A Familiar Feeling (1)
A brilliant white light swallowed me whole. When I opened my eyes, the scene that greeted my blurry vision felt nothing like Saren’s room. This was the mansion’s rear gate. Saren stood right beside me, and in the distance I saw Vivian running toward us, clutching a large white bundle to her chest.
“Ha!” The corners of my mouth kept twitching upward on their own. A save point. A save point. Just shifting the starting moment had my heart pounding and my chest swelling with emotion far more than I’d expected.
“Huff… huff… Young Master, Young Miss! Imperial soldiers are outside right now…!!”
“Perfect timing, Vivian. You’re coming with us.”
“Pardon? Where…?”
“Anywhere.”
BOOM!
“Round up every last one of them!”
“Yes, sir!”
Once again the soldiers’ raucous shouts rang out. Saren and Vivian both went deathly pale, bodies shrinking in on themselves.
“Let’s move.”
Unlike them, I was used to this chaos. I quickly opened the gate and stepped outside.
“Y-Young Master?”
It had been so long since I’d heard Vivian’s gentle, slightly androgynous voice. The sound of it felt almost soothing.
“Yes?”
“You’ve been smiling nonstop since earlier…”
“Ah.”
How could I not smile in a moment like this?
“It’s just… it feels good to see you again, Vivian.”
“Again? But we saw each other only minutes ago…”
“Oh, right. Haha. So we did.”
At that instant, a spine-chilling aura brushed over my entire body. At the same time, I felt Saren’s grip on my hand tighten fiercely.
Startled, I whipped my head toward her.
“Saren?”
“Yes?”
She answered with an innocent smile, as if nothing were wrong. In that same moment, the image of her slitting Chloe’s throat overlapped with the girl before me.
“……”
“What is it, Brother?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh! Wait!”
Saren suddenly clapped her hands together as though she’d remembered something, then grabbed my forearm and pulled me to a stop.
“There’s a stable back there! We can take the horses—”
“No!”
I cut her off without thinking, voice louder than intended. Confusion flickered across her face.
“…No?”
“The stable is too dangerous. We’d be spotted the moment we headed that way. Isn’t that right, Vivian?”
Vivian gave a careful nod. At the same time, Saren stared at her with pupils contracted to pinpricks.
“Stay out of this.”
“…My apologies.”
My brows twitched. That chilling gaze, that icy tone—I had seen and heard them before. It was exactly the same as the moment she had stabbed Chloe in the shoulder.
Seeing it now left me certain. Saren had been broken from the very beginning. Not because the story had twisted, but because she had always been this way. Which meant this was completely outside my control. No matter how hard I struggled, I could never change it.
Damn it. This was no different from carrying around a live time bomb—one that could explode at any second.
“Anyway, the stable is off-limits.”
“That’s ridiculous! You expect us to run barefoot carrying all this luggage? That’s suicide!”
“Then.”
“…?”
“Then you can go to the stable by yourself.”
“……”
Saren’s expression froze over. I shook off the hand still clutching my forearm and started walking again. Vivian followed silently behind me without a word.
“Hoo…”
I let out a quiet sigh. This was the right choice. I couldn’t have handled it any better. Yet despite my worries, soft footsteps soon trailed after me. The fact that she was obeying without complaint suggested she still listened to me. Or was it only my words she followed?
Either way, it was time to soothe her. Time to defuse that ticking bomb.
“Saren.”
I quietly moved to her side, took her hand, and laced our fingers together. Her eyes widened.
“B-Brother?”
“Thank you for going along with my stubbornness.”
“N-No, it’s… it’s nothing…”
Her voice shrank with embarrassment and she lowered her head. That should be enough.
“Let’s hurry a little more.”
“Yes!”
The three of us slipped out the rear gate and hid ourselves in the dense forest. We walked for a long time until the mansion was no longer visible. Fortunately, no soldiers pursued us. Still, we couldn’t simply wander aimlessly without a destination.
“Vivian.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Do you know any good places to hide?”
“…Pardon?”
Her expression asked why I would question a mere maid about such a thing. Of course it would seem sudden from her perspective. But right now I had to rely on her. Because at this moment, her path was the only one that truly mattered.
“You look like you have somewhere in mind.”
“Ah… there is a church about two days from here.”
At the word church, the skin beneath my eye twitched faintly.
“A church?”
“Yes. It’s where I grew up. The place has deep ties to the Elsia family and is a holy sanctuary untouched by imperial influence. They will definitely shelter us.”
