GIRLS×CROSS: FOUR PATHS OF A HALF YEAR
“Look, Lefiya, look! They just released this week’s adventurer rankings!”
Elfie, Lefiya’s roommate, came bounding through the door, a stack of parchments in her hands. Until today, Lefiya had been forcing herself to undergo harsh training, but Riveria had ordered her to take a break, so today, she was recuperating with a large pot of freshly boiled tea at her side.
Amid had secretly lent her a book on magical healing, and Lefiya was making her way through it. Admittedly, this stretched the definition of a day off, but at least Lefiya’s body was getting the rest it needed, and spending the day not doing anything at all would have been even more damaging…At least, that was how Lefiya rationalized it.
The ascension to Level 5 of a certain bothersome bunny also weighed on her mind, as it meant Lefiya had finally been overtaken. This brought a renewed sense of motivation, albeit in the Just you wait, I’ll murder you way.
Several months had passed since the Enyo incident, and Lefiya was no longer in such a rush as she was before to improve. Instead, she worked more carefully and diligently, while still making sure to further her efforts every single day.
Elfie, of course, remained quite ignorant of all this, being more interested in trend-chasing and gossip than her own studies.
“The War Game was quite a while ago now,” she said, “but it still seems to be affecting the rankings! Seems like things got shaken up while I wasn’t looking!”
She slammed the pile of parchment onto Lefiya’s desk, causing the sheets to scatter across her open book.
“Sigh…Can’t you see I’m reading?” Lefiya groaned. “I don’t want to get into all this.”
“C’mon! We haven’t done this in ages! I haven’t been able to keep up-to-date because I’ve been looking after you, you know?”
“Urgh…”
“Let’s go through them together! It’ll be fun!”
Elfie’s resentful comment, followed swiftly by her unbridled enthusiasm, left Lefiya with no room to respond. Instead, she sighed again and agreed to her roommate’s demands.
“And as we all know, same as always, at the top of the ‘Greatest Female Adventurer’ list is Aiz! …Psych! It’s Riveria this time! I guess officially reaching Level Seven was big for her!”
“No surprises there. Numerically speaking, Level Seven is a monumental achievement, but from an adventurer’s point of view, she is a mage and, thus, needs protection in battle, unlike Aiz who can fight alone. It doesn’t make sense to compare them, and quite frankly, any comparison is nonsense. If, heaven forbid, they were to fight each other, the outcome would be entirely determined by the lay of the land and other strategic considerations. So Aiz is by no means inferior, but the reverse is true as well, and in addition to her peerless sorcery, Riveria also bears the crown of high-elf royalty and carries the entire dignity of our race with her.”
“Wow, this is only the first one, and you’re already getting into it…”
Seeing her roommate casually rattle off an entire long-form chant, Elfie was understandably astounded.
“You’re geeking out about Riveria getting first place, but you also don’t want to stop repping Aiz. Must be tough fangirling for two, huh?”
Lefiya blushed and cleared her throat as if to change the subject. Still, she didn’t quite understand some of the words Elfie was saying. That girl had been hanging around the gods a little too much lately.
“Well, Riveria came out on top in the all-inclusive Mage Rankings, too!” Elfie went on. “But it was a close match between her and Hildsleif! If Riveria hadn’t clinched that level up, she’d be in a real sticky spot!”
“That just goes to show how impactful the War Game was,” Lefiya replied. “Even a fellow mage like myself was surprised at how radically his deeds shifted the flow of battle.”
“The ‘Greatest Female Adventurer’ poll was really close, too! Someone tied with Aiz for second place, and third place was only two votes behind! In second place was Mia Grand from the Benevolent Mistress, and third was Lyu, that mysterious elf! That masked adveleon…Just who could she beleon?”
“What in the world are you even saying, Elfie? Sigh…I was hoping that with Tiona and Tione on our side, Loki Familia could keep the top four spots all to ourselves as usual, but I suppose it’s not to be…As you say, it seems like we’ll be seeing the aftereffects of the War Game for quite some time…”
“You got that right. It’s actually kind of amazing that Aiz managed to hang in there. I guess the Sword Princess’s brand recognition is just too strong!”
