Chapter 215: Girls' Side (II)
Giliath demands your power stones! Let's try getting over 500!
*
After one or two moments of silence, resolve appeared in Sherryl's eyes. Sherryl did find it a surprise that Renne had already come to terms with what had happened in the caves. The only thing that Sherryl didn't know at this point was that Renne also went through a trial of reflection back inside Amberl Tower. That resolution made her determined to stay by Naoto's side and protect him from the sidelines. Sherryl felt strongly about Renne's resolution, and knew it wasn't good to teeter on it any longer. What's in the past can stay in the past, they were two students at St. Astraia now, it is better to look toward the future.
Renne was quick to notice the change in Sherryl's eyes during this moment of silence. The other girls saw Sherryl take in a deep breath, only to turn around, and rummage around her St. Astraia uniform. Seeing Sherryl start to take her uniform off, Renne approached Sherryl and met her resolve to do the same thing. The two began to loosen up their skirts and uniform blouses, only to reveal their tender skin. Sherryl's was a lot more slender thanks to her unique physique.
From the two's shoulders and above, it was pretty scar free, but the moment the girls saw faint and pinkish whip-like scars that were mostly around Renne's and Sherryl's abdomen and backside, the girls' eyes turned wide in surprise. Especially since the scars looked to be from a whip, but if one had a closer look, they could spot an injection mark or two. They were pretty faded now and harder to see, but the scars were still present.
"Oh Aidios...", Princess Alfin said, seeing several faint whip-like marks over both Renne's and Sherryl's body.
"This is awful..", Musse uttered in surprise while revealing a frown.
"Even if we were to account for bullying, this is rather taking it quite far...", Elise also said, feeling saddened at the sight before her, all three wearing frowns over their faces now. Even the maids looked on in shock in their eyes, not expecting for the two girls to have shown such a sight.
"Yes.", Sherryl said, gently nodding her head, turning her body around to reveal her front to the girls. Neither Renne or Sherryl wore bras yet, so there were two cute little buds over their chests, both appearing small. Much smaller than the likes of someone like Emma's breasts. Thankfully it appeared the scars didn't reach their breasts, just around their abdomen and back mostly.
"It was a kidnapping. I won't go into the details, but both Renne and I are extremely grateful for His Highness to pull us out of that hellhole. That was how the two of us met too.", Sherryl explained, explaining a bit of what happened during the two's time in the cult. The moment Sherryl said that, their frowns remained.
"A kidnapping...I recall there was a period a few years ago where a whole bunch of children got kidnapped and several different police agencies were looking into the matter. You two were a part of that, weren't you?", Musse wondered to herself after hearing Sherryl's explanation.
"You were able to connect the dots pretty quickly. You're a rather sharp witted girl.", Renne said, revealing a playful grin, despite being half naked before the girls right now. She had several whip-like fainted scars over her body right now as well, to which were in the process of healing.
In the games, it was hard to tell for those who were kidnapped into the cult to see if they experienced lasting injuries like Sherryl and Renne did, mostly because whenever the bath events struck, they all wore towels. It showed zero skin around their abdomen and back, unless they wore a revealing outfit like Fie's in the later games. But here, censorship didn't exist. They were exposing their skin to the girls before them. Just that alone required the resolve the two reached.
"Teehee, I should actually say the same to you, Renne. You were even able to jump one grade higher than the previous grade I jumped to be placed in Her Highness's class. I probably could have jumped higher, but if I did that, I wouldn't have made such lovely friends here.", Musse said, placing her hand over her cheek and tilted her head a bit.
Hearing that, Princess Alfin smiled, and proceeded to walk toward Renne and Sherryl, only to suddenly wrap her arms around the two girls. Seeing the princess suddenly hug the two caused surprise to appear in their eyes.
"Well, the most important thing now is you two have survived that kidnapping. In my eyes, you two are just two normal girls who are attending St. Astraia now, much like we are.", Princess Alfin said, responding with a smile. Hearing that, Elise also nodded her head.
"Her Highness is right. Whatever was taken from you, you two can definitely have a better life here at our girls' school, as part of the student council I can assure your safety. Should there be any notion of bullying, I will be sure to take swift action.", Elise said, nodding her head at Princess Alfin's words. Both Renne and Sherryl smiled while a couple drops formed in Sherryl's eyes.
"Thank you. It's been a few years since it's happened, but for other reasons, I've been away during that time. I've been travelling across Zemuria with Teacher, who showed me many sorts of things. But now, with these next two years, I hope to learn a thing or two at St. Astraia.", Sherryl happily responded, wiping her tears away with her hand.
"I am pretty much in the same boat. I have a certain place to be in two years' time. But I do hope that Sherryl and I can stay here under Her HIghness's care." Renne said with a smile of her own. Princess Alfin's eyes lit up as she parted from her hand, only to clap her hands together.
"Oh most certainly. I will make sure your time spent at our school will be an enjoyable one. After all, we are friends now. If you two ever need me to lend an ear, I am all for it.", Princess Alfin happily responded.
"Thank you, Your Highness.", Sherryl responded, feeling gratitude from the new friends they have made. Emma and Fie had stayed silent during this, but a warm smile appeared on Emma's face. She had known both Renne and Sherryl since she was on the Glorious as well at the time, but to see two survivors of the cult reach this resolution, Emma felt happy.
"It would appear I have one more thing to be grateful for of Big Brother Naoto now as well.", Princess Alfin said, remembering Sherryl's words.
"That's right. If you do decide to ask the prince, I'm sure he'll explain the situation to you in more detail.", Renne said, nodding her head.
"Well, as much as I would love to hear how all of it went down, that would definitely require some time, which I am afraid we are running out of. We still need to fit into our dresses for the dance tonight. If they become too revealing, we can try to put some makeup on over your healing wounds. Thankfully, they don't appear to be too bad. They are hardly noticeable anymore.", Musse said.
"Yes. I would come to think so too. To add to that though, this would be pretty much my first time wearing a dress, I might need some help putting it on.", Sherryl said, scratching her cheek, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Then we'll just have to pick the perfect one out for you.", Princess Alfin responded with a smile. Hearing that caused the girls to let out some laughs, which eased the atmosphere quite a bit.
Fie tried to sneak out during this conversation and avoid wearing a dress altogether, but Emma was quick to catch onto Fie, only to have Fie pout and fall onto her butt again, feeling the tight grasp of Emma's hand. They were all going to wear dresses tonight, so Fie wasn't going to be left out.
Seeing Fie do this, a playful smile appeared on Emma's lips and became determined to pick out the most frilly dress she could find to have Fie put on. Seeing Emma smile like that, a sense of dread trickled down Fie's back, only to see the fate now in store before her.
Everyone had a good laugh, and with the help of the maids, they were able to start picking out dresses they wanted to wear for the practice dance tonight.