Chapter 25
It was nearing noon, but Enya sat alone.
Seeing her, Sigona asked,
“Where did everyone go?”
“Tarmin said he had something to do.”
“Really? What about Mr. Renzo?”
“I don't know.”
Though a few groups of customers sat there besides Enya, the tavern felt a little dreary without Renzo.
Sigona finished wiping down the table and approached her big sister with a puzzled look.
“That's surprising. I can understand your brother being gone, but Mr. Renzo too?”
She thought of the man who had started showing up about a month ago and making himself a regular.
A middle-aged man in thick, exotic clothes, with his hair neatly slicked back.
His sturdy build was imposing, but he was as refined as a gentleman.
He would appear early in the morning and become the tavern's first customer.
He chatted easily with people, and before long, he seemed like part of the tavern.
“Sigona, how are you feeling after coming back?”
“I'm fine.”
“That's good.”
After ending the conversation, Enya gazed out the window, looking immaculate and beautiful.
Sigona thought immaculate was exactly the right word for her.
Her golden bob was cutely tied up on one side, and she wore a neat, long skirt.
Her bright-red eyes, touched by a demonic allure, held an indescribable elegance.
She could feel people stealing glances at Enya.
But they would never know.
Despite her adorable appearance, Enya was the Hero who had saved her, wielding a shining sword.
No lifetime would be enough to repay that debt.
It hurt to see Enya sitting there so lonely.
“You're not obligated to come only to our place. Are you all right being alone, big sister?”
Though neither Tarmin nor Renzo was there, Enya had kept her usual seat by the window again today.
Enya looked at Sigona as if to ask what she meant.
“I have you, don't I?”
It carried a different meaning from the words frivolous men used.
It warmed her heart.
The Hero's words.
She reached out and took both of Enya's hands in hers.
Enya's hands were slender and small.
Enya looked at her in surprise, caught by the hands.
“Sigona?”
“Big sister.”
“What's wrong? Oh.”
Seeing Sigona's overwhelmed expression, she shook her head.
“There's no need to be so moved. That thing happened, right? I can't sense Elinol's power myself, so I'm sorry to you, the person involved, but I had to use the holy sword… Ahem.”
She'd inadvertently said holy sword, then looked around cautiously to see if anyone had heard.
“…Anyway, I just muddled through and smashed the problem flat, so we need to keep an eye on how things develop.”
Though she said not to be moved, the way she answered so casually, as if it were nothing, only moved Sigona again.
“If anything, I'm sorry I could only solve it this way. We'll have to keep an eye on you for at least another month or two.”
It sounded like she meant to keep looking after Sigona for a while longer.
Sigona crouched down before Enya, clasping her hands tightly as she looked at her.
“Big sister.”
“Hmm?”
“Please let me repay you after all.”
After what had happened at the festival, Sigona had told Enya she would repay her somehow.
If necessary, she was even prepared to sell the tavern to repay her debt.
Enya had steadfastly refused, saying she'd only saved a friend.
This time, too, she was ready to shake her head as soon as Sigona brought up repayment.
“Sigona, I've told you before. I'm really fine.”
“I'm not fine.”
“Huh?”
“If you go home without letting me do anything, I don't think I'll be able to sleep properly. So please let me do something, anything.”
“B-But still…”
Enya tried to pull away awkwardly, but their hands were clasped, so she couldn't retreat.
Sigona looked up at Enya pleadingly.
“What about a gift instead of repayment?”
“A gift?”
“Yes. A gift from a younger sister to her big sister. …Would that be all right?”
At the half-forced suggestion, Enya finally let out a little laugh.
Seeing her brighten, Sigona watched as Enya nodded.
“All right. If it'll put your mind at ease.”
Sigona smiled broadly.
“So what kind of gift is it?”
Sigona's joy faded as she fell into thought again.
There was no way Enya would accept money or anything valuable.
Just then, beneath the hands she was holding, she noticed the long skirt Enya was wearing.
As far as Sigona knew, Enya always wore long skirts and shirts that covered her whole body.
It was winter, so there was nothing wrong with wearing long clothes, but it seemed a shame with such clear skin.
“Sigona, I said I'd accept, but I'm not taking anything expensive.”
Sigona's eyes lit up as she said,
“Go shopping with me!”
“Shopping?”
Enya's eyes went round.
**
After sending Enya, who had followed him outside, back to the tavern, Tarmin walked with the man.
When Enya asked who he was, Tarmin brushed it off, saying he knew him.
Enya seemed a little curious, but didn't make things difficult for Tarmin.
He'd originally planned to talk inside his cabin, but the man insisted they go somewhere deserted.
As they walked between the houses on the outskirts of Quaalid, Tarmin kept looking at the man whenever they reached a place that seemed suitable, but the man didn't open his mouth.
After repeating that several times, Tarmin gave up and was about to head elsewhere when the man finally let out a long sigh.
“Phew. That was Benoa, wasn't it? I was nervous.”
Tarmin stopped and looked at the man in the black scarf, feeling deflated.
In an unnamed alley in western Quaalid, a place where even Tarmin could lose his way, the man wiped sweat from his brow.
“Did we really have to walk all this way just for you to say that? Were you afraid the Hero might hear?”
The man took a small pouch from inside his clothes and sprinkled sparkling white powder in a circle.
“That's one reason. This should also protect us from magical tracking.”
