Exile (4)
“Heehee—”
These days, Lobelia spent her days in a buoyant haze, as if she might float right out of her own skin.
There was a reason for it: lately, none of the things she had planned had gone wrong, and none of them had failed, either.
From her romance with Ricardo on the small scale to matters involving her older brother, Sian, on the larger one, everything seemed to be bending toward her wishes.
It was true that Letitia and Seria had helped her, but still, it felt as if the whole world were opening itself up for her sake.
To be honest, even now, she still found it hard to believe.
That she, who had once rolled around in the bottommost filth of the world, had not only become one of the Empire’s most promising talents, but had also risen to a place where she could even dream of going higher.
With that thought, Lobelia slowly looked around the room she stood in now.
It was a room of absurd size, large enough to fit several ordinary houses, and packed wall to wall with luxurious things that were all hers.
No doubt this was one of the comforts she would never have enjoyed if she had remained buried in that gutter with Sian, never realizing her own talent.
“In that sense… maybe I should thank my brother.”
Lobelia could admit that much, at least. If Sian had not rescued her, taken her in as family, and paid for the brutally expensive aptitude test, she would not be where she was now.
But Lobelia had one wish.
A secret wish she had never told the other girls, nor even her brother, Sian.
For that wish, she could do anything.
Even if it meant turning her back on the brother who had, for all practical purposes, raised her to this point.
“At least it’s a relief that getting him kicked out of here turned out to be easier than I expected.”
Because she had lived with Sian as family for so long, Lobelia knew his personality well.
That was why she had expected resistance if she tried to force him out of Lutra herself, but against all expectations, Sian had remained quiet.
Of course, Cartesia—the noisy, irritating princess—was right beside him, so there had been a flicker of suspicion that they might be stirring trouble behind the scenes, but what, exactly, could they do now?
No matter how she looked at it, Sian’s remaining choices were only two: be driven out of Lutra, or walk out of his own accord.
That meant she no longer had to concern herself with Sian-related matters as much as before.
Not that it mattered only with Sian; the problems Lobelia had to worry about and resolve now were piled up like a mountain.
Click.
Lobelia snapped her fingers, summoning spirits to prepare for her outing.
She could certainly dress herself if she wanted to, but she enjoyed summoning spirits in her daily life and making them handle the trivial chores.
The reason was simple: most “ordinary” people could never summon spirits the way Lobelia could, and that made her feel wonderfully special.
So today, too, she planned to call the spirits and have them wash her body and dry her off.
But then—
“…Hm?”
The spirit did not appear.
The spirit that should have been summoned with ease, as always, did not show itself here.
“…W-what?”
Startled, Lobelia closed her eyes and focused her mind. And then she realized it.
For some reason, the presence of spirits felt faint.
No, that wasn’t quite it. The spirits were still lingering around her as always, but the affinity that allowed her to command and control them had dropped.
Normally, summoning a spirit into the material world should have been as easy as breathing, allowing her mana to project it into this world. But now that simple task felt horribly difficult.
Only after she focused far more than usual and spent far more mana than usual was Lobelia finally able to summon a spirit.
It was a disgusting feeling, as though she had ceased to be Lobelia the spirit master whose talent shook the Empire, and instead reverted to some ordinary orphan-born spirit master with talent found anywhere in the world.
Only then did Lobelia realize that something had changed in her body, and before she knew it, she was whispering in a tiny, shaken voice.
“…My ability has declined?”
****
Termira, the Imperial Capital.
The capital of the Empire, and at the same time its heart—a place where every piece of infrastructure and every facility in the Empire was gathered in one city.
At the center of Termira stood Lutra, called the cradle of the Empire, and not far from it was the Imperial Palace, where the royal family usually stayed.
Since the distance between Lutra and the palace was not so great, every student at Lutra knew very well what the palace looked like, but few had ever actually set foot inside it.
And as for me, I had never once imagined that I would be able to enter the Imperial Palace in my lifetime.
…Well, it wouldn’t have been possible if Cartesia hadn’t vouched for me.
At times like this, I could only think that I had really chosen a good friend.
