Secret

In the end, we ended up walking around outside together.

Naturally, while keeping Cecilia's identity hidden.

After finishing her conversation with the Hero, Cecilia approached me, interested in me this time.

Regardless of whether the Hero accepted Cecilia's request, I liked Cecilia too, so I wanted to talk with her. But I was Lumia now, so I couldn't hear Cecilia's voice.

Cecilia approached me, lowered her head, and met my gaze.

Of course, even when she spoke to me, all I could do was tilt my head.

“Hmm.. She must be quite a quiet girl.”

“...”

Sorry.

It's because I can't speak.

Seeing her like this, I was newly struck by how short Lumia was and by how incredibly beautiful Cecilia was. As befitted the heroine of an erotic game, Lumia was no less attractive than Cecilia, but Cecilia seemed even prettier because she also had that saintly aura.

Lumia was pretty, but her appeal leaned toward the cute side, so if one wanted to win a man's romantic interest, Cecilia would have a much easier time of it than I would. Lumia's charm was no less compelling, but she definitely lost out when it came to her figure.

Unlike my childlike build, Cecilia had a mature body.. The sight of Cecilia's naked body in the game had been attractive enough to enchant any man.

No.. That's not it.. Why am I thinking like this now?

For now, let's focus on the immediate problem.

“That Saintess? Cecilia?”

“Hmm? You can call me Cecil!”

Was she really allowing me to use a nickname already?

When I first played the game, I don't think I reacted much when she bluntly told me to call her Cecil, but seeing it in person, we'd become close at a ridiculous speed..

The Hero also wore an awkward expression, apparently struggling to keep up with how quickly we were becoming friends.

“So? Why did you call me?”

“I wanted to tell you in advance, in case something happened.”

The Hero said this while pointing at my neck.

“Ah..”

It was only after seeing the bandages around my neck that she seemed to realize why I couldn't respond.

“And she can't hear, either. She probably didn't hear anything you said.”

“...”

The cheerful atmosphere froze at the Hero's words.

Cecilia, who had turned toward me with a pitying expression at the Hero's words, approached me. Cecil closed her eyes and clasped both hands together.

I immediately realized that it was the blessing bestowed by the Saintess.

Holy light poured from Cecilia's body and enveloped mine.

“How is it..?”

“...”

I felt bad for Cecil, but even in the original game, her blessing couldn't solve this problem, so I had to continue pretending that I still couldn't hear or speak, right?

I'm sorry.

Please understand that, although I can actually speak and hear just fine, I have to pretend that I can't hear or speak..

“It doesn't seem to have worked.”

At the Hero's words, the Saintess turned back toward me and said that couldn't be possible, then approached me and spoke.

Ah.. Now that I think about it, I may remember this, too.

“Even my blessing can't fix it..”

Cecil wore a devastated expression.

Since my inability to speak and hear wasn't caused by an injury, it was impossible for Cecil's blessing to fix it. In the game, too, the fact that I couldn't speak or hear existed as a debuff skill rather than as a debuff in Lumia's status-effect window, which made that clear.

Cecilia looked down for a moment, then carefully pulled me into her arms and met my gaze.

Perhaps hoping I would understand by reading her lips, she slowly mouthed that she was sorry she couldn't understand me. The Hero behind her also explained that Cecilia was apologizing to me.

At this point, there was no way I could fail to understand.

I gave an awkward smile and shook my head.

As expected of the Saintess, tears were already welling up in her eyes.

I raised my hand and wiped the tears from the Saintess's eyes.

.

.

.

.

I felt bad for Lumia, but I had something to discuss with the Saintess privately. After asking her to excuse me, I took a side path. Even as I left, I kept turning to look back toward Lumia, just in case, and ended up getting smacked by Cecilia, who had been behind me.

“So? What could be so important that you had to come all the way out here to talk privately? She can't even properly hear our conversation anyway, so there was no reason to come all the way here..”

