Futile (4)
Crash—! Crack—! Clang—!
The sword in Saren's hand shattered pitifully against the hammer. At the same time, her brow twitched.
"Oh my, sorry. That must have been precious."
Chloe slammed her hammer into the ground with a thud and spoke calmly. Yet unlike her, whose face and limbs were dripping blood, Saren remained spotless, not a single wound on her.
"Still, I thought you were just some sheltered noble girl. Not bad for an aristocrat's daughter."
"······."
Saren silently swung the broken blade through the air. As if trying to adjust to its shortened length, she swung it again and again with an expressionless face. Whoosh. Whoosh.
To Chloe, the sight carried an eerie sense of dissonance. She couldn't pinpoint why, but it felt as though she was facing an entirely different person than before.
Haa······.
An overwhelming pressure bore down on her.
She hadn't expected a noble lady to push her this far. More than anything, her mana was nearly depleted. That was why she hadn't healed the cuts from the sword.
Saren, by contrast, showed no signs of fatigue. Her expression never changed, nor did she gasp for breath. How could such a slender body endure this?
Tsk, what now?
In that brief moment of distraction, Saren's crimson eyes flashed sharply.
Oh no!
Chloe snatched up her hammer, but the timing was already off. Even if she swung with all her might, she instinctively knew Saren's blade would be faster.
······I'm going to die.
The terror of death washed over her entire body.
If only my hand were a little faster. Or if her hand slipped and she dropped the sword. Or if she tripped.
She prayed desperately, squeezed her eyes shut, and swung the hammer with all her strength.
"······?"
Strangely, it was quiet. No—more precisely, the presence had shifted behind her.
Why? Chloe swallowed hard and slowly turned her head.
"Mother!?"
Whoosh—! At the same time, something flew toward her. She fumbled and barely caught it.
It was a hand. A cleanly severed right hand.
"Hold on to it."
At Saren's low voice, Chloe looked toward her.
There stood Saren, about to bring her broken sword down. Beneath her, Vivian was desperately clinging to Saren's arms while shielding Serion with her body.
What is this······?
Chloe was dumbfounded. Why had the dying maid suddenly opened her eyes again? Why was the noble lady suddenly trying to kill her? And most baffling of all—how was a mere maid not being overpowered by the lady? Even if the lady's strength was greatly diminished, how could she suppress that arrogant demeanor in an instant? And with one eye gouged out, blood streaming down her face?
"Return the young master's hand, my lady."
"Give me back my brother."
"I can endure losing my eye. But······."
"Shut up. Didn't you hear me? Hand over my brother."
"My lady."
Vivian pushed Saren down instead and slowly rose to her feet. Blood from her sunken eye dripped onto Saren's face.
"He is my young master now."
"······What?"
Perhaps the words grated on her ears. Saren's arms, still gripping the sword, began to tremble violently.
"I said, he is my young master."
"Vivian!!!"
Her eyes flashed with rage, and soon a deep crimson light flooded the entire area.
*
"Well, while the two of them were busy beating each other up, I slipped away from the spot. Getting tangled in someone else's family feud didn't seem like a good idea, you know?"
Chloe shrugged as she spoke.
"······So."
"While I was running, that maid caught me. She said she'd reattach my hand if I followed her, so I went along right away."
"Vivian was the one who reattached my hand."
"Pfft! Puha—!!"
The moment I finished speaking, Chloe burst into laughter. It was a mocking grin, one eyebrow raised and only one corner of her mouth curled upward.
"Heretics can't use healing magic. How could someone who's killed another heal someone else? That doesn't make sense. Do you really think God would allow it?"
I ground my teeth.
The more I heard, the more tangled my thoughts became. Had Vivian really been lying? ······Why?
No matter how much I mulled it over, there was no reason for her to do that to me.
"Anyway, when I got back, the place was a complete mess, and the young lady was lying there with her head split open, dead."
"······."
Don't believe her. No matter what she says. Even if Vivian really did deceive me. Just······ don't believe it.
"You don't look like you believe me."
"Yeah. It just sounds like you're desperately trying to save your own skin."
I pressed the sword against Chloe's neck. Yet her expression remained utterly calm, as if nothing in the world could faze her. That look was clouding my judgment.
I can't let myself be swayed. Chloe is the one lying right now. Chloe killed my sister, and in that opening, Vivian took me and fled for her life.
Yes. Vivian had said exactly that.
Swish. Chloe pushed the blade aside and took a step closer. Close enough that I could feel her breath.
"Wait a moment."
