The Queen's Confession
The morning sun had already risen, and the hour of their meeting with Titania was drawing near.
Olivia said nothing. She kept her eyes on the door of their lodgings, as if waiting for someone. There was no need to ask who.
"Lois."
"Yes."
"Even if I take revenge, I don't think it'll make me happy."
"I imagine not."
If she were the sort of person who could take joy in that, she would have drawn her sword in fury the moment they met, and no one would have found it strange. More than anything, she was so forgiving of attacks directed at herself that she simply smiled and let everything pass. It was hard to call that a virtue, exactly — but more often than not, it served as one.
"But the moment when I have to is coming."
"Yes."
"Was I expecting too much?"
"...I don't think you were wrong, Olivia."
Olivia smiled.
"Thank you... Let's go. I need to talk with Titania one more time. I have a feeling the conversation will go well today."
"Well. That's a good omen."
"You've come."
Titania opened her closed eyes and looked at me. Beside me stood Lois and Sylphy. Beside Titania, unlike yesterday, there was only Les.
"I've heard the terms from Lois."
"Yes. I have only one condition... Enter the World Tree and form a contract with the Spirit of the World Tree."
"And if we do that, you'll give us the sap?"
"I have no reason not to."
"And please have a proper conversation with Sylphy as well."
"...Sylphy."
"Yes, Grandmother."
Titania slowly rose and walked until she stood before him. Seeing them like this, there was no mistaking they were family. They looked remarkably alike — and with Sylphy's particularly feminine features, the resemblance was all the more striking. Setting aside the shape of their eyes and their hairstyles, you could have taken them for the same person.
"Do you resent me?"
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't."
"Yes. Of course you would. ...What became of you half-elves is my sin."
"Your sin?"
A look of sorrow crossed Titania's face. Lois and I took a step back, wanting to give them a space that belonged to family alone, if only for this moment. Les seemed to understand as well; he too stepped back. And so the center of the audience chamber became a space for Titania and Sylphy alone.
"Time and again, I have made selfish, foolish choices in the name of serving the elves. Some of those choices cannot be undone. The Elvenheim of today exists as a result of them, and so I still believe those decisions, if not the best, were at least not the worst."
"I suppose so..."
"One of those decisions was the exile of the half-elves."
"...Was there a reason?"
"Have you the will to hear it?"
"I do."
"First, I want you to know this is not an excuse. You... no. Every half-elf, yourself included, has the right to condemn me. This is nothing more than a paltry tale of something I abandoned because I was a coward."
"..."
I didn't quite understand, but Lois made a thoughtful sound, his face suggesting he'd grasped something.
Hmm. What do I do?
I decided to roughly mimic Lois's expression. I had no idea what any of this meant, but she'd said she would explain, so I'd understand once I heard it.
"It is a rather old story."
When the war ended, Elvenheim was chaos itself.
The rule of the world was this: win a war, and you barely break even. Lose, and you are ruined. Elvenheim had not lost — but neither had it won. Above all, the slavery that had taken place before the war's end had stoked in the elves a hatred of half-elves that Titania could not hope to control. And Titania herself, who had become queen as a war hero, had a support base that was thin and fragile once you stripped away the title of "war hero."
A support base that could crumble at any moment. A hatred she could not control. An Elvenheim thrown into chaos by the war's end. Scarce resources. Scarce manpower. Relations with humanity. Monsters. There were far too many things that demanded her attention. And at that juncture, Titania had a choice.
Accept the half-elves, and steel herself to master the chaos. Or exile the half-elves, and steel herself to contain it.
Beneath the banner of peace, Titania chose the ugly option.
She had no confidence she could control that absurd hatred of half-elves. With too much to do, and with Elvenheim as her first priority, she ultimately accepted the voices that despised the half-elves and banished them from the kingdom. So many had died in the war that, aside from Titania herself, almost no one remained of the generation that had experienced true war rather than a mere ceasefire. In the end, Titania chose to cast them aside.
No. It was an excuse.
She hadn't wanted to look. At Sylphy, in whom she saw her own daughter. At the half-elves who carried that same scent. In the end, that conflict of races lived in Titania's own heart as well, and she could not bring herself to accept them.
"My daughter was raped by a human and gave birth to a half-elf."
"That's Sylphy, isn't it?"
"It is... And in the end, my daughter hanged herself. I was the one who found her — the first to discover my daughter's suicide. ...And I, in the end, exiled half-elves who had done nothing wrong."
"..."
"You especially, Sylphy. I fled from you, because you looked like my daughter."
"..."
"And even now, I have not mended that."
She had made many mistakes, but if she had to name the greatest among them, Titania believed it was the exile of the half-elves. And yet — what would have happened if she had accepted them in the midst of that chaos? The Titania who was nothing if not cold asked this of herself, and the answer was always the same. If that same moment of choice came again, she might well cast them aside once more.
"So you banished them from Elvenheim because you were afraid they'd live hated?"
"..."
At Sylphy's words, Titania smiled.
"How kind you are."
"Pardon?"
"Even among humans, half-elves are not treated well. To cast your kind out without any protection whatsoever is no different from saying, 'I do not care where you die.'"
"..."
