The next day, after explaining the situation to Lilliana, Soren was sitting at a cafe, slowly sipping his caramel latte while lost in thought.
'That was definitely Yvette.'
The main thing taking refuge in his brain at the moment was the girl he had met last night.
The reason, however, was not simply because of her sudden appearance like a knight in shining armour, though that did add to it.
It was because she was a character Soren recognised.
In fact, it was silly to say he just recognised her; Yvette was his favourite character.
Back on earth, the username he used on the forums was 'YvetteMyBeloved.'
She was a character he loved so much that he had even commissioned custom-made merch for her.
'But something was different.'
In Soren's memories of TKS, her first introduction was always cold.
During the second semester, the player would meet her after she caused an incident in the mock duels, which led to her being suspended for a while.
Once she returned, Alex, the protagonist, went to talk to her because he felt there was something wrong and he wanted to help.
In Alex and Yvette's first meeting, she was infinitely cold, looking at Alex with pure disgust.
If you touched her, even by accident, there were only two outcomes: either she vomited and ran away, or she attacked you with a face full of disgust.
Of course, this all changes as time passes, but that wasn't important right now; the real question was why was she so nice to Soren?
Sure, if you had to compare Alex and Soren's appearance, Soren easily came out on top, but he doubted that Yvette would have such a superficial reason to act in such a way…
'Still, it was nice to meet her, though.'
He smiled as he remembered her stroking his head while trying to soothe him.
Jingle-jingle-♪
"Ah! Hello Soren, sorry I'm late, I slept in…" She said as she walked over to his table and sat down.
The reason why Soren was doing something so out of character, like sitting in a cafe, was because of another person he met last night, Olivia.
Once everything was wrapped up, he made sure to check on her, and they decided to meet up today, leading to Soren's current situation.
"It's fine, don't worry. Are you doing alright?"
"Yeah, Alex was a bit worried, so I had to spend some time telling him what happened. Oh! Alex is the boy I mentioned last time ehehe..."
'Better late than never, I guess.'
Soren's internal rating of Alex had already plummeted a couple of levels due to his missing a couple of important events.
However, he continued to support Olivia's love life as an avid fan.
"What happened after you left last night?" Soren asked.
"Well…"
Olivia explained how, after she had run away following Soren's request, she had tried running around to find a peacemaker, but unfortunately, she ended up getting lost in the maze of backstreets and alleyways.
Eventually, she did end up finding someone.
At first, Olivia was on guard against this person; however, the reason for this was that the person she found looked suspicious.
They were sitting down in an alleyway on a pitch black night, tugging at their bowstring and talking to spirits hovering nearby.
When the person noticed Olivia, though, she shot up and drew her bow, ready to take out Olivia at one wrong move.
Olivia panicked at this, as she had only been trying to find someone to help Soren, but somehow ended up running into more danger, which caused tears to suddenly start pouring from her eyes as she internally apologised to Soren for not being able to do better.
Then, for some reason, the person put their bow down and carefully made their way over to Olivia, with purposely slow steps, as if she was trying not to scare her, then when she reached her, much like she did when she met Soren, she pulled her hood down and stroked Olivia's hair whilst introducing herself.
Upon hearing her name, Olivia was in shock.
This was because Yvette was famous in Stellaris Academy, though not as much as Amelia, of course.
It was a well-known fact that Yvette was the strongest in the second year, and that hadn't changed from the moment she enrolled until now, so the moment Olivia recognised her, she grabbed Yvette's arm, causing her to flinch and then begged her to help Soren, which is what led to their meeting.
"She was so scary at first, but you know, I actually thought she seemed lonely…" Olivia said as she finished retelling the previous night's events.
Soren nodded in response.
"That's probably true. She also looked tired."
That was something that wouldn't change for a long time, either. Even when Alex met her in the second semester, she looked more exhausted than she did now.
Soren wished there was something he could do, but it was impossible.
'I shouldn't get involved. I can't solve her story.'
The reason for her awful state was her family, and Soren didn't have the power to do anything about that.
He wasn't as worried about interrupting the story when it came to Yvette, given her future, but he knew that even if he tried to do so, it would only end in failure, which was why he hadn't even thought about her until now.
"Sigh…Anyways, do you want a drink?" Soren asked, noticing his own was empty.
"Mmm, I'll have hot chocolate."
"Same as me then, alright, I'll be back in a second."
Soren stood up from the table and walked over to the counter, where a familiar face greeted him.
"Hi there, this is a surprise, isn't it?"
A woman with hair similar to Soren's was leaning against the counter.
"Hello Louise…" He responded awkwardly.
Since their last meeting, Soren hadn't met up with Louise because he still wasn't sure how he was meant to act around her.
To him, she was the one person he felt uncomfortable around in this world.
Someone who had memories of the original Soren, someone who could expose him without even meaning to do so, that was who Louise Cruentus was to him.
"I told you to call me big sis, did you already forget?"
"Oh, right, sorry."
"It's fine, what are you doing here anyway?"
"I'm here with a friend." He said, pointing to Olivia. "She wanted some advice."
"Oho, advice you say? Can I help?"
"Uh…" Soren was unsure how to respond.
He knew that Louise wouldn't do anything bad, but not only was there the fact that he felt uncomfortable around her, but he also didn't know how Olivia would feel.
'Actually, she'd probably be over the moon.'
Olivia had next to no friends thanks to her spending all of her time with Alex and her lack of status, so she had been overjoyed when Soren had listened to her love talk and became her friend.
"Just make sure to ask her, I'm going to get some drinks."
"Oh, get me a caramel latte!" She said as she trotted towards Soren's table.
As Soren got to the counter, he ordered their drinks and looked in the direction of his table.
Sitting there were Olivia and Louise, both with huge smiles on their faces.
