I've Come to Escort You, My Lady
By the time we reached the castle, dusk had fallen. The moment I passed through the gates, I let out a long breath.
It's over...
I had brought the girls inside the castle walls. The trial was truly finished now.
The ones who came to meet our search party and the girls were members under the vice guild master's command. A man with reddish-brown hair — someone I had seen every time I went to submit the members' assignments — led them over.
"You've done well."
I dipped my head, and the vice guild master's men bowed in return.
The reddish-brown-haired man asked,
"Where is Miss Marina?"
"I haven't seen her since we parted at the dry riverbed. She saw the Geum-sul array get broken, so she probably ran, don't you think?"
She would have figured the girls were going to report everything she and the viscount had done.
"I see. From this moment on, we will take charge of the young ladies' safety."
The girls flinched. The youngest, who had exchanged a few words with me on the way here, clutched the hem of my skirt, taut with nerves. Nicola's face had gone pale as well.
I looked back at them, then spoke to the reddish-brown-haired man.
"Um... these people didn't do this out of greed for wealth."
"We saw everything through the magic mirror. Please rest assured."
"Then..."
"We intend to lift the Geum-sul and secure their testimony. They'll bear some responsibility for their collusion, but it will be handled humanely."
Only then did the girls' faces brighten. I nodded, my own expression easing with relief.
The vice guild master's men surrounded the girls. Nicola, who had been walking with them, paused and looked back at me.
And then...
"Thanks to you, I was able to speak. Thank you."
She bowed deeply at the waist. Seeing Nicola, the other girls hesitated, then looked at me as well.
"Thank you."
"Thank you for saving us."
"I won't forget. The little hero who takes after Lady Dia."
The youngest girl's eyes burned with resolve. The girls held their bows toward me for a very long time.
Even after they had gone, I stood rooted to the spot, staring after them. The search party members — no, they were simply guild members now — saw me standing there in a daze and looked puzzled.
"What's wrong?"
"They said thank you."
"Huh?"
"They said thank you. Kids my own age. To me."
I broke into a bright smile.
"The only peer who'd ever said that to me was Charlie. A lot of good things have happened since I came here."
It was something I never could have dreamed of when I lived in Andres.
My father had been strict. Judge everything coldly. Never show what you feel. Suspect every kindness. Everyone is your rival. Those words had been drilled into my ears until they were branded there. And I had been the kind of person who treated Father's words like divine revelation.
No one liked a child who existed only as the offspring her father wanted her to be. Friends were out of the question. There wasn't a single person who ever said thank you. Even when I offered kindness, all I got was a sneer: How generous of the illustrious young lady of Andres.
But since coming here, I've heard thank you from kids my age so many times.
The guild members looking at me had a strange air about them, though. Wondering if I had made some kind of mistake, I blinked, and one of them spoke.
"So that's why you took the trial?"
"Pardon?"
"Because Charlie said thank you. You were so happy about it you walked into a trial you were bound to lose?"
"Well, that was part of it, but my cunning plan to prove my abilities through the trial was the bigger reason, you know?"
"You don't have to lie to yourself like that. We already know. Little Teacher is a fool. Nothing but a kindhearted fool..."
"...?"
I looked puzzled, but the guild members' faces were gloomy.
"I'll say thank you as many times as you want."
"Thanks. For teaching us our letters, and for giving us a reason to kick that bastard out."
"Yeah, and for the galbi-jjim too."
The guild members ruffled my hair without mercy. Suddenly boxed in by towering men, I let out a muffled groan.
No, I really was being cunning, though.
This was so unfair.
A few hours later, in the underground prison.
"...And that's why she took the trial, they say."
The tearful, sniffling account from Antonio's squad — of the admirable Yustea who had thrown herself into the trial over a single word of thanks — reached the ears of two men.
Antonio, and the vice guild master.
Antonio, who had been leaning against the wall, let out a sigh.
"What a fool. Betting her life on a single word like that?"
The Fangs of the Mist that Viscount San Miguel had mobilized for this incident were vicious men. It was only luck that Yustea's wits had landed so well. If they hadn't, she would surely have been killed.
Antonio pinched the bridge of his nose, his shoulders trembling, then glanced to the side.
