Editing Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 6 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 2===

"Seriously, Nii-san... Why did you not say so earlier if all you were doing was playing Japanese chess?"

Along the way from the medical building to Brynhildr Class, Mitsuki remarked with displeasure.

"No, I already said it who knows how many times, but you won't believe me..."

I sighed in exhaustion.

"B-Because it sounded too much like an excuse... Oh, putting that aside, how are your injuries, Nii-san?"

Mitsuki changed the subject in embarrassment and shifted her gaze to my left arm and abdomen.

I had changed into my uniform with my left arm in a cast. Although it was covered by clothing, my abdomen was also wrapped in bandages.

"Don't worry. Although my left arm might take a while to heal up, I think the abdomen bandages can be taken off soon."

Although to others, it might look like I had suffered grievous injuries, thanks to the principal's ability, my wounds had long recovered.

The cast was a disguise to mask the immobility of my left arm while my abdomen did not actually need bandaging. For those who neither knew about my relationship with Yggdrasil nor about the principal's power, the cover story was that I had suffered a fracture.

"That is a relief, but please do not overexert yourself. Please observe instead of participating in PE and practical classes."

"Got it. Thanks for worrying about me."

"Eh... Oh, yes."

Hearing me thank her, Mitsuki nodded somewhat in surprise, her cheeks turning red faintly.

Maybe the way I was talking did not sound like myself.

It occurred to me—If I saw Mitsuki as ''family'', I might not be thanking so solemnly in this kind of situation. But having lost my memories, of course I could not possibly know the right answer.

"Mitsuki-san, you worry too much. This level of injury is completely nothing seeing as it is Mononobe Yuu."

Lisa touched my cast from the side.

Due to knowing the whole story, she was also clearly aware that my left arm was uninjured.

"Lisa... So Mononobe-kun is actually that reliable in your view?"

However, Firill interpreted Lisa's words differently and interjected in a playful tone of voice.

"What, I never... Uh, after all, since he is the one who rescued my parents from Yggdrasil's evil grasp, I won't regard him as unreliable, but... Umm..."

Blushing, Lisa seemed especially flustered.

Seeing her reaction, Firill smiled.

"And you two have pretended to be a couple before. I'm a bit jealous... that your relationship with Mononobe-kun has gotten so close all at once."

Saying that, Firill leaned in. I could not help but feel flustered from the contact between her voluptuous bust and my elbow.

"H-Hey, Firill?"

"Listen, Mononobe-kun, even for just a moment, play the part of my boyfriend—or rather, play the part of my prince."

Looking at me with a pleading and endearing expression, Firill made such a suggestion.

"Wait, Firill-san! I simply asked him to play the part of my boyfriend out of necessity, but right now, there is no need for him to play a prince."

Before I could answer, Lisa pulled me away from Firill.

"Eh... That's so unfair, Lisa, hogging everything."

"I-It's not unfair! I am simply maintaining public morals on Mitsuki-san's behalf."

Lisa looked away from Firill's glare of dissatisfaction. Her answer sounded like an excuse.

"Y-Yuu! Tia wants Yuu to play husband character too!"

But this time, Tia pounced on me from behind wrapping her arms around my neck, choking me.

"T-Tia, I-I can't breathe..."

"Don't do that, Tia, Mononobe-kun is still injured."

Seeing the situation, Ariella cautioned Tia.

"Oh, sorry! Does it hurt?"

Tia frantically jumped down and apologized to me in worry.

"No, I'm fine, it was just hard to breathe. Just as Lisa said, this level of injury is nothing."

"Thank goodness, but... Tia is unfit to be a wife, failing to consider husband's injury."

Tia breathed a sigh of relief but got depressed.

"I-It's not like that. I'll feel cheerful as long as I can see you lively and energetic, Tia. No one will say you're unfit to be a wife."

I tried my best to console her. Immediately, Tia looked up at me and said as though examining my face:

"Really? Then... You think so too?"

"Eh, well, of course, but I'm just giving an objective opinion—"

Given what I had already said, I could not refute my own words, so I had to nod ambiguously.

"Objective opinion? Tia doesn't get what that means, but Yuu approves of Tia as wife! Then Yuu, let's get married!"

However, my ambiguous answer did not work on Tia. She raised her arms and cheered with a joyful expression.

"W-Wait, those are totally separate things—"

"Not marrying a wife who's not unfit, that would be weird!"

"Maybe you have a point, but..."

Cornered by Tia's logic, I could not help but take a few steps back.

However, just as I was about to be trapped, someone extended a helping hand.

"Tia-chan, please don't make things difficult for Mononobe."

Iris had intervened in Tia's conversation with me. Arms akimbo, she spoke to Tia.

"Muuu—Iris is always getting in Tia's way. So Iris wants to marry Yuu too, right?"

"Ehhh!? I-I..."

Iris instantly blushed to her ears. She secretly glanced at me from the side.

But as though suddenly realizing something in alarm, she looked in Mitsuki's direction then shook her head hastily.

"N-No, it's not like that. Tia-chan, what I mean is you can't get married at your age. If you make a fuss, you'll be a nuisance to Mononobe..."

Iris answered with a suffering look on her face. Seeing her expression, I felt a stabbing pain in my heart.

Iris knew that "the me before I had lost my memories" used to have an engagement promise with Mitsuki. Because I had told Iris that "the real Mononobe Yuu" probably loved Mitsuki the most.

Ever since, Iris always worried about Mitsuki's feelings. Surely, she was considering what would happen after I recovered my memories.

