I Won't Let You Escape
"Heh. I won't let you run away."
Rattle, rattle.
Inside the carriage bound for the manor.
Perhaps it was the steady rhythm of the wheels. Elara sat with her head resting against the window, staring blankly outside. The flush had faded from her cheeks, but she was still catching her breath in short, shallow pulls.
……It's quiet.
With conversation already dead, I flicked my fingers through the empty air out of habit and summoned a translucent window. Hero or no Hero sitting right next to me — a man has to top off his dopamine.
I snorted and typed out a reply. Gallery opinion mattered, sure — but a man still had to draw the line somewhere.
It wasn't an act of loyalty.
Protecting my client to the end. That was my duty as a contracted psychiatric counselor.
Of course, the good stuff always tasted better when I kept it to myself.
I snuck a glance at the line of Elara's neck as she leaned against the window, and snickered under my breath.
I ignored the worthless bait and kept scrolling — then a welcome username appeared.
I was about to wrap things up on a wholesome note when that pervert mage chimed in again.
……They're going to kick the door in, huh.
I stroked my chin. Sure enough — the closer you got to the ending, the harder the situation climbed toward climax. That was the iron law of this business. No matter how far we ran and hid around town, pinning down the culprit who destroyed the statue was only a matter of time.
The leader of the Hero's Party, Lillian. That woman might have been a walking personality disorder, but she wasn't a clueless idiot either.
"……Teacher?"
Elara called out to me then, brow furrowed.
"Why have you been staring into empty air this whole time…… smiling like that? It's creepy."
She looked me over with eyes half contempt, half concern. Of course the blue hologram window floating in front of me was invisible to her. To anyone else, I was just some lunatic grinning into thin air.
I cleared my throat and closed the gallery window.
"Ahem. No, nothing. Just still feeling pretty good about smashing that statue earlier."
"……Haa. The statue."
Elara let out a low sigh and propped her elbows on the windowsill. Moonlight caught the side of her face and cast a deep shadow across it.
"You really have no fear, Teacher. Do you understand how terrifying a thing we just did? That bitch Lillian is never going to let this go."
Her pupils trembled faintly as she stared into the darkness beyond the glass. The statue was gone, but the Hero's Party itself remained — a towering wall that still filled her with dread.
I looked at her shaking shoulders and let out a quiet snort of laughter.
"Don't worry."
"……What?"
"So what if they come for us? I've got the real Hero, Lady Elara, right here beside me."
"……!"
Elara's eyes went round. Not the false black-haired Hero she always talked about — the real one. The new role I had given her.
"Tch…… You really are far too carefree, Teacher."
Elara whipped her head toward the window, trying to hide the color rising in her face. But she couldn't hide the way the corners of her mouth, reflected in the glass, twitched upward.
"……Thank you. For believing in me."
She mumbled it in a voice that nearly vanished. The atmosphere was ripening nicely.
"Don't mention it."
I smiled and looked forward again.
And then……
Ah……
……The statue that had stood as a monument to their great achievements. Smashing it was as good as a declaration of war. Of course they would come.
The Golden Banana.
A one-time-use item with a guaranteed property: anyone who steps on it falls flat on their face. Sure, the cost-performance would be excellent — but the opponents were the Hero's Party. Not people you could afford to underestimate.
So I fired back at them.
Night fell once more in pitch-black darkness. At the rear gate of the Hero's Party manor, where the lavish lights had all gone out, a secret procession was underway.
Step, step.
Between the clean, economical footfalls came a jarring metallic sound.
Clank, clank.
It was the rattle of iron chains far too heavy for such small ankles.
"Kurast. Everything ready?"
Lillian asked without looking back, a pipe clenched between her teeth. The archer trailing behind her, Kurast, answered with a snicker.
"Ready as hell. But Gaila, can this brute not control his strength? The kid's ankles are all scraped raw."
"……She'll run if I don't."
The lean young man with the dagger — Gaila — held the end of the chain like a dog leash and answered flatly, looking nothing like the care he was supposedly taking.
At the other end of that chain, a girl was being dragged along.
Short hair the spitting image of Lillian's. But one eye was buried under a messy fringe, and the girl in rags trembled like a cornered animal.
"By the way, Lillian. Is this little bitch actually your blood?"
Kurast flicked the girl on the head as he asked.
"Looks similar enough, but the energy on her is just…… plain water."
"Plain water, is it."
Lillian stopped walking. She turned slowly, seized the trembling girl's chin in a rough grip, and yanked her face up.
"Nngh……!"
"Don't say such ungrateful things. This child is the failure our grandfather left behind."
A failure.
