Serge Sara Rault didn't really know what to think of the Holfort exchange students when he first saw them. He was scoping out a new dungeon that was discovered recently, only to see the five young men also there for the very same reason. He had vaguely remembered his adopted father mentioning that the crown prince of Holfort and his friends were part of the exchange student thing that the Academies did, but he never thought that he would end up running into them while he was adventuring.

When they introduced themselves to each other, Prince Julius noted that Louise mentioned him during one of their talks. The name elicited complex emotions in Serge. She was his adopted sister and his first love. If only she wasn't so obsessed about her deceased younger brother, if only he hadn't been so blinded with jealousy that he alienated her by destroying the dead boy's pictures, then their relationship now might have been very different.

It didn't really matter anymore. He always said as much to himself whenever the dull ache of remembering how kind Louise was to him, before he messed everything up, resurfaced in his heart.

Serge knew that the Holfort nobles were all adventurers by tradition, but he wasn't quite prepared to witness them in action himself. He would be the first to say that he himself was quite the capable adventurer. His prowess with firearms was honed through years of training and experience. He couldn't help but feel the sting in his pride as he watched the Holfort nobles tear through the dungeon with an ease that made all his training seem worthless.

"This place is pretty neat! Having everything upside down makes things a lot more exciting!" The red one, Seberg he reminded himself, said with a grin as they climbed over what should have been the upper part of an entryway. Everything was pretty normal at the start, until they activated a mechanism that suddenly spun the room around. Now they had to traverse the ceiling of the dungeon while watching out for monsters falling from what would have been the floor.

"Just don't forget to stay in formation, Greg." The blue one, Arclight, reminded his friend. Those two together made up the vanguard of their group. They were so good at killing monsters in front of them that the rest of their party hadn't really needed to do much of anything unless it was an ambush.

"Let's not do a repeat of the snake dungeon where we had to chase you down after you got captured by the boss." The purple one, Field, made the rest of their friends laugh with that. This was something that Serge never really experienced before. He always delved into dungeons by himself as no one else seemed interested, barbaric and uncultured they called it. Field himself was a pretty damn strong mage, casted magic as fast as someone firing a gun too.

"That's not quite fair, Brad. Any one of us could have been caught in that trap." The green one, Marmoria, said with a chuckle. He was the only other one in their party that used guns, specifically a rifle and handgun. Serge was more of a shotgun guy, but he respected how well Marmoria handled both weapons depending on the situation. The guy was also pretty happy about having someone else to talk to about guns. Apparently he had an apprentice back in Holfort that he was pretty proud of, a girl of all things! Serge couldn't really imagine it himself.

"What about you, Serge? Do you have any memorable dungeon stories that you can share?" The last member of their group asked. The white one, Prince Holfort himself. For some ungodly reason, he was acting as their rear guard. He decided to humor them with a few stories of his solo expeditions on a few of Alzer's dungeons.

Serge would have expected that the prince would have been better suited in the front with Seberg and Arclight. Holfort explained that he could see the battlefield better from the rear in order to give out commands. He also said that he was the one who reacts the fastest when it comes to surprise attacks from behind. How the hell did they find that out? Did they test it themselves against a dungeon? Serge thought that it wouldn't have been surprising if that really was the case.

Marmoria, Field and himself took up the middle of the formation as the ranged fighters. The formation proved so effective that he was actually getting bored, even monsters that got past their frontline or rear guard were easy pickings for the three of them. Marmoria could pop them from afar, Field could fry them from mid-range, and Serge could blast them to pieces if they got close. He could admit that it was pretty relaxing, hanging out with other capable men and just demolishing a dungeon on their first try.

"Ugh! A chimera?" Seberg said in disgust when they got to the end of the dungeon. They all looked up and saw the fused monster on the inverted floor, prompting the complaint. It wasn't moving yet, probably waiting for them to attack it first.

That was a mistake it won't live to regret.

"I dunno man, it looks pretty damn flammable to me." He said with a grin before elbowing Field's side. "What do you think, Brad?"

The mage mirrored his grin and raised his hand towards the monster, a red sigil appearing a moment later. "I'm willing to find out."

"Split up and keep it away from Jilk, Brad, and Serge!" Holfort immediately yelled out, moving to the front to join Seberg and Arclight as the boss screamed in pain and fell down to their level. "The three of you concentrate on dealing as much damage to it as you can!"

It was pretty funny that Serge didn't even think that being ordered around by Holfort was insulting in any way. It was a good game plan and it meant that he could shoot the damned thing as much as he wanted!

The lion head of the chimera was still on fire when it got back up and reared its snake head to attack. He noticed that it was targeting Field so he shot it in the face. He and Marmoria glanced at each other as both their shots hit it at the same time, utterly mulching the snake part of the chimera altogether. They both grinned at each other before changing their target to the ram head that was coming out of its back..

