3. Before the Beginning Begins - 03
3. Before the Beginning Begins - 03
I recalled them in my mind. The aspects of the witch as a transcendent being, and her magic so powerful it would be no exaggeration to call it the pinnacle of sorcery. The destructive form of her, capable of turning heaven and earth upside down with a single finger.
Bianca, who had belonged to the 'Winter Expedition,' was also one of the top five archmages in the Empire, a powerhouse who could easily reduce the main castle of the Estel Duchy to dust, but she paled in comparison to the witch. The witch was a mage of that caliber, and the most powerful human being I knew of. Though I suppose even saying she was beyond the norm is an understatement, given that she brought an Endless Winter upon the entire continent in the first place.
And that is precisely why killing her is such a waste. As it stood, the Estel Duchy was in desperate need of high-quality personnel like a mage. The weather is cold and the arable land is extremely limited, but if we had just one competent mage, the territory could develop significantly.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to find a mage who wanted to come to a countryside like the Estel Duchy, which is only cold and doesn't have much money. The fact was, there was only a single mage in the territory right now, an old man over seventy.
So, in my eyes, the witch who had lost all her memories and was just blinking in front of me looked like nothing other than a gold coin dropped on the street. An opportunity to freely order around the wicked witch destined to destroy humanity had come knocking—isn't this the deal of a lifetime?
"You said you have no place to return to, and no family. Then it's fine for you to stay here. Our territory is a bit small and impoverished, but not to the extent that we can't take in one person like you."
For reference, I was using casual speech because the witch had asked me to drop the formalities, saying it was unbearably awkward when I used honorifics with her. Of course, a man like me was more than happy to oblige such a request.
"...Really?"
"Yeah. You know who I am?"
She shook her head.
Right, she lost all her memories, so it would be stranger if she did know me.
"I'm the master of this castle... well, not yet, but I will be. I'm the second-highest-ranking person here. So, there's no need to feel burdened. I can't exactly say we're wealthy, but taking in a single girl is nothing."
Because I plan to work her to the bone from now on. To the point where wails will naturally flow from that face.
As I was persuading the witch with a good-natured face, her expression began to change, little by little. It shifted from a look of incomprehension to one of pondering something.
"...I really can."
She hung her head low. As if weighed down by her thoughts, she fidgeted with her fingers. And after hesitating for a long while, she finally asked me a question in a voice that was barely a whisper.
"Can I really...?"
"Hm?"
"I told you already, but I have no memories. Even I don't know what I'm good at, what I'm bad at, what I like, or what I dislike. I'm the same as an empty person."
The witch's eyes as she spoke were hollow beyond compare. It was a gaze that seemed to cry out that not only herself, but the world itself held no meaning.
"So I'm a person who is nothing. I have no value whatsoever. I'll be... completely useless. Because I know nothing. So..."
Having spoken up to there, the witch hung her head and couldn't continue her words.
"....."
I stared at the witch. I couldn't see her face. Because her head was bowed, all I could see was the back of her head covered in hair as white as snow.
"Haa."
I let out a long sigh. At the sound of my sigh, I saw the witch flinch. But paying that no mind whatsoever, I—
Tap.
"Ouch."
—gently rapped the back of her head.
"What does any of that matter? What connection does your lack of memories have with you being useless?"
"Th-that's... because I know nothing... things that everyone else knows, I don't know..."
"I don't know much either. There's an enormous amount of stuff I don't know. The only things I can say I know a bit more about compared to others is how to do sums with a pen and handling paperwork. So, does that make me a useless person too?"
Truthfully, by groveling under the Imperial Princess before the regression, I also learned a bit about swinging a blade, but let's leave that out. Those were just painfully unpleasant memories anyway. If possible, I simply wished that I would never have to grip a sword again in my life.
"Th-that's different!"
"What's different?"
"Th-that is..."
The witch couldn't answer for a moment and hesitated, then began to mumble.
"...Even the things others can do as a matter of course, I can't do."
"And what are these things they can do as a matter of course?"
"...Uh, well... everyday things like cleaning or laundry..."
"Here I thought, what could it be."
I replied to the witch indifferently.
"The Estel Duchy has a ton of girls who can't clean or do laundry well but still call themselves maids. By your logic, we should have to kick out every girl working here, shouldn't we?"
For reference, the reason we hire girls who can't even clean or do laundry as maids is that the Estel Duchy is damnably poor. Since the Estel Duchy is a backwater where farming, livestock, and trade are all failing, the means for the territory's residents to earn money are extremely limited. Thus, House Estel hires anyone who wants a job as a servant in the castle to provide work for the people. Thanks to that, the terrifying maids who can't wash or clean despite being maids came into existence.
The steward who managed the ducal house's finances would sigh as if the ground were giving way every time he looked at the maids, but unfortunately, their laundry and cleaning skills didn't seem to improve easily. Even ten years later, the steward hadn't stopped heaving deep sighs while watching the maids.
