Chapter 46
“Strikeout! Game over!”
“We did it!!”
Score 12 : 3. Another clean victory worthy of a championship contender.
After the brief high-five on the mound, Teacher Justina stepped forward and shouted with a bright smile.
“Great work in the preliminaries! Every one of you did sooo much better than I expected.”
The teacher’s beaming gaze landed on me.
“All right, then let’s start with a round of applause for our ace, Rene!”
“Woooo!”
Clap, clap, clap—the thunderous applause filled the field.
“Haha….”
What’s all this for…. I looked away slightly and scratched my head.
Soon, the applause died down, and Teacher Justina opened her mouth.
“As you all know, since we made it through the preliminaries in first place, we don’t have a game until next week!”
Just as she said, having finished first in the preliminaries, we had advanced straight to the finals and would now wait for the winner of the semifinal between second and third place.
Everyone answered a spirited “Yes!” and Teacher Justina continued with a satisfied expression.
“So, originally, we were going to have a friendly game against the second-years this weekend… but no matter how I think about it, there’s no way we could lose in the finals, right?”
Teacher Justina cleared her throat, puffed out her chest, and raised her voice.
“So! By the authority of the dorm supervisor, I hereby grant all of you weekend leave! Get plenty of rest and come back in perfect condition!”
Then the teacher looked us over with an expression that seemed to say, ‘Well, what do you think, brats?’
“……”
But the students’ reaction was decidedly lukewarm. Instead of cheering or applauding, they merely faced one another and murmured.
‘The brats must not have grasped it yet.’
Then again, the children who weren’t used to Teacher Justina’s spontaneous energy might not have properly understood what she was saying.
I raised my hand and asked, pretending not to know.
“So you mean it’s okay for us to stay out overnight on Saturday?”
“That’s my ace! Correct!”
Teacher Justina chimed in as though she had been waiting for that.
“Stay out overnight?”
“Does that mean we can go home?”
“Really?”
Only then did the students’ eyes change, and a commotion began to spread.
“Woooo!”
Then someone shouted, and an explosive cheer erupted as though everyone had been waiting for it.
Teacher Justina nodded contentedly, then suddenly raised one finger and issued a warning.
“However, anyone staying out overnight must report where they’ll be sleeping before they leave! You can at least do that, right?”
“Yes!!”
“And one more thing!”
Teacher Justina’s gaze suddenly shifted to Kairos and me.
“It’s fine to travel with friends, but absolutely no ‘just the two of you,’ all right? This is a precaution to prevent any accidents, so make sure you follow it!”
‘……Why is she saying that while looking at Kairos and me?’
I didn’t know why, but it wasn’t a difficult request.
The field once again filled with a resounding “Yes!”
※※
“So, Rene, what are you doing tomorrow?”
“I’m going out with Ellie.”
“Huh? With Ellie? Where?”
“To her house.”
“Ooh~ Ellie’s house, huh….”
Lia stroked her chin as if pretending to think for a moment, then her eyes lit up.
“Then I’ll…!”
“No.”
“I hadn’t even finished!”
Lia looked at me with an aggrieved expression.
Well, her ulterior motive was obvious. I shrugged and answered.
“Ellie’s house has tight security. Anyone without prior permission can’t get in.”
“Even her friends?”
“That’s Ellie’s father’s house, not Ellie’s.”
Besides, this visit was solely for the purpose of looking into a way for me to return to my own body together with Ellie.
For now, I planned to hole up in the Klostermann estate’s archive of old books and read every book I could find on soul transference.
“Hmm, then what are you going to do, Lia?”
“I’m still deciding. Maybe I’ll go home for the first time in a while, or just go to the valley with the others.”
“Your home isn’t that far away, is it? Why not go?”
“That’s true, but a two-day, one-night trip feels a little unsatisfying.”
Lia shrugged as though it were nothing.
“Anyway, if you’re going all the way to Ellie’s house, you’ll be leaving early tomorrow, huh?”
“Yeah, I’ll have to hurry.”
Unlike the Friesna estate near the capital, the Klostermann estate was near Bourgogne, the Empire’s second city.
Even by train, it took more than four hours, so I planned to leave the school around seven tomorrow morning.
“And you won’t be back until Sunday night, either.”
“Right.”
“Sniff… Who’s going to warm the spot beside me in the meantime?”
“Why don’t you call that Kairos guy over?”
“Ugh… why are you bringing up Kairos?”
“No reason. He was the only name that came to mind.”
I genuinely meant nothing by it. His name had simply popped into my head.
“What, what, what?”
But Lia approached my bed with suspicious eyes, as if she had found something she could use against me.
I turned my head away in disgust, but she ignored me and scooted right up beside me.
