LIGHT NOVEL
LIGHT NOVEL
— Mia’s perspective —
“Let’s do watermelon splitting! Watermelon splitting!”
When we came back to the rest parasol after about an hour of sea bathing, Naavin said that.
As punishment for Alde earning Miss Tisli’s displeasure, the men had been blindfolded. So they couldn’t swim and had apparently been sitting blankly under the parasol—which must be why he’d hit on watermelon splitting, a game you can play even blindfolded.
I felt a little bad for them… but still, being seen in a swimsuit is embarrassing yet…
Maybe I’ll have Alde stay blindfolded just a little longer.
By afternoon I’ll work up my nerve, so…
As I was thinking that, Miss Tisli asked Alde,
“What is this watermelon splitting?”
Alde, despite being blindfolded, deftly turned his face toward Miss Tisli. Did he tell from the direction of her voice?
“Ah, you wouldn’t know it. Watermelon splitting is a game where you split a watermelon while blindfolded. We can’t play much else while blindfolded, right? So—”
“You can’t play because you’re a lecher, Alde.”
“N-no… if we start arguing about that again we’ll never get anywhere, so give me a break…”
“Understood. So, the rules of watermelon splitting?”
Alde explained the rules, and since Lady Lily’s villa had watermelons too, we decided to give it a try. The tool for splitting the watermelon, incidentally, was a guard’s wooden sword. A house like ours would never have a wooden sword lying around—truly a noble’s place, I thought.
Once we’d set a watermelon on the sand, Naavin thrust a fist up in entirely the wrong direction.
“All right! Then I’ll go first!”
Unlike Alde, he had no grasp of his surroundings at all. Well, blindfolded, that’s normal.
Since Naavin couldn’t tell where the watermelon was, I decided to lead him by the hand and explain.
“This is where the watermelon is. And the start point is twenty paces from here.”
“Got it!”
“Then spin five times and go.”
So Naavin spun five times at the start point and set off… but he walked off in a direction wildly away from the watermelon from the very start…
And Alde and Yuinas were egging him on, no less.
“Naavin, nice, keep going, just like that~”
“No, wrong, more to the left, left~!”
Walking in a straight line toward the sea was genuinely dangerous, so I called out “No, no, come back,” but Naavin wouldn’t stop. The voices overlapped and he couldn’t make them out, it seemed.
In the end Naavin declared “Enough chatter, leave it to me!” and swung the wooden sword down in a completely different spot.
“No impact?!”
The startled Naavin swung the sword down a few more times around there, but since he’d wandered nowhere near the watermelon, there was no way he’d hit it.
After that, Yuinas and I gave it a try too… and whiffed spectacularly. Watermelon splitting—I hadn’t done it since I was a kid and had totally forgotten, but it was harder than I’d expected, which surprised me.
Then it was Lady Lily’s turn, her first attempt at watermelon splitting… Lady Lily looked a little giddy—how cute.
Still, for a great noble, she has no resistance to common games like this—maybe Lady Lily is more approachable than I’d thought?
But Lady Lily got steered by Yuinas in the exact opposite direction from the watermelon.
“I-is that… okay…?”
Startled, I asked Alde, but blindfolded as he was now, he only tilted his head. So I explained the situation, and…
“Ah, it’s fine. Lily may be a noble, but those two are basically friends.”
“I-is that so…?”
Since Alde said it was fine, I watched—and Lady Lily, whiffing and pulling off her blindfold, was quite furious…!
“Wha?! Yuinas! That’s the complete opposite way!”
“Hehe. Well, while you were spinning, I set the start facing the exact reverse.”
“You tricked me?!”
“Lily loses for not noticing the last spin was only a half-turn~”
Y-yeah…
Lady Lily was angry, certainly, but…
she clearly had no intention of using her power to do anything to Yuinas over it. No intention—she didn’t even seem to consider it.
It was like, how to put it—kittens tussling.
I’m acquainted with nobles too, as the village chief’s daughter… but I’ve never had one treat me the way she treats Yuinas.
