Chapter 262 - Can We Follow You?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 

Now that she was in a good mood, the redhead didn't struggle much in coming up with ideas. Just as she was about to call Dixie and Crystal over to discuss it, though, there was a knock on the door.

Emilia patted Koko's head with a smile. "Must be Penny. Go open it for me?"

The freckled girl immediately dashed off and flung the door open before dashing back to her spot in record time.

Penny was only momentarily confused as she stepped in, before her eyes brightened upon spotting that Dixie was busy and had her back turned to Emilia.

The princess was unsupervised!

It was unfortunate that another knight had gotten to the place before her and already staked her claim on Emilia's lap, but Penny wasn't one to give up without a fight. 'Anyway, I'm the senior here, so I should obviously get priority princess molestation rights!'

Emilia smiled as she ruffled Koko's hair while waving Penny over. "How have you been?"

Penny immediately puffed out her chest. "I couldn't be better, princess! Now that my eyes have been blessed by your presence today, I only wish to hold you in my arms and depart to heaven! Ah, no, I wish to do it tomorrow too!"

With every word of her overly impassioned speech, the ponytailed girl moved closer to Emilia, and seeing how her princess didn't seem to reject her approach… immediately dived into her lap.

Obviously, with another occupant already there, things didn't go as smoothly after that.

Emilia was a little amused when Koko started growling and Penny hissed. 'It's like a puppy and a kitten fighting for affection… how adorable!'

But seeing them really try to push each other away, she quickly put an end to the fight by pulling Koko up by the collar. "Don't fight."

Penny was delighted at her 'victory' as she snuggled into Emilia's lap, 'accidentally' lifting up her skirt and rubbing her face against the bare, smooth thighs of her princess. 'Mom, this knight has ascended!'

Meanwhile, Emilia sighed as she took off Koko's now crooked glasses and ran a hand through her medium-length hair. "You almost broke your glasses, see? It's okay to mess around, but you have to make sure not to hurt yourself or your friends."

Koko nodded quickly, like a little chicken. "Mhm, I understand!"

Emilia motioned the freckled girl to lie down beside her as she started running her fingers through her hair, and she couldn't help but smile at the girl's peaceful expression. "Cute. Koko has become more docile recently, huh."

It was a pity that Penny's hair was so tightly bound, and with how long and meticulously prepared her ponytail looked, messing around just didn't seem like a good idea.

Koko hummed happily against her hand. "Koko is a docile baby. Pet me more."

Dixie snorted. "Heh, I've never seen such a big, perverted baby."

Both Koko and Penny immediately stiffened. With the big baddie looking down at them, their bright futures immediately seemed to turn bleak. 

Penny tried to be as stealthy as possible as she rearranged Emilia's skirt, doing her best to cover up her actions with her big head.

Emilia chuckled. "By the way, Penny, when are you free?"

The ponytailed girl blinked as she lifted her face up from Emilia's lap, reluctant as she was to part from the valley of heaven for even a moment, the word of her princess came first. "I'm always free!"

Emilia giggled. "No, I mean, your whole club. I was thinking of checking it out for myself."

Penny gasped. Did her princess finally change her mind? "Y-You want to join?!"

The redhead shook her head with a smile. "No, I just want to come see. Can't I?"

Although it wasn't quite what she expected, Penny still nodded happily. "Of course you can, princess! After all— No, just come anytime, we're always ready to serve! We can go right now!"

Emilia flicked the ponytailed girl's forehead with a smile. "Alright, but it'll probably have to be some other day, since I have to go to the hospital soon."

"Eh? Hospital?!"

"Is everything okay?!"

Of course, Dixie and Crystal already knew about the matter, but they hadn't told anyone else precisely for this reason. After all, wouldn't it trouble Emilia if too many people followed her into the hospital?

The redhead clearly didn't have any such concerns, however, as she squeezed Penny and Koko's cheeks with one hand each as she grinned. "Didn't you guys 'check' everything already? Of course I'm not going to the hospital for myself, I'm visiting a patient."

Penny blinked. "AH!"

Koko tilted her head in confusion. "I-Is it someone close to Emilia? Are you feeling okay?"

Emilia coughed. "Well, we're not really close? Just an acquaintance, and his condition isn't bad, so I'm perfectly fine… That being said, he did really help my sister out, so paying him a visit is the least I can do."

The 'he' obviously attracted the attention of both of the 'knights'. They'd already become accustomed to sidelining the opposite gender, even in their own club. "Princess will visit a boy?"

"Emilia… um, can Koko tag along?"

The redhead shrugged. Since she had already told Dixie and Crystal they could follow, there was no harm in letting Penny and Koko come along, right?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 

It was only when Emilia was leaving the school that she realized how naïve her thinking had been.

After all, with their 'Knight Commander' leading the 'charge', the other knights would naturally follow.

Thankfully, Penny was very obedient, and after just one word from her princess, immediately assured everyone that not a single knight would follow them into the hospital.

That didn't stop the hospital staff from being baffled at the hundreds of students surrounding one of their buildings, however.

Emilia could only pretend to be blind as she ignored the strange looks towards the crowd and entered the elevator, followed by her four friends.

Now that she had been blindsided once, she made sure to list off a few 'precautions' to her knights. "Remember, his bones are already broken. You can't pretend to shake hands with him and make it worse. And no veiled threats, either! I'm talking to you, Penny, you cute little munchkin!"

Penny nodded shyly. "Yes, princess!"

Emilia nodded. Even if she was naughty and often overdid things, Penny was incredibly cute. It was all fine, in the end. "He's a sis-con anyway. You don't have to be so alert."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━