Aftermath (1)
After the events of the previous night, the Robeheim family fell into utter chaos, just as Edgar had expected. The fact that two people had breached the barrier and infiltrated the grounds in the dead of night was shocking enough, but one of them had been an apparent assassin—and the boy who took him down was supposedly one of Creed’s subordinates. And it didn’t end there. Helene herself later revealed that the boy was the heir to the Bilhark family and had been living here in secret, disguised for his studies. All of this had unfolded in the span of a single night, so it was hardly surprising that the vassals were now scrambling with panic.
“Ed, want some grapes? These are really sweet.”
In stark contrast to the turmoil unfolding outside, Ariel offered him a plump grape she had fetched from somewhere, her voice perfectly carefree. For the record, the bed where Edgar currently lay was in Ariel’s own bedroom—the very room where the incident had taken place the night before.
“I don’t think I can stomach grapes right now.”
“It’s not like you can’t eat at all.”
“…True enough.”
In the end, Edgar accepted one of the grapes Ariel had peeled for him, chewed it slowly, and let out a heavy sigh. His mind was a storm of chaos thanks to everything that had happened yesterday.
I can’t even look her in the eye.
Honestly, lying here and accepting fruit from her so casually already filled him with pangs of guilt. Yesterday’s events had been a chain of miscalculations and sheer foolishness. If anything had gone even slightly wrong, they wouldn’t be greeting the morning in such leisurely fashion.
From start to finish, there wasn’t a single thing he had handled properly.
“Haa…”
While the sigh escaped his lips, Edgar’s right hand clenched with bone-creaking force. When he had regained consciousness earlier and seen Helene crying tears of gratitude, he had wanted to disappear on the spot. If she knew the full truth of last night, she would never have spoken those words. Everything he had done amounted to throwing away all the mercy and consideration she had shown him.
What on earth was I so confident about?
The sense of déjà vu and inexplicable unease he had felt from the man in the village yesterday. Those two feelings had practically shoved him forward, leading him to Ariel’s room to check on her. That much made sense. Since an intrusion hadn’t been confirmed, raising a needless alarm would have accomplished nothing.
But the real problem lay in how he had handled everything afterward.
I should have called for help. Even if it meant waking Ariel, I should have resolved it quickly.
He had thought plenty. The issue was that those thoughts had been far too short-sighted. At first, he had planned to eliminate the intruder alone and bury the incident in secrecy. If word got out, he would have to explain why a boy named Edgar was even in that place to begin with, and he had anticipated the resulting confusion would be enormous. Above all, he hadn’t wanted to subject Ariel to unnecessary shock. He simply hadn’t wanted a fourteen-year-old girl to come face-to-face with people who wanted her dead.
But that, too, had been nothing but shallow thinking.
“Ariel.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry for? You protected me.”
At the sight of her tilting her head with wide, innocent eyes, Edgar let out a small chuckle and reached out to brush her messy bangs back into place. It wasn’t that simple. In the end, things had worked out through sheer luck, but from beginning to end, he hadn’t done a single thing right. If his reaction to the opponent’s final desperate gamble had been even a fraction slower, he would have been struck down while trying to get Ariel to safety.
While he may have held the advantage in pure combat ability, his lack of real battle experience left him clumsy at reading an opponent’s mind. He had also been overconfident despite the gap in their skills not being overwhelmingly in his favor. And in the end, it meant he hadn’t trusted Ariel. He had assumed she might become a burden, unable to handle such an attack properly. That subconscious doubt was why he hadn’t woken her.
To think that failing to trust his friend had nearly plunged her into even greater danger—what could be more paradoxical and stupid?
“Hey, Ed. You’re not sitting there thinking something stupid, are you?”
“What do you mean, stupid?”
He had been seriously reflecting on yesterday’s events, yet here she was dismissing it all as stupid thoughts. It almost wounded him.
“Like how you couldn’t handle that guy alone yesterday, or how your judgment was wrong… You’re not thinking stuff like that, right?”
“……”
Was she reading his mind? The way Ariel pinpointed his exact feelings with eerie accuracy left Edgar speechless, blinking blankly. Somehow their usual roles had been completely reversed.
“You always overthink the unnecessary stuff. Remember when we were little? That time we ran into a wild boar on the mountain and had to flee?”
“Y-yeah…”
For some reason, he could see Helene’s gentle kindness overlapping with Ariel’s face. Had she always been like this? Edgar stammered in bewilderment as she reached out, firmly took his hand in hers, and continued.
“Mom told me about it later. Instead of blaming me, you apologized, saying it was your fault and that you should have stopped us from going that far.”
There had been such an incident. But whether then or now, it was simply a rational conclusion drawn from the circumstances. Why was that considered stupid thinking?
