133. Hero Fanatic
133. Hero Fanatic
We shared a great many stories, and as the night deepened, it came time to part ways.
"That was... a truly wonderful time."
The Flame Emperor, her eyes swollen from all the crying, smiled brightly.
"Yes. For me as well."
That wasn't just a perfunctory answer. I meant it.
It couldn't be helped—every time I said something, she reacted differently and with such amazement that I ended up genuinely rambling on.
I nearly went so far as to say things I shouldn't have.
If she'd been aiming for that, then the Flame Emperor is a truly terrifying person.
"Perhaps... this Flame Emperor may have received more from you than she gave..."
"All I did was tell you stories I... picked up somewhere. It's nothing. Don't worry about it."
"Do not dismiss them as mere stories picked up somewhere. Here and there, they matched scenes from the past that this Flame Emperor has witnessed with her own power. That is to say, their reliability is more than sufficient."
"Well... then. Sure. That's a relief."
The Flame Emperor smiled, and I smiled too.
Then she reached into her bosom and pulled out five small slips of paper, handing them to me.
"Want me to sign them for you?"
The Flame Emperor blinked a couple of times, then burst out laughing—pfft!
"Well, that would be fine too, but these are not papers for that purpose. Did this Flame Emperor not grant you wish vouchers? To use one, you would surely have to meet this Flame Emperor. These papers are the means for that."
"These?"
I took the papers and wrapped Mana around my eyes.
There was something... they seemed to have undergone some kind of magical treatment, but it was high-level magic beyond what my eyes could discern.
"Indeed. If you tear one of these completely, this Flame Emperor will know that the paper has been torn and where. Then this Flame Emperor can come to that location."
"Oh..."
"You need only meet this Flame Emperor that way and tell her your wish."
"Aren't you going out of your way to travel all that distance just to grant me one little thing?"
At my question, the Flame Emperor smiled in a way that suited her age for the first time and reached out her hand.
But only for a moment—she hesitated, withdrew the hand that had been reaching toward my head, and spoke.
"It is no trouble. Eliarnes, you are more than qualified to summon this Flame Emperor."
Had she wanted to pat my head?
I'm not... particularly fond of that either.
Well, except when my mother does it, I tend to dislike it, so I can't exactly offer.
"What if you're far away, Flame Emperor?"
"For this Flame Emperor, 17 hours is enough to travel from Ge Vihenum to the Imperial Capital. However, if you say it is urgent, this Flame Emperor will send her spirit body."
"A spirit body... isn't that a fragment of your soul?"
"It is. A fragment of the soul, separated from the whole."
"What would you do if you went to all that trouble and lost the spirit body?"
If you lose a spirit body, your existential rank drops.
A drop in rank means the same thing as your Tier or Circle decreasing.
I couldn't tell exactly what Realm the Flame Emperor had reached, but if she injured or lost a spirit body, she would suffer no small damage.
In the first place, separating a spirit body means carving away at your soul, so if it were destroyed, the pain would be absolutely horrific. I know that pain very well.
"I've heard that hurts like hell..."
The Flame Emperor chuckled—heh heh—and shook her head.
"Even if it is a spirit body, it is this Flame Emperor's spirit body. Unless one has reached Tier 7, they will not even perceive the spirit body's existence. And even if they did notice and tried to harm it, they could never match its speed."
"You've done this a lot, I take it?"
"This is the first time."
"...Hm. I'll use them well in advance so I never need one in an emergency."
"You need not feel burdened."
"For mere paper, these are awfully heavy."
Giggling—kik kik—I took one of the five pure-white slips and tore it—riiiip.
The Flame Emperor startled at the action.
"Hm?! Why—why did you tear it?"
"I'm using one right now."
"Oh? I see. Very well. Tell this Flame Emperor your wish."
The reason I'd asked for the wish vouchers to be increased to two.
Somehow they'd become five, but anyway.
The reason I'd asked for two was just one thing.
