Chapter 66 — Whose Side Are You On? (6)
Chapter 66 — Whose Side Are You On? (6)
Diobe left with an expression that looked much more at ease. As soon as Diobe was gone, Grünent rushed into the office.
"Your Majesty."
Her voice was thick with worry.
I should have been the one worrying about her.
Grünent must have been greatly shocked, too. Yet Grünent's Affection remained at +84.
It was the same number it had reached when I brought Helen.
She had become someone important to me, too.
I had been afraid the Affection would drop.
I had worried that Grünent might come to dislike me, but that +84 Affection was steadfast. Once it climbed that high, it didn't seem to fall easily.
Relief finally showed on Roan's face.
"Grünent. You must have been startled."
"...."
After hesitating, Grünent answered reluctantly.
"Yes, a little...."
Right. That was a normal reaction.
Grateful for her honesty, he stroked her hair.
"It was my doing. What excuse could I make?"
"I believe there must have been a reason."
Grünent looked at Roan with resolute eyes.
"I know Your Majesty would not do such a thing without cause. You need not explain it to me."
Grünent clasped Roan's hand tightly.
"I am on Your Majesty's side."
Those words gently melted Roan's highly strung heart. Realizing Roan's tension had eased, Grünent embraced him.
"You did well, Your Majesty."
"Hm?"
"Regarding Commander Matthias."
Grünent held Roan's head in her embrace and softly brushed his hair.
"Wasn't the commander a dead man the moment he crossed the Evirgio border anyway? It seemed Your Majesty had been too merciful."
"Hm."
It was hard to say it was because of Helen's Affection. He answered only briefly.
Earlier, while focused on Diobe and the commander, he hadn't even had the chance to hear what had become of Helen's Affection.
"Was Helen all right?"
He trusted that Grünent would have soothed Helen on her own, but he still needed to see it with his own eyes.
If the timing was too late, situations could become irrecoverable. He thought he had been miraculously lucky just then with Diobe.
Her parents were already deceased, and her husband was on the verge of abandoning her, so the immoral abduction he'd imagined hadn't quite materialized.
But announcing the commander's execution might be a different matter for Helen.
The time limit was now a fortnight.
Until recently, Helen's Affection had been +32.
I just hope it doesn't drop into the negative.
"Yes. Helen also seemed to have prepared herself regarding the commander. She knows his character best, after all."
Then Grünent's expression darkened.
"I knew the commander was a man who spoke carelessly, but I did not know it was to that extent."
Well, even the densest idiot would have been careful in front of his own kingdom's royalty....
Now that he thought of her as no longer a princess, he'd rammed right into Grünent here without restraint.
"Then just what has Helen...."
Grünent's hand, which had been stroking Roan, stopped. Roan looked up at Grünent.
Grünent's eyes were fixed somewhere beyond the window. Her voice trembled.
"Just what has Helen been enduring all this time?"
Was she worrying about Helen?
Roan closed his mouth.
In the game, he had seen flashbacks of what Helen suffered, but he couldn't bring himself to tell Grünent.
He couldn't say it was all manner of corporal punishment and sexual assault, so Roan fell silent.
In the game, interfering with her 'repentance' lowered her Affection.
After realizing Helen's skill, he had separated their rooms far apart, but even that had not been an easy decision, for fear it might affect her Affection.
And I, in the end,
remained silent, prioritizing Affection.
"What kind of place was the Order, really...? I no longer know..., Your Majesty."
Gaslighting is a terrifying thing.
Helen probably hadn't endured the commander's violence out of affection. If that were the case, her Affection wouldn't have risen when he first 'Overwhelmed' the commander.
She had been tamed to the point where she couldn't even refuse. Like an elephant beaten into submission.
The Order and the knightage were her entire known world.
As long as she couldn't realize she had completely escaped that place, she would have trembled in helplessness and fear, waiting for the commander's praise.
"That could not have been the will of the Goddess."
Grünent looked at Roan with sad eyes.
"When only those who do not listen gather, that is what happens. Even when a Saintess like Helen conveyed the Goddess's will, did the commander not ignore her?"
It sounded simple, but it was not an easy problem.
Helen had already depended on the knightage and the commander for far too long.
If he rashly intervened before raising her Affection enough for Helen to lean on the Hero, all the negative emotions she harbored would flow out toward the Hero.
The self-loathing for not having run away sooner.
The despair of leaving the Order she had known her whole life and not knowing what to do.
It might have been useless pity for her abuser.
Conversely, it could have been tremendous hatred.
An unpleasant thought arose.
Roan closed his eyes.
My foolish mother.
My mother, who lived listlessly as she was beaten, had, the moment she realized her life was ruined, decided to shift all the blame onto me.
And this was not a game.
He could not reset just because he made the wrong choice.
He did not want to receive that kind of hatred from Helen with an ambiguous Affection stat. Aside from the feeling itself, if Affection went negative, it would take time to raise it again.
But.
'In the end, that's just an excuse for my silence.'
Recalling old memories made him feel a little depressed. Roan, as if acting petulant, gently rubbed his head against Grünent's chest and pressed into it.
When you're depressed, touching breasts makes it better.
Indeed, the magical squishy body parts.
Grünent's eyes widened slightly, then she soon laughed. It was a beautiful, crystalline laugh.
"Your Majesty."
She whispered.
"I was so happy...."
In a lonely voice.
"I am an accomplice who left Helen in pain."
At her words, Roan met Grünent's eyes as if asking what she meant.
"After going to the knightage, I noticed that Helen was suffering something strange. But Helen never once spoke of it aloud."
Roan unconsciously frowned.
As if she couldn't bear to look, Grünent lowered her eyes.
