After the class ended, Tatsuya decided to visit Class 2-A's room.
"Onii-sama, did you come to get me?"
Miyuki, who perceived his approach, went out to meet Tatsuya in the hallway. For Tatsuya, who should've been going towards the student council's room, it was unusual for him to come and get Miyuki.
"Yeah. I also have a few things to talk about with Ichijou."
However, Tatsuya's answer disappointed Miyuki slightly.
"Ichijou-san? Understood. I will call him."
Still, she didn't show her disappointment. Miyuki showed a smile and went back to her classroom.
Her smile gave Tatsuya a sense of discomfort.
It wasn't the first time this had happened. He saw that smile a few times already this year, it was a different smile from before. This sensation reminded Tatsuya of the Yotsuba Family's ‘New Year's Meeting'.
That event caused an undesirable change in Miyuki. Tatsuya's intuition told him not to ignore this matter as it might cause unwanted trouble.
However, he wasn't allowed to ponder on the issue right now.
"Shiba-san, thank you very much… Shiba, what do you want?"
Right now, he had to give priority to Masaki.
"Ichijou, are you aware that Juumonji-senpai is planning a meeting to talk about our mission?"
Tatsuya didn't need to explain in detail what this mission was about. As members of the Ten Master Clans, both of them knew that they had been ordered to search for the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks.
"No, this is the first I have heard of it but…"
However, since Masaki had just come to Tokyo, he did not know about it.
"Well, even if I say a meeting, it will be more like an exchange of currently known information between Juumonji-senpai, Saegusa-senpai and myself. You should come along as well."
"I see…"
Masaki pondered over Tatsuya's invitation. It didn't take him that long to come up with an answer, just less than 10 seconds.
"If it's alright with you, allow me to participate."
Masaki fully understood that for this kind of investigation, communication and sharing information was important. What he was worried about was that if he, as a student of Third High, were to join a meeting composed exclusively of First High students, the mood might be awkward. Though after realizing it wasn't the time to have such petty thoughts, he immediately came to a conclusion.
"I see. Today's meeting will be at 1800 Hours. I will send you the map, so please take out your terminal."
"A-alright."
With a slight feeling of surprise, Masaki took out his own personal digital assistant from his pocket. With this conversation flow, he had expected a "Then, let's go together" due to him being a Third High student. To be honest, Masaki wasn't thrilled with the prospect of walking together with his rival in love, so if he had been asked to follow him around, the offer would've been declined. He sort of lost his momentum at this anticlimactic result, since Tatsuya proposed a totally different course of action.
Masaki was also remembered that this wasn't Third High, and a slight feeling of loneliness invaded him.
"Did you receive all the data?"
Masaki's change of expression didn't escape Tatsuya's eyes. However, Tatsuya had no interest in what Masaki thought or felt. He asked in a business-like manner if he had received all the information needed.
"…No problem."
"Then, see you there at 1800 Hours."
After Masaki had nodded to his parting words, Tatsuya turned his attention to Miyuki.
"Miyuki, let's go?"
Even though Tatsuya was exempt from student council activities due to the search mission he was given, he thought that since he had come all the way to the classroom of Class-A, he could accompany Miyuki there.
"Yes."
After Miyuki nodded to Tatsuya with a smile on her face, she turned to Masaki to say goodbye.
"Then, Ichijou-san, we will be going."
"Do your best for the student council activities."
Masaki answered so with a meek face.
After seeing Masaki off, Tatsuya and Miyuki headed towards the Student Council room.
Even though Tatsuya had his back turned, he could feel his gaze.
There was no ignoring Masaki's subdued acrimony this time.
At precisely 1800 Hours, Tatsuya went into the restaurant that Katsuto was waiting in. He left at 1900 Hours.
There was no progress to be reported today by any of them, either. They had shared information about the affair in Kamakura during the day. Of course, they only shared information they could freely talk about. That was why tonight's meeting ended after an explanation of the current investigation led by Masaki. Therefore, it was over in a time that was neither too short nor too long.
Afterwards, Katsuto, Mayumi and Masaki ate dinner together, but Tatsuya declined and went home. Of course he had also been invited, but they didn't insist after he had refused. Katsuto and Mayumi seemed to have considered Tatsuya and Masaki's antagonism due to Miyuki.
