Chapter 232
Trisha expressed confusion at my reaction.
"What's wrong? Did I say something strange?"
"You're not just making that up, are you?"
"No, it's true. I've always wanted to be a mother. Ever since I was little, until now!"
Unfortunately, that was difficult to achieve.
If she were destined to meet a loving partner, become a mother early, and build a family, she wouldn't be trapped in Eternia and the prison-like labyrinth, nor would she have demonic mana that could distort space or the heavy label of being the most important existence in Eternia.
Trisha's future might not have an ending like the last page of a fairy tale, "And they all lived happily ever after."
Just then, girls' voices like bird chirping were heard from somewhere.
"Ah, it's cold!"
"Come here! It's really clear here!"
"Kyaah!"
It was closer than I thought.
"Oh, Damian, over there!"
Where Trisha pointed, five girls were playing barefoot, splashing in the water. They looked so bright and joyful that even I felt good just watching them.
They were far enough to look about the size of a finger joint, but the problem was that they were playing in a position where they could see us.
Moreover, some of them had very familiar silhouettes.
Haven't I seen them before?
Among them was a twin-braided hairstyle that was hard to forget once seen. There was also a girl with noticeable light pink hair.
Oh no, they’ree the girls from the Imperial Academy I saw at the artists' gathering.
Confirming their identity made the hair on my arms stand on end. If we encountered them in this state, nothing good could come of it.
"Ah."
"What's wrong? Do you know them?"
"Yes. They're students from the Imperial Academy who came for a field trip. I heard rumors about them."
"...Really?"
Just as I thought I should put on my mask, Trisha quickly got up and ran to where we had left our belongings. She grabbed something and put it on my face.
It was my mask.
"No, you should cover your face rather than mine."
"I forgot!"
"What?"
"I think it's too late! Now you be Candy!"
Trisha mumbled evasively.
And as we feared, the Imperial group spotted us and shouted loudly, "Hey! You guys!"
Yes, a white-haired girl and a man covered in scars would easily attract attention anywhere. This is bad.
They waved their arms high above their heads as if asking us to look at them.
Trisha and I exchanged tense glances. We were lying on the beach in our underwear. What an unsightly appearance. There was nowhere suitable to hide. We listened anxiously, wondering what unpleasant things they might say.
However, what echoed loudly was completely different from what we expected.
"You guys! That's youth!"
Trisha lost her grip on her composure and burst into laughter. With a smile that deeply dimpled her cheeks, she patted my body.
"Pft! Puhaha! Kuk kuk..."
"..."
I was suddenly reminded of the time when Lisa and I splashed water in the fountain at the temple when we were young. The words we heard from the nun, who we thought would scold us, were exactly the same.
"They seem like nice kids!"
Seeing my completely stiffened face, Trisha tried to calm me down.
"Okay, let's continue resting."
"Alright!"
We relaxed our bodies again and comfortably basked in the sunlight. They played well among themselves, shouting, without paying any attention to us.
Then another strange sound was heard. Unlike the bright energy from earlier, screams and sighs mixed with worry spread.
"What should we do!"
Looking closely, one of the Imperial group was flailing, swept away by the current.
Soon after, she started slowly drifting downstream towards where we were.
"Ah, Damian!” Trisha, sensing the seriousness of the situation, urgently called me.
"Trisha, absolutely do not come near the water."
I immediately jumped into the water. The girl was repeatedly submerging and resurfacing as she struggled. Fortunately, her light pink hair made it easy to spot her location.
There was only one person here with such light pink hair.
What was her name again? Right, Misha. It was Misha.
I waited just before where the current got stronger and grabbed the drifting girl's neck. She flailed her arms around like a water ghost and said, "S-save me, kuhek. Mom...!"
When we reached the shore, I grabbed Misha's armpits and dragged her onto the sand.
She couldn't even swim, and she was wearing a thick robe on top of that. No wonder she was helplessly swept away by the current. She might be good at magic, but it seemed she really didn't know anything else.
Misha coughed up a few mouthfuls of water and breathed heavily.
"Haah, haah. H-how..."
The girls who were with her, including the twin-braided one, came running urgently, calling her name.
"Misha! Misha!"
The girls, half-soaked, rushed over in a group and carefully checked Misha's condition.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Uh, yes... but I'm so cold..."
After confirming that she wasn't seriously injured and was still conscious, they turned towards me.
They scanned my mask and the scars on my body with curious eyes. Trisha had somehow stuck close to my side and was looking proud.
"You guys... thank you."
"Thank goodness. If you hadn't been here..."
Then the twin-braided girl scrutinized me with a suspicious gaze.
"You, are you perhaps a secret guard sent by our father?"
"...?"