'I knew it..'
He let out a sigh of relief at the sight of them getting along and grabbed the three drinks before walking back over.
"I'm back. Is everything okay?" He said as he sat down opposite Louise.
"Yep! Miss Louise is so kind!"
"Livia's just so adorable. Why didn't you tell me you had already made friends at the academy?"
"Well.. I've been busy." He said as he rubbed his neck awkwardly.
'I'm not exactly lying.'
Between training, tutoring sessions and hanging out with Amelia, Soren's days had been pretty full lately.
"Are there any other friends you've made here that you'd like to tell me about?"
"Well…"
He explained to Louise that not long after the semester began, he had befriended someone named Felix, whom he had initially thought was an awful person.
However, while he was indeed an unpleasant person, he had also helped Soren a lot.
Louise's reaction was sour throughout the entire explanation.
He then went on to talk about Amelia, causing Olivia to shudder in response.
When asked why by Louise, Olivia said that Amelia was scary.
Soren just smiled and explained what had happened during the midterm, how he had landed a hit on her, and she suddenly asked him to be friends and that ever since, she had been his shadow.
Louise's reaction to hearing about Amelia seemed mixed, as she probably also knew the rumours about Princess Amelia the Wild Wolf.
Then, finally, he spoke about Lily—Lilliana Roseblood—he told Louise how much Lilliana had helped him, how she had always been there for him, and he had done the same, so they naturally became friends, and how she was even giving him tutoring sessions out of classes, of course, he didn't mention her species or anything.
When he finally finished telling her about everyone he had met, Louise looked conflicted as she spoke to Soren.
"Soren… Why is it almost all women?"
"Huh?"
It wasn't Soren who responded to that question, but Olivia.
"What's wrong with Soren being friends with women, Miss Louise?"
"Well, you know… Hearing that my little brother has become a player isn't the best feeling in the world."
"Little brother?" Olivia said with an expression as if she had just heard something insane.
It was then that Soren remembered one of the main topics he had meant to discuss with Olivia today.
"Oh, sorry, Livia. I should explain, Soren isn't my real little brother, he's actually my cousin, but we've known each other for a long time, so I decided to call him my little brother, and he decided to call me…" She turned to Soren and smiled.
"...Big Sis," Soren said reluctantly. "Anyways," He redirected his attention back to Olivia. "Sorry, I meant to tell you sooner, but there weren't any good moments."
"Eh?! W-Wait? Soren isn't a girl? Then last night, when you said you liked girls… Ah!"
Olivia's eyes were spinning in confusion as she went back and forth from looking at Soren to looking back on her memories.
"Wait, so… I never had girls talk?"
That was the conclusion she had come to after hearing everything, as expected of a natural airhead.
"...Technically, you have… now." He said as he looked in Louise's direction.
"Yes, that's right, Livia, you and I are talking, aren't we?"
Upon hearing that, Olivia's expression instantly improved.
"But Little Brother, I must know, why didn't you tell her sooner?"
"W-Well, I tried, but Amelia interrupted us…" He said nervously.
"Oh!" Olivia jumped up when she heard what Soren said. "You mean that was what that was about?"
Olivia also remembered how they had been in the middle of a conversation when Amelia had interrupted them.
"Anyways, I'm sorry, Olivia."
"It's no problem! But does this mean you can't help me anymore?"
"Help you..? Oh, right, no, of course I'll keep helping. If anything, doesn't this make it better since I'm a guy like Alex is?"
Olivia's expression brightened and then fell once again.
"Uhm… W-Well, can I maybe have some help now..?"
It wasn't Soren who responded, though.
"Yes, of course you can, Livia," Louise responded with sparkling eyes.
"O-Oh, okay, well…"
Olivia went on to explain the story she had told Soren, then continued.
"Alex had always been a hero to me, so when I learned that he was planning on enrolling here I also decided to try applying to the academics major, it was then that Alex discovered his [Divinity] and when that happened it felt like something changed in me, for some reason, even though I had never prayed before, I was able to channel divine power easily." Olivia blushed as she continued. "When I told Alex about it, he was bouncing around with happiness, saying stuff like 'Now we can always be together!' with a giant grin on his face, it was so cute ehehehe…"
'Alex did that?'
Soren was taken aback by the new information he was hearing, as he had said in the past, TKS was a game that, although it had a harem, didn't have true romance, as Alex was always passive.
Back when he played the game, he had always felt that Olivia's reason for being in love was somewhat bland, as it was just the typical childhood friend trope.
Still, after hearing Olivia's story firsthand, he couldn't help but understand why she had held onto her feelings for so long, even during Alex's accidental player moments.
"So what did you want advice on, Livia?" Louise asked while looking like an excited puppy.
"R-Right! You know what happened last night, Soren? Well… when I told Alex about it this morning, he hugged me and apologised for not being there… and even promised he'd spend more time with me…"
"Oooohhh!"
Louise's exclamation was heard, but Soren ignored it, focusing on Olivia's words.
'So in other words, he missed the event and somehow still gained points? That's a protagonist for you, I guess.'
"We even made plans to meet up tomorrow outside of the academy…"
""A date."" Both Louise and Soren said in unison.
"N-No, it's not a date!"
""It's a date.""
Olivia looked down, her face bright red, and fidgeted with her hands.
"So what did you want to ask then?"
"I was wondering if I could have some help with buying clothes."
"Of course you can!" This time, Soren also had sparkling eyes.
"I'll go pay!" Louise shot up from the table and ran over to the counter.
"E-Eh?" Olivia looked at the cousins in confusion.
"Come on, Olivia, let's go shopping!"
"Wait- Soren?"
Before she could even respond, the two cousins had already dragged her out of the cafe and towards the shopping district.
————「❤︎」————