Back from the Brink (2)
『Lilith has reached Level 13!』
『Lilith has reached Level 14!』
『Lilith has reached Level 15!』
『Lilith has reached Level 16!』
Two days had passed since I sank beneath the lake and somehow clawed my way back to the land of the living.
For the record, our date that day had, of course, been cut short. It's rather hard to worry about whether or not to continue a date when you're one step away from holding a funeral.
Even now, the last thing I'd seen two days ago still flickered before my eyes — that chaotic scene of so many people crowded around, calling my name.
'Lilith! Lilith…!!'
'Thank goodness you're safe, Miss Lilith. But you still need rest, so please hurry to the church and get treated—'
'I-I'll treat you until you're completely stable! Th-that's not because the Hero told me to or anything!'
'…You — are you really okay?'
Granted, I'd very nearly died, so I couldn't exactly fault everyone for reacting that way.
Ethan in particular had refused to let go of me at all, holding me in a tight embrace, which told me plenty about just how worried he'd been.
Fortunately, this was the world of Luminor Academy, a game where as long as you drew breath, divine power could heal you.
So now I was continuing my recovery in a private sickroom of the Aurelian Church, taking things slow for the sake of stability.
-Creak.
"How are you feeling today, Miss Lilith?"
"I'm well. Thanks to the Saintess's devoted care, I feel much better."
"I'm so glad to hear you've improved…. For a while there, I truly didn't know what would become of you…."
Once again this morning, Serista carefully cracked open the door of the church sickroom and slipped inside. Over the past two days, hers was the face I'd seen the most — apparently, having survived a near-death experience, my treatment had been placed entirely in her hands.
And judging from the way she'd been fumbling and letting slip little mistakes like an absolute airhead, I could piece together that it was the Hero who'd assigned her to my care in the first place.
'Entrusting Lilith's survival even to Serista… that has to be for the capture route, right?'
It feels rich saying this with my own mouth, but in the game, Lilith's performance was genuinely useful. Up until now, there had technically existed a way to clear the game without adding Lilith to the party, but the orthodox strategy, truth be told, was to include her as a support and sub-tank.
Watching the Hero — Gehmajoshigi-gwat — over the past few months, everything about his behavior screamed that he was aiming for exactly that orthodox route.
Anyone gunning for a truly stable clear would obviously want to bring Lilith along to the final battle.
'Not exactly an encouraging sign.'
I've said it a hundred times, but I had zero intention of joining the protagonist's party on the journey to defeat the Demon King. Not wanting to shove your way into dangerous places is just basic human instinct.
Besides, thinking about the event where the Hero takes Lilith as his companion made it all the more unsettling.
Carrying off Ethan's severed head like a war trophy — as I am now, that was a sight I never, ever wanted to witness.
That said, with Ethan having changed so much, and with it now all but certain that this Gehmajoshigi-gwat kid was a transmigrator, I doubted things would ever spiral quite that far.
Still, it seemed better to return to normal life sooner rather than racking up even more debts of gratitude to Serista. If I missed more classes, catching up on coursework would become a struggle — and above all, I had student council duties waiting for me.
"I think I'll be able to return to the Academy as early as tomorrow, Saintess."
"B-but wouldn't it be better to rest a little longer for stability's sake…. I'm not joking — your heart actually stopped. If it weren't for that heart… resuscitation? that the Hero mentioned, it really would have been dangerous…. I don't see any particular side effects yet, but still…."
"…You mean CPR, don't you?"
"Y-yes…. M-my, you remember it well…?"
It wasn't a matter of remembering — it was just knowledge from my past life. From the context, I'd already pieced together the story of the Hero reviving me with CPR, after all.
Still, hearing that my heart, once stopped, had been coaxed back to beating was genuinely terrifying on several levels.
I'd already been horrified back when I'd owed the church my life after the Hook-Fanged Eel incident, but this time it meant I'd sustained an injury even the church couldn't heal — I'll let you imagine how that felt.
If that Gehma-whatsit that happened to approach me hadn't come along, there was a very real chance I'd no longer be among the living.
…Though I'll admit, I never saw the part coming where the Hero would give me CPR.
'No man other than Ethan has ever touched me before.'
Unconscious or not, knowing that another man's hands had been on my chest when it wasn't Ethan left me with a strange feeling.
Of course, there was no way Ethan would know CPR, so it was an unavoidable choice. It wasn't as if he could have learned it from the Hero in that moment, either.
And strictly speaking, it wasn't as though anyone had touched my breasts directly — they'd only compressed the space between them. If I just thought of it as a medical procedure, it wasn't really a part worth fussing over.
And yet — being touched by another man right before Ethan's eyes was the kind of thing I simply couldn't help being sensitive about.
'On top of that, it seems I didn't wake up right away, so they gave me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation too.'
