The Encounter (9)
"I never imagined anyone would have their eyes on this body."
Compared to earlier, there was a far more vivid liveliness in Talisa's face, porcelain-doll features and all. And even at the look on Kallen's face—as if he'd chewed through a fistful of gravel—she simply pressed on with unmistakable amusement.
"If you truly desire it, I could lend you an avatar or two, you know?"
"Who would ever— I'm not thinking anything like that, so wake up from your dream."
"Strange words to say when your hand is buried under my skirt even as we speak."
"Damn it…"
He had walked himself straight into a trap she'd set long ago. Facing that brazen, merciless teasing head-on, Kallen let out a groan and stepped back.
"…Heh heh."
Talisa merely kept that impish smile curled at the corners of her mouth. But beneath her eyes, unlike usual, a profound weariness had settled.
Mindful of it, Kallen stole a careful glance at her and changed the subject.
"I heard you've been in the Illusion Realm this whole time."
"Around this season, a mana storm always comes crashing down upon Elysion. The petty scheming of those Demon Gods, nothing more."
Talisa sank deep into her armchair as though exhausted, and closed her eyes.
"This storm was exceptionally violent and savage. Holding it back was quite the ordeal."
"…"
At how casually she spoke of it, Kallen's brow creased with something close to dread. Elysion stood upon the very site where the Great Rift had torn open so long ago. The barrier there was, in essence, the single fragile line of defense dividing the Illusion Realm from the Material Realm. Were that barrier to shatter, every vile thing dwelling in the Illusion Realm would come pouring through the reopened Rift straight into the world of mortals. Considering all that, it was no exaggeration to say the Headmistress wasn't just holding up Elysion—she was holding up the entire continent.
…She's an absolute monster.
And the most depressing part of all was that even this monster could do nothing but scramble to defend—let alone eradicate the evil itself.
"…Why don't you just storm straight into Hell and end it."
"A shame, but this body is still in its prime, you see."
To his graceless, brusque retort, Talisa answered with a small smile, eyes still closed. Kallen shot her an odd look, then asked in a somewhat lowered voice.
"…You're not tired?"
"It's nothing. Merely the duty and responsibility one must bear as the Great Archmage who leads humanity."
"Duty…"
Kallen found himself turning her words over in his mind. Her voice, brushing the matter off as trivial, somehow resonated all the more deeply because of it. Duty—the thing the weak man he used to be could not endure and cast aside. And, paradoxically, the only thing now holding the man he'd become upright.
"…"
Talisa, silently watching him from the corner of her eye as he sank into thought, spoke again in a sly voice.
"And you needn't worry about our contract."
Her deep eyes seemed to peer straight through him.
"I've tucked it away safe and sound in a pocket dimension of the Illusion Realm that no one can reach. You may set your fears of losing it aside."
"Wh-what? A pocket dimension?"
Flabbergasted, Kallen's eyes went wide.
"I mean… why on earth would you go that far…"
"Hm? What's so strange about keeping a valuable item somewhere secure?"
Even at his stammering disbelief, Talisa only tugged her mouth upward.
"Surely safer than inside a dress, no? And no need to worry about it being stolen by someone with quick hands."
"H-huh…"
"Well, I'd say that topic's been thoroughly settled…"
It was a thoroughness Kallen could never have imagined. As he clutched the back of his neck, Talisa gazed at him warmly for a moment before straightening in her chair and turning the conversation.
"I heard you played quite a part in the recent affair."
She meant the incursion of Thessac of Wrath and Garnet's trial.
"Winning a pardon for Garnet, and restoring the honor of House Potts on top of it…"
Talisa's long lashes drew a deep curve downward.
"You had the Imperial Princess's help, granted, but without someone stepping forward as you did, such an outcome could never have been reached. You're beginning to look the part of a professor at last, it seems."
"Don't make me laugh. Do you have any idea how much I suffered? If someone hadn't gone appointing me as a representative for no reason…"
"Bah—you resolved it splendidly, and that's the end of it, no?"
"If that's how you feel, then how about a raise… what the—?"
