The results of my training with Lady Saya showed themselves several days later.
“Heh-heh-heh. Welcome to my house.”
“Wow, what a big house!”
That day, I invited Nadona into my house.
……
Even I wondered what on earth I was doing, when my intention was to battle her, but this was precisely what my teacher, Lady Saya, wanted me to do.
“My room is this way,” I said, and while I was showing Nadona the way, I recalled a conversation with my teacher, Lady Saya.
“Next, why don’t you invite her into your room…? Heh-heh-heh-heh,” Lady Saya had said with a bold smile.
It had been perplexing.
I want to have a match against her, you know?
“Yes, yes. I know. That’s right, you want to have a match, of course.” Lady Saya nodded with a friendly grin. The way she looked was just like a mother humoring her child. “Well, don’t you worry! If you use the method I’m about to teach you, you’ll knock her right down.”
“Knock her right down, you say?”
“It would be no exaggeration to say that after your next encounter, you won’t be holding any more matches.”
“That badly, huh?!”
I could hardly wait.
But I didn’t have the slightest idea at all why I needed to invite her into my room. Feeling a complicated mixture of anticipation and apprehension, I invited Nadona into my room. Incidentally, before today, the appointed day, arrived, the filth in my room had started to bother me, so I’d cleaned it up, and I’d walked through what we would do once Nadona got there, and counted down the days on my fingers as I waited, and told my mother “My friend is coming over, so I don’t want you to come out of the dining room” to make sure we weren’t bothered. It would be no exaggeration to say that letting Nadona see how I usually lived would be tantamount to giving her the upper hand.
“Oh, hello, welcome!” Despite all that, with the worst timing imaginable, who should pop up but my mother. “You must be Nadona. You’re so cute!”
My own mother addressed my rival, Nadona, with a familiarity characteristic of housewives with too much time on their hands. She grabbed her hand and chuckled as she said, “Oh my goodness, you’re just as lovely as a doll!”
The creatures known as mothers have a habit of saying things that are uncalled-for at times like this. And my mother was no exception.
“This girl of mine, she’s an odd one, right? That’s why she’s never made any friends. Nadona, sweetie, try to get on well with Crechill, will you?”
“Mother, stop it.”
Before she could offer any more inappropriate comments, I pushed Nadona on the back and forced her away from that place. Turning over her shoulder to look at my mother, Nadona smiled and said quietly, “What a lovely mother you have.”
Quit making that face.
In that way, I led Nadona into my room.
My room was frighteningly clean. There wasn’t a single speck of dust. Once again, I thought, What a perfect room I have!
As soon as she saw my room, Nadona reacted by saying it was lovely. I nodded in agreement with her. Then Nadona wandered slowly around the room, as if she was searching for anything incriminating.
Even though I didn’t think I had anything to feel guilty about, I was strangely nervous.
Reacting to the books and papers I had, she kept commenting, “Oh, this sure is interesting” and “I’ve got this one, too.” It felt like she was rummaging around inside my head.
She soon ran out of things to look at in my room, which was of fairly modest size despite the size of the house. Nadona stood motionless in the very center of the room, without anything to do. I wondered what on earth she was doing, and it was at that very moment that I finally realized the only places in my room to sit were the bed or the desk where I did my schoolwork.
What a blunder!
But I guess there’s no way I can make a guest sit on the bed.
“……”
Nothing for it, then.
I took a seat on the bed. Then I looked at Nadona, implying that, fine, she could sit in the chair.
“Uh, okay.”
Nadona seemed to consider something, and a moment later, while nodding, she sat down heavily beside me.
“……”
That’s where you’re gonna sit…?
I was perplexed, and I wasn’t sure whether I should say something. After puzzling things over, I wound up staring at Nadona.
Come to think of it, today Nadona’s wearing the clothes she bought when we hung out together before. I wonder why I noticed something like that at this stage? I wonder if I’m feeling nervous?
I wasn’t able to think straight anymore, and I wanted to escape from this reality.
I wondered what exactly I should do next.
