93. A Sensitive Day
93. A Sensitive Day
Silence settled over the room.
In the stillness, the only sound was the bright chirping of a bird outside the window.
I looked down at the paper on the floor again.
I picked it up and examined its contents closely.
[The Secret of House Eustetia.]
It was far more detailed than the memoir I had seen in the Forbidden Archive—the one recording Arisa's movements after she returned to the Empire.
What had ended as personal speculation in that memoir was recorded here as established fact.
And on the very last page.
There was only a single sentence.
[The current House Eustetia does not carry the blood of the Hero Arisa Eustetia.]
What the hell is going on here?
Why is this in Stella's room?
Has she read it?
She must have, since she hid it.
When did she read it?
Last year? Early this year?
It was the year 956 on the Imperial Calendar.
According to the information Silina brought me, the collateral branch met with the Black Wizard two years ago.
So did Stella find out back then too? Is that why she knew about me at the start of the semester?
Then why did she call me into this room?
Blackmail? Me? Why now, of all times?
The timing was too perfect.
I was chasing this exact issue, and I'd found this in Stella's room.
Is someone pulling her strings?
I raised my gaze and looked at Stella.
I didn't know what expression I was wearing.
But Stella, meeting my eyes, began trembling violently. Tears welled up in her eyes, and her voice came out thick and wet.
"...E-Eliarnes."
"I'm listening. Talk."
"Right now... I don't know what you're thinking, but... f-first of all... first, it's a... a m-misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?"
A misunderstanding? What exactly is she calling a misunderstanding?
Is she saying it's a misunderstanding that I'm not a descendant of the Hero?
Is she saying it's a misunderstanding that she might have possessed this information and spread it?
Is she saying it's a misunderstanding that I might think she's in league with the collateral branch?
Is she saying it's a misunderstanding that she might have joined hands with Demons?
Should I kill her here? Even if I don't kill her, should I subdue her and extract information?
I moved toward Stella.
I flung the paper in my hand to the floor. The Mana-infused paper tore into fine shreds. The pieces scattered in the breeze, then caught against the wind barrier between Stella and me.
I reached out and—crrrack!—tore through the barrier.
Drops of blood seeped into the torn barrier.
Blood ran outside my clenched fist, and inside it too.
I opened my hand and squeezed the flowing blood.
"Hey."
At my call, Stella looked at me with tear-filled eyes.
"How much do you know?"
"...What about you?"
Stella bit down on her lower lip, scrubbed roughly at the tears running down her face, and glared at me.
"I-I... I... this thing, the one you just found. I... I organized my own guesses about it... That's why I called you here. To tell you."
"And how am I supposed to believe—"
"Right! You wouldn't believe me. I wouldn't believe me either! Because you found the thing I hid before I could say anything. But... but I... I really, I was... I was w-worried about you, so... h-hic... worried...! I called you here to tell you... h-hic..."
I narrowed my eyes and glared at Stella as she rambled.
Tears dripped from her indigo eyes. Clear teeth marks remained on the lower lip she'd bitten, and her clenched fists trembled pitifully.
Should I believe her? Those words, right now?
Am I being too suspicious? Like Silina said—am I pathologically paranoid?
What was the first resolution I made after reincarnating into this body?
To beat the Demon King to death?
No.
There was a resolution I made before that.
To never trust humans.
It wasn't because Kaloso betrayed me.
I'd made that vow long before.
Not just me—all of us had.
I—we—were betrayed by humans countless times.
It was a world where the war was going badly, where humans were dying by the minute.
In that world, countless humans took the Demons' hands. Humans deceived humans, betrayed them, killed them, sold them out.
Because of that.
Luna's body bore scars whose pain never faded. Every night, Arisa suffered phantom pains from the marks of torture. Paulo developed a mental illness, and Kaloso lost an eye.
And I—I was a terminal case with less than fifteen years left.
So we resolved to never trust humans again.
And yet.
"...Who did you get this information from?"
Why am I making this choice?
Is it because I've become a woman?
Have I become more emotionally honest, like a girl this age? Have I gone soft?