The poor bastard couldn't do anything against them. While it was reeling from the loss of its tail head thing, Arclight and Seberg were already slicing at its legs and making it bleed out. Then, the crazy bastard Holfort charged in with his shield and made it topple over after shield bashing its lion head. The six of them jumped it while it was down and it was dead a couple of minutes later.

"Hell yeah!" Serge yelled out in triumph as they all exchanged high fives. This was what he was missing all this time! The thrill and excitement of overcoming a dungeon and its boss with an actual party!

"Good shooting. It's not easy to hit a target that moves around that much with a shotgun." He accepted the compliment from Miamora with a fist bump.

"You boys made it too easy. I almost feel sorry for the thing." Serge said with a laugh that the others joined in on.

"Yo Serge, this normal for Alzer dungeons?" Their attention was taken by Seberg's question. He was standing in front of the dissipating corpse of the boss.

They all looked at each other and walked up to the body and saw that the miasma that appeared when the boss died was being absorbed by something. When all of it was gone, they saw that the only thing left was a small plant that kind of glowed with the way the light hit it.

"A plant? That's it?" Arclight sounded confused and disappointed by that, not that Serge could really blame him either. Where was the big gold chest and cool stuff?!

"It must hold some significance if it is the final reward for a dungeon. I mean, it's literally glowing." Field suggested. That was true, it was probably some magic plant of some kind.

"First time I saw anything like this, that's for sure." He finally said before turning to the exchange students and grinning. "Y'know what, you guys keep it."

"Are you sure?" He nodded at Arclight's surprise.

"Hell of a fun ride rolling with you guys. Consider it as a thank you for letting me join in." Serge genuinely meant it as well. It was definitely something he needed after how shitty the previous school year was. First time his heart throbbed for a girl since Louise and he got shot down without even a second thought. The pink Beltre twin really did a number on him back then.

"If you're sure, I can take it to my family estate in the summer break and plant it in our forest. See what it can grow into." Seberg suggested. They all looked at each other but it didn't look like there was going to be any complaints.

"Then it is settled. Good work, men." Holfort finally declared while Arclight helped Seberg extract the plant and put it and some soil in a bag. Serge didn't know anything about plants and just left them to work.

"Well, adventuring with you guys is a lot of fun." He said after they managed to exit the dungeon.

"You attend the Academy, right? Why don't we see you around?" He snorted at Marmoria's question. As the heir to the Rault house, he was going to be part of the elite no matter what he did. Not going to the Academy just meant that he wasn't causing any problems there anyway.

"Never really had a reason to. It was just boring to me." Serge admitted with a shrug. The guys looked at each other and looked like they were having a conversation without actually talking. Weird.

"Well, I'm sure it will be less boring with friends." Field finally said before extending a fist in his direction. The other followed suit, making sure that there was space for him to bump his fist into formation too. He laughed and took the offer for what it was.

"Hell, maybe you're onto something there pretty boy." Serge said with a big grin as the six of them stood outside the dungeon they just conquered.

Maybe it really was worth going back to school now that there were real men attending in his year.

…

Marie Fou Bartfort was certainly surprised when her boys regaled her with the stories of their little dungeon adventure. To think that they would stumble into one of the capture targets, the younger brother of the villainess she had invited to tea. She already had one of the twins in her back pocket along with her potential lover, but also having one of the canonical love interests would be useful as a backup plan as well. It certainly helped that he was one of the less problematic boys, more interested in dungeoneering than harassing women.

She only distractedly nodded along when Greg showed her the strange plant that they received as the final reward of the dungeon. It didn't look like anything, it certainly didn't give off a glow like they said that it would. Apparently, Greg was going to bring it to their family estate when they return to Holfort for summer vacation. She just waved them off and reminded them to make sure that the plant would be properly watered and have enough sunlight.

They then left once again after putting their silly new plant in Greg's room, saying that they were going to celebrate some more with their new friend. Boys will be boys.

Half an hour later, the villainess sat in front of her in a tasteful blue dress. "I must admit that I was not expecting an invitation for a Tea Party with you."

Kyle had prepared the tea and snacks for them to partake. Not at all near the quality of her brother's but it was acceptable enough.

"It's partly gratitude for taking time to help us get used to living in Alzer and attending the Academy here." Marie said easily enough, slipping back into old habits and training.

"And the other part?" She smiled at Louise's question.

"Well, one can never have too many friends."

"Especially friends of influence." The villainess noted with a nod as she took a sip of tea. Marie felt herself being appraised by the older girl. "I see that kind of thinking has served you well so far."

Knowing when to take pride in her accomplishments, Marie nodded. "It's a talent."

