Dark Elf Mercenary Redhood #1
After a noisy and thoroughly memorable initiation ceremony, we returned to the territory only to receive a thorough dressing-down from Is Krauser.
It was only natural. The moment she became duke, she had picked a fight with another duke.
Even if the other side had started it, for our side to issue a declaration of war was clearly the wrong move. Wrong by a wide margin.
Moreover, Helena—who had always maintained a flawless, composed demeanor—had been the chief culprit, so a note of disbelief had crept into his expression as well.
Helena's mind was ill.
It had not worsened, but neither had it been cured, and whenever a trigger arose—as it had now—she would bare that side of herself without the slightest restraint.
I had long since known this, so I could only sigh and accept it. Is could not.
He had only ever seen Helena's surface personality; he had no idea what kind of madness she carried within.
Even so, Is ultimately accepted the situation.
He had already formally passed on the ducal title, and there was no overturning a matter that had already been notarized.
The moment he voiced any complaint, there was no telling what price the other side might demand.
More than anything—
"Father, I… I simply cannot forgive that woman."
The face behind the mask that Helena revealed for the first time before Is must have delivered quite the shock.
Anyway, the reason things had swollen to this size was mine.
If I had known Agnes's face, I would have bolted the moment I ran into her in the rose garden, and by doing so I might have avoided this headache entirely.
But I hadn't, so we ended up like this. Belatedly, I set about memorizing the faces of the nobility so I could gauge in advance whom to avoid.
People say you only regret things after they've already gone wrong. That was exactly me.
"Ah."
Once you've climbed onto a tiger's back, you cannot let your guard down until the movement stops.
So as I was thinking about what I could do with the time remaining, a thought struck me like a flash of lightning.
"Helena."
"Hm…? What's the matter?"
Helena was resting in the training grounds behind the Krauser manor after finishing a session at more than twice her usual intensity.
She looked at me while letting out slightly heated breaths.
The sharp atmosphere, as if even a light touch might cut a hand, came free of charge.
"I'm thinking of heading over to Bluenail."
In that instant I felt the air in the backyard grow rapidly cold.
A civil war was still raging there, and more than that, the Bluenail Kingdom was a fair distance away—she clearly found the idea hard to accept.
Helena, already as sharp as a polished blade, let out an even sharper killing intent the moment she heard my words.
"Why? For what reason?"
"To bring back Ellen Redhood from there."
You might call it a screw-loose idea at a time like this, but I thought that precisely because of the current situation, I had a justification to bring Ellen.
A dark elf who had built notoriety over more than half a century of mercenary work—and if she possessed the innate power of an elf, she could certainly tip the scales toward victory.
On top of that, I would gain the advantage of being able to keep an eye on one of the women who formed a pillar of the collapse. If things went well, that is.
"Ellen… Redhood? That dark elf wench? Why? For what reason? Do you like that type of woman? What about me? What about me?"
Ellen's notoriety was fairly well known across the continent.
So Helena also knew the rough outlines of that information, and because of that she approached while muttering in a voice that was nothing short of sinister.
A slightly tilted head, pupils from which the light was vanishing, the endless stream of "why" spilling from her lips, the chilling air that seemed to press down on my shoulders—everything was pure terror itself.
If not for Steel Mental, I might already have been backing away.
I inwardly sighed, calmed my heart further, then took both of Helena's wrists as she drew close enough that our noses nearly touched.
Then I spun her around and pushed her back into the deep shade of the trees.
"Zi—mmph!"
I sealed the lips that had been about to call my name and forced a kiss on her as if ravishing her.
It was a fierce kiss, as if fire might burst out at any moment—just like that night. Even breathing had to be done roughly.
"Nnh… chuuup……"
Even under the sudden ambush, Helena mixed her tongue with mine as if she had been waiting for it. Wet, sticky sounds struck my ears.
Beneath half-lidded, trembling eyes, light gradually returned, and her cheeks grew redder and redder from the heat of the kiss.
"Haa…!"
After putting in a fair amount of time, I finally pulled away, and I couldn't help drawing a deep breath. Helena was the same.
When our lips parted, I could see a transparent thread connecting them.
"Does that make it clear enough… how I feel about you, Helena?"
"…Yeah."
It had been rather forceful, but the effect was good.
I had tried it as a sort of extreme measure, and it seemed to have gone smoothly without awkwardness. Otherwise Helena wouldn't have softened this much.
Thinking I should keep this momentum going, I pressed my forehead to Helena's, then slowly, carefully drew my lips away.
I had seized the initiative with the kiss; now it was time to finish.
"Helena. If I had acted a little more wisely, this wouldn't have happened. I regret that deeply."
I do think I did my best when I first met Agnes and handled the situation.
But doing your best doesn't always produce good results. Sometimes, like now, the flames surge higher than ever.
