Preparedness

 

Drifting, drifting, carried by the current.

I had lived without ever holding a single conviction.

The time had come to pay the price for that.

 

"A thousand years… a thousand years, huh…"

I muttered to myself as I walked down the corridor. The sheer length of time was staggering, but just as surprising was the fact that Innis was casually planning to live for a thousand years. Was that girl really human…?

"Mentor, Mentor!"

While I was lost in those thoughts, wandering absentmindedly, Mel called out to me.

"What's up?"

"Come look at thiiis!"

She took my hand and led me to the courtyard, where Yuuka and Ara were sparring.

"Halberd!"

At that single word, the shadow sword in Ara's hand stretched and transformed into a halberd with a long haft. It was a form of magic distinct from both spirit sorcery and enchantment sorcery, belonging to a school known as sorcery.

Spirit sorcery is the art of carving spirits out of natural phenomena.

Enchantment sorcery is the art of altering the properties of matter.

So what is sorcery, then? In truth, there is no clear definition. Sorcery is simply a catch-all term for any technique that falls under neither spirit sorcery nor enchantment sorcery.

Yuuka dodged the swinging halberd, but unlike a simple spear, a halberd, with its axe-like blade and sickle-like spike on either side, could strike on the pull as well as the thrust. Handling one would have been manageable enough, but with several shadow-doubles wielding them at once, even Yuuka was having a hard time.

"Crossbow!"

From behind, one of Ara's shadows loosed a bolt.

When had he learned to do that?!

Sorcery is not magic. You cannot condense it into a single word through naming or carving runes, nor can you enable others to use it. So how had Ara achieved single-word activation? Through nothing more than sheer, dogged training.

Incantations, at their core, are merely aids to visualization, tools that make magic easier to use. Like using a ruler to draw a straight line. You can draw one without it, but the power and precision won't compare. Ara had raised his ability to a practical level through unrelenting effort, and he was deploying it in live combat.

Yuuka batted the incoming bolt aside with her sword.

"Will-o'-wisps!"

Seizing the opening, several orbs of light launched from Ara's palms. This was spirit sorcery. The spheres of light flew at Yuuka on separate trajectories. When her sword cut them down, the will-o'-wisps popped with a crack, sending a jolt of impact through her blade.

The shock wasn't enough to shatter the stone sword, but it was enough to throw off her stance. On top of that, the burst of light from the exploding wisps blinded Yuuka and created even more shadows for Ara's shadow-doubles.

"Rain of spears!"

The lengthened shadows became spears and shot toward Yuuka as if launched by springs. Blinded and beset from all directions by a saturation attack, the Swordsaint could not deflect them all. At last, her sword fell from her hands.

"… I yield."

With a halberd leveled at her throat, Yuuka raised both hands and declared her defeat.

"Huh…?"

It was Ara, the one holding the halberd, who voiced his confusion.

"I won… I actually won…?"

"For one round, at least."

In stark contrast to Ara, who stared with wide, disbelieving eyes, Yuuka's expression was perfectly at ease. Her happiness at her student's growth likely outweighed any frustration.

"Congratulations, Ara!"

Mel bounced up and down, congratulating him. Her voice snapped Ara back to reality; he glanced around and seemed to notice me and Mel for the first time.

"Mentor."

He turned to face me and trotted over with a tense expression.

"It was only one round, but… I managed to take a round from Instructor Yuuka."

"Yeah. You did great."

Yuuka had often said that Ara had no talent.

Having spent a hundred years condensing a few-second incantation down to a single word, Ara was, by any reasonable measure, lacking in natural aptitude. The gap between him and someone like Innis, who could rightly be called a genius, or Mel, who was beloved by spirits, was stark. And yet, he had never grown bitter, never given up. He had simply stacked his efforts, day after day, until at last his fingertips reached what he had been striving for.

"I decided… a long time ago."

Unfailingly polite as always, Ara drew himself up with even more care than usual and spoke.

"That once I managed to take a round from Instructor Yuuka… I would tell you how I feel."

Wait, what?

"H-hold on, Ara."

