Chapter 21: Let’s Call A Truce

Suddenly, left alone, Yelena and Regina looked at each other with awkward expressions.

Both Yelena and Regina were fundamentally loners without any friends, and before meeting Sian, they had lived half-heartedly, without emotions.

Even though Sian had opened their hearts, it was still difficult for them to talk to people other than Sian.

Nevertheless, Yelena didn’t like the girl named Regina in front of her.

It was just a simple discomfort. The fact that Sian had another friend she cared about besides herself.

After realizing that she was terminally ill and vowing revenge, Sian was the first person she had ever wanted.

She was the only girl who might be able to understand her. Even though she only had a few years left to live, it was the first time she had ever wanted something.

Her parents, her lifespan, her relationships, her happiness, her right to inherit the family, everything she had was taken away.

She didn’t want to lose Sian too, her only friend. She didn’t want to lose the person who would watch over her final moments.

Yelena asked in a sharp voice without realizing it.

“…You’re Regina Strelachia, right?”

It was the same for Regina.

Sian was the only special existence that had appeared to her during her 999 regressions.

Seeing Yelena and Sian holding arms like really good friends made her feel like her place would be taken by Yelena.

The warmth she felt for the first time in her life, the girl couldn’t let go of it. A single ray of light that had come in her endless life.

“Yes, Yelena…Miss.”

Therefore, Regina’s reply to Yelena’s words was thorny.

A completely different voice from when she was dealing with Sian, a voice without any emotion. The voices of the two girls crossed in the quiet hospital room. And then silence returned.

The two girls could tell at a glance that the other was broken.

Because people with deficiencies in their hearts tend to connect with each other. Yelena silently stared at the girl.

“…”

Yelena Frost, even though she was severely lacking in social skills, was not a bad girl by nature. That’s why she knew that Regina’s condition was not normal.

Unkempt hair at a glance. Dark circles under her eyes and a listlessness felt in her words. Yelena knew that look all too well.

In her childhood, her appearance was exactly like that when she was in despair after losing her parents.

Maybe Sian approached her because she couldn’t leave that girl alone. So Yelena couldn’t speak harshly.

It was not the right thing to do as a person to dig into the already broken heart of a girl, just out of jealousy of wanting to take Sian away.

“…In many ways, you’re broken.”

“Y-you too.”

Regina was also the one who recognized Yelena’s condition at a glance.

Regina had met Yelena countless times during her 999 regressions. Of course, because of ‘fate’, Regina couldn’t approach Yelena recklessly.

Even so, if you see someone hundreds or thousands of times from afar, you can roughly tell what kind of person they are.

The Yelena that Regina saw was a girl who had already given up on everything. Just like herself when she was past her 100th playthrough.

A life where everything about the world has already been put down, just living as it goes.

That’s why Regina couldn’t speak harshly to Yelena either.

Regina had lived 999 lives and was broken, but she was a girl who was inherently kind, not one to fall into strange places like prostitution or mass murder.

Perhaps it was the last struggle of a girl who wanted to keep at least the minimum line even if she was broken as a human.

So, the two girls couldn’t stab each other recklessly.

They just stared at each other timidly, not wanting to cross the line.

Yelena was the first to speak. The girl, who had returned to her ice princess mode, asked with a blunt expression while subtly revealing her superiority in the relationship.

“…How did you meet my friend, Sian?”

“Yesterday. We were trapped in a dungeon together during the exam. But thanks to that, I was able to learn a lot about Sian…so, it wasn’t all bad. Because I made a friend with whom I shared a precious secret.”

Regina answered Yelena’s words with a relaxed expression. Yelena and Sian were also friends who had only met recently.

“Even if she met you first, I am closer to Sian. So don’t look down on me. Because the most precious person to Sian is me.”

“…Sian is too kind for her own good. She approached me, who had lost in the duel, because she was so kind. She said she would be a friend who would continue to spar with me.”

“That’s…right. When I said I was lonely sleeping alone yesterday, she let me sleep next to her…That’s what I like about Sian, isn’t it?”

The battle between the two girls, who had just learned about emotions, was somewhat childish.

Because the two girls, who had opened their hearts at least a little thanks to Sian, knew that the other party would never let go of Sian.

Knowing that, it was a pure and cute fight where two children were bickering over a girl, saying, ‘I’m closer to her!’

It wouldn’t be acknowledged by the two involved. The timid yet proud expression of Regina, and Yelena, who was unfittingly engaging in a childish fight. If Sian had seen this, wouldn’t she have burst out laughing?

However, Yelena and Regina were not children.

One was a regressor who had already lived her 999th life, and the other was the greatest genius in the history of the Frost family. Both were too mature to be bickering like children.

“Sigh…”

Yelena swept her hair back and let out a deep sigh to cool the heated atmosphere. Similarly, Regina closed her eyes to calm the mood.

“…Wait. Regina.”

If both of them wanted Sian, then one of them would eventually have to disappear from Sian’s side. Was it the only answer for someone to monopolize Sian?

Yelena didn’t think so. It wasn’t like friendship was a romantic relationship, and there was no law saying that you had to have only one best friend.

Yelena suppressed the childish jealousy that had arisen in her heart with reason. She slowly regained her usual composure.

These days, she had been thinking about Sian a lot, so she had become a bit faded, but Yelena was originally a cool-headed girl who could make rational decisions in any situation.

“Regina.”

“Why…?”

“I have a suggestion.”

In the first place, it was wrong to assume that Sian would abandon one of them. Given the Sian she had seen, she would try to embrace both of them, but she wouldn’t abandon one.

I was drawn to Sian, and I wanted to keep Sian by my side because of that kindness.

Why did I forget that?

“Can’t we just compromise a little with each other?”

“Compromise…?”

“Regina. Do you think Sian is the type of person who would abandon one of us?”

“That…that’s not true.”

A faint smile appeared on Yelena’s lips.

Having regained her usual composure, Yelena continued to speak.

“Then. Is there any reason why one of us has to monopolize Sian?”

“There…isn’t?”

Only then did Regina understand Yelena’s words.

In the first place, there was no need to fight from the beginning. It wasn’t like a friend was a lover. There was no law that you had to have only one friend.

“
..That’s right. What you say is correct.”

Regina muttered that and held out her hand with an awkward smile.

“Then…let’s get along, with each other too. As Sian’s, friends.”

“Yes.”

Yelena took Regina’s outstretched hand.

It was the moment when a secret agreement, unknown to the person involved, was made.

It was an agreement that was only valid as long as they remained Sian’s ‘friends’.

“Ugh…?!”

“Why? Are you feeling pain somewhere again?”

“Ah, no. Claudia-sensei.”

During the conversation with Claudia, I shuddered involuntarily at the sudden, somehow ominous feeling.

A sense that is often called a woman’s intuition, a remarkably accurate sense. As if a woman’s intuition had detected something unsettling, it was trembling.

This ‘woman’s intuition’ had rarely been wrong. I wondered if something had happened somewhere, but when I called up the status window, all that appeared was a translucent window showing my stats.

With no other choice, I sighed and continued to speak.

“It’s just, I’ve been feeling a little anxious lately.”

“New students are usually like that. The academy is an unfamiliar environment. It’s easier to think of it as a process of adapting to a new environment.”

“Ahaha, I…guess so?”

I laughed a little, answering in an uncertain voice.

“Hmm. I guess it’s just my imagination.”

Events don’t happen continuously in academy stories. After one event ends, there is some downtime. [Arcana Academy] was, after all, an academy story.

So there probably wouldn’t be any problems for a while. I was probably just being too sensitive lately.