Broken Wings (10)
After that nightmare, Flora had tidied herself up just enough and made her way to the training grounds.
She had no intention of going back to sleep.
To be precise, she couldn't sleep — but even so, there was only one thing she needed to confirm from Karsein.
That what happened yesterday hadn't come about because of her.
That it had nothing to do with Flora Bagrand — that it was simply an incident that occurred within the training grounds. That was the confirmation she wanted.
And so she arrived at the training grounds again — the same place she'd been yesterday, the same place that had appeared even in her dream.
“Ah, right. Big sister told me to bring the gift I was supposed to give Karsein...”
The thought made her flinch for a moment, but she couldn't turn back now.
Shaking her head firmly, Flora stepped into the training grounds.
“─────!”
Nothing, in the end, was all that different.
The knights, roused early in the morning, were diligently going through their warm-ups. After waiting a little while, a regular knight came to escort her, and just as with her sisters before her, she spent a long while observing the knights' training.
Morning drills began, and Flora's eyes naturally drifted toward Karsein.
But that didn't last long.
The scenes from her dream were still too vivid.
Even though this was reality, she felt as though she might hear that voice again.
As though she might see Karsein collapsed once more, just like in the dream.
As though she would be told it was all her fault.
She couldn't bring herself to look at him.
As the hours wore on, Karsein was the only one still running laps around the training field. Put another way, every other knight had finished their training and slipped into their rest period. And to put it even more bluntly — it meant that what had happened yesterday could very well happen again at this very hour.
It won't... happen. How could something like that happen twice, not just once...?
In that instant, like a thief whose own feet had gone numb with guilt, Flora bit down hard on her lip.
She had asked the knight covering Mark's morning training how long it would take Karsein to finish all his laps.
“Hmm. It'll take a good twenty minutes at least,” he had answered.
Twenty minutes. A window of time.
With that much, even a quick trip there and back would cause no real problem.
“I'm going to see Theo for a moment. Stay here.”
─Yes, Miss Flora.
At the announcement that she would be meeting Theo alone, the maids answered without a trace of worry.
It was Theo, after all.
The knight their young lady met with so often.
What could possibly go wrong? They didn't harbor the slightest suspicion.
And Flora herself had thought the same.
Sir Theo was someone she could trust. Which was why asking him was the best course.
Someone had torn Karsein's pouch to shreds yesterday — how often did things like that happen at the training grounds?
A question that simple would be enough.
-Slick.
As Flora made her way toward the water station, she stole a glance around her.
To reach it the fastest, one only had to go straight ahead. Sir Theo would most likely be there. Karsein wouldn't arrive for some time yet, and in the meantime she could just ask her question and return.
And yet — why?
That place from her dream, the place where Karsein had appeared, weighed on her heart with a strangeness she couldn't explain.
It was only a dream.
A scream she'd only heard in a dream. A scene she'd only witnessed in a dream.
And still, she balked at taking that path.
So she rationalized it.
I-It's got nothing to do with anything. Even if I went around the long way... nothing much would change. It's just... it's just this unsettled feeling, that's all.
No reason at all — just the dream lingering in her mind.
That was the excuse she made for turning away from the path.
And so Flora chose the winding route — a side path that would keep her out of sight, not only of Karsein but of every other knight as well.
“Stick it on good. Eh?”
“Heh heh. You think I can't manage one little thing like this?”
The voices of knights drifted over little by little. Among the knights resting there, Theo's voice was mixed in from time to time.
But then another sound wove itself in.
-Fwoosh!
Fire...?
A fire, at the training grounds?
How often would anyone even have reason to light one here? Were they burning trash?
...Burning?
-Crackle!
Perhaps because of that crackling, her steps quickened. A nameless unease was swelling inside her, little by little.
It couldn't be.
It wouldn't be.
Yes, there were knights who'd shredded that pouch yesterday, but this place was crowded with people. No one would dare light such a fire out in the open.
-Pop! Crackle!
Every time the sound of leaping embers reached her ears, Flora's steps grew faster still. Nearly running by the time she spilled out of the side path, she finally saw what was happening at the water station.
“Whew, this thing burns great!”
“Whoa there. That one's mine, you brat.”
“Come on, share it, you bastard.”
Flames leapt up, vivid and bright.
Knights clutching this item and that.
And then...
One person's pouch, stitched back together with thread and needle in a desperate attempt to salvage what had been torn apart all over.
That pouch was now grotesquely ripped open once more, its contents spilling out in a sad, scattered mess.
One of the knights snatched up one of those items and flung it into the flames.
