Chapter 56
An uneasy silence settled over the prince's hideout.
Tarmin sensed someone's gaze and turned around.
A cluster of portraits covering one side of the wall stared back at him.
As he studied the figures in them, he soon realized why his eyes had been wandering.
Contrary to his expectations, the gathering of comrades who had once watched each other's backs was cold enough to freeze his blood.
Tarmin, who had been vaguely reminiscing about their adventures, looked bewildered and called out to Enya.
“Uh, Enya?”
Enya didn't answer. With a cold gaze fixed on the prince, she said,
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. Why didn't you explain it to Tarmin?”
“Explain what?”
Enya's curt reply held an unmistakable edge that even Tarmin could sense.
So Tarmin nervously looked back and forth between the two.
Rather than getting angry or asking if she knew already, the prince calmly said,
“Enyaril Benoa, how could the Hero, who was so close to becoming complete, get drunk? How did you end up like this? Why haven't you told your friend anything?”
Enya now wore an unmistakably wary expression.
The prince paused briefly, then continued.
“What was at the end of the final labyrinth? What happened to the Demon King's trial? What about the Witch Eldona's deal? Your private audience with the Emperor? The sacred forest?”
Every topic the prince brought up was something Tarmin didn't know about.
Enya looked at Tarmin with trembling eyes.
He wanted to give her an encouraging look, but the expression on Tarmin's face was decidedly ambiguous.
Overwhelmed by anxiety, he wasn't sure what emotion to show.
Wasn't he the one who had contacted the prince and drawn him into this in the first place?
Had he stirred up a hornet's nest and brought this anger upon himself for nothing?
The prince's words hurt so much that Tarmin couldn't help regretting it.
Even though they were about the things he wanted to know.
While Tarmin hesitated over whether to intervene, Enya managed to speak.
“There are things in this world you don't need to know, right? It's all over now, so no one needs to sacrifice themselves anymore.”
“Are you sure it's over? I heard the centaurs pursued you. Tarmin fought them to protect you without knowing how any of it would turn out. That's truly cruel…”
“…What would you know!”
Enya suddenly shouted.
The prince looked at Enya with an expressionless face.
Enya's red eyes blazed like fire.
A look of defiance, or perhaps anger, appeared on her face.
In the silence that returned, Enya closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
When she opened them a moment later, a cold sneer tugged at her lips.
Just as Tarmin thought he didn't like that chilly smile.
“Prince, no, Emin Samia Akhraba.”
Enya called the prince by name. The prince answered slowly.
“…It's been a long time since you called me that.”
Ever since the Hero and the hunter had met the prince during their journey, “Your Highness” had been enough in most situations.
Perhaps because of that, simply calling him by name in this tense moment seemed to create a terrible distance between them.
“You must have received quite a few blessings from me, Prince Emin.”
“Mm.”
“And yet, I take it the fight against the Empire's annexationists isn't going well? Judging by the fact that you've even set up a hideout like this?”
“It certainly isn't easy.”
“Hmph, so that's why you're trying to drag Taal into this, isn't it? You need Tarmin's—Alchin's bow. To restore the lost hound bloodline.”
“That's not the only reason. Tonight…”
“Are you sure? You came to the Empire for that very purpose in the first place, didn't you?”
The prince failed to finish his sentence and let out a long sigh.
Enya was looking at him as if he were no longer a comrade, but an enemy.
More than the truth the Hero was laying bare, her attitude toward their comrade pained Tarmin.
Tarmin looked at the prince with suspicion in his eyes.
The prince answered Tarmin with a faint smile.
“You're not entirely wrong, Tarmin.”
The prince was saying that their meeting might not have been a coincidence.
Enya grew even more animated and spoke sharply.
“So you admit it! Did you hear that, Taal? He didn't join our party to save the world. It was all an ugly act. Whatever he told you earlier, it was all to lure you in…”
“That's enough!”
Unable to watch her continue speaking with such venom, Tarmin cut her off.
Enya stared at him in surprise.
Tarmin took a deep breath, then—
“I'm sorry, Your Highness. Please let me apologize on her behalf.”
He bowed toward the prince.
“T-Taal?”
Enya cried out in shock.
**
The prince accepted Tarmin's apology.
He watched the two of them quietly for a moment, then smiled and stood up.
“It seems you two have things to discuss, so I'll go get something to eat. Tonight calls for something sweet rather than alcohol.”
“Thank you.”
Even after the prince left the reception room and the door closed, the two continued glaring at each other.
Tarmin was the first to break the silence. With a stern expression, he reproached Enya.
“I'm disappointed in you, Enya. What kind of way is that to talk to His Highness? Apologize when he comes back.”
Enya, of course, was so indignant she nearly leapt up.
