Vol. 1 Chapter 30 – As If Bewitched by a Fox

We walked slowly from the waiting room to the stage. There was no conversation with Aida, who walked beside me, maintaining an appropriate distance for friends of the opposite sex.

If I hadn’t told Nagisa about my relationship with Hokujou Yuuya when I decided to do the exam with her back then, I should have kept it hidden from now on as well.

A self-deprecating laugh escaped the corner of my mouth at my own lack of caution, having purely enjoyed the conversation between father and son.

I should have known when Mom told me about her relationship with Hokujou Yuuya. That big secrets also damage the ones who learn them…

As I entered the wings of the stage, I saw Nagisa greeting the staff with a small smile.

As I hesitated, wondering if I should say something, or what I should say, a hand was placed on my back, forcibly closing the distance between Nagisa and me.

“Both of you… do your best…” (Aida)

I didn’t know what Aida, who had murmured in her usual tone of voice, was thinking.

What Nagisa and I, who had looked at Aida almost simultaneously, caught was only the sight of Aida jogging towards her standby position.

“…You have to put on the mask, right?” (Nagisa)

Being told that by Nagisa, I hurriedly put on the mask. Did she already understand the real reason I wanted to wear the mask?

“…Honestly, you.” (Nagisa)

Nagisa sighed and was about to reach out to me, but her action was stopped by the voice of an adult in the wings saying, “Standby, please!”

I hurriedly got into position, aligning myself with the tape stuck on the stage.

The buzzer signaling the rise of the main curtain. The applause of the audience welcoming us. Our exam began, greeted by various sounds.

Immediately after the curtain rose, the story began with Nagisa’s lines. A haughty, prideful princess.

The atmosphere of the venue was dominated by Nagisa, acting as if she were a completely different person.

Pulled along by Nagisa, who performed just like in practice, as if unconcerned by what had happened earlier, I too was able to concentrate on my acting without worrying about it.

The story progressed, receiving three times more gazes than I had imagined.

The princess, who, due to her status, had never once been out into the city since birth, learns about the world by going into the city in disguise, with the knight I played as her escort.

As the story progressed, the love between the knight and princess developed, and the number of sweet lines spoken by the knight I played also increased.

I could see Akari and Mom, who had secured front-row seats, and every time I spoke a line, Akari would whisper something in Mom’s ear.

The mental space to think in the back of my mind that something would probably happen when I got home was born, and the story progressed rapidly.

The story entered its final phase, and the distance between the characters played by Nagisa and me also grew closer. They hold hands in the fountain plaza in the city, and as they watch the people walking by, she returns to her position as a princess.

Such was the last scene. Sitting on a bench placed in front of the fountain, the two of them snuggled close, their hands clasped.

All that was left was for Aida’s narration to come in and the curtain to fall. …That was all it was supposed to be.

When I sat on the bench, facing the audience, something blocked my vision. At the same time, with the feeling of release I experienced, I understood that my mask had come off.

The mask falling, obeying gravity. My mind raced at high speed as my vision gradually cleared, but my body couldn’t keep up.

…In the first place, the mask was just a sort of insurance. In reality, Aida had only wondered about it; it wasn’t like I was immediately found out on the spot.

I gave up on hurriedly trying to hold the mask, and instead, accepted the clearing vision, hoping it would at least look like part of the performance.

The mask, already completely fallen from my face, would probably appear to the audience not as a mishap, but as part of the direction.

And then, their attention would be drawn to the unmasked knight’s face revealed in the last scene, and my face should immediately be shown on the monitor set up at the back of the stage.

Determined to see the exam through to the end, I tightly gripped Nagisa’s hand, which I felt in my right.

At that moment, my gaze, which had been facing the audience, was unintentionally moved, and my eyes met Nagisa’s, who was beside me. It took a little time to understand that it was Nagisa who had moved it.

Because nothing like that was written in the script.

With Aida’s narration in the background, I couldn’t strangely raise my voice. I suppressed the voice that almost escaped in surprise with my rationality.

With the sensation on my knee, I understood that the mask had completely fallen onto my lap.

In the midst of that, Nagisa’s face, now facing me, rapidly drew closer…

Just as I thought I felt something near my lips, a light impact ran across my face, and my view of the audience was blocked.

At the same time, Aida’s narration ended, and the buzzer signaling the curtain fall rang out.

My exam ended without me understanding what was happening…

“Idiot… You didn’t put it on tight enough…” (Nagisa)

On the bench, after the main curtain had completely fallen and the gazes from the audience were gone, Nagisa’s face slowly pulled away.

“…” (Yuuto)

I didn’t know what had happened; words wouldn’t come out.

As Nagisa’s face fully pulled away, my view of the audience side cleared. Seeing the fox mask Nagisa held in her right hand, I finally understood that she had improvised to hide my face from the audience.

“Thanks…” (Yuuto)

The words I returned were noticeably absentminded.

Nagisa, who probably saw my expression—likely one of being utterly dumbfounded, as if bewitched by a fox—smiled lightly in return, seemingly unfazed by the recent events.

“Let’s go back. We’ll be in the way if we stay here.” (Nagisa)

Being told that, I looked around and saw the staff beginning to clear away the props used in the exam.

Nagisa, standing up from the bench, greeted the staff members and went into the stage wings.

Watching her back, I brought a hand to my lips, as if to confirm what had just happened to me.

“…What?” (Yuuto)

My brain was refusing to understand. Still, my mind wouldn’t stop spinning.

Nagisa’s face, closer than ever before. And at the same time, the soft sensation that touched my lips.

My mind, which had been fleeing from understanding, was caught.

“…Huh?” (Yuuto)

The next moment I understood, had understood, my body burned up as if it were on fire…