147. Tell Me Your Wish (2)
147. Tell Me Your Wish (2)
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Martina tapped a finger against the table as she studied the girl agonizing over love. Mysterious violet hair. A doll-like face. Shyness and fear written across her features. Taken one by one, every detail belonged to a beauty who could mercilessly shake a male student's heart with a single glance.
Yet Elisa only sighed and gazed out at the garden, as though her appearance meant nothing at all.
Martina had grown genuinely curious about who the man she was pining for could be.
'The person Elisa liked... was probably a man, right?'
Martina knew that some people were attracted to the same sex, but she did not think Elisa was one of them. Such preferences inevitably revealed themselves in one way or another.
'What kind of man was he?'
First, he wasn't in the Magic Department. If a male student from the Magic Department were her crush, she would have found out long ago. Martina slowly dredged useful information from the mire of her thoughts.
'At the very least, he wasn't from the Magic Department, and he had to be someone who could interact with her without difficulty... He probably wasn't from the Knight Department either. There was no way Elisa would have approached him herself.'
Elisa didn't seem the type to like a sweaty Knight Department student.
In the first place, aside from regularly scheduled sparring sessions with the Magic Department, the two departments had few points of contact and were not on good terms.
After all, Kalon Academy's three major departments—the Knight, Magic, and Theology Departments—were practically archenemies.
The Theology Department was generally moderate, but the Knight and Magic Departments were so fiercely competitive that students were injured in fights every year.
Given all that, Elisa did not seem likely to pine for a Knight Department student.
'If he wasn't from either the Knight or Magic Department, then the Alchemy or Theology Department...?'
But didn't those have even fewer points of contact?
Martina gave the timidly watching Elisa a reassuring smile while mentally narrowing down the object of her crush. Fortunately, she had a fairly useful clue.
A blatantly obvious clue.
"Elisa."
"Y-yes?!"
'How adorable.'
Elisa's gloomy air had vanished, replaced by a shy, girlish charm that even Martina found endearing enough to make her heart flutter.
At least, that was what Martina thought. With the gloom gone, all that remained was a beautiful young woman. Depending on the person, even her timid nature could be considered part of her charm.
'What did the man who stole Elisa's heart think of her...?'
People's tastes varied widely. Some liked easygoing women, while others preferred someone pure and delicate. What kind of women did the man Elisa loved prefer?
After a moment's thought, one man surfaced in Martina's mind.
'Could it be that man...'
It didn't even require much thought. Given Elisa's personality, which ran to the extreme end of timid, the pool of candidates had no choice but to be small, and in this case there was literally only one candidate.
"Is the person you like... the Saintess's Escort Knight?"
"N-n-n-n-no, it's not...!"
'It was.'
There was no way it wasn't, with a reaction this blatant. Looking at the adorable girl whose face had dyed bright red, Martina wore a gentle smile. Now that she'd confirmed it, there was nothing to hold her back.
"What is it that you want to do, Elisa?"
"Ah, w-well, even if you ask me like that..."
Elisa's pupils shook mercilessly. The conclusion she'd reached over the months they'd spent living in the same building was that 'even confessing outright would not be easy.'
Her competitors, each and every one, were excessively formidable.
Millia launched herself at him whenever she had the chance, Reni was his coworker and openly showed her affection, and Karina far surpassed Elisa in both status and beauty.
Among those competitors, Elisa wondered whether anyone would even recognize her as a rival.
Her magical ability was impressive, but one rival was the Saintess and another was one of the finest knights on the continent.
Millia seemed relatively ordinary and therefore the easiest rival to face, but she had even shared a bed with Yohan.
'Th-there was barely a single angle where I could win...!'
Elisa buried her face in her hands as a sudden wave of despair hit her. Watching her, Martina gave a benevolent smile, as if she understood that feeling. These things happened often when she gave romantic advice. She walked over to Elisa with elegant steps and patted her on the back.
"You needn't frighten yourself before you've even begun. A contest isn't over until it's over. From what I can tell, he isn't dating anyone yet, so don't give up. What matters is an unbreakable spirit."
"Martina..."
Elisa looked at Martina with a face full of emotion. Martina smiled brightly and took Elisa's hand. At the soft, warm touch, the rims of Elisa's eyes grew damp.
