Return to Arsein
After returning to Tilen, we did nothing for several days.
More precisely, we couldn't do anything.
Eleanor was still suffering the aftereffects of the wounds inflicted by the tentacle monster and the severe depletion of her mana. Lucrezia, too, was far from recovered—having been swept away by the underground current and then forced into consecutive battles against deformed monsters.
After a few days, however, all three of us had recovered enough to move properly again.
And the moment we could, we headed straight for the Tilen branch office.
“We’re here to report the completion of the labyrinth request.”
The clerk at the Tilen branch accepted the request form and nodded.
We had written a concise written summary of what had happened inside the labyrinth and handed it over. After reading the report for a while, the clerk hurriedly called for the branch manager.
We moved to a small meeting room and once again explained the situation in detail to the Tilen Branch Manager. Then I took out the mysterious gem I had been carrying and placed it on the table.
“We found it on the altar beyond the door.”
The branch manager carefully picked up the gem.
The stone that had once emitted a dark glow now looked perfectly transparent.
“Do you believe this is what created the monsters?”
“I can’t say for certain.”
I answered honestly.
“But considering everything we saw inside the labyrinth, it’s hard to believe this object has nothing to do with it.”
“Hmm……”
The branch manager stared at the faded gem for a long time before finally extending his hand toward me. Our clasped hands shook firmly in the air several times.
“In any case, excellent work. The report on the labyrinth will likely be sent up to headquarters. This is beyond what a mere branch office can handle.”
“I see.”
Whatever they decided to do with it, the matter was now out of our hands.
But the branch manager still had more to say. He looked at me and smiled brightly.
“Your contributions will be properly conveyed as well. We may even be able to uncover the true source of those monsters. This achievement will definitely be recognized with a decoration.”
“A decoration……”
Both women’s eyes changed in an instant.
For a fallen house—one that had even raised its banner against the Empire—receiving an official imperial decoration was nothing short of a massive turning point.
And for me as well……
If I received a decoration, my life as a commoner would change dramatically. I wouldn’t suddenly become a noble, of course, but I would at least be treated as someone the Empire had officially recognized. If things went well, I might even be granted a territory.
Suddenly, a strange vision flashed through my mind.
A quiet meadow.
A vast pasture stretching into the distance.
And on a gentle hill, a large house.
There, Lucrezia and Eleanor stood with hands gently caressing their swollen bellies, smiling at me in welcome.
“……”
I couldn’t help but let out a small, bitter laugh.
Would a day like that really come?
Lucrezia was determined to restore the Roenheim family, and Eleanor felt the same. If they achieved their goals, we might actually grow further apart than we were now.
But what if.
What if that day truly arrived……
“Well then, I’ll take my leave.”
The branch manager’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
He had already risen from his seat and was leaving the meeting room. I shook off my idle fantasies and stood up as well.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
“Understood.”
We left the branch office just like that.
After a simple dinner, we returned to our lodging.
For a long while inside the room, none of us spoke.
Lucrezia was the first to break the silence.
“Kael.”
“Yeah?”
She hesitated for a moment before asking.
“Are you really not going to say anything about that black energy?”
I fell silent.
So she had noticed after all.
Eleanor, sitting on the edge of the bed, was also staring at me.
“I was curious too.”
She said quietly.
“Something happened near that gem, didn’t it?”
“……”
“Kael suddenly froze, and right after that, some strange energy flowed into us as well.”
I let out a deep sigh.
There was no way to explain it right now.
“I’m thinking of going to Arsein.”
“Arsein?”
“There’s someone there who might know something about all this.”
Lucrezia’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
“Lumencia. She’s a mage.”
“……”
Both of them wore expressions that said the name was completely new to them.
I hesitated briefly, then continued.
“I don’t know the full details yet either.”
“……”
“But she’s someone who might be able to give us advice about that black energy, the gem, and everything that happened in the labyrinth.”
Lucrezia stared at me for a long time.
Her gaze was sharp.
“Kael.”
“Yeah.”
“Is there a reason you can’t tell us?”
Silence fell for a moment.
I looked away and gave a small, awkward laugh.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“……”
“I don’t want to make you anxious with nothing but vague speculation. Instead, I promise you this.”
I looked at both of them.
“After I meet Lumencia, I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Eleanor let out a sigh.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“I hate it when you hide things.”
“I know.”
She pouted her lips for a moment, then finally let out a small laugh. Lucrezia gave a slight nod as well.