“The Hyrutes only came to Orario five years ago, whereas Aiz lived through the Age of Darkness and was already famous because of that. That’s a difficult gap to close…”
For all her earlier protests, once the conversation got started, Lefiya couldn’t help herself and immediately joined in. Enjoying the excitement and chattiness teen girls were famous for, Elfie smiled and pulled out another sheet.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the one you’ve all been waiting for! It’s time to announce the Top Female Mage Rankings! And our very own Lefiya comes in—drum roll please—wow! An astounding fourth place!”
“Hm.”
“Come on! Show a little emotion, why don’t you? You were so excited when you heard about Aiz!”
“I just don’t have time to work myself into a tizzy over some popularity contest.”
“You’re so boring these days! What happened to the adorable Lefiya who goes, ‘Oh…hee-hee…me? I’m still not that good…’?!”
“Please don’t make fun of me…no matter how accurate it may or may not be.”
Lefiya shot Elfie a rotten glare, which caused the girl to break into crocodile tears.
“Oh, my dear Lefiya’s changed so much—it’s like I barely know her anymore! Sob, sob!”
“I’m not your Lefiya. Besides, we all change; that’s what makes us mortal.”
“Ooh, look at you, getting all philosophical…Fine! Let’s just look at some more rankings, then! …Hmm. You know, everywhere I look, Aiz seems to be somewhere in the top ten. Riveria and the Hyrutes, too. I think it’s always been like that.”
“Well, of course. They’re all very impressive women.”
“You said it. Our familia, especially the girls, seems to be topping every—Wait, WHAAAAAAT?? Rabbit Foot beat Aiz in something?!”
Lefiya nearly choked on her tea before emitting a shrill shriek. “What?! Show me that!!”
“Right here! In the ‘City’s Fastest’ ranking! Usually it goes Vana Freya, Bete, Aiz, but Rabbit Foot somehow got second place, pushing Aiz out of the top three! What did Bete do to deserve this?!”
“Ridiculous! Preposterous! What are they thinking?” screeched Lefiya, snatching the parchments from Elfie’s hands and glaring at them hard enough to burn holes in the paper. “How could that philandering human possibly be faster than Ms. Aiz?! He’s only Level Five! Don’t they know Aiz is Level Six?! If she uses her magic, there’s no way he can keep up! How dare he come in second?! Doesn’t he know his place? Just who does he think he is?!”
You’re way madder about him beating Aiz than you were about him overtaking you…
“I bet it’s all because of that final sprint during the War Game, but that was only thanks to all the magical buffs he had! It shouldn’t count! It’s ridiculous! Ri! Di! Cu! Lous! It’s made me so angry I can’t even talk right! This is why I can’t stand the brainwashed masses!”
Weren’t you also cheering quite hard at the time…?
While Elfie crossed her arms and adopted a meditative silence, Lefiya kept going through the rankings until she received a second shock.
“And not just the ‘City’s Fastest,’ but look here! In the ‘Most Handsome Human’ ranking, Aiz is fourteenth place, and Bell Cranell is thirteenth! How could he beat her not once but twice?! S-something’s wrong!! This just isn’t riiiiiiiiiiight!!”
“What’s not right is that Aiz is in those rankings, Lefiya…It’s supposed to be for men, but I guess Loki made Aiz dress up as a man in the past, and that left such a strong impression that people are still thinking about it…”
“No! I refuse to accept it! These rankings aren’t fair! There’s corruption afoot, I tell you! We must rise up and oppose this villainy and put society back on track with a fair, balanced survey that accurately represents the truth of this world!”
“W-wait, Lefiya?!”
Before Elfie could stop her, Lefiya stormed out into the hallway. Elfie stood there frozen, arm outstretched, before finally relaxing into a sweet smile.
“Lefiya,” she said. “It’s good to see you haven’t changed that much after all…”
Lefiya was furious.
This rabbit was wicked and cruel, ignorant and uneducated, and brazen and unscrupulous. Lefiya was determined to eliminate him at all costs.
As a good little elf girl, Lefiya didn’t know much about the rankings. She just sang her songs and obliterated her monsters. But when it came to the rabbit, she was far more attentive to him than anybody else in the city.
“I simply can’t believe that human could ever catch up to Ms. Aiz! I have to get these rankings retracted! And if I catch sight of that rabbit in the meantime, I’ll Arcs Ray him into next week!”
