Do You Want Him Back?
“Do you want him to come back?”
Erinn asked once more in a low voice. At that unfiltered, honest question, both Letisia and Freya looked at her with startled eyes.
Yet Erinn showed no sign of taking the words back. She simply met their gazes—Letisia and Freya staring at her with expressions that gave nothing away—with a faintly detached look of her own, as if her thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
Between the earlier remark that they needn’t mind her feelings and the look she wore now, Letisia and Freya could not help but feel their resolve waver. Was it truly all right to speak with complete honesty?
Freya hesitated. Of everyone present, this subject had to be most sensitive for Erinn. But unlike Freya, Letisia could no longer hold herself back after hearing those words.
Her hesitant lips finally moved. A voice thick with doubt—still questioning whether this was right even as it refused to stay silent—slipped out.
“…I do.”
Letisia closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked at Erinn. Her face was taut with tension, yet her green eyes were full of the desire to see the departed party members again.
“Honestly… Albrecht might not have left because he wanted to….”
Seeing that look in Letisia’s eyes, Erinn flinched. It was as if her own true feelings were being reflected back at her.
So she could offer no rebuttal. When Erinn remained silent, Letisia took it as agreement and continued.
“We shouldn’t just decide based on the situation… At the very least, we should ask what he wants, shouldn’t we?”
The question was aimed not only at Erinn but at Freya as well. Freya glanced at Letisia in mild surprise, then—
She clenched both fists and pressed them against her chest. Wearing a faintly pained expression, Freya lifted her head. And just like Letisia, she chose to be honest about a desire that might well be pure greed.
“I… think so too….”
“….”
Her conscience still stung from having doubted Albrecht, so she could not assert herself as strongly as Letisia had… yet Freya’s true feelings were plain.
Hearing both of them, Erinn let out a soft sigh. Their faces seemed to speak for her own heart.
She wanted nothing more than to take their hands. And yet another part of her wondered whether this was even allowed—whether she could look at the man who now wore Allen’s body without seeing him as a replacement for Allen.
Would she end up treating Albrecht as little more than Allen’s substitute? Or drag him back onto a battlefield he never wanted?
Even if neither of those things happened… could she herself keep living after letting Allen go?
She had no certainty about any of it.
Still, her true feelings spoke.
“…All right.”
Erinn answered not through reason, but through emotion.
“Let’s ask him once.”
Letisia and Freya’s eyes went wide. Neither of them had expected Erinn’s answer so quickly.
They had thought she would need at least a day. The decision had come far sooner than expected. Watching her, Letisia suddenly felt another emotion rising inside and was thrown off balance.
Ah.
The feeling was unmistakable.
Wariness.
It was no illusion that Letisia felt that way toward Erinn.
And the reason, if one thought about it for even a moment, was obvious to anyone who wasn’t a fool.
…
The two ears that had been drooping inside her hat twitched upright. Hidden by the brim, Erinn and Freya could not see them, but right now those ears were the perfect measure of her tension.
This was no mistake. Considering what Allen meant to Erinn, a decision this swift should have been nearly impossible.
And yet this was the result….
…Erinn’s heart has changed.
Erinn’s heart had changed—and the one who felt wary because of it was herself. Even someone as inexperienced with these things as Letisia could name the emotion those facts produced.
A feeling that went beyond simple longing. The desire to see the man who had laughed and chattered while learning magic from her. The urge to spend that kind of time with him once more.
All of that long description, Letisia could reduce to a single word.
“…Ah.”
The sound escaped before she could stop it, and her face flushed crimson. Letisia yanked her hat down firmly and lowered her head as she spoke.
“Th-then… when Aria gets back, let’s talk it over properly.”
With that, Letisia turned on her heel and headed straight for her room, vanishing from sight.
Erinn and Freya stared blankly after her for a moment. They wondered what that was about, then promptly stopped caring.
They were far too busy with their own hearts to spare attention for anyone else’s. Erinn spoke with a light sigh.
“Let’s do as Letisia said. Once Aria returns, we should discuss the details.”
“…All right, Erinn.”
And so the first goal of Erinn’s party, now that the two of them had left, was set. Erinn told Freya to rest, then went downstairs and walked straight out of the inn.
She needed air. She wanted to wash the tangled thoughts and feelings out of her head. She had only asked an honest question—why did her chest feel so tight? Erinn could not easily understand it.
“Haa….”
No—perhaps one thing was clear. Letisia and Freya’s honest longing had stirred her own greed.
Greed.
She did not need to name what it was for.
