When I asked who her first love was, my first thought was a cliché answer like her father or someone similar. However, given everything she’d said about loathing her home and parents, I knew that couldn't be it.
But since she was going to the trouble of turning it into a riddle, did that mean it was someone I knew? She’d promised to provide hints, so even if the answer wasn't obvious now, I’d likely be able to deduce it eventually.
"The first hint is... I fell in love for the first time back when I was in elementary school."
"That’s a classic, but it’s going to be hard to narrow things down with just that. Is it someone I know?"
"Well, who can say?"
That was an ambiguous reply. Her first hint only established that the crush started in elementary school. According to Hina, rumor had it that Aoi still hadn't been able to forget that first love, which made it highly likely the person didn't attend our high school.
Maybe a classmate who had moved away during primary school was a possibility, but... would she really choose an answer from such a broad pool?
"Hmm. An elementary school classmate?"
"I'm sorry, but that’s wrong. To begin with, they weren't my age. They were quite a bit older."
"Someone older... If that's the case, the range really is massive."
"Then, here is the second hint. This person taught me many things, and in a sense, they were almost like a teacher to me."
A teacher-like figure... a tutor? No, saying "almost like" probably meant they weren't an actual teacher. This was seriously difficult. I didn't actually know much about Aoi's life back in Japan; come to think of it, we rarely brought up her past social circle.
Aside from Hina, Seigi, and a few high school classmates, Aoi had never really mentioned anyone else. She seemed to loathe her family, and our conversations rarely strayed from high school life or the MMO.
"...You're struggling, aren't you? Then, here's the biggest hint. Until quite recently... or at least, at the time I fell in love, I didn't know their real name or what they looked like."
"Hmm... Hmm... Wait. What?"
That was strange. If I put together everything Aoi had told me so far, I arrived at a very peculiar conclusion.
She fell in love in elementary school; she was vague about whether I knew the person; they were someone who taught her many things; and she hadn't known their real name or face at the time.
Given the phrasing "real name," it implied she had known them by an alias. And the reason she was noncommittal about whether it was someone I knew was because...
"...Wait. Me?"
"To be precise, it was Shell-san. Which means, in the end, it was you, Kaito-san."
When I hesitantly spoke the answer I’d reached, Aoi nodded with a wry smile.
"When a sheltered girl who knows nothing of the world starts playing an MMO for the first time, she’s bound to be anxious and lost. To have someone help her and treat her so kindly... it’s only natural she’d fall in love. In my case especially, Shell-san was the one person who saw me for who I really was, rather than just the heiress to the Kusunoki Group."
"...So that's how it was."
"Yes. So, when I discovered you were actually Shell-san after coming to this world, I was stunned. It felt like fate—that such a coincidence could even happen."
I was genuinely lost for words. I had known that Hibis was quite attached to me, but because I’d initially been wrong about her gender, I hadn't even considered this possibility.
But... how was I supposed to respond to that?
"Since Kaito-san turned out to be exactly the kind of person I thought Shell-san would be, I was so relieved. It made me really happy."
"Um... Aoi?"
"Ah, stop. Please don't say anything yet."
As I tried to find the words, Aoi cut me off. She fell silent for a moment, then looked at me with a small, meaningful smile.
"Did you know? The legal age of adulthood has been lowered to eighteen now."
"Huh? Ah, yeah. I knew that, but..."
"And my birthday is June 23rd, meaning I was seventeen when I first arrived in this world. Of course, since time was reset once we returned, I’m excluding the year I’ve already spent here."
With that, Aoi stood up, a bright smile on her face.
"I plan to stay in this world for at least another year. Actually, since we return to the exact moment we left, Hina and I talked it over and decided we might stay here for several years."
"...Which means?"
"...I’ll finish our conversation once I turn eighteen. So... please wait for me."
After giving me a lovely smile, Aoi walked back toward Hina without waiting for a reply.
I wondered if the moment of a person's growth always happened in the blink of an eye. Somehow, Aoi seemed to have become much more mature in just that short interval. I scratched my cheek, feeling a strange, lingering sense of embarrassment.
???: "Now that is the Aura of a Main Heroine... It's hard to believe she was a background character in Part 1."
Machina: "My child falling in love with my beloved child. What a wonderful development. This is a total win for me."
Serious-senpai: "...Haa... haa... Thank god. It's still only a Serious-senpai (Light Fatal Wound)."
???: "Is there even such a thing as a 'light' fatal wound?"