You Dare Touch Us? (1)
Even so, despite all we had gained, not everything could be devoted solely to the matter of Lady Gorgo. The situation was simply too pressing. In any case… I had ended up reviving the Grand Matron without so much as a word of warning. Fortunately, the meeting did not unfold into the scene Karalin had feared—one in which she would feel utterly diminished before someone who had achieved what she herself could not.
Gorgo was exactly as the legends described, and precisely as I had come to know her through my time playing the game: an exceptionally gracious lady. She seemed to understand exactly how she appeared in Karalin’s eyes. Without wounding the girl’s pride, she did everything she could to bolster her spirits. After settling the displaced Gorgo in the annex for the time being, Karalin returned to my room and reflected on the encounter.
“Truly… I never imagined I would see her walking and speaking right in front of me. She turned out to be far more wonderful than I expected.”
“I agree.”
“But if there was a way to undo it, you should have said something before waking her, Yohan. I was completely startled when you told me you had suddenly revived Lady Gorgo…”
To that, I answered with nothing but the truth. As she had seen, there had been no other choice.
“It was… Babalk urging me to devour Lady Gorgo on the spot. I truly had no time to think. I did not know when such an opportunity would come again… In any case, I apologize, my lady.”
“No… I wasn’t trying to scold you. I was just saying how surprised I was.”
Fortunately, she did not rebuke me. Instead, she continued calmly.
“Still, separate from my surprise, this might actually be a good thing. Having Lady Gorgo on our side… is an advantage beyond anything we could have hoped for.”
“You think so as well, my lady?”
“Yes. I know it instinctively. We cannot stay at the academy forever. When we return to Vitagarte, having the Grand Matron on our side will be an enormous boon.”
She whispered to me.
“So… as expected, it’s you. I believed in you. You always exceed my expectations.”
“I am relieved. I thought you might despise me for dragging the past’s ghosts into the present.”
“…Of course not. Did you really think I would get angry over something like this?”
Well, it was only natural that someone as politically astute as she would reach that conclusion. Everything I had done while meeting with Babalk apparently qualified as “just like our retainer.”
In any case, Lady Gorgo, with nowhere else to go, would be staying in the annex for the time being. Karalin intended to lend her some of her own clothes, since they were roughly the same size. While rummaging through her wardrobe, she suddenly spoke.
“On top of that, you even managed to lift the chairman’s retaliation.”
“Of course. Hilken cannot be kept locked away.”
“It really is unbelievable. To gain someone like Babalk as a backer… Does that mean he is willing to support our cause as well?”
“…Yes. It seems so. Babalk was quite displeased with the current chairman. I believe he is willing to lend his strength to those who have purpose.”
“Interesting.”
Karalin’s interest was clearly piqued; her reply carried a faintly chilling edge. Of course, none of this had come without a price.
“Well, in exchange, we will have to rescue Babalk’s daughter from the Demon Realm…”
“Huh…?”
The moment I said that, she slowly turned to look at me.
“We have to go… to the Demon Realm?”
Her pupils had visibly contracted. Ah. That was not what I meant.
“U-uh, Y-Yohan…?”
“Ah, no, my lady…! It is not like that.”
Apparently, the emotions she had felt after my death still lingered in her heart. The mere mention of me undertaking such a dangerous task seemed to trigger a trauma response. She looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment, struggling to steady her breathing. If I did not act quickly, things would spiral out of control…
I hurried to clarify.
“Please do not worry. It will not require much effort. I will not do anything dangerous, either. How could I possibly die when you are here?”
“…You mean that, right? If you do something reckless and risk your life again, I will cry, you know?”
“I do. From the bottom of my heart.”
“…Then it is fine.”
Once I had reassured her, she finally smiled faintly, her arms full of carefully selected clothes. I could not quite tell why, but her tone had shifted completely from the anxious one moments before—now brimming with playful mischief.
“Well then, since you worked so hard, I suppose I should give you a reward…?”
“A reward, you say?”
“You negotiated with that professor of ruin and obtained so many wonderful things. You deserve a reward to lift your spirits. It feels like you are always the only one working like an ox—did you think I would do nothing in return?”
