Unforgettable Memory (2)
Unforgettable Memory (2)
Bruel had been closing in on Kir. The one who appeared behind him was Yune.
Despite his maid outfit, Yune strode forward with the confidence of a knight.
He perfectly embodied the "manly man" Yune always talked about.
To Kir, he looked like a princess from the fairy tales she read as a child—the princess who came to save the prince captured by the Demon King.
And Yune wore an incredibly rare, dead-serious expression.
The fact that Yune's face had gone so grave the instant he saw she was in danger stirred something utterly indescribable inside Kir.
"Yunes von Nordkirchen!? How are you here when you should be at the reception?"
Unlike Kir, who was deeply moved, Bruel looked flustered, as if demanding, 'Why are you here?'
Yune, however, didn't answer and walked right past him, extending a hand to Kir.
-snatch-
"Kir. Are you all right?"
Yune took her hand and pulled her to her feet.
A gentle warmth flowed from Yune's hand into her heart, and Kir regained her senses.
"Y-yeah... Th-thank... you."
"Good. I'm glad."
Kir stammered her thanks. Seeing she was unharmed, Yune gave a soft smile and murmured, "I'm glad."
A woman had been so frightened she fell down in front of a man. It was a scene ordinary men might criticize as unladylike, yet Yune said nothing about that and simply checked that she was safe first.
Her heart began to tremble with a strange emotion she had never felt before.
'Has... has Yune always been this cool?'
Behind him, Kir's face flushed at the unexpected charm of the boy she had dismissed as a childish kid.
Yune turned his back on her and glared at Bruel. The smile he had shown Kir moments ago had already vanished.
"That's the Solar Fire Carp's inner core, isn't it? An unstable one."
"...Hmm."
The moment he saw that expression, Bruel realized Yune knew the elixir's true nature. His face twisted further.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't play dumb. That thing's practically a bomb. If someone swallowed it thinking it was an inner core, it'd explode inside them—our protection artifacts would be useless."
Bruel tried to feign ignorance, but Yune immediately laid bare the inner core's real nature.
Hearing that, Kir's face paled again.
"A bomb...?"
"Yeah. I almost died once after swallowing something like that. Though that looks like a lower-grade version than the one I got."
Bruel's expression at last contorted completely.
"...Honestly. Nothing's going my way."
"So you admit it? That it's not an elixir but a bomb."
"You seem to know everything, so what's the point? Haa."
Bruel began to finger the inner core. He squeezed it tightly in his hand.
-grip-
"I went to considerable trouble to acquire this thing, but now it's useless."
It was obvious the core would explode if he squeezed even a little harder, but Bruel showed not a trace of fear.
Yune's eyes narrowed further.
"Why don't you be more careful? Unlike us, you don't seem to have any decent artifacts on you. If it goes off in your hand, you'll be in serious trouble."
"You're worried about me? Ha. You're too soft-hearted."
"...I wasn't worried about 'you.'"
Yune clicked his tongue, clearly disgusted with him.
Then he slowly began to approach Bruel.
"Y-Yune. It's dangerous...."
"It's fine."
No matter how many protection artifacts Yune wore, approaching someone holding an explosive was a bad idea. Kir tried to stop him, but Yune looked at her and smiled, saying it was fine—as if he were certain he wouldn't be hurt, as if he had a plan.
So Yune closed the distance without hesitation until they were within arm's reach of each other.
The two began a one-on-one exchange.
"You're originally a woman, right? I don't know how, but you're controlling that boy's body right now."
As soon as Kir heard Yune's first words, countless question marks popped into her head.
'A woman? But he looks completely like a man....'
As far as Kir could tell, he was a typical young nobleman, so she couldn't grasp what Yune meant.
But Yune had sensed it in each of Bruel's mannerisms—subtly different from the men in Ryu Si-u's world, carrying the distinctive behavioral patterns of a woman in this world.
That was why he could confidently declare that Bruel—no, the person currently controlling Bruel—was a woman.
After a moment of panic, Bruel averted his eyes and denied it.
"...I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You came this far and you're still going to pretend? It's completely obvious. The way you talk, your walk—no matter how you look at it, you're not a man."
"...You're one to talk."
"......I was just born with this personality. But you can tell at a glance that you're not. You tried to mimic it, but there's something only a real man would notice. You give off an uncanny valley sort of vibe."
Yune kept pressing Bruel.
Then he pulled out a trump card to corner the evasive Bruel.
-casually-
"...!!?"
Yune lightly tugged at his formal jacket and unbuttoned his shirt just a bit. A small patch of his chest was revealed.
Bruel gaped in shock.
"Wha—what do you think you're doing...?!"
"See, you're definitely a woman. Men don't blush like that when they see another guy's chest, you know—unless they're gay... I mean, unless they're homosexual."
When Yune closed his clothes and fixed Bruel with a cold gaze, Bruel realized his mistake. Even the person controlling Bruel must have known a man blushing over another man's chest was not normal.
