I Shall Escort You, Lady Elara
"I shall escort you, Lady Elara."
Elara's slender fingertips stretched out, trembling and precarious, toward the battered wooden practice sword lying at her feet.
I swallowed dryly and tracked that unsteady trajectory with my eyes.
"Nngh…!"
Over the hem of her white dress, her gaunt shoulders convulsed beyond control.
The rational urge that she had to grip it if she wanted to live.
— Crackle-crackle-static.
A noise like claws raking across the brain. It reached me as well.
The fact that her inner world was collapsing right now, screaming.
Psychological Insight
The skill sent signals that were cruelly clear.
The primal terror that the instant she seized it, she would be dragged back into that hellfire.
Two contradictory impulses were slowly tightening around her throat.
Then Elara's head drooped with a soft thud. She had bitten her lip hard enough to draw blood; a blood-tinged moan escaped her.
"…Teacher, you're being far too cruel."
A voice thick with unshed tears.
Yet unmistakable killing intent coiled inside it.
"You called it a fun game, yet you're driving a person all the way to the edge of the cliff like this?"
She slowly lifted her head and fixed me with a glare. The faint remnants of excitement that had lingered only moments before had long since withered away.
Only deep, black betrayal now surged inside those eyes.
"I thought Teacher was pure white. Looking at you now… you're every bit as pitch-black inside as Lillian."
Target is reactivating defense mechanisms.
Elara's Affinity has plummeted by 10.
"Counseling is… over. I can't stand it anymore. It's disgusting. The Hero's Party… and the Teacher standing in front of me right now…"
Elara turned her back as if she refused even to hear my excuses.
"Lady Elara, just a moment…!"
I frantically reached out and clawed at empty air, but she never looked back.
Like a herbivore fleeing a predator, she vanished into the darkness of the garden with quick steps.
The courtyard left empty. Under the moonlight there remained only the abandoned wooden sword and me, standing there like an idiot.
"…Haha. So this is how it ends up after all?"
Arrogance.
Affinity 53. I had gotten drunk on that little number game and deluded myself into thinking the locks on her heart had loosened.
The abyss of the trauma she had endured ran far deeper and darker than my shallow imagination.
The main force of the Hero's Party was drawing closer by the minute, yet Elara—my only real combat asset—had slammed the door of her heart shut.
I roughly raked my fingers through my hair and headed for my room.
Alone, I had no answers.
I needed their collective intelligence one more time.
Was counseling Elara, tried to help her overcome the trauma by tossing her the wooden sword.
Went "This is just a stick, grab it" and her mental completely shattered.
She hit me with the nuclear-tier line that I'm exactly the same as Lillian.
Affinity dropped by 10. What the hell do I do?
Why are they roasting me this hard?
It hurts my feelings.
I let out a long sigh and tapped at the keypad.
Kangkangrobot's words hit bone, no question.
I already knew what I had done wasn't a mere "mistake."
Environment?
I kept reading WhiteMage's replies.
The village?
That place full of those hateful stares?
The Hero's Party was almost certainly staying there, wasn't it?
Everyone was snickering cheerfully, but I turned the situation over seriously in my mind.
Taking her outside the mansion to refresh her heart… not a bad option.
Running into the Hero's Party would be awkward, but it still beat withering away like this.
Date, counseling…
The gallery guys definitely had a point.
Of course I couldn't approach her with genuine romantic feelings.
Forming a private relationship with a client was taboo among taboos.
Especially in this world—if "Aris Mardia" fell in love with a client…
An instinctive trigger might fire and send me straight into a dead ending.
But the core of their advice was clear.
Change the environment.
Use a date as the excuse.
What she needed right now wasn't the whip of training, but the carrot of a change of air.
I'd set aside the possibility of running into the Hero's Party for now. All or nothing.
I closed the gallery window and shot up from my seat.
"Alright. Tomorrow we try again."
The next morning.
According to the Old Butler, he had gone to wake her at the usual hour and received only silence.
That news sent a sharp twinge through my chest.
I must have left a wound far too deep.
But if Elara and I both wanted to live, there was no room to retreat.
Swallowing my pride, I once again stood before her tightly shut door.
— Knock knock.
"…Lady Elara."
Only heavy silence flowed from inside. Yet I could sense a presence.
Right behind the door, she was holding her breath. I felt it clearly.
"Lady Elara… I know you're in there."
Still no answer. I leaned my forehead closer to the door and spoke with deliberate gravity.
"…I'm sorry. This was clearly my failure."
"…"
"I failed to understand Lady Elara's heart and only pushed my own greed forward. I offer my apology."
"…"
"With this, the coercive counseling ends. I will no longer force you to grip the wooden sword."
Only then did a thin, trembling voice leak out from within.
"…Is that true?"
"Yes. I swear it."
