The Helper's Obligation
“Th-that is… I mean… it’s just…”
Basil’s lips moved a few more times, but nothing coherent followed.
Then one of the faculty members approached me and spoke in a low voice.
“Student Saya. Come with me for a moment.”
I left the great hall, leaving Basil behind still standing there, eyes fixed on me as if he were still turning my answer over in his mind.
When I pushed open the door marked “Student Guidance Office,” three things met my eyes.
A hard chair.
A low ceiling.
And a professor who never lifted his head from the stack of papers under his nose.
There I received, once again, the official notice of my disciplinary measures.
First: three months of after-school cleaning and management of the library stacks.
Second: delivery of handwritten apology letters to the injured students, Ricotta and Croffle.
Third: fulfillment of my duty as an assistant to help restore the psychological stability of the injured student Ricotta.
The last clause had startled me at first, but—
This… might actually work out in my favor?
My original plan had been to stay quietly in the background and help the two of them reach their happy ending without ever stepping into the spotlight myself.
Perhaps this official assignment was the perfect chance to remain at Ricotta’s side.
In that case I would weave the destinies of the male lead Basil and the heroine Ricotta together from the closest possible vantage point, and do it thoroughly.
“…I humbly accept the disposition.”
Even after I finished speaking, the professor never raised his head; he simply picked up the next document in silence.
The day after the verdict was handed down.
The moment the academy’s first class ended, I waited for Ricotta outside her lecture hall exactly as promised.
A short while later she appeared, a book tucked under her arm.
As if an invisible wall surrounded her, the other students parted to clear a path without a word, as though they had all agreed on it in advance.
From the center of that crowd she walked out with not a single step out of place.
“Um, Lady Ricotta…?”
“Follow me.”
That was all she said before I could even finish. Ricotta walked ahead without so much as a glance in my direction. Her softly gleaming golden hair swayed with haughty grace.
Something like silent contempt—How dare someone like you—seemed to radiate from her.
I followed in silence.
The place she led me to was the academy’s central library, and within it the deepest, most deserted rare-book stacks.
She seated herself with such elegance that even the chair made no sound, then recited the rules in a cold voice.
“First: do not enter my field of vision. Second: do not speak without permission. Third: breathe as if you are not even there. If you understand, do not answer.”
A one-sided, thoroughly prickly set of demands.
This was the “prickly cat” mode of Ricotta I had seen countless times in the game. I simply gave a small nod.
Even that obedient attitude seemed to displease her; she let out a soft “Hmph” and turned her eyes back to her book.
Above her head floated a translucent system window only I could see.
Ricotta’s Condition: Extreme Anxiety
Trauma Value: 73/100
Still at dangerous levels.
The status displayed on the system window remained unstable. Speaking carelessly would only backfire; for now, living exactly as she had ordered—like someone who did not exist—was the best course.
In the middle of that stifling silence, Ricotta began her practical assignment for Introduction to Magical Studies.
“Mana Stabilization Training Using a Mana Resonance Stone.” It was the most basic exercise for beginner mages at the academy: maintaining one’s mana as steadily as possible while changing the color of the resonance stone.
Ah. Ricotta’s first major hurdle.
I already knew the proper way to clear that assignment.
Ricotta’s mana was on an entirely different level from ordinary students. Her innate power was like a massive volcano that could erupt at any moment.
That was why the more she tried to suppress and stabilize it the way the textbook instructed, the more that enormous force, finding no outlet, began to run wild from within.
Sure enough, Ricotta’s brow furrowed ever so slightly.
The resonance stone at her fingertips trembled, flickering dangerously between a clear sky-blue and an ominous blood-red. A bead of cold sweat slid down her pale cheek.
If this continues she’ll fail within five minutes. And that stress will be taken out on some unfortunate target…
I rose soundlessly from my seat and headed for the shop near the library. A short while later I returned carrying a tray with a cup of warm cocoa and a palm-sized chocolate-chip cookie.
Just before I crossed the “no-approach zone” she had established, I cleared my throat once.
“Ahem.”
At the sound, Ricotta jerked her head up irritably. Her eyes were sharp enough to fire magic at any second.
“Are you so stupid you’ve already forgotten the first rule? Get out of my sight.”
“I have heard that when mana becomes disordered, sugar and a warm drink that calm the mind and body can be of help.”
I lightly ignored her murderous words and carefully set the hot chocolate and cookie down on the corner of her desk. A sweet yet slightly bitter chocolate aroma drifted through the dusty paper scent of the stacks.
“What would someone like you know?”
“This is merely the fulfillment of the ‘duty’ imposed upon me. Every form of assistance for the psychological stability of the injured student.”
I answered in a thoroughly businesslike tone and returned to my seat. Ricotta looked back and forth between me and the hot chocolate with an expression of pure disbelief.
But she did not remove them.
A few minutes later, Ricotta could hold out no longer. She lifted the cup of hot chocolate and took a sip. Then, as if resigning herself, she took a small bite of the cookie beside it.
