The Great Matriarch Has Arrived (2)
An unseasonable summer break.
While those with matters to settle carried the crushing weight of their hearts through life, at least these three girls—Gorgo, Eclipse, and Karalin—who had fought to save themselves during the forest training, had no such burden.
Sun Observatory.
The clubroom of the After-School Autonomous Activity Club.
They had sent Cryan, whose body had gradually recovered enough for him to walk properly, out for a very long walk… and then began their conversation in earnest.
The clubroom felt unusually warm today. Or perhaps hot was the better word. That was partly due to the lingering traces of the strangely shaped magical devices Gorgo had touched, and partly because of the blankets and pillows Eclipse had dragged in. Even the Northern-style samovar Karalin had brought, filled with piping hot black tea, contributed to the warmth.
But above all else, the biggest reason was the way Gorgo and Eclipse kept trading glances at Karalin.
Given the subject, it was inevitable.
“Just say it already, Kara.”
At some point—Karalin wasn’t sure when—Gorgo had forcibly given her that nickname.
Gorgo sat with her long legs crossed, chin resting on her hand, and asked bluntly, “So the Lord of Steel just straight-up confessed to you?”
“I told you to ignore what I said earlier…!”
Karalin tried to act indifferent as she took a sip of tea. But just as she had once gulped down something equally scalding in front of Yohan in a fit of anger—
“Kuh, khk—!”
She could only cough pathetically.
“M-Miss… hehe.”
Eclipse smiled awkwardly and fanned her with a hand fan, but if she truly hadn’t wanted to hear this story, she would have been fidgeting awkwardly in the corner like always. So Karalin shot her a glare.
“You too, Eclipse…?”
“N-No, Miss! I’m just… curious, that’s all~?”
Eclipse twirled a finger through her curly pink hair and spoke timidly, but Karalin’s suspicion was spot on.
“I-I heard about it too, you know…”
“Heard what?”
“That thing. It was during the forest training, right?”
The story from the forest training.
When they thought Yohan had died and would never return, he had left behind a letter saying he liked her. She had told them that much… a simple lie.
She had forgotten about it until now. But the moment she realized she had told such a lie, Karalin’s mind went completely blank. She wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.
“So it really was sincere! Even now, no matter how you look at it, Sir Yohan… seems to cherish Miss terribly…”
“Not cherish. He said he loves her, didn’t he?”
Gorgo sharply cut in at the end of Eclipse’s sentence.
“He said it outright. To our adorable Kara, ‘I think this feeling is love.’ So why didn’t you accept him right then and there? You’re not exactly dense, Kara—”
Damn it.
Karalin curled her toes and muttered, “W-Well…”
Her lips trembled.
“If someone suddenly says something like that, of course you’d be flustered.”
“It wasn’t just fluster, was it~?”
Gorgo drawled lazily, her gaze piercing.
“You liked it.”
“Hey…!”
“Your heart nearly stopped, didn’t it~?”
“I told you to stop…!”
Face flushed bright red, Karalin hurled a pillow at Gorgo’s arm. But if something like that could stop her, she never would have brought up the topic in the first place.
Once the dam had burst, there was no putting the water back.
Even Eclipse clasped her hands together, eyes sparkling as she asked, “Then… does that mean… Miss likes Sir Yohan too?”
“………”
Karalin’s already pale skin turned so red it looked like she might burst into flames. She lowered her head and said nothing.
No—she simply couldn’t speak.
Watching her, Eclipse covered her mouth with both hands.
“W-Wow… So it’s true~!”
“That much was predictable, Eclipse.”
Gorgo winked, looking thoroughly satisfied.
“The Lord of Steel coming back from the dead and suddenly throwing fastballs isn’t that surprising either. He heard how Kara reacted after he disappeared, after all. Unlike Cryan, that man is pure male instinct… Once he was sure, he must have realized that Kara couldn’t be without him.”
“Then shouldn’t Miss have just accepted him?”
“Well said~. That’s exactly the question.”