In the train that was bringing him back home, Tatsuya thought about Miyuki. She had forced a smile for a long period of time when he had come to get her after school at her classroom.
It was not like today was the first time he had noticed this. After they came back from the Yotsuba meeting of the New Year, it happened quite a few times, and it caused Tatsuya to feel anxious every time. However, since it looked like Miyuki didn't want Tatsuya to notice, he hadn't asked her about it until now.
However, after seeing her today, he couldn't stop thinking that way anymore. It was pretty easy to understand that she was forcing herself.
Before solving the worry he had been having, Tatsuya thought it was necessary to talk to her.
While he went from his cabin to the commuter that would take him home, Tatsuya thought about how he should bring up the subject into their discussion.
Bluntly asking would be a bad move. Forcibly making Miyuki talk might hurt her as he wasn't aware of the nature nor the gravity of her worry. Leading her to it with other questions might be the same as forcing her in the end. It's not like she was a prisoner whose information needed to be extracted, and the purpose wasn't to learn about her worry.
Tatsuya stood before his own house, not having decided anything.
Stepping forward, his hand that was extending towards the door knob was slightly slower than usual.
"Welcome home, Onii-sama. ——Did something happen? Are you feeling ill!?"
Usually, he would have already opened the door, but seeing him being slower than usual, Miyuki's face was drained of color.
"No, I was just thinking about something. I'm back, Miyuki."
‘What are you doing, worrying Miyuki that way…' thought Tatsuya.
It wasn't like he had his momentum taken away, but he still hadn't confronted Miyuki about it even as they finished dinner. It was already getting quite late.
After finishing his meal, Tatsuya declined a tea-time offer and went to take a bath. Feeling refreshed, he decided to try to talk to Miyuki once more.
When Tatsuya came back to the living room, he was met by a Miyuki who had put on a knee-length classic one-piece dress with frills. She had already removed the white apron that she had on a while ago.
"Onii-sama, I will make coffee immediately, please wait for a moment."
Even faster than Tatsuya could open his mouth, Miyuki quickly said so and left her seat.
Could it be that she is avoiding him? Tatsuya quickly denied this possibility.
He doesn't think that she is avoiding him.
Miyuki had seen through what he wanted to ask her, and didn't like it.
That is what Tatsuya thought.
However, it was undeniable that the fact that this caused Tatsuya anxiety was something Miyuki was conscious about. As opposed to Tatsuya who only knew about a vague restlessness of hers, Miyuki perfectly understood the reason for his.
What on Earth could Miyuki be worried about…
"Sorry to have kept you waiting."
While Tatsuya was still throwing conjectures around, Miyuki entered the living room with a coffee tray. He was pulled out of his deep thinking by Miyuki, and he instinctively raised his face and looked at his watch.
Putting the coffee cups and the saucers on the table, Miyuki anxiously peered into Tatsuya's face.
"Umm, Onii-sama… Are you really feeling alright? Are you sure that you aren't tired? You seemed fairly distracted tonight."
Tatsuya wanted to click his tongue for his blunder. He had made Miyuki worry once more. This wasn't the time to be lost in thought, he said to himself.
"Miyuki, won't you sit for a moment?"
"Yes…?"
However, this was his chance. In this situation, although he thought it was slightly unfair, Miyuki wouldn't be able to run away or change the subject.
"What I'm worrying about Miyuki, is you."
If this had been last year, that sentence would've brought Miyuki immense joy.
However, as she was now, her eyes swam all over the place trying to avoid Tatsuya's gaze.
"What are you so worried about?"
Miyuki refused to look at him directly. Still, not stopping at that, Tatsuya went all in.
"I don't… such a thing."
Miyuki's answer had absolutely no persuasive power whatsoever.
Understanding this fact herself, she wasn't only looking away, but was averting her whole face.
"Miyuki. Won't you tell me?"
Miyuki looked at him from the side, blinking restlessly. Her eyes were still not focused on anything. For her, keeping a secret from Tatsuya was probably impossible.
If Tatsuya had looked at her for 10 more seconds, Miyuki probably would have given in and shared her worries. However fate is whimsical, and this time, it was on her side. ——One could see it as bad luck that she was deprived of her chance to alleviate her concerns.