It may not be my place to say, but everyone makes mistakes.
Just as I did, or just as someone else does, we always make mistakes.
Whether they can be undone or not may differ, but mistakes are the sort of thing that always trail after people.
I might have been rationalizing myself, but at least I had no intention of stopping at that rationalization.
And in this case, cleanup wasn't entirely impossible.
The duel hadn't taken place yet, and there was still a fair amount of time.
So in the meantime I wanted to be of some help by recruiting a powerful figure I knew.
Besides, I had expected things to turn out like this from the moment I fell into the antlion's pit. So I couldn't just sit on my hands.
"Zion, that isn't your fault……"
"No. It is my fault. Of course I think I did the best I could… but the result is what you see."
Helena closed her mouth as she looked at my dejected self.
Now that her composure had returned, she would be able to think normally, and so she would find it hard to deny that my words weren't entirely wrong.
"The duel has already been established, and we can't cancel it now. So… at least allow me to help us win the duel."
"But……"
"Helena. I want to stand beside you as a man who isn't ashamed. Since you've called me your fiancé, I at least want to confirm for myself that I can help you."
I put strength into the hands holding her wrists, brought our noses together, and pressed my face even closer.
We were close enough that our breaths mixed and became one. I also put force into my voice to let her know my resolve wouldn't waver.
Whether that had an effect, Helena asked in a shriveled manner, as if intimidated.
"Even so… Zion doesn't have to do that, right?"
"I do. I absolutely do. If only so I can forgive myself. For my own sake as well."
If it had been the old Helena, and if I hadn't grown to a certain extent, things wouldn't have flowed this way.
No—in those days there wouldn't even have been room for something like this to happen. Because I had been staying within the Krauser Dukedom.
But time passes, people grow and go outside. Because they go out, they clash with others, and we arrived at today.
And because the one who caused that clash was none other than myself, I had to take responsibility.
Even if, realistically, I couldn't shoulder all of it completely, I still had to.
Also, though I wouldn't say it now… on the day I returned, I intended to reveal my true feelings to Helena.
"…If you're going to go that far, I suppose there's no choice. You wouldn't listen even if I tried to stop you, would you?"
"Probably not."
"Then… I have no choice but to allow it."
Right after receiving Helena's permission, I visited the Altram manor. More precisely, Chess, who was staying there.
"The fact that you failed to properly restrain Lady Helena is largely your responsibility. You know that, don't you?"
"Yes. I know it well."
"Being young, I can't say there was no chance you might do something like this out of hot blood, but……"
Chess lightly scolded me while letting out a long sigh.
Judging by the fact he wasn't castigating me, it seemed his trust in me hadn't completely cooled yet.
"Even so, once you bit down, it was like fastening the first button wrong. Of all people, to catch the eye of Lady Agnes, who is notorious for being promiscuous……"
Chess also knew Agnes's rumors well, so he shook his head and lamented.
He too seemed to be thinking that if he had known her face beforehand, he would have avoided her.
Going further, he also piled on complaints about how if only Helena had stepped a little more into high society. The way he hung his head low made him look extremely frustrated.
"…Huu. Complaining like this is meaningless anyway. The words have already come out, and the water has been spilled."
After fretting alone for a fairly long time, Chess said it was meaningless and raised his head.
Seeing the force that had entered his gaze unlike a moment before, it seemed like he was appealing that it wasn't time to give up yet.
"So, what do you intend to do from here?"
"I plan to go to the Bluenail Kingdom. There, I intend to recruit Ellen Redhood and bring her back."
"You mean that impure dark elf?!"
The moment I mentioned Ellen's name, Chess slammed the table.
It was a moment when I was freshly reminded that the perception of dark elves as impure was not much different between elves and humans.
Of course, I didn't think dark elves were impure in the slightest.
But talking about that would only be a waste of time. So for now I only explained the reason I had made that decision.
"Impure or not, the military merits Redhood has built cannot be ignored. Father, you know that well yourself."
"Mm. That point is certainly hard to deny. She's a monster who's been rolling around on battlefields for over half a century."
From trivial duels to assassinations, she was a mercenary who had participated in battlefields of every scale, large and small, and survived.
Of course there had been times she lost, but she had always survived, and the battles she joined and won were far more numerous.
The experience accumulated from that, and her strength, were outstanding enough to be counted among the best on the continent.
So I was certain that if I could draw that power in, I could seize one sure victory.
"So I will go. I intend to go and bring her back."
"…Do you think you have a chance of success?"
This was a period when practical strength was needed more.
There were excellent knights within the Krauser Dukedom as well, but they were clearly several steps behind Redhood, who commanded spirits and magic.
So Chess seemed to have acknowledged that she was all the more valuable. Otherwise he wouldn't have bothered asking about the odds.
And my answer to that was this:
"I can't be certain, but I believe there is."