“Hm.”
Eugene crossed his arms and sank into thought.
‘No matter how I look at it, this just seems like a test meant to torment us.’
Even if they were a well-matched pair, how were they supposed to arrange a hundred numbers identically without any communication?
It was absurd.
‘It’s not as if there’s no method at all…….’
For example, they could write the numbers in reverse order, from 100 to 1.
The test rules Zeta had handed over did not say they could not write the numbers in reverse order either.
The problem was whether Bella, who would be in some other room somewhere, could write them in line with Eugene’s thoughts.
‘Impossible.’
Eugene shook his head. It was not because Bella was an idiot incapable of thinking of such a thing.
Bella was too sincere.
Even if someone openly told her that writing the numbers in reverse order was the best way to pass the test easily,
she was the kind of woman who would say that such an act went against the intent of the test and write the numbers however she pleased.
If there was anything he could pin his hopes on…… it was that the experimental data Algina and Zeta had presented was not false.
That if they were Twinstella, they truly did possess the ability to write the same numbers identically.
That Eugene and Bella were Twinstella was an unvarnished fact.
Others might be able to deny it.
What makes you Twinstella? From head to toe, including your personalities, isn’t there not a single thing about you that resembles each other?
But Eugene and Bella were different.
The intense memory they had felt when charging at the enemy together.
Now that they had tasted the sensation of their souls mixing together, the two of them could no longer refuse to acknowledge each other.
After thinking for a while, Eugene soon reached a conclusion.
“For now…… I have no choice but to write whatever I feel like.”
Commander Algina was not blindly trying to block Bella and Eugene’s relationship because of some personal conviction.
As the commander, she simply needed a justification to break the rules that had been upheld until now.
‘If that’s the case, I just need to create that justification.’
Neither Eugene nor Bella was some drifter who had come up to the capital from the countryside with nothing to their name. They had countless means with which to create a justification.
It was just that those means had little to do with this test.
There was nothing more he could do here.
Eugene decided that worrying over how to pass the test was now a waste of time.
“…….”
Eugene picked up the pen.
Since he had already lost much interest in the result of the test, he wrote numbers down with swift strokes without thinking much and handed the paper to Zeta.
“I’ve finished writing them.”
“Good.”
Zeta checked the paper once, filed it separately, and said,
“Then go back for today. We will tell you the results tomorrow.”
“Is there any need to wait until tomorrow? It shouldn’t take that long to check.”
“No matter what the test result is, the commander is the one who must make the decision. The commander is busy. Even now, she has gone to the Imperial Palace in her role as advisor. So wait.”
“……Understood.”
Eugene left the administrative wing of the Order.
As they had discussed before being separated, Eugene and Bella met up at a café near the Order building.
Without either of them needing to wait for the other, the two arrived at the café entrance at around the same time.
After confirming each other’s faces, the two silently sat at an outdoor table.
Eugene ordered coffee, and Bella ordered milk mixed with syrup.
“…….”
“…….”
Their drinks arrived. The two sipped from their cups while glancing sideways at each other.
Then they spoke at the same time.
“31.”
“79.”
“…….”
“We failed right from the start.”
Eugene clicked his tongue and drank his coffee.
Tak. Bella roughly set her cup down. She glared at Eugene with stern eyes.
“You. Did you perhaps use some kind of trick?”
“What trick?”
“Some useless strategy, or fraud. I am asking whether you wrote the numbers while keeping something like that in mind.”
Eugene did not answer. He simply sipped his coffee quietly.
“We are Twinstella. Then we should have simply written them down. Even without using pointless petty tricks, it was a test we could naturally pass.”
He had known she would say that. Eugene smiled faintly.
“I didn’t do anything like that. I knew you wouldn’t go along with it no matter what I tried. I just wrote the numbers normally too.”
“And yet this is wrong?”
It seemed failing the test had made her quite furious. Bella ground her teeth.
“Don’t take it too hard. The commander spoke confidently, but in the end, they’re only records from the past. There could be some error, or perhaps the records themselves were fabricated. Twinstella is the kind of subject people like attaching all sorts of claims to.”
Eugene set down his cup and soothed Bella.
“And no matter what others say, it doesn’t matter to us. Isn’t that right?”
As he said that, Eugene grinned.
Seeing that smile, Bella’s face regained its original strength.
She smiled back.
“……True. For once, you have said something proper. You are right. This is not a matter for others to comment on.”
Eugene said to Bella, who had regained her calm,
“If a problem comes up here, let’s go straight to the Archmage.”
“You mean Sir Nidbolg?”
“Yes. He is the one who regressed us, after all. He’s also the first person we should tell the information we brought from the future. Even at this point in time, he should know about the Regression Magic Circle. So we may be able to receive help easily.”
