Chapter 54
After an outing that had left me tired but yielded nothing, I returned to the familiar dormitory.
“Rene~”
“Ugh.”
As soon as I opened the door, Lia flung herself at me and wrapped me in a fierce embrace, as if she had been waiting for me.
I froze in place, finding the scene somehow familiar and yet still utterly absurd, while Lia rubbed her cheek against my neck and spoke in a feeble voice.
“Do you know how bored I was all weekend?”
“Didn’t you say you were going out with your friends?”
“I couldn’t go! Lily suddenly got an upset stomach!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, yeah! So I was alone in my room all day yesterday!”
Now Lia had started putting on a sulky voice, too.
“You must have been bored.”
I gave her a perfunctory nod, then slipped out of her embrace.
I immediately put some safe distance between us and walked farther into the room.
“So what’s that in your hand? Is it a present for me?”
Lia, as if nothing had happened, quickly recovered her composure and naturally followed close behind me.
I shrugged as though it were nothing and held out the paper bag in my hand toward her.
“My clothes.”
“Clothes?”
“Yeah, I bought a few outfits while I was out.”
Lia blinked for a moment, mulling over my words.
“Oh! What? You said we’d go shopping together later!”
Her characteristic whining immediately followed.
Of course she would. I let Lia’s now-familiar fussing go in one ear and out the other as I answered while opening the wardrobe door.
“Ellie wanted me to go with her, so how could I say no? We’ll go buy underwear together later.”
“Underwear? You didn’t buy underwear separately?”
“No.”
Because there was no way I could stand there choosing underwear in front of that Kairos guy.
“Hmm… but the styles that suit us would be completely different.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you and I have different circumstances in all sorts of ways.”
As she said that, Lia stared intently at my chest.
“W-what does that have to do with anything?”
I felt really strange. Without realizing it, I put a hand over my chest and glared at her with a disgusted expression.
“Well, fine. It’s a shame, but I’ll make do with underwear shopping this time.”
Lia lightly shrugged and trotted over to me.
Then, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, she casually took the paper bag from me.
“Let’s see, let’s see. Let’s take a look at our young lady’s taste in clothes.”
Lia began humming as she took the clothes out of the bag one by one.
“Since you took them out, put them away properly in the wardrobe.”
I let out a small sigh and returned to my bed.
Being subjected to Lia’s uncontrollable energy made the calm, quiet night I’d spent with Ellie just last night begin to feel as distant as a midsummer night’s dream.
I immediately sat on the edge of my bed and glanced at Lia.
“So how do they look to you? Ellie said they suited me.”
“Hmm-hmm. Just wait a moment.”
Lia took out a top and began examining it from every angle.
Next she pulled out the pants, and then the skirt I’d bought out of courtesy even though I’d never have occasion to wear it.
“Well, not bad. Better than I expected.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Honestly, they’re much better than I expected.”
Fortunately, sharp-eyed Lia didn’t seem to have any idea that Kairos was the one who had recommended these clothes.
Lia soon began neatly folding my clothes and arranging them in the wardrobe.
I watched her for a moment, then got up and headed for the bathroom.
“……”
After I quickly washed up and returned to the room, Lia, who was lying on my bed as though it were the most natural thing in the world, spotted me and giggled as she waved.
“Move.”
I didn’t have the energy to get into a pointless tussle. Towel-drying my wet hair as I approached the bed, I spoke in a cold voice.
“Come on~ Let’s strengthen our bond a little after being apart for so long~”
“You’re noisy.”
Sometimes Lia was absurdly fond of physical affection. Was she suffering from some kind of affection deficit?
“Isn’t that a little cold? It’s been almost forty hours since we saw each other.”
“Anyone listening would think we’d been apart for a whole week.”
“It practically felt like a week to me.”
“Ha, you’re seriously ridiculous.”
Standing beside the bed, I poked Lia in the side with my finger.
Lia squirmed, unable to stand the tickling, but eventually sat up again, grumbling as though she had no choice.
“Hmph, you’re mean. I hate you, Rene.”
“Aren’t you the one bothering a tired friend?”
“It’s not like you should be tired. You just spent all day riding the train back and forth.”
“Going out is exhausting in itself, you know.”
Leaving Lia, who had reluctantly gotten up from the bed, behind, I flopped down onto mine.
Lia stood beside the bed and pouted for a moment, then soon returned to her own bed and sat down.
“So what’s this?”
At the sound of Lia’s voice, I lifted my head slightly.
In Lia’s hand was… the small pouch of moonlight grass I’d put in the paper bag along with the clothes earlier.
