I've Never Felt That From You. Not Even Once.
I've Never Felt That From You. Not Even Once.
Questioning glances swung toward me.
They had every reason to look at me like that. A woman with a familiar face was buried against my chest, clinging to me.
This was already the second time I'd been subjected to this in this world.
The first had been Yushia, carrying the scent of cotton. The second was right now—Trixie, drunk to the point of losing control of her own body.
"How could you... leave only me out like that? I'm the one who's far more interested!"
Irritation flared. I was thoroughly annoyed.
I took a fresh look at Trixie.
The contours of her tight-fitting uniform plainly revealed the lines of her body, and her deep blue eyes, like a lake, stared up at me with unfocused pupils.
When a woman like this fixates on you, it's invariably a nuisance. An attractive woman is already bothersome enough, but her worthless admirers are worse.
In short, having an audience for this situation served no good purpose.
"Hey, Plan. Do you have something going on with Trixie...?"
"Yeah, for now just calm down, Trixie."
Becky and Louis cautiously spoke up.
Yushia blinked a few times, then abruptly said,
"Miss Trixie~ are you sulking because he won't do the glow-in-the-dark puzzles with you?"
Louis quietly covered Yushia's mouth.
I began retracing how the situation had turned into this.
[ ▶ Then go beat Plan first. ]
.
[ ▶ She is merely my student. ]
Not long after, I could recall a few of the replies I had sent to Trixie.
The reason she'd volunteered herself as my student had been simple.
Trixie, who contacted me all day long, was a nuisance, and at the same time, I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding that I was Scouter.
Still, I acknowledge Trixie's passion for learning.
So I had racked my brain for a way to meet her in person and give her instruction, and this was simply the method I settled on.
"I can do better! I'll be better!"
...Apparently, more than I had imagined, Trixie had been deeply invested in the Teaching Auction.
Deeply enough to come running here dead drunk this very moment. Perhaps I had underestimated her passion for learning.
Humans. Women among them in particular, I feel anew, are unfathomable creatures.
I surveyed my surroundings.
Louis, Becky, Yushia... all three of them had at least five invisible question marks floating above their heads.
"Louis. My advice will have to wait."
"Huh? Ah, right. Don't worry about things here."
Louis and the other students entered the Magic Tower, and I briefly sorted through my thoughts.
Trixie's talent is by no means poor. Her qualities are more than sufficient.
However, for her talent to bloom, it will need the proper weather to match.
Even flowers choose their season to blossom.
"Trixie."
After finishing my deliberation,
I slowly opened my mouth.
"Is this the best your behavior amounts to."
◈
Trixie could only stare down at the tips of her own pitiful feet.
Acting like this because of intoxication, failing to overcome her own impulsiveness... she was aware of all of it herself.
"...I can't accept it. I can't."
And yet, she could not accept it.
The intoxication of Pritia had made Trixie's emotions surge up violently.
The name 'Fritz,' which made other mages tremble at the mere mention of it. And she herself, the eldest daughter of that family.
On the day her mother, who had believed without a shred of doubt that she would become a great mage, abruptly died.
In that ceremony where Trixie had buckled even under a gentle breeze, where the raindrops pressing down on her body had been unusually heavy, Trixie had resolved to become a genius.
She had lived accordingly, and she took a certain pride in that.
Genius. Genius. Genius... the word had never left her ears.
And that was precisely why she hated it all the more.
The path of Plan, who was walking the road of an even greater genius than Trixie, and that Teaching-ssi who simply looked on at this Trixie...
All of it was impossible to understand, and she didn't want to understand, and on the other hand, she was afraid.
In truth, Trixie might not be a genius at all.
All this time, Trixie might have been laboring under some kind of misunderstanding.
Perhaps—though she loathed admitting it—the real genius was someone else entirely. And that genius might simply be in a situation where he was presently ignoring Trixie.
"What is it you find difficult to accept."
An utterly frigid tone. Cold enough to chase away some of her drunkenness.
Trixie quietly parted her lips.
The thing she found difficult to accept. There was only one.
"I am..."
"You are?"
Clenching her fist tightly, she forced the words out as if wringing them from the depths of her lungs.
"A genius. I have to be. So then why is it that Teaching-ssi only accepts your messages? Why does he only teach you?"
"A genius, you say."
Plan clicked his tongue, a sharp Tch— ringing out.
"I've never gotten that feeling from you. Not even once."
"..."
At those words, Trixie's head snapped up.
Plan felt unbearably unreasonable to her.
