A Three-Way Standoff
I was reading in the chapel late into the night when I sensed movement outside the door.
Wondering who on earth could be calling at this hour, I closed my book and rose from my seat. Perhaps someone had come needing urgent treatment, I thought, and headed for the door—which I then opened.
"……?"
At first, I thought no one was there.
But when I opened the door a little wider, I saw something leaning against the wall right beside it, and as my gaze traveled downward, I found myself momentarily speechless.
"Zzz…"
"…Dorothy?"
Dorothy was asleep against the wall, her brown hair an absolute mess.
And reeking of alcohol, no less.
"Why is Dorothy here of all places…?"
Unable to make sense of it, I looked around first, but the hour was late and there was no one in sight.
More than anything, I was quite certain almost no one at the Academy was close with Dorothy.
She had never been the type to approach people first, and even when someone struck up a conversation, she usually said only the bare minimum required and vanished.
Which meant—could it be she'd been drinking and came looking for me?
She was in the same Hero's Party, so that much at least made sense. I crouched down in front of Dorothy and gave her shoulder a light shake.
"Dorothy, wake up."
"Mmmgh…"
"You can't sleep here."
Dorothy wrinkled her face, rolled over, and muttered something faintly.
"The Guide…"
"…"
My hand stopped moving.
"Dorothy?"
"Mm… Guide… no more… stop…"
"…What."
I stared down at Dorothy in a daze.
The Guide. No more. Stop.
The words I'd just heard began stringing themselves together in my head, unbidden. And quite naturally, the image of Riven's bare, unadorned neck from that morning floated up before me.
The man who had supposedly undone the necklace he treasured so dearly and shoved it into storage.
The man who, as if his promise with Arien meant nothing anymore, had taken off the necklace, and who even upon seeing me again had seemed utterly indifferent—like he was simply looking at an old comrade he hadn't met in years.
I slowly turned my gaze back to Dorothy.
"…Don't tell me."
The reason she'd forgotten Arien.
The reason she'd been so indifferent even after meeting me again.
"It's because of this little brat…?"
A nasty word slipped out of my mouth before I knew it.
No, it couldn't be.
I'd never heard that the two of them had been close on the battlefield.
Then why was she drunkenly calling out Riven's nickname?
And muttering nonsense like that in her sleep, of all things.
"Dorothy."
"Mmgh…"
"Wake up."
This time I shook her shoulder harder.
"Ugh… noisy…"
"…"
This little brat.
I stared down at Dorothy for a long moment, then finally took her arm and hauled her up. No matter how much she annoyed me, I couldn't very well leave her out there.
I barely managed to drag her to the bed, lay her down, and pull the blanket over her—and Dorothy, as if she'd only been waiting for that, fell right back asleep.
Standing beside the bed, I looked down at Dorothy as she began to snore.
"…Just wait until you wake up tomorrow."
Having said that, I watched her for a while, but then changed my mind.
No.
Asking Dorothy would never get me the answer I wanted.
If I asked why she'd sought out Riven, she'd just say she wanted to and that was that. If I asked what the two of them were to each other, she'd answer "comrades" and be done with it.
She wasn't the type to talk about herself at length even on a normal day, and hoping to properly dig something out of Dorothy—drunk and dead to the world besides—was a mistake from the start.
In that case, it would be faster to ask Riven directly.
Fortunately, I already knew where he was staying.
When we'd met again two days ago, I'd made a point of learning where his place was, just in case I might need it.
Though of course, I'd only learned it because I thought it might possibly, someday, come in handy.
Anyway.
I looked at Dorothy one more time, snoring away in bed, oblivious to everything.
"…Fine. I won't ask you."
I could just go find him myself tomorrow morning.
And then I could ask, one by one, where the two of them had been and what they'd done yesterday, and why Dorothy had been drunk out of her mind calling Riven's name.
If she dodged the question, I'd simply keep asking until she answered.
With that thought, I turned my back on Dorothy.
As it happened, tomorrow was one of Riven's days without class.
Since I'd spent the previous night drinking and had no class today, I was sleeping in as late as I pleased.
If I had to pick the single thing I liked most about being at the Academy, it was this, without question.
On the frontlines, waking before dawn to grab your sword was simply daily routine, but here, so long as there were no classes, no one said a word if you lazed around all day.
And so I was sleeping quite comfortably, buried under my blanket, when—
BANG BANG BANG!
"Hng."
The pounding sounded like it would break the door down, and my eyes flew open.
BANG BANG BANG!
"Riven!"
"Ah, for god's sake…"
Whoever it was, they were damn impatient for this early in the morning. I rose from the bed with my eyes half-shut, ran a hand roughly through my hair, and headed for the door.
"Coming, coming."
When I opened the door, a familiar face was standing right there.
"…Saintess?"
Getting an unexpected visitor was one problem, but what bothered me more was the Saintess's expression.
She wasn't smiling the way she usually did, but she wasn't expressionless either. Her eyes were narrowed slightly as she glared at me, looking positively venomous.
What now?
