Alight, Princess
"Please alight, Princess."
— Clunk.
— Crack! Heeheeheeheeing!
With the crack of the coachman's whip, the carriage lurched into motion with a dull, heavy rumble.
Inside the narrow carriage, just the two of us sealed in that closed space. Sitting side by side, the faint rose scent rising from Elara sank deep into my senses.
"……."
Elara could not look out the window. She kept her hands clasped white-knuckled atop her knees and stared only at the stains on the floor.
— Zzzzt.
A faint tinnitus rang in my ears. The signal of Psychological Insight.
Simply crossing the boundary of the mansion must have been a world-overturning terror for a shut-in like her. Even now the tip of her white veil trembled faintly.
"Are you nervous?"
"……A little."
"Don't worry. That veil is thicker than it looks—no one will recognize you."
I deliberately kept my tone light, almost whistling the words out.
"And even if someone does, you have a highly competent counselor right beside you. I'll be marking Elara exclusively."
"……Heh."
A soft, deflating laugh slipped out from beneath the veil. She turned her head toward me. Through the silk, her faintly visible blue eyes held me in their unsteady gaze.
"My, Teacher…… you're really fearless, aren't you? Isn't the world frightening?"
"Of course it is. I hurt when I get cut, and I feel like crap when people curse me out."
"Then how……?"
"Well, you see……."
There's that nonsense about how a bullet doesn't hurt if it hits gently. Same with a blade. Does getting stabbed gently mean it doesn't bleed? Of course not.
But if I was going to survive as a counselor in this insane world, my mindset itself had to be different.
"There's a saying that if you can't avoid it, you might as well enjoy it. And more than anything—"
I leaned slightly toward her and whispered against her ear.
"My partner today is so beautiful I don't have any room left to be scared."
"……!"
Elara flinched and whipped her head away. The veil fluttered, briefly revealing the tips of her ears flushed red.
"……You really only know how to talk pretty."
She grumbled, yet the trembling in her fingertips had stopped. Good. The noise had quieted as well.
How long had we been riding? The once-silent scenery beyond the window began to fill with noisy clamor.
"We've arrived. Master, Teacher."
The coachman yanked the door open.
Waaaaah—
Sunlight poured in, and with it the boisterous noise of market life flooded the carriage like a rising tide. Merchants hawking their wares, cart wheels rolling, people laughing.
Elara reflexively seized the hem of my coat.
"……Shall we get down?"
"Shall we?"
I smiled and stepped out first. Then, with deliberately exaggerated flair, I offered my hand.
"Please alight, Princess."
"……Are you teasing me right now?"
Elara snorted, yet she still took my hand like a lifeline and stepped down from the carriage.
The moment her feet touched the ground, a sea of people filled her vision.
"Ugh……."
— Zzzzt.
The noise scraped again. Elara instinctively tried to hide behind my back, no doubt imagining the curses and stones that would rain down on her.
……But.
"Fresh apples just in! Sweeter than honey!"
"Hey there, pretty miss! Come look at the flowers! Water's good today!"
No one threw a single stone at us. People were simply busy selling their goods, and even when they glanced at the veiled Elara they only thought, Some noble young lady out for a stroll, and passed by without interest.
Elara carefully lifted her head.
"……Huh?"
"Well? Is it full of people who resent you?"
"No……. Everyone just…… looks busy?"
……The noise cut off completely. Confusion and relief mixed strangely in her voice.
"Right? The world cares far less about other people than you think. Whether you're white or black."
I led her deeper into the market. A delicious smell stabbed at my nose—a street stall with skewers steaming hot.
"Want one of those?"
"What? Street food……?"
"It's a date, I told you. This is the charm of it."
I casually pulled coins from my pocket and paid. Whether real money or points, as long as I could buy something tasty, that was enough. Though the fact that I still had 8,500 PT left was something I needed to keep carefully in mind……
"Here you go."
"Oh, thanks! Careful, it's hot!"
I took two skewers and held one out to her. Elara hesitated, then carefully lifted just the edge of her veil to her lips and took a cautious bite. The sweet-and-salty sauce wrapped around her tongue, and her eyes went round.
"……It's good."
"Right?"
Elara chewed slowly and looked around. The eyes that had been painted over with terror began to take on the color of curiosity. Children ran past. Couples walked arm in arm, laughing. The hellish village of hatred she remembered was nowhere to be found—only an ordinary, lively, slightly noisy place that smelled of people living their lives.
"Teacher…… the outside world isn't as bad as I thought."
Elara looked at me and smiled faintly. The moment I saw that smile, I was certain: coming out today had been the right choice.
"……In Elara's past, the criticism was probably aimed more at your companions than at your own conduct. Because at your core, you are kind."
At my words Elara took the skewer from her mouth and let out a low, self-mocking laugh.
"……I don't know. I think I was just black myself."
"No. Black? If anything, you may simply have had standards different from everyone else's."
"……Me? The one who only ever did cruel things?"
……Well, thinking back on her past settings, she really was an irredeemable villainess. Stabbing a servant because the tea was lukewarm was routine; burning a cook's arm for botching a steak's doneness; gouging out a maid's eye because a drink had splashed on her dress. A thoroughly terrifying "spicy" heroine.
But if she returned as a hero, a route would open where she could settle every one of those karmic debts and find salvation.