Lefiya had dashed out of the Twilight Manor and made her way down Main Street, her goal being to find out who was responsible for these rankings and have their license revoked. While it was primarily the entertainment-starved gods who organized them, Lefiya had heard that the volunteers who did the canvassing were allowed to come up with their own categories. Her top priority, then, was to seek out and apprehend whatever sick, twisted individual was responsible for pushing heretical rabbit worship among the unwashed masses.
But Orario is a big place. How am I supposed to track down one person in this massive city…?
“Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen? Would anyone like to take part in a survey? It’s called the ‘Best, Greatest, and Cutest Fourteen-Year-Old Male Adventurer with White Hair!’”
“That’s them!!!!”
Lefiya immediately homed in on the lunatic she was searching for after they conveniently exposed themselves.
“Halt right there, criminal scum!” she yelled. “What sort of questionnaire is this supposed to be?!”
“Oh, this?” the culprit replied with an innocent tilt of the head. “It’s just my own personalized cheat category that I crafted solely and specially so that only my dear Bell could possibly win it.”
“Talk about saying the quiet part out loud!! Are you all right in the head?! …Wait, don’t I know who you are…?”
Lefiya paused. The slanderer turned out to be a pretty young girl with blue-gray hair, and she was wearing an apron over a green uniform that Lefiya knew well.
“You’re from The Benevolent Mistress,” she said. “Syr Flover, was it…?”
“What a coincidence, running into each other on the streets like this.”
With a bundle of parchments under one arm, Syr smiled. It was so clearly the smile of a sweet, innocent city girl that Lefiya didn’t know how to respond. Very quickly, however, her sense of justice spurred her on.
“Ms. Flover!” she demanded. “What are you up to?!”
“Please, call me Syr,” she replied. “And allow me to call you Ms. Lefiya in turn. Now, would you mind telling me what this is all about?”
“…All right then, Ms. Syr!” Beneath the clear blue sky, in the center of the main road, Lefiya thrust her finger at Syr. “I hereby accuse you of attempting to whitewash the sinful deeds of a lecherous human, while simultaneously manipulating the public opinion of good, upstanding adventurers like Ms. Aiz! I demand you put a stop to this slanderous survey, right now!”
“Wow, such passion!” replied Syr with affected surprise. “You remind me of a certain attendant I know!”
Syr’s lackluster reaction took the wind out of Lefiya’s sails and caused her to reflect on her behavior just a little. The girl was little more than an acquaintance, and yet here Lefiya was, lambasting her with accusations in the middle of the street. It just wasn’t the elven way. Lefiya took a moment to recompose herself, then launched into a more evenhanded interrogation.
“So what has possessed you to act in this way, Ms. Syr?”
“I was forced into it,” said Syr, suddenly dejected, “as penance for losing the War Game. All the gods and goddesses hate me now, so they made me go around doing these surveys. Boo-hoo…”
Syr drew her sleeve across her face and spilled a few crocodile tears in her defense. Lefiya, meanwhile, arched her slender eyebrows. It wasn’t immediately obvious to her why a simple waitress had to pay the price for Freya Familia’s loss.
That was because Lefiya and the rest of Loki Familia had been underground on an expedition at the time of Freya’s little plot, and it was only upon returning to the surface, long after everything had been decided, that she found out what had gone on in their absence. When she returned, Lefiya was baffled to find the Hestia and Freya Familias already gearing up for war. Hence, with the exception of a few people and the gods themselves, no one in the city knew about the connection between Syr and Freya.
Instead, Lefiya assumed that the girl must be some kind of non-adventurer member of Freya Familia and left it at that. It wasn’t Syr’s situation that bothered her right now.
“I understand…Enough to see your plight, at least,” she said. “However, Ms. Syr, I must ask that you cease and desist this blatant manipulation of public opinion at once!”
“Okay, then! You’re right; it is a little obvious, isn’t it? Then how about this one? Would you like to cast your vote for the ‘Super-Duper Record Holder Who Leaves All the Other Rankings in the Dust’?!”
“Are you even listening to me…?”
Without a shred of malice about her, Syr had whipped out a category that was even more explosive than the last. Lefiya’s fists began to shake. She had thought there was something oddly stubborn about the girl when she first saw her at the bar, almost as if she were a demon toying with gods and mortals alike, but she didn’t expect anything like this!
“But the gods stuck me with this job,” Syr protested, “so if I don’t do it right, they’ll get mad at me!”
“I don’t think they told you to ask such ridiculous questions, did they?!”
