Frondier arrived in front of Jenita’s house.
With this, it was already his second home visit to Jenita alone.
“I contacted you in advance, so there shouldn’t be any problem.”
He had come here for several reasons, but it was also true that he was worried about Jenita.
The way she had been slumped over her desk during class hadn’t seemed to be just from fatigue.
Ding-dong─
Frondier lightly pressed the doorbell and waited.
Soon, along with the sound of footsteps, the door opened.
Creak-
“Come in.”
“......Hello.”
The one who welcomed Frondier was Jenita’s father, Liberto.
Frondier had naturally assumed Jenita would come out, so he was slightly taken aback.
“I’m sorry. Jenita’s not feeling well, so she’s lying down.”
“Yes. I heard she wasn’t in good condition. That’s part of why I came.”
“That’s right. Come in.”
Following Liberto’s lead, Frondier stepped into the house.
The mansion was as antique as before. Only, a faint smell brushed the tip of Frondier’s nose.
‘......Medicine. They’re using something fairly strong.’
To smell the medicine the moment he stepped inside meant there was quite a large amount of it.
Frondier’s face hardened.
“Is Miss Jenita very sick? She didn’t look that serious back at Atlas.”
There hadn’t been any particular problem on the health check form either. It had only said she was lacking in fluids and nutrition.
“Jenita? Ah, no. It’s not that. If it’s the medicine smell that’s bothering you, don’t mind it.”
Liberto shook his head.
“It isn’t medicine for Jenita. Jenita just, well, overdid it a bit taking care of her body.”
“......I see.”
So Jenita had indeed overdone it with dieting, just as Frondier had suspected.
Then what was this medicine smell? It bothered him, but for now Frondier kept his mouth shut. If it was something he could be told, Liberto would have brought it up first. He could see Liberto was reluctant.
“Jenita’s room is this one.”
They went up to the second floor of the mansion to a somewhat tucked-away room. Liberto led Frondier to a firmly closed door.
Frondier knocked and spoke.
Knock, knock.
“Miss Jenita, it’s Frondier.”
“T-teacher?! Just, just a moment!”
There was a bit of commotion beyond the door. She had looked as if she were about to die back in the classroom, but her voice now was fairly strong.
After a short while, her voice came again, cautiously.
“Y-you can come in.”
Creak-
When Frondier stepped inside, Jenita was on the bed in comfortable pajamas.
“I was worried about your condition, so I came. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. I was just a little tired. I’m sorry for making you worry.”
Jenita bowed her head, looking ashamed.
Frondier studied her complexion.
‘She certainly seems to have recovered her energy compared to what I saw in the classroom.’
Her condition had improved in quite a short period of time.
It was probably not that she had been treated, but that she had become somewhat better off after taking in fluids and nutrition.
“Miss Jenita. Make sure you eat your meals on time. Health comes first.”
“O-of course. That’s what I’m doing.”
“I won’t tell you not to diet, but diet and exercise have to go together.”
“D-dieting, what do you mean. It’s not like I’d do something like that. Ahaha, I’m a mage, teacher.”
Hmm.
It seemed she really didn’t want to admit she’d been dieting.
After watching her for a moment, Frondier spoke.
“By the way, Miss Jenita.”
“Yes?”
“You look a bit thinner.”
“R-really?!”
“.......”
“Ah.”
Jenita’s face turned red.
With his eyes half-closed, Frondier said,
“There are only two kinds of people who are happy to hear they’ve gotten thinner. Either they’ve lost weight all at once through a reckless diet and are thinking dangerously that they’ll eat later, or they’re just a pervert.”
“.......”
“Miss Jenita, are you a pervert?”
“I’m not!”
“Then the answer’s decided.”
Jenita hung her head low.
Tilting his head, Frondier asked,
“Then why is it that Miss Jenita is trying to lose weight? You’re plenty slim as it is.”
“Teacher. Everyone says that to girls who are dieting. ‘Where do you even have any weight to lose, you’re so skinny already, what kind of diet is that.’ They try to reassure you like that so you’ll stop dieting. They’re all demons.”