I paused for a beat, then threw the gamble exactly as the gallery bastards had advised.
"But… the game isn't over yet, is it?"
Creeeak.
The hinge scraped and the door opened just a crack.
Through the gap, Elara—eyes red-rimmed—looked up at me with wary caution.
"…What… game?"
"You said earlier that my insides were pitch-black…"
I gave a wry smile and shrugged.
"I can't stand the injustice of it. Whether my insides are white or black… and whether that outside world is truly the ash-gray wasteland you believe it to be."
I held out my hand to her.
"Shall we go confirm it ourselves?"
"…Where?"
"To the village."
— Crackle-crackle-static.
Psychological Insight activated again.
Her heart was shaking violently, yet unlike yesterday the waves were positive.
Proof: Elara's pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck them.
The village.
The place she had tried to protect, only to be betrayed and despised by it in return.
Yet right now, a yearning was readable—that even that place might be better than the suffocating air inside this room.
Above all, I had been the one to bow my head first.
"…Is this… a date invitation?"
Elara asked carefully, yet with a thread of expectation woven in.
The voice of someone whose solid defense mechanisms had cracked, just a little. I answered with a gentle smile.
"Yes. I will escort you perfectly."
Elara hesitated a moment longer, then swung the door wide and stepped out.
She carefully took the hand I offered. Her fingertips were ice-cold, yet they no longer convulsed the way they had yesterday.
"…If this is a lie, I will permanently label Teacher as 'black.'"
Yikes, that's vicious. It didn't sound like an empty threat, which made it even more chilling.
The fact that no noise reached my ears meant those words were completely sincere.
One wrong move and I might actually get stabbed.
A cold sweat ran down my spine, but I smiled calmly and bowed my head.
"I'm honored. Shall we go?"
"Wait a moment…"
Elara shut the door with a soft thud and seemed to prepare herself.
How much time passed?
When she reappeared she looked thoroughly withdrawn, yet at the same time thoroughly dressed up.
Beautiful dress hem. But on her head she wore a white silk veil meant to hide her face.
Afraid to face the world, yet still wanting to look pretty for me—a contradictory psychology.
"Did I keep you waiting long?"
"Ah, not at all."
"…I trust you'll escort me properly."
Elara linked her arm through mine.
I led her courteously down the long corridor of the mansion and toward the outside.
That was when it happened.
"Where are you going?"
From behind, the Old Butler called us to a halt.
I turned and met his gaze.
He stood blocking our path with the stubborn expression of a gatekeeper defending a castle gate.
"I asked where you intend to take the young mistress."
The butler's eyes swept over the veil Elara wore and the hand that clung tightly to my arm.
It was a look that warned how dangerous the village was for her, and how fragile her current state remained.
If I pulled out stiff words like "treatment" or "training" here, he would surely plant himself in the way claiming the young mistress might get hurt.
In that case, I needed a justification even the butler would not dare obstruct.
I smiled with deliberate ease and lightly patted the back of Elara's hand that I was holding.
"A date."
"…Pardon?"
The butler's eyes went round. Beside me, Elara's shoulders also gave a startled jump.
"A-a date, you say…?"
"As you can see."
I jerked my chin toward Elara standing next to me.
"A lady has dressed herself so prettily for my sake. Leaving her cooped up in a stuffy room would be rude, wouldn't it?"
"Th-that is…"
"We'll get some fresh air, eat something delicious. Enjoy some wholesome leisure activities that a man and woman can share."
I threw in a shameless wink and drove the nail home.
"I'll make sure the things you're fretting about never happen, so kindly open the door already. If you keep delaying my escort, my score is going to drop."
"…"
The Old Butler worked his mouth soundlessly, as if words had failed him.
He looked back and forth between me and Elara with suspicious eyes.
Normally the young mistress would have exploded in fury; instead she was hanging on my arm, face flushed, offering not a single word of protest.
Beneath the veil, Elara's lips moved.
"…Let's go, Teacher."
It wasn't a denial. It was a form of permission—and a signal that she would trust me.
The Old Butler's rigid face slowly softened. He exhaled a deep sigh and stepped aside from the path he had been blocking.
"…Return before it grows late."
"Of course."
"…And."
The Old Butler gripped the door handle and added in a low voice.
"…If you bring the young mistress back in tears, you had best be prepared for the consequences."
"Haha, I'll keep that firmly in mind."
A faint smile seemed to touch the face of the Old Butler who always looked expressionless.
I answered boldly and led Elara out through the mansion's front entrance.
Creeeak—
The heavy iron gate opened, and dazzling sunlight poured in.
Air sharp with reality, utterly different from the dark corridors of the mansion.
Elara tightened her grip on my arm and shrank into herself.
"…Hoo."
I laid my hand over hers and whispered.
"Well then. The real date begins now, Lady Elara."