"Now then, would you tell me about this gentleman? The more information we have, the more strategies we can devise."
The relationship counseling was only just beginning.
---------------
"Yohan, why are you acting like that all of a sudden?"
"...My ear's just itchy."
Was someone talking behind my back? As I headed toward the Theology Department with Karina, I scratched my ear and scanned our surroundings for theology students—or rather, potential attackers.
The frequency of people rushing at us had dropped since I'd put the veil on her, but even so, theology students approached Karina at every opening: kneeling at a distance to pray, shedding inexplicable tears of rapture, or — failing that — pressing their lips to the ground where Patrasche had passed.
...Relentless bastards.
Even the cults back on Earth would have recoiled at this. I glared at the genuine fanatics and hurriedly pushed the wheelchair. Only ten minutes remained before the lecture, so I had to move quickly.
"If you hear ringing in your ears or if they hurt, please tell me. I can at least use simple healing magic."
"Don't worry. It's not that kind of problem."
If it had been that kind of problem, I would have gotten treatment long ago. I did not want to waste Karina's power for no reason. Apparently pleased by my answer, she hummed a hymn and enjoyed the sunny weather. This was one of the few times she could truly relax.
With Karina's beautiful voice as my backdrop, I kept my feet moving.
The Theology Department building was just ahead.
We'd been walking peacefully when Karina suddenly stopped humming and asked me a question.
"Yohan, do you remember that rumor about the library we heard before?"
"You mean the rumor that there's a Secret Archive inside the library."
"Is it true?"
I hadn't expected that topic to come from Karina's mouth. I looked down at her as she abruptly brought up the library. Her pink hair was visible through the semi-transparent veil. However much the veil was crafted to obscure the inside, it couldn't completely hide pink hair.
"I didn't know you'd be interested in a rumor like that."
"I'm nineteen too, you know."
Her voice, as if she were sulking a little, seeped into my ears.
Nineteen. Nineteen, huh.
It was an age too old to be called a child, yet still too young to call old. What had I been doing at nineteen? At nineteen, I would have been a high school senior, so I must have taken the college entrance exam... right? I vaguely remembered attending university, so I had definitely taken it. Whether I had done well was another matter.
What did it matter now? I couldn't go back, and I had no intention of doing so.
I'd already become a native of this world.
"Yohan, what do you think? A Secret Archive where objects that grant wishes slumber—"
"It's not a baseless rumor. The Secret Archive does exist, in fact."
Had my answer surprised her that much? Karina turned her head to look at me.
I couldn't see her face because of the veil, but she was probably making a face that said, 'How do you know that?' Imagining Karina's startled expression, I found it so cute I couldn't stop a small smile from pulling at my lips.
"Do you remember me digging the academy's emergency passage a few months ago? Naturally, I made one in the library as well. I confirmed the Secret Archive's existence back then. It really was huge."
It was called a secret archive, but the actual layout was closer to a story event dungeon.
What had the setting been? The first principal, or perhaps the second... In any case, an ancient founding principal had created it in hopes that a successor would appear. Absurd rumors surrounded the place: that a talented person who entered would become an Archwizard, or that an object inside could grant wishes.
But no student had ever entered the Secret Archive.
The ancient founding headmaster had set the conditions far too harshly.
A prodigy who might appear once in a thousand years—there was no way someone like that would appear easily.
Even if such a person enrolled, there was no guarantee they would be a Wizard.
And so the library's Secret Archive had survived by a thread, lingering only as a faint, persistent rumor.
But lately, rumors about the library had been spreading among the students.
As someone who knew the original story, I was unsettled that the rumor had begun spreading earlier than expected. The mastermind was probably the same, but I couldn't tell why they had acted sooner.
Or perhaps only the timing of when the protagonist heard the rumor had changed, and it had already been circulating by then.
By that reasoning, there might still be a fair amount of time left.
"I had no idea the Secret Archive really existed."
"The academy is so old, there are plenty of curious things."
"Really? Can you tell me about them?"
"Of course."
Believe it or not, there wasn't a place in the academy I hadn't visited.
In the game, at least.
"I'll look forward to it."
A voice full of anticipation tickled my ear. How long had it been since I'd heard a voice like this?
What story should I tell her?
Selecting in my head the tales I'd unfold on the way back, I stepped into the Theology Department building.