The Seeds of Farewell (1)
We escaped the Obelisk in a hurry, and soon the masterless structure dissolved into black particles before vanishing without a single trace left behind.
It looked so identical to the ending cutscene from Dungeon in Evil that it hardly felt real. It had disappeared exactly like that.
Watching the Obelisk fade away, I tucked the Crystal of Aether we had obtained this time into my inner pocket.
“That’s another one down~♡”
At Erinn’s words, the party members nodded. Freya glanced at me, then turned to Erinn and asked,
“Will you explain now? How Allen knew all those things…”
Erinn looked at Freya for a moment. Then she suddenly turned her gaze on me and said something rather flustering.
“Albrecht, you head back to Belpaste first. Check whether your dragon kept our funds safe.”
“…Albrecht?”
Letisia echoed the name, but Erinn offered no answer.
…So this was what she meant by explaining.
This was Erinn’s consideration. She was trying to keep the person involved from becoming the target of the party’s tangled emotions by not laying everything out right in front of him.
“…Alright.”
There was no need to kick that kindness aside. It might even be easier for them to talk without me there.
I nodded and started walking ahead. We had already cleared every monster on the way here, so there was no real danger in going back alone.
“I’ll handle the talk well.”
Leaving Erinn’s short words behind me, I headed for Belpaste first.
Preparing myself, deep down, to leave.
The party members were thoroughly shaken. The words Erinn had spoken while sending Allen away were especially outrageous.
“…Albrecht? Whose name is that?”
It was a name none of them had ever heard before. Facing their puzzled stares, Erinn spoke simply.
“His name.”
“…What?”
“I’m going to explain everything now, so listen carefully.”
That night, Erinn began laying out, one by one, the conversation she had shared with Albrecht.
“From the day I swapped Allen’s soul, Allen stopped being Allen.”
“…What?”
“Something went wrong?”
Freya spoke in surprise.
“But the lifeline was the same…”
“It must have been a coincidence. You said it yourself, Freya—there are people who share the same lifeline.”
“That’s…”
She couldn’t deny it. Complete strangers sometimes died on the same day at the same age, or lived through similar twists of fate before dying. Cases where both overlapped were rare, but not unheard of.
“It wasn’t Allen who came in—it was Albrecht. That’s why he seemed so different from before. Only it wasn’t that.”
Erinn let out a self-mocking laugh.
“He was a completely different person, so of course he was different.”
“…….”
The party members all felt the emotion hidden inside Erinn’s bitter smile. Clara asked with quiet worry,
“…Erinn, are you okay?”
“……Anyway, this is all my fault. If I hadn’t done something like that in the first place, I never would have turned two people’s lives upside down. I dragged an unrelated person in just because I wanted to save that idiot Allen.”
Erinn said,
“All I feel toward him is guilt.”
Freya flinched slightly. She, too, had directed strong suspicion at him. Being a saintess with a kind heart, she immediately understood how hard that must have been for someone dropped into a strange body and an unfamiliar world.
“Ah…”
A soft sigh escaped her before she could stop it. The moment he had been suspected while forced to pretend to be someone else, his life itself might have hung by a thread.
“So what did you decide to do?”
Ser-Aria, for once not raising a bottle to her lips, asked in a somewhat serious voice.
“If he’s not Allen but someone else… is there any chance he’s connected to the Demon King’s army? He knew far too much information.”
“He said there isn’t.”
“So it’s not completely impossible.”
“…Yeah. But I don’t think there is.”
Ser-Aria tilted her head slightly.
“Why? That doesn’t sound like a rational judgment.”
“…I have grounds. If he were connected to the Demon King’s army, he would have just let us all die during the Murder Clown incident. Even I didn’t know about that problem. If he’d simply stayed quiet, we all would have died.”
At Erinn’s words, Ser-Aria went “Ah” and nodded. Then she laughed brightly and said,
“That’s true! Then there’s no problem, right?”
“…What?”
“Aria…!”
Declaring there was “no problem” showed far too little regard for Erinn’s position. Letisia cautioned Ser-Aria, but the elf had no intention of taking it back.
“Instead of the problematic Allen, we got a problem-free Albrecht. From the party’s standpoint, isn’t that actually a good thing?”
“…….”
“If we just keep going like this… ah, wait, maybe not. Then from now on we treat Albrecht as a proper party member instead of Allen…”
“Aria, stop it! Do you have any idea how Erinn must be feeling?”
At Letisia’s words, Ser-Aria narrowed her eyes a fraction.
“I know perfectly well. And you know this too, Erinn—I’ve held back a lot. The things Allen used to do to Letisia and Clara… I deliberately looked the other way and let them slide.”
Ser-Aria could never look kindly on what Allen had done in the past. Remembering how it had made Clara even more withdrawn only made it worse.
“I put up with a guy who was useless to the party just because he was your childhood friend.”
“…I know.”
“And because of what you did trying to save that kid, someone else got dragged into it. Allen isn’t even coming back.”
Ser-Aria spoke as if stating the obvious thing Erinn ought to do.
“If all you feel is guilt toward the person who got caught up in this, then you should take responsibility for him to the very end.”
