Divorce (10)
“Wh-what…?”
When I called her shameless, Daphne looked thoroughly flustered.
“You clearly said you would divorce me—”
“That’s right. I’m going to get you and my father divorced, and then match you with Meursault. I won’t break that promise.”
“But just now… didn’t you say we were sh-shameless?”
“That’s also right. It means the two of you can’t just sit quietly waiting for a happy ending to fall into your laps. A moment ago you asked if all of this was really necessary…”
I deliberately let a sneer curl my lips as I went on.
“If I hadn’t gone this far, the two of you would have stood still forever. Just like the way you were pushed into marrying my father. Just like the way Meursault only ever watched you marry another man.”
“……”
Daphne seemed to grasp what I was driving at at once; her face flushed with what looked like embarrassment.
Honestly, until now I had thought of them as nothing more than NPCs, so handing the divorce over to me hadn’t struck me as particularly shameless. Players existed to clear the quests NPCs handed them, after all.
But once I realized Luna Moon had been my mother—and that the Safe Zone was a game reconstructing everything she had seen and heard—they began to look different. The thought that they were living people started to take root, little by little.
So of course Daphne and Meursault ought to feel ashamed. For all I knew, their negligence was part of why my mother had met her death inside this game.
I looked at Daphne for a moment, then spoke again.
“The fortunate part is that at least one of you has already taken a step forward. You seem to know it yourself—Meursault isn’t the type who would pull a stunt like that just because I ordered him to.”
That much was true.
Meursault had resisted for a moment, calling it madness, but once he recognized his own shamelessness he had gone and prepared a proposal all on his own. I hadn’t expected him to set up something like a heart of candles if left to his own devices… but at least kneeling in the rain hadn’t been part of my orders.
Daphne no longer looked as if she resented me.
“You look like you’ve understood well enough… so I’ll ask again. What should we do? Shall I send Meursault away?”
“……”
Instead of answering, Daphne rose from her seat and walked outside. Rather than follow her, I leaned against the window and looked down.
“Meursault…”
Kneeling in the rain, Meursault at first thought he had misheard. He had never imagined that the highborn lady he adored would walk out into this downpour without even an umbrella, stop in front of him, and speak his name.
He was only staying here because he believed it was the proper thing to do—not because he actually expected Daphne to come out and answer his proposal.
“D-Daphne…!”
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
Of course, the first words from Daphne’s mouth were not an acceptance of his proposal.
“Even if Heydam wanted this…! You should have kept to the proper order.”
“The proper order…”
Meursault rose and shielded the top of her head with his palm. It hardly kept the rain off—they were still standing in it—but he wanted to do it all the same.
“Is it truly necessary to keep to that order?”
“What?”
“Must one divorce before proposing? Couldn’t one propose first and divorce afterward?”
“What kind of—”
She had apparently expected something sensible from Meursault; Daphne stood there blankly for a moment, then furrowed her brow.
“Even you, Meursault? Stop talking nonsense!”
“I said the same thing at first. But I was told that marriage is madness by nature.”
“That isn’t—”
“So I’m sorry, Daphne.”
Meursault held out the ring in his other hand.
“If you wouldn’t mind… would you join me in this madness?”
“…You’re not seriously calling that a proposal.”
“Wouldn’t Pendleton be a cuter surname than Goodman?”
“That is truly the worst proposal I have ever heard…”
“I apologize.”
“What makes you so shameless as to propose like this? Did Heydam tell you I would accept if you did?”
“But Daphne—you walked all the way out here through the rain and are standing right in front of me, aren’t you?”
A faint smile touched Meursault’s lips.
“Seeing you here, I find myself thinking that madness isn’t so bad after all. What about you, Daphne? Walking all this way… weren’t you a little hopeful?”
“……”
When Daphne only stared at him without answering, Meursault flinched and flushed.
“Ah—o-of course, with the rain, you may simply have felt damp and unpleasant—”
“Do you know something, Meursault?”
“Ah—w-what is it, Daphne?”
“It isn’t raining behind you.”
“…Pardon?”
Only then did Meursault look over his shoulder—and go thoroughly pale. Clear sky stretched out behind him. If he had taken even a single step back—if he had turned around even once—he would never have needed to stand in the rain for dozens of minutes.
He muttered in a hollow voice.
“The abnormal weather lately must be leaving aftereffects… wha—?!”
He never finished the thought. Daphne had thrown her arms around his neck and was hanging from him.
“D-Daphne! What if people see—!”
“Is that something a man who proposed in front of everyone should be saying?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
With his ears scarlet to the tips and no idea what to do with himself, Meursault found Daphne watching him from a distance where their noses nearly touched. She murmured,
“Yes. That’s right. This is why you were my favorite.”
“…Pardon?”
Daphne let him go and smoothed her wet hair as she spoke.
“I have to go see Hayden now, so you should head back as well.”
“Ah… then…”
Taking her words for a rejection, Meursault started to lower his head—only for Daphne to continue.
“I can’t agree that Pendleton is cuter, but I can hardly keep the same surname as Hayden, so Pendleton it is.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’ll go get divorced and come back. Come hell or high water.”
