“Please, just go. I’m begging you, go.”
“Why! Why! The notes you borrowed are mine too! I have the right to exercise my rights!”
I pushed away Belika’s face as she kept clinging to me.
She had already followed me all the way to the door of my room.
“Then take these damn notes and go home!”
“You little—! You can’t give up on your studies that easily!”
“Just because you’ve got a mouth…”
That was when it happened.
The dormitory door flew open, and Ronari appeared from inside.
With a towel draped over her head, she stood beyond the threshold, staring blankly at us.
“You two… what are you doing there?”
Belika swiftly seized the opening.
Like the wind, she charged into the entryway and hugged Ronari.
“Lady Ronari! You must’ve been lonely all by yourself until evening, right? I’m here now, so don’t worry! By the way, did you just wash up? You smell nice~”
As she said that, Belika pressed her nose to the nape of Ronari’s neck and sniffed.
“Eek! Bel…!”
Even as Ronari recoiled in horror at Belika’s assault, like the model student she was, she did not forget to scold her.
“Y-you can’t do this! You should go back to your own dorm…!”
“Huh? But I want to play with you, my lady.”
“Weren’t you saying we should study together in my room just a moment ago? Did you already forget?” I cut in, but Belika simply ignored me.
Belika whispered into Ronari’s ear.
“And you may not know this, my lady, but Ilsea here is actually a black-hearted beast, you know? If you’re alone after just coming out of the bath, who knows how he might suddenly change!”
As she said that, Belika winked at me.
What? What kind of signal is that supposed to be?
Was that a warning that she was going to ruin me socially?
As if my worries were not unfounded, after hearing Belika’s words, Ronari was looking at me as though she were staring at garbage.
But now that I thought about it, that wasn’t much different from usual.
“What did you do to Bel?”
Ronari’s voice was like boiling lava.
“Like that would ever happen. You’re pretty naive too. Only an idiot would take what she says at face value.”
When I said that, Ronari’s gaze turned to Belika.
Belika grinned mischievously.
“I came to study. To study. As you know, my lady, Ilsea here doesn’t even come to class properly, right? So this big sister decided to help him!”
“Then why here…”
Belika pretended not to hear Ronari’s question, took off her shoes, and went inside.
“Then excuse me~!”
And so, only Ronari and I were left in the entryway.
With the culprit gone and only the victims left facing one another, Ronari glared at me in silence.
That’s harsh. I’m a victim here too.
“We were originally going to do it at the library. But she was too loud, so I tried to do it alone in my room, and she followed me here on her own.”
Ronari merely tilted her head slightly, as if to say, “And?” while still shooting me a glare.
So I added,
“…I’ll kick her out soon, so please wait a bit.”
And just as I tried to pass Ronari and go in, her arm blocked my way.
“What now?”
“I saw it.”
Ronari tossed out only those words.
I asked,
“Saw what?”
“The match. I saw it.”
The match? Did she mean the ranking match?
Ronari spoke with a somewhat prim expression.
“…You were pretty good?”
What was with her suddenly giving me a compliment?
“I was just lucky. My opponent let his guard down too.”
“Hmmm.”
Ronari let out an inscrutable nasal sound, then asked,
“Did you practice?”
“Practice?”
When I asked back, Ronari suddenly flew into a temper.
“I’m asking if you practiced to beat that guy! That pervert or whatever his name was, Rorband…!”
Then couldn’t she have just said that from the start?
“No. I only found out he was my opponent after I got up there.”
At that, Ronari’s expression changed rapidly.
At first she seemed somewhat disappointed, but soon a triumphant smile spread across her face.
“I knew it! Well, of course a delinquent punk like you wouldn’t train~”
Then she turned around and went inside, saying,
“Well, fine. It’s not like you being lazy is anything new. But did you say you were going to study today because you skipped class?”
“Yeah.”
“If that’s the case, shouldn’t you just attend class properly in the first place? Acting like an idiot after the fact…”
“If I’m in the way, I don’t mind going out to study.”
As long as she held Belika back for a little while in exchange…
“When did I tell you to go out? Don’t just stand there like a post. Come in already.”
This way and that—what did she want me to do?
Still, for now, it seemed like she was letting me in, so I obediently decided to enter.
When I stepped inside, the two of them were already sitting at the kitchen table.
Belika clung to Ronari’s arm and said,
“Thanks for lending us the room. As expected, my lady is so broad-minded. You’ve got good grades, a pretty face, and even a beautiful heart—what are other women supposed to do? Come to think of it, you won your ranking match today too, didn’t you? Is there anything you can’t do, my lady? No, what exactly are you? A goddess descended to earth, maybe?”
“Ahaha… Ahahaha…”
Caught in the rapid-fire stream of words Belika spat out, Ronari was completely at a loss.
…At this rate, kicking her out was hopeless.
Apparently satisfied that she had fully coaxed Ronari over, Belika sprang to her feet and hopped toward the inner living room.
“Me! Can I look around the house? I won’t look in your room, my lady!”
“Uh, well… I don’t mind…”
Ronari somehow ended up giving her permission, and I also nodded vaguely.
As long as she didn’t interfere with studying, that might actually be better.
“Then, charge!”
Now that there was no longer any pretext to restrain her, Belika flung open the door to my room as if she had been waiting for this.
