Transferring Affiliation to the Aethers Army (4)
The men who heard my voice turned their heads and began glaring at me.
"What the hell are you?"
"You know this chick or something?"
"Not particularly."
"Ha! Then don't butt in. Get lost."
"What's this? Skinny little thing with no strength, but a pretty face on him. Boss? Is he even a guy?"
They carried on like that and started laughing among themselves.
I couldn't believe it.
The dialogue was so stereotypically thug-like that it left me feeling drained.
I put on the most benevolent smile I could manage. Just let it go. It's a hassle. That was the thought running through my head.
"This is a warning. If you want to stop, stop right now and quietly back off. It'll be better for your health."
"What? Ha!"
One of the men stepped closer to me.
"What's with you? Putting on a deep voice like you're a real man. Everything that happens next is your own fault. Got it?"
The moment he finished speaking—
The two thugs behind him drew their swords.
"So that's all you could manage to pull? Swords?"
"Yeah. Real steel, a hundred percent. You'll pay dearly for daring to warn us. Go ahead and call the guards if you want. Curious whose side they'll take?"
"Haa……."
I offered a silent prayer for their souls.
The moment they drew those blades…… they had already lost any chance of beating us.
"Hey."
And the one who made that absolute certainty possible—
Irene slowly drew her own sword and walked toward us.
"Come at me all at once. It's a pain otherwise."
"Huh? What's this? A pretty young lady walking around with a sword? Playing bodyguard for the young master, are we?"
"Seeing as he's got a guard trailing him, he must be some hollow shell of a noble. How many years has it been since the Empire fell? What good is bloodline now? Power! This street runs on the logic of power!"
I ignored the man's rant and spoke to Irene.
"Lady Irene. Let's finish this quickly. I'm starting to get annoyed."
"Understood."
"What? Annoyed? You bastard…… looking down on us because we're commoners, you piece of trash!!"
"Kill that son of a bitch!"
They decided on their own that they had been slighted, nursed their grudge, and charged me all at once.
And then.
Naturally……
They could never defeat Irene. Not a chance.
"…P-please spare us……!"
"Noble sir, please, please forgive us just this once……!"
The same man who had been ranting about commoners moments earlier was now on his knees, forehead pressed to the ground, begging for mercy.
The pathetic sight made me sigh. I looked at Irene.
"What should we do with them?"
"Hand these thugs over to the security forces. Our lord would prefer it that way as well. Conveniently, the guards are already coming this way."
Just as she said, guards who had sensed the commotion were sprinting toward us.
"L-lord……?"
"C-could it be……!"
The moment they heard the word "lord," the men's faces went deathly pale.
From their perspective, they had just laid hands on government officials belonging to the state, hadn't they?
As residents of the territory, they had effectively assaulted their own rulers. Their terror was understandable.
"S-spare us……!"
The man tried to scramble up and run. Irene's foot shot out and swept his legs out from under him.
"Where do you think you're going? It would be better for you to realize whose patience you tested while sitting in a cell."
"G-ghhh……!!"
And so we handed the thugs over to the guards who had come rushing to the scene.
I didn't even need to step in. Irene handled everything with practiced efficiency.
Come to think of it, this was basically the same as a security patrol.
Given her high martial prowess, it made sense that she would be skilled at something that felt like patrol duty.
Do achievements earned without orders still count as merit? I was idly thinking something that useless when I suddenly realized I had forgotten someone. I turned and approached the woman who was still trembling.
"It's all right now. You can calm down. It's over."
"Uh…… ah, ahh…… uh."
She slowly lifted her head.
At the same time, the face beneath her veil entered my field of vision for the first time.
……Huh?
Pink hair, and eyes a shade lighter than her hair—pale rose……
In this game, there was only one woman with pink hair.
……Reika?
Reika.
Any player who had delved even a little deeper into this game, Garand Eternity Saga, would never forget her—right up there with the lord characters themselves.
The reason was extremely simple.
Reika was…… the continent's first mage, and its strongest.
She was the character who had firmly planted the idea in classic-game communities that "Pink-Drop" was a broken unit.
I desperately tried to recall the pixel art still lingering in my memory.
Comparing them, she really did look alike.
Of course the Reika standing in front of me was far more beautiful than her pixel counterpart, but that had been true of most of the female officers I'd met so far.
But why is Reika here?
From what I remembered, she only rose to prominence much later.
According to her character setting, she should still be a complete orphan wandering from place to place right now.
And yet…… looking at her clothes, she looked nothing like a street orphan. She seemed like the daughter of a reasonably well-off household.
"Um…… e-excuse me."
"Ah."
Only then did I realize I had been staring at her without meaning to.
"Forgive me. Are you all right?"
"Y-yes……. Ah, um, uh…… I, th-that is……"
She nodded in a voice so small it nearly vanished.
She seemed to be the extremely shy type.
Personalities like this were information you could never learn from the game.
In the game every officer simply recited their default lines.
This time it was Irene, standing beside me, who spoke.
"Are you unharmed?"
"Ah…… y-yes……! Th-th-thank…… thank you……!"
I could see her eyes darting around in a panic.
Come to think of it, the veil covering her face, the way she carried herself…… it looked as if she were doing something she absolutely must not be discovered doing.
Did she have some special circumstances?
In that instant my mind began racing.
……If this woman really is Reika, then forging a connection with her right now is definitely the right move.
The continent's first and most powerful mage.
She would unquestionably become a major asset for the Lunarien forces.
I had no idea why she was here, but simply running into her was already a stroke of luck.
At present she had not yet made a name for herself. If I could slowly persuade her to travel with me, that would be ideal.
Having reached that conclusion, I bowed my head and asked her name in the most polite tone I could manage—
naturally, of course.
"We are…… that is to say……"
"……I am Reika Nighthart……."
