Chapter 4

In the Bernkastel Winery's private parlour (where it would usually host customers with special requests for wedding wines and such), the fifteen-year-old girl of German and Japanese descent had an apathetic air, sipping her umeboshi tea as she stared blankly at the quartet, as if she was waiting for them to speak first. Battler even half expected her to say something like 'Well, aren't you going to say something?' or something similar to that, but she never said a word. It's barely even her character to say so, he considered. One thing that totally destroyed all the seriousness was the mere sight of Lambdadelta latching onto Bernkastel's right arm, eating a cookie as she looked around the little parlour like a curious child, wearing a rather catty expression.

She served her guests with wine, tea and an assortment of cookies and confectioneries in the private parlour of the winery, but she had a bit of difficulty with Lambda clinging onto her hand every time she lifted things up. For Bernkastel, she felt like Atlas, who lifted the entire world on his shoulders. In her case, she had to bear having her hand pulled down by Lambdadelta's weight (which Bernkastel considered as the weight of the Earth itself, hyperbolically) with only one arm, which was worse. Imagine having to prepare tea with only ONE hand, with an abhorrent admirer clinging on your other one. Bernkastel knew that it would be futile to kick her away, because Lambda will latch on her again anyways, and being Bernkastel, she was a girl of few words. It was horribly annoying.

"By any chance, how much do you weigh?" she asked snidely.

"It doesn't matter, does it, Bern dear~?" Lambdadelta winked, making Bernkastel blink in surprise at her newly given nickname and Ange to nearly puke. Pouring more black tea in Beatrice's cup (with her left hand this time), the winery girl looked at her with her mysterious blue eyes, as if to make sure she's listening.

"Have some more….tea," Bernkastel didn't show it, but she was certainly struggling to pour the tea in Beatrice's teacup, which Beatrice failed to notice.

"Why thank you! Ohohoho, black tea! It's my absolute favourite," and with that, Beatrice sipped it carefully, savouring the taste. "You certainly have a talent for hospitality, Lady Bernkastel! HAAHAHAHAHA…."

Bernkastel kicked her leg with a straight expression from under the table, shutting her up.

As he stared at Bernkastel, Battler saw her as a small little doll with a fixed expression, as if it was painted that way. If one saw her sitting alone, they would mistake her for a beautifully clothed mannequin, with her unwavering eyes, long blue hair and paper white complexion. The way she handled herself was like a little young lady, which Battler took quite some time to comprehend. He would say that she was like a European doll, and if one dressed her up with the right clothes, she would catch the eye of many.

Unfortunately, she happened to catch the wrong one.

"So," Bernkastel began. "What do you wish to talk about?"

Ange cleared her throat to speak, finally relieved that she had started the topic. "It's quite a long story, but please hear us out."

"Go on."

"I LIKE COOKIES AND SOY MILK~~~~!" Lambdadelta suddenly squeaked, greatly alarming the people in the room. She was grinning uncontrollably, as if she took some sort of potent drug which made her look like she was dreadfully high. All eyes were on her, but she simply grinned more, particularly enjoying the attention.

"Alright…? Good to know…?" Ange shuddered at the sudden cheerfulness.

"Continue?" Bernkastel motioned.

"Ahem….So as I was saying, this is regarding the…."

And yet, the reporter had to interrupt.

"BERN'S GONNA BE MY WAIFU SOMEDAY~! TEE-HEE!"

"AS I WAS SAYING…." Ange was already fuming, just wishing that Lambda would shut up. "It's regarding the ho…."

"I SEE BUNNIES HOPPING AROUND IN A DESERT! DO YOU? DO YOU? DO YO…."

In a split second, Ushiromiya Ange got up, clenched her fists and marched up to Lambdadelta, who was blabbering incoherent nonsense and tried to yank her out of Bernkastel's arm. The redhead already had enough of being interrupted, especially by her of all people, and she wouldn't lose her verbal battle without a proper fight. Bernkastel nearly dropped her teacup when Ange yanked, but managed to put it back on the table and held on the nearest arm of the sofa, fighting the direction of Ange's yanks.

"A….Ange!" Battler exclaimed, trying to pull his sister away from the deranged blonde. "Stop it! You're gonna get hurt…"

"SHE HAS TO BE STOPPED!" Ange yelled, as if the apocalypse was dawning. "Come on, help me, onii-chan! At all costs, she HAS TO SHUT UP!"

"FOUR AND TWENTY ANGES, GRILLED LIKE BURGERS~!" Lambdadelta sang insanely.

