Maydare Volume 2 Other Side: Airi, Might Have Seen This Somewhere Before.

 Decided to change "Ura" chapters names to "Other Side" instead. Also there will be another chapter on Monday

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Sometimes, I dream.

I dream of Oda-san and Saitou-kun in the other world.

“Are you lonely, Lady Airi? Are you thinking about your old world?”

When I wake up crying in the middle of the night, Thor is standing next to me.

Thor is my guard tonight.

He didn’t miss the sounds of my sobs and came to my room…

“No. I have no attachments to my old world at all. There’s the man brought in by my mother at home, and there are only the girls who bully me at school. I hate that world. I love this world, and I love everyone.”

“...Then, why are you crying?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes, really sometimes, I get intensely scared for no reason. I wonder if anyone, even just one person, cried for me in that world where I disappeared.”

At that time, no one was happy that I survived.

That’s why I left.

I wonder if any one of them regretted it.

I wondered if they cried, thinking that I might be dead.

When it was Oda-san and Saitou-kun, everyone was sad.

Oda-san’s parents finally regretted after their daughter went missing.

We’re sorry, we’re sorry, please come home soon…

Even though it was too late for that after she was gone.

“I had only two best friends that I loved. A precious girl and a boy. No, the boy was not mine, but my female best friend’s childhood friend.”

“...”

“But, I...I didn’t want to be kicked out of the group all by myself, so I stepped in between the two of them. Because if those two got together, then I would be…”

I’ll be an unwanted existence for everyone.

“Please sleep, Lady Airi. Don’t worry, I’ll stay by your side.”

“...Mm, thank you, Thor. You’re so kind.”

I want to forget everything.

About that world, and about those two.

〇 

My name is Airi.

In Japan, my name was Tanaka Airi, but here, I was just Airi. 

I was also called the〈Savior of Iris〉, the legendary girl who was summoned by Maydare.

In short, I was a special girl.

I was the “protagonist” of this story.

”―Whew. I wrote it, I wrote it. Clarissa, make me some cocoa.”

“Very well, Lady Airi.”

I had a notebook open on my desk, and with a quill in hand, I was writing the continuation of my novel.

Maydare was another world that seemed like a real-life version of the setting of my novel.

The details were different, but they were somehow similar. That’s why I should be able to make predictions.

About the future. About the characters that will appear.

In fact, until now, incidents like what I imagined have happened, my ideal characters have appeared, and they have acted as I thought they would.

Of course, not everything was as I expected, but everything was within my expectations.

It will never deviate from the classic tropes.

“But it’s surprising that the final Guardian is Makia. ...Normally, that’s impossible, isn’t it?”

I think that Makia is a fake Guardian.

She is pretending to be a Guardian in order to get Thor back.

She may be able to fool Ulysses’ eyes, but she can’t fool mine.

“Makia is the descendant of the worst witch in the world? No, maybe she’s the〈Scarlet Witch〉herself. She’s been living for a long time, altered her appearance to look young, and mixed herself in with the magic school students. And now, she’s scrambling to get her favorite slave back.”

I understand my enemy. That’s why, I pretended to be friends with her to make her guard slip.

I’ll have to find conclusive evidence and make sure I eliminate her.

Because I didn’t want Thor to hate me. He was still under the spell of that witch, after all…

But I’m going to make sure he wakes up. I have to show him that the bond between him and me, between Guardian and Savior, is the strongest―

“I’m not going to lose to an evil witch.”

The wicked witch that always came with my beloved fairy tales that starred princesses and girls.

My mom used to say that because there were all kinds of “witches” in the world, I had to be strong and not give in to malice and jealousy. Because Airi* was precious and adorable…

(TN: Airi here is written in kanji 愛理. After Airi came to Maydare her name is simply katakana アイリ)

“Lady Airi, Miss Makia O’Drielle has come to visit.”

Speak of the devil and so on.

The head maid, Clarissa, came back to my room with the cocoa and news.

“However, I declined to let her see you, as you said. She also brought some apple cake, but I refused it as well.”

“Thank you, Clarissa. Apple cake, huh. The witch is trying to get Snow White to eat the poisoned apple. Ufufu, how cliched~”

Oh, then maybe I should have received that apple cake and checked if it was poisoned.

Then I could have exposed Makia’s true identity in front of all the Guardians.

“But Makia won’t show herself so easily either.”

“Lady Airi, you really do think that Miss Makia O’Drielle was responsible for the assassination attempt?”

”That’s right. In all my stories, there’s never a witch who isn’t evil. That was a charade put on by Makia. She was just trying to get us to trust her.”

“If that is the case, would it be better to tell the Guardians about it?”