Currently—Iris and I were deeply in love with each other.

However, Iris seemed to have prepared herself for the ''present'' state of affairs to be lost eventually in the future.

Hence, I was not confident at all whether these current feelings were legitimate, because I could not be certain whether these feelings might waver.

Thus, in the roughly two months that had passed since Iris and I confessed our feelings to each other after the Basilisk battle, our relationship had not advanced a single step. Neither advancing nor regressing, it simply remained stationary while time continued to flow by.

"Feels like Iris never speaks the truth."

Perhaps sensitively noticing Iris' feelings, Tia grumbled with dissatisfaction.

"N-No! I'm not lying! Right, Ariella?"

"Huh? Well—Tia's age definitely cannot marry. I don't think there's a need to rush to get married. You should enjoy the current life more. There's so many things to do before marriage."

Suddenly called out, Ariella answered in a bit of a dilemma.

"Really!? Then what kinds of things need to be done before marriage?"

"W-Well..."

I did not know what Ariella was thinking of, but she went red and stammered ambiguously.

"Hey Ariella, tell Tia!"

Tia tugged Ariella's arm and begged her to answer.

I felt bad for Ariella but breathed a sigh of relief that the subject of conversation had moved on from me.

Perhaps to escape Tia's questioning, Iris also left us in a hurry, going off on her own. Instantly losing someone to talk to, I looked around me with nothing else to do.

We happened to have reached a connecting corridor between buildings, overlooking the school's courtyard and sports ground.

A pile of abandoned scrap, probably from the school festival, could be seen in a corner of the school.

My classmates and I had prepared and opened a Japanese teahouse for the school festival.

Tragically forced to crossdress, pretending to be a couple in front of Lisa's parents, fighting Yggdrasil's clone—Now that I thought about it, those were two extremely busy days.

And only a week of time had elapsed since then.

While I was immersed in reminiscence, I noticed that just like me, Ren was staring out at the school festival scrap.

She looked especially forlorn from the side of her face. Hesitantly, I tried to ask her:

"Ren, what's wrong?"

"......"

She threw a glance at me but did not say a word.

But that was how she always behaved. Ren always answered briefly with an "mm," typed on a terminal, or responded with silence.

I had never had normal ''dialogue'' with Ren so far.

But somehow, I had already grown accustomed to interacting with her without the use of words and language. We were naturally able to achieve communication.

If she responded with silence, it was a signal that she did not wish to broach this subject.

Hence, I did not pry and switched to another topic.

"But anyway, so much happened during the school festival. Ren, did you enjoy yourself?"

"Mm."

This time, she nodded in response.

"What did you find the most fun, Ren?"

Ren thought for a while after hearing my question then typed on her portable terminal and turned the LCD screen towards me.

"—Rossweisse Class' haunted house eh. Yeah, that definitely was a blast."

I read out the words shown on the screen and smiled wryly.

Rossweisse Class was where the youngest Ds in Midgard were gathered. Their haunted house consisted of costumed girls trying to scare visitors, but since all they did was scream and play around, it was not scary at all.

However, simply watching young girls playing around in excitement would bring a smile to one's face—Although it was tiring, I found it to be a fun activity for sure.

"Due to Yggdrasil, the afterparty had to be suspended, but if there's another chance, I'd really like to enjoy thing from start to end completely."

"Mm."

Ren answered in agreement. A bonfire party was originally planned for evening festivities. Without seeing the bonfire, it felt like a proper conclusion was lacking.

"Oh... Now that I think back, there's so many things to do apart from the afterparty. I didn't get to visit all the homerooms, and despite this rare visit from my parents, I didn't even greet them once..."

I sighed heavily.

While I was unconscious after the incident with Major Loki, my parents already left Midgard. Since meeting them directly might expose the fact of my memory loss, in a certain sense, it was quite fortunate.

Even though it was unavoidable, I still could not avoid getting tormented by guilt for feeling "thank goodness" inside.

"......"

This time, Ren responded with silence. However, I got the sense that rather than refusing to answer, she was expressing her empathy for what I felt. The same forlorn expression from earlier surfaced on the side of Ren's face again.

"—Is there someone you want to meet during the school festival, Ren?"

Feeling this inexplicably, I tried to ask her.

Ren's shoulders immediately shook. She looked down as though hesitating on how to answer.

However, it looked like I was not too far off the mark.

I knew nothing about Ren's origins and family background, so I had no idea who she wanted to meet at the school festival, but—

"If you want to see the other person, you'll see them eventually. Don't worry."

I placed my hand on her red hair and encouraged her.

There was no proof but I had a precedent. Mitsuki and I were only able to reunite at Midgard because of the effort she had dedicated towards wanting to see me.

However, Ren kept shaking her head under my palm.

"Oh, sorry."

I thought she hated being touched on the head, so I hastily withdrew my hand.

Ren shook her head again as though saying "that's not what I mean." She typed on her portable terminal then showed me the words.

"...I don't want to see him. I hate that kind of person the most?"

I read out the words on the screen. Ren immediately nodded in confirmation.

"By 'that kind of person'... What kind of person do you mean?"

I asked Ren whom she was referring to.

"..."

However, Ren kept her lips shut tightly without answering the question and looked away.

Evidently, she was not going to say more.

Although Ren's relationship with me had become slightly more harmonious compared to the very beginning, there was still a tall barrier between us.

One day, will I be able to become better friends with her, even to the point of having a ''dialogue'' with her?

While thinking this, I glanced sideways at the young redhaired prodigy.