I Made a Terrible Mistake
I’d gone and done it.
“Medeia, right? Fancy meeting you here. Is this fate too?”
A girl who looked to be about Medeia’s age approached us as she spoke.
It caught me off guard.
Did Medeia have a friend?
When had our lady gone behind my back and made friends?
No, how had she even managed to make one?
While I was busy thinking those useless thoughts, the girl went on.
“You vanished from the academy, and now you’re here. Are you here to get fitted for a uniform or something? Don’t tell me you’re planning to come back?”
“……”
Medeia gave no reply at all.
It almost seemed like she was trying to avoid answering.
“Huh? Ignoring me? We haven’t seen each other in ages. You could at least say hello.”
“……”
When Medeia still didn’t answer, the girl seemed to realize something and clapped her hands with a bright cry.
“I get it. You still haven’t broken that curse, have you? So that’s why you’re hiding your face with something so obnoxious.”
“……”
The atmosphere had turned ugly.
It seemed best to get out of here quickly.
And yet—
“Poor Medeia. And after all that, you still came to the academy with a curse like that hanging over you. That’s impressive, I’ll give you that. But can you really graduate? Just seeing your face would make everyone afraid of you, disgusted by you.”
The girl’s filthy mouth was faster than I could have imagined.
She hid her lips behind a fan and laughed at Medeia.
“Let me give you some advice. Don’t even dream about going back. The world doesn’t need someone like you coming out into it and making trouble.”
“……”
As Medeia stood there, unable to answer the girl’s abuse, I finally hit my limit.
If things went to hell, Medeia would protect me, right?
“Did a sow go into heat somewhere? You’re making a disgusting racket.”
“……?”
“……?”
The two women’s eyes turned to me at the same time.
Both of them looked utterly stunned.
“K-Kael? You just…”
Medeia started to say something, but the bitch’s voice cut in before she could finish.
“You. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you saying that to me?”
I ignored the bitch’s words and called to Medeia.
“My lady. I think a heat-crazed sow has wandered into the shop. It’s dangerous, so let’s head back to the villa quickly.”
“H-Heat-crazed…?”
“Yes.”
“Hey! Are you ignoring me? You there, the blind one. Can’t you hear me? Do you know who I am?!”
I didn’t know who she was.
But I knew perfectly well that she’d picked a fight with our lady.
She looked like she came from some decent noble house, but compared to Medeia, she was nothing.
Medeia was from a ducal house, for heaven’s sake—
“How dare you insult me, the imperial princess?”
Fine, I take it back.
She had some weight to her, didn’t she?
Shit.
I never would have guessed that the bitch—no, the woman—who’d been baiting Medeia was a princess.
No, wait.
Maybe only a princess could afford to pick fights like that?
Either way, I knew one thing for certain: this situation was deeply, royally screwed.
“Answer me! Were you talking to me just now?!”
“……”
Since the damage was already done, no explanation from me was going to fix anything now.
If I was going to die no matter what I did, wouldn’t it be better to say exactly what I felt like and go out on my own terms?
Once that thought crossed my mind, fear vanished.
“My lady! It’s dangerous. The sow’s about to charge. Let’s get out of here.”
The moment I reached for Medeia’s hand and started toward the shop door—
“Stop him!”
The princess snapped the command, sharp as a whip.
At the same time, someone stepped in front of me and blocked the way.
“Not bad. Even with your eyes covered, you move pretty well.”
He was a middle-aged man with a patchy beard.
He wasn’t wearing armor, but the pressure coming off him was anything but ordinary.
A knight.
A very skilled one, too.
“Good work, Hate.”
The princess wore a pleased expression as she walked slowly toward me.
“You insult me and then try to run?”
Her hand lifted high.
And then—
Medeia, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
“……Enough. Please stop.”
Her face was hidden behind the veil, so I couldn’t see her expression, but her voice trembled.
“My butler was careless. I’ll discipline him again, so please let this go on generous terms this once.”
Medeia lowered her head because of me.
I was the one who’d caused this mess, but she was the one bowing her head.
That made me furious.
Just as I was about to say something else to the princess—
“Kael.”
Medeia quietly called my name.
“Keep your mouth shut.”
The princess stared at Medeia for a moment, then slowly curled one corner of her lips upward.
Like a child who’d just found a toy she liked.
