LIGHT NOVEL
LIGHT NOVEL
— Tisli’s perspective —
As I was resolving to swear off alcohol, Alde said,
“What’s done is done. What matters is what comes next.”
“………That is… true, but…”
And then Alde asked why it was that I cared about Yuinas, but…
“Th-that’s…”
As I explained that Yuinas is, after all, a citizen of this country, so naturally I care about her, Alde asked, still looking somehow unconvinced,
“No, look, I’m grateful you value us commoners, but that said—your fixation on Yuinas is kind of a different story, isn’t it?”
“Urk… th-that’s…”
Now that he said it, he was quite right, but…
then again, feelings of like and dislike toward people may not even have reasons to begin with…
So while I couldn’t give a clear answer, Alde went and said something like “I can’t recommend Yuinas as a friend.”
So I defended Yuinas, insisting that wasn’t so, and then Alde said something unexpected.
“In that case, since we’re staying in the village a while, how about Mia? No comparison to Yuinas—she’s got an actually decent personality, you know?”
And there…
for some reason, my emotions…
had gone blank.
So I said, on reflex,
“O-of course… I’d like to be friends with Miss Mia as well.”
That I would speak words with no thought behind them at all…
that alone was startling, but…
I mean, of course, I do think Miss Mia is a very good person, and I do want to be friends with her.
And yet, for some reason, when I call to mind Miss Mia’s words and conduct so far… there’s something that snags at my heart.
It is not, of course, distaste. When dealing with corrupt nobles, for instance, I invariably feel distaste—but it’s nothing of that sort. I genuinely do want to be friends with Miss Mia, after all…
But for some reason…
something snags…
I couldn’t grasp the reason for that snag, and what’s more, I didn’t want to think about it any further…
So, to change the subject, I steeled myself and at last decided to broach the main matter.
“S-so, um………how is… Yuinas doing?”
Alde, knowing nothing of the resolve behind it, was as tactlessly blunt as ever.
“Honestly…? She’s furious.”
“………?!”
“Seems your drunken pestering really got to her.”
“………!!”
Ghk…!
A-as I feared…
It’s just as I thought, isn’t it?!
Confronted with the reality I hadn’t wanted to know… I clenched my teeth in spite of myself!
Never before had I regretted anything this much—or rather, I’d never regretted anything at all; if pressed, I suppose that Alde had seen me dead drunk a few times before could count as regret, but that had stayed at the level of “well, it’s just Alde, never mind”…
To think I’d now bared my drunken self even to Yuinas!
“Wh-what am I supposed to do?!”
Unable to sit still, I leaned in!
“How do I earn Yuinas’s forgiveness?!”
“Hmmmm… let’s see…”
“Alde! Think properly! At this point, you, her brother, are the only one I can rely on, you know?!”
And so I shook Alde’s sluggish head desperately, trying to wring some breakthrough out of him!
At last Alde, having apparently gotten blood to his brain, answered!
“Let’s see… a peace offering of some kind might just do it. Yuinas seems to dream of a stylish, high-class life, so for example—”
“I see—understood!”
If that’s all, it’s no trouble at all!
So I answered with great enthusiasm!
“In that case, I shall present her with my mansion!”
After all, I have any number of mansions going to waste.
Letting cash that easily exceeds the national budget sit idle only harms the economy, so I have, unavoidably, come to personally own a great deal of assets—real estate first among them—but I never used them at all. I never even had the time.
So I’d intended to release my personal assets to the citizenry, but the ministers came begging me in tears—”The public will come flooding in and throw the sites into chaos, we beg you, don’t!”—so I’d reluctantly put it on hold.
Which means that if those assets could be of use to Yuinas, I’ve no objection whatsoever to handing them over!
But whether giving Yuinas such unwanted things would even count as an apology… or rather, isn’t passing off castoffs as an apology rather rude to begin with?
In that case, I’ll throw in ownership of the various trading companies I hold too!
As of this moment, the Magic Vehicle Trading Company, dealing in cutting-edge technology, holds the highest value—so exclusive sales rights to that might just manage to serve as an apology!
Of course, the company’s people handle the fine operations of the sales business, so Yuinas need do nothing in particular—she’d merely watch the money roll into her bank account day after day!
Yes, this would make a proper apology!
Just as I was explaining all this to Alde, I realized he had fallen into a flustered panic.
“Wait, wait, hold up! What in the world are you even saying?!”
