"Elysia?"
"Yes~ What's up, Cillian?"
I quickly scanned Cillian's face as she called out to me.
Her voice was about 3 degrees colder than usual when she said my name. Could it be…? Better to be cautious than sorry.
Her eyebrows were raised at an angle about 5 degrees sharper than normal. Her smile was as kind as ever, but her blue eyes weren't the clear sky they usually were—they were more like a deep, dark abyss?!
Dimples! Does she have those cute dimples that only appear when she's genuinely happy?!
No dimples!!!
Alert! Alert!!!
Cillian Pattern 3 detected!
This is her "something's bothering me" face! When she's like this, Cillian is terrifying!
I'd rather take a few slaps from Annie. Cillian's icy voice? That cuts right into my soul!
Oh no, where's Annie?! Don't leave me alone like this!
But, of course, Annie had gone off with Ian to get snacks, leaving me stranded.
"Elysia?"
Cillian called my name again, still smiling sweetly, but her eyes… her eyes weren't smiling at all. Cillian, do you know you're giving off that aura? If you had a mirror, you'd probably scare yourself!
"Yes, Cillian, I'm right here, at your service!"
But a pro assassin never lets their thoughts show on their face! I kept up my cheerful tone, refusing to let her know how nervous I was.
"Elysia?"
"..."
Why did she call my name again? She clearly heard me the first time.
The chances of Cillian suddenly going deaf in the last few minutes are… maybe 0.01%? It's not impossible.
Ahaha, Cillian, I get it. It must be terrifying to suddenly lose your hearing, right? Shall we go to the temple and get some healing magic? I'll even escort you there!
"..."
Father, wherever you are, please send me a sign!
I can't figure out how to get out of this! I swear, taking down the Demon King's castle would be easier than navigating this conversation! If someone told me to bring back the Demon King's head right now, I'd have it done before the tea gets cold!
"Why aren't you answering me, Elysia?"
"S-sorry! I apologize!"
In my panic to respond quickly, I bit my tongue and my poker face completely fell apart.
But there was no time to wallow in the pain. I had to figure out what had upset Cillian before her mood got any worse.
What did I do wrong?
Did I take too long to reply when she greeted me this morning? Maybe my desk crossed 0.8 cm into hers earlier during class?
Or could it be... that?
No… it's definitely that. There's no way Cillian would be this upset unless it was that. How could I have been so foolish? Of course she noticed!
I immediately bowed my head in confession.
"I'm sorry, Cillian! You know how you told me to help myself to those candies the other day? Well… I kind of took two instead of one… They were just so tasty!"
I bet those candies were expensive. No wonder she's mad—I took two at once!
But come on, I never got to have snacks like that back in the assassin guild! We were poor, okay?
I've trained to resist torture, sure, but no one ever taught me how to resist sweets. It's a completely different level of suffering!
I peeked up to check her reaction.
Her eyes weren't so cold anymore! And her face… her expression said she couldn't believe what she was hearing!
Pattern 3 disarmed!
As expected of the hero candidate, her mercy is boundless. I truly, sincerely apologized, and she's willing to forgive me.
"Sigh... If you want more candy, just take as much as you like."
To prove her point, Cillian pulled out another candy and popped it right into my mouth.
So sour! But sweet! And so good!
"But, actually… I wasn't talking about candy."
Twitch.
"...You weren't?"
As the sugar I had just consumed was rapidly burning away in my brain, I scrambled to think.
If it's not the candy, then what could it be?
What did I do, past me?!
"It's happening right now."
Future me, what are you doing?!
Cillian's lips pouted ever so slightly.
"Why do you keep using honorifics when talking to me?"
?
"Because… you're Cillian?"
"And what's that supposed to mean?! I thought we were friends, Elysia!"
Dear father, wherever you are, can you hear this? Cillian just called me her friend!
"But Cillian, you're using honorifics too…"
"That's just the way I talk! I use the same polite tone with everyone! But you—why do you only speak casually with Annie and the others, yet still use formal speech with me?"
Now that I thought about it, I really was speaking casually with everyone else in class. The only exception was Cillian.
"Well… that's because… Cillian, you're special to me?"
