What exactly was that girl?
Why had I felt something off about her, something familiar, and even a hint of danger?
There was also the question of why I knew the name of a girl I was certain I had just met.
"...Len?"
The girl named Len was someone I had never heard of in either my past life or this world, so why had I known her name was Len the moment I saw her?
Questions kept piling up one after another, with no end in sight.
"...Hii-chan!"
"Y-yes?"
At Yoshino’s cry, I snapped out of the swamp of my thoughts.
Apparently, because what had happened earlier was anything but normal, I couldn’t help but keep thinking about it.
"Y-your food is getting cold. Is something wrong...?"
"[Right, Hii! You’ve just been staring blankly at your food the whole time!]"
"Yoshino and Yoshinon are right. Ever since you came back from the shrine with Shido, you’ve seemed kind of distracted."
"Ah, sorry. I’ve got something on my mind."
At the words of the two people and one doll worrying about me, I said that and started eating again.
I didn’t want to make anyone worry, and besides, Itsuka-kun had said he would tell the commander about what happened earlier, so for now it seemed best not to dwell on it.
"You’re seriously okay?"
Even Natsumi, who was eating across from me, asked with a worried look, and the others nodded too, so it seemed I really hadn’t looked normal at all.
"Yeah. I was just thinking about the wish I made at the shrine."
There were still too many suspicious parts for me to talk about Len yet, so I couldn’t tell them.
So yes, it was a lie, but I had really made a wish at the shrine, and I had just thought of it, so it wasn’t a complete lie.
"A wish?"
"[Oh~! A wish! I wonder what you wished for~?]"
"Ahaha, it was something ordinary."
Just the usual. I wished for everyone’s happiness and good luck, and for no more opportunities to ever come my way to make a conquest attempt.
Now that I’d actually been in the position of doing the conquering myself, I’d realized something: this was mentally exhausting.
Setting aside whether it even made sense to make a girl fall for you in the first place, the most important thing was that if you slipped up even once in the process, it wasn’t easy to fix.
On top of that, spirits weren’t machines. They were all people with emotions and personalities, so if things went wrong between us, my own heart wouldn’t exactly be at ease either.
So I felt a little sorry to Itsuka-kun, but from now on I wanted him to handle all the conquests.
Well, if I hadn’t had the ability to seal a spirit’s power in the first place, Itsuka-kun would have been the one doing it anyway, so it wasn’t really a bad wish.
'If Itsuka-kun makes more friends, that’s a good thing.'
With that self-justification, I kept eating.
"Now then, now then. Dream, reality, or illusion."
I was sure I had fallen asleep, and yet someone’s voice reached me.
"A free world where everything is granted in exchange for yourself."
A voice I felt like I had heard somewhere before tickled my ears and began waking my dulled mind.
"Come now, come now. Our guest of the day, who has a wish to fulfill..."
"...Ugh, this pla—?"
At that moment, I heard a voice that had no business being in my dream.
A familiar boy’s voice. It was unmistakably someone I knew.
"Hoho, have you awakened, our guest of the day, Itsuka Shido?"
The person who had joined [Ratatoskr] a little later than me, could seal a spirit’s power with a kiss, and was the older brother of the commander who led [Fraxinus].
The blue-haired casanova known at school as the blue-haired playboy was named Itsuka Shido.
"Itsuka-kun and... Len?"
"H-hie-ta!?"
"Oh my."
As I raised my body from where I had been lying down and called out their names, Itsuka-kun looked startled and Len seemed surprised.
"Just where is this...?"
Looking around, I saw a space I couldn’t make sense of at all.
At the very least, it wasn’t my room, and it wasn’t Itsuka-kun’s room either.
A bizarre space where everything was hazy, reality itself was unclear, and even the sensation underfoot was so vague it made me wonder whether I was really standing on the ground.
Within it, only the two of them stood out clearly.
I didn’t even know whether this was inside my dream, or how those two were here, but what felt most off was something else entirely.
'But why do I feel like I’ve been in this place before?'
Even though it was a space I had never seen before in my life, my instincts were telling me I had already been here.
There was no way that could be true, and yet instinct was not something I could simply ignore, so I kept my guard up a little as I looked at Len and Itsuka-kun.
"You’re Hie-ta and Len, right...?"
"Yes, that’s me."
At my usual answer, Itsuka-kun seemed a little relieved, then cautiously looked at the remaining person, Len.
I followed his gaze and turned as well, and perhaps sensing our attention, Len bowed politely as if introducing herself to an audience and opened her mouth.
