The Great Ancestor (3)
Did I do something wrong?
After wandering in the void for three hundred years, my armor was in tatters. So I ended up wearing the spare black dress that the young lady had left in my room, claiming she was setting up a “multi-purpose space.” The way it fit me perfectly, as if measured to the millimeter, was truly impressive.
“Do young people these days really wear things like this…? Goodness… Go wait outside.”
She had brushed me off like that at first, but she wore it quite well in the end. So I removed the nail embedded in her head, tidied her up to look somewhat human, and brought her here.
The moment they saw her, Eclipse let out a startled yelp and fell backward. Or to be more precise, it would be more accurate to say she collapsed in shock.
“G-Gorgo has regained consciousness?! I heard she was devoured by one of the Six Swords… Is it really her? The Gorgo?! Whoa, I’m getting goosebumps…! This? This is an emotional true story, right?!”
Eclipse’s forehead was beaded with sweat as she trembled, her gaze darting back and forth between Gorgo and me.
She was the type of person who revered heroes and held them as ideals in her heart. Even though she came from the North, she clearly remembered the name of the woman who had built so many legends. Seeing a figure from childhood fairy tales and legends walking around in the flesh before her eyes… From my perspective, it must have felt something like watching General Yi Sun-sin strolling around in person. If that was how she felt, it wasn’t strange at all.
“Yohan, this is insane! Y-You’re not even human, are you?! This is cheating! How can you just bring someone straight out of legend like this?!”
“Indeed. Lord of Steel, please stop saying such absurd things─? As if I wouldn’t know that you’re skilled in illusion magic─.”
This time, the one trying to stir the pot was Gremory. Given her position, she should have known better, but her reaction was surprisingly calm. Having seen me use Rorschach during my entrance speech, she seemed to assume I had pulled off some bizarre spell to conjure an illusion before their eyes.
Well, I had used strange magic, but… it wasn’t what she was thinking.
She swept back her disheveled hair with one hand, staring directly at Gorgo with a somewhat dazed expression. But her smiling face began to stiffen, her eyebrows twitching.
“Wait a minute… Is this real? Eek─?!”
“I’m more surprised that you didn’t doubt for a second that I would play such a prank, Lady Gremory.”
“…How? From what I’ve heard, wasn’t she swallowed by one of the Six Swords? Can you really bring her back that easily─?!”
“If I were to explain in detail, it would be a long story. To put it simply, it was only possible because it was Lady Gorgo. Even after being consumed by one of the Six Swords, she held onto the fragments of her mind until the very end.”
At those words, Gorgo scratched her cheek with an embarrassed look.
“Yeah, I don’t really understand it either. But my loyal Lord of Steel somehow managed it… By the way, what’s your name? Your face looks familiar.”
“I-I am Gremory Aregore, the eldest daughter of the current Aregore family.”
“Ah, I see. The Aregore family… Back in my day, the family head was that snot-nosed drunkard. He’s probably dead by now…”
“If you mean the drunkard, then… Lord Kirgiasis…?”
“Oh, that was roughly the name! It was too long for me to remember.”
“That person… is my thirteenth-generation ancestor─.”
“Thirteenth generation…?!”
Gorgo squeezed her eyes shut at those words, then clutched her head.
“I-I─. I never even got married. I was still so young, but now I’ve become a great-great-great-great-grandmother─?!”
“U-Uwaa… Look at her panicking. That has to be real. My heart is pounding so hard… I-I need to get her autograph…”
Eclipse seemed to find even that adorable. In the end, she simply collapsed onto the floor. The sight of her lying there, shoulders shaking as she tried to calm herself, was truly pitiful.
And then─.
“Huh? What kind of commotion is this?”
Because I had been standing there blankly, the door hadn’t closed completely. A man’s voice came through the gap.
This time it was Cryan.
Due to my large frame, he couldn’t see the scene inside the room clearly, but he must have accurately guessed from the high-pitched shrieks leaking out that the atmosphere was far from normal.
I didn’t know what he had been doing before finally arriving now that he could walk again, but it seemed I needed to bring him up to speed.
“Why is everyone…?”
“Well. Why don’t you see for yourself?”
With that, he slipped past me without difficulty and stepped into the room, turning his gaze… until his eyes met Gorgo’s.
“You… Could it be…?”
And then, his knees collapsed very quietly and honestly.
“T-The Hero of the Storm… Lady Gorgo…?!”
“No, that title is a bit…”
“No, it really is Lady Gorgo! There’s no way I wouldn’t recognize that face! The person from the portrait in Volume 4 of the Karlangk Continental History… Wow… Wow…? Just a moment, let me catch my breath.”