Maybe once you’re a great noble, you don’t bother with fine etiquette… or maybe Yuinas is just remarkable…
Come to think of it, Yuinas is adored by Miss Tisli too. Alde and the others are hiding it, but Miss Tisli is, nine times out of ten, a noble… something to do with House Theresia.
Otherwise Lady Lily wouldn’t call her “dear Sister.” Actually, does Alde really think he’s hiding it?
So the fact that even Miss Tisli favors her means… maybe Yuinas really is remarkable…
Is it that fearless personality? No, but… if I treated nobles like that, worst case I’d be thrown in prison…
So why is it? Does Yuinas have some talent for charming nobles…?
As I was thinking it, that very Yuinas said to Alde,
“Okay, next, you try, big brother!”
“Sure. I’ll split it clean.”
Alde couldn’t take off his blindfold either, so Yuinas led him by the hand, explained where the watermelon was, and then it was go time.
“Okay—start!”
And at Yuinas’s signal, Alde set off walking.
Still, Alde really has…
a very…
a very toned body, doesn’t he…
Where Naavin is lanky and unreliable-looking, Alde has a solid, steady build.
And he’s not heavy with it—if anything there’s a suppleness too… I mean, how do you shed that much excess fat…?! He’s like a sculpture…!
S-so envious… I put on weight the second I let my guard down… especially the chest and the bottom…
But that’s the difference between men and women, I suppose—can’t be helped.
Of course, I know Alde’s accomplished at the martial arts, so naturally his body would be toned, but…
th-this is the first time I’ve looked this hard, I mean…
As kids we used to play in the water together (Yuinas always cut in, but), and we even bathed together (Yuinas was always there too)…
th-thinking about it now, that’s far too embarrassing!
B-but it was when we were kids, right?
Back then I never paid Alde’s build any mind, so I don’t remember it at all, but…
at the very least, I have no memory of finding it cool like now.
N-no, no!
It’s not like I find it cool now either?!
I’m just envious that he has no excess fat!
As my heart pounded along those lines, Alde, unswayed even by Naavin’s false directions, headed straight for the watermelon and swung the wooden sword down without hesitation.
And split the watermelon clean open.
“Eeee! That’s my big brother! Amazing, amazing!”
Yuinas threw herself onto Alde in delight.
Beside me, Naavin grumbled,
“Tch… well, for a martial-arts ace like you, that’s easy, sure.”
“More or less. If a mere blindfold made me lose track of my opponent, I couldn’t fight.”
“I-is that so…? I’d think not being able to fight is the normal state, though…?”
Ugh… after the strange things I’d just been thinking, talking with Alde is embarrassing…
Thank goodness Alde was blindfolded. Otherwise my bright-red face might give away what I’d been thinking…!
So I ended up needling Alde despite myself.
“Alde really is something at the sword—only the sword, though.”
Alde answered, not seeming to mind much,
“What’s with the ‘only the sword’? ‘Only’?”
“Oh my~? So were you amazing at your studies too, then?”
“Ngh… th-that’s…”
“Then it can’t be helped if you get limited to only the sword, can it~?”
“Nggh…”
“Hey, Mia?! Don’t talk to my big brother!”
As I teased Alde to cover my embarrassment, Yuinas cut in, and so the conversation ended there.
But well… it’s fine.
It calmed my heart a little, at least.
As I felt the pounding settle, Lady Lily was urging Miss Tisli to try the watermelon splitting.
“Won’t you give it a go too, dear Sister? Watermelon splitting. There are still watermelons. It was quite a fascinating experience.”
“…Yes. Let’s.”
Miss Tisli seemed somehow put out. Wh-why, I wonder…?
She took the wooden sword in silence, put on the blindfold, and began to spin.
After that, Miss Tisli, leveling the wooden sword… struck a figure that charmed even me, a fellow woman…!
S-something like… so very cool…!
Slight as her frame is, the practiced way she leveled that wooden sword was crisp and beautiful! And the imbalance of leveling a wooden sword in a white one-piece was exquisite too—I nearly lost myself staring.