Miyuki stood up panicking when the sound of the video phone rang out.
Even though there was a wireless console under the table, Miyuki jumped with vigor and went towards the panel on the wall.
Miyuki raised a voice of surprise when she saw the displayed name of the one calling.
"Onii-sama, it's a call from Oba-sama!"
"Put her on."
As he answered, Tatsuya had already moved in front of the screen's camera.
Miyuki pressed the answer button of the panel.
On the video phone's screen, Maya's face appeared.
"Good evening, Tatsuya-san. I was worried you may have been in the middle of something."
Although it wasn't easy to understand what she meant since they were facing each other, Maya's gaze was turned towards the table where the coffee cups were.
"No, it's alright. Oba-ue, what business brings you here today?"
For someone like Tatsuya, such an answer lacked composure. However, Maya did not comment on it.
"Last Saturday, Gu Jie managed to run away. Since we understood how, I thought I would let you know."
Hearing this, Tatsuya thought "Is this something that the Head of the Yotsuba Family should say?". However, this thought was premature.
"It seems like our communications have been intercepted."
"…Strong codes are supposed to protect the communications between members of the Yotsuba Family."
"We use a code changing every hour like the national defense but apparently this measure has been defeated."
As Maya said, the encryption key used by the members of the Yotsuba changed every hour.
That was why Tatsuya went to the Magic Association every month to meet an envoy who would hand over codes for the following 60 days (The extra amount being there as a reserve). Even the encoding machine that Ayako gave to Balance contained 43,200 codes, and to prevent an eventual theft of the codes from the machine, security of the highest order had been included.
To think that all of those security measures have been for naught was hard to believe.
"Then, should I think of this very call as one that might be intercepted as well?"
However, no matter how hard a thing it was to believe, Tatsuya didn't really have any reason to doubt it, thus, he accepted it as the truth.
"Indeed. That is why the next time we find a clue, we will transmit it to you by letter."
"Understood."
Even if she said that she would send a letter, there was no way she'd entrust it to the regular mail services, thought Tatsuya.
And one more thing. Since she contacted them tonight, it means that a new clue had been found today, Tatsuya understood that she planned on transmitting this information tomorrow.
"That is all I wanted to say about this matter… Oh that's right, Tatsuya-san. Did things go well with Juumonji-dono and the Saegusa Family's daughter? The Ichijou Family's son also joined from what I heard."
"If you're talking about the meeting, everything went well."
What is this about suddenly, thought Tatsuya, but he answered without giving much of a thought.
"Is that so? Please do your best. However, getting along too well is a no-go."
Tatsuya looked at Maya with a quizzical expression.
Was his expression that strange? A smile appeared on Maya's face.
"My, my, didn't you notice? It wasn't Juumonji-dono who made the Saegusa Family's daughter participate, but the Saegusa Family itself.
Using the meetings as a pretext to make you and her have something like a date."
What are you saying in front of Miyuki. A vivid panic awoke in his heart, however, it wasn't shown on his face.
"So they had such an intention. I will be careful."
Showing his displeasure with a frown, he returned such an answer.
"Yes, do so. Then I bid you farewell. I wish you a good night as well, Miyuki-san."
"Thank you very much."
"Have a good night, Oba-sama."
The call ended. In front of the now pitch-black screen, Tatsuya turned towards Miyuki.
As he expected, Miyuki was pretty angry.
However, it didn't show on her face.
A strong malaise invaded Tatsuya. And yet, he felt like he knew the cause.
Tatsuya didn't feel any joy at being envied. He never wanted Miyuki to sulk or blame him, not even once. At the same time, he never thought of Miyuki being jealous as a bother or troublesome, either.
Tatsuya thought that there was no reason for Miyuki to restrain herself in any way. However, this could also be seen as his younger sister growing up, or even a proof of her growth; that was one way of looking at it.
There were also people who say that a woman's envy represents the depths of her love.
Still, one cannot say that envy is a virtue. While his intuition told him that this change in Miyuki was undesirable, his common sense judged that it might be a suitable change for a lady.
You can be open about your jealousy like before, was something that Tatsuya couldn't tell her.