“Wow! Look at this. They made this and called it a wall? That’s hilarious!”
Ignoring Belika’s voice coming from inside the room, I simply sat down at the table and opened the notes of hers that I had brought with me.
Then I began copying them again.
Since I had skipped almost all of this week’s morning classes, the amount of notes I had to transcribe was no joke.
But Belika’s handwriting was so atrocious that I was struggling quite a bit.
“…What is this formula? What did she write as the denominator…”
As I muttered that, Ronari suddenly cut in.
“It’s 4. The cube root of 4.”
“Ah. Thanks.”
Ronari was sitting across from me with her chin propped in her hand, staring intently at me as I took notes.
With just a glance, she had recognized which part of the lesson the formula came from.
She probably had all the class material memorized.
As the top student in the Academy year, perhaps that was only natural.
If I could receive help from Ronari, my studies would probably go fairly smoothly.
Not that such a thing would happen even in my dreams.
Just then, she spoke as if it were nothing.
“…Your handwriting is surprisingly neat.”
What a strange thing to say all of a sudden.
Had Belika’s illness rubbed off on her?
“Belika’s handwriting is a mess, so it probably just looks that way by comparison. I think mine is just ordinary.”
“That may be true… But it’s just surprising overall. I thought you had no lingering attachment to things like studying anymore. You’re a delinquent punk, after all.”
“Who’s a delinquent punk?”
“You skip all your morning classes, wander off somewhere unknown at night to do bad things, and you used to get into fights all the time. What do you call that if not a delinquent punk?”
Getting into fights had mostly been up until last year, but… either way, it was generally true, so it was hard to refute.
Whatever the circumstances, it was true that I was breaking school rules as easily as eating meals.
I silently focused on taking notes again.
Ronari’s misunderstandings about me were not something that could be resolved with words.
Even if I could tell her, there was no guarantee she would understand with words alone.
And I did not want to make her another person who shared my secret.
If even she found out, what kind of secret would it be?
In any case, I would only be sharing a room with Ronari for one semester.
All I needed was to get through that one semester quietly.
There was no need to take unnecessary risks.
Speech is silver, silence is golden.
But then Ronari’s voice broke the silence again.
“Hey.”
“…”
It was not as if I could simply refuse to answer.
“What?”
The words that soon came from her were completely unexpected.
“You… What are you and Bel to each other?”
The tip of the pen I had been writing with came to a sudden stop in the middle of the notebook.
I slowly shifted my gaze to Ronari.
She looked somewhat tense after asking me that question.
“You’re curious about that too?”
When I asked, Ronari’s face flushed bright red.
She hurriedly avoided my gaze and spoke in a voice as small as an ant’s.
“……Sorry. That was rude. Pretend you didn’t hear that just now.”
I did not think Ronari’s question was that strange.
“What’s your relationship with Belika?”
Over the past few years, I must have heard that question a hundred times.
But not a single person had ever reflected that the question was rude.
Except for Ronari Sharino, who was sitting in front of me now.
I still did not want to tell her much about myself.
Still, since she had shown me the bare minimum of respect, I should at least return the favor.
This was not exactly some secret, anyway.
Keeping my eyes fixed on the notebook, I said,
“She’s my former fiancée.”
“Wh-what…!”
I continued without paying her any mind.
“It’s nothing to be so surprised about. It was decided before we were even born.”
“Before you were born…?”
“My grandfather and Belika’s grandfather were sworn brothers. When we were still in our mothers’ wombs, the two of them just made the promise on their own. That if children of different sexes were born, they would marry us.”
Ronari listened to me with bated breath.
Between my words, the only sound was the scratch of my pen.
“So we grew up like siblings from the time we were little. We were at an age where we didn’t even know what marriage was. And that’s still the same now.”
“Then, former fiancée means…”
“You’ve probably heard it too. The story about my family’s downfall.”
There was no need to speak around it. I was not bragging, either.
It was famous enough. Of course, in a bad way.
Ronari merely nodded.
“Since my family ended up like that, naturally the engagement was broken off too. Of course, we didn’t care. Like I said, from the beginning, we thought of each other as siblings.”
I said,
“So, do you understand? She and I are nothing. Don’t go around telling anyone. It’s not exactly something worth boasting about. Though I don’t think you’re that kind of person.”
“Yeah… I understand. Thank you… for telling me.”
After saying that, Ronari buried her face in her drawn-up knees.
It seemed she had something to think about.
Come to think of it, this was the first time I had spoken to Ronari at such length.
We had been in the same class section in first year too, so there should have been plenty of chances to talk.
Well, at this point, it did not really matter.
Just then, Ronari abruptly rose from her seat.
I thought she was simply going to her room and paid it no mind, but soon she came back out carrying something from her room.
She held it out to me.
It was several notebooks.
“…You have to do every subject anyway, right? You skipped all your classes this week. Use these.”
What had gotten into her?
I looked up at Ronari blankly.
Then, averting her eyes, she pushed the notebooks closer.
“My arm’s going to fall off! Hurry up and take them!”
Left with no choice, I accepted them.
“I am grateful, but what is this? I don’t have anything to give you.”
“It’s fine! It’s not like I expect anything from someone like you! I just asked you an unnecessary question… So this is in exchange!”