━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thanks to the generous funding as well as the training facilities provided by Samantha to her little sister's fan club, both the reputation and the influence of the 'Royal Knights' had already reached a level where even the teachers couldn't remain oblivious, even if they wanted to.
Of course, it didn't help that Penny never stopped trying to recruit more people to her cause, with her current target being none other than Mrs. Macmillan, who groaned in annoyance as she denied the overenthusiastic girl for what felt like the hundredth time. "Penny, dear, I may have approved your club application, but there's no way I'm joining as a member. In the first place, only students can become club members, so what you're asking for is impossible—"
Given that she was already suffering under the principal's glare every day for that one mistake, how could Mrs. Macmillan dare to screw up even more? Plus with how stressed that old man was already, wouldn't he just have a heart attack from anger if he learned she dared to join this club?
The ponytailed blonde girl pouted as she blocked off the teacher from getting to her pink scooter, jumping from side to side with her arms wide. "I'll make you waste ten minutes every day like this until you say yes!"
No matter which way she turned, the middle-aged lady couldn't compete with Penny's athletic ability, when the girl's absurdly long ponytail almost smacked her across the face from the momentum of her jumping around, Mrs. Macmillan finally snapped. "You brat! I'll give you detention!"
Instead of looking afraid, however, Penny only gave her a goading look. "Suffering for the sake of my princess is just another honor for the knights!"
In her mind, Penny was thinking that if she got punished, she could always go cry to her princess. Not only would she be getting a few chocolates in consolation, but there were also sure to be plenty of 'opportunities' to be affectionate with her princess as well!
Thinking about it this way, getting punished was just being promised boundless rewards.
Mrs. Macmillan groaned. 'T-This pervert! Look at her face!'
Of course, just as the teacher looked down on her character, Penny also looked down on her resolve, though their reasoning and thought process differed greatly. "Hmph. Mrs. Macmillan, how can you not be charmed by my princess? Not only did you approve of our club, but there are also many instances proving how you tried to curry favor with the princess. Face reality!"
The petite blonde was sure that the woman was just pretending not to care. Maybe that was her way to attract attention? Penny's expression didn't conceal such thoughts at all.
Mrs. Macmillan almost threw up blood. "That was just me being careless! You can't force me like this!"
The petite blonde snorted, clearly unconvinced. "I never force anyone. All members of our club are volunteers. I'll of course let you go… ten minutes later."
Of course, Penny wasn't being unreasonable just for the sake of being unreasonable.
Although her ultimate goal had always been to convert the whole world into worshiping her princess, as it should be, there was obviously a good reason why she sought out Mrs. Macmillan now.
Penny was no longer as naïve as she had been before, and after learning from her trainer about the various kinds of sabotages that a student like her princess could suffer, she had of course been anxiously trying her best to eliminate each and every possibility.
This included not just monitoring threats like that stalker ex-fiancé of her princess, but also making sure that she could know of any tricks that a staff member could try to pull.
With the boy's suspicious behavior, Penny became more aware than ever that not everything was under her control. And the identity of Amos Black made it very difficult to resolve things in advance without bringing backlash to her princess as well, which made things doubly hard for the knights.
She had already let Samantha know of this particular matter, and while the older girl assured her that she would look into it and handle things swiftly, that couldn't curb Penny's anxiety at all.
Even if there was little she could achieve by herself, Penny had to do everything she possibly could.
Getting some inside information from the staff might be of help just in case the boy's plot involved the authorities at school, and since that was something that should be well within her capabilities, Penny decided she had to do it anyhow.
Of course, she couldn't rely on just a few tapping devices in the staff room and principal's office, and getting an actual staff member on her side was paramount.
Penny had never doubted the charm of her princess, but she also knew that not everyone would agree to join her Knight's Order. Penny believed that the fault lay solely with herself, as these people probably doubted the authority and strength of the 'commander' and thus looked on the entire order.
