Chapter 48
“…….”
“…….”
“……Why do you keep following me!”
I turned a murderous glare on Kairos.
Kairos seemed startled by my intensity, but soon chuckled and continued speaking as calmly as ever.
“I’m not following you.”
“Then why are you coming this way?”
“I’m going to pick up some medicinal herbs for my grandfather.”
Kairos answered without hesitation. He was really playing the grandfather card... Even I couldn’t bring myself to press him any further.
“Then you go ahead.”
In the end, I stepped aside and gave him a little nod.
Kairos started obediently walking ahead, but then suddenly stopped and looked back at me.
“Rene, what are you planning to do during your free time?”
“Mind your own business.”
“Do you even know what shops are around here?”
“……”
How would I know? It had already been a good three or four years since I’d last come to this street.
When I merely folded my arms and clamped my mouth shut, Kairos smiled irritatingly, as if he were saying, ‘I knew it.’ Then he glanced around and continued as though it were nothing.
“If you don’t have anything to do, I can take you to a decent café.”
“……”
“Or is there somewhere else you want to go?”
“……”
“Or should I just show you to a park?”
“……Ugh, you’re seriously noisy.”
Well, standing around blankly in the middle of the street like this was a waste of time too.
I sighed and answered as though I had no choice.
“Fine. Then just tell me where a clothing store is.”
“A clothing store?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re going to buy clothes?”
“Should I buy underwear instead?”
I shot him an irritated glare.
Kairos smiled awkwardly, scratched the back of his head, and then started walking ahead, saying, “Follow me. I’ll take you there.”
“Wait a second.”
I stopped Kairos for a moment, then looked up at the sky and whistled several times in a short, specific rhythm.
Soon, a pure white pigeon silently flew over and lightly landed in the flower bed in front of me.
“That’s….”
“It’s a messenger pigeon from House Klostermann.”
More specifically, it was a messenger assigned exclusively to Ellie.
I lightly pointed the tip of my wand at the pigeon and sent it a short magical message: ‘I’ll be at the clothing store.’
“Oh, so that was another way to do it.”
“First time seeing one?”
“Yeah. It’s my first time seeing a messenger pigeon in person.”
“Unexpected. Even you have things you’ve never seen before.”
So even this know-it-all had things that could surprise him.
After receiving my message without incident, the pigeon took the small coin I offered it as a reward in its beak and flew high into the sky again.
As I watched it quietly, Kairos added,
“Christina’s family uses a communications-magic relay.”
“Well, that’s the modern way.”
The only reason Ellie’s family stubbornly used old-fashioned messenger pigeons was that hers was an old, well-established military family.
I nodded casually, then turned to Kairos when a question suddenly occurred to me.
“But how do you know how the Estrid family communicates?”
“Huh…?”
“Have you ever been to Christina’s house?”
Obviously, he couldn’t have seen them using a communications-magic relay near the school.
A communications-magic relay was equipment that only enabled communication within the ‘same city.’ It couldn’t connect to the family’s main residence so far from the school.
When I fixed him with a questioning stare, Kairos, unusually flustered, moved his lips uncertainly before finally answering reluctantly.
“C-Christina told me.”
“When?”
“Um… when we went downtown together, just the two of us, before.”
In other words, he meant ‘that day’ when Christina had given him a packed lunch.
“I wonder how such a personal topic came up.”
Honestly, I had no intention of prying further. What did I care what Christina and that guy had talked about?
I shrugged and started walking ahead. Kairos let out a brief sigh and quickly moved back in front of me.
“Th-that aside, Rene, how can you call a Klostermann messenger pigeon as if it were yours?”
“They can sense the subtle mana waves contained in a whistle. As long as you know each one’s unique mana pattern, anyone can call them.”
And because I was the eldest son of House Friesna, I knew the emergency-contact pattern—the highest-priority one of all.
That was why Ellie’s white pigeon had flown straight to me when I called it.
“Did Ellie tell you that pattern herself?”
“Well, yes.”
“You two must have been incredibly close.”
“We were more than close.”
I shrugged casually and looked around.
“So where exactly is this clothing store?”
“It’s right around that corner. Less than five minutes on foot.”
“Kairos, do you buy your clothes there too?”
“Yeah. Most of the time, though, I just wear whatever my grandfather buys me.”
“What? That’s a little unexpected.”
I slowly looked Kairos up and down.
Maybe because I’d just heard that, but the clothes he was wearing suddenly seemed incredibly tacky today.
“They’re definitely worse than when you’re wearing your school uniform.”
“Do I really look that unfashionable?”
“Well, you don’t exactly live up to your looks.”
I answered casually and walked ahead toward the store.
Kairos hurried after me and continued speaking.
“Rene, did you choose your clothes yourself? They really suit you.”
