"So, anyway—"
Long. Incredibly long.
It felt like we'd already been chatting for about an hour, yet Materia never ran out of things to say, and questions kept spilling from her lips one after another.
What surprised me most was that I was answering her earnestly without even realizing it. For some reason, talking to her made me feel strangely warm.
The warmth was so gentle it felt as if I'd gone back to those days, and it made my chest tighten a little. I shouldn't be getting emotional like this.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I've been talking about myself too much, haven't I?"
"No, not at all."
"I'm sorry. It's just... even though this is our first meeting, I feel oddly close to you. Is it because we both have white hair?"
I agreed with her. For some reason, I didn't feel the usual awkwardness that came with meeting someone for the first time.
I'd thought it was just her nature, but maybe there was another reason?
Still, the fact that we had the same hair color probably played a part. After all, Materia was the first person I'd ever met with hair as pure white as mine.
"Come to think of it, Vesta..."
"...Huh? Ah, me?"
Being called "Vesta" felt oddly awkward. I'd only been addressed by that name for a very short time, which made it even stranger.
More than that, the way she said it... I'm long past the age where I should be addressed like a youth.
"Why is Vesta missing an arm...? Ah, was that rude of me to ask?"
"No, it's not rude. My right arm... I offered it to the new era."
"Wow, that's so cool...!"
She listened to every word I said with sparkling eyes. Maybe this kind of reaction was the very reason I couldn't bring myself to feel uncomfortable around her.
When I awkwardly ran a hand through my hair, her eyes trembled a little.
Her gaze drifted to my empty eye socket. Ah, maybe I'd been too careless...
"Th-there... that..."
"Ah... adventurer work involves all sorts of things..."
Apparently, unlike losing an arm, losing an eye had come as a much bigger shock to her.
Well, I suppose a scar on the face is a serious matter. Honestly, I find missing an eye less inconvenient than missing an arm.
"Does... does it hurt?"
"No, it's an old wound."
There were days when it throbbed, but it wasn't a major problem.
The wounds on my body were less of an issue than the wounds in my heart.
Even after all this time, unlike my body, my heart was still covered in scars.
"...?"
Then a cool touch brushed the corner of my eye.
Before I knew it, Materia was gently caressing the area around my eye.
"Oh no..."
There were tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, faint but real. Why was she so sad about something that wasn't even her own problem?
I was the one who'd been hurt, yet she was the one crying while I comforted her. It was a strange situation, but fortunately, her tears soon settled. I'd thought she was all smiles, but maybe she cried easily too. In that way, she really was different from me.
...Or maybe not?
Come to think of it, I felt like I'd heard that about myself a lot too... or maybe not...
"Well, it doesn't matter."
"Huh? What doesn't?"
"No, nothing. Could you take your hand away now?"
At that, Materia's eyes moved back to my face. Her hand was still gently rubbing around my eye.
It was the sort of thing people do when they say, "Pain, pain, go away~," so to be honest, it was incredibly embarrassing. This was the kind of thing only the goddess would do when she was throwing a tantrum, and yet here I was on the receiving end of it.
"O-oh my, look at me... Eek?!"
She hurriedly pulled her hand away, but then suddenly swayed and collapsed.
It was an unnatural movement, as if she were staggering from anemia...
Maybe she was naturally frail. Thinking that, I gently caught her as she fell. Her eyes went wide.
"Ah, e, uh, um..."
"Are you all right?"
I still wasn't used to women, but... strangely enough, I could face her without panicking.
Materia was definitely a beauty, so why wasn't I flustered?
Was this the result of Master's special training?
That's amazing, isn't it?
"Th-thank you..."
Her face was completely red. It wasn't the flushed red of romantic excitement, but the red of pure embarrassment.
"I-it wasn't necessary for you to catch me..."
"I couldn't just let you fall. I was taught that helping a woman when she's in trouble is a man's duty."
That was actually advice from my grandfather, not Master.
"Hmm... hee..."
For some reason, after hearing that, Materia instantly regained her composure.
How should I put it... she looked like Haruhime after losing a game over and over, only to finally switch to her specialty.
For the record, Haruhime went on to lose again after that.
Her opponent was just too much. Lilly was merciless.
"I'm sorry. I already have someone in my heart..."
"Haha, what a shame. Still, it's only natural for a wonderful woman like you to already have a lover, so I suppose I'm the one at fault for being late."
"..."
This was one of the 108 secret techniques Master taught me for talking to women, number 69: always stay calm in conversation with a woman!
I'd been trained to appeal to a woman's maternal instincts, but that didn't mean I had to act helpless all the time.
I'd often been told to aim for so-called gap moe—being manly most of the time, but occasionally childlike, or the other way around.
Are you watching, Master? Your disciple has grown this much.
-Tch, that foolish rabbit is getting full of himself.
Why? Why can't I even get praised in my imagination?
"...That's strange... Could he be the Casanova I've only heard about? A natural-born flirt?"
I'm not that. What are you saying to a man who's never had a single romance in his life?
"He'd usually blush and fumble when I say things like this... so he really is a coward? So it wasn't me after all..."
She muttered cutting remarks under her breath.
