Well, there was little else that I could do regarding this whole 'SwordMaiden' business as it was other than just wait for a reply to come. I didn't know if she would- but there was little more that I could do other than reach out.
Raphtalia still went on how she didn't think I was the 'black sheep' between me and Shindo, which made me feel marginally better, but we had other things to do.
I went out to see Raphtalia off as she went home, though both of us saw Shindo in the front yard, working on the mostly-functioning prototype we had created.
"What's that?" Raphtalia asked.
"Ah, Raphtalia-san," Shindo said, seeing her. "I'm glad to see that at the very least, you've noticed me and I have not faded into invisibility. To think, that I was kicked out of my own house by my brother- simply for a woman, left to fend off the elements on my own... your words though, warm me up from the inside..."
"Eh?"
"It's the middle of summer, you do realize that don't you?" I asked him.
"Yet, it is not warm enough to melt the winter in my heart- after being rejected by my own family, left to the wilderness," Shindo said.
"Are you done with the prototype? Is it working?" I asked him, ignoring his melodrama.
"Yeah, it is, but I think this bit is loose," Shindo said, pointing to a certain part of the cycle.
"Alright, we'll try to fix it," I said.
"So, what is this?" Raphtalia asked.
"A cycle that converts energy from cycling into a battery," Shindo said. "Which you can then use for various purposes- like charging your phone!"
"It's a project I had to help him out with," I told her.
"Wow, so this is the kind of projects that college students work on?" Raphtalia asked, sounding impressed.
"Indeed, this is but small stuff for a genius of my caliber," Shindo said. Yeah, he left out the part where he needed my inspiration, help, and materials from Melty to make the project work.
However, something about what Raphtalia said struck me as odd. "Uh, college students? You haven't done a project like this before?"
"No, I mean, the most I would've done is an exploding volcano in middle school," Rapthalia said.
My heart started to skip several beats. Wait- it couldn't be possible! I had assumed that Raphtalia was a college student, or a 'Ronin'- in other words, someone who hadn't gotten into a college and was trying for the entrance exams, kind of like how I did at first. But...
"...Raphtalia," I said, apprehensive at the answer I might be getting. "Are you... not in college yet?"
"Oh, I'm applying," she said. Oh, so she was a Ronin then- "-most of the rest of my class are as well. But you know, the final year of high school can be kind of hectic, and with everything going on..."
Shindo turned his head towards me as he realized what was going on. "Bro, you're not beating those 'lolicon' accusations anytime soon..."
Wait, Rapthalia was still in high school?! I thought for sure that she must have graduated- I had often judged college students who dated some of the high school girls in my class as 'creepy'- and it looked like I had been about to become one of them! I backed away from her quickly as if she had suddenly become radioactive.
"Huh?" Raphtalia asked.
"I- I didn't know that you were a high school student," I told her. "I mean, but you are older than eighteen, right?"
"I'm nineteen," Raphtalia said. "Soon to be twenty."
"How so?"
"I uh, had to be held back, or rather, repeat a grade due to... some unfortunate circumstances," Raphtalia said. I couldn't imagine given her case they were academic, but I didn't want to dig too much into that. I didn't care that much given by my age, I should've already been a senior and looking for a job, but again, circumstances dictate otherwise, so that meant that Raphtalia likely had something like that going on with her. Maybe it was some kind of sickness that caused her to lose a year? It was rather hard to flunk so badly you had to repeat a grade in this day and age.
"Wow, but you're really mature for your age," Shindo said. Now who was acting like a groomer? No- I didn't want to think about this anymore.
"Mr. Naofumi, is it okay if I come to see your presentation? When is it?"
"Saturday- it'll be boring, but we'd appreciate the support."
"That's alright then," Raphtalia said before she walked away.
Man, she really was going to give me a heart attack. Was that dream where she had been a young girl some kind of warning sent from the gods? Or had it been some sort of premonition- that i had secretly, deep down, known about this fact? She did look young, but in your early twenties, that was hardly reliable. Then again, I had never openly asked where she went or studied, I had just assumed things, so I guess that only I could be blamed for that. Still, I found it hard to believe that she was still in high school. She jus seemed so much older and ah, for lack of a better word, 'wiser' that even other college girls I knew.
Plus, it wasn't like she was ten or something like I had seen in that dream. Now that would've been really weird.
"Wow bro," Shindo said. "Don't you think you're a little too old to be chasing after high school girls even if-" He got no further as I put him in a headlock.
"Say anything else and you'll be presenting a volcano instead of this," I told him.
"...to be fair I've always wanted to do that... do you think we can do something like that? I think it would look really cool, but most of the videos I see about volcano science projects are kind of lame."
Sometimes there was no arguing with this guy.
