The White Wind Howls (10)
The White Wind Howls (10)
#92
"J-just, please, don't say anything..."
"What do you mean, 'don't say anything'????"
What was going on all of a sudden? My body was as rigid as stone, and I couldn't even think about moving.
"Lady Lucien, are you perhaps using Unique Magic right now?"
"Eek."
The dark eyes behind her bangs went wide as saucers.
"N-no, I'm not...! I was just, just a little... so that you wouldn't run away, Mister Do-yun, just a tiny bit—"
"In any case, please release my limbs. I need to get out of here."
"I-I don't wanna..."
"Why not?"
"I have something really important to say. 「O Veil of Eternity.」"
Saaaa——
A sensation of some dark power enveloped the inside of the sleeping bag, washing over me, and it felt as if all external sound had been completely cut off.
"What in the—"
"L-listen carefully. What I'm about to say can't get out to anyone..."
"Well, leaving Lily aside, weren't you friends with Lady Estelle?"
"T-technically, I made sure Lily couldn't hear, and Estelle too. Mister Do-yun, Mister Do-yun is currently hurtling towards the hundred and twenty-fourth ending."
"......Did you perhaps eat something bad today? Or get hit in the head by a spell in the middle of the battlefield..."
"N-no! Mister Do-yun, please listen. If you keep going like this, you're going to die."
?
"I've watched that scene unfold so many times. This isn't the first expedition. There isn't a single timeline where Mister Do-yun could have won."
"Uhh... Lady Lucien, I'm sorry, but could you please explain a bit more slowly what you mean, so I can understand?"
"Li-Lily has turned back time countless times. With the soul's Unique Magic inherited by Rosenheim."
"Then... does that mean you knew I came from the past, too?"
"Y-yes..."
"......And how do you know that, Lady Lucien? Does Lily know about your situation as well?"
"P-probably not. Since Lily is the only one who can send a soul to another timeline and time travel... But I'm the successor of Verciel, who governs 「Eternity」, so even if I can't time travel, I can observe what happens..."
Ah, Sis—I thought my head was going to spin. I didn't know how many times a day incomprehensible things kept repeating themselves.
"E-Estelle is my friend, but... I can't tolerate her trying to kill you, Mister Do-yun, anymore. And Lily's last attempt ended in a really, really, truly worst possible ending... Lucien isn't going to stand by and let this madness continue anymore."
"Please explain to me exactly what the two of them are plotting to do to me. Unless you share all the information, there's nothing I can do for you either."
"E-Estelle is going to try to execute Mister Do-yun at the House of the Great Ones, on Sir Cassian's orders. That place is where, long ago, Duke Astravia first observed the fate of our world and fixed destiny— in other words, the place where the Book of Fate was written. I still don't really know what Lily is trying to do, but..."
"So what does that have to do with me?"
"H-hic— It must be to correct an error there, since Mister Do-yun is the First Deviant."
Honestly, given that time travel was happening, I didn't think the story was impossible. Besides, from the moment I encountered the mysteries of magic, I realized there was no such thing as impossibility in this world.
"Then... why have those attempts not succeeded?"
"It's— it's always because Estelle gives up at the last moment... And for some reason, Mister Do-yun gets extremely angry... Each time the specific results were different, but the ending was always the worst... In the last attempt, Lily, Lily..."
"..."
"S-so! Anyway, Mister Do-yun mustn't go to the House of the Great Ones. Mister Do-yun doesn't know who's waiting there."
............
"You didn't think I'd refuse to go after hearing that, did you?"
"......Pardon?"
"Honestly, we don't even know if that's the truth, do we?"
Lucien's large eyes shook violently.
"Y-you're still g-going...?"
"Not going at this point doesn't make any sense either. What about Sir Cassian's fall in battle? What about the mages who sacrificed themselves for us? Didn't you see that the young mages came too, earlier?"
"T-that... that's true, but..."
"You should have said this before those people died. Telling me that now makes your credibility zero. Zero."
"N-no... I didn't mean it like thaaat..."
"Whether Estelle tries to kill me, or whatever Lily is scheming. I'll handle it all myself. In any case, this isn't something that's resolved by me running away. Actually, it turned out well. Didn't you say Lily will turn back time if we fail? There's an extra coin, so I might as well be a bit more proactive."
Lucien's voice trembled noticeably.
"Lu-Lucien knows too. How cowardly it is to do this now— how much too late this is— I know all of it——"
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Tears brimmed in Lucien's large eyes, and bead-like droplets began to fall onto my chest.
"H-hic——"
Lucien's shoulders trembled faintly.