"I couldn't even ask. Far from it, I couldn't bear to even show Helen that I had sensed something was amiss."
Roan clenched his teeth.
Yes. This was sharp-eyed Grünent.
Over ten years of acquaintance.
There was no way she wouldn't know.
"That day we had breakfast together, my heart sank when I saw the blood splattered on her neck."
And for a long while, Grünent was silent.
She did not notice Roan's eyes filling with killing intent.
I had thought that if I kept him alive, I might use him in negotiations with Merde....
But keeping him alive left a truly foul taste in my mouth.
And so Roan and Grünent,
each fell quiet with their own thoughts.
*
Unexpectedly, Helen was composed.
"Are you all right? Helen."
"Yes. It seems Lady Grünent and Diobe were more shocked than I was."
Perhaps, as Grünent said, she had already given up on the commander's life.
Fortunately, her Affection also remained at +32.
Even thinking himself shallow, Roan felt relieved.
Since the day she said she dreamed of the Goddess, she had seemed somewhat detached, lost in thought with a vacant look. Helen quietly asked Roan.
"What do you intend to do about the commander...?"
"I'm deliberating."
Roan's eyes narrowed.
Was she trying to save his life?
However, Helen did not go that far.
She simply voiced her calm, internal trouble.
"Your Majesty. I grew up my entire life in the Order. I was taught that one must not kill except against the Goddess's enemies."
"Hm."
"I served that commander for half my short life as my superior. I have heard that this commander is fated to be executed, yet I feel nothing."
Helen clasped her hands together and fidgeted.
"As the commander sometimes scolded me, might it be that I am simply foolish beyond measure? Your Majesty. I ought to beg you to spare the commander's life, but I cannot bring my lips to form the words."
Helen bowed her head.
"The Goddess appeared in my dream and told me to choose as I wish. But... I do not truly know what it is that I want."
Roan leaned back on the sofa, rested his chin on his hand, and watched her.
Through 'Attentive Hearing,' her confusion was transmitted intact.
After waiting a moment for Helen to collect her thoughts, Roan asked,
"Helen."
Helen raised her head and met Roan's eyes.
"Do you personally respect the commander? Or do you merely wish to save him because he is a fellow human, from the same organization?"
At Roan's question, Helen's expression grew even more bewildered. Roan decided to help Helen make her decision a little more comfortably.
"To you, Grünent is a precious person. So much so that you abandoned everything and crossed the Evirgio border for her."
Helen nodded. Her eyes,
which had been dull until now, sparkled and shone clearly for the first time.
"Yes. That is so, Your Majesty."
"And the commander had no particular intention of keeping Grünent alive and taking her back."
Helen seemed to grasp Roan's meaning just a little late. So it was only after Roan continued speaking that her eyes flew open in shock.
"A martyr is useful for rallying the Order's power. With greater political strength, the Order could pick any royal to ally with. The commander would become the hero who laid the princess's body—even just her corpse—to rest in her homeland. Is that not so?"
"How could you...!"
I read it in the game.
Because that commander bastard couldn't keep his mouth shut in the game or reality.
Moreover, Grünent had also mentioned it once.
That the Order was using her to play politics.
In a somewhat darker story,
the commander might have killed even the disliked Helen and returned with some other woman's decomposed head, claiming it was part of the princess.
Then Helen and Grünent would become martyrs,
the commander would become a hero,
Merde would unite in rage against the Demon King,
and the Order, with its explosive support, could have handpicked a puppet for the next king.
Watching Helen unable to hide her horrified expression, Roan spoke in a languid voice.
"Then it's a simple problem. Grünent? Or the commander? If you must choose one, who will you save?"
Helen's expression twisted.
But her deliberation was not long. No matter how much Helen thought with the Order at her center, this was an issue on which she could not yield.
"...I would save Lady Grünent."
"Had you been a person free from the Order, would you have asked me to spare the commander?"
At the unexpected question, Helen unconsciously opened her mouth. It was a premise she had never once considered.
This silence was long.
After a great while, Helen barely managed to answer.
"I... would have said it didn't matter."
"Hm."
Roan smiled as if that sufficed.
"Then leave it be."
Hearing the same words as the Goddess, Helen was surprised and fixed her gaze on Roan's violet eyes.
He spoke playfully.
"To your Goddess, things like loyalty to the Order might not mean much. You are now in Evirgio, in my castle. The Order will trundle on just fine without you."
Helen suddenly recalled her conversation with the Goddess. It had been a joking remark from the Goddess.
— The children who serve me do not seem to reproduce.
The Order had lasted over a thousand years.
A long time.
Long enough for even the Goddess's will to fade.
And many things would have changed.
The scriptures and doctrine had changed with the ages.
Was she not herself a female saint, something that hadn't existed just decades ago?
Perhaps in the old days, priests might have married. But the rules had changed over time, and distorted stories piled up.
The Order might no longer convey the Goddess's will fully.
Because we hadn't even known the true meaning of the phrase on the scriptures' very first page, 'The Goddess who created all things.'
When she thought about whether the Goddess would really command them to keep such rules of the Order....
The Goddess I met
didn't seem like she would say such a thing.
Helen looked at Roan with shining eyes.
At the holy power she sensed glittering within him, Helen felt reassurance. A familiar, warm, and comforting power.
In a calmed voice, Helen spoke.
"I am a little... afraid. That my decision not to save the commander stems only from my foolish desire for revenge."
It looked as if Helen were making a confession to Roan. As if she were baring her agony, seeking forgiveness.
And Roan did not judge whether her actions were bad or good. He merely asked as if he knew nothing.
"Revenge? For what?"
Helen bit her lip.
"For what the commander did to me."