My stomach churns. A truly shitty feeling fouls my insides. Emotions I can't even control raise their heads and mock me.
I ground my teeth and asked again.
"Talk. Who did you hear it from?"
"...H-hic... I-I don't know."
"Ha..."
I expected that.
I figured she wouldn't know who the source of this information was even if I asked.
But I did learn one thing: the source of the information from [Uranos] and the source of the information Stella claimed to have heard from were the same person.
"Fine, then... tell me step by step. When, where, who, and how you got that information."
"...You believe me...?"
"I don't know yet. I'll listen and decide."
Stella glared at me with red, swollen eyes.
"And if you don't believe me? Are you going to hit me?"
A hollow laugh escaped me at the absurd question.
"Stop talking nonsense and start explaining."
"...Okay. First, let me heal you."
Her fingers were still trembling. She traced them through the air. Violet Mana bloomed from her fingertips and wrapped around my hand, producing a refreshing sensation.
Not stopping there, the remaining Mana spread through the room and swept the blood drops on the floor out the window.
She'd reached the 4th Circle, and her magical Realm had clearly risen noticeably.
"There, all done... huh? Hey! You...!"
Stella, who had been about to speak again, opened her eyes wide and stared at me.
She was looking at me... but her gaze was directed downward.
"What, what now—"
I followed Stella's eyes and looked down too.
Stomach... legs? Crotch?
Where the hell is she looking...
"Ah, fuck."
*****
"How insensitive can you be to not even notice that blood flowing?"
While Eli showered, Stella went to her own room and brought back underwear, a change of clothes, and sanitary pads.
"...It just suddenly started."
Now that Eli had finished showering, Stella was using magic to conjure warm air and gently drying her hair.
"Suddenly? So do you usually have a heavy flow?"
"What kind of... how would I know if it's heavy or light? I've never seen or asked anyone else about theirs."
Eli's pouting face was reflected in the mirror as she answered. Stella, watching quietly, felt a strange sense of dissonance.
What is it? What's wrong? Eli is strange today.
She had called Eli over to tell her what she'd thought about and organized and guessed regarding the information Eli had seen and gotten angry about.
But instead, Eli had shown up with food.
Warm seaweed soup, rice mixed with various herbs and such, side dishes. And sweet-and-sour snacks.
On top of that, while Stella ate, Eli cleaned the room. She aired it out, beat the blankets, gathered and threw out the trash, and organized things.
Of course, after that, when she discovered the paper Stella had hidden, she'd radiated a killing intent so chilling it made Stella's skin crawl—but that had only lasted a moment.
What had Eli's expression been like then?
Stella briefly replayed the memory.
Betrayal.
The moment she found that information, what had shown on Eli's face was a profound sense of betrayal.
Betrayal was an emotion you could only feel toward someone you trusted. And Eli had seemed to feel betrayed by Stella.
That made Stella feel both pleased and strange.
The Eli she knew wasn't someone who showed her emotions so openly.
But today, she'd carried a strangely soft atmosphere and displayed uncharacteristically intense emotions.
Was all of that... because of her period?
Stella, lost in thought, lowered her gaze again to Eli's face reflected in the mirror.
Cheeks slightly flushed from the shower.
Tired-looking eyes, lips pressed firmly shut.
Labored breathing, and the delicate lines of her neck and shoulders.
It was a sight she'd never once seen from the Eli she'd known until now.
And that wasn't all. Eli, who always sat with her legs spread wide when she sat in a chair, was now sitting with her legs demurely together.
Her hands rested neatly folded on her knees, and a white hair tie was wrapped around each wrist.
Even as a fellow woman, Stella couldn't help but admire it—a perfect woman... or rather, a girl.
On top of that, she was now wearing an expression faintly tinged with pain, as if her cramps were severe.
A small, delicate girl making that kind of face naturally exuded a pitiful air.
A sight that instinctively made you want to protect her.
Was she the type to become docile when she was in pain?
Was this the power of hormones?
Stella, purely curious, decided to poke at Eli a little.
She was curious how Eli would react if she scratched at her like usual.
