Persuasion
After nearly dying to a magical beast and surviving what, in game terms, would have been the prologue...
We ended up staying at Silvia's house until the village was fully restored.
Along the way, we learned a few new things, too.
Ding──
"Eek──!"
"Lily? What's wrong?"
"N-nothing. It's nothing."
The days themselves were peaceful enough — but the mere sound of anything resembling a status window still sent chills racing down my entire body.
Eventually the village was rebuilt and we went home... but after living in the city for over half a year, Elin had grown thoroughly accustomed to its conveniences. At every opportunity, she'd drag me over to Silvia's house to hang out.
"Auntie! We're he—— Auntie?"
"...She left a note."
You're here? I'll be away for a week because of a conference. I left some pocket money, so use it as you like. And don't call me Aunt!!
"She's started anticipating the lecture and leaving it in writing now...?"
Of course, Silvia had grown just as used to us. At some point, we started treating each other like actual cousins.
And then, well...
"Elin, go easy on me today... My back still hurts..."
"You're just weak, Lily. I'm fine."
Elin trained with the sword; I trained in magic.
As an extension of that, we sparred from time to time... Look, isn't it only natural that a swordswoman has a better body than a mage?
We trained like that. We studied like that.
And every so often, through the status window that still refused to vanish from my sight, I checked whether Lia was still alive...
"Miss Lily! Please marry me!"
"...Excuse me?"
Before I knew it, eight years had passed.
Sixteen years old.
In the modern world, that would still have been adolescence — but here, it was an age where people treated you as something of an adult.
Which meant engagements and marriages were fair game.
"I'm sorry. I haven't given any thought to marriage yet..."
Freedom or not, that didn't mean I was going to accept.
As I passed the nameless young man who looked thoroughly crushed, Elin waved from a distance where she'd been waiting for me.
"Lily! Why are you so late!"
"Sorry — someone stopped me on the way."
"...Did you get confessed to again?"
A chill crawled up my entire body.
Outwardly she looked the same as always, but those words alone dropped the temperature around us by a good ten degrees. I shook my head with passionate urgency.
"Wha—?! No? Absolutely not! No way, no how!"
"...Well. Fine. If you say so, Lily."
And just like that, Elin was back to normal.
I felt relief — and at the same time, the fact that I felt relief at all struck me as deeply strange.
She wasn't like this when we were little... Why did she change so much...?
I didn't even need to go back to when we were eight.
Barely two years ago, she'd still just hold my hand and murmur Lily... — but the moment she learned what romance was, she started reacting like this.
...Does she think of me like a mother?
Kids can get upset if their parents remarry, after all. I'd looked after her since we were little, and we'd always been together, so it wasn't impossible she'd developed that kind of perspective.
Of course.
"Don't worry, Elin. I will absolutely never date or get married."
I was a man to begin with.
Even after becoming a woman, marrying a man was psychologically out of the question — and dating or marrying a woman?
That would be hard on society, and hard on the other person.
So I stroked Elin's hair and reassured her.
"..."
"Elin?"
"...It's nothing. Let's go."
Elin still looked in a foul mood, but I couldn't figure out why.
But that won't last forever!
The reason Elin and I had come into the city today was for none other than Operation: Send Elin to the Academy.
Ever since I'd transmigrated into this world, one question had been gnawing at me.
At this rate... Elin isn't going to go to the Academy, is she?
One of the spoilers I'd been hit with:
To never lose someone precious again, Elin enters the Academy — a line I'd thought about so much I couldn't forget it.
The problem is, that childhood friend is me.
I'd thrashed around desperately not to die, and now there was a real chance the world itself would go to ruin.
If this were an ordinary raising sim, maybe it wouldn't matter — but given that magical beasts appear and the Academy is essentially a military training school, the ending almost certainly involves those beasts.
Plus, the last raising game I'd played had you fight a god and then become one yourself...
The bigger problem is that I don't know the ending.
For all I knew, Luna Elin could have been a healing game.
Just raise your daughter, get a job based on her stats — the classic route. In that case, I wouldn't need to do anything. If that were true, not going to the Academy wouldn't matter.
But... I didn't know!
How am I supposed to know if this is one of those multi-route games tailored to modern dopamine — magical beast attacks, regressions, the whole clear-the-game loop!
Other transmigrators look at things and go, Hmm, in the original they did this, so I should do that, and use their knowledge like a cheat code...
Why did I only get spoilers and then get stuck in here?!
I'd been angry about it for eight years, and I was still silently seething behind Elin's back.
Regardless — not knowing the ending left me with only one conclusion.
Send Elin to the Academy.
Of course, I myself would not be going.
Why would I walk into a place where I had no idea what incidents might break out?
