The 300-Year-Old Magical Girl (2)
Tension gripped my entire body. The memories I thought I had overcome came rushing down my spine like ice, making that horrific hell from not long ago flicker before my eyes once more. Could it be that one of the Six Swords had launched an assault on Sigmund? From what I had gathered through my information network, the demon army had indeed changed direction from the North and was marching southward. But even so, could they really have brought the front lines this far south this quickly?
I let my guard down… Looking back, I should never have done that. The Six Swords were not only supreme generals who commanded vast armies, but each individual possessed combat strength equivalent to an entire legion. Beings like that could easily slip through the encirclement surrounding the Empire and wreak havoc if they so desired.
“Pasithea…? Vincent…? Or perhaps… Aimur…?”
So I found myself unconsciously muttering, wondering which of the remaining Six Swords had come looking for us, while my heart pounded so violently I could only clench my fists and grind my teeth.
“Whoever you are, just come out, you son of a bitch… I’ll kill you.”
With that grim resolve burning in my chest.
But when I finally reached the Solar Tower, what greeted me was—
“Y-Yohan siii!”
—the sight of Eclipse, her hair tied back, sweating profusely from head to toe.
And seeing her like that, I couldn’t help but glare. I had thought she possessed some sense, yet here she was, calmly exercising as if the world weren’t on the brink of collapse. Had she not even sensed the presence of a Six Sword?
There was no time to dwell on such strange doubts. I rushed toward her.
“Eclipse, hide yourself immediately! I detected the aura of one of the Six Swords nearby. I will intercept it from here on. Hurry—!”
“Y-Yes?”
However, her expression was completely at odds with the panic I felt. It was utterly calm.
“One of the Six Swords… is here, you say?”
“Yes! I’m not joking. You know I wouldn’t joke about something like this! Even as I speak, I can feel the presence right—”
A shiver ran down my spine.
In that instant, the overwhelming aura emanating from behind me—the kind that made one acutely aware of the vast difference in species—forced me to draw my blade and whirl around.
But the face I saw there was more than enough to drain the hostility from my body.
“Oh? Isn’t that Yohan?”
“…Your Highness the Ancestor!”
“I came to visit the annex. It’s good to see you.”
“…Ah.”
The moment I saw her face, I instantly understood why my danger sense had triggered. My legs gave out beneath me, and I collapsed right there on the spot.
“…What’s wrong?”
“Good heavens, I… I thought something had gone terribly wrong again…”
“O-Oh dear? Child, come now, get a hold of yourself!”
“…It was you. Thank goodness.”
“Kyaaaaah—! Um, Lady Gorgo! Yohan-ssi’s face has gone completely pale…?!”
Seeing me like this seemed to throw both of them into a panic. Well, I suppose it was only natural. I rarely ever showed such a deathly pale expression.
So I had no choice but to quietly offer an explanation.
“I was simply on my way to the annex of the Solar Tower when I sensed the aura of one of the Six Swords from afar. I hurried over, intending to confront it. I had no idea that the presence actually belonged to Your Highness the Crown Princess…”
Gorgo looked troubled.
“I… see. I was only demonstrating a bit of my power at Eclipse’s request to teach her the sword. I wanted to gauge her abilities as well.”
“I apologize. It was my mistake. I had completely forgotten that I had driven a nail into your body to seal your personality.”
As Gorgo fidgeted, clearly at a loss, Eclipse approached and knelt beside me.
“I-It’s not a mistake, Yohan-ssi… No one could blame you for that. After all, it was with my consent that she briefly released Asparug’s power. Even I, who knew what was happening, felt my body freeze up. I’ve been sitting here unable to do anything until now.”
As she spoke, she gently wiped the cold sweat from my face with a handkerchief she had made herself.
“U-Um, Yohan siii. So… the moment you sensed Lady Gorgo’s overwhelming pressure from such a great distance, you cast aside your fear and came running?”
