Why Did You Summon Me?

Although Baiyi was doling out savage comebacks at Santa’s comment in his mind, on the outside, he replied in jest, “Well, it’s because she’s not cuter than any of you.”

“Wha?!” Shocked, Santa blushed a little before steeling herself and cried, “No, Big Meanie, don’t you think you can fool us around with some sweet talk!”

She shot the weak-willed Anna a death glare, forcing the latter to nod quickly in support.

Honestly, Anna did not share any of Santa’s bluster. This girl’s best friend and big sister figure, Nota, was one of the Baiyi’s very first rabid fangirls after all. Nota was so enamored with Baiyi’s feats that she loved inserting commentaries about how powerful and perfect Baiyi whenever the chance presented itself. Hence, after a while of such exposure, even Anna was steadily persuaded.

Santa was spared from the conversion, however. The main reason was that Laeticia herself had been acting quite strange lately as if a dark cloud was hanging above her head and refusing to go away. She was always so occupied by whatever thoughts in her head that she hardly talked to Santa that much, let alone sang praises of Baiyi’s achievements to her new baby sister. Generally, Laeticia was still treating Anna as gently and warmly as a real big sister would, which was especially helpful in easing Santa’s hidden insecurity. Lately, however, it was Santa that was always worried about her big sister.

She had tried every ‘how to be cute’ trick in the book to lift Laeticia’s mood, and at one point she even considered gifting Laeticia her most precious jingle bell earrings. Nothing worked, though.

At her wits’ end, Santa decided to discuss her quandary with the next person she trusted the most, Anna. Her best friend raked her brain hard for any sort of solution, and yet the only thing she could think of was the grand words Nota had said to her that one time.

“My Mentor is omniscient and omnipotent. I will be working my hardest throughout my life, but all I can ever manage is watching his back as I struggle to keep up. How can I ever be as good as my Mentor?”

It was Nota’s answer to Anna when the girl had asked her who was stronger between the two of them. It was a ridiculously innocent question borne out of Anna’s confusion—she understood that Big Sister Nota was mighty powerful, but she had a hard time gauging Big Meanie’s strength.

One could hardly blame Anna for being confused. When the disparity of strength between one person and another was too large, it would always be harder for the inferior one to estimate how wide that gap may be.

Nonetheless, Anna did remember Nota’s glowing remark about Baiyi’s “omniscience and omnipotence”, so naturally, she suggested Santa look for Baiyi. instead.

They had gathered before Baiyi’s chalet since the early morning and after some encouragement from Anna, Santa gathered enough nerves to ball her hands into tiny fists before knocking on his door.

The knocks echoed hollowly. The two little girls stood outside of his house, worried and jumpy about the prospect of that Big Meanie suddenly charging out of his house with an invisible lasso to rope them and swing them around again. Still, they kept their feet to the ground and tried to talk to each other out of fear while waiting, until it became clear that no one was going to come out of the chalet after all.

That was when Mordred, in her teenager appearance, passed them by. After pinching their cheeks and messing around the kids, she told them that her Papa was likely in the office today.

That was where the strangers and students were — a total nightmare to two timid little girls. They had always tried to avoid going there, but this time, it seemed that there was no other choice.

The two mustered even more courage made their way to the teaching block, taking cover under the lush greenery embellishing the academy ground and finally snuck towards Baiyi’s office. Fortunately, this particular morning was a busy one to most of the residents in Da Xue, and so many students had missed the sight of two tiny silhouettes darting in and out of the shadows.

That was when the two saw Baiyi talking to Elise in his office, just offering the girl a tour around the campus at that moment. Once he exited from his office, he caught sight of the two girls immediately, but since his hands were a bit tied with Elise at that moment, Baiyi had opted to ignore Santa and Anna altogether.

Left with no choice, Santa and Anna tailed Baiyi and hid behind trees to watch their interactions. When they saw Baiyi handing a piece of cake to the new girl, Santa immediately puffed her cheeks sourly and grumbled, “Hmph! Big Meanie stinks! How come he never treated us like this before, huh?”

“Um, didn’t he? I mean... before we came here?” Anna had whispered quietly by her side, but it seemed that Santa did not hear her...

After sending the little loli home, Baiyi finally turned his attention to the two, and that was how it came to now.

“So, you were looking for me because you’re worried about Laeticia, huh?” Taking the girls in his arms, Baiyi found a quiet spot in the park and sat on a bench before setting the girls down on his lap. Then, as if pulled from thin air, Baiyi produced two pieces of cakes for each of them.

“So — munch — you’ve got any idea to — chomp — help Big Sister Cia? Slurp ,” Santa asked between munching and licking the butter off the cake.

“It warms my heart that the two of you care so much about her. Allow me to thank you,” Baiyi said, wiping the butter off from Santa’s cheek. “I’m well aware of her matter, actually. The problem is that I don’t know how to solve it...at least, not yet. In fact, I did not even expect her to catch wind of our recent complication so soon.”

Laeticia was expected to remain clueless about the upcoming war until someone broke the news to her, but who would have expected a Saintess to remain in the dark about the happenings in the Church, especially when normal nobles themselves had heard the rumors?

Thus, when she realized that a bitter war was inevitable between her most respected Mr. Hope’s Da Xue — an institution that she had worked hard for — and the place where she grew up in, belonged to, and literally the sanctuary of her faith, it was no wonder that she sank into abject melancholy.

