Chapter 14
"Ultos-sama!"
One day, Liera came rushing into my room in an unusual panic.
"Congratulations. It seems your father and mother will be returning."
"Ah, it's already that time of year?"
I answered while reading a book on magic at my desk.
I forgot to mention, but Kuzutos's parents—Kuzutos's father and mother—were pretty decent people. Ever since monsters had become more active, they'd been traveling all over their domain and the country.
As a result, their son had started saying all sorts of ridiculous things, like how he couldn't even walk around the manor unless a cute maid held his hand...
"And they've sent a letter suggesting we take a trip as a family to a nearby town for the first time in ages!"
"Oh?"
It was pretty unusual. Kuzutos-kun, who claimed he couldn't walk around the manor unless a cute maid held his hand, hardly ever left it, of course.
And since I didn't want to stand out too much for the sake of my background-character life, I hadn't even tried going outside.
"So, how far are we going?"
"Lyon."
"—Lyon?"
Someone should praise me for keeping my composure in that moment.
"Y-yes... That's right."
I fired question after question at Liera, who answered with a puzzled expression.
"Lyon. That's a town, right? Were there any villages nearby?"
"Umm... I think there were a few scattered around."
"What are my father and mother planning to do in Lyon?"
"They said they'd like to have a meal and introduce you to some influential people in the city of Lyon."
"I see," I replied briefly.
I took a breath and steadied myself.
Lyon.
It was the name of a town that every Last Arcanum player had heard at least once.
It was the starting town.
About ten years before the original story began, an incident occurred in that town.
That incident would lead the protagonist, Sieg, to enroll at the academy and drive one of the main heroines to seek strength,
and, above all, set Kuzutos on an even faster descent into scummery.
Kuzutos and his parents, all going to Lyon together.
I was certain this was connected to that event.
...This isn't good.
Yeah, this is really not good.
I raised my head from the book and stared at Liera.
"...Liera."
"What is it, Ultos-sama?"
Perhaps she'd sensed that my demeanor had turned serious. Liera straightened her back and looked at me with earnest eyes.
"Call Enrique. Tell him I need his help with something."
"Gladly."
"And make sure no one else is around."
"Understood."
I gave the kneeling maid a quiet, "Please."
"Young master, are you in your right mind...?"
"Yeah, of course."
As soon as Enrique was summoned to my room and heard what I had to say, he clutched his head.
To put it simply, I laid out everything about the event.
As expected, the shocking revelation that had come out of nowhere made Enrique's face contort.
"I have one question."
After saying that, Enrique raised his hand.
"For starters, assuming what you say is true and something like that really does happen,
—why aren't you asking the people around you for help?"
Enrique's question was only natural.
True, if I told my parents, for example, about the incident that was about to happen, we might be able to resolve it more easily.
But.
"Do you think they'd believe me? Besides, the more widely the information spreads, the more trouble it'll cause," I shot back.
"Well, that's true," Enrique agreed bitterly.
"It'd be dangerous if that much information got out..."
More than that, though, the biggest reason I didn't tell anyone else was simply that I didn't want people making a fuss.
—What I wanted was an ordinary life. Normal. Decent. A background character.
And not just any old background character.
Pretending to be a background character while getting involved in the original story???
I'm afraid that's a hard no.
My life's goal was to remain completely unnoticed in the original story and settle into the role of an ordinary, run-of-the-mill male student A who knew the protagonist.
That was why my Kuzulesse Oblige plan was still in progress.
I didn't want to stick my neck into some huge incident like that, especially not as a child.
"But honestly, this is quite a gamble," Enrique said, his face twisting.
For all his faults, he had common sense, so I figured he was worried about me.
"Young master. Why go to such lengths? Why go out of your way to cross such a dangerous bridge...?"
His gaze, sharp despite his former F-rank status, pierced through me.
"'Why go to such lengths,' huh?"
A smile escaped me. I looked Enrique straight in the eye.
I matched Enrique's resolve with my own.
The answer was obvious, wasn't it? I replied.
Because...
"—Because it's my duty."
I was trying to sound cool, but I meant it more or less.
"So... it's your duty?" Enrique gasped.
Not that it mattered, but this guy was a pretty good actor.
Wouldn't he be better suited to acting than adventuring?
Thinking about something completely unrelated, I launched into my answer.
"Yeah. I'll do what I must. What I'm supposed to do—the obvious thing."
I declared it firmly, brimming with resolve.
No, I mean, if I don't do something about this event, I'll eventually get my comeuppance and die...
And the protagonist, with the heroine I'd had my eye on at his side, will give me a satisfying beatdown...
"Wha—!!" Enrique's eyes widened again at my answer.
His expression was incredibly convincing.
As Enrique began wearing an oddly serious expression, I wondered about something completely unrelated: shouldn't this guy really pursue acting?