"Flame Emperor, you're a Wizard, right?"
"Hm, that is so."
"You didn't only learn fire-type magic—your Intent adds flames to all magic, right?"
"Rather than added, it is more that they are changed into flames, but yes. Understanding it that way is fine."
"Okay. Then I'll state my request... no, my wish."
Wondering just what would happen, I parted my lips.
*****
Sunday, the last day of the weekend.
A day when everyone leisurely sleeps in.
Stella is busy.
Because early in the morning, Eliarnes sent her a message telling her to come out to the Imperial Capital's plaza!
Why? All of a sudden? At this hour? On the weekend?
She's skipping morning exercise to meet me?
Just in case, Stella messaged Eurasia and Pina to ask what they were doing in the morning, and received replies saying they were going to exercise.
Then what about me?
I'm meeting Eliarnes...!
"Oh my god... why? Why is she doing this?"
She was happy, yet troubled.
Her heart felt soft and floaty, yet also sank.
She's not the type to do this.
Eliarnes is always prickly and wild.
And that Eliarnes had lied to everyone else and sent her a message asking to meet.
Why on earth?
No, but... she also felt she shouldn't think of it only that way. Lately, she'd been giving off a feeling of having softened and gentled, at least a little.
Though "lately" really just meant since that... night they spent in the same bed, but anyway.
Eliarnes had changed.
"...Still, she's not the type to do this."
No point agonizing over it here.
Having reached that conclusion, Stella resumed applying her makeup.
Of course, Stella's head had reached a conclusion, but indecisive Stella's heart had not.
The endless agonizing continued.
And so an hour passed.
Thinking that her makeup had gone on especially well today, she smiled with satisfaction. All that remained now was perfume.
She'd already put on her clothes before doing her makeup.
Wearing something thin to see Eliarnes snap would be nice too, but today she dressed fairly neatly.
A white tee and jeans.
She wore black underwear, letting it show through just slightly. Just the tiniest bit.
Now all she needed was to spray on perfume, and she'd be perfect.
"...She doesn't like strong scents."
She set down the perfume she usually used and picked up the new one Eurasia had gifted her.
The label said it smelled like laundry that had just been finished.
"Yeah... out of what I have, this is the most natural."
What she had amounted to just two bottles, but Stella didn't care about that.
Spritz spritz spritz—
Not too strong. But not too faint either.
After spraying moderately here and there.
She sprayed—spritz!—toward the sky, then scurried—tot tot—to where the droplets were falling.
Again, spritz! Tot tot—spritz! Tot tot—
This way, the scent would soak nicely into her hair too.
Having finished her preparations with satisfaction, Stella put on the sneakers Eliarnes had bought her—out of the two pairs of shoes she owned—and stepped out of her room.
The sky was clear, and the air was cool.
A spring breeze blew, and the leaves swayed along with it. The pleasant sound of rustling—shaaa—was joined by the fluttering of butterfly wings.
"Heuheu. Heuhit..."
Stella, who had been grinning stupidly at the scenery, snapped—jolt!—back to her senses.
"...Why am I so happy?"
She didn't know.
She'd definitely disliked Eliarnes, so how could a single message telling her to come out make her feel this good?
"Umm..."
A friend. Is it because she's a friend? Because it feels like... monopolizing a friend?
Monopolizing... monopolizing. Rather than monopolizing... is it because meeting her in secret from everyone else feels like a special meeting?
Special.
"A special... friend."
That's... entirely possible.
Twice, no less. Once was the Entrance Exam labyrinth, but anyway—they'd gone through two labyrinths together.
In an enclosed space, just the two of them, matching their steps, matching their hearts, they'd done incredible things.
Was that all?
Eliarnes and Stella shared a secret known only to the two of them.
Right.
Eliarnes and I are special friends...!
The first friend Stella had ever made in her life was Eliarnes.
And... the first special friend she'd ever made in her life was also her.