“Oh, they did. But it’s mostly just because I want to!”
“Grhhhhhhhhh!!”
For the first time in her spotless life, Lefiya was driven by the urge to slap another person. She had to clutch her right hand with her left to stop it leaping up on its own.
“Why,” she screamed, with all the force of an erupting volcano, “are you so obsessed with this boy Bell Cranell?!”
“Because I like him.”
Lefiya stopped breathing. Syr’s honest answer, delivered alongside a genuine smile, was the polar opposite of her behavior so far.
“It’s not for his sake that I’m doing this; it’s for my own. I want to know how this city feels about him. I want to learn all about him, all the things I never knew before. Maybe by doing that…I can do something about this love in my heart…Perhaps I’ll drive myself crazy…but that, too, will be my punishment.”
Like that of a goddess, this ordinary town girl gave a benevolent smile. Like a nun seeking penance for her crimes or a child hiding their secrets away in a drawer, Syr gripped the parchments and squeezed them close to her chest.
Lefiya stood there, dumbfounded, as her ears turned vermilion. Syr’s words embarrassed her far more than the girl herself.
As the elf girl shook her head left and right to rid herself of the sour feeling in her stomach, Syr took the opportunity to ask her a question in return.
“How do you feel about Bell, Ms. Lefiya?”
“Wha—? Th-that human? I…I…couldn’t care less!”
“But it’s because of him that you’re out here, isn’t it? Whatever you may think of him, it must be very powerful indeed. What is it?”
The time for opening her own heart had passed, and the smile on Syr’s lips returned to its former state. Lefiya let out a trapped groan.
She was seething with anger. Not because Syr’s words had hit the bull’s-eye, but because they weren’t too far off from the truth, either. The reason Lefiya couldn’t stand Bell overtaking Aiz in the rankings was because it was completely disrespectful to the girl he was supposed to be looking up to. At least, that was the excuse Lefiya went with.
What do I think of that licentious human…?
Lefiya instinctively opened her mouth to deliver a double-spread-worthy rant—a long-form chant no shorter than those of the attendants to the gods that Syr knew—touching on the many times the boy had wronged her, including when he peeped on her and Aiz in the baths and—in what was now Lefiya’s most traumatic memory—when he splattered a vial of virility potion all over her hair. Instead, however, she closed her eyes and pondered.
She felt like she was being tested.
Tested by something akin to a god.
And so Lefiya wandered the forest of her thoughts, and after a while, she opened her eyes.
Before them were the blue-gray irises of her interlocutor.
“He’s…my rival,” she said.
Slightly but surely, those blue-gray eyes widened.
“So…I won’t lose,” she declared. “Not to Ms. Aiz and not to Bell Cranell, either.”
The light of determination flickered to life within her deep blue eyes, and her hair, cut short these days, fluttered gently in the wind.
Syr’s momentary surprise was quickly swept away by the hustle and bustle of the street.
Instead, a soft smile appeared on her lips.
“Your soul,” she said, “is quite beautiful, too.”
“Hm?”
“A radiant amber, like the sun…but also different.”
Syr spoke of Lefiya’s praises to no one in particular. She closed her eyes.
“I wonder what would have happened,” she said, “if you had been the one Hedin brought…There is no point in entertaining what-if’s, but I can’t help but be curious…”
Lefiya started to wonder what the girl was talking about. But just as she was about to ask, she noticed something.
All around her in the street, people had stopped and were staring—merchants, ordinary citizens, and even gods and goddesses all paused whatever they were doing and watched on with curious gazes, as though something very strange was happening.
Sensing that the unwanted attention was making Lefiya nervous, Syr smiled.
“Now, then,” she said. “Ms. Lefiya, would you like to come with me and make sure I don’t ask any more inappropriate questions?”
“Huh…?”
“For I’m quite sure I understand how you feel now, Ms. Lefiya!”
Syr gave a big smile.
“Let us roam these streets together and find out what the rest of the city thinks, shall we?”
Lefiya’s short time off was shaping up to be a rather unconventional day.
“Sword Princess?”
It happened when Aiz was making her usual visit to the Jyaga Maru Kun stands, touring the city with a bag in her hands. As she made her way down Southwest Main Street, a female voice called out to her.
“It’s you…From The Benevolent Mistress…”
Each stopped and turned their head over their shoulders, locking eyes in the middle of the street.
