6. Much Ado About Nothing - 09
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6. Much Ado About Nothing - 09
"...Hrm..."
"...Goodness, the youth these days..."
My declaration shifted the atmosphere of the banquet hall, however slightly. My forthright proclamation of love, rather than evasion or hedging, had evidently struck a chord. When dealing with old-timers poised to launch into a tirade about youthful spirit and audacity, a direct approach was clearly the right answer.
"..."
Still, it was only a single step forward. A meager gain. The hall was still full of people who viewed me with disfavor. My situation clearly wasn't something a few words could resolve.
That was when it happened. An elder seated in the corner of the banquet hall, small of frame and deeply wrinkled, yet with eyes that burned with fierce light, quietly opened his mouth. Outwardly, he seemed utterly unremarkable, a nobody, but I found myself unable to look away from his every gesture. I felt my breath catch in my throat.
"Head of the house, you may consider this presumptuous, but I wish to pose a single question to the Young Duke Estel. Would you permit this old man to speak here?"
"...You may."
Marquis Castana gave a slight nod of agreement and the old man turned toward me. Our eyes met. The elder's gaze was exceptionally sharp. I felt the weight of his stare pressing down on me. His eyes seemed to pierce straight through a person's heart.
"Well met, Estel of Sukhavati. I have heard much about you, but this is my first time seeing you in person. A noble of near-ducal standing gracing us with such a difficult journey—it fills me with gratitude."
Incidentally, 'Sukhavati' was an ancient name for the region where the Estel Duchy was located. Attaching a regional name before a house's surname was a musty custom from over a century ago, so I couldn't begin to guess how many years this monster before me had lived.
But since the elder had shown me due courtesy, I was obligated to return it. That was basic etiquette for a noble destined from birth to stand above others. I bowed with a courtly formal greeting.
"I merely offer my gratitude for your cordiality, Castana of Faobhar. I welcome an elder's hospitality."
"Ohoho, for the Young Duke to show such respect to a worthless old man like myself, I hardly know what to do with myself."
That seemed to be the end of our probing. The elder, who had worn a benevolent smile, stiffened his expression and posed a question.
"Young Duke Estel. If it is not too great a discourtesy, there is something I wish to ask. Will you permit this old man to be so rude?"
"Speak, Elder. I shall listen respectfully to your sage opinion."
"You have my thanks, Young Duke. Then, I shall ask my one question."
The elder's eyes flashed brilliantly once more.
"Young Duke. As you are well aware, relations between the houses of Castana and Estel have been far from amicable since ancient times. It is a shameful topic, but that animosity has festered for a thousand years, so deeply that it seeps into the minds of even the children of our houses. You know this well. Thus, I cannot help but wonder about your relationship with that child Bianca."
Crimson eyes, identical to Bianca's, were fixed upon me. I realized how much the elder's eyes resembled hers.
"Now, could you enlighten this foolish old man, Young Duke? What exactly is the chain of causality that led you and Bianca to love one another enough to be betrothed?"
"...That is..."
The elder's question was entirely valid. Even I thought that the idea of a descendant of Estel and a descendant of Castana falling in love was less plausible than a dog giving birth to an egg.
But I had already anticipated such a question. I hadn't simply been sleeping the whole journey to House Castana. I had already constructed a perfect excuse for how Bianca and I fell in love.
"...Fortunately, that is a question I can answer. My answer is simple. Bianca and I..."
But in that instant, a single voice rang inside my head. It was no physical voice, but a transmission of thought via magic.
[Kain, I'll be brief. You absolutely cannot tell a lie.]
'...What?'
I reflexively slid my gaze toward Bianca. She stood beside me, blinking innocently as if nothing had happened. But that voice just now was definitely not my imagination. Bianca had clearly used magic to send me that warning.
'I can't lie?'
...Come to think of it, I recalled hearing something about this. It was said that archmages who had reached a certain level could, by some unknown principle, effortlessly discern the truth of another's words. Did that mean the shabby elder before me was an archmage on the same level as Bianca ten years in the future?
'...What am I supposed to do?'
Damn it all. The difficulty of this task had just multiplied several times over my initial estimate. I had to deceive everyone present using only the truth, without a single lie mixed in—and against mages whose mental acuity was second to none.
"..."
I closed my eyes and thought. The situation wasn't completely hopeless, because there was no absence of shared history between Bianca and me. For better or worse, I had a long relationship with her. From a chance encounter in childhood ten years ago to being part of the expedition to subjugate the witch ten years later—my life was intertwined with an ill-fated connection to Bianca.
So my task was simple. Amidst a twenty-year-long tangled relationship with Bianca, I had to extract an emotional thread that would convince these people. Instinctively, I realized this was the only path to break through the impasse.
"...I am. Bianca and I..."
What I needed to say was decided from the start. I sifted through our memories from the past and let the words form on my tongue.