Bella seemed to understand Eugene’s thought and said,
“In other words, you mean to use our positions to put pressure on the Order.”
“Exactly.”
“Good. Then let us exert force from other directions as well. I will ask my master and the Dragon Mother for help.”
“I’ll try borrowing the power of the Magic Tower too. It’s not as if we don’t have anyone backing us, so we should be able to resolve this somehow.”
To some extent, what they needed to do from now on had been sorted out.
Having regained some composure, the two began drinking again.
Suddenly, Eugene opened his mouth.
“By the way.”
He smiled while looking at Bella, who was holding the cup with both hands and sipping milk with white foam clinging to her lips.
“So you drink things like that?”
Moon Milk. Milk boiled warmly with syrup, honey, and the like.
Normally, it was a drink parents often gave children before putting them to bed.
It was a food quite far removed from Bella, who looked like a queen from somewhere.
“Ugh……!”
Perhaps understanding what Eugene meant, Bella set the cup she had been nibbling at down on the table.
“You must like sweet things? What else do you like? Cake? Pie? Or ice cream? If it’s something like that, would asking Monica be faster?”
Watching Eugene throw questions at her with a sly smile, Bella thought,
‘What a creepy bastard.’
Now, and also last night at the Dragon Master Assembly.
At any rate, every action of this man was unbearably creepy.
But why was it that such a creepy face did not look that hateful?
“Shut up. Do not take interest in me.”
Bella coldly turned her head away.
Yet for some reason, a faint blush had risen on her cheeks.
***
It was quite late at night when Algina returned to her office.
Zeta greeted her.
“What happened with Eugene and Bella’s test results?”
“I have not checked them yet. It is something you must decide, Commander.”
“You could have done it. You are the vice commander in name and in fact.”
“Please do not pass your own work to someone else.”
Zeta spoke primly and bowed.
“Then I will be going now.”
With those words, she left the office.
Since Algina’s return had been late and she had waited a long time, it was understandable that she wanted to go back quickly.
Watching her back, Algina grumbled,
“That little brat used to be so cute back then, but these days she’s just an iron wall…….”
After taking off her coat, Algina swept up her bangs and sat down. She still had work left to do.
There were many other tasks as well, but the first thing she picked up was the Twinstella verification test papers Eugene and Bella had left behind.
Naturally, she could not help being curious about the result. If they were Twinstella Dragon Knights who had appeared for the first time in 500 years, that existence alone could bring great achievement to the Order.
But her expectations flew away the moment she looked at the first part of the test papers.
Comparing the two papers, she frowned.
“These brats…… not a single one matches, does it?”
There was no need to look further.
Algina irritably threw the test papers onto the desk.
“This is seriously exhausting.”
It would be fine if the two ended this matter because of the test results. Then it could simply be brushed off as one of the occasional happenings that occurred.
But looking at the situation, it did not seem likely to end that way.
Bella was the disciple of Tibolt, the oldest dragon and a warrior called the strongest on the continent, and on top of that, she was a young dragon favored by the Dragon Mother.
Eugene Brace was no pushover either.
The Blue Hawk of the Arcane Magic Tower. The chief disciple of Archibald, the Tower Master of the Arcane Magic Tower, and a rising star of the mage world who had made a great name for himself at the Magic Tower Grand Competition with the new magic system paper he had recently presented.
She did not know about Bella. But Eugene Brace was a man who knew how to use his head.
If the two began throwing tantrums while using their backers, things would become truly complicated.
“What should I do with this……?”
Resting her chin on her hand, Algina tapped the desk.
She recalled the sight of the two of them coming to her that morning and requesting permission for their partner contract.
She had no idea where those two had fallen for each other. She would not deny that, at a glance, they also made a pair that suited each other fairly well.
But as the commander, she could not tolerate breaking the rules upheld until now over the love games of young children.
Just as her worries deepened.
Suddenly, the two test papers she had thrown on the desk caught her eye.
It was because, at the tail end of the test papers, numbers that somehow looked familiar had entered her sight.
“…….”
Algina looked over the test papers once more.
And then she realized.
The first number Eugene had written matched the last number Bella had written.
And the first number Bella had written matched the last number Eugene had written.
“Uh……?”
Her eyes suddenly opened wide, and she swiftly checked all the remaining numbers.
Then she set the test papers down and took out the handwritten records of past Dragon Knight Commanders that she had pulled out earlier that day. And she checked once again the section she had found before.
There was something she had missed.
At the end of the explanation about the Twinstella verification test, there was a small note.
‘Depending on the disposition of the Twinstella, they may also write the same sequence of numbers in reverse order.’
After reading that sentence, Algina checked the test papers once more.
“Seriously……?”
It did not take long for an admiring sigh to flow from her mouth.