Chapter 1201 - The Chick's Day Off: Part 4
"...So you do have tea. In a house that isn't a house."
"Well, of course, since I do sometimes invite guests? Like today."
And so, going with the flow, we moved rooms and prepared to take a breather.
Guided from the exhibition room to the guest room, I sat on the recommended sofa and waited for a few minutes. Saegusa-san, who had prepared a stylish tea set that made me want to ask if it was also some kind of work of art, placed the steaming and fragrant black tea in front of me and sat down in the seat opposite.
A one-on-one, just as requested.
Now, what on earth is about to begin... to me, who was bracing myself,
"Geez, I told you, please don't be so tense. I did say no joking around, but I don't have any story that requires you to listen with a face like you're heading into a decisive battle."
Saegusa-san, who had thrust upon me the words "I want you to get to know me"—words that left me wondering how on earth I should take them—smiled softly while putting the black tea to her lips.
"Well, even so, I suppose it can't be helped... I won't keep you in suspense anymore and will just quickly start my past story. Ah, please have some tea. Please relax and listen."
"U-Understood."
And just like that, letting her lead me by the nose.
Letting out a small sigh as she returned her teacup to its saucer, Saegusa Hiyori, without even looking at me sitting directly in front of her... stroked the cover of a booklet beside the seat she had sat down in, which looked like an album or something that had been catching my attention since earlier, and opened her mouth.
"I am, basically, a girl who can do anything."
It was honestly quite a start for the very first line, but for now, I listened quietly.
"I was a girl who could do anything. Ever since I was little."
As she spoke, Saegusa-san placed the booklet on the table. The cover wasn't open yet, but... judging by the feel of the binding, it was indeed an album or something similar.
If she intended to tell a story of the past, it was the ultimate prop.
"First, you see, I'm very cute. I was born with an appearance that leaves no room for complaints, and why, I was pampered like a butterfly or a flower ever since I was a baby... glance"
"Eh, what is it..."
"No, if you listen with absolutely no reaction, doesn't that make me look like a painful person?"
"Saegusa Hiyori-san is cute."
"Thank you very much. Even if it's monotone, it's better than nothing."
Interspersing such a conversation, which was subtle to even call playful banter.
"Well, that said, while I do take pride in that appearance as an objective fact, there were many other things too. Like learning words quickly, or learning to write characters quickly—aside from those various things about growth speed, I was invincible in every field."
"So your multi-talented nature was innate."
"Indeed. Speaking of the present, I can handle various kinds of work, and even as a student, I have both beauty and brains, and excel in both literary and military arts... well, it's not like I don't have weaknesses in a tiny fraction of sports and such, but for the most part. For the most part, I am the invincible Saegusa Hiyori-chan. glance"
"Saegusa Hiyori-san is amazing."
"Ah, sorry, I'll stop this. I'm starting to feel embarrassed."
That said, that was probably also her specialty acting. She showed a gesture as if embarrassed by my half-hearted reply, but in reality, it seemed there was not a single exaggeration.
The fact that she was an extremely multi-talented person was a truth recognized by the world without me even needing to acknowledge it, and there was no reason or meaning to doubt it now. She was a person worthy of praise.
Heaven does not give two gifts... she must be the exact opposite of those words —
"Well, anyway, with things like that... if it was like that, then naturally, the episode that follows would never deviate from the classic cliché anytime, anywhere, in all times and places, right?"
A question tossed to me, who was giving a half-hearted reaction while honestly agreeing in my heart. It was less of a question and more of an invitation to jump on board, but since the reply came to mind immediately...
"You got cocky?"
"I totally did, didn't I? At the ripe old age of nine."
When I answered, what came back was a big fat correct circle.
"To be completely, totally honest, I was an unpleasant child. Maybe I think so even more now because it's about myself, though my family covers for me saying, 'It wasn't really that bad.'"
And, while affirming it, Saegusa-san reproached her past self without reservation.
"No matter what I did, everyone pampered me. There wasn't a day I wasn't praised. Ah, I'm amazing, I'm special—I think I lived thoroughly steeped in a sense of superiority."
"......Somehow,"
"Ah, if you say I haven't changed much from now, I'll cry. With a masterpiece performance just for the occasion."
To those words of hers, there was only one thing I thought.
"No. Rather, I can't imagine it."
That her childhood was so far removed from the current her, the Saegusa-san I knew. When I honestly said what I felt, her chestnut eyes looked at me, harboring a look of surprise.
"Eh, really? I behave quite, how should I say, overconfidently, don't I?"
"That's true, but..."
"So it is true!"
Yes. That was true. However,
"I, you see. ......To be honest, I get nervous every time I bring up a name other than Nia to you, Saegusa-san, but as far as that confidence goes, the 'real deal' is right by my side."
"That, the real deal... — Ah, ahh..."
The real deal. As far as I knew, the person in the world whom "can do anything" suited the most.
Compared to Alicia White's invincible and absolute self-confidence, Saegusa-san's mere "behavior" didn't make me feel even a fragment of arrogance. It was almost laughable.
"In my eyes, it only looks like... you have a justified pride?"
"I-Is that so... Huh, that's strange. Why did this flow into me normally getting embarrassed..."
When I told her my thoughts face-to-face like that, she cast her eyes down in embarrassment again.
However, I couldn't tell whether it was acting or not anyway. Even if I minded it, there was no point if I couldn't get an answer, so during conversations with her, ignoring this kind of flow was the golden rule.
"C-cough... Anyway, my young self was, well, yes. Like that."
"Like that."
"An extremely cute, high-flying girl who was getting way ahead of herself."
And so, a course correction.
"At one point... well, after I turned ten. Since I had grown up and it was the right time, my parents took me on an overseas trip to meet a 'couple who were their friends.'"
The content of Saegusa-san's story, now that she had brought it back on track, immediately embarked on a development that drew my interest.
That was only natural. It was easily predictable. A young Saegusa-san going on an overseas trip at long last, and the development that must have been waiting for her there —
"And... naturally, I ended up having an inevitable encounter with their 'child.'"
Even I, who didn't know, knew that there could only be one possibility.
"Kasuga-san."
"Yeah?"
And then, her tone of voice changed slightly.
The serious-flavored tone of voice I had heard a few times before—in other words, Saegusa-san's voice when she spun serious words without joking. When my name was called as if to confirm, and I tilted my head,
"From here on, this is off the record. Absolutely do not tell that girl (Lilia)."
"I understand."
In that case, I nodded without any particular hesitation.
Saegusa-san, who stared intently at me, was silent for a few seconds. Whether she trusted my nod and words of agreement, she gave a small nod back —
"Before the trip. When I was nine, I saw that 'painting.'"
"Elena-san's."
"Yes. In other words, the ten-year-old me was already a girl aiming to be a painter during the trip."
"I see."
"And so, I met her. ...Yes, I encountered her."
A single sigh.
— A face as if chewing on a memory more unpleasant than anything else.
— At the same time, a face as if savoring a memory more precious than anything else.
With such an expression, one that someone like me could never possibly describe.
"She was way, waaaay cuter than someone like me. Compared to someone like me... — someone like me, who won a prize in an all-ages painting competition less than a year after starting practice,"
She spoke.
"to a hated fairy who drew 'paintings' for fun that I couldn't even begin to compare to."
The chick's fledgling days.