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Although Samantha loved her little sister dearly, she knew that there were many aspects of her life that were completely out of her control.
In fact, she wasn't the type who felt the need to know and control absolutely everything, but there were moments where Samantha wondered if she was, perhaps, too uninvolved in Emilia's life.
Whenever she thought about how that bastard Amos had almost managed to dupe her little sister into a truly hellish nightmare of a future, and the only thing that stopped it from happening was the boy's own stupidity, Samantha couldn't help but blame herself.
If she had taken a few more steps to make sure her sister was truly safe and happy, that kind of thing would never have happened.
However, even though she realized this, Samantha found herself hesitating whenever the matter of monitoring and protecting Emilia was brought up, either by her parents or Noelle.
'What if she hates me for making her life inconvenient?', 'What if she doesn't like that we're 'snooping around'?', Those were the thoughts that stopped her in her tracks, and caused her to spend ten times the effort to protect Emilia from a distance instead, with minimal disruption to the girl's life.
For Samantha, meeting Penny today was like a revelation from the heavens as she realized that there was another path ahead of her that she'd never even considered!
"You're Emilia's fangirl? And this… 'Princess Emilia's Royal Knights'… is it a fan club?"
A few moments of stunned silence followed as the 'children' tried to comprehend Samantha's words.
Penny's previous haughty attitude was nowhere to be seen as she pointed at the taller girl in disbelief. "Y-You're HER sister?!"
It was only then that they realized that even though her personality and dressing sense was so absurd, this tall biker girl's face actually matched quite well with the business lady they had seen on TV before.
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Back in her office, Samantha called in the 'newly promoted' girl, who had previously been a receptionist, to bring two cups of coffee as Penny nervously took a seat on the other side.
After realizing Samantha's identity as Emilia's sister, the blonde girl's attitude had of course changed completely. "U-Um, rest assured that my intentions for our Princess are completely pure, and I have never ever done anything lewd or taken any advantage of our Princess while she wasn't aware, and definitely do not intend to do a lot more in the future—"
Had she not been interrupted by the 'ex-receptionist' barging in with their 'order', Penny might have gone on to describe a very 'fulfilling' future she had often dreamed about. Thankfully for her, luck was on her side, and now that the girl realized her slip up, she clammed her mouth shut.
Samantha gave the tiny blonde girl a weird look, feeling that even for a fangirl, she was definitely a little more fanatical than she expected. "You sure like her a lot, huh? Tell me, what does this fan club of yours usually do?"
And like a firecracker that had been lit up, Penny immediately exploded with enthusiasm. Only after she had ranted about their 'great undertakings' when it came to protecting Emilia and her reputation for almost thirty minutes did she pause, realizing that the older girl was grinning at her in amusement.
Penny's existence had given Samantha the idea of simply sponsoring these 'children' who were already quite enthusiastic about protecting her sister so that they can do it properly in her stead.
This would mean not only would she not be interfering with Emilia's life directly—as these fangirls were going to do it anyway and she just made it more efficient—it would also be more than enough to let her rest easy, since external threats would be handled by Noelle's people anyway.
The only thing she had been worried about was if she wouldn't end up nurturing a 'threat' instead, but seeing how overflowing and boundless Penny's affection for her little sister was, Samantha couldn't help but be relieved.
Since this girl worshiped Emilia like an idol, Samantha thought that there was no way she could ever think of her in any inappropriate way, let alone try to harm her. To Penny, Emilia probably wasn't even human, because she was far too perfect in her eyes.
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Penny couldn't believe her 'luck' at all. Not only was the sister of her princess 'accepting' her, she was also openly endorsing their group! Although it wasn't as great a moment as when Emilia herself had acknowledged their existence, this was still a great leap forward!
What made her feel a little complicated, however, was that this endorsement came together with a very, very fat cheque!
Looking at the number of zeros on the piece of paper, Penny couldn't help but feel a little dizzy. "I-Is this really just 'sponsorship money' for making sure our princess remains safe?"
Samantha nodded. "Right. Actually, this was what I had wanted to do for a long time, and you don't really have to do much. Just make sure to handle any troublesome situations for my little sister if you can, and let me know if there's something that you can't handle, and I'll take care of it."
Penny grinned as she felt a feeling of elation in her chest from having her efforts acknowledged by a blood relative of her princess, but in the end, she still pushed the cheque away. "Un, well, there's no need to pay me. Like you said, I protect the princess because that is what I wish to do."
If she accepted this money, wouldn't it taint the pure relationship she had with her princess? Penny didn't want to become just another employee who worked for Emilia's elder sister, after all.
Samantha blinked in surprise. She thought about it for a while, and shortly realized what problem the girl might be facing. "Ah, don't misunderstand, I'm not 'paying you', I'm simply contributing to our cause. This money is there to help with any costs that are incurred in the process, understand?"
After all, Penny was just a child in front of her, and a little twist of words was enough to completely throw her off.
And as expected, when Samantha put it that way, Penny really thought about it again and felt that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.
Not counting Koko, most of the students in their club were from middle-class families, and the fund they could pool together was only a fraction of what Samantha had casually tossed out. And even Koko couldn't really bring forth much cash, limited as she was by her overly strict mother.
Moreover, this was the blood-related elder sister of her princess! With her having put no restrictions on how she should use the money, Penny thought there could be nothing wrong with taking her contribution.
Penny would just have to make sure that not a single penny was used for anything that wasn't for the sake of her princess.
And so, aside from the fat cheque, the Royal Knights suddenly found themselves with a much more 'professional' base only a few hundred meters away from their school, equipped with all the facilities that money could buy, and specialized trainers who would be teaching them both combat and espionage.
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~ To be continued ~
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DustyDream:
Bonus chapter should be out in an hour or so.
Thank you for all your support! :>