“…Oh.”
In the broad daylight, an incognito Salinger ran into Mirabella, disguised in her usual raincoat.
Both parties had assumed it would be implausible for their opponent to walk down the market street out in the open.
“Salinger?”
“You…!” Salinger had forgotten they were in public and gave a shout.
He had suffered a crushing defeat just the other day. His wounds had not healed, but he didn’t care. Now that they had run into each other, they could not simply exchange greetings and be on their way. That wasn’t their relationship.
Or so he thought.
“Ah…… Ah-ha, ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa!”
He couldn’t have imagined his archrival would start to guffaw out of nowhere, clutching her stomach as she did.
She was really laughing?
Where had the Battle Automata gone? Why wasn’t she trying to stab him with a knife without hesitation?
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Wh-what are you doing, Salinger? W-were……you planning on making me laugh to death?! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“……What did you say?”
“I—I mean, you—the Salinger—are walking around carrying a shopping bag from the grocery store! You must have blended in with the civilians, checking out the vegetables and meats and lining up at the register, right?”
“…”
What was so wrong with that?
He did indeed have shopping bags in his hands. He would be hiding out in his cabin again, so he was stocking up.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Just imagining the man who had the gall to tell me, ‘Mira, today is the day I’ll make you kneel on the ground,’ lining up at the register with the housewives at the grocery store…… Ah-ha-ha, ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa! I can’t stand it anymore! You got me!”
She started to roll around on the road. She didn’t even care that she was in the middle of a crosswalk and that people were staring.
“Wh-what a terrifying scheme! I can’t believe you’ve immobilized me!”
“C’mon…”
“And there’s even a reduced-price sticker on that pack of meat you bought! I presume you had to heroically fend off a gang of housewives to get your hands on that!”
“Shut up!”
She could see the sale stickers through the transparent grocery store bag. As she pointed at it and laughed with tears in her eyes, Salinger felt there had to be a limit to how far her imagination could go.
He hadn’t thought about the price—he had just picked up the meat automatically. It was a total coincidence it was on sale.
“How foolish…”
He turned away and finished crossing the street.
His interest had died. He was confused by the princess, who had started rolling around on the ground, laughing. Besides, if they continued to attract attention, the military police would surely come running.
“Oh, please wait.”
He had just been on the verge of cutting through an alleyway.
From behind, the princess got a handle on herself and hurried over to him at a slight trot.
“I suppose we’re having a ceasefire today, then?”
“You’re the one who started rolling around on the ground, laughing gracelessly. Consider it as me sparing your life.”
“Yes. I was so close to really dying of laughter.”
“…”
“Oh, but please wait. Putting this all aside, could you please keep it a secret from the royal family that I was hanging out around town?”
How would he even tell the royal family in the first place?
Even joking about it would be too much of a bother, so he kept silent. Then the princess looked up at him with her usual expressionless eyes.
“I got in trouble with a minister for falling asleep during a meeting, and I got so angry, I just left the palace. That’s what I always do, though.”
“……You do?”
He stared at the small princess.
“So you bolted out of the palace and walked all the way here?”
“Conferences are prime locations for naps. My duty is to fight, so of course I need to rest in meetings to regain my strength after going to the battlefield.”
That was unexpected. Salinger only knew Mirabella for her bloodcurdling aptitude for battle. He had always assumed she performed her duties as a princess perfectly, too.
Precise like a machine. Indifferent like a machine.
But she was sleeping in meetings? She had sulked and run off after getting scolded by her vassals?
“It’s like you’re human, after all,” he said.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying, but I’m counting on you.”
Then she left.
Her footsteps were just as silent as usual, and there was no one who could have been as quick to turn their back on him as she was.
“……That combat doll can laugh?”
It had been his first time seeing her do that.
……Normally, she doesn’t even react when my blood splatters on her.
……But just now, she was cackling so hard that she had to hold her belly, fighting for breath.
“Ngh. It’s silly.”
Salinger shook his head.
