Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 21: Declaring the Feelings They Refuse to Yield.
Licia forgot about the other books. Her attention fixed entirely on the study guide.
“I am planning to buy this one too. May I look through it, Fiona-sama?”
“O-of course! Though… it is a little embarrassing.”
Licia soon understood why.
When Fiona opened the book, numerous bookmarks protruded from its pages. Many pages also contained handwritten notes in Fiona’s own hand.
She was evidently embarrassed to expose the traces of her private studying.
Those notes only strengthened Licia’s interest.
“I studied this section in another guide, but I could not understand it.”
“Hmm? Oh, this part. In that case…”
An impromptu private lesson began while they stood side by side.
Fiona explained the material exceptionally well, and the point that had troubled Licia was quickly resolved.
“Have you taught anyone before?” Licia asked without thinking.
“No, this is my first time. I tried especially hard because I was teaching you, Licia-sama.”
Fiona tilted her head and smiled gently.
“Are there any other sections you would like to ask about?”
“Actually, there are several.”
“Then shall we discuss those too?”
The awkward atmosphere between them began to recede.
Relieved that the book had changed the direction of their conversation, the two returned to the sofa.
What had begun merely as the opening they desperately needed had developed into a genuine subject they could share.
They sat facing each other and exchanged wry smiles, silently acknowledging their relief.
Fiona truly was an excellent teacher.
She guided Licia through each of her remaining questions so easily that Licia gradually began asking without hesitation.
The stiffness between them faded. Just as it had near the end of the party, their excessive restraint slowly disappeared.
“Your written notes are easy to understand too.”
“Th-those are rather embarrassing… but I am pleased they helped.”
After more than ten minutes, Licia’s questions finally subsided. Fiona then asked one of her own.
“You intend to take the Special Class entrance examination, do you not?”
“Yes. I considered the matter carefully and decided that it would be best.”
“Then the examinations will begin next spring. By the spring after that, we may be seeing one another quite often at the academy.”
Fiona said “may,” but they both knew it was likely.
They would attend the same school building. Meeting every day would hardly be surprising.
Once the subject of the examination ended, silence briefly returned.
There was still one matter they could not avoid forever.
“Fiona-sama.”
“Licia-sama.”
They spoke each other’s names simultaneously and exchanged yet another strained smile.
After each tried to yield the first word to the other, Licia finally began.
“I have been thinking for a long time about what we should do.”
She meant their circumstances and everything surrounding them.
Nearly all of it involved Ren.
This was a conversation they would eventually have been forced to hold.
Their earlier struggle to find harmless subjects now felt almost like an attempt to flee from it.
The two gathered themselves and entered the unavoidable discussion.
“Both of us are noblewomen. Although our families belong to different factions, we are daughters of houses joined by friendship.”
That connection could not simply be severed now.
Nor should it be. Lessard and Ulysses, the heads of the two houses, would have no reason to destroy a relationship that was honest and beneficial to both sides.
Licia and Fiona did not want their families—or themselves—to become enemies either.
They understood all of that without needing to say it aloud.
“My love is worth my life. Ren risked his life to protect me, so there is nothing I would not do for him.”
“I could offer everything I have to Ren-kun, who gave me this world.”
The declarations they had made at the party passed through their minds.
There was no need to repeat the underlying truth.
Neither could ignore the other’s existence. They had to acknowledge one another. Keeping the other at a distance was impossible, and allowing their feelings to erupt into hostility was unthinkable.
Both girls loved Ren with life-and-death seriousness. Neither wished to belittle the other’s feelings, because doing so would also demean her own love for him.
They had also just acted together to save the children in the Imperial Capital. Neither could dislike the other’s sense of justice.
Given their personalities, truly vicious conflict between them had never been likely.
Yet when it concerned Ren, each noble daughter became little different from an ordinary girl in love.
They could not help wondering what they were to each other or how they ought to behave.
“What kind of relationship do we have?” Licia asked.
Were they merely romantic rivals? Their connection seemed far more complicated than that.
Their voices overlapped.
“Friends…?”
They looked at each other and immediately felt that “friends between noble houses” did not fit. Perhaps “rivals” remained—but that word alone felt equally inadequate.
Defining their relationship would not change the world.
For the two of them, however, the question seemed tremendously important.
“I have heard that when two women love the same man, they often come to hate one another…” Licia said.
“Licia-sama, where did you learn that?”
“…Romance novels.”
“What a coincidence. I have several similar sources.”
Licia cleared her throat.
“But hatred does not feel right either.”
“I agree.”
There was no benefit in their fighting. Even so, the person they both loved made pure detachment impossible.
The girls began listing everything they believed their relationship contained.
Licia spoke first.
“Rivals…”
Fiona continued.
“Two people with feelings neither can surrender…”
“Romantic rivals…”
“Daughters of friendly noble houses…”
The more words they added, the less possible it seemed to organize them.
Leaving out any one element felt wrong, but emphasizing only one felt wrong as well.
“Perhaps you and I are all of those things,” Fiona said.
She was not abandoning the search for a definition. Rather, she believed the entire collection of words was the definition.
“There is no single word for it, so we are simply… ourselves?”
“Yes. I think that may be best.”
Their relationship did not need to be confined to one established form.
At its foundation was the feeling neither would yield: each wanted to be the person most important to Ren.
Beyond that lay all the positions and connections they had just named.
Even after accepting that answer, the question of how they should treat one another remained.
One part, however, was surprisingly clear.
They would declare only the one thing neither could surrender and leave everything else to time.
