Noelle Beltre, secretly Zel Lespinasse, was used to being involved in strained relationships. From her own twin sister, to Louise, to Loic, she knew all about it. Even her new friend, Marie Fou Bartfort or Rie as Noelle liked to call her, was at odds with Lelia and had that kinda-friend thing going on with Louise. Weird that her only stress free relationship was with her best friend, Jean. Sadly for Noelle, said best friend was off enjoying life with his new girlfriend. She was happy for him, super happy in fact! Noelle just wished that she could find love and happiness like Jean had.

Those were the thoughts that were floating in her head as she and Rie were walking through the Academy hallways, on the way to the cafeteria to get some food. Sadly, luck decided to remind her what her reality was currently like.

"There you are." Noelle stiffened at the voice coming from behind them. "You sure love to give me the runaround, don't you? There needs to be a limit on how well you do the whole hard to get thing, Noelle."

Both of them turned around to see Loic Leta Barielle standing behind them with a grin on his face. The orange haired young man was holding a collar attached to a chain which led to a bracelet in his other hand. Noelle couldn't help but shiver at the look he was giving her.

"Sorry, Noelle is occupied at the moment. I'm afraid that you'll need to reschedule." To her shock, Rie stepped between her and Loic and spoke out. "I would also like to inform you that girls generally don't like pushy men."

"You're that Prince's pet, aren't you?" Pet? Rie and Prince Julius? They had that kind of relationship?! The implications of such a thing somehow managed to take Noelle's mind off the fear of Loic. "Don't get involved in the affairs of another country. It's rude."

"Oh dear! You seem to misinterpret my relationship with Prince Julius." Rie sweetly said as she leaned forward and continued. "I'm not his pet."

The implications of that statement made her brain lock up for a moment.

"Are you serious?" Even Loic voiced his disbelief at the possibility of Rie being the one in control of their relationship.

Rie then started laughing and pointing at him."The fact that you started to believe me just like that doesn't earn you a lot of points!"

"Pretty uppity for a barbarian noble. I should put you in your place." Loic snarled out and started taking steps forward. Rie stopped laughing and backed herself into Noelle, urging her to retreat.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Loic." They all started at the new voice, this time coming from behind Loic. "Marie Fou Bartfort is under my family's protection. Louise and I'd be pretty damn upset if something happened to her because of you."

Tanned, with brown hair slicked back, and an overall look and demeanor of a delinquent. Noelle recognized Serge Sara Rault immediately. He was the guy that Lelia rejected the prior school year after all. She heard Rie let out a sigh of relief even as Loic whirled around to address the other guy.

"Fine. I'm only here to collect Noelle anyway." Noelle winced at the blatant declaration. Loic then turned away from Serge and dismissed his presence. "Now stay out of my business and leave my lover and I to our business."

Her eyes met Serge's and she couldn't help but silently plead for his help. He narrowed his eyes and gave a small nod. Noelle felt a sudden wave of relief when he placed a hand on Loic's shoulder.

"Even someone like me can see that she doesn't want what you're offering." Serge said with cocky ease. Loic seemed to have enough and slapped his hand off his shoulder.

"This is none of your business, Serge!" The other guy didn't look very impressed and just walked around to stand between them and Loic.

"Well, I guess I'll be making it my business then." Oh wow, Loic looked really mad.

"Noelle's under my protection from now on. You can keep trying to go after her, but I've fought way worse things than you in dungeons." Wait what?! Why?! Didn't his sister hate her guts?! Why is he going this far?! From now on?! What did that even mean?! She was super grateful to him but Noelle thought that he was just helping for this one time!

"You really want to steal what's mine?" Loic asked, as if scandalized by the declaration.

Serge then laughed at his face and shook his head. "Get your eyes checked, Noelle is a person who can make her own choices in life. She's not owned by anyone, especially not by an annoying bastard too dumb to take a hint."

