Fireworks on an Early Summer Night (2)
A quest window popped up. Two of them, in fact.
Convince Edengard Trie von dem Schützenburg that her father has died.
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
Reward: 6 Shop Coins
Escape the Wist Forest before dawn.
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Reward: 10 Shop Coins
Both of them made my breath catch in my throat the moment I saw them. But hadn’t the difficulties been swapped? Even if I told Trie right now that her father was dead, she would throw a tantrum and never accept it. Still, I decided to try. I had no idea how to escape the forest yet, so I had no choice but to tackle the first quest.
So—
“The limits of magic may be unknown, but the truths of the world are clear. The dead cannot be brought back to life.”
“What are you—”
“Trie. Your father is dead.”
It had come to this. Even after saying it, I immediately regretted my words. This wasn’t delivering news of a death; it was an insult to the deceased. Maybe I should have provided more context, but… whatever. No matter how I told her, Trie’s reaction would probably have been the same.
“You. You just misspoke. I’ll give you one chance to take it back.”
“It wasn’t a slip of the tongue.”
“You meant that seriously?”
“Yes.”
“You meant it seriously…”
A chill suddenly ran down my spine. Even though Trie’s figure was hidden by the bushes, I had the vivid illusion of her venomous glare piercing me. If the area weren’t surrounded by landmines, she would have charged straight at me and thrown a punch.
“Your words are contradictory, Schluss. You said you wanted me as a comrade, yet now you’re provoking my anger?”
“I didn’t mean to provoke you. I was trying to save you time.”
No matter how much magic you learn, your father—Gawain—will never come back alive. Because that man was run through by that damn Hurtlocker’s dagger and killed. Even if you reached the realm of a grand mage, you might manage a brief conversation with Gawain’s soul, but resurrection beyond that was impossible. That was the immutable truth of this world I had established while writing the novel. The dead cannot return. So I was telling her to give up on magic and take up the sword again… But even to my own ears, it sounded extremely rude. Just as Trie said, it came across as nothing but provocation.
“Ha. Save me time? So in your eyes, learning magic looks like a waste of time?”
“……”
“Answer me!”
“It does.”
“Don’t make me laugh! Who are you to declare that my father is dead? Do you even know who my father is?”
“I do. Gawain von Schulzenburg.”
How could I not? Any citizen of the empire would know the name.
“That’s right! Gawain von Schulzenburg! The strongest magic knight in imperial history! My father once defeated hundreds of elite kingdom troops all by himself! How could someone like that possibly die!”
“……”
She was right. Under normal circumstances. Gawain’s sword energy could pierce anything, and the barrier enveloping his body could not be penetrated by even the highest-level magic. But even Gawain was human, and there were things no human could overcome. Cold and hunger. If isolated in the snowy mountains for a long period and left to starve, even he would inevitably grow weaker and weaker. Of course, even in that weakened state he remained strong enough to give Hurtlocker a difficult fight. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to tell his daughter the miserable truth—that he had been slain by a kingdom assassin while cold and starving.
“Everyone dies, Trie.”
“I know that! But there’s no way my father is dead yet!”
“When facing an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, even your father could die.”
“……”
The shrieking from beyond the bushes suddenly stopped. I had phrased it as gently as I could, yet it seemed Trie had still received a severe shock. I had said so many rude things that I wasn’t even sure which part had struck her.
“…Prove it.”
Trie spoke through gritted teeth. Her voice dripped with poison. If I provoked her again now, she looked ready to ignore the landmines and everything else to come at me.
“I saw the deceased’s sword, the Day of Judgment.”
“What? Where?”
“In the imperial palace’s underground warehouse.”
“…?!”
It was a lie. But it was true that the Day of Judgment lay in the imperial palace’s underground warehouse. The emperor had probably wrapped it in bandages out of fear that I might recognize it. If its identity were discovered, the entire nation would be thrown into chaos. In effect, I was handing Trie information that could shake the whole empire.
“W-what are you saying? Why would the Day of Judgment be in the palace?”
“The imperial family must have recovered it alone after the search.”
“That can’t be true! If they recovered it, they would have given it to me!”
“Wouldn’t that mean delivering the news of your father’s death? The imperial family chose to make Gawain a living legend. A legend who vanished during a majestic battle. That would inspire the citizens far more effectively.”
