Because Our Hearts Are Still Connected
Because Our Hearts Are Still Connected
Flare. The mercenary who treated me when I was bedridden with Nine Yin Severed Meridians. My lifesaver. The person I dreamed of seeing again.
She was the one who gave me the dream of becoming an adventurer, my role model.
But... Flare became an Academy professor?
I thought I'd only meet her after becoming an adventurer. You mean I can see her this soon...?
'...No. "Flare" could be a common name. Don't get ahead of myself.'
I wasn't so foolish as to get excited over just the name Flare. It could be someone else.
I suppressed my rising heart as much as possible and pointed to the name above Flare's, keeping my expression calm.
"Sis, what kind of lecture is this?"
"Hm? Let's see... Ah. Fire Element Theory?"
Mar looked at the lecture name under my fingertip, her eyebrows narrowing slightly.
"Mm... There's something about it I remember. What was it?"
She folded her arms and pondered for a moment as if searching her memory.
Soon she snapped her fingers.
"Ah. It's literally a fire magic lecture. It's challenging, but I heard it's a very thorough lecture. It's a required course for fire element mages, too."
"Is... is that so? Then what about the professor? It says here, 'New professor with a poor reputation.' How can a new professor already have a bad rep?"
Mar had been explaining calmly, but when I couldn't hold back and asked about the professor's reputation, the answer surprised me.
"I overheard some graduate students in the magic department talking behind her back. They were saying things like, 'How can someone like that become a professor?'."
"Graduate students...? Why on earth?"
"That she became a professor without any notable research achievements. That she used to be an appraiser, so why does she get to be a professor? That sort of thing. Maybe because of that, no one applied to her lab."
Mar explained that the graduate students gossiped about her lack of career and that no one applied to her lab.
Oddly, hearing that made my heart ache, even though it wasn't confirmed that she was Flare.
Maybe that's why my voice naturally held sympathy.
"That's pitiful... What happens if you have no grad students?"
"It must be inconvenient, right? Research is especially important in magic, but she'd be too busy with teaching to do solo research. Come to think of it, I saw that professor in passing once, and her expression was rather gloomy."
"You saw her? What did she look like?"
"She didn't look particularly unusual. Just an ordinary person with red hair."
"...!! Was she a dragonkin with horns on her head?!"
"No? She looked perfectly ordinary."
"......Ah. I see."
As soon as I heard her description, my interest cooled right off.
Flare is a dragonkin, so obviously she'd have horns. She doesn't have horns?
'It really wasn't Flare after all....'
"So, what do you want to do? Will you take this lecture?"
"Haah... Yeah. I'll go with that one."
My anticipation deflated in an instant.
I let out a deep sigh and said I'd take that as my second lecture.
"Eh? Are you sure? The professor might be bad at teaching."
"We don't know that yet, do we? And anyway, I'm going to learn fire and ice magic. Getting a head start won't hurt."
"Fair enough, I'll apply for you right away, so you can start attending tomorrow."
"Yeah. Thanks."
* * * * * *
After Mar left, I ate dinner, took a bath, and before I knew it, night had fallen.
Normally it would be time for drowsiness to hit, but...
'I can't sleep.'
Despite the fatigue pressing down hard on my body, I couldn't lie down properly.
The reason was simple. My heart had been stirred up by the hope of meeting Flare earlier. It was still in disarray. How could sleep come?
Unable to sleep, I lay on the bed and kicked my feet restlessly, mulling over the day's events.
Then a thought struck me.
'...Come to think of it, does Flare still remember me?'
The moment the possibility that she might not remember me crossed my mind, my heart sank.
To me, she's someone who gave direction to my life, someone I can never forget. But to Flare, I'm just an eight-year-old kid she spent about a year with because of a contract.
It would be nothing strange if she didn't remember me. She is a mercenary, after all.
It wouldn't be strange, but...
The thought still left my chest oddly tight.
-shake shake.
'...No. Today is the landmark first Academy entrance ceremony, isn't it? What's the point of thinking like this? Focus on happy thoughts, on becoming a grand mage in the future.'
Just imagining it made my mood sink, so I shook my head vigorously and brushed the thought aside. It would be a long time before we met anyway. No point worrying now.
Right. I'm finally at the Academy, free to wander around on my own. Albert would still be awake, so maybe I could take a walk with her around campus....
'Ah. Right. Albert is back at the estate.'
...I had thought about taking a walk, but I quickly realized the reality: unlike at the estate, I can't see my family whenever I want here.
'I'm really at the Academy now. Separated from my family.'
Only then did it sink in that I had enrolled at the Academy and finally left my family's embrace.
But somehow, escaping that stifling overprotectiveness didn't make me particularly happy.
It was because I realized that while before, I could always go see at least one family member right away if I wanted to, now I couldn't.
'...I miss my family already.'
My family, now far away. My family, so incredibly precious to me.
As I thought of them, clear even when I closed my eyes, I felt tears threatening to fall.
So I reached into the subspace pouch near me and pulled something out.
What I took out was... my treasure. The two staves my family gifted me.
I suddenly missed my family's warmth so much that I planned to hug these instead while I slept, but...
'I'll just hug these to sleep—Hm?'
-whirrrrr.
"...Hweh?"
A sudden sound of something being supplied with Mana and activating made me bolt upright again.
