Chapter 47
“Why are you here again!”
I raised my voice without meaning to.
Kairos looked back and forth between Ellie and me, who were standing side by side, then scratched the back of his head and said.
“Uh… because my house is this way?”
“What?”
“I’m going to visit my family home over the weekend.”
Kairos shrugged and answered nonchalantly.
“Don’t tell me your house is near Burgundy too?”
“Yeah.”
“Good grief….”
What were the odds of such a coincidence….
As I frowned in shock, Ellie smoothly picked up the conversation.
“That works out. We can go together.”
Ellie apparently still had no particular feelings for Kairos. She simply made the friendly suggestion as though he were a friend she had happened to run into.
“Sure, let’s do that.”
Kairos readily nodded, sneaking a glance at me.
I couldn’t bring myself to say anything, so I merely lowered my head. He turned his gaze back to Ellie and asked.
“Are you two going to Ellie’s house?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s a little surprising. I didn’t know you two were that close.”
“We became friends during the treasure hunt.”
Ellie gave me a look that said, ‘Right?’
I reluctantly dipped my head, and Kairos continued.
“Speaking of which, didn’t Teacher Justina say we weren’t allowed to go anywhere alone together?”
“She forbade us from taking a ‘trip’ together alone, not from visiting a friend’s house.”
Ellie answered casually and changed the subject.
“You’re surprising too, Kairos. Going back to your hometown on a day like this.”
“Why? Did I look like someone who’d go out to have fun with his friends?”
“No, you looked like someone who’d hole up in the library and read all weekend.”
Ellie said it in a deliberately teasing tone.
Perhaps because I was right beside him, he didn’t stammer at all even in front of another boy.
“So where are you getting off, Kairos?”
In any case, it bothered me to let Ellie keep chatting with Kairos. How dare he act so familiar with our Ellie.
When I cut in, pretending I didn’t know anything, Kairos’s gaze turned toward me again.
“Burgundy Station.”
‘……So we’re going all the way together after all.’
A deep sigh escaped me inwardly. I had to share the same train compartment with that guy for the next four hours.
Jingle jingle-
“Please board, everyone~”
Just then, the conductor’s bell rang, and the train doors slowly opened.
“Shall we go in too?”
Kairos boarded as if it were the most natural thing in the world, followed by Ellie, and finally me, dragging my feet.
Since it was the first train of the day, there were hardly any passengers, so the three of us were able to claim two adjoining compartments without any trouble.
“Ugh, of all people, he had to be in the compartment next to ours.”
A sigh escaped me as soon as I sat down.
Ellie glanced over at Kairos unpacking his things in the next compartment, then chuckled and said.
“You really do hate Kairos, don’t you, brother?”
“Hate him? I’m sick to death of him by now.”
These days, I felt like I saw that guy’s face everywhere I went.
As I irritably scratched my head, Ellie giggled and took a handful of candies from her pocket.
“Would you like one?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
I accepted a yellow lemon drop and immediately rolled it around in my mouth.
As I sighed again while savoring the sweetness spreading through my mouth, Ellie spoke with a smile still on her face.
“It’s kind of surprising.”
“What is?”
“Just… that you care so much about a first-year.”
“Care that much….”
Come to think of it, I’d never properly told Ellie about the bad blood between Kairos and me.
After hesitating for a moment, I spoke as calmly as possible.
“You know he took the third-year exams during midterms this time, right?”
“Yes.”
“That’s when I started disliking him. That arrogant brat.”
“Because he beat you?”
“It’s not only that.”
I continued with a sigh.
“It’s just weird, isn’t it? A first-year taking third-year exams, and the teachers simply letting it slide. It’s as if the rules of the world themselves had been twisted for his sake.”
Honestly, I could tell by now. At least where the exams were concerned, he must have taken them fair and square, without cheating.
The fact that he had ranked first in the third-year exams had to be nothing more or less than his undeniable, genuine ability.
But even setting that aside, every action and movement of his felt so contrived, as though it were part of a scripted play.
I gazed out the window and murmured.
“It just feels like he lives in a world of his own. Like the whole world revolves around him… something like that.”
This strange sense of incongruity was hard to explain in words.
Ellie, who had been listening with some interest, tilted her head this time.
“I don’t really get that impression.”
“That’s because you’re not in my shoes, Ellie.”
I reached up to smooth back my bangs, then mussed up my hair instead.
“Ahem, anyway, this compartment is soundproof, right?”
“Of course.”
Ellie nodded as if it were obvious and looked toward the next compartment.
“Kairos is a dummy~!”
Then Ellie suddenly raised her voice.
“What was that for?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. Ellie had a surprisingly quirky side to her.
“Hehe.”
Ellie scratched her head sheepishly. In the compartment opposite ours, Kairos was still just looking at his newspaper, apparently unable to hear anything.
Well, even if Kairos was a suspicious pervert, there was no way he’d eavesdrop on his classmates’ conversation.
Feeling more at ease, I raised my voice just to be obnoxious.
“Hey, you pervert~!”
Kairos still gave no response.
“Pervert?”
Ellie tilted her head curiously instead.
“Oh, did I never tell you, Ellie?”
I crossed my legs and explained as though it were nothing.
“That guy has a leg fetish.”
“Legs…?”
“Yeah, he completely loses his head whenever he sees them. He kept sneaking glances at mine at the station earlier, too.”
“Oh….”
Ellie lowered her head and stared intently at my legs.
After a moment, she asked cautiously.
“Um… brother.”
“What is it?”
“This isn’t a question with any particular meaning.”