The notebook, transformed into kindling, crackled as it drank in the fire.
It was Karsein's notebook. She had seen it somewhere before.
The dream had come looking for her in reality.
It can't... be...
One line at a time, Karsein's voice stabbed into her heart again.
-It's because of you. You're the one who made me the laughingstock of the entire ducal house, and that's why it's come to this. And yet, at the training grounds, you thought I wouldn't be looked down on for it?
-A brat who gets scorned at the ducal house could never expect to be treated normally at the training grounds. You know that better than anyone, so why do you pretend not to?
-You brought this situation on yourself, so why do you keep denying it? You've always been the one who made sure I got blamed for everything.
-You orchestrated all of it from the very start. You made sure I was suspected of everything, made sure I got nothing. That's why I'm like this even now.
-You took my sword. You stole the one joy of my life. Over nothing more than your petty dislike of me, everything I had crumbled.
-All of it, because of you. That's the reason I ended up this way.
With the sound of popping embers, Karsein's voice fell silent.
It really... was because of me...?
Because she'd tried to ruin her family at the ducal house.
Because an outsider had dared to worm his way into her family's place.
Because he'd even coveted big brother Carn's position.
Was that childish spite — begun over nothing more than that — really how it had come all this way?
Under normal circumstances, she would have denied it outright.
But she couldn't deny it now.
There was only one reason this could have happened to him.
It was Flora Bagrand who had hammered the nail in at that trial, ensuring Karsein would never be able to use the training grounds again.
Haah... haaah...!
That day, carrying this same wretched feeling and a heart tangled in knots, she had gone to him for advice.
Theo had told her it wasn't her fault. He'd called it an act of perfect justice.
And then...
He had said this:
-Do stop by the training grounds sometime. Send word ahead, and I'll arrange a date and stage a little scene I'm sure Miss Flora will absolutely love.
And this — this — was the result.
She had sent word in advance, and this was what Theo Ramstair had chosen to show her.
The sight of a pouch barely mended with thread and needle, torn open and its contents taken and burned at their whim.
That was something born of Flora Bagrand.
-Fwoosh!
Another of Karsein's belongings vanished into the flames.
And through that fire, the Karsein of her dreams spread out like heat haze. She could see it — him, burning... and disappearing.
Her vision went white with fury.
-Crackle!
Flora, her breath catching in her throat, tore off her glove and hurled it with all her might.
-Smack!
“T-Theo!”
“A glove?! What the hell — who just threw this at Theo's face?!”
“...Huh?”
“N-No way...”
Through the ranks of bewildered knights, Flora screamed.
“What do you think you're doing right now?!!”
This wasn't what she wanted.
She had never wanted things to snowball into something this enormous!
“Why are you committing an atrocity like this? Why, of all things?!”
“Miss Flora? When did you arrive? You should have said something.”
Theo stepped out through the flustered knights.
“What perfect timing. We'd only just gotten start—”
-Smack!
The remaining glove flew and struck Theo square in the face.
“A glove...? The same as before? Could it be — is that you, my lady?”
“I never asked you to do anything like this, Sir Theo. Why — why are you doing this to Karsein?”
“M-My lady?”
“Why... why are you doing this?! I'm asking you!”
The moment Flora erupted without warning, Theo was at a complete loss, his face a mask of awkward confusion.
“You don't care for this? Then I'll do it another way. There's no shortage of methods. Shall I crush him in a formal knight's duel? Or would you rather watch him trampled underfoot by all of us at once? These men will gladly help torment Karsein any time. Just say the word. Whatever you want—”
Just say the word?
If only I tell you what I want, you'll promptly show me a satisfying result?
No.
I never asked for any of that.
I didn't come to see you hoping for this!
I most certainly never told you to torment Karsein!
So why are you telling me you'll do something even worse to him...?
...Could it be — because of me?
In that instant, Flora understood.
Everything happening around Karsein had all sprung from her.
It began with a petty disgust. She trembled in anxiety over the delusion that her family might be taken from her. She took things from a person who had never tried to take anything, and then made sure he could have nothing at all.
The Kelvea allergy. The forgotten birthday. The Snowflower Festival.
Beyond the ducal house — even the training grounds, the very refuge he had escaped to.
Every last one of those things had happened by her hand.
It had to be severed.
She had to cut it off with her own hands, before everything she saw in that dream truly came to pass in reality.
But it was already too late.
Smack-!
Another glove sailed through the air and struck Theo's face.
She recognized it at a glance.
A glove hopelessly frayed and loose.