“Fine. If that’s the case, I’ll wait.”
A very faint bitterness lingered on both their faces.
They had clearly realized I was hiding something. But they didn’t press any further.
That was probably how much they trusted me.
The very next day, we boarded a carriage leaving Tilen and arrived in Arsein.
It had been a long time since we’d returned to the great city.
On the day we arrived, we decided to rest thoroughly for one full day.
We visited a restaurant we had never tried before and let Eleanor eat whatever she wanted. We also stopped by a blacksmith with Lucrezia to replace the equipment and tools we had lost in the labyrinth. After that, we unpacked our belongings at the same lodging we had used last time and settled in.
We had come to an unspoken agreement not to be intimate with each other until the bite marks on Eleanor’s chest had fully healed.
She became incredibly depressed every time she saw those marks, so there was no helping it. Because of that, we each rented individual rooms.
Since I couldn’t be with Eleanor, it naturally meant I couldn’t be with Lucrezia either. And when Eleanor tearfully insisted that we absolutely couldn’t do it without her, we decided to respect her wishes.
“Mmm……”
I stretched and collapsed onto the bed.
The soft mattress slowly melted away the fatigue of wandering around all day. My eyelids began to droop.
Knock. Knock.
The sound of someone knocking on the door woke me.
“……?”
Who could it be at this hour?
I got up and walked to the door.
When I opened it, a familiar face stood in the hallway.
“Eleanor?”
Eleanor was standing there.
She wore her usual mischievous smile, but something about her seemed different tonight.
“Kael. You weren’t sleeping yet?”
“What’s wrong?”
Eleanor didn’t answer right away.
Then she gave a small smile and said,
“Nothing much.”
“……?”
“I just wanted to talk a little.”
Her voice was unusually quiet.
For a moment I didn’t know what to say and simply stared at her.
Eleanor looked up at the night sky beyond the hallway window and murmured softly.
“Kael. You’re not hiding anything from me, right?”
“Huh?”
Her sudden words made my heart sink.
She slowly approached me and stared straight into my eyes.
“I…… I’m fine with everything. In the end, you saved me, didn’t you…?”
“What… what are you talking about, Eleanor?”
“I…… actually knew.”
“What do you……”
Tears welled up in the corners of Eleanor’s eyes.
“Back when we took the request from Count Timon…… and again this time in the labyrinth.”
“……”
“While I was being tormented.”
She tried to smile, but her voice was trembling.
“That you were nearby the whole time, Kael.”
My mind went completely blank.
My heart plummeted.
“Eleanor……”
She gave a small, fragile laugh.
“At first, I was a little resentful.”
“……!”
“I wondered why you didn’t come save me right away.”
Eleanor lowered her head.
“Because I was so scared.”
I couldn’t say anything.
It felt like my throat was blocked; no words would come out.
“But.”
Eleanor looked up at me again.
There were still tears clinging to her lashes.
“In the end, you did come for me.”
“……”
“You always saved me in the end.”
She clasped her hands tightly together.
“So I couldn’t bring myself to resent you.”
My chest felt tight.
I couldn’t meet her gaze.
Because I couldn’t tell her the truth.
Whether it was because of the Apostle of the Abyss or anyone else—how could I possibly confess that I had developed a perverted fetish that made me aroused by watching my lover being violated by others?
How could I tell her that I had been watching, excited, while she was nearly raped by strange men and almost turned into a breeding ground for parasitic tentacle worms…?
Of course, I had saved her.
But I had saved her late.
“I’m sorry.”
In the end, those were the only words that left my mouth.
Eleanor looked at me for a moment, then slowly shook her head.
“I didn’t come here to hear an apology.”
“……”
“I just wanted to confirm something.”
She carefully took my hand.
“That you’ve never abandoned me, Kael.”
A sharp pain stabbed somewhere deep in my chest.
“Of course not.”
At my answer, Eleanor’s eyes widened.
“I will never abandon either of you.”
“……”
“Not now. Not ever.”
A brief silence fell between us.
Then Eleanor wiped away her tears and said,
“You still love us more than anyone else… right? Or is that too cowardly to ask…?”
“Yes. I can swear it with everything I have.”
She gave a small nod.
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
Having received my answer, she turned to leave the room.
But I grabbed her arm faster than she could go.
I couldn’t let her leave like this.
I had to tell them the truth. I had to tell them the truth.
“Let’s go together tomorrow.”
“Huh?”
“I was originally planning to make up some vague excuse… but that would be no different from betraying you both.”
