Chapter 61
‘Wow… this is driving me insane.’
The hellish combination of Kairos on my left and Hans on my right.
“I never expected you to participate in this workshop too, Kairos.”
Hans was even making it blatantly obvious that he was far from pleased to see Kairos suddenly show up in his group without warning.
‘And that’s probably because of me.’
A deep sigh escaped me before I knew it.
When I squeezed my eyes shut and lowered my head, Elli’s worried voice whispered in my ear.
“Are you feeling all right? You looked really startled earlier.”
“Ah… yeah, I’m fine.”
I forced a smile toward Elli.
Then I deliberately stretched and flexed my stiff right arm a few times.
“My mana circuits were just shaken a little by the external interference. Because of that damn Hans.”
“I’m sorry. I should have noticed in advance and stopped Hans Oppa.”
“No, honestly, I didn’t know my mana would run this wild from interference that minor, either.”
If it had been ordinary mana interference, my mana circuits shouldn’t have been shaken this badly.
Hans had simply gone all-out in earnest because he’d been distracted by a pretty junior.
‘Speaking of which, that Kairos guy really….’
The fact that the mana rampage subsided the moment Kairos interfered meant that he had single-handedly overpowered the mana battle the two of us had been waging with all our might.
As I glared at his profile in silence, Kairos turned his head as though he had noticed my gaze.
“Then I’ll give it a try next.”
With a quick blink, he secretly winked at me and picked up his wand.
I lowered my head slightly in genuine revulsion. What the hell was that crazy wink for?
“Whoa.”
Of course, Kairos drew a wave pattern on the sand so cleanly and perfectly that Elli, watching beside him, let out that exclamation without even realizing it.
He completed a pattern exactly identical to the one Big Sis Erica had initially shown in an instant, then set down his wand and spoke as though he were a teacher.
“The important thing is to vividly picture the image you want to create. Your hand and wand merely serve to move naturally, following the image in your mind.”
He looked around at the other group members one by one as he spoke, but it was obvious who he intended those words for.
Yeah, yeah, good for you. When I merely furrowed my brow in silence, Hans also turned toward me with a slightly uncomfortable expression.
“That’s right. You were putting too much force into your arm, Rene. You were focusing too much on the act of moving your hand itself.”
“……Hah.”
Now I was reduced to receiving magical advice even from Hans. I felt so stressed I could practically feel my hair falling out.
“Senior, even so, suddenly interfering with someone else’s mana flow without saying anything is extremely dangerous.”
But before I could even voice an irritated complaint, Kairos abruptly cut in, his voice deliberately firm.
For a moment, a chilly tension ran between the three of us.
Hans’s expression instantly hardened as he glared at him.
“What did you say?”
“I mean that if you suddenly interfere without warning, the other person can’t help but be startled. Before interfering with someone else’s mana, you should have asked for their permission first.”
Kairos stood his ground and retorted directly.
The cold tension hanging around us grew even stronger.
“Then how about you give it a try, Elli?”
Now they were really putting on a whole show. I turned my gaze completely away from the two of them and deliberately raised my voice brightly toward Elli beside me.
Startled, Elli hurriedly picked up her wand, and the tense atmosphere between the two of them inevitably petered out.
‘Who would’ve thought two men would be vying for me at the same time….’
If I had really been a woman, this might have been a fairly thrilling, heart-fluttering situation. A battle of wills between a classmate showing steadfast devotion and a senior who had fallen for her at first sight.
But unfortunately, I was a man, and naturally there was no way I could welcome this rivalry between two lunatics.
As I squeezed my eyes shut and sighed repeatedly, Hans’s voice reached me once again.
“Were you really that startled because of me earlier?”
His voice still sounded displeased.
“No, I was simply still inexperienced.”
I didn’t want to drag the conversation into even more complications, so I backed down first.
“That’s what Rene says.”
But upon hearing my well-intentioned consideration, Hans looked at Kairos as though he had suddenly gained a mighty army.
Kairos glared coldly at Hans without a word for a moment, then turned his gaze back to me.
“You’re not someone who would lose control that easily, Rene.”
In other words, he was saying it was all right for me to tell the truth.
These two are really putting on a whole play… I let out a deep sigh and looked Kairos straight in the face.
‘……No, wait.’
A clever idea suddenly came to me.
A proverb I had once happened upon in an old book—‘Use the enemy to strike the enemy.’—passed through my mind.
‘If this works, I might be able to completely shake Kairos off.’
Humans were sly creatures; simply having the person they liked fail to take their side could make them feel profoundly disappointed and betrayed.
This is it! I gave a small cheer inwardly, stared straight at Kairos’s face, and spoke in a firm voice.
