Why Are You Coming Out of There?

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I left the balcony and made for the banquet hall's rear door, right on time.

So much for the promise I'd made that little page. I wasn't going to keep it. The child had gone off without listening to a word I said, and just now there was something that weighed on me far more than he did.

Facing Eluis again. The moment I remembered the morning, my steps grew heavy. I had let a pointless anger boil up and treated him far too sharply.

What he had failed to trust was Louisnes. He had been perfectly kind to Ruanes, and so, as Ruanes, the least I owed him was courtesy.

Louisnes would come out when there was a blade at his throat. I didn't know when that day would be, but when it came, it would be enough.

Until then, I would apologize as Ruanes.

I went straight in through the rear door and found a room heaped with gifts, and before the pile, a tall figure.

"You're here."

"Yes."

The figure turned, as if he had sensed me.

"Are you feeling any better? You didn't look well this morning."

"Yes. I've calmed down now. And... I'm sorry. I misspoke this morning. I've been betrayed in much the same way before, and I think that's why my head simply boiled over."

"You needn't trouble yourself over it. I, too, have been betrayed by someone I trusted. I understand."

Surely he didn't mean my story? Hold, Louisnes. You don't even have a sword right now.

"Even so, I wanted to apologize."

"Is that so. You truly are sorry?"

"Yes. I truly am sorry."

Judged by the facts alone, I had been rude to a duke who had shown tremendous kindness even to a mere slave.

"If you truly are sorry, you can grant me a single request, can't you?"

"Ah... what sort of request?"

It would have been easier on the heart if he had simply worked me like a slave. Then I wouldn't have had to agonize at all — only watch for the moment to drive the blade in.

Asked this politely, I could neither stab him nor refuse him, which put me at twice the loss.

"As it happens, one enormous gift box remains."

"And so...?"

He couldn't mean—

"Get inside."

"No."

I took back everything I had just thought. Thank goodness he wasn't working me like a slave.

"Was the apology a lie?"

"Th... that's..."

"Seven million bel a month, and you've already forgotten how you leapt for joy?"

"I d-didn't leap for joy...!"

"Then surely climbing into a gift box is not beyond you?"

"I... suppose so? No, that isn't—! Why are you so fixated on that?"

"Why, you ask?"

He didn't actually know it was me, did he? Public humiliation? Whether he knew or not, it was vicious either way.

"Well..."

"Well...?"

"Because I think it would be amusing."

I had taken him for a solemn sort, unlike Elencia, but I took that back as well. The mischief had only been folded away inside.

"Ha... do I really have to?"

"If you dislike it so much, you needn't. It is only a request."

Fine. I would think of it kindly. Grit my teeth and do it once, and every debt I had run up until now could be written off.

Someone might ask how that settled anything, but springing out of a gift box before a thousand people, at the very least? I would die of shame. No question.

Counted as the price of my life, then, it was more than enough to call us even. If anything, I was the one taking the loss.

"I'll do it..."

"My thanks. Then let us prepare at once."

Couldn't you have refused me just once...?

This was a place where not a single point of light entered — a place the dark had pressed into until it was full.

And if you ask how I knew that...

Because I was inside an enormous gift box. Light had no business in a space sealed tight.

The emcee's voice rang all the way into the box, loud and clear. From the way it carried so cleanly to the ear, he was probably a rather successful bard.

"It truly looks as though the snow itself were wrought into a jewel."

Quite some time had passed since I climbed in. If they unwrapped every gift at an unveiling, it would take the whole day, so these were a selection — and even the selection was considerable.

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be many left. I could tell by the sharp sensation of being lifted.

"A high demon. That must have cost him dearly. I trust the realm's defense to you henceforth as well."

Eleven years gone, and demons still lingered? Tenacious things, as ever.

Was it my turn? The thud of being set down seemed to stand witness to the guess.

Only now that the voice was this close did I realize there was someone else besides the emcee and Eluis. It sounded like a young boy's voice, though the box made it echo strangely.

If anyone was meant to be here for the unveiling, it was probably the child they called the young master.