Wandering around the Imperial Capital alone with that special friend was also a first.
"...Heehee."
Stella, who had been running her happiness circuits at full blast while watching the butterflies fluttering about, moved her now-very-light steps.
Like that, she left the academy, passed through the bustling Imperial Capital, and arrived at the plaza.
Eliarnes wasn't visible yet.
It wasn't that there were too many people to see her.
Considering her hair color, her small stature, her slender frame, and her pretty... face, she should have been the first thing Stella saw.
But she wasn't visible.
That meant she hadn't arrived yet.
Which made sense, since Stella had come out a full 30 minutes before the appointed time.
Because she was excited and looking forward to it, because she didn't want to keep her waiting on such a day, because the weather was nice, because the sunlight was warm and the scent of spring was lovely.
All sorts of reasons came to mind, but Stella, rationalizing that it was ultimately thanks to her own diligence, sat down on a bench with a faint smile.
And at that moment.
She felt the heat she'd felt the other day.
Not hot, but a strangely warming heat.
A feeling as though the morning—clearly morning—had grown brighter than morning.
And, foreign Mana.
It didn't take long to recall where she'd felt this before.
The Flame Emperor.
It was the Flame Emperor's presence.
She immediately rose from her seat and looked around.
And then.
"You have good senses."
"Eek?!"
She heard the Flame Emperor's blunt, low voice.
It came from behind her. Stella gripped the emergency wand hidden in her bosom tightly and turned around.
Sure enough, the Flame Emperor stood there.
But her expression was different from the other day.
Somehow... flushed, excited, and troubled.
"...F-Flame Emperor?"
"Hm. It is the Flame Emperor. And you are..."
The Flame Emperor's eyes narrowed.
"Stella Verheigen. Correct?"
"...Y-yes, that's right."
Verheigen, Verheigen.
The Flame Emperor, who had been murmuring Stella's surname, nodded slightly and spoke.
"From today, this Flame Emperor shall become your master."
Master? The Flame Emperor? Mine? Today? What?
Stella, unable to comprehend the Flame Emperor's words all at once, blinked.
"...Excuse me?"
"From today, this Flame Emperor shall become Stella Verheigen's master."
"Why, why...? Why?"
Countless thoughts raced through Stella's mind.
The first thing that surfaced among them was Akasha.
Was the Flame Emperor, like the other Demons, after the unknowable Akasha?
How long had it been since Eliarnes had gone so far to save her, and now she was being kidnapped again?
Even so.
No matter how much of a Flame Emperor she was, Stella couldn't just let herself be kidnapped.
She prepared the magic most capable of drawing attention.
Stella's strength was Silent Casting. Silent Casting had the advantage of concealing the magic's preparation process from the opponent.
Among the magic she could handle, she called to mind the strongest spell she could complete with Silent Casting.
Mana circulated rapidly through the acupoints, now clean and free of impurities. Rings formed. Four rings in total. The fiercely rotating rings compressed the Mana and brought forth magic.
And just as Stella's hand stretched toward the sky—
"Magic? Hm... let me say this first: this Flame Emperor has not come to harm you. Have you, perhaps, not heard from Eliarnes?"
The Flame Emperor flicked her finger.
The four rings vanished.
Along with them, the magic vanished too.
"...E-Eliarnes...? What do you mean?"
There was no time to be shocked that her magic had been undone in an instant. Why was Eliarnes's name coming out of the Flame Emperor's mouth?
That filled Stella's mind completely.
"This Flame Emperor becoming your master is a contract made through Eliarnes's wish voucher."
"Master...? Wish voucher...? Contract?"
"Hm, how strange. Stella Verheigen. If you had heard nothing at all, how is it that you came to this place?"
"Well, obviously..."
She recalled the message from Eliarnes she'd seen the moment she opened her eyes that morning.
[Morning, by 9, Imperial Capital, plaza, c'mon,,,^^b]
There had been no mention of meeting.