Again, Reunion (2)
Again, Reunion (2)
"...A conversation?"
Olivia deliberately made her tone cold. A tangle of complex emotions flickered across Melina's face.
"...Yes."
Olivia stared hard at Melina for a moment, then pushed herself up from the floor. As the pain surged, her body recoiled before she could stop it.
When Melina approached to help support her, Olivia raised a hand and blocked her. Melina's hands drifted aimlessly, finding no place to go.
'Hurts like hell.'
She still hadn't fully recovered, apparently. Getting up now was obviously pushing it, but Olivia decided to force the issue anyway.
There was no other choice.
"Ah, you haven't finished recovering yet..."
"You said you wanted to talk. This isn't exactly conversation material for right here."
"..."
Melina chewed on her lip. Her lips looked practically like rags.
Olivia couldn't guess how many times she must have bitten them to make them that way.
That was precisely why she was pushing herself to settle things now.
'...I have to do it now.'
Her resolve was wavering. She needed to force a decisive confrontation with Melina before the anger born from pain faded away.
"Follow me."
Olivia endured the pain and walked out beyond the lair. Melina followed after her with a mournful expression.
*****
"...That woman just now, she's the Gold Tower Lord, isn't she?"
Instead of answering Jeina, Aramis gave a nod. Melina Diviae. How many people in the empire could truly claim never to have heard that name?
Among mages, certainly not one.
"What in the world is their relationship?"
"It's no ordinary relationship, that's for sure."
When Melina first came to the lair, the disciples hadn't been able to hide their shock.
That was because Olivia, battered and broken all over, had been cradled in Melina's arms.
The atmosphere in that moment defied any attempt to describe it.
A single thought dominated the disciples' minds.
- When normal people see me, they become consumed by murderous intent.
Right. Olivia had definitely said that.
Whatever her character might be, she was still their teacher. As her disciples, they couldn't simply abandon their battered teacher and run away.
Seeing the disciples unfurling formulae, Melina had asked offhandedly.
- Would there happen to be somewhere I could lay her down?
No one hunted for a bed for their sworn enemy. The disciples assessed the situation quickly and readily gave up their own beds.
"..."
Jeina's gaze was fixed on the bedspread, now stained red. As she looked at the dark red scabs of dried blood, she privately thought that this was a relief.
But she didn't voice those words aloud.
Because her conscience pricked at her.
Because of a piece of oral tradition handed down since ancient times.
[The blood of a witch is not red.]
From the very first moment she had met Olivia, Jeina had held that phrase in her mind every single day.
Probably the others had been thinking the same...
"That's a relief."
"...What is?"
"That it's red. A relief."
"Aramis!"
Jeina's voice came out louder than she'd intended. But Aramis looked completely unruffled.
"Why are you angry?"
"...That's."
Jeina closed her mouth. Saying this much was itself proof that she hadn't trusted Olivia.
Aramis's sharp eyes swept over Jeina.
"Don't be a hypocrite, Jeina."
"..."
"Spare me the nonsense about having believed her from the start. Spend that time on one more round of training instead."
It was an unassailable argument.
Jeina couldn't refute it, so she lowered her head.
The one who broke the silence was none other than Ro.
"But who could have done it?"
"Done what?"
"Our master... she's unbelievably strong."
Those words carried a great deal of meaning.
In an instant, the disciples' gazes all fixed on Glacia. She normally projected a strong airhead image, but a dragon was still a dragon. The years she had lived and the things she knew were overwhelmingly greater than theirs.
"..."
But Glacia couldn't answer their question lightly.
The cold she had felt on the first day she met Olivia was still etched into Glacia's memory.
'She had definitely been stronger than my mother.'
Glacia's mother was the Lord of the White Clan.
Dragons stood at the pinnacle of all living creatures, and the title of Lord was bestowed upon the mightiest dragon among them.
And the cold that Olivia contained was unmistakably stronger than Carsian's.
Someone had reduced an Olivia like that to such a battered state?
Unless several people had attacked together, no matter how hard she thought, Glacia couldn't call to mind anyone strong enough to defeat Olivia one-on-one.
'Maybe if it were the Red Clan Lord and that Druid bitch from the Great Forest, I'm not sure...'
But she'd seen no traces of them on Olivia's body.
Therefore, the likelihood that Olivia's wounds weren't caused by battle was high.
"Those aren't wounds from fighting anyone."
"Then..."