Of course, this was outside Lutra, and her public status was that of a princess, so I couldn’t exactly act familiar with Cartesia in the open.
“What are you doing standing there? Let’s go already. We don’t have the luxury of dawdling.”
“Huh? Oh, right.”
And so we passed through a massive gate I had already lost count of and spoke in low voices as we walked.
“We’re going straight to the palace where Arieta is staying. There’s still some time left before her condition becomes critical, but… it’s still urgent. I already informed His Majesty that you’d be coming with me, so there shouldn’t be any problem getting in.”
“…You told the Emperor about me?”
That didn’t sound like telling your parents about a friend you’d recently started seeing.
“Don’t worry. I can’t say too much here in case someone’s listening, but… I didn’t tell him the details of your ability.”
As she said that, Cartesia leaned toward me and whispered by my ear.
“His Majesty and the others all think your ability is a form of healing that works differently from ordinary methods. So don’t go blurting out anything unnecessary, okay?”
“…Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For being this considerate with me.”
Though Cartesia spoke to me as if it were nothing at all, she had actually taken a huge risk in her own way.
Because even if she had a reason—namely, her concern for my safety—she was essentially lying to the emperor who ruled the Empire.
“…Considerate, my ass. If you put it that way, I’m no different from your sisters. I’m just a disgusting bitch doing the same thing.”
Cartesia muttered that at me in a bitter, utterly wretched voice.
“I’m using you for my own sake, and your sisters are doing the same. So if you’re going to resent someone, resent me. If you’re going to curse someone, curse me. I… I’m not in any position to just go around cursing those girls.”
“No, I can say this for sure. You’re different from my sisters.”
I took hold of Cartesia’s shoulder and looked straight into her eyes as I said it.
“Using my ability to save your sister… Princess Arieta—that was my decision. More than anything, the reason we’re here is because it was the best choice to keep me from being expelled from Lutra, wasn’t it? I’m here entirely by my own will.”
“…Ah.”
“So don’t blame yourself. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d have already been kicked out of Lutra, and there’s no way I’d be standing here. So you’re basically my benefactor. Sia.”
At my words, Cartesia’s earlobes turned bright red as she lowered her head.
“…Y-you cheater. A-ah, I’m not even ready for this yet, and you say something like that… that’s just mean…”
“…?”
I frowned, having no idea what on earth she was talking about, and she began flapping both arms like a penguin.
To be honest, it didn’t suit her at all, which somehow made her look adorable.
“R-right. Now that I think about it, this is my home too. If Arieta’s treatment goes well, do you want to come see His Majesty with me on the way back? I—I’ve actually wanted to introduce you to him for a very long time…”
Just as I was blinking at Cartesia, who spoke in a tone light enough that she might as well have been introducing her boyfriend to her father—
“Well, I’d been wondering why the palace smelled like filth from the start, and now I see there was a reason for it. I never expected to come face-to-face with such a disgusting expression here.”
Out of nowhere, someone with a truly obnoxious face was staring at us.
“…Brother?”
Genuinely flustered, Cartesia blinked at Ricardo.
“Why are you here, brother?”
“Why am I here? What a stupid question, little sister. Is it so strange for me to be in my own home?”
Ricardo shrugged his shoulders and answered in a breezy voice.
“And that is the question I should be asking you, little sister. I’ve long known that your taste is peculiar, but to think you’d be so enamored that you’d bring a lowly creature like that into the sacred Imperial Palace. Keep acting like that, and people will start to wonder just how questionable your own origins are.”
At that moment, I did not miss the way Cartesia’s eyes turned ice-cold.
“So it was your mother’s low birth after all that gave your tastes such a strange bent from the start. Whether it’s wasting your interest on some trash like him, or clinging to some defective piece of refuse and calling it your little sister—listen carefully. Unless you want to advertise the fact that lowborn blood runs in your veins, you’d better shut up right no—”
“Shut your mouth.”
“…What?”
There was no need to hear any more, no need to even acknowledge another word of it, so I cut Ricardo off cleanly in the middle of his sentence.
Watching his face twist violently, I looked at him and spoke again, each word crisp and deliberate.
“I said shut that damn mouth of yours, Ricardo.”