A Brief Respite - 03
"So you really don't intend to bring it to light."
I listened to Olivia's account while I was being patched up, after a fashion.
To put it briefly: Alex had ties to the Evil God and to the monsters. In other words, there was a real possibility he was a traitor to the Human Alliance. But with Rayna dead, no physical evidence of any substance remained.
Even if they tried to pin the Hero's assassination on him under those circumstances, it would take a considerable amount of time. Even if many people believed Olivia as the Hero — even if Alex were found guilty in the end — the interval in between would belong entirely to him. If he had truly orchestrated something so monstrous, he would hardly care how many lives were lost along the way. All the more reason.
And so they had to keep it hidden. They needed to gather evidence not only of the Hero's assassination, but of his betrayal of humanity itself, and detonate it only once they had him in complete checkmate. If that proved impossible, they would reveal nothing at all — they would simply ambush and kill him while he was still "Alex of the Kingdom."
That seemed to be the plan Olivia had come up with.
It wasn't a bad one. Aside from the possibility that Olivia might never recover her honor, I had no real complaints — and even that honor didn't seem to matter much to Olivia herself.
She probably would have cared, once. For someone who had wanted to be remembered as the perfect Hero, the words I don't care about honor carried a fair amount of weight.
"So what do you think, Lois?"
"If you're all right with it, then that's fine. I don't know what Alex might do either, so I think it's better not to corner him and leave things as they are. It's only that, when I consider your feelings, it doesn't seem like it would be easy."
"Are you worrying about me?"
"And why wouldn't I?"
"...Mm. This is embarrassing in its own way."
I couldn't understand why she was embarrassed, given that she did this sort of thing every single day.
Alex, then.
"So I was thinking we might head to Erchia next."
"The City of Water."
"According to Titania, the Human Alliance conference is scheduled in three months, right?"
Titania spoke as she sipped the tea I had prepared.
"That is so. ...Hmph. You brew a fine cup of tea. You command spirit arts, your character is excellent, your patience is admirable, and your appearance is more than passable besides. A Hero's companion ought to be at least that much."
I had no idea why she was rating me so highly. It wasn't anything of the sort — just things I'd picked up in daily life.
Madame Florence had always been fond of tea, coffee included. More precisely, it had started when I'd grown worried about her drinking nothing but alcohol every day, and given her some slapdash green tea I'd made as a substitute. She'd taken one sip, declared it bitter, and scolded me for it. But she'd smiled and drunk the whole cup anyway, and that had been the start of me taking on all sorts of things.
Most of the practical difficulties of daily life, I could handle. If clothes tore, I could sew them. I'd picked up every miscellaneous skill there was. After I'd started living on my own, there was no harm in learning them.
"Lois, I just realized something."
"What is it?"
"The fact that you didn't deny it when Titania called you my companion — I have a hunch that means you think pretty well of me."
"...Ah. Yes."
"That look on your face that says you didn't need to hear that actually hurts, you know? But wait for me. I at least want to spend our first night together after I've taken the Elixir."
I had the feeling we'd had a similar conversation last time.
"So you have that kind of feminine romantic streak."
"Sylphy, what are you talking about? ...Hss. Now that I think about it, I've never actually thought about it. I've lived as a Hero all this time, so I don't really know about all that 'as a woman' business. Lois, do you think we absolutely have to have a wedding?"
"If the bride wants one, then we will."
"What's your personal opinion?"
"Do we really need one?"
"I think the same."
I wasn't about to call anyone a fool for wanting one, but my personal opinion was that there was no real need to throw a grand affair. It would cost a great deal of money and just leave everyone exhausted. And I, personally, did not care for crowds. I preferred reading a book alone at home. Talking face-to-face with people wore me out. It was somewhat better once I'd grown close to someone, but even then I still needed time to myself.
"Anyway, it would be nice if we could find Alex right away, but... should we just go into the Royal Capital and beat him down?"
"The Royal Capital has a barrier built into the city walls, and a second barrier protecting the castle itself. How do you plan to break through? And even if you smash the castle's barrier, it regenerates immediately unless you destroy the core."
"..."
"Yes, you could probably force your way in somehow, Olivia. But the moment you did, Alex would know it was you. I think assassination would be the wisest approach, if at all possible."
It wasn't that I had nothing else I wanted to talk about. But compared to the danger of whatever Alex might do, those things hardly mattered.
"In the end, it would be best if Alex came out on his own. Meeting him somewhere without people around would be ideal."
"Even if we did meet him, he might have a means of teleportation. If he runs, there really would be no taking it back."
"Mm. I still can't think of a good way."
Rayna was dead, and the assault on Elvenheim had ended in failure. On top of that, Olivia had been freed from her curse and was no longer living on borrowed time. Alex would surely be growing restless. He would have prepared something, but he would only use it once this side made a move. He would want to protect his own power, after all. He might prepare countermeasures for when we moved, but he wouldn't make the first move out in the open.