Where Vivian grew up. So she really was an orphan.
“Good. Let’s head there.”
“Yes! I’ll lead the way!”
Vivian beamed. Her lovely smile was so contagious I found myself grinning too. But sweat beaded on her forehead; she looked exhausted.
“Ah! Vivian, give that to me.”
I swiftly reached out and took the heavy white bundle from her arms. She flinched, then immediately looked troubled.
“No, you mustn’t! It’s my luggage—why should the Young Master carry it!”
“It’s not your luggage.”
“…Pardon?”
“It’s all medicine for Saren. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
Saren’s eyes widened in surprise as well.
“H-How did you know?!”
“It was obvious.”
No matter how I thought about it, it was astonishing. How had this girl managed to grab the medicine even in that chaotic situation? Just what did the Elsia family mean to her that she would leave all her own belongings behind and take only the medicine?
“Thank you. Thanks to you, Saren survived. Right, Saren?”
“Ah, um… th-thank you, Vivian.”
Still shy, Saren gently clutched the hem of Vivian’s spotless white apron as she spoke.
“It was only natural, Young Miss.”
Vivian softly covered Saren’s hand with her own and answered with a gentle smile. Watching them, I couldn’t wipe the grin from my face. Things were going far better than I could have hoped. This time, the feeling was simply too good.
“And Saren, I’m sorry.”
“What?!”
“As your older brother, I should have been the one preparing these things. I feel utterly ashamed.”
“No! No, no!! Please don’t say that, Brother!!”
Tears welled up in Saren’s eyes as she clutched my arm and pleaded. It was a far cry from the Saren I remembered from my previous life. Now it looked like nothing more than an act. Even so, I could only smile and gently wipe away those tears. I had no choice but to remain the endlessly kind older brother she expected.
“We owe Vivian a great debt, don’t we?”
“You give me too much credit.”
“But what about your own luggage? You brought nothing for yourself.”
Vivian offered a small smile, then bowed her head politely.
“There will be things for me at the church, so please don’t worry, Young Master.”
“Ah, that’s a relief.”
For a moment, it felt as though a halo shone behind her. Every word she spoke in that low, steady voice was so warm. An inexplicable flutter stirred in my chest.
“Hoo…”
Get a grip. This is hardly the time for such trivial feelings.
By the time the sun had completely set, we had walked so far that even my calves throbbed with pain. If I felt like this, how much worse must it be for Saren and Vivian? The way they tried so hard to hide their exhaustion was painfully obvious.
“Shall we camp here tonight?”
“Haaah!!”
At my single sentence, Saren collapsed onto the ground as if she had fainted.
“Young Miss, just a moment.”
Vivian immediately untied the white apron from around her waist and spread it on the ground.
“Please lie here, Young Miss.”
“Thanks.”
She glanced around briefly, then knelt, clasped both hands together as if in prayer, and closed her eyes.
“I, Vivian Criatis, invoke the name of God and bestow peace upon this place. In nomine Dei, lumen meum protegat et custodiat.”
Her voice resonated with power. At the same time, a low hum filled the air as a pure white barrier shimmered into existence around us before fading from sight. My mouth fell open.
“What was that?”
“Pardon? I erected a barrier… Is there a problem…?”
“No, not that. What did you say at the end of the incantation?”
It had sounded like Latin.
“It means ‘In God’s name, may the light protect and watch over me.’”
“That’s impressive.”
“Thank you.”
Wow. A barrier? This really is one hell of a fantasy world! I screamed internally, careful not to let it show. Since I was seeing real magic for the first time, I couldn’t help feeling a little excited.
“I’ll go gather some firewood. Please rest, both of you.”
Vivian stepped out of the barrier and disappeared into the dark forest. I remained rooted in place, staring blankly at her retreating figure.
A maid from the church. She could even use holy magic. So why had Vivian become a maid instead of a saint?
“Brother?”
“Hm?”
The soft press of Saren’s chest against my arm snapped me back to reality.
“What were you thinking about so deeply?”
“Nothing much. I just didn’t realize Vivian could use magic.”
Saren let out a small laugh.
“Even so, no one could compare to you, Brother.”
“…Hm?”
So this body could use magic? But what was I supposed to do? I didn’t know any spells.
“You’re so talented with both the sword and magic that you didn’t just enter the Academy as top student—you graduated at the top of your class. I’m truly proud to call someone like you my brother.”
“O-Oh, really?”
“Of course~”
What? This body was an elite all along?