After that, the wildly fluctuating light of the resonance stone gradually settled into a clear, transparent blue.
Ricotta’s eyes widened to a record-breaking size. She looked from her own hands to the resonance stone and then to my face. Pure astonishment and doubt rose in those once-cold ash-gray eyes.
Pretending not to notice her flustered expression, I spoke calmly.
“The theory written in books is not always the correct answer.”
“…What?”
“Especially for someone as special as you, my lady.”
I paused briefly to gauge her reaction.
“Your mana is like a river that floods all the more when one tries to confine it behind a dam. Do not force it down. It will be far more stable if you simply loosen your grip and open even the smallest channel so that the flow can guide itself.”
Silence.
For a long moment Ricotta could say nothing. The bewilderment of having the very core of her secret—the worry she had never been able to tell anyone—understood by the “perpetrator” she had met on the first day of school.
She sat holding the now-empty hot-chocolate cup, staring blankly at me.
“…You.”
Her voice trembled faintly.
“What was your name again?”
“Saya.”
“Saya…”
Ricotta repeated my name softly.
In those ash-gray eyes, complicated emotions swirled slowly.
Just as I thought the atmosphere might be softening a little, her gaze suddenly fell on the empty cup in her hand and the cookie bag beside it.
“…Wait.”
Ricotta’s brow furrowed again.
“Isn’t food prohibited in the library?”
“According to the regulations, yes… but if my lady, as my accomplice, cooperates, no one will ever know.”
At my answer her words cut off completely.
As if realizing exactly what she had done, her pale cheeks began to flush red.
“…W-who said anything about being an accomplice?! Just die already!!”
The voice was sharp, yet strangely it no longer carried the same murderous edge as before.
Ricotta’s wariness has slightly decreased.
Affection has slightly increased.
Looking at the system window only I could see, I smiled faintly.
Ahh, this is why people play otome games. From now on I’ll gently melt the walls around her heart just like this, then raise her affection…
…No.
Wait a second.
What am I trying to do right now?
The one who is supposed to capture Ricotta is Basil, not me!
I almost started thinking I was the protagonist of this game the way I used to when I was playing it.
And on top of that… perhaps the most decisive problem of all.
The body I now inhabited was no longer the same as before.
Starting with my gender: I was a woman.
From that day on, Ricotta no longer treated me like a transparent person.
Of course, that was not exactly a good thing.
If anything, she became even more of a nuisance.
She ordered me around under the pretext of trivial chores as if testing me, and the look in her eyes whenever she glanced my way still had thorns in it.
“Bring me Rad’s Mana Fluid Dynamics within the hour.”
Today’s task was to fetch a book related to the “mana reverse-flow phenomenon.”
In the game that book was a precious item that later changed Ricotta’s traits when she read it, but…
The problem was that it was a rare ancient text that did not even appear on the ordinary catalog.
In other words, she was clearly trying to mess with me, knowing full well that a brand-new first-year like me would never be able to find it.
Apparently the “accomplice” incident in the library had thoroughly wounded her pride.
Still, rather than immediately declaring it impossible, I at least had to put on a show of effort.
“Understood, my lady.”
I withdrew without a single complaint.
But my real plan began now. Exactly as I had expected, a head of soft green hair was hovering awkwardly near the library entrance. It was Basil, who had been persistently circling around me ever since the first day, waiting for the right moment to thank me.
“Saya!? A-about last time…”
“Perfect timing, Basil.”
When I cut him off with a bright smile, color returned to his face.
“Do you have a moment? Lady Ricotta is looking for a certain book, and I don’t think I can manage it alone. Would you help me?”
A calculated smile.
A calculated tone.
At my calculated proposal Basil’s face lit up. He nodded vigorously and followed me.
Using that pure goodwill pricked my conscience a little, but I rationalized it as an investment in the two of them reaching a happy ending.
When I brought Basil over to where Ricotta sat, the fingers that had been turning a page paused for an instant. Her perfectly composed brow creased—subtly, yet unmistakably.
“My lady, Basil has agreed to help. I thought this might also be a chance to clear up the misunderstanding from the entrance ceremony.”
Ricotta’s gaze slowly, coldly shifted to Basil standing beside me.
The look that raked him from head to toe was filled with open contempt and chill.
“Who gave you permission to drag in an outsider on your own?”
Her voice was as sharp and cold as a blade steeped in ice.
“This is my assistant’s duty. Who dares to interfere?”
In that moment I felt a sense of wrongness.
…Huh? This reaction…?
This was not simply the reaction of someone who disliked Basil.
Hidden inside her words was something like a sharply honed possessiveness.
Like a cat growling the instant a stranger’s hand reached for what it considered “its own.”
Behavior that seemed to find the very idea of anyone other than herself approaching me unpleasant.
…
My plan had been simple.
Place the two of them naturally in the same space and gradually improve their relationship…
But Ricotta’s reaction was veering far off the course of that simple plan.