She cupped my face with both hands. At the same time, a faint vibration ran through me. The black hair that had been obscuring my vision turned pure white—returning to its original color.
"Hehe, I knew this suited you better. The Elsia eldest son is supposed to be quite the looker. Seeing you up close, I can tell for sure."
"······."
The sight of her smiling so slyly at me was irritating.
Her hands slid from my face to the back of my neck, pulling me into an embrace. Her curves pressed against me through our close contact.
"Think about it carefully, young master. That maid······ isn't she a little strange?"
Chloe whispered stickily, her hot breath brushing my ear.
"What do you mean."
"Healing magic. Have you ever seen her use it since then?"
"······."
It felt like I'd been struck in the head with a hammer.
She never had. Every time I was injured, big or small, she had only ever given me physical treatment. She had never once used magic.
Why hadn't I found that odd back then? Was it because of her excuse that she wasn't good at that kind of magic?
"Do you believe me now?"
She spoke with her lips pressed right against my ear.
"That still doesn't prove Vivian killed Saren."
I pushed Chloe away. Her face was flushed crimson, wearing an unmistakably sinister expression.
"Hmm, then how about this?"
"···?"
Before I knew it, she was holding a dagger in her hand. My dagger. She must have taken it from my coat while we were embracing.
"If I had killed someone, I wouldn't be able to use healing magic either, would I?"
"What are you—"
Thud—! Before I could finish, Chloe drove the dagger straight into her own palm. The sharp blade pierced through flesh and emerged from the other side.
"Hnng, it hurts······."
She bit her lip, her whole body trembling, looking strangely exhilarated.
"······What are you doing."
"Just······ hnng······ watch quietly."
She yanked the dagger out in one swift motion. But no blood gushed forth. Light shimmered within the wound, and her flesh sealed itself instantly.
"See? Someone who's killed another can't do something like this, right?"
My thoughts came to a halt. As if my mind refused to think any further.
"If you still don't believe me, then I guess I'll just have to die here. How unfair, sob sob."
She covered her face with her hands and pretended to sniffle, but the corner of her mouth visible through her fingers was smiling brightly.
"······."
Why? Why had Vivian deceived me for over two years? She could have just told me honestly that she killed my sister to protect me.
No. That was only my perspective.
Vivian must have known. She must have known that the original Serion had been obsessively attached to Saren. She probably thought I was the one who made his fiancée disappear, too.
So she hid it. Because she was afraid I would take revenge on her?
Then······ what should I do now?
Should I go back and confront her? If I did, what would I even say? Why did you kill my sister? Or why did you lie to me? Either way, I had to meet Vivian. Whether it was a lie or the truth, I needed to hear her excuse. Otherwise, all my time and emotions would have been for nothing.
"But before that."
"Hm?"
Thud. I drove my sword deep into Chloe's left chest.
"···Kuh!"
Then I immediately tripped her, driving the sword that had pierced her into the gravel to pin her down.
As expected, golden light seeped from the wound. Even while healing, she seemed to feel the pain—she grabbed the blade with her hands, desperately trying to pull it out.
"As expected, you were an imperial spy."
"Kuh······."
"Which will be faster—me pulling out my sword, or your mana running out? Do your best."
I leaned over her struggling form, picked up the fallen dagger, and turned to survey my surroundings.
"Haa."
A hot sigh escaped me. Dozens of soldiers had already surrounded the waterfall.
"Serion Elsia."
A high-ranking knight clad in silver armor that covered even his eyes stepped forward and called my name.
A familiar voice. One I could never forget. The voice that sometimes appeared in my dreams.
It was the knight who had taken my first life on the guillotine.
"It's been a while."
I pressed down firmly on the embedded sword and spoke calmly. The knight lowered his gaze to Chloe, stared at her for a moment, then looked back at me.
That look in his eyes. It was the same bored gaze he had given me when I had begged for my life.
"Yeah. It really······ has been a while."
He spoke through gritted teeth, his words barely intelligible. Well, it wasn't as if he had any good feelings toward me.
Still, there were at least fifty of them. Could I really win?
One small mercy—some of the soldiers were injured. They must have encountered the undead on their way here.
"Serion Elsia."
"Why do you keep calling me?"
The knight closed his eyes and let out a small sigh.
"Dannes Elsia has committed the crime of treason. Therefore, his blood relatives shall also be judged in the name of national law. Accordingly, the criminal shall be executed immediately."
At those words, the armed soldiers charged toward me all at once.
Rumble— The ground shook as if it might split open.
"Huu······."
I tightened my grip on the dagger.