“What’s with the sudden compliment?”
“I thought they suited you really well from the moment I first saw you at the station. I just hadn’t had a chance to say so until now.”
Kairos smiled gently.
“Oh, really?”
I nodded halfheartedly and changed the subject.
“What about Ellie?”
“Huh?”
“Do you remember what color skirt Ellie was wearing today?”
“Uh… Ellie?”
He looked deliberately flustered, then asked me in return.
“Wh-why are you suddenly asking about that?”
“I’m trying to prove you just lied.”
“L-lied?”
“Yeah. Someone like you has absolutely no interest in trivial things like other people’s clothes, do you?”
I chuckled and looked back at him.
“So don’t strain yourself trying to make a good impression on me. I already know what you’re really like.”
I wasn’t specifically trying to insult him. There was nothing particularly strange about not paying close attention to the clothes or appearance of someone you weren’t interested in.
“Still, if I may offer one piece of advice, don’t tell such clumsy lies in front of other girls besides me. Girls are more sensitive to things like that than you might think.”
It was sincere advice from someone with more life experience—and more experience as a man.
I’d once suffered the same fate myself. When Erica came in after slightly changing her hairstyle and asked, ‘Isn’t there anything different about me today?’, I confidently answered, ‘Your skirt color changed.’ She then treated me like a ghost and wouldn’t even speak to me for nearly a week.
“Haaah... Rene, I really can’t win against you.”
Kairos lowered his head with a deep sigh.
‘I can’t win.’ Those were the words I had wanted to hear from him so badly.
“If you know that, at least try being honest with me.”
Of course, I wasn’t happy at all right now. I’d wanted to hear those words after using magic to force him to his knees.
Kairos started walking ahead again with a disgruntled expression, and soon we arrived in front of a large, crowded clothing store.
“Thanks for bringing me here.”
“What, for this? It was no trouble.”
Kairos laughed, waving his hands as if to brush it off.
I left him behind without a second thought and entered the clothing store.
“Wow, there are so many people.”
“……?”
But Kairos followed me into the store as naturally as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
I suddenly stopped and stared at him.
“Why did you follow me inside?”
“Huh…?”
Kairos blinked twice, then let out an awkward laugh.
“Because I’m going to buy clothes too?”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“You just said I looked unfashionable.”
“What about the medicinal herbs for your grandfather?”
“It won’t take that long to choose clothes.”
Kairos said, “You need someone to help you pick things out too, don’t you, Rene?” Then he naturally picked up a brightly colored shirt displayed right in front of us.
He held it up against my body as though it were the most natural thing in the world and continued,
“I think a bright color like this would suit you better, Rene.”
“……Ha.”
I could only let out an incredulous laugh. Was this guy seriously insane?
Without saying anything, I brushed past him and headed farther inside. Kairos quickly put down the shirt and followed after me like a puppy.
“Do you have a particular style in mind?”
“…….”
“Or how about something like this? It would look cute on you.”
“…….”
“Since you usually wear long socks, a short skirt like this would suit you too….”
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“What the hell are you?”
Now I truly wasn’t sure anymore. What kind of person was this guy, and why was he acting like this toward me? I couldn’t begin to understand him or what he was thinking.
At my question, he merely blinked stupidly before cautiously continuing.
“Was my being beside you bothering you?”
“…….”
This was beyond something that could be described simply as bothersome.
I took a deep breath and continued as calmly as possible.
“I know it’s kind of funny for me to say this, but, Kairos, at least when it comes to a woman’s heart, you can’t win it by simply clinging to her side and coming on this aggressively.”
I could understand his behavior to some extent. This guy clearly liked Rene and was continuing these clumsy attempts because he wanted to get her attention somehow.
“Do you think someone will suddenly like you just because you mechanically make your presence known beside them, keep talking to them, and try to spend time together somehow? Don’t kid yourself. Human feelings aren’t set in stone like a formula.”
His talent and effort when it came to magic? I acknowledged that much. He had clearly worked incredibly hard somewhere I knew nothing about to reach his current level.
But human relationships, especially romantic relationships between men and women, weren’t so simple that merely increasing the ‘amount’ of effort would produce the result you wanted.
Life wasn’t like magic. It wasn’t an equation with a clearly defined method of solving it.
“Then what do I have to do to win your heart?”
“What?”
“I mean, how can I make someone else like me?”
“W-what….”
It was a completely unexpected counterpunch. For a moment, the words caught in my throat.
It felt as though my brain had stopped working. I stammered for a while before finally managing to ask in a dazed voice,
“You… you said you didn’t like me.”
Kairos stared down at me for a moment, then continued in a voice that was still calm, but somehow confused.
“……I don’t know anymore either.”
“Hah.”
It was utterly absurd. Seriously.