8. Bianca del Castana - 12
8. Bianca del Castana - 12
"...Good night, Bianca."
I laid Bianca gently on the ground. She had finally lost consciousness in my arms. A light touch was enough to tell—her Magic Power was completely and utterly spent. When I thought about it, it was obvious. She had fought Aria tooth and nail not long before, and then turned around and fought me right after. Small wonder she'd collapsed.
"...Haah, ah..."
I drew a deep breath and let it out in a rush. The moment I released the tension from my body, which had been pushed to its absolute limit, an indescribable agony crashed over me in waves.
"...Ah, ngh."
My entire body was a wreck. My left arm, which had taken Bianca's 'White Flame's Lament' head-on, was barely hanging on. I couldn't feel a thing from it anymore. My right arm, which had unleashed the Gloaming Moon at the final moment, hadn't been able to withstand the backlash. The bone was twisted and shattered completely.
The skin all over my body had suffered lacerations, burns, frostbite—every injury a human being can sustain—and it hung in ugly tatters like a rag. And because I'd done the insane thing of converting my life force into aura, I had zero strength left anywhere. It felt as though the very concept of vitality had been scooped clean out of my body. This was only a guess, but I had the feeling the aftermath of that fight with Bianca had shaved at least a few months off my lifespan.
"...Not exactly a profitable venture."
I'd been prepared. The opponent I'd chosen to face was one of the pinnacles of human strength, one of the most powerful mages alive. Under normal circumstances, someone at my level would never have been fit to raise a sword against her. The fact that I'd come away with injuries this severe and still pulled off a victory was nothing short of a miracle.
...Besides, watching either Aria or Bianca end up dead would have been a hundred times worse than losing a few months of my lifespan. With just one small complaint: my entire body was, quite literally, smashed to pieces, and it hurt like absolute hell.
"...Cough—!"
I ended up spitting a mouthful of dead-black blood. Lately, it felt like I'd been spewing blood with increasing frequency. An ominous thought crept into my head—at this rate, I might not even die a natural death. Perhaps from the strain of coughing up blood, my vision began to flicker and fade.
Thud. Thud.
That was when I heard it. The sound of footsteps approaching.
"Well done, Sir Kain."
"...Aria."
Through my failing eyes, a figure came into view. For a moment, I almost couldn't tell who it was through the blur, but her voice made it clear: it was Aria.
"...You pushed yourself too hard. Far too hard."
As she spoke, Aria took the hem of her clothing and carefully wiped the sweat and blood from my face. Her clean, neat garment was soiled in an instant. But as though that didn't bother her in the slightest, she meticulously dabbed away every trace of sweat and blood on me, and only then stepped back with a satisfied look.
"...You didn't have to go that far and ruin your clothes."
"How can you say something so disappointing? I am your personal maid, Sir Kain. And right now, things like this are the only things I can do for you."
All she did was answer with a mature smile, entirely different from her usual one.
"Sir Kain, if it isn't too forward of me, may I ask just one thing?"
"...What? And I'd appreciate it if you made it quick."
Because given that I'm seeing two of you right now, I'm pretty sure I'm about to lose consciousness.
"Oh, it's nothing much. It's really just something I want to confirm. Sir Kain. After Bianca del Castana abducted you, she erased your memories, didn't she?"
"...Yeah. She did."
Since Aria would have heard my entire conversation with Bianca anyway, there was no point in hiding it now. I readily agreed and nodded.
"So then, Sir Kain, your memories aren't exactly whole, are they?"
I froze.
The instant she said it, my body locked up. My flickering, dying consciousness sharpened in an instant to acute clarity.
"Do you realize? Sir Kain, your personality has changed a great deal since I last saw you. The fundamentals aren't different, but you've grown a lot more serious, a lot calmer—would that be the right way to put it?"
Well, whether it was his past personality or his present one, both are within my acceptable range, so I don't mind either way, Aria added, almost to herself.
...In truth, she was entirely correct. Some connection I didn't even understand had let me recover my memories, but what I'd recovered weren't whole. I could easily tell there were still huge gaps scattered throughout them.
It wasn't a crippling loss—nothing that interfered with daily life or kept me from recalling other people—so I'd glossed over it and moved on. But that didn't mean my current self had the same memories as my former self. From that perspective, there was no doubt I seemed distinctly changed to an outsider.
"...How did you know? Is it that obvious?"
I wasn't trying to press her. It was more of a self-deprecating question: had I been acting so blatantly different that even others could tell?
"Isn't personality always shaped by memory? Experience accumulating through memory gradually reshapes an individual's character. But even taking that into account, Sir Kain, your personality seems to have changed quite a lot. I simply judged that, for a mere forty days of change, it seemed a little too dramatic."
