Just Because You Showed It
She was hanging upside down from a tree branch that extended straight out.
She had tied her legs to the branch and dangled there, upside down.
If the flow of magic power changed like this, she might finally learn to move it better. It was a ridiculous hypothesis, but Sugar carried it out anyway.
Blood rushing to her head would probably just make her dizzy. But she went through with it.
… Rubshi… Rubshi… It sounded like it had been mentioned somewhere.
She was turning over in her mind the day she had met someone connected to the Shadow Cult.
She was also replaying the day she had sworn to train harder.
But in a fantasy game where every character’s name was thrown around, remembering every single one was a nightmare.
And remembering the names of people who only appeared in passing would be even worse.
Unless it’s a Saint-rank named character…
The Saint who spread magic and pushed back several evil gods would be unforgettable in reality. How cold. She couldn’t remember and then she judged herself.
Underneath all that was a girl who looked at the newspaper.
With short bangs framing her face, her eyes were focused intently on the letters.
Sugar watched for a moment, then settled her gaze in the center and continued her thoughts.
… Rubshi… Rubshi… Apostle Rubshi… Huh?
It had felt familiar earlier. She quickly turned her attention back to the newspaper.
[Is this just a problem unique to the Floating Island? A conversation about defection]
[Former mages from the Floating Island who had fallen to heresy. Several factors come into play in the death of such faith… I interviewed the one who returned after confession…
□□: When I was in the Floating Island, even just the names I knew were Nartel, Rubshi… Ah, Rubshi. This friend is really strange, um, I misspoke. Heretics aren’t friends…-’
“Hah.”
These heretics really played the field. I never imagined they were mages from the Floating Island.
Ryly would hide his grimoire if he was exposed, and it was a magic school, the Floating Island, wandering around. The cult’s followers had nothing more to say.
Ryly probably didn’t even have any believers he was following.
The style of “How dare you, a believer like me?” meant he could walk around without guilt.
“… Huh? Sugar. Why are you like this?”
When she clicked her tongue, Frallin looked up and answered.
“It’s nothing. But, Frallin. You’ve been reading the newspaper lately. Is something wrong?”
“Ah… a little… I’m looking for something…”
“Really? What is it?”
“Can I tell you later…?”
“What… do as you like.”
What could it be? She was stalling and getting more curious, but she didn’t press since the girl seemed reluctant to talk.
She would tell when the time came.
She shook her body and focused on her thoughts again. She had become bored, so she couldn’t keep still.
Suddenly, she saw a familiar boy walking from afar.
It would be less boring now.
She greeted him with a body expression of joy.
But the boy suddenly stopped as if surprised, then looked around. When she looked to see what was happening, he suddenly ran at full speed.
“Tommy. Why are you acting like this?”
“You, you, you… come down right now…”
“Why?”
“Just… don’t ask, come down quickly…!”
“…”
If she said not to, he would do the opposite. Some childish switch had been flipped, and he just shook his body as if blown by the wind. Short but thin, he let his straight body do as it wished.
Tom’s face gradually reddened.
Sugar’s lips curled up.
What was the reason? Why was he making such a face? It was fun, and the switch was on, making her smile.
“Hurry…! It’s not a joke!”
Even though angry, she didn’t forget to look around in the middle. She wondered if it was a problem if it was shown to others.
“Tommy… don’t just get angry. Try acting differently. Like, a snake is coming from above, or something…”
“You’re going to run screaming that there’s a snake? You won’t even blink!”
“That’s true… but even if it’s just because I tried to lie, you won’t come down?”
Frallin, who had been watching calmly from below, gave advice. It was a sharp judgment that saw through Sugar quite well.
If it came out stiff, she would try to break it.
If it came out loose, there was nothing to break, so she came out loose too.
That was Sugar.
The pleasure of breaking it. Sugar was a human addicted to that.
Tom had been through it several times.
“… Okay. Hey… a snake appeared above you. If you don’t want to fight it, come down quickly…”
“No spirit. Frallin already said that.”
“Aaaah-!”
The duel between the two continued, making the onlooker sigh. Frallin, who had started to feel something strange, got up and went to Tom.
Her eyes immediately widened.
“Eh… that… Sugar… it would be better if you came down…”
Tom standing next to her was biting her lip and lowering her gaze.
“You too? Why are you doing this?”
All the kids had strange expressions and were shouting to come down. By now, she was curious.
“Th-that…”
Frallin, who was worrying to not embarrass her, was cut off by someone.
The shout of the one who couldn’t hold it back erupted and echoed in the backyard.
“Just because you showed it!”
Long sleeves and loose shorts. Although it was autumn, the child’s body had high fever, so it was still hot during the day. So she wore it like this.
If she took the posture of hanging upside down from there.
Even if the upper body was okay by putting it in the shorts, the shorts were loose, so the inside was visible.
That is, panties were visible.
“…”
Sugar, who had just realized this, had no particular reaction, unlike the two’s thoughts.
Without changing her expression, she lightly landed and walked straight to them.
“Wh-what…?”
What nonsense was she trying to say again. Tom, who had tensed up a lot, backed away, but she followed it up and approached his ear.
The breath she inhaled was full of sweet scent.
A tense moment.
“…”
“…”
It was quiet even after time passed.
Strange, she rolled her eyes only a little and looked at Sugar, and the corners of her mouth that were smiling came into view.
What is it…
What was she trying to say? Tom, who was curious beyond the tension, focused on hearing.
At that time.
-Huuu……
Breath came in.
The warm, humid wind touched her ear and heated it. Since she was already concentrating on her ears, it was received more vividly.
