Chapter 62: Unfamiliar Things (1)
You’ve gotta be kidding me. Why does the timing always suck this bad…!
Who the hell could blame me for twisting my face the second I read that message on my phone?
I’m not some expert at counseling women. Zero Ko would definitely be way better at this than the likes of me…!
I fired off a desperate reply—Come back ASAP—and prayed Grace wouldn’t wake up before that junior got back.
That was the plan, anyway.
“Nn… huh? I…?”
Reality, as always, was merciless.
Her closed eyes slowly opened and locked dead-on with mine.
Awkward as hell.
What the hell was I supposed to say right now…?
Still holding her hand, I just froze—
“——Good morning, Onii-sama.”
—and got hit with the softest, most completely relaxed smile I’d ever seen from her.
I locked up solid.
The only faces of Grace—of Sacred Knight—I’d ever seen were the severe ones or the ones twisted in pain. I’d never once seen an expression this soft and cute.
“Ah… yeah. Morning. Uh… I’m not your brother, sorry.”
That was the absolute best I could manage.
Grace let out a blank “Hafun?” and stared straight at my face for a few seconds. The moment rationality returned to her eyes, her cheeks flushed scarlet.
She flung the blanket up with a basaa!, scrambled back until she hit the wall, and wrapped both arms around herself like she was protecting her body.
“Wait! I get how you feel, but calm down, please! I’m not some suspicious guy—ugh, that line sounds hella suspicious…! Anyway, I’m Zero Ko’s acquaintance! You know Zero Ko, right? The bob-cut girl… you do know her name, don’t you…?!”
I was genuinely panicking that she might only know the name “Sacred Knuckle.”
While I flailed both hands in completely meaningless gestures, Grace looked around the room and nodded. “—Ah, I see.”
“You’re an acquaintance of that bob-cut girl, aren’t you? Did you help carry me? Thank you very much, that was a great help. Ah, how rude of me. I am Grace Wayne.”
“Ah? Yeah… Shusawa Senjumaru. Well, that part’s not wrong.”
Why did she jump to that conclusion?
As if reading my confusion, Grace swept her gaze around the room again.
“This room is clearly a girl’s room no matter how you look at it—there’s no sign of it being ransacked, and it doesn’t look like a man trying to fake femininity either. So you’re her acquaintance, yes?”
“…You can tell just from the room?”
The interior wasn’t that different from the boys’ dorm, and there was a messy pile of masked-hero Blu-ray cases in front of the TV. No pink stuff, no stuffed animals—it could easily pass as a guy’s room.
Catching my intent, she started explaining in a slightly older-sister tone. “It can’t be helped, I suppose.”
“For example, the scent of the room—she’s probably careful about body odor. It isn’t anything expensive, but I can smell perfume. There are cosmetics scattered on the table, and the full-length mirror is well-maintained. I’m not very familiar with this country, but I can tell she’s putting effort into her appearance in her own way.”
“…For real? That junior actually wears makeup?”
I’d always thought she was the type who didn’t care about that kind of thing. The thought must have shown on my face, because Grace crossed her arms with a lightly scolding expression.
“That sort of thing—if you’re acquaintances, you should notice and properly compliment her. Being praised for the effort you put in feels good whether it’s studying, sports, or makeup, you know?”
“Got it. I’ll take that under advisement.”
Is that the kind of attentive guy who gets popular? Nah… if someone like me suddenly started noticing changes in a girl’s makeup, wouldn’t that just come off as stalker-creepy?
I thought that far, then shook my head.
That didn’t matter right now—well, I’d still like to be popular if possible, but that wasn’t the main issue.
“More importantly, how are you feeling?”
“Yes—because I was able to have a gentle dream for the first time in a long while.”
Grace smiled from the bottom of her heart.
And precisely because of that, my expression clouded.
——For the first time in a long while, huh.
Because the words were so natural, without any forced atmosphere, I understood.
She had almost certainly been repeating days like today.
Suffering, writhing, stretching out a hand for help—yet no one ever took that hand, and she kept sleeping while suffering inside nightmares.
“Thank you very much, Shusawa-sama. With this, I feel I can keep working hard from now on.”
And then, with only that tiny—truly tiny—gentle dream being enough, Grace smiled.
Even that happiness was beyond her station, an unexpected joy. Therefore she must not wish for anything more.
For a moment, the girl in front of me overlapped with Leas.
Body type and hair color completely different, yet at the root was the same low self-evaluation and self-punishing spirit.
I have to somehow handle it, I have to work harder, not yet, more more more—she was cornering herself that way.
“…I don’t know what you’re doing, but.”
Lie.
I knew she was Sacred Knight.
But that was information Shusawa Senjumaru couldn’t possibly know. So I spoke as if I didn’t.
“You collapsed, right? Then you should rest a little. Zero Ko’s running late, but—ah, the bob-cut girl in spats—she should be bringing back something you can eat even if you don’t have an appetite.”
“No.”
She cut my caring words clean in half and got down from the bed.
This is no time to be doing this. This is no time to be sleeping here. I have to move, quickly, faster.
“I am the older sister. I must remain a reliable existence for that girl—”
She put on a full-faced smile.
A smile overflowing with confidence that, yes, could be described as reliable—if you hadn’t seen her earlier state.
“—I could never show such a weakened form.”
Sharp eyes, dignified posture. Combined with the large set vertical rolls, it would normally give the impression of a gallant young lady.
But right now it looked mismatched, even painful to watch.
If this had been our first meeting I would have simply thought she was a dignified maiden, but after seeing her sleeping in agony, it only looked like she was forcing herself.
“I don’t know you well, but you’re like an older sister to Leas, right? Then lean on her. She’d happily offer a hand—”
“Absolutely not.”
My words were cut off with a sharp pishari.
Grace looked straight at me, eyes sharpening as if telling me not to say unnecessary things—yet there was also something frightened in that gaze.
“I forced onto that girl the things I myself should have done. At that time I was ungracefully unconscious and could do nothing—with what face am I supposed to make her carry even more burdens?”
——I knew.
During the attack on the other world Calmate, Leas—Sacred Saber—had rescued Princess Altina.
Yes, not the best knight of the Sacred, Sacred Knight, but Leas.
And toward that, there was not a single trace of jealousy in her.
What existed was only pure self-loathing at her own powerlessness.