“Taal! Didn't you hear what I said? The prince didn't meet us by coincidence…”
“So he had another motive. What's wrong with that? I went along hoping to improve my own lot, too. Who would set out to save the world from the start, unless they were a Hero?”
Enya fell silent, and Tarmin's expression grew even more serious.
Though he'd said it in order to defend the prince, it was half true.
His main reason had been to help Enya, but he deliberately kept that to himself so he could scold her.
“Just so you know, His Highness hasn't said a word to me yet about what happened while I was gone. I think he guessed you'd hate hearing it.”
“…”
“If he wanted to tell me when we were alone, why would he bring you here and ask what you thought? Do you still think His Highness is putting on an act?”
Even if what Enya said was true, Tarmin trusted the prince.
He didn't know what had happened to the Hero's party during the year he'd been gone.
But the time they'd spent together before then was enough.
The prince had been one of the people who fought alongside Enya.
Though he may have had ulterior motives at the start, Tarmin believed that traveling together had given him a new purpose.
It had been a perilous path, after all.
“…I don't know.”
Enya replied, then pressed her lips together and abruptly turned her head away.
She looked adorably sulky, a sight too devastating for Tarmin.
“Urgh, Enya.”
Tarmin groaned softly and squeezed his eyes shut.
He barely restrained the urge to let his stern expression melt and pull Enya into a tight embrace.
The thought of parting with the prince like this, then returning home to soothe a sulking Enya and spend a sweet night together, flitted through his mind.
But Tarmin wanted to protect Enya.
Not only from their enemies, but from Enya herself, who was hiding painful truths.
Wasn't that why he'd sent the prince a letter?
He deliberately set his expression even more stern and thought.
He didn't think Enya truly hated the prince.
Enya was simply afraid of Tarmin learning about the past.
He guessed that was why she'd tried to turn against the prince, who could tell him about it.
This time, Tarmin spoke soothingly.
“Enya, the three of us are just going to reminisce, old comrades. You don't need to be so wary. If there's anything you don't want to hear, just say so.”
He planned to find a way to get her to tell him about the time he'd been away, but there was no need to mention that.
Instead, he spoke in a coaxing voice.
“Enya, for my sake, let's apologize to His Highness together. Then I'll grant you one wish.”
Of course, reminiscing would follow afterward. It was a clever way of putting it.
Enya turned her head.
At the promise that he'd grant her wish, her ears seemed to perk up.
Enya squirmed around for a while, then spoke as if she were doing him a favor.
“Then… I suppose I have no choice.”
“Phew… Thank you.”
Tarmin let out a sigh of relief and slumped.
Watching old comrades at odds with each other was painful even from the sidelines.
Enya also seemed to relax her shoulders, which had been hunched with tension.
And so he let his guard down.
He realized far too late that Enya, thirsty, had picked up the glass on the table and gulped from it.
Tarmin cried out in alarm.
“Enya, that's alcohol!”
“…Oh.”
Enya looked flustered as she held the glass, already half empty.
**
The prince looked at the two of them with considerable amusement.
“You two always manage to surprise me. That's why the journey was never dull. What should I ask first? What a delightful dilemma.”
Unlike the prince, who was smiling broadly, Tarmin looked as if he were on the verge of death.
Keeping an arm around Enya's waist to stop her from sliding off his lap, Tarmin answered one of the prince's questions.
“When Enya… gets drunk, she climbs onto my lap.”
“I see. A Hero who climbs onto your lap and acts coquettishly.”
Tarmin's face turned bright red.
Since Enya wasn't in her right mind, Tarmin alone had to bear all the embarrassment.
Whether he was embarrassed or not, Enya was sprawled all over him, whining.
“Taal, you bastard… You just wanted to hear that so badly…”
“It seems the two of you have developed a slightly… different relationship from the one you had on your adventure, Tarmin?”
“Well… yes.”
Tarmin answered his old comrade, vowing that once Enya came to her senses, he'd give her backside a good smack.
The prince went back out through the door, then returned with a murky-colored drink and handed it to Tarmin.
“It's medicinal liquor. I added a little honey, too. Give it to our Hero.”
Taking the glass, Tarmin deftly supported Enya in his arms.
Seeing Tarmin embrace her slender shoulders with one arm and feed her the medicinal liquor, the prince's smile deepened.
After watching Enya swallow it all without any trouble, the prince spoke.
“I was going to tell you while the Hero was present, but I suppose that's going to be difficult.”
“I'm sorry. I completely let my guard down.”
“No, it's all right. How about we start with something that doesn't require her permission, and wait until she comes to her senses?”
“Please do.”
The prince put a piece of the snack he'd brought into his mouth and was just about to begin speaking when—
“Taal, I need the bathroom…”
Enya, who'd been smacking her lips, whined, and Tarmin's face turned ashen.
*****