At the Moon Tower - 3
The god the Empire worshipped was the Moon God, and so the tower that stood closest to the moon had been named the Moon Tower. There had once been a time when I wondered whether the moon might truly look near enough to touch from that distant peak—yet now I was to ascend to the very top floor myself. At the Saintess's personal invitation, no less.
At the base of the Moon Tower lay the cathedral, and passing through it toward the tower's entrance, I found a paladin standing guard over the way. When our eyes met and I offered a faint smile, he approached and quietly parted his lips.
"...Might you be Lord Robert Taylor of House Taylor?"
"I was wandering the grounds and happened this way. I find myself curious whether the moon has risen."
At this utterly incomprehensible question, the paladin held his silence a moment—then smiled, stepped aside, and answered.
"Tonight is the full moon. Please, go on in."
It might as well have been a password. Only those with permission could enter the Moon Tower in the first place, and only those granted the Saintess's leave had any cause to wonder whether the moon had risen. The words full moon meant she was present. I bowed my head and stepped inside, and presently the interior of the tower opened up before me.
For all its grand name, the inside of the Moon Tower was simply an extension of the cathedral. People speculated endlessly about what it might hold, but there was nothing special to be found. I had entered a few times before, and every answer I received back then had been the same: new moon.
This time, however, I would meet her for certain. Climbing the spiral staircase toward the top floor, I came at last upon a door that looked special even at a glance. It was a door I knew well—I had waited before it for the Saintess more than once in the past, and for long hours at that.
After a moment's hesitation, I knocked lightly and spoke.
"It's Robert. May I come in?"
CRASH—
"One moment, please! Yurika will open the door...!"
Instead of an answer, what reached my ears was the sound of something spilling over inside. Adrian's cry had been startled, almost frantic, and hearing it gave me a fair picture of the situation within. I suppose no one can be perfect in all things. However much a symbol of grace the Saintess might be, our last meeting had taught me she was not always so impeccably composed. No doubt she had dropped something again.
So I waited calmly, and soon the door opened slowly, the Saintess peeking her face out.
"I didn't expect you to open it yourself."
"Yurika is tidying up in the back. She's busy clearing away the glass shards, you see."
"...I see."
Perhaps she could read my expression from my voice alone; Adrian smiled awkwardly and walked toward the sofa deeper in the room.
Even for the Saintess's chamber, there was nothing particularly remarkable about it. It simply resembled the room of any woman who lived alone—though if there was anything unusual, it was how close the moon seemed from here. And the scarcity of windows, too.
"Do you live here?"
"I do. This tower is my home."
"I believe I heard that Her Highness the Princess would be calling on you here as well, yet she does not seem to have arrived."
"We staggered our visits. I have something to discuss with you privately."
If it was something private, it would be the matter of the South she had mentioned earlier. But nothing should have been stirring in the South at this point in time. With the council having settled on a subjugation, the region was bound to remain quiet for a while yet.
After a brief hesitation, the Saintess bade me sit on the sofa and took her own seat. She did not come to the point at once. Perhaps because it was to be a heavy conversation, Adrian opened instead on the subject of my visit itself.
"This is the first time I've ever brought a man in here. Normally not even the paladins come inside."
"Have I committed some impropriety?"
"No, it's quite all right—I gave my permission. Besides, Lord Robert, wouldn't it be fair to say I know you well by now? You did help me last time, after all."
Warmth was threaded through Adrian's gentle smile. Perhaps the time we had spent together had left her with a favorable impression of me. There was nothing wrong with that, but being taken for simply a good man sat a little uneasily on my shoulders. If asked whether I was truly a good person, I could only answer no.
Still—never once brought a man inside. It made me wonder whether I had any business visiting a place like this at all. Was this not, until my arrival, a precinct forbidden to men? Half-worried that some groundless scandal might spread, I studied the Saintess, but her face held not a trace of concern—nothing but quiet delight that I had come.
"By the way, Lord Taylor—might you have plans this winter?"
I had scarcely begun to wonder at the sudden question when Adrian went on, her expression turning more serious. That smile carried a different air from the warmth of moments before, and I thought: now comes the true matter.
"So it is about the South after all."