"No. I can't wait. Mentor, I've always, for a long time now…"

Ara pressed in on me as I flustered. He was a quadruped of considerable height and weight, and having him bear down on me like that was almost physically overwhelming.

"I've been in love with Instructor Nina!"

Oh. That's where this was going.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

Why on earth had he told me, of all people?

It made absolutely no sense, but apparently he planned to confess to Nina herself as well.

Before I knew it, I'd been roped into accompanying Ara, and for some reason, Mel tagged along too.

I'd thought I was unnecessary, or rather, that I'd be in the way, but Ara had insisted so stubbornly that I couldn't refuse.

Yuuka, for her part, showed absolutely zero interest in her student's love life and casually waved us off with a "Good luck!" I tried to plead with my eyes for her to come along too, but she met my eyes squarely and just smiled. She had no intention whatsoever of helping.

"Welcome home, Dad."

"Welcome back… what's going on?"

When we arrived home, Chryse came pattering out to greet us, and Nina peeked out from behind her, tilting her head at the two quadrupeds.

Ah, so that was why Mel had come along. To take Chryse out of the house.

"Instructor Nina. I've been in love with you for a long time. Please marry me!"

… Or so I'd thought, but right there at the front door, Ara launched straight into it.

Chryse's face was something to behold.

"Sorry. No."

Nina's answer was equally, stunningly direct. I hadn't expected her to say yes, but you got rejected in one second flat, Ara.

"Why not?"

But Ara didn't flinch.

"It's not that I dislike you, but I don't like you either."

"Is that truly all?"

As Nina cut him down with merciless logic, Ara pressed forward.

"What else would there be?"

"Could it be because you already have feelings for someone else?"

"… That's none of your business."

"It is."

He said it with absolute conviction.

"I love you. That's why I want you to be happy."

The sincerity in his eyes made even Nina falter.

She looked my way, as if seeking rescue.

"… Ara, may I?"

"Yes!"

I had no business butting in, yet for some reason, Ara responded with spirited enthusiasm.

"I am, without question, the person who has spent the most time with Nina."

Ara had no objection to that. He nodded deeply.

"And I can tell you, with absolute certainty: Nina does not have feelings for anyone."

At that, Ara visibly deflated. He wasn't usually one for facial expressions, but his tail and ears drooped so obviously that his emotions were plain as day.

"Doesn't Miss Nina like Dad, though?"

Now, of all times, Chryse chimed in with that.

"I've told you over and over. He and I aren't married, and… he's not someone I have feelings for, either."

Nina answered with a pained expression, gripping the hem of her clothes.

"Then—"

Into the heavy silence that had settled, Mel suddenly spoke up.

"Of everyone you know, who do you like the most, Instructor Nina?"

On the surface it resembled Ara's and Chryse's questions, yet it was an entirely different kind of inquiry.

"It can be someone who isn't here. Someone who isn't alive anymore, even. Male or female, person or not a person, it doesn't matter. Of everyone you know, who is the person you like the most?"

There was no escaping a question like that.

"That… is…"

Nina hesitated, flustered, and her wandering eyes turned to me.

It was a terribly fragile gaze, nothing like the composure she usually wore.

"I see how it is."

"No, but, that's…"

Mel must have taken that glance as her answer. She nodded along, but Nina could only mumble something under her breath. She didn't deny it.

"The person you like most, who you've lived with forever, but you're not married to. In other words…"

Mel's eyes sparkled, and she thrust a finger sharply at Nina.

"You're siblings!"

"— Exactly! He's like a useless little brother, that's all."

Nina patted my head with evident relief.

Ara still didn't look convinced, but he pressed his lips together and held his tongue.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

"… Thank you, Mel."

"Huh?"

On the way back, I offered my thanks to Mel for discreetly covering for me. She blinked at me, her eyes going wide with genuine confusion.

"Mentor, why are you thanking me all of a sudden?"

Rather than playing dumb, it was clearly real bewilderment.

"Why? Whyyy?"

As Mel kept pressing me, it sank in from the bottom of my heart that this girl had been completely, utterly, naturally oblivious the entire time.