If Your Team Keeps Leaving, Maybe the Problem Is You?

The same expression, Hani had seen it on Kalandria’s face more than once.

Self-righteous, groundlessly confident, driven entirely by emotions…

Although she had avoided imposing these negative impressions on her teammate, that was simply the reality.

All along, the team’s success was the captain’s achievement, while the captain’s failures were the responsibility of the teammates.

Hani knew very well that this consistent approach was the main reason Kalandria could maintain her image as a radiant leader to the outside world.

When Loya was around, she could tolerate her ways.

Now that the person who could take the blame for her and handle all kinds of problems diligently was gone,

how could she still be confident that time could mend the gap in the team?

Facing someone whose head was clouded by superiority, Hani didn’t intend to mince words any longer:

“Kalandria, have you ever considered that Loya’s departure might be related to you?

Maybe your behavior and way of handling things weren’t appropriate. Why don’t you look for your own problems?”

“What do you mean by ‘look for my own problems’?

He’s scared to death and doesn’t want to take risks anymore, why don’t you look for your own problems?

He’s earned enough money and wants to relax, why don’t you look for your own problems?

His talent is mediocre and he’s holding us back, why don’t you look for your own problems?”

Kalandria raised her eyebrows, her tone staccato,

using the excuses Loya had used before to brush things off, pouring out a barrage of complaints all at once.

She then folded her arms across her chest, adopting the classic defensive social posture:

“I have to look for my own problems in everything – how ridiculous!

Just because I’m the captain, does that mean I’m responsible for everything?”

Seeing that communication was hopeless, Hani gave up:

“Fine, since you think you have no problems, there’s no need to say anything more.”

The loot bag fell with a “thud,” and monster materials spilled out of the opening.

She clapped the dust off her hands, making her stance clear:

“Then, I’ll also temporarily suspend my membership. The logistics responsibility shouldn’t be my job anyway.

If you think everything will get better, then I’ll rejoin the team when you’ve solved the current problems. Goodbye, Captain.”

Venting her long-held resentment, Hani turned and left without looking back, her boots echoing in the night outside the door.

“Hani, you!”

Even though she had been in a good mood tonight, Kalandria had accumulated some annoyance from Hani’s unprovoked remarks.

She wanted to retort but didn’t get the chance, so she had to swallow her words.

After things had calmed down, another companion – the elf girl Timos, who had been watching them from the living room doorway for a while – spoke up in a timely manner:

“Kalandria, calm down. I’ll go get Hani back. She’s just tired and frustrated today, she just needed to vent. Don’t take it to heart.”

She pushed up her large round-framed glasses, turned her head, and swayed her pigtails of blonde hair like crescent moons, then left the explosive living room.

“Hmph, whatever.”

Facing the empty hall, the young noble lady’s lips twitched a few times, eventually turning into a cold smile.

“Anyway, they’ll all obediently come back in the end. It won’t be too late to make them apologize then.”

That’s right, not just Hani, but also Loya.

As long as Loya rejoins the team – wouldn’t that solve everything?

In the end, it’s just that the master didn’t accept the little puppy’s advances, and the puppy is throwing a tantrum… it’s not a big deal.

When Loya realizes that his little tactic of playing hard to get has backfired and he wants to make amends, won’t he obediently come back?

Using the excuse of that marriage proposal, she’ll make the little puppy, who thinks his master can’t live without him, understand that it is he who can’t live without his beloved master.

That’s right, all pets need to be taught a lesson.

Thinking to herself, Kalandria seemed to already see Loya tugging at the hem of her wedding dress, begging and crying, full of regret.

“That kind of Loya must be… very interesting, right? Hehe~~”

A hazy crescent moon hung high, casting a layer of pale blue twilight over Florence’s night sky.

Leaving the Swan Lake’s riverside manor headquarters, Timos walked alone through the bustling crowds of the evening market street.

Perhaps because of the countless laughter around her, Timos was in a very good mood tonight.

That’s right, the team’s situation is deteriorating, and her companions just had a falling out due to disagreements, in such a situation, she felt simply fantastic.

Frankly speaking, Timos came out specifically not for any teammate.

Telling Kalandria that she would persuade Hani to return was just an excuse to slip away.

She was completely indifferent to what happened to the two human females in Swan Lake.

She only cared about one thing –

“Ah, there it is!”

On the street crowded with pedestrians, the elf girl deftly tiptoed, looked into the distance, and immediately locked onto the target building.

A two-story red brick house with a balcony.

Ever since the teacher left the team and voluntarily moved out of the riverside manor, he had been renting the small attic on the top floor of this house.

It had a wide view, and there were no other tall buildings nearby to block it.

Every morning at six thirty, she only needed to find a tree to climb a little, and she could admire the teacher’s sweet and handsome sleeping face from the lower left glass window on the corner of the balcony.

Oh no, correction, recently she didn’t even need to get up that early.

Since she no longer had to serve the noble young lady in Swan Lake, the teacher had been sleeping until he woke up naturally every day.

In the seventeen days since he left the team, Timos had been able to enjoy breakfast while admiring the teacher’s sleeping face for about half the time.

Among them, on Thursday morning of the second week, she even had a full five hours and twenty-six minutes to savor it carefully.

Judging by the situation tonight, she shouldn’t have to return to the manor and abide by the young lady’s so-called “must return to the dormitory at night” rule.

How ridiculous, adhering to such childish frameworks for the sake of some noble custom.

If the teacher hadn’t listened to Kalandria with everyone else before, I wouldn’t want to be stuck in that cramped cement box.

But tonight is different.

After twenty days and nine hours, she had the opportunity to admire the teacher’s beautiful sleeping posture all night again.

Maybe the teacher would even take off his shirt to sleep comfortably tonight?

Her thoughts fluttered with the evening breeze, and the tips of Timos’s ears burned red.

“Ah~ ah~… Teacher… Loya-sensei…”

Walking to a cypress tree root that was registered as the “best observation point,” she silently activated magic, using “First Tier – Existence Weakening” to fade her presence from the crowd.

With a light jump, relying on the racial talent of her forest bloodline, she easily leaped into the branches.

– OK, infiltration complete.

She licked her moist lips, wiped the glasses that were actually for telescopic viewing, and impatiently cast her gaze toward the teacher’s window.

– Huh?

However, the teacher wasn’t there, and the attic light was off.

Where would the teacher go so late?

This was a situation that had never appeared in her previous observation diaries.

Wait, now that the teacher is free, could he have gone to another woman’s house?

The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she became.

Timos’s breathing unconsciously became rapid, and her face grew increasingly gloomy.

Suddenly, a voice called out her name.

“Hey, Timos, what are you doing up there?”

“Ah?”

Subconsciously responding and lowering her head, the elf girl then realized that

Loya-sensei, whom she had been thinking about, was standing under the tree, looking up at her.