"...Yes, it is. It concerns the children we saw last time. And as the Saintess, it is something I cannot turn away from."
Adrian's complexion had dimmed somewhat. Whatever she was about to say was evidently no cheerful matter; she let out a small sigh and hesitantly parted her lips.
"You said you already knew of the sorcerers of the South."
"Yes. Not in any detail, but... I am aware they are a different breed from mages."
"The sorcery they practice fundamentally requires offerings. Animals, plants—anything in which life dwells can be fed into their rites."
"I understand the children we saw were no exception. You asked whether I have plans this winter—is there something you would have me do?"
Helping the Saintess was a fine thing in itself, but the problem was that my winter was already spoken for. Even if it would not consume the whole season, my visit to Adele remained unchanged. Adrian nodded, yet I could not readily ask what it was she wanted. Winter... honestly, I expected to be run off my feet. Approaching the Crown Prince was one matter, but I also intended to remain in the North for a month at the least. Winning over the people of the North was something I simply had to do. Only then, when the time came to speak of striking at the imperial family, would support follow.
"I've decided to head south this winter. I mean to rescue others placed in the same circumstances as those children we saw."
"I see. I would like to go as well, but I'm afraid that will be difficult."
"...Pardon?"
Come to think of it, the cathedral had made a move around this time in the past—so that was it, a dispatch to the South. When I said I could not go, Adrian flinched in surprise and asked again, as if she hadn't heard right. It was true I had my own reasons to travel south, but I could not put off the North on that account. Had the schedules aligned, I might have strained myself to manage both—but this time, the North came first.
"I must go to the North this winter. The arrangements are already made."
"The North... might that be to see Lady Adele?"
"It is. There is a personal debt of gratitude I must repay."
In truth, my stated purpose was nothing more than returning the handkerchief she had draped over me with her own hands, but in my own way, I was grateful to her. The mere fact that she had asked so few questions about me—was that not, above all else, the greatest kindness I had been shown?
At my words, Adrian's expression darkened further still; her lips pursed slightly, and she lowered her head.
"Then I suppose it can't be helped. I didn't know you were on familiar terms with Lady Adele."
"We were together at the last Full Moon Festival, as it happens. Though it was no more than a brief crossing of paths."
"Lady Adele attended the Full Moon Festival?"
She sounded genuinely astonished. Well, anyone would. For a woman who shut herself away in the North and rarely came even to the events held in the capital, her sudden appearance at the festival was quite the astonishment.
"Yes. She had business with me, so we spent a short while together. My journey north relates to that as well."
"Together... I see."
Her voice had cooled a shade, and unlike before, not a trace of a smile remained on her face—her eyes had narrowed to slits. But Adrian smoothed the shadow from her features, smiled, and went on. The gloom that had flickered across her, however briefly, had vanished without a trace.
"To tell the truth, I have met Lady Adele before. If the two of you enjoy festivals together, would you call her a friend?"
"Not a friend. We have simply crossed paths a number of times, and this trip is merely business that happened to arise."
"Ah. I see."
Once more, she smiled. As though my answer had yielded her some gratifying morsel, Adrian laughed softly and took a sip of her tea. The gesture was so utterly natural that for an instant even I failed to sense anything amiss. Just where in the words we are not friends was there anything to be glad about? Her face looked little different from before, yet it was unmistakably clear that she was, somehow, delighted.
Come to think of it, hadn't Adele also worn an odd look when she said she knew Adrian? Perhaps the two of them simply did not get along.
"Then—precisely when are you planning to leave?"
"Probably after the new year arrives. The subjugation will take place in summer, so I intend to go before then."
...I didn't know her reason, but it seemed best to keep my talk of Adele to a minimum. I had no wish to manufacture needless conflict. So I steered the conversation back to the South, and Adrian answered with a grave look once more.
"I don't believe it will be especially dangerous. Last time, we never so much as crossed paths with sorcerers or the non-human races. Besides, I'll only be treating the wounded in the rear—and no doubt you'll be accompanying me the whole way, Lord Taylor."
"Then am I not simply unnecessary?"