"There's no telling whether Alex will even come to Erchia."
"At the very least, Velita might show up, don't you think?"
"I find myself wanting a little more certainty than that."
"It's not impossible that Alex will just hole himself up entirely. That would be a pain. But he'd come out for a public ceremony out of pride, so... if he's parading down the street, we could ambush him then?"
"There would be a lot of people."
"I'll put Alex down in a single blow."
"..."
I thought it over. Alex was extreme, and his thinking was narrow — but he was not stupid. Once he set himself a goal, he would do anything to achieve it. He had always been that way. The intensity of that obsession was genuinely astonishing. So even if he appeared at a ceremony and faced the public, there was a high chance he would have prepared something just in case.
"I don't know how much Alex knows or what he's doing, but there's no doubt he's connected to the monsters and the Death God Cult. In the worst case, Alex himself may have received the Power of the Evil God."
"..."
"If that's the case, he won't die easily. It might be difficult for you to kill him in a single strike as you are now, Olivia."
"Which is another way of saying that if Lady Olivia were in her proper condition..."
"It would probably be possible, yes."
And it would be a surprise attack, at that. If Olivia at her peak abandoned everything else and struck to kill, I couldn't imagine how many people in the world could evade it. Across all of humanity and all of monsterkind, the number was vanishingly small. There would be more people who survived it by sheer luck than people who could actually stop it with skill.
"..."
"Lois? What's wrong?"
"...No, just a moment."
"All right."
Something had flashed through my mind. Was there a chance? No — it might be nothing more than idle speculation. But it was worth trying. What we needed right now was Alex's exact location — and we needed it to be stable, something that wouldn't change.
"The Rayna I remember was not a stupid woman."
"That's true."
"Where is Rayna's house?"
"Just past that tree over there, but...?"
"What's this about, Lois? You think there's something in her house? Because of the Geas, she wouldn't have been able to leave anything behind anyway."
"A Geas is not an all-powerful tool. It's true that once you're under one, you're as good as a slave — but there may have been a way to slip around the conditions Alex set."
"W-what would that be?"
"I don't know either. I don't know what conditions Alex placed on Rayna."
But Rayna would have known. She would have been under the Geas for quite some time.
"There might be nothing there. But we might also find something if we go."
"I see. I didn't understand, but I understood."
Which is it, then?
"Then let's go. Sylphy, you coming too?"
"Huh? Is it all right if I come along?"
"What are you being so formal about now?"
She was still enormously generous toward anyone she had once opened her heart to. Weak to them, even. Once she grew close to someone, she showed a remarkably warm side — and if that person got angry, she would shrink into herself and tremble terribly. She'd had that tendency even before, and even after being betrayed once, that part of her was still there. If anything, it seemed to have grown stronger.
This person had simply been born a puppy. And not a guard dog raised by sentries, either — more like a pet that people kept in their homes. She had lived her whole life like a guard dog, but her nature was that of a lapdog. Traveling in that state would probably have done more for her reputation as a Hero than anything else.
"Anyway, we should get going. Titania, please take care of yourself."
"...Hmph. A moment."
"Is something the matter? Did you have something to say...?"
"I have given the matter much thought. I believe I have been Titania for far too long."
"Well, that's true enough."
"I have lived long by borrowing the power of the World Tree, but it is true that my natural span is drawing near. I must find a successor before long."
She extended her lifespan? Remarkable. There had been people who resorted even to curses to prolong their lives, only to find the agony of outliving their natural span so unbearable that they took their own lives. As expected of the World Tree, I supposed.
Hmph. But given the direction this was heading, I could already tell what Titania was about to say.
"Hm?"
"Y-yes, that's right! I do think Grandmother has been at it for far too long. You must be exhausted, so I think it would be good for you to rest."
Apparently Olivia and Sylphy had failed to read Titania's intent. They seemed to be thinking of it as nothing more than, Is she abdicating?
Titania coughed a few times, then looked at Sylphy and extended her hand. Sylphy approached her quite naturally. Titania took his hand.
Those were courageous words. Handing over something you had carried all this time to another person might make things easier — but it would still have been a difficult choice. In that moment that felt like a succession of the throne, Titania looked at Sylphy and spoke.
"You may speak honestly, Sylphy. Tell me your thoughts."
"Uh, I don't want to?"
"Hm?"
"I mean, all I've ever seen is Grandmother suffering! If I took that seat I'd just be in psychological agony — why would I want that?!"
"..."
Titania's face showed a faint surprise. She had considered that he might refuse — but she had not expected him to refuse so immediately, and for the reason that it would be too hard. She was silent for a moment, then spoke.
"I did not expect you to refuse so honestly as this."