Prologue – "The Days Spent Chasing that Star" (Light Novel 40 Addition)
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――Over and over again, when made to loop through an endless hallway, Aldebaran took a mont to ponder, and then flung open the door he had first entered through.
???: […I have been saying this for a long ti now, but I am able to accept any outco as interesting no matter the result, and I consider having my preconceived expectations overturned an experience that makes my heart throb.]
Aldebaran: [Heh, so then?]
???: [And yet, I wonder why this is? Even though your current actions fulfill both of the prerequisites I raised as examples… I feel sowhat annoyed.]
Aldebaran: [That's probably because you're discontent with the fact that I pulled the right answer on my first go!]
As soon as he had opened the door, the Witch made an evidently displeased expression, and then began to prattle on about her mindset; to her, Aldebaran raised his voice in such a manner.
The endless hallway he had been tossed into, a space that continued to loop, to phrase it as the Witch would, it was a place of great intrigue, but――,
Aldebaran: [Sorry, but I tend to pull the right answer on the first try when it's these sorta rules. Though, from the perspective of a GM, they'd probably want to step through all the events they'd prepared for .]
Witch: [――. "Jee Emm", this is the first ti I am hearing that word. May I ask its aning?]
Aldebaran: [Ga master. It refers to the person who has control over the location, events, and the space as a whole… basically, that's what you are here, Teacher.]
Witch: [I see, I shall rember this. "Jee Emm", "Jee Emm"… GM, hm?]
Muttering several tis so as to familiarize it to her mouth, she imdiately got a hold of the pronunciation.
Her ever constant learning ability displayed to him, Aldebaran felt admiration as well as a sense of unease. The knowledge-thirsty Witch had a keen interest in the unknowns being emitted from Aldebaran.
However, the tree bearing fruits of knowledge would eventually dry up, ceasing to supply her with the apples she so dearly coveted.
When that ti ca, by the Witch, Aldebaran would be――,
Witch: [Why the long face? Is sothing the matter?]
Aldebaran: [――――]
As Aldebaran suddenly plunged himself into thought, the Witch peered at him from a defenseless proximity.
The smooth fluttering of beautiful white hair, and the black eyes that seed to be adorned in a blanket of snow from her long lashes; with those refined facial features and thin lips so close, Aldebaran reflexively clasped the other person's face with both his hands.
The Witch's cheeks were smooshed in with a "Mmghuu", and thus made so that he would not feel flustered even at this close range.
Aldebaran: [Phew, that was a close one.]
Witch: [Wait wait wait, is that not strange!? You are handling my face so roughly, and instead of feeling guilty, you are feeling relieved!? ]
Aldebaran: [That's what's called a difference in perspective.]
Witch: [Let~go~of~-.]
With her mysterious air from a mont ago having vanished sowhere, the Witch grabbed the hands of Aldebaran which were clasping her cheeks, and tried to wriggle her way free from this treatnt.
But, even with the Witch's desperate resistance, she was far too weak and feeble.
Aldebaran: [Or maybe, fragile…!]
Witch: [I am curious about which term you would select to best describe , but for now just get your hands… wah-wah!]
Pitying the excessively weak Witch, the mont he released her, she tumbled over backwards. Promptly supporting her with a "woah there", he was surprised by how she was lighter than she looked.
Aldebaran: [You're a woman who seems like she would die easily.]
Witch: [Thanks for the help. But, I find what you said there a bit unexpected. Not to ntion, the expression "die easily" is ill-suited to my current self. Would you not agree?]
Aldebaran: [――――]
Witch: [Also, if we are to give points from the perspective of dying easily, you would have beat by an overwhelmingly high score. I am not referring to your Authority, but to your very way of life.]
As the Witch deliberately and thoroughly added on, Aldebaran beca unable to say anything.
Aldebaran: […My bad.]
What she was saying was correct. To the point that he wished for her to be wrong, it was correct.
Reluctant to have that pointed out once again, Aldebaran turned to face the door behind him, and asked,
Aldebaran: [That hallway, just what was your intention in preparing it?]
Witch: [I thought it might serve to let you take a breather, and serve as training for your ability to think logically. Unfortunately, it was far too short to be a breather, and instead of your logical thinking ability, you surmounted it through intuition.]
Aldebaran: [Good grief, even though it was a work you were so confident in. I guess you could hope for it to be recycled for sobody else one day. Make sure to write down the thodology in a book.]
The grand aspirations of the pen-ready Witch notwithstanding, Aldebaran understood that the space he had so carelessly spoiled was the crystallization of trendously advanced Yin Magic.
It was neither sothing fine to create so casually, nor was it sothing fine to irresponsibly do too often.
Aldebaran: [――The more you know, the depths only get deeper, and the mountains only get higher.]
He only had an understanding of the fact that the ti he was spending was luxurious, and was terribly unconfident regarding how much of a true sense actually accompanied those thoughts.
All of those things could only begin to manifest once he had a point of reference outside of himself. And, in Aldebaran's world, there existed not much other than himself.
In particular, those were the Witch before his eyes, and――,
Witch: [――菜月Natsuki・昴Subaru]
As if to cling to his ears, as if to besar his eardrums, as if to implant into his brain; each and every ti he heard it, those six syllables scratched at Aldebaran's being, disallowing his composure.
Normally, he would think nothing of each of those six syllables, but only when strung together in that order, did they distort his soul.
Knowing that full well, the Witch who had spoken that na to Aldebaran smiled,
Witch: [Well then, shall we begin, Aldebaran? Yesterday, how long did it take again?]
Aldebaran: [――One hundred tis, exactly.]
Witch: [Aldebaran?]
Even though he would never forget that, the Witch who had enquired because she wanted to make Aldebaran say it, was abhorrent.
Abhorrent as she was, the fact that he could not fully hate her was painful, stressful, humiliating, and pathetic.
――If this person abandoned him, just what in the world would he have left? For himself, who by no ans would ever be able to be reflected in those athyst eyes, the eyes he desperately wished would look at him the most, what would be left?
Inclining her head, the Witch peered at Aldebaran.
Despite the black eyes of that Witch and his own black eyes both being the sa black, was the reason they did not appear as the sa hue perhaps a result of the contrast between himself with the Witch?
If he contrasted them like that, which one would―― ahh, those sorts of things did not matter.
He would fulfill the role desired of him. Rather than being desired by nobody, this was a hundred tis better.
That was why――,
Aldebaran: [Ahh, that's right. It's starting, Teacher. So that I may be myself.]
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