Chapter 31
“This is… moonlight grass?”
There was no doubt about it. It was my first time seeing the real thing, but it looked exactly like the illustration I’d seen in a book. Violet leaves that faintly glowed as though they held moonlight.
Jibel nodded with a bright smile, looking as though she’d expected exactly this.
“What do you think? Amazing, right? Incredible!”
Her voice was just as excited as her expression. It was as though she was determined to see me be surprised this time.
‘Why would Rene want moonlight grass?’
But even if I forced myself to act surprised, the herb itself was far too unexpected.
I merely stroked the purple herb carefully, feeling dazed. The crisp-dry leaves of the moonlight grass crumbled easily beneath my fingertips.
“Hey, don’t ruin it for no reason. Rene, if you say you don’t need it, I’m planning to take it straight to an herbalist’s shop and sell it.”
Jibel playfully scolded me. Only then did I come to my senses and look up. Then I asked cautiously,
“Don’t tell me… you brought this for me?”
“What do you mean, ‘don’t tell me’…? Have you stopped needing it already?”
Disappointment flashed across Jibel’s face.
“N-no! Thank you so much! I’ll put it to good use!”
To be honest, I was extremely flustered.
Jibel was talking as casually as though it were a common herb she’d dug up in her backyard, but moonlight grass was one of the highest-grade rare herbs, worth at least five gold coins for just a handful.
“You saved me. Thank you so much, Jibel.”
In any case, I had no idea why Rene had been searching for moonlight grass, but it was obvious that Rene had wanted it badly.
If I refused for no reason here, Jibel would definitely press me for an explanation. For now, it was best to accept it while pretending I didn’t know anything.
‘That aside, moonlight grass… It’s not an herb children should be handling carelessly.’
The first thing that came to mind was moonlight grass’s most famous effect: temporarily amplifying one’s magical power. That potent effect was precisely why moonlight grass was so expensive.
But if someone asked why Rene wanted to amplify her magical power, the truth was that I couldn’t easily answer.
To begin with, Rene had the unusual constitution of having no ‘limiter.’ She could use extremely high-output magic as much as she wanted even without something like moonlight grass.
“No need to thank me~ That’s what friends are for.”
Apparently unaware of my complicated thoughts, Jibel beamed as she adjusted her backpack again.
Almost at the same time, the pancake set we had ordered was set down on the table.
“Mmm~ It smells good. Right?”
Jibel picked up her fork, sounding delighted. I picked mine up as well, replying appropriately, “I know.” A generous helping of sweet syrup and whipped cream covered the fluffy pancakes.
When I expertly spread the whipped cream over the pancakes, Jibel let out an admiring “Oh~,” her eyes sparkling as she asked,
“Rene, have you been here before?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Really? That’s surprising. You love sweet things, too.”
Jibel shrugged and looked down at her pancakes. I cut the pancakes into bite-sized pieces especially for her.
Jibel watched me cut them with an expression that seemed to say, ‘That’s unexpected?’ Then, as if she had been waiting for it, she speared a piece and brought it to her mouth.
“Mmm~ Delicious!”
Apparently forgetting her response to the moonlight grass almost immediately, Jibel savored the taste with an innocent smile.
※※
‘So I ended up losing the entire day….’
I walked down the street, already watching the sun begin to sink, and let out a sigh.
Here and there, I spotted students around my age hurrying toward the school, apparently trying not to miss the academy’s curfew.
‘The bookstore is a lost cause….’
Fortunately, I avoided the mishap of Jibel discovering my identity. I had also managed to learn a fair amount about the ‘original Rene,’ which had been my goal.
But Jibel was even more talkative than I’d expected, and she clearly had no intention of letting a childhood friend she hadn’t seen in ages go so easily.
In the end, the day had passed pointlessly with me sitting in the café all day and listening to Jibel prattle on about our childhood, which I knew nothing about.
‘I wonder if Christina managed to pull it off….’
My original plan had been to visit the bookstore, then sneak into a spot near where Christina and Kairos were on their date and watch the two of them.
If Christina seemed too nervous, I even planned to appear as if by chance, pretending I knew nothing, and naturally ease the mood.
At this rate, I was even starting to worry, ‘Could my not showing up have made Christina even more nervous?’
In the end, I could only let out a deep sigh and slowly walk toward the school.
“……Huh?”
At that moment, a faint presence blocked my path. I stopped without thinking and weakly raised my head.
“……”
A small child about as tall as me stood before me, wearing an old robe pulled deeply over her head.
Judging by the pale pink lips that were the only thing visible beneath the robe, she seemed to be a girl, at least.
“Is something wrong?”
I cautiously lowered my head and peered beneath the robe.
Above the pale pink lips, I thought I glimpsed bright red eyes, but the child was startled and hurriedly took two or three steps back.
“……”
What kind of reaction was that? I couldn’t make sense of the child’s behavior.
I stood there for a while, staring at the fidgeting child. Only after quite some time did the child’s tiny lips open, and the words came out rapidly.
