Chapter 10: Amy and the Heroine
TIGGER clung desperately to Amy, standing with his hind legs on the ground while tugging at her skirt with his front paws. He meowed loudly, pleading to be picked up, and at that same moment, Amy heard a fake cough from behind her.
“Er… Hm… Ahem!”
“Joshua, dear, please…”
Amy looked around, suddenly returning to her senses.
Her father Joshua looked as though he had eaten something distasteful and cleared his throat again, and her mother Isabelle looked embarrassed at her husband’s juvenile reaction. Her parents stood there, looking at Amy and Edward.
As were Kevin and everyone who had crowded around him…
What?! H-Hold on a second! W-We’re outside! Where am I? What am I doing?!
Her inner line of questioning instantly transformed into mortification. Amy felt herself turn so hot that steam must have surely been rising from her head. Tears sprung to her eyes—for an entirely different reason this time—and when she looked up in a panic, she saw Edward smiling down at her.
Th-That smile…!
The first time Amy had met Edward, something about his smile felt out of place, but there were no lingering shadows in his smile now… He just looked genuinely happy.
Amy instinctively hid her face in embarrassment, but then she realized she was hiding it against Edward’s chest and started going wild with panic all over again. A quiet chuckle came down from above. She was hopelessly embarrassed.
Kevin looked on sympathetically and, unless she was mishearing their remarks, she could hear the others saying kind things about her. It almost sounded as if they were saying she was cute when she turned red, but Amy also felt like they were peppering in cooing phrases that would be better suited for an animal or a stuffed toy, like “She’s so round!” or “She’s so small!” or “She looks so soft!”
And then there was Joshua, petulantly trying to keep everyone in check with his fake coughs.
Amy realized that Edward was probably also very aware that everyone, including her own parents, was watching them, but his arms around her were as tight as ever.
“Um… Ed…” she said, flapping her hand restlessly.
“Hm? What is it?”
Keeping one arm around her waist, Edward gently put his other hand around her flapping one, keeping it still. Amy froze, paralyzed once more.
She had absolutely no experience with love in her previous life—she never even had a crush. That, paired with the fact that she’d never really been interested in romance novels or girly magazines, meant that she had absolutely no immunity to this sort of stuff.
Just as Amy was about to feel faint, she finally became cognizant of Tigger’s incessant meowing. Today, his tinkling voice sounded like the bells of salvation.
“I-I need to pick up Tigger…”
“Oh! Right.”
Edward slowly and regrettably let go of her hand and loosened his grip on her waist. Feeling a little shaky, Amy reached her hands out to Tigger.
Tigger jumped into her arms impatiently, assuming his typical position with his front paws on Amy’s shoulders. Purring happily, he enthusiastically rubbed his face against her cheeks.
“Th-Thanks for being so patient, Tigger.”
“You two are really close, huh?”
But as Edward stretched out his hand to pet Tigger, Tigger suddenly stiffened his front legs, twisting away from it, and froze, silently glaring at him.
The two quietly stared at one another.
At that moment, Amy almost felt the air between them snapping and popping. She never thought she would see the metaphor “sparks flying” so viscerally in real life.
The silent battle between them raged on for some time until it was broken by Tigger, who suddenly lost interest and started snuggling against Amy again. With nowhere for Edward’s outstretched hand to go, he changed gears and started petting Amy’s head.
“E-Ed?!”
“Well, it seems like Tigger won’t let me pet him, so…”
“S-Sorry about that… He’s shy.”
But Edward didn’t look disappointed at all, and Amy had no idea why he was petting her hair instead.
Meanwhile, Kevin ordered the peanut gallery to disperse, and her parents made their way over to them.
“That was an outstanding match, Your Highness.”
“Thank you very much, Director.”
“Incidentally, I think it’s about time you stepped away from my daughter.”
“Joshua! You’re perfectly fine as you are, Edward.”
“Isabelle…” Joshua grumbled.
Isabelle smiled at them, her eyes shining gleefully. Joshua stood beside her, frowning—almost comically—at his unsuccessful attempt at swaying his wife to his side.
Edward was not the least bit shaken, not even in front of her parents, and Amy sincerely wished that she could have just a fraction of his nerves of steel.
“But you must be exhausted, Your Highness,” Isabelle continued. “Why don’t we go back inside?”
“That sounds great.”