Since giving up the commander position was impossible, Penny could only work harder to slowly build herself up, be it in terms of ability or reputation.
Just as Mrs. Macmillan was about to stomp her feet in anger, however, she realized that Penny had completely frozen, allowing her the chance to reach her scooter swiftly in joy and relief.
Before turning the key, however, she couldn't help but give the stiff form of Penny a worried look. "D-Don't tell me she's having a stroke or something?"
Gritting her teeth, she could only turn back to look at the girl in the face, only to realize she was staring in a particular direction with a dreamy, vacant look.
And looking in the direction the girl was staring at, the female teacher immediately realized why. Who else could make Penny lose her mind like that?
Maybe no one could ignore such a 'passionate' gaze, as the girl in question turned in their direction and smiled, and Mrs. Macmillan had to admit that the girl had her charm. It was no wonder that so many people obsessed over her, though the intensity with which they showed their affection baffled her to no end.
And perhaps to demonstrate why exactly that was so, Emilia headed straight to her, even though she had been going towards the school gate from her club building, with the parking not being in the way at all.
Penny's arms had still been stuck in the wide-open pose since when she had been blocking Mrs. Macmillan, and Emilia ruffled the girl's hair affectionately before giving her a hug.
"Why are you cosplaying a scarecrow in the parking lot, Penny?"
The ponytailed girl unfroze the moment Emilia touched her, and immediately buried her face in the girl's chest while whining. "Princess! AH! I was recruiting Mrs. Macmillan, but she's being super stubborn!"
Penny knew that Dixie was right behind Emilia, so she didn't dare to do anything too audacious. This particular personal slave was really fierce and overprotective, and although that was normally a good thing, too much of anything could be bad.
'Just like an overly active immune system, which would even start attacking our own body's cells, Dixie fails to recognize who does and doesn't deserve to moles— I-I mean, be affectionate with the princess. She just prevents all contact indiscriminately, hmph.'
Needless to say, Penny had gone up another level when it came to justifying her own hypocrisy.
Oblivious to the seemingly adorable girl's strange thoughts, Emilia giggled as she patted her head. "Is that so? Well, with Penny's negotiation skills, I'm sure you'll convert her soon enough."
Cynthia scoffed in her mind. "Isn't this that anarchist teacher? There's no way she's joining your cult. Their whole concept is rejecting all kinds of authority, isn't it?"
Emilia thought that her partner's words made some sense, but it didn't matter either way. 'She's just a teacher, as long as she doesn't try to get in my way, it's all good. I'm just cheering Penny up.'
Mrs. Macmillan's eyes had been observing Penny quite closely, and whether or not the girl had set the whole situation up intentionally, the scarecrow thing had definitely been done to pull Emilia over!
Most importantly, the moment the girl was baited over, this little brat immediately took full advantage of the situation!
Gritting her teeth as she thought about she had wasted her thoughts worrying about this deceptively perverted brat, Mrs. Macmillan stomped over to her scooter and turned the key.
Emilia grinned as she waved. "Please don't mind Penny, Mrs. Macmillan. She can be a bit strange at times, but she's definitely a good girl at heart!"
"You—!" Mrs. Macmillan suddenly felt a chill run up her spine as she felt what seemed to be dozens of burning glares being aimed her way. "O-Of course, Emilia dear, w-whatever you say. I-I'm in a bit of a hurry now, y-you study well, alright?"
"Okay, take care, teacher!"
Mrs. Macmillan only dared to breathe a sigh of relief once she safely exited the school's gates. "F-Fuck… I almost forgot that Penny is probably one of the more reasonable ones in her fan club, and she's already delirious… But I can't believe even Crystal glared at me like that!"
Thinking of the previously stoic, reasonable model student from class A, the middle-aged woman couldn't help but shudder, increasing the speed of her scooter further to get further away from the school.
If she hadn't been a science teacher, she would definitely have started to doubt that Emilia was a witch.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thank you for all your support! :>