Effort Is Lacking! Not Enough!!
“Ugh.”
Thud—.
Fatigue poured off Tisha as she buried her face in the mattress. Over the entire weekend she had managed neither a single book nor so much as a handful of pages. Every time she tried to concentrate, the events of a few days earlier came flooding back and scattered her thoughts completely.
The side effects of a confession. The worst of them, without question, was what came after rejection.
If they had been strangers it would have been simpler; they could simply remain strangers. But when two people already knew each other well—when they were genuinely close—everything became far more complicated. Rejection was still rejection, yet they would have to keep seeing each other. Who in the world could face the other person as if nothing had happened? Anyone who truly could had never felt anything in the first place.
When is Kyle going to give me an answer?
She had told him she would wait as long as it took, so he would not reply anytime soon. She hoped he would answer quickly, yet even she knew that was impossible. He was a noble and she was a commoner, and already there were other women circling him. Just the ones she could see were a princess and a grand duke’s daughter—people she could never hope to rival.
Please… just don’t take too long.
That was the thought in her head as she left the dormitory for morning lectures. In the distance a male student waved and strode toward her.
“…Kyle?”
“Have a good weekend? You didn’t seem to be at the library.”
“That… I just couldn’t concentrate.”
She could not exactly say it was his fault, so she offered a plausible excuse. Kyle murmured “I see” and fell into step beside her.
…
Honestly, she had expected him to keep some distance. He would need time to process things as well. She had assumed he would watch the situation from a careful step away until then. One look at him now told her that assumption was completely wrong. If anything, he was closing the gap first, creating a strangely charged atmosphere.
Could it be…? She cautiously tried to read his expression. As if he had heard the thought, Kyle spoke first.
“Tisha. In the world I came from… well. In John Nassen there’s a word for it. We call it ‘some.’”
“‘Some’? I’ve… never heard that word before.”
“Simply put, it’s this: you can’t quite call someone your boyfriend or girlfriend yet, but it’s the stage right before that. Somewhere between friends and lovers, I suppose.”
“Ah… yes. I understand what you mean.”
“Glad to hear it. So how about it?”
“Pardon?”
“What if we start with that? The two of us.”
Somewhere between friends and lovers. Put poorly, it was vague; put kindly, it could become anything. A small, inevitable pang of disappointment stirred in one corner of her heart. If he was going to decide, she wished he would just declare her his girlfriend outright. Instead he had produced this word “some” she had never even heard of. Like this, neither of them would find it easy to take a clearer step forward.
Yet from another place relief rose, and right behind it a surge of joy. She was not his girlfriend, but he was offering to begin at the stage just before it. Still some distance from lovers, yet no longer merely friends. That alone was enough to let her hope.
At least it isn’t a rejection. I avoided the worst-case scenario.
Once her thoughts reached that point, the disappointment melted away like snow under spring sunlight.
“…You won’t suddenly decide later that we should just go back to being friends or anything like that, right?”
“We’ll both have to work at it. You and I. So that we don’t stay stuck somewhere in the middle, but actually reach the end.”
By “the end” he meant starting as friends, passing through this thing called “some,” and finally arriving as lovers. She realized this was the best—and the only—choice Kyle could offer her right now. With a princess and a grand duke’s daughter nearby, even this much was a stroke of extraordinary luck for her.
“You mean that, right? That if we try, we can get there.”
With those words Tisha quickly took Kyle’s hand. Her face burned so hot it felt ready to burst. She was embarrassed—she had not expected her own action at all. She did not dare look at whatever expression Kyle was wearing. Yet she did not let go. She squeezed tighter instead.
If she pulled back simply because she was shy, or because taking the lead wounded her pride, nothing would improve. Things would only grow more awkward.
I have to get even a little further ahead! That’s the only way I can win!
Surpassing the princess and the grand duke’s daughter was impossible right now. She had confidence in her talent and in her future, but not yet. She needed more time, more effort. Until then, the only way to keep those two in check was to leave something special of her own. She did not need to be his girlfriend. The “some” Kyle had spoken of was fine. This was a first for him, was it not? Would she not leave at least a slightly deeper mark on his heart?
“All right. Somewhere between friends and lovers. I’m willing to try that, Kyle.”
And be careful, Kyle. Make sure you are not the one who crosses the line first. I have never once denied it when the other students call me a witch.
Thinking that to herself, Tisha shifted a little closer against him.
“…!”
Far off, a certain gaze fixed on the two of them without either noticing.