Cillian is someone I need to pay extra attention to. I can't afford to upset her, so I've been subconsciously maintaining formal speech.
"E-eh! Huh? Hahh?!"
Oh no, Cillian's malfunctioning. She's making weird sounds.
She stared down for a moment, then suddenly lifted her head with a bright, determined expression.
"Special treatment is fine, but… it makes me feel distant. I know I'm special to you now, so please just talk to me casually."
"Okay… Cillian. Is that better?"
If that's what our dear Cillian wants, then that's what she'll get.
But even after I agreed, Cillian still seemed unsatisfied. Her slender fingers reached out, tugging at my sleeve.
"Cilly…"
"Hmm?"
"Call me Cilly, not Cillian."
Oh right, I vaguely remember her saying that when we first met. She said close friends call her by her nickname.
"Okay! Cilly!"
Overwhelmed with joy at being accepted as Cillian's close friend, I smiled from the bottom of my heart as I called her by her nickname.
Ha! Bet you don't get to call her "Cilly" huh?
"Elysia~! Cilly~!"
Annie returned from the snack shop with a mischievous grin, waving a bag of treats in front of us.
She opened the bag and pulled out a small piece of candy, which she promptly popped into my mouth.
Is this… jelly?
"So, so? What does it taste like?"
Ever since that day we ate cake together, Annie had been following Cillian's lead and enjoyed feeding me treats.
It started with small things like candy, chocolate, and jelly, but recently, it had escalated. They now seemed to be competing over who could feed me more.
Offering me bites of their lunches, snacks… even parts of their meals…
They must think that I, a trained assassin, would never fall for such simple temptations.
And yet, they were completely right. I can't resist tasty food. I said it before, and I'll say it again—I'm weak to delicious things! Back at the assassin guild, all we ever had was tasteless rations.
"So, what were you two talking about earlier?"
Annie was curious about the conversation Cillian and I had been having before she arrived.
She continued pulling jelly from the bag, popping one into her mouth, one into mine, one into Cillian's, and then more into mine, mine again, and again, and again—
"Mmmbblph!"
"Ahaha! What are you doing, Elysia? You look hilarious!"
Is this some kind of new torture? She's laughing, but she's the one who stuffed all this into my mouth! How dare you! I will administer the tickle punishment!
Tickle tickle!
Okay, maybe it's a little creepy for me, a guy on the inside, to be tickling a girl's sides, but Annie feels more like a cute little sister, so it's probably fine… right?
"Heheheh! Stop! Okay, okay! I give up!"
The way she laughed and squealed was amusing, so I kept going.
Haha! Take that! Never underestimate me again! If I use my full power—
Thwack!
"Ugh!"
A perfect right hook from Annie, of course…
Fortunately, she only hit me once, but she kept smacking my back with her palm over and over.
Wait… Did she just punch me in the solar plexus? I think I might… throw up—
"Blegh!"
Luckily, the disaster was averted.
Before I could actually puke, Annie stopped hitting me, though calling that "lucky" feels… wrong.
Anyway, we managed to call it even. I had tickled her, she had punched me, so we were square.
Annie also stuffed my mouth with jelly, but since it was delicious, that was a wash too.
Back to our original conversation:
"Right, isn't that so, Cilly?"
Haha! How about that? I've been granted permission to call Cillian by her nickname!
Annie, you thought I was just some pushover? Think again!
"Yes, Ely."
?
"Ely… as in me?"
"Yes. Elysia, so Ely. Unless you prefer Elys?"
It made sense. If I was calling her by a nickname, it was only fair she did the same for me.
But… calling me Ely felt a little too close to Cilly. It was embarrassing.
"No, Elys is fine!"
"Alright then, I'll call you Elys from now on."
"Hold on! What?! How come you two are getting all buddy-buddy while I was gone?!"
Annie waved her hands dramatically, protesting.
"I'm calling you guys by your nicknames too! Cilly! Elys! Cilly! Elys!"
She shouted our nicknames over and over, and then suddenly stopped, eyes wide in realization.
"I… I don't have a nickname! What am I going to do with Annie?! It's already short!"
Annie mumbled to herself in distress, leaving Cillian and me to nervously sweat as we tried to calm her down.