“Even if you boast about it, I don’t envy you one bit.”
“You don’t have to be so hesitant. If you like, I could teach you my speed-reading methods.”
“That’s all right.” She waved her hand awkwardly. “I think reading is something to be savored as you enjoy it, like a good meal.”
“But a meal is just a way to get nutrition.”
“Apparently, we hold completely conflicting ideas.”
“But if you speed-read, you can make more effective use of your limited time.”
“There is something ironic about you using the time you save that way to proselytize about speed-reading. Anyway, I’m good—” She’d demonstrated absolutely no understanding of what I was saying.
I see. Apparently, not every single genius out there is looking for ways to save time like I am. This is another lesson for me.
By the way, I wonder what my rival thinks about that?
When I asked Nadona, who was clutching the book in its bag like a precious treasure, she cocked her head and answered as if it was only natural, “Huh? What advantage is there to speeding up your reading?”
“I see, so you’re the same type of human as Lady Elaina, then.”
“I don’t really know what you’re talking about, but…”
“I’m just talking to myself. Don’t worry about it.” I waved my hand and left the shop with Nadona.
After that, we made the rounds to several more places. For example, I went with Nadona to look at clothes, to walk around the city for no real reason at all, and to sit on a bench in a public square for a while because I had nothing else to do.
Incidentally, all these activities were Nadona’s idea.
“I love walking around the city with no real purpose.”
Saying exactly the same lines Lady Elaina had said, she looked around the city, dazzled by sights that ought to have been familiar to her.
“I also love spending time in places like this, without rushing.”
She said that and sat down on a bench in the city square.
Incidentally, I had sat on the same bench with Lady Elaina the day before.
Is she secretly Lady Elaina?
“Thanks for today, for inviting me out,” Nadona said, sitting next to me. She looked embarrassed as she stared out into the distance. “I don’t have anybody else in my life who would invite me out like this, so I was happy when you did.”
“If a genius like you isn’t getting invitations, I guess the people around you don’t have very discerning taste.”
“Genius, huh…?” She let out a sigh. Her expression was cloudy, which was rare for Nadona, who was usually smiling foolishly. “I’m not too happy about being called a genius.”
“Why not?”
“It’s an awful lot of pressure, when the people around you expect you to be able to do anything as a matter of course. Plus, since I’m always smiling, people often tell me I look like I haven’t got a care in the world.” The next words out of Nadona’s mouth were something the esteemed witch had said to me before. “But I’m actually living with troubles of my own, just like everyone else, you know?”
Really, could she be Lady Elaina?
I wonder if every person who gets called a genius is bothered by the distance between themselves and other people? That’s a novel discovery. Starting tomorrow, I’ll try being troubled by the distance between me and others.
“By the way, why did you invite me out today?” Nadona tilted her head inquisitively. “Was it because I confided in you about my troubles?” Her expression had gotten some of its cheerfulness back.
But setting that aside—
—I wasn’t sure how to answer when she asked why I’d invited her.
“Why would you ask such a thing?” I answered her question with a question.
Nadona looked a little surprised and flustered, then once again blurted out something incomprehensible. “Ah, sorry? I mentioned this earlier, but I don’t really have anyone I’d call a friend, so I’m not really sure, but is this what I think it is?”
“…?” Even though I was also supposedly a genius, the meaning of whatever she was trying to say was completely unclear to me.
“Huh? I mean, look, normally you make me have some weird duel with you or something. But today, we just ended up going out and making the rounds to all sorts of different shops, and I thought maybe we aren’t going to fight today? In other words, maybe starting today, we’re not battling rivals but frien—”
“No, I never said a single word about not fighting today.”
I whipped out my wand.
I never said we weren’t fighting.
“In fact, I thought we could do it now.”
Actually, it would be no exaggeration to say everything that’s happened up to now was in service of this moment.
“……”
In the blink of an eye, all expression had vanished from Nadona’s face.
This was another fine result of the detailed strategy put together by Lady Elaina.
I recalled once again my time with her, the witch who had been in this city until the previous day—
“If you want to win when you duel against your rival, the first, most important thing is of course to know your opponent. But that’s not all. It’s also important to throw your opponent off their game.”
“Meaning what?”
“You’ve got to do things that will make them uncomfortable. For example, challenging them to a duel after hanging out all day.”
“What’s the point of that?”
“I’ll tell you the point. Right around dinnertime, in the early evening, right about when you start thinking about what you’d like to eat when you get back home, if an errand that you couldn’t avoid was suddenly added to your schedule, you would hate that, right? That’s more or less what you’re trying to do to your opponent.”
“Are you some kind of demon?”
“Heh-heh-heh… They say you put yourself at a disadvantage if you don’t use slightly underhanded methods in order to win.”
“Now I see…!”
And so—
—this time, after tediously taking her from place to place, I challenged her to a duel.
There was no doubt that the effect was immediate.
“Oh, okay…”
Nadona let out a big sigh. There was even something about it that suggested all the events of the whole entire day had been negated. “Um, I didn’t bring my wand with me today, though—”
“I’ll lend you my spare.”
“You’re very well prepared…”
“Heh-heh-heh. You can keep right on praising me.”
“I didn’t mean it as praise…”
Nadona took the wand from me, looking exasperated.
“Today of all days, I will not lose, oh rival of mine!”
“Sure, sure…”
My rival responded to me listlessly, as if she was a completely different person than she had been all day. I had been confident that she would lose her motivation just like this.
As long as I did everything according to Lady Elaina’s advice—
—without a doubt, today I would win—
Then the two of us once again went to the grassy field outside town, as we always did.
Once again, we leveled our wands at each other, and the contest began.
“Graaaaaahhh, prepare yourself, Nadonaaaaaaaaa!”
One minute later—
“Uaaaaaahhh! I’ll get you for thiiiiiiiiisss!”
I heard the sound of a mage running away in tears.
I just wish it hadn’t been me.