"There’s something I’m curious about."
[What is it?]
The plan I had invested several days into had ended in complete failure because of the Homu Sword Saint.
But that also meant that, if not for him, it might have succeeded.
Because—
"How did you realize that I’m a student?"
Everyone except him had been fooled by my outward appearance.
In response to my question, he wrote something in his sketchbook and showed it to me.
[You are in high school right now, aren’t you?]
"Ah, yes."
[Even if high school students are close to being adults, they are still minors in the end.]
"What does that have to do with anything?"
[Minors themselves usually do not realize it, but adults can tell.]
—It is the distinctive air about them.
I blinked at those words.
To be honest, whenever I dressed up maturely while walking around town, I had been hit on quite a few times.
No, it was not only me. When other high school students dressed maturely, it was usually difficult to tell that they were minors too.
"What is that distinctive air?"
[The distinctive air that students have.]
"The distinctive air that students have."
[The mistake minors usually make is thinking people will not notice if they dress more maturely.]
"Is that not true?"
[Did I not say it was a mistake minors usually make? In reality, most adults notice.]
"But the convenience store clerk didn’t."
It was only natural for me to wonder.
After all, at several convenience stores I had observed, there were times when prohibited goods were sold to minors without checking their IDs.
Even when those people looked as though they were in their late teens or early twenties.
[The people working at convenience stores are usually high school or college students working part-time.]
—In the end, they are students, not working adults.
Not working adults...
"Does that mean I would have been caught if they had been working adults?"
[Yes. If they had been full-time employees or the store manager, they would have immediately asked to see your ID.]
"...I see."
That was how it should be, normally.
If they sold cigarettes or alcohol to a minor, they could be fined—or even forced to close their business.
But part-timers were different.
To them, it was ultimately just a part-time job.
Since they were not full-time employees belonging to that workplace, there would be times when they felt less responsibility.
They could quit and leave whenever they no longer liked the job.
Even if they got caught, they could simply pretend they knew nothing about it.
"...You’re right."
[Meaning?]
"Yes, just as you said. My goal was not to smoke cigarettes."
—My goal was to use them to draw my father’s attention.
Once I readily admitted it, he nodded and wrote in his sketchbook before showing it to me.
[Why?]
"Don’t you already know the reason?"
[I understand the circumstances, but I do not know the fundamental reason. To begin with, that is something only you yourself know.]
"Then is there any reason I have to tell you?"
[You do not have to, as you say. But if you do not, the root of the problem will not be resolved.]
—The reason you went so far as to take such an extreme action.
[There must be something inside you that you have kept tightly suppressed, enough to make you act that way.]
He was right.
A fundamental solution, extreme actions...
For now, the Homu Sword Saint had stopped me, so things had not gone that far—
[But if it is not resolved, it could happen again at any time.]
As he said, it meant that I could resort to such extreme actions again at any time.
[Unless you let out what is inside you, you might do something even worse than this.]
Yes. It had ended as an attempt once already, but because I had come so close to succeeding, I would be even more meticulous next time.
[That is why I am telling you to talk about it. Speaking about it can make your heart feel lighter.]
"...Why?"
[Hm?]
"Why are you doing this much for me?"
Honestly, I could not understand.
He and I had only met for the first time in front of that convenience store.
Our first impression of each other had been close to the worst possible, and even now, calling our relationship a good one would be questionable.
After all, though he was kind, he was still the kidnapper who had abducted me, while I was a troubled girl who had gone astray despite my mature appearance.
[Because I am an adult.]
"...There are plenty of adults around me too."
[Then that means there were no adults you could rely on.]
"How can you say that so confidently?"
[Otherwise, you would have been able to tell someone how you truly felt already.]
—In other words, there was no reliable adult to whom you could bare your heart, was there?
Those piercing words made me lower my head.
‘Because he was right.’
All the adults wanted from me was the image of MEI Corporation’s young lady, and the image of my father’s daughter.
They had no interest in a single girl named Raiden Mei.
That was not necessarily a bad thing.
I had received much throughout my life to reach where I was now, and being that way had also helped my father.
I could not even reveal my true feelings to my father, the person closest to me. There was no way I could show such feelings to anyone else.
From the moment I first entered high society, I had been able to tell that people looked at my father through me.
That was why I could never show them anything to criticize.
I was afraid that the moment I did, my father—who still had no interest in me—might abandon me.
So, of course, someone like him felt unfamiliar to me.
It was the first time in my life I had met someone—an adult—who saw through what was in my heart and held out a hand to me.
[As someone who became an adult before you, I simply could not stand by and watch someone like you.]
As the Homu Sword Saint lowered the sketchbook on which he had written that, I felt a gentle warmth emanating from him that made the depths of my heart itch.
He wanted me to speak, yet it did not feel as though he intended to force me to open up against my will.
‘How should I describe it?’
For some reason, it felt both nostalgic and familiar.
"...You’re a strange person. Normally, people would not go out of their way to get involved with a troubled girl like me."
[I hear that a lot. But is it not all right for there to be at least one adult like this?]
It was a feeling I seemed to have felt long ago.
"Normally, people call that meddling."
[Hmm~ Meddling... I cannot say you are wrong.]
"But—"
Yet I could not remember exactly when that had been.
"Having at least one adult like that around isn’t so bad."
Feeling myself slowly become influenced by his presence, like paper soaking up water, I slowly began to speak.
Slowly uncovering the things I had buried deep inside and forcibly turned away from.
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