Healing (4)
And so, Arieta opened her eyes.
“...Huh.”
Her body felt incredibly light. There was none of the usual pain, none of that churning sensation as though mana were raging through her veins from within.
It was a fresh, almost unfamiliar feeling—one she might experience once or twice in a year, if she was lucky.
But when Arieta cracked her eyes open just enough to look around in secret, she quickly pieced together what must have happened while she had been unconscious, and a bitter smile crept onto her lips.
...I did it again.
The interior of the palace where Arieta had been staying was, quite literally, a disaster.
It looked so devastated that one might actually believe a violent storm had swept through the place and torn everything apart.
And in a way, that wasn’t entirely wrong.
Because Arieta knew all too well what happened whenever her mana ran wild and she lost consciousness.
The reason her body felt so light now was probably because, once again, she had blacked out and indiscriminately blasted the mana inside her out into the world.
As for how many mages and priests had thrown themselves at her to subdue her… she didn’t even want to imagine it.
If I’d known it would be like this... I should’ve just stayed asleep forever.
It was a little embarrassing, but until just a moment ago, she had been having a very pleasant dream.
A dream about a kind man who didn’t look at her monstrous self with disgust, but instead told her she could keep living, and whispered that he would stand by her side.
But there was no way such a man really existed in this world.
And even if he did, the moment he saw her—saw a girl whose mana might erupt at any time and send everyone around her to their deaths—he would surely lose all affection for her at once.
So let the dream remain only a dream.
No matter how sweet it had been, it was still a lie. Dreams could never... become reality.
Just as Arieta quietly sighed and was about to rise from her seat, she suddenly realized something.
She was currently being held tight in someone else’s arms.
“...Have you awakened, Your Highness?”
“Eek!”
At that voice—one she had never heard before—Arieta jolted in shock as she realized she was in the arms of a stranger.
But only for a moment. Then memory stirred, and she recalled that she had heard that voice somewhere before.
When had it been? It felt recent... no, not recent exactly, but somewhere within the last few days, perhaps...
“Arieta? Are you awake, Arieta?”
“...Sis?”
She blinked and turned her head, and there was Cartesia, looking at her with unmistakable concern.
“I’m so glad... I’m really, really glad... You’re awake safely. I’m truly glad...”
This wasn’t the first time Arieta’s mana had run rampant, causing her to lose her senses and hurt the people around her, and it wasn’t the first time she had returned to her right mind afterward either.
And yet, why was Cartesia looking at her now with tears in her eyes, truly and sincerely happy?
When was the last time Arieta had seen Cartesia without that usual look of pity aimed her way?
...No, now that she thought about it, that wasn’t the only strange thing.
However miserable her situation might be, Arieta was still imperial blood.
An imperial princess, in fact—someone ranked high and mighty enough to stand among the very top five in the empire.
And yet a stranger she didn’t even know was holding her in his arms. That was strange enough on its own, but Cartesia was simply watching the scene unfold without stopping it at all, and that was even stranger.
And then, at last—
“...Ah.”
Enduring her embarrassment, Arieta looked at the man closely, and only then did she realize what was going on.
The man holding her was in an absolutely terrible state.
No, it was worse than terrible—his injuries were so severe all over his body that it was amazing he was still alive at all.
His flesh was marked with wounds that looked as though he had been pierced by sharp spears, and his right hand, especially, was twisted so badly that the bones beneath seemed ready to break through the skin.
And looking at him like that, Arieta understood.
She was the one who had hurt him this badly.
“T-those injuries... don’t tell me—”
“Yes, that’s right. Thanks to that, I nearly died several times while subduing Your Highness. Honestly, I still feel like I’m one foot away from death right now.”
Sian answered with a wry smile. He didn’t bother denying Arieta’s words. He didn’t feel any need to.
“But this isn’t Your Highness’s fault. And now, Your Highness won’t have to hurt anyone anymore. Because your nightmare... ended today.”
“...Pardon?”
At those words, Arieta stared at Sian in a daze.
Even though this was the first time she had ever met him, he didn’t feel the least bit unfamiliar. In fact, something almost like trust welled up toward him.
It was as though... he and she were connected by something invisible, something she couldn’t quite see.
Even with injuries that looked like they could kill him at any moment, he was smiling at her with a kind of gentleness, as if he were trying to reassure her.
Thump.
Looking at his face, Arieta’s heart gave a strange little leap. She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.
“My nightmare... is over?”
“Yes.”
When Arieta asked the question in a trembling voice, he gave a quiet nod.
And in that instant, a memory surfaced. She had heard those words from someone else before.
From the dream she had just been having.
It... wasn’t a dream?
Could it be that those things hadn’t been dreams at all, but things that had really happened in reality?
His figure, rushing toward her as though risking his life for someone who had lost control of her mana.
His kindness, telling her without a shred of hesitation that she had the right to live, even as she screamed that she didn’t deserve to.
Those words he had whispered to her—telling her that if a miracle was what she needed to survive, then he would be that miracle—had all of it...
...actually been real, not a dream?
“From now on, Your Highness won’t need to fear yourself anymore. Mana going berserk while you’re unconscious or asleep, or hurting someone else because of it... none of that will ever happen again.”
“.....”
For a moment, Arieta lost her voice.
She wanted to say something to Sian, wanted to open her mouth and speak, but... she didn’t know what she was supposed to say.
“I promise you this. Your Highness no longer has to live in a place like this cage. You can step outside now, see a wider world, and you never have to suffer because of your own power ever again.”
At Sian’s words, Arieta examined the mana inside her own body.
It was astonishingly quiet.
The mana that had always slipped free of her control, growling at the world around it as though ready to destroy everything, was now... obeying her will and moving exactly as she wished.
“A-ah...”
She understood it instinctively. The reason she could breathe in this moment, the reason she was able to feel this happiness at all, was all because... the person before her had helped her.
Her chest swelled until it hurt. No one had ever said anything to her like Sian had.
Many had promised to protect her until the very end, but... no one had ever told her they would save her, not even when she herself had already given up on everything.
But he had said those things to her. And then he had gone even further—he had torn apart the reality that surrounded her and truly saved her.
It felt like... a miracle. Just like the words he had spoken to her before she lost consciousness.
Ah, yes. She couldn’t say it out loud, but this man was like a miracle to her.
“Your Highness will be even happier from now on. You deserve that much. So don’t cry anymore... I don’t really like seeing my friend’s little sister crying.”
As Sian barely managed to lift a hand and wipe at the corner of Arieta’s eyes, she finally couldn’t hold back any longer and broke into tears in his arms.
With the long winter finally over and the relief of meeting the one who would become a milestone in her life, Arieta cried and cried without end.
And Cartesia, who had watched the entire scene in silence until now, thought to herself:
Meeting you and becoming your friend must be the greatest fortune ever granted to me.
And I’m so, so glad that I like you this much.
That’s why I swear it again here, just as always... I will like only you in this world.
Yes, always.
And forever.
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