The girl was wearing a grass-green uniform and carried an even larger shopping bag. Her hair was not the pale green tone that Aiz remembered but golden like her own.
It was the elven warrior who had shaken up the city with her introduction in the War Game—Lyu.
“…Good day to you.”
“…And to you.”
The two exchanged awkward pleasantries. It was clear at once that Lyu had only called out to Aiz because she’d seen her and not because there was anything in particular to discuss.
Aiz didn’t really feel like she knew Lyu all that well. She understood she wasn’t the most sociable person to begin with, but even so, the elf girl always seemed to avoid her whenever she came to the bar. If Aiz didn’t know any better, she’d say it was almost as if the two knew each other from some long-ago time, and Lyu was trying to conceal that fact.
In any case, now that both had stopped, it would be strange if neither of them said anything further, so Aiz summoned all her limited vocabulary and subpar communication skills in an attempt to rekindle the conversation.
“…Have you been shopping?” she asked.
“Yes. I’m just picking up some things for the tavern,” Lyu replied. “And yourself?”
“They changed the flavors…so I went round the Jyaga Maru Kun stalls…”
“…I see.”
Unfortunately, both Aiz and Lyu were far cries from their respective associates Lefiya and Syr when it came to the power of self-expression. Neither had a great repertoire of conversation topics to draw upon, and, thus, another awkward silence lingered.
Nevertheless, the miniature self inside Aiz’s mind drew her wrist across her brow and exhaled, as though a monumental task had just been achieved.
“Good-bye, then.”
“Yes, good-bye…”
With that, both girls set off in opposite directions, but just as it seemed the bizarrely curt encounter was over…
“…Sword Princess!”
Lyu stopped and called out to her, as though finally cutting through the indecision in her heart.
Aiz turned back and tilted her head, awaiting the elf girl’s next words.
“Would you mind…accompanying me for a while?” Lyu asked.
“There’s something I really must apologize to you for.”
Outside a roadside café, Aiz sat silently and stared into Lyu’s sky-blue eyes. She hadn’t the faintest idea what this could all be about.
“A few months ago,” said Lyu, “on Daedalus Street, when the armed monsters were attacking, I tried to take you by surprise. I deeply apologize for assaulting you that day, no matter what my reasons were.”
“…Huh?”
The elf’s admission triggered a protracted silence. Lyu looked confused, and at length, Aiz’s eyes widened.
“…You mean…” she said, “that elf I fought was you…?”
“Did you…not realize?”
“Well…you had a mask on.”
“…I assumed a woman of your caliber would have realized as soon as you saw me in action during the War Game…”
Oh.
Aiz blithely stared off into space. Now that she mentioned it, the elven warrior she saw that day did conduct herself in a manner awfully similar to the masked adventurer who attacked her on Daedalus Street. In fact, they were exactly the same. A few levels apart, perhaps, but the basics of their style, tactics, techniques, and innate skill matched perfectly. Now that she saw it spelled out, why hadn’t she noticed it before…?
But while the little girl inside her mind was putting on her judge wig, preparing to pass her sentence, Aiz frantically tried to appeal in her defense.
Of course, she had other things on her mind during the War Game, like Bell. Not to mention, Lyu’s appearance came as such a shock in the first place that Aiz didn’t have time, or rather the mental capacity, to put two and two together. It didn’t mean she was stupid, just…overworked! Despite her fevered plea, however, the ruthless mini-Aiz handed down a verdict: “Guilty by virtue of being an airhead.”
Okay…so…
In summary.
Lyu, the elf from the tavern, was in fact the infamous Gale Wind of Astrea Familia who had participated in the most recent War Game. Not only that, but she was also the masked adventurer who had assaulted Aiz on Daedalus Street…
Lyu began to grow concerned at Aiz’s lack of outward reaction, but beneath the surface, the gears were turning. Suddenly, a question occurred to her.
“Have we…fought before? …In the past?”
A distant memory of an ancient meeting resurfaced in her mind.
“Before Daedalus Street…in the Age of Darkness…?”
“…Yes, we did. We crossed swords, and we also fought side by side to end a great threat.”
So many years had passed since that first duel that Aiz could no longer remember what had possessed her young self to fight. All she could remember was a desperate desire to grow stronger, along with vague impressions of a mask, cloak, and wooden sword.
