Chapter 5: To be together

It had been two weeks since I learned how to handle magic.

In a field full of flowers, Eliya and I were on a date, under the guise of magic training.

“Tere, have a bite.”

“Mhm. Ah~.”

Sitting cozily together, Eliya fed me a bite, and I fed her a bite.

Looking at the atmosphere, it seemed like we were wearing beautiful dresses and feeding each other delicious side dishes from a luxurious bento box, but in reality, we were feeding each other tiny wild strawberries picked from the mountains.

Eliya was clearly a Saintess, and even though I was training in magic, if not to that extent, our financial situation hadn’t improved at all.

Did this mean we had to live on tasteless bread, dried meat, and occasionally fruit picked from the mountains every day?

If I had been told to live this life alone, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to endure it.

Waking up early in the morning, I would do delivery work with my small body, be ignored for being a young girl, and occasionally even subjected to sexual harassment.

Only by running around all day could I barely afford a day’s worth of food and water.

I was quite flustered because I wasn’t used to such a slum, but it was at least fortunate that I was now handling it skillfully.

‘Could it be that I’m more suited to manual labor than I thought?’

After making deliveries, I practiced handling magic in my spare time.

Then, on weekends or days with good weather, we would have a picnic in a field of blooming flowers.

It was about an hour’s walk, but for us, hardened by countless delivery jobs and child labor, it was like going to our front yard.

Flowers, a lake, and a wide-open view.

I don’t know why people don’t come to such a beautiful place.

In modern times, it would have been rumored as a popular spot for couples to walk, or a flower path, and people would have flocked there.

‘Well… it’s actually better that there aren’t many people.’

If there had been many people, Eliya and I wouldn’t have been able to create such a sweet and affectionate atmosphere alone.

As it became the third week since I possessed this body, I began to understand Eliya to some extent.

And I could clearly define what I needed to do.

Eliya was showing me unconditional favor.

The extent of her affection was such that if I were to ask Eliya to be my girlfriend right now, it would work.

Therefore, I was Eliya’s top priority.

It could even be called what is commonly known as an obsession.

And I speculated that such an obsession might be the path for Eliya to turn into the mastermind.

Since the original Tere was already dead, it meant that Eliya would only turn dark if I died in some way.

In other words, if Eliya and I lived together happily ever after, wouldn’t that be the path to this work’s happy ending?

My deductive reasoning was almost on par with Sherlock Holmes.

Eliya and I continued to feed each other wild strawberries on the flower-covered hill.

‘She could just eat her own, so why bother….’

‘Is it that I can’t read the atmosphere?’

Another bite. Two bites. Three bites. Four bites.

“Ugh, m-mmph.”

After continuously eating, I seemed to have gotten sick of them.

My stomach was slowly starting to feel nauseous.

It was a mistake to have brought so many wild strawberries without thinking about the aftermath.

I didn’t know how many tens of them I had eaten so far.

Ugh. I felt like throwing up.

Eliya, however, looked perfectly fine, and it felt awkward to tell her to stop eating.

‘What would happen if I said my stomach felt queasy?’

‘“You don’t like me feeding you?”’

It would be troublesome if Eliya questioned me like that.

‘There are only a dozen left, should I just endure and eat them?’

No, actually, this was just my imagination.

Eliya must be a child with a warm heart who would worry about my health.

If I said my stomach felt nauseous, she would immediately worry about my condition.

Right. I should say something.

Let’s not eat any more wild strawberries.

“Tere, say ah~.”

“Eliya. My wild strawberries…”

“Hello, you two are new faces, aren’t you?”

Suddenly, at the sound of a high, soft voice from behind, I turned my head to see a girl standing there with brown hair tied back in a short ponytail.

And on top of her head was a flower crown woven from flowers.

‘A flower crown….’

She liked wearing flower crowns, had brown hair, and a neatly tied-back hairstyle.

She wasn’t a particularly memorable character, but this girl was definitely one of the heroines from the original novel….

“Ah, excuse me. I didn’t even introduce myself. My name is Haruna Rei.”

She bowed politely as she introduced herself.

‘…Mhm.’

She wasn’t from a particularly high-ranking noble family, nor was she exceptional in magic or combat, but she was a character who had never lost first place in theoretical classes at the academy.

If my memory served me right, Haruna would be the same age as us.

Just as I wondered whether I should use honorifics for a noble, Haruna cautiously opened her mouth.

“Um, may I ask for your names?”

“Ah, I’m Tereze. I don’t have a family name.”

“Eliya.”

Eliya seemed displeased, perhaps because our time alone had been interrupted.

“Uh… so, what can we do for you?”

