Chapter 39: Why Did You Come Here Again?

The period during which I had agreed to receive treatment from Mia was one week. And since that week included two filming sessions, I didn't need to set aside separate time to meet Mia all seven days.

Before or after filming. I only needed to leave a little extra time on one side or the other to receive treatment.

The timing itself didn't matter, but since the treatment used up most of Mia's magic power, it was more efficient to receive it after filming ended.

If there was one minor problem...

"...Huh? Where did Miss Alice go? Has she already gone home? And Miss Mia too...?"

"Ah, she and Miss Mia are in another room for a moment..."

-Crash

-Bang!

"Y-yes, A-Alice... I'm here..."

"...?"

Since I inevitably had to spend time alone with Mia and then appeared sweaty after disappearing, it seemed people were looking at us a little suspiciously.

It wasn't a strange relationship by any reasonable standard, but their gazes still seemed curious about what the two of us had been doing alone before appearing in such a disheveled state.

"Before we part, I was using a healing spell on my senior to help regulate her condition. It's nothing serious."

"Are you feeling unwell? Hmm... Shooting twice a week isn't exactly a relaxed schedule. And since we're leaving most of the filming to Miss Alice's ad-libs... I can understand why your condition would suffer. In fact, now that I think about it, it's a harsh schedule for Miss Alice."

"Th-that's true, I suppose? Are you okay, Senpai...?"

"Alice worked out this schedule after discussing it with Miss Emerald. She's perfectly fine."

"I see... Still, please don't overdo it. Our company prioritizes a magical girl's condition, even if that means changing the broadcast schedule a little. If you feel at all unwell, contact us immediately. Chairman Emerald won't want anything to happen to Miss Alice because she pushed herself during filming, either."

No, I told them, I'm really fine.

...That said, this reaction wasn't strange either.

The image Alice presented to the world had to be perfect, after all. It wasn't strange for them to worry when Alice, who always appeared perfect and never showed even the slightest sign of dishevelment, was secretly receiving magic from a support-type magical girl because she wasn't feeling well.

'...Should I have just gone somewhere else, even if it was a bother?'

Going outside to find somewhere for just the two of us had been a hassle, which was why I'd rented a room at the filming location, but it had become a little troublesome.

...Ah. Is this because of the Nightmare Queen from last time?

"Ah..."

"Huh? How do you know about that, Miss Sapphire?"

"I was assigned to the same party that day. Miss Aia was there too."

"Aia...! Hmm. I suppose that makes sense. She is none other than the number-one S-rank magical girl..."

...There had been so much going on lately that my head was starting to ache.

So... Mia met Aia with Han Se-jin, and Sapphire met Aia with Alice, right?

'...This could get troublesome if I let my words get tangled.'

[Is this what two-timing in human dramas is like?]

'It's similar, but different. It's not that kind of relationship.'

Two-timing? I wasn't planning to date even one person, so Tokkaengi needed to talk sense.

To begin with, both of them probably recognized 'Alice' as a woman, which made it even more ridiculous.

...Still, having to watch every single word like someone who was actually two-timing did fit to some extent.

Mia in particular had memories built up with me as Han Se-jin, so if I talked about something I'd done with Han Se-jin while I was Alice, or about something I'd done with Alice while I was Han Se-jin, it would be incredibly dangerous... I had to think even harder.

'These days feel like the hardest I've had in the past eight years...'

Once filming ended, I decided I would go back to operating quietly.

Mia was unavoidable since she lived next door, but once filming ended, I wouldn't even have any reason to see Sapphire.

For now, the biggest threats were Mia, who I kept getting entangled with somehow, and Aia, who might show up again at any moment and cause a disaster.

-Bang!

"Speak of the devil. But tigers aren't the only things that come when called. Yes, I have arrived. It is Aia."

'?'

And then, as if on cue, Aia suddenly flung open the door to the filming room and walked in.

'????????'

[Alice! Control your expression, control it! This is real! Not a dream!]

'Don't lie. How can something as implausible as Aia suddenly barging in like this be reality?'

[Aia can do that! So hurry up and fix your expression!]

""...Miss Aia?""

"That expression. You look like you never expected Aia to appear so suddenly. But that's how Aia is. Appearing in unexpected places is part of Aia's role, too. And Aia definitely heard someone calling for her somewhere around here."

"...It wasn't me, at least."

"I... didn't either..."

-Stare

Alice, who had only just barely recovered from her shock and begun facing reality... that is, me, was the target of her gaze.

...Huh?

"Ah, yes, Aia the sinful woman. I unintentionally bewitched Alice."

"That's what this is?!"

"No, it isn't?!"

Ah.

"..."

"...Huh?"

"Huh?"

...I had failed to maintain the persona.

Normally, Alice wouldn't raise her voice over something like this, but the situation was so chaotic that my real personality had slipped through to some extent before I knew it.

Fortunately, I had at least maintained Alice's manner of speaking and voice.

"...Ahem. Anyway, Alice wasn't doing anything like thinking about Miss Aia or anything. I was only thinking about the next lesson, that's all."

"They've said since ancient times that the stronger the denial, the stronger the affirmation. In truth, Alice wanted Aia deep in her heart."

"I said she doesn't."