At those words, Karalin broke her long silence and spoke quietly.
“I… couldn’t sort out my feelings. He was always by my side, so I thought that was simply how things were supposed to be.”
“What does that have to do with this story?”
“…He told me the only reason he stayed was because I saved his life when I was young. That he was simply repaying that debt.”
The moment she finally began talking about herself, everyone’s eyes lit up with curiosity.
“So I kept believing that. Loyalty, devotion, oaths… that there could be nothing more to the feelings Yohan gave me. Who could have guessed he would be the first to step forward like this?”
“Especially after you received that letter!”
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help it! I had been driven out, everyone had left me, and to me… to me…”
Karalin hesitated before continuing.
“He was all I had left.”
“H-Huh… Then why not just get married…?”
“No. How could I do that so easily? That’s exactly why it’s a problem! What scares me most is what will happen after I accept his heart…!”
Eclipse, who had no romantic experience and, as a commoner, was relatively free from the constraints of status, didn’t fully understand what she meant.
But Gorgo seemed to grasp it instantly.
“…Ah. Kara, are you afraid of what will happen if you can no longer keep the Lord of Steel as your servant?”
“…Yes. Exactly.”
“Accepting love means a shift in the relationship. It means he changes from servant to man… In that new dynamic, the Lord of Steel could get hurt, or one day decide to leave.”
“Moreover, I’m not even sure I can stand beside him as an equal. All I’ve ever received from him is duty and loyalty… I don’t know love. Could I truly respond to the feelings he gives me? Emotions should be answered with emotions, after all.”
…!
So that was what she meant!
It was an astonishing insight.
At those words, Eclipse gently wrapped her hands around the back of Karalin’s hand.
Honestly, it was a rather ordinary fear.
Judging from everything so far, it seemed she simply needed someone to give her a push.
“U-Um… Miss. At least from what I know of Sir Yohan…”
“…Yes?”
“He’s not the kind of person who runs away.”
And those words—
‘Well… that’s true.’
—might have struck deepest in Karalin’s heart, since she had spent more time with him than anyone else here.
“If it were Sir Yohan, wouldn’t he just say it outright when something sad happens, or try to solve it himself somehow? He’s like a human plunger that can clear any blockage…”
“You’re right. But I…”
However, Karalin cut herself off.
If she said the next part, there would be no turning back.
But Gorgo didn’t wait.
“At this point, it sounds like you should just accept him~.”
She repeated the same point clearly.
“Karalin. Just do what you want.”
“I want to.”
Karalin bit her lip hard. After twisting her thoughts in knots for a long moment… she finally exploded with the frustration boiling inside her.
“Uwaaaah…! It’s not that I don’t want to! I want to accept him too!”
Could her voice really rise this high?
“I want to devote my entire life to him, do everything there is to do together! I want to stick to him like a pair of wing-to-wing birds until the very end of our lives and grow old together quietly!”
…What?
“M-Miss?!”
“I-I don’t know the details, but… I can dream of that too, can’t I? Who becomes a Grand Duke’s daughter because they want to? I was born into it, so I was never allowed to dream of an ordinary life.”
“U-Uwaa… What do we do, Eclipse? I didn’t mean to make her cry like this.”
“Honestly, Sir Yohan is really handsome, isn’t he? Don’t you both think so? But he always puts himself down, saying he’s ugly, and because of that he keeps hiding his face and barely lets anyone hear his voice… Honestly, it’s kind of cute.”
“Miss, aren’t you exactly the same…?”
“Plus, his personality is so upright—it’s exactly my type… No, that’s not right. After watching him all this time, I’ve come to love that part of him. If I hesitate, he has the decisiveness to lead me forward. He’d make a perfect spouse…”
After venting her emotions at full volume, she lowered her head again.
“So yes, I know… He would never abandon me. He’s been that way his whole life… and he always will be.”
She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.
“But even knowing all that, I don’t trust myself. After failing so many times, I have no idea if I can do right by someone as precious as him.”