"I have heard that you have become friends with Noelle Beltre." Ah, there it was. She was wondering how long until Louise noticed that.

"She sits in front of me in class. With her personality, it was only a matter of time." A plausible excuse, if a weak one. Louise simply hummed and regarded her with a neutral expression.

"You don't seem to approve." That was obvious enough.

"I merely think that you can choose far better friends." A slightly tense silence settled between the two of them. Why was she so hostile to Noelle and not Lelia? Was it really just because the other twin managed to get one of the capture targets?

Kyle suddenly walked up to her with Control's drone in his hands. "Mistress? Your brother wishes to speak with you."

"It's from his ship, it allows us to communicate through long distances." Marie explained to the curious looking girl. She and Control both agreed that people knowing that it was sentient was a bad idea. They ended up coming up with an excuse to have the drone around when needed by saying that it was a communication device between her and Leon.

"Please, I don't mind." Louise said with a smile. Marie nodded in thanks and pushed a 'button' on the side that activated the drone.

"Nice to see you again, Big Brother." Marie happily greeted the projected image of Leon from the drone. She quickly looked at Louise when she heard porcelain rattling from her side of the table. "Are you okay?"

"Q-quite alright!" Marie raised an eyebrow at the way the usually composed young woman was suddenly acting.

"Are you with someone?" She sighed and turned back to her clueless brother.

"I'm having tea with Miss Louise Sara Rault, she and her house helped us get settled in." She turned the drone so he could see Louise from his end of the display. Marie blinked when Louise got a better look at Leon. Why did she look like she saw a ghost?

"Hello! Nice to meet you! I'm Leon Fou Bartfort!" Marie thought that she heard a soft gasp from Louise. Now she was really interested in what this was about. Was it love at first sight? "Thank you for helping Marie and the boys over there."

"Louise?" Marie prompted, finally snapping the girl out of her daze.

"It's no problem at all, Leon." She said with a beautiful smile. Wait, she was already calling him by his name so familiarly.

"Any reason for the sudden call, brother?" Marie chose to ask instead, it might have been an emergency after all.

Leon snapped his finger and tried to look around the room from his end. "Oh yeah! Is Julius there? I need to talk to him about a few things."

"Sadly, he and the others went out. Seems that they made a new friend." Marie said with a patient smile. She then remembered something and her smile became just a bit more smug. "In fact, it is Louise's younger brother, Serge Sara Rault."

"They met Serge?" Marie nodded at Louise's question.

"They ran into each other while adventuring." That earned an eye roll from the other girl. They really don't appreciate adventuring here, huh? She supposed that the mountain sized miracle tree gave them more than what they needed so the profession wasn't really needed at all aside from digging up magic stones.

"Huh, neat. I guess I'll just call back later then. So sorry for interrupting your Tea Party." Leon stated with an awkward laugh. Louise just laughed along, seemingly genuinely delighted by him.

"It's no problem at all, Leon." Wow, she was really laying on thick. Did her brother really just seduce a second villainess?

"Till later then, big brother." She said her farewell to Leon.

"Yeah, take care Marie!" She couldn't help but feel her heart flutter at how happy he said her name. Damn this place for keeping her away from her big brother!

"Thank you, Kyle." Kyle bowed and took away the drone, once again leaving the two of them alone. Oddly, the silence that followed was a lot more companionable than before.

"Your brother seems to love you very much." Marie blinked at the wistful tone in her voice. Didn't Louise have a brother herself?

"He's the best. I can't imagine not having him around." Not really able to resist herself, she just had to brag about Leon.

"I see. He studies in Holfort Academy then? He did not choose to join you in the exchange program?" Louise asked in quick succession. She seemed really interested in her brother.

Marie shrugged and started to explain, even though part of it irked her. "He has other things to deal with. Besides, he's engaged and probably wouldn't be able to get away even if wanted to."

"Political?" Louise asked while leaning forward.

"More romantic on their end, more political on the parents' end."

"Of course." She heard Louise say and barely heard her whisper to herself. "A shame."

Oh god, Leon really did seduce another villainess! How does he do it? Was it some sort of gland? No, wait! She could use this!

"Do you have plans this summer break?" Marie suddenly asked, a plan quickly forming in her mind.

Louise raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Not really, no. Why?"

"I'm thinking of paying you back for everything." Marie couldn't help but give out her most brilliant smile. If this worked, then she would have some of the main drivers of the plot on her side. "Would you and your brother like to visit Holfort?"

The way Louise's eyes widened at the offer confirmed that she had said the right thing. The smile that was shown a moment later was just icing on the cake. "We would love to."

She would need to tell Leon and Control about this later on, but they would see why this would work so well in their favor.

What's the worst that could happen?