What I Want
A few minutes after I parted ways with my upperclassman.
“I already told you I don’t care about that.”
Jinny suddenly spoke up from behind me.
“What are you talking about?”
“I heard everything you said to her earlier.”
Ah.
She’d been eavesdropping?
“I told you. You don’t have to worry about it. I’ll handle the worrying.”
“…Why would you go that far for me?”
Huh?
“Is it because you want something from me?”
It wasn’t as if I wanted nothing from Jinny.
But still.
“Because I found out you were being bullied.”
“What?”
“…Once I knew, I couldn’t just pretend I didn’t.”
If I hadn’t known, I might have simply looked the other way.
But ignoring it after learning the truth? That I couldn’t do.
“That’s unexpected.”
“Hm?”
“I always thought Reina avoided sticking her nose into other people’s business.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“…A few weeks ago, yeah, that would’ve been true.”
Back then I’d believed it was better not to meddle. I’d been dead certain that if I stepped in, things would only get worse.
“…But even someone like me figured out I can still save people. And once I realized that… I found myself wanting to save as many as I could.”
It was all thanks to Ceryll.
If she hadn’t stayed by my side and shown me, I never would have changed.
“You’ve changed, Reina.”
“Yeah.”
“Even if your height stayed the same.”
That’ll grow eventually.
“Reina, when I make potions, I put my heart into them.”
I didn’t know much about alchemy, so I simply listened quietly.
“If I don’t truly feel like making them, I just… can’t.”
Not that she won’t make them.
She can’t.
The difference between those two was huge.
“But everyone else just thought I was being stubborn.”
“…….”
“All I ever heard was that I had to make recovery potions for the kingdom.”
Jinny listed off everything she’d been told.
You must make potions for the kingdom.
Even if you don’t want to, you have to! Sacrifice your own feelings and the world will be better for everyone!
“Even after hearing all that, I still never felt like making them. People started calling me weird. A freak.”
“I don’t think ‘freak’ is such a bad nickname.”
I looked at her as I continued.
“It means you’re different. Special. Isn’t that kind of… cool?”
“Are you going through a chuunibyou phase, Reina?”
I’m way past that age!
“And the more people force you to make something you hate, the more you hate making it. That’s just normal.”
I knew perfectly well that forcing someone to do what they didn’t want never worked.
I kept my eyes on Jinny and went on.
“…If you don’t want to make them, then you don’t have to. Who cares what everyone else says? What matters is how you feel.”
Forcing someone who doesn’t want to is wrong.
It just tramples their heart underfoot.
“Maybe your potions could change the world… but even if they don’t, it won’t be the end of anything.”
“…….”
“The kingdom’s been running fine all this time without your potions, right?”
Improving things was good, sure.
But silencing Jinny’s will for that purpose didn’t sit right with me.
“…You’re the first person who’s ever said that to me.”
“I can’t be the only one. There are tons of people out there. Someone else has to think the same way I do…”
Squeeze.
Jinny suddenly pulled me into a hug.
Because we were about the same height, it felt completely different from being held by Ceryll.
“Just you is enough for me, Reina.”
“Jinny?”
“I liked you from the moment we met… and it turns out it wasn’t just because you’re short.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
When I asked, a soft laugh brushed against my ear.
“They say freaks recognize their own. Maybe I noticed you were a freak right from the start.”
“…That’s a compliment, right?”
“Yes.”
Jinny nodded and added,
“Because to me, Reina is an incredibly special person.”
Harley, the alchemy instructor at Persia Academy, was flustered by the principal’s sudden summons.
But what left him even more stunned was—
“…Fired?”
The abrupt news of his dismissal.
“What is the meaning of this?! You know better than anyone how dedicated I, Harley, am to nurturing alchemy talent!”
Naturally, Harley protested.
Slap.
The principal tossed a stack of documents onto the desk in front of him.
“Th-this is…”
“Evidence that you turned a blind eye while a precious Academy student was being bullied. No—rather, you actively encouraged it.”
The magically recorded documents were packed with every last thing Harley had done.
…The only people who could gather evidence this detailed would be the Strauss family.
Ironclad proof. No way out.
It even listed the worse offenses he’d committed outside the Academy.
Getting off with just a firing was practically a mercy.
“…I understand.”
In the end, Harley had no choice but to accept it.
…It’s fine. I’m a great alchemist. Plenty of people will hire me even without this Academy!
With those words he left, and soon another person entered the principal’s office.
“Come in, Anin.”
Anin Strauss.
The very person who had exposed Harley’s deeds.
“I’ve also gathered materials on what Harley’s favorite students did. As promised, please expel them as well.”
The principal skimmed the documents and let out a hollow laugh.
She made it so I have no choice but to expel them.
And none of it was fabricated; every word was true.
