“That was most certainly the gravitas of an educator.”
After leaving the podium at the edge of the stage.
The hall was still filled with excitement as the students began discussing the lecture without getting up from their seats when Leon greeted her.
“You have the makings of a teacher, just like Alisa.”
“You overestimate me. I am nothing more than a simple adventurer.”
“That’s right, Professor Leon! Just because I’m always at your side, saying I’m worthy of serving as your right hand in such a confessional tone is—!”
“Alisa, he didn’t say that much—”
While she was exasperated to see Alisa shuddering and holding her red cheeks, Lefiya did believe that she had gained something.
When her time here came to an end, she would return to her days in Loki Familia as someone who was still being taught. But with the perspective she gained here as an instructor, she would be able to grasp what people were trying to convey and where they were trying to go faster and with a deeper comprehension.
As she explained key points to the students, she also learned new things.
Verbalizing the process that was usually unconscious and carried out on instinct.
Thinking through her actions and explaining them.
For upper-class adventurers who tended to act reflexively, it was a strategic review. That was a thing that Finn and Riveria were probably the best at in Loki Familia. And she could put it to use at the beginning of her next battle.
She could not afford to simply indulge in being taught. It would be a waste.
It felt like she had become just a little bit wiser.
She had been unhappy about this arrangement, thinking it calculated, but now she was grateful to Loki.
That was when she heard the voices of the girls in the hall.
“Lefiya is so dreamy!”
“I know, right?! I wonder if it’s because she’s an elf.”
“Beautiful and dignified…I can hardly believe she’s only a second-tier adventurer!”
“I want to be like her!”
Don’t underestimate a second-tier adventurer’s senses, please.
Leon smiled kindly as Lefiya’s face flushed, and Alisa watched while stifling a giggle.
“I-I’m not the sort of elf who is worthy of such outrageous praise…”
“Modesty taken too far becomes disagreeable, Lefiya. And a perspective lacking in objectivity will only cause unhappiness for you and those around you.”
She could not say anything to that.
In Lefiya’s mind, the standard for praise was Aiz and the other first-tier adventurers.
But by the standards of Alisa and the others who were active outside Orario, she was more than remarkable enough to merit comment.
Neither was wrong. They were both correct.
The School District’s greatest fighting strength was their teachers, and Leon, who as the strongest of them all understood Lefiya’s perspective, too, said:
“Accept it, Lefiya. A proper evaluation is necessary for you in your own growth.”
“…Yes, sir, I shall try.”
Leon smiled wryly at the way she answered.
Lefiya suddenly thought she was doing fairly well despite struggling with embarrassment.
Here time with 7th Squad and the seminar were both going better than she had expected.
Perhaps it was a result of her decision to change. She did not know, but she was happy and proud to recognize that she was growing.
However, even as she was being praised, issues were developing.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ughhhhhhh…!!!”
The next day after the seminar.
As Lefiya prepared materials for her instruction of the 7th Squad, she was being glared at.
By a teary-eyed Nano.
“Umm…Nano? Did I do something to you?”
Her eyes were filled with reproach, but the way tears were welling in them was terribly adorable. It made her seem like a cute little animal trying to be menacing, almost making Lefiya want to pet her.
But even so, it was a little difficult to endure.
After she had been so fawning and friendly before.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
When Lefiya carefully worked herself up to ask the question, Nano cried out like a woman whose lover had been stolen away from her.
“Lefiya, you thief!!!”
“Eh?”
“I even asked you not to seduce Luke!”
No, it was not like a woman. She was a girl who thought her crush had been stolen away.
Not having any clue where that came from, Lefiya answered with an odd noise.
“W-wait a second, Nano. What are you…?”
“…But you did…”
“Huh?”
“Luke is totally head over heels for you!”
Lefiya had a dubious look as she watched Nano shout with closed eyes.
“Hah?”
Or rather, a look of incomprehension.
Who had fallen for whom?
Seeing her confused look, Nano erupted angrily.
“Don’t play dumb! Ever since that first day in the Dungeon, Luke has been looking at you differently! You’re a devil toying with him!”
“I’m doing no such thing… Ah, but…it is true that Luke has seemed odd recently…”
She had thought he was acting a little distant lately.
Turning to look when she felt his gaze, he would turn red and hurriedly look away. When he seemed like he wanted to say something but was struggling to verbalize it, she would smile and ask what was wrong, and he would look away and stammer that it was nothing. She had thought that he simply didn’t like her.
But it also felt like that when Nano started staring at her like a wraith who had died after being betrayed by someone close to her.
“Luke is totally in love with youuu!”
“Th-that’s not—”
“It is true! As the childhood friend, I can tell! Luke is a pathetic virgin bewitched by the clichéd younger senior!!!”
“That is a little overboard…”
And unexpectedly nasty.
Lefiya could feel a headache coming on as she watched Nano breathing heavily in agitation.
“…Even if that is true, you don’t need to worry. I don’t have any feelings for him.”
“That’s just as aggravating! Luke is totally awesome!!!”
“What would you have me do…?”
She was weary of this blazing fire that grew no matter what she said.
As Lefiya was at a loss for what to do, Nano, seemingly finally calmed down, suddenly looked sad and started mumbling,
“You’re only fifteen, but you’re Level Four and a member of Loki Familia…as clumsy and tiny as I am, I could never match you…”
“Nano…”
“You’re pretty, amazing, and dignified. Of course Luke would be attracted to you. Even I think you’re the epitome of a noble elf…”
Lefiya was reaching out her hand but suddenly froze.
The words noble elf.
When she heard that, everything clicked into place—the doubts, the confusion, it all made sense.
She understood why the students were so noisy when they saw her, why they called her pretty, dignified, and stylish, descriptions that were so ill-fitting for Lefiya Viridis not long ago.
What they were seeing in the current Lefiya…was Filvis.
In learning her fighting style and her determination not to forget her, Lefiya was influenced by the image of the noble elf that Filvis had been. Alisa saying she seemed more adult was also probably because of her desperation to chase after the phantom of Filvis.
If that were not the case, Lefiya could not think of an explanation for why they would describe her as a noble elf.
How absurd…
She had not considered that someone would look up to Lefiya Viridis just as she had looked up to Aiz—as she had looked up to Filvis.
There was no greater irony than becoming an object of idolization after having lost someone so precious.
And so she answered with a self-deprecating smile.
“…It’s okay, Nano. That yearning is only temporary. Just a trick of the mind.”
“Huh?”
“When he learns how pathetic, how ugly an elf I am, he will be disillusioned and snap out of it.”
She had started to say “wretched” but stopped herself.
It was too depressing a self-loathing.
Looking away, she glanced out the window at the sky that was so blue and clear yet again. At the heavens where souls returned to rest.
She was too lacking to be called a noble elf in every regard.
She could not begin to match Filvis.
She was stronger, more beautiful, and more tragic.
Lefiya had loved her.
“—”
Nano was speechless when she saw the eyes of the elf before her.
Her body shuddered, and she turned pale.
But Lefiya did not notice.