BECAUSE ALL SHE WANTED WAS TO WATCH OVER HIM FOREVER
Tiona was itching to read a story.
“…Or so I thought, but for some reason, I just can’t seem to get into it.”
Tiona sat on the floor in a corner of her home’s library, the open book in her hands.
The title was Argonaut. A comedic, lighthearted romp about an unlikely hero who slays a minotaur and rescues the kidnapped princess. It was Tiona’s favorite tale.
“How come…? I could have sworn I felt like I was missing Argonaut just now…”
A silver gleam flashed across her eyes, twisting her feeling into something unrecognizable, but Tiona didn’t know why. She looked down at the open pages, saying nothing. Her finger lingered at the point the hero came to save the princess, and for some reason, when she gazed at the illustration on the page, depicting the two gazing into each other’s eyes, Tiona felt a sharp pain, like a knife in her heart.
“…That’ll never be me,” she muttered.
Tiona was loud and carefree, and her elder twin sister always called her an idiot. And that was to say nothing of her comparatively meager bust. An Amazon filled with battle lust like her couldn’t even compare to the proper, ladylike princess in the story. That character was more like…Aiz. And Tiona was just the audience, reading the story but never a part of it.
“That’s where I belong…”
Watching over the hero, cheering him on, not walking alongside him.
Without even realizing it, Tiona was experiencing loss. The loss of a hero she could watch over forever. And because of that, she couldn’t even understand why she felt so lonely.
And when she flipped the page, the villainess of the story seemed to be staring at her from her place on the paper. Was she taunting Tiona or sympathizing with her?
“It’s okay to be a spectator.”
“But there may come a time you’ll regret not stepping up.”
“Just as I do.”
Those words on the page stuck a chord with Tiona, and she suddenly felt an urge to cry.
She had always wanted to support a hero.
That was the difference between her and the princess who took that boy’s hand.
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