The Contract Ends Here
"Was everything all right?"
Bariya slipped back into the bedroom through the balcony and shifted once more into human form. White, who had been sitting before the door as if standing guard, came straight to her and rubbed a cheek against hers.
Prrrr.
"Thank you. You did well."
There wasn't the slightest commotion, so White must have kept watch just as Bariya had asked.
Mrr.
When Bariya stroked the fur in silence, White seemed to sense that something was wrong and studied her face.
"I... well. Mm..."
Not even an empty I'm fine would come out. She wasn't fine. They had found out everything — that Mariner blood ran in her veins, and that she could twist another person's feelings to her will.
Knock, knock.
"Little one."
She had been sitting there a long while when Sirka knocked. He was back already.
"Are you in there? I've something to tell you. May I come in?"
"...Yes. Come in."
Bariya swallowed hard, steeling herself. And yet, for all that resolve, the face Sirka wore as he stepped into the room was perfectly calm. He didn't look angry in the slightest.
She had been ready to take whatever curses he threw at her first, and the gentleness left her dazed.
"You came back... quickly."
"We're hardly on good terms. What reason would I have to look at that face any longer than I must?"
"Ah."
"Still, I did as you asked and sent him off alive."
Bariya had watched Darius leave with her own eyes, so she nodded.
"...Little one. May I ask you one thing?"
"Yes."
"Why did you tell me not to kill Darius Mariner?"
Bariya faltered. She had been certain he would ask why she had hidden that she was Darius's daughter.
Would it be all right to say I wanted to deal with him myself?
Before the Caliphs knew the truth, she would have roared it out — a wildcat's cry to match a lion's. But however much she hated him, saying she wanted to kill her own father felt a little much, didn't it?
What if they decide hyena blood really does make patricide come easily?
"...No reason. Just... because."
In the end she couldn't tell the truth, and mumbled past it.
"All right. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to. For now, let me tell you what happened with Darius Mariner."
So the moment had come.
"Mariner demanded your person. He declared that if we did not return you, he would wage all-out war on the Caliphs."
He would tell her to go back. He could not bear to see the Caliphs' standing dragged through the dirt. She was sure those words would follow.
"...What?"
Wait. She had not expected this.
"A... a war?"
"Yes. The moment we've longed for all this time has finally come. Just the thought of fighting the hyenas sets my heart racing."
Sirka smiled, bright and unclouded. Bariya was thrown.
"All you'd have to do is hand me over. You're refusing that, and choosing war?"
"What are you saying, little one?"
The words broke from Sirka almost as a groan.
"Hand you over to those wretches? As if we would ever do such a thing."
Darius had threatened them in the basest way — if they did not give her up, he would soil the Caliph name. Sirka only smiled, soft as if he had never heard any such words.
"So don't worry about a thing. From now on you'll still be an honored guest of the Caliphs. You'll live with us, and together we'll take our revenge on the Mariners. ...You don't dislike the idea of revenge, do you?"
"No! Absolutely not. If I had, I never would have made a contract with the Caliphs!"
"Then that's settled."
Sirka stroked her hair. It was the same gentle touch as always, and for some reason her throat tightened around it.
"All you have to do is what you've been doing — eat well, and sleep well. That's how we fight the hyenas."
He added that tonight's supper would be good meat again, said he would see her in the dining room, and left.
"...Is this really all right, just like this?"
He knew the whole truth, and yet Sirka hadn't changed at all. The way he looked at her, the warmth of his hands — everything was exactly as it had been.
He doesn't care that I have Mariner blood?
That Sirka had come alone could only mean Sabrina and Baden felt the same. She had been certain they would cast her out. She had meant to beg them only not to send her to the Mariners — she would leave on her own...
The Caliphs had not the slightest intention of letting her go. As if blood meant nothing at all.
Ah. It hurts.
Bariya clutched the hem of her clothes. Joy that they meant to protect her even knowing the truth crashed together with the guilt of having deceived such good people all this time.
Mrrrr.
White came close and rubbed against her cheek.
"...I'm sorry I lied to you, White. The truth is, I'm a hyena's daughter."
She told White the truth as well. Clever as the tigress was, she must have understood every word — and still she stayed quietly gathered in Bariya's arms, unchanged. Just as the three beastkin of the Caliph Clan had.
"Why is everyone so kind?"
The feeling welling up spilled over her cheeks. They said the Caliphs were tigers without blood or tears. The cruelest, foulest-tempered predators in the world. Who on earth had spouted that nonsense? They were this warm. This good.
So I have to make up my mind, too.
Bariya pulled White tight against her. The heart that had been swaying, unable to find its footing, grew firm.
Evening came, and with it dinnertime. Bariya put on the pretty dress Madame Renouage had given her and went down to the dining room.
"There you are, little one."
"Come, sit."
Baden and Sabrina, already there, welcomed her no differently than they always did. Sirka, drawing out the child's chair set for her, was the same as ever. The sight of all of them truly unbothered by something like blood warmed her through, and so Bariya lifted her voice and declared it, just as she had resolved.
"I am Darius Mariner's daughter."
The words came so easily she wondered why she had hesitated all this time.
"It's important, and I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner. I was just... scared."
"It's all right. We understand. It couldn't have been easy to say."
The sudden confession startled them all, but they soon nodded without letting it show. People might call her mature beyond her years, yet she was only ten. Knowing full well how deeply the Caliphs despised the Mariners would only have made the truth more frightening to speak.
"And my mother is a Divine Beast. That's why I have an Authority, even though I'm a hyena's daughter."
But for talk of her Authority to come out so readily — at that, the three of them could hardly help being shaken. Because of the Mariners, the child had been fiercely reluctant to speak of it at all.
"But I have never once manipulated anyone's heart as I pleased while I've been with the Caliphs. On that, at least, I'm innocent."
The moment she said it, they all understood.
"Little one, did you hear everything that was said to Darius Mariner?"
"Yes."
At that frank answer, Baden squeezed his eyes shut. Not only that — even Sabrina, with senses beyond the ordinary, had not noticed Bariya anywhere nearby.
She really is special.
All the more reason they could not send her back to the Mariners.
"Little one, we don't negotiate with the likes of the Mariners. We wouldn't dare guess what happened to you, but it can't have been anything good."
"Don't go. We have the strength to protect you, and war with the Mariners was always going to come. The time has simply arrived."
Sabrina and Baden pressed her in earnest, determined that she not start thinking strange thoughts. From the moment their son had died, war had been inevitable. There was no need for Bariya to take that burden upon herself now.
"...Thank you. For forgiving me and taking me in, even though Mariner blood runs in me."
"A child doesn't get to choose her parents. That was never your fault. Don't apologize."
The words burst from Sirka almost as a lament. He had no wish to hear a child apologize over a thing so small.
"That's right. I took my mother's name. I'm Bariya Bell. No matter what those people say, I am Bariya Bell."
"Yes."