“I can’t do that! That’s a spoiler. Besides, if I one-sidedly make Makia the villain, Thor will probably get angry, and it won’t make a very good impression, right? I don’t want anyone to hate me in this world.”

“...Very well.” 

Clarissa can read the air. That’s why, when I talked to her about various things, she would spread gossip favorable towards me of her own accord. I was sure she was the one who spread the theory that Makia had done everything herself. She was that kind of character who was useful behind the scenes.

Clarissa, not Makia, was enough of a female advisor for me.

“However, Lady Airi, Miss Beatrice Asta has also been in and out of the palace several times during the summer, and was also there on the day of the incident. I heard that the knights have marked her and her butler.”

“Beatrice? Who is that again?”

“His Highness Gilbert’s former fiancee.”

“Oh, that ojou-sama* speech lady!”

(TN: Beatrice talks like your typical ojou-sama with a lot of "desu wa" and "watakushi" and "ohoho" and stuff like that. Not sure if that comes through in my translations)

I energetically got up from my bed and clapped my hands.

“That girl seems to resent me! But that blonde noble girl somewhat has a side character feel to her.”

“Is Miss Makia not like that?”

“Well, from the very first moment I met Makia, there was something very different about her from other people.”

“...Different?”

“Yes. She’s different. It’s something like intuition, but...her existence feels out of place.”

I don’t know how to put it.

However, I felt a strange “unease” in those bright sea-blue eyes.

As I popped a piece of chocolate from the bedside table into my mouth, I had a flash of inspiration.

“I got it. Beatrice is Makia’s henchman! That must be it. A villain always sends out their henchman first.”

Once the mystery was solved, I got out of my bed and went out to the balcony to gaze at the castle town of the Kingdom of Ruschia.

The white pigeons on the balcony flew away into the pale-colored sky that was just before sunset.

“Yes...that girl must be an exceedingly evil witch.”

She was the same as those girls in my previous world who were jealous of me, made me an outcast, bullied me, and slandered me.

I won’t give in to those girls anymore. I won’t be defeated by the jealousy of ugly women.

Because there is nothing in this world I was afraid of.

“So, don’t force yourself in. There’s no place for Makia here…”

I won’t let her break the precious bonds between me and my Guardians.

“We’re going to have to expose Makia’s evil at some point. That’s right! Gil told me that there’s going to be an evening party with guests from another country soon. I think I’ll invite Makia to that. We should invite that Beatrice girl while we’re at it too, Clarissa. I’ve come up with an idea.”

“...As you wish, Lady Airi.”　

After I told her my plan, Clarissa left the room.

“Now then, I think I’ll sneak out of the palace again and go to the capital to search for information.”

I don't want to do nothing and just be protected in a safe place.

But, being alone is no fun, and the protagonist girl needs a hero who will be by her side to protect her…

“Lady Airi, where are you intending to go? We have an arrangement for me to teach you the rest of the magic from last class.”

“Geh, Eugene.”

As soon as I left my room, I ran into Eugene waiting outside my room with his glasses shining. He was my magic teacher.

“Just wait a little bit, Eugene. I’m going to do it when I get back!”

“Please wait. You need someone to accompany you.”

“I’ll get Thor to go with me! Now, Eve, hide me!”

Rainbow-colored powder flew from the light dragon Eve and enveloped me. With this ability, I can make myself invisible. Just as fairies in a forest disappeared in a puff.

“Lady Airi!”

I can hear Eugene’s angry voice. This is going to make him very angry later.

However, I’m not in the mood for magic training right now. I slipped out of the palace, still invisible, and raised the dagger I had around my neck, gold sheath and all, into the air.

The large diamond inlaid in the handle sparkled and led me to the Guardian I want to see.

This is the absolute bond between a Savior and a Guardian.

“Oh, it’s Thor!”

I spotted Thor on a gondola, going through the canals of the capital.

I thought it was unusual for him to be on a gondola, but then I see someone across from him.

“Huh...Makia?”

I stopped myself from running up to him.

Thor is eating something. There is a smile on his face, one I’ve never seen him show to me before.

That is...probably the apple cake Makia meant to bring to me.

That’s strange. It was supposed to be made of poisoned apples.

Anyways, why is Thor still trying to be with Makia?

That’s strange…

It is as if it was me, the existence of the Savior, who was keeping the two of them apart.

Makia is an evil witch, but she’s acting like a normal girl, which is confusing Thor. 

And Thor. Isn’t the Savior the most important person to a Guardian?

Isn’t that usually how it goes?

But, what is it? That feeling from those two looking at each other, I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before.

It was the same “off” feeling from when I first met Makia.

What is this? This unpleasant uneasiness. 

That’s why, I really want to destroy it.

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