The Sole Childhood Friend (3)
The dilapidated shack in the slums, on the verge of collapsing.
"Hey... Eli, are you angry?"
Eli didn't answer at all. What was I supposed to do about this.
"... Ah."
I turned around and hugged the sleeping Eli from my side. And pressed my ear to her back. Thump thump. The sound of her heartbeat echoed.
By keeping my ear there, I felt her heartbeat gradually speeding up.
"I really didn't intend to do that."
"..."
"It's the life you saved for me."
"..."
This was stubborn; she wasn't giving any response.
I gave up on speaking and clung to Eli's back, feeling her warmth. When night came, it would be so cold that even a thin, worn blanket couldn't withstand it.
But if I slept with Eli, it wouldn't be cold.
Eli was the black villain. The one who would later destroy the kingdom and kill the other heroines of the academy. The black villain that I had to stop now.
If I took Eli's life at this moment, the horrific plot from the original novel wouldn't happen.
But I couldn't do it. I couldn't commit such a betrayal as to cut off the breath of the life Eli saved for me.
Moreover, the most frightening thing was that the more I spent time with Eli, the less she seemed dangerous.
The more I talked to her, the more human she felt.
She seemed kind. Like a friend.
Even in this moment, as I playfully hugged Eli, I realized how terrifying the warmth of a person really is.
Only a week had passed since I was reincarnated, yet I was starting to understand that the warmth of a person is truly frightening.
If I had only read it as a novel, she would have been no different from a terrible villain.
I could feel my internal favorability towards Eli gradually increasing.
It wasn't that I was strange at all. It was just that Eli was too beautiful.
After all, appearance is probability.
So, I was hugging Eli from behind and thinking useless thoughts.
"Hey, Tere."
"H-huh?"
I wiped the saliva from my mouth and answered.
Did she catch me thinking useless thoughts?
The quiet Eli suddenly spoke to me, and I felt a bit tense. What should I say? It felt like I was talking to a nephew I didn't know how to deal with.
"I became the Saintess."
"...Huh."
Eli turned her body again and looked at me. The platinum blonde eyes and my blue eyes met. Eli's eyes were subtly glowing.
"Look at this."
Eli spread her hand, and beautiful pure white magic swirled there. It moved like a constellation.
"Wow..."
Seeing the magic in reality, I could only admire it. The description that those who saw Eli's magic would be lost in its beauty was exactly true.
"...So, after entering the academy, I'll be fighting against the Demon Race? I just want to be with you."
"Even so, since there's a Saintess, there should be a Hero, right?"
"I want you to be the Hero, Tere. I don't want to go on adventures with some unknown Hero or something..."
"But I can't be the Hero, right? I smiled awkwardly. There was already the original protagonist Chris of the novel."
I was a character who didn't appear even a single line in the original novel. In fact, I was just an extra who was already dead or would soon die.
I didn't fully understand the conditions for Eli becoming the black villain and destroying everything, but I understood that it was ultimately connected to my death.
If I died, I would have to somehow stop Eli before that.
"So, how about you try learning magic too, Tere?"
"What?"
I couldn't use magic, right?
Thinking that, I waved my hand.
"Of course not. You're not a Saintess like me, and you're not even nobility. How are you supposed to use magic?"
"Huu~ Do you really think that?"
Eli narrowed her eyes and poked the center of my chest with her finger.
"I believe you can use magic, Tere."
"Your tone is very confident."
"Anyway, try it."
Even if she said that... I didn't know how to use magic. I had never learned it, and it was strange that Eli, who awakened the Saintess's ability, could naturally handle magic.
But because Eli kept urging me to try, I couldn't help but think that maybe I had magic talent too.
So, I gathered strength from my hand, made strange noises like "kuuuu", and squeezed all my strength from my body, but no 'ma' of magic power appeared.
Feeling like I had done a pointless show, I said to Eli with a red face, as if accusing her.
