Having ticked one task after another off the list, I let out a big sigh once we returned to Sirius’s office, prompting him to ever-so-casually ask me, “You must be tired, Serafina. Isn’t it about time for your nap?”
“‘Sirius for a day’ doesn’t nap.” To be honest, I was feeling a little sleepy, but I forced myself to open my eyes as wide as I could.
“Is that so? Then, how about trying some desk work?”
Hmm. He’d usually try at least one more time to get me to take a nap, so I found it a little odd that he’d give up so easily.
I was giving him a suspicious look when one of the knights came in carrying a bundle of papers and stacked the new batch of documents next to the ones already on the desk. When I took a good look at Sirius’s desk again, the pile of paperwork was several times larger than it had been in the morning.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“All the paperwork that needs to be dealt with. Ordinarily, the commander would approve all these documents, but he occasionally passes them along to me.”
That reminded me of something that Mirach once said.
“Mirach told me that Commander Wezen passes them along to you all the time.”
“Yes, that does seem to be the common trend. But everyone has their strengths and weakness, after all.”
His brisk reply sparked my curiosity.
“What’s your weakness, Sirius?”
He studied me for a few moments before smiling amusedly.
“For you to ask me that of all people. Obviously, my weakness is you, Serafina.”
“Huh?! I’m not your strength?”
Sirius let out a chuckle at my startled response. “I’m honored that you’d think that. However, there’s no one else who’s as impossible for me to predict as you are. You’re incredibly hard to comprehend.”
“Because I’m a child?”
That was the only reason I could come up with, but he dismissed it with a shake of his head.
“I don’t believe that to be the case. Even when you mature, I can’t imagine a future where I’ll be able to foresee what you say or do.”
This made me giggle happily. “Shaula told me that men are intrigued by women with an air of mystery.” Perhaps I was already a mysterious woman like she hoped to become?
Sirius frowned in response. “Mysterious…? You’re not someone with such a common quality that could be found anywhere. If it were that simple, I wouldn’t be struggling this much.” Sirius swept a hand through his hair and sighed.
“Even if it’s just for a single day, I don’t know anyone else who would want to be me.”
“That’s true. I guess no one would want to be you because it’s so tough,” I responded, completely serious. “Just spending one day in your shoes made me realize how much you have to deal with. I’m honestly amazed that you can handle this all day, every day!”
Sirius stared at me intently. “Wow… You’re the only one who gives me this much praise.”
“Huh? I am?” He’d never told me that before, so it took me by surprise.
“Sirius,” I continued after catching my bearings, “if you ever feel unsure of yourself, come to me, okay? No matter how many times you ask, I’ll always tell you how amazing you are.”
He continued his intense gaze for a bit before his lips twisted into an indecipherable expression.
“You really aren’t the type of mysterious person who can be found anywhere. There’s only one of you in the world—a unique presence I can’t live without.”
“You’re important to me as well, Sirius. I need you too.”
His words made me so happy that I replied in kind, causing a joyful smile to slowly spread across his face.
“I see. If that’s the case, nothing else matters to me.”
He said that, but in my heart, I couldn’t agree with him. Sirius was so wonderful, and I wanted others to know that too. That’s why I worked so hard to be him for a day, to grab everyone’s attention and have them reaffirm how valuable he truly was.
Anyway, I suppose I could try my hand at desk work…
“Ugh! Even though this is Návian, I still don’t understand a single thing it says! I never realized there were so many difficult words out there…”
Was it because I ate so much delicious food at lunch? Or maybe because it was my usual nap time? Perhaps the documents I couldn’t make heads or tails of were at fault. Whatever the case was, I started feeling incredibly sleepy. I’ll just slowly blink a couple times, is the last thing I remember thinking before my memory faded away.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I figured the paperwork would be so boring that it’d lull her to sleep…”
I could hear Sirius’s voice even in my dreams.
“Well, this is right around the time she usually takes her afternoon nap.”
Not only Sirius’s voice but Canopus’s as well.
“Even if it was only for a day, whatever would prompt her to want to be me?” Sirius mumbled, seemingly to himself, but Canopus answered him in a serious tone.
“It all started when Fackt told her that being ‘captain for a day’ was a public relations-focused endeavor. After hearing that when tasks are handled by someone who doesn’t typically manage them, it piques curiosity and generates greater interest in them, she declared that she wanted to become you for a day to show everyone how valuable you are.”
“She did this for my sake? Serafina, you…”
At that, he lifted me into his arms.
“This feels nice,” I murmured with a sleepy smile, when Sirius’s shocked voice rained down on me.
“Why are you grinning while being carried away by someone you might not even know? You’d be so easy to kidnap!”
Huh? But I’d only smiled like that because I knew it was Sirius.
“I knew it was you… Everyone will understand soon enough. How hard you’ve been working…and how amazing you are…”
Even though I was falling back asleep, I knew it needed to be said and somehow managed to get the words out. But doing that seemed to drain the last of my energy, and I drifted back to sleep. At least, I thought I did, but I still heard a gentle voice in my dreams.
“Since you’ve done so much for me, I must continue to stay worthy of it.”
After a week had passed, I wandered around the knights’ headquarters, hoping to see some results from my ‘Sirius for a day’ activities. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice any changes in how the knights behaved toward Sirius.