I Comforted Lucy
The Sealing Enforcers of the Magic Tower were bound by a rule: no matter how high-ranking the noble, they never bowed their heads to anyone except the masters of the seven magic towers and the Emperor.
No one was allowed to interfere with the mission of the Magic Tower’s sealing enforcers.
Because their duty was to watch over and seal every possibility that could threaten the empire’s survival, they had carved that principle into their souls.
Even so, the reason the enforcers had knelt in the yard and waited quietly until Lucy woke up was surely not only because she had saved their lives.
“……”
Behemoth looked down at them with terrifying eyes.
They sensed it instinctively.
The black armor covering Behemoth’s entire body could not be pierced even by a Swordmaster’s blade, and the level of the monstrosity called Behemoth, who denied providence itself, would swallow even an archmage’s magic.
They could not feel a trace of mana from him.
And yet there was some indescribable, ominous thing sleeping endlessly within him.
It was an overwhelming, crushing presence.
The enforcers had faced monsters larger than Behemoth before, and they had faced those with the potential to become Chosen.
Under the mission of protecting the empire, they had always gone forward without fear. And yet a more ancient instinct, one older than the vows etched into their souls, was chewing at the feeling of dread in their hearts.
"There is an unidentified monster in the Great Forest. It is as huge as a mountain, yet it can use magic to shrink its size, and it possesses both intelligence and keen instincts."
The mana explosion.
It had shattered the Green Magic Tower’s Great Forest management system.
As a result, monsters that had once been unable to leave the Gehenna Great Forest had begun descending into imperial territory, and the lands bordering the forest were now struggling against them.
The empire’s elite ranger, Lieutenant Isabella, and her unit had received intelligence that a new monster, one never before observed in the Gehenna Great Forest, had appeared, and they had surmised that it was likely the cause of the mana explosion.
The mages of the Magic Tower agreed with Isabella’s conclusion.
The reason they had not yet been able to identify the beast was simply that they had made restoring the management system their priority.
At present, thirty percent of the system had been restored.
That was why the enforcers were able to stand unharmed in the center of the Great Forest, where mana was so densely concentrated, even in ordinary human bodies.
The enforcers instantly intuited that the Behemoth glaring at them was the source of this mana explosion Isabella had mentioned, and the unidentified monster she had described.
It was intelligent and sharp.
Despite possessing such overwhelming power, it was careful enough to be wary of pursuit by others.
“I never imagined Satania would be mixed up in this too...”
One of the eight people in the world with the most expensive necks, and a woman accused of killing high-ranking nobles, Satania—the descendant of the great demon Beelzebub and a devil who had escaped from Hell—too...
Why in the world were they together with Lucy, the sealing target?
The enforcers thought there must be horrifying things happening in the Great Forest, things they did not even want to imagine.
After all, the three people mentioned above all possessed enough power to threaten the empire’s security.
With dark expressions on their faces, the enforcers watched as Lucy and Satania walked toward them.
“Friend.”
“……? ......?”
“Yes, thanks to you I’m fine. Could I perhaps thank you later? I have a lot to talk about with these people...”
“...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ......”
Lucy opened her mouth toward the enforcers, who were still kneeling.
“There’s something I need to say to you. Would you please listen?”
What came out of her mouth after that was...
Even more difficult to understand than the language that had just come from the monster’s mouth.
“Are you really sure it’s okay to send them back like this?”
I frowned as I watched the enforcers leaving in the distance.
The reason I hadn’t looked on them kindly was simple: they had come here to harm Lucy.
According to Satania, they were mages from the human empire to the south of the Gehenna Great Forest.
Bad guys. Seriously, awful.
That was how badly Satania had reacted to them.
I didn’t know what kind of grudge the empire held against Lucy, exactly, but Satania had kept throwing out ugly words like sealing and murder, making it very clear that these people had come here to do something terrible to her.
“I’ll start with the conclusion. I don’t want to fight you.”
Lucy didn’t deny that they were her enemies, either, but even after the enforcers had pointed weapons at her, she had tried to resolve the situation through conversation instead of returning the threat in kind.
“I know you came here to harm me. I know your purpose too. But I like living in this cabin. That’s why I can’t do what you want.”
“……”
If I were in the same situation, could I really act the way Lucy did?
No way.
That much was certain.
I didn’t want to be kind to people who were trying to hurt me.
I probably would’ve smacked them down.
Honestly, I didn’t like Lucy’s approach at all.
There was no chance I could trust those people in the first place.
But Lucy was the one involved.
This time, I thought it was right to do things the way Lucy wanted.
Even Satania seemed to have trouble understanding Lucy’s choice.
She let out a long sigh, then said her goodbyes to us.
“...... ...... ... .... ..”
“Yes, if anything happens, I’ll be sure to tell you. Thank you, Satania.”
“You worked hard. Get some rest.”
I waved to Satania as she headed off toward the shrine.
“Friend.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you so much for helping me. I’m always the one receiving help from my friend. Sorry for worrying you.”
I shook my head.
“I’ve gotten a lot from Lucy too. I’m just glad I could help for once. Don’t worry about it.”
Lucy paused for a moment.
“Do you have something you want to say?”
“Can you tell?”
“Yes.”
Lucy gave me a troubled smile.
We started walking.
“Want to ride on my shoulder?”
