Karma
Karma
Just as Asilie's emergency treatment was wrapping up, the ones who appeared behind her were familiar knights in black armor and a single male mage.
How did I know he was a mage? He showed up carrying a staff that might as well have been an advertisement reading 'I am a mage,' grandly unfurling a barrier against the rain, so there was no way I couldn't tell.
Given the situation, I was forcing my exhausted, barely-functional head to work, figuring they'd want to pursue the enemies through this darkness and torrential rain, when the mage greeted me with exceedingly polite manners.
"It is an honor to meet the benefactor of Her Highness the Princess. Please, accept this potion first. We can go over the detailed account and circumstances afterward; it won't be too late."
He was a mage who hadn't even properly identified himself, yet with endlessly courteous formality, he assisted in my treatment to the best of his ability, beyond just providing the potion. Though they had clearly come together, Asilie seemed not to grasp the full details, looking somewhat confused about the part where I was the princess's benefactor.
Still, given the circumstances, her maintaining silence showed her experience. I was desperately curious about why exactly Asilie had been summoned too and how they had found me, but I decided to put it off and focus on conveying as much coherent information to them as I could.
By the time I turned my eyes away, sickened by the somewhat chilling sight of my wounds washing clean and flesh knitting together the moment the potion was applied, the mage and knights had already formulated a plan based on the information I'd given them.
"We believe the bastards had no leisure to sow confusion by feeding Sir Ega false information. Even if they split into human and Demonfolk contingents, it's correct to assume they would have considered the possibility of the pursuit squad being annihilated or returning."
"Then we shall trace back along the route Sir Ega described. With luck, we may capture the criminals guilty of high treason."
"I leave it to you. Is there anything requiring magical assistance?"
"The Cat's Eye spell you initially bestowed upon us will suffice. Its duration should prove no issue."
No wonder they moved so well when the only light source around was the spirit Asilie had called. As I watched the knights vanish swiftly after a brief farewell, the mage spoke to me in a deliberately lively voice, as if trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere.
"I imagine you have many questions, but I must ask for your understanding and beg you to endure just a little longer. As you know, Her Highness the Princess, with her fiery temperament, detests waiting above all else. First, I shall open a portal to the city."
Since the one I saved was Esmue, the person he was talking about had to be Esmue too, but the 'fiery temperament' part was really hard to sympathize with. If it were something like the unstoppable momentum of a tank or the vicious cake-murdering hamster side, I could have sympathized.
But putting all that aside, the mere fact that he was a mage who could instantly transport me to the city made me feel like we could become very good friends.
◈
The moment we arrived, I completely let go of the tension and fell asleep as if passing out... was not what happened.
Because I fainted the instant I crossed through the portal and smelled civilization.
By the time I opened my eyes, unable to even walk to my lodgings on my own, I was already in a clean room, wearing clean pajamas, in a completely clean state, and outside the window, bright light... no, a gloomy sky and pouring rain greeted me.
Because of that, I had no sense of how much time had passed. When I turned my head to check my surroundings, the first thing that caught my eye was Asilie looking at me.
Unlike when she'd been drenched in the rain, she was neatly put together now, and looking at her made me feel almost like I was back in the cabin.
"Awake?"
Even though she must have been considerably surprised, Asilie was calm as ever. My body still felt heavy, but sensing I had clearly recovered, I tried to sit up. However, Asilie pressed down on my chest with a gentle but firm hand and spoke.
"No. Stay lying down."
"I don't know what treatment I received while I was asleep, but I'm definitely all healed."
"Only a Saintess could perform such a universal restorative art. And there was no Saintess here. So no."
"It's the truth..."
It seemed the truth of the matter wasn't what was important, so I decided to just quietly follow Asilie's orders. Still, lying completely flat was a bit uncomfortable, so after a compromise of piling up cushions and half-reclining, we were able to share the full accounts of the events the other didn't know.
"So... that tiny child is the Empire's First Princess?"
"Unless the Empire happens to have two princesses with white hair and gold eyes who use an oddly archaic speech style."
"...No, really? That kid is the Iron-Blood Princess?"
Even Asilie knew Esmue's nickname. I honestly hadn't expected that.
"That's what they say. I honestly don't see it."
From my perspective, she was just one hamster containing a headstrong, reckless tendency wrapped in cuteness, but simply from the cascade of events so far and how they were handled, I could easily guess she was no ordinary person.
