69. Reward
69. Reward
"Eli! Are you hurt anywhere? Does anything ache? You didn’t breathe in too much Demonic Energy, did you? I heard there were aftereffects from the battle—are you feeling better now? You weren’t scared? Why is your body so weak? Is it because you’ve stopped training? Are the aftereffects that severe?"
As if handling a glasswork that might shatter at the slightest mistake, my father carefully pulled me into his arms.
Then, not knowing what to do with himself, he fussed over me, checking every part of my body.
"You've lost weight again in just that one month. Are you eating properly? Does the academy food not suit your taste? I'll have to send the chef from the main house to the academy. No one's bullying you at the academy, right? Is your bed uncomfortable? You might have nightmares. It was your first time encountering a Demon, so our Eli might be traumatized."
My father carried the now-familiar scent of home. Beneath it, perhaps because he'd rushed over, I could also smell faint traces of dust and sweat.
"Still, I'm relieved. I'm relieved..."
"Uh..."
I hadn't expected him to worry this much.
So, I was incredibly... flustered, and also...
My body felt strangely restless.
Like that, I listened to my father's worries for a while, paid attention to the broken door of the reception room, glanced at Kerion, who was smiling bitterly...
"...I-it's been a while."
I quietly raised my arms and hugged my father back as he knelt there holding me.
At that, flinch. My father's body trembled.
"I missed you, my daughter..."
"Mm..."
It was a little cringeworthy.
But still... since he seemed to have come straight here without sleeping a wink, pat-pat—with my small hands, I patted my father's enormous back.
"I-I missed you too."
My father sniffled.
*****
Only after another thirty minutes had passed did my father roughly compose his emotions.
The reception room door... somehow got fixed.
My father, who had grumbled about how the door was so flimsy that the kids might get hurt, folded the door hinges with his bare hands, drove in the bolts, and straightened out the dented door.
Kerion too, and my father too.
The collateral-family vermin I'd seen here too.
Everyone in Eustetia seems to be tall and big-built, so I don't know why I'm this small.
Still, well... it doesn't matter much.
Once I reach Tier 7, I'll undergo Body Reformation into the most ideal body in my head.
My sex won't change, but this damnably small height and build will get resolved somehow.
Will it end up roughly similar to Arisa's body?
Since the strongest and most ideal Martial Artist is Arisa and no one else.
...Even so, that's before reaching Tier 7.
I'll have to live in this body for roughly two or three more years, though.
Tsk-tsk—I rolled a Kaiyer candy around in my mouth and glanced at my father sitting across from me.
Earlier his complexion had been poor, his face like a man about to die, but now he was beaming.
"Should Daddy buy you another drink?"
"Mm. I'm fine. More importantly, Father, did you come straight here without sleeping? That whole distance...?"
"How could I sleep when my daughter was in danger? Still, your dad is tougher than he looks, so don’t worry."
"...Yes."
I nodded for now, but for someone claiming to be fine, the shadows under his eyes hung long.
...Kerion too, and Father too—is there something busy going on in the family?
"Is Mother well?"
"Yes. She’s well. She originally wanted to come along, but... with me away, your mother couldn’t leave as well, so she couldn’t join me. So I hope you won’t feel too hurt. Your mother was terribly worried about you too."
"Yes. I won't feel hurt. Rather... mm..."
I'd been about to say that Father, as the head of the family, ought to be the one holding his post, but I just shut my mouth.
Still, he'd come since dawn without sleeping a wink, so saying something like that would be a bit... you know.
"I'm glad she's doing well."
So I just nodded and changed the subject.
"I heard about the Forbidden Archive."
Even at the abruptly changed topic, Father and Kerion nodded without any sign of surprise.
"You mean the matter of someone from our family going in together."
"Yes."
I rolled the candy around in my mouth and looked at Father.
His expression was still serene.
Staying serene even at a sudden question meant he'd expected it. So I just asked.
"Is that really okay?"
"Which part are you asking about?"
"...It's the imperial family, after all. Won't doing that for no good reason cause problems?"
A quiet smile settled on Father's face.
"As long as you’re safe, Eli, I don’t care about anything else."
Before those feelings—with no pretense, no lies, no negative emotion whatsoever, nothing but sincerity—
I couldn't say a single word.
It was a very strange feeling.
Not exactly welcome, but then again... not something I wanted to push away, either.
Staying still made my body restless, so I popped one more candy into my mouth for no reason.
My cheeks puffed up with the two candies that wouldn't dissolve easily.
"...I wouldn't mind... going in alone."