Calm down Noelle! Your heart didn't just skip a beat! There has to be a logical explanation to everything going on right now! Oh wow, was Serge's back always that broad? No! Bad Noelle!

"If you two start fighting then I'll be the one to end it." Louise's pissed off words immediately dumped an ice cold bucket of water over Noelle's silent panic. They all looked down the hallway and saw that the older girl was not in the mood for what was currently happening with the way she was stomping towards them.

"I don't care who started it. This ends now! This is not the kind of behavior members of the great houses should have at the Academy of all places!" She hissed at both boys. Noelle flinched when Louise's gaze settled on her. "Of course you're involved."

The older girl's frown deepened when Serged placed himself between her and Noelle. "Don't tell me that you've taken a liking to the girl, Serge."

"Well, I haven't been to school in a while and thought that I should make new friends other than the boys." Noelle blinked. Friends? With her? Was he serious or was it just an excuse to his sister?

Louise sighed and turned to Loic, speaking in a tone that brooked no argument. "Leave, before I take this up with your father."

"I'll be back for Noelle. You can't keep her from me forever, Serge." Loic finally said after a few tense moments, walking away and taking that damned collar of his with him. Did he just have that on him all the time? Creepy! Super creepy!

"Don't shame our family any further." Louise said to Serge before nodding to Marie once and stalking away. Good riddance!

"Well, that was intense. Thanks for the help, Serge." Rie tried to joke about it but Noelle could tell that her friend was a bit shaken as well.

"Just be glad it wasn't Julius or any of the others who found Loic doing that to you two. They might have really thrown hands with him." Serge and Rie shared a laugh at his words. Wait, were Rie and Prince Julius really a couple then?! Was he the guy she was talking about from way before? Oh wow, she really was the only one left among her friends who was single then.

She chose not to think about how she only really had two real friends.

Noelle shook her head to clear her thoughts and stepped up to their rescuer. "Thank you, Serge. Sorry about how Lelia treated you last year."

"Wow, I help out and you stab me in the heart like that? You Beltres are ruthless." Serge flatly said. Noelle's eyes widened at how even Rie looked at her like she was stupid. Oh no! She shouldn't have brought up Lelia!

"I am so sorry! I didn't mean it that way!" Noelle was panicking so she wasn't really ready for Serge to place his hand on top of her head.

"It was a joke! If that asshole tries to mess with you again, you come to me!" He said with a grin while gently stroking her hair. Noelle couldn't help but just shyly nod, her face feeling like a furnace. Serge bid goodbye and walked off, Noelle keeping her gaze at his back. All she could think of was what Lelia was thinking when she rejected a guy like him. Noelle slapped both her hands on her cheeks. Snap out of it, stupid Noelle! Stop beating so fast, stupid heart!

She turned to Rie and saw her friend giving her a sly grin and two thumbs up, her eyes sparkling.

"Don't you dare start, Rie!" Her friend just slid closer to her and elbowed her side.

"Why not? Serge is a pretty great guy based on what Julius and the others have said to me about him." Marie stage whispered while wiggling her shoulders for some reason. "A bit of a bad boy, but that seems more like a front than his actual self."

"Rie~" Noelle whined in embarrassment. The last thing she needed was rumors about her and Serge suddenly popping up all over the Academy.

"You know what? Both Louise and Serge will be visiting Holfort for the summer break, you should come too! I'll introduce you to my brother!" Rie sounded super enthusiastic about the offer, especially when she mentioned her brother. "Who knows, you might actually reconcile with Louise and get closer to Serge."

Noelle couldn't help but scoff at that last part. "Rie, did you hit your head or something? Me getting along with Louise is about as likely as Serge actually being interested in me in that way."

"As far as visiting your home," She trailed off, thinking about it seriously. It would be a nice change of pace and an excuse to get as far away from Loic as possible. "I don't know, what about Lelia?"

"You don't like my sister that much, huh?" She asked with a smile when she saw Rie make a face at the mention of Lelia.

"I don't like how she treats you." Aww! Rie was such a sweetie pie!