The first thought that had come to her was to seek advice from her similarly torn-between-sides mentor, Saint Joel. Unfortunately, due to the Cleric’s last antic, Baiyi had booted him out of reality and back to the Void for some penance, effectively leaving everything in the Faculty of Theology to Laeticia alone, again.

She was reluctant to open up about her pains to her sisters and even her new baby sister, too, simply because she could not bring herself to burden everyone else with her problem. Denied any sort of outlet or closure, poor Laeticia could only keep her anguish to herself...

As Baiyi was nearing the end of his explanation, the two lolis finally finished their cakes as Baiyi concluded, “This whole thing is quite a drag, don’t you think?”

“Y-yes, very... Very cumbersome,” Anna replied softly. She turned to her friend and saw that Santa was also shaking her head helplessly.

“You’re telling me that not even you could solve this, Big Meanie?” Santa remarked unhappily. “But you’re already the most powerful person I’ve ever known!”

Baiyi patted her head and flashed her a powerless smile. “Believe it or not, I’m not omnipotent at all. In fact, no one is... A Santa Claus such as yourself should know that, don’t you?”

“D-do we really have to, um, fight them?” Anna asked quietly.

Baiyi nodded and ruffled her hair before beckoning to the surrounding of the academy. “You can’t turn away from a fight for survival, Anna. The enemy wants me destroyed. They want Laeticia gone. They want Nota out. They want everything that we love and care about to perish... We cannot let them prevail.”

“So, someone manages to outmatch you in being a meanie, huh?” Santa grumbled, pursing her lips. “Whatever. I’m not letting them hurt my Big Sister Cia, so for that reason, I will work with you this time!”

“M-me too!” Anna chimed in hurriedly. “I’ll help too!”

“Ha. Not bad... I like that determination,” Baiyi sighed before suddenly adding, “Well, if you really want to help, how about... Showing me your cutest behavior right now, huh?”

“Excuse me? What does that have to do with anything?!” Santa cried out in shock.

However, Anna was already on the move, because she had heard a thing or two about Baiyi’s quirks from Nota and knew exactly what he meant. She leaned closer to Baiyi and rubbed herself on him like a cat.

Then, she spread her arms wide and put on a soft, baby animal-like sympathetic expression before purring, “C-cuddle. I... I want a cuddle~~ ...Um, is this right?”

Baiyi was instantly grinning from ear to ear, his eyes squinting in glee as he gave the little girl a bear hug. “Oh, I always knew that Anna is the cuter one!”

That remark did not please Santa too much, and so she instantly leaned forward and rubbed in, spreading her arms at him and muttered quite hesitantly, “I... I think I want a cheek rub?”

Baiyi lowered his mask towards her. Santa, mimicking what she saw from other girls in Baiyi’s Angels, pushed her soft, puffy cheeks on his mask and nudged a little. Blushing, she said under her breath, “Uh... It’s so cold...”

“Did these, um, help?” After rubbing her cheeks on Baiyi’s mask, Anna asked eagerly.

“Oh, you bet it helped. It helped a lot! ” Baiyi announced, throwing his arms into the air for a satisfying stretch before producing a few candies from his inner pocket. He stuffed them into the girls’ hands and cried out loudly, ” Now I’m motivated! Laeticia? You and I are gonna have a chat!”

Seeing little lolis being cute may not do anything to the actual problem, but it did lift Baiyi’s spirit by tenfold. Now that his motivation had maxed out, he finally had the mettle to solve the problem he had shamelessly delegated to Tisdale once and for all!

A few moments later, he reached the Faculty of Theology and stepped into the teacher’s office. Standing outside of the door, he knocked.

Laeticia stumbled inside her office like a ghost and called out in a tired voice, “Ah, Mr. Hope? Welcome.”

Baiyi pushed the door open and stood still, startled. The village girl who had always looked so healthy, happy, and blissfully optimistic was now overcome by painstaking, brazen lethargy. Even though she was still donning her Saintess armor — the same one that had always looked more like a kinky uniform than an actual armor — she managed to lose her old impression as a beautiful warrior princess who dauntlessly defended the goodness of the world. Worst of all, her lips were as white as paper while her eyes were red with mild bloodshot.

One look was enough to know that she had not been having any good sleep. Besides, judging from her depressive state, it seemed that Laeticia had known about the news way sooner than Baiyi had expected.

The girl forced a weak smile on her fatigued face as if she was trying to assuage Baiyi’s concern.

“Mr. Hope, is Mentor Joel still stuck in there? There’s quite a handful of business in the faculty lately and it’s quite overwhelming for me to tackle them alone,” She began. “Can you kindly release him? I promise that he never means what he says, no matter how obscene it sounds and how serious he pretends to be. It’s all just words, Mr. Hope. I know he wouldn’t really stoop that low.”

Despite being a tired wreck, this kind-hearted village girl is still trying to help the Cleric out! Baiyi stared at her morosely, his heart sinking. Sympathetically, he walked closer to her and patted her head.

“No, this time, it’s not really because of his perverted habit. I just couldn’t trust him to help you in any way... especially on this recent matter,” he said softly.

“I’m fine, really. You don’t have to worry about me,” Laeticia retained her forceful smile as she muttered under her breath.