The next day, February 12th, it had started to snow.
Due to the thick clouds that were covering the sky, it was still dark outside despite the fact that it should have been sunrise soon.
Coming down from Yakumo's temple, Tatsuya was running down the street at a speed nearing 60 kilometers per hour.
With his speed and the current weather, it was pretty difficult to identify the people he was passing by. Even so, anybody would've been able to recognize that woman, especially Tatsuya.
She had quite a peculiar appearance.
To be precise, Tatsuya couldn't have recognized her face. Her casquette (cap) that dropped to her eyes, large sunglasses, and muffler that covered her face all kept her face hidden.
Even though he was running on a downhill slope, Tatsuya managed to stop two steps in front of her.
"Good morning, Yoshimi-san."
Yoshimi made a quick bow in response to Tatsuya's greeting.
She took a portrait envelope out of her coat and presented it to Tatsuya.
Maya's messenger was Yoshimi.
"I have accepted it."
Tatsuya said so after receiving the letter, and upon hearing this, Yoshimi's face moved up and down ever so slightly. Tatsuya wasn't even sure if she was actually looking at him behind her sunglasses.
Failing to perceive her expression, Tatsuya looked at Yoshimi's face once more. And, he felt that it was really unnatural. Trying to hide her face in plain view, if he had been the one observing, no doubt he'd have thought her to be suspicious.
Since it was roughly in the middle of winter, it wasn't that strange to have a muffler up to her nose.
The casquette might also be acceptable in the world of fashion, The combination of those two wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
No doubt, the problem came from——
"Yoshimi-san, I think that this appearance has the opposite effect, it makes you stand out quite a bit. Shouldn't you remove the sunglasses?"
Despite knowing that it was uninvited interference, Tatsuya offered some advice.
Twice, Yoshimi shook her head left and right.
After coming back home and taking a shower, Tatsuya decided to open the letter he received from Yoshimi before having lunch.
"…Onii-sama, the preparations for the meal are complete."
Miyuki came from the dining hall to call Tatsuya. She immediately realized what the letter he had in his hand was about.
"Is this what Oba-sama talked about yesterday…?"
"Indeed."
Tatsuya nodded while standing up, he then handed the letter he had just finished reading to Miyuki.
Miyuki took the letter with a bit of hesitation, and opened her eyes wide as she read what it contained. The look on her face was filled with surprise.
This letter suggested that there was a possibility that Gu Jie's escape was made possible due to the cooperation of soldiers of the Defense Forces.
"It seems like no organization is unrelated to shady things. The Defense Forces are no exception. Though, I'd like to think that only a part of it is rotten."
Tatsuya took the letter from Miyuki's hands and put it back into the envelope he held.
"That being said, we shouldn't dwell on our past mistakes, especially when our target is willing to harm us to gets what they want. We have no reason to show restraint."
"Onii-sama…"
Miyuki looked up at Tatsuya's face with an anxious expression.
Tatsuya smiled while lightly patting his sister's head then headed towards the dining room.
Class 2-A's lesson at 1 o'clock was practice. Today's subject was ‘The definition of Magic's ending conditions'.
There was no Magic that lasted forever. There was a limit to the effective time of every Magic. But at the same time, with Magic that didn't have clear time limits, there was no way to precisely understand how long the effects would last.
It is impossible for a Magic Sequence to interfere with another. Unless we're talking about unusual Magic like Spell Dismantling (Gram Demolition) and Spell Dissolution (Gram Dispersion), interrupting the casting of a spell is impossible. Only overwriting the phenomenon alteration with more power is possible.
Thus, for a Magic to overwrite another, an interference strength greater than that of the Magic you want to overwrite is required. That stays true even if your objective was to "return an event modified by Magic to its original state". In the case of a Magic with uncertain ending conditions, the load on the Magician would increase even further. That is why the definition of ending conditions for Magic is an extremely important factor in a Magician's ability evaluation.
Generally, there were two ways of defining such a thing. One was to include the magic's effective time (start to finish) directly into the Magic Sequence. This method had been put to great use in Taurus Silver's flying devices.
Another was to define the conditions of the Magic's success. Until the objective of event modification is achieved, the activation continues.
