Silvia
I am an elf.
I was born a slave to humans.
The noble who owned me back then held a rather high rank. Duke Richard Ashdown—one of the Empire’s Seven Dukes.
My parents had been Richard’s slaves, so I was born into slavery as well. Father died early of a chronic illness, leaving Mother to raise me alone.
Richard worked Mother to the bone. Cleaning, laundry, and cooking were the bare minimum. When he grew bored he beat her; when he practiced swordsmanship he struck her with a wooden blade. Her body was always mottled with bruises. Yet Mother endured it all in silence. She did it for me.
“Silvia, I swear I’ll free you from slavery. I’ve saved up quite a bit of money.”
Mother swallowed every humiliation so she could buy my freedom. To me she was the warmest mother imaginable. Whenever someone in the mansion tried to torment me she stepped in front of me; she always took the heavier share of the work. Having a mother like that made me happy—and watching her suffer made my heart ache. So I worked even harder, saving every coin I could, so that one day we might leave together.
Then the accident happened.
Richard was swinging his wooden sword at Mother as usual. The old blade struck the wall and shattered; a splinter drove straight into her eye. Richard didn’t even bother to treat her—or show concern. He merely clicked his tongue, left her collapsed on the floor, and walked away. From that day on Mother was blind in one eye, and from that day on I hated Richard with every fiber of my being.
Even half-blind, Mother’s duties never changed. But I had grown enough to shoulder more of her work. Seeing her with one eye closed still twisted my chest, yet watching her struggle less because of my help brought me a quiet joy. Day after day we endured.
Only three more months and we would have had enough money.
Then that incident occurred.
The mansion caught fire. I had been working in the courtyard; Mother was still inside. I threw away every shred of pride and dropped to my knees before Richard.
“Master, please save my mother! Sir Balt could get her out—please…!”
Balt was a Sword Master; he could have rescued her easily. Richard only answered, “No. Balt has something more important to do.”
Footsteps approached. Balt emerged from the burning mansion carrying three massive strongboxes.
“Well done. These ledgers are what matter most.”
“It was hard work brushing off the slaves who begged to be saved.”
Rage surged through me. They could have saved Mother—and they left her behind for the sake of some ledgers!
I prayed desperately for her to be alive. Heaven was merciless. The moment I spotted a scrap of Mother’s clothing among the charred corpses, I fled. No one paid me any mind while they cleaned up the burning mansion. I slipped out of the city, vanished into the forest, and wept without end.
I could have escaped so easily! If only the fire had never started—if only Balt or Richard had simply saved her!
From that day I trusted no one. With the money I had scraped together I bought a bow and a robe and became a mercenary, yet I never let anyone close. Living that way, I somehow became the Divine Archer and found myself joining the Hero’s party.
“So you’re the Hero? I’ll do my part—don’t speak to me.”
Our first meeting was hardly pleasant. Given how wary I was of everyone, that was only natural.
“Wow, you shoot really well. Think you could teach me sometime?”
Yet he kept approaching.
“Silvia! Are you okay? You’re not hurt?”
He worried about me.
“Silvia! I found a great bow for you! It should be much easier to shoot with this!”
He pried open the doors I had sealed around my heart.
I don’t know when it began, but I started relying on him.
“Teo! I’ve learned a new technique! Will you watch?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you!”
I felt gratitude toward him.
“That’s how I lost my mother.”
“Silvia… that must have been so hard. It’s okay to cry.”
“Hic… huu…”
I fell in love with him.
The other companions were good people too. Fiora was a mischievous little genius; Velis was strong yet gentle. Ariel… her personality was a bit strange at first, but she improved. Fighting monsters and demons was grueling, yet celebrating victory together afterward was more joyful than anything.
A few months after I began secretly loving Teo, our party stood before the Demon King’s castle.
“All right! Let’s go in.”
His confident words banished even the last flicker of unease in my heart. We entered the chamber and faced the Demon King. He was stronger than any foe we had ever met, yet in the end Teo prevailed. Seeing him rejoice made me happy too.