"Shouldn't a man who shoved a pitiful kid like that straight into a death trap be called a scoundrel, not a person?"
The vice guild master, swapping out a glove soaked through with blood, replied,
"Scoundrel is still a word you use for a person."
"Read the room, will you. The context."
"You know the word context?"
"Little Teacher taught me last week."
Antonio looked rather pleased with himself.
"Just bring me a glove."
"At this rate we won't have any gloves left. Why don't you just admit it already."
Antonio stood at a slant, looking down at the blood-soaked man. He was bound to a torture device called the Witch's Chair — by now closer to a lump of flesh than a human being.
Antonio bent his knees to meet the viscount at eye level.
"Even if you walk out of here, you're finished living as a person. Why not just give it up?"
"Ghh..."
"One eyeball left, one ear. A tongue. You don't actually think that's the vice guild master's idea of humanity, do you?"
Antonio smiled, almost pleasantly, and flicked the nerve exposed beneath the viscount's chin.
With his pain sensation amplified thirtyfold, the viscount screamed horribly and writhed at the contact.
"Don't you ever stop seeing. Hearing. Feeling."
"..."
"A terror you will never grow used to."
"Ah. Aaaah! Agh...!"
The viscount wailed, bloody drool spilling from his mouth.
The vice guild master held out his hand. His aide placed a red-hot iron rod into his palm.
"Let's begin again."
The night of terror was only just beginning.
Night.
Charlie grabbed me and hugged me tight — three times. He was so strong that a strained groan slipped out of me on its own.
"Thank you, Little Teacher. I'll repay this debt, I swear."
That was the third time he had said it, too. No — I had been hearing thank you all night long. The other guild members were over there behind a pillar, saying...
"I'm so grateful..."
"I'm not Little Teacher's age, but I want to say thank you too..."
...thanking me with distant, misty eyes.
I'm happy, I really am, but I'm fine now.
Charlie's eyes sparkled as he spoke.
"Hey, want to eat together?"
"Sorry. I have to go to the sentry barracks and collect the sentries' assignments."
"You're checking assignments today too?"
"Yeah."
I couldn't let a moment of success go to my head and start looking sloppy. A paycheck and a job are precious things.
I might not even become the guild master's adopted daughter.
The girls had returned safely. Since they had been threatened by Viscount San Miguel and hadn't been able to take the trial, a retest might still be held. I couldn't afford to relax.
Charlie said,
"Alright. Then I'll do my assignments too. If Little Teacher is working this hard, I will too."
I beamed and nodded vigorously. After saying goodbye to Charlie, I headed straight for the sentry barracks.
Getting there meant crossing a vast garden, so I had to keep a brisk pace. The garden — or rather, a forest would have been a more fitting name — gave me the creeps every time I came through. It was hard to believe that Viscount San Miguel, a man who cared so much about appearances, had left this place so unkempt.
Then again, this is a region that short on money.
It was the most dilapidated territory in the entire Esgarot estate. Vulnerable to drought and disaster, with no land fit for farming, and too far from any city for trade or industry to take root. In the end, it was a place Esgarot had all but thrown away.
Which was probably why Irregular had chosen it.
Still, it's impressive. Infiltrating a great noble house and swallowing an entire jurisdiction whole.
Judging by the fact that they were replacing the lord yet again, they seemed to have a line into Esgarot as well. The guild master hadn't even come in person. Just sending a hawk to break the Geum-sul was enough to make their capabilities terrifying.
So I have to stay attached to this place. I have to.
I clenched both fists. I was about to pick up my pace before it got any later when—
"Looks like you're enjoying yourself."
A voice from behind me, out of nowhere.
That voice...
I flinched and turned. A figure in a hooded robe stood there. The figure slowly pulled back the hood.
It was Marina.
A deathly pale complexion. Chapped, roughened lips. Bloodshot eyes. And the dagger in her hand...
She looked anything but sane.
"How did you..."
I muttered, and Marina staggered toward me.
"I went to the mansion. Our mansion, with the beautiful rose garden."
"..."
I flinched and took a step back. Marina giggled.
"That mansion of ours was completely wrecked by Irregular. My beautiful roses got trampled under muddy boots, and the servants and my parents were dragged away. I had to run again."
