7. The Butterfly Dream (胡蝶之夢) - 11
7. The Butterfly Dream (胡蝶之夢) - 11
"...What did you say?"
For a split second, Iris wondered if something was wrong with her ears. Of course, her body—at the Master Realm and functioning on an entirely different plane from ordinary humans—couldn't possibly malfunction. The words that had just left Kirie El Denaris's mouth possessed a destructive power that simply exceeded her common sense.
'Lend?'
The moment she heard it, an incredulous laugh escaped her. Setting aside whether the word "lend" could even apply to a person instead of an object, was this woman seriously in her right mind—spouting such absurd nonsense about loaning out the one irreplaceable companion of her entire life to another woman?
'Hadn't Kirie also harbored feelings for Kain?'
Iris knew. Spending so much time together in the expeditionary force over the past year had made it impossible not to realize. That ageless monster, Kirie El Denaris, also held affection for the man named Kain von Estel.
...Then again, it was inevitable. If Kirie El Denaris had eyes, she too couldn't help but recognize Kain's true worth. Even Iris—who had worshipped nothing but the martial path her entire life and made the sword her lifelong companion—had found herself admiring that man, who shone like a star, and in the end had fallen in love with him.
That was why Iris had assumed Kirie would somehow cooperate in the search for the vanished Kain. As far as she knew, elves were a romantic race who fixed their eyes on a single companion throughout their long lives and spent all their days with that one person.
...Of course, the act of borrowing another woman's help to find the man she loved was distasteful in itself, a matter that scraped against her pride. But with Kain having fallen into Bianca del Castana's wicked clutches and who knew what he might be enduring, time was of the essence—she simply couldn't afford the luxury of being choosy about her methods.
So Iris had cast aside her pride entirely and approached Kirie to request her cooperation, yet the only thing that came out of the woman's mouth was this dogspeak about "lending."
'...Insane bitch.'
It was clear. Kirie El Denaris had lived so long she'd definitely lost her mind. If not that, then she was surely nearing her end and suffering from dementia.
Even as Iris stared at Kirie in utter disbelief, Kirie simply averted her gaze, expression perfectly unmoved, thinking that this was perhaps a rather high-level discussion a human girl who'd barely lived thirty-odd years would find hard to grasp.
"...Kirie. Kain is not an object. Nor is he your property, let alone anyone's. And yet you speak of him as though he's some item in your pocket. Am I to interpret that remark just now as a declaration of war against me?"
When Iris, unable to contain her indignation, began reaching for the sword at her waist, Kirie posed a question with an expression that hadn't changed in the slightest.
"Iris El Debhart. How many years did you spend with him?"
"...What?"
"If my memory serves, it was two years—no, three. You were terribly greedy back then. I never imagined you'd act so shamelessly as to monopolize his love all for yourself. It caught me quite off guard."
Iris frowned as Kirie spoke, smiling. What Kirie was now saying to her was clearly—
"Well, I could understand up to that point. Because your precious Ariel Tiere, the one called the Representative of the Goddess, was no pushover either. No, if anything, she seemed the greediest of us all. She tossed aside her duties and responsibilities and trotted after him like a little puppy. Compared to her, you were truly on the milder side. Yes, without question."
.....
Iris was beginning to lose grasp of what the woman before her was talking about. No, she couldn't grasp it at all. Because if she took Kirie's babbling at face value, it clearly—
"But you see, while you lot took turns monopolizing him, there was one pitiful and miserable woman who never got to lay a single finger on him. Do you have any guess as to who she might be, Iris?"
Kirie asked the question with a cackle, but she hadn't expected a proper answer in the first place. After all, the story from this point on touched upon territory Iris El Debhart knew nothing about.
"The answer is Bianca del Castana—the pitiful woman who spent the last twenty years looking only at Kain, loving him, devoting herself to him, yet never received a single moment's reciprocation."
Ah, so terribly tragic. The way Kirie murmured the words like some actor on a stage only sent a chill down Iris's spine.
"Of course, she wasn't without fault in bringing it upon herself. Iris, not as much as you, but Kain can be just as strict and upright with himself, can't he? If she'd confessed openly like you or Ariel, would things have changed even slightly?"
.....