Edgar’s questions continued, but Ariel showed no sign of stopping.
“Mom said you’re mature and level-headed beyond your years, able to reflect on situations calmly, but that sometimes you’re too harsh on yourself.”
“…Did she really?”
He had never really considered it. He had never driven himself with harsh self-discipline to fuel his ambitions, and he had always thought of himself as rather easygoing. Perhaps this was what people meant when they said the impression others had of you differed from the one you had of yourself.
“You fought for me yesterday. Calling for reinforcements or waking me up might have been better than fighting alone, but you still stood against the enemy by yourself.”
“Ariel, that’s…”
“Stop saying useless things. I know. From your perspective, I would have been nothing but a burden. Even if you woke me, you couldn’t have been sure I’d be any help in that situation.”
And you didn’t call for help because you wanted to handle it quietly, Ariel added. Contrary to Edgar’s expectations, she had seen straight through his inner thoughts—why he had made those decisions yesterday, and even why he was now belittling himself.
“But in the end, who was all of that for? It was for me, wasn’t it?”
“…Yeah.”
That much Edgar couldn’t deny. If he hadn’t been thinking about her at all, he wouldn’t have needed to handle things in such a complicated way.
At his admission, a smile broke across Ariel’s previously furious face. That was all she had wanted to hear.
“You always try to overcomplicate things. Sure, you might have made mistakes. But those mistakes were made trying to protect me, and in the end, you succeeded.”
“Heroes don’t save everyone, you know. Yet people still praise them. Because what they gain by protecting far outweighs what they lose by failing.”
Every word she spoke drove deep into Edgar’s heart.
“If you protected something, then cherish what you protected. If you made mistakes, make sure not to repeat them next time and let go of it for now. I’m here right now because of you.”
“…Well, damn.”
To think the day would come when he received comfort from none other than Ariel. Edgar found his own situation both ridiculous and strangely fulfilling. The fact that his friend, who had always seemed so young, had grown enough to console him filled him with unexpected joy.
“Why are you smiling like that? It’s creepy.”
It wasn’t the kind of smile appropriate between friends. Seeing the same childish gaze he usually gave her, Ariel’s eyebrows twitched.
“Uh… No, I was just deeply moved thinking when did this spoiled young lady grow up so much… Ow! That hurts! I’m injured, I’m a patient!”
“I told you you’d get what was coming to you, you idiot! I should have just let you die back then! You moron! Blockhead! Ed!”
If he had just kept his mouth shut, the moment could have ended warmly. Why did this fool always have to ruin the atmosphere? In her anger, Ariel grabbed a pillow nearly as big as her torso and swung it at him with all her strength.
“I was wrong, so stop… Hey! There’s a wound there, a wound!”
“Good! Maybe it’ll reopen and you’ll die!”
She hit him so hard that Edgar thought it hurt more than when he had endured the falling decorations with his entire body the night before. To survive a midnight intruder only to be beaten to death by his childhood friend’s pillow—what a ridiculous way for the story to end. Surely it would earn criticism even as a joke.
Thud.
“Ed, is your body feeling any better… Ariel!? What are you doing to an injured person!”
Just as Edgar was writhing in agony, Helene opened the door and entered, narrowly preventing him from being pillow-beaten to death.
“M-Mom! This is because this idiot Ed—”
“Put that down right now! No matter how immature you are, how could you treat the person who saved you like this!”
“But it’s really not like that…!”
In the end, the grand scene concluded with only Ariel basking in a sense of deep injustice.
Afterward, Edgar learned from Helene that the situation outside had been mostly settled and the explanations were largely complete. However, since his testimony was needed as the one at the center of the incident, she asked if he could accompany her for a while.
The real challenge was probably about to begin.
With all traces of laughter gone from his face, Edgar nodded. This incident would become a turning point—whether he would be allowed to remain by Ariel’s side, or whether he would be barred even from that residence.
“Take care, Ed.”
“Yeah. I’ll be back soon.”
Ariel saw him off with a mysterious little smile. She looked as if she knew something, but Edgar had no way of telling what. He tilted his head in confusion, returned her farewell, and left the room with Helene’s support. Fortunately, walking didn’t seem too difficult. He soon slipped free of her embrace and walked on his own.
“Don’t worry, Ed. The situation has been mostly explained, so no one will look at you unfavorably.”
That was a relief to hear. When people started off with a bad impression, they often refused to listen no matter what was said. This, too, must be thanks to Helene’s efforts.
Edgar resolved to turn this incident into an opportunity so he could repay both her and Ariel. He would bury the mistakes he had made last night deep in his heart—never forgetting them—while moving forward. That was the right path, both for his friend and for himself.