The second battle, however, she remembered well. For it was then and there, seven years prior, that Aiz fought together with the late warriors of Astrea Familia to bring an end to a devastating war.
She was not a member of her familia, like Finn. Nor was she a friend, like Bell. Yet Lyu was still a comrade, one with whom Aiz had shared the battlefield on many occasions, even if only for a short time.
“When I first met you seven years ago,” said Lyu, “you were a child, causing grief for Lady Riveria…Perhaps it’s rude of me to say, but you seemed spoiled. Over the years, though, I’ve watched as you came to the tavern, each time just a little taller, a little more grown-up. Honestly, I think it’s amazing, the way you’ve matured…”
For the first time in the conversation, Lyu smiled.
Aiz had no family, but for that moment, she wondered if this was what it was like to have a loving big sister watching over her.
At the same time, she was a little embarrassed. She knew full well how troublesome she’d been as a child and didn’t need to be reminded of it.
Aiz wondered why Lyu had never revealed any of this before, but she soon concluded that there had been no need. Gale Wind had always been on the Guild blacklist and a wanted woman besides. That she had come clean just now was pure chance, that was all. Lyu had happened to spot her on the street and decided there was no need to keep secrets any longer.
Aiz thought back to all their meetings across the past seven years. A strange feeling of destiny came over her, and she decided to ask nothing more.
“…You don’t need to worry…” she said. “About Daedalus Street. I don’t think anything of it.”
“Seeing as you defeated me that day, I’m not sure how to feel about that…” Lyu replied. “But I suppose that means my apology has been accepted. With that out of the way, would you mind if I asked you something else?”
Aiz stared back blankly, and Lyu posed her question. It was an exceedingly simple and purehearted one.
“That night on Daedalus Street,” she said, “I felt a vast gulf of power between us. What have you been doing these past five years while I was retired?”
A simple question from the former Gale Wind to the Sword Princess, a girl who kept running on, just like she had in their battles together.
Aiz wondered what Lyu could hope to gain from such a question, but looking into her sky-blue eyes, she concluded there was no deeper meaning. She was simply saying what she felt.
“I fought monsters…” Aiz answered. “…In the Dungeon…Lots and lots of them…”
After the Age of Darkness ended five years ago, Gale Wind vanished, with some even saying she’d died. Aiz, on the other hand, continued venturing into the Dungeon, to that crucible of monsters, where she hacked, cut, and killed them. Many floors. Many slaughters. Many wounds suffered in exchange.
And so in addition to her alias of War Princess, Aiz became known by another name: Monster Slayer.
For five years she did this, honing her blade and herself. Five long years of the same.
Aiz’s dispassionate, almost coldhearted answer caused Lyu to fall silent. Eventually, Aiz opened her mouth and added something else.
“But,” she said, “just as much as that…It’s thanks to the other people in my familia…They’ve helped me out so much…Especially these past six months.”
Aiz thought back to Loki Familia’s recent expedition where they managed to reach the fifty-first floor. It was only thanks to the likes of Riveria, Tiona, Tione, Finn, and Lefiya. Countless times they had helped her, protected her, and raised her to the heights she stood at now. Aiz believed that without question.
“Is that right…?” said Lyu, who smiled gently.
“What about you?”
“Hm?”
“You’re a lot stronger than the Gale Wind I knew from back then…How did you manage that?”
Before she realized it, Aiz had opened her heart and asked the same question in return. As she awaited Lyu’s answer, she stared at the elf girl with wide golden eyes and dazzling golden hair no less radiant than her own.
“I went on a journey,” Lyu replied.
“‘A journey’…?”
“Yes. I thought I could no longer stand for justice, but I found it impossible to remove it fully from my life. Instead, I pursued a false justice. But these days…I believe I’ve found myself a real one.”
There was no way Aiz could fully understand the significance of Lyu’s words.
What she could understand, instead, was that the smile Lyu wore at that exact moment was so much brighter than any to be found within her memories and that the elf girl’s days of wandering, lost in a dark maze, were finally over.
Only those who had been with her through hardships and sorrows and seen the joys that lay beyond could perceive the gentle arc that traced Aiz’s lips just then.
Two travelers exchanged a pleasant account of their journeys.
The wind passed between them and bound them together.
And then, after a long silence, Lyu’s expression turned grave.
“…Sword Princess.”
“…What is it?”