“She can hear my voice just fine.”

“Huh?”

“She can hear only my voice clearly.”

At my words, Cecilia stared blankly, turned around to look toward where Lumia was, then looked back at me.

“What does that..”

“I mean exactly what I said. Lumia can hear only my voice. I don't know why, though.”

I can make a pretty good guess.

I knew about the existence of the vicious curse that had stolen Lumia's throat and ears—and, although she never let it show, her eyes as well.

Of course, perhaps because the curse was weaker there than elsewhere, she wasn't blind.

“Hmm..”

Cecilia made an enigmatic expression, shifted her gaze back and forth between Lumia and me, and let out a subtle laugh. I didn't know what she was thinking, but when the Cecilia from before her return made that expression and those gestures, it meant she was having improper thoughts.

“What are you thinking so hard about..”

“You like that girl, don't you?”

“..?”

Uh..?”

“W-what are you talking about..”

“Honestly.. Anyone would notice, wouldn't they? From the moment we met, you've been looking at her with such worried, adoring eyes, and just now, when I called Lumia a quiet girl, you immediately bristled and corrected me in a voice full of hostility.”

“...”

Did I really do that..?

When I looked at Cecilia with a flustered expression, she started giggling, apparently unable to hold it in any longer.

“Even if I've been confined here all my life, I can still read the room that well, you know?”

“...”

I had nothing to say in response.

Come to think of it, everything she had just mentioned was something I'd done moments earlier.

It was true that I'd been staring only at Lumia, worried about her, since before entering the Holy Kingdom. It was also true that I'd gotten upset when Cecilia called her quiet. What if Lumia had also noticed that I liked her?

I'd intended to make Lumia fall in love with me first, but instead, I was the one..

I lowered my head silently.

“You don't have to be so embarrassed. You can like someone. Of course, secretly bringing me out here to talk separately is minus a hundred points. Our Hero really doesn't understand women's hearts at all.”

Cecilia said this while chuckling and lightly patting my back.

Yes, if it were an ordinary unrequited love, she might think that.

Should I tell her?

That I had returned?

About the future?

‘Please.. Hero.. Don't go back..’

‘Why.. do you care about Lumia that much..’

“...”

I..

I clenched my teeth.

I had returned to save Lumia.

I couldn't waver here.

From the very beginning, I had to put up a wall so that Cecilia could never love me or even come to like me. If I didn't, the future—the Hero's party, made up of Lumia, Cecilia, Ruril.. and me—would be headed for ruin.

“Cecilia.”

“What? I told you, you can call me Cecil..”

When I called her Cecilia, she looked at me as if I had hurt her, but froze the moment she saw my expression. Perhaps realizing that I was about to speak seriously, she asked what I wanted to say.

Would she believe me?

No, even if she didn't, I had to tell her.

To make sure no one was hurt in whatever future awaited us, it would be better to tell her now. It pained me to think that, after returning to the past, I seemed to be repeating the same mistake, but at least the Cecilia of the present wouldn't be hurt by me this time.

I made up my mind.

“Just know that everything I'm about to tell you is the truth.”

I swallowed hard.

Most people wouldn't have taken this seriously if a Hero they were meeting for the first time that day suddenly started saying something like this, but she listened to me with a genuinely serious expression.

After mulling it over for a long time without being able to say it aloud, I drew the Holy Sword.

To show her irrefutable proof.

“The Holy Sword..?!”

As Cecilia watched me draw the Holy Sword, astonishment slowly spread across her face.

The Holy Sword, which emitted an increasingly intense sword aura of light as I grew stronger,

“It's glowing..?”

was forming a perfect radiance.

The power I still possessed after returning.

It was the level of the soul I possessed as a Hero.

“You.. You are..”

Only then did Cecilia seem to realize that I wasn't an ordinary Hero.

“I.. returned from the future.”

And so I revealed the truth.