“Come to think of it, Rene, you’ve been coming back after sweating it out with Kairos late into the night these past few days, haven’t you…?”
“That sounds a little strange.”
“And you went straight to take a shower as soon as you got back….”
“We were exercising, so of course we did….”
I let out a sigh. Did this girl never get tired of it?
I waved a hand as if to say enough and flopped down on my bed.
“Enough. Can I ask you something?”
“Hmm? Sure, of course.”
“Is Kairos the kind of guy women find attractive, objectively speaking?”
“Huh?”
“The girls keep saying things about him. Saying how jealous they are and stuff.”
Christina was like that too. That bastard was strangely popular.
Of course, he was basically the ‘kind to everyone’ type, but his popularity couldn’t be explained simply by his pleasant personality and fairly handsome looks.
“But you’re a woman too, Rene?”
Lia asked, tilting her head.
“I mean, how does he look to other people? My sense of things might be off.”
I answered as though it were no big deal.
Lia folded her arms with a thoughtful “Hmm” and, surprisingly, sank into serious contemplation.
“Is this really something you need to think that hard about…?”
Honestly, I found it a little ridiculous. If it were me, I would have answered ‘He’s a total turnoff’ without a moment’s hesitation.
Only after a long while did Lia slowly open her eyes and answer.
“So you’re asking whether I’d date Kairos if he confessed to me or not?”
“I suppose that’s one way to put it.”
“If it were me… yeah. I probably would.”
“……Hah.”
An expression of genuine disgust came over my face.
“You’re the one who asked!”
Lia raised her voice sheepishly and returned to her own bed.
“Then again, is there really any reason not to date him?”
“Why wouldn’t there be?”
“What reason is there?”
“He’s a pervert.”
“Ha, are you still hung up on the sock thing?”
Lia said with an incredulous laugh.
“Isn’t that kind of cute, if anything?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. A guy who holds back too much isn’t any fun, either.”
“Fun…?”
Was Lia much more open-minded than she seemed?
When I stared at her, Lia shrugged and said,
“Come to think of it, your type was Evan, the third-year senior, right?”
“……Well, for now.”
I nodded just enough.
It would be troublesome if denying it led to the question, ‘Then who is it?’
“There’s a strange rumor going around about him lately.”
“What rumor?”
“That he came down with a serious illness and is recuperating at his estate. Didn’t you know?”
“Ah… really?”
I guess rumors spread through the school after about a month or so….
I answered while doing my best to keep my expression under control.
“He probably tested some dangerous magic or something. Don’t worry too much; he’ll be back soon.”
“Ooh~ You’re not worried about your future husband?”
“Sigh… you’re taking it too far again.”
“But it’s perfectly possible as long as you keep your grades up, isn’t it? With your parents being a soldier and an adventurer, there’s no particular obstacle, either.”
“There’s no way a nobleman like Evan would marry a commoner like me.”
“Really?”
“That’s right. A nobleman marrying a commoner woman is an entirely different matter from a commoner man marrying into a noble family as a live-in son-in-law.”
All I could do was sigh. Did I really have to explain things like this one by one?
“I see.”
Lia nodded, lay down on her bed, and asked,
“Then what kind of man do you want to marry?”
“……”
Suddenly, I was overcome by a sense of futility about my life. Why was I lying here in a woman’s body, talking about what kind of man I wanted to marry?
I let out a deep sigh and gave the most suitably vague answer I could.
“A man who can give up what’s most precious to him for my sake.”
That was genuinely my ideal type. Of course, the last word should have been ‘woman,’ not ‘man.’
I turned back to Lia as if to ask whether that was enough, only to find her looking at me with a somewhat dazed expression.
“What’s with that look?”
“Oh, no, it’s just… that answer was much more serious than I expected.”
Lia giggled and said,
“So you really are serious about marriage too, Rene.”
“I only answered honestly because you asked.”
I let out a short sigh and brushed my bangs back.
“Then what kind of man do you want to marry?”
“Me?”
Lia answered without much thought.
“A man I can be friends with? Someone who can lie beside me like this, joke around, and laugh with me.”
“That’s more ordinary than I expected.”
“I’m an ordinary woman.”
“Oh, is that so.”
I gave a perfunctory nod, then lay flat on my back and looked at the ceiling.
When I slowly closed my eyes, I heard Lia’s voice.
“Come to think of it, if you use something called iPS magic, even two women can….”
“Shut up. I’m sleeping.”
I really had to get up early tomorrow morning.
Fortunately, Lia had at least enough tact not to speak to me again and stayed quiet.
……
The next morning, at the train station for the Bourgogne-bound train.
“……Why are you here too?”
To my utter disbelief, I came face-to-face with Kairos.