The idea of realizing that the earring Asilie made me was a paired magical tool with her own earring and using that as a basis to activate a tracking spell was one thing, but when I heard she had personally carried a handwritten letter and moved across the absurd distance from the Empire to the frontier of Itisel to realize that plan, I didn't know whether to be amazed or touched, so I decided to just be both.
Because of that, they said she couldn't be here right now and was dragged off with Ragnis to a formal gathering arranged to apologize for the 'rudeness' regarding this incident to the nobles of Itisel, but...
"I doubt she'll apologize."
"That's what I thought. The first thing she said to the envoy who came to deliver that news was, 'I personally ran here carrying a handwritten letter, and they want an apology?'"
For a moment, I felt a hope that nothing troublesome would happen, but after a bit more thought, I realized that in political matters, I didn't have nearly enough experience to dare worry about Esmue, so I decided to trust she'd handle it well.
"But did this earring really have that kind of tracking function?"
More than that, I couldn't believe the earring I'd treated as just a charm had a GPS function, so when I changed the subject, Asilie unexpectedly shook her head.
"As if it could. It's just that magical tools crafted as a pair resonate because they share the same Mana. It was closer to forcibly expanding that radius enormously to track you down. It was possible because the mages were highly skilled, and even then, the accuracy was a bit lacking. That's why we arrived some distance away instead of right next to you."
It didn't sound easy just hearing about it, and indeed, they said they practically burned through the imperial mage corps to find me. After that, things went as I'd experienced.
"It made me think that maybe that's what it takes to aim for the Emperor's throne. Truly, no one could stand in her way."
Thanks to that, Asilie didn't care either way since I was saved. That covered the minor questions we each had about being entangled in this incident, so as we'd met for the first time in a while, we began sharing the stories we hadn't been able to fully tell through letters.
The conversation continued for over an hour without getting dull, and without interruption.
Our talk, so enjoyable that even the torrential rain outside felt like a gentle drizzle, extended all the way to my receiving the guild designation quest, and as the updates on our current lives were roughly wrapping up, Asilie collected her thoughts for a moment, smiled, and shifted the topic.
And in her following words, I could feel nothing but a chill, as if all the warm, amicable atmosphere I'd felt before was freezing over in an instant.
"But Eldi? Ragnis is one thing... and didn't you say there was also a young lady of the Ogatorf house whose hospitality you've been receiving?"
"Huh? Uh. Y-yeah, I did."
'The only advice I can give you is to be very, very careful what you say to the person who gave you that earring.'
For a split second, what flickered through my mind was the advice of Siegfried, the Hero, who was like an older brother to me.
"And the Iron-Blood Princess too... seems like the number of girls around you has increased a lot in a year, hasn't it?"
She was smiling warmly, but the unidentified chill emanating from within it was unchanged.
Inside my skull, 1,001 Eldmias cried out a state of emergency and began a meeting for the first time in ages.
Of course, putting aside this body brimming with hot blood, Asilie was indeed a very attractive woman, and it was also true that I personally wavered back and forth, feeling familial affection and romantic interest toward her.
But, but still. That was, at best? Wasn't it common sense that those were just my personal feelings alone?
No matter how much of a Hero he was, saying he'd even grasped the feelings of Asilie, whom he'd never met, seemed a bit of a stretch, didn't it?
"Looking back at my own experience... no matter how much someone saved her from danger, a noble moving that zealously... and a princess at that, I can't help but think there's all sorts of implications. Is there something you still haven't told me?"
It's cold... no, not a joke, it's genuinely chilling!
It was definite! I didn't know if Zeke was right, but Asilie's smile right now was absolutely not a smile!
The moment a unanimous decision to spill the truth came out from inside my skull, I opened my mouth.
"Well... I did receive a confession..."
"A-a confession?!"
"Yeah. That is what happened, but. I guess you could say I didn't give an answer. Kind of let it slide ambiguously, or I guess if you call it ambiguous, there was a pretty big incident too..."
I couldn't say I'd had my lips stolen by a girl about 40 centimeters shorter than me. But just seeing my reaction like that, Asilie narrowed her eyes and erased the remaining smile from her lips.
"Seems we'll have quite a lot to talk about when the princess arrives."
Facing her like that, I didn't have the courage to mention that Ragnis was included in that story too, so I just quietly shrank down and resolved to earnestly pray that Esmue and Ragnis would hurry up and arrive.