I Want to Help You (4)
"Fren. Where do you think you're going?"
"H-hiiik!"
Yusia had recognized me after all, perfectly. Then did that mean she had recognized Servant too? No. That couldn't happen. Even the helper who had only brushed past me was already dead. Servant would be torn to shreds on the spot.
But I couldn't tell. Her gaze was fixed on me alone, unwavering.
"That was close. To think you'd make contact with some stranger we don't even know."
"Y-Yusia."
"You belong inside the mansion. And yet..."
Yusia's eyes slid to the space beside me. To where Servant stood.
"N-no, you can't!"
"Hm?"
"Not him! Yusia, don't kill him! I'm begging you!"
"Fren."
"Do you have to keep killing people right in front of me? You're a hero! You're supposed to be kind! P-please, go back to the way you were when we were still out adventuring!"
"Fren. Don't say strange things."
Yusia spoke to me calmly.
"There's no one beside you."
"What?"
That can't be. Servant was right there...
A chill swept through my whole body in an instant. Servant, who had been standing at my side as if to guard me, had vanished without a trace. Had Yusia or the Pope done something in that brief moment? No. It didn't feel as though he had been struck down and erased. It was more as if he had never been standing there at all.
"Fren. You've been through so much."
"What?"
"That man must have worked some trick on you. That's why you came to believe someone was there who wasn't."
"N-no! Servant was definitely there!"
"Servant? There couldn't possibly be anyone by that name. Isn't that right, Your Holiness?"
"O Hero. Might you set me down first?"
"Answer."
"Haa. That is correct."
The Pope looked down at me.
"Lady Fren. Aside from that wicked one who was concealing his form, there was no one beside you."
"That can't be!"
"It is the truth. The only reason we were able to find you at all was my holy power. You were fleeing alone."
"Th-th-that doesn't make any sense..."
Servant had never existed to begin with? That was wrong. Then who had led me this far? Who had scouted Yusia for me? Who had reconnoitered the passages of the mansion? Who had I been following?
"Ah..."
My body, gone transparent, was slowly coming back. Little by little I regained my original colors completely. There was a soft flutter of air, and Yusia landed in front of me. The Pope promptly tumbled out of her arms.
"Let's go, Fren."
"..."
"You didn't do anything wrong. It's those sorts who are at fault, for luring you in."
Yusia pointed at the helper, whose head alone still lay rolling on the ground. Something hot surged up in me.
"What do you think a person's life is worth!"
"If you've committed a crime, you die."
"A crime? Is taking my freedom back a crime?"
"No. I told you before, didn't I?"
Yusia took my hand.
"Trying to take a member of the Sword of Trust away. That's the crime."
"Yusia!"
"Lady Fren."
The Pope stepped between us.
"The Hero acts for your sake. Above all, that thing—"
"Your Holiness."
Yusia cut him off.
"Don't run your mouth for no reason."
"Ahem. My apologies."
"Anyway, let's go back. To our home."
Yusia pulled on my arm, and I was dragged along more lightly than a leaf caught in the wind. Not even five minutes after I had tasted the joy of escape, I was back in my room. Yusia laid me on the bed.
"It must have been so hard. To fall under a trick and even see illusions. I'm sorry I didn't notice."
"An illusion?"
"Yes. An illusion. There is no man named Servant."
"That can't be. He was with me the whole time."
"How? When I was right there?"
"H-he had a special ability. He hid his form."
"If that were true, the Pope's holy magic would have revealed him. That's how we caught the white-mask fellow, after all. But there was no one anywhere, was there?"
"..."
Yusia brushed my hair back.
"The magic must have left your head a mess. I'll stay with you today."
Lying beside me, she patted my chest. No. I couldn't sleep. I didn't want to sleep. I couldn't fight the drowsiness crashing over me, and I fell asleep just like that.
Yusia was keeping watch at Fren's side when someone knocked at the door.
"It's me. Yusia."
"Kailin? Come in."
The red-haired mage stepped into Fren's room. For a moment she looked at Yusia, lying there beside Fren, with something like envy.
"How was it?"
"I searched every inch around the mansion. Not a trace."
"You mean no one approached Fren?"
"Right. If a person had come, there'd be at least some tiny trace, wouldn't there? But there wasn't."
"Then it's that, after all."
Yusia looked at Fren with sorrowful eyes. Kailin shrugged.
"We expected this, didn't we?"
"It's fast. Too fast. Can't we suppress it?"
"I'll try. Don't get your hopes up."
"What's Aphron doing?"
"Searching near the ruins of the Demon King's Castle. It'd be nice if he turned up an artifact."
"I see."
Yusia fell silent for a moment. Then Kailin asked.
"Doesn't it sting?"
"What does?"
"Fren hates you right now. She still thinks well of me and Aphron."
"I don't care."
Yusia clasped the sleeping Fren's small hand tightly.
"As long as Fren is by my side, that's enough."