Hence, it is a method to put an end to the effectiveness of the Magic Sequence itself. This method tends to be used a lot in practice.
Today's class was about practicing Magic spells with variable durations of effectiveness. The training method used was for a student to change the color of a plastic ball from white to red, then to green, then to blue, and 10 sets of 3 color changes were to be performed in 30 seconds.
Although the time and frequency could vary, the average of 1 second per color remained.
If the change was done too late, then the time limit would be exceeded.
On the other hand, if it was executed too soon, the interference strength required to overwrite the previous Magic Sequence would increase. If this mistake was to be repeated multiple times then performing the Magic would progressively become harder, putting a lot of stress on the student.
Today was merely a practice session, not an evaluation, so the students had to group up and alternate in using Magic. The one not performing the Magician's role had to perform the role of a timekeeper. In other words, while one of them executed Magic, the other kept track of the various timing aspects that this practice required; the timekeeper had to focus on the numerical stopwatch on his terminal, or at least that was how the previous training session went.
The problem was that the number of students from Class-A during the previous session was odd. The option of forming groups of three people was abandoned and in the end, a single person had to practice on their own. As luck would have it, that person had been Miyuki.
Actually, everyone in the class had wanted to raise their hands and pair up with Miyuki. The problem was that everyone else had already picked their partner, and now wanted to switch. It wasn't like nobody wanted to group up with her.
Since yesterday had been the day of lessons and experiments, such a problem hadn't popped up. Much like last week, the situation today shouldn't have happened. ——If it hadn't been for the fact that Masaki had just ‘moved in'.
"Shiba-san, would you pair up with me?"
After Masaki had been told the goal of this practice session by the teacher, he had gone towards Miyuki. He proposed pairing up to the lone student.
Noise flittered across the practice room. Words of regret and some curses escaped the lips of various boys in the classroom. It was limited to a mere "Damn, too late!".
"Yes, with pleasure. I look forward to working with you, Ichijou-san."
Even Miyuki might have found it unpleasant to practice alone. Hearing Masaki's request, she nodded with a radiant smile.
When Masaki heard the explanation for the exercise, he muttered "Isn't that easy?".
These days, the second year students of Third High were practicing the use of Magic on a target behind a wall. That being said, the real purpose of this was to be able to cast Magic on an invisible opponent, or one taking cover behind an object.
Compared to the combat application oriented practices of Third High, Masaki couldn't help but think of First High's practices as a way of competing in cleverness.
And after watching Miyuki performing the task, this impression only strengthened. Miyuki perfectly changed the color of the ball in 10 sets within the allotted time of 30 seconds. What Masaki felt admiration for was the more bright and vivid colors of the ball than her perfect timing.
This plainly showed the level of her interference strength.
"30 seconds exactly. As expected of Shiba-san."
"Thank you very much. Ichijou-san, you can start whenever you want."
With social etiquette in mind, Masaki had praised Miyuki's talent, and being urged on by such a lovely girl afterwards, he was now brimming with enthusiasm.
All unneeded feelings disappeared in an instant, and Masaki was now focused on his target like in a real combat situation.
"How about the count? Do you want the notice set at 10 seconds?"
Hearing Miyuki's proposition, Masaki was about to say "There's no need", but reconsidered.
"…Alright then, please set the countdown for the last 10 seconds."
Thinking that just for him, Miyuki would do the countdown had its charm for Masaki.
"Understood."
It seemed like his cheeks were about to loosen when he heard Miyuki's crystalline voice.
"I entrust the signal to you."
Masaki once more focused on his Magic. His mindset had already switched to a war-like state.
"In that case, 3… 2… 1… Start!"
While Masaki was setting the time-based ending conditions in his head, he executed his Magic in succession.
Red - - Green - - Blue.
Red - - Green - - Blue.
The lively colors he created were in no way inferior to Miyuki's.
Masaki felt satisfaction at the fact his Magical power wasn't losing to Miyuki's.
Red - - Green - - Blue.
Red - - Green - - - Blue.
Maybe caused by his idle thinking, his rhythm started to fall apart.
To correct his mistake, he tried to adjust the timings.
Red - Green - - Blue.
According to his own time perception, the discrepancy had been dealt with.
Red - - Green - Blue.