Kallen, mid-scoff, flinched and stumbled backward. At some point Talisa had risen from her armchair and come right up to him, gazing up into his face. The shadow beneath her eyes lent her haughty, feline features a strange decadent beauty quite unbecoming of her station as Headmistress.
"Could you maybe refrain from getting all up in my face out of nowhere?"
Recoiling in distaste, Kallen immediately screwed up his features and fired back.
"You're not a student, and a grandmother acting this shameless is more than a man can stomach…"
"Let me ask you just one thing."
And with a sly grin, Talisa cut him off cleanly.
"How did you shatter Thessac?"
"…What?"
"Well, word has it your investigation has hit a wall. I couldn't help wondering if it was your doing."
"…I was stabbed by the blade and blacked out myself, so I don't know the details."
The easy warmth of moments ago vanished, and a heavy air descended, tightening the breath in an instant. Kallen forced an air of composure and shrugged off her question as though brushing it aside.
"How would I break a demonic sword? I imagine Garnet won some battle of willpower against it, and it took a heavy blow."
"Hmm, that does happen from time to time when contending with demon swords that possess a will of their own."
But the look in Talisa's eyes as she studied him still harbored some unreadable intent.
"I'd wager precious few could overcome Thessac of Wrath by their own will… Why, even the Royal Guard's Lord Commander could not…"
"…"
"Well. It's done."
Then, abruptly, she let out a hearty laugh and waved her hand in dismissal.
"There's no doubt whatsoever that the Potts girl is a talent of rare distinction. Though I never dreamed she'd best Thessac through sheer willpower. Her future growth bears watching indeed."
Only when she turned and sank back into her chair did Kallen finally exhale a sigh of relief within. Thankfully, she seemed to have no intention of probing any further. That gaze of hers—as if it could see straight into the depths of his heart—was always nothing but a burden to face.
The Great Archmage who divines a thousand fates without leaving her chair, they say…
Considering the rumors that circulated about Talisa, he was apparently not alone in that thought.
"So? What brings you here today?"
Her mellow voice pulled his attention back. Talisa had at some point swiveled her armchair toward the window and was gesturing to him with a tilt of her head.
"Coming all this way suggests you have some manner of business. My standing invitation to drop by now and then goes in one ear and out the other, I see…"
"Ahem. There's something I wanted to ask."
Kallen cleared his throat and raised the matter that had brought him.
"Among the new students in the Magic Department this term, there's a girl called Silvie. Would you happen to know her?"
"The girl Fabian rescued. Of course I know her."
Talisa nodded.
"Good grades, impeccable conduct—she's basking entirely in Jiya's favor, you know."
"I heard you used your authority to approve Silvie's admission despite the faculty's objections."
"She's a child of precious talent. It's only natural for a Headmistress to lend her strength."
"…Is that truly all there is to it?"
"Hmm…"
Unlike before, the answer did not come at once. To his follow-up question, Talisa merely drew up the corners of her mouth with a languid hum. Tap, tap— her slender fingers drummed the chair's wooden armrest in a peculiar rhythm. Then, studying Kallen with slow, deliberate eyes as though taking him apart piece by piece, she finally spoke.
"…Judging by that question, I'd say you've seen the girl playing with mana beasts, have you?"
"!"
At those words, Kallen's brow furrowed at once. He had suspected the Headmistress might have caught on to Silvie's secret, but even having his prediction land true did nothing to lift his mood. If anything, her inscrutable handling of it only deepened a vague unease.
"It's no trouble, is it?"
Talisa leaned back against the chair's backrest and continued in an airy tone.
"She doesn't summon them by drawing magic circles like the heathens do—the beasts simply follow her of their own accord."
"…"
"Well, if you truly insist, I could hand the girl over to the Church of Aten right now?"
At that malicious remark, engineered to bait the obvious answer out of him, Kallen's face twisted at once. How the Church of Aten—which harshly punished even mere contact with mana beasts—would treat Silvie was plain to see without looking.
"It was a joke. Don't make such a fearsome face."
Talisa scattered his glowering stare with a simple flick of the hand, as though shooing a butterfly.
