The Queen Without a Name
Titania.
Every Titania is born with a name of her own. Even if Rayna were to inherit the throne, she would still be Rayna Forest. The current Titania, however, has none.
The records say she discarded even her own name, resolved to abandon every identity save that of Titania herself.
These days, one might wonder whether she truly needed to go that far. But Elvenheim in those years was nothing like the peaceful realm it is now. War had wrung the country dry. She had no choice but to steel her heart, to make hard decisions that were not always moral — and not once or twice, but every single day. To some degree, she had needed to set her own humanity aside.
"A Spiritist — and one of a rather unusual sort, I see."
"To recognize it at a glance... you truly are remarkable."
"You've a talent for flattery. I had hoped my daughter might possess that quality as well, but I spoiled her far too much, I'm afraid."
"..."
Rayna had a fierce temperament, and in that respect she and Olivia had been well matched. Beyond that, though, she was never one to accommodate anyone. The only reason she had ever watched Olivia's mood, I suspected, was because she had recognized — the way an animal recognizes a predator — that Olivia stood overwhelmingly above her.
I had never seen Rayna show fear toward anyone else. And Olivia, they said, had been so tenacious that even when she was a wreck, she would pin a monster down with a broken arrow through its eye and throat.
Honestly, I had no desire to defend Rayna. I simply hadn't been able to understand it. The other two I could almost accept — but Rayna? I had never believed she would do such a thing.
The last meeting had given me some idea of why.
No. From here on, it was Olivia's decision to make.
"Can you command high-ranking spirits as well?"
"Fire and water, at least... though not in the way you might imagine. It's a rather special arrangement."
"I see. You must have suffered for it."
She already seemed to know about my body. No — "had deduced it" would be more accurate. She hadn't known beforehand, but the moment she looked at me, she understood.
The Spirit Cores in my body belonged to high-ranking spirits of fire and water, which was why I could command those two elements far more readily than any other. I wasn't borrowing their power — I became the spirits themselves. In terms of raw, momentary output, I could outstrip any Spiritist alive. The strain, however, was immense.
I believed that burst of power could stand against even a Demon King Army Cadre. But the cost was so severe that I preferred, whenever possible, not to fight at all.
"Capable, considerate, and sharp of mind. ...You were not with the Hero's party when they visited Elvenheim."
"I don't know if Lady Rayna mentioned it, but I was expelled partway through."
"Yes. The Hero of that time was, at her core, lacking in consideration for others. Whether something was truly just never mattered to her. She judged everything by a commonplace notion of good and evil."
"..."
"It was righteous, to be sure — but it was also warped. The world is full of things that cannot be sorted neatly into good and evil. There are far too many situations in which one may be criticized, yet cannot simply be condemned."
"Especially when one occupies a position that demands choices — is that it?"
Titania's eyes narrowed, just slightly.
"Forgive me. I seem to have spoken in my own defense."
"Not at all. Please forgive my own impertinence as well."
"Come this way."
"Here?"
It was an empty restaurant. Partly because it wasn't mealtime, and partly because it sat tucked in a corner, in a place people were unlikely to find.
"Oh, Your Majesty? You've come again?"
The fact that she recognized Titania at once suggested the queen visited this place often — and in that childlike form, no less. Which meant that, as far as Titania was concerned, the elf woman before us was someone she had judged trustworthy.
No. Calluses on her hands. Not a wasted motion in her body. Had this woman been a soldier?
The movements of someone professionally trained still surfaced in her everyday gestures. The scent of combat, beaten into her over a long stretch of years, had yet to fade from her frame. She might well have been one of Titania's guards, back when she still served as a soldier.
"Oh? A human, I see? ...Ah, you must be the guest Her Majesty mentioned. Welcome."
"May we eat upstairs?"
"As always, you mean? Come in."
"My thanks. The usual, if you would."
"Of course~"
I followed Titania up the stairs. The second floor was empty. She and I took our seats.
"The steak here is excellent. I think you'll like it."
"Is that so."
"Do you dislike it, perhaps?"
"No, it's fine. I'm more concerned about why you asked to see me."
"There's no need to be so tense. I'd be grateful if you regarded the person before you not as Titania, but as an ordinary elf."
"Yes..."
As if that were possible.
Titania looked at me as though she were studying a specimen.
"Do you know of me?"
"Only what the books have written."
"Oh? Then tell me, if you would."
