Healing (2)
“Y-Your Majesty! W-What brings you here?”
At Ricardo’s voice, which was almost a scream, I jumped in shock.
So this dignified middle-aged man, who looked so much like a lion, was the Emperor?
“What brings me here, you ask. It sounds rather meaningful coming from you, Ricardo.”
“…Huh?”
The Emperor lifted the corner of his mouth faintly as he spoke, and Ricardo only blinked dumbly, as if he couldn’t understand what was being said to him.
“Must I report my every step to you just to walk through the Imperial Palace? Ah… come to think of it, I nearly forgot again. You’re the man with ambitions to drive me out of the palace before long. Naturally, you’d be curious about where I’m going and what I’m doing, wouldn’t you?”
“N-No! I would never—never think such a thing, Your Majesty!”
Even as Ricardo hurriedly bowed his head and tried to defend himself, the Emperor’s glare did not soften in the slightest.
“Then why did you wag your tongue so carelessly without even knowing the full circumstances? Did you really think so little of me, standing right here?”
“Th-That’s not it! I only… I didn’t know it was Your Majesty who let that man in, so I made a mistake…”
“Oh? So what you’re saying is that if it hadn’t been me who brought that fellow Sian into the palace, you would never have let it lie.”
“.....”
Ricardo couldn’t bring himself to argue with the Emperor’s words, and the Emperor’s eyes grew even colder.
“How rash. You treat the authority you hold as royalty as though it were your birthright, yet you have no intention whatsoever of carrying yourself with the dignity or responsibility it demands. You don’t even understand where that authority comes from.”
“…Huh?”
“Step aside. You’re a sorry sight. For now, I have no wish to see your face any longer.”
“…Yes. I will obey, Your Majesty.”
Watching Ricardo’s face twist in humiliation at those words, I felt a strangely refreshing sense of relief, as though something had finally unclenched inside me.
As Ricardo vanished to the other side, the Emperor turned his head and looked at me standing beside Cartesia.
“So you’re Sian. The man Cartesia has lately been trailing after like a puppy.”
“Y-Your Majesty!”
Even as Cartesia cried out, the Emperor looked at her with a rather relaxed expression.
“Don’t raise your voice like that. I haven’t gone deaf yet.”
“B-But—!”
“What’s there to be ashamed of? You’re friends attending the same academy, aren’t you? There’s no reason you can’t grow close. You seem to think of me as an old man who’s stiff and out of touch.”
The Emperor looked back and forth between Cartesia and me as though we were terribly interesting, then suddenly hardened his expression.
Gooooo—
Because from farther away, a low but unmistakable tremor was rumbling through the air once more.
“As much as I’d like to spend more time talking with the two of you, Cartesia and Sian, it seems that won’t be possible. Arieta’s condition appears to have worsened again.”
“Ah, right! Arieta! Your Majesty, Arieta’s in danger! Just now, there was a huge sound from the palace where she’s staying—”
“I know. The reason I came here myself was precisely because of that.”
The Emperor gave a low sigh and looked at me for a moment.
“Cartesia told me this much. That she thought she’d found a way to cure poor Arieta. She couldn’t tell me the details, but she asked for permission to enter the palace, saying that you, Sian, seemed to be the key.”
At that, I unconsciously turned to look at Cartesia.
She had begged me, time and again, never to reveal my ability to anyone else. And she’d kept that promise.
I never would have imagined she’d keep it secret even from the Emperor.
“I… am a truly worthless father to Arieta. I’ve known for years how much that child has suffered, and yet… in the end, I’ve done nothing for her.”
“.....”
“As Cartesia asked me not to, I won’t ask how you intend to heal Arieta, nor how likely it is to work. In this situation, you are the only hope that child has left. However… there is one thing I would like to ask of you.”
“…Ask?”
“Would it be acceptable if I… watched you while you treat Arieta, from beside you?”
“No.”
The one who immediately rejected the idea, the instant the Emperor finished speaking, was none other than Cartesia.
“Your Majesty, you already gave me your word. You said no one would interfere while Sian treated Arieta—”
“I know. I’m not asking because I want to know exactly how Sian will cure Arieta. I simply… as Arieta’s father, wish to see the moment that child regains her health. So I ask you. Will you not permit me to accompany you?”
The Emperor was asking me in a tone that was both earnest and deeply courteous.
He could have forced the issue by asserting his authority if he wanted to, but instead he spoke as though he were respecting my wishes.
“…Understood. Then please come with us.”
“Sian!”
When I nodded at the Emperor’s proposal, Cartesia cried out at me, her expression stunned.
“It can’t be helped. His Majesty is speaking to me like this, after all. And… it may be presumptuous of me to say, but I think I understand what the Emperor is feeling.”
Because I, too, had once felt that same bone-deep helplessness when I was caring for my sisters, knowing I couldn’t do anything for my family.
I had never imagined that even the Emperor, the most exalted person in the empire, would feel such a human emotion.
“Thank you for understanding, Sian. Then… let us hurry. The magicians and priests are stationed there already, but if we’re too late, there may be nothing they can do.”
With those words, the Emperor led Cartesia and me to a certain place, and before long we arrived at a small palace on the outskirts of the Imperial Palace.
The very first impression I got upon seeing it was that this was not a place where people lived, but something more like a prison.
Far from any warmth of life, the whole place gave off a bleak, lonely air, like an abandoned house.
Gooooo—
And outside the palace, several magicians and priests were sweating profusely as they maintained a barrier to keep the shockwaves from escaping.
“All of you, stand down.”
“…Your Majesty?”
“I won’t say it twice. I’ll take all responsibility. Leave only the minimum number needed to maintain the barrier and step back.”
“…We obey.”
At the Emperor’s command, the magicians and priests bowed hastily and withdrew to a place beyond our sight.
“Are you ready?”
“…Yes.”
The palace doors opened. After stepping inside and looking around, I saw that the entire place was in utter disarray.
Not a single object in the palace was intact. It looked as though a violent storm had torn through it.
And in the very center of the palace, I saw a girl floating in midair, wrapped in a blinding white aura that resembled mist.
“Arieta…!”
Seeing her, Cartesia started to rush toward Arieta, but I quickly grabbed her wrist.
“It’s dangerous. Don’t go near her recklessly.”
“…What? But, but Arieta—!”
“Princess Arieta’s mana is in a state of rampage right now. She absolutely cannot carry on a rational conversation with anyone. If you approach her wrong, you could… die.”
Back when Letitia had gone into that state several times, I had nearly died more than once myself.
And Princess Arieta in front of me was radiating a wave of mana several times more powerful than Letitia had ever done then.
If I approached carelessly, it would be dangerous. Extremely dangerous.
“So I’ll go.”
“…What?”
“We agreed on this from the start. I’d take the lead, and you’d support me from behind. That was our respective roles, wasn’t it?”
As I said that, I gently took Cartesia’s trembling hand.
It was shaking terribly.
No doubt she was desperate—terrified that she might lose her sister, and tormented by the helplessness of being unable to do anything in a situation like this.
So I had to carry Cartesia’s share as well.
To repay the trust she had placed in me, and the way she had led me here by believing in me.
...And so my friend wouldn’t have to keep wearing that pained expression.
“I’ll save your little sister, no matter what.”
It was meant to reassure Cartesia, and at the same time, it was a vow to myself.
Not for the things I’m carrying, but for you, my friend, I’m stepping forward.
So from this day on, your nightmare ends here.
I’ll make sure you’re given a tomorrow where you can smile.