The healing would be the Saintess's work, and to the world at large I was known as a duke's son with no particular talent to his name. When I asked why she had so readily invited such a man along, a flush rose in Adrian's cheeks. Her snow-white skin turned red, and only after faltering over her words several times did she at last open her mouth. I waited, half expecting some embarrassing confession—but what she finally uttered was, from my own standpoint, quite unexpected as well.
"I wanted to repay you for last time. There was no need for you to look after the children, yet you stayed by my side late into the night because I was injured."
"I was not seeking repayment. Besides, that was my repayment for the healing you gave me."
"Healing costs me nothing—one can hardly call it a debt. And the truth is, I've heard a few rumors about you, Lord Taylor."
My gaze settled on Adrian. Whatever the rumors were, they could not have been kind. Hearing such things, might she not harbor ill feelings toward me? But not a single crack showed in her expression. Her cheeks were still burning red; she seemed embarrassed only by what she was saying now.
"They say your constitution is frail, you see—and in the South, there is the Temple of the Moon."
"The Temple of the Moon..."
"It is a place only a Saintess may make full use of. By visiting it, one can bestow divine power upon a body. Carrying a part of me—well, in other words... I could plant it within you."
That, too, I already knew. The Temple of the Moon was, in fact, one of my own reasons for going south. But her offer to implant divine power genuinely gave me pause. If the Saintess's divine power took root in this body, its weaknesses would be visibly shored up. Yet that would be a considerable strain on Adrian herself—why insist on doing so much for me?
In the silence that followed, Adrian seemed to sense the question forming in me. Fidgeting with her fingers this way and that as she deliberated, she at last ventured, carefully:
"...I simply wanted to."
"Pardon?"
"There are things one can feel without seeing. It is true that I lost my sight—but there are things only divine power can show me."
How people regarded her. What emotions lay hidden in their gazes. As she explained this, Adrian smiled bitterly. I could well imagine what manner of looks had been aimed at her over the years. Saintess or not, the eyes turned upon a blind woman were, in truth, rarely kind.
"I've heard the rumors about you, Lord Taylor. Frail, and ill-tempered... I know it's rude to say such things to your face. What I mean to say is that I've come to realize you are not the man those rumors make you out to be."
Strength gathered in her voice. As though to confirm I was still listening, her tone rose slightly—and the corner of my mouth stirred, faintly. That I was a different man was no lie. Mere rumors, yes—but had the man from before those rumors spread and the man standing here now not lived entirely different lives? I wanted to write it off as a misunderstanding, but her next words kept my mouth from opening easily.
"There is something I have long wished to ask of you, Lord Taylor. I meant to say it when we met again, but I never imagined we would meet like this, so it has waited until now."
"There is not so very much I can offer you."
"It's a simple request. Or perhaps... hmm, it may be a rather difficult one."
Though she could not see, her gaze rested precisely on me. Perhaps that, too, was the work of her divine power. Things one can sense without sight—what, I wondered, had she seen in me? So I waited, and after a long moment Adrian continued slowly. Her voice was soft and calm, yet it grew quieter and quieter, as though from embarrassment.
"Lord Taylor... would it be all right if I saw you again, sometime? Not by chance, as today—I want to meet you again and talk for longer. I, that is..."
Unable to find the words, her lips parting and closing again and again, Adrian soon opened her mouth at last, hesitant.
"I've been thinking—what if Lord Taylor and I could become friends? That is why I wish to stay near you a little longer. Mirajane is coming today, so I can't just now, but... if the chance arises later."
"...Friends, you say."
A laugh escaped me unbidden. So that was why she had asked me to come south with her. In its own way, it was a rather Saintess-like display—to stumble so over nothing more than a wish to be friends.
The South.
There was no reason not to go. It held something I had been searching for, and I had no cause to refuse the Saintess's aid. And since it would be after the new year, I would have already returned from the North—there would be room to spare. Adrian, waiting on my answer, looked faintly anxious. Perhaps she feared I would refuse. Cradling her faintly trembling hand gently in mine, I gave my reply.
"If that is what you wish, then by all means."
I had taken this for a bond of fate, and so I had resolved to carry it forward. Though I had never imagined it would take the shape of friendship.
When I offered a small smile, I saw Adrian smile in return. It was the brightest smile I had ever seen from her—so bright, in fact, that it struck me as unexpected.