130~ Not a peep dared
“So, the problem is that you’re stumped on deciding the team’s name and motto, hence why you’re seeking our collective wisdom?” The silver-haired elf girl lounged on a long silk sofa, holding her steaming tea with a thoughtful look on her face.
Apparently, since school hadn’t started yet, today Aistride wasn’t wearing her school uniform. Instead, she donned a soft purple dress with simple yet stylish patterns, the hem decorated with two floating ribbons. Her perfectly proportioned long legs were encased in black lace over-the-knee socks that subtly showed her skin tone beneath, and with her white ribbon high heels kicked off, she was wearing a pair of slippers, revealing her ink-jade-like insteps.
“So, does this mean our application to join the team has been approved, since you’ve invited us to deliberate on the team name?” Princess Filisia, decked out in her formal school uniform, had her legs crossed and her chin resting on one hand, teasingly inquired.
“Yes, if I were to reject both of your applications, it’d feel disrespectful, and I can’t see the necessity in recruiting new members either. Let’s stick with the four of us,” Dillin explained.
The relationship between him and Aistride was still somewhat delicate. By unspoken agreement, they had each seated themselves as far from each other as possible, so Filisia ended up between them.
“Ah, so we’re now official members then?” Filisia grinned upon hearing this, straightened her posture, stood up, flicked her twin tails aside, and generously extended her hand to Dillin. “Then, looking forward to working together, Captain.”
“Hmm, ditto from me.” Dillin shook Filisia’s hand, inadvertently glancing at Aistride across the room, who quickly averted her gaze.
Dillin understood what she was thinking. Seeing the others shake his hand, she instinctively reached out but, constrained by propriety, awkwardly pulled her hand back midway.
“By the way, where’s Miss Tillysha?” Filisia looked around for Tillysha.
“Ah, she said she’s new here and hasn’t finished exploring the campus yet. Lately, she’s spent most of her time wandering around sightseeing,” Dillin explained.
“Didn’t expect Tillysha to have such refined tastes, huh?”
“Yup, she’s not very interested in naming the team, so she left it to us three. Any ideas on what would be suitable for our team?”
“Naming a team? That’s easy.” Filisia sipped her tea lightly. “How about ‘Crown of the King’?”
“……….” Dillin’s face twisted in a peculiar expression.
Isn’t that just ‘King of the Crown’ spelled backward?
“Miss Aistride, what’s your take on it?”
“……… Hmm?” Realizing she was being asked for her opinion, Aistride seemed to awaken from a daydream. She had seemed preoccupied from the start and hadn’t been listening carefully.
“Since we’re a team of four, how about we take a character from each of our names?” Being bad at naming things, Aistride suggested this.
“One character from each of our names? …. That’d be, ‘Fissydi’? Or ‘Dittyphe’?” Filisia’s face fell immediately upon articulating the name. “Completely off-the-cuff in every sense. Forget it, ‘Crown of the King’ is better.”
“How about ‘Brilliant Sun and Moon’?” lost in thought, Dillin looked at Aistride’s silver-moon-like hair and suddenly remembered Tillysha’s golden-sun-like tresses, blurting out the name.
“Brilliant Sun and Moon? Sounds nice. No complaints. Mr. Dillin, you’re the captain. Whatever you decide, if no one else has any better ideas, let’s do this,” Filisia showed lack of concern. To her, a name was just a label.
“Sun and Moon…” Aistride softly murmured the two characters, nodding briefly afterward. “Alright.”
“Then, since no one opposes, our team will be called ‘Brilliant Sun and Moon.'” Saying this, Dillin wrote the name ‘Brilliant Sun and Moon’ in the team name column with a pen dipped in ink.”
“What about the team motto?”
“Um, how about ‘The Sun and the Moon, Conquering All’?” Dillin thought carefully.
“………..” x2
Hearing this, both Filisia and Aistride were simultaneously silenced, staring blankly without saying a word.
“……That is rather outdated,” Dillin awkwardly acknowledged since neither was replying.