After confirming Bruel's mortified expression, Yune smirked in triumph and landed the final blow.
"I've felt it ever since you tried to pull something on me, but you're seriously sloppy, aren't you? I bet people tell you all the time that you're an idiot and that you're pathetic no matter what you do."
"...?"
"On top of that, you're a woman pretending to be a man, and you even got caught at it. Aren't you embarrassed? Pathetic. Disqualified as a woman. If it were me, I'd be too ashamed to show my face."
"......."
"Pathetic. Pathetic. Pa-the-tic."
Yune poured out relentless insults.
As Yune repeatedly threw the word 'pathetic' at her, the rationality of the person controlling Bruel rapidly crumbled.
Bruel impulsively hurled the inner core in his hand at Yune.
"Y-you little brat!!"
A moment ago, Bruel had been agonizing over how to drive it past Yune's protection artifacts into a vital spot like an eye to kill him instantly. Now Bruel had thrown it without thinking.
Even if it hit Yune and exploded, Yune wouldn't suffer a single scratch; his clothes would only be slightly scorched.
But—the inner core didn't even get the chance to touch Yune.
-swish. snatch-
Because from beyond the bushes, Charlotte dashed out in an instant and caught the inner core.
"...Yune. Is this enough now?"
"Yeah. I bought plenty of time and achieved our goal. Our business with him is done."
Before coming here, Yune had asked Charl to wait in hiding and only intervene if danger arose. So Charl had concealed her presence and stayed hidden until she saw the clear act of aggression, then rushed out.
Bruel's eyes went wide.
"F-, Future Grand Duchess!?"
"...So this scatterbrained fool is the one who tried to assassinate our adorable little brother?"
"Looks that way."
The siblings chatted idly, leaving Bruel behind.
"By the way, Mom just sent something like a telepathy saying she'll be here soon. When do you think she'll arrive?"
"That's called a telepathic transmission. I guess only the Head of House can send one from this distance... She should arrive in about... five seconds?"
"Seconds?"
Bruel, still failing to grasp the situation, wore a dumbfounded expression—when suddenly, a woman dropped from the sky.
-KABOOOM!!!-
"Eek!?"
A woman landed next to Bruel with another woman slung over her shoulder. She was Erengard, the Northern Grand Duchess.
By that point, Bruel and Kir's thoughts had aligned. What on earth was happening?
But Erengard gave them no time to sort out their thoughts. She immediately pushed the woman she was carrying toward Bruel.
"Chief Priest, holy magic—now!"
"Y-Yes, Your Grace!"
The woman in pure white priestess robes, addressed as the Chief Priest, hastily pulled a cross from her bosom and pointed it at Bruel.
"Imprison this wicked being. Einsperren!"
As she cried the holy magic incantation and pointed, a translucent silver barrier formed around Bruel, trapping him where he stood.
Only then did Yune's expression finally relax into relief.
"Yune, what in the world has been going on...?"
"Ah. This must have been incredibly sudden for you, Kir. I'll explain briefly."
Kir, still bewildered, approached Yune, and he began his explanation.
"You see...."
Yune's explanation went as follows:
Yune had been watching through a window as Kir spoke with Bruel and saw Bruel take out the inner core.
Yune instantly sensed that this person was the culprit behind the previous Solar Fire Carp inner core incident.
But Yune thought it was rather unnatural for a noble family's child to try to harm him.
Then, recalling that the appraiser from the Fire Magic Tower had been brainwashed by black magic, he concluded that the culprit was a black mage who was using some method to directly or indirectly control a noble child.
His thoughts having reached that point, Yune immediately moved.
He asked Chloe to deliver a message to the Northern Grand Duchess: 'Please send someone who can track or immediately restrain a black mage.'
He also asked Charlotte to come with him at once to rescue Kir.
After arriving at the garden where Kir was, Yune thought that if Charlotte, who looked exactly like the Northern Grand Duchess, appeared with him, the black mage might flee. So he asked Charl to stay hidden until danger actually approached and then faced Bruel alone.
"Well, that's how it happened. I just bought time until Mother arrived. And since he looked even dumber than I expected, I fished for a little information... That he was actually a woman was a pretty big surprise, though."
"S-so, all that talk about 'pathetic' and stuff... was that part of your plan too?"
"Nope. Since Mom said she'd be here soon, I just wanted to curse him out and get it off my chest. A jerk who torments Kir and me deserves to be made fun of like that."
After Yune's short explanation, Kir nodded to herself. She now understood why he had appeared alone.
Bruel, trapped inside the holy barrier, had also been nodding blankly while listening to the explanation—until he heard Yune's last remark and snapped.
"Wha—!?"
Bruel's face twisted again as he exploded in anger. Yune grinned broadly and looked at the trapped figure.
"Checkmate. Pa-the-tic♡"