“…I understand what you’re saying, Aria.”
Erinn replied,
“But I’m sorry—that conversation is already over.”
“Over?”
“Albrecht is going to leave the party.”
At the news that Albrecht would leave, every party member was thrown into confusion. They had learned he was not Allen, yet the time they had spent together still made the shock inevitable.
For some reason, Clara in particular looked severely shaken.
After hearing Erinn out, Ser-Aria asked in a faintly dissatisfied tone,
“Are you running from responsibility, Erinn?”
“I’m not running. I’m doing it because that’s the right thing in the first place.”
Erinn furrowed her brow slightly.
“He was never someone who should have been dragged into this kind of danger. He only ended up on this battlefield because I arbitrarily swapped his soul. He has the right to return to an ordinary life.”
“…….”
It wasn’t wrong, so Ser-Aria could offer no rebuttal. Yet she still felt there might be another reason Erinn wanted to send him away, and so she spoke.
“…It’s not because you can’t stand watching someone else move around in Allen’s body, is it?”
“Aria, that’s enough.”
When Freya stopped her, Ser-Aria sighed, turned her head away, and once more raised the bottle to her lips, gulping the liquor down in big swallows.
“…I think Aria is right.”
The next words came from Clara.
“…Did he say he has to go back to an ordinary life? Allen… no, Albrecht?”
“….”
He had not. On the contrary, Albrecht had said that even if he left the party he would probably continue adventuring as an adventurer.
Seeing Erinn unable to answer, Clara bit her lip hard. Then, uncharacteristically, she spoke with complete honesty.
“…That’s irresponsible, Erinn.”
Erinn flinched. Coming from anyone else it would have been one thing, but hearing it from the usually quiet, obedient Clara hit her harder.
“…I know that too.”
“…Then why…”
“But the position that he should leave the party isn’t something I forced on him. Albrecht agreed as well.”
“…!”
“I asked for his opinion, and he agreed with my thinking. This isn’t me unilaterally kicking him out—it’s a mutual decision.”
Erinn said,
“So instead of arguing with him any further about this, I think what we should do is simply wish him well from now on.”
The party members all fell silent. Ser-Aria wore an expression that said she still felt uneasy about whether this was right, while Freya looked apologetic as she thought of him.
Letisia’s face was hard to read, but it was not a pleasant one.
And Clara looked on the verge of tears. She had only recently opened her heart again and grown close to Albrecht, so the reaction was understandable.
To the confused party members, Erinn bowed her head.
“Everyone, I’m sorry. As party leader, I consider it a serious failure that my clumsy measures put you through something like this as well.”
Erinn apologized—just as she had once done to Albrecht.
“I’m truly sorry.”
Back in Belpaste, the first place I visited was the Aurum Aquila merchant guild building. Ophelia, who was holding our funds, and Caesius, who was protecting her, were both there.
As I approached, a woman with fluttering light-blue hair came rushing out.
“Ah, Allen! You’re finally here!!”
It was Caesius. For some reason she seemed unusually happy to see me—very unlike her usual self. Yet her hair was a complete mess.
“Caesius? What happened…”
“Ah, wait a moment! There’s still something I want to try!”
Ophelia came bursting out right behind her, arms full of combs, rubber bands, and other tools for tying hair.
Caesius scrambled over to me and hid behind my back as she spoke.
“Th-that human woman keeps playing with my hair like it’s some kind of toy! I let her do it at first, but she’s been at it all day already!!”
“Ahaha, her hair is so pretty that playing with it—no, styling it—is just so much fun. So I couldn’t stop.”
…I don’t know about anything else, but at least they seem to have gotten along fine. No injuries either.
Ophelia pushed her glasses up with a soft click and asked,
“But the fact that you’ve returned means…”
“We resolved it safely. You… Belpaste should be safe now.”
Color returned to Ophelia’s face at my words. She seemed to think there was no need to hide something like this, and the way she openly showed her emotion in front of me caught me a little off guard.
“That’s truly wonderful news.”
“Then I don’t have to keep watching that woman anymore, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you, Allen!”
Is that really something to thank me for…? Caesius really doesn’t seem to enjoy having her hair touched.
“But where are the Hero and the other party members who were with you? Since you’re guests, I’d like to meet them at least once.”
“Ah, there were circumstances, so I came ahead. They’ll be here soon.”
Even if the conversation ran long, those women—who were far faster than me—would catch up in no time. That much was obvious.
“Could you wait just a little?”
“Of course. I can wait as long as needed.”
I looked at Caesius and spoke.
“Caesius.”
“Hm?”
“From now on, call me Albrecht, not Allen.”
Caesius asked,
“…Is that your original name?”
“…Not exactly, but close enough.”
“What on earth is that supposed to mean?”
Hard to explain.
“But suddenly calling you something different—won’t the party members find that strange?”
“It’s fine.”
By now they would have heard everything.
“And start preparing to leave.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Just take it as is. That’s an order.”
“….”
Caesius looked less than pleased, but a contractor’s command left her no choice. She nodded reluctantly.
“….”
It was time to prepare for farewell.