Lillian's father had introduced her as his hidden daughter and left her in Lillian's care. Lillian blew a lungful of pipe smoke straight into the girl's face. Watching her cough and choke, she smiled — cold, full of contempt.
"A body that can't feel even a single drop of mana. A stain on our illustrious house."
Born into a great magical lineage, yet utterly incapable of magic — a halfwit. To Lillian, this girl was neither kin nor half-sister. She was garbage to be disposed of, and at the same time a useful piece on the board.
"Still, you should be grateful. A worthless thing like you gets to become a grand new Hero candidate — bait for our party."
"Hic, uuh……"
"Isn't that right, you mute bitch?"
Lillian released her, and the girl crumpled to the ground. Watching the pitiful scene, the Saint Lidia made the sign of the cross and cut in with a gentle voice.
"Don't handle her so roughly, Lillian."
She looked down at the girl sprawled on the dirt with a benevolent expression — a sacred voice that stood in perfect opposition to the eyes that regarded her like an insect.
"The Lord loves everyone. Even…… trash with not a scrap of talent to their name."
"Hah. At least she can't talk back."
Lillian snorted and started walking again.
"Let's go. If you want to catch rats, you hang the bait somewhere nice and visible. 'A new Hero has appeared!' — Elara will jump out of her house in shock, just you wait."
Clank, clank.
The rattle of the girl's chains was dragged once more into the dark.
It was a night when the moonlight shattered especially beautifully.
The room was filled with soft silver light, the fragrant steam of black tea tickling my nose — and the shampoo scent of Elara, fresh from her bath.
"……Teacher, please have some tea."
"Ah, thank you."
I took the cup and faced her. Tonight her face looked bright as a candle flame. Or rather — like someone who had finally coughed up a decade of stuck phlegm and felt light for the first time.
"Thanks to you, Teacher, the knot that was crushing my heart seems to have come undone."
"Oh? Which knot would that be?"
"……Several. The guilt of being a fake Hero. People's stares. And…… loneliness, I suppose."
Elara toyed with her teacup and smiled shyly. Ordinary desires she had suppressed all this time as a simple girl were surely mixed in there as well.
"If I had never met you, I would have spent my whole life trapped inside a block of stone. I'm glad…… I didn't let you go."
"Haha, you flatter me. All I did was put a hammer in your hands."
I laughed lightly and took a sip of the fragrant tea. Then Elara lifted her head as if she had made up her mind.
"So, about that…… Teacher, may I make a proposal?"
"Ah, by all means. Need another counseling session?"
I set the cup down and met her eyes. She worked her lips for a moment, then spoke in a trembling voice — but clearly.
"Teacher, would you…… stay here? Continuously?"
"……Excuse me?"
"I don't really know where you've been staying, but…… what if you moved into my manor? Next to my room would be fine, or even……"
Her cheeks flushed a soft rose.
"I just…… want you to stay somewhere I can always see you."
I stared at her blankly for a moment. This wasn't simple kindness. It was proof that I had become her sanctuary — affection bordering on separation anxiety.
"That's a rather sudden proposal."
"It isn't sudden."
Elara laid her hand over the back of mine. Warm. Desperate.
"When you're beside me, Teacher, my painful memories feel like they disappear. Even now, with you in front of me…… breathing feels easy."
Her eyes wavered. The look of someone terrified of being refused. If I pulled back with a I'll think about it here, she might crawl back into her shell for good.
What I needed right now was a counselor's confirmation. And a patient asking for her doctor was perfectly normal. Besides — I had already planned to stay until the Hero's Party came knocking anyway.
"Elara."
"……Yes."
"From a clinical standpoint, depending on another person is not evidence of weakness."
I leaned forward and locked eyes with her.
"It means you trust them enough to put your back in their hands."
"Ah……"
"You're indulging a very healthy desire right now. So……"
I grinned and delivered the finishing blow.
"As your attending physician, I prescribe this: stay glued to my side for life. Until you're so sick of me you tell me to get out."
In that instant, tears welled in Elara's eyes, and a smile of pure joy bloomed across her face.
"……I won't get sick of you. Never."
"You sure about that?"
"……Yes. For life. Even after I die, I won't let go. I won't let you run away."
Won't let me run away……?
A little extreme, maybe. But I understood.
That thought lasted only a moment——
You have filled Elara's Affection to 100.
Heroine Elara now qualifies for the Awakened state.
Oh. A perfect hundred out of a hundred.
But what was this Awakened state?
Anyway, whatever it was — this was the moment the end finally came into view.
What remained was the Hero's Party……
Just in case, I should lay down a trap or two in advance.