Chapter 57
They resumed their conversation a little while later.
There had been quite a commotion: Tarmin had put Enya, who was drunkenly whining and babbling, in the bathroom and waited, only for her to pass out inside. He’d had to carry her out on his back.
Carrying someone unconscious, with their arms and legs hanging limp, was no easy task.
By the time Tarmin staggered into the reception room, exhausted, the prince had brought over some blankets and was making a place for them on the sofa.
The red glow of the fireplace, which had been lit at some point, warmly illuminated the reception room.
The crackle of dry branches burning filled the room with a cozy atmosphere, so different from the tense one that had prevailed just moments earlier.
The prince shrugged, then sat on the sofa opposite them, wrapped a blanket around himself, and said,
“The night looks like it’ll be a long one, so I thought we could talk in comfort. Or do you not trust me, either, like Enyaril? Are you afraid you might fall asleep beside me?”
“Haha. Of course not. Then I’ll impose on you for the night.”
Tarmin managed a tired smile as he supported Enya with one hand and straightened out a spot for them with the other.
The prince watched the two of them and chuckled before asking,
“Want me to help?”
“If you were going to help, why didn’t you do it earlier? Why wait until we’re all settled?”
“So, you two. When did you start seeing each other? Hm, Tarmin?”
Tarmin’s hands froze for a moment, then started moving again.
“We’re not dating. She’s just crazy about me.”
“Is that so? Are you sure? It’s written all over your face.”
Tarmin was about to shake his head and deny it, but a strange sense of déjà vu stopped him. He asked quietly,
“…Is it really that obvious?”
“You haven’t even admitted it yet?”
“…Yes.”
Come to think of it, his father had teased him mercilessly earlier that day, too.
The prince laughed heartily without a word.
Tarmin had run out of things to say. Just as he lifted the blanket, Enya came to her senses.
He felt the soft body on his back tense, and then heard a clear voice, quite different from her earlier whining.
“P-Put me down.”
Tarmin did as she asked.
Once on her feet, Enya looked momentarily confused about where she was. Then she seemed to remember and glared at the prince with a prim expression.
**
They sat down and began to talk.
Enya pretended not to remember her promise to apologize and tried to expose the prince’s secrets all over again.
“Taal. Remember the day we suddenly turned off the Central Highway onto a side road? Was it Accona’s Blessing? Our schedule got delayed because we went out of our way to get something useless for the journey. That was all part of Prince Emin’s scheme to prepare for the future, too.”
Because of its special nature, Accona’s Blessing only worked on humans.
For the Hero’s party, who were pursued by other races and mostly fought monsters, there was no reason to obtain it.
Ignoring it and following the schedule in the prophecy would have been more helpful to the Hero, but the prince insisted it was necessary and managed to get the blessing anyway.
Not for his companions, but so he could use it in his own country later.
She looked at Tarmin as if to say, Isn’t that terrifying?—but unfortunately for Enya, the men had almost lost interest in her revelation.
The two men were getting tipsy and focusing on a different conversation.
“Taal? Are you listening?”
“I see. So she confessed first?”
“Yes. She showed up all dolled up and begged me to take her to the festival, so I graciously indulged her for a day. That night, she came to me in tears and confessed her feelings. Ha, I was really at a loss.”
“…Taal?”
“Ohooo, and then?”
“First, I wiped the tears from her eyes with my sleeve. I waited for her to stop crying, then told her, ‘I know things are uncertain and unstable right now, but don’t make a choice you’ll regret in haste. Still, I’ll remember your sincere feelings.’”
“…”
Enya stared at the two men, looking utterly dumbfounded.
Before her eyes, the sort of tale that inevitably came out whenever men gathered was unfolding—childish, utterly traditional, and painfully familiar.
Enya understood the psychology of males boasting about their masculinity… No, in fact, she understood it all too well!
But she’d never once imagined in her life that she might be the one getting teased.
As she sat there in silence, Tarmin’s story continued.
He deftly skipped over the times he’d given her reason to hope or reached out to her, portraying Enya as if she’d come all the way to Quaalid just to throw herself into his arms.
“…At last, she used the alcohol as an excuse to throw herself at me. Then she begged me, saying that even if it was a dream that could never come true, couldn’t I at least grant her one sweet night? She came on to me wearing such thin clothes, so I, truly with no other choice, out of pure concern for my friend…”
She listened, trembling, until she could stand no more. Then she sprang up and shouted,
“Stop talking nonsense! You kissed me first!”
Enya’s voice rang through the house.
The two men stared up at her, eyes wide.
Enya charged over, fuming, and grabbed Tarmin by the throat.
Tarmin immediately let out a pained groan.
“Kgh!”
“What was that? You crossed the Empire just to see me? Say that again!”
It wasn’t entirely wrong, but if he put it that way, wouldn’t she sound like some ridiculous lovesick girl?