Erinn raised a hand and laid it over her chest. Then she clenched the fabric hard enough to wrinkle her top. She felt she would not calm down otherwise.
He wore Allen’s body, yet he was clearly not Allen.
So why did she feel like this….
“Erinn.”
A familiar voice called to her from outside. Erinn flinched and lifted her head. Walking toward her with black hair streaming in the wind was an elf.
“…Aria. You’re back.”
It was her party member, Ser-Aria. The one who had said she was visiting the elven forest had already returned. Erinn tried to settle her emotions and greet her properly.
But then Ser-Aria suddenly said:
“Do you want to find Albrecht?”
“…Huh?”
“I didn’t meet him, but I found out where he went.”
Ser-Aria asked again.
“Be honest with me. Do you want to see Albrecht?”
“….”
Erinn could not deny it. This sense of loss and emptiness would surely be resolved if she met him.
But she was the one who had sent him away, claiming she would return him from the battlefield even though he had nothing to do with it—because she could not treat the man who wore Allen’s body the same way she once had. To admit it now….
“Erinn. It’s all right. Just say it.”
At Ser-Aria’s urging, Erinn could no longer bring herself to answer no. She chewed her lip and murmured,
“I….”
“…He’s gone to the Red Magic Tower.”
“…What?”
Erinn’s eyes flew wide. The Red Magic Tower. She remembered all too clearly how its master had once coveted Allen.
“He took a commission, I heard. That’s why he went. I don’t know how long he’ll stay at the Red Magic Tower, but….”
Even at the recent auction, the woman had still clearly not forgotten that incident. And now Albrecht, who occupied that body, had gone to the Red Magic Tower himself?
“…If you’re worried, let’s go.”
“….”
Erinn knew the suggestion was only an excuse. A commission from the Red Magic Tower meant the Adventurers’ Guild was involved as intermediary, so Albrecht’s safety would be guaranteed.
Strictly speaking, there was no need for Erinn to go herself. Once the job was finished, Albrecht would return safely on his own.
“…All right.”
Even knowing it was an excuse, Erinn could not bring herself to refuse that sweet offer.
The Red Magic Tower.
Among the many magic towers on the continent, it boasted—alongside the Blue—the finest achievements and skill. Its young Tower Lord, Agresia, was the greatest Flame Master alive, the object of universal admiration.
In fire-element magic, no one in all of history could match her. The firepower she could unleash alone surpassed that of a great nation’s artillery corps; she could turn an entire city into a sea of flame by herself.
From her lofty position, ordinary matters rarely sparked her interest. Unless she was deploying to clear monsters, Agresia spent her days in boredom.
What had finally caught her interest was none other than a porter being dragged around by a hero’s party. On the day she happened to travel with them, she met him.
Looking back, there had been nothing special about him.
He was rather handsome, and as a former farmer his body was solid… but handsome, well-built men were everywhere. There was no reason to single out that porter as anything remarkable.
Yet for some reason, Agresia felt the desire to possess him. Perhaps it was because she had noticed that the newly risen hero Erinn—said to be so strong—was pouring endless attention on the man.
A man the hero herself liked. That was a special quality no other handsome, well-built man around her could claim.
Anyone would have called the taste strange. But without that peculiarity, there was little left in her tedious life that could hold her interest.
Having taken an interest in him, Agresia did something astonishing: she approached him first. To those who knew her as someone who rarely showed interest in anything around her, it was shocking.
The entire tower was turned upside down by the sight of their normally blunt, indifferent lord acting that way.
Yet Agresia was rejected outright. The man shut her down with absolute firmness. For Agresia it was unthinkable—and the first time such a thing had ever happened to her since rising to her current station.
So she was angry. Given her position and renown, the reaction was only natural. She had her pride, after all.
But that “anger” was crushed in an instant. Of course it was not the work of a mere porter.
It was the hero who had been showering the man with endless attention—Erinn.
Before Agresia could even react, a pure-white blade was at her throat. Even though she had only recently become a hero, the evaluation that she ranked among the strongest currently living was clearly deserved.
Agresia never forgot the humiliation of that day. And now, for some reason, the man was separated from Erinn. It was the perfect chance to repay that humiliation.
That was why she had authorized Raynes to propose a special commission for the purpose of recruiting him—to draw the man into the Red Magic Tower.
And now.
“Tower Lord! Raynes, head of the Magic Engraving Department! I have returned with the clients who accepted the commission.”
“…Enter.”
It seemed she would finally see the fruit of her efforts.
“Let’s see what you’re made of.”