Secret (5)
Secret (5)
I first tried to change the subject.
"How did you get all the way here?"
"Last night. By car."
"...... Did someone drive you here?"
"There are plenty of people in the imperial palace. You can't exactly ask them to run a train at an hour when it isn't operating, can you? It's not a matter of one or two coins."
Driving a steam automobile this far didn't seem like a one-or-two-coin matter either.
No, more than that, just getting here from the imperial capital by 'automobile' was never an easy thing. There were roads, after a fashion, but vast stretches of those roads were nothing but dirt. I supposed they were maintained to some degree.
"Don't worry. I didn't come alone. I had knights to escort me."
Watching Alice lean back in the chair, fold her arms, and say that, I felt the urge to smack my own forehead once again.
If it had been only Alice and me in the room, I might actually have done it.
"Is this about that one time I called him 'Elder Brother'?"
"'That one time'? You don't seriously think of that as 'merely that sort of thing,' do you?"
One of Alice's eyebrows went up.
"......."
If it wasn't 'merely,' then what was it?
But I wasn't stupid enough to actually say that out loud. Because whatever the reason, Alice was being intensely serious right now.
"You don't use that kind of...... intimate form of address with anyone else. Doesn't that mean there's something so important that you had to go that far just to get here?"
That was...... sharp, admittedly.
I couldn't tell her that the subject was the colossal bombshell that Alice and Claire might be biological sisters, and that I'd come here to confirm the truth.
If I brought up the emperor's words, Alice would only think I was talking about myself and not Claire.
Going back in time—well, this was a fantasy world, a setting where a goddess might actually exist, so even if I were found out, it would end with the other person being appalled or shocked. Not that it was something you could just laugh off, of course.
But telling someone that I came from another world and that in that world, the story of this world was just a story inside a game...... was a separate matter. Wasn't it a little too much to tell someone that their own will might not matter much, that they might have been a being who simply moved according to a predetermined script?
"......."
Seeing me hesitate to answer, Alice let out a deep sigh.
"Well, fine."
Alice, arms still folded, narrowed her eyes at me and spoke.
"You came here to stay anyway, didn't you? So I'll stay with you while you're here."
I heard a clapping sound and turned my head to see the Sword Saint Frederick clapping a hand over his own forehead. His eyes were squeezed shut, making the wrinkles on his face seem twice as deep as usual.
"Are you telling me that two brats who haven't even come of age are going to stay even longer in my cabin?"
"Don't worry too much, Master."
At those words, Alice turned toward her master and put a gentle smile on her face.
"If Sylvia says she'll go back, I intend to return today if need be."
Then she turned her face back toward me and studied my expression.
"Though you don't exactly look like you want to go back."
She murmured it almost under her breath.
"......."
I stared at Alice in silence for a moment, then slowly opened my mouth.
And closed it again.
Hm.
When I'd used the word 'Elder Brother' to Jaden, even though it had been mortifying then and I regretted it, it honestly hadn't been an unbelievably difficult thing. After all, my plan from the start had been to rewind time wholesale once I'd learned the truth.
Of course, there was no guarantee I would definitely track down Lucas within the two weeks before the break ended. Lucas might be off in some other country, or he might be training deep in the mountains so he could cut me down more efficiently next time.
But if I couldn't find him, that was fine too. I could simply rewind time, think of another method, or just spend the rest of the break relaxing and worry about it later.
But saying the word 'Sister' to Alice......
Even if rewinding time was an option, for some reason I was immensely reluctant to do it.
This was only my own feeling, but somehow, it felt like it would become a huge...... stain on my life.
"......."
Alice was still looking at me with an expression that said, 'Say what you have to say.'
"...... Uh......."
"Uh?"
"Uhhh......."
I drew a deep breath and said,
"Sis."
"Hmm?"
But as if she hadn't heard me, Alice tilted one ear toward me and asked.
"What are you trying to say? You're splitting it into single syllables, so I can't make out a thing you're saying."
"......."
I shut my eyes and clenched my teeth.
