Summer Vacation – 4

As soon as I entered my room, I took out the letter I received from Hestia. What could possibly be in it that made her insist I absolutely not read it outside? Though I tried not to show it, I was dying of curiosity the entire time we were together.

The envelope she gave me was quite luxurious. I had seen it once at a general store. It had some magical treatment that nullified any external physical interference.

Of course, it probably wouldn’t withstand being torn or cut with full force, but it was designed to prevent issues like getting crumpled in a pocket or getting wet in the rain.

It was an item that stuck in my memory because it was excessively expensive for a letter envelope. If she was going to use such an item, why not just use some other means instead of a letter? That was my impression. What could she have prepared that required such an expensive item?

I carefully opened her envelope. Inside was a neatly folded sheet of letter paper. I unfolded the letter.

“What? Why is it blank?”

I examined the letter front and back, wondering what this was. But there was not a single character written on the letter. It was a completely new sheet of paper without a trace of ink.

Did she put in the wrong paper? Should I hold it up to the light? Singe it over a candle? Or maybe drop a few drops of blood on it?

In an instant, various secret letter-writing methods I’d seen in different media flashed through my mind. Just as I was about to bite my thumb to draw blood, the letter began to flicker.

“Ah, ah. Can you hear me well?”

“Aaaah! You startled me. What is this?”

I almost threw the letter in surprise.

“A hologram?”

Above the empty letter paper, a figurine-sized Hestia was floating. I tried to poke the small Hestia with my finger, but my finger merely cut through the air.

“Are you surprised?”

It seemed to be some kind of video letter. The hologram of her on the letter paper covered her mouth and chuckled.

“At first, I was going to just write it. But I really wanted to tell you directly in my voice. So specially, I prepared a magic for video recording. Ta-da!”

She clapped her hands alone, adding her own reaction. Perhaps because she was alone, she seemed less shy than usual.

“Actually, I wanted to tell you in person, but if I could have done that, I would have done it long ago, right?”

Hestia’s hologram shrugged her shoulders. It feels so vivid, as if the real Hestia is right in front of me, just a bit smaller in size.

I could now fully understand the suspiciously luxurious envelope and her insistence that I absolutely not open it outside.

No wonder she was worried about it getting damaged, having prepared such magic. And as for not wanting me to open it outside, she probably didn’t want to show this to others.

“Ahem, ahem. Actually, I prepared a script.”

After clearing her throat a few times, the hologram of her went “ta-da!” and showed a bunch of papers. Due to the miniature size, I couldn’t tell exactly how many pages there were, but it was clearly no small amount. Is she going to read all that?

“But then I thought, reading this as is would be no different from just sending the script. There’s no need to use magic to record it like this. So this is just, um, I’ll say it’s me organizing my thoughts, and I’ll just say what I want to say.”

She placed the stack of papers on the desk.

“First of all, um… thank you.”

Hestia said those words and then her face turned bright red.

“Even though it’s being recorded, I’m still embarrassed. Thinking about it, I’ve always just been receiving expressions from Mikhail but never expressed myself. So first of all, I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for liking someone like me.”

I was overcome with an indescribable feeling. It’s like receiving a response to love that I didn’t expect to be returned. To put it a bit extremely, it’s like receiving a thank-you from an idol I admired.

The hologram of her fluttered her hands and feet. Then, with a strange sound like “oomph,” her image disappeared.

What is this? Is it over? I was confused. Wait, the script was really long. Even if she put aside the script, didn’t she have that much to say?

But my question was quickly resolved.

“I’m sorry. I just went to wash my face.”

Her bangs were slightly wet.

“This is really, reeeeally embarrassing. Anyway! I wanted to say thank you first. If I reverse the positions and imagine myself as Mikhail, I think it would be hard to like a boring woman like me who doesn’t express anything.”

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting anything. Actually, that’s not quite right. It’s more accurate to say I thought it would be unconscionable to expect anything.

Let’s think about it in reverse, as she said. How many people would readily say “I like you too” when a fiancée who had been cold for 10 years suddenly comes on to you saying they like you?

Even if one’s heart changed due to the sincerity of the other person, if it were me, I would have acted cold to make them nervous or at least used it against them saying “you used to be like that to me.”

