Good Changes, Bad Changes
The meeting with Grand Duke Litorio had ended in a thoroughly satisfying direction.
…Or maybe not. Maybe I was the only one who walked away satisfied?
Looking back on it now, he couldn’t deny that he might have gone a little overboard.
It wasn’t just the size of the gym—or rather, the indoor training hall—that mattered. The equipment inside was just as important. A shower room would have to be installed. Better cooling and heating magic, too. And so on, and so forth.
In less than five minutes he had poured out a torrent of “suggestions” that were really demands. Standing in front of a man who was offering to donate, he had essentially told him to open the wallet wider and keep spending.
Even so, Grand Duke Litorio had shown no displeasure and agreed to every last one of them.
Whether he had accepted it all out of genuine gratitude or for some other reason of his own was still unclear. What mattered most was that he had listened and consented.
A gym even bigger than the one we have now. A gym with more machines. A gym with a shower room right next door.
Back in the indoor training hall, seated in front of a rack of equipment, Kyle’s head was filled with nothing but those thoughts. The place was already spacious enough, yet the idea of something larger still—and brand-new gear arriving—refused to leave him alone.
He still had about an hour before he needed to go meet the Saintess. He had planned to knock out a light upper-body session and then leave, but concentration was impossible.
Order the machines from the North. Make the floor solid enough for land deadlifts. Build the shower room as wide as possible so nothing feels cramped. That way everyone who trains will be comfortable.
With thoughts like that cycling endlessly, the only thing he actually managed to do was barbell curls. Every time he tried to switch to another movement he would zone out again and find himself curling once more.
It did not take long to realize he was in no state to train.
Kyle let out a low groan and sank into deliberation. Time remained, yet focus refused to come.
After a moment’s thought something seemed to occur to him; he nodded, gathered his clothes, and set off somewhere else.
They said a Shamanism Club had been formed. Might as well go take a look.
Perhaps because the Academy had been modeled after real-world universities, clubs existed here as proper student organizations. Word was that after the recent Academy raid, shamanism had been thrust back into the spotlight and a new club had been founded for it. The club president was, naturally, Tisha.
“Excuse me.”
He opened the door to the Shamanism Club room and stepped inside. A handful of students looked up to greet him—two first-years, two second-years, one third-year and one fourth-year. The common thread among them all was that every single one was a commoner.
“Wh-whoa! Kyle! Kyle John Nassen!”
“It’s the real Kyle John Nassen!!”
Yes, I am Kyle John Nassen. Could you maybe stop staring at me like I’m the protagonist of some special-privilege story?
“Hello. This is the Shamanism Club, right?”
“Yes. Ah—have you come to see Miss Tisha?”
He hadn’t even mentioned her name, yet the conversation leapt straight to Tisha. Kyle found himself answering “Ah, yes” before he could think.
“Miss Tisha left for the library a little while ago. Club activities finished just now. The rest of us are tidying the books. You should try the library.”
“Ah… right. Understood. Keep up the good work.”
He had originally come to look around the club, but without Tisha present the idea felt awkward. Laughing and chatting in front of a room full of complete strangers was more than a little intimidating. If any of them had been named supporting characters it might have been different, but they weren’t.
And so, almost by accident, he found himself heading to the library in search of Tisha instead.
The place she would be was obvious: the fifth floor, where the shamanism texts were kept. Climbing the stairs and arriving on the fifth floor, Kyle tilted his head.
With the sudden interest in shamanism I figured there’d be more students up here…
Nothing had changed. Aside from the librarian the floor was empty and utterly quiet. The librarian was even dozing off, which suggested foot traffic was essentially nonexistent.
Shamanism had enjoyed a brief surge of popularity and then sunk right back down again. With something as reliable as magic already available, investing further time in shamanism probably felt wasteful. He had expected as much. Uncertain shamanism versus proven magic—no contest. Even if shamanism had shown potential, magic still stood far above it for now. Tisha herself would almost certainly acknowledge that fact.
Which might be exactly why she’s throwing herself into shamanism even harder.
How far had she grown using the book he had found for her? He wanted to ask, wanted to check, but he was a complete outsider to shamanism. Even if she explained, he wouldn’t understand a word of it, so asking would be pointless.
“Tisha?”
He kept his voice as low as possible. No answer came. He wandered the stacks looking for the girl who would once again be lost in her shamanism studies.
Before long he found the person he was searching for.
“Nngh…”
She was standing on a ladder, stretching toward a book on the highest shelf. The pose looked extremely precarious.