“An herb.”
“What kind of herb?”
“Moonlight grass.”
“……Huh? Moonlight grass?”
Lia took a beat to react.
She immediately opened the pouch and peered inside.
“You mean… that moonlight grass? The herb I know?”
“Probably.”
“T-that much?”
Well, even a failing student seemed to know what moonlight grass was.
I nodded and sat up again.
“There was a field of moonlight grass in the mountains of Ellie’s territory.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah. They said I could take some, so I dug up a handful.”
To be honest, I didn’t want to bring up Kairos in front of Lia. The moment I mentioned him, I knew I’d get all stirred up again.
“A well-established grand noble family really is different….”
Lia stared down at the pouch of moonlight grass, her mouth hanging open.
“Your family’s rich too, Lia?”
I walked over to her and held out my hand, and Lia obediently placed the pouch of moonlight grass back in it.
Then she shook her head and gave a small laugh.
“Rich? Hardly. We’re just ordinary.”
“While you casually wear clothes that expensive?”
“That’s only because my mother is very fashion-conscious.”
When I’d taken a quick look in the clothing store, the long socks Lia had handed me so casually had turned out to be fairly expensive. Apparently, they were made from some special fabric incorporating new technology or something.
Lia waved a hand as if to dismiss it and continued.
“Anyway, Rene, you finally got your wish, huh? You managed to get this much moonlight grass.”
“My wish?”
“Huh? Rene, you’ve been going on about moonlight grass forever. You asked me several times to get some for you if I ever could.”
……Could this be something from the ‘true Rene’?
“Ah, ah! Right. I did, didn’t I?”
My heart suddenly began pounding. That’s right, moonlight grass was an important clue that held the will of the ‘true Rene,’ wasn’t it?
I continued, maintaining as calm an expression as possible and pretending it was nothing.
“So… what exactly was it I said back then?”
“Huh?”
Lia stared blankly at me as if asking what I was talking about.
“You said there was a potion you wanted to try making, remember?”
She then went on as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
‘A potion?’
It was a completely unexpected new clue.
As I mentally went through the various potions that could be made using moonlight grass, Lia tilted her head and asked again.
“Did you forget that too?”
“Uh… y-yeah…. It’s a little hazy.”
“Honestly, I’ve been telling you to go to a hospital.”
Lia let out a deep sigh and lay down on her bed.
“Anyway, back then, you definitely said you were going to make a potion. You never told me exactly what kind, though.”
Lia turned her head slightly to look back at me.
“What, you don’t remember that either, and just happened to get the moonlight grass by chance?”
“Well… y-yeah, I guess so.”
“Ha, honestly, sometimes I think you really are lucky, Rene.”
Fortunately, Lia didn’t seem inclined to question that part in detail.
‘A potion made with moonlight grass… Could it be one for amplifying magic power or awakening it? Or perhaps one that acts directly on the soul?’
I sorted through my thoughts as I returned to my bed. Countless possibilities surfaced and vanished in my mind again and again.
As I sat on my bed thinking, Lia’s voice continued.
“That aside, you know tomorrow is the long-awaited final, right?”
“Y-yeah. Of course I know.”
“If you can, don’t think about anything else tonight and go to bed early. You have to pitch well again tomorrow.”
Unlike the preliminaries, the final was a best-of-three series.
Naturally, winning the first game was more important than anything.
“Don’t worry. I’m in peak condition right now.”
“Ooh~ What’s with all this confidence~”
“As I always say, if you have a reason for it, it’s fine to be a little overconfident.”
Now, I had no intention of going easy even if our opponent was a first-year.
This wasn’t merely a game; it was also a matter of pride for our entire Petrus dormitory.
‘Right, I’ll think about the moonlight grass after the final.’
For now, dealing with the practical problem right in front of me took priority.
I placed the pouch of moonlight grass beside my pillow and lay down on the bed.
At some point, Lia had turned over to face me and asked,
“So, what kind of performance does our proud ace expect in tomorrow’s game?”
There was no need to think about that.
I grinned and answered confidently.
“Eight scoreless innings.”
Under the class-competition rules, which required each team to use two pitchers, that was the best a starting pitcher could do.
……
And so, the next day arrived—the long-awaited first game of the final.
『Home run! The game is over! Kairos gives up a heartbreaking go-ahead three-run homer! Game set! Final score, 3 to 2! Linus Dormitory pulls off a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Petrus Dormitory to win the first game of the final!』
‘……That damn bastard.’
It took Kairos just ten pitches to snatch away my perfect win as the starting pitcher.