Coward...? That rough way of speaking didn't fit her delicate appearance at all, and it made me shrink back for no reason.
Materia's lover. Do you know what kind of treatment you're getting from her?
I almost cried. Maybe if I hadn't had Master's training, I'd be getting treated like that too.
Hedin, undefeated.
Then, all of a sudden, I sensed someone's presence.
Not someone who came to the church for business... I don't think.
The fact that they'd come in and immediately started looking for the secret passage made it seem like this was their destination.
"Come to think of it, Materia. Is this your building?"
"Huh? No, not really, but I use this place for secret meetings."
Secret meetings... she sure says something spicy with such a calm face.
"Then can you guess who's coming here?"
"Ah, yes. He's coming."
I see. So the person coming in now was probably Materia's lover.
Still, certainty was dangerous.
"Just in case, let's step back a little."
I had no intention of losing to most opponents, but this was still the golden age of Orario.
Charging ahead without even knowing who the other side was would be the worst possible move.
Maybe Materia agreed with me, because she obediently stepped back behind me.
...Though the way she was grinning like she was plotting something made me a little uneasy, I couldn't just leave her to it.
"Materia! I've been waiting!"
The man who appeared was, how should I put it...
To be blunt, he was an unremarkable man.
He had a dull, forgettable hair color and a small frame that looked almost pitiful.
If there was anything distinctive about him, it was his red eyes, the same as mine. They stood out sharply against Materia's blue eyes.
"Materia, why haven't you answered—gh?!"
The man who came in saw us and froze instantly, unable to move.
As I wondered what was wrong, I felt a twitching sensation from behind me.
Glancing back, I saw Materia trembling with laughter.
Oh... I get it.
I might not have understood it in the past, but I'd gained some sense now. I could at least guess what she was trying to do.
A jealousy-inducing operation... was that it?
I'd been caught in a few of those before, so it would've been stranger if I hadn't recognized it.
"Y-you bastard! Who are you, and why are you with Materia?!"
"Ah, I'm..."
For a moment, I started thinking about how I should explain the situation to make him understand.
What did I look like in his eyes right now? A kidnapper? A thief? Or maybe... I didn't want to imagine it, but perhaps an adulterer...
Ah, no, that doesn't seem to be it.
There was no trace of confusion in his eyes. What I felt was only hostility toward me and concern for Materia.
So they trust each other.
Well, if they didn't, they couldn't pull off a stunt like this. A scheme like this only works if the other person believes in you.
Hmm, a little annoying to deal with, but I was borrowing the place, so I might as well help a bit.
I hadn't planned to play along with the script or anything, but I could at least keep my mouth shut and stand still.
Was that enough? It was.
Because she wrote letters on my back with her finger to tell me to keep quiet and stay still.
"Cr, Cranel!"
Cranel?
The familiar sound made my eyebrow twitch a little, but the next words blew every thought clean out of my head.
"Materia! K-kh, you bastard! Do you know I'm a member of Zeus Familia and still pull something like this?!"
"Wow, that's pathetic..."
Wasn't that a little too pathetic for the situation?
At least here, he should've said, "Do you know who I am and still pull something like this?!" Bringing up his Familia instead of himself... well, that was one way to do it, but in this situation, I wasn't sure it helped.
Fortunately, my muttering vanished uselessly without anyone hearing it. Bye-bye, muttering.
From my perspective, that line was a little much, but Materia seemed to love it, because a squeal of delight came from behind me. This woman seems a little strange too.
"If you knew, then get lost already! Don't ever come near Materia again!"
"Cranel!"
"Materia!"
As I subtly stepped aside, the two of them shared a passionate embrace. In reality, it was an absurdly timid hug, but somehow it felt like they both thought it was a very intense embrace.
How can you hug without your bodies even touching? Is that really okay to call a hug?
Then Materia's expression caught my eye.
A chill ran down my entire body.
Don't tell me... this was the goal?!
I'd gone along with this little farce because she asked me to, and this was the result?!
That thing she called him a coward. And the pathetic impression I got from meeting him in person.
He was definitely even more of a hopeless romantic than I was in the past... but was this really all they were aiming for? That awkward little hug?
I didn't know whether they were the weird ones or whether my tolerance had somehow gotten higher without me noticing, but there was one thing I knew for sure.
A cowardly couple...
Materia might be a little better than the man, but neither of them had any clue what they were doing.
One of them was just slightly less hopeless than the other, or slightly more hopeless. That was all.
As the gods put it, it was the kind of flirting so sweet it made your teeth ache just watching.
For some reason, the sight made me feel like I wanted something bitter to drink too.
"Um... sorry to interrupt your lovely time, but..."
"Eh? W-whaaa?! Why are you still here?!"
"Eek?! Why are you still watching us?!"
Both of them turned bright red, and somehow the sweetness in the air only got stronger.
For some reason, I suddenly missed my companions. I always missed them, but today I missed them with particular intensity.
"I was just about to leave too, but..."
Normally, I wouldn't want to watch this kind of lovey-dovey couple showing off. But there was one thing I absolutely had to say.
"It looks like a lot of people are gathering here right now."
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Eh?"
It felt like I should add something, so I joined in with my own question.
The voices of three idiots echoed through the church's basement.