"Don't worry, Eli."
Whether I said that or not, Father thumped his chest with his huge fist—thump-thump—and laughed.
"All you need to do is trust your dad."
"...Yes. Still, um... don't push yourself too hard."
Father smiled brightly, and I—chew-chew—divided the candy that had gathered on one cheek between both cheeks and made a choice that the me of my Past Life wouldn't have made.
"Mm... there's something I've been keeping secret."
I intended to tell him what I knew and had experienced.
Of course, as the vice-commander of Nameless, he might already know most of the information, but still, it was better than keeping my mouth shut.
Family.
I didn't want my family—the people who worried about me—to get hurt.
"Two days before enrollment, there was a battle with some Black Wizards."
Father's expression hardened, and Kerion's gaze sharpened.
"I never heard anything like that from Sara."
"I asked her to keep it secret. In case... you'd worry for no reason. I'm sorry."
Father, who had kept his mouth firmly shut for a moment, tapped the table with his large fingers—tap-tap—then asked carefully.
"...Eli. Did you fight directly?"
"Yes. Stella... um, there's a friend I got close to during the Entrance Exam, and she almost died. So I had no choice but to step in... I did."
"What about Sara and Eurasia?"
"I told Sara to stay at the lodging, and I sent Eurasia away. So please don't scold the two of them. I did it on my own."
I had wanted to personally look into what secrets House Verheigen held, whether they had joined hands with Black Wizards, and matters related to that.
But if Sara and Eurasia had been with me, that kind of interrogation wouldn't have happened. Though there was nothing to interrogate anyway, since Stella had nearly died.
Anyway, just as I was agonizing over how to explain the reason I'd sent Sara and Eurasia away—
"...So what happened?"
Father asked only about the outcome of that incident.
"I killed one, and one escaped."
For a moment, Kerion's and Father's breathing stopped.
Thanks to that, a cold silence settled over the reception room that had been wrapped in a cozy atmosphere.
It was an abruptly changed atmosphere, but it was an expected result, so it didn't bother me.
Therefore, I continued speaking as if nothing was wrong.
How Stella had been injured, and with Sara's help we'd gone to the cathedral together.
How after Stella's treatment was finished, I'd returned to that spot to hand the corpse over to the knight order.
And how the snake had chewed up and swallowed that corpse.
When my words ended.
Father's and Kerion's expressions were extremely stiff.
Whether they were shocked that I had killed someone, whether they thought this incident was connected to the Labyrinth affair, or whether it was something else I hadn't predicted.
I couldn't know, but I opened my mouth again.
"And... while fighting the Demon inside the Labyrinth, I heard information that there's something underground."
Except for the source of the information.
I decided to hide the matters of the spirit and Pina.
It might have been different four hundred years ago, but as far as I knew, in the present world spirits were exceedingly rare and important beings. So Pina, the Beastkin monarch who could communicate with such a spirit, could only be an even more extraordinary existence.
Leona knew that too, so she must be hiding it.
Pina too... must be hiding it because she didn't know what would happen to her.
So I felt it was best to hide it.
No matter that they were family, I didn't want to do anything that could bring harm to Pina and possibly even Leona.
"...Underground?"
Father's expression was still stiffly frozen, and Kerion, though a little bewildered, posed a question to me.
"Yes. Beneath the Imperial Capital... whether it's the sewers or what, I don't know... but anyway, I heard muttering that there's something there."
It was the information Sparkle had told me.
That there was something ominous beneath the Empire's capital that the current me could do nothing about.
So I said it outright like this.
I didn't know if they'd believe everything I said, but still... the danger of Kerion or someone else going alone and dying would be greatly reduced.
At the very least, they'd be on guard.
"Is... is that true?"
"Yes. Well... I don't know what Nameless is looking for, but still, I'm telling you because I thought that if you go underground, you might at least find some clue."
And, perhaps.
The Black Wizard who had attacked Stella.
It might be connected to the 'snake.'
"So, Uncle, don't go alone, and don't send Nameless members alone either—I think it'd be best to go as prepared as possible."
There was still something I had to say, but I paused for now.
With Father's expression growing increasingly grave, and Kerion's expression as if harboring complicated feelings.
I thought I should give the two of them time to think.
After a moment of that.
Kerion let out a troubled sigh, shook his head, and looked at me.
No, precisely, he looked behind me.
Was there someone behind me?
"What will you do?"
I turned my head to follow that gaze.
There, clad in a pitch-black uniform and coat.
Wearing a pure-white mask.
"Commander."
The commander of Nameless was standing there.