At this rate she’s going to tip right over… I knew it!!
Speak of the devil, or jinx it with your own mouth—whichever it was. The moment Tisha stretched a little farther the ladder lurched violently. She swayed with it, her weight shifted, and falling became inevitable.
If she hit the floor badly she could seriously injure herself. A wrong landing might tear muscle or crack bone. The floor was marble; landing headfirst would be catastrophic.
Fortunately Kyle’s body was even faster than his thoughts.
“Ah!”
Crash!
Thud-thud-thud!!
The sound of the ladder toppling and books cascading to the floor rang out together. Tisha blinked, still trying to process what had just happened to her—
“What on earth are you doing?”
“K-Kyle?”
—and realized she was nestled safely in Kyle’s arms.
She hung there dazed until a somewhat stern look and voice cut through.
“You’re not even wearing comfortable clothes, and you’ve got high heels on top of that. Climbing a ladder like that—are you out of your mind?”
Only then did Tisha understand that the ladder had fallen, that she had fallen with it, and that Kyle had moved in a flash to catch her.
“That really could have been bad.”
Kyle clicked his tongue once and reached out to the side. He held up the black high-heeled shoes she had been wearing moments earlier. The heels were far higher than anything she normally wore.
“Never climb a ladder in these again.”
“Y-yes. I’m sorry, Kyle.”
“And the dress, too. Wearing something that long and flowing… haaah. You really almost got hurt badly.”
What Tisha was wearing was not her usual attire but a black dress. Not an ordinary dress, either—luxurious fabric cut to display a woman’s charm to full effect. So much skin was visible that any male student who looked would have felt his pulse jump.
“You’re not hurt anywhere?”
“No. Thanks to you. What about you, Kyle?”
“I’m fine. Just a little startled, that’s all.”
Kyle jabbed lightly at her side as if to say it was time she got down. Startled, Tisha scrambled out of his arms without even putting her shoes back on.
“Th-thank you, Kyle.”
“It was nothing.”
His reply came out a touch colder than usual—an unavoidable reaction from a John Nassen who valued the body above all else. Tisha, of course, had no way of knowing that and could only fidget uncertainly.
With timid movements she began gathering the fallen books. She set the ladder upright again and, inwardly, sniffled a soft little hiiing…
“The dress is pretty, though.”
Perhaps he had noticed how cold his own voice had sounded. When Kyle offered the comment in a casual, passing tone from behind her, Tisha turned her head.
“Huh…?”
“I said the dress is pretty.”
“Ah… ah…”
“Did something special happen today?”
At Kyle’s question Tisha shook her head and answered.
“Interest in shamanism suddenly spiked, so a lot more people have been looking at me. If I kept dressing the way I always had, I was afraid they’d just sneer that I was a commoner…”
In other words, the surge of stares and attention might bring an equal surge of mockery. So she had begun paying attention to her appearance—something she had always let slide without a second thought.
Hearing that, Kyle finally understood why she had put on such a glamorous dress and those heels.
“…Still, this is a bit much. The dress first—too much skin, and it’s far too long and trailing. Just wear what you usually wear. You’re pretty enough as you are, Tisha.”
“Ah—yes. Yes. I’ll do that.”
Tisha nodded so hard her head nearly came off.
In truth there was one more reason for the outfit—one she could never bring herself to tell Kyle. The women’s summit a short while ago had snapped her fully awake.
His closest friend. That’s fine as far as it goes. But if I’m left as only a friend forever…
That would be a little sad. No—more than a little. It would be very hard. To keep that from happening, she had realized something had to change.
So she had studied the clothes the noble students wore to parties and read every book she could find. What kind of look would seize a man’s heart—no, seize Kyle’s heart—at a single glance?
He said I’m pretty enough the way I usually am.
From Kyle’s perspective the remark had simply meant “don’t climb ladders in that outfit.” But the situation and the many things left unsaid left plenty of room for misunderstanding. And because Kyle himself was not without feelings for Tisha, a little genuine sincerity had slipped into the words without his noticing.
“…Kyle.”
Carried along by that current, Tisha decided to muster a little courage of her own.
“I was wondering… that is, really. Just in case. I’m only asking on the off chance.”
“Yes, Tisha. That ‘just in case,’ ‘what if’—what is it?”
“…Well. Um…”
Squeeze—
Tisha clenched the book she was holding and squeezed her eyes shut. Then she spoke the words she had sworn she would be the first to say.
“Have you… ever thought about getting a girlfriend?”