Reunion? (5)
Reunion? (5)
"I-I greet Your Highness."
Claire greeted me in exactly the same posture she'd shown Alice moments before.
It was a moment so painfully awkward my head swam.
I didn't actually feel faint, of course. It was just a figure of speech.
Yes. I knew Claire. I'd known Claire as a child, strictly speaking, but the Claire I really knew wasn't that Claire. The Claire I really knew was the Claire who had become a villain under the emperor.
I'd stressed this several times already, but I would say it once more. In the game, Claire never, ever projected an innocent image like the one she had now. Whatever the line, she always gave as good as she got, and when someone displeased her, she let the displeasure show plainly. She never once appeared to stammer or hesitate.
The only moments Claire ever flustered or grew angry were when the subject of another sister, one who had cherished her, came up.
A sister already dead by the time the main scenario began.
...... Although as things stood now, that sister was alive. I had no idea how she'd ended up alive, but the existence called "me" had probably played a very large part. After all, in this world, I was genuinely the only thing that had changed.
Had the emperor grown more cautious?
It wasn't a pressing question at present. In the original story, that sister had existed only as a background detail, the original owner of the Whip Sword Claire used. I could worry about it when she started intruding into the story in earnest. I had the power to rewind time, after all.
Leo Grace, who had been standing stiffly beside Claire, bowed his head toward the pair of us as well.
The original protagonist, Leo Grace.
Handsome as befitted a game protagonist like this, and tolerably skilled. Narratively, he was a character who combined the expressive, upbeat hero of a shōnen manga with elements of a harem protagonist.
In gameplay terms, his early performance was terrible, utterly maggot-tier, but once you raised him, his power curve steepened sharply the further he advanced. A late bloomer. Honestly, rather than raw stats, his utility skills as the leader were utterly broken. He lacked a recovery skill, but under the rubric of "Morale Boost," he temporarily elevated the abilities of the other characters. Depending on the setup, the boost approached nearly seventy percent, and it was an area-of-effect skill to boot.
What was more, the area of effect was centered on himself and doubled as a self-buff, so as long as you used the skill periodically, you could melt enemies even on the highest difficulty. Provided the rest of the characters were built properly, of course.
Not that his personal stats were purely bad, either. Judged on raw stats alone, he placed among the upper tier by the final battle.
Because of this, he was notorious as a character you had to grit your teeth and raise through the early game. Those crucial buff skills only unlocked around the midgame, after all.
And precisely because of that, I'd been curious how that character would manage to survive in this world.
'Morale Boost' only functioned as an effective attack boost because this was a game. In reality, it was plausible that encouragement could draw out someone’s strength, but no amount of encouragement could make a person exceed the absolute limit of human output.
The game merely expressed the setting conceit that "his words carry that much weight" that way, but it was nothing more than a gameplay liberty.
Similarly, I was curious how things like "The World's Strongest Mage" or "The Worst Mercenary in History" (allied guest characters, or enemy bosses whose in-battle performance ended up oddly poor because of game balance) would manifest. Would performance take priority, or would narrative billing?
Then again, the game had been turn-based and lacked even the freedom of a Western RPG, so by that measure the story would also diverge enormously.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Sylvia Fangriffon."
"Sylvi—!"
At my words, Claire's head jerked up and she looked at me, but the moment her eyes met Alice's, standing beside me, she hastily lowered her head again.
This was the complete opposite of the original.
No—you could argue it went even further. In the original, Claire had outshone Alice in all respects too, but that hadn't meant Alice went around bowing her head to her. If anything, the two of them had had something like a bad-sister dynamic, with Claire unilaterally treating Alice like a younger sibling.
Although calling their relationship "bad" was putting it rather bloodcurdlingly.
"Both of you."
Alice, who had been silently regarding the two bowed figures, parted her lips.
"Do you have something to say?"
"Ah, um, well—!"
At Alice's words, Claire boldly raised her head again.
And looked at me.
The look in her eyes startled me somewhat. Even under this pressure, the gaze Claire fixed on me was intense. The way she looked straight at me without flinching felt almost like the Claire I remembered from the game.
She did stammer a little, though. But so what?
Claire had grown up well. Without ever enduring a horrific past.
"Sylvia... Your Highness!"
"......."
A word other than "Your Highness" had very nearly slipped out at the end there, or so it seemed. Still, the fact that she hadn't called me "Sister!" counted for something, didn't it?
Seeing her rush in so recklessly like this gave me the sense that she'd grown close enough to the slightly hot-blooded protagonist Leo to practically be siblings. In a sense, maybe she'd grown up even more that way than Leo had. Leo had been born a noble, after all, but Claire had not.
"Yes. What is it?"
I answered Claire about half a beat late.
"Would you perhaps...?"
Claire started to ask me something, then drew a sharp, "Hah—" of a breath.
Every eye around us was fixed in this direction.
What kind of incident might unfold if, in front of all these people, she asked me, 'an imperial princess', whether I was from an orphanage? She seemed to realize it only now.
Mm.
Claire needed to learn more caution. Then again, the original Claire had come across as arrogant and insolent yet impressively perceptive. When I thought about it, that perceptiveness existed because she'd survived situations where a lack of it would have been fatal.
