, Dixie was sure it wouldn't be too difficult.
==
Meanwhile, Crystal found herself in a very uncomfortable position when she got back home from school.
Not only was there an injured boy covered in sweat in front of her door, he also seemed to be intent on 'introducing himself' right then and there despite her insisting that he go inside first.
Amos gave the girl a dashing smile, waving away her concern once again. "Please don't worry, I'm perfectly fine, just a minor scratch!"
Crystal's lips twitched slightly as she unconsciously stared at his swollen shut left eye.
The hero seemed to think she was startled by his dauntlessness, and smirked. "Don't mind the small things, I was just passing by this place earlier, and thought it looked quite good. But when I saw you coming here, I realized why it was so!"
Crystal had no idea where he planned to go with this at all, and could only give him a blank look.
"With the most intelligent girl in our school helping them out, how can they not be good? Anyway, I'm deeply impressed. Name's Amos Black, by the way."
"Uh, yeah, I'll just—"
"What's yours?"
"What?"
"Your name?"
"Um, Crystal Miller…"
Amos nodded with a flirtatious smile. "Crystal, ah, as beautiful and pure a name as yourself, truly a good fit!"
If it had been someone else who said it, Crystal would surely take that as a compliment. But somehow she felt like this boy already knew her name, and this whole thing seemed such a strange, set-up situation.
It all made her deeply uncomfortable, and she gave the guard at the gate a look, making him furrow his brow as he moved towards the boy.
He hadn't told the boy to go away earlier since he got out of a pretty expensive looking car, and didn't seem to be just some delinquent. But now that he was bothering the owner's daughter, the boss lady would probably fire him after just a day of work if he stayed put.
"Hey you, I see you've been standing there a while, and now you're even bothering this young miss now? If you have no business here, please leave."
Amos shrugged off the guard's hand from his shoulder with disgust. "Don't touch me. Can't you see we're just talking? How is that bothering anyone?"
Crystal remained silent, making it clear that she didn't agree with his statement at all.
"See? You're making her uncomfortable, so please leave, or I'll have to make you leave."
Amos could only sigh. 'Why does she have to be so shy? Ah, but that is also a part of her charm, I suppose. I don't wish to expose my ungentlemanly side to her either, so I can only leave.'
The hero gave her one last smile as he walked away to his car. "Let's keep in touch, Crystal. I have a feeling we're fated."
'That should at least have got her heart thumping, right?' Amos thought with some glee as his car drove away.
Meanwhile, Crystal watched him leave in the luxury car blankly. "What the hell is wrong with him? If he had a luxury, air conditioned car right there, why was he waiting out in the sun, sweating buckets?"
The guard shook his head nervously. "I-I don't know, miss… he's been there for quite a while. I did ask him if he was alright before, and he said he was fine, just waiting for someone. I didn't know he was a troublemaker, sorry."
Crystal sighed. "It's not your fault, uncle. But if you do see him doing this kind of thing again, tell him to either go in to eat or leave."
The man gave her a nod. "I understand, miss."
Crystal frowned as she thought about before shaking her head, she couldn't let the guard keep being so 'easygoing', or it might attract more trouble later. "Not just him, make sure we don't have this kind of people loitering around in general, it destroys the atmosphere, okay?"
The guard widened his eyes in shock. "Ah! I didn't think of that!"
The blonde girl gave him an encouraging smile. "It's alright, but be careful from now on. People will feel hesitant to come here if they saw him at the gate. Uncle, is this your first job at a restaurant?"
The guard gave her a deeply impressed look, wondering how she managed to guess. "Yes, young miss, I worked as a guard at a government office before. I'm sorry, I didn't know!"
"It's alright, just keep it in mind in the future."
The man nodded vigorously, determined to beat the living snot out of any troublemakers from now on.