CH 16.2

“Nina-san, I baked a cake for you today! And this is the most popular tea in the capital right now. I also found some cute pastries and brought them with me! Also, this is an accessory that is popular among young girls right now, and I was wondering if you would like to wear them together…. Of course, if you don’t like it, or if you don’t want to wear the same one as me, you can just throw it away…!”

“Thank you! I’m so happy. I’d love to wear it with you.”

A few days later, Erica and Theo came to my house again. They spent the morning practicing, and since they want to have tea together once in a while, the three of them sit around the table in the afternoon.

It was only supposed to be a magic lesson, but now that we had become friends like this, I couldn’t just say goodbye after this was all over, could I? I would miss them too.

While worrying about the future, I cut up the lemon cake that Erica brought me. She seemed to be good at baking, and the cake looked very delicious.

“Do you plan to live in this village forever?”

“Yes, for the time being. I’m thinking of buying a house here, too.”

“I see! If Nina-san moved to the capital, we would be able to meet more often…”

I was glad Erica felt that way toward me, and it would be fun to live in the royal capital, but I wanted to live a slow life.

I wanted to live in my own big house with cute animals, work occasionally, do some remodeling, relax and read my favorite books, and grew my own vegetable garden.

Above all, going to the capital frightened me in many ways. I was killed when I was in the royal capital last time.

As we continued to talk about other things, Theo suddenly put down his teacup and said, “Oh, that’s right.”

“Lara asked me to do some shopping in a neighboring town.  If they run out of it, I’ll get killed, so I’m going there for a while.”

“Okay, be careful.”

“Got it.”

The neighboring town would be a short horseback ride away. In the meantime, I saw Theo off while thinking about having tea with Erica and waiting for him.

Eventually, after the sound of the horse’s footsteps faded away, I casually shifted my gaze to Erica and saw her staring at me with a terribly serious expression on her face for some reason.

I was taken aback by her unusual expression.

“Erica?”

“That, um…”

For a while, she kept her mouth shut as if it was hard to say, but eventually, Erica lifted her head.

“… Why do you always use transformation magic, Nina-san?”

“What?”

“I’ve always wondered about it….. Your face is so beautiful, with your original brown eyes and hair. But I wondered if you were intentionally hiding it, so I wanted to ask when Theo wasn’t around.”

And then I realized. With her special eyes that could even see other people’s magic, there was no way she couldn’t see my real appearance.

Why didn’t I think of this before?

“I was actually going to keep quiet about it. But I don’t believe it was a coincidence that the statue of the former saintess looked a lot like Nina-san’s true appearance, and you both have the same name…. Also, the fact that you can use holy magic….”

With all those conditions in place, it was only natural that she would notice. In fact, it might have been predicted that this would eventually happen as soon as I met Erica.

─Originally, I could have left this place when the danger of being exposed arose. Still, I was happy to have escaped the hard life in my original world and be reunited with my precious friends. 

I should not have been so greedy for just a little more.

In the midst of all this, I suddenly heard the door open.

“…. What do you mean, Nina?”

When I turned around and saw Theo’s figure, I gasped. I was so shaken by Erica’s revelation that I hadn’t heard the noise. He should have headed to the next town, but why was he here?

Theo stepped inside and grabbed my shoulders. His angry expression changed to one that looked as if he was about to start crying.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pale-faced Erica saying, “I-I’m so sorry, I will punish myself by cutting my stomach with this fork!” I was then convinced that she was also someone from Japan, though she didn’t have to commit seppuku[1].

(T/N: Seppuku is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment.)

“Are you that Nina….?”

The emerald-like eyes stared straight at me, and just when I thought I couldn’t hide it any longer, a carefree voice that seemed out of place for this atmosphere echoed, “Huh?” in the room.

I slowly turned my gaze in the direction of the voice.

“What’s going on here? Actually, I think I have a pretty good idea.”

It was Owen who peeked through the door that Theo had left open. What was this situation?