"You committed crimes that deserved it."
"Why am I the only bad one? Those girls went along with me because they were blinded by money, too."
"They couldn't stand up to the threats. If you'd only offered them money, they never would have done something so terrifying."
"..."
"Go to the vice guild master on your own two feet, even now. You still have a chance to atone."
"Shut up!"
Marina shoved me hard. The blade in her grip sliced across my cheek. I landed hard on the ground and looked up at her.
If I can just deal with the weapon, I can subdue her... wait.
A scrap of red paper was poking out of the hooded robe's pocket. I had seen that thing in the game — it looked like a talisman.
A Detonator Talisman!
Explodes on contact.
Explosive power varies with the maker's skill. A timer function may also be applied.
If you got hit by a Detonator Talisman, you would be lucky to only lose a limb. If it stuck to your head, that was the end of your life, period.
If Marina, stripped of her weapon, panics and uses the Detonator Talisman...
I couldn't move.
Marina pulled her hood off.
"Answer me. Everyone lives committing sins, big and small. So why am I the only one who has to lose everything?"
"...Why did you prepare a Detonator Talisman?"
Detonator Talismans cost whatever the seller asked. Even mages skilled enough to craft them were rare. Why would she have prepared such a rare, expensive item?
I found the answer without even needing to think.
"You never planned to send the girls back from the start."
She had meant to dispose of the Fangs of the Mist and the girls all at once. To erase the evidence and the witnesses both.
Marina smiled sweetly.
"I'm going to leave and start over. But I can't just leave you behind."
I shoved myself backward on my palms and heels.
Please...
What hurt more than the situation itself was that after the word please, no name came to mind. They say children cry out their parents' names when they fall. I had no one to call.
Mother was someone I had to protect. The father and older brother who had abandoned me would never come.
I clenched my teeth.
Don't give up. You've always known what it feels like to be dropped into this world alone.
Marina's cackling laughter circled over my head like a guillotine. I wanted to run, but terror had locked my legs in place.
Move, damn it!
There's no one coming to save me. Just like always, I have to do it myself. But if I run and she throws the Detonator Talisman at me...
Isn't there a way? Any way at all...
But no decent solution came to mind. Marina's raised blade flashed with a vicious gleam. A chilling voice slipped from her twisted lips.
"Go to hell."
That was the moment.
"Kyaah!"
The scream wasn't mine.
I flinched and lifted my head. Marina's sword was clattering across the ground, and Marina herself was clutching her hand as if something had struck it.
The figure standing behind her was...
"Are you hurt."
"..."
Having no one to call when things got hard had become such a habit that my mouth wouldn't open. But heat rushed to my eyes, and my throat clenched shut. I forced my mouth open and called to him — no, to them.
"Vice Guild Master... Antonio..."
It was the vice guild master who had asked if I was hurt. Antonio kicked off the ground and charged in low.
The instant a startled Marina fumbled for the pocket with the Detonator Talisman, Antonio seized her arm in a single motion and slammed her to the ground.
"Kyaah...!"
"Shut it. I'm having a hard enough time holding back as it is."
The vice guild master strode forward.
...Toward me.
"You should have asked for help."
"..."
"You should have at least screamed."
"There was a Detonator Talisman... so I couldn't let other people... get caught up in it... I'm sorry for causing trouble..."
"Would you please stop apologizing already...!"
The vice guild master shouted. I flinched, my shoulders shrinking in.
Antonio, having snatched the Detonator Talisman from Marina, frowned at the vice guild master.
"Why are you yelling. You'll scare the kid."
"Shut your mouth."
"Honestly..."
The vice guild master came right up to me and dropped to one knee. Tears spilled from my tactless eyes in a stream. I stared at him in a daze.
His black hair drifted on the wind. In those ash-gray eyes, a stiff, foolish Yustea was reflected.
He drew a handkerchief from his coat and pressed it gently to the cheek Marina's blade had cut.
"From now on, should anything happen, call for us."
I widened my eyes in surprise. His way of speaking had changed. But he went on quietly, his expression unreadable.
"No matter when it may be, we shall stand with you."
"Vice Guild Master...?"
He smiled. A smile so brilliant it was dazzling.