As I asked vaguely, Haruna smiled brightly and said.

“Oh, it’s nothing big. I was just making a flower crown as usual, and then I saw two people with truly beautiful hair from afar, so… I came over.”

‘Beautiful…?’

“Yes! I really admire Saintesses and the like… and you two look exactly like Saintesses, so I was incredibly surprised.”

“Miss Tereze. Miss Eliya. Please! Will you be my friends?”

As Haruna suddenly spoke in a rapid-fire manner, I was flustered.

‘Was this child originally this kind of character?’

In the original, she appeared as a character whose life was saved once by the protagonist Chris, but her role after that was so minor that I couldn’t quite remember.

Ah, but I think there was a setting where she admired Saintesses.

Even if she was a minor character, a heroine is still a heroine.

She admired Saintesses to the extent of having such a setting, and because of that, I knew she was a fervent fan of Eliya in the original.

However, that Haruna was ultimately betrayed and killed by the Saintess she admired.

Thinking it was a subtle reunion, I looked at the two of them.

Eliya stared at Haruna with an expressionless face, while Haruna looked at Eliya with sparkling eyes.

In the original, the two met after enrolling in the academy, but with the original plot twisted, their first meeting had changed to several years earlier.

I was half curious and half worried about what kind of storm of change would sweep over us.

“Um. Miss Eliya… did you say?”

“Your eyes, your hair, they’re so beautiful…!”

“You look exactly like a Saintess from a fairy tale!”

Eliya, who had been wary, flinched and trembled at Haruna’s words.

While the sudden influx of compliments was one thing, Eliya wasn’t just similar to a Saintess; she was the Saintess herself.

“It’s embarrassing, but I don’t have any friends or peers to talk to, so I haven’t been able to say these things anywhere, but even if it’s just for a very short time each day… could you please spend some time with me?”

The fact that Eliya was a Saintess was being kept a secret.

There were several reasons for keeping it a secret, the biggest being that Eliya and I would be separated.

Compared to the frequently appearing heroes, Saintesses were truly rare.

Let’s say it was revealed that Eliya was chosen as a Saintess in a kingdom where a Saintess hadn’t appeared for over a hundred years.

If that happened, the Church and the Kingdom would fight over who gets to take Eliya.

It was the difference between becoming a priestess of the Goddess at the Church or a Saintess active on the battlefield.

And the compromise between those two choices was enrollment in the academy.

For that reason, I told Eliya that we should keep her being a Saintess a secret for now.

After explaining the reason, Eliya also understood.

To keep it hidden until she turned 15 and was old enough to enroll in the academy.

I had just talked about that a while ago, and now, right before our eyes, a child appeared saying Eliya looked like a Saintess.

It was understandable that Eliya would be flustered, thinking her identity had been discovered.

“Oh, and I made a flower crown. How about you try wearing it, Miss Eliya…?”

“Miss Haruna.”

Eliya interrupted Haruna and spoke.

And she gently, yet firmly, expressed her refusal.

Gently, but firmly.

“I don’t think I can be friends with you.”

“Huh?”

“I hope you won’t talk to me again.”

Haruna froze, as if she hadn’t expected Eliya to refuse so resolutely.

After standing for a few seconds with a blank expression, her cheek twitched.

Her face contorted as if she didn’t know what expression to make, then she opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something for a moment, and then closed it.

In the end, the expression Haruna finally chose was a smile.

“Ah… I, I said something rude.”

“For suddenly, talking to you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I… foolishly, got excited.”

And then, tears like chicken droppings streamed down her smiling face.

Then, Haruna burst into tears, wailing, “Waaah~!”

I was flustered, caught between the two of them, not knowing what to do, while Eliya, looking slightly apologetic, turned her head and took my hand.

“Tere. Let’s go home.”

“W-wait.”

‘Is it right to coldly reject Haruna and turn away like this?’

Even if we parted ways like this, we would eventually meet at the academy.

In the original, Haruna admired Eliya.

But with the original plot twisted now, would that still be the case?

And, it didn’t feel right to just leave a crying girl behind.

“Wait, Eliya. I don’t think ending it like this is right.”

“What? But Tere, you said we should keep it a secret.”

“Still…”

“Miss! What on earth is going on here?”

Just then, a woman intervened.

Judging by her maid’s uniform, she was undoubtedly Haruna’s personal maid.

Haruna’s maid embraced her and took out a handkerchief to wipe away her tears.

“It’s alright. It’s alright.”

The maid, who had been comforting her, then turned her gaze towards us.

Hostility was in her eyes.

It seemed we had been misunderstood.

‘We didn’t do anything bad.’