Chapter 42
“Ah.”
As soon as I confirmed the owner of the footsteps deep in the alley, the breath caught in my throat.
“Big brother.”
Ellie’s cold voice, the same as a few days ago, rang out once more. Cold sweat ran down my back, and my entire body stiffened.
‘I-I’ve been caught.’
It was a chilling sensation, as though my identity as a man were being denied.
I shook my head as hard as I could and cried out urgently.
“I-it’s a misunderstanding!”
“Which part is?”
“G-giving that bastard Kairos your head just now….”
“Giving him my head?”
“Th-that was… it was only….”
“Only?”
“That… that was….”
What excuse could I make? My vision seemed to spin.
Of course, I had no particular taste for being reassured while someone stroked my head. There was absolutely, positively, definitely no way I had felt comforted by that bastard’s touch.
While I stammered, desperately searching for an excuse, Ellie’s icy voice continued.
“I tried to understand you flirting with Miss Christina. You’re a man too, so I suppose it couldn’t be helped.”
And then… I heard a voice filled with undisguised ‘contempt.’
“But even so, being gay is… And with Kairos, whom you’ve known for less than a month, no less….”
“Noooo!”
I practically shrieked. Just hearing it made my entire body break out in gooseflesh and my stomach churn.
“Are you still going to make excuses?”
Ellie still wore an expression as cold as ice.
“It’s not an excuse! I’m telling you, that’s not what happened!”
I frantically shook my head.
“……”
Only then did the undisguised contempt fade from Ellie’s expression, replaced by a questioning look that seemed to say, ‘Then explain it in a way I can understand.’
I bit my lip and racked my brain for a moment, then squeezed my eyes shut and shouted. In other words… I was ready to let the chips fall where they may.
“I… I like women!”
Even so, this much was the unvarnished truth.
I looked up at Ellie with an earnest gaze, silently begging her to believe me.
“……”
Ellie flinched in surprise for a moment, but she did not withdraw her cold, piercing gaze.
After a long while, she finally spoke with a small sigh.
“Then what was I looking at earlier? Were you just starved for praise?”
“……”
Back to square one. This was enough to make me go completely insane.
In the end, with a deep sigh, I confessed as much of the truth as I could tell her.
“I was just… having a really hard time emotionally.”
“Did Kairos do something awful to you?”
“It wasn’t like that… I mean….”
Wait. Come to think of it, Ellie thought I had spent the night with Kairos and had been getting physical with him as a continuation of that right up until now, didn’t she?
I had to clear up the fundamental misunderstanding first. I glanced up at Ellie and changed the subject.
“First of all, I didn’t spend the night with Kairos.”
“……”
‘You’re lying again.’ That was what Ellie’s expression seemed to say.
I met her eyes sincerely and continued.
“Everything Ria said was a misunderstanding. Kairos and I were chased around the western forest by monsters all day the day before yesterday!”
“……Monsters?”
“Yeah! I really thought we were going to die!”
I nodded vigorously.
“It’s true that I went to the western forest to meet Kairos that day. But we were spotted by monsters before we could even properly start talking. Nothing like what you’re thinking happened between us. Absolutely nothing.”
“And you expect me to accept that as an excuse?”
“It’s true! I even presented evidence to Teacher Justina!”
“……”
Like me when I’d heard Kairos’s explanation about the ‘demonfolk,’ Ellie wore an expression that made it clear she found it difficult to believe.
I continued explaining without letting it bother me.
“The reason I was feeling so awful today was because of that, too. I was exhausted and worn out after the day before yesterday. I was in such poor condition that I didn’t even realize Kairos had put his hand on my head.”
It was about 80% true.
But Ellie still didn’t let go of her doubts.
‘This is driving me crazy….’
Of course, if I had seen my sister Erika surrendering herself to some man’s touch, I would have gone berserk too.
And if Hans, in a woman’s body, had calmly let Kairos stroke her head, I would have been horrified and declared that our friendship was over.
But right now, I was… yes! I was suffering from a special status ailment called mana depletion.
Overwhelming fatigue and languor. If that strange sensation earlier had simply been those symptoms surfacing, it wasn’t impossible.
“I ran out of mana while being chased by monsters!”
I shouted, genuinely at a loss.
Only then did Ellie’s expression soften slightly, a hint of puzzlement crossing it.
“Mana depletion?”
“Yeah!”
“How did that happen?”
“I told you! We were chased by monsters. I kept firing off spells to escape, and that’s how it happened.”
Ellie fell silent for a moment, as though weighing my words.
Then her eyes sharpened, and she pressed me.
“What kind of monsters were chasing you? Tell me the species.”
“Th-that….”
In fact, ‘monsters’ and ‘demonfolk’ were different beings.
Monsters were simply beasts that had become ferocious after exposure to mana, whereas demonfolk were humanoid beings with extraordinary intelligence.