"It's fine. She's busy and has a lot of expectations on her because of all her talent." Noelle assured her friend, who just sighed and decided to concede for now.

"Alright, she can come along. You invite her then, I'm sure that the two of us would just burst into flames if we tried to be nice to each other." Now that was something Noelle really ended up laughing at. The rest of the day went without any further issues, thankfully.

The same couldn't be said when she arrived home and told her sister about Rie's offer.

"Holfort? There's nothing good there at all." Lelia dismissively told her just as Noelle went to the kitchen to start on dinner. Wow, way to put down an entire Kingdom there sis.

"But it would be a great opportunity to travel and meet new people!" Noelle excitedly told her, imagining all the fun things that they could do together.

"We don't need to meet new people. We belong in Alzer." Huh, she didn't think that Lelia would be so stubborn about this specific thing. Was it because Marie was the one who invited them?

"But Lelia…" Her sister snorted at her tone and shook her head.

"Fine, you go then. I'll stay here for the summer break." Noelle bit her bottom lip at how mean Lelia was being.

"I don't want to go if you won't come along." She finally relented. She just wanted to make some fun memories with Lelia again.

"Don't even pretend that you don't want to go, otherwise we wouldn't even be having this conversation." An icy claw squeezed at Noelle's heart with every word that her twin sister said. "Go if you want, it's not like you ever listen to me anyway."

"Why do you hate me so much, Lelia?" She whispered before running out of the apartment, unable to stay in her sister's presence for a second longer.

Noelle wandered the streets with no real destination in mind. She didn't want to go back home but she didn't know where she could go either. It wasn't like she had time to take her purse with her when she stormed out.

"Well, you have the look of someone who was just told that the Sacred Tree isn't real." Noelle's glazed eyes finally focused when she heard a familiar voice. Those same eyes widened when she saw Serge looking at her with a raised brow.

"Hey Serge." She numbly greeted him, not really in the mood for anything.

"Hearing that tone coming from you is pretty spooky, I gotta say." Serge commented, his tone softening with his next words. "You wanna talk about it?"

Noelle shook her head, not wanting to think about Lelia at that moment.

He hummed and gestured down the street he was walking along. "Well, I'm gonna visit the boys for dinner. Marie lives in the same manor they're staying at, so you can tag along if you want."

"Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden? Is it because of Lelia?" Noelle couldn't help but ask. Was it just pity? Was it a whim? Was he just doing it to let her guard down like Loic once did? Was it something else entirely?

Serge scoffed but Noelle saw how his eyes dimmed a bit at the mention of her sister. Lelia seemed to have that effect on certain people.

"Because I know what it's like to have pretty shitty days. Looks to me like you're having one for the record books." He finally said while looking up at the afternoon sky. He then looked back at her and gave a lopsided grin. "Turns out, having the right friends goes a long way to helping with the shitty feeling you get from that."

Noelle couldn't help but giggle. "You could have totally said that in a much nicer way."

"Hey, talking can be hard." Serge argued with a pout. It actually looked kinda cute, like a grumpy cat.

"Aren't you the heir to your house? Talking's totally gonna be part of your job description." Noelle couldn't help but tease him. Instead of being offended Serge just smirked and shook his head at her.

"Well, ain't you little miss know it all?" Noelle laughed and bumped her shoulder against Serge's as they made their way to the manor where the Holfort exchange students were staying.

At least it didn't seem like she only had two friends now.

…

I looked up at the completed Getter Robo that we were going to give Deirdre on her birthday. Control and I went on a quick trip back to the labs for the weekend in order to see the finished product.

It mostly looked like Black Getter with key differences. The biggest one was that it wasn't colored black. Instead, it was actually colored in a light shade of red. Not quite pink, but it was going in the right direction. It had a mask, but it was colored red and green instead of gray. The red Getter Wing didn't look all tattered either, with Control saying that the one on Black Getter was an aesthetic choice rather than a quality issue. It also ditched the scarf in favor of extending the Getter Wing's cape up around its neck and giving it a rather prominent popped collar look.

