Conclusion
Conclusion
Indeed, people needed to eat something to get their energy back.
It was only after my stomach filled and my head grew a little drowsy that I felt somewhat more at ease.
After mulling over various concerns, the conclusion I arrived at was "so what."
Yeah.
So what?
This wasn't the first time I'd dealt with some unknown person suddenly popping up out of nowhere. I had Lena's case to go by already.
That the emperor considered me to be some kind of significant existence was something I already knew. The emperor had been throwing tasks at me from the start. He had openly ordered me to assassinate a count, and he had tried to send me to the battlefield instead of the academy.
It was not my ability that let me avoid that. It was Alice. After seeing the morphine in my room, Alice had immediately stormed over to negotiate with the emperor.
A limit to my ability? That was bound to come someday. Honestly, it really was an absurdly overpowered ability. Regression users in other novels, manga, and anime got put through a lot more hell than I did. They had to die for time to rewind, or had to pay some kind of price. Honestly, you could say I got an overly sweet deal.
Besides... well, considering everything that had happened so far, there hadn't been any fatal mistakes I'd need to rewind in the first place.
So, I simply decided to stop caring.
If that bastard showed up again later, I'd just think about it then.
There was something a psychological counselor had once told me back when I'd visited out of curiosity. "Don't worry about things you can't solve right now. At least try not to worry." Exactly. There was no point at all in agonizing over a future I couldn't even prepare for.
"......."
I felt Alice staring intently at my expression.
We sat facing each other. Beyond the window, an endless expanse of trees paraded past in rows. Strictly speaking, the trees were not moving; we were.
"Seriously, your powers of recovery never cease to amaze."
"...... Do you see something in my face?"
"Yeah."
Alice nodded at my question and said,
"It was the same last time after you went to the battlefield. You'd sit there sullenly lost in thought by yourself, and a few hours later you'd come back with an expression like nothing was wrong. It was the same this time. Right after you met Father you looked utterly shocked, but now you're perfectly fine again."
"She's right. Earlier this morning when you went up to your room, you had a blank look on your face too."
Claire, who had been listening to the conversation from beside me, added.
For reference, Leo was sitting next to Alice with an incredibly uncomfortable expression. They were both student council members, and perhaps because they often had tea together, they had been slowly breaking down the walls between them. But having actually met the emperor yesterday, he seemed to have been reminded once more of the fact that Alice and I really were imperial princesses.
Seeing my gaze go to Leo, Claire glanced sideways at him. Her expression seemed to ask if he had to make me uncomfortable with that kind of attitude.
......I felt a little sorry for him.
"There was a lot to think about."
"Really?"
"......."
When I said nothing, Alice said nothing to me either.
"...... Do you not intend to ask me about it?"
"Hm."
At my question, Alice thought for a moment, then
"I won't ask."
She gave that flat, definitive answer.
I silently kept my mouth shut and stared at Alice, and she chuckled.
"Curious why?"
"I am curious."
Of course I was curious.
I mean... if it were me, I would have badgered her with questions by rewinding time in various ways. Though I would have given up if I still hadn't found out in the end.
I had already ransacked even the imperial Forbidden Library. I had confirmed that even in the prophecies, my existence had never clearly appeared.
Of course, that wasn't for the sake of learning personal secrets, but to find clues to progress the story forward.
"There isn't really any particular reason."
Alice said that and leaned back in her chair. And she shifted her gaze from me to the window.
Truly, the forest flaunted itself without growing tiresome. Villages that could pass for hamlets, places that could pass for cities, had appeared here and there during our journey, but they all existed as if buried within the forest. I thought that if this world had other races, this would be exactly the kind of place elves would live.
"It's not like you can only ask or not ask questions if you have a logical reason. I just... don't really feel like asking right now. No, I probably won't be the one to ask directly in the future either."
Her head still facing the window, Alice turned only her blue eyes toward me, a faint smile touching her lips.
"Until you tell me yourself."
"......."
I couldn't give any answer.
Alice... had already told me what she thought. Before we infiltrated the casino in bunny girl outfits. In the game, it only came up that it was partly due to an inferiority complex toward Claire, and I had thought it was basically an event scene to provide fanservice.......
If there was a difference between the game and this world, it was probably that the characters in the game moved to serve the story, while the people here moved on their own to create the story.
"Understood."
"You look somehow relieved."
"......."
Alice once again spoke as if she had read my mind, so I turned my face toward Claire.
"Claire."
"Uh, yeah!?"
Claire, who had been sitting with her mouth slightly ajar, staring blankly at Alice and me talking, flinched in surprise. Had she not expected me to suddenly speak to her?
"Do my emotions show on my face that easily?"
"Uh...... huh?"
For a moment, as if she hadn't grasped the intent of my question, Claire stammered briefly,
"Uh, no? Sometimes I guess it seems that way? But I'd say, normally it's not like that......."
Hearing Claire's voice stutter as if she were slightly broken,
"Hmm."
Alice let out a hum.
The moment Claire heard that, a crease instantly formed between her brows.
"What? What's that reaction supposed to mean?"
It wasn't a voice that was menacing, or cold, or genuinely malicious, but it was definitely a slightly irritated voice.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No, it's not that it's wrong. It's just, you know, it's human nature to feel a little superior when you see someone failing at something you can do."
"What!?"
Uh.......
Hey, Claire, I knew this was a 20th-century train without great soundproofing, but if you shouted like that, everyone around was going to stare at us.
And if you stood up from your seat like that on top of it, it made you even easier to stare at.
Most of the people looking at Claire probably had expressions of horror on their faces. They would know perfectly well who Claire usually kept company with, and regardless of the reason, raising your voice like that in front of that person was a deeply irreverent act.
To say a baron's daughter shouted at the imperial princess—
Leo, sitting beside Alice, was displaying in vivid terms the easiest noble reaction one could imagine.
"C-Claire......!"
Face drained pale, Leo tried to stop Claire somehow, but since he wasn't right next to her, he couldn't hold her back easily. There was a small table between us, after all.
Moreover, as Leo tried to get up, Alice was holding him back from beside him.
Leo froze stiff at that fact. He was looking at me with eyes pleading for help......
...... Uh, sorry.
I didn't really understand the situation right then either, to be honest.
"You've spent a long time with her! If I had just been given time like you, I definitely could have read her emotions far better than you!"
Um.......
No, if you were going to fight over something like that, couldn't you do it when we got back to the academy? Or at least lower your voices a bit if you were going to fight.
No, I'd just rather you wait until we got to the academy. If you fought next to me like this, it was incredibly embarrassing for me.
Even now, I was barely managing to keep my expression from crumbling.
Of course, Alice looked at me and grinned.
She had definitely read my expression.
"Well, I wonder. You've never done it. So how can you be so certain of that fact?"
"Guh......!"
At Alice's words, Claire wore an angry expression for an instant,
"......."
then let out a long breath.
And then she sat back down in her chair with a calm and dignified posture. As if the moment she had shouted just before was a lie.
But that attitude was merely an act. Claire's fighting spirit had not calmed down in the slightest.
"Sis."
As proof, the moment she sat down, Claire looked at me and said that.
"...... Yes?"
"Look straight at my face."
Twisting her body slightly toward me as she sat, Claire said that.
I did so without a word.
Claire turned her deep blue eyes toward me. Both Alice and Claire had blue eyes, but whereas Alice's were like a clear lake, Claire's were like staring into a blue hole, which made it a little frightening when she looked straight at me like this.
"From now until we get to school, we're going to practice guessing your expressions."
"......."
I looked toward Alice, but Alice merely wore an expression of faint amusement.
.......
I was doomed.