The Neighbor
No matter how I looked at it, Seria appeared to be waiting for us right there.
And she didn't seem to have the slightest intention of hiding it, either.
"We meet again, Lady Hero. I was rather rude to you earlier today—I apologize. Well then, excuse me."
Luna, treating her as if she weren't worth the breath, ignored her outright and tugged me by the wrist to walk right past.
Luna brushed by Seria, and I was being dragged along, just about to pass her as well—when—
Huh...?
Some kind of trick must have been at work, because my wrist, which Luna had been gripping, slipped smoothly out of her hand.
Caught off guard, we both lost our balance—I pitched backward, and Luna lurched forward.
And though I was absolutely certain I was about to hit the floor, somehow, inexplicably, I didn't fall.
Luna wobbled for a moment before steadying herself and whipping around.
And me...? I was left in an awkward half-crouch, with Seria apparently catching me from behind.
All of that, I could have accepted.
But the position of Seria's arms—wrapped around my waist like a full-blown back hug—was another matter entirely.
She was behind me, so she probably couldn't see Luna's face. But I, watching Luna in real time, could feel my mouth going bone dry.
Hang in there... Luna... please hang in there...
*You* have to be the one to hold it together...
I had no desire to watch our precious one-year sanctuary get smashed to pieces before we'd even gotten the door open.
And, Lady Hero... I'm grateful that you caught me, but your hands... don't you think it's time to let go...? Why aren't you letting go...?
Unable to endure the silence any longer, I took action first.
"Thank you for catching me, Lady Hero. I'll be on my way now."
I freed myself from her hands and turned around.
Seria stared at me blankly with her half-lidded eyes, then offered her apology.
"No, I'm the one who's sorry. You seem to have twisted your ankle—you really should watch your step~"
Wow. Absolutely deliberate.
And the expression that followed was not, by any measure, the face of someone who felt sorry. On the contrary, she wore the smile of the victor, and with a pleasant "good night," her face announcing that she'd gotten exactly what she wanted out of today, she slipped right into her room.
Left behind in the corridor were Luna and me.
"...S-so... should we head in too...?"
Luna, who hadn't said a word, came closer and looked me dead in the eyes.
"It seems our dear young lady is sorely lacking in etiquette training."
"WHAP."
Luna drove her fist into my abdomen with everything she had.
That feeling. The exact same feeling I got back when Yan used to pound on me daily during close-combat training.
Goodness... it's been a while... not that I missed it one bit.
I rubbed my battered stomach and whimpered my complaints, but Luna told me to quit milking it and dragged me into her room.
Her room, my room—the dormitory rooms were actually quite spacious for singles. The layout was clean and simple: kitchen and living room joined, with a bedroom and a bathroom at the back.
Luna dumped her luggage in a heap right in the middle of the living room.
Uh... this... it felt like the whole day would be gone before we finished sorting through it all.
"Alright then, Sirius. You're the butler, so you can help me tidy up!"
*I* *why me* hovered on the tip of my tongue, but there was no need to provoke Luna, who was already rubbed raw from Seria's little back hug.
"Yesss..."
I felt like a poor butler bowing before a tyrannical villainess who bowed to no one.
Then again, when I thought about it, going from master-and-slave to butler... wasn't that a catastrophic *promotion*?
Who knew what kind of clothes Luna had bought, or why—there were so many, and half of them were unidentifiable. As I hung each piece on hangers and filed them into the closet, one item caught my eye.
Oho... now this...!
I made a show of clearing my throat toward Luna, who was busily organizing beside me.
"Ahem... *ahem!*"
Luna looked up at me.
"What? Something happen?"
"Um... my lady..."
At being called 'my lady,' Luna's eyes narrowed into crafty slits as she asked, her expression clearly reading, *what are you scheming this time?*
"While I was organizing, I happened to... discover something rather suspicious...?"
"A suspicious item?"
She tilted her head.
"What is it? Let me see."
"Well, you see~"
From behind my back, I produced a black undergarment trimmed with lace that looked *extremely* provocative.
To smuggle something this wicked into a dormitory... what a naughty young lady she was.
Luna, who had been sorting things while seated in the living room, scrambled to her feet and rushed at me the moment she laid eyes on it.
"HEY!!!"
I took a small step back to dodge her, and she glared at me with a face flushed scarlet.
"...Hand it over, and I'll go easy on you."
"This garment. Exactly when were you planning to wear it, may I ask, my lady?"
I layered my voice with the gravity of a strict butler.
"Did you intend to meet some unknown gentleman dressed in *this*?!"
Without a word, she punched me full-force in the same spot on my abdomen she'd hit earlier.
Come on, seriously... you're going to hit the same *wounded* spot...?