When she mentioned a reward, I could not help but think of something rather inappropriate.
“A-ah.”
“Ufu fu…”
I looked slightly flustered. She seemed to find that reaction rather pleasing and merely gave a soft, eye-smiling laugh. But I could tell—her own lips were trembling ever so slightly, unable to hide it.
“…So, is there nothing you want? Anything is fine. Something you want right now, for example.”
“Something I want…”
I understood clearly now. She was trying, in her own way, to draw my attention. To make me flustered and embarrassed, to make my heart race, so that I would not leave her side. If that was the case, then the reaction she wanted was probably for me to back down and flee, just as she intended.
I had no idea what she had been thinking about while I was away, but it must have been quite a lot.
‘Unlike her usual self, she is even demanding confirmation of our relationship…’
…However, I felt I had already said everything that needed to be said. After what I had told her last time, had I not already done all I could as her retainer?
So I thought.
‘Perhaps this is the chance to firmly imprint upon her that I will never abandon her.’
I lowered my face to meet her eye level.
“My lady—no, Karalin?”
I spoke to her in the calmest, lowest voice I could manage.
“You truly meant it when you said anything was fine, correct?”
Staring straight into her eyes, I slowly brought my face closer to hers.
“Y-Yohan…?”
She had not expected me to respond this way. Her face gradually flushed crimson as she averted her gaze.
“W-wait, you are… too close…!”
…How beautiful.
‘Damn it. I should have been born into a noble house after all. Then I could have made her mine without a second thought.’
But no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I closed the distance, she never allowed me to cross that final line. I could never hold her without this burning frustration. It was maddening that I could not keep her by my side without this cursed bloodline. Still, the reaction she had shown me before… meant she did not dislike me.
That was what I believed.
So if she wanted confirmation of our relationship now, I was more than willing to play along.
Thus, I did not stop my approach.
Faced with this, she could only plead.
“J-just a moment? Just a moment! Stop, Yohan…!”
“A moment? You said you would give it to me right away.”
“Ah, n-not that yet! Anything but that, so please wait! D-don’t come any closer…!”
“‘That’? What exactly did you think I was going to do?”
“W-well, obviously—! Kyaaah…!”
Poof—
It felt as though a volcano had erupted. Our faces were now mere inches apart. If anyone so much as nudged us, we would collide.
‘……Ah, damn it.’
But…!
Even I, who had boldly decided to push forward, could not ignore the way she was desperately trying to push me away.
‘Am I crossing the line right now?’
The thought was unavoidable. No matter how much I had monologued to myself, what if it was all just my imagination…? If that were the case, could I still remain a proper retainer? Depending on what I did here, my very existence and everything I had built could come crashing down.
Just thinking about it made my legs go weak.
The age-old truth: reaching beyond one’s station meant that failure could cost you everything.
In the end, at this critical moment, reason stood in my way.
Yet doing nothing and retreating now would be even stranger.
‘Uh… what do I do…?’
I brought my lips to her ear and could only whisper.
…Haa, right. This is just like me.
“K-Karalin. There is only one reward I want.”
“…H-Hyat.”
Her high-pitched sound tickled my ear, but I did not stop.
“…T-tofu.”
“H-huh?”
“Please buy me tofu.”
“Tofu…?”
“We are about to get Hilken out, after all… Our junior, who is considerably less precious than you, is finally being released.”
“W-what does that have to do with tofu…?”
“It means we should live cleanly from now on. Though she did nothing wrong to begin with.”
And inside, I roared.
Shit. Shiiit—!
Was that really the best excuse I could come up with? While I was thoroughly disgusted with my own idiocy, Karalin turned bright red like a tomato and shouted at me.
“Y-you beast—! You lecherous, wolf-like—! When did you grow up like this—!”
“M-my lady?!”
Thud— Thud-thud-thud—
She hurled every insult she could think of at me while pounding her fists against various parts of my body. But… it did not feel like she was hitting me with any real force. I knew the strength of the Vitagarte bloodline well. If she had been serious, I would have collapsed without resistance.
Which meant…?
“My lady, I…”
“Be quiet! I am confiscating your language. Speaking is forbidden from now on. Do not say another word…!”