Her body, which had been tense and sensitive, gradually relaxed.
“Ugh…”
An involuntary sound came out of her mouth. In the middle of feeling an indescribable feeling as the tickling sensation flowed down her spine.
She came to her senses with the laughter leaving her ear.
“Huhu… pervert.”
“…!”
She whispered, bringing her lips close to her ear as if touching it. Even the sound of the lips rubbing wetly against each other could be heard.
A wet, undulating sound.
“Looking at a girl’s underwear… pervert.”
Every time the breath touched her ear, her body trembled.
As the voice was sweet and pleasant to hear—
… What?
When she realized what she was thinking, anger or embarrassment, she didn’t know, came rushing.
It felt like her stomach was boiling.
The result was, as always, that.
“You’re the pervert-!!”
Frallin, who was next to her, covered her face with her hand and watched the two.
***
In the dark attic room.
The girl who ruined the atmosphere, Sugar, was rubbing her messy hair and lowering her head.
Tom, who couldn’t hold it any longer, had finally punched her.
“You! You have to calm down!”
“…… Y-yeah?”
“Aaaah!”
If this continued, Tom, whose stomach would burst, would likely throw away magic and everything, so she quickly calmed down.
“Sorry, sorry. Calm down, Tom.”
While being stroked, Tom thought vaguely.
I went crazy!
To help someone like this!
The next thing that came to mind was from a few days ago.
When recalling that, it was clear what she had done, but no matter how she thought, the only evaluation was that it was not rational.
When the heretic appeared, she tried to take out the grimoire, to protect it, so, so, so, she held hands.
It was her who did it first!
In the end, when the heretic girl tried to cast some strange magic on Sugar, she threw it away.
Why did I do that!?
At that moment, she thought it was natural to do so. But when calmly recalled, it was a very foolish and stupid judgment.
What did it matter if she was taken by the heretic or not!
… I got carried away by the atmosphere.
Obviously carried away by the serious atmosphere. Her caution towards surroundings became severe. It was an action to protect herself, but somehow, the Sugar next to her was included in that range.
There was also the fact that the heretic girl was despicable.
She hadn’t even started researching Sugar yet, and she wanted to achieve the feat of turning an incompetent person into a mage with her own hands, but she was trying to take it all? That’s ridiculous.
Thinking about it made her angrier. It was a feeling of defeat that she had safely passed because the other side had given in.
Then, the lessons from the past rose like a mirage.
This world must have power. If you don’t have power, you have to just endure.
Whether she takes Sugar or not doesn’t matter, but she is the first to discover the prey and the research subject. So, there is a slight, a grain of rice worth of desire to protect her. It was an action done with the meaning that she couldn’t miss the hand she first held. Taking it away is not allowed by self-respect.
To not be taken away, you need power.
Then, to have power?
…
“Huh? Tom. Feeling better?”
She didn’t understand people. If she were to blame the culprit of all this…
Tom opened her axe eyes and glared at Sugar.
“Now it’s coming. Feeling better? Have you come to talk?”
“… Sit properly.”
A deep sigh escaped.
If she was guiding Sugar to achieve the second stage, it showed her concentrating.
She had improved a lot compared to before, and she had awakened the sense of moving magic power to some extent. The problem was that the speed was the speed of a snail crawling, but it was much better than when she couldn’t move even 1mm.
“Um… hmmm…”
Leaving the girl who had fallen into her own world, she sat in a corner and closed her eyes. Recently, her mind had been disturbed often. Therefore, Tom had also started to concentrate to make the flow of magic power neat.
“… Tom.”
“… Why. Keep doing what you were doing.”
“No, I have something I’m curious about.”
“What is it.”
She opened her closed eyes and looked at Sugar. Then, their eyes met.
“You… are you thinking about going to the magic school?”
“What? Where?”
“Stille. The magic school Stille.”
The most prestigious among prestigious.
In the past, the magic training institution located under the Floating Island raised by the Saint’s disciples.
“… You don’t mean you want to go there?”
“Just. I’m just thinking about it. But if you go too, your heart might lean that way a lot.”
“What does my going have to do with you…”
“It’s good to go with close friends. Tom, I hope you succeed there.”
“Why are you…”
She suddenly makes embarrassing remarks.
Tom, who was about to say something, closed her mouth and said something different from what she originally thought.
“Can anyone just go there? How difficult the exams are. I haven’t even completely cleared the second stage yet.”
“Why. That much is possible with effort.”
“So why do you want to go there so badly?”
“If it’s entangled, wouldn’t it be better to just jump in?”
What was she entangled in?
The heretic girl from before? Or just magic?
“If I say I’m going, will you come with me?”
She doesn’t just encourage without giving the intention. Tom didn’t think to ask, so it didn’t matter.
Just seeing her casually saying it, she felt some opposition somewhere.
“I’m against it. If I go, you follow me.”
“What… I brought it up first. That’s cheap.”
She says it’s cheap, but she doesn’t look angry at all. She has a smug look. Just matching her. That made her more irritated, so she said something to win somehow.
“Think about the difference in our skills. You can’t even use magic in the first place. I’ll go first.”
“You’re saying you’ll go before me?”
“Yeah. I’ll go first.”
Then she smiled.
As if waiting for this situation.
“Then, it’s decided?”
When she came to her senses, the conversation had already flowed in a positive direction.
What a cunning girl. That’s why young boys can’t help but get caught up in it.
“… I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”
The last answer was ambiguous, but the other side was already making it a fait accompli, and she laughed wickedly.
Indeed, it’s annoying.