The Secret You Believe in, and the Doubt That Lingers
"Would you believe me?"
You're thanking me for looking out for you all this time?
"Ahaha. I'll keep looking out for you going forward, so what's this about? You can keep the thanks."
"....You know that's not what I meant by it."
Elys shook her head as she spoke.
"You don't have to help me anymore. Don't let someone like me take up your time. I want you to live your own life."
".....Is that also why you've been pushing your training this late into the night?"
She nodded.
I couldn't understand it.
Elys had to know that my help would be a tremendous asset in seeing her revenge through. I couldn't begin to guess why she was suddenly trying to put distance between us.
"I'd like to respect Lady Elys's wishes as much as possible, but being informed out of nowhere that you don't need my help, without a single word of explanation... it does sting a little."
"....It's not that I don't need your help. No—honestly, I need it a lot."
"Lady Elys, are you aware that your words and actions are contradicting each other right now? You need help, yet refuse to accept it—I'm finding that a little hard to follow."
"I......!"
Elys raised her voice as if her emotions had surged, then gradually lowered it as she went on.
".....I might not be someone valuable enough to take up your time."
"If it's Lady Elys, I'd welcome you taking as much of my time as you like."
"No....."
Elys lowered her head toward the floor.
"You don't know anything. That's why you can say something like that."
"Then tell me. If we think it through together, surely some kind of solution will present itself."
".....Do you really have to hear the reason? It'll be a terrible truth for you."
Heh. Just yesterday I was listening to talk about how I was going to die soon.
I'm confident nothing ordinary will shock me at this point.
"I'm rather braver than Lady Elys gives me credit for, you know? I'm fine, so please go ahead and tell me."
".....Alright."
Elys frowned as if the words themselves caused her pain, then spoke.
"You don't have much time left."
"What time are you referring to?"
"Time, literally. The time you have left to live. You're... terminally ill."
......Huh? This is an episode I've heard somewhere before.
"Mana......"
"You're talking about Mana Storage Deficiency, correct?"
"Huh.....?"
An upheaval broke across the face that until moments ago had been nothing but bleak.
"....How do you know about that?"
"Well..... I do love reading, after all. I just happened to come across it naturally, you could say. Yeah. That's how it went."
Elys stared at me blankly, then clenched her fist tight as if realizing something and looked at me again.
Her trembling pupils fixed on mine.
"Then you..... knowing that you didn't have much longer to live, you still reached out a hand to help me?"
No, that's not it either.
"......I'm sorry. I don't think so after all. I..... don't think I'm valuable enough to take your remaining three years."
Oh boy. She's putting on a whole one-woman show over here.
"Uh..... Lady Elys? I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding."
Scratching my cheek, I continued.
"......What?"
"I'm healthy. No disease or anything."
Elys stared at me blankly for a moment, then tilted her head as if something had broken and asked again.
"......You're healthy?"
"Yes. I'm healthy."
"But that can't be. The reason you can't grow is all because of Mana Storage Deficiency."
"That's... how should I put it. There's just a minor issue with my body. I'm not suffering from Mana Storage Deficiency."
".....How can you be so sure."
"When I went to see my father last time, I received a thorough physical examination. And when I looked over the results on Wednesday, the words Mana Storage Deficiency were nowhere to be found, no matter how hard I searched."
".....Then. You're... going to live?"
Elys asked me in a trembling voice.
"Haha, I've got a pretty long lifeline, you see. I have no intention of dying for the time be—"
Just as I was about to continue with my usual lightly tossed explanation—
"......."
Elys rested her head against my shoulder.
"That's enough....."
".....It seems I've caused Lady Elys a great deal of worry."
"Yeah. I was really worried."
Elys calmly began to pour out her honest feelings.
"The princess of a whole nation... the fact that I could only stand by and watch while my only friend was in trouble was just too horrible."
....So the sadness I'd felt from Elys toward me a moment ago had been because of this.