"Ha, I knew it!"
***
After Misha fully recovered, the five Imperial girls prepared to leave.
Misha seemed to be in shock, as she didn't even thank me for saving her, let alone make eye contact.
A girl who introduced herself as Pheina approached me and whispered, "She says it's the first time she's had such close physical contact with a half-naked man. You understand, right? She's just embarrassed. She'll be really grateful."
"..."
"And Candy, or what was it? Sweetie? Yeah, Sweetie."
"What?"
"I'm really curious about something. Those scars. Where did you get them made?"
"What do you mean, get them made?"
What is she talking about? These scars aren't custom-made dresses.
"No, they look so real."
"They are... real?"
Pheina stammered, "O-oh, you mean t-these are real?"
Trisha also spoke curiously, "How can you get scars made?"
"Ah, it's really trendy among Imperial nobles right now. They say rough scars on the body emphasize masculinity. They artificially create scars and subtly show them off, you know? And women fall for it. Isn't it ridiculous?"
"..."
"Those guys in the Empire really disgusted me, but seeing this, I think I understand why they do it. It's strangely... um... eye-catching? There's something like that. It goes well with the toned body. Can I touch it once?"
Trisha shouted instead, "No!"
"Oh, really?"
Pheina accepted it nonchalantly and then suddenly called her friend behind her.
"Hey, Siri! Come here!"
Then the twin-braided girl who was dusting sand off her robe a few steps behind ran over to us.
"What?"
"You've used swords a lot, so you know, right? Are these scars real?"
"These?"
"Yes."
The twin-braided girl who was asked came in front of me without warning and touched my abdomen. Trisha glared at her with fierce eyes.
"How can you make these? The ones made by frauds are really clumsy. Like lines drawn on a pumpkin, you know? Anyway, people who've been cut by swords or bitten by magic creatures can tell."
Those two couldn't take their eyes off my scars. Even Misha, far away, defensively wrapped in her robe, fixed her gaze on me but quickly turned away when our eyes met.
"Oh my, are they real?"
"Yes. Wow, if these scars were put up for auction, some people would buy them even if it cost several houses."
Pheina hit the twin-braided girl's back.
"Geez, that's too much exaggeration. What do you mean, several houses? You need to add some meat to that story."
"No, I'm serious!"
The Empire seemed to be enjoying an unprecedented era of peace. To me, scars were like records of life and death. But in the Empire, they were decorations for showing off.
If we released a few Wraiths in the Empire... No, no. What am I thinking.
The twin-braided girl looked at us and said, "By the way, you're from Eternia, right?"
Then Trisha pointed at me and said, "Just him! I'm his childhood friend!"
"..."
The twin-braided girl whispered quietly to her friend, "The teeth marks... I see... fighting with a vampire... mumble mumble."
I cleared my throat to caution them, and the two looked back at us.
The twin-braided girl said, "Ah, we might see Sweetie at the exchange competition. Oh, and can you keep our meeting a secret? It's not something to brag about, but you might be surprised if you knew whose daughters we are. We snuck out, ditching all surveillance, and then had an accident on top of that. It would be troublesome if this leaked out, so please bear with it for a bit."
Trisha chuckled and said, "You'd be flipped if you knew our identities too."
"...Really?"
I denied Trisha's words to remove any seeds of suspicion.
"She's just the youngest daughter of a shepherd family from the Palankas Mountains, don't be fooled."
"Pft, I kind of thought so!"
"..."
Trisha looked up at me with a mischievous expression.
The twin-braided girl said, "But regardless of your status, I really like you two. I'm actually quite open-minded, you know? I hope we see each other again, whether at the exchange competition or elsewhere."
Just then, the girls waiting behind shouted, "Sirinkis! Pheina! We're going to get scolded! Hurry up!"
"Ah, we have to go. Goodbye!"
Pheina left first, and the twin-braided girl blew us a series of burdensome air kisses before joining her waiting friends.
I took a breath and said to Trisha,
"I'll go get the clothes we hung out to dry. Do you want to get in the carriage first?"
"Okay!"
***
I gathered the clothes and luggage that were still dripping water despite being hung out on the rocks for a long time and walked on the sand.
Trisha stood leaning closely against the carriage, looking at me. She waved her hand when she saw me.
Another carriage quickly passed behind the parked carriage. Startled, she crouched once and then cautiously surveyed the surroundings. Then she looked at me again, smiling brightly and waving her hand.
A silver-haired girl waving at me from afar under the warm sunlight.
The wind carrying sand blurs my vision. Looking with hazy eyes, it was as if I was seeing Lisa. Because of that, I stopped walking.
I felt sorry for Trisha, but I couldn't see this beautiful moment, worthy of being called youth, as it was. I was rummaging through the trash in my head, looking for traces of Lisa.