“Th-then you mean you’re accepting my proposal—?!”
Meursault’s face brightened for a moment, then he suddenly caught himself and asked in an uneasy voice,
“…You aren’t about to walk in on His Excellency and demand a divorce right now, are you? I, ah—I actually left my post without authorization—”
“I never said I was the one who would come hell or high water.”
“No—D-Daphne!!”
Watching her sprint toward the commander’s residence with surprisingly solid form, Meursault thought that today might well become the anniversary of his death.
It had turned into an unseasonable romance fantasy, but the commander accepted Daphne’s demand for divorce with surprising readiness.
He did hold Meursault accountable for leaving his post without permission, though.
Was Daphne’s heart truly what mattered most to him all along?
If she had asked first, the divorce would have been easy. The reason she had been so terrified of it was that she believed losing her power would mean losing Meursault’s affection as well—because she thought what Meursault wanted was her background.
He always said his dream was to marry the noblest woman in the Zone, so it’s understandable.
But Meursault had proposed on her doorstep fully prepared to watch every scrap of status he had built collapse—even if it meant earning Hayden’s wrath. That was what moved Daphne’s heart.
Of course, that candle-heart event could have cooled a thousand-year love… but the rain that happened to fall at just the right moment snuffed every flame and somehow made the whole thing even more pathetic. The fact that careful, deliberate Meursault had made such an irrational choice without even the sense to get out of the rain seemed to have been more than enough for Daphne to feel his sincerity.
Anyway, this business will have put me on the commander’s bad side, so I’d better keep my head down for a while.
Thinking as much, I reached for the office doorknob, intending to soothe the commander’s mood—when a languid voice drifted out from inside.
“I never imagined Daphne had feelings for you as well.”
“How many children do you plan to have?”
Huh?
I let my hand slip slowly off the knob.
From within came Meursault’s voice, sounding every bit as rattled as I felt.
“Pardon? Ch-children…?”
“You aren’t planning on none, I trust? A child who took after both you and Daphne would surely be exceptional.”
Is he…
…asking the man who just divorced his wife how many children he planned to have with her?
“W-we haven’t even held a formal ceremony yet. N-no—more to the point, children aren’t something I can decide alone, are they? Of course, any child of Daphne’s would be exceptional in every way, but—!”
Meursault seemed to be rambling, unable to hide his dismay.
Is this… some kind of hazing?
But the commander wasn’t the sort to hold a grudge once he had decided on a divorce. His calm voice continued.
“Naturally it is something to decide together with Daphne. But surely you have some ideal number of children in mind yourself?”
“H-hmm…”
Meursault seemed to think for a moment, then offered a careful answer.
“A… about one, I should think.”
“One? Unexpected. I thought you were fond of children.”
“Me, sir?”
“You get along so well with Heydam.”
“Ah… put that way, I don’t think I’m particularly fond of children after all.”
Excuse me?
A low laugh came from inside, followed by another question.
“One child, then… Very well. Would you prefer that child to be a son, or a daughter?”
Hearing it like this, it almost sounds like a relative grilling someone at a holiday dinner…
There was only curiosity in the commander’s voice—not a shred of malice—so Meursault seemed to relax; his answers came faster.
“A daughter who took after Daphne would be ideal.”
“Good. An excellent answer.”
I had no idea what about it pleased him so much, but the commander sounded thoroughly satisfied.
“That’s a promise, Meursault.”
“A promise, sir?”
Meursault echoed him, puzzled.
“Forgive me… what do you mean?”
“That when you marry, you will have only one daughter who resembles Daphne.”
A chill had entered the voice that had been so mild a moment before.
“I will not permit any more than that.”
So that’s why he was so persistent about children…
He must have been worried that Daphne and Meursault’s offspring would one day threaten my position. A reasonable warning for a commander to issue, but…
Hearing it firsthand doesn’t exactly put me at ease.
Meursault, for his part, showed no particular offense and answered plainly.
“I understand your meaning. You need not worry. I have already sworn my loyalty to you—and I intend to swear it to Lord Heydam as well.”
Meursault…
He might be a madman who went and married his superior’s wife in the end, but damn if he didn’t have integrity.
I thought the conversation would wrap up on that warm note—then an unexpected remark slipped from the commander’s mouth.
“Come to think of it, you promised to find Heydam a partner, didn’t you?”
“You knew about that, sir?”
Of all things for that conversation to reach the commander’s ears.
“With your permission, I would like to find Lord Heydam a suitable match.”
“I trust you would find a child worthy of Heydam. Of course…”
The commander’s voice turned warm.
“Even if it were your child with Daphne, I would welcome it. Your children would hardly be strangers to us.”
“Your Excellency…”
…Wait. What?
Why is the conversation going that way?
Absolutely not!
If I didn’t stop this now, I was going to become the protagonist of My Girlfriend Hasn’t Been Born Yet.
Steeling myself to throw open the office door and reveal that I had been eavesdropping—
“Absolutely not.”
Meursault’s firm voice cracked down like a thunderbolt.
“…What did you say?”
“Why would I give my daughter to a cold-blooded man like Lord Heydam…? Why would I?”
…Meursault, you bastard?