I had a faint, hazy memory of someone's lips pressing over mine at the very end, so it was almost certain. Backlight had flooded my vision at that instant, so I couldn't tell who it was, but there was no way Ethan knew how to perform artificial respiration — the culprit was obvious.
However necessary it was for bringing a dead person back, Ethan had been forced to watch, helpless, as the girl he loved had her chest handled and her lips touched by someone else.
It wasn't my fault, not really — and yet an oddly guilty feeling crept over me.
After all, if our positions were reversed, I'd have felt thoroughly grossed out.
'Honestly, it might've been better if it had been Ethan.'
My chest got manhandled all the time anyway, so whether his hands touched me or not wouldn't have fazed me in the slightest.
And the kiss — no, the resuscitation — if it had to happen at all, I suppose it would have sat a little easier with someone familiar.
There was also the lingering guilt over never having properly answered his confession.
And above all — if someday, just once, I had to kiss someone anyway, then better it be Ethan, really….
'N-no. What on earth am I even thinking right now?'
"Oh? Is the room a bit warm, perhaps?"
"N-no…. It's nothing like that…."
"……?"
A strangely risqué thought had surfaced out of nowhere, and heat rushed to my face in a flash.
For the past few days, this was how it always went whenever thoughts of Ethan drifted into my head. Over absolutely nothing, I'd end up hyper-aware of him.
Truthfully, I'd half expected a confession from him at some point even before now.
And that alone hadn't really changed how I saw him.
It was just that, thinking back on everything — how he'd blocked the Kraken's final strike at the very last moment, on the brink of death himself, showing the first stirrings of a Sword Expert aura. How, even as we both plummeted to the lakebed, he'd somehow held onto me and dragged me all the way to shore.
dwelling on things like that, I couldn't help but become conscious of him. That was all.
No — honestly, even between two men, this would be enough to set anyone's heart pounding, wouldn't it?
What kind of person fails to feel grateful to someone who's saved their life twice? Anyone like that would be a conscience-less ingrate.
And, well — there's something called the suspension bridge effect, isn't there? A human heart, by nature, beats faster in moments of crisis, and it just so happens to mistake the person standing nearby as the object of love.
The way my chest fluttered whenever I pictured Ethan saving my life — that was simply the suspension bridge effect married to conditioned reflex.
…Not that the effect or anything else in the world would ever make me ungrateful to Ethan. From this incident alone, I owed him a debt truly beyond words.
If he ever demanded some kind of repayment for saving my life… honestly, I didn't have a shred of confidence I could refuse.
Groping my chest would be a given, of course — and even if he proposed redoing that interrupted date, I'd have no choice but to say yes.
And more than that — if he asked me to date him as payment for saving my life… refusing might prove… difficult.
No, to be precise — even if he demanded something beyond that, I might seriously consider it, just this once….
-Knock, knock.
"Lilith, how are you feeling?"
"E-E-Ethan?!"
Ethan's voice from beyond the sickroom door sent a startled squeak flying out of my mouth, and I immediately wheeled around to demand an explanation from Serista, who stood beside me monitoring my condition.
"Wh-what's going on…? As-as far as I knew, visiting hours hadn't started yet…."
"Ah, I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you. During yesterday's examination, your condition seemed stable enough, so I informed only Young Master Ethan and Princess Seraphin. I said one visitor at a time should be fine…."
"Why would you tell me that only now?!"
"Ahh, I-I'm sorry…! I meant to mention it after I finished checking your condition, and then it slipped my mind…."
W-what do I do? What on earth kind of face am I supposed to wear when I see Ethan right now?
Washing my face first, obviously…. No, wait. First I need to sort out my hair….
"Lilith, may I come in?"
"J-just a moment, Ethan!"
The instant I'd gathered myself, I wiped the sleep from the corners of my eyes and finger-combed my hair into some semblance of order. I cast a cleaning spell over my clothes and the bed to tidy them up, and, um, and also….
"M-my headdress!"
"Huh?!"
"C-could you hand me that headdress over there, please?"
"You mean… this one?"
"Yes! That one!"
Taking only the headdress from among the maid uniforms hanging on one side of the sickroom's wardrobe, I plopped it over my hastily finger-combed hair.
…Well, I'd turned myself into something passably presentable, at least.
"Y-you can come in now, Ethan."
-Creak.
After confirming the image of the 'exclusive maid Lilith' in the mirror, I called Ethan in from where he waited outside the door.
The moment my words ended, he slid the door open and stepped straight into the sickroom.
The instant I laid eyes on Ethan's face — the first in nearly three days — my heart began pounding noisily out of nowhere.
"Lilith, how's your body feeling?"
-Ba-dump.
"…Lilith?"
"Ah, yes…. Y-you mean, um, my body…?"
-Ba-dump, ba-dump.
"…Do you still not feel well? Even the Saintess has been looking after you…."
"N-no, it's just that…."
-Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump.
Suspension bridge. Suspension bridge….
It's the suspension bridge effect, that's all….