1. Patron Anais (9)
1. Patron Anais (9)
"Yes. There is no need to worry. We are providing the best possible treatment—even using the highest-grade regeneration potion from the Alchemy Guild."
Despite the butler's confident words, the color did not return to Anais's face.
She took his statement to mean that Wonderstein's condition was so serious they had to resort to the highest-grade potion.
"I must go and see him personally."
Anais rose from the bed.
The old butler was horrified and tried to ease her back down.
"My Lady, you must not exert yourself yet."
"Exert myself?"
The Viscountess roughly shook off his hands.
"Haah, haah. When I think of what he... suffered... How dare you say I am exerting myself? He... cured my illness... and to him... they did that... Even after those wounds... how... on the cold floor... Haah, haah..."
Her breathing grew ragged, and Anais clutched her chest.
The butler's face went pale.
"My Lady, you must calm yourself. Your body has not yet fully recovered."
"No... it's nothing. I'm just not used to it yet... He... he healed me. Look! I am breathing! He... I must see him..."
Watching Anais, panting yet still searching for Wonderstein, the butler felt an inexplicable tangle of emotions.
He had served the Viscount Bergson household even before Anais was born.
To him, Anais was like a daughter.
He had been right beside her through all the immense suffering she had endured in her life. So when he realized she could breathe without the respirator, he was overjoyed, as if floating in the sky.
His gratitude toward Wonderstein, their benefactor, was beyond words. After hearing the truth from his mistress, he had been the first to rush down to the underground prison.
Yet now, seeing her call another man her benefactor and push his hands away, he felt a strange sense of emptiness.
"Prepare my clothes. I will go and see him."
"Yes, My Lady."
Still, to finally see his mistress smile—a smile hidden behind her mask for fifteen years—was undoubtedly a great joy.
***
After all the minor and major treatments were finished, only Wonderstein and Ella remained in the room.
Ella stared at the troupe leader, half his body wrapped in bandages, her face utterly devoid of any trace of worry.
He was not someone who warranted concern.
"Shame you survived."
Her single remark drew a rueful smile from Wonderstein.
"Miss Ella, is that something to say to a man who took six bullets?"
"Hmph. It's all an act anyway. What's a little blood? A man who could reattach his head after it was cut off by an axe..."
Wonderstein offered no reply to Ella's words, only smiling quietly.
To Ella, it looked like a sneer.
The brazen response of Oh, you caught me?
Like a cunning demon.
So this is how you'll worm your way into the Viscountess's favor and extract money from her, is it?
When he stepped in front of the Viscountess and took that hail of bullets, she had not worried about him for a single moment.
Ella had seen his true nature.
What lay under his skin was not human.
A knock sounded, and a servant entered, bowing to the two of them.
"The young Viscountess will be visiting shortly."
The manner of the household staff toward them could not have been more courteous. Their attitude had changed completely once the Viscountess awakened and they learned that Wonderstein was the one who had cured her illness.
Even the maid who had been watching Ella, upon hearing the news, had grabbed her hands and shaken them wildly, offering words of thanks.
But Ella, receiving those thanks, could not share in their joy.
Because everything was proceeding just as that demon had schemed.
Anyone would be easily captivated by his kind smiles and miraculous power.
Ella had been too, at first.
All those who had ever met him had since tasted despair and terror.
To end up enslaved, like Ella or the circus troupe members, was getting off lightly.
Most died horribly or were even more horribly remade into his playthings.
Doubt struck her suddenly.
Had Wonderstein really cured the Viscountess's illness?
Was there not some kind of trap?
Hadn't she seen, time and again, the state he left people in after he claimed to 'help' them?
'What if I exposed his true identity to the Viscountess, right now?'
She did not want to see anyone else toyed with by that demon.
If she could stop it, she would.
But she knew this thought would remain just that.
Wonderstein held her family hostage.
If she interfered with his affairs, he would go straight to her hometown and kill them without hesitation. Or turn them into monsters.
To save her own family, she had no choice but to stand by while other victims piled up.
"I'll... step out... for a moment."
Ella rose from her seat.
She could not bring herself to face the Viscountess.
If she had to offer thanks, her conscience would not bear it.
"Where are you going?"
"Just a walk."
"The Viscountess might give you a gift."
"You handle it yourself. I didn't really do anything. It's just... our Jjiksun fed her. She likes fingers."
Pierre Maupassant, whose fingers had been severed, had pointed to the two of them as the culprits and played the victim, but the moment he heard that Anais had awakened, he fled.
Wonderstein recalled the story from the game.
He had probably gone to Florand.
And then sought out one of Wonderstein's friends, the "Three Witches."
Did I twist the original plot somehow?
In the original, he had failed to kill Anais.
The same was true this time.
But the process had gone a little differently.
What kind of variable would this become later on?