“Manifestare nexum animae immediatum!”
“……”
“Manifestare nexum animae immediatum!”
‘Is this kid not right in the head?’
I tilted my head without meaning to. What on earth was this child trying to say?
I wondered if it was a magic spell, but I couldn’t recall any spell containing words like those.
After staring at the robe the child had pulled over her head, I cautiously approached.
That was when it happened.
“Miss Rene….”
A weak, sorrowful voice suddenly came from directly behind me.
“Huh?”
My head turned before I knew it.
“Christina?”
Christina was standing there. She wore an expression like an abandoned kitten’s, as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
“What happened… Ah?!”
As I tried to approach Christina, I heard the hooded girl from earlier hurriedly turn and run away.
I watched the direction the child disappeared in for a moment, then set aside my puzzlement and approached Christina.
“What happened? Don’t tell me that bastard Kairos did something to you?”
There was no sign of Kairos anywhere nearby.
I stepped closer and gently put an arm around her shoulders, and Christina continued in a voice that sounded ready to break into tears,
“I… was rejected.”
“Rejected? Don’t tell me you actually confessed to him?”
At their first meeting, no less? Wasn’t that a bit much…? My breath caught involuntarily.
Christina weakly shook her head and continued.
“It wasn’t a confession… I just… I just told him that I wanted to spend time together again, like we did today….”
Christina bit her lip tightly and raised her head. The corners of her eyes were already red.
“But he said he hoped nothing like this would happen again… and that we should only meet at school from now on… He said this kind of situation was difficult for him toooo…!”
Big tears soon began rolling down Christina’s cheeks.
“That bastard actually said that?”
This time, my breath caught for a different reason. Even so, did he really need to draw such a hard line in front of a girl?
When I gently patted her back, Christina finally burst into loud sobs and buried her face against my chest.
“It wasn’t even an unreasonable request… I only said I’d make him another lunchbox next time toooo….”
“It’s okay. It’s okay, so don’t cry. There, there.”
Passersby began sneaking glances our way one by one. But Christina showed no sign of stopping her tears.
‘The curfew is… Ah, whatever. I can explain things properly to Teacher Justina.’
There was no way I could take Christina to school in this state. If we went back like this, the reputation of the young lady of House Estrid would be utterly destroyed.
I hugged her tightly while patting her back to help her feel even a little reassured. When her sobbing subsided somewhat, I took her hand and walked back along the road we had just come down.
The place we arrived at was… the very café where I had spent several hours chatting with Jibel earlier.
“Here, drink this and calm down a little.”
As soon as we sat down, I poured her some cool water and handed it to her.
Christina accepted the water with hiccupping sobs and drank it, then lowered her head weakly once more.
I watched her expression for a moment, then asked cautiously,
“So that Kairos guy didn’t even accept the lunchbox?”
“……It wasn’t quite like that.”
Christina, whose eyes were red as a rabbit’s, raised her head again.
“At first, the atmosphere wasn’t so bad. Lord Kairos seemed a little flustered at first, too, but soon smiled resignedly and went around the market with me.”
Her feeble voice continued.
“At first, I was truly happy, you know? Lord Kairos even asked me first if there was anywhere I wanted to go, firmly caught my shoulder when I nearly fell after being pushed by the crowd… and he even praised my cooking while we ate the lunchbox together.”
“But why did he suddenly change? Did you make some kind of mistake, Christina?”
“That couldn’t be… It couldn’t have happened… I was so careful with every word I said and every little thing I did….”
Christina began to whimper again. I hurriedly patted the back of her hand.
Christina squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and took a deep breath, then continued.
“Lord Kairos suddenly started acting strangely… It happened thirty minutes before the outing ended, so about an hour ago.”
“He suddenly started acting strange?”
“Yes. After that… after that, Lord Kairos’s attitude suddenly did a complete 180.”
That incident? I had a bad feeling about it.
Christina drew another deep breath as though trying to hold back her tears, then continued carefully.
“An old woman suddenly asked us for directions.”
“An old woman?”
“Yes… She asked us how to get to Luminous Academy from here… Naturally, I kindly showed her the way.”
Christina pressed her lips together for a moment. Then she seemed to inhale and continued, her voice trembling as though she might burst into tears again.
“The old woman… thanked us… and gave us a small token of gratitude… and from that very moment, Lord Kairos started acting strangelyyy….”
“A token? What on earth did she give you?”
“It was really nothing special….”
Christina pulled two crumpled pieces of paper from her pocket.
I carefully took them and unfolded them. They were two tickets to a concert by a nearby municipal orchestra.
“Uh… His attitude changed because of these?”
……Why?
I merely tilted my head in confusion, and Christina raised her voice as though she were even more frustrated than I was.
“I don’t know either!! The moment the old woman left, his expression suddenly went completely stiff, and he said those horrible things I told you about!!”
As expected, it was a story I simply couldn’t make sense of.