"Tsk, Fren is a companion to all of us, you know? I'm taking her home with me later!"
"Aphron will object to that."
"Ugh! That's not fair!"
Yusia exchanged a few more words with Kailin, then sent her out. The mage had more to do than even the Hero herself. Yusia climbed carefully down from the bed. To her eyes, the sleeping Fren was like an angel.
Yusia watched Fren for about an hour, then left the room.
Morning.
A morning no different from any other. I had been pulled back into the gears of the daily routine: washing with Yusia, who had come to wake me, then breakfast. A walk around the mansion grounds, then study. After that, lunch, and teatime.
In the free time that followed, I did nothing at all. I only stared blankly out the window.
"What were these past few days, really?"
I still remembered them vividly — the ordinary days I had spent with Servant. Somehow he had given off an aura that felt deeply familiar, and he had definitely been at my side. The feel of him remained sharp and clear. But he was no longer beside me. As if I had only dreamed him.
"Servant..."
I was turning over the memory of the man who was no longer there, doubting the state of my own mind, when—
"Did you call for me?"
"Kya—kyaaak?!"
Startled, I launched myself a good three meters straight up from where I stood. Seeing it, Servant let out a sound of admiration.
"A cat beastfolk indeed."
"Wh-wh-what are you!?"
"Your Servant, of course."
"That's not what I mean! H-how did you just appear out of nowhere!"
"I have my own methods. Mmph?"
I reached out and touched Servant's face. A sensation I could definitely feel. Breath tickling my fingers. The hardness of the white mask. He was real.
"Hhh... hnnngh."
"Why are you crying? Please don't cry."
"But... don't do thaaat."
That Servant was alive — that he truly existed — filled me with such joy my chest felt ready to burst.
"You idiot, you idiot! Why, why did you disappear without a word!"
"Oh dear. I've made you sad. I apologize. But the situation was urgent. I had no choice."
"You're all right, aren't you? You're not hurt anywhere?"
"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine."
"Thank goodness..."
The strength left my legs, and I sank to the floor. Servant existed. No — he had survived. I was truly glad of that.
"The helper died, and if something had happened to you too, Servant... I couldn't have gone on living."
"Well. It was thanks to you, Lady Fren."
"What?"
"It's nothing. And please don't concern yourself with the helper."
"What did you say?"
Anger flared in me all at once. He was telling me not to think of someone who had died acting for my sake? But what Servant said next was a shock.
"The helper is not dead."
"His head was cut off!"
"That head was something like a phantom to begin with. In truth, he's probably hiding quite well."
"Really? He really isn't dead?"
"Yes. If that is what you wish."
"Thank goodness!"
The dead helper had weighed so heavily on my chest. But if he hadn't actually died...
"I'm really glad. Truly."
"Heh. Lady Fren truly has a gentle heart. Unbelievably so."
"Unbelievably? Don't I look kind at a glance?"
"Yes. You do. Which is why I have something to tell you."
"What is it?"
"I intend to gather people."
"Are you insane?"
The words came out harsh before I could stop them. But even if I could go back three seconds, I would have said the same thing.
"You saw Yusia's power. If she wants to, she can drag even His Holiness the Pope here. And we saw for ourselves that the helper's special ability doesn't work against the Pope's holy power. And you want to gather more people?"
I said it flatly.
"They'll all die for nothing."
"But I cannot help Lady Fren escape on my own."
"Then I'll do it myself. I have a plan I'm working on privately, too."
"About that plan."
Servant hesitated. Then, as if troubled, he said:
"It will be useless now."
"What?"
The next day's teatime. The day Kailin came to visit. The moment she saw me, she pulled me into a tight embrace.
"Freeen! Our Fren, what are we going to do with you!"
"K-Kailin? What's wrong?"
"I just came from apologizing to Yusia."
"What?"
"Those wounds on your body lately, you know? Even though you said otherwise, I'd been thinking Yusia gave them to you. But that wasn't it."
"Wh-what?"
"I hear you've been seeing hallucinations lately. Carving in a state like that, of course you'd hurt yourself. Fren, you really have to treasure your own body. Understand? I'll cast a calming spell on your mind, too."
"N-no! I don't see hallucinations or anything like that!"
"It's all right. I understand everything."
Kailin spent the whole teatime patting me, then left.
The next day, teatime with Aphron.
"Fren."
Without preamble, he hoisted me up onto his shoulders.
"A-Aphron?"
"If you take a higher view, the knots tangled up inside you come undone."
"..."
"When I was young and something was hard, my father would give me a shoulder ride too. I hope it lifts your spirits as well."
Aphron gave me nothing but that ride on his shoulders, then departed. What the two of them had in common was the advice that I stop hurting myself.
I had come back to my room and was sitting there blankly when Servant said, infuriatingly:
"Was I not right?"
"Please shut up. I'm begging you."
The plan to split the hero's party had been scrapped.