Edward finally stopped petting Amy’s head, and the four of them started heading back.
Amy, utterly incapable of looking up at anyone, pushed her face against Tigger and slowly walked with them, practically blind to everything in front of her.
“Even if my daughter says yes…” Joshua said suddenly, “don’t forget what I told you before.”
“Of course not,” said Edward.
“I’m so sorry, Your Highness,” sighed Isabelle. “I really appreciate you going along with a father’s long-held dream.”
“Isabelle!”
“He’s always dreamt of being put in a situation where he could say, ‘You can’t have my daughter!’ Isn’t that right, dear?”
Amy practically walked in a stupor, totally incapable of understanding the conversation going right over her head. She was just barely able to pick up on the pleasant, high-pitched laughter of her mother.
Then, just as they got back inside, Isabelle looked at Amy’s face.
“Put Tigger down here, Amy. You look a little pale…”
As soon as she heard her mother’s concerned voice, Amy started to feel dizzy.
Edward was immediately there to prop her up at the first wobble, but all the strength seeped from her legs, and she collapsed to the ground with Tigger still in her arms.
“Amy?!” she heard a voice say.
“…Ah…”
It happened. This is…
Amy closed her eyes, unable to endure the flashing lights popping behind her eyelids. Her symptoms were similar to extremely low blood pressure. Amy knew the real cause at once, but she couldn’t physically say the words.
She heard people call her name over and over. She wrenched her heavy eyelids open and saw Edward, white as a sheet and panicked, right above her. Her heart sank painfully at having made him so worried.
As her father and Edward panicked on one side of her, her mother kneeled calmly at her other side, checking her vitals. After putting a hand against Amy’s cheek and forehead, Isabelle sighed, half-exasperated, half-relieved.
“You’ve exhausted your magic power, Amy.”
Amy groaned quietly and managed to nod as Isabelle took Tigger out of her arms. Once he knew the cause of Amy’s sudden collapse, Edward looked palpably relieved.
Thinking back over the last few hours, Amy remembered that she had run to the spectator’s room after healing Jahal, watched a fierce battle in constant anxiety with no time to properly rest, and then healed Edward’s injuries, too. And all that after a day of healing others.
None of the injuries had been that serious, but Amy had overexerted herself when she had overused her magic power on them.
Amy would typically feel hungry when her magic power was low, but she had been so nervous and on-edge for so long, she must not have noticed.
The remedy for magic exhaustion was either eating, sleeping, or doing both.
If Amy went to the first aid room, she could eat some cott nuts to quickly replenish some of her magic power. If she ate plenty of them and rested, she probably could partially recover her strength before the final match was over.
But when Amy remembered how crazy things were in the first aid room, she felt crestfallen and guilty. She had been given a special break, and now she wouldn’t even be able to help…
I’m really sorry, Professor Dion… Finn…
Edward listened earnestly when Amy explained that she’d be okay if she went to the first aid room for a little bit, and then he swooped down, picked her up, and started carrying her in his arms.
Wh-What?!
“All right. I’ll take you to the first aid room, then.”
“Um—I can—walk!”
“No can do. You collapsed because you healed me, right? I don’t want to take any more chances.”
With one hand looped under her knees and one around her back, Edward carried her in perfect “bridal style” fashion. Amy was a little frightened at being so high up in the air. She threw both arms around his neck and weakly clung to him.
Although the arm that had been injured held Amy up unwaveringly, Edward hadn’t been able to rest since the match.
“I-I’m heavy!” she blurted out.
“That doesn’t matter,” he insisted.
With her entire body pressed against him, Amy could feel his solid frame, even under his protective gear, and her head started to spin even more.
“You don’t have to do that, Your Highness,” Joshua said grumpily. “I will carry my daughter.”
“Director, this is an emergency!”
“Come now, dear! Edward’s fine!”
Amy had no sense of reality. Her dizziness and sluggishness seemed to distort her hearing, and she heard the voices of her father and Edward talking to each other and her mother’s giddy voice almost like they were coming through damaged speakers.
Her embarrassment, however, was alive and well, and at some point, as she hid her face against Edward’s chest, they arrived at the first-aid station.
How many people passed us on the way here? How did Sir Dion and Finneas react when we arrived? Rosalind and Alexander are here… What are they going to say about all this later?
There were many things about the day Amy wanted wiped from her memory, but this athletic tournament was sure to be one she could never forget.