"In childhood, we crossed paths many times. And at the end of that..."
I turned my head and glanced at Bianca. Since what I was about to recount touched on personal memories, I was worried I might accidentally offend her.
"...She and I made a promise for the future. That someday, we would be together."
What I said was definitely not a lie. We always said goodbye with a promise to meet again next time.
"...Ah."
The moment I said that, Bianca's expression turned strange. It looked somehow happy, somehow surprised, and somehow angry—an utterly unreadable mixture.
'...Uh oh.'
Seeing her expression, I reflexively flinched. Had I inadvertently touched upon the memory of that man she had promised to share a future with in childhood?
"...Hrm."
Watching the two of us, the elder, who had been silently observing, asked another question in a tone of feigned puzzlement.
"...Young Duke. Perhaps it is my own narrow experience, but I find your words a bit hard to grasp. Even if it is true that you met and made such a promise as children, I would presume those meetings were brief, trivial affairs numbering only a few times. Yet, in that short time, what merit did that child Bianca see in you to promise a future together?"
The elder's question held the rationality of a mage. But hearing it, I gave a bitter smile. His words were correct, but they weren't right. Human emotions, after all, cannot be measured with a ruler.
"Elder, I believe you may have asked me the wrong question."
"...The wrong question? What do you mean, Young Duke?"
"Because it seems more correct to ask not which of my merits caused it, but which of my flaws. For I am not that great a man."
"...You mean Bianca fell in love with you because of your flaws?"
Interest filled the elder's eyes as he asked. He appeared to be finding our exchange quite intriguing.
"Young Duke, I must request an explanation. What exactly did you mean by those words?"
At his question, I recalled my first meeting with Bianca in childhood. Back then, she was just a child—a small girl who had been hurt countless times and pushed to the edge until she held no hope for her own life.
The first thing I felt when I saw her was that this child was truly in pain. ...And I knew I didn't understand the reason, and even if I did, the likes of me had no right to speak carelessly of her suffering. The pain Bianca felt back then was something I could never hope to understand, much less empathize with. That pain was hers and hers alone.
"...I am..."
But I didn't like seeing her that way. The light in her eyes had died. I simply thought I couldn't stand by and watch a girl struggling in pain and anguish.
"...I am, and have always been, a man riddled with flaws. Immature and tactless, the only thing I could offer Bianca was to show her my own defects."
Yes. Kain von Estel, then and now, was just a mediocre man who could be found anywhere. But even so, I could do what anyone else could do. And that was...
- ...Get lost.
- You really are an idiot. Haven't you heard the rumors about a monster coming out of House Castana? Don't hang around me and get yourself hurt. Just piss off.
Toward that child who, after being hurt again and again, could only snarl at others.
- So? So what?
- ...What? You just...
- I'm not scared of you at all. Even the old nobodies in our territory can use magic. As far as I can see, you're just an ordinary girl.
Swallowing my fear, bluffing with all my might, pretending to be strong. I acted that way because I wanted to be a catalyst for her to turn her eyes away from the sorrow that surrounded her, even for just a moment. I picked a fight with Bianca, bickered with her, and even promised to meet again.
...After all, that was the extent of what I could do for her.
"...Back then, we were nothing but immature, pathetic children. Weak children who knew nothing of love. But perhaps it was precisely because of that, that we could share our pain and promise a future together."
I know it well. The woman called Bianca has a nasty personality, always acts superior, maintains an unbearably arrogant attitude toward others, and is a damn bitch impossible to read. That's why I could never really like her.
...But I couldn't just openly hate her either. Because I knew. I knew just how deeply imperfect this woman, who seemed flawless at a glance, truly was. Beneath that ever-confident exterior, a wounded girl lay hidden.
In the end, both Bianca and I are just flawed human beings. Pathetic people who aren't honest with ourselves. Yet, it was because of those flaws of hers that I reached out my hand. When you think about it, it's truly that kind of mundane old story.
"I am still very young compared to those gathered here, and I know I am greatly lacking to speak on many things. However, I believe there is one promise that even I can boldly make before you all."
"...And what might that be?"
"I will never leave the woman named Bianca alone. So long as I am her betrothed, I will always stay by her side."
This couldn't exactly be called a lie. I intended to focus fully on playing the part of her fiancé for the duration of our contract. Of course, once I got everything I wanted out of her, I had no intention of ever seeing her face again.
I turned my head to look at Bianca's face. Her cheeks were so flushed it was hard to find a precedent. She truly was utterly immersed in her role as a fiancée in love with me.
Twitch.
Bianca's hand in mine shuddered faintly. The usually confident Bianca was nowhere to be found. The person beside me was just a woman hanging her head deeply, overwhelmed by my words. Unconsciously, I tightened my grip on her hand.
"That is the sum of all I can promise you here."