“Scary.”
I think that reflexively.
Sofia is smiling, but... her eyes aren’t smiling at all.
There’s an intense pressure around her, like you can almost hear a rumbling sound.
“Wow, she’s so pretty.”
Whether or not she noticed Sofia’s vibe, Mint speaks up cheerfully.
She smiles like a flower blooming in full.
Then, she reaches out her hand to Sofia.
“Hello. My name is Mint. What’s yours?”
“…Sofia Ascart.”
Sofia seems disarmed by Mint’s innocent smile and answers honestly.
Hearing that, Mint’s eyes widen...
“Wow!”
She smiles brightly once again.
“So you’re Sofia! Oh, is it okay if I call you by your name?”
“Eh? Ah, yes. That’s fine...”
“Thank you—nice to meet you!”
“Um…”
Sofia looks over at me, a bit bewildered by Mint’s cheerful energy.
"What should I do?"
That’s what her expression seems to say...
But honestly, I don’t know how to help her here.
Mint is kind of spacey—it's hard to tell what she’s thinking.
Even in the past, she caused all kinds of chaos.
“Sigh.”
Giving up on getting answers from me, Sofia turns her attention back to Mint.
“Um… How do you know about me?”
“You’re someone really important to Fate, right?”
“Eh?”
“I’ve heard about you soooo many times. Like, ‘There’s this really beautiful girl,’ and ‘She’s the most important person in the world,’ and ‘We promised to get married someday~’ and all that.”
“F-Fwa!?”
Sofia lets out a strange sound and turns bright red.
And probably, I’m blushing too...
“F-Fate said things like that...?”
“Yup, yup! He said it all the time—so happily, like every day~”
“Haah…”
She’s embarrassed.
Unbelievably embarrassed.
And then Mint continues talking, sharing more stories of how I used to talk about Sofia all the time...
“I—I’m so sorry!!!”
Unable to take it anymore, Sofia dashes off somewhere.
“Huh? What’s wrong with her?”
“Mint… was that like a death-by-compliment? Or embarrassment? Did you do that on purpose?”
“Eh? What do you mean?”
Yep.
Even now, just like back then, Mint is totally airheaded.
But... that made me nostalgic.
And without realizing it, I find myself smiling.
――――――――――After finishing the shopping, we reunited at home.
Mint was with us as well, and we decided to enjoy the long-awaited reunion.
“Excuse me.”
“Oh, it’s Mint-chan. It’s been a while.”
“Yes, it’s been a while.”
Dad and Mint were chatting with smiles.
I heard that, since they had no connection without me, they hadn’t really talked much before.
We should have interacted with the neighbors a bit more.
“But, Fate, you sure know how to pick them.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You got Mint-chan and Sofia-chan. You managed to catch two high-quality catches like them.”
“Eh? Huh?”
“So, which one is the main one?”
““What!?””
As soon as Dad said something that ridiculous, I felt like Sofia and Mint’s eyes flashed for just a moment.
“T-That’s...”
“That’s what?”
“...More importantly, we need to clear the dungeon!”
“You ran away from the topic.”
“You ran away.”
“What a coward.”
An unrelenting verbal attack from the women.
Aisha, who didn’t really understand what was going on, just looked puzzled.
Similarly, Snow was lazily yawning without a care.
“Well, just leave the dungeon for tomorrow.”
“Wait, are you saying you want to talk about that too, Dad?”
“No, no. The weather’s a bit bad, right? If you head out now, you’ll probably get caught in the rain. It’s better to go out on a sunny day, don’t you think?”
“Well, yeah...”
“Also, Mom will be home soon. If it’s not urgent, you should show your face to Mom first.”
“…Yeah.”
Dad was right. It was important to see Mom.
I must have made her worry a lot...
I need to reassure her.
“So... which one is the main one?”
“Dad... can you please get rid of that nosy side of yours?”
Dad was a bit annoying too.
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