Her Dream Wasn't Among My Variables
I followed Arie into the smithy, toward the reception room where she always sat.
"My lady. Is there something you wished to instruct me in?"
"If I gave you an instruction, would you even listen?"
"I have always listened, and carried them out, though..."
Arie took the chair in the reception room.
"Mr. Karon."
"Yes, my lady."
"Do you have a dream, Mr. Karon?"
Nothing grand enough to call a dream. A short-term goal, though — that I had, clear enough.
"My dream is that you live long, and in good health, my lady."
Arie didn't answer. She only stared straight through me for a moment.
"...Are you the sort of man who says that lightly to just any woman?"
It had been the whole truth, without a shred of falsehood. I couldn't see why she would take it that way.
"No. I have said it only to you, my lady, and from now on it is something I will say only to you."
If the story held, Arie had not even ten days left to live. Perhaps that was why. There was something faintly sad in the way she had brought up dreams out of nowhere.
"You know, sometimes I think you're rather good with words, Mr. Karon."
She fell silent for a moment, then drew a brooch from her bosom and began to turn it over in her fingers.
"You honor me, my lady."
"Then... would you ask what my dream is, too?"
She set the brooch on the desk, and a small smile touched her mouth.
"Then what is your dream, my lady?"
"It's a secret."
She was the one who had asked me to ask. What sort of conversational tactic was that?
"Ah... yes."
"What I meant was that I'd like you to ask a little more passionately."
"You seem a little different today, my lady."
"Oh my. Do I?"
A brief quiet settled between us.
"Mr. Karon."
"Yes, my lady."
"A year ago, before you settled in our territory, you said you had wandered a great many places, didn't you?"
That was what I had told her, but it was not the truth. I had simply woken in the body of this novel's Karon. As it happened, he had been a man who drifted from place to place, and by the time his memories came flowing into me, everyone around him was already gone from this world.
"Yes. That's right."
"This may sound strange, but I admired a Karon like that, you know?"
"You admired me?"
It was not an answer I had expected.
"Yes. Because my dream is to go beyond the territory."
"...Is His Grace troubling you a great deal?"
"No?"
"Then is there someone among the servants making a nuisance of themselves?"
I glanced out the window at Christine. Arie seemed to read the look, and shook her head.
"Oh, heavens, absolutely not."
"Then why do you wish to leave the territory?"
"Mm~ Do you want to know?"
I ground my teeth before I knew it.
Seriously — what am I even supposed to be playing along with?
From the way the conversation had gone so far, she clearly wanted me to press her again.
"Yes, yes. I'm curious."
"I want to go north."
Perhaps because they were sisters by blood. The very words I had heard from Eris came out of Arie's mouth.
"Why do you want to go?"
But the answer I wanted never came back.
"This is rather nice in its own way, isn't it? You taking such an interest in me."
"Pardon?"
"May I make one personal request?"
I looked at her face. It was an expression I had never seen on her — not a trace of mischief in it.
"What is it?"
"I'm going to enter this Debutante as a competitor."
"What? I'm quite certain His Grace means to keep traveling about, seeking a match for you."
At that, Arie's face twisted in open distaste.
"...Which is all the more reason I intend to enter as a competitor."
"So whatever it is you want must be there."
"Yes. And so I have a favor to ask of you, Mr. Karon."
"Would you tell me?"
She hesitated a moment, then went on without quite bringing herself to look at me.
"I heard that before the Debutante, you'll be tending the arms of the young ladies from the other territories."
"Yes. That's right."
"How thoroughly were you planning to tend them?"
I had already sketched the outline. Check the mana stones for the magic stored in them, or at most seal the hairline cracks in the weapons themselves. I had no mind to do more than that, and with the arms stacked outside, there wasn't much time besides.
"I only mean to touch the basics. In case an accident happens during the tournament..."
"Then."
She cut me off, her face grave.
"Could you perhaps work on the weapon of a certain young lady I'll name... just a little more?"
What Arie wanted was not a request. It was a bid to tilt the field. There was no need even to consider it.
"I'm sorry, but I can't."
"Why?"
"I can't become the sort of man who shatters someone else's effort in a single moment."
"Pfft—!"
As if she had seen the answer coming, Arie burst out laughing.
"Ah, really. This is exactly why I like you, Mr. Karon."
"I am fond of you as well, my lady, but just now I find I must look at you a little differently."
"Then would you care to look again?"
"Pardon?"
What followed was not an answer I had anticipated.