The one he had refused to replace, even after her sisters had brought him new ones and told him to swap them out.
Shring-!
A sword hissed free of its sheath — and pressed itself against a man's throat.
“Karsein, what is the meaning of this!”
“How dare a trainee point a sword at a senior of such standing?!”
“Put that sword away, now!”
Theo Ramstair. It was his throat.
By the time she spun around, eyes wide with shock, Karsein was already standing there.
Flora's affinity gauge is one of the hardest to raise.
The reason is laughably simple — as revealed in Episode V, she despises Karsein possessing anything.
Receiving things displeases her. She avoids spending time with her family. She simply believes that their love must be given to her.
Which means the best move available to me, wearing Karsein's skin, is to hold nothing at all. To show her a Karsein stripped of everything he owns, extorted and drained, hollowed out to the bone.
Because she's a thoughtless little child.
Because her head is, quite literally, a field of flowers.
Only upon seeing a penniless Karsein — powerless to exert any influence whatsoever — does Flora feel guilt for the very first time.
The two ointments inside yesterday's shredded pouch were merely the appetizer. Today's main event was staged as the scene meant to breathe that guilt into her.
That was how I had laid the board.
...Though I never imagined this girl would step forward and tear into Theo first.
In the game, all she ever did was go home feeling guilty...
Is it because of this?
The number I actually needed to satisfy was seventy percent.
As with Radiel, when the affinity box mutates into something else, you generally only have to push past that threshold. But because I'd kept filling it beyond what the choices alone demanded, this scene had apparently come out of it.
Well, no harm done.
Flora had stepped in unexpectedly, but the situation didn't seem to have worsened. Whatever had happened, every condition was already satisfied.
It was about time to make my choice.
[ 3. Hurl a glove into Theo's face. ]
As the choice dictated, I pulled off a glove and flung it into the bastard's face.
-Smack!
Then I drew the sword Mark had just returned to me and leveled it at him.
“Karsein, what is the meaning of this!”
“How dare a trainee point a sword at a senior of such standing?!”
“You gone mad and looking to die?! Put that sword away, now!”
A warning that a dead flag could appear.
I know.
But I don't stop.
Because I have every justification for this.
Because I'm more than prepared to disregard the letter of this choice if it comes to that.
Having taken another man's glove to the face, the bastard's expression soured in an instant.
“Ha — so it was you, was it? Last time you went after the captain, and now you're after my neck?”
Theo Ramstair curled his lips and sneered.
“You deceived our innocent Miss Flora, it seems, in some scheme to punish me by any means necessary. You wretched little worm...!”
There it was, at last.
[ 3. Don't get the wrong idea. Your punishment is deserved. ]
“You seem to be under some misunderstanding. I'm not speaking as Trainee Karsein right now — I'm speaking as Karsein Bagrand, and I'm holding you to account.”
“...What did you say?”
Theo laughed as if the very notion were absurd.
No. That would be a sneer brimming with confidence.
“I see. So the young lord means to sit in judgment over me. And what offense might I have committed, exactly? Can you prove it?”
[ 1. Flora's testimony ]
[ 2. The knights' testimony ]
[ 3. The burning belongings ]
[ 4. The torn-open pouch, once more ]
[ 5. The items the knights extorted ]
The evidence I would choose—
-Swoosh.
“This.”
[ 5. The items the knights extorted ]
—was one of those.
At that, Theo puffed out his shoulders with a look of supreme confidence.
“Those came out of my pouch, did they not? What — are you seriously going to claim I took them by force?”
“How fortunate that you know your own crime so well.”
“You're saying that proves my guilt? Ha — what nonsense. Granted, they look too expensive for knights to own, but even on my salary, I could afford this much. Besides — where is your proof that any of it is yours, young lord?”
Theo rebutted boldly, utterly convinced he couldn't be budged an inch.
Yes.
That's exactly how you should answer.
Because that's what makes you a criminal with no room left to wriggle free.
Without a hint of hesitation, I dragged my blade across Theo's neck, opening a wound.
-Shlick.
“Wh-what is the meaning of this!!”
“He's cut Theo's neck...! This is thuggery! Outright thuggery, I say!”
“Young lord or not, surely you weren't granted the authority to carry out punishments like that!”
“We will report this to the young ladies — no, to the madam, exactly as it happened!”
As a thin line of red blood trickled down, Theo roared and rallied the men. The other knights joined in with jeers of their own.
But.
“That thing you're holding is the handkerchief my fiancée gave me. More than enough grounds for your punishment, I'd say.”
At that single sentence, the entire water station froze over, cold and dead.