Now, however, the problem lied in the fact that due to his adjustments, he was too far ahead.
Red - - - Green - - - Blue.
Masaki waited more than 1 second in order to slow down his sets.
Red - - Green - - Blue.
He then managed to get back to the regular interval. He decided to make the final adjustments during the countdown.
"10… 9… 8…"
Miyuki's countdown started.
His error margin was less than a second's time.
Masaki opted for correcting the error on the final sequence.
"3… 2…"
Red - Green,
"1…"
Blue.
The plastic ball went back to its original white color.
"It's over."
Slightly late, Miyuki reported the end of the time limit.
"Remaining: 0 - 7 seconds. It's very hard to imagine that this is your first time Ichijou-san."
Miyuki turned a smiling face towards Masaki.
Masaki hid the cramp that was forming on his face and returned a smile.
The passing line for this exercise was for the last color change to be within a single second of the timer's end. The reason he managed to clear the exercise was thanks to the countdown. When thinking that Miyuki managed to perfectly time hers without Masaki's assistance, he really couldn't feel pleased at all.
"Just 30 seconds. Not bad, Honoka."
"Eh-he-he, this is my area of predilection after all."
Hearing the nearby voice, Masaki received an even stronger shock.
Using the remaining time for the session, Masaki finally managed to achieve the clearing conditions on his own.
After the morning classes ended.
"Ichijou-san."
Masaki had finally managed to recover from the shock he had received from having to actually put effort in the practice session from before. He was called by a girl from the side.
Masaki turned his face towards the voice. He was like any other Magician and possessed a good memory. He could remember Honoka's name almost without any lag.
"Umm, Mitsui-san was it?"
The fact that he remembered her name was not due to her previously introducing herself nor hearing her name from someone else. He remembered her as the victor of this year's Nine Schools Competition in the Mirage Bat category.
"Yes, my name is Mitsui Honoka."
Honoka nodded with a pleased face. She didn't have any interest in Masaki, but knowing each other's names would make their interactions smoother. Honoka had smiled in relief.
Masaki interpreted her smile as pure courtesy as well.
"Ichijou-san, would you like to go to the dining room together?"
"Huh, with me?"
That was why, such an invitation took him by surprise.
"Yes, with us."
Honoka looked over her shoulders.
There stood Shizuku and Miyuki.
When she met Masaki's gaze, Shizuku nodded without changing her expression. No, well, maybe it had been a bow? Shizuku's reaction had been that ambiguous.
As for Miyuki, she was displaying a smile that hid what she was really thinking. But at the very least, to Masaki, this smile didn't give off the impression that he'd be a bother.
"…Is it alright for me to go with you?"
Instinctively using the polite tone again, Masaki replied so.
Realizing that his eyes were turned towards her, although her smile still looked slightly bitter, Miyuki's expression softened.
The smile that gave off a faking sentiment turned into a warm smile.
"Yes, certainly."
To Miyuki's answer,
"It would be my pleasure!"
Masaki stood up with vigor.
"Huh?"
This first person who saw Miyuki's group, who was slightly late for lunch, had been Erika.
Yesterday she had thought 'He will try to stick to Miyuki for sure' and was surprised when Masaki kept his distance. But now she was suspicious that Masaki was acting exactly like she originally predicted.
She wasn't the only one. Leo and Mikihiko were also looking at Masaki with intrigued eyes.
"Umm, Onii-sama… Is it alright if Ichijou-san shares a seat with us?"
"Of course."
However, Tatsuya' answered as if it had been obvious. An immediate response.
Rather, Masaki was the one who was puzzled right now.
Masaki, who was standing there dumbfounded, was spoken to by Tatsuya in a direct —— that is to say, not in a particularly friendly way —— tone.
"Ichijou, do you know how to place an order? The purchase system of the cafeteria should be something rather standard."
"Ah, yeah. No problem."
"Let's go, Ichijou-san."
Being urged on by Miyuki, he went towards the ordering machine with her. Honoka and Shizuku followed just behind him.
Having retrieved her meal, Miyuki sat down next to Tatsuya.
Masaki sat down right in front of her.
Honoka was next to Masaki, right in front of Tatsuya.