"See? It doesn't work!"
"Pfft! Fuahaha!"
"Don't laugh."
Why was she laughing after making me do it? I wanted to pinch her soft cheek and make her scream.
Thinking that, I reached out to her cheek, but I was startled by the soft, smooth sensation.
Why was my cheek so soft?
"Mmm."
"Really. After hearing Eli's words, I really thought you had talent for magic."
"Haa, you can use it just like that."
But you really can use magic? It was too confident to just be teasing. Could it be that the Saintess had the ability to detect magic talent?
"Aah."
I removed my hand from Eli's protest. Eli's baby-like soft cheek was slightly red.
"Do you have the ability to detect magic power, Eli? How do you know I can use magic with such certainty?"
Then Eli flinched slightly.
"Yeah, that's right."
It was an oddly vague answer.
A subtly uncomfortable feeling. Was she hiding something from me? I looked at Eli, and she smiled faintly and approached me.
"Come on, Tere. This is magic power."
Eli created magic power from her hand and placed it on my chest.
At first, it felt hot or painful, so I hesitated, but once it touched, nothing happened. Rather...
"It feels warm."
"Right?"
Eli's platinum magic power was warm. It was a bit hot, and anyway, it was magic power with that feeling.
"The reason you couldn't use magic, Tere, is simple. You just haven't used it once, so you don't know the sensation of raising it."
"I see..."
Then how did Eli use magic once and heal the fatal wound on my neck?
It was possible that Eli was just a genius overflowing with talent. In the original work, Eli was also described as a genius.
In other words, I was receiving one-on-one private lessons from a genius.
The fate of being the Saintess's childhood friend seemed not so bad, considering.
"Now, I'll give you my magic power. Receive it well."
"Okay."
Eli said that and placed the magic power on my chest and pressed it firmly. Then, something unstoppable power began to spread from inside my body.
'Feeling good...'
A warm, cozy sensation spread throughout my body. The pleasant sensation gradually stimulated from the tips of my toes to my head, heating my whole body, and finally, when the magic power completely entered my body, the sensation exploded.
"Eeeugh?!"
"...Are you okay?"
Because I felt too good, I unconsciously made a moaning sound. It was a sensation that made my head white.
No, what was this?
Was giving magic power this lewd an act?
I was bewildered by the ecstatic feeling that was more than anything I had felt in my life.
In general comics or anime, you get enlightenment while feeling magic power, or you grow while writhing in pain.
But I was just moaning because I felt too good.
Was I such a shameless human? My ears were bright red as I breathed roughly.
And in front of me was Eli.
No. Eli, don't look at this shameful side of me!
"...Tere, are you okay? Your face is really red and you look in pain. Want to rest a bit?"
"Eh?"
It was fortunate.
Eli was still pure.
She hadn't been stained by darkness.
"Ah, no. I'm fine! It was just that I was surprised by the new sensation."
"...Really?"
She made a face as if she didn't look fine at all and looked suspicious. If I rested like this, it would be more troublesome.
I might have to experience that strange thing again.
I absolutely didn't want to do that.
"Hurry! Tell me how to use magic! I don't mind!"
Eli, startled by my tremendous academic zeal, stepped back. But after a moment, she smiled brightly as if she had understood something.
"By the way, Tere, you also want to go to the academy with me, right? Then you should have said so."
It seemed she had misunderstood something strange.
But rather, I was grateful. It was a hundred times better than a perverted childhood friend who felt orgasm from magic power sensations.
"Good, from now on, listen to what I say. Got it?"
And before an hour passed, I was able to use basic magic.
I could handle the minimum holy magic like Light and Heal. It was conveniently the same attribute as Eli's magic.
But I had no sense of achievement from using magic for the first time.
I just smiled weakly at Eli and said I was tired, then immediately fell asleep.
"By the way, Tere. What was that strange sound earlier?"
I ignored Eli's last question.