Maybe I should offer the weary Teo a warm word of praise…?
Kill Teo.
A whisper brushed my ear. When I came to my senses I was already aiming my bow at him. An arrow of my own making was buried in his arm.
“Ugh?! What is this…?”
Teo’s startled face filled my vision. Looking at him flooded my mind with betrayal and loathing.
Kill him.
The whisper returned. My head throbbed.
Kill Teo…?
Kill him!
I kept attacking. At last he collapsed. Looking down at his face, an inexplicable hatred filled me to the brim.
“In the end you were just another human. How pathetic I was to open my heart to you. Die slowly.”
I left the chamber after spitting those wounding words. Even as I walked away, not a single question rose in my mind. The moment I stepped out of the Demon King’s castle the whisper vanished from my ears and my head cleared.
“Ugh?!”
My senses returned. Every word I had hurled at Teo, every image of myself attacking him, flooded back.
Thud.
It felt as though my heart had dropped out of my chest.
“N-no… nooooo! This can’t be happening!!”
What have I done?! The shocked expression on his face as he took my arrows, the hurt that crossed it when he heard my words—everything burned itself into my mind.
“I-I have to go back…”
I remembered how badly he was wounded.
“H-healing! Saintess!”
I turned and saw the rest of the party wearing the same horrified faces. Together we raced back to him—and what we found was Teo, wrapped in a swirl of light, deliberately ignoring us.
“Wait—Teo!”
I called out desperately, but—
Flash!
Where the light had been, nothing remained.
In the place where Teo had vanished, Silvia, Fiora, Velis, and Ariel could only stare blankly ahead.
“…Te…o?”
Silvia murmured. Then a laugh rose from the Demon King they had thought defeated.
“Keh-heh… Kwahahahaha!”
The party members flinched and raised their weapons.
“It worked perfectly. The Hero has abandoned you! Hahahaha!”
“What did you do to us?”
“You were simply too strong. Stronger than I could ever defeat. So I poured every scrap of power I had stored into a mental assault—so that you would attack the Hero yourselves! His face was priceless. Betrayed by the comrades he trusted most.”
The Demon King’s body was already dissolving.
“Th-that’s… im-impossible…”
“It means you fell for it! Did you really think I would go down so easily? You all looked so close to the Hero… spend the rest of your lives drowning in regret! Kwahahahaha!”
With those final words the Demon King vanished completely. Despair crushed the party. They had been deceived into attacking their own Hero. How deeply must Teo have been wounded? How much must their words have cut him? Guilt wrapped around every limb like chains. Tears began to well in every eye—when suddenly a woman appeared before them.
“G-Goddess…?”
Ariel recognized her at once.
Hero Teo has returned to his original world as the wish granted for slaying the Demon King.
Everyone stared in confusion. The Goddess continued.
He was summoned here from another world for the purpose of defeating the Demon King, and upon success he was permitted one wish.
Because all of you aided in that victory, I shall grant each of you one wish as well.
Fiora cried out through her tears.
“Teo! Please let us see Teo again!”
Is that your wish?
Velis spoke next.
“Can all of us see him? We have to beg his forgiveness.”
If you wish to see him immediately, only one of you may go.
However, if all of you wish to meet him, there is another way.
“What way?”
Silvia asked.
Wait until he calls for you.
They laughed bitterly at themselves.
“After what we did to Teo… would he ever call for us?”
Velis’s voice was heavy with despair. The Goddess only smiled quietly. Then she swept light across them all and vanished.
Silvia sank to the floor and began to mutter, looking utterly broken. Fiora wailed at the top of her lungs. Velis bit her lower lip hard and slammed a fist into the ground. Ariel dropped to her knees and began to beg Teo’s forgiveness.
How much time passed? Suddenly light poured from Silvia’s body—and she was gone.
“…?”
“W-what just happened?”