‘I decided not to tell Ellie about the demonfolk….’
I couldn’t drag Ellie into this prematurely. That was something I had resolved while talking with Kairos earlier.
The time to choose had come. Should I tell her the truth and put her in potential danger, or confess that I had lied and be branded as a gay man who had offered his head to Kairos…?
As I mumbled, unable to bring myself to choose, Ellie’s voice came with a sigh.
“You’ve always had a lot of secrets, Big Brother.”
Then her expression softened just a little.
“All right. I’ll believe you.”
“Y-you really will?”
“Yes. I don’t want to think that you’re really that promiscuous, either.”
Not ‘don’t think,’ but ‘don’t want to’…?
Unable to feel happy about it, I gave an awkward smile, and Ellie cleared her throat before continuing.
“But prove one thing to me.”
Then she spread both arms wide.
“Prove it?”
I tilted my head blankly.
Ellie paused for a moment, then continued.
“You said earlier that you like women, Big Brother.”
“I did, but….”
“Then prove it.”
“……”
How?
When I merely blinked at her, Ellie lightly bit her lip and raised her voice.
“P-please hug me.”
“You, Ellie?”
“Y-yes! I’m… I mean, I’m a woman too.”
Ellie let the end of her sentence trail off ambiguously.
“All right.”
I wondered whether that would really prove anything, but it wasn’t a difficult request.
“Gasp….”
Without hesitation, I approached and hugged Ellie tightly. I patted her back and gently stroked the back of her head as well.
“Why couldn’t I do this?”
It was only a hug with my little sister, after all.
After about twenty seconds, I carefully let her go.
“Do you believe me now?”
“Ah… yes.”
Ellie nodded with a dazed expression. Her cheeks seemed slightly flushed, too.
“Y-you really have no reservations, do you?”
Ellie quickly turned her head away and took a step back.
She cleared her throat loudly and changed the subject.
“So, are you feeling any better after the mana depletion?”
“Ah… yeah. Rene’s constitution is highly unusual.”
Rene was extraordinary not only in mana capacity, but also in recovery speed.
After examining my condition for a moment, Ellie asked again.
“In any case, you did spend the night with Kairos, right?”
“Well… yes. But that guy fell and got hurt, so he wasn’t any help when we actually needed him.”
I answered in a much calmer mood.
“I only met him earlier because I had something to say about that. What about you, Ellie? How did you end up here?”
“I happened to see you while I was on my way to school. I followed you because I wanted to ask about the overnight stay, and somehow ended up here.”
“Ah… I knew it.”
Then again, Ellie also tended to get to school early.
I nodded as though that made sense, and Ellie continued.
“Speaking of which, you’ve been getting involved with Kairos quite often lately, Big Brother.”
“Tell me about it. It’s annoying.”
I genuinely didn’t want to get involved with him anymore.
It was also about time I started looking into how to return to my original body—to find out about the ‘real’ Rene.
“But Kairos treats you well, doesn’t he?”
“Don’t remind me. He’s so creepy.”
No matter how I thought about it, that bastard was in love with Rene.
Just look at how he assigned meaning to something as trivial as supplying mana.
“Anyway, he’s exactly the kind of person I hate most. Ellie, don’t get the wrong idea from anything you hear about me from now on.”
“Because Erika is your ideal type, right?”
“That’s… w-wait! Why is my sister’s name coming up?”
“Heehee.”
Ellie giggled playfully.
Fortunately, it seemed all her suspicions about me had completely vanished.
“Sigh… Anyway, you should get to class now.”
Today’s lesson: Avoid contact with Kairos as much as possible at school.
I sighed, turned around, and started to leave the alley.
Just then, Ellie lightly grabbed my elbow and asked,
“Big Brother.”
“What?”
“You don’t lie to me, do you?”
“That depends on the situation.”
“Whaaat…?!”
Ellie asked again as though she hadn’t expected that answer.
I shrugged as though it were obvious.
“If a lie would help you, I’d gladly tell one. If it wouldn’t, I wouldn’t bother.”
I wasn’t saying this because I had just hidden the matter of the demonfolk.
It was simply something like a personal principle of mine.
“You’re just too honest, Big Brother….”
Ellie let out a soft sigh. I chuckled and stroked her hair.
She wore a somewhat complicated expression, then suddenly spoke as though she had just remembered something.
“Oh, right. Before you go to class… Teacher announced something yesterday.”
“An announcement?”
It probably wasn’t a pop quiz… but I couldn’t think of anything in particular.
When I merely blinked at her, Ellie grinned and said,
“They’re holding an interclass baseball tournament.”
“A baseball… tournament?”
Baseball…?
Ellie nodded vigorously and continued,
“Yes! Your favorite sport, Big Brother!”