…
Crack—.
Elga’s face froze solid. Her wide eyes were filled with pure disbelief.
She had been waiting for Leto before morning lectures when she spotted Kyle and Tisha in the distance—and immediately witnessed a scene she had never imagined.
What… what is that?!
There was no mistake. That was Kyle. And the person beside him was Tisha. She had not misseen it. It was Tisha—and that Tisha was holding Kyle’s hand! Exactly as if they were a newly formed couple starting today!!
Elga had already been feeling the pressure of the princess’s outrageous declaration not long ago. Offering to become his “possession”—utter nonsense, yet coming from someone who might actually mean it. And that someone was a princess, one of the Imperial 10 Strongest, a woman with impossible titles. The night before last she had even dreamed of Kyle marrying the princess.
The one silver lining was that Kyle showed no particular fondness for the princess. He had given neither Elga herself nor Princess Yulika any real opening. No matter how close they became, he seemed determined never to step beyond friendship. That had let her feel a little relief. A little hope. He had not given anyone special attention, which meant he could still give it to someone. Such things were common between young men and women, were they not?
The problem was that someone else—someone she had believed she knew well—was doing exactly that!
“Ky—!”
Elga almost called Kyle’s name in a loud voice. She shut her mouth at once and reined herself in.
If I force my way in now, all I’ll do is look like I’m interrupting them.
Biting her lip, she accepted the reality of her position. If she had been the one with Kyle first, things might have been different. But those two had already met, already spoken, and were already walking away hand in hand. Whatever she said after inserting herself would leave only one impression: a tactless grand duke’s daughter sabotaging other people’s romance. Nothing more.
No. I absolutely cannot let that impression stick. Kyle would only pull further away from me.
She simply watched from afar. Kyle and Tisha grew smaller and smaller until they vanished completely from sight. Even then their hands remained tightly clasped.
“Haaah…”
Strength left her legs and she sank to the ground. The fragile sense of relief she had been nursing collapsed in an instant. She had never, even in her dreams, imagined Tisha would move first like that. Had the other girl only pretended to be close to her so she could pull this off? Had she read Elga’s feelings and deliberately struck first?
It was not impossible. In fact the possibility felt rather high. Yes—Tisha had clearly been aiming for this when she…
Nonsense.
Elga snapped back to reason and shook her head hard. From everything she had observed, Tisha was simply not that kind of person. Far more likely she, like Elga herself, had been spurred into action by the princess. The conclusion was simple: Elga had been too late. She had failed to act. Tisha, by contrast, had shoved aside every scrap of embarrassment and every other hesitation, charged straight at Kyle, and seized a good result.
“Forgive me, Lady Elga. Have you been waiting long?”
Leto came running up and spoke in a rush. Elga gave no answer at all. Only a vacant look remained in her eyes.
“…Lady Elga?”
“Leto.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“I don’t think I can do this after all.”
What was the point of eyeing the grand duke’s seat if she only ever watched from the sidelines? If she was going to regret it like this she should have stepped forward long ago. Why seethe when others acted yet freeze when it was her own turn? Always scheming in her head, never able to move her body.
“I… don’t understand what you mean all of a sudden…”
“It’s nothing. Just… I feel like such a fool for being neither this nor that.”
The old Leto would have fallen silent at words like these. He would have simply listened and waited for her to sort herself out. This time, however, Leto was different. After being thrown around so thoroughly by Kyle, he had somehow reached the point of voicing his own opinions—even if those opinions had originally been born from pure survival instinct.
“…I don’t know why you’re saying that, but if it were Kyle he would say this.”
“Kyle?”
“Yes.”
“…What would Kyle say?”
“That your effort is lacking.”
Leto himself had kept going under after every one of Kyle’s punches. When he finally confessed he thought he simply could not do it, Kyle had straightened up and said exactly that.
“You say it doesn’t work even when you try? Your effort is lacking. Try harder.”
Leto had even pushed back—wasn’t some things simply impossible no matter how hard you tried? Kyle had answered with absolute confidence:
“I used to think the same thing. That effort alone couldn’t make everything possible. But you know what? It did.”
He had kept training until he could split trees with a knife-hand strike, then boulders, then monster skulls. He said it so matter-of-factly that Leto had been left with nothing to say.
“…Try harder, is what Kyle would say.”
Elga murmured the words to herself, then slowly nodded. The phrase landed differently for her. It sounded more like: There is still plenty of opportunity left. So start doing it properly now.