Knowing full well he'd only become like that thanks to Teaching-ssi, she absolutely could not stand the attitude he took, as if he stood above Trixie.
"You... you have no right to say something like that."
Chewing fiercely on her lower lip, she continued.
"If it weren't for Teaching-ssi... you would be nothing. If he had looked at me, I could have been the representative too."
"Trixie."
Plan's voice was colder than ever.
"Are you even a mage to begin with."
Words she had never anticipated at all.
An answer like a thunderclap struck Trixie's ears.
Their eyes met in the air between them.
Within those red eyes—the complete polar opposite of Trixie's own color—there dwelt contempt.
"Walking alone is a mage's fundamental discipline."
That sentence stung like the tip of a blade.
"Furthermore, a mood must not become an attitude."
Every single word ached.
"Aim to be a mage, not a genius. Otherwise..."
This was the first time she had ever heard such words from anyone else.
"You are merely a fool performing the role of a genius."
And what was more, he was nothing more than a fellow student, same as Trixie.
Yet there was not a single thing in what he said that she could call wrong.
"What is left of actions meant only for show. In your opinion, is that alone what makes a genius."
She felt dizzy. And it wasn't only from the alcohol.
"I've heard the story passed along. He showed you a fair amount of interest."
"...!"
Teaching-ssi had been interested in her. At that single statement, Trixie's eyes flew open wide.
A shiver ran down her spine. With dazed eyes, she stared back at Plan.
Plan was still looking down at her.
"However, what do you suppose he would think seeing your drunken display."
But suddenly, she realized that his red eyes did not hold contempt alone.
Trixie felt it.
Plan, too, was hoping that Trixie would be able to meet Teaching-ssi.
"There is only one peak, but geniuses are many. And not all geniuses grow without ever tasting defeat."
Trixie drew in a breath, and let it out.
The breath that had been stifling her.
Only now did it begin to come easily again.
"Are you going to face him with that pathetic attitude."
Trixie quietly shook her head.
She had been foolish, and stupid. Her own actions were nothing more than a tantrum thrown with the help of intoxication.
His words were not wrong.
A first-rate mage, a genius, would never act like this.
"...Flame."
At last, Trixie parted her lips.
Once she had spoken that first word, continuing to the next was not difficult.
"Duel me with flame element magic."
"Flame, then. The criterion shall be destructive power. Will that suffice?"
Trixie nodded.
"Yes. I will defeat you, and become his student."
"A good thought. Trixie. Let's proceed with it once Chejeon is over."
Plan nodded as well. Then he straightened his attire.
As he passed Trixie, he murmured quietly.
"I will not tell him about today's events."
Left alone, Trixie stood still and replayed the conversation in her mind.
The painful and fearful emotions, the impatience, jealousy, resentment—they were already gone.
"...A fool performing the role of a genius."
Trixie simply chewed over those words, again and again.
She would never, ever give up.
But she would no longer strive to be a fool, either.
In the chill wind of the early dawn, the intoxication was long gone.
◈
Two days until Chejeon. The Editing Department of Merhen Daily.
With Chejeon just around the corner, there was not a single moment's rest to be found in the Editing Department.
In the office, where the atmosphere was already heavy, Sepia pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a deep sigh.
"Just what is this supposed to be."
The field reporter who'd drawn Sepia's criticism scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression.
"I was just, you know, trying to make the work a little easier...."
"So if you personally can take it easy, it's acceptable to handle the work like this?"
Sepia irritably tapped the articles laid out on the table.
[ Ivan, Just How Far Does He Intend to Be Perfect... ]
[ Ivan's Flawless Victory. The Greatness of the 'Code of Chivalry' ]
"Chejeon hasn't even started yet. What are you doing right now? We only run verified facts as articles. That is the iron rule of Merhen Daily."
"Department Head."
The field reporter cautiously spoke up.
"To be honest, you know it's going to turn out like this, Department Head. We're already juggling so much; we have to write stuff like this in advance."
"Listen here. If it's going to be like this, I can't work with you!"
But it was right then.
A blue light flashed on Sepia's Trivia. She irritably opened it.
With her brow furrowed, she scanned it for one second, two seconds, three seconds...
Soon, her expression relaxed.
[ * Violet ]
[ ▶ The first-year combat event representative has been decided. ]
[ ▶ Plan will be entering. ]
[ ▶ I just finished the representative registration. ]
Closing her Trivia, Sepia murmured with a subtle upturn at the corner of her lips.
"No... maybe we can get some work done after all?"