Elin was the protagonist, so she wouldn't die. I'd just play with her whenever she came home on break and live a leisurely life.
That was why I'd planned today's outing.
I'll drag her around all day and gaslight her until she's dying to go to the Academy...
And so, following the plan I'd laid out, I spent the day touring the city with Elin.
"...!"
"Good, right? More importantly, Elin, about the Academy——"
"Here, Lily. Say ah."
"You don't have to feed me..."
"Hurry up. My arm's getting tired, Lily."
"Says the girl with all the strength..."
Even while eating, I piled on stories designed to make her romanticize the Academy.
"Elin. I heard the Academy is full of gorgeous guys and girls."
"...I don't care."
"Huh? But Elin, you're at that age now——"
"More importantly, Lily. How does this hairstyle look?"
"...? It's pretty."
I tried talking about romance and looks — the kinds of things a girl entering puberty might like — to stoke her interest in the Academy...
"Elin. Do you know about Academy uniforms? I heard they're super pretty and cute."
"Really?"
"Yeah! Look, the skirt goes like this, and it's designed like this...!"
"...Cute. Yeah. Definitely cute."
I sketched out the Academy uniform and dangled the idea of getting to wear clothes like that...
Before long, the sun was setting outside.
It was too late to head back to the village, so we started toward Silvia's house.
"Elin, did you have fun today?"
"Yeah. Going on a date with you was nice, Lily."
We walked along exchanging small talk like that.
Was hanging out with a friend also called a date? The thought crossed my mind, but I'd seen people say that even before transmigrating, so I didn't comment.
And then, at last, the timing was right to bring it up.
"Elin. There's something I need to talk to you about..."
"...Yeah?"
"It might catch you off guard, but I feel like I have to say it today."
"Wait, Lily, that's—— this is sudden..."
On a street lit by the setting sun.
After eight years of fretting over it, I finally gave my answer.
"Elin."
"Y-yeah... Lily..."
I was so nervous I took a deep breath first.
"Won't you go to the Academy?"
"I'd love to... I've always wanted you, Lily—— wait, what?"
Contrary to my worries, Elin accepted the proposal with what looked like overwhelming emotion, her eyes slightly misty.
Whew... All that Academy praise paid off.
Just as I started thinking about how to handle her enrollment paperwork—
"No."
"Huh? Elin...?"
"No. No no no. Absolutely not."
...Elin was saying that with her cheeks puffed out and her eyes red-rimmed.
She'd accepted it — so why the sudden change...?
"So... you want me to help you persuade Elin?"
"Yes... She won't listen to a word I say..."
After Elin's sudden change of heart had shot down my request, I'd kept trying to convince her the whole way home — but she wouldn't answer, wouldn't even react. In the end, I had to ask Silvia for help.
"Well, I can see whose fault this is... but the Academy, huh..."
Silvia tilted her head this way and that as if mulling it over, then asked me a single question.
"Lily, why do you want Elin to go to the Academy?"
"Huh? Well... Elin has talent with the sword... and just graduating from the Academy means places all over will want to recruit you."
One of the things I'd learned living here for eight years:
Academy graduates lived well-respected lives no matter what field they specialized in.
Whether you became a mercenary, a knight, or a researcher — having an Academy background alone put you at a completely different starting line from everyone else.
"And you don't want to go, Lily?"
"I don't have the talent to pass. I was losing to Elin all day yesterday, remember?"
Well, even if that weren't the case, I don't particularly want to risk my life.
A different starting line?
If I went to the Academy, my starting line might disappear entirely.
After hearing everything I had to say, Silvia closed her eyes — then they snapped open as if something had occurred to her.
"So what you're saying, Lily, is that as long as Elin gets persuaded to go to the Academy somehow, that's enough?"
"Yes. I don't know if it'll work, but... please."
"Heh heh heh... Watch carefully as an adult who wrangled a pass out of those needlessly picky examiners deploys her rhetorical arts..."
Muttering something about whether her latest research had been approved, Silvia approached Elin.
At first, Elin ignored her the same way she'd ignored me.
"...? ...!"
"Hey... she wouldn't listen to me..."
After barely a few words, Elin was now staring at Silvia with sparkling eyes, hanging on every syllable.
So that was an adult's rhetorical arts...
"Lily. Let's go to the Academy."
"Really?! How on earth did you persuade her?"
"That's still a secret."
And just like that, persuading Elin succeeded. Seeing her in a good mood lifted my spirits too.
I should have been more careful at that moment...
"Why am I here...?"
"What are you talking about, Lily? We agreed to go to the Academy together, didn't we?"
As long as she gets persuaded somehow.
What Silvia sold off after hearing those words... was my enrollment in the Academy.