Erika, who had been sitting in front of Tatsuya, gave her seat to Honoka and moved next to Miyuki.
Erika, who had purposefully taken a roundabout path around the table, suddenly spoke to Masaki.
"Ichijou-kun, how's the investigation going?"
Masaki almost choked on his freshly acquired bowl of soup. Since he had seen Erika a few times already, he wasn't surprised at her overly familiar attitude. What had surprised him was the fact that she asked him such a question about a duty verging on a grey line with the law, in a place where anyone could be listening.
"Erika, Ichijou has just arrived in Tokyo. No matter how outstandingly superior a Magician he is, there is no way he'd accomplish something like that in a day."
While Masaki was struggling to find a way to answer, surprisingly for him, he was rescued by Tatsuya.
"I guess that's true."
"Indeed, Erika. This is not something you should ask in such a pressing manner. Ichijou-san, sorry about that."
Lightly reproving Erika, Miyuki bowed towards Masaki.
"No, well, this isn't something that needs an apology or anything."
Miyuki directed an innocent smile towards Masaki who was getting flustered. Masaki's pure-hearted reaction might have been something refreshing for her.
"That being said, I envy you, Ichijou-san."
"Ah? Umm, what about?"
With Miyuki's dazzling smile turned towards him, Masaki was getting more and more restless.
"For you to be called a ‘outstandingly superior Magician' by Onii-sama.
Onii-sama is unexpectedly nice to you."
Miyuki sent a look of reproach to Masaki while smiling. No, to be more precise, it was more like envy?
Of course it was just a joke; however, what little calm Masaki had managed to preserve was blown away in an instant, he couldn't think of anything. His concerns about Miyuki calling Tatsuya "Onii-sama" as well flew out of his mind.
Tatsuya opened his mouth. "That's not the case" he said. Maybe it had been to turn Miyuki's gaze away from Masaki, maybe it had been a straight manner of scolding her for teasing him, but anyway, it was obvious that Tatsuya had again come to his rescue.
"So after all, Tatsuya-san recognizes Ichijou-san's ability."
However, as if covering for her, Honoka interrupted his sentence.
"That's nice. It feels like some sort of rivalry between two men."
"You might say rival, but in terms of Magical Power, it's pretty clear that Ichijou comes out on top."
Being so directly talked to, Tatsuya had no choice but to turn his attention away from Miyuki. Without wasting time, Tatsuya turned his attention to the person in front of him.
"However, isn't what we're practicing currently Tatsuya's field of expertise?"
"Well, that is because the current theme requires precision more than speed and strength."
Without humbling himself, Tatsuya honestly replied to Honoka.
"Tatsuya-san managed from the very beginning to perfectly time every color change for 1 second."
Mizuki seemed to be completely relaxed, and she opened her mouth as if she had been the one praised.
"Really!? Tatsuya-san, that's incredible!"
Hearing Honoka and Mizuki's speeches damaged Masaki quite clearly.
Miyuki, who was seated right in front of him couldn't overlook this, and gave him some comforting words.
"Even though I always stay within the time limit, I still end up being slightly too fast or too slow."
However, Honoka who sitting next to him and was even closer, hadn't noticed.
"Tatsuya-san, isn't there some kind of trick for this?"
Being overjoyed at Miyuki showing sympathy for Masaki, she couldn't help but try to draw Tatsuya's attention.
From Honoka's point of view, everything was going according to the plan.
It had been Honoka who proposed to invite Masaki to their table. She had planned on pushing Masaki towards Miyuki while using this chance to get closer to Tatsuya herself.
Saying this is wicked would be pitiful.
"All's fair in love and war" was a popular phrase that originated from a tragicomedy of Great Britain from the 17th century. That being said, in modern times, there were strategies that were established as forbidden by a multinational treaty, so you couldn't say that this phrase was true for everything.
It remained true for the matters of love, and you couldn't say that everything was allowed. For instance, using a lie like ‘I am bearing your child' to force your lover to give you money in order to part with you, those kinds of things were usually restricted by your sense of morals.
Still, what Honoka did was not exactly foul play; all things considered, this was pretty common for a girl in love. Using her friend's partner that way might be considered in bad taste, but it only served as evidence of Honoka's strong love.
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