April. The season of the new school term, when cherry blossom petals flutter down.

Two full years had passed since my reincarnation into this world. Now with a mental age of twenty-eight, I had successfully advanced to the second grade.

“Everyone—take your seats. Today starts a new school year. I’m truly happy to be your homeroom teacher again this year…”

In the Class 2-1 classroom, Suzuki-sensei’s face—now carried over from the previous year—bore unmistakable signs of exhaustion and faint dark circles, likely from daily stomach medicine. Not that it was any wonder. In this class, both Anju, the daughter of a distinguished family who engaged in daily catfights over me, and Yuuma, my personal fan club commander who worships me like a god, had been carried over together.

“Here’s to another good year, Anju.”

“H-hmph. It’s not like I’m happy just because we ended up in the same class... W-well, if you absolutely insist, I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to getting along with you this year.”

Seated next to me, Anju’s face turned bright red as she spouted lines straight out of a tsundere template. When I ruffled her hair with my past-life business smile and said, “Let’s get along,” she let out an adorable little “Hyaa~!” and collapsed onto her desk. The former Class 1-1—no, now Class 2-1—is peaceful today, too.

“Now then, everyone. Today I’ll introduce a new friend. She’s just moved here from overseas and still isn’t very good at Japanese, so please be kind to her.”

When Suzuki-sensei opened the classroom door, a single girl timidly walked in. In that instant, the entire classroom held its breath.

Her hair was of a translucent pure silver, as if spun from moonlight itself. Her eyes were a deep, captivating sapphire blue. She was an overwhelmingly beautiful girl, as if a fairy from a picture book had stepped right out.

‘...Huh? That silver hair—I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.’

While I was tilting my head, the silver-haired girl stood beside the teacher’s desk and, trembling with nerves, opened her mouth.

“B-Bonjour... Je m’appelle Lise...” (H-Hello... My name is Lise...)

It was adorably lisping, lovely French. But unsurprisingly, the students in the classroom—and Suzuki-sensei—couldn’t understand her.

“Um... L-Lise-chan? I, uh, don’t really know French...”

Perhaps from the anxiety of not being understood, large tears began to well up in Lise’s blue eyes. Given my nature from my past life of never being able to leave a distressed woman or child alone, I let out a small, resigned sigh and stood up.

“Salut, Lise. Tu te souviens de moi? (Hey, Lise. Do you remember me?)”

When I spoke in extremely fluent and natural French, Lise gave a start and looked my way.

“Ah... Shizuku! Mon chevalier!! (Ah... Shizuku! My knight!!)”

The silver-haired girl I had helped when she was lost at the shopping mall in late January. The moment she saw my face, her expression lit up and she dashed straight over. And then, she threw herself into a tight hug around my waist.

“Je suis tellement heureuse de te revoir! (I’m so, so happy to see you again!)”

“Ne pleure plus, tu es en sécurité ici. (You don’t have to cry anymore, it’s safe here.)”

Just as I had in my past life when calming a panicked junior female colleague during an overseas business trip, I gently stroked her silver hair as I replied in French.

At this spectacle, the classroom atmosphere froze solid.

“Wha, wh-wh-wh, wha!?”

“Nanase-san!? What did you just speak!? Why are you hugging that fairy-like girl!?”

Beside me, Anju shot up from her chair with a clatter, pointing at me with bloodshot eyes.

“Well, I helped her when she was lost at the mall during winter vacation. It seems like Lise can only speak French.”

With my arm still around Lise’s shoulder, I turned to face Suzuki-sensei, who stood at the teacher’s desk with her mouth agape.

“Sensei. Lise says, ‘I’m happy to meet everyone, but I’m nervous because I don’t understand Japanese.’ I know a little French, so I’ll act as interpreter and guide. The seat next to me is open, right?”

“Eh, aah!? Shizuku-chan, since when do you know French!? Ah, y-yes, I see. Then, Lise-chan, you can take the seat next to Shizuku-chan...”

I can just tell my mom I learned it from watching movies or something. Taking Lise by the hand, I said, “Viens, c’est ta place. (Come on, this is your seat.)” and escorted her to sit next to me.

“Merci, Shizuku... Tu es très gentil... (Thank you, Shizuku... You’re so very kind...)”

Lise’s cheeks flushed slightly pink, and she snuggled up close against my arm. It might partly be the typical close physical proximity common overseas, but she was just adorably sweet, like a puppy.

“There, there. I’ll show you textbooks and stuff, so let’s do our best together.”

“Oui! (Okay!)”