I hadn't even gotten hurt this time.
"Is something the matter?"
When I asked, the Saintess stared at my face for a moment before speaking.
"Was it you, Riven, who left Dorothy in front of the chapel yesterday?"
"Ah, yes."
The Saintess's eyes narrowed a little further.
"She suddenly acted all friendly with me and got me to buy her drinks, then passed out cold. I was wondering where I should even take her, and the chapel was the first place that came to mind, so I left her there."
"…Acted all friendly?"
"Yes."
The Saintess stared hard at my face, as if suspicious of something.
What's with her?
"Nothing… happened, did it?"
"What do you mean, 'something'?"
"Just… something."
"Nothing happened."
"Really?"
"Yes. We only properly introduced ourselves yesterday, after all."
"…"
The moment those words left my mouth—
The Saintess's expression, sharp enough a second ago to eat a man alive, melted away as if it had all been a lie.
"Oh, is that so?"
"…Yes."
A smile even settled at the corners of her mouth.
Seriously, what is with her.
More importantly, could a person's expression really change that fast?
"Then that's fine."
"What exactly is fine?"
"Nothing at all."
The Saintess smiled so brightly it was hard to believe she was the same person who'd been pounding on my door hard enough to break it down moments ago.
Then she looked me up and down.
"By the way, you drank a lot yesterday, didn't you?"
"Well, I had a fair amount."
"Then shouldn't you be having a hangover cure?"
"I'm not really hungover—"
"Let's go."
"Pardon?"
"My treat."
Before I could get a word in, the Saintess turned around, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
Standing at the door in what was essentially my pajamas, I watched her retreating back, and then suddenly noticed something odd.
"Oh, um, Saintess?"
"Yes?"
"How did you know where I live?"
The Saintess's body stopped for just a moment.
It really was only a moment.
She turned back around wearing a perfectly unconcerned face and answered with complete composure.
"You told me before, remember?"
"I did?"
"Yes."
"…Did I."
Come to think of it, I couldn't quite remember.
Well, if I said it, she'd know, I suppose.
"Anyway, I'll just change and be right out."
"Okay! I'll wait."
Even her voice was different from moments ago. I went back inside wearing a look of utter incomprehension.
Showing up first thing in the morning, pressing me over and over about what happened with Dorothy—I had no idea what was going on with her.
I knew she had feelings for me, so I wondered if it was because of Dorothy, but it seemed absurd that a single shared drink could bother her that much.
Well, she was offering to buy me food, so no point in arguing.
Just before closing the door, I glanced outside—the venomous expression from before was nowhere to be found, and the Saintess stood waiting with a cheerful smile.
Truly, she was one of those people who, the more you saw of her, the less you understood.
As I ate the meal the Saintess was treating me to, I asked about something that had been nagging at me since yesterday.
"By the way, Saintess."
"Yes?"
"Is that mage's personality always such a damn pain?"
Hearing this, the Saintess seemed to mull it over for a moment.
"Hmm… her personality is a bit… distinctive, I suppose."
Calling that absolute pain-in-the-ass-ness "distinctive."
It really drove home that the Saintess hadn't earned her position by being just anybody.
"She doesn't mean any harm by it, though."
"…"
Call me crazy, but if she acts like that without meaning any harm, isn't that actually worse?
Was I just supposed to assume she got dropped on her head at birth?
I pushed the thought aside and focused on the food the Saintess had bought me.
That was when the shop door opened, and in walked a human being I had absolutely no desire to see.
"Long time."
"…"
We'd literally drunk together yesterday. What did she mean, "long time"?
I gave Dorothy a look of open displeasure, but as if my glare meant absolutely nothing to her, she strolled right over, pulled out the chair beside me, and sat down.
Then she picked up the menu.
"Food."
"…"
"That's what I'm having."
"I'm eating on the Saintess's dime, so beat it."
Only after the words left my mouth did it occur to me that something was a bit off. I was in front of the Saintess, and yet casual speech had slipped out of me without my noticing.
We'd only had our first real conversation yesterday, and apparently I was already used to talking down to this woman.
But Dorothy didn't seem to care in the slightest. Setting the menu down, she said:
"Then I'll just eat on the Saintess's dime too. Know the phrase, friends share?"
"…"
I was momentarily speechless.
What is with her.
How could anyone butt in out of nowhere and announce she was freeloading off my meal with that much natural confidence?
Even as I stared at her in disbelief, Dorothy calmly spread the menu open again.
"Should get this too."
"…"
She was truly a remarkable woman. When it came to sheer shamelessness, I felt she could have defeated the Demon King single-handedly.
Then it suddenly struck me that the person sitting across from us had gone very, very quiet.
I turned my head and looked at the Saintess.
"…"
The Saintess had stopped eating mid-meal and was looking back and forth between Dorothy and me.
With a face that looked genuinely, thoroughly shell-shocked.
I'd seen that face somewhere before…
I rummaged through my memory for a moment, and it came to me right away.
Ah.
Yes.
That was exactly the face Arien had made as a child, the day she caught me playing with another girl.