“Can I suggest a motto?” After a moment of silence, Aistride unexpectedly offered.
“Hmm? Sure.” Dillin pushed the pen and the form toward Aistride.
With her delicate hands, Aistride took the pen and gently wrote a row of elegant common language characters in the slogan slot.
Dillin and Filisia glanced over it.
“Clarity of Intent and Purity of Heart”
The grammar and expression carried a hint of Elvish, so reading it in the human manner made the phrase feel less like a slogan.
Seeing Aistride carefully returning the form, Dillin contemplated it, glancing at Filisia by his side.
“Mr. Dillin, I don’t mind. You’re the captain.” Filisia maintained her indifference.
Dillin thought for a while but could come up with nothing better. Although the phrase’s meaning was a bit cryptic, he decided that being a riddle-lover wasn’t too bad.
As for the team principles, these were easy enough to write down.
Dillin boldly scribbled ‘Friendship First, Competition Second’ and ‘Unity in Purpose, Solidarity in Action’ in the section.
OK, done. Next was the team’s overview and objectives, which required a 500-word essay, no small task for the eloquent liar Dillin. He could wax lyrically at length yet somehow leave the reader unsure if anything substantial had been said.
In short, Dillin excelled at such polished platitudes.
“Finished.” Holding up the completed form, Dillin stood up.
“Oh? That fast?” Filisia, estimating they had several hours left, was surprised to find Dillin already done in just ten minutes.
Seeing the densely packed text at the bottom of the form, Filisia couldn’t help but marvel.
“Shall we head to the archives room together and upload our team’s information?”
Hearing this, Filisia and Aistride both agreed, and the three exited the Crown Manor, heading towards the archives room.
Coleman Academy was quite sizable, occupying nearly a third of Coleman City and located at its center.
On the way, Dillin walked in front, Aistride and Filisia behind, chatting about something.
Dillin wasn’t paying much attention; girls’ conversations weren’t really his domain.
Even though this was so, with the two leading campus beauties walking and chatting together, their heads-turning rate was undoubtedly a 100%.
At this moment, Dillin couldn’t help but muse, had Filisia just abandoned her throng of male and female admirers?
He knew that Filisia wasn’t exactly as rumored, a flirtatious girl, but she had, even unintentionally, stolen the hearts of numerous youths.
Looking at the murmuring students around, Dillin sighed.
They probably didn’t yet realize that instead of competing against each other and forming separate teams, this year’s top three students had formed a single team.
“Team name: Brilliant Sun and Moon. Members are Dillin, Tillysha, Aistride, and Filisia, correct?” The counter personnel handling the team registration pinched her nose cold sweat when she saw this team configuration.
The top three Crown Cup contenders all in one team? Can other teams even compete against such a powerhouse?!
“Alright, please provide each member’s ID cards and sign your names on this registration form,” the counter personnel continued with the registration process.
With the school session approaching, there were quite a number of new students registering their teams during lunchtime that day. Seeing such a powerful lineup, the surrounding students mostly stared agog, their faces showing awe as they gazed at the trio in front of the counter.
Aistride and Filisia both signed their names on the registration form and presented their ID cards, while Dillin took out two ID cards.
“Excuse me, Ms., one of our members is away, unable to personally sign her name, so I’ve been asked to bring her ID card and sign for her. Would that be acceptable?” Dillin pulled out Tillysha’s ID card and said to the counter personnel responsible for the archive updates.
“Sorry, Dillin, school regulations state that each member must personally bring their ID card to be approved for entry to the team. No proxy signing is allowed.”
“Ah, I see…” Dillin scratched his head and glanced at Filisia and Aistride. “Maybe you two should head back. I’ll find Tillysha.”
“Mr. Dillin, do you know where Tillysha is?”
“I don’t know either… Perhaps, could you both help me look?”
“Sure thing.”
“Alright.”
With the acknowledgment, Filisia and Aistride went along, stepping out of the archive hall.