“N-no. That can’t…”
“Besides, it would have helped bring the Schulzenburg family under imperial control. After all, you pour an enormous budget into searching for Gawain every year. There would be no reason to stop a mercenary house from weakening itself. Furthermore, once the official news of Gawain’s death arrived, his old associates would lose power and you—his only daughter—would seize control of the family. From the imperial family’s perspective, they would prefer to maintain a regime they can actually communicate with.”
“Aah…”
I thought I had explained it logically and rationally. But whether it had fully penetrated Trie’s agitated mind was another question entirely. When people are emotional, they only hear what they want to hear. All I could do was hope she was still in a relatively sane state. Judging by the continuous “Ah—” sounds she kept making, however, it seemed far too late for that.
“Lies! It’s all lies! Who sent you? Wittgenstein? Lichtenburg? This is a scheme to make me abandon magic! To stop the sword family of Schulzenburg from reaching into magic as well! I see right through it!”
“Trie…”
“It sounded so plausible! But I won’t fall for it! Once you get out of here, I’m reporting you to the imperial family for insulting them with such nonsense.”
“……”
The quest was collapsing in real time. At the same time, Trie’s favorability was plunging straight to the bottom. After all the effort I had put into building a relationship, it was crumbling in an instant—just as expected. If I gave up here, Trie and I would become worse than strangers. As a bonus, I would face imperial scrutiny for having seen what I should not have seen. To prevent that outcome, I had to drive in one final nail. So far I had only offered circumstantial evidence that could be fabricated with words. Now it was time to present proof she could not deny.
“Why are you doing this? Why now of all times! Why! I thought you were my friend! I trusted you! I believed you would be different from those other filthy nobles, Schluss!”
“Trie.”
“Don’t say my name! It makes my skin crawl!”
“Gawain’s—”
“Don’t you dare speak my father’s name either! He is not someone you have the right to utter!”
“Do you know about the ornament attached to the end of the hilt of the deceased’s sword, the Day of Judgment?”
“What about it!”
“It is called a mana absorption stone. A gem that absorbs the user’s mana and glows.”
“How could you possibly know that…?”
“That stone had already lost its color.”
“Ha…?!”
A heavy thud echoed as if she had collapsed to the ground. The mana absorption stone losing its light meant the user had lost the ability to generate mana. Since destroying only the dantian without taking a life was practically impossible, it essentially signified death. Moreover, only three people knew that a mana absorption stone adorned the end of the Day of Judgment’s hilt: Gawain himself, the sword’s maker, and Trie. So she had no choice but to believe that I had seen the Day of Judgment with my own eyes. I believed the fact of Gawain’s death had now been sufficiently conveyed to her. All that remained was whether she would accept it.
“Is it… is it really true…?”
“It is.”
“Swear it.”
“I swear.”
“Swear to the heavens! To Lord Aegis! No—since you might be a heretic, swear on your conscience! Swear that what you just said is the truth!”
Trie’s voice trembled violently. It sounded as if she were on the verge of tears.
“I swear to the heavens and to Lord Aegis. I swear on my conscience and on everything I possess as a mage that what I just told you is true.”
I had said “what I just told you,” not everything I had said. Seeing the Day of Judgment had been a lie, but Gawain’s death was fact, so I could swear without hesitation. Of course, I would not have hesitated even if every word had been false.
“Why… why… How can you swear so easily? If you say it like that, Schluss, I have no choice but to believe it… That Father is dead…”
“……”
“Ugh… sob… Why are you only telling me now… hic… why only now!”
Trie could no longer hold back. Her tears burst forth.
“Why!”
A wail that sounded like a scream echoed through the forest. The emotion packed into that desperate cry was pure resentment. Whether she resented me, the imperial family, or even her father, I could not tell. But I understood. At a moment like this, she would want to blame anyone at all.
“Hic… Haa…”
She must have cried uncontrollably for about five minutes. Eventually the sound of weeping faded, and Trie sniffled as she tried to steady her breathing.
“You said it was all true…”
“Yes.”
“I’ll ask one more time. It is certain that my father has passed away?”
“It is certain. But I was late in saying what should have been said first.”
“What?”
“I am truly sorry, Trie. Your father, Gawain von Schulzenburg, was a hero of the empire. I regret that I am only now delivering the news of such a man’s death.”
“……”
The tears had stopped, but her voice had not returned to normal. It sounded as though she were forcing the sobs back down her throat. I could tell clearly even without seeing her face.
“Th-thank you… for telling me… Really… reeeally…”
“Trie.”
