I love time travel the most!

"Of course. I understand that."

The two men smiled knowingly.

Their expressions were undeniably lewd, prompting the haughty girl sitting next to them to glare at them with disgust.

Seeing that Akabane Raishin knew so much, Yaya immediately interjected, "Raishin. How about we both eat together tonight? You eat me... no, it seems like I'm the one who eats you? We'll crawl into bed at night, take off our clothes, and then... hehehehe... hehehehehe..."

"Hey, stop thinking nonsense, this is obviously a joke!"

Akabane Raishin shook the delusional Yaya, while regretting that he shouldn't have cooperated with Kobayashi's teasing of Charlotte, since he had an even bigger problem on his side.

The proud and arrogant girl finally realized what was happening.

"You lied to me?!"

"Hmph, you've fallen for it, haven't you? Besides, I'm a civilized person, how could I do such a thing?"

"Ha, civilized people. The guy who suddenly attacked me and tried to take away the most important thing a girl can have (the gloves for a rendezvous) by force actually calls himself a civilized person. Don't make people laugh their heads off."

"Wait! You're talking about Akabane-kun, right? I didn't do anything, I was just an assistant at most... No, wait!"

"Hmph, you admit it!"

Kobayashi was dumbfounded after being tricked.

Charlotte was definitely using misleading words to retaliate against his earlier teasing. Seeing the students around him whispering and the girls' hostile gazes piercing his back, Kobayashi felt extremely uncomfortable.

"I surrender, I surrender, I admit defeat."

Kobayashi raised his hands.

As the girl raised her index and middle fingers in a victory sign, he sincerely said, "I didn't expect you to worry about me. Thank you, Charlotte."

"Huh?! Who, who, who would care about you?!" Charlotte, caught off guard, darted around, avoiding Kobayashi's eyes.

The proud and arrogant girl remains unchanged.

Kobayashi knew what she was thinking, so he naturally wouldn't deliberately say the opposite.

After calming down the fervently generating electricity in the night, Akabane Raishin said, "But that guy... that guy who looks so cowardly is actually a glove holder. His timid attitude doesn't seem like that of a high achiever at all."

indeed.

Frey, both in personality and appearance, gives off an impression of being easy to bully. The fact that someone like her can participate in the Night Party really does, as Charlotte said, lower the prestige of this year's event.

"But Akabane-kun, you must know one thing—you can't judge a book by its cover."

Kobayashi said this very seriously.

Akabane Raishin thought it made a lot of sense and took it seriously after hearing it.

"Could it be that she is actually very strong?"

"No, pitifully weak."

"........."

Akabane Raishin was speechless.

He scolded me, saying that you can't judge a book by its cover. I thought he was a hidden powerhouse, but he turned out to be a weakling. What a waste of my feelings.

Charlotte then pulled out her notebook and explained to the two of them: "Frei, a third-year student, her login code name is [Silent Roar]. She was originally ranked 100th, then rose two places, and then dropped one place, so she is now ranked 99th."

"Thank you for the explanation, Charlotte. But I already know all of that."

When deciding to participate in the night party, Kobayashi had investigated the members. Apart from those whose whereabouts and backgrounds were too secretive, he knew information about most of them.

—Through the filing cabinet in the dean's office.

Charlotte patted her notebook, puffed out her thin chest confidently, and said, "I know, it must be because she saw that you are quite capable, so she wants to eliminate you before the party starts."

"...What is that?" Akabane Raishin asked in confusion, "Since it's our first opponent, we should be facing off from the very beginning, right?"

His question provoked Charlotte's anger.

"You're such a complete idiot, incredibly stupid! You wanted to assassinate her because she had no chance of winning in actual combat!"

"Uh...you're right."

Akabane Raishin nodded readily.

Even he was afraid of being kicked out of the Night Party if he encountered Kobayashi in the first round, so he hurriedly threatened others to exchange rankings. Judging from Frey's stupid appearance, she would definitely be eliminated instantly.

Just then, the dragon-shaped puppet Sigmund, who was fighting with the chicken, suddenly turned his head to look at the courtyard.

"What's wrong, Sigmund?"

"The person you were talking about has arrived."

Kobayashi and the others followed its gaze and looked out the window.

Said that Cao Cao Cao Cao arrived.