“Oh, and also. Ah, about dreams.”

She smiled awkwardly.

“It’s not that I’m talking about dreams because I can’t think of anything else, like what the professor suggested, but I realized I’ve never had this kind of conversation with Mikhail.”

Hestia disappeared from the screen again for a moment, then soon came back with something. A notebook? It seemed well-used, with visible wear. She opened the notebook and flipped through the pages.

“Ta-da. Can you see? It’s my notebook.”

She showed a page from the notebook. It was filled with all sorts of unrecognizable formulas and words. Something about mana cores, mana formulas. Just looking at it made me dizzy.

“I’ve been writing in this notebook since before entering the Academy. Actually, I have a lot more, but I can’t carry them all around. This is my dream. Creating my own new magic.”

I had guessed from when she turned those attackers into a bloody mess with one magic spell, but Hestia’s magic level seems much higher than I thought. I don’t know much about it, but creating new magic can’t be an easy task.

She proudly showed the notebook page by page. I still couldn’t understand any of the content.

“Why I came to have this dream… um, I don’t really know. Actually, it’s rarer to have grand reasons for dreams, right? I’ve just wanted to create my own magic since I was very young.”

She put down the notebook and pushed it to the side of the desk, out of view.

“Um, you and I will eventually get m-married, right?”

She seemed a bit embarrassed bringing up marriage, stumbling over her words.

“Even after we get married, I don’t plan to stop this research. I don’t think Mikhail would do this, but I’ve heard that sometimes husbands completely stop their wives’ other activities after marriage.”

Of course, I have no such intention. If anything, I was thinking about how I could help Hestia with her research. Perhaps setting up a separate laboratory would be good.

“When you think about it, it’s good to talk about these things in advance. Like what happens after marriage. Oh, since we’re on the topic…”

After saying “since we’re on the topic,” she began to list things she wanted to do after marriage, the so-called romanticized visions of married life.

“I want to create a garden. Plant various flowers, some trees too. Above all, flowers are often used as alchemy ingredients. Also, um. I want to have many children. Is this topic too early? Oh, right. And occasionally, I’d like to go outside the castle and check on the people of the territory.”

I should note all of this. Garden, many children, occasionally inspect the territory residents.

After writing it down, I realized her dreams were more modest than expected. Rather than dreams, they’re more like future plans? Things we would probably do even if she didn’t specifically ask.

I’m confident I could accommodate even grander, more elaborate requests. For instance, a room filled with just clothes and accessories, or hosting an incredibly lavish ball. While her lack of such demands is one of the reasons I like Hestia, she could ask for more.

The hologram of her finally seemed to loosen up, as she continued to pour out things she had wanted to say.

“Sometimes when I’m nervous or something, you hold my hand, right? I never said it before, but I was really grateful and liked it.”

This kind of appreciation for my everyday actions, or,

“I don’t know about with Cordelia or Lily, but please stop smiling at or being nice to other women. Do you know how dangerous it is with your face?”

These kind of embarrassing complaints, or,

“You wouldn’t believe how zealously my mother writes in her letters. She keeps asking when we became so close and is making a fuss about bringing you over soon.”

Even trivial and personal stories. With a bit of exaggeration, this was the most talkative I’d ever seen her.

After talking quite a bit more, she finally placed her hand on her chest and made a refreshed expression.

“Phew! That’s the end of what I wanted to say. I feel so relieved.”

Hestia briefly enjoyed the lingering feeling after pouring out everything she wanted to say.

No wonder she feels relieved. How many words had she been storing up? Looking at the clock, the hands had moved quite a bit compared to when I started.

“Well then, Mikhail.”

The hologram of her winked at me and said,

“I’m looking forward to our future together?”

With these final words, Hestia’s image disappeared like ash being blown away. Since her letter had been chattering non-stop for so long, the quiet room now felt awkward.

I continued to stare at her letter for a long time even after her hologram disappeared. Of course, part of it was seeing aspects of her I hadn’t seen before, or hearing her inner thoughts that she usually kept hidden, but there was a bigger reason.

“Wow. What am I going to do about this?”

What kind of reply should I give after receiving such a heartfelt letter? I felt overwhelmed.