Part 2
「… I’m going.」
「Eh?」
Takahisa couldn’t understand what Miharu was muttering.
「I have to go. I need to go to where Haruto-san is.」
「That’s impossible, ths ship is flying at a hundred kilometers an hour.」
Takahisa tried to convince her to abandon the idea, but Miharu wasn’t having any of it, pleading with him in a shaking voice.
「Takahiskun, please. Please turn the ship around or let me leave.」
「I’m sorry. I can’t do that.」
He shook his head in denial, wearing a sullen expression.
「W-Why?」
「I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want to have to separate from you. I want to be the one who protects you.」
Takahisa stated it plainly. In a way, this was a confession of sorts.
「I… I never asked you to do that!」
She rarely expressed her opinion so aggressively, giving Aki and Masato a shock. Even Takahisa faltered for a moment.
Regardless, his determination didn’t waver.
「But in reality, if Haruto-san didn’t protect you, you wouldn’t have survived this far, right? Can you manage to live on your own in this kind of world?」
「That’s…」
He was right.
Unless she was protected, the Miharu as she was now didn’t stand a chance.
「Not just Miharu, but Aki and Masato also need to be protected by someone. Don’t you think so?」
「Yeah, but…」
「I want to be the one who protects you. Can’t I?」
He was trying to force out a yes or no.
「Whether you can or not isn’t the problem, Takahiskun. I…」
Miharu was trying to express it to him, but she was so irritated she couldn’t find the words.
「Is there a reason why I’m not good enough compared to Haruto-san?」
「I have a debt to Haruto-san…」
「He doesn’t seem to feel the same. He even refused the reward for protecting you all, whether it was from Galwark or Saint Stella kingdom. Doesn’t he want you to not be bound by any favors?」
「… It’s not like I’m “bound” by it. Even without it, I want to stay with Haruto-san.」
Wanting to be with him.
Those were the words she was looking for.
On the other hand, Takahisa seemed broken by what he just heard.
「Is it because you love him?」
「That has nothing to do with my decision…」
Miharu looked like she was about to tear up.
「Then why?」
「Why…」
She didn’t know the answer herself.
The likelihood that Haruto was her childhood friend?
Or simply that she wanted to know about his past life?
That might have had something to do with it.
But Miharu probably would have wanted to stay with Haruto even if he wasn’t Amakawa Haruto.
That’s what she chose to do from the start.
「Maybe we’ll go back to Earth someday. You know what I mean, right? Don’t tell me you have no intention of returning. Isn’t there something you still want to do back there?」
「I… I don’t know.」
「Eh?」
He had been talking frantically, but Miharu’s muttering stopped Takahisa cold.
「I don’t know if I’ll go back or not. But I don’t care… I don’t even know what’s going to happen next, or in the future.」
Takahisa was left dumbfounded at her rejection, while Aki and Masato clearly didn’t want to be in the room anymore.
「… Nevertheless, we’re unable to turn the ship around. You should think about it until Satsuki-senpai comes to visit. We’ll talk again after that.」
After a long and tense pause, Takahisa mustered an end to the conversation. He stood from his seat and moved for the door.
「Takahiskun!」
Miharu’s voice echoed off the walls. Takahisa loosened for a moment, but shook off his hesitation as he grabbed the handle and left the room.
「Takahissama.」
After leaving the salon, Liliana, along with her maid Fril and knight Hilda, followed after him.
「Lily…」
Liliana stared him straight in the face without a word, an awkward look in Takahisa’s eyes.
「Can you prepare rooms for three people when we get back to the kingdom?」
「Of course.」
「Please do so, then. I want to be alone for a while.」
Takahisa hurried off, as if he was afraid someone would call him back.
After having left Francois’ office and making a quick trip to her room, Satsuki waited for Rio in his.
She sat in her chair with her eyes closed, ignoring the maid in the room and quietly sipping from a cup of tea with a pensive look on her face.
She was wearing cloth armor styled like a dress, with basic white fabric and black embroidery.