“How interesting.”
“What exactly is interesting…?”
“You, bowing your head.”
“……”
“If it were the old you, I couldn’t even have imagined it. And now here you are, apologizing just to save one blind butler?”
Medeia didn’t answer.
The princess kept smiling at the sight of her, clearly delighted by something only she could understand.
“Now I’m intrigued. Honestly, I was thinking of just killing him, but that wouldn’t be entertaining, would it? So let’s do this properly. Let’s have a duel.”
“……A duel?”
“Yes. Your blind butler and Hate will duel. With their lives on the line.”
“Kael is not a knight.”
“That’s none of my business. And I think you’re misunderstanding something. I’m giving you a chance right now. A chance to save your butler.”
After saying that, the princess led Hate out of the shop.
“Let’s make the duel the day before the entrance ceremony. It’ll be the perfect entertainment before that dull academy life begins.”
***
Inside the carriage on the way back to the villa, Medeia said nothing.
“My lady, are you angry?”
“No.”
“You are angry.”
“I said I’m not.”
“I’m sorry.”
“……”
Silence fell again.
Still, maybe that earlier exchange had helped a little, because Medeia broke it first.
“Why did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Why did you act like that in the shop just now? You could have just stayed quiet. It wasn’t your problem. But then why—”
Medeia couldn’t continue.
It was the first time anyone had ever stepped forward for her like that.
So her feelings were strange.
She was angry, but she wasn’t angry.
Paradoxically, that was what she was feeling now.
It was confusing.
“You were being insulted, so how could I just stand there? I was the only one there, so if nobody else was going to step up, I had to.”
“So you nearly got yourself killed?”
“Even knowing that would happen, I’d still do the same thing.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“An idiot who only thinks about my lady.”
Kael.
At the blind slave’s—no, the blind butler’s—words, Medeia forgot the seriousness of the situation and laughed before she could stop herself.
“Pfft.”
It felt good.
Being with him like this was more enjoyable than any moment in her life had ever been.
Maybe that was why the thought that he might be killed by the princess’s knight in a few days made her feel so sad.
“Kael.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Can you win?”
His opponent was the princess’s personal knight.
Medeia knew Hate well enough to understand that much.
A disciple of the Thunder Sword, one of the Empire’s Three Swords.
That was who Hate was.
To be honest, Kael had no chance of winning.
Even knowing that, Medeia still asked him.
Hoping, against all reason, that a miracle might happen.
“We’ll have to see.”
“What?”
“Even I don’t really know how strong that knight named Hate is. And he doesn’t know me, either. It’s a fight between two people who know nothing about each other. Wouldn’t the result only be clear after we actually clash?”
“……”
“Still, there’s one answer I can give you, my lady.”
“What is it?”
“I’ll win. No matter what.”
He would win.
He would come back alive.
That was the only comfort Kael could offer Medeia.
And at that comfort, Medeia let out a faint laugh.
“Try dying and see what happens.”
***
After we returned to the villa, Bella called me over.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Bella. Calm down. If you get angry, you’ll only get more wrinkles.”
“Is that really the time to— Ugh. I shouldn’t have let you go with the young lady.”
“If I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have gotten the uniform fitted…”
“Quiet!”
Bella sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead as if her head ached.
“So tell me, what exactly were you thinking when you pulled a stunt like that?”
“I wasn’t really thinking of anything. I just happened to see my lady being insulted, so I returned the favor…”
Bella’s expression turned savage.
I got the feeling I might die here, before I even got to fight Hate.
“I’m sorry.”
My quick apology made her face return to normal.
“Well, well. So there was still some sense left in that head of yours.”
“Hehe.”
“This is not a laughing matter. First, I should find a place to bury your body.”
“N-no, I’m not dead yet.”
“You’re facing Hate! Hate, disciple of the Empire’s Three Swords! Do you honestly think you can survive against him?”
“That’ll only be clear once we fight.”
“It’s already clear to me.”
Bella looked at me for a moment, then continued.
“I was beginning to think the young lady might finally be able to smile and live a little, and then you went and ruined it.”
“……”
“There are things I cannot do. But you could do them. And I can’t allow someone like that to go off and die. Take this.”
Bella handed me a small box.
When I opened it, there was a glass vial inside, filled with some unknown liquid.
“What is this?”
“An elixir.”