And yet, for a boy receiving gifts, the voice was terribly sunken. As if he had been betrayed.

It nagged at me a little, but whatever trouble that child carried was nothing beside the trouble I carried.

I hadn't trembled in the slightest when a thousand demons closed in, and yet the moment I was to be seen by a thousand people, my hands and feet had already begun to shake.

In that tension I opened my sense at once. Imagine them throwing the lid back with a bright a gift! only for me to hear the crowd go cold.

I might actually die of the shame. Better not to hear it at all.

With my sense open, the lid began to rise.

It paid no mind to the feelings in my damp palms. The lid departed with perfect indifference, and the sense that had been roughing it in that same dampness barely — just barely — picked out three figures.

Air began to spill in, and I rose with it. A voice came with the air, small, as if muttered to itself — and the source of that voice was—

"Why are you here...?"

"Wh— why are you coming out of there?!!"

A boy wrought in black. Why was this child here?

Ahh... please, don't introduce me...

"Th-that kid is my personal maid?"

"That's right. You pestered me so endlessly to assign you one that I finally found a maid who met the conditions. And yet the two of you look as though ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you've met."

You asked him to assign ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her? You?

Then that page... had been Elaine Blake?

"Wait — you're saying you're the young master I'm meant to serve?!"

"Wait — the post I was taking was being your maid?!"

The face that had been burning, the heart a breath from dying of shame, filled with nothing but bewilderment.

"Then you should have just told me from the start!"

"And when I asked you what you did for a living, where was that answer?!"

"Th-that's—! We're moving past it—! Why are you coming out of a place like this!?"

"Well. Isn't this side of it more amusing?"

"That's... fair. It was a little funny..."

This was not the moment to say fair. The blood of that damned house ran thick indeed.

"We'll save the private talk for a little later. My thanks to all of you for sending so many gifts on Elaine's birthday. House Blake will not forget this kindness. Emcee — you may conclude."

"Well then. You both seem to have things to say, so let us move."

There was plenty I wanted to say, but at Eluis's word we went to one of the empty lounges deeper in the hall.

To think that child was Elencia's...

Honestly, I hadn't expected it at all. He went about in badly worn clothes, his hair left untended, looking like any ordinary ten-year-old. Who would take him for the young master of a ducal house?

But some things made sense now. The reason that child alone was a black figure with red eyes...

Had my soul instinctively recoiled from a child who carried Elencia's blood? As if warning me not to draw near...

I had thought it strange. To feel something sour toward a child still too young to know better. Unless he was an outright villain, there was no reason for it.

It was still only a guess. Even so, I could hardly call it irrelevant. A coincidence like this could not exist.

"Uncle, what on earth came over you? You told me it couldn't be done!"

"Well, the circumstances were complicated, but I found a way regardless. So — are you pleased?"

"Of course! Do you know how much I was looking forward to this? I was surprised, but it's the best gift I got today!!"

"I'm glad to hear it. Ruanes here will serve, from today, as your personal maid and your bodyguard."

"I know the name, but... a bodyguard? Her?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Please forget what happened then..."

"Honestly, even if we ignore the comedy act, she looks weaker than me."

I had nothing to say if he meant to look down on me, but give me time and I could manage well enough. Guarding that child — or assassinating him.

"I'm only unpracticed still. And if we fight with swords, I'll win."

"You? Against me?"

"Would you like to try?"

"You think a blind girl can beat me, the Hero's son?"

I had meant to go easy, child that he was, but he was earning the rod all on his own. Come out here right—

"Enough fighting. The bodyguard business is a formality in any case, so you needn't concern yourself."

"No — before it's a formality, what kind of bodyguard is a blind person?"

"You do realize you kept losing to that blind person, don't you?"

"Th... that's..."

"I don't know what the two of you got up to, but there is no need to worry. This child is not an ordinary blind girl."

"I... know that."

"Then I've been spared some trouble. We're short on time, so let us finish quickly."

With those words, Eluis held out to me a long, rectangular black case he had brought.

"Open it."

I opened the case as I was told, and...

"Well?"

"What... is this...?"

Why would he give something like this to me...?