For the time being, as I had gotten close enough to Amel-san that she started calling me her sworn friend, I decided to take the opportunity to ask her some things about the Wingeds.
[……Heehhh…… The Wingeds are common in the Archlesia Empire huh.]
[Yeah, we Wingeds are a species that does not like being held down by the ground. We prefer to live on the tops of peaks towering up to the skies.]
[In other words, you live in the high mountains huh.]
[Indeed. However, our freedom comes with a price. Us Wingeds are rather enclosed, and we do not have much interaction with other species. Well, that doesn’t mean we held no interaction at all……]Having become accustomed to conversing with her, I was able to somewhat guess what Amel-san was trying to say.
In the first place, it’s only sometimes that difficult phrases come out, and I can somehow guess what she means from the flow of our conversation and the nuances of how she says it.
[Sworn friend, you live in Symphonia’s royal capital, yes?]
[Yes, I have a house in the Central Area, so if you have the chance, please come and visit.]
[Unnn! I’ll go, I’ll go! ……Erhem. With my sworn friend inviting me, there’s no way I’m not going to accept.]
Also, I’m changing the subject, but I can somehow guess what times Amel-san’s true personality comes out. When Amel-san’s tension gets very high, when she’s confused by words she doesn’t expect, or when she’s anxious about something…… Her personality generally returns to her true one.
While I was enjoying our conversation with these thoughts in mind, Amel-san’s eyes suddenly started scurrying around, looking slightly anxious.As I tilted my head and wondered if something happened, Amel-san looked as if she had made up her mind and her expression turned serious. Following which, she pulled out what seemed to be an accessory with a black feather on it from her pocket and held it out to me.
[……This is?]
[You could say it’s an emblem of the bond between my sworn friend and I. Please accept it.]
[……Thank you very much. By any chance, is this Amel-san’s feather?]
[Yeah, giving an ornament made of one’s own feather is the greatest sign of trust for us Wingeds.]
Seriously, I have no clue why her Affection Meters have risen so much in such a short time that she handed me their symbol of their greatest trust…… but it would be impolite to refuse the feather ornament that she was about to give me, so I accepted it.
[Thank you for the great gift.]
[Fuuu, no…… It’s a small gift considering the eternal friendship between my sworn friend and I. I may not have fully recovered my memories of the long time we were together before this life, but that does not diminish the friendship between you and I.]
……Errr, from how she speaks about that eternal friendship, I feel like she’s talking about some kind of distant past in the future. Also, the long times we were together before this life and how she hasn’t completely regained her memory…… With Amel-san’s chuunish behavior and how she called me her sworn friend……
Is it just my imagination? Was she thinking as if we were best friends in our previous life or something like that?
How should I say this…… Even if I really had a previous life, I don’t think I would be born in this world, so I don’t think there would be any chance that I’d get acquainted with Amel-san’s previous life.
Though I say that, it would be pointless to nitpick about such things. Rather, if Amel-san is okay with it, I think it’s fine.
[……I see, we may have firmly pledged something to each other in our previous life.]
[ ! ? My sworn friend……]
Whoa, she looks absurdly happy. Even her eyes look like they’re glittering…… It looks as if she was thinking “I knew that was the case”.
Responding with that may have been a mistake. As for her words and actions earlier regarding previous lives, I have a feeling that Amel-san herself thought it was an absurd story.
I see, that’s why she had an anxious look on her face before she gave me that feather ornament……
However, now that I have said something that affirms her thoughts regarding previous lives, it feels like she was convinced that I was thinking the same thing as Amel-san and that our fates were connected even back in our previous lives.
The correct response here would have been a slightly vague response like “If that’s what Amel-san says, I guess that might be so”.
It seemed that Amel-san’s already high Affection Meters had been further increased by my careless comment, as she pulled her chair up next to mine, so close that our shoulders were almost touching, and told me with an expression that didn’t hide her excitement at all.
[My sworn friend, oh my sworn friend! Crossing through time, we’ve met like this. Let’s talk about more things, I want to know more about my current sworn friend!]
[Ah, yes……]
Her tension was so high that the expression on her face was one of maximum happiness, and I even felt like I saw the vision of a dog behind her wagging its tail so fast that it was about to come off.
Although I’m just reaping what I had sown, I didn’t feel like this was something we could talk about for a while, so I just responded to Amel-san who was vigorously asking me various questions.
<Afterword>
【The first character rough drafts for Volume 13 have been released in Activity Report】
Serious-senpai : [The result of making a mistake in the conversation is an explosion of her Affection Meters? Somebody, do something about this Flag King already……]
Ironblooded Bacchus
Kaito and Anima. Guess that means Anima is around 165-167cm huh.