「Satsuki-san, so you were here.」
When Rio called her name, he gave her an earnest smile.
「Welcome back. I’ve been waiting for you.」
「Yeah… I’m back.」
He had a short conversation with Satsuki before he went to speak with Francois.
Since then, the atmosphere had been pretty heavy.
「I’d like to go somewhere with you for a while. Is now fine?」
「Sure, I don’t mind.」
「It’s decided then. Come with me.」
And so, Rio followed Satsuki back out of the room.
Let’s rewind a bit.
After seeing off Takahisa at the castle gate, Rio invited Satsuki to his room to give her something.
Whereas Satsuki’s room was located in one of the castle spires, Rio’s room was closer to the ground and easier to reach.
The walls of the castle’s lower floors were extremely thick, so the window panels were quite small. A bit of sunlight could get in, but ultimately lighting was provided via magic tool.
Rio and Satsuki took seats across from each other in the living room.
「Let’s start right away. Could you tell me about the previous life you were talking about at the gate?」
Without any beating around the bush, Rio nodded and got to explaining.
「My previous life was in Japan. My name was Amakawa Haruto.」
「Amakawa… Haruto? Isn’t that your name now?」
「It’s not my real name in this world. My real name is Rio.」
Satsuki tilted her head.
「A bit… strange, for an alias. Why use the name of your last life?」
「I’ll leave out the details, but I happen to have a lot of trouble in my past here. It’s a little inconvenient to be acting as Rio.」
「Inconvenient?」
「… Yeah. It was a mess. There was a time I was caught up in some trouble with a certain country, so using my real name would be bound to cause problems.」
Rio was hiding as much as possible from her.
「I see… But you’ll end up meeting someone who knows your face, won’t you? Is that alright?」
「Actually, over the last few years I was travelling to the Yagumo region in the east. I expect nobody would notice me at a glance. In fact, no one has yet.」
That said, there was a girl with pretty sharp intuition.
「That so… That’s fine, I suppose. Then, may I ask why you wanted to tell me about yourself?」
Rio went over his story piece by piece.
The relationship between Amakawa Haruto and Ayase Miharu.
His relationship with Tendou Aki.
How he confessed to Miharu the night before based on all of that.
And Satsuki sat there listening intently.
「——Then, did you enter the same school to look for Miharu? Does that mean you went to the same school as me?」
She asked in a way that said she didn’t believe it, but Rio smiled wryly in response.
「Well, I didn’t know we were going to the same school at the time, but I’m essentially your junior.」
「Junior… You’re my…?」
Satsuki fell silent for a moment while her brain tried to process the information.
Soon enough, though, she raised her head.
「… Wait a minute. That’s strange, isn’t it?」
「You mean the chronological order?」
On the contrary, Rio’s voice was completely calm.
「Mm. You died when you were a college student, right? Then you reincarnated here. So, the you now is…」
「I’m sixteen years old. I regained my memories when I was seven.」
「… What do you mean?」
「Even I don’t fully understand it, but…」
Rio stopped abruptly.
「It’s nothing. We should get back to the main topic, right?」
「Right… You said you confessed the love from your last life to Miharu-chan.」
「Yeah.」
He consented with a mature smile.
「… Is this alright? Are you really okay with this?」
「Okay with what?」
「Them leaving, of course! You love Miharu-chan, right? And Aki-chan should be your little sister, right?」
Satsuki asked those questions, barely suppressing the urge to shout at him, but Rio replied calmly as before.
「Yes. That’s why I confessed. I thought it would be better to tell them everything.」
「Are you telling me that you’ll give up this easily? Do your feelings for her only weigh that much to you?」
「I’d be lying if I said I won’t feel lonely, but I can’t do anything besides cheering her on with the person she loves. It’s the same for Aki-chan; I don’t think she wants to meet someone she hates so much.」
Rio answered, his smile strangely empty.