"....."
"Actually, there are a few things I don't quite understand. It's not just your personality. Your overall physical ability, including your swordsmanship, seems to have improved as well—and no matter how much I think about it, I can't make sense of that part."
Could it be the scheming of that insidious elf who holes up in the Great Forest and barely shows her face? Aria murmured something I couldn't easily parse.
Why was it? The Aria standing in front of me didn't feel like the Aria I knew. No, she was definitely different. That faint, coquettish smile she was sending my way, her far more intellectual tone of voice, the antique grace that seemed to emanate from her whole bearing—every bit of it was a side of Aria I'd never once seen before.
...No, that wasn't right. I had seen it. This side of Aria—I had definitely seen it once before. It was, without a doubt—
"...Aria, don't tell me..."
I reeled.
I tried to say something to her, but I'd apparently reached my limit. I made a desperate effort to hold onto consciousness, but my already-flickering vision rapidly went dark.
And as my body slowly crumpled toward the ground, someone caught me, wrapping me in gentle arms.
"...Thank you. For giving me a name. Thank you. For staying on my side to the very end. Thank you. For making me happy."
"And thank you. For believing in me until the very end."
The pleasant sensation of being held brought a strange sense of relief, and I surrendered myself to the encroaching pull of sleep. Just as my consciousness was on the verge of fading out, someone whispered these words into my ear in the smallest voice:
"I promise. That I, too, will remain on your side alone—until the very last moment."
And I will make sure to prove to you that the choice you made today was the right one.
So, at least for this moment—rest easy.
****
And so, a battle came to an end. The fight that had thundered as though it would break heaven and earth, the fight in which each sought to uphold their own convictions—ended at last in one man's victory.
Off in the distance, there was a woman who had done nothing but watch their battle without even being able to breathe properly. Her name was Iris El Debhart. She was the teacher of the man called Kain von Estel, his lover, and the woman who had vowed to share everything with him. That was who she was.
"...Kain."
She had seen all of it. Taken it all in. Your desperate struggle. Your will. And your resolve.
...In truth, every time that woman hurt you, every time you were in pain, she'd wanted to run to you. But she held herself back. She could not render meaningless all the effort you'd staked your entire self on as you stood your ground.
In the end, you won. You proved your worth through nothing but your own strength. That sight was more brilliant than anything in the world.
It was truly magnificent. And with it, the desire to possess you grew even stronger.
She wanted to run to your side right this instant and drag you back to the Imperial Capital, just as she had in the past. She wanted you to look only at her, smile only for her, love only her. This time, she wanted to be happy with you until the very moment the world ended.
The moment she imagined being with you, her heart began pounding like mad. The moment she imagined you staying by her side for an eternity, she began to feel so impossibly happy. This rich feeling filling her chest—surely this must be love. The thought filled her with deep satisfaction.
"Kain."
Iris's eyes began to gleam with greed. The riffraff around him didn't even register. She had no attention to spare for them.
Now, I too intend to make you mine in earnest.
****
"...That was spectacular. Truly."
At the deepest heart of the Great Forest, Kirie El Denaris—called the Guardian of the World Tree—was trembling, her face deeply flushed.
The sight she had just secretly spied upon was an extraordinary spectacle, the likes of which she had rarely witnessed in her long life. Truly, it was the best. Exhilarating. Even after some time had passed, the excitement wouldn't leave her body. It had been a pleasure so extreme it felt as though a woman's most secret place had grown wet.
"...Ahh, really magnificent. At this rate, it might even rival the time with Iris El Debhart."
In Kirie's personal opinion, Kain back then had been the most magnificent, but today had been no less impressive. As expected, she never grew tired of watching him, no matter how many times she saw it. The sight of the human she loved setting his entire being ablaze for his convictions was, to her, a vision of excruciating rapture.
Unconsciously, Kirie ran her tongue over her lips. A thirst rose. This alone was not enough. To relieve the ennui that had piled up over a life so long it felt like an eternity, this alone was not enough. She needed an even greater source of amusement.
"Ah, that reminds me."
A thought suddenly surfaced. There was still one piece on the board she had yet to move.
Ariel Tiere. As far as Kirie knew, she was the most cloying, insidious woman, even more unhinged than Bianca.
Of course, the fact that she was highly intelligent and partially aware of the world's truths was a bit of a concern, but Kirie knew all too well exactly what key would set that snake of a woman into motion.
"Now then, Ariel Tiere. What sort of scene will you put on display for me?"
When everything finally gathers, when all the truths are laid bare in that single moment, what choice will he ultimately make? It seemed that simply imagining such a future would be enough to keep her entertained for quite some time.