At those words, Eclipse smiled softly.
“Miss? Miss?”
“…Yes.”
“Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step! Sir Yohan is a precious person worthy of you. Maybe you don’t need to worry about all that before you even begin…”
“Exactly. That’s very true.”
Gorgo nodded at Eclipse’s beautiful encouragement.
“Love doesn’t always have to be perfect, noble, or eternal. We’re only human, aren’t we? Beasts of emotion living in the moment.”
For a moment, Karalin was speechless.
Then she burst into laughter.
“You two are both more mature than I am. I hate this… I’m always like this…”
“S-Sorry, but it’s because Miss is just too cute.”
“Me…?”
“Sir Yohan is seriously… I’m honestly jealous. To have someone like you by his side for life…”
Eclipse blushed as she spoke.
“He worked so hard. Doesn’t he deserve a reward~?”
Gorgo chuckled.
“…That’s why I don’t want to stop at just being jealous. Next time, I’ll have to ask the Lord of Steel directly. He sometimes uses strange hypnosis-like magic, after all. Maybe he used some weird trick to steal the heart of a woman like Kara.”
“He doesn’t do that. You can insult me all you want, but don’t insult my servant.”
“Ufufu, I was only joking.”
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
Was it Cryan, back from his long walk?
“Y-Yes~!”
Since the important conversation was already over, Eclipse hurried to the door, exchanged the password, and opened it.
But the person who returned was not Cryan.
It was Karalin’s Lord of Steel.
Yohan.
“I see the young ladies were having a tea party.”
“Y-Yeah. How did the meeting with Professor Babalk go?”
“…It was nothing much. He just called me over to ask how I was doing, then sent me back.”
“I see…”
That wasn’t entirely true, but Yohan had no intention of sharing the burdens he carried with anyone else.
He could tell the young lady the broad strokes later, but right now everyone was here.
“That said, there was an unexpected gain.”
“A gain…?”
“They said the research on Lady Gorgo that I had frozen was complete and handed the specimen over to me. Since she has become one of the Six Swords, they told me to devour her cleanly and grow even stronger.”
Devour another one of the Six Swords?
After all that suffering?
Everyone naturally had the same question. Especially concerned about Karalin’s worry, Yohan quickly tied up his words.
“But I didn’t. After nearly getting indigestion from eating just one, there’s no reason to try again when I’m not prepared.”
“Good job, Yohan…! If you had tried to eat her, I would have stepped in and scolded you myself.”
“Instead.”
However, it seemed he had accomplished something else. He reached behind himself.
“I restored her mind.”
“…What?!”
His words were calm and direct.
“I thought you would want to see her face as soon as possible, so I brought her here. Would you like to meet her?”
“H-Haaah?!”
Everyone gasped in shock.
The great hero of the distant past who had been swallowed by one of the Six Swords. A hero that even children on the street knew by name… and he had brought her here so casually!
Did this man really handle such absurd tasks all by himself without anyone knowing?
But then again, it wasn’t strange.
Because he was exactly that kind of man.
Then, from behind Yohan, a neutral voice spoke.
“…Um, hello?”
Since she had never clearly revealed her gender, history had naturally recorded her as male. But she—Gorgo—looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings and said,
“Who here is the child named Karalin—”
The moment her eyes met Karalin’s, it was instantaneous.
“Whoa, I guess I didn’t need to ask. I can tell right away.”
There was an almost glowing aura behind her.
Karalin had almost nothing to say in the presence of such a being. She simply opened her mouth and shouted.
“Gorgo, Crown Princess… Great Matriarch…!”
She who slumbers within the Nail of Ecurisia.
The ancestor of the Vitagarte bloodline.
The 300-year-old legendary hero has awakened.
Gorgo looked extremely embarrassed at being called that title. She averted her eyes, which she had carefully matched to Karalin’s, and said,
“G-Great Matriarch? Is that what I’m called here? In that case… you don’t have to call me that, you know?”
And so, the Great Matriarch had arrived.