「The letter… Did you put it in your letter? The thing about your previous life.」
「Yes.」
「Then… Does their going to Saint Stella kingdom with Takahisa have something to do with them reading those letters?」
「Yeah, maybe.」
「What did Miharu-chan and the kids tell you?」
「That they never want to see me again.」
Satsuki’s face contorted when Rio said it lightheartedly, and shouted at the top of her lungs.
「THAT’S A LIE!」
「A lie?」
「Yeah. Miharu-chan isn’t the kind of girl who’d ever say something like that.」
「You’re pretty confident about this, aren’t you?」
「You don’t trust Miharu-chan?」
「I do trust her. I don’t think Miharu-san reached that conclusion easily. Even I felt bad about doing it for my own sake.」
「… Can you cut it with the empty words, Haruto-kun?」
「You’re not the first person to tell me that.」
Celia’s face came to the front of Rio’s mind.
「Let me ask you something: why didn’t you hand over the letters when you confessed?」
「Everyone came out onto the balcony when I was about to.」
「Ah, I see… So it was our fault then. Sorry.」
「It’s not like Satsuki-san did anything wrong. I told Masato not to worry about us, but I was surprised everyone came after us faster than expected.」
「Right, Char-chan said she saw you two heading out to the balcony… and then Takahisa and Aki ran off after you.」
「I see.」
Rio visibly winced at recalling what happened.
「I get it now. Why you wanted to give them those letters as soon as possible. So you handed them off this morning?」
「Yeah. Since Miharu-san wasn’t there, I entrusted them to Takahissan.」
「That so… You know you didn’t need to let yourself get dragged along by Char-chan, though.」
「I kind of did. A fledgling noble can’t refuse an invitation from royalty, you know? The gap in our standing is just too wide.」
「That’s true, but… Ugh, it sounds like a corporate slave having to go to business meetings…」
Maybe because she couldn’t stomach something in his words, Satsuki pursed her lips in irritation.
There was a time when her father had broken promises he made to make a meeting with his clients.
It’s not like she didn’t understand his reasoning now that she’d grown up, but they weren’t good memories.
「Wait a minute. If it’s Haruto-kun, you wouldn’t need to send the letters since you could sneak out in the middle of the night, right?」
「That’s impossible, unfortunately. Your room is at the top of the spire—there’s no terrace in the lower floors for me to leave or enter through. If I went through the corridors, I’d be noticed by the palace guards since security was strengthened. And even with that, my actions in the castle are monitored, too.」
As for windows, those only existed in the lower floors for the sake of ventilation. They were too small for infiltration.
「Christ, then why don’t you just say it to her directly?!」
「… Wait, why are you so angry over this, Satsuki-san?」
「Because I don’t understand Miharu-chan’s reaction! I get it, you don’t want to bother her, but Miharu isn’t the kind of girl that would just leave without saying anything! Wouldn’t it be better to talk to her face to face?」
Satsuki spoke as if she was putting the blame on him.
And she was right. All of this would likely be cleared up if Rio just talked to them.
But Miharu aside, he worried if he’d lose the will to speak if Aki got emotional over it.
Even so, Satsuki knew it’d be better to say it to their faces.
「You’re right. That’s why I tried to say it when I confessed to Miharu-san…」
He sounded like he was mocking himself, eliciting a heaving sigh from his conversation partner.
「… And we interrupted you the moment you had the chance.」
His plan was to confess, give Miharu a brief explanation about his past life, then give her the letters.
But Takahisa and Aki barging onto the balcony cut him off in the middle.
Satsuki knew it wasn’t Rio’s fault.
For a brief moment, the only sound in the room was their breathing, and eventually Satsuki muttered something.
「So… I haven’t heard the most important thing yet.」
「What could that be?」
「Why did you tell me about all this?」
「I wished for you to not mention anything about me the next time you meet them.」
Satsuki was speechless for a minute.
「… What do you mean?」
「If the topic turns to me around Miharu-san and the others, I want Satsuki-san to avoid mentioning me.」
「Why?」
「I don’t want to make them feel bad.」
「That kind of…!」
She choked down the unpleasant words in her throat.
She nearly lost her breath looking at Rio’s pathetic grin, and realized she was getting too heated.