“Now then, I’ll begin.”
And Miss Tisli, blindfold and all, walked straight without hesitation and swung the wooden sword down in one stroke.
“Eh?!”
Right then, a cry of surprise slipped out of me.
Because the watermelon split clean in two as if cut by a kitchen knife—no, it was sliced into six equal pieces!
How does a wooden sword make… such a crisp cut?!
“Incredible, dear Sister! Not crushing the watermelon with a wooden sword, but cutting it! Is it magic?!”
To the awestruck Lady Lily, Miss Tisli answered as she removed her blindfold,
“No need for magic. Apply the art of the quick-draw, and even a wooden sword can cut.”
“That’s our dear Sister! I don’t understand the principle in the slightest, but it’s far too splendid!!”
Receiving Lady Lily’s praise, Miss Tisli turned her gaze on Alde.
“Heh heh heh… do you understand now, Alde.”
“Um… understand what?”
“That if you get too carried away, this is what becomes of your head.”
“I’m not carried away, and I can’t see what happened to the watermelon, but… I get what you’re trying to say…”
“Then exercise some restraint!”
“Me splitting the watermelon first bothers you that much?”
“That is not what I’m saying!”
“Then why are you mad, huh?!”
“I-I am not mad?!”
And so an argument broke out. Yuinas joined in too, and the chaos descended further into mayhem—
—huh?
C-could it be…
Miss Tisli noticed me gazing at Alde, maybe…
a-and that’s why she went into a bad mood…?
No, but, that’s no reason to get mad at Alde, is it? If anyone should be scolded, it’s me.
So in the end I couldn’t figure out why Miss Tisli soured…
but somehow they look like they’re having fun… those two.
* * *
— Tisli’s perspective —
I couldn’t for the life of me grasp why everyone failed to split the watermelon, but Alde alone split it without trouble.
Naturally. A mere blindfold and some spinning can’t throw off one’s sense of direction or balance—not normally. If you threw it off with magic, that’d be another matter.
As I was thinking it, Yuinas threw herself onto Alde in excitement.
“Eeee! That’s my big brother! Amazing, amazing!”
Naavin grumbled too.
“Tch… well, for a martial-arts ace like you, that’s easy, sure.”
Hm… judging from the two reactions, was what Alde did actually impressive? I have a tendency to judge these things too harshly, so by the world’s standards it may well be impressive.
Thinking that, I turned my gaze to Miss Mia, who presumably has an ordinary person’s sense of things, and…
…er…
She seems to be aiming a rather heated stare at Alde…?
Gazing, charmed—enraptured, even…
Even if splitting a watermelon blindfolded and spun about is impressive by the world’s standards—
—even so, it’s just a watermelon?!
Is it really worth that much staring?!
As I stood dumbfounded, Miss Mia—whom I expected to praise him—instead said something laced with mockery.
“Alde really is something at the sword—only the sword, though.”
“What’s with the ‘only the sword’? ‘Only’?”
“Oh my~? So were you amazing at your studies too, then?”
“Ngh… th-that’s…”
“Then it can’t be helped if you get limited to only the sword, can it~?”
“Nggh…”
“Hey, Mia?! Don’t talk to my big brother!”
Yuinas cut into the conversation partway, so the two of them stopped there, but…
that air about Miss Mia… how to put it…
It isn’t that Miss Mia is in the wrong, exactly, but…
how to put it…
how to put it…!
Ah, yes!
If Miss Mia isn’t in the wrong—
—then it’s all Alde’s fault after all!
Because Alde, eager to show off his skills, got carried away and split the watermelon!
Having confirmed the legitimacy of my anger and feeling oddly relieved by it, Lily spoke up.
“Won’t you give it a go too, dear Sister? Watermelon splitting. There are still watermelons. It was quite a fascinating experience.”
“…Yes. Let’s.”
Heh heh heh… just you watch, Alde…
What happens when you get carried away like that—here, I must teach it to him thoroughly!
Because that, precisely, is my duty as his master!
And so I faced off, picturing the watermelon as Alde’s head!
(The End)
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