Gun Princess Royale - Book 3 - Princess of the City (web version)

Chapter 4 - Part II

– II –

Originally, the female students of Telos Academy had been assigned to the north side of the dormitory building. To be specific, they were allotted apartments in the northwest, north, and northeast sides of the complex. The male students were thus distributed to the southwest, south, and southeast sections of the megascraper.

However, and I don't know why this happened, it was decided a few years ago that girls and boys would be allocated to separate floors, rather than segregating them to the north and south sides of the immense building.

Naturally, this resulted in a widespread reallocation of the dormitory apartments, and the disruptive move was conducted over the span of end-of-year summer break.

I was spared having to experience this period of upheaval because I had yet to transfer to the academy, but I've heard stories about how difficult the transition was with thousands of girls and guys lugging boxes and belongs up and down the building. Undoubtedly, they were all supervised by academy staff, and mover bots had been called in to assist the students, but even with six wide stairwells, twelve people elevators, and four freight elevators in service, it proved to be a monumental undertaking fraught with arguing and bickering between harried, flustered, and frustrated students.

However, as consequence of this significant change to the distribution of students within the building, girls and boys found themselves sharing both stairwells and elevators as they travelled up and down the enormous megascraper. Yet, it was uncommon for two female students to be encountered waiting for an elevator on a floor reserved for male students.

Thus, Tabitha and I attracted curious glances from the guys who arrived to wait at the elevator on the southeast side of the building. However, while they chatted softly to each other, none of them made an attempt to speak to us, though that wasn't to say they weren't staring at us with interest, especially since my dress skirt appeared to a little shorter than regulation.

I had no doubt that Tabitha was responsible for that.

When staring at myself in the mirror, I had noticed the skirt was tad shorter, but then tossed it into the 'my imagination' basket when I compared it to Tabitha's dress.

However, now that I was standing by the elevator doors, I realized I'd been duped.

Tabitha had hitched up her skirt, and then dropped it once we left the dorm apartment.

I truly felt like punching her but that would serve no purpose since she was operating a mechanical body. To be truly effective, I would need to unleash my anger upon her real body. On the other hand, venting upon her mechanical form wasn't such a bad thing as I could pound her to my satisfaction. But instead, I clenched my hands tightly and endured the attention I was drawing, all of which was making me as self-conscious as during my stint cosplaying – I mean cross-playing – as Princess Silver Blue over a year ago.

However, back then I could always escape the identity of Silver Blue.

That wasn't an option for me anymore.

I was stuck as Mirai or Isabel, drawing attention like honey to a bear, and it wasn't my imagination running rampant due to my insecurities and self-consciousness. I really was garnering interest, more so than Tabitha, and feeling the gazes from the handful of guys around us crawl over my body, I neared breaking point when the lift suddenly announced its arrival.

As the doors opened, I was presented with a new problem.

The lift had passengers, and if everyone waiting on this floor boarded it, the situation would be a crowded one. Compounded with the prospect of riding an elevator loaded with students, nearly all of whom happened to be male – with the exception of Tabitha – it was more than I could handle.