Satsuki took a second to catch herself.
「… Hey, you should know that Miharu-chan might love Takahiskun. Why did you tell her in spite of that?」
「I feel like it’s better than saying nothing even if I already knew the outcome. That’s the kind of regret Amakawa Haruto lived and died with.」
「Then why didn’t you confess to her right after you reunited with her in this world?」
「There’s a lot of reasons for that, but it just comes down to me being scared. Having to confront whether I was really Amakawa Haruto. And if it was true, whether or not there was any part of him that remained in me as I am now.」
「What are you talking about?」
「I have no objective evidence that I’m Amakawa Haruto reborn. Was I really the kind of person my memories tell me I was? And how would I prove it?」
「That’s…」
Satsuki couldn’t answer right away. Rio was answering so matter-of-factly that it was hard to refute.
「In the end, though, that’s all an excuse. To be honest, I was just a coward. Even if I really was Amakawa Haruto, the current me is a completely different person both physically and mentally. My morality and values now are vastly different from my previous life. I only decided to confess after I got the chance to talk with Satsuki-san.」
「Then… Are you tell me you can accept how everything ended?」
「… Yeah.」
Rio shrugged his shoulders in surrender.
「Really?」
「Even if I can’t, there’s nothing I can do about it.」
「… Sorry. But personally, I’m not satisfied with this.」
「Everyone has their own values. I think yours are fine just the way they are. But I want you to not question Miharu-san or the kids about this. Please.」
Rio bowed his head as he asked, but Satsuki ignored him and averted her eyes.
「And one other thing. Though, this is more like a proposal than a request.」
「… What is it?」
「We should keep some distance between us from now on. We shouldn’t meet like this anymore.」
「W-w-wait, why?」
「Because Haruto Amakawa is officially a member of the Galwark kingdom nobility. Don’t you think someone might try to use that against you if we get too close to each other?」
Satsuki gasped, more that Rio said it so plainly than at the suggestion itself.
「Such a thing…」
But she couldn’t say it wouldn’t happen.
Rio was the only person Satsuki had grown close to among the Galwark nobles.
She had been spending the last few months keeping everyone at a safe distance.
「I don’t know what His Highness Francois is planning. So let’s not look like we’re too intimate, shall we?」
「A little… Give me a bit of time to think about it.」
That was the best response she could give as Rio stood to leave.
「Alright. Though you should know I’m leaving the capital tomorrow.」
「Wait!」
「What’s wrong?」
「One more question.」
「Okay.」
Rio took his seat once more.
「You’re trying to settle that matter of yours, right?」
「Settle…?」
「Your relationship with Miharu-chan and the kids. You’re not trying to make it seem like nothing, right?」
His eyes opened wide at hearing that.
「… Yeah, you’re right.」
Though he answered, Satsuki didn’t miss the pause beforehand.
「You’re not giving up in despair and desperation either?」
「Not in the least.」
So he answered again, more firmly this time.
「… Okay then. Thanks. Then I’ll see you later.」
And now Rio was being led by Satsuki to the castle’s training area.
There were soldiers and knights training in the field, but several knights who looked like they had a high rank stopped to greet them.
Among them was Kyle, a knight and one of Rio’s acquaintances.
「Good day, Satsuki-sama, Haruto-dono. We’ve been waiting for you.」
「Sorry for such a sudden request. About the things I asked for—」
「Already prepared. Please wait a moment.」
The knight responding followed along with Satsuki smoothly, the former a senior in his prime. Seemed like the two had matches before themselves.
「Oi!」
「Ha—」
When the senior knight called, Kyle and another young knight were already off running.
They returned immediately, each carrying a wooden spear-type weapon called a glaive that was around two meters long.
One knight gave his to Satsuki, the other to Rio, and Satsuki led him out onto the field.
She didn’t give him an explanation, but with a training implement in hand he had a hunch.
「Let’s have a match, Haruto-kun.」
As soon as she made the suggestion, Satsuki gave Rio a daring grin, and readied her weapon.