Chapter 3: Sylvia Sarubia (2)
Sylvia Sarubia was born into a family that had produced knights for generations. Her twentieth-generation ancestor, Sharon Sarubia, had served as a knight in the First Hero's Party and drilled her techniques into her children. That practice hardened into tradition, and the heir who carried it unbroken through a full twenty generations was Sylvia herself.
"Sylvia! You must become a knight! A knight stronger than anyone else!"
"You must never lose to anyone! Take after your ancestors!"
"Sylvia, why are you playing with a doll of all things? Spend that time swinging a sword once more instead!"
"Sylvia! What on earth is this romance novel? Don't you understand you have no time for something as frivolous as love?"
"Sylvia!"
"Sylvia!"
"Sylviaaaa!!!"
Her mother's training had been merciless.
Sylvia's childhood was hell.
There was no such thing as a destiny she could choose for herself. Everything was a predetermined path she was forced to race down exactly as prescribed.
For young Sylvia, those years were almost impossible to endure.
"Hic… hic… hiiic…"
"Sylvia! A knight must never cry!"
A life in which even tears were forbidden.
Sylvia's only joy was reading romance novels in secret, behind her mother's back. Of course, discovery meant a thunderous scolding, but she simply could not stop. She would steal a single volume from her father's study, bury it on the back mountain, then lie that she was heading out for sword practice—and the pleasure of reading that novel in secret was beyond compare.
—I love you!
—Hmph! I-I don't care about the likes of you at all!
—Even so, I love you! Be my lover!
—W-well, if it's just as a pet, I suppose I could allow it!
"Ahh. So this is how romance works."
The problem was that the novel she had chosen was a male-oriented tsundere story. The female lead who did nothing but coldly rebuff the man's relentless advances left a deep impression on Sylvia.
"Mm. So when you like a guy, you're supposed to push him away like this. And the more you do, the hotter his feelings burn and the stronger his love grows? Mm. Mm. I understand perfectly."
In a household that had built a wall against romance, that single novel—her only source of knowledge—planted a thoroughly warped view of love in Sylvia. And so she grew into adulthood and made her way to the Academy as a matter of course.
There, she met a certain man.
"Sylvia! I love you!"
"…Huh? W-what did you just say?"
A man who had never even spoken a word to her, never held her hand, and yet came out of nowhere with a confession: Jack Slave.
"W-w-what are you talking about? I don't even know you!"
"Doesn't matter! Because! I love you!"
"…You lunatic!"
He really was a lunatic. He was singing of love for no reason other than that her face was pretty. The problem was the frantic pounding of Sylvia's own heart.
To a girl with zero experience with men, a love confession was far too powerful a stimulus.
And besides…
This was a secret she could never tell a soul, but Jack Slave's looks matched Sylvia's tastes exactly.
Of course his behavior was frivolous beyond belief—
but purely in terms of appearance, that was the truth.
A man who fit her type was chasing after her, saying he liked her?
How was she supposed to resist that?
—The problem was Sylvia's attitude.
"H-hmph! The likes of you, dating me?! I refuse! Absolutely refuse!"
"You're a hundred years too early to date me!"
"Come back after you're reborn!"
Sylvia rejected Jack more coldly than anyone. Because that was exactly how the heroines in her romance novels behaved. And when she did, Jack only confessed his love with even greater fervor.
"I was reborn and came back! I love you, I love you!"
"Sylvia! Will you be my woman?"
"I fell for you at first sight, baby!"
I knew it—this is the right way to do it!
Sylvia's twisted view of romance only grew more fiercely convinced. Every time she kicked Jack away like a proper tsundere, and every time he came right back, she became certain her strategy was correct. At this rate, she thought, she would be dating Jack before long.
Until the day he quit the party.
"Sorry. I've got a girlfriend now."
"………."
That indifferent expression. Those eyes that had lost all passion. That cold tone of voice.
Everything about Jack was different from before.
At first she thought it was a joke.
She figured he would start confessing his love again any second.
But no.
Jack really had left.
The daily confessions, the barrage of gifts—none of it remained.
What…? Did he actually get a girlfriend?
He got a girlfriend and now he has no interest in me anymore?
Then what were all those confessions to me?
"This is ridiculous."
Sylvia despaired at how a person could change so completely, and her mind drifted back to that day. One day in the dungeon, during a fierce battle, she had become separated from her companions. She had walked all day without finding them and was sinking into despair when Jack came running from far away.
"Ohhh, my beloved Sylvia!"