Splitting up, after making a show of searching, Dillin chose a quiet corner, adorned his hair with an ornament.
A graceful golden-haired girl stepped out, strutting with a sprightly gait, drawing eyes as she entered the archive hall under public gaze.
“Apologies, but my Prince informed me just now, so I’m sure it’s not too late to sign?” Tilisha’s hand rested on her chest lightly with a slight bow. “Sorry for keeping you waiting.”
“Not at all, Miss Champion, please proceed.” The counter lady handed her the previously held form.
Tilisha elbowed on the counter, leaned forward, lowered her gaze, and casually flicked her hair behind her ears, gently holding her cheek with a hand as she elegantly signed her name at the end of the member list.
The counter lady took the form, etched it into the archives with a crystal, officially announcing the formation of the new team Brilliant Sun and Moon.
Under the public gaze, Tilisha gracefully turned to exit, briefly catching sight of a familiar figure.
At one of the distant counters, a cat-eared girl stared downward silently as a white-complexioned youth stood in front of her.
“Dear Wenfu, you should know the registration deadline is approaching. If you don’t decide soon, you’ll really have no choice but to form a team solo.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Lehman, I don’t think our relationship is intimate enough for you to use ‘dear’ to address me.”
“So, what’s wrong with you?” The young man put on a troubled face. “Aren’t we teammates?”
“Mr. Lehman, does your teammate merely serve as a stepping stone when convenient and as a sacrificial lamb when inconvenient?”
“Wenfu, I’ve already explained, that was a misunderstanding. Everything I’ve done was aimed at getting our team a higher ranking, haven’t you considered that our fortunes are intertwined? Isn’t your survival directly linked to mine?”
“Even though our trial failed this time, that was just an exercise, not a real battlefield. If it were, I would have risked my life to protect you,” Lehman vowed earnestly.
“Mr. Lehman, you should take these words to your official teammate, not me,” Wenfu showed no reaction to Lehman’s words.
“Wenfu, stop throwing tantrums. Who else but me can you join? Now nearly all newcomers have found their teams. As for the champion’s team, it’s already full, not accepting any new members. Other teams aren’t good enough. Think about it, are you really better off choosing a team filled with random strangers? It’s far better to continue cooperating with me.” Lehman looked confidently at Wenfu.
He was certain that Wenfu would not refuse this offer in the end.
Joking, where could Wenfu go without him? Didn’t she see that most of the teams this session were already set? High level teams wouldn’t accept her, and the lower level ones were beneath her interest, he was her only choice.
Wenfu bit her lips lightly. Yesterday, she had intended to join Dillin’s team only to be turned away. She also knew that her chances with Tilisha were likely slim.
Waiting for Tilisha had made her miss the ideal team formation time. Now, she really was out of options, as Lehman had implied.
But……
Could she possibly team up with someone like this?
Recalling the previous Crown Cup competition and uncovering his true, unhinged nature underneath the clean-cut exterior, Wenfu clenched her lips again.
“Not necessarily…” Just then, a soft and pleasant voice sounded.
This familiar voice made Wenfu pause momentarily.
Could this be?……….
“Wenfu, do you recall what you promised me last night?”
“Uh, ehh?” Wenfu turned her head and saw a tall blonde girl looking down kindly at her.
“Last night, you promised you would join the team I was forming, didn’t you? You wouldn’t forget that, would you?”
“I………. Yes, yes.” With her CPU over capacity and her reasoning barely intact, Wenfu nodded quickly, her eyes avoiding the strands of golden hair about to fall onto her forehead.
“Great, good to hear it. Let’s go, I just found you; let’s finish signing the paperwork.”
“Ms. Tilisha, I believe this is a matter between me and Wenfu…” Seeing it was Tilisha speaking to Wenfu, the young man’s complexion changed.
He wasn’t dumb. He could tell that Tilisha had come up with this idea on the spot. Even though he, Lehman, was one of the prominent talents among the first-year students, if this person decided to compete with him for a member, well, there wasn’t a peep he dared to utter.