"If there's something you don't know, you can just learn it. Don't worry. I'm willing to teach you whatever you wish."
Of course, if she took an interest in magic, nothing could be better. As I soothed the witch while hiding such underhanded intentions, she murmured to me in a gloomy voice.
"...But I'm an empty person. I don't even know where I was born or what my name is. Can someone like me... really do well...?"
"It's fine. You'll do well."
I said this to her, imbuing my words with strong trust. If you couldn't trust the witch who would become powerful enough to call winter upon the entire continent ten years later, then who else could you possibly trust?
"And I don't care about where you were born or what your name was. If it bothers you that much, I'll give you a name."
"...A name... for me?"
When I said I would give her a name, the witch raised her head and looked at me. In those eyes staring at me, there was a vitality clearly different from before.
Those eyes looking at me were so bright and sparkling that they felt a little burdensome, but as I pondered what name would suit the white-haired woman in front of me, a perfect name came to mind. In truth, there was one name that had been floating in my head from the moment I first saw her face. A name so fitting that I wondered if there could possibly be one that suited her better.
"Aria, how about it?"
Aria was the name of a Winter Goddess who appears in the legends of the northern regions. I thought it was a perfectly fitting name for a witch who would bring an Endless Winter upon the continent ten years later.
"...Aria."
The witch—no, Aria—murmured the name I had given her over and over, as if she liked it. Then she looked at me and gave a bright smile.
"I like it very much. Thank you. Um, so..."
I quickly caught on to why she was mumbling at the end and spoke up.
"Call me Kain. That's what everyone else calls me."
"Yes, Kain."
"...With a respectful title at the end."
It seemed I would have to teach her basic etiquette, step by step, starting from things even the incompetent maids of the Estel Duchy knew well.
****
And so, she opened her eyes.
When she opened her eyes, she understood instinctively: she was an exceedingly incomplete person.
Within her, nothing existed. She couldn't help but think she was an empty person. The only way to describe it was a terrible sensation, as if a hole had been punched through her body and her very self was draining out.
She couldn't remember anything. What her name was, where she was from, who her family was, and even what kind of person she was—all of it.
The things other ordinary people possessed unquestioningly from birth, she had lost completely.
...A chill ran through her. The more she talked with other people, the more her mind filled only with the thought that she couldn't figure out who she was. Perhaps, for her entire life, she might have to live swallowed by this alien sensation.
She hated it. And she was scared. If you asked what she was afraid of, she could only say that she was afraid of everything.
She had lost everything. From the basic knowledge allowing a person to live a human life, to the professional knowledge that could be of help to someone—she remembered nothing at all.
In short, she had become a useless human being.
'...Ah.'
She was discouraged. She was only terrified. The fear that she might end her life in this broken form forevermore seized her. On one hand, she acknowledged that this might just be the natural end she was fated to meet. It simply felt as if some unknown someone was mocking her, saying that there was no place on this earth for her to lay her body down.
But, it wasn't so. The man who had been by her side from the moment she opened her eyes had said these words to her.
[Would you perhaps consider being employed and working for House Estel?]
[If you have nowhere to go, I am willing to officially hire you at House Estel.]
He had extended his hand to her like that.
[What does any of that matter? What connection does your lack of memories have with you being useless?]
As if to relieve the anxiety she held, he told someone like her that she was 'useful'.
Even though she had lost her memories, she still had basic sense. The man before her eyes must undoubtedly be someone of high status, incomparable to someone like her whose origins weren't even clear.
And that man, toward her utterly insignificant self, had said these words with firm trust. That she was never useless. That if there was something she didn't know, it was a very simple matter of just learning it.
...Her heart pounded. And it felt good. His clumsy reassurance that she was useful was good, and his conviction, placing his trust in someone like her and insisting that she could do it, was so very good.
Most importantly, that person had bestowed upon her life a gift that could never, ever be forgotten.
[If it bothers you that much, I'll give you a name.]
[Aria, how about it?]
That is, he had given her a name.
'Aria.'
It was wondrous. The moment she received the name Aria from him, she felt a mysterious sensation, as if the gaping hole pierced somewhere in her body was being filled.
She liked the name Aria very much. Perhaps it was because it was a name he had personally given to her, but she liked it so much that she even had the illusion that it might have been her original name.
She was happy. And her heart fluttered. The thought that she too might be able to become someone's help made her heart swell.
But, she had already made the decision in her heart. Who this body would serve. And for whom she would spend her new life, everything had already been decided.
'Lord Kain.'
She gently stroked her heart, which was pounding like mad. It was an unfamiliar sensation she had never felt before, but once she realized that this feeling stemmed from her emotions toward that man, it only felt joyful.
Someday, she would surely become that person's help. And at the end of that, she would repay the trust he had shown her.
Yes, definitely. And surely.