"Jack…? H-how did you know I was here?"
"When it comes to the location of the one I love, I always keep track!"
"What kind of nonsense is that…"
All the strength drained from her body and the tension melted away. Strangely, tears even fell. That was the only time she had ever cried in front of Jack.
"Haa… I thought I was going to be stranded like this forever."
"That will never happen. Not while this Jack Slave is here!"
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I love you! Because! I love you!"
"What kind of answer is that… A person's heart changes from moment to moment, you know? Someday you might stop loving me too."
"That will never happen, Sylvia."
"Why?"
"I swear it right here. I will love you, Sylvia, forever. No matter what happens in the future."
"Jack…"
"He said all that… and now he ignores me because he got a girlfriend? I will never forgive him… Never!! Sooner or later that girlfriend will dump him and he'll come crawling back to me! And when he does, I absolutely will not take him back! Absolutely not!"
"…But still."
"Who is this girlfriend Jack says he's dating?"
"Does he even really have a girlfriend…?"
"……………"
Clinging to those complicated, tangled feelings, Sylvia shut herself in her room, believing the day of revenge would come soon.
"It should've been around here… Damn it. I have no idea."
In the novel the description was nothing more than "I found the Rune on the Academy Back Mountain," but actually stepping into this world and searching for it step by step was far harder than expected.
"I don't know the exact spot, but it said it was drawn on top of a tree stump. So do I have to cut down every single one of these trees? No. That can't be it…"
I wandered the back mountain, checking one cut stump after another. Half a day of this aimless searching had already passed, and I still hadn't found the Rune.
"Huu… I'm looking for a supreme artifact. If it were easy to find, that would actually be weird. Patience. Just keep looking."
"Hic…"
That was when I heard it.
"Huh…?"
"Hic… uugh… hiiic… Why… why… why…"
A sobbing voice from somewhere. A woman's voice. What was a girl doing alone on a mountain like this?
"That's bothering me…"
I walked toward the sound of crying. Hiding among the trees and peering out, I saw a young woman sitting on a tree stump, sniffling.
But this was no ordinary woman.
Those pointed ears… probably an elf?
"Why… hic… uugh…"
And that wasn't all.
The mysterious pattern drawn on her right shoulder was the Slave Brand.
So she was one of the official slave elves employed by the Academy?
Maybe the life of a slave was so miserable she had come out here to cry in secret…?
"Hic… Is someone there?"
"!!!"
Holy crap.
Did she notice me?
No choice, then.
I had to show myself.
She was a slave.
There was a law that any elf marked with the Slave Brand had to obey every student of the Academy. No reason for me to hide in fear.
—Or so I told myself as I stepped out in front of the elf.
And then I froze in shock.
"Ah… I'm not a suspicious person or anything… Wait, huh?"
"Sniff… sniff…"
Those eyes that looked like they were crying while they scanned me from head to toe.
That girl was…
Someone I knew.
Misha Greenwood.
The Calamity who appeared only occasionally in the original story.
In other words, a natural disaster.
This creature… even Teo, the strongest swordsman in our party—no, in the entire Academy—couldn't stand against her. Forget Teo; even if every student and professor in the Academy attacked her at once, I doubted they could win. She was a catastrophe you simply had to endure, like an earthquake or a thunderstorm.
"Sniff… Who are you…?"
For the record, the crying was an act.
Ordinary elves could have their actions restricted by the Slave Brand, but this one was different. To a monster who had lived more than three thousand years, the Slave Brand meant nothing. The only reason she was currently strolling around the Academy as a slave was for fun.
The whim of someone who had already reached the absolute peak, you could say.
Her role in the story was to pretend to be a slave like this, then occasionally drop the mask when things didn't go her way and turn the Academy into a complete mess.
Even the original protagonist couldn't do a thing about Misha; whenever she showed up, the usual response was for everyone to run for their lives.
"I asked who you are… sniff."
"Ahem…"
Even that far-too-arrogant tone for a slave came from her true identity.
If I handled this wrong, I could die without a single witness ever knowing.
And of course we were on the Academy Back Mountain, with no one else around.
"I said who are you…? Why won't you answer…? You're starting to piss me off a little… sniff."
"No…"
Of course I couldn't just die like this.
If I used my information, I could turn this crisis around.
So I answered.
With the single most optimal solution for this exact situation.
"Shut up, you fucking bitch."
"…Huh?"
—There was one more reason Misha Greenwood pretended to be a slave.
She was a masochist who enjoyed being verbally abused.