"…Commanding mana beasts like one's own hands and feet is impossible even for the Demon Gods of Hell."
She gazed serenely at him and spoke in a soft voice.
"The one called 'War' once tried to tame a whale of the Illusion Realm, failed, and was wounded for his trouble. They say the scar from that whale still marks his cheek to this day."
"That's a famous fairy tale, isn't it. The kind they tell to teach lessons to children still wet behind the ears…"
"I saw that scar with my own eyes."
"What?"
"Granted, from a distance about as far as one end of the universe from the other… but even from there, it was plainly visible. An immense, hideous mark."
"…"
"In any case, that child's value is beyond what words could possibly measure. Surely, then, it stands to reason to keep her close?"
Struck speechless by the casual enormity of what Talisa was saying, Kallen collected himself and forced the words out.
"So she wasn't saved as a student… but secured as a valuable resource?"
"The two are not different things. There's no need to wrench them apart."
Talisa said it flatly, without hesitation.
"Before the greater cause of humanity's survival, everyone is merely a resource. You and I are no exceptions."
"…"
That rarely resolute voice of hers seemed, paradoxically, to cast a faint glimmer of light on the enigma that was Talisa's inner workings.
Having chewed over her words for a moment, Kallen posed another question.
"Do you know how Silvie came to have such an ability in the first place?"
"A curse."
Talisa gave a light nod.
"The girl's power to command mana beasts manifested in exchange for the senses she lost to that curse."
"What?"
"Normally, such a thing is impossible. But it seems she was born with an exceptionally sensitive spiritual disposition. Whoever cursed Silvie likely meant to amplify that disposition to its extreme. Judging by how she communes with the beasts, they succeeded—at least for now."
An unusually sensitive spiritual disposition, she says…
Something stirring in his memory, Kallen spoke half to himself.
"So that's why she told me I smelled like something pleasant and refreshing…"
"Hm? You've grown close enough for conversations like that already?"
Talisa's eyes widened with rare surprise before she smothered a chuckle.
"Fabian would be green with envy if he heard. He saved her, and for all his doting attentiveness, the moment she lays eyes on him she scurries off to hide…"
"Trying to be gentle with a face like that only backfires."
"What? Pfft…"
Covering her mouth and smiling bashfully, Talisa nodded.
"Right. That was probably her way of describing the presence of your soul."
"Good grief…"
Faced with abilities that defied all sense, Kallen could only heave an exasperated sigh. Then, in a lowered voice, he asked again.
"…Who on earth did such a thing to Silvie? I heard she was rescued from being held in a torture chamber."
"That, I don't know."
Talisa shook her head.
"She will not speak a word about the mastermind's identity. No—more accurately, she cannot speak. It seems the terror has been seared so deep into her mind that she can't so much as broach the subject, only tremble and shake…"
At those words, Kallen clenched his teeth hard. Thick veins stood out across his tightly balled fist. Having barely smothered the fury that had surged up like boiling water, he let out a long breath and asked.
"…There's no way to cure her?"
"Professor Wendell has taken charge of Silvie's treatment… but it seems she hasn't found any promising method yet."
"Professor Wendell?"
"The professor of Curse Dispelling. You've seen her a few times at faculty meetings. If you're curious, pay her a visit sometime."
Shrugging, Talisa then spoke again, her voice low and carrying an unusual gravity.
"One thing is certain. Whoever they are, something thoroughly vicious has latched itself onto that girl. Even now it strains to reclaim her, slipping its agents into Caliburn. It's thanks to Elysion's barrier alone that she still draws breath."
"Then this 'Special Management Subject' designation is…"
At Kallen's murmured guess, Talisa nodded at once.
"Unless the mastermind is caught, Silvie will have to spend the rest of her life here, within Elysion."
His feet on the walk home felt unusually leaden and drained today. It had been a day of far too many things. He had crossed paths with an unexpected figure from his past, yet the gladness of it had flickered past in the space of a heartbeat. The festered guilt and the debt he owed Silvie lingered on his tongue like the taste of something bitterly rancid.
Silvie will have to spend the rest of her life here, within Elysion.
