This Is My Heart
"I did well, didn't I?"
When I opened the door, Arie was looking at me with a bright little smile.
"Your face has gone pitch-black, Karon."
"Ah... I ought to wash up first."
I rubbed at my face, and Arie yawned with a thoroughly mischievous look.
"Haaahm... I finished the book twice over while I waited for you."
"You did?"
"I drank all the tea you'd steeped ahead of time, and there was nothing else to do, so I just read."
And what am I supposed to do about that?
"On top of that, you hadn't prepared any food, so I haven't eaten a thing."
"Ah. I'll bring you some potatoes."
"No. That isn't what I wanted to hear."
"Then what?"
My head was a tangle as it was. I couldn't begin to guess why she was smiling through clenched teeth.
"Eris even said she was coming in to see you, and I barely managed to stop her."
"Ah..."
I got the gist.
"I'm sorry for making you wait."
"Only half right."
"Thank you... for waiting?"
Only then did Arie nod.
"So. Why do you suppose I waited for you?"
"Good question. You could simply have gone back... Is there something else you wished to leave with me?"
A brief silence fell.
"Ah. Don't tell me you've brought the spare wand you mentioned earlier as well?"
"...Go wash your face."
"Yes. I'll bring the potatoes out too."
"Yes... do as you like."
Before I went to wipe my face clean, I turned back to Arie one last time.
"My lady. Might I ask one more favor?"
My head was far too full. I had made a device that could save Arie, and I had dealt with the very root of what was going to kill her. Even so, two hurdles still stood in front of me. First, I had to hand Arie the brooch in front of Joaquin. Second, I had to explain the wand's modifications to Eris.
Once my face was clean, I headed for the reception room. Three familiar figures were seated at the table.
"You came out quick."
"Eris. You must maintain your dignity."
"Hahaha... My apologies, Lady Arie."
Arie sat with her eyes closed, teacup in hand. Eris had her arms folded and was glaring at me. And between the two of them, Sir Joaquin was watching me as well.
"It's been three days since I saw any of you."
I sat and set the cloth-wrapped bundles on the table.
"My wand!"
From the seat right beside mine, Eris lunged for her wand where it jutted out of the cloth.
Bang.
"Eep!"
That was me. I had brought my fist down on the table.
"Y-you scared me! What are you doing?"
"Lady Eris. Lady Arie. Sir Joaquin. First, forgive the rudeness."
The moment I finished, Joaquin lowered the hand he had set on his sword hilt.
"You startled me, Master Karon. What is the matter?"
"I have something to say to the three of you."
"To us?"
The instant Arie's words ended, I drew out Eris's wand.
"Whoa! My wand... it is...?"
Her eyes went to the brooch fixed at the wand's center.
"What's this?"
I had steeled myself so carefully. So why, the moment the wand was in her hands, was I this tense?
The wind around us stopped dead, and Sir Joaquin's hand went back to his sword hilt.
"H-h-hea— heart?"
"Karon. Even from you, I will have to hear an explanation."
Eris had short-circuited, and killing intent was beginning to roll off Joaquin. Fortunately, Arie went on drinking her tea with her eyes closed.
A short while earlier—
"A favor?"
Just before I went to wash my face, I had returned Arie's staff and slipped the question in as naturally as I could, careful not to let on that I had read the weapon's memories.
"I would like to ask about your relationship with Lady Eris."
"Our relationship? We're simply sisters..."
"No. I'm curious about something other than that."
Arie shrugged.
"What is it?"
My eyes went to the staff.
"You always use a staff, my lady, and Lady Eris always uses a wand. May I ask why?"
Arie's eyes went round.
"That is..."
"No. I've already thought of something. Would you tell me whether I'm right?"
She stared straight at me, then gave a small nod.
"I am a blacksmith who can work armaments through which mana flows."
"I know. That is why Father treasures you."
"So each time I repaired the two of you, I came to expect a certain thing."
A lie. However well I could handle mana, I could not confirm the will of the person who had first made these weapons. It was only that this particular fact had never spread through the world.
"And what is that?"
"You, my lady, are attunement."
At the word attunement, the wind near the forge went still.
"And Lady Eris is power."
"You..."
Arie seemed to consider for a moment, then nodded.
"That's right. Our late mother was an archmage."
"I've heard as much."
She began to tell it.
"Mother carried a staff in her right hand and a wand in her left, and spent her whole life at the forefront of the monster hunts in the north."
"Ah..."
"And just before she passed, she left one weapon to each of us. One for me, and one for Eris."
