Chapter 76
“······Huh?”
Carmilla’s pupils trembled blankly.
For some reason, she seemed surprised.
“Your Highness? Is something wrong?”
I tilted my head and asked.
It felt rather awkward when she froze up the moment I took off the mask.
Perhaps my call brought her back to her senses, because the girl belatedly shook her head.
“Ah··· I-I apologize.”
“Are you all right?”
“I-I was just thinking that you’re quite ordinarily handsome. And you have a surprisingly refined air about you···.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Handsome.
Of course, that wasn’t all there was to it.
Her reaction was too strong for someone who merely found my face attractive.
Carmilla seemed to gauge my reaction, then threw out a question along with an unnecessary cough.
“Ahem, ahem··· That aside, didn’t you say there was no particular reason you wore the mask···?”
“That’s right.”
“No, I mean··· because you have a scar on your face···.”
“Ah.”
Was she worried about the scar on my face?
There was a scar that looked like a burn, stretching from my right cheek to beneath my jaw.
It was fairly large, so Carmilla must have been startled when she first saw it.
“Could it be that you only showed me because I asked you to···?”
The princess mumbled hesitantly.
Could there be another royal in this world with such a kind heart?
She seemed worried that she had forced me to show her an uncomfortable wound.
‘It’s not really a problem.’
I wasn’t particularly fond of showing my bare face, but it wasn’t something I needed to hide from people close to me.
It was more that having my face exposed made me self-conscious.
Even that wasn’t enough to interfere with my daily life.
If I had to give an example, it was like going about daily life without underwear.
“There’s no need to worry so much. I told you I’m fine.”
“Are you certain···? Still, perhaps you were offended, or···.”
“Not at all.”
“I see. That’s a relief, then···.”
It wasn’t as though there were any special story behind the scar, either.
I had simply burned it onto my own skin the moment I was possessed.
Since I had always had one in my previous life, it bothered me for no reason whenever I looked in a mirror.
Of course, if I told her that, she would undoubtedly think I was insane, so I gave Carmilla a vague excuse.
“It’s just a scar I got when I was young.”
“It must have hurt terribly···.”
“I can’t even feel it anymore. It happened so long ago that I don’t remember it well.”
“Even so, isn’t it a shame to have it on such a lovely face? Your parents must have been heartbroken too···.”
“Ah, that part is fine. I was an orphan abandoned at birth, with no one in the world.”
“Oh···.”
Carmilla froze on the spot.
The girl’s gaze wandered, unable to find anywhere to settle.
“Ah, I mean··· I’m sorry···.”
“It’s really all right. I don’t even know what either of them looked like.”
Carmilla fidgeted, then suddenly blurted it out as though choosing to confront the matter head-on.
“I-I have no one either···!”
“Pardon···?”
“I lost all my blood relatives too, so I’m in no different a position from you, Victor! S-so I understand your pain very deeply! Since we understand each other, ours is truly the ideal relationship between sovereign and retainer···!”
Good grief.
What on earth was I listening to right now?
Carmilla’s horrifying self-destructive declaration.
I couldn’t help but feel my head go numb.
‘A mutual trauma dump was a bit much.’
Perhaps she thought she had stepped on a land mine.
She had tried to patch things up somehow, only to short-circuit completely.
Only after repeating several times that it was all right did I manage to calm the rampaging Carmilla.
Stroke, stroke-.
I stroked the girl’s overheated head.
Even as I did so, I turned her words over in my mind.
‘Come to think of it··· all the Slayers are orphans.’
Carmilla’s parents had been executed by her uncle.
I had heard that I was left at an orphanage as a newborn.
Alice had been born in a way that made the existence of parents impossible from the start.
In short, all three of us were orphans.
Thinking about it that way gave me a strange sense of belonging.
Even if we added up all three of our parents, the answer still came out to zero.
‘We added three people, and the number of parents is still zero.’
I decided that from now on, we should only accept orphans as members.
I couldn’t allow this perfect balance to be broken.
Besides, wasn’t it unfair?
A member having more parents than me, the commander of the unit.
‘Unforgivable.’
I even wondered whether we should rename the organization from the Slayers to the Orphans.
That way, non-orphan members who ruined the concept wouldn’t be allowed to join.
I clenched my fist with firm resolve.
And so, while I continued pondering the survival of the organization···
“······.”
I felt a gaze poking repeatedly at my cheek.