“…We can’t keep students who not only bullied a precious Academy student but committed vile acts outside these walls as well. As promised, they will be expelled.”
“Thank you.”
Anin bowed her head.
“Still, I never expected you to take an interest in something like this, Anin.”
“What do you mean?”
“Aren’t you usually only concerned with matters related to the Apostles of Evil?”
Anin was so busy searching for Apostles of Evil and gathering information that he truly hadn’t expected her to investigate misconduct by a teacher of another subject inside the school.
“Even I don’t focus solely on Apostles of Evil. Appearances aside, I am still a teacher at this Academy. It’s only natural to take an interest in wrongdoing that happens here.”
He had been quite surprised when a daughter of the Strauss family chose to become a teacher, but looking at her now, it seemed like a fine decision after all.
She’s become a proper teacher.
The principal felt a quiet pride.
“More than anything, those people tried to lay a hand on Rei… on my precious student. How dare they! I will never forgive them.”
“I-is that so.”
“Yes. So I plan to make sure they can never show their faces in society again. Please rest easy.”
With the Strauss family applying pressure, those students’ futures would be thoroughly blocked.
Y-you might be getting a little too attached to your student…
“Reina, just what did you do?”
Jinny slammed her palm down on my desk and demanded.
“About what?”
“The alchemy teacher got fired, and most of those upperclassmen got expelled. You did something, didn’t you?”
Huh?
“…I didn’t do anything.”
“Hmm. Fine, if you don’t want to talk about it.”
I really don’t know anything about this, though?
“…Still, it’s a good thing.”
The people who’d been bullying Jinny were gone, so that was good, right?
“It’s all thanks to you, Reina.”
No, I genuinely didn’t do a thing?
Jinny leaned her face in extremely close.
Her pink twin-tails brushed against my cheek.
“So, as a special exception, I’ll grant you one thing you want.”
She smiled as she said it.
“What?”
“If you ask me to make a recovery potion, I might even make one for you.”
I blinked.
“I thought you didn’t want to make them?”
“I don’t. But if it’s you asking… I might feel like making one.”
What even is that.
“…It’s fine. I don’t want to force anything on you.”
The moment the words left my mouth, Jinny’s finger pressed against my lips.
A soft sensation traced the line of my mouth.
“I like that about you, Reina.”
Ceryll was beautiful, sure, but Jinny was gorgeous too.
Hearing someone like her say she liked me made me feel oddly embarrassed.
…I know she’s just saying it as a friend, but.
Wait. Hold on.
…Are Jinny and I even friends?
Ceryll had called me her friend out loud before.
But I’d never heard anything like that from Jinny.
“Reina?”
When I stayed silent, Jinny tilted her head.
Looking into her violet eyes, I swallowed hard.
“There’s one thing I want after all.”
“What is it?”
“…Be my friend.”
Once I said it, I felt kind of embarrassed.
A little cringey, even.
“No.”
The answer froze me solid.
“…Right. Of course. Who’d want to be friends with someone like me.”
I knew that much.
I wasn’t exactly the easy-to-be-friends-with type.
Even Ceryll, with her sunny personality, had gotten sick of me and left, hadn’t she?
There might have been other reasons… but still.
While those thoughts ran through my head—
Lick.
Jinny suddenly licked my cheek.
“J-Jinny?”
“You’re a special person to me, Reina. So I can’t just call you a ‘friend.’”
“…Why?”
I rubbed the licked spot with my palm as I asked.
And why did she lick me, anyway?
“Because I want to be a special existence to you too. Friends can have lots of other friends, right? I want to be your only one.”
Some kind of possessiveness?
I’d heard girls get jealous when their friend gets along well with someone else.
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
“What?”
“I have zero friends.”
Even my only friend Ceryll had left, so it wasn’t a lie.
“So you’d be my one and only friend.”
“…Still no.”
Why now!
“I just don’t like the way ‘friend’ sounds.”
You just don’t want to be friends, do you? Right?
By the time morning assembly started, I still hadn’t managed to extract a “let’s be friends” from Jinny.
I sighed and propped my chin on my hand, and Ceryll’s seat entered my field of view.
…Absent again.
Was she skipping just to avoid me?
I didn’t know.
But looking at that empty desk made my heart twist like it was being torn apart.
I’d tried to let Ceryll go.
But seeing her missing made me realize something.
I was already bound to her.
I couldn’t be without her.
…I’ll go to her room.
One more try.
No—even if she rejects me, I’ll keep talking to her as many times as it takes.
Just as I made that decision—
Creak.
Anin entered for class.
And with an extremely serious expression, she opened her mouth.
“…Has anyone seen Ceryll over the weekend?”
I instantly knew something had gone wrong.
Morning assembly ended.
I immediately went up to Anin and asked,
“Teacher. Did something happen to Ceryll?”
“…Ceryll has gone missing.”
What?