“Hey, look!”

“…Who is she?”

“…That silver-haired little girl… no way…!”

“Wait, for real!? Where!?”

were the whispers accompanying the large number of gazes directed at me.

I was on the third floor of the seats overlooking the arena. I was sitting in the stair-like chairs, between Athena and Luna, there to watch the other semifinal –– Tina vs Maro.

“…”

Curious glances kept stabbing into me.

The reason for that was quite obvious, actually. There was –– a silver-haired devil sitting on my lap, after all.

“Yuno…” said the devil Eris, looking up at me anxiously.

“Whatever may be the matter, Lady Eris?” I asked, grinning, putting a bit of extra emphasis on the ‘Lady’ part.

“Well, everyone’s, looking at me…” she said, as if almost about to burst into tears, grabbing onto my shirt.

“Hahaha… it’ll be fine,” I laughed, looking at Luna.

“What’s with that look? I wasn’t the one to bring her here, alright?”

…Wait what?

“Lady Eris, how exactly did you get here?” I asked, and she tilted her head cutely, placed a hand on my chest, and leaned in. A sweet scent filled my nostrils.

“…It’s a secret. I came to cheer you on,” she whispered into my ear, then sat back up straight while holding her index finger in front of her lips and making a grow-up-like face.

…What?

If you thought that much was enough to get my heart-rate to increase, you are gravely mistaken. Instead, I couldn’t help but wonder why she had responded that way to a perfectly normal question.

“That tickles,” she said, shivering a little. I had begun stroking her head before I had even noticed.

“…Did you use magic?”

There were a lot of strange things in this world, after all.

––“Lolicon” I heard someone whisper.

…My reputation was finally going up in the world so I couldn’t afford to get any more disgraceful titles.

Thus, I immediately jumped into action.

“My, how happy I am that Lady Eris, the younger sister of Lady Luna, came to cheer me on,” I said slightly louder than necessary, adding on a laugh afterwards.

Still sitting on my lap, Eris grinned.

“We did pledge our futures to each other, it’s only natural,” she said, blushing and fidgeting.

““Lolicon””

…The voices had increased.

I forced a smile back on my face as I continued to stroke her head.

“When you grow up, sure!” I said, trying to sound nice.

Then, Eris hugged me, smiling innocently.

“Ufufu, aha, that ticklesss, Yuno, this isn’t the bed.”

Eriiiiissssss!

“““…”””

The students around us who had been staring at me hurriedly looked away.

It was only a little kid saying that. They wouldn’t take it seriously, would they?

……Right?

“…Honestly, I really am surprised. She really seems to like you,” Luna said with a sigh, smiling for some reason.

“…”

Athena was fidgeting, her face bright red.

…I decided to not say anything else. I would just be digging myself in deeper.

I looked away from the still-grinning Eris towards the arena, where two shadows were facing each other.

Tina, holding her spear in a low stance.

And opposite her, my childhood friend, Maro Burn.

The winner would be my next opponent.

“…”

Tina deserved cheering on more. So that she, who had also made a contract with the goddess Athena, could fight against me in the final.

Such a perfect, dream-like story was almost right in front of me.

And yet, for some reason––

––what filled my chest wasn’t excitement––

“Yuno?”

The devil –– I mean, Eris suddenly turned around to look at me.

“Yes? What’s the matter?” I replied, and she tilted her head, puzzled.

“Won’t you stop them?” she asked, as if it was completely normal.

“…Stop them?”

Eris pointed at the arena –– at Tina.

“––She’ll die?”

––Cheers and shouts erupted from the audience right as Eris said that.

Tina running at Maro with her spear held in front of her informed me of the fight having started.

However, I was still paying more attention to Eris.

“…Why do you think that?”

“…He’s scary,” she said, looking at the arena.

Her expression looked very serious––

“That boy, he’s very, very, scary.”

“…”

I froze.

I couldn’t just laugh it off as nothing.

On the contrary, her words had given the unease I had been feeling an extra push.

‘The magic genius, Eris Flame’ was what this silver-haired devil was known as amongst nobles.

As such, I couldn’t help but suspect she must have had some special sense.

“…She’ll be alright. Tina’s strong,” I said to Eris as much as myself, glancing at the spear next to me, my gaze quickly sucked back towards the arena.