Chapter 131: Strategic Plan
[June 1st, Night]
[When you and the group of male students returned to the campsite, it was already seven in the evening.]
[After running around busily all afternoon, aside from meeting Finn again, there was no other result.]
[As for your relationship with Tomoe Gozen, it still hasn't made any progress.]
[Perhaps what's needed now is just another opportunity…]
At night, the color of dusk in the forest outside the city was so thick it couldn't be dispersed; the mountains were dyed pitch-black, like enormous giants peacefully sleeping under the bright moonlight.
Hearing the cool singing of the night wind, like the faint and gentle sound of a stringed instrument, intertwining with the cheerful and noisy chirping of insects, it made one recall the call of the mountains and forests heard when returning home for Tet.
A group of male students carried the unconscious Roland back to the tent at the campsite.
"He seems fine now,"
Eikou said,
"Let Roland rest well tonight. Everyone, don't disturb him anymore."
"Good thing you found our clothes," Charlemagne said to him, "otherwise we'd still be stuck in the hot spring by now. That look wouldn't have been cool at all."
"Ugh, don't mention it. This turned out completely different from what we planned..."
Eikou let out a heavy sigh.
"When we climbed the mountain, our plan was to hunt strong magical beasts to prove ourselves in front of Tomoe Gozen. But in the end, we men nearly lost even our clothes—this hunt was an utter failure."
Eikou sat cross-legged in the tent, looking at the knights present, all of whom were as serious as if they were holding a military conference in a barracks.
"The time I have left isn't much… Everyone, discuss—does anyone have any ideas on how to improve my relationship with Tomoe Gozen? If so, raise your hand."
Tristan raised his hand without hesitation.
Eikou glanced at him and added, "I'm not using Disaster With Women."
The other quietly lowered his hand.
I knew it—Tristan, you just enjoy watching me use Disaster With Women to charm married women, don't you? Are you trying to push me down Lancelot's path?
"I've got it."
Gawain suddenly remembered something and quickly raised his hand.
"Gawain, go ahead."
Eikou still trusted the Sun Knight greatly, since he was someone who understood the ways of the world, a master of communication—his advice was always reliable.
"It's very simple..."
Gawain analyzed seriously,
"First, we create a cheerful and natural atmosphere, then you take advantage of that moment to act positively, letting her feel your charm."
"You mean..."
"Exactly,"
Gawain's blue eyes suddenly grew sharp; he spoke fluently like a strategist laying out a plan of war,
"We've brought along some board games, haven't we? So later, we'll just invite Tomoe Gozen to play board games with us. Even strangers who've never met before can have fun when playing board games together—it can even quickly close the distance between unfamiliar people!"
"Gradually, you'll open up that Lady's heart. Once your relationship becomes close enough, you'll be able to explain the situation to her bit by bit, letting her set aside her prejudices against you."
Oh oh, this actually sounds quite feasible?
Eikou was immediately delighted inside.
"Playing board games with Tomoe Gozen"—that indeed sounded like the most reliable and natural approach at the moment.
The time left for him wasn't much, so he had to seize this chance to raise her affection.
[Fortunately, your group of male students happened to bring along a pile of board games.]
[After a round of discussion, you began carefully considering which kind of board game would be suitable to play with her.]
[First of all, it couldn't be social games with strong competitiveness like Monopoly or Werewolf, as they could easily make both sides see each other as opponents.]
[Since Tomoe Gozen is a very traditional and conservative woman, games with a frivolous atmosphere like King Game are even more out of the question.]
[That said, at the very least, there should be a way to add drinking rules to the board game, to warm up the cheerful atmosphere at the table. With the lively noise and cheers from the group of male students, the effect should be quite good.]
[It seems you can already see the light of victory.]
"Tonight, let's give our full support to Sir Eikou,"
The male students sitting in the tent listened as Gawain spoke in a voice full of vigor,
"Everyone, remember this—later, make absolutely sure you don't steal Sir Eikou's spotlight in front of Lady Tomoe Gozen. Instead, try to create more chances for him to shine. Last time at the party, he helped us out a lot, so this time we must seriously cheer him on in return!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
The group of male students shouted in unison.
"Thank you so much, everyone!"
Eikou shouted emotionally,
"This time I definitely won't let you all down. I'll give it my all to improve my relationship with Tomoe Gozen."
"Eikou, who are you trying to improve your relationship with?"
Pfft~
Eikou suddenly felt two soft things press down on his head, followed by a pair of white, cool, and smooth hands wrapping around his neck.
The moment he heard that voice, Eikou already knew who it was.
It was the French Queen, Marie Antoinette—and judging from her mature, alluring tone, she must have, without realizing it, switched into her Third Ascension form: the charming and seductive mommy form.
"What were you boys talking about just now?"
She pressed her massive breasts down on his head while wrapping her arms around his neck like an older sister spoiling a child, speaking in a deliberately playful tone.
"N-no, nothing..." Eikou hurriedly changed his tone, "we were just discussing which board game to play."
"Hm? You boys want to play board games?"
Marie Alter narrowed her eyes and smiled sweetly:
"That's wonderful, I love salon-style entertainment like that. You must let me join you!"
Uh oh, Tomoe Gozen hasn't even arrived yet, and now another big-breasted white-haired wife has shown up?
Eikou suddenly had a very bad feeling.
This French queen was troublesome in every sense of the word—he still vividly remembered how humiliatingly Eikoucles was defeated by her last time. What kind of scheme was she planning now?
If this onee-san was here, the plan probably wouldn't proceed smoothly.
But Eikou really couldn't think of any reasonable excuse to refuse her.
The other male students couldn't refuse her either.
After all, everyone present were knights with gentlemanly manners—the thing they were worst at was rejecting a lady's request.
More importantly, refusing her abruptly in this situation would seem far too unnatural.
"F-fine..."
Eikou could only nod.
At this point, the only option was to agree to her request.
Well, whatever. The plan was to invite more people to play anyway—having one more Marie Alter was still within the acceptable range.
"Wait, let me join the battle too!"
From a puffed-up blanket in the corner of the tent, the small Melusine suddenly crawled out from under the covers,
"I heard your entire conversation just now,"
"If you're playing board games, you must let me join too, because I haven't had a chance to play with Eikou all day today!"
You lustful little dragon, how can you just pop out of the blanket like that so naturally!?
It's over, why are there more and more women showing up...
Eikou couldn't help but feel a bit dizzy.
[Before you could even invite Tomoe Gozen, other girls had already heard the news and started coming over.]
[Jeanne Alter, Jeanne White, Barghest, Artoria Caster...]
[The number of people just kept increasing...]
...