"The fact that you are reflecting on the past is why the present exists. Remember this. Carrying your old sins and still stepping forward as a better person—that is true recovery."
"……Recovery."
Elara covered her mouth and laughed, then looked up at me. Her blue eyes fixed on me clearly.
Elara's defense mechanism has been released.
Fortunately my counseling had taken hold. The tinted glasses through which she had judged the world in black and white had cracked.
"……More importantly, aren't you going to escort me properly? Yesterday you bragged you were confident."
"Ah, of course. Shall we go, Princess?"
I offered my hand; she placed hers on it and furrowed her brow.
"……Can you stop calling me Princess? It's cringey."
"Haha, yes. Lady Elara. Let's go."
I took the lead and pushed through the crowd. We were walking the peaceful market street when—
— Hey, move! I said move!
A sudden shout tore the peace apart. People parted like the Red Sea, scrambling to either side.
"……!"
Elara's shoulders locked rigid again.
— Zzzzt.
Psychological Insight reactivated. The noise this time was a far more unpleasant rupture than before. I instinctively turned my gaze.
That must be it…….
In the distance, three men with a familiar crest on their chests swaggered toward us. A crudely drawn staff-and-sword emblem. The cancer eating away at this city—the crest of the Hero's Party.
The lively street fell silent as if cold water had been dumped over it.
"Hey, you! This month's protection fee is a little short, isn't it?"
"I-I already paid last week……."
"That was the Demon King defense fee! This one's the Hero sponsorship fund, you senile old fart!"
Right in the middle of the square, in front of a fruit stall. Three men in shoddy armor had seized an old merchant by the collar and were shaking him. On their chests hung the half-finished staff-and-sword emblem.
"……!"
— BEEEEEEP!!!
Noise exploded through my skull as if it would tear it open. Violent spasms ran through the hand gripping my arm. Elara's pupils shook as though an earthquake had struck; the lips hidden beneath the veil were turning blue.
"T-Teacher…… l-let's go back. Please……."
"Elara."
"Those…… that crest…… Lillian…… Lillian's……."
In her eyes those thugs were not mere punks—they looked like the tentacles of some vast evil come to swallow her whole.
The noise grew fiercer, pounding inside my head, but I paid it no mind. I firmly wrapped an arm around her trembling shoulders and whispered low and firm against her ear.
"Calm down and look carefully."
"What……?"
"That thing on their chests. It's fake."
"What do you mean……?"
"Just watch. I'll prove it."
I patted her shoulder reassuringly, then strode straight toward the men harassing the merchant.
"Excuse me!"
"T-Teacher……!"
Elara panicked and tried to grab my coat, but I soothed her with an easy smile and stepped forward.
"What? Who the hell are you?"
At my call the thugs turned. Their eyes raked me up and down with pure malice. Ugly faces, ready to spit. But if I flinched here, my counselor license was forfeit.
I twisted my lips into a smirk even more arrogant than theirs.
"Ah, just a passing citizen. I have a question."
I tapped the crude crest on their chests with a fingertip and snorted.
"Are you really Lady Lillian's subordinates?"
"Obviously! Can't you see the crest? We're her personal elite guard……."
"Hmm? That's strange."
I cut him off and tilted my head theatrically.
"From what I know, Lady Lillian is obsessed with aesthetics. She would rather die than let her subordinates walk around in cheap, tacky linen rags like that."
"……Wh-what?"
"And more decisively……."
I stepped right up to their noses and sneered coldly.
"That crest—the staff is facing the wrong way. If you're going to make fakes, at least put some effort into it, you idiots."
Their faces flushed red and purple in an instant.
"Y-you little shit……! You know Lady Lillian?!"
"Of course. Just yesterday she sat in my drawing room, drank tea, and spent the whole time badmouthing me."
I bluffed without so much as a blink, as if I were a real power who could look down on the likes of them like insects. My unflinching attitude and the specific mention of Lillian's personality made their eyes waver. If I truly knew the real Lillian, today would be their funeral day for impersonating her.
"Bullshit! You drank tea with her? Got proof?"
"Proof? Sure."
I smirked and glanced back at Elara, who still stood trembling behind me. Then I lowered my voice toward the thugs.
"Shall I send a letter to Lady Lillian right now? That I found three fashion-disaster scammers walking around using her name……."
"……!"
Hooked. These single-celled organisms were already tucking their tails at the mere weight of Lillian's name.
I took one more step closer, driving the nail in.
"You know her personality, right? What she does to people who dirty her name—especially people who dirty it this ugly."
Lillian's insane aesthetic obsession and cruelty were famous in these parts. The color drained from their faces. They exchanged glances, then began edging backward.
"Y-you're lucky today…… Let's go!"
"W-we'll remember this!"
In the end they turned tail and scurried off down an alley like rats.
A hollow victory. I clicked my tongue once in the direction they had vanished, then turned back to the still-dazed Elara.
"……Did you see?"
"Ah……."
"The shadow of the Hero's Party you were so afraid of. In reality it's that shabby and pathetic."
I gently took her still-cold hand and drew her closer.
"If even the fakes look like that, how impressive can the real ones be? Fancy shells, nothing special inside."
A strange light rose in Elara's eyes. In that moment the towering wall of terror she had feared crumbled like a sandcastle at a single word from me.