“What do you mean, what? An apology gift is needed, is it not?”
“In what world does anyone hand over houses and vehicles for getting a little too drunk?!”
And so Alde shot me down. His reasoning: “Put that kind of fortune in Yuinas’s hands and there’s no telling what she’d do.”
It’s not as if she’s a corrupt noble—I can’t imagine Yuinas getting up to mischief—but Alde insisted, no matter what, that I drop it. So I asked him,
“Then what sort of gift would you call appropriate, Alde?”
Whereupon Alde came out with things like stationery, a bag, clothes.
Those aren’t an apology—they’re just cheap trinkets.
Unconvinced, I argued the point with Alde, and the upshot was that we’d ask Yuinas directly.
And since an apology is best made as soon as possible, I moved to stand—
—but the alcohol from yesterday apparently still lingered, and I staggered before I could help it.
Alde caught me on the spot.
“Hey, you okay?”
“Ugh… it seems the alcohol still lingers…”
My heart jumped at Alde being right up close, but the dizziness was worse still, and I couldn’t even push him away.
Alde said to me,
“Then the apology can wait until you’ve fully recovered.”
“But… the sooner, even a little, the better…”
“Try apologizing while you’re unwell and your sincerity might not even come through. I’ll let her know, casually, that you want to apologize.”
“True… then please handle it that way.”
After that, supported by Alde, I lay back down once more.
Alde’s hand was resting against my back… and its warmth came through the fabric of my pajamas…
I-it’s fine, isn’t it…?
My heartbeat hasn’t carried all the way to Alde, has it…?!
Not that the pounding isn’t because of the hangover!
“Right, I’ll go sort things out with Yuinas.”
As I steadied my heart on the bed, Alde made to leave the room.
And before I knew it, I had called him back.
“Um… Alde…”
“What is it, Tisli? Something else you need?”
“Once you’ve talked to Yuinas…”
“Once I’ve talked to her?”
“Please come back.”
…Eh?
Er, um, me?
What have I started saying…?!
“Come back… why, exactly?”
Alde asked, a touch bewildered.
Why, indeed… that’s what I’d like to know…!
So I forcibly cranked the brain cells that had shut down from the hangover into motion, scrambling to invent a coherent, plausible reason for the words I’d just spoken unconsciously!
And the keyword I landed on was—”regret,” of course!
“When I’m alone… the regret feels like it will crush me… but…”
Yes—to cancel out yesterday’s regret, it’s vital to keep my mind fixed on the present moment. Even I, the super-genius beauty, cannot recall yesterday while holding a conversation.
So I’d like to keep chatting with someone, anyone, about anything at all…
but at Alde’s family home, in his house, that someone can only be Alde. Alde’s parents would wear me out, and the only time I’ll face Yuinas is when I apologize…
And besides, looking at Alde’s face…
somehow, makes me feel ever so…
at ease…
So I spoke my honest feelings.
“But looking at that idiot face of yours puts me at ease. So—”
“I’m never coming back, you hear?!”
“Wha?! Wait, Alde—”
For whatever reason, Alde stormed out of the room in a huff!
Wh-why?!
When I just praised Alde more than ever before!
Alde having an idiot face is a given that can’t be helped, isn’t it?!
What matters more is that “looking at Alde puts me at ease (idiot face notwithstanding),” isn’t it?!
And yet Alde understood not one bit of the crucial context and flew into a temper over a trifle!
Alde really is small-minded beyond all measure!
And—seething with rage like that, I managed to forget about yesterday, and a little while later Alde did return to the room after all, so for a brief while I was able to forget my regret.
Still… in any case…
I really must stop drinking in front of others…
They say the body reacts to alcohol differently by constitution and temperament, and my constitution must simply not tolerate it.
I don’t dislike the taste of drink… a pity.
And the Drinking Magic itself had actually succeeded.
It’s merely that my alcohol tolerance was lower than the Drinking Magic accounted for.
Ah—in that case…
if I keep drinking now and then, measure that tolerance precisely, and feed it back into the Drinking Magic…
then without getting sick-drunk or hungover, I might, in the end, come to enjoy a drink too?
Of course, I will absolutely never, ever test such a thing in front of others again—but doing it alone carries a high risk should I drink myself unconscious…
In that case…
if it were only in front of Alde…
it might be all right?
Because…
because Alde is…
just Alde, when all’s said and done!
(Tisli’s Hangover — The End)
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