The avenue in front of the restaurant is the main street running north-south through the college. And right in the middle of that road, someone is setting up a cage for hunting giant bears.

Her pearly hair stood out strikingly in the sunlight.

"What...is she doing?"

"Who knows?"

Kobayashi watched Frey and her automaton Rabi with a smile. The two of them dragged the heavy iron cage, leaving two marks on the soft ground, while passing students stared at them with stunned and amazed expressions.

Arrive at the very center.

Frey lowered the rope that was pulling the large cage, climbed over the iron bars, and crawled into the cage by herself.

Then, she pulled out a photo book from between her breasts. The cover was so heavily censored that it looked like it was only for adults and absolutely not for children. It was so explicit that just glancing at it would make anyone blush.

No way.

Although she felt it was impossible, she seemed genuinely determined to do it—

Frey placed the adult photobook in the center of the cage, making it look like bait used to lure prey.

Snapped!

Charlotte slapped her forehead, looking utterly dismayed.

Akabane Raishin suppressed a laugh and asked, "You...aren't you going to stop her? Just let her continue like this?"

"Why stop her? Watching her clumsily set up the trap, and then get tricked by it herself, isn't that a great scene?" Kobayashi said with a pleased expression.

Charlotte's lips twitched slightly, and she couldn't help but say, "Your personality can be really awful sometimes, and you're just as awful to that person... Felix too."

"Haha, thank you for the compliment."

I wasn't praising you!

The girl denied that she was being arrogant, but the man in front of her wouldn't listen and took her words as arrogance.

Fry, drenched in sweat, painstakingly set up the trap.

Putting aside the eerie iron cage placed in the middle of the road that could be seen through at a glance, could it be... that she thinks I am the kind of man who would be lured by such a thing?

Kobayashi's exceptional eyesight allowed him to see the cover of the photobook.

—Yes, she's his type.

Just as she was wondering how the other person knew her preferences, she suddenly remembered what she had done to her that morning and realized why she had acted that way.

Just when Xiaolin thought it was about time...

bang-

The iron cage's latches suddenly loosened, and it fell with a loud bang, simultaneously locking the dazed Frey inside. Seeing her frozen in confusion and thought, Kobayashi thought to himself, "Just as I expected."

More than ten seconds later.

Frey seemed to finally understand what was going on, and frantically scurried around the cage, only to accidentally step on her scarf and fall.

Unable to get up, it thrashed about frantically.

I'm really clumsy.

The rabbi seemed bewildered, circling around the cage repeatedly; it appears this dog isn't very intelligent.

Charlotte sighed helplessly and turned to see Kobayashi's reaction. She found that the smile on Kobayashi's face was even more cheerful than before, which startled the proud girl so much that she couldn't help but move to the side, as if she wanted to get away from him.

Kobayashi actually has a very good personality.

But sometimes, for no apparent reason, I'll switch on and become someone who enjoys wicked humor.

Suddenly, she noticed that Xiaolin's expression was not good.

"what happened?"

As she looked on in confusion, she turned to the academy courtyard again, and what she saw there made her expression turn sour.

A slender male student approached the cage, wearing a half-length scarf around his shoulders. His profile looked quite respectable, but his eyes were so fierce that they ruined his handsome face.

His hair was also a distinctive pearl color.

Beside the male student was a small angel-shaped Gundam made of several steel plates floating in the air, holding a long sword in each hand, about the same length as the student's height.

It must be his automaton.

"—Sword Emperor Loki."

"Sword Emperor? A self-flying Flame Sword? One of the thirteen?"

"That's right. One of the top thirteen members of the Night Party, the glove holder, a second-year student known as the Sword Emperor among the students, and considered a rival to Marshal Marknas. He has never been defeated in combat exercises and his strength ranks among the top ten in the academy."

Charlotte quickly revealed his information.

The key is--

"See how similar he looks to Frey, and how he has the same pearly hair? That's proof that they're siblings."

"Siblings..."

Although they are siblings, their relationship is not good.

Because Loki grabbed Frey's scarf and forcefully lifted her body, Frey's forehead hit the iron railing.

The delicate and adorable girl almost cried from the pain.

Rabi sensed the danger his master was in and roared loudly, but after being glared at by Loki, he curled up his tail and backed away.