"..."
What was this? Some kind of test?
There was no reason I couldn't answer, so I called up what I had read.
"A war hero born during the conflict between humans and elves. They say you never missed a shot, that you protected your people in every circumstance, and that your exploits in defensive battles were nothing short of brilliant."
"Hmm."
"Which is why, among us humans, the prevailing view is that without you — the current Titania — the elves would certainly have lost the war."
It was a war, of course; Titania hadn't handled everything alone. But there was no denying the sheer number of her accomplishments. Some authors had gone so far as to call her the Hero of the elves.
"And after the ceasefire, you became the new Titania and enacted policies solely for the elves. Even the decision to fully end the war with humanity was, in the end, a choice made for your own people."
"..."
"Once the war with humanity was truly over, you did not withhold cooperation as fellow members of the mortal races. You were never especially eager to engage, but neither did you turn visitors away, and you have lived so as to keep friction to a minimum."
"You know enough to make me look back on my own life."
"And."
"And?"
"You have already far exceeded an elf's natural lifespan, and yet you still live in a youthful form."
"..."
Titania smiled.
"Have you never heard that some things, even if known, are wiser left unsaid? Many have wondered about it. Not one of them has ever asked me."
"Was I being rude?"
"No. If anything, I have always wondered why no one asked. You have a keen eye for people. You judged that I would not be angry even if you said it — and so you did. Am I right?"
"Yes, well... that's about it."
Titania regarded me with a calm face.
Seen like this, she resembled Sylphy more than Rayna. No — it wasn't that Rayna didn't take after her. It was more that the atmosphere, the presence, felt closer to Sylphy's.
Sylphy was timid, the type to tremble — but once he focused, that nervousness all but vanished, and he became still. In those quiet moments, his expression and his eyes looked so much like Titania's now that I couldn't help overlaying the two.
"You've studied hard."
"Reading is a hobby of mine."
"I see. So it wasn't something you crammed for Elvenheim — you've been at it all along. I thought it seemed too natural."
"Titania. Why did you ask to see me?"
"Of the three guests who arrived, you seemed the one I could actually talk to. ...And besides, it appears you've been investigating the tree. I had considered the possibility from the moment I sensed you were a Spiritist."
Titania poured water into a cup as she spoke, the motion unhurried.
"You proved even more capable than I expected. That is why I wished to speak with you."
"Speak about what, exactly?"
"You believe something has gone wrong with the World Tree, do you not?"
"..."
"Do I look to you like some puppet sitting idle in a castle? Still, you lack decisive proof, which makes confronting me directly a rather delicate matter. Am I wrong?"
"If you've already read that far ahead, I'll simply be honest. The World Tree is in danger right now. Isn't that so?"
"...Go on."
It still felt like I was being tested, but I was in no position to complain. I let out a short breath and continued.
"You aren't withholding the World Tree Sap. You can't give it. If the situation is that severe, then something is almost certainly going wrong on the inside. ...The World Tree is dying as we speak, isn't it?"
"...Your mind works faster than I anticipated."
"Am I right?"
"There's no need for me to say it aloud."
The World Tree was truly dying?
What had gone wrong? A tree blessed by the Goddess, one that had endured for thousands of years — why was it dying now?
"Do you have any idea what caused it? This is a truly serious matter."
"Well. Let me offer an example."
"An example?"
"Perhaps someone bearing the Holy Sword came along, swung that blade in a great arc to deal with an Absorption-type Monster, and in doing so caused a problem for the World Tree."
"...Huh? Excuse me?"
"In truth, a wound of that degree would not normally have been a serious problem. That slash merely brought an existing issue to the surface sooner."
"..."
I fell silent.
I had heard this story somewhere before. Someone who, in order to deal with an Absorption-type Monster, had felled every tree in sight with a single slash of a sword. Someone capable of a feat that bordered on the miraculous. Someone who held the Holy Sword.
And this story—
"Olivia...!!"
"Ah. The food has arrived."
"Here you are — steak! It's hot, so please be careful!"
"..."
I stared at Titania, unable to close my mouth. She smiled, looking thoroughly satisfied, and said:
"Now then. Before we continue, let us eat. A young one ought to fill his stomach first. We do all of this to stay alive, do we not?"
My mind went blank.
A swarm of hypotheses and thoughts had been crowding my head, and in an instant they were gone.
Wait. What?
So...
Come again?