Mia and Sapphire, apparently shocked by the sight of Alice raising her voice, were speechless for a moment, but soon regained their senses and managed to return to reality.

"...What a rare sight. This is the first time I've seen Miss Alice get angry."

"For me... it wasn't the first time, but... it has been a while. And the reason she got angry is so cute, too."

"That is true."

"Hmph, Alice is perfect, after all."

Although I said that, my face was burning inside.

For someone who'd been acting for eight years to lose control for that one moment and cause an incident like this... It was fortunate that the break in character was minor and everyone nearby knew me, but if I'd shouted like that in the middle of downtown, all hell would have broken loose.

"Oh... I came too, but is the timing bad? Aia asked me to come with her."

"Miss Emerald?!"

"Chairwoman?!"

"...Miss Emerald came too."

At this point, I began to wonder what kind of day today was.

Aia wasn't enough—Emerald had come along too? I was starting to feel an overwhelming urge to use Stellar Shift and run away.

"Anyway, Miss Alice said she wasn't thinking about Aia, but that's incorrect. You said you were definitely thinking about the next shoot, didn't you, Miss Alice?"

"...What does that have to do with anything?"

"Because I'm scheduled to join the next shoot as an assistant instructor. Yay—"

"All of a sudden...?"

I nearly broke character again.

No, since it had already broken just now, it wouldn't have made much difference if I'd let loose one more time. Maybe I should have just blurted it out.

"Well... Aia suddenly came to me today and made the suggestion. I thought it would be good for my juniors to meet a lot of magical girls, so I accepted, but when I was about to contact you, Aia said we should come tell you in person. So I ended up notifying you like this. Sorry."

"...Well, Miss Emerald is fine."

From Emerald's perspective, there was no reason at all to refuse.

She wasn't short on money. The other top-ranked magical girls, including Aia, didn't have enough time to appear on programs like this, but if Aia came first and offered to appear as a guest, Emerald had no reason to refuse. If a long-awaited product finally came out, but its sales period was limited so that you couldn't buy it later, wouldn't most people buy it right away?

The contract for this program had already left open the possibility of inviting other magical girls as guests if they could be found, so this wasn't an especially strange development either.

I'd jokingly said that Alice wouldn't accept a guest ranked lower than her... but I never expected them to actually succeed in bringing someone ranked above her.

In this case, though, Aia was the one who had come to them first.

"...But why do you want to participate in Alice's lesson, Miss Aia?"

"While collecting information about the world through television, Aia found Miss Alice's magical theory impressive. It differs from Aia's, so Aia wanted to compare them."

...Ah. I could sympathize with that to some extent.

I'd wondered how that woman used magic, and apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

"Oh... Aren't you interested in my magic?"

"I understand Miss Emerald's. She compresses and stores her magic power in gemstone form, then detonates it when necessary. Aia has applied the same principle to some machines as well."

"You did?!"

"Compression is important to machines."

As I listened, my wariness—wondering what kind of trouble that crazy woman had come here to cause this time—began to fade.

I didn't particularly like her, but I acknowledged her ability as a magical girl. Her skill with magic was naturally outstanding as well.

"...Fine. But Alice has a condition, too."

"Aia will accommodate you as much as possible. Ah, Aia has activated the machine. Only the two of us can hear this conversation."

"...Please don't ask questions that would put Alice in a difficult position. This includes questions about magic, of course, questions about Alice personally, and any other questions about the lesson. If you decide that a question of any kind might make Alice uncomfortable, don't ask it."

This was a necessary safeguard.

Aia already knew about the existence of Alice's "older brother." If she asked some strange question about him during the lesson, it would spread to the many rookie magical girls beside us, and with that many people, controlling the information would be difficult.

I'd already gotten her promise not to tell anyone else about "older brother," but this time I decided to limit the scope a little further.

Alice was the owner of this program. A guest had to remain a guest, no matter that she was the number-one S-rank magical girl.

"...Understood. It would be impolite for a guest to put the host in a difficult position. Aia will engrave this into her memory. If any questions occur to Aia that might make Miss Alice uncomfortable, Aia will delete them from the list."

"...And I trust you're still keeping the secret from a little while ago, of course."

"Of course. To protect the secret, Aia hasn't even told the machines. Aia alone knows about it in this world."

...She was an unpredictable woman, but at least she listened well.

So maybe magical girls really did have good hearts.

I still didn't understand why a woman like that would hit on a man who said he already had a girlfriend, though.

"Then Aia will turn off the machine."

"...Yes."

In any case, the negotiation had gone properly, and everyone around us was staring at the two of us with bewildered expressions after we suddenly blocked them out and began speaking alone.

They looked as if they were wondering what the two of us were talking about.

"Nothing serious. Aia merely obtained the right to appear after a legitimate negotiation with Miss Alice."

"So that was a negotiation...?"

"Oh, and Miss Mia, how is your love life going? Aia is sad that you haven't contacted her."

"W-why would you say that here?"

For a moment, I thought Sapphire's eyes as she looked at Mia had changed into the gaze of someone looking at something extraordinary, but I decided it was just my imagination.

"Um... I... I'm... allowed... to... leave... work... now... right...?"

...There was also a former magical girl who had been stuck among the magical girls, doing nothing but reading the room since earlier.