And surprisingly, there was something else to let go of.
Thinking back, the girls around me were quite decent for teenagers. After all, they had been educated as nobles or royalty.
Among them, even Claire, who had the most active personality, grew up in a baronial family.
In fantasy novels, barons are often described as the lowest-ranking nobles, but in reality, they are lords with territories. It’s not a family that can be deemed low at all, and they received thorough education. It’s just that Claire was naturally lively.
Therefore, in a way, I was the only one who had shown my true self during this period.
I had revealed my home, dropped my expressionless facade, and got caught with my favorite hobbies… finding myself in situations I didn’t even want to recall.
Thinking about it, I was probably the only one who had exposed myself like that. The others still had many untold parts.
The first one to muster the courage was Claire.
“…….”
We stared at the poster Claire had stuck on our room wall for a long time, seriously.
“Claire, what’s this poster about?”
Charlotte, who had been staring at the poster with a serious expression, finally gave up her deduction and asked like that.
What was on the wall was a gym promotional poster. A ridiculously well-bodied woman was striking a pose. It wasn’t just that she was wearing a sports bra and posing; she was wearing a shirt but had it undone in the middle, so it looked like some body profile or something.
She was muscular, but not in a rough way—more like a very nice body where the abs were visible.
“I want to become like her.”
Claire said with a very serious expression.
“……Where did you get this poster?”
“I took it from down there.”
I facepalmed.
“Please return it.”
“No, we agreed to be honest about what we want!”
“But stealing something is a problem.”
Yeah, the edge of the poster seemed torn. It looked like she had ripped it off entirely from wherever it was stuck.
But more importantly, when did she go out alone?
“…….”
I looked around to see who she went out with, and Mia avoided my gaze.
Did she bring it back from the last time she went out? I remembered her carrying a bag then. Looking again, the poster had places that were crumpled and uncrumpled.
“Hey? Isn’t it marked ‘No advertising’ there? It shouldn’t be stuck in a place where it’s not allowed, so is it okay to take it?”
“……Still, it’s not allowed.”
I wasn’t quite sure about the legalities, but it made things more complicated.
Of course, going back to stick it again now would mean we could get caught this time around.
“……I’ll buy a new one, so just stick that one up. Let’s choose again in a bit.”
“I really liked this one, though….”
“…….”
“Ah, okay, sis.”
“By the way, don’t you work out regularly and look like that?”
“Well… even if I exercise, I can’t become like that.”
Claire tilted her head.
I figured the most frequent exercise she did was aerobic. The times when Claire put her energy the most was when we were out in the open fields riding bikes or running. I’m not a gym trainer, but I’ve heard that aerobic exercise isn’t great for ‘muscle loss’ and whatever.
Of course, I didn’t want to delve deeper, so I didn’t know the specifics.
“If you want to look like that, going to a gym would be right.”
As I carefully examined the poster still attached, Claire suddenly asked, “Oh? Then why don’t you come with me?”
“I don’t have a hobby of torturing myself.”
“……You could handle being shot by guns and swords when you had your abilities.”
“That was something I had to do to win, but.”
Hearing my blunt reply, Claire grumbled, and I replied with disbelief.
Well, still.
“……It seems like there are definitely aspects we want to do but haven’t mentioned yet.”
You can’t just casually walk around in t-shirts like guys do. I’ve heard from somewhere that girls sleep in just their underwear, but it seems there’s a higher hurdle amongst us.
But if it’s about revealing ourselves like this, I think it’d be fine.
Surely we decorated our rooms in our own ways, but we hadn’t hung up posters like this or collected albums of our favorite idols or anything.
“The money is mostly managed by me, but the money collected is also earned together, right? I’ve already said a few times, but you can spend it however you like.”
Honestly, the lottery ticket purchase wasn’t because I thought I’d do well; I just wanted to move house. Plus, I hardly bought lottery tickets when the others weren’t around.
The kids listening to me looked a bit more serious than when they usually heard my stories.
*
A few days later.
The appointment with the broadcasting station got pushed back a bit more. After meeting for further discussion, it was decided to schedule a filming that would include our house.
We hadn’t revealed anything about our private broadcasting yet.
In the meantime, even though there hadn’t been many changes for us—
“…….”
Wait, no, it feels like a lot more changes had happened than I thought.
Just after we talked about wanting to enjoy as we wanted, a few packages arrived at our house.
One was a pretty big box, and the other was a little smaller but had a rather peculiar shape.
It was long and thin.
When I brought the package inside and looked at Claire, she shook her head. Since our house was still decorated for Halloween and Christmas, I wondered if Claire had bought New Year’s decorations early, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“Ah, this is mine.”
Alice said as she pulled the quite large box toward her.
“……You said to do as I please, right? So I bought it.”
Seeing Alice’s face slightly reddening as she locked eyes with me, it seemed what was inside wasn’t ordinary.
“……T-This is mine!”
And Mia picked up the thin box. Her face turned bright red too, so it looked like what was inside was also very personal.
Well, this one was probably a poster.
But right now, I was more curious about Alice’s big box.
Knowing that we would see the contents no matter how it was opened, Alice started tearing the box open, her face still flushed.
And what was inside was—
“……What is this?”
Claire said, grimacing.
It was truly a rare scowl.
“There’s only a figure of me and a figure of Sylvia in front of the TV. I thought it would be fun to buy figures of everyone here. Of course, not everyone’s products have been released yet.”
“Just because of that, you bought a Bunny Girl figure!? It’s even bigger than those two over there!”
“No, this just happened to be released as a figure.”
“Rather, buy previously released figures second-hand!”
Claire screamed.
That’s right. This was a design even more vulgar than the figure of Claire that she despised so much—the ‘before reincarnation’ version of Claire.
But still, at least she was properly dressed.
“Are you laughing? Are you laughing right now? You were just bright red moments ago!?”
“I feel a bit relieved seeing your reaction….”
With that comment from Alice, Claire, who finally exploded, lunged at Alice.
“Be careful not to disturb the lower floors with too much noise.”
Charlotte said while resting her hand on her forehead, and the two began a soundless chase.
By the way, it seems Alice also has a bit of an otaku side. If we live here for a few more years, I wonder if she’ll start regularly watching new anime.
Seeing Claire quietly watching magical girl shows with Mia, it seems most people here have that side too—
“……Why are you looking at me like that?”
Charlotte asked in a tone of “ah-ha” when our eyes met.
……Is Charlotte not like that?
I thought that being from a world so much like a game setting, the characters from that game would have some talent in this sort of thing, but thinking again, it doesn’t seem Charlotte has that kind of vibe.
“What’s that item?”
“Oh, this? It’s a poster!”
When I turned my gaze toward Mia and asked, she answered just like that.
Then, Alice opened the box with a cutter knife she used to open the first box, and out came a poster… a printed fabric poster rolled up like a scroll.
What do they call it? A tapestry?
Of course, it depicted a magical girl. It was a series I wasn’t very familiar with.
But it looked amazing when Mia held it.
“Are you thinking of hanging it up in your room?”
“Yes!”
At Mia’s bright reply, Charlotte laughed.
……But I’m really curious.
If Charlotte were to get into a hobby, what would she obsess over?
It felt like digging deeper would be fun.
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