"Well, it would have been impossible anyway. A woman who's never known love her whole life, who's never even received it—how could she give love to another? In the end, their story was destined for catastrophe from the very start."
By that point, Iris couldn't help but sense something off. Kirie, a woman who had shown little interest in the personal lives of the expedition's other women besides Kain—how did she possess such detailed knowledge about Bianca?
"Iris, don't you find her pitiful? You all managed to claim a place beside him in barely a year, but that woman never once fulfilled her wish in thirty years. Not a single day of happiness—not as a person, and not as a woman."
"...So what exactly is your conclusion? Kirie, what are you really trying to say to me?"
At Iris's words, Kirie smiled sweetly.
"What I'm trying to say is simple. Bianca del Castana deserves to be happy for once, too. By lending Kain to her, she might finally taste the happiness you've all enjoyed—that's the heart of it. A competition is only satisfying when it's fair, don't you think?"
"...Hah."
At Kirie's utterly unhinged conclusion, Iris's face crumpled completely.
"...So, Kain is certainly not your property..."
And that was when it happened.
"...Shh."
Kirie raised a slender index finger and gently sealed Iris's lips.
"Iris. Do be quiet, won't you? A person who knows nothing, thrashing about like a thunderstruck fool, looks far too lacking in dignity. Why don't you realize that when you lack the majesty befitting the Empire's Imperial Princess, you're nothing more than a barbaric monkey?"
A sharp glint lit Kirie's eyes as she spoke those words toward Iris. An unfathomable pressure was emanating from Kirie, thick enough to choke the surrounding air.
"Iris. You said this to me: Kain is not an object, and he's certainly not my property. Indeed, that's not a wrong statement. But by the same token, it's not exactly right, either. Kain may not be an object, but the fact remains—he is mine."
"Because he and I already share everything. Even our lifespans, at that."
"...What?"
The moment those words left Kirie's mouth, Iris's voice caught in her throat. Kain and Kirie shared their lifespans? As far as she knew, there was only one situation in which an elf—who chose a single lifelong companion—would share her lifespan with another. That was—
"That's what it means. Those who have a history of being with Kain and sharing love with him aren't limited to you and Ariel alone. Now, do you acknowledge that I, too, hold the right to claim ownership of Kain?"
Unable to contain her laughter, Kirie stifled breathy giggles while Iris stared at her in sheer disbelief.
"...Kirie, don't tell me you also..."
"Well, something like that. I don't wish to tell you the details. After all, I have no perverse hobby of indiscriminately sharing private marital matters with 'outsiders.' You can understand that much, can't you, Iris?"
.....
"Yes, that's what it all meant. Kain, who shares my lifespan, will live for a staggering span of years ordinary humans cannot even dream of reaching. Of course, Kain will still meet death someday, but I guarantee you—even when you grow old and die, he will still be hale and alive."
And he'll probably still be young even after you've grown shabby and old, Kirie added with utterly unnecessary timing.
"The time he and I will share from now on is truly boundless. A life so long that ordinary humans wouldn't dare to measure it. And precisely because of that, I have not the slightest intention of demanding that I alone occupy his life."
"Because no matter how delicious the food, you get sick of eating the same thing every time, no? Every now and then, you need a snack to whet your appetite."
Step.
As she spoke, Kirie took one step closer to Iris. Faced with the maddened smile filling Kirie's face, Iris unconsciously took a step back.
"Do you understand a little better now? I don't care if Kain meets other women, and I don't care if he shares love with them. Because at the end of the day, I am his first and his last. All the time Kain spends with every woman he'll meet in his life combined won't even reach the ankles of the time I've spent with him. The other women amount to nothing more than passing ties."
"Well, that doesn't mean I'll just accept any random nobody. Truthfully, I'm not entirely pleased, but I've been thinking that you three might be just about acceptable. I am a woman of great understanding, after all."
"...Acceptable? Understanding?"
At Kirie's mad words—showing not a shred of hesitation in treating herself as his rightful wife and the other women as mere concubines—Iris finally let out a hollow laugh. This settled it. The elf was completely, utterly insane.
"...You're crazy. Completely deranged. Kirie. You're not in your right mind."
Kirie simply answered Iris with a bright smile.
"Would you mind calling me a hopeless romantic who lives and dies by love instead?"