"I don't flow like you do. And I barely get cramps either. Jealous?"
"Stop talking nonsense and think about how you're going to explain."
Her tone was as sharp as ever, but her voice was endlessly weak. Her expression too. She wasn't frowning naturally—it looked forced.
So it was just cute.
Eliarnes... cute?
That sharp-tongued, ill-mannered brat?
Stella herself was startled by the thought that had arisen in her own head.
"What's there to organize? I've got nothing to hide. So where exactly have you been running around and what have you been doing, that some stranger whose identity I don't even know would give me information like that? You went around telling me not to do bad things, but you're out there stirring up trouble everywhere yourself, huh?"
"People as impressive as me naturally have a lot of enemies."
Eli smiled infuriatingly.
"How obnoxious."
She said it was obnoxious, but today it was fairly tolerable.
Not a snicker, but a giggle.
Her laughter was softer than usual, and pleasant to hear.
"Geniuses are naturally obnoxious."
"You're annoying too. Your personality's filthy. Your mouth is foul. You've got no manners, and you throw punches at the drop of a hat. How can a ducal lady act like that?"
"I'm bleeding out my cunt right now and I'm fucking sensitive, so if you keep running your mouth you're really in for it."
The voice Eli let out wasn't as threatening as usual, but her word choice was horrifying.
Eli was Eli, after all.
A person didn't change just because they were in a little pain.
"B-bleeding out your...? Wh-what kind of insane thing is that to say?! You're crazy! Can't you speak nicely?!"
Stella, who had been glaring at Eli with a deeply shocked expression, hesitated for a moment before slowly opening her mouth.
"But... are you okay?"
It had been bothering her for a while now.
Eli was already in bad shape, and hearing that fact must have made things harder than usual.
But none of it showed on the outside.
There was only the sense of betrayal toward Stella—she didn't seem shocked at all about the secret of House Eustetia.
So Stella was even more worried.
Just because someone didn't show it didn't mean they were fine.
"What?"
"...That."
Eli couldn't tell what "that" meant, but since there wasn't anything particularly wrong with her right now, she nodded.
Seeing that nod, Stella flinched in surprise.
Why does she actually seem fine?
Is she the kind of person who doesn't care what happens to her family?
Was Eliarnes some kind of heartless brat?
"You're not... shocked or anything?"
"I already knew."
"...Huh?"
"I said I already knew. I saw it in the Forbidden Archive."
Stella's eyes went wide.
"...The Forbidden Archive? Then... then that means that information was real?!"
"Yeah. It's real."
"C-can you just say that? No, wait—saying you saw something or found something in the Forbidden Archive... is that even allowed?"
"Neither of those should be said."
"Hey! Then why are you saying them!"
"As long as you keep your mouth shut, there's no problem. And what's the point of keeping it secret now? Someone else already knows."
"But still, I—"
"There's someone besides you. Or at least, I think there is."
"What...? What do you mean, 'you think there is'?"
"I don't have solid proof yet. But from what I can tell, it's practically certain."
Stella's eyes widened as she drew in a breath, then she fell into thought for a moment before her brow furrowed sharply.
"...No way?"
"Shivria Eustetia."
The instant Eli said Shivria's name, she studied Stella's eyes through the mirror.
Aside from shock, there was no particular reaction.
...So Stella really did call me here because she was worried about me?
"Th-that... the one from the training hall, the one who did that to us, right?"
"Yeah."
"Oh my god... so that's why she's like that to you?"
"Well, probably."
Eli released the tension she'd been holding in her body.
Her whole body ached as if she'd come down with body aches.
And she decided that Stella probably hadn't schemed anything.
"But... wouldn't it be better not to show it, then? I mean, if that senior had been nice to us, we never would have guessed this, right?"
"Right."
Eli nodded and touched her hair.
It was mostly dry.
Magic really was convenient.
With an Artifact, it would have taken three times as long.
Privately thinking she should have learned magic after all, she tied her hair into twin tails with the hair tie she'd had around her wrist.
Then she turned around to face Stella.
"Now talk. Everything that happened."