I could not know yet.
"Hm?"
Ella, about to open the door and leave, noticed something covering her body.
Wonderstein's formal jacket.
Had I still been wearing this?
She took it off and threw it onto Wonderstein's lap.
"I wore it well."
"Keep it on. The morning air is cold."
"Hah... I told you from the start! I'm not—cold—at all!"
With that shout, Ella slammed the door shut and left.
Wonderstein looked at the closed door and smiled quietly to himself.
***
[Sub Quest - Patron completed.]
[You have received 'Devolut 5' as a reward.]
[Main Quest - Circus Grand Prix has been activated.]
The Circus Grand Prix.
Just as I thought this would show up.
The moment I saw the quest-prequel telling me to survive until the start of TT1, I thought of the Circus Grand Prix.
The Circus Grand Prix was the setting for TT1.
Unlike its sequels, which journeyed all across the world, TT1 was set in a single city where a festival was underway.
The Hippodrome.
The city that hosts the finals of the Circus Grand Prix.
Fitting the name TT0, the endpoint of every Main Quest seemed to converge, spatially and temporally, toward the starting point of TT1.
Still, I had no leisure right now to think about the Grand Prix.
Because of the woman before my eyes.
Anais, who had come to thank me, had been going around in circles, repeating the same conversation for some time now.
"Troupe Leader, you saved my life."
"I did."
"And you cured my illness as well."
"That's right."
"I told you I would do anything you wanted."
"Yes."
"But... all that request amounts to is sponsoring a circus troupe?"
"Yes."
"Nothing more?"
"Nothing more."
The expression with which Anais looked at me was grim.
Given that the quest was completed, it seemed her decision to sponsor was made, but her eyes were blazing with fury.
Was it, after all, the way I healed her that was the problem?
'I did bare her chest right in front of all her subordinates. And on top of that...'
Anais's illness had been cured in an instant.
The moment my hand touched her chest, the BioMancer skill transformed her body in a flash. She no longer needed to live dependent on an artificial pump.
But her breathing did not return right away.
It needed a single stimulus. Just like a newborn baby taking its first breath.
She needed that first breath to start breathing on her own.
At that moment, I had only one option.
Because I did not know the manual respirator existed.
I parted her lips, pressed my mouth to hers, and blew breath into her.
From a modern person's perspective, rescue breathing is a commonsense act to save a life, but not here. Here it can only make me look like a shameless scoundrel who fondled a lady's chest and then assaulted her lips.
It was a miracle I hadn't been beaten to death by the soldiers on the spot.
Thanks to that, I did save her life, but with her proud nature, there was no way she wouldn't be shocked once she woke up and heard the details.
Judging from the attitude she had shown yesterday, she held Wonderstein in contempt.
How humiliating it must have been to expose such an unsightly side of her body to someone she disliked.
She was surely barely holding back only because I was the benefactor who saved her life and cured her illness.
I decided to settle the matter here.
"Let us forget what happened last night."
"...Forget?"
"Yes. I only did it to save your life, Viscountess. I hope there won't be any unnecessary misunderstandings."
"Misunderstandings...?"
"I mean if it seemed as though I harbored any other feelings toward you. I have no feelings whatsoever for you, Viscountess."
"...No feelings?"
"Yes."
"Not a single one?"
"Not a single one."
I didn't expect a few words like these would make the Viscountess drop her anger immediately. I'd be satisfied just to soften it a little.
But the expectation backfired.
After hearing my excuse, the Viscountess's expression hardened alarmingly.
Was it my imagination that a cold light flickered in her eyes for a moment?
"I see."
"Pardon?"
"It was a misunderstanding after all."
"Ah, yes! A misunderstanding. It's simply a transaction."
"A transaction...?"
"Yes. A transaction. Thinking of it that way will put your mind at ease."
The Viscountess's face settled back into calm.
A smile spread across her face.
It seemed the word 'transaction' resonated well with her, a woman born with a merchant's temperament.
That's a relief. For a moment, I thought something had gone wrong...
She gave me a sunny smile.
"Haha, a transaction..."
"Hahaha, that's right."
"Hahahaha."
"Hahahahaha."
"Hahahahahaha."
And then Anais sprang to her feet.
Her peaceful face twisted in an instant.
Her face flushed red-hot, and tears dripped from her eyes.
She glared at me and shouted.
"You really are... for others... sacrificing yourself... ugh, you fool... such a fool!"
-BANG
She stormed out and left the room like that.
Dumbfounded, I let the words she had left behind sink in.
Fool? What do you mean?
If she'd said pervert, I'd understand...
In any case, it was clear she had felt humiliated and was furious.
I guess it won't be resolved that easily after all.
But she's still going to sponsor us, right?
I pulled up the message window, anxiously watching to see if a quest reversal would appear.