“……”
“It’s all right to cry a little more.”
“Hic… sob… huuu…”
Heart-wrenching sobs continued. They were the kind that made me want to rush over and hold her. Even though I had uttered those unlucky words about how everyone dies, I too was a coward who wept and laughed at every individual death. I had not been able to remain indifferent even to the death of Marie—a woman I had never known. So how must it feel for Trie, who had firmly believed for years that her father was still alive? She had every right to cry longer. She had every right to release her grief without restraint.
“Actually… actually… sob… I had a feeling. That he might have died somewhere… hic…”
“……”
“That’s why… the family atmosphere was all about finding the body at least… hic… sob… But I just couldn’t accept it. I couldn’t believe that people were accepting Father’s death so easily…”
It must have been a form of rebellion. No one in the Schulzenburg family had truly believed Gawain was still alive. They could not pour the entire family fortune into a hopeless search. Someone had to make the decision to move on. But to Trie, that decision must have looked like they were abandoning her father. In reaction, she had clung with unnatural stubbornness to the belief that he was alive. Come to think of it, I had added a setting that Trie greatly hated the family elders. I had thrown it in without much thought, never imagining it would fit so perfectly.
“I’ve organized my heart too… It’s done. I’ve accepted it. That Father is dead… I’ve accepted it now.”
“Trie.”
“You don’t have to worry about me. I already knew deep down. I can’t act like a child anymore. There is no longer a father to indulge my selfishness…”
“……”
It hurt. Hearing such grown-up words come from such a young voice. Witnessing someone use a parent’s death as a stepping stone for mental growth was far more painful than I had imagined. The guilt and pressure of knowing I had caused this weighed heavily on me.
Still, the result was good. I had guided Trie to calmly accept reality. Instead of becoming buried in the past, she would move toward the future. I had essentially brought forward an event that would not have occurred until years later in the original story.
“It’s all right to cry a little more, Trie.”
“Ah, really. I’m not going to cry anymore.”
“Crying everything out while someone is listening is better than crying alone…”
“I said I’m fine now! Really!”
She was still sniffling even as she said that.
“More importantly, you asked me to become your comrade earlier, didn’t you? All right. Honestly I was a little unsure before, but now I understand. I can trust you, Schluss. You’re the kind of person who speaks only the truth without caring about my feelings.”
“That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”
“It is a compliment! It means I can trust you that much. I can believe in you and follow you. Because you’re different from those selfish nobles who only look after their own interests.”
“……”
It stung more than a little. After all, I had been planning to use Trie as both a shield and a close-range damage dealer. I had intended to rely on her to claim opportunities in dangerous regions that would be difficult for me to reach alone. It was a relief she could not see my expression. If she could, my poker face would have cracked completely.
“But I’d appreciate it if you could pretend you never heard anything about the imperial family.”
“What? Why?”
“It will be quite resentful, but we should still avoid making the imperial family our enemy.”
“Ah…”
They had deliberately concealed her father’s death for years. It would not be easy to forgive them.
“Well, I understand.”
Wait, really? That easily?
“Because I don’t want you to be in trouble, Schluss. Let’s leave confronting the imperial family for later.”
“…?!”
Goosebumps erupted across my entire body. It sounded as if she were saying she would settle things with the imperial family once she parted ways with me. What a terrifying way of thinking. At this rate, it would not be strange at all if a civil war broke out in Edengart rather than the southern colony. Maybe I should not have told her about the imperial family.
“So you will take up the sword again now.”
“Of course. I only set the sword aside temporarily to focus on magic. Yes. This is my repayment for the precious information you gave me.”
“…?”
“I will become your sword, Schluss Heinkel.”
The line made my heart race. I had never expected to hear such words.
“Originally it is something a knight says to their lord… But that doesn’t mean I’m pledging complete loyalty to you! It just means I’ll trust and follow you that much! Don’t misunderstand! You do not have the right to command me!”
“I see. Then, as for magic…”
“Ah, that’s right! There isn’t much time left to teach me magic, is there? The midterms are coming up soon!”
“What? Weren’t you quitting magic?”
“What are you talking about? Why would I quit magic after I went through all the trouble to enter the Imperial Academy? Besides, I have an amazing magic instructor right nearby.”
“……”
At Trie’s casual tone, I nearly clutched the back of my neck. She had no intention of quitting magic…? Despite possessing overwhelming talent with the sword, she intended to keep studying something like magic…? My blood pressure spiked instantly.