A Brief Rest
"Ahh..."
Lilith sat in the lodging, staring blankly into space.
Of everything she had been told since then, one remark in the middle had struck her harder than anything else.
A man?
A man?
With that face?
No, no — the face she could maybe accept. But even the bone structure had looked feminine. How was that possibly a man?
She had seen masculine-looking women and feminine-looking men before, but even then there had always been some lingering sense of dissonance. Looking at people like that, Lilith had never once gotten their gender wrong.
Until now. For the first time, she had gotten it wrong.
A half-elf... And not Titania's granddaughter, either. Her grandson.
Lilith placed a hand over her chest. She drew a slow breath, trying to settle the chaos spinning through her mind.
Calm down. Just calm down.
"Um, Lady Lilith."
"Ah, yes! Wait, no — huh? What is it?"
It was Sylphy. They had talked things over in broad strokes the day before, and originally they ought to have gone to see Titania then — but Titania's injuries meant her waking hours were limited. She had already risen and gone back to sleep yesterday, so they had planned to visit her today instead.
Rude as it already was to arrive unannounced, Lilith understood well enough that showing up as a princess and then failing to so much as speak to the queen of a nation would be something well beyond mere discourtesy.
"You said you were going to see Titania. Shall we go together?"
"Oh, where's Olivia?"
"Elvenheim is in the middle of reconstruction. Lady Olivia went out first thing this morning to help. ...She dragged Lord Lois along, whether he liked it or not."
"They really are close, aren't they."
"I don't know the full story myself. I only met them after their relationship had already become what it is, so I've only heard the rough version of how it happened."
Lilith had heard the story too. After slaying the Demon King, Olivia had been betrayed, stricken with the Curse of the God of Death, and nearly killed. Lois had saved her. They had traveled together after that, and through everything that followed they had forged a new contract with the Holy Sword and somehow dealt with the curse as well.
Olivia had received so much from him along the way, and once she understood that it had all come from genuine goodwill rather than any hidden agenda, she had fallen for him completely. The way she had declared it without a shred of shame — After someone does that much for you, wouldn't it be a problem in its own right if you didn't fall for them? — was not a sight Lilith would soon forget.
"Oh, and thanks for letting us use the lodging."
"Don't mention it. We're only borrowing it ourselves. More importantly, what about Master Sebas?"
"Sebas is fine. I pushed him pretty hard getting here, so he ought to rest for at least a day. He's getting on in years now, too..."
He had been a considerably skilled knight, once. Age had forced him into retirement in the end, and he had chosen the path of becoming Lilith's butler. It was true that Lilith had been the one to catch him when he was about to step down — she had done it on a whim, really — but she had never expected him to actually take her hand and become her butler.
He no longer had the ability of his younger years, but he still had skill enough in his own right. Skill enough, at least, to cut down the monsters along the way and deliver Lilith here in one piece.
"Hey... sorry about yesterday."
"Pardon?"
"For getting your gender wrong and saying something weird."
"No, it's all right. It happens so often by now that it doesn't bother me anymore. It sounds funny coming from me, but I can even understand how people who make that mistake must feel."
"I see. You've had it rough."
"Having my gender mistaken isn't hardship. It isn't anything, really."
A misunderstanding you could correct with a single sentence was never that great a problem. The ones you couldn't talk someone out of — those were the ones that scared you.
"I seem to take after the current Titania in all sorts of ways. I believe they call it atavism? At any rate, I inherited her looks as well. My grandmother's, that is — the Titania of now."
"Ah."
Now that he mentioned it, they did look remarkably alike. Titania rarely appeared outside Elvenheim, but she did show herself at important functions, and Lilith had seen her a handful of times. They truly did resemble each other. The lower half of his face, especially, looked as though someone had used copy magic.
The air turned a little awkward. Lilith cleared her throat.
"You've had it rough too, huh."
"I have?"
"Well, with looks like that, all kinds of strange people might latch onto you, right? A pretty little half-elf... you haven't had anything awful happen to you, have you?"
"Ah..."
Sylphy looked at her, faintly startled.
"That's quite the thing to ask someone you've only just met..."
"Ah. Ugh. Now that you say it... sorry. I was so flustered I wasn't being careful."
"It's all right. I'm from a half-elf village, so I was never persecuted quite that badly. Well — when I went to other villages, or when visitors came through, I did run into words and behavior unpleasant enough to sour anyone's mood. But that can't be helped."
He was astonishingly positive. To be born a half-elf — something you could never change — to be hated and mocked for it, or talked down to, and still live with that kind of brightness... it was remarkable.
"Is something the matter?"
He turned to look at her, and smiled.
"Sylphy."
"Yes?"
"I'm glad you're a man..."
"Pardon?"
"If you'd been a girl, I might have discovered a whole new preference."
"I'm afraid I don't follow."
"Porridge again today?!"