Kallen turned the Headmistress's words over again, stamped into him like a brand. Somehow, all the pain and misfortune she had endured felt like his own failing. If only he had succeeded in claiming his inheritance and taken Silvie in as a servant of House Aramis—today's tragedy would never have happened.
Is this, too, the price of abandoning my duty…?
Just as he was forcing down a bitter smile, a clamor spilling out from an alley recalled his attention. The evening streets of Caliburn were warm and homey. People alike wore bright smiles as they deepened friendships over drinks at the taverns or hurried toward homes where families waited. Feeling somehow like a stranger cut adrift from it all, Kallen slipped quickly off the main road and ducked into a side street.
"I'm telling you I can still drink moree— hurrk."
At the mouth of the narrow alley, some woman drunk sick was retching up her guts, and his brow knotted at once.
Tsk tsk. She's gone off the rails, that one. So young, and already…
He wondered if he'd wandered into some wretched slum, but there was no turning back now. Winding this way and that through the spiderweb of lanes, he at last caught sight of his new house in the distance. And only then did Kallen revive in his mind the presence of someone he'd forgotten all day.
She probably ran off cursing me out the whole way.
Recalling Lucia's utterly flustered face, he snickered, his expression sour with satisfaction, like a man chewing on ginseng root. Truly, she was a woman as impossible to read as Talisa herself. Barging in out of nowhere, spouting nonsense about benefactors and saviors. Though with their positions reversed, she was somehow a great deal easier to handle.
Home, huh…
Little by little, the amusement drained out of him.
I never imagined I'd end up with one like this.
Thinking of the damp, unpleasant stillness of an empty house that would be waiting for him, his steps somehow refused to carry him forward. He steeled himself and shook his head.
"Ugh, forget it. I'll just drink myself stupid and sleep… huh?"
Suddenly, Kallen stopped dead in his tracks.
"Why is there smoke…?"
From the chimney of a house that should have held no one, white smoke was billowing fiercely into the sky. Just as he knit his brow in puzzlement—the fleeting thought that the place might be on fire flooded his face with alarm.
"No, no!! I haven't even had a proper night's sleep in that house yet!! My money!!"
With a howl, Kallen tore down the alley as if he hadn't been exhausted a moment before, and burst into the yard in a single breath. The house's exterior looked intact—thankfully, it seemed the blaze hadn't spread far.
"If I can just put it out…!"
Resolved, he grabbed the door without a moment's hesitation and was about to plunge inside—
~Hmm-hmm-hmm~
Suddenly, someone's cheerful humming brushed faintly against his ear. And Kallen, mid-charge, froze on the spot like a statue.
"Wh…?"
He had no choice. There was no burning house to be seen. What spread before his eyes now was a scene from somewhere he had once longed for more than anything. And yet now it was a hollow daydream he could never fulfill again, not in this lifetime.
"Ah…"
The whole dreary, leaden world began to shimmer and blur with every step he took, blooming into vivid color. A modest house, but spacious enough for two. A roaring hearth and a neatly set table. And beyond it, the back of a figure with auburn hair, busy from morning to night preparing dinner in a tied apron. Then those two green eyes, glittering as if brimming with fresh springtime, turned toward him.
Welcome home, Kallen!
Not one thing about the voice that came to greet him, nor its warmth, was any mere mirage. Kallen knew this more certainly than anyone. And yet, almost pointlessly, he simply drifted forward with vacant eyes. At the end of those steps, just as his hand rose toward the cheek of someone who could not possibly exist—
"Ugh."
What seized him and hauled him upright was an excruciating, searing pain spreading through his whole body from his chest. Not the flesh's share—but the portion of a soul scarred for eternity.
"E-excuse me…?"
And at the sound of someone's voice, the glittering fantasy was overlaid once more by a colorless reality.
"Are you… all right?"
"Huh…?"
Focus returning, Kallen's gaze struggled to fix on what lay ahead. The auburn figure was nowhere to be found. His eyes took in only a certain green-haired woman regarding him with an awkward, hesitant expression.
"I asked… if you were back… safe and sound…"