"I was angry at my powerless self. But at the same time, I found myself so repulsive for even considering letting you go without trying anything that... I couldn't stand it."
And the anger directed at herself that I'd sensed earlier was because of this.
"And then I thought. Do I really have the right to take what little time you have left? If I can't become queen without the help of my one and only friend, do I even deserve to sit on the throne?"
I could feel how much anguish she'd gone through because of me.
"But the funny thing is."
Elys lifted her forehead from my shoulder and looked at my face as she spoke.
"Hearing that you're going to keep living... everything I was agonizing over suddenly feels completely stupid."
"Haha.... I had no idea Lady Elys thought of me as that precious."
"Of course I do."
Elys smiled softly as she looked at me.
"You're my secret ally, and my only friend."
With that single sentence, I could tell that every negative emotion Elys had been holding onto had been completely washed away.
"Then I'll take it that Lady Elys's cold remark about not needing my help anymore has been withdrawn?"
"......I didn't say it like that."
Elys shot me a sidelong glare the way she always did, picking a fight.
Hmm. Now Elys finally feels like she's back to normal.
I was feeling satisfied with the surrounding environment gradually returning to normal when a question suddenly struck me.
Come to think of it, how did Elys end up under the mistaken impression that I had Mana Storage Deficiency?
"Lady Elys, may I ask you one thing?"
"What?"
"How did you come to believe that I was suffering from Mana Storage Deficiency?"
"That's because Charlotte....."
So the misunderstanding epidemic that started with Shiina had spread to Charlotte, and then infected Elys too.
Whew. At least Chloe was still fine. If she'd gone weird on me as well, I really might have lost my mind.
"Come to think of it, Shion. Something pretty big has come up."
"What? We just finished dealing with a big problem, and there's another one?"
"I'm not kidding. This is really big."
"Haha, I know full well you're not joking. Lady Elys always tells only the truth, after all."
Elys's expression hardened slightly as she continued.
"Charlotte figured out that I'm a demon."
"What....?"
No, this is a real emergency. How did she find out?
"Thankfully she hasn't discovered that I'm the princess of the Trahan Kingdom, but..... she seems to be misunderstanding in a slightly different direction. She was thinking I was a demon who'd approached you to turn you into a demonkin."
Before the tutoring session last time, Charlotte had suspected Elys of being a demon.
I'd figured she'd just be a little suspicious and move on, but I never imagined that suspicion would still be hanging around.
"Hmm, that is certainly troublesome. In the worst case, the fact that Lady Elys is a demon could become known to everyone, or Lady Charlotte might attack you directly."
It's a real bind. I can't just explain to Charlotte myself that Elys is the princess of the Trahan Kingdom, so how am I supposed to clear up this misunderstanding....
Then a truly simple yet effective method floated up in my mind.
"Or how about this. What if we just charge straight through?"
"Charge straight through?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. Lady Elys reveals that she's the princess of the Trahan Kingdom herself."
The main reason Charlotte is hostile toward Elys isn't "because Elys is a demon," but because she perceives her as "a demon trying to turn me into a demonkin."
In fact, maybe because she's from Earth, Charlotte has fewer stereotypes about demons compared to other characters.
In short, if Elys can just prove that she isn't a harmful demon? Every problem gets solved.
If we're lucky, Charlotte might even join the operation to put Elys on the queen's throne.
Of course there's some risk involved, but I can't think of any better plan than this.
".....Shion. As you know, most people only see demons as evil beings. Charlotte will definitely....."
"No. Lady Charlotte is different. I can guarantee it."
".....Are you closer with Charlotte than I imagined? To be making bold claims like that."
"Huh? Well, yes, but...."
For some reason, Elys was pouting slightly.
".....Alright. Fine, let's try it. There's no decent alternative right now anyway."
Elys let out a sigh and swept her hair back with her hand as she continued.
"And more than anything..... I don't think you'd just say anything that came to mind just to get out of the current situation."
Then she looked into my eyes.
"So I'll trust you."