For the first time in their conversation so far, Lyu dropped her gaze to the table, and Aiz felt that the mood had changed somewhat and that something very unexpected was coming.
She stared in confusion, waiting patiently for Lyu to get the words out, until…
“What do you think of…of Bell?”
Aiz’s eyes widened. At the same time, Lyu’s whole face went scarlet.
I-I can’t believe I actually asked that!! And I asked the person Bell idolizes! The one I’ve known since she was just a little girl, half my size!
Had one been positioned in her lap, facing up, one would be treated to a magnificent view of the elf’s flushed features. Lyu squeezed her eyes shut, trying to forget all about the humiliating words she’d just uttered.
After a series of events resulted in her finding out who her beloved admired most, Lyu couldn’t help but find out how he was seen in return, no matter how ill-spirited she thought it was. That wasn’t to say that the entire conversation so far had been for this purpose, but since the opportunity had presented itself, Lyu couldn’t let it pass her by. At least, this was the excuse Lyu had prepared in her mind even though nobody asked.
After finally averting a meltdown by shedding heat through her long ears, Lyu lifted her head. Aiz was still staring at her, wide-eyed. And, as if suddenly thinking, “Oh, you’re serious,” she began to give the matter careful thought. That was enough to make Lyu feel embarrassed all over again.
At excruciating length, Aiz parted her soft lips to speak.
“I think Bell’s…” she said, “…a rabbit.”
“A what?”
“Lady Hestia asked me the same thing. I think he’s an adorable white rabbit…or something like that?”
Lyu wasn’t sure how to react to that answer. Was she supposed to be relieved or stand up and bellow, “How dare you force me to make myself vulnerable for this!!”?
However, Aiz wasn’t finished yet.
“But,” she said, “I have been thinking about Bell…more often recently.”
Ever since the goddess posed the very same question, Aiz had found her feelings changing with every new interaction with the boy.
In the incident with the Xenos, the pair nearly came to blows and made mistakes that neither of them could ever take back.
When the fate of the city hung in the balance, Aiz had nearly lost herself to the black flames, and it was the sound of one white bell that saved her.
In a fabricated world, he had said it wasn’t wrong to try to meet her.
Why did he do that? How had he grown so strong? And why did he say those words?
More and more these days, Aiz found herself loosening her grip on her sword and staring up into the clear blue sky.
But when she did, it was not in sadness or anger.
For now, Aiz wore the smile not of the Sword Princess or the War Princess but of a little girl.
Seeing her smile, like a single white flower in a mountaintop breeze, and hearing the things in her heart, Lyu’s sky-blue eyes widened.
“Why? What do you think of Bell?” Aiz asked in return.
“…M-me? I…er…”
Lyu was caught off guard and couldn’t answer.
Her face and ears were bright red.
But she wasn’t afraid.
No mountaintop flower was going to intimidate her into silence.
And so a proud elf made up her mind.
She opened her lips to speak, and then…
“Huh? Lyu and…Ms. Sword Princess?”
“What are you two up to?”
At that moment, a gray-haired girl and an amber-haired elf strolled by, catching the pair by surprise.
“Just small talk, that’s all,” said Lyu. “We just happened to run into each other. What about you? I don’t often see you two together.”
Syr smiled. “We just ran into each other as well,” she said. “I just can’t wait to learn more about Bell, so we’re conducting a street interview!”
“Hey! Speak for yourself! I couldn’t care less about that rotten human!”
“Oh, that’s funny,” said Aiz. “We were also just talking about Bell and what we thought of him.”
“WHAAAAAAAAAT?!”
Just as Lefiya tried to steer the mood away, Aiz dropped a bombshell that ignited the air around this one café table all over again.
“Oh, wow, same as us, then! Well, since we’re all here, why don’t we have a little girl talk? The topic can be Who Loves Bell Cranell the Most? I think you’ll find my obsession is a force to be reckoned with!”
“Syr, I don’t think that’s as laudable as you seem to think…”
“Are you all interested in Bell as well…?”
“N-not me, Ms. Aiz!! How could I ever care about such a stupid, ignorant…?!”
And so a couple more chairs were pulled up, and the table became a little more crowded.
The sun bathed the city in amber light.
A pair of winds, cold and gentle, swept the street.
And a gray head of hair tied it all together.
There, on a street corner where four roads met, the voices of four lively young girls echoed far and wide.
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