Despite the cool air, Theresa was breaking into a cold sweat under the combined gaze of Mei and Bronya. She no longer had the energy to worry if there was a man behind Bronya.
"Te-TeRiTeRi☆" She let out a meaningless sound. "I guess... you found me out☆"
She stood up and struck a classic magical girl pose.
Her pink, fluffy skirt swayed, accentuating her status as the "World's Cutest!"
"Principal..." As Theresa made her move, Mei's attention was completely captured, leaving her no room to notice Bronya's worsening state.
For a moment, Mei didn't even know where to begin her critique. She opened her mouth to speak, stopped, tried again... and finally forgot what she originally wanted to say.
"What is a 'Principal'?" Theresa tilted her head, tapping her index finger on her chin with an expression of pure innocence. "Is it something you can eat?"
She was determined to play dumb until the very end. She firmly believed that as long as she refused to admit the truth, Mei wouldn't be able to do anything to her.
Sure enough, Mei was struck by the sheer cuteness of the act. Her heart melted, and she found herself at a loss for words. She turned her gaze back toward Bronya—after all, it was Bronya who had just exposed Theresa's disguise—but when she looked over, she noticed Bronya's expression was... breaking?
"Haa... haa..."
Bronya was breathing heavily. Noticing Mei looking back at her, she desperately forced her unfocused eyes to sharpen again.
"Principal, you're already ___ years old! Stop... stop messing around!" Since she had already launched an attack on Theresa, she wasn't going to stop, even going as far as to attack her age.
"Wah! You're so mean!" But Theresa, fully committed to her "TeRiRi" persona, stood her ground. "TeRiRi... TeRiRi is only ten years old!"
She said it with such earnestness that someone who didn't know her might actually believe her nonsense.
"Ten years old..." Watching Theresa's flawless, aggrieved expression, Mei mused, "Could there have been a problem when the Principal entered this world? Did she... lose her memory? I suppose we'll only know the truth if we go find Mr. Luo Hong."
"Mmph." Bronya let out a muffled groan, quickly covering it with her voice. "We... we have no choice then."
At this moment, she wished for nothing more than for Mei to take Theresa and leave for Luo Hong's manor, so she could finally be free.
"But Mr. Luo Hong is researching life-related subjects with Miss Cangxuan and Miss Danzhu today," Mei said, her expression turning into that of a gentle older sister as she reached out to Theresa. "TeRiRi is only ten; Bronya was just being unfair to you. Come, sit back down and finish your meal."
Since she couldn't go to Luo Hong, she would have to handle it herself.
"Okay..." With a slight hesitation, Theresa sat back down. Her greatest wish right now was to leave this weird cafeteria. If she could just get outside, she'd be gone in a flash, and the next time she saw Mei, she'd just keep playing dumb. But hearing that the mysterious Lord was "busy," she knew she was stuck here playing the role of TeRiRi.
"Good girl." Seeing Theresa sit next to her, Mei began piling food onto her plate, treating her like a literal child.
"Bronya, I've always thought the Principal was cute," Mei added. "Having an experience like this isn't so bad."
This was half-true. The truth was that she did find it cute; the lie was that she was saying it to provoke Theresa into slipping up.
"So delicious!" Theresa said, shamelessly enjoying the food. "Thank you, big sister!" She was playing the part perfectly.
"Y-Yes... indeed cute," Bronya managed to reply, praying for time to move faster.
"Thirty seconds left~" Luo Hong whispered the countdown into Bronya's ear as she teetered on the edge of another collapse.
"B-Bronya... has wanted to do this for a long time too..." She bit her lip and gave Luo Hong a command. "Project Bunny... go feed the Principal."
"As you wish~" Luo Hong chirped. He picked up a piece of bitter melon with chopsticks and brought it to Theresa's mouth.
"Th-Thank you..." Though confused as to why Bronya was using voice commands for Project Bunny to feed her, Theresa was too busy trying to survive her own situation to overthink it. She gave a sweet "thank you."
"Twenty seconds left~" Luo Hong whispered after feeding Theresa.
"S-Sister Mei..." Knowing she had reached a life-or-death moment, Bronya suppressed her tone. "Based on the time... that guy... should be finished over there. We... we can try to contact him..."
"That makes sense." Mei was intrigued. She didn't want to disturb him, but that didn't mean she didn't want to see him. "But how do we contact Mr. Luo Hong?"
"Ten seconds~" Luo Hong nibbled on Bronya's ear. "Hold on just a little longer, little kitten."
"Ngh..." Her once stubborn gaze was now hazy. She answered through sheer instinct. "Either... either go to the Lord's Castle to find him... or... or do something in the territory... to catch his eye."
In a sudden burst of clarity, her gray eyes drifted upward, but her voice stabilized, losing the tremor. It was her final stand.
"Catch his eye?" Mei naturally dismissed the first option and looked at Bronya. "What should we do?"
This time, she got no answer from Bronya.
"5 seconds~" Luo Hong continued the countdown, trying to squeeze one last reaction out of her. But Bronya was now using 100% of her strength just to survive the impact.
"Bronya?" Seeing no response, Mei asked again. Gradually, it felt as though she could truly see a man standing behind Bronya.