“Yes. There wasn’t much else to think about…”
“Then I feel truly sorry. It seems I’ve done something unnecessary, Yohan siii… You didn’t say much, but after facing one of the Six Swords last time, that aura must have become a truly painful memory for you…”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“…If I had known, I would have told you in advance.”
At any rate, I still needed to catch my breath. I remained seated where I was for a while, steadying my trembling respiration.
And on the side, I thought to myself:
Thank goodness. Nothing actually happened.
This… is what people commonly call PTSD, isn’t it?
The two young ladies who had carried me into the annex were clearly worried about me after witnessing such a display. While Eclipse comforted me openly, saying I had every right to react that way, Gorgo took a more professional approach to calm me down.
“Somehow, I think I might understand how you feel, Yohan.”
“…What do you mean, Your Highness?”
“I didn’t become one of the Six Swords by choice. Rather, after fighting them and luckily succeeding in their annihilation, I ended up like this. I know better than anyone what kind of being I am now. Those things… are not opponents humans should ever have to face.”
She stroked my head with a strangely benevolent smile.
“So it’s only natural to feel such fear. The fact that you were on the verge of overcoming it is something worthy of praise. Even I… sometimes find it absurd that this terrifying existence still lives and breathes inside me.”
With that, she showed me the nail embedded in the back of her head.
“If you hadn’t driven this nail into me, I would still be suffering, wouldn’t I? Its performance is truly remarkable. Even when I briefly released Asparug earlier, tightening it firmly again returned me completely to my own personality…”
“It had that kind of function? Even I, who put it there, didn’t know that.”
“It seems so. After all, no one knows my body better than I do.”
Pat, pat.
“U-Um, Your Highness Gorgo. While I’m grateful for your kind words, could you perhaps move that jade hand that has been stroking me this entire time?”
Gorgo gave me a familiar smile—the exact same one Karalin used. Even with her short hair, that expression made her look so much like a young lady that it was genuinely confusing.
“What’s this? Are you saying one shouldn’t show such kindness to a child of the North? If that’s the case, then there would be no reason for you all to call me ‘Ancestor,’ would there?”
“…No, that’s not what I meant. Any other northerner might be fine, but there is only one person in this world who is allowed to do this to me. That’s why I’m saying this.”
“How rigid. It’s because of Karalin, isn’t it?”
“…Perhaps, Your Highness the Crown Princess.”
No matter how much I tried to speak more openly these days, there was no need to bare my heart even to someone of royal blood. When I answered vaguely, Gorgo seemed to relax and leaned back against the sofa in the annex.
“Anyway, I’m glad. You seem to have come back to your senses.”
“Thank you. Even though it was all a misunderstanding on my part, I was genuinely shaken.”
Eclipse had left me in Gorgo’s care and gone to clean up the mess left behind from their recent sparring session. That left just the two of us in the annex.
I still felt terribly sorry for having treated Gorgo like some criminal earlier and couldn’t bring myself to speak. But she seemed to have many questions for me and persistently stayed by my side, continuing to ask them.
“By the way, your name is quite unusual. I heard you were the homunculus of Professor Casacos. In that case, shouldn’t you either lack a surname or have been adopted into the Vitagarte family as a servant?”
“I only learned that I was a homunculus after coming here. Are you referring to the fact that my surname, Kim, is unusual?”
“Yes. I’ve never heard of that surname before. Is it written like this? г и м г а…”
“It’s… rather complicated to explain. Could you simply accept that the name embedded in my head was this one?”
“It’s fine even if it’s complicated. Tell me. I want to know a little more about you—the one they call the hope of the North in this era.”
In my previous world, I had used the simple, three-syllable name Kim Yohan. But in this world, I was called Yohan Kim.
Ha… There was quite a lot I could say about that.
As I had told Gorgo, it was a name that had come about due to rather complicated circumstances. Now that I had grown used to it, there was no particular problem in saying it, but honestly, it still felt somewhat awkward and uncomfortable.
“That is…”
I opened my mouth.