Hah—
"Please... please don't go... I don't want to see my friends die anymore...... please—"
What in the world had she seen to make her like this?
"H-hic——"
Lucien's tears didn't stop, and only when the flowing rivulets had completely soaked my chest did Lucien look into my eyes again.
"...Why. Why do you speak as if it's nothing? I told you, you might die."
"You can't just stop by assuming the worst based on something you haven't even experienced. Have you calmed down a bi—"
"You can't act like it's nothing!"
Drip. A thicker tear fell.
"It was always at the end... you'd fail in some strange place..."
"......"
"No matter how many times Lily rewound time, no matter how many times you, Mister Do-yun, resolved yourself to die by Estelle's hand— and even when you directly fought against the Great One!!!!!"
"Mister Do-yun always failed at the very end."
"......"
"Lucien has watched such things countless times— and I still don't knooow..."
She asked, her damp eyelashes fluttering.
"What is love?"
So suddenly?
"How would I know something like that? I don't know about you, but I'm just a teaching aid. A teaching aid. I might not know what kind of person I was here, but in the past, I was nothing more than an Academy teaching aid. How could I possibly know something like that?"
"What is it... that always caused you to fail..."
"E-even if you tell stories that only you know, it's hard for me to empathize."
"Then... even if you say you'll go to the House of the Great Ones... please teach me what love is."
"Why?"
"Because if you fail this time too, I'll correct it next time."
"......"
"Mister Do-yun always... failed because of that thing called love."
"..."
"So please teach me what it is. So that the next me can find the answer..."
Inside the sleeping bag, too narrow for two— the night's cold air was pushed away by the cloth, and only each other's warmth quietly— so very quietly— filled the small space.
In a fleeting moment where the world seemed to pause, it felt as if only the two of us were left.
***
***
#93
"To be honest, I don't really know what love is either. I've never even experienced things like dating."
"Th-then, with Lily—"
"That's just, you know, fragments left behind by this future's Ha Do-yun. As you saw, it's true that I had a relationship with Lily, but I'm not sure if I could call that true love."
"......"
"Also, no matter how long our expedition is, wouldn't teaching you love in such a short time be a bit much?"
"Th-there's no way. Mister Do-yun always fell in love with Estelle during this expedition."
Wait, could it have been that Lily's Unique Magic wasn't a time machine but a spoiler machine? A life-spoiler machine, I meant.
??
Hold on.
"Not Lily, but Estelle?"
"Yes..."
"That really doesn't make sense. I only know Lady Estelle's name and face. Why? Tell me honestly. You wouldn't be making up a future just because you want to sleep with me, wou—"
"No!!"
Whoa— I felt like one eardrum just got blown out by that shout.
"......"
"No matter how many times Lily rewound time, Mister Do-yun eventually reached Estelle... That's why you can't go to the House of the Great Ones. Because you two are destined to kill each other while in love."
"...Then that's even more reason for me not to teach you what love is, Lady Lucien. If the answer is already set in stone anyway. If you've seen it, you'd know, right? What love is."
"Nooo... because only the ending is set."
"......"
"I-it doesn't have to be the correct answer. The feelings that Mister Do-yun will come to feel, just a little— just a very little bit... let Lucien feel them too."
Inside the sleeping bag, where faint moonlight seeped through the cloth, Lucien's dark pupils wavered dizzily with her breaths.
"Teach Lucien love, too."
At the same time—
An innocent woman's lips carefully descended upon mine.
***
***
From the spot where our lips touched, the firmly suppressed heat slowly spread out.
Lucien gently leaned her forehead against my chest and murmured in a very small voice.
"A k-kiss... hehe. It feels stranger than I thought."
I couldn't hold back. She had started this.
"Eek!"
"You asked me to tell you what love is? I'll tell you what love I know."
Without waiting for Lucien's answer, I tilted my head and covered her lips with mine.
Her breath came a beat late, and Lucien's small fingers clutched at the hem of my clothes.
"M-mmph—!"
Smack—
Chuup——
Without even a moment for our lips to part, I continued the deep kiss.
Lucien's body gradually lost strength, and completely flushed, she wore an expression that seemed to ask, 'What's next?'
"Haa...haa..."
"This is a kiss."
"It's way too different from what I imagined—"
"This is only the beginning. Do you want to do more?"
Lucien nodded her head very slightly, then her nods gradually quickened.
"Yes— please teach Lucien... Mister Do-yun's love..."
Under the faint moonlight that had seeped into the sleeping bag, Lucien's white, bare form slowly revealed itself.
And,
and I began, one by one, to awaken her to the fact that love in this world existed in many different forms.