"There. That is the end of my tale. Now I shall hear yours."
"Mine?"
"Whatever you wish to say to me. A grudge, perhaps. In this place, you may forget that I am Titania, and speak freely."
"..."
A brief silence. Then Sylphy opened his mouth.
"Uh, I don't really... have anything to say?"
"..."
It was Titania who was surprised.
"No — you heard what I said, did you not?"
"Yes, I heard."
"You heard me say that I abandoned you half-elves because I lacked the courage to take you in?"
"It was a nation in chaos after a war, wasn't it? Honestly, I think that's understandable. I mean... I can't speak for every other half-elf, but I don't really have any strong feelings about it."
"..."
Titania had been prepared to be cursed at. Prepared to be struck. And yet Sylphy's reaction was utterly dry. If anything, his face seemed to ask why he would need to resent her that much. The desire to resent her had been there — but it had never risen above the level of finding the whole thing a bit uncomfortable.
"If anything, doesn't that mean now is the chance? There are plenty of other half-elves who'd want to come to Elvenheim! We're still a people who can barely find proper work out there!"
"Mm."
"Hatred has lessened compared to the old days, and the Demon King has been slain — it's an age of peace! This is the best time there is!"
"..."
Titania smiled.
"It is as though my daughter has come back to life."
"Uh, well... I don't really know much about my mother."
"She possessed the same innocent goodness that you do. She saw the best in others better than anyone — and yet she could never quite see the worst in them."
Titania smiled, as if lost in memory.
"Very well."
"Titania?"
"Titania!"
"I cannot compensate them for the lives of suffering they have endured. But I shall do what I can."
"Do you mean it?"
Watching Sylphy's joy, Titania smiled. It was as though her daughter — Sylphy's mother, who so resembled him — were speaking to her in this very moment. How long are you going to keep this up? she seemed to scold.
"Then first — Lois. I grant you permission to enter the World Tree. Nothing proceeds unless the World Tree is saved, no matter what else we do."
"Understood. Though frankly, I'd rather you just did it yourself, Titania."
"I may not look it, but I am old... Compared to my prime, my reaction speed — indeed, every aspect of me — is growing weaker. Do you truly wish to put an old woman through such hardship?"
"Lois! You can do it! There's nothing I can help with on this one, I'm afraid."
"It is a Spiritist's work, after all. Though I honestly don't know whether the Spirit of the World Tree will take a liking to me."
He possessed abundant power and experience as a Spiritist, but whether that power would be enough to satisfy the Spirit of the World Tree was another matter. That no history recorded any tale of the Spirit of the World Tree meant the spirit had never once stepped out into the world — which, in turn, meant it had never had a contractor. Whether such a spirit would take Lois's hand was an open question. As he'd said, spirits would rather die than contract with someone they didn't like.
"Good. That is all."
"That was surprisingly simple."
"I have merely granted you permission to pass through the barrier. So now, hurry and—"
"...!"
Olivia felt the wrongness first. Then Titania felt it.
"Sylphy!!"
A whistling shriek — then a sickening crunch. Something like a spear punched through the window, flying straight for Sylphy's head. A tremendous sound rang out, and the attack did not reach him. The spear of mana that had pierced Titania's chest vanished in an instant, leaving blood to pour from the wound.
"Titania!!"
Les rushed to her in a panic, while Olivia snatched up the Holy Sword and turned toward the window.
"This is insane...! This is Elvenheim! We're inside the barrier...!"
Had they attacked from outside the barrier? Olivia lifted her gaze, and countless shadows came into view.
"Wyverns."
She stared blankly for a moment, then her brow furrowed.
"Sylphy!! Les!! There's no time!!"
"A-ah, yes!"
"Get someone who can treat her here right now and save Titania! She's not dead yet!! And tell them Elvenheim is under wyvern attack!!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Olivia's brow furrowed. This is strange. I've been thinking it since East Port... The Demon King is dead. The monsters should have lost their power.
When the Demon King dies, the power of every monster weakens. And until a new Demon King is chosen, large-scale assaults almost never occur. And yet this mana.
There's a Demon King Army Cadre-class presence here?
This timing. No matter how she thought about it, it was wrong. Why were the monsters still this strong? It didn't align with history, and for a moment she was thrown into confusion — but Olivia soon discarded the stray thoughts.
"Lois!"
"..."
Lois gazed at the fallen Titania for a moment, wrestling with himself, then looked at Olivia and nodded. If he succeeded in restoring the World Tree, a blessing would descend upon the elves — and at the same time, the sap could restore Olivia's physical condition. That, at least, would let them avoid the worst. His judgment was swift.
"Leave it to me. I'll complete it as quickly as I can and return."
Watching Lois leap from the window and race toward the World Tree, Olivia smiled — then she too went out through the window, climbing upward rather than following him.
"...Well, I'll be damned."
There were a lot of wyverns. Far too many. Enough to call it an army.
"Wasn't it your habit to turn into sniveling wrecks once the Demon King was dead? Throwing that habit away all of a sudden is honestly throwing me off... you bastards."
There were questions. Emotions she hadn't sorted through. But that was for later. Olivia's eyes sharpened, and light shimmered along the Holy Sword.