Then I drew a huge breath in,
"Sis, could you please stop doing this here and just go home and wait?"
I rattled it off like a rapid-fire gun.
"You were too fast. I didn't catch that."
"......."
I collected myself once more.
"...... Sis."
Only after I'd said it like that did Alice turn her head fully toward me.
Her face was filled with a triumphant smile. Her eyes sparkled so brightly they seemed to outshine the stars that still hadn't entirely faded from the sky.
"Yes, what is it, Sylvia?"
Looking at Alice, who had wrapped her voice in a deliberately manufactured sweetness, I seriously considered whether I should just rewind time and erase the entire business with Jaden too. But I concluded that even so, the mortification deep inside me probably wouldn't vanish completely.
Faced with Alice, who had now entered full 'Tell Sister everything' mode, I slowly opened my mouth and said,
"It's a...... request?"
"......."
Hearing my words, Alice beamed from ear to ear and said,
"I do understand a younger sibling's concern for her elder sister,"
and at those words, I was seized by a violent unease.
"but I can't very well leave my little sister in a place like this and go back, can I?"
"A place like this......."
The Sword Saint muttered in a somewhat wounded voice. Really? Was that the same person who'd been talking a moment ago as if it was nothing?
"Elder Sister will stay here with Sylvia."
"......."
This was a different flavor of irritation from watching Jaden put his hand to his forehead and perform his little 'oh dear' act.
And only then did I understand what the unease I had felt before calling Alice 'Sister' really was.
...... Yes. Deep in my heart, I had already known that the method that had worked on Jaden would not work on Alice.
"That will be all right, won't it, Master?"
"......."
The Sword Saint was silent for a long moment.
"What will you do if I refuse?"
He asked the question with an intensely serious expression.
"I will inform every swordsman in the country of your location, Master. Even if I must mobilize the full capabilities of the imperial family to do so."
Then every variety of human specimen would come swarming in.
People wanting to learn swordsmanship. People challenging him to a duel. People who'd been cut by the Sword Saint's blade when he was a little younger and had been nursing a grudge ever since.
It would probably become an enormous headache.
He could just run away, of course, but if he did that, the connections he'd made in his later years would be severed again.
He was a cantankerous old man who'd hidden himself in the mountains because he was sick of the world, but that didn't mean he was a person without human feeling. The man called the Sword Saint.
"......."
The Sword Saint stared at Alice for a long moment, then heaved a sigh fit to make the ground cave in.
"Well, if that's the case, so be it."
Then he turned his gaze toward me.
It didn't seem to carry any particular emotion, but the Sword Saint's gaze felt incredibly sharp all on its own. A gaze that seemed to pierce straight through me.
He was the man who, until just yesterday, had no intention of letting me sleep here. Had his mind changed after seeing me meditating just before Alice arrived?
"However, do not become a nuisance. I am already in the middle of teaching one disciple here."
The Sword Saint's eyes went to Leo.
Leo was standing at rigid attention in front of the three of us, frozen completely solid.
I'd thought his attitude toward us had softened a little at the academy, but apparently it was different outside the academy.
I supposed that was why the commoner-track kids were so intensely uncomfortable around the noble-track kids and didn't even want to mix words with them. Because even if they got friendly and spoke casually while they were here, four years later, after graduation, they would become people who had to be treated with stiff formality again.
The reasoning was that rather than getting used to thinking of each other as 'equals' and ending up with hurt feelings, it was better to assume that kind of relationship from the very beginning.
"In exchange, the three of you are equals here. There is no one higher or lower."
The Sword Saint looked at Leo as if he found him pathetic and said that.
"And,"
Seeing us nod, the Sword Saint added,
"Here, there is no woman or man either. Just because the training content is the same, I will not treat you differently according to sex."
"I've already experienced that much."
At the Sword Saint's words, Alice nodded readily.
And I.......
"......."
Only then did I feel that I was in serious trouble.
It was a relief not to be thrown out, but.......
The Sword Saint's eyes as he looked at me were far from ordinary.
The same way they'd been when I was doing my meditation training here.