“Crechill…Crechill…”
Then, the moment that I escaped reality, a voice echoed inside my head. I was very familiar with the owner of that voice.
“T-teacher…!”
It was the voice of Lady Saya, who had been with me until just a few days earlier. Startled, I looked around me. Where on earth was the voice coming from? Where was Lady Saya watching me from?
And more importantly—
“T-teacher, did you wiretap my brain…?”
“Heh-heh-heh…do I look like the kind of person who would do that?”
“……”
“Hey, don’t just stay silent.”
“Teacher, geniuses do have a tendency to lack common sense, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. But if possible, I would have liked you to tell me beforehand.”
“Wait, don’t proceed with the conversation assuming that I’ve wiretapped your brain, please…”
“But where exactly is your voice coming from?”
“Heh-heh-heh. My dear Crechill. Even if you look for me, you won’t find me anywhere. I’m sure the real me is walking around as usual in some country you’ve never even heard of right about now. In short, my voice you’re hearing in your head now is Saya’s voice, but it isn’t me.”
“…What do you mean?”
“You’re a little slow, huh? In short, this is a product of your imagination! In short, I’m the Saya inside your mind,” said Lady Saya, or rather, god.
I was astonished.
“Is it possible that I’ve lost my mind, too…?”
“That sounded an awful lot like you were calling me crazy.”
“……”
“Go on, deny it, please.”
“So anyway, exactly what purpose do you have for turning up in my mind, god?”
“You changed the subject… Well, whatever.”
She was here to correct my train of thought, which our conversation had derailed. The image of Lady Saya that my memories produced was sure to show her puzzled pupil a single path forward.
“Crechill. Remember what I taught you. Remember it well…”
“Remember what I learned from Lady Saya…” I looked at Nadona, sitting beside me. “I’m already putting it into action, though.”
“My, my! Well then, what are you asking for?! Now is when the main event begins!”
“The main event…?”
“I mean, now that you’ve invited her to your room and she’s obediently come along, wouldn’t you agree that it’s no exaggeration to say you’ve already won a decisive victory?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. If you confess your feelings now, she’ll probably return them!”
“…Confess?”
Hmm?
What is she talking about?
Far from righting my train of thought, all I could hear echoing through my head, which was engulfed in chaos, was Lady Saya’s voice.
“Come ooonnn. Don’t make me say something crude. If you strike now, you can get involved with your little rival!”
“Huh?”
“Hmm?”
“…What are you talking about?”
“…Didn’t you come to me for advice because you wanted to get your rival to fall for you?”
“…No, I was talking about actually wanting to defeat her.”
“You weren’t using the metaphor of winning a battle to say you wanted to start an intimate relationship?”
“I was not.”
“…Are you sure about that?”
“I thought I was pretty clear from the start, but…”
“……”
“Lady Saya?”
“……”
“Lady Saya? Hello?”
To cut straight to the point, I ceased to be able to hear Lady Saya’s voice altogether. I’m not sure whether that was because I was finally released from my nervousness or because I felt a pair of eyes watching me from my side.
“……”
Just how long had we been sitting beside each other in silence?
Nadona was looking at me.
“…Eh-heh-heh.”
She just laughed.
But I’m your rival?
Actually, at this point, what even is a rival?
What exactly am I doing…?
Suddenly, my mind was blank.
Then an exchange I’d shared with Lady Elaina sprouted from the back of my mind.
“Let me teach you one good method you can use when you feel like you have no chance of winning a match. This is an extremely effective measure you can use when you absolutely do not want to lose.”
Does such an amazing measure really exist…?
When I’d asked that, she had said to me, with a boastful expression, “Heh-heh-heh. You run away. If you run, there can’t be any winners or losers, so when it looks like you’re going to lose, you can proactively use this tactic—”
Mm-hmm.
Interesting.
“……”
I stood up.
One second later.
“Aaaaaahhh!”
I heard a pathetic mage fleeing from my room in tears.
Once again, I just wish it hadn’t been me.