“No. What happened just now was clearly my mistake. Senior Hans did nothing wrong.”
“……What?”
Kairos blinked, looking flustered.
“See? Even Rene says it was their fault.”
Hans swaggered as he smiled victoriously.
“From now on, if I don’t know something, I’ll keep asking you lots of questions, Hans…… Oppa.”
I barely suppressed the cringe rising inside me and calmly continued my act.
Kairos soon let out a short, incredulous laugh, while Hans nodded arrogantly with a smug expression, as if his nose had grown twice as high.
‘Serves you right.’
It was Kairos’s flustered expression, which I hadn’t seen in a while. Good. Very good.
I gleefully stuck my tongue out at him in my mind.
※※
“A-a large public bath?”
“Yes, I heard there’s a large bathhouse for workshop guests on the floor below the auditorium.”
Elli was grinning from ear to ear, though I had no idea what had her so happy.
“……So?”
I set down the fork I’d been using to pick up meat and asked in return.
Elli blinked once, then answered with a dazzling smile.
“Let’s all go take a bath later!”
“No.”
“Whaaat?!”
“What do you mean by ‘Whaaat?!’ How am I supposed to go there?”
I shook my head firmly.
“It’d be one thing if it were just you and me, Elli, but the other girls are going too. Even so, I can’t join you there.”
“Wait, does that mean it’d be okay if it were just you and me?”
“Then it would be fine.”
“Why?!”
“Because you’re Elli.”
Until just a few years ago, we had even bathed together without reserve, practically like real siblings.
“Anyway, I’m out. You four go without me.”
“Then are you planning to go three whole days without washing, Oppa?”
“I….”
I definitely couldn’t go three whole days without washing.
But I couldn’t exactly enter the bathhouse with the boys, either.
I let out a soft “Hmm….” and fell into deep thought.
After a moment, a brilliant idea occurred to me.
“I’ll just sneak out at night and bathe by myself.”
Besides, that would give me a chance to sneak out of the lodging at night and meet Asta.
Even Elli wouldn’t be so persistent as to trail after me in the middle of the night just because I was going to bathe alone.
“Sneak out…? What will you do if Big Sis Erica catches you?”
“I’ll just do my best not to get caught.”
After all, if I wanted to go meet Asta, I had to evade Big Sis Erica’s watch somehow.
Hearing my firm answer, Elli could only let out a deep sigh and nod.
“Hmm… all right. Then I’ll explain it to the other girls in advance too. I’ll tell them you’re going to bathe separately at night, Oppa.”
“Yeah, thanks, Elli.”
Things seemed to be going more smoothly than I’d expected.
Of course, sneaking out of the lodging without Big Sis Erica noticing was an entirely separate and difficult problem, but at least I felt I’d successfully reached the first starting line.
Feeling considerably more at ease, I put the last piece of meat remaining on my plate into my mouth and quietly looked around the dining hall.
Then, quite suddenly, my eyes met Kairos’s across the room, where he was sitting at the men’s table and staring intently at me.
Swish.
I immediately turned my head as if nothing had happened. The timing couldn’t be worse with that guy.
When I looked back toward Elli, she continued speaking to me as though she had just thought of something else.
“Come to think of it, I heard that men and women use the large bathhouse at separate times.”
“Oh, really?”
“So be careful when you go alone at night. Some of the other boys might come in too.”
“Oh, come on… surely that won’t happen?”
“You never know. One of the boys might also be thinking of secretly going to bathe alone at night, like you, Oppa.”
I couldn’t imagine that happening, though.
“Got it. I’ll be careful.”
The Hans I knew wasn’t the sort to come out alone in the middle of the night just to bathe.
I gave her a casual nod and kept moving my fork.
……
And then, at 9:03 p.m.
“Phew.”
I didn’t know what Elli had told them, but the other girls in the room didn’t try particularly hard to stop me from going to bathe alone at night.
Thanks to everyone’s kind consideration, I slipped out of the room, stretched, and looked out into the darkness beyond the window.
‘Someone must obviously be guarding this place.’
This was a lodging where the daughters of famous noble families like Elli were staying for the night. Naturally, security would be tight even after dark.
‘Still, I had to do it. What choice did I have?’
For a moment, the ominous thought crossed my mind that Asta’s antiquarian bookstore might already have closed, but I decided to set aside that worst-case possibility for now.
Having steeled my resolve once more, I nodded firmly and quietly set off into the darkness.
‘Wait for me, Asta! I’m coming!’
Even so, for the first time, I felt as though I was getting at least a little closer to the truth about Rene and a way to reclaim my original body.