The refined dignity he had maintained until now crumbled like a deflated balloon, swaying unsteadily. Even in the midst of that, he grabbed onto my trouser leg and said,
“Yohan, you crazy bastard. What the hell did you do this time?”
“Sigh… I just did my best. Now I’m scared to do anything at all.”
“Your ‘best’ always looks like this. I’m begging you, can you please only do about half of it from now on…?”
In any case, because of the disaster I had brought upon them, the people who had been sitting around the table covered in cookie crumbs, laughing and chatting just moments ago, had completely vanished.
I thought there was no need to add more words, so I had simply brushed it off with “There was a harvest.” Perhaps that had been a mistake.
Gorgo slowly scanned the reactions of everyone in the room… then shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m sorry, children. This is too burdensome for me. Could you all just look at me like I’m an ordinary person?”
“H-How could we possibly do that…?”
“I’m asking for your consideration. From my perspective, I suffered an utterly absurd cold death, and this child restored my body in an even more absurd way. I’ve simply learned that three hundred years have passed…”
Her gaze was incredibly dignified. It still carried the spirit of the hero she had been called long ago.
“Knowing that my actions have been remembered that way after so much time makes me want to die of embarrassment. I am nothing more than a relic of the past, so please treat me like any other ordinary person.”
Then Gorgo quietly approached Karalin, who had been noticeably silent ever since she appeared. While everyone else had shown obvious shock, Karalin alone had remained quiet after calling her “Great Ancestor.” Gorgo seemed to instinctively sense that there was something about her.
She called the young lady’s name.
“By the way. You must be Karalin. Yes… Karalin?”
“You… know my name…”
“I heard it from the Lord of Steel and memorized it right away. If nothing else, you are of my brother’s bloodline.”
“…Great Ancestor.”
“Hey, I told you there’s no need to call me that. Hmm… But anything is fine. Call me whatever you want. Getting to know me can happen gradually…”
It seemed Gorgo was clearly feeling the complicated confusion of past and present mixing together as she looked at the portrait-like woman who resembled her so closely. And the same must have been true for Lady Karalin. That was probably why she had remained silent.
While she respected her immensely, as someone who felt a slight inferiority complex toward an ancestor who had achieved such remarkable feats despite a similar background… seeing her awakened like this, it would have been impossible for her not to have complicated thoughts.
‘…But not waking Gorgo just because of that would be ridiculous.’
However, as someone who cherished the young lady, I could not do that. To refrain from waking Gorgo out of such consideration would be the act of a treacherous servant who covers his eyes and plugs his ears.
She hadn’t fully returned to being human yet, but Gorgo, now able to converse, was already a complete being. She was a mentor who could guide the young lady on the path of succession and provide every kind of help.
…Unless her personality became that of one of the Six Swords, of course. But at least the Gorgo I knew was the very embodiment of a hero. How much help she could offer to a lost and wandering young lady was something I could feel in my bones without even needing to think about it.
If I failed to arrange a meeting with such a precious existence simply because I was worried it might upset her feelings, that would be truly wrong—and a complete disqualification as a servant. Even more so if I could do it but chose not to. That would be the worst.
As if reading my thoughts, Gorgo approached Lady Karalin… and embraced her, patting her back gently. It was a practical approach from someone who had wanted to speak with her somehow. The way she showed her affection was exactly like a grandmother enveloping her granddaughter.
“Hmmm… The scent of cedar! Does the Vitagarte family still use this shampoo? For this fragrance to come out so cleanly, you must put a lot of effort into caring for your hair…”
“…H-Hyak?! Great Ancestor?! I-I’ve been diligently using the same shampoo for hair care─.”
“Yes, yes. How adorable… Looking at you reminds me so much of my brother…”
Gorgo whispered to the young lady in a kind, gentle tone.
“By the way, you really have a wonderful servant. Even though it was a short time, I heard a lot about you from the Lord of Steel.”
“─You heard about me…?”
“Truly. You went through such difficult battles, didn’t you? I know exactly what kind of ordeal that path must have been. Because I walked it myself.”
“………G-Gorgo, Crown Princess.”
A twisted and distorted world. A dramatic encounter with someone who should never have been able to meet. But even in such a meeting, if they were both human, a point of connection could always be found.
“Hey. Child… Does black tea taste the same now as it did three hundred years ago?”
“…Since the blend hasn’t changed, it should taste the same.”
“Then, could you brew me a cup? My throat is terribly dry…”
No matter how much time had passed, it seemed that Northerners’ preference for black tea hadn’t changed much.
It might feel a little burdensome right now, but if they gradually built up this kind of intimacy, Gorgo would undoubtedly become an enormous help in the distant future.
However.
Gorgo was only one of the things I had obtained after confronting Babalk. The benefits I gained from him were not limited to her alone.