“Yeah.”
“……Do you perhaps find wearing skirts comfortable?”
“Huh?”
I lowered my head and looked down at my legs.
Heat suddenly rushed to my face.
“Ah, ah! I never explained, did I?”
I hurriedly offered an explanation to Ellie.
“Th-this is just because I didn’t have anything to wear, so I had no choice but to borrow it.”
“You didn’t have anything to wear?”
“Y-yeah. Still, I couldn’t go to the main estate of House Klostermann wearing my school gym clothes.”
The best I’d managed to find was this: a modest black skirt I’d borrowed from Lia.
“You should have told me ahead of time.”
“I-I only realized it this morning, you could say….”
I uncrossed my legs again and tugged the hem of my skirt down.
Watching me, Ellie gave a small smile.
“Then, since we’re on the subject, shall we go buy you some clothes?”
“Today?”
“Yes. We can buy some regular clothes downtown first, then head to the main estate.”
Ellie clapped her hands.
“We could stop by the antique bookstore while we’re at it.”
“McCullen’s Antique Bookstore?”
“Yes! I knew you remembered.”
Ellie nodded with a smile.
“Hmm… well, shall we?”
There was no particular reason to refuse. I had to buy some regular clothes before vacation anyway, and I felt much more at ease going with Ellie than with Lia.
Besides, wandering around somewhere as large as McCullen’s Antique Bookstore might lead to an unexpected discovery.
“Hehe, it’s a date.”
Ellie said it with a bright, playful smile.
“Would you really be satisfied with someone like me?”
I replied with a small laugh.
Ellie’s eyes widened briefly, but she soon smiled gently and nodded.
“Yes, of course.”
Even in a situation like this, she spoke in a kind voice, considerate of my feelings.
Well, no matter how I looked at it, Ellie was a genuinely kind girl.
※※
“You were surprisingly well-behaved, huh?”
At last, we arrived in Burgundy. I asked as I watched Kairos emerge from the compartment with his luggage.
“What do you mean, well-behaved?”
“I thought you’d come visit our compartment at least once.”
I suppose I’d had some inexplicable premonition.
Kairos stared down at my face for a moment, then merely curled up the corners of his mouth and asked in return.
“Were you hoping I would?”
“You’re insane. That’s not what I meant.”
What a creepy thing to say.
“I was just asking. You’re usually so persistent.”
“I am?”
“Never mind. I was just asking, so forget it.”
Anyway, thanks to him not barging in on us, I’d been able to talk comfortably with Ellie for once.
Ellie turned to Kairos and smiled kindly.
“Kairos, what time is your train back tomorrow?”
“Five p.m.”
“That’s the same train as ours, right? Then let’s use the same compartment on the way back, too.”
‘……What?’
I turned to Ellie in shock. But she was looking only at Kairos with a perfectly unconcerned expression.
“Are you sure that’s okay?”
Kairos stole a glance at me.
“……I don’t mind.”
It would have been strange to say I didn’t want to.
I sighed and nodded, and Kairos nodded back with a radiant smile.
“Okay, then let’s do that.”
His expression was absurdly delighted.
That guy definitely likes Rene, I just knew it.
I turned away as if I hadn’t noticed and asked Ellie in a low voice.
“What on earth are you thinking?”
“It feels a little wrong to keep pretending we don’t know each other after riding the same train twice.”
“What’s so wrong with that? We’re not even friends!”
“He’s a friend to me~”
Ellie shrugged. Sometimes she had a strangely stubborn side.
“Haa….”
Right, I could just sleep then.
I nodded as if there were no other choice.
As we got off the train, Kairos approached us again.
“Are you two heading straight home?”
“No, we’re going downtown to buy a few things first. What about you, Kairos?”
“I was planning to go downtown too. What a coincidence.”
“……”
Right, of course he was. I didn’t even have the energy to say anything anymore.
In the end, the three of us naturally began an exceedingly uncomfortable journey together.
“Kairos, how far away is your house from here?”
Ellie asked as we left the station.
“About two hours on foot.”
“That’s pretty far.”
“It’s the countryside. How about your house, Ellie?”
“About an hour on foot. Though we’ll probably hire a carriage for the trip.”
“I see.”
“Miss.”
At that moment, a tall elderly man in a black tailcoat stood in front of us.
“Oh my? I told you there was no need to come meet me.”
Ellie tilted her head, eyes widening. The old man standing before us was a fairly familiar face to me, too.
He was Pierre, the chief butler of House Klostermann. Pierre bowed politely at Ellie’s words.
“The young master sent me.”
“My brother?”
‘My brother?’
Wasn’t her brother stationed at the front lines?
Despite the puzzled looks on Ellie’s and my faces, Pierre calmly continued.
“He has been on leave at the main estate for the past week. He is supposed to return to duty today, but when he heard you were coming, he said he wanted to see you before he left and has been waiting.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’ll show you to him right away.”
Pierre politely bowed, his gaze landing on me.
“I’m sorry, but the young lady will need to step away with me for a moment. It won’t take long, so please wait here, friends.”
“Ah… all right.”
Besides, as I was now—not Evan—I couldn’t exactly intrude on the reunion of the two siblings.
I readily nodded. Ellie looked a little disappointed too, but then said, “See you later,” waved to me, and followed Pierre away.
‘……Of all the times for this to happen.’
I sighed. How was I supposed to kill time?
I stretched and looked around, then suddenly found my eyes meeting Kairos’s as he stared at me.
“……”
“……”
An awkward silence descended, as though even the noise of the station plaza had faded into the distance.