“Kael…?”
“Tomorrow we’ll go see Lumencia together and hear everything. There’s something I absolutely have to tell you. I can’t explain it in detail right now. I’m not mentally prepared yet… But if we go together tomorrow and listen, you’ll both understand everything.”
“……Okay!”
She seemed to regain her energy at my words. She answered energetically and then kissed me on the cheek.
Chu!
“Hehe. See you tomorrow, Kael.”
“Uh… yeah!”
Her sudden display of affection left me so stunned I answered like an idiot who had been hit over the head with a club. It took me a long time after she left before I could finally collect myself and crawl into bed.
The next day, I told Lucrezia exactly what I had told Eleanor the night before.
She thought about it quietly for a moment, then nodded.
“I understand, Kael. And I’m sorry.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“The fact that you’re struggling this much to talk about it means you’ve been carrying a heavy burden for a long time, right? We didn’t notice any of it… I’m sorry we couldn’t ease your burden even though we’re your lovers.”
“Lucrezia……”
I felt my chest swell with emotion.
The warmth from Eleanor yesterday and Lucrezia today—two different kinds of heartfelt affection—gently wrapped around my heart.
“I still don’t know exactly what you’re going to say… but I trust you, Kael. Always.”
“……Thank you.”
“Hey, wait! You two can’t have such a heavy, emotional atmosphere all by yourselves!”
As the two of us gazed at each other tenderly, Eleanor suddenly appeared and wedged herself between us, breaking the mood.
I let out a small laugh at the sight and headed to Lumencia’s house together with both of them.
Her house was still a complete garbage dump, just like last time.
“D-do people actually live in a place like this?”
Eleanor looked around the interior with an expression of disbelief.
The windows were half-broken, cracks ran through the walls, and trash was scattered all over the floor. Lucrezia, standing beside her, frowned deeply.
“This is closer to an animal pen than a human dwelling.”
“That’s quite a polite evaluation to make in front of someone else’s house.”
At the sudden voice, all three of us turned our heads at once.
It was the staircase leading to the second floor.
A woman with green hair—Lumencia—sat there with one knee raised, as if she had been there the entire time. In her hand was a half-eaten piece of fruit, and on her lips was an expression that could have been either a sneer or a smile.
“Do knights always start by critiquing the exterior when they visit someone’s home?”
“Lumencia.”
When I called her name, Lumencia raised one eyebrow slightly.
“It’s been a while. And you’re not alone this time?”
At those words, both Eleanor’s and Lucrezia’s gazes snapped toward me simultaneously.
I felt a cold sweat run down my back.
“So this is the person you mentioned before?”
Eleanor looked Lumencia up and down.
Green hair and vivid green eyes.
A languid, relaxed expression paired with a strangely piercing gaze.
And on top of that, a beauty so striking it seemed entirely out of place in such a rundown house.
Eleanor stared at her silently for a moment, then murmured very quietly.
“You met alone with someone like this……?”
“Eleanor?”
“It’s nothing.”
It was clearly not “nothing.”
Lumencia must have heard the murmur, because the corner of her mouth slowly curved upward.
“Hmm.”
“Why are you laughing?”
“No reason. Just thinking that your relationship seems more interesting than I expected.”
This time, Lucrezia’s gaze turned toward me.
The blue eyes that had looked at me so warmly just moments ago had grown just the slightest bit colder.
Just the tiniest bit.
“Kael.”
“Yeah?”
“You met her alone?”
“That’s……”
The atmosphere had suddenly become incredibly uncomfortable.
There had been nothing strange between us.
Really, nothing at all.
But the more I tried to explain, the more it felt like it would only sound worse.
Lumencia looked down at us and let out a soft chuckle.
“Don’t worry. Even if my tastes are a bit unique, I have no interest in stealing someone else’s lover.”
“That somehow sounds even more suspicious.”
Eleanor narrowed her eyes.
“And I still haven’t been properly introduced to who you are.”
“Lumencia von Arcane.”
Lumencia lightly blew on the stair railing.
A small cloud of dust rose into the air.
“I am the owner of this garbage-dump house, and the person you came to see.”
She spoke casually as she climbed the stairs to the second floor.
“Come up. Unless you’d rather continue talking in this trash heap.”
Then she glanced back at me.
“And you.”
“Me?”
“Your face looks even worse than before.”
The playful tone in her voice dropped for just a brief moment.
“What exactly did you encounter this time?”