'...Mother?'
What activated was the artifact I had given Mother the day before—a device that even allows video communication.
Wondering if something was wrong, I immediately picked up the crystal ball and poured my magic power into it.
Then:
-fwoosh!
Light burst from the artifact and began projecting into the air.
Naturally, the light drew Mother's figure.
"Connected. Well then. Yune, can you see me?"
But her outfit was anything but ordinary. Mother was wearing an Academy uniform.
A uniform that didn't fit, looking ready to pop buttons at any moment.
The gloomy feelings from earlier instantly vanished. What filled my heart instead was... astonishment.
My eyes went wide with shock.
"M-Mother? What on earth are you wearing...?"
"Did you not say you wanted to see me in a uniform? ...I secretly borrowed Charlotte's, so the size does not quite fit. There was no helping it, so please overlook that."
"Didn't you say you wouldn't wear it during the day?"
"I said I could not show such an appearance before others. I never said I would not show it to you. We are not others; we are family."
"That's what you meant?!"
When I asked why she was dressed like that, Mother replied, 'You said you wanted to see it, so I wore it.'
The fact that she had secretly taken a uniform that didn't even fit and put it on for me left me speechless.
No, the clothes are so tight they're about to burst...?
"At any rate, how do I look? Your mother in this uniform."
"Uh... mm... The clothes are a bit small...?"
"......It seems I have made a fool of myself after all. Wait a moment. I will take it off quickly—"
"No, don't!"
But I figured if I told her the honest truth—'It looks like the buttons are about to pop and expose your chest'—Mother would be terribly sad.
So instead, I showered her with indiscriminate praise.
"Mother, you're the most beautiful in the world! If someone like you went to the Academy, all the young lords would fall for you, don't you think? Wow. You're really a hundred times more beautiful than Her Majesty the Kaiserin."
"Pfft, how impertinent. Still, thank you. Deep down, I wondered if dressing like this for a woman over forty was proper. I had no idea you would be this happy. Not a bad price for playing the fool."
"...You said I was happy?"
"Yes. Even now, you are smiling as if overjoyed, are you not?"
She said I was so obviously happy at the sight of her that it was plain to see.
Wondering what she meant, I felt my face—
'...Huh?'
Sure enough, my lips had stretched into a smile that wouldn't fade.
What the. No matter how much I like Mother, smiling at that....
'...Ah.'
I wondered for a moment why I was smiling, not understanding it myself. But I soon found the answer.
It was simple. I was happy to see my family. To see my mother.
Embarrassed by the honest feeling I'd only just recognized, I scratched my cheek, but I still admitted it forthrightly.
"...Hehe. Mother, I love you."
"...Yes. I love you, too."
Hearing that, Mother smiled back and said she loved me too.
Flustered, her ears flushed slightly red at the tips, she hurriedly changed the subject.
"By the way, why are you holding those staves?"
"Ah, these? I felt lonely thinking about sleeping without you or my sisters. I was going to hug these instead, but...."
"Pfft. And you were the one who gave me a doll so I wouldn't be lonely. Yet here you are, lonely yourself. Put those staves down. What if your delicate skin gets marked from hugging such things while you sleep?"
"But...."
"Well now. If you are lonely, shall we not talk together until you fall asleep? I will stay with you until you drift off."
"Really, that's okay? The magic stone cost must be considerable...."
"What do you take your mother for? That expense is nothing. Do not worry."
After that, Mother said she would stay with me until I fell asleep, telling me to put the staves down.
I hesitated for a moment, thinking about the cost of magic stones.
Soon I smiled brightly and set the staves down.
"...Yes!"
'As for the magic stone cost, I can just find loads of artifacts around the Academy and sell them!'
Mother chuckled quietly as she watched the staves clatter to the floor.
"Good. Now then... did you meet Margarete?"
"Ah, yes! As soon as I came in, Mar—"
"I see. In truth, I have a story to tell you as well. About Charlotte...."
After that, Mother and I shared all kinds of little stories.
How Charl, who had been separated from me, came back to the estate and cried her eyes out with snot and tears.
How Albert patted her on the back and comforted her.
How Mother saw her chance and secretly borrowed the Academy uniform from Charl's room, and so on.
Just hearing about their doings painted a vivid picture in my mind, and as I smiled, the gloom that had been pressing down on me vanished completely.
'Honestly. Why was I so gloomy just a moment ago? Even though our bodies are far apart, our hearts are still connected. All it takes is a single call to fix that.'
Realizing anew that being apart from my family didn't mean I was truly apart, I finally felt my heart ease, and I grinned.
"Hehe... Charl, seriously... Yaaawn...."
"What, Yune? Are you sleepy? Lie down now."
"No, I'm not. I want to talk with you more before I sleep...."
"...Very well. Just a little longer."
Our conversation continued a while longer.
Until the sudden relief and the fatigue that followed carefully swept over my eyelids.
* * * * * *
"...."
"Yune? Have you fallen asleep?"
-sseu-ek. sseu-ek.
"You have fallen asleep, I see. Yune, lie down properly on the bed. Sleeping like that, your legs will go numb...."
-grin.
"...Really. Smiling so happily like that. How can I possibly wake you?"
"Well, one night will be fine. Have sweet dreams, Yune. I love you."
-fwoosh.