"I don't know, you brats. You've got tons of magic books, so go look it up in there."
Glacia turned away and curled up as if she had no desire to talk any further.
'Damn it.'
Her pride had taken a hit.
The blonde woman just now had also been stronger than her. The black-haired swordsman she'd met before was also stronger than her. And Olivia went without saying.
Of course, they were surely among the very strongest of humanity. But who was she? Wasn't she a magnificent dragon?
The fact that she, a being that was a dragon of all things, couldn't even be a point of comparison for humans was infuriating.
And it wasn't just that. Olivia's disciples were steadily building up their skills. Aramis's growth in particular was astonishing.
At this rate, it wouldn't be long before Aramis caught up to her.
'God damn it!'
Glacia bolted upright, her eyes bloodshot. Being overtaken by brats who weren't even dry behind the ears—she might accept a lot of things, but that was something she absolutely could not permit.
'I'd rather bite my tongue and die first!'
Mana kindled in Glacia's hand.
In order to ascend to a higher place.
*****
Every step made her whole body ache. Her vision seemed to darken, and then her body lost its balance and swayed.
"A-are you all right?"
"...Thank you."
If Melina hadn't caught her, she would have collapsed right there.
'...I'm dizzy.'
The backlash this time really did seem to be powerful. She could barely keep her wits about her even with the title's effect active.
'Still, things worked out well. Guess that's something.'
Olivia halted in the middle of the snowfield. This was the very spot where she had suffered the backlash.
"You."
"...It's Melina."
"Right, Melina."
Olivia bent down and prodded at the snow stained red. Probably because it had frozen solid, all she could pick up were flecks of powder.
"You're not feeling the urge to just kill me?"
"..."
Melina stiffened.
"You are, aren't you?"
No answer came. She hadn't expected one anyway.
The guilt that Melina bore was on a level that Kiel's couldn't even compare to. If Kiel carried guilt the weight of one lifetime, Melina's guilt approached hundreds or thousands of times that.
That was because, through Truth, she had glimpsed Olivia's countless pasts.
As explained last time, Melina could not return to the empire. If word that she had recovered her sanity reached the ears of the other regressors, Olivia's own safety would be compromised.
To make sure she couldn't return, Olivia needed to exploit that guilt.
Regrettably.
Revealing that she herself was a regressor wouldn't actually be a problem for Melina. In the short term, that approach might even be much better. But if she did that, she would have no justification to stop Melina when she insisted she had to go back to the empire.
To be precise, she would have no justification to ask her to 'pretend to have lost her mind.'
Melina had to keep staying here.
And for that, only this method existed.
"I've never met anyone like you, Melina."
"Never... what do you mean?"
"Didn't my disciples tell you? That I'm cursed?"
She had heard.
Melina's vision went slightly hazy.
A curse that drew the hatred of every living being in the world. Preposterous, but she was still feeling it at this very moment.
But that wasn't why Melina's vision had blurred.
That hadn't been all that Olivia's disciples had said.
- Our master said she used to be the Red Tower Lord. And that she'd been the White Tower Lord too.
- Ro! What are you right now...
- Why? Should I not have said that?
When she heard those words, Melina had felt relieved.
At the fact that the child in her arms remembered her past.
That amid such a terrible curse, she was trying to save the world once more out of that noble will—Melina had barely managed to choke back the tears that threatened to pour out.
In that moment, Melina understood everything.
Why she hadn't entered the academy this time, why she was teaching disciples here in the frontier this time.
Because she had no one to help her.
Because of this damned curse.
"...Are you listening?"
Melina smiled a smile that looked close to tears.
Olivia was trying to deceive her right now.
Pretending to know nothing, pretending to have no memory of the past, trying to fool her.
Not because the curse might harm her.
But because if Melina failed to overcome the curse, she might realize she'd hurt her disciple and be consumed by grief.
Even reduced to this state, Olivia was still showing consideration.
"...Excuse me?"
Look—if Melina were a complete stranger, dropping all formalities would still be an understatement, and here she was using polite speech.
'...And she can't even meet my eyes properly.'
Did she really believe she could fool her with such clumsy lies?
Golden eyes smiled.
"...Yes."
"Pardon?"
"Never mind. Forget what I just said. More importantly, your condition truly is dreadful. If we were to talk now, my heart wouldn't be at ease. So first..."
Melina decided to let herself be fooled.
Because there was still so much she needed to stay by Olivia's side and help with.