宅男天堂

But Mei\'s face is quite amazing and exquisite once you realize it.

“It\'s strange though. It\'s like you took my face and Elodie\'s face and mixed them exactly in half.”

I never thought Frondier\'s face and Elodie\'s face were that similar, but looking at Mei like this, it doesn\'t feel like they\'re that far off.

But Elodie\'s face turned bright red at my words.

“Fr, Fron. I don\'t know who they are, but saying they\'re half me and half you is like…….”

“Yes?”

“……It\'s nothing.”

Elodie closed her mouth with a face that seemed to have a lot to say. In a way, that\'s impressive.

“……Is their name Mei?”

Elodie asked with a face that seemed to have given up on something.

“Ah, yes.”

“Did you name them?”

“Well, yes.”

I couldn\'t call them the Calamity of Metamorph, so I took the first letter.

But Elodie rolled her eyes diligently and, as if it was very difficult to say, she parted her lips with difficulty and asked,

“……Is it by any chance the meaning of ‘may’?” [T/N: Elodie is referring to the calendar month may, which might have special meaning to her, not sure if it was explained earlier.]

“……Ah.”

Come to think of it, Mei also had that meaning. I hadn\'t thought of it, but suddenly it had meaning.

What should I do? I didn\'t put any special meaning into it.

But my worries weren\'t long, and I said,

“Yes, that\'s what it means.”

It sounds better than saying I named them Mei because they\'re a Metamorph. Elodie gave it a good meaning.

“……Why.”

But Elodie, who had guessed the meaning, lowered her head and trembled.

“Why, is that the name…….”

It was a cliché expression, but Elodie\'s face, which she muttered in a dying voice, was really red, as if it were about to ripen.

* * *

I explained Mei to Elodie.

At first, I thought about hiding some information as I usually did with others, but I soon stopped.

I gave as detailed an explanation as possible. Where Mei came from, what her identity was, and what abilities she had.

Normally, I would have worried about the danger of revealing everything, but I decided that I didn\'t need to do that with Elodie anymore.

More than anything, Mei is a being whose identity I still don\'t fully understand. I needed the opinion of someone like Elodie who had excellent magical knowledge.

“……I see.”

Elodie nodded as if she understood after hearing the explanation.

At the same time, she looked at Mei as if she didn\'t understand and said,

“But why do they look like this? Didn\'t they just copy what they saw?”

“I wonder. I\'m curious about that too.”

Why does Mei look like this?

Mei raised her finger to explain.

……That gesture of raising her index finger, she resembles Elodie.

“That\'s because you two entered the same dream, right?”

“……Well, yes.”

“So, I sent Frondier into ‘Eternal Slumber’ and observed you two sharing the same world. So, I tried to copy the whole thing, and that\'s how it turned out.”

“……So, normally you can only see one person at a time, but in that world, since we were together, you could see us both at the same time?”

“It\'s not so much that I saw you both at the same time, but from my perspective, you two were already mixed within one world.”

Elodie\'s eyes narrowed at those words.

“Could you please not use the expression ‘mixed’? It\'s a very misleading phrase.”

“……? I see. Okay.”

Mei didn\'t seem to understand Elodie\'s words, but she didn\'t ask any further. She seemed to have decided to just let it go.

……That look in her eyes that avoids trouble, she resembles Frondier.

“But I\'m relieved. It\'s just that they look like both of us because they simply copied us together.”

Elodie breathed a sigh of relief.

In my opinion, she seems too deeply relieved, but well, I guess everyone has different feelings.

“So, from now on, if you meet someone else, you\'ll copy that person, right? This appearance is just temporary, right?”

Elodie asked Mei.

Mei looked at Elodie quietly and then said,

“No.”

“……Huh?”

“I won\'t be copying appearances anymore.”

Elodie\'s mouth fell open at those words. She opened and closed her lips repeatedly as if flustered.

……In my opinion, she seems too flustered.

“Why, why, why?”

“Because then I\'ll just be something that looks exactly like someone else.”

Mei raised both arms to appeal to herself.

“But only I look like this right now.”

“…….”

Mei has been obsessed with finding her own identity ever since she was born.

Even if she resembles someone somewhat, she has her own unique appearance, and she can\'t easily give that up.

“And it\'s bothersome.”

“…….”

I wonder if this is because she resembles my personality.

Or was Mei\'s copying always influenced by personality as well?

“Ah, no, no, Mei. Would you like to think about it again? You need to learn more, don\'t you?”

……Elodie is saying strange things.

Mei tilted her head and said,

“I can learn without changing my appearance.”

“No, no! The more perfectly you can copy your appearance, the higher the degree of freedom you have in using your abilities, and only then can you become a true disaster─!”

“Hey, what are you talking about!”

What are you going to do by making her a real disaster?

“Just leave it alone. She likes her own appearance. Having an appearance that\'s not the same as others is important to Mei.”

“Ugh…….”

Elodie became dejected at my persuasion and nodded.

It seems that Elodie is very uncomfortable with the fact that someone resembles her appearance.

“So it\'s okay. If this child makes a mistake or does something wrong, I\'ll stop her. You\'re here too.”

Elodie said that and then,

“……Ah, no! This doesn\'t have any special meaning! I\'m just saying because you and I are here right now!”

She hurriedly shouted as if she had realized something.

“Hmm? Yes, that\'s right.”

She said exactly the right thing, so I have nothing to argue with.

“Hey.”

Mei, who had been listening to our conversation, spoke.

“I want to go there.”

“Where?”

“The place Frondier always goes.”

Mei said, looking at me.

The place I always go, of course.

“Constel?”

“Yes.”

This time, Elodie turned completely pale. Her whole body trembled, and her eyes shook like an earthquake.

With a face that seemed to have seen more fear than when she faced her own trauma, Elodie shouted,

“N, No way!!”