"The curse is gone, but your body itself still isn't well. It can't be helped."
"I know..."
I ate the porridge with a look of pure discontent. It was thin enough to practically drink, but still.
"More than that, though — your abilities really are convenient, Lois."
"The power of the spirits can be used in all sorts of ways."
Watching him move materials without lifting a finger, clearing collapsed buildings as he went, was still a strange thing to see. And he could handle several sites at once, which made him enormously efficient.
If all of my own abilities were concentrated in combat, Lois's weren't piled into any single place — and though he might lose to a true specialist in any given field, he gave the impression that he could hold his own in almost anything. For people who lived with as much danger as adventurers did, someone well-rounded was probably more reliable than someone who jutted out in only one direction. Being able to handle any situation meant you could snuff out a crisis the moment it threatened to become one. Especially for adventurers who spent so much of their time delving into dungeons.
"What should we do once we reach Erchia?"
"We'll have to think about that as we go... At the very least, I believe it would be best to arrive before the people of the Human Alliance do, and gather what information we can."
"What on earth is Alex even..."
"Who knows. He's been like that since we were young. So long as he achieved his goal, he never much cared what happened along the way."
"..."
"What is it?"
"Lois, do you and Alex know each other?"
"...Why would you think that?"
"It isn't a thought. Just a feeling. You seemed like you knew him well. Even before."
"We do know each other, yes. We were in the Hero party together."
"Lois. You know that's not what I'm talking about."
Well. That was true enough. Like a baby bird, I let Lois feed me porridge as I spoke.
"Forget it. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"...No. It isn't a secret or anything, really."
"No?"
"Alex and I both came from the slums."
"That's a top-secret that should never see the light of day...!"
Wait. From the slums?
That Alex?
I hadn't known that.
"I don't actually know the details myself. Only that they took him because Reynolds blood ran in his veins."
"...Don't tell me. The reason you went to the Royal Capital, in that story you told me before..."
"Yes. It was Alex."
"..."
"I went meaning to save him if he was unhappy. But he seemed to be doing well, so I simply turned back. And I was kidnapped in the process. I was young, too — there was no way a child should have been able to snatch a person off the streets of the Royal Capital."
That didn't seem like the part that mattered. I had the distinct feeling I had just been told something enormous.
"Were you close?"
"Well... the slums were a lawless zone. It wasn't unusual for young boys to band together. Alex treated the other children like idiots, but he said I was useful, so we worked together at times. Though 'work' was mostly the sort of thieving you do when you're trying to get something to eat."
"Is the slums all like that? Good thing they tore it down."
"It was, when I was there."
How had Lois held onto an ordinary sense of morality through all of that? After living that way, after suffering that way? I couldn't tell whether Madame Florence was the remarkable one, or Lois, or both.
"Then one day, they took him. Right in front of me."
"So that's why you went to save him."
"Yes. But he looked happier than he ever had in the slums, so I left him be. That's all there is to it."
"...Was Alex a good kid back then?"
"No."
"Huh? Really? I thought you'd at least hesitate a little."
Something about that must have amused him, because Lois laughed.
"He had a vicious streak, and that obsession of his was something I could respect — but I could never have called him a good person. Most people in the slums weren't good people, but they still had some sense of goodness in them."
"I see."
"To get the result he wants, he doesn't care about the process, and he doesn't care about the methods used to get there, either. I suspect... he's exactly the same now."
"...He never felt like that at all when we were in the Hero party."
"We decided not to make anything of it. Our stations had become far too different. If he had chosen to acknowledge me, it might have been another matter — but he pretended not to know me, and he seemed to want me to do the same."
"..."
"What is it?"
"I just thought it might have hurt a little. ...He was a childhood friend, in a way, wasn't he?"
"He was, but... I'm fine. We've come too far for me to forgive Alex now, and too far to pity him, either."
"That's not what I meant... I'm just worried about you."
"..."
Lois's expression went briefly blank. Then he smiled, gentle as anything.
"Don't worry. I'm truly fine. Right now I just... I just want you to be happy. You've done so much genuine good, after all."
"Then stay by my side, Lois."
"I thought you might say that."
"It's fine."
"What is?"
"Just as you belong at my side — I'll stay at yours."
"..."
Lois's expression went blank again. Then he laughed, quietly.
"You're still far too honest."
"I mean it."
"Um..."
"Hm?"
"Yes?"
Only then did I notice that the elves around us were watching. Les, whose injuries still hadn't fully healed, spoke with a faintly flushed face.
"Er... I can see that the two of you are close, but perhaps you might consider the eyes of those around you..."
"Ah. Right... I'm sorry."
"I'm not embarrassed."
"Well, I am, so please stop."
"I like your embarrassed face too."
"I'm going to get angry."
"I'll stop."
I don't like his angry face.
And when Lois gets angry, he's scary.