Arie, still stroking the staff in her hands, came slowly toward me.
"Uh, uh..."
Crushed under the weight of her presence, I found myself backing away without meaning to.
"My lady?"
Into my workshop.
Bang.
The moment we were inside, Arie shut the door and looked me dead in the eye.
"Well. So what is it you want to say?"
"Is this an interrogation?"
"Not yet."
I let out a small sigh and held out the wand I had left on the desk.
"This is Eris's... oh?"
Seeing the brooch set into the wand's center, Arie looked frankly startled.
"This isn't the form I knew."
"No. I modified it a little."
"Why?"
I had modified it so Eris would not die two weeks from now. I wanted to say exactly that.
"When I heard that this wand would be broken, and the spare as well, I fell into thought for a moment."
"And what thought was that?"
"Whether the wand had perhaps never been customized at all."
These weapons were their mother's keepsakes. The young ladies would never even imagine I knew that, which meant I could bluff.
"Lady Eris will be taking part in the coming Debutante as well, will she not?"
"That's right."
"I wanted her, at least when she attends that event, to carry a weapon fitted to her hand."
A short silence passed.
"You don't mean you see Eris as a woman..."
"I do not."
I didn't need a moment's hesitation.
Joaquin rose from his seat with his sword drawn.
"Master Karon. You will explain that remark."
I had expected it. To Joaquin, Lady Eris was like a daughter he had looked after since she was small.
"May I give the explanation, Sir Joaquin?"
But the instant I opened my mouth, Arie turned a bright smile on him.
"...Yes, my lady."
Right. I had told that lie earlier precisely because Arie was someone capable of a rational judgment.
"Karon wants Eris to win the Debutante."
What?
"My lady."
"Shh. Karon. Let me explain it properly."
Arie rose and went to Eris, setting a hand on each of her shoulders.
"Sister?"
"Eris. Would you try channeling mana into the wand?"
Eris closed her eyes, looking entirely unconvinced. The mana stone at the wand's tip began to glow.
"Good. Now, just like that, pour in more."
"But if I go any further, you won't be able to control—"
"It's all right. Try."
Eris's brow tightened, and the brooch set in the middle of the wand began to shine.
"...Huh?"
"What is it, Eris?"
At the same time, Eris's eyes wavered.
"Sister. The wand isn't shaking."
Of course it wasn't. However much mana a wand could store, there was a limit to what it could take in a single instant — like a dam collapsing when the water surged in all at once. I had modified it so the excess could be held in the brooch, and so the wand could endure.
"The wand will no longer run wild because of your mana, my lady."
Instead of answering, Eris kept pouring mana in.
"You'll be able to draw as much power as you wish, whenever you wish it. And if that isn't enough, you can use the mana stored in it as well."
Joaquin, too, was staring at Eris with a hand over his mouth.
"It is my heart. What I mean is that I at least didn't want the Debutante ruined because of a wand."
Eris looked at me. She put on a face that pretended to be angry, but she couldn't hide the smile in her eyes and at the corners of her mouth.
"H-how dare you alter a lady's weapon however you please?"
"For that, I am truly sorry."
The usual Arie would have said she couldn't feel a shred of sincerity in it.
"Well. It's usable enough."
I didn't mind. Eris's eyes were full of nothing but the plan to get outside and test her magic at once.
"Master Karon."
Joaquin looked at me.
Why is that man about to cry?
His sword was already sheathed, and his eyes had gone moist. I shrugged instead of answering.
"Lady Eris."
"Mm. Joaquin."
"Shall we go practice magic together?"
"Yeah!"
And so the two of them left — no. Joaquin bowed to me first, and then they went outside, leaving Arie and me behind.
Listening to the wind blowing in from outside, Arie sat down.
"I did well, didn't I?"
"Yes. It's thanks to you, my lady."
"By the way, how did you know?"
"Know what?"
"That the brooch was an armament capable of holding mana."
She grinned.
"A young lady ought to know the accessories circulating in her own domain."
"Ah..."
Thank goodness. Thanks to her, I had headed off the disaster that was hardest of all to handle.
"Thank you."
"With nothing but words?"
"Pardon?"
Ah. Right.
"I held back my little sister and Sir Joaquin for you, and a thank-you that's only words feels a little thin, doesn't it?"
Eris was predictable enough, in where she would leap next. Arie was impossible.
"If there's something you want..."
"Mmm, I wonder?"
Her face was full of a smile. That was more frightening.
Right. Better to do this now...
Whether she had meant to steer me here or not, this was the moment.
"I thought you might say that, so I made it ahead of time."