"OH GOD, JUST SHUT UP!"

As Ange kept yanking, she found that there was nothing that could pull the young Greek reporter off Bernkastel at all. It was the combined strength of Battler and hers, which was practically indomitable due to their inherited physical strength from their parents, and yet the reporter simply wouldn't let go. Glaring at Beatrice (who was drinking tea like no one's business), she harshly yelled at her while pulling.

"Don't just sit there, HELP US!"

Beatrice shrugged and went up to Battler's side, put her hands around him and just pulled a little without using her effort at all.

"There. I'm tired," she crossed her arms.

"I MEAN WITH EFFORT, BEATORRICHE!" Ange exploded.

Doing it seriously this time, Beatrice pulled, Battler pulled, and Ange pulled at the body of the young reporter, greatly tasking Bernkastel as she was clinging on a bookshelf this time for dear life. She still had the same stoic expression, but she didn't want to fall down on a heap of strangers and have a blonde on her arm wherever she goes like an unwanted accessory. Albeit unexpectedly, Ange managed to pull Lambdadelta off Bernkastel, who let go for just a second and walked up to Ange approximately distancing herself by a centimetre.

Lambdadelta punched at Ange's stomach for revenge, but it didn't work. So she did it again and again and again, until she found that it was rather futile due to Ange's Kevlar vest, and resorted to Plan B.

She slapped her with a pout, and then clung at Bernkastel's right arm again.

Ange rolled up her sleeves, and tried for the second time, but failed yet again. On the third time she tried to yank Lambda off, the most embarrassing thing happened in the history of Ushiromiya Ange's almost-perfect life.

As she pulled Lambda, for some reason, the force of her pulls were bounced back to her, resulting in her doing a mid-air somersault and luckily fell on a bunch of fluffy cushions. But that wasn't the embarrassing part, and as they tried to dig her out….

They found that she landed in a rather unsettling position, and her white, cotton panties were shown right at their faces. Her dignity was thrown out of the window just like that.

Ushiromiya Ange didn't dare yank a crazed reporter again.

"I'm sorry," Bernkastel said, tying her hair up. "As I said, I will quit my deliveries to the Rokkenjima Hotel until further notice."

Battler banged his fist on the table, apparently enraged. "We just want to know the reason why! And why the hell are you saying that you won't deliver any more wine to the hotel? Is the old geezer underpaying you or something? I should've known that the old geezer was too cheap, and…."

"The reasons are strictly personal."

This time, the atmosphere was drastically different. Lambdadelta was now sitting beside Bernkastel, not clinging on her anymore as she fixed her hair, Beatrice was looking around the room, Battler was clearly complaining and Ange buried her face in the pillows. Bernkastel had only said that the reasons were personal, and Battler simply wouldn't buy that. Supposed that they went back to the hotel to tell the old geezer that the owner of the winery has personal problems in her life, the old geezer would explode and practically do some unorthodox thing, being their grandfather. Taking a 'Closed' sign, Bernkastel went up to the front door, but Battler and Lambdadelta followed her, demanding for a reason.

All at once, a silhouette opened the door forcibly, temporarily knocking Bernkastel down to the ground in shock, and scaring the hell out of the two individuals. Before them were two adults (presumably a married couple), who stared at Bernkastel with business-like smiles.

"Tochter! Pack dich, ist es Zeit nach Hause zu gehen!" the man said.

"Um…" Battler whispered to Lambdadelta. "What language is that? And what are they saying?"

Lambdadelta stared at Bernkastel and the couple, and then whispered back.

"It's German….They're saying: 'Daughter! Pack up, it's time to go home!'"

Dusting off the dirt from her jeans, she stared stoically at the couple, and then pointed at them with her thumb with a straight expression. Ange and Beatrice went out to see the commotion, and apparently, they came face to face with the sharp-faced couple, who were smiling rather thinly.

"Everyone, these are my parents, Herr Heinrich Bernkastel and Frau Franziska Bernkastel. They're taking me back to Germany."

Lambdadelta let out a rather inhuman scream.

A/N: I gave Bern parents! xDDDD More info about them will come on the next chapter!

Sorry for the late update (and I guess you don't care, but oh well!) Credits to Google Translate for translating the German stuff (and to Germans reading this fic, I'm sorry if the grammar is wrong, .!) Please review! They're very much appreciated :DDD!

Poor Bern, shipped off to Germany. But only a MIRACLE can stop this! XDDD

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