“Did you know that wolves, contrary to their image, only ever stay with one mate for life?”
“……H-haa.”
“I apologize. I will stop talking now…?”
“…Language confiscation revoked.”
Ah. I should have mustered just a little more courage.
***
The place where Hilken had been imprisoned was an absurdly harsh environment. I had not even known such a facility existed within Sigmund—a watchtower perched atop a steep mountain that was difficult to ascend. Several meters beneath it lay an underground cell where she had apparently been confined for days on end. In other words, she had been buried beneath the mountain.
Karalin seemed quite angered by her treatment.
“…That chairman’s brat. I wonder if he even fed her properly.”
“I doubt it, but even if he had given her a feast, I would still be furious. To lock up a knight of the North in a place like this.”
I was just as enraged. Together, we fumed at the chairman who had imprisoned Hilken in this desolate place, waiting near the entrance for her to emerge.
While I held a parasol over Karalin to protect her fair skin from the sun, the heavy iron door of the watchtower rumbled open, its chains lowering.
What we saw was a red-haired girl, visibly emaciated—Hilken.
“…Haa.”
She had been returned the uniform she wore during the field exercise, though it was now somewhat soiled. Her face was gaunt as she staggered outside. But the moment she spotted us waiting for her, she raised her hand and flashed a V sign, true to her bold nature.
“Yay. Senpai, and my lady. It has been a while.”
She was clearly trying to act as though nothing had happened.
“Hilken!”
When Karalin called out, Hilken approached unsteadily and spoke honestly.
“You were waiting for me…? I am moved. The imperial family that tried to kill me locked me up and threatened me for no reason… yet my hometown, which I left without a word, still welcomes me back.”
Karalin must have found the sight rather pitiful…
She immediately rushed over and took Hilken’s chapped hands. Well, she had no choice. Hilken was, and always had been, a northerner.
Karalin spoke.
“Hilken. It does not matter what house you served after Vitagarte. Once a northerner, always a northerner. If you still consider yourself one of us, then we will always be your home—the place you can return to…”
“My lady…”
“So this is only natural. Rather, we are the ones frustrated that we could do nothing while you suffered such cruelty. But it is fortunate that the Lord of Steel resolved everything.”
“You mean Senpai…?”
“Yes. Yohan personally negotiated with Professor Babalk and used his connections to pressure the head of this watchtower into releasing you.”
Hilken’s expression turned to shock. She stared blankly for a moment, lost for words, before replying.
“—I thought something must have happened. Until now, they kept making excuses to keep me locked up, but suddenly they said there was no evidence and released me. I never imagined it was because of Senpai again…!”
Now the conversation turned to me. I spoke to her nonchalantly.
“Do not thank me so much. It is only natural to save a junior who has earned merit.”
“I am overwhelmed with emotion… Senpai…”
I supported the staggering Hilken. Her words to us were simple.
“…Being interrogated was a waste of time from start to finish. But while I was locked down there, one thing became clear.”
“What is it?”
“This academy is rotten to the core. No… even the powers above this academy seem thoroughly corrupt.”
To Hilken, who spoke with such principled conviction, I replied with nothing but facts.
“Obviously. Did you know that if they had kept you locked up a little longer, they could have pinned the blame for the Vankite incident on both you and Jurchen?”
“…Damn it. Are they sane? At this rate, the Empire itself will have no future unless we root out every last trace of corruption.”
“The Empire can collapse for all I care. The only thing that worries me is that Lady Karalin, who should be here at the academy, has to keep associating with these people.”
At that, Karalin shot me a sidelong glance.
“…I do not want to associate with them either. So, this is the perfect opportunity to drain the swamp completely.”
“That is why we have a plan, Hilken.”
“What is it, Senpai?”
There was fighting spirit in her voice as she answered. She was burning with resolve now. Though she had only just been released, her determination to do anything if we asked was unmistakable. Just like always.
So I spoke plainly.
“Let us replace the chairman. There is only one thing you need to do. Everything else has already been planned.”
“…H-haha. That is just like you, Senpai.”
“How long do you need to recover?”
“If you give the order, I am ready right now.”
“Then it is settled.”
The place we took her was the plaza. After the field exercise, she too had shot to stardom.