I looked at Lisa's image and looked again.
Lisa waved at me and disappeared again.
Is it the ghost of the past circling around me? Or am I the one unable to let go of the ghost?
My weak heart wanted to blame Trisha, who resembled Lisa. I felt pathetic for being like this.
As Callios said, because things that should flow away couldn't flow, my heart kept overflowing whether it rained, snowed, or during long droughts.
Even as time passed, I was still in the mud.
Unable to wait any longer, Trisha ran to me barefoot. Then she threw herself at me, clinging to my body with both arms and legs.
"Kyaah!"
"Stay in the carriage. What if someone sees you?"
"I couldn't wait. More importantly, today was really fun. Right!"
"...Yes."
"Since Damian did something nice today, I'll reward you!"
"...What is it?"
"The disaster bestowed by Azelis!"
Trisha's mouth came close to my neck. Right, she was probably going to bite somewhere and leave an indelible mark, I thought for a moment.
Trisha's body scent brushed my nose like a spring breeze.
Chu.
Contrary to expectations, Trisha's lips were aimed at my cheek.
I unconsciously let out a sound.
"Ah..."
After causing such a light contact accident, she ran to the carriage as if fleeing.
She lied down on the carriage sat with her back turned and covered her face with her hair, perhaps feeling shy. Meanwhile, her skirt wasn't covered, so her underpants were clearly visible.
"I-I'm going to sleep, so don't wake me up!"
I lowered my head and looked at Trisha's traces.
In the mud at my feet, where water was dripping, the footprints of an innocent girl were deeply imprinted.
***
On a hill overlooking the riverside, a masked man said, "Amy, there's no need to do that."
The elf-eared woman who had been glaring at the girls from the Empire took off her mask and said, "Is it really okay? They were completely exposed and defenseless."
"It's much better than suppressing emotions and having them burst all at once."
"How big could it burst even if it did?"
"You must not have experienced a disaster yet."
"..."
"It's nice to see, isn't it? It reminds me of old times too."
"The Imperial kids..."
"Leave them be. More threatening than that is this."
The man pointed to the sky.
White crows filled the sky and were following the carriage leaving the riverside.
The elf-eared woman nodded as if agreeing with this point.
***
We stopped at Silveryn's mansion and stayed for one night. After putting Trisha to bed downstairs first, I wrote a letter to Silveryn alone by candlelight. With time to spare, I also wrote one for the duchess, then sent off two Stitches through the window.
Then I gazed at the night sky, lost in various thoughts for a while. Today, Trisha's bright smile seems to linger especially vividly in my mind. A feeling of regret rises in my heart, wondering why I didn't take care of her earlier when she was so happy. Did Callios intend this? If so, it seemed to have worked properly.
Just then, Liria knocked on my door.
Knock knock.
"Master Damian."
"Come in."
Liria entered the room, bowed her head, and said, "A letter has come from someone named Misha. I'll leave it here."
It must have flown in following the Stitch marker I entrusted to Liria.
"Thank you."
"Sleep well, Master Damian!"
Liria bowed her head and backed out of my room.
I picked up Misha's letter. When I saw her at the artists' gathering, she seemed burdened by me. I didn't expect her to send a letter so quickly.
It contained only a request to find someone named Sweetie, nothing else special.
Woong—Woong—
Priscilla, which I had slightly leaned against the desk, flashed blue light inside the scabbard.
What's going on suddenly, when it hadn't shown any reaction except when being bullied by the wooden sword?
I picked up the scabbard and drew Priscilla.
Chang!
Before I could admire Priscilla's blue form, I flinched at the strange sensation transmitted through my arm.
Ssss—
Frost started to spread from the blade to my arm.
A cold wind rushed in through the open window, but I didn't feel cold.
It was a sensation I had never felt before.
Unlike before when it unilaterally absorbed mana, this time it felt like the absorbed mana was being converted into something else and transmitted to me.
Is this the fruit of all my efforts?
Filled with anticipation, I called out the name, "Pris...cilla?"
I called the name, but I didn't hear the answer I was expecting.
However, as the mana circulated, Priscilla's energy was transmitted to me. It was a strange sensation. It was as if the sword had become part of my body, expanding the sensation of my extremities.
Although I couldn't converse, the magic sword's emotions faintly flowed to me.
Joy. It was a tender emotion like reuniting with an old friend.
This wasn't directed at me, but at an unknown being outside.
What's happening?
Tap tap tap tap—
Just then, urgent footsteps approach my room from the corridor.
And Liria knocked and opened the door.
"Master Damian, this!"
In Liria's suddenly extended hand was a black letter. It was a letter from Amaryllis.