Carmilla had been sneaking glances at the scar.
I smiled awkwardly.
“Is it··· rather ugly?”
“What? No! I didn’t think that at all! If anything, it almost looks like a flower, so I thought it was, it was pretty···.”
“Haha, thank you, even if you’re only saying that to be polite.”
“I mean it!”
Of course, my scar wasn’t really all that ugly.
It merely covered one side of my cheek like a stain.
Still, a flower.
That was a compliment I had never heard before.
‘Hmm··· Was it really that bad?’
I wondered if Her Highness was being a little too considerate of me.
Touched by her kindness, I let out a small laugh.
“Ahem.”
The clown mask in my hand.
I put it back on, then rose from the bed.
I straightened my clothes and turned back to the girl.
“Then··· shall we head out soon?”
“Head out? We don’t have any plans to go out today, do we?”
Carmilla tilted her head.
I extended my hand with a meaningful smile.
“There’s something I want to show Your Highness.”
“To me···?”
“You’ll understand when you come with me.”
“······?”
Her red eyes blinked in puzzlement.
***
An hour later.
After passing through several walls, we arrived at a fairly familiar village.
“This place···.”
“That’s right.”
Lunar Eclipse.
The backdrop that had served as the stage for that event.
It was the village where we had stood together against Jersian.
The village was bustling, apparently in the middle of restoration work.
-Hey~ Bring some bricks over here!
-Let’s clear away some rubble! Anyone with nothing to do, come lend a hand!
-Move it carefully···! It’s going to collapse!
The villagers hurried busily back and forth.
Every one of them was either carrying materials or clearing rubble piled up in the streets.
It was completely different from the ominous scenery that had been perfect for the Lunar Eclipse.
“Shall we look around for a moment?”
“······.”
I escorted the dazed Carmilla.
The village was brimming with vitality.
We crossed through the middle of it.
No one among the bustling crowd recognized us.
Neither of us had any intention of standing out, so we had both pulled our robes well over our heads.
-Slowly··· That’s it, pull it just like that!
-Our knights will handle the dangerous work!
Armed soldiers had even been stationed throughout the village.
They stood guard and lent their hands wherever help was needed for the reconstruction.
“Who are they···?”
“They’re the Frontier Knights. I sent word to them again as soon as things were finished this time.”
Once again, I had left the cleanup to Kantas.
It certainly was convenient to have someone else handle the aftermath, even after making such a huge mess.
I also liked that they handled everything without asking questions.
-Kids~ It’s dangerous, so don’t stand around watching. Go on!
-Everyone, eat your lunch before you keep working!
-Good grief··· My back is going to snap, it really is.
-Over here! We need another support beam over here!
Everyday noise.
If we hadn’t stepped forward that day, even this would never have come to pass.
Every one of them would have been sacrificed without leaving behind even a handful of screams.
Our single night had saved them a lifetime.
“Your Highness.”
“······.”
Carmilla had come to a complete stop.
The village was somewhat rough around the edges, but it was unmistakably peaceful.
And her red eyes were etching every part of it into her memory.
A complicated look.
Perhaps because she couldn’t put the feeling into words,
the girl could not bring herself to speak and merely watched the people passing by.
“You said you would set things right.”
I stood beside Carmilla.
I gave her a solemn smile.
-Traitors.
-I will set everything right.
The village had been a mess of blood and ghouls.
The girl had stood at its center, watching the devastation wrought by her own kind.
The look Carmilla had worn then overlapped with the present like an afterimage.
“You did it.”
“······.”
“You saved every last one of them.”
Her upright heart had ultimately broken through the malice.
She had also bestowed the nobility she believed in upon the weak.
The world grew hazy.
The girl bit her lip as though trying to hold something back.
“Victor did most of it, didn’t he?”
“It was a plan that would certainly have failed if Your Highness hadn’t been there.”
“I only received help. I have no right to boast that I saved them···.”
“Your Highness.”
I wanted to show you.
I wanted you to know.
“Didn’t I tell you? I am yours.”
“······.”
“You merely wielded what belonged to you and used it to save them.”
“But···.”
You were not powerless.
You were someone who could stand against injustice instead of running away.
You were someone who could be ashamed of your kind’s corruption and step forward to set things right.
That was why I had chosen you as my master.
“Your Highness accomplished this.”
A person who would rather break than bow.
I wanted to affirm that part of you.
The path of standing against your own kind.