......There shouldn’t be any demons left at Atlas now.
Was this world really that full of malice?
“I’m telling you, there’s fat only I can see, teacher.”
“I understand how you feel, but losing weight that only you can see is ultimately for your own satisfaction, isn’t it. There’s no need to overdo it to the point your body breaks down.”
Even objectively, Jenita was slim.
The “fat only I can see” she was talking about was probably the parts covered by clothes. The little bit of extra flesh most people had here and there.
But that was truly fat only she could see. Even if she lost it, it wouldn’t create a dramatic change.
She was overdoing it when there was no need to.
“.......”
Jenita rolled her eyes this way and that, then her lips stretched out horizontally.
Sneaking glances at him, she spoke.
“T-teacher. Can I ask you for some advice? About romance.”
Romance advice?
He had felt it while they were talking about dieting, but so it was that kind of thing after all.
Having more or less grasped the gist, Frondier nodded.
“All right.”
“Teacher, you’re a mage.”
“......Y-yes.”
Completely different, but he had no choice but to say yes.
“Is there any way, just for one day, you could make me look really pretty? There isn’t a spell like that?”
“.......”
Frondier thought.
That he had no idea.
Would Elodie know if he asked her?
Seeing his face, Jenita let out a deep sigh.
“I knew there wouldn’t be. Don’t make that face, teacher. I know exactly what you’re about to say.”
So she knew what he was going to say.
A student impressive enough to know something even the teacher didn’t.
“Why do you need that kind of spell?”
“Isn’t it obvious, teacher. There’s someone I want to look pretty for.”
“Who is it?”
“......Do you really have to know?”
“It might be helpful. Especially ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) if it’s a student.”
“......You won’t tell anyone, right?”
“I’ll forget everything we talked about here. I can’t talk about something I don’t know.”
At Frondier’s oddly persuasive words, Jenita hesitated several times, then whispered softly.
“......It’s Vasileo.”
“Oh.”
It wasn’t surprising at all, but he reacted as if it were.
He wasn’t sure if he’d done it well, but Jenita didn’t seem to find it strange.
Her face even redder, Jenita said,
“A-anyway. That’s why I need that kind of spell.”
“......Once that one day is over, you’ll go back to normal though.”
“That’s why I have to win his heart within that one day! So that even after the spell wears off, he’ll still be into me.”
Jenita clenched her fist tight.
Frondier spoke.
“If it’s a charm strong enough that he’d stay into you even after the spell wears off, how about you try using that charm before you cast anything.”
“You really don’t get it, teacher! To lure men in, you start with looks!”
“......Is that so.”
“Of course! Just look at the principal or Elodie-sensei! They’re so pretty that men around them......”
“There aren’t any.”
“H-huh.”
Jenita’s rock-solid conviction was shaken in an instant, and she fell into momentary confusion.
But she soon pulled herself together and said,
“S-still, if those two decided they wanted a man, they could get one anytime they wanted.”
“Hm. That’s true. I won’t deny it.”
“Right?”
“And it’s the same for you, Miss Jenita.”
At Frondier’s words, Jenita looked at him as if he were talking nonsense.
“Me? Teacher, I’m not like them.”
“How are you different?”
“For starters, looks, teacher. If your looks are outstanding, men will come to you on their own even if you don’t do anything.”
“If they’re outstanding, how outstanding do you mean?”
“Well, like Elodie-sensei! If you’re that outstanding, men will just,”
“They won’t.”
“H-huh.”
Another wave of confusion hit Jenita.
Letting out a sigh, Frondier said,
“In the end, it’s the same, Miss Jenita. Elodie-sensei, the principal, and you as well. You only get a man when you make up your mind.”
“......They’d still have it easier than me. The success rate would be different.”
Success rate, was it.
You could say it was very mage-like.
“Do you want a lot of men swarming around you, Miss Jenita?”
“That’d be nice. If Vasileo were among them, I wouldn’t even be worrying like this.”
“What if he isn’t among them?”
“......Um, then, well.”
“Does Vasileo like women who have a lot of men swarming around them?”
