Epilogue

A chime sounded, muffled and faint. Raul cracked his eyes open and slid his gaze sideways to the alarm clock on the nightstand.

"… … … …"

… Seriously, at this hour…

By the standards of the world at large it was not especially early, but for Raul, whose job had him clocking in a little later than most, this was practically the crack of dawn.

As if to hurry the squinting Raul along, the chime rang again… and Raul, dragging himself upright, reluctantly climbed out of bed.

… Honestly. Fino, that idiot…

For a demonkin, Fino kept a far more wholesome schedule than Raul did, and naturally enough she was an early riser too. Since their apartments were right next to each other, she was forever banging on his door over the most trivial things.

Probably today it'd be the weather's so nice, or the breeze feels great, or there's a bird outside the window she'd never seen before, or some such…

Scratching his head, he padded toward the front entrance and reached absently for the doorknob, and in that instant, Raul remembered what had happened the day before.

 

*

 

"Hey, this part… I don't really get what it's saying…"

Inside the register counter at Magic Shop Leon around midday, Airi had been glaring down a printout from corporate detailing the next sale when she suddenly looked up.

"Look, this bit here, doesn't it contradict itself? In the end, how much do they have to spend for us to throw in the freebie?"

"Huh…? Whoa, yeah, that's obviously a typo. We'd better check with corporate before the sale, or it'll get ugly."

"… Is this company actually okay?"

At Airi's observation, Raul peered over the printout and let out an involuntary groan, and Airi, indigo eyes narrowed, let out an exasperated sigh.

"There's just so much of this kind of thing, you know? Nothing like this ever happened at Amada…"

"Ha ha… well, you can't really compare a small-time chain like ours to the industry's number-one, right… ah, welcome!"

He turned reflexively toward the sound of the shop's front door opening, and the next instant his eyes went round.

"Fufu, here I aaaam!"

Glossy dark-brown hair and wide, ash-grey eyes… Sonia, dressed in casual clothes, was waving one hand at him and laughing as if she were having the time of her life… wha—!

"S-Sonia-san?! What are you doing here?!"

"What am I doing here? Fufu, I told you, didn't I? I came to see Raul-san working his hardest!"

She fielded the question with a wink, perfectly composed.

… And then, as if drawn by the sound of Sonia's voice, a figure approached from the sales floor.

"Oh my, Sonia-san, welcome."

Chestnut-haired Manager Seara came over, her hair swaying softly, and smiled.

"Thank you again, the other day, for letting us have the first-prize MagiVi."

"Se-Seara-san…!"

In front of the politely bowing Manager, Sonia hurriedly bowed back.

"Um, I caused you all so much trouble the other day… and the Assistant Manager got hurt because of me, and my boss said to pass on his apologies too, and honestly, one measly MagiVi doesn't even begin to cover—"

"No, no, thanks to you nothing serious came of it, and we're the ones who owe you…"

"… Still, I can't believe the customer for the Manager's MagiVi turned out to be that man."

Watching the exchange between the two, Airi murmured, as if she'd just remembered something.

… Mr. Adwards. One of the Manager's regular customers, and the very one who the other day had grumbled to Raul about Airi's attitude. The moment Raul caught Airi's sigh, he broke into a smirk.

"You went on full guard the second you heard Adwards-san's voice when he came to pick up his MagiVi, didn't you?"

"O-of course I did!"

At Raul's teasing tone, Airi's voice rose despite herself.

"I mean, I told myself I'd never give him an excuse to complain again, so I really put my back into it…"

"Huh… that explains it. When I delivered his unit, he was complimenting you. Said you'd gotten a lot more pleasant lately."

"…!"

For an instant Airi's words caught in her throat, and after a moment she lowered her eyes, embarrassed.

"… I-I was only doing my job… customers are so easy to please, honestly…"

Cheeks flushed, muttering as if she were angry about it, she made Raul's eyes soften in spite of himself… and then.

"Hey, hey, Raul-san, when's your next day off?"

Before he'd noticed, Sonia had finished greeting the Manager… and now she was leaning across the register counter, bringing her face right up to Raul's.

… … … …

Sonia's cleavage filled Raul's vision. As if she meant to peer right into his eyes, she fixed her ash-grey gaze on him and softly whispered,

"So… if you'd like, would you go on another date with me?"

"Huh?"

In that very instant.

Raul had only just blinked in startled surprise when Airi, beside him, raised her voice in alarm.

"H-hey, hold on! Weren't you only getting close to Raul Chaser because of the bracelet?!"

"Mmm… at first, yeah, but Raul-san is strong, and he's kind… if you guys don't want him, I was thinking maybe I'd just take him for myself…"

"… What?!?!"

As she spoke, Sonia's fingers came to rest gently on both of Raul's shoulders.

In Raul's flustered field of vision, Sonia's well-formed face grew rapidly larger—

"NO!!"

… And.

Just as Sonia's lips were about to brush his, a girl suddenly cut in between the two of them, her voice frantic.

"No… Raul is, I won't give him to Sonia-san!!"

"Fino…?!"

As if asserting ownership, Fino clung tightly to Raul's arm and glared daggers at Sonia.

In front of the thoroughly bewildered Raul, Sonia, who had stared blankly for a moment at the sudden intruder, eventually let out a soft, amused giggle…

"Aww, too bad…"

Stretching out luxuriously, she turned on her heel… Then, glancing back, Sonia winked at Raul.

"But… I'm not giving up either, you know?"

 

*

 

The way she'd stretched both her arms out as far as they would go. Remembering the earnest look in Fino's eyes as she clung to his arm, Raul felt himself going flustered all over again.

… N-no way… Fino, you can't possibly mean…

… N-no, no, that's not it, he told himself, shaking his head hard.

The reason she's gotten attached to me is just that I'm her senior and I was put in charge of her training and taught her a bunch of stuff, that's all… probably, if anyone else had been her trainer, she'd have gotten just as attached to them in exactly the same way… s-so, don't go reading anything weird into it, me!

But no matter how desperately he lectured himself, remembering Fino from yesterday still set his chest hammering…

… Damn it, stop thinking about it! … Same as always, same as always…

"Fino, what do you want at this hour of the—"

Putting on a deliberately put-out air, he muttered curtly as he pulled the door open, and the next moment, Raul froze.

Straight black hair falling down to her waist. A great big ribbon bobbing on top of her head.

The black eyes looking up at him as if overcome with feeling, the still-childish face… he knew them both, knew them all too well… wait!

"Onii-chan…"

On the other side of the door Raul had just opened, standing there, was…

His little sister, the one who was supposed to be back in the distant rural village of his hometown… Myuli.