“I've seen that before. More importantly, what could be so secret that you have to go this far? Besides, even if Enya heard us,”
“Aren't you a little too fearless?”
“Huh? What exactly do you mean?”
“If it were me, I wouldn't live next door to someone who could kill me like a bug.”
His words were so absurd that the anger came a little late.
Treating a person like a monster.
He huffed for a while to keep himself from swearing, then said,
“Don't say things like that, would you?”
The man flinched and lowered his head.
“I'm sorry. I was only supposed to deliver a reply. You were a member of the Hero's party, too. That was uncalled for.”
Tarmin clenched his teeth, suppressing anger he hadn't felt in a long time.
A different tension ran through him from the one he'd felt when facing Sigona after she'd become a mad werewolf.
A moment ago, Tarmin had even considered refusing to hear the Witch's reply.
After giving up adventuring, he'd lived as if detached from the world, but in the end, he was his father's son.
He remembered what had happened to the poacher who'd insulted his mother.
The man raised his bowed head and spoke slowly.
“I'm one of the Witch's hands. If you remember this scarf, you can contact the Witch faster than by sending a letter. I was instructed to make contact if you mailed her a letter.”
The man didn't know the Hero had lost her power and grown weak.
Even as one of the Witch's hands, he didn't seem to know everything.
He was merely someone who delivered the Witch's message.
Realizing that, Tarmin's anger eased a little.
Enya was the Hero.
Even if she hadn't grown weaker, she wouldn't harm an innocent person.
In the place where his anger had passed, an unpleasant feeling remained, like soot.
“I'm sorry, too. But then, did the letter not reach the Witch?”
Tarmin's letter was probably still being carried in a courier's wagon.
“The Witch said she could already guess what you'd write.”
He had nothing to say.
Still, he'd spent three or four hours writing the letter, so he was a little disappointed.
The man in the scarf cleared his throat a few times, then said,
“Ahem. Then I'll pass on her words. The Witch Eldona says that she is friends with Tarmin Alchin, but also with Enyaril Benoa. So she can't tell one friend something the other friend doesn't want her to know.”
Tarmin sighed, but soon understood the circumstances.
A wise Witch would have guessed why he'd sent a letter to someone far away instead of asking the woman next door.
“Is that all?”
“The rest is the Witch's prophecy for Tarmin Alchin. She said she'd collect the fee later.”
Tarmin frowned.
“A Witch's prophecy is practically a curse, isn't it?”
He'd received the Witch's prophecies several times during their adventures.
They were always half-true in unpleasant ways, so they felt more like curses than prophecies.
“You are free to hear it. Will you?”
He remembered that phrase about being free, too.
But there was no other choice.
Tarmin had been the one to scout the road during their adventures, but the Witch was the one who chose their direction.
They had defeated the greatest evil, and the Hero had returned home.
Could they simply spend a pastoral life in Quaalid from now on?
Could he just put a period to the story with They lived happily ever after?
Enya's changed appearance and her inexplicable illness.
Tarmin steeled himself and looked at the man.
“I'll hear it.”
The man spoke without hesitation.
“The Hero must die in Quaalid.”
The soot was spreading.
**
Looking at Sigona, who was carrying paper bags in both hands, Enya sighed.
“I really think we should go back and return these…”
“What are you talking about? I already made a lot of concessions.”
Enya now understood why the tavern clothes she'd worn had been so distinctive.
It was entirely Sigona's doing, the tavern's owner.
During the two or three hours of shopping, Enya had been dragged around by Sigona and reduced to a living clothes rack.
“Why wear tights with a short skirt when you could just put on a long one?”
“That's how you get to show off your legs.”
“Show them off…”
Even thinking about it made her hair stand on end.
She couldn't imagine facing Tarmin in the clothes she'd bought today.
The only thing she liked was the big blue coat she'd bought for winter; she thought most of the rest would never leave her closet.
As if reading her mind, Sigona said,
“Should I check that you actually wear them?”
Enya looked at Sigona miserably.
“Sigona…”
Sigona chuckled.
“I'm kidding. But you said you wore the tavern clothes just fine, didn't you?”
“Those were a uniform.”
“Huh?”
It was a matter of purpose.
Wearing a uniform to work at the tavern was fine, but wearing clothes that showed her limbs with the intention of showing off was a different matter.
Sigona shook her head as if she couldn't understand.
“I'm too big for clothes like these. I'm jealous of you, big sister.”
“You don't need to be jealous. Taal praises you all the time.”
“Really?”
Just then—
“Are you Benoa?”
As the two chatted and turned off the main street into an alley, a man blocked their way.
He wore ordinary clothes, but his neatly cropped brown hair and sturdy build stood out.
Enya instinctively recognized him as someone trained.
“Who are you? If you come any closer, I'll scream.”
The man ignored Sigona and strode toward them.
“So it was true that you'd gotten weaker? Come with us. We'll protect you.”
The man grabbed Enya's arm without hesitation.
Enya groaned as she was seized by his powerful grip.
“That hurts.”
The man seemed a little dim-witted and belatedly said, “Oh, right.”
“Ah, who we are is—”
The man's words never made it to the end.
With a crack, he flew more than ten meters and rolled along the ground.
Enya looked back at Sigona, stunned.
Sigona stood there, bewildered, unable even to lower the leg she'd thrust out.
“H-Huh?”
***