Baron Grace and his wife were renowned for their integrity and kindness. They would never have raised Claire differently from Leo just because she was an orphan.
A child cherished her entire life.
That was the kind of child Claire had become.
There would be no reason for her to turn into a character who secretly envied Alice merely because Alice had a living father.
"Perhaps?"
When I echoed the word back, Claire, her face gone sheet-white, floundered and burst out—
"W-would... would you perhaps... be willing to accept my greeting?!"
"......."
The atmosphere grew awkward all over again.
Alice's expression, which had been rigidly stiff, was now crossing over into the realm of sheer bafflement. At first, upon seeing Claire address me and noticing that she hadn't greeted me, Alice seemed to think there was some kind of ulterior motive at work. But this time it was because Claire had blurted out something genuinely hard to parse.
"As for a greeting, I've already received one."
Claire's face went red.
And to the degree that Claire's face reddened, Leo's complexion paled. If he grew any paler, would his face start to match the color of his own hair?
"More to the point, would you mind introducing yourself first?"
When I posed that question, Claire's face turned even redder.
"I am... Claire Grace. A daughter of the Grace baronial house."
This time, however, Claire's voice didn't stammer the way it had a moment ago as she bowed her head to observe the proper courtesy.
"Is that so."
"The Grace barony. Their territory lies not far from the imperial palace."
Alice spoke with an expression that looked as though she were rifling through her memory.
Then she ostentatiously swept her gaze over our surroundings.
Students still crowded around us, but the ones in the very front row of that human wall wore expressions that were anything but pleased. To be precise, the looks on their faces said they couldn't retreat because there were people behind them.
"...... Take note. As long as we attend this academy, we are students just like you. The rank of imperial princess is nothing more than a status outside the academy. Within these walls, whether noble or commoner, we are only people who have come here to learn."
Indeed.
This wasn't just about hierarchy among students, either; the issue also involved relationships between faculty and students.
The headmaster was a duke, but among the teachers were those of baronial or comital origin, and some of common birth as well. If the class system were applied here, you'd get the bizarre spectacle of a teacher bowing deferentially and using polite speech to a student.
That was the reasoning behind the academy regulation stating, "The class system does not apply within the academy."
In some respects the rule was a dead letter, yet at other times it shone. In practice, commoners and nobles had grown close here, and those connections had sometimes led to the able being appointed to high office after graduation. It had also played a part in breaking down prejudice.
"So you needn't observe that sort of formality with me in here. Not that I'm forcing you to follow my advice, either. But if you do insist on treating me with that sort of ceremony, I shall simply treat you in return as an imperial princess treats her subordinates. If you prefer it that way, then by all means."
"......."
No audible response came.
But from further off, I could make out a low murmur.
The crowd here likely wasn't limited to first-years. We were in the corridor that led from the main building toward the first-year classrooms, so second-years through fourth-years would be present as well.
And her words applied to every one of those year groups.
After surveying the surroundings, Alice fixed her gaze once more on Claire and Leo standing before her, and spoke.
"As for the two of you—what will you do?"
Mm.
Her refusal to bow before the headmaster was probably the reason Alice considered that a line she "could not concede." No matter what the regulations said, she must have decided that particular application was unacceptable. She was the emperor's daughter, after all.
But beyond that, she intended to apply the principle liberally.
I felt I understood now why Alice had treated Claire so stiffly after Claire had paid her formal respects a moment ago. Claire had addressed Alice as "the imperial princess," so Alice had treated Claire as a subordinate in return.
"Ah...."
Claire's expression went briefly blank, then lit up in a bright smile.
Straightening the waist she'd been slightly bending, Claire walked right up to Alice.
Then, thrusting out her hand, she spoke.
"I'm Claire. Claire Grace."
I heard breath catch all around us. The sound might even have included Leo, standing somewhere behind her.
Alice stared fixedly at Claire for a moment, then extended her own hand, took Claire's, and gave it a light shake. Her face wasn't exactly smiling, but neither did her expression look wholly displeased.
It was a remarkably composed expression, quite unlike the Alice from the original...
.......
Wait. Was she copying my expression?
"I'm Alice. Alice Fangriffon."
"Alice."
Claire beamed brightly at the expressionless Alice, utterly unintimidated, then released the hand she'd been holding lightly. Alice let go of that hand without any lingering reluctance either.
And then Claire turned toward me.
With her earlier bewilderment blown clean away, Claire wore a refreshing smile.
It resembled that smile the original Claire had worn at the end, when she died in Alice's place.
This expression, this one here, was probably the expression closest to Claire's true nature. The twisted attitude she'd displayed throughout the game must have been the attitude she'd adopted as she broke apart.
"My name is Claire."
And she introduced herself to me once more.
She thrust her hand out toward me.
"Claire Grace."
She declared her name with unflinching confidence.
"......."
I glanced down at Claire's hand. Her white hand bore a few calluses. From training hard at the sword, I supposed.
I extended my own hand and gently took hers.
"My name is Sylvia Fangriffon."
When I said that, still wearing the same stiff expression, Claire's eyes wavered a little.
But soon enough Claire smiled and gave my hand a light shake.
"Pleased to meet you."
"Yes. The pleasure is mine."
Claire's hand, clasped in mine, felt a little warm.
Had it been the same in the original story?