In the early morning of the first day of the one-week vacation, after eating their breakfast, Soma, and Marina were preparing their things to go back to the town of Elk. Marina since the time she woke up, has been happy and was doing the preparations as fast as she could. One might think that she was happy to go back to Elk, that was not the case. And Soma knew what she was thinking at the moment, (…By going back to Elk, I could keep Soma-kun away from that girl!).

The girl she is thinking about is none other than Rimi. Marina noticed that the number of times Rimi would just stare at Soma was increasing throughout the whole First Quarter. And during the three days trip, the number of times Rimi would just stare at Soma was over the roof. Rimi practically kept staring at Soma for the whole time. And what made things more worrying for Marina was that whenever Soma noticed her looking at him and look at her back, her entire face would turn red but nevertheless keep staring at him.

Marina was aware of Rimi’s interest in Soma since the day she met her. That’s why she tried to stop her emotions at the point of interest and nothing more by glaring at her every time she looked at Soma. But Rimi was way too dense to notice Marina’s glares and just kept looking at Soma as if memorizing all of his actions evolving her feelings from interest to admiration to love throughout the First Quarter. And what’s worse is that Marina knew that Soma was aware of it all but kept ignoring it wholeheartedly instead of doing something to stop it.

On the other hand, Soma who was aware of what was going through Marina’s mind right now was following the presence of a certain someone in his mind. This certain someone’s destination will either turn this one-week vacation into chaos if the destination was Soma’s room. And sure enough, that certain someone made their way from the females’ dorm all the way to Soma’s room which is between the females’ dorm and the males’ dorm. Soma was living in a small house between the two dorms that was built beforehand for the Law Enforcer, and since the Law Enforcer was expected to be a male, the house was considered to be part of the males’ dorm.

Once the certain someone reached 200m away from Soma’s room, finally Marina sensed their presence, and her face turned from a happy smile into a grimace with a couple of vines visible on her forehead. Marina turned her face towards Soma as if she was a machine lacking oil, and he turned his face away from her. Marina was aware of the extent of Soma’s presence detection, she knew that he is able to sense presences from as far away as outside the area of the five mountains, and following the presence of someone heading towards him was something he could do easily. This means that Soma was aware of this visitor since the start, but he didn’t say anything about it.

The visitor arrived at the front of Soma’s room, but they didn’t knock on the door nor did they call out to him or anything of the sort. The visitor merely kept pacing back and forth in front of the door, stopping and reaching for the door before stopping right before knocking on the door and returning to pacing back and forth in nervousness. Seeing that Marina was getting angrier and angrier with the visitor’s actions, Soma walked to the door and opened it.

“…Hya!”(Rimi)

“Rimi, did you need me for something? And you know that this is the males’ dorm, do you have a pass with you?”(Soma)

“…I h-have a pass here… I got it from the headmaster. And… when I was there, I heard that you’ll be going back to Elk during this week, is that correct?”(Rimi)

“Yeah, that’s right”(Soma)

“T-Then if possible, could you take me with you?”(Rimi)

“No!! Absolutely no!!”(Marina)

Marina appeared from behind Soma and refused Rimi’s request vehemently.

“May I ask why not?”(Rimi)

“There is no reason for us to take you with us!”(Marina)

“As you already know, I have left my knights with my brother before the Flood. That’s why I’m concerned about the state of the town. And going with other people is merely common sense. Traveling can be dangerous after all, and since we all have the same destination it’s better to go together…(Or so Alice told me to say)”(Rimi)

“If it’s dangerous then don’t travel! And besides, it was supposed to be me and Soma-kun alone traveling! Are planning to be a third wheel?”(Marina)

“…Oi”(Soma)

“Yes, of course!!...N-No, l mean no that’s not my intention. I’m just following my common sense!”(Rimi)

“…Oi”(Soma)

“You will not trick me! Your true intentions were clearly apparent just then! I’ll not allow you to go with us!”(Marina)

“Stop it you two!... *Sigh* Rimi, what happened to Alice? Why is she not with you?”(Soma)

“Since it’s a vacation, I told her to do as she pleases, and she decided to go check on Emma”(Rimi)

“I see… Okay, got it. You may come with us”(Soma)

“Yes! Thank you very much!”(Rimi)

“…Soma-kun?”(Marina)

“Marina, remember the reason we are going back to Elk. And don’t you think that Rimi going with us would help us progress with our plans faster?”(Soma)

“…You might be right. But… but ….that was finally my chance to attack Soma-kun!!!”(Marina)

“Whaaatt?!”(Rimi)