When I looked at the rest of it, I also noticed that it didn't have Getter Razor. Instead, it had what looked like vent slits where the blades were supposed to be. Getter Spike was also absent, replaced with what seemed to be knuckle dusters that were folded onto the back of each hand.

Weaponry has also been adjusted based on the data provided from Miss Deirdre's simulator runs as well as her own feedback.

"Oh? It'll run a different loadout from Black Getter?" I was pretty curious on what Control came up with for the new Getter Robo.

Getter Robo G style Double Tomahawks will be dispensed from the shoulders instead of the standard types. They will also be able to be combined and extended into a double-ended polearm weapon.

I whistled at that. Going heavy duty then, huh? I definitely would have chopped off something important if Black Getter had those instead of the regular tomahawks.

A stronger Getter Beam emitter is placed at the center of the chest. Miss Deirdre did not seem to utilize the head Getter Beam despite having it unlocked for some time now. The power it would have used will be redirected to the main emitter instead.

"Aww! But shooting two Getter Beams is awesome!" I whined. I didn't even know that Deirdre didn't use the head Getter Beam at all.

Getter Spikes have also been replaced with hyper heated knuckle dusters for extreme close encounters.

I hummed and noticed something from the weapon list. "No gun?"

Miss Deirdre seems to prefer the use of magic instead of firearms.

"This thing can use magic?!" This was a magical Getter Robo?!

I have been experimenting with the integration of magic into Getter technology in the labs for quite some time now. I have based the design changes on what I have scanned from the Armors of this world as well as Olivia's personal weaponry. All of which should accommodate Miss Deirdre's use of the craft.

"So does it work?" I asked.

In theory. We will likely need Miss Deirdre to test things out.

"Is that safe?" I followed up.

Is piloting a Getter Robo ever truly safe?

"Point." I conceded as I set my gaze back at the Getter Robo in question. "So can we give it to her now that it's done?"

I am still uploading her combat simulator data into the systems. I would actually like to spend the rest of the weekend for you to test out its basic functionalities as well.

"Sure, I can put it through the simple stuff. Wouldn't want it to fall apart the second Deirdre decides to fly with it." Being a test pilot sounded pretty cool, to be honest.

Perish the thought.

"What is it?" I asked when Control's drone suddenly started wiggling around.

Miss Marie wishes to speak with you.

I wondered what she could want to discuss even as Control patched her through. "Hey there, sis."

"Leon! I have great news!" Uh oh, I knew that smile. Nothing ever good came from that smile.

"Whenever you say that, I always have a sinking feeling in my stomach." I said as much and Marie pouted at me like a child.

"Rude!" She said before completely dismissing the insult and getting to the main topic. "Anyway, Serge managed to come in with a big assist with an annoyance a few days ago. Thanks to that, I managed to convince Noelle to visit us during the summer break too!"

"And let me guess, Julius and the boys want to bring the Sacred Tree sapling back too?" I rubbed my forehead even as I asked. Did she really not understand what she was doing?

"Where else would they put it?" I guess not.

I sighed and decided to ask the obvious question anyway. "So, the guests you invited will all be staying where again?"

"Hm? I mean, you have that new mansion in your lands that you haven't used yet, right?" My sister asked with a big smile as if she didn't just set me up to babysit some of the most important people in the second game's story.

"God dammit Marie."

…

The day the first term ended signaled the start of the summer break. I was on the Nagare with Control and Yumeria as we made our way to Alzer to pick up Marie and the rest. My lovers just wished me luck when I told them about the mess Marie made and reminded me to get them if I needed help. Livia and Hertrude were both staying with Angie for the break. Clara went back to her family to make sure that my mansion would be ready to receive what pretty much were foreign dignitaries.

All the while, Black Getter was no longer alone in the hangar. The newly named Roze Getter was standing at its side and was just waiting to be introduced to its fated pilot.