When I patted her head, Lise nodded with a beaming smile.

And then, from behind me, a low, menacing voice rasped.

“...Hold on, Nanase-san.”

Turning around, I found Anju, her expression resembling a Hannya mask.

“Who on earth is this woman? Why is she clinging so intimately to you? And since when do you speak French... I never heard about any of this!”

“Like I said, it just happened at the mall. She probably feels anxious because no one can understand her, so I’m just helping her out a little. You be nice to her too, Anju.”

When I responded in an utterly natural work-mode—like a senior assigned to train a new recruit in a past life—Anju let out a grinding creak from her back teeth.

‘...Helping out!? This is no joke! That silver-haired thieving cat is taking advantage of the language barrier to completely rely on Shizuku as her “guardian”! And on top of that, that face... To think a threat even greater than Aoi would appear...’

Perhaps sensing Anju’s bloodthirsty glare, Lise gasped a small “Eep” and clung to me, hiding behind my back even more.

“Shizuku... Elle fait peur... (Shizuku... That girl is scary...)”

“Don’t worry, Anju might act prickly, but she’s actually incredibly kind.”

Shielding Lise with a smile, I turned to Anju with a wry grin and said, “Come on, don’t scare her.”

“————!!”

The fact that she had been cast as the villain in Shizuku’s eyes—someone protecting a foreign entity from her—dealt an irreparably massive blow to the tsundere young lady’s pride and possessiveness.

“I don’t care anymore! Shizuku, you idiot!!”

Her face bright red from anger and jealousy, Anju plopped down in her seat and slammed her textbook open. It seemed that right from the start of the new term, I had once again stepped on some kind of landmine.

* * *

[Anju’s Perspective]

Lunch break.

From a corner of the classroom, Anju glared with an expression practically weeping tears of blood at Shizuku, who was kindly explaining the school lunch routine to Lise in French at their seats.

‘...It’s not fair, not fair, not fair! What’s with that little world of just the two of them! She said nothing but “good morning” and “let’s get along” to me!’

The unfamiliar French spilling from Shizuku’s lips. Combined with her mature purple eyes and husky voice, it exuded an abnormal allure and an overpowering sense of a ‘perfect man.’

When Shizuku used her own handkerchief to wipe a bit of sauce from the corner of Lise’s mouth, winking and saying, “Ne bouge pas (Don’t move),” all the girls in the classroom let out high-pitched squeals of “Kyaaah!”

‘...Ugh, I can’t stand to watch! That sweet escorting of Shizuku’s was supposed to be for just me and Aoi...’

With trembling hands, Anju pulled out the smartphone she had forced permission to have through sheer power, and called up that woman’s number from her address book.

Her hated blonde childhood friend, whom she wouldn’t normally even deign to speak to. However, this time the situation demanded urgency. With an outside enemy—the Black Ship (symbol of foreign invasion) from France—invading, this was no time for domestic factional infighting.

“...Hello, Aoi-san!? Yes, it’s me! Much to my chagrin, I’m alerting you to an emergency! Yes, it’s about Shizuku!”

Dashing out into the hallway, Anju lowered her voice and shouted into the phone.

“Today, a silver-haired transfer student from France arrived in our class! Shizuku has become her exclusive interpreter and has been intimately escorting her non-stop since this morning! ...At this rate, our positions will...”

‘............’

An eerie, terrifying silence flowed from the other end for a moment. And then.

“...I see. Thank you for telling me, Anju-chan. ...Silver hair, hmm… Taking advantage of not understanding the language to monopolize Shizuku-chan... Unforgivable, absolutely unforgivable…”

An absolute-zero killing intent radiated through the speaker. Aoi’s yandere radar, despite being at a different elementary school, had detected the existence of the new princess who had crossed the sea, and had finally swung deep into the red zone.

“...I’ll come to your school after class today. I’ll make that thieving cat understand thoroughly just how deep the bonds of love between Shizuku-chan and me are... fufu, ahahahaha!”

“Eep...”

Even after the call ended, Anju trembled at the chill crawling down her spine. Aoi’s madness was terrifying. But right now, she had to use even that to reclaim Shizuku from that silver-haired fairy.

Meanwhile, inside the classroom, the oblivious skilled interpreter—with a mental age of twenty-eight—was cheerfully thinking, “It really is fun speaking French,” as she casually patted the new princess on the head.

She had no way of knowing that after school, in the classroom, a bloody Franco-Japanese War (a Shizuku Scramble) would break out between a yandere childhood friend, a tsundere young lady, and a silver-haired fairy.