Jill
In the special class classroom. As Asch was reading alone the same as always, Jill ran over with a smile.
“Hey, hey. For Liana’s birthday present, what have you given her thus far?”
“Fuu……I, am quite the type that stirs up her interest. What I gave her last year was, this”
What he said and took out was, a single book.
“……what’s this?”
“It’s the『Why Are The Magic Sequences Of Ancient Rune Letters Beautiful?』 that writes about the relationship between the ancient runes letters and magic sequences! This author, Ronald＝Parkinson, has quite an interesting interpretationーー”
“Wai-, wait a minute……you gave her, this?”
“Uh-huh”
“……really?”
“Uh-huh”
・・・
In an instant, silence dominated the space between the two of them.
“Haa. You haven’t even a fragment of understanding of a woman’s heart huh. This year, you can’t give her something like that, alright”
“Ah, isn’t that a given!? No matter how much I like it, there’s no way I’ll give her the same book, right. I’ve properly prepared the next book”
“What I’m saying is that it’s better to cut it out with the books!”
The diligent beautiful young girl who closes in on him while slamming the table.
“Other than books!? Are you saying that, on this continent, there’s something other than books that’s marvellous? I’d like you to enlighten me instead”
The book-loving Magician, unexpectedly starts refuting.
“Don’t tell me……the presents you gifted until now haven’t all been books, right?”
“Wha-, what. Is it no good?”
“It’s obviously no good, right!? Since it’s a birthday present, it’s got to be something like a perfume, a ring, or a necklace”
“Fuu……such materialistic items……how superficial”
“Su-, su-, su-, superficial!? There are better ways to put it……”
“Listen up, alright? Is something like that going to be of use in the coming future at the end of the day? At best, she’ll mutter『beautiful』on that spot, and that’ll be the end of it, won’t it. When it comes to that point, books turn into your knowledge and always continue to be of use hereafter. Books are the culmination of human wisdom; the greatest treasure”
“Haa……how pitiful Liana is. Asch, listen up! Books are prohibited this time around! Choose something else to give her!”
“Wh-, why are you deciding that. What right do you haveーー”
“This is, an order! For Liana’s sake, make sure to give her some other present. I’m sure she wishes for that as well”
“Guh……how would you know that!?”
“Because I’m similarly a girl”
“……uu!”
He can’t say anything if she puts it like that. He had never once even thought of trying to understand that which is called a ‘woman’s heart’. Or rather, it’s also the truth that Asch was totally pushing his own interest onto her.
“Fo-, for example, what would be good?”
“Think about something like that by yourself!”
!?
“You shut down my proposal! You shut down my proposal I came up with, and yet you won’t even give me a hint!?”
“I will not! I may have shut down your proposal, but I will not give you even a hint. Think long and hard about Liana by yourself, and gift her a present that she would be happy about! That is, what you call a ‘woman’s heart’! Do you get it, Asch＝Dahl-kun!”
As soon as she sees that he doesn’t understand a woman’s heart, the diligent beautiful young girl takes the opportunity to start bashing him politely. This probably, has something to do with the test results that were returned just now, where Asch was ahead of her by a huge margin.
The zero-understanding-of-a-woman’s-heart Magician, who received quite a bit of flak, starts walking round and round his seat. Round and round and round and round and round……
“……then, something like……frogs?”
!?
“Are you harassing her!? Which girl would be happy about receiving frogs!”
“You won’t have to worry about research in Dark Magic experiments for three years if you have 1000 of them though!”
“You’ll be murdered if you gifted such an enormous amount!”
“……snakes”
“It’s the same! Or rather, it worsened!”
“They’re used in Dark Magic experiments!”
“Keep your weird experiments, out of your head for the moment!”
Haa……haa……
“In-, in any case. Think about it harder like your life depends on it, on what would give her a smile!”
“……muu”
“……”
Jill feels an endless sense of unease, at Asch’s ambiguous arm-folding.