“Is that all right?”
“Soho rides there all the time. What’s the big deal?”
I lifted Lucy lightly and set her on my shoulder.
“W-Whoa... this feels kind of scary.”
“It’s fine. I’ll keep you steady so you don’t fall.”
“Th-thank you.”
If you asked me to name the most beautiful work of art in this world, I would point to the sky without hesitation.
The sun was going down.
The sunset was a watercolor painting created by nature itself.
The whole world had been dyed a deep vermilion.
At this hour, the sun burned at its most brilliant.
And then, so it could brighten tomorrow’s sky, it hid beneath the earth and rested through the night.
Lucy and I arrived at the vast plain where that view could be seen best.
Whenever the wind blew, the reeds and grass danced with one another, and the sound of the breeze came to us like a gentle piece of music.
I wished Lucy could see this scenery too.
“Friend.”
Lucy’s voice drifted down from my shoulder.
“Yeah?”
“How do you feel whenever people are afraid of you?”
“At this point? It’s just whatever. I don’t really think about it.”
At first it had been lonely and sad, but now I had good friends around me. And besides, hadn’t I gotten close to the beastmen and the dwarves?
They all find me a little intimidating, though...
Still, maybe one day they’d come around too, just like Lucy, Satania, and Soho had.
“Then what would you do if people were so scared of you that they said, ‘That thing called a friend is too dangerous, so it has to disappear from this world!’?”
“Uh...”
Was this some kind of hypothetical game all of a sudden?
“I’d probably try to clear up the misunderstanding at first. But after that, I don’t know. If people came charging at me trying to kill me...”
I trailed off.
“If they came charging at you?”
“I might do something bad... I’m not as kind as Lucy, after all.”
Lucy clapped both hands over her mouth.
“You suddenly got scary.”
“Huh...?”
“I’m kidding.”
She laughed playfully.
“Why are you asking me something like this all of a sudden?”
“I was just curious. I kind of enjoy imagining what you’d do if you were in my situation.”
Lucy opened her blind eyes.
Her empty pupils, unable to recognize light, seemed to gaze upon the world all the same.
“Humans hate me and fear me.”
“Why?”
“They say it’s because I have the power to threaten the empire.”
The smile faded from Lucy’s lips.
Then she went on, “Can I tell you something kind of silly for a moment?”
“Yeah.”
“A very long time ago, there were special beings just like you.”
They were beings with power great enough to crush a whole kingdom with ease. People called those special beings Chosen.
“Hmm, I’m not really that impressive...”
I mean, I wasn’t some kind of X-whatever.
...Right?
“Hehe, you’re definitely the type who worries more about tomorrow morning’s menu than about conquering the world. Anyway.”
“Anyway?”
“People were afraid of those Chosen. They joined hands with the Emperor and defeated them, sealing them away. And so that Chosen would never appear in this world again, they decided that if there was even a one-percent chance of it happening, they would cut the sprout off at the root without hesitation.”
Lucy let out a quiet sigh.
“That’s why those people came to hurt me. Something about sealing away anyone who might become a Chosen...”
In my eyes, Lucy was nothing more than a normal girl.
But to human eyes, she apparently wasn’t seen that way.
“Maybe it’s because I can hear a mysterious voice, you know? I’ve got a very kind teacher who tells me how to make blankets out of fluffy flowers, and also warns me that my friend looks extremely scary.”
I had heard of it before.
The existence of that gentle voice that guided blind Lucy through the world.
Because of it, she was able to understand the world in far greater detail.
“I just want to live like this, so why are they so desperate to gobble me up? Grrr, it’s so annoying!”
Lucy thumped her arms forward in frustration.
It was a thoroughly harmless little motion.
“So Lucy gets angry too.”
“Of course I do! I was furious at those people earlier too. Honestly, there are times when I don’t even want to forgive them.”
I wiggled my pinky finger.
Lucy’s hair got all mussed up.
But she just closed her eyes again and smiled sweetly.
“Still, maybe one day they’ll understand?”
“Huh?”
“That I’m not a dangerous person, that my friend is a kind person, and that we can become friends instead of enemies.”
It suddenly came back to me: the last thing Lucy had said to them.
“So, why don’t we all think about a way forward together? A way that could satisfy everyone. I’ll think about it too, so please, think about it yourselves as well. And let’s meet again and talk. I’m sure there has to be a better way.”
I opened my mouth.
“Lucy.”
“Yes?”
“Is the pain in your chest any better?”
Lucy touched the area over her heart.
When she confirmed that the shackles that had been tormenting her were gone, she looked genuinely startled.
“I, uh, this is...”
Lucy fell silent.
Her face twisted, and she lowered her head.
Then, to the Lucy who was barely holding back her tears, I said, “You’ve had a really hard time, haven’t you?”
Lucy’s shoulders began to shake.
I gave a bitter smile.
“Someday they’ll understand. For now, I’ll keep helping you from beside you, just like this.”
“Yes...”
And so we stood beneath the sky, where the stars—black as night, yet strangely bright—replaced the sun.
Meanwhile...
“B-Behemoth-sama dropped a Cerberus meteor!!”
“Behemoth is the greatest warrior of the orcs!!”
The goblins and orcs who had witnessed the scene where Karkinos and Hippocampus were crushed to death by Cerberus burst into cheers of joy.