Late at night.
I stood at the entrance of Schale, waiting with Koyuki.
"I don't want to go back to Millennium! Yuuka-senpai will definitely kill me!"
Koyuki, handcuffed by me, pleaded through tears. "Please let me go, Sensei! Can you really bear to see someone as cute as me, who has already endured your scolding, still end up with such a miserable fate?"
I shook my head and gently patted her head. "I can't bear it."
A glimmer of hope appeared in Koyuki's eyes.
"So I won't come visit you for a while."
"How could you do that! Sensei, you're way too cruel!"
She still had the energy to accuse me. I really could not tell whether she was reflecting at all.
When I had lectured her earlier, she had been crying pitifully the whole time, her attitude when admitting fault extremely sincere. But judging from how she was acting now, I seriously suspected that she had already thrown all those promises straight out of her head.
I could not help but remind her again. "When you get back, remember to properly apologize to Yuuka, and to everyone else you caused trouble for, understand?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Sensei, you're so naggy."
Seeing Koyuki nod perfunctorily, my blood pressure shot up instantly.
This girl really had not reflected at all, had she?
I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down, comforting myself inwardly that Koyuki had always been this carefree. If she were not like this, Yuuka would not be having such a headache over her.
There was no helping it. To teach her properly, I would have to use both kindness and firmness, and take things step by step.
And if I really wanted Koyuki to take my words to heart, I would first have to walk into her heart myself.
In other words, in order to ease Yuuka's worries, I had no choice but to 'correct' Koyuki!
If Yuuka knew of my profound intentions, she would surely be moved to tears, right?
But with Koyuki's muddled personality… I honestly had no idea where to start. All I could do was take it one step at a time.
We waited a bit longer in the slightly chilly night breeze.
Squatting beside me, Koyuki wrapped her coat tighter and complained, "This is taking so long. Sensei, do we really have to wait outside?"
"What's the rush, eager to go back and get scolded some more?"
"…Then maybe slower is better."
As we joked back and forth, two beams of light rose at one end of the road.
A black luxury sedan with its high beams on drove over and stopped in front of the Schale building. From the driver's seat and the passenger seat stepped out a glasses-wearing girl in a maid outfit, and Yuuka.
"Ko! Yu! Ki! You really made me search for you!"
The moment she got out of the car, Yuuka strode over in a fury.
Koyuki let out a frightened squeak and hid behind me, trembling. "S-Sensei! Look at Yuuka-senpai's expression…"
Yuuka froze for a moment when she heard that, then cleared her throat and instantly put on a gentle smile. "Sensei, thank you for your hard work."
"Changing your face that fast is even scarier, okay!"
At Koyuki's cry, Yuuka's perfectly composed smile almost failed to hold.
I hurriedly spoke up to ease Yuuka's awkwardness and, incidentally, save Koyuki's life.
"It wasn't any trouble. Koyuki ran straight into me herself. At most, I was just waiting by the tree for the rabbit."
Koyuki let out an unwilling wail. "Ugh… I didn't think Sensei would sell me out… I was careless…"
…Where did she even get the confidence to think I would cover for her?
Yuuka ignored Koyuki. "In any case, thank you very much for your assistance this time. We'll take this one back with us."
"Alright. Here's the key to the handcuffs."
I handed Yuuka a small plastic key. Yuuka then passed it to the maid-clad girl with flaxen long hair and a gentle demeanor standing behind her, who was most likely also a member of C&C.
"Nice to meet you, Sensei of Schale. I'm Akane from C&C."
After briefly introducing herself, Akane politely "invited" Koyuki out from behind my back, then raised an eyebrow.
"Oh my, the quality of these handcuffs… It seems that with just a bit of force, they would break."
"Eh!?" Koyuki showed an expression of disbelief, but before she could try anything, Akane swapped them out for a pair of gleaming silver metal handcuffs.
"What? Did you buy a defective product, Sensei?" Yuuka said indignantly. "Do you still have the receipt? How dare they deceive Sensei. I'll go with you to demand an explanation!"
"I can also accept the commission," Akane added.
"No need to worry. It was designed to be like that."
I put away the pink plastic handcuffs.
"Designed to be like that?" Yuuka looked confused. "I can't understand this kind of useless design. Don't tell me it was made by the engineering department?"
Akane pondered for a moment and offered a guess. "Perhaps it's meant to allow the criminal to escape easily, thereby increasing the severity of their crimes."
Wrong. It was simply a magical and mysterious tool needed when discussing important work with Amau from Gehenna.
However, the other two girls clearly believed Akane's interpretation.
Koyuki shivered. "So that's how it is! Sensei, you're way too vicious!"
"It won't work on someone who never planned to escape in the first place."
"Mm…" Koyuki's eyes suddenly lit up. "Does that mean Sensei actually trusts me a lot?"
Sometimes, I genuinely marveled at the wonders of life, capable of producing such an incredible line of thought.
"Are you an idiot?" Yuuka said what I was thinking. "Stop dawdling and get in the car already. We still have accounts to settle with you once we get back to Millennium. Sensei, we'll take our leave now. When we have more free time next, we'll properly thank you."
Being escorted into the car by Akane, Koyuki wore a bitter expression, then looked back at me with teary eyes.
"Waa… Sensei, save me… I don't want to go back…"
At this point, she was still thinking of asking me for help?
Honestly, she was beyond saving.
I sighed inwardly, then called out to the blue-haired girl who had just opened the car door. "Yuuka, I already disciplined her for you. So…"
"Sen~sei~ you can't spoil Koyuki too much," Yuuka turned around. "Actually, this really isn't that big of a deal. At least compared to a few of the disturbances Koyuki caused before."
"At this level, it still doesn't count as a big deal?"
I knew very well how much harm errors in data could cause to accounting work.
Just what on earth had Koyuki done in the past…
As I was thinking this, Yuuka looked at her troublesome junior and smiled meaningfully. "Anyway, since it was Koyuki's calculations that went wrong, it's only right that she personally take responsibility for correcting all of it. Of course, under my supervision."
Hearing this, Koyuki froze for a second, then began struggling violently. "Sensei! You heard that, right? It's all Yuuka-senpai's conspiracy! She's framing me! Hurry and save me!"
Yuuka instantly snapped. "Do you even know what the word 'frame' means? If you don't understand it, don't use it randomly! Honestly. Well then, Sensei, please get some rest early."
With that, Yuuka and Akane got into the car, taking the captured Koyuki with them as they drove off into the distance.