The path of upholding your convictions and your nobility.
I wanted to show you that path had not been wrong.
“Thanks to Your Highness, the village is peaceful. No one was sacrificed. No one shed tears, and no one shed blood. It is all because Your Highness bestowed her nobility upon these people.”
“······.”
Carmilla’s shoulders trembled.
A watery streak ran down her pale cheek.
I carefully reached out and wiped away each falling tear.
Along with one final word.
“Your Highness was not wrong.”
Perhaps,
those were the words she needed most.
“Ugh···.”
Carmilla gave no answer.
Only the faint sound of her muffled sobs lingered.
Even then, the girl’s gaze could not leave the village scenery.
It seemed as though she was trying to remember exactly what it was she wanted to protect.
“Huh···?”
“Brother, are those people···?”
How much time had passed like that?
Two little children suddenly appeared and peered at us from nearby.
“Oh! It really is him? The big brother who saved us that day!”
“Wow··· We meet again!”
They were siblings who looked to be about ten years old.
The first children we had encountered during the Lunar Eclipse.
How had they recognized us?
We had our robes pulled well over our heads.
Fortunately, both of them looked healthy and unharmed.
“Ah···.”
Carmilla flinched and took a step back.
It was understandable, since the children had been extremely wary of her.
-Th-that person over there···! She looks like those monsters from before!
-S-surely not···! A-are you on the same side as those bad monsters?
-Brother, I-I’m scared···.
-Monsters! Get out of our village···!
-Give our mommy and daddy, b-back···!
How cruelly those frightened words must have wounded the girl.
Her shoulders shrank, as though she feared hearing the same things again.
To Carmilla, it was more frightening than blood or blades.
But the children’s response was completely different from what she feared.
“Thank you!”
“Thank you so much···!”
Whoosh-!
The children ran toward us and hugged our legs tightly.
Their small, warm bodies clung to our legs.
Carmilla froze at the unexpected warmth.
Regardless, the children hugged us even tighter.
“They said you two saved us!”
“Daddy suddenly turned all, all strange··· and they said big brother treated him!”
“Big sis fought those really scary-looking monsters, and she got really badly hurt because of it!”
“We were cheering for you too. Big sis was really cool···!”
Chatter-chatter-.
The children chattered away while hugging us.
Before the flustered Carmilla, the young siblings bowed their heads.
“We’re sorry!”
“W-we were wrong···!”
“Huh?”
“We’re sorry we said such mean things that day!”
“You saved our village, b-but··· it kept bothering us···.”
“The grown-ups told us! They said you fought the monsters even while your body was all torn up!”
“Big sis, thank you···.”
The siblings clung to her, overflowing with gratitude.
Though surprised, Carmilla accepted the children’s embrace.
“Ah··· I-it’s all right! I wasn’t bothered by it at all···.”
She held the children in her arms.
She pretended to be strong, but the tears in her eyes grew thicker.
Carmilla struggled to swallow her sobs, then accepted their apology.
I watched the scene with a pleased smile.
‘Come to think of it··· they heard about Carmilla’s part too.’
That was strange.
There was no way they could have seen Carmilla’s heroics near the cathedral, though.
And they said they were watching and cheering? Weren’t these kids sleeping in one corner of the market?
While I mulled over those questions, the children suddenly held something out in front of us.
“It’s nothing special, but··· th-thank you for everything!”
“We made them ourselves! Please accept them!”
Rings.
They looked like rings woven from blades of grass.
“Thank you···.”
“Oh my, thank you.”
We carefully accepted one each.
They had a charming appearance.
The children’s innocent show of sincerity could not help but move us.
As I examined the ring closely, a blue screen suddenly appeared in my field of vision.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the hidden quest ‘Spirit’s Favor’!]
[You have acquired the item ‘Thicket Ring (A-)’!]
“······What?”
The notification came without warning.
The message from the status window pointed to the ring in my palm.
Ding-!
[Thicket Ring]
-Classification: Accessory
-Grade: A-
-Condition: Imperfect
-Description: This ring was given directly by the twin spirits [Selimin & Selipin], who guarded the surrounding area. Within limited environments, it allows the wearer to receive the favor of the spirits. When used together with the ‘Ring of Wind (A-)’ received alongside it, a special skill becomes available.
“Pardon?”
I could do nothing but freeze blankly.
The hand holding the ring trembled.
No.
Why is this ridiculously overpowered item popping up here···?