“I absolutely refuse to lose.”
The Platinum Feather adorning Licia’s hair trembled softly.
“I cannot lie about my feelings either.”
The Star Agate necklace at Fiona’s chest swayed just as gently.
They met each other’s gaze with complete sincerity and understood the strength of the other’s resolve.
For that moment, neither possessed the heart of a noblewoman.
They were simply Licia and Fiona—two ordinary girls speaking openly about their first love.
“R-Ren gave me this hair ornament for my sake! He searched for it himself and brought it to me for my birthday last year!”
“R-Ren-kun saved me from Asval, and on the journey home he gave me this because he wanted me to have at least one happy memory!”
Neither intended to disparage the other’s gift or rank one above the other.
They simply needed to say it.
Before facing her first—and formidable—romantic rival, each felt entitled to make at least that much of a declaration.
“…”
“…”
Both girls were experiencing love for the first time.
As at the party, revealing so much emotion made the color spread from their necks to their cheeks and all the way to their ears.
Before long, each noticed that even the other’s eyes had grown moist with embarrassment.
The ticking of the clock echoed solemnly through the room.
Lessard, Weiss, and Edgar were waiting in the salon, and Licia’s clothes would soon be dry.
Their private conversation was nearing its end.
When the clock announced two in the afternoon, they finally regained a little composure.
“You are completely red, Fiona-sama.”
“I know! But you are just as red, Licia-sama!”
“I-I have only just left the shower. That is why I am flushed!”
Neither wished to enter the salon looking like this.
They endured another silence until the color in their faces had faded.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
A little later, the time came for Licia’s party to leave.
It was only shortly after two, but their visit to the blacksmith district had nevertheless been postponed.
When Licia and Fiona entered the salon between the women’s and men’s dormitories, Lessard, Weiss, and Edgar welcomed them.
The salon was carpeted in deep crimson and looked as splendid as a high-class hotel.
“Lady Clausel, may I examine the vial you were given?” Edgar asked.
“The vial used for Mighty Sword Style training?”
The redness had already left Licia’s face.
The same was true of Fiona beside her, though either girl would undoubtedly blush again if she allowed herself to remember their conversation.
“Precisely. I would like to check its present condition, with your permission.”
“That is fine, but the crystal inside has not changed.”
Licia reached into the pocket of the clothes she had borrowed from Fiona.
She withdrew the small vial she had recently made a habit of holding and moved to hand it to Edgar.
At that exact moment, a sharp crack sounded from her hand.
The crystal sphere inside the vial had split cleanly in two.
“Remarkable,” Edgar said, his voice filled with genuine admiration.
“Lady Clausel, you appear to possess an extraordinarily rare aptitude for the Mighty Sword Style.”
“R-really?”
“Without question. Should the style interest you, perhaps you might someday study it alongside Ren-sama. No—I will speak plainly. I personally hope very much that you will.”
Licia leapt with delight and threw her arms around Lessard.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
At roughly the same time, Ren was deep in the wilderness beyond Elendil.
He had followed the highway for a while, entered the forest, and continued still farther until he reached a lake a little more than three hours from the city.
Low mountains surrounded the water, whose surface was sealed beneath thick winter ice.
“All right.”
Ren sat briefly on the shore and prepared himself.
He summoned the Iron Magic Sword and surveyed the frozen lake.
“Winter came at just the right time.”
He stepped onto the ice.
After walking for more than ten minutes to reach the center, he used the Iron Magic Sword to cut open a large hole.
“Let us finish this quickly.”
Many months had passed since Ren learned that Magic Sword evolution could be unlocked.
That year, however, traveling repeatedly between Clausel and the cities had left him much less time to hunt than usual.
Reaching this point had taken longer than expected, but he was finally ready to gain the next level.
Ren checked the bracelet and confirmed the remaining proficiency.
――――――
Ren Ashton
[Job] Eldest Son of House Ashton
[Skills]
Magic Sword Summoning — Level 1: 0/0
Magic Sword Summoning Technique — Level 4: 3481/3500
Level 1: Summon one magic sword.
Level 2: Gain Physical Ability Up (Small) while a magic sword is summoned.
Level 3: Summon two magic swords.
Level 4: Gain Physical Ability Up (Medium) while a magic sword is summoned.
Level 5: Unlock Magic Sword evolution.
Level 6: *****************************
[Acquired Magic Swords]
Wooden Magic Sword — Level 2: 1000/1000
Enables attacks comparable to Nature Magic (Small).
Its effective range expands as its level rises.
Iron Magic Sword — Level 3: 2925/4500
Its sharpness increases as its level rises.
Thief’s Magic Sword — Level 1: 0/3
Has a fixed chance to steal a random item from the target.
Shield Magic Sword — Level 2: 0/5
Creates a barrier of mana. Its strength and effective area increase with its level.
Flame Magic Sword — Level 1: 1/1
Its inferno is the wrath of a dragon, an embodiment of power.
――――――
As the display showed, Magic Sword Summoning Technique was only nineteen proficiency points from its next level.
Unlike an individual magic sword, the Technique gained proficiency whenever Ren trained while keeping a sword summoned. Its value had therefore risen gradually over time.
Today, at last, he intended to cross the threshold.
Ren tossed a piece of raw meat into the hole in the ice.
It splashed and sank. The bait was inexpensive meat available from ordinary street stalls, no more valuable than Little Boar meat.
Even so, it would serve an important purpose.
A little more than ten seconds after the meat entered the lake, bubbles began rising to the surface.