Let the Trio Resound!

♪ Poet (present) ♪

“We’re going to use choral magic.”

“I was ready before you even said it.”

Growl pressed a hand to his stomach and demonstrated his diaphragmatic breathing.

“That’s reassuring. Equal temperament, or just intonation?”

When I asked, Growl thought for a moment.

“Let’s go with just intonation.”

“It’ll probably turn into an exorcism song. Can you roll your r’s?”

“Leave it to me. I’m great at that.”

“Okay!”

I played the lute and layered it with Growl’s singing voice. But for some reason, our rhythms wouldn’t line up.

“What’s wrong!? The magic should work if our hearts are in sync!”

“I’m just… not feeling it. Weird…”

“HA~”

I cast a light diagnostic spell to measure Growl’s mental state.

“Your head is full of anger. What are you angry about—ah!”

As I traced back through the thread of memory to find the cause of Growl’s bad mental state, something occurred to me.

“Don’t tell me! You’re angry because I took away your dried meat?”

“S-shut up! It’s not something that pathetic…”

He refused to admit it. People tend to hide the embarrassing truths in their hearts.

“A-anyway, let’s try the chorus again!”

“Look out!”

Growl knocked me down again. We barely avoided the blade of wind. It was almost like a recurring gag in a comedy routine. The rule of comedy says repetition comes in threes, so maybe I’d get bowled over one more time. From the outside it must have looked ridiculous, but we were completely serious.

Come on! We still can’t get our voices together! What are we supposed to do!?

♪ Adagio (present) ♪

Those two were taking awfully long to come back from the toilet.

I’d been pretending to sleep, but I’d heard them talking. So the two of them really were fighting over me after all. I’d made a verbal promise of a kiss to Growl, and I’d also been giving Poet hope.

Well, of course that would turn into romantic rivalry when I wasn’t looking. I wasn’t even used to acting like a girl yet, and somehow I’d already debuted as a two-timing woman. What even was I?

Poet really did care about me. He didn’t want to drag me into this. I thought I would be willing to die for him, but… if I died, what would happen to the him left behind?

Tears ran down my cheeks. That was it. I was afraid to die. His kindness had touched me, and now a desire to be happy had begun to grow in my heart. But it was fine. If the two of them could be happy in my place, that would be enough.

Just then, the ground rumbled. An earthquake? No—it was a strange vibration. I could feel the pulse of magic. I hurried toward the men’s toilet.

The two of them were making a racket. Looking into the distance, I saw the stone statue launching blades of wind, while Growl shoved Poet out of the way.

“You’ve shoved me three times already, you idiot!”

“If I didn’t shove you, it would hit you, you slowpoke!”

They were fighting! I had to stop them.

“Both of you, calm down! We have to do something about that statue!”

“Adagio! Growl won’t match the exorcism chorus with me!”

“Shut up! Your tempo’s slightly off!”

They’d completely fallen out.

“Honestly, men are hopeless. Leave it to me.”

Naturally slipping into the girl position, I scolded both of them, then pulled a conducting baton out of subspace.

“The beat lands at the tip of this stick, okay? I’m joining in too, so let’s make it a trio.”

“HA~”

The two of them joined their voices, and the pulse of magic rang out through the air.

Then, when all our voices aligned together, the exorcism spell flew toward the statue.

“Uwaaaaaah!”

A scream roared out from the statue, and the chill hanging over the place vanished.

“Did we do it!?”

The rabbit-eared prince and the dog prince confirmed that the statue had stopped moving.

“Higan—the Buddhist world of the dead—might actually be starting to manifest.”

Growl explained this while stroking his chin.

The manifestation of concepts from another world’s religion. Maybe it had come closer to us than we thought.

“That aside…”

I took a deep breath, put my hands on my hips, and looked from one of them to the other.

“You two were going to sneak off without me, weren’t you!? You can’t even get your voices to match without me, so you should just take me with you! Otherwise you’ll struggle like this again!”

The two of them looked at each other.

Then, maybe because the tension had broken, Growl’s stomach growled.

“You’re such a glutton. Next, let’s head for the Spice Town! It’s not even that much of a detour.”

And then the laughter of the three of us echoed out like a trio.