“......I don’t think so.”
“Then how about resigning yourself and just picking one out of that crowd of men?”
“I don’t wanna!”
Jenita shook her head.
Smiling, Frondier said,
“Then one person is enough. That one person you like.”
“......You’re right.”
“I understand how you feel, Miss Jenita. You want the person you like to like you back. You want them to come to you first. And I can understand that making you focus on your looks too.”
“......In the end, instead of thinking like this, I should be the one to muster up my courage and go to him first, right?”
Jenita’s expression turned resolute.
Looking at her, Frondier spoke.
“No?”
“Excuse me?”
“If you’re going to do it, you should do it more cunningly.”
“E-excuse me?”
Just then.
Once again, the smell of medicine brushed Frondier’s nose.
At that, he unconsciously lifted his head.
‘......Upstairs.’
They were on the second floor here, so the medicine smell was probably coming from the third floor.
Who on earth was the medicine for?
“It’s my mom.”
The one who answered was Jenita.
“......Your mother. Come to think of it, I didn’t get to meet her last time either.”
“Yes. I’m sorry. My mom doesn’t like showing herself. The medicine smell too, and she’s embarrassed by how much she’s wasted away.”
“......She must be quite ill.”
“Mm, I heard it’s an illness she’ll have to live with for the rest of her life.”
Jenita put a finger to her cheek as if recalling something.
“Still, it’s not like it’s life-threatening, but because of the smell she keeps people at a distance, so she seems a bit depressed these days.”
When a person can’t meet others, they quickly grow depressed.
That didn’t just come from not seeing people, but from thoughts like,
I’m not someone other people would like.
I’m not someone others would enjoy being around.
It easily turned into self-denial like that.
All the more so if it was because of an illness that wasn’t even her own fault and the medicinal smell that came with it, the stress must be considerable.
“......I’m sorry, Miss Jenita. I should have paid attention.”
“It’s fine. Our family is used to it.”
“If there’s anything I can do to help,”
Just as Frondier got that far,
Flash!!
Something in Frondier’s arms began to shine.
“W-what is it, teacher?”
Jenita was startled. Frondier was just as flustered.
He took out the object that was glowing in his arms.
‘......The Golden Apple!’
The circular ring the leader of the Nine, Evlina, had given him—the Golden Apple.
That was what had suddenly begun to glow, and then,
Ssssss─
From the ceiling of the second floor, something like black smoke flowed down and seeped into the circular ring.
No, it was the other way around.
The circular ring was sucking in that black mist.
“What is this smoke?”
“Smoke?”
“Black smoke is coming down from the ceiling.”
“......Uh, I can’t see anything.”
Jenita frowned as she spoke.
That was when Frondier understood.
‘It’s a reaction of my sixth sense. Ordinary people can’t see it.’
And the circular ring kept drawing in the black smoke until, once it seemed to have devoured it all, its light faded.
Jenita blinked.
“W-what do you think that was?”
“......Who knows.”
After thinking for a moment, Frondier asked,
“In the room directly above this one, by any chance.”
“Yes. That’s my mom. That’s why the medicine smell is stronger here.”
Listening to her, Frondier slipped the circular ring back into his arms.
Even as he did, the lingering sense of unease wouldn’t leave him.
“......Then I’ll step out for now. I still need to speak with your father as well.”
The discussion about the request was still left. With his tangled thoughts just as they were, Frondier rose from his seat.
“Ah, wait a second, teacher. What did you mean by doing it more cunningly?”
“Oh, that.”
For Jenita, it was a serious matter.
Frondier meant to explain it properly as well. Right now, it was important to say it simply and effectively.
As he went to speak, a certain sentence surfaced in his mind.
‘......But I don’t think this was something originally said about romance.’
His memory of it was hazy, but he decided to say it anyway.
“There’s a saying, Miss Jenita.”
“What is it?”
“Be kind to everyone you meet, and then.”
“And then?”
“......An amazing thing will happen?”
“Why is there a question mark?”
Only after he said it did he realize he’d mixed something up.