He felt as though the sight of her laughing would bake itself into his head if he did not shake it away. She had looked cute while doing it.
He’d only thought of her as some war machine. But…
“Am I an idiot?!”
He ran into a wall.
“Today was an exception. Don’t think I’ll let you off next time.”
This was a first.
It was the first time they had met and parted ways without spilling blood.
Something about it was off, but strangely, he didn’t feel unsatisfied. But that itself irritated him. Salinger gritted his teeth.
Now that he thought about it…
✦ ✦ ✦
The moment the so-called combat doll laughed, something between them had begun to change.
✦ ✦ ✦
A few days passed.
Salinger went back to challenging the princess like usual and suffered his usual crushing defeats.
She had her normal pick of comments.
“Salinger, what’s going to become of you if I keep outmatching you in strength?”
“Salinger, you wield your astral power so crudely.”
“Salinger, is that really the best sneak attack you could come up with?”
She met him not with pity but with disdain. The princess would always look down on him like that as she made her remarks.
“Salinger.”
And now this time.
“You’re not using the astral power but letting it use you, the same as always. All you do is cycle through the techniques you’ve stolen. With those tactics, you’ll never be able to defeat an astral mage who has perfected their abilities.”
“Have you run out of things to say?”
“What?”
“I’m saying you’ve given me this lecture before.”
Blood dripped from a cut in his forehead.
Salinger leaned on a tree trunk for support as he stood up. His entire body quivered.
“You’ve finally run out of material for those emotionless lectures of yours… You’re a little girl… Don’t you ever say things that are appropriate for your age?”
“I wouldn’t have to keep telling you the same thing if you actually improved.”
Central state, city outskirts.
They were on a hill that commanded a view of the Nebulis palace. The princess combed her slightly sweat-dampened hair with her fingers.
That motion was a first for Salinger. The first time she had acted like a person around him. He hesitated to mention it out loud.
“Also, I know you’ve been calling me that for a while now, but I’m not a ‘little girl,’” the princess insisted.
A breeze blew by the verdant hill, causing her bangs to flutter.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Please call me Mira.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“……What?”
“I call you Salinger, but all you call me is ‘brat’ and the like. That’s not equal.”
He thought he had misheard her at first.
Salinger had looked into all of the royal family’s names and appearances—Princess Mirabella Lou Nebulis IIX included.
“Are you lying? I know your name is Mirabell—”
“It’s Mira.”
“Huh?”
“Mirabella doesn’t feel right, so I don’t like it. Please just call me Mira for short.”
“Ha! You think I’d take orders from you?”
He smiled, then laughed.
There was nothing more embarrassing in the world than following someone else’s commands.
“The only authority in this universe I follow is my own. I won’t bow to anyone. You want me to call you Mira? I get to decide what I call you—”
“If you call me by my whole name, I’ll never fight you again.”
“…………”
That was no fair.
That was all Salinger could think, but he couldn’t get a word out.
At the same time, he also realized just how much he had come to rely on her.
“My name is Mira.”
She didn’t even blink. If an outside observer had seen her clear eyes, they would have thought she was asking for the favor of a lifetime.
“Please, Salinger.”
“…”
After a long and harrowing silence, Salinger was the one to sigh, out of resignation.
“Mira… Is that what you want?”
“Thank you,” she answered expressionlessly, then turned around and sheathed her knife.
“Oh!” Mira let out a small cry.
A red cut had formed on her hand. She must have grazed the blade of her knife.
“Why would this affect me so much…?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Nothing at all. Now, if you’ll excuse me. Don’t disappoint me next time.”
She nonchalantly hid her cut with her other hand.
Then Mira quickly ran down the hill.
✦ ✦ ✦
In their next battle, Salinger dutifully began to call the firstborn princess of the Lou “Mira.” He still had no idea why he was doing it or what feelings lay behind it.
Even so, he felt comfortable with their relationship, somewhere deep down.
✦ ✦ ✦
But despite their expectations, the stage would soon be set for a curtain call.