Hm?
The name Reika was good, but Reika Nighthart?
That was a little strange.
The Reika I knew had no surname. She was an orphan.
And the surname Nighthart.
I had heard that name somewhere before……
I couldn't place it exactly, but it was definitely a surname that had lodged itself in my memory.
In any case.
Now that I had her name, I could be certain.
This woman was Reika. The woman who would become the continent's greatest mage.
Once I knew that, what I had to do was extremely simple.
"Yes, Miss Reika. We belong to the Aethers Army and were in the middle of maintaining public order on the streets. If you would like, we can quietly escort you to your residence so that you do not suffer any further trouble—without drawing other people's eyes."
"……!"
The offer to 'quietly escort her' got a reaction.
Shall I dangle the bait a little more?
"Please don't feel burdened. Ensuring the safety of the territory's residents is essentially the reason we exist."
"That's right. You need not be so wary of us."
Fortunately Irene beside me matched my words perfectly.
I always felt this way, but having someone who kept perfect pace with me at the critical moment was endlessly reassuring.
"Is…… that so……?"
Reika carefully gauged my expression, seemed to think something over, then—
slowly nodded and spoke.
"Then…… p-please take care of me."
She really is the bashful type, isn't she.
When I controlled Reika in the game I only ever had her fling magic around. I never knew what kind of person she actually was, so this side of her felt surprisingly fresh.
We let her walk ahead and followed behind the entire way—
and she kept glancing around as if constantly on guard against her surroundings.
Did she have some reason for that?
I wanted to ask in detail…… but pressing too hard on a first meeting risked ruining everything.
Keep the first meeting as natural as possible.
There was no need to rush.
I would be staying with the Aethers Army for the time being, and if she lived inside this castle, opportunities to meet her would only increase.
We had not been following her for long when—
we arrived in front of a rather spacious mansion with a large garden.
"Th…… this is the place."
She lives somewhere this nice?
I had already guessed from the expensive-looking clothes she wore.
Apparently the Reika of this world line was not an orphan.
Had she been adopted into a wealthy family?
I offered a simple farewell.
"From now on we will patrol even more thoroughly so that you never have to experience something like this again. Please take care of yourself."
"Y-yes……! Um, th-thank you both so, so much. Then……!"
With that, Reika disappeared into the mansion.
Only then did Irene turn to me with a question.
"Swen. Do you know her?"
"No. This is the first time we've met."
I knew of her, of course, but seeing her actual face for the first time meant it wasn't a lie.
"Is that so. It felt as if you were dealing with someone you already knew."
……You're sharper than I expected, Lady Irene.
"Still, Swen, I've come to see you in a new light."
"Pardon?"
"When something like that happens on the street, most people simply ignore it and walk past. You didn't."
Irene said that, then continued in a rather enthusiastic voice.
"Good. I really must stay by your side at all times after all."
"How did you reach that conclusion?"
"Because if I hadn't been there, you might have been hurt."
"……."
Honestly.
If it had come down to pure martial strength against those thugs…… I would have lost.
The reason I could speak so confidently was partly because I was an officer of the Aethers Army……
but half of it was also the certainty that Irene beside me would protect me.
"I'm simply glad I could be of help to you. Heh."
Irene kept smiling as if something delighted her endlessly.
Was being useful to me really that joyful for her?
"Shall we head back?"
"Yes. It's been a while—I feel like having a cup of tea today."
"I'd like that."
And so I returned with Irene to our new home.
"Lady Reika. I'll keep the fact that you snuck out a secret, but you must never do this again. If the master finds out there will be real trouble. Understood?"
"……."
After returning home, Reika apologized over and over to the head maid who was scolding her, then went back to her room, lay on the bed, hugged her pillow, and sank into thought.
Sneaking out against her adoptive father's strict orders to stay inside had been fine—
but she had never imagined she would run into thugs of all people.
She could have handled those thugs somehow with the weight of her name, but doing so would have exposed the fact that she had gone out in secret.
Stuck between those two options—she had met him.
He was really handsome…… that man.
The white-haired man who had saved her.
And the red-haired woman beside him had been more than enough to stir Reika's heart as well.
Watching a woman cut down thugs in a single stroke had been incredibly cool.
Both of them were exactly the ideal man and woman she had always pictured in her mind.
If they both belonged to the Aethers Army, could she ask her adoptive father to arrange a meeting?
But the moment the thought formed, a wave of helplessness washed over her.
There was no way her adoptive father would grant a personal request that had nothing to do with her training.
She knew perfectly well that living in this fine house without worrying about food was entirely thanks to him……
yet spending every day locked inside a cage was still unbearably stifling.
Of course she did not want to return to her old life, where the risk of starving to death had been constant…… but lately even that resolve had begun to waver.
Wandering the streets had been free, after all—truly free.
"For the time being, focus solely on purifying and controlling mana without any outside contact. When the time comes I will lift the ban on going out. Understood?"
She turned her adoptive father's words over in her mind.
She herself understood how important it was to sense "mana" and freely command this power.
If this power could bring peace to the continent, she wanted to do it willingly.
But…… being alone was far too lonely and desolate.
A life spent endlessly detecting something drifting through the air was simply too boring and exhausting.
……I hope I can meet them again.
And so, still unable to fill the emptiness in her heart, she once more made a wish that seemed destined never to come true.
Time flowed on once more, and three weeks later.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes."
Irene and I rose early and prepared to go to the royal castle.
Our first council meeting as members of the Aethers Army.
In a way, it was our debut.
"Let's walk side by side, Lady Irene. Openly, proudly."
Irene grasped the true meaning behind my words and smiled.
"Yes, Swen."
And so, making it abundantly clear to anyone watching that we were companions—
we set out toward Valharat Royal Castle.