"Once the Debutante bracket is posted, I would like you to strengthen the arms of the young lady I name."
"Strengthen her arms?"
"Yes. That's right."
"Why...?"
I didn't understand.
She starts in about dreams out of nowhere, and now the whole talk is sliding off this way.
When the confusion showed on my face, Arie rose and came to stand before me.
"I don't mean to boast, but I already have no equal anywhere around here."
"That is a boast, my lady."
"Ahem! Anyway. That's why I need someone who can stand as my match."
She extended her index finger and set it against my solar plexus.
"It's your specialty, isn't it. Changing a weapon so it suits the one who wields it."
"Don't tell me you mean to enter the Debutante even if it takes that."
"That's right."
Only then did I see the whole of the incident from the novel.
Eris had driven her staff's output to its limit and unleashed a blade of wind, and Arie had died blocking it. That had not been the end. I had stepped into both their paths since, but in the original, the opponent who met Eris had likewise carried a weapon already changed before the Debutante. Arie's dream had become the very move that killed her.
Which was all the more reason I could not grant it.
"I'm sorry, but... then I truly can't."
"Hah. I didn't see that one coming."
"Lady Eris is entering the Debutante this time as well, is she not."
So I had to manufacture a reason, one way or another.
"...That's right."
"If the opponent whose arms I tend is matched against Lady Eris, you could be hurt, my lady."
The true end of it had been Arie's death, but this much was reason enough.
Fortunately, Arie seemed persuaded. She only went on quietly pressing at my chest.
"Mr. Karon."
"Yes, my lady."
"Doesn't it feel as if something got left out of the middle of this?"
"What do you mean?"
She straightened her middle finger and began to press around my solar plexus with both hands.
"I told you my dream was to go north."
"Yes."
"Then aren't you curious why that has anything to do with the Debutante?"
"When I asked earlier, didn't you deliberately refuse to answer?"
The strength in her fingers eased for a moment. Then she started pressing my chest harder, again and again.
"I. Asked you. To ask. More. Passionately."
"Ah— ah. What connection... ah, is there? Ah, stop."
A soft thud.
Her fingers had become a fist before I knew it. When Arie's fist met my solar plexus, she ducked her head.
"I heard that in the north there is a knight order and a mages' guild that guard this region."
"Yes. I've heard the same."
"And when the Debutante is held... those people will come as well, won't they."
"My lady. You can't mean..."
"The truth is, saying I wanted to leave this territory was a lie."
She nodded.
"I want to become a mage who guards the north. So I can protect the people I love, and this land, from the monsters."
"You are more than capable of that even as you are, my lady."
"No. I don't want to show the people of the north how strong I am. I want to show them how difficult a magic I can tune."
Because you will be the Tuner who succeeds me.
Was it only fate that her mother rose then, out of the staff's memories? It was plainly a request I ought to refuse, and yet my mouth would not come open.
"His Grace doesn't know of this, I assume."
"Of course not. Mother already died in the north, and even so..."
I seemed to have heard family matters I had no right to hear.
"Would you give me time to think?"
"Oh my. To think you'd consider me so carefully."
As if to loosen the air, Arie laughed with deliberate exaggeration.
"By when should I give you an answer?"
"The bracket should be out in about two days. I'll stop by the smithy then, so will you answer me?"
"Understood."
Outside the smithy, Arie held a basket of potatoes in her left hand and waved to me with her right. Beside her, Christine inclined her head in a short bow.
"Mr. Karon. I will say it once more. My daughter..."
"Set your mind at ease, Sir Joaquin. I haven't the leisure to spare your daughter a thought just now."
"I understand. You will have to repair all of those arms, I expect."
It was Joaquin, in their place, who offered me the farewell.
"Yes... well. Something like that."
"Only remember this. Until the Debutante is over, I will turn my daughter's heart around. Whatever you may be thinking, Mr. Karon..."
"Yes. Yes. Please, go on in."
"...I shall see you in due course."
I wanted to answer him, but my head was too snarled for it.
By the time the procession had dwindled to a speck, I had gone into my room and sunk into thought.
If things go only as I've planned, the chances are good that Arie won't die.
I had taken my precautions. I had laid my contingencies.
But her dream had never been among my variables.
And if it goes that way, a match will be found for her, and once she's married, any chance of her going north will vanish outright.
The problem was this. Just as Arie had said, I had the skill to change the outcome of this Debutante.
What... was I supposed to do?