She had never been so furious about how weak she’d become.
As she shook him back and forth, Tarmin pretended he was choking to death. But then he met the prince’s eyes, and the two of them burst into laughter.
“Heh, pfft—hahaha! Cough, cough!”
It seemed the two of them had found some sort of common ground.
Enya was so annoyed and angry that tears began to well in her eyes.
Just as she was regretting coming along only to be humiliated like this, Tarmin stopped laughing, narrowed one eye, and asked,
“Enya, then was there another reason you came back to Quaalid?”
If there was another reason she’d returned to Quaalid, one that wasn’t to see Tarmin…
“…Huh? Th-that’s, um…”
For a moment, Enya couldn’t find the words and hesitated.
Her anger quickly faded.
Only then did she begin to vaguely understand why Tarmin had launched into such a ridiculous tale.
She glanced at the two men to gauge their reactions.
The prince watched them with interest, raising his glass.
Tarmin looked at Enya with an easygoing expression.
She let go of his throat and tried to step away, but the hunter didn’t miss his chance.
“Enya. Come here.”
The commanding tone made her head spin.
She tried to dodge the arm reaching for her, but realized too late that she’d fallen into a trap.
She felt Tarmin’s large hand slip around her waist, and all the strength drained from her body.
“Haaah.”
Enya let out a weak sigh as Tarmin pulled her into his arms.
By the time she came to her senses, she was pressed close against Tarmin’s side, facing the prince.
Enya cried out in surprise.
“T-Tarmin!”
“Well, Your Highness, you’ve seen it for yourself. This is what she’s like. You already know how stubborn she is, right? Even when I tease her like this, she won’t tell me anything. I’m going out of my mind, too.”
The prince grinned, refilled his glass, and spoke as he chewed on a cookie.
“Hmm, I see. I understand perfectly. Wow, what a sight. It’s almost a shame to keep it to ourselves. I’m tempted to sell tickets. Surely there’s someone somewhere on the continent who’d pay.”
Enya squirmed, trying to escape Tarmin’s arms by any means she could.
“Tarmin! Are you crazy?”
The more she pushed at his side and tried to stand, the tighter his sturdy arm closed around her waist.
Realizing she was only ending up more deeply buried in Tarmin’s arms, she stopped moving and looked at him with trembling eyes.
Tarmin groaned whenever she squirmed, but held on to her firmly.
He frowned at Enya and said,
“Hoooo, this is your punishment, you brat. You just badmouthed His Highness again, didn’t you?”
“N-Nooo…”
“We came here to talk about you today, but you keep changing the subject. Do you want us to stay like this until sunrise?”
Tarmin’s voice was firm.
To keep her from escaping, he’d even pulled the blanket over them both.
Trapped between Tarmin and the blanket, she felt as if her head were about to burst.
This wasn’t the first time she’d been held in his arms, but it was the first time they’d done so in front of someone else.
Was it really all right for Tarmin to let the prince see her like this?
Was it all right to let other people know about their relationship?
The scent coming from Tarmin’s arms made it impossible for her to think straight.
Overwhelmed by the dizzying feeling, she squeezed her eyes shut in Tarmin’s embrace.
Since she wasn’t doing anything, Tarmin seemed to take it as a sign that she’d stopped resisting.
He loosened the arm around her waist and lightly stroked her back, as if praising her.
At the feeling of his fingertips trailing down her back,
Enya let out a sharp moan.
“Ah!”
“Ah, th-that—Ahem! Cough, cough!”
A surprisingly suggestive moan escaped her, and Tarmin, flustered, hurriedly tried to cover it with a cough.
Enya turned away from the prince, buried her face in Tarmin’s arms, and blushed bright red to the tips of her ears.
The prince watched the two of them with a broad smile.
“Want me to give you some privacy?”
“N-No! I think you can go ahead and tell us now!”
“Right, I’d better tell you quickly and then leave you two to it.”
“That’s not what I meant…”
Tarmin trailed off, and Enya hid her face even more.
It was true that she’d reacted sensitively, but Tarmin probably didn’t know what to say.
The prince chuckled and brushed the cookie crumbs from his hands as he sat up straight.
He cleared his throat a few times, seeming to choose his words, then looked at Tarmin and said,
“Looks like the Hero’s awake now, too. Shall we start by talking about the end of the adventure?”
“The end?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You read the prophecy, too.”
“Well, I haven’t looked at it in so long.”
The end of the adventure.
The prince was about to tell him about the final part of the journey that Tarmin hadn’t been able to see through to the end.
Enya listened from beside him and swallowed.
The final chapter of the prophecy begins like this:
“The Demon King fell.”
Tarmin was slowly drawn into the prince’s story.
Enya breathed in short, uneven pants, listening to the rapid thud of his heartbeat.