"Yes, I am Len. A resident of this empty world, and the contractor of dreams. A guide of hope and a pitiful clown—"
"Wait, hold on. Just wait a second. Can you maybe change the way you talk? It’s way too cringe."
Itsuka-kun, sensing traces of his own past in Len’s way of speaking, made a complicated face and asked her that.
In fact, Len’s speech was different from when we first met her. It was polite, but also somehow painfully embarrassing, so I agreed with Itsuka-kun completely.
"Hooh, hooh. Is that your first wish, Shido? As far as I’m concerned, that’s fine, but what a modest man you are."
"What? A wish...?"
"Fufu, I’m joking. I’ll give you that much as a service. Since we’ve already met, it’d be certain to leave you with the impression of an idiot. Besides, unless it’s a heartfelt wish that rises from within, there’s no point in granting it."
"Um, Len? What are you talking about when you say wish?"
As for me now, I couldn’t understand what Len was saying.
A first wish, and no point in granting it. It was all meaningless to me.
So I asked, and Len turned her head toward me and said,
"Hmm, I don’t know why you’re here, but since it seems both of you are curious, I’ll explain. As you already know, my name is Len. I am a spirit who grants wishes."
"...Huh."
At the words spirit who grants wishes, an exclamation slipped out before I could stop it.
I’d already thought she was probably a spirit, but to think her power was granting wishes.
Just from the sound of it, it was a cheat-level ability that could practically manipulate reality.
Even if there were limits, as long as wishes could be granted, almost anything would be possible, making it close to omnipotence.
"Wishes...?"
"That’s right. Any hope or resentment, if you desire it, it will be granted immediately. That’s my power. Though only three wishes."
'...A genie?'
When I heard that she would grant three wishes, I thought of a fairy with blue skin trapped inside a lamp.
While making the silly thought that maybe the angel’s name was actually Genie, I asked Len,
"If it’s three, then are there no limits within that?"
"Correct. Even money you can’t spend, a body that never ages, or a beauty exactly to your liking—all of it can be granted if you want it."
Hearing that, one more question came to mind.
Could something like this be granted too?
"...Is it possible to bring back the dead?"
Even if it were possible, I had no intention of bringing those two back.
To bring them back again for my own selfishness would be rude, wouldn’t it?
And yet I asked because it wasn’t just pure curiosity. A little lingering regret still remained.
"If you truly desire it. It depends on your resolve."
Len answered without the slightest hesitation.
Her expression was so confident that it made me believe it really could be done.
"Hie-ta..."
Realizing the meaning behind my question, Itsuka-kun looked at me with worried eyes.
He knew very well who the dead person I had named was, so of course he’d be looking at me like that.
"Itsuka-kun, don’t worry. It’s not what you’re thinking."
So I eased his concern.
I really had no intention of bringing them back.
Even if I had lingering regret, I intended to leave it as nothing more than regret.
Perhaps my sincerity got through, because Itsuka-kun’s expression returned to normal, then soon turned serious.
"...By the way, is that really possible? Sure, a spirit’s power is powerful, but granting any wish? No matter how you look at it, that’s way too absurd."
Itsuka-kun’s words were perfectly understandable.
After all, I had seen many spirits so far, and none of them were absurd enough to grant any wish.
If I had to name something in a similar league, there was Zaphkiel, which let the young lady manipulate time, and Eden, which could manipulate perception and rewind time.
But even those were a step below reality manipulation.
It was only natural that Itsuka-kun couldn’t believe Len’s words.
Of course, I wasn’t believing everything Len said either.
"Besides, even if it were possible, I can’t figure out why Len would grant my wish. What’s your goal?"
"Why, because granting your wish is something I truly take joy in."
There wasn’t a trace of falsehood in Len’s words.
I couldn’t tell whether something was true or false just from the words alone, but from her tone, it felt sincere.
'Is this like Rinne and Mayuri?'
Maybe Len had simply been given the role of granting wishes.
Rinne had been given the role of wishing for Itsuka-kun’s happiness, and Mayuri had been given the role of testing whether the conquered spirits could be satisfied.
If I had to guess, she was probably the same kind of case.
"...Hey."
"Ahahaha, don’t look at me with such suspicious eyes. I know I’m suspicious myself. It’s just that, well, "I was made that way." That part is true."
Judging by the way she said it, my guess might have been right.
Itsuka-kun seemed to think the same, since our eyes met for a moment.
'Seems like it, right?'
'Yes, it seems to be a role.'
We finished our brief silent exchange and looked back at Len.
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