"Honestly... you need discipline. *Discipline.*"
Luna clicked her tongue and carried the lingerie off somewhere into the bedroom.
Since I'd already taken the hit, I figured I might as well squeeze in one more jab.
"A butler such as I simply cannot permit the wearing of such lewd undergarments~"
She must have found my belly-clutching nonsense funny, because she burst out laughing.
Then she sidled over and sat down beside me, resting her hand on my thigh.
Her eyes curved like crescent moons.
"Butler dear~ where would I *ever* wear something like that~?"
Her sudden about-face caught me completely off guard this time. She looped her arms around my neck and gave my ear a light lick.
Her hot breath sent a shiver straight through my ear.
"Hwah... I'm... sorry..."
As the breeze of her breath teased my suddenly sensitive ear, I let out a strange noise and apologized.
"Where I'd wear it... I'll leave that to your imagination, my dear butler."
With that sultry whisper, Luna went back to organizing as if nothing had happened.
I'd tried to tease her for fun and ended up with nothing to show for it but a burning face.
I'm telling you—our young lady plays with a man's heart far, far too easily.
With Luna's room roughly finished, I moved into my own, next door in Room 604. I actually liked how bare it was—just the basic furniture and nothing more.
I put my own belongings away, piece by piece, neat and orderly. My luggage amounted to a few Academy uniforms and a few sets of underclothes—and that was it.
Compared to Luna's mountain, there was simply no contest.
I was changing into something comfortable when a note from before our departure slid out of my pocket.
"I am watching."
Two words—that was all—and yet to feel this much weight from them alone... I could only laugh at myself.
I finished tidying the room in under half an hour and stepped out onto the terrace.
Come to think of it, I'd never had a terrace back when I lived with my master. My fortunes, it seemed, had finally turned.
A pleasantly gentle breeze brushed across my cheek.
The lush forest seen from the top floor had a charm all its own. Gazing out over green woods rather than the barren wastes of the Demon Realm, memories of my life in the human world came drifting back.
The Academy was a place of indulgent luxury, yet in this one moment, I couldn't help thinking it wasn't so different from Homeron Village at all.
"...Brings back the old days..."
I leaned against the railing and looked down. Soaking in the quiet, savoring a rare stretch of time that belonged to me alone, I heard a voice from beside me.
"And how were the old days?"
Whoa—Jesus, that startled me.
I turned toward the voice to find Seria, her head poking out from the terrace directly across, watching me.
Her golden hair spilled loose as she gazed over at me, bathed in moonlight, and for a moment she seemed less like a person of this world than something else entirely.
She'd grown up so well... grown up so beautifully...
When I said nothing, stunned as I was, Seria grew awkward and continued.
"Don't make that face. I only came out for a bit of fresh air—same as you, just a coincidence."
Honestly, given how she'd waited for us in the corridor, I half suspected she'd been waiting for me to come out to the terrace too—but her words set my mind at ease. Surely, surely she wouldn't go that far.
"Thank you for earlier, Lady Hero."
Come to think of it, she had caught me when I nearly fell. Of course, she was probably the one who tripped me in the first place—but with nothing to say on the matter, I offered my thanks anyway.
Seria smiled.
"No... I'm the one who should apologize... You had a rough time of it today, didn't you...?"
She spoke to me in a soft, gentle tone. Was her suspicion of me finally gone? That thought crossed my mind—yet the fact that she'd requested the room right next to mine suggested she still had her doubts.
"Not at all. In a long enough life, you're bound to run into someone who resembles you eventually."
"I suppose that's true. But Mr. Sirius... you look so much like the person I've been searching for..."
Her eyes fixed on my face, wide and unblinking.
Unable to bear her gaze, I turned back to the forest and kept the conversation going.
"Ahem... ahem... this person who resembles me... may I ask what relation they bear to you, Lady Hero...?"
Seria rested her chin on the railing, seemingly lost in thought for a while.
"That person is... my... everything. No—more precisely, everything... that remains to me."
Even as she spoke, her heart seemed to ache, and she gazed off into the distance for a moment.
To anyone else, it would have been incomprehensible. But I—the person she was speaking of—understood better than anyone, and it hurt.
Because I had done the same thing.
Because in burning Homeron Village, I had looked at you—only you—and followed you all the way here.
And so, for a while, neither of us said anything. We simply looked up at the same moon.
I couldn't know what memories Seria was tracing, but I imagine she was recalling the same childhood days as I was.
It was Seria who broke the silence first.
"...Mr. Sirius. Let's get along well. You and I."
Her voice sounded as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
With those words, Seria turned and went back inside her room.
Left alone, I looked up once more at the brilliant, shining moon.
"Let's get along well. You and I."
With that whispered phrase, a single tear traced its line down my cheek.