“Wonderful, was it not? Feel free to follow my example, Miss Yuika.”
“You get that to Ludie’s parents, I’m just their daughter’s school friend, right?! If something like that came out of my mouth, the whole room would ice over! Who could ‘speak comfortably’ like that?! I’m not even a citizen to begin with!”
“Then how would you answer, Miss Yuika?” Nanami asked.
“Me? Hmm… I like doing my nails, I guess?”
Now that I thought about it, Yuika’s hands were pretty dainty for someone who fought with her fists.
“That’s why your hands are so pretty,” I said.
Yuika recoiled, hiding her hands. Why was I getting such a dubious reaction here?
“He’s right, Yuika, your hands are very pretty, and you always have such cute nail polish. I bet my mother and Lilou will really be interested in them,” Ludie added. Her hands were slender and pretty in their own right, of course.
“Hmm, I suppose that is worth about sixteen points.”
“That’s much lower than I figured.”
“You’ll probably be fine even if you slip up a bit, Yuika. But me? That’s a different story…”
I couldn’t afford to say anything weird to Ludie’s overly doting father.
“Don’t worry, Master. I used a pen to make a fake positive pregnancy test in case you need it.”
“Listen, there are some things that are never okay to joke about. Capiche?”
That was definitely crossing a line! If the emperor took it the wrong way, I could end up dead.
“You don’t need to worry so much,” Claris said, by way of reassurance. “You all are very friendly. I’ll be there to help if necessary, too. Of course, if you simply be your usual selves, I don’t think there will be any problems at all.”
Claris smiled. I mean, I certainly wished it would go that way, but…our “usual selves” definitely wasn’t an option.
Then Ludie turned to Claris…
“Now that you mention it, I imagine Mother and Father will be surprised by you, Claris. Not in terms of your appearance, but as far as your fighting strength goes.”
…and chimed in with her own thoughts.
“I agree. I’m proud of how much I’ve grown,” Claris said with a smile. She was a whole lot stronger than she’d been when we first met, that was for sure.
“You’ve gotten so strong, I hardly recognize you.”
“Honestly, I feel the same way. I’m now able to use varieties of magic I would have never thought myself capable of.”
Claris stared at her hands as a broad smile stretched across her face.
“Eating a Seed of Potential will do that to you.”
“Right, she did get one of those, didn’t she?”
I had totally forgotten about that. I knew this wasn’t a great way to put it, but it didn’t really concern me. Or maybe, it was more that I didn’t really see it as that important. Figures I would have forgotten about it.
After the words left my mouth, I realized that Claris had completely frozen up.
“…?”
“…?”
Ludie and Claris were staring at each other.
Oh, right, how exactly did we make her eat it again? We decided Claris wasn’t likely to accept it, so we… Uhhh?
“Master, I believe that was supposed to be a secret.”
“You might be right,” I responded to Nanami.
A startled look came to Ludie’s face.
The memories began to come back to me.
In this world, Seeds of Possibility were a ridiculously valuable commodity, the stuff of myths, tales, and folklore.
Naturally, such an item was on par with a national treasure and just attempting to put a price on it was totally impossible. In the game, however, Seeds of Possibility are actually pretty easy to get your hands on, as long you have sufficient knowledge and strength.
Looking at how Ludie and I reacted, Claris mumbled in disbelief and confusion.
“The time when we found that seed, the time when my lady ate hers, and the time when I grew capable of using magic…”
In any event, I couldn’t talk about the game with the people here in this world. That left Claris to grapple with the realization that she had eaten a legendary, invaluable national treasure.
She must have connected the dots just now. She had even mentioned becoming outright skilled with magic she hadn’t possessed the aptitude for previously.
This was, without a doubt, an effect of the Seed of Possibility.
Claris’s face changed from pink to white to deathly pale. Then, a thought appeared to come to her, and she immediately shoved her hand down her throat.
“Mrlgh, gahurlk!”
“What the heck are you doing? Please calm down. I don’t really know what’s going on here, but I do know you must’ve digested the seed a long time ago!”
Seeing Claris’s reaction, Yuika and Yukine sprang into action. Yuika pulled Claris’s hand out of the elf’s throat, while Yukine put her into a full nelson. With her joints pushed to their limits, Claris was rendered immobile.
That got me thinking—I would’ve loved for Yukine to put me in a full nelson. But would she actually do it if I asked?
No, no, Claris was more important here. Let’s see, what was I supposed to say? I was planning on getting more Seeds of Possibility, so I really just wanted her to accept this as a little gift.
“Don’t let it get to you, it’s not that big of a deal.”
When I said this, Yuika glared at me.
“Uhhhh, seriously? Takioto, if a Seed of Possibility isn’t a big deal, what exactly is then?”
Watching everything play out, Nanami came over to me and whispered, “This is my big chance.” Chance for what?
“While this must be quite difficult for you to process, Miss Claris, I’m afraid you will need to give my Master a special type of extra service. Why, after seeing how you oh-so-happily devoured the seed, your service must be quite special indeed. Alas, for a seed too vaaaaluable to name a priiiice, this extra service must beee so niiiice ♪!”
“Stop trying to brainwash her.”
What exactly did she mean by “special service” anyway? You were straight up singing at the end, Nanami!
“S-special service…”
Claris, your face is red as a beet! What on earth are you imagining? At the rate this is going, people are going to start accusing me of things!
After a short while, we decided to come clean about everything in an attempt to calm down Claris.
Before pulling off my forty-floor solo clear, I had decided I would give a seed to Claris as a gesture of appreciation for how she’d spent her time training me.
In any event.
“So basically, don’t let it bother you. Heck, you can forget all about it if you want.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
My reasoning wasn’t enough to convince her, but…
“Yeah, I figured…”
I had assumed things would end up this way, which was why I had kept it a secret. Though if someone had done the same to me, I’d probably feel crushed under all the guilt, too.
Troubled by how to handle this situation, I stared at Ludie. She sent an apologetic look back at me. She was the one who first let it slip, so it made sense she felt guilty.
“L-listen, Claris, you don’t need to get so anxious about this.”
“How could I not be, Lady Ludie? I wish you would’ve at least told me beforehand…”
“The consensus in the Hanamura house was that if we did, you wouldn’t accept the seed,” Yukine said, prompting a strained smile and a heavy sigh from Claris.
“True, I would have turned it down at all costs… Gaaaah.”
“From here on out, you can keep training with Takioto and helping out around the house… I think that’s enough.”
“Isn’t that what I’m already doing?”
“Yeah, but personally, I think that’s a blessing.”
As far as I was concerned, nothing beat spending your days with people you liked.
In that light, I thought moving to the big city without any friends or family was especially tough. In my old life, if I hadn’t discovered eroge as a form of entertainment and the community surrounding it, I don’t think I could’ve mentally handled it.
I hadn’t meant much by my remark. However, Claris still didn’t look convinced, and Ludie had on a strained smile.
“That’s very like you to say, Kousuke.”