Episode One

“A present… a present, hm.”

A holiday morning about a month after the job with Kiaran and the others. My eye had caught the calendar on the wall for no particular reason, and I’d been lying on my bed making vague unhappy sounds ever since.

Selene’s birthday was in two days.

Things hadn’t been especially busy lately — but not exactly leisurely either, and somehow it had slipped clean out of my head without my noticing.

“Clothes — no. Magical tools she’d want to pick out herself… “

Selene, drawing every eye as the White Witch, apparently has strong feelings about what she wears. I couldn’t imagine her being pleased with something chosen by someone as indifferent to all that as me.

“She never wears hair ornaments, not once that I’ve seen…”

Last year I’d gone round in the same circles and eventually settled on a hair ornament out of sheer desperation. But I’d never seen her wear it. Her expression hadn’t shifted at all when I gave it to her — she probably hadn’t liked it.

We’ve been together since we were small, and I don’t know a single thing she actually likes. It makes me feel rather terrible about myself.

It’s not as though we’re the sort of relationship that requires this kind of consideration. But — I want to see the expression she keeps hidden at home break open, just once, for something I gave her. That’s what I think.

I stared blankly at the ceiling for a while. Turned over, first one way, then the other. No good ideas appeared, however long I lay there thinking.

“Ugh… this is a nuisance.”

Spending this much time thinking about someone who makes no sense to me is a waste of effort. It would be simpler to just ask her directly. That’s what I’ll do.

When we were children, it was things like flower crowns made from whatever I’d picked, or biscuits baked with my mother. Nothing much — but back then she had been so much more openly pleased, I think. More like herself.

I couldn’t remember when she had become the way she is now. But I wanted to see her laugh the way she used to, in a place where it was just the two of us.

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“Your birthday is coming up soon.”

Selene, tucking her long hair behind her ear as she brought a spoon to her mouth, looked up.

“Is there anything you’d like? I tried to think of something but I genuinely couldn’t.”

She finished chewing with her usual propriety and opened her mouth.

“You’re getting me a present.”

“Of course I am. I give you one every year, and you gave me one last year too.”

I stretched my wrist out for her to see.

A silver bracelet set with a white stone. I almost never wear accessories — but it was a gift, so I’ve been wearing it every day. I think it suits me, and I do like it. Rizett told me it was pretty, which was nice — and as much as it pains me to admit it, Selene apparently has impeccable taste in presents too.

Come to think of it, she’d always given me things I could wear. Last year the bracelet, the year before that a case for the dagger. By now, looking around at my belongings, roughly half of them were things she’d given me at some point.

“I’ve been going back and forth, but there’s no point giving you something you don’t want. If there’s anything you’d like — tell me. Nothing too expensive, though.”

“Hmm.”

Selene narrowed her eyes and brought a hand to her chin, as though thinking something over.

“In that case —”

“Sion.”

“Yes?”

She set down the glass she was holding, quietly, and told me without taking her eyes off mine.

“Give me one day of you.”

“…Hm?”

The words I hadn’t expected brought my thoughts to a complete stop for a moment.

“On my birthday — give me your whole day. All of it. And do everything I say.”

“I mean — spending the day with you is fine, but doing everything you say is… no.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll definitely make me do something strange.”

When the supply is needed, I don’t have much choice. But outside of that, the better policy is generally to not give her an inch. Nothing good comes of it.

“Something strange?”

“You know exactly what I mean.”

“I don’t. Tell me.”

The pressure of that unchanging expression aimed steadily at me — I looked away from it to the corner of the table.

“L-like… leaving marks and things. That kind of strange thing.”

“Marks?”

She tilted her head, small and faintly puzzled.

This person…

“Fine, forget it, all right. I’ll keep the day free.”

“But—” I said it firmly, and swallowed a mouthful of water.

“Anything — indecent and things like that — is banned! If you do anything strange, I’ll be angry!”

I pointed at her with one finger and said it as clearly as I could. If I set the rules in advance, she couldn’t just do as she liked. That was the logic, anyway.

“I see. I’m not sure what you mean by strange, but I’ll bear it in mind.”

The corner of her well-shaped mouth curved, just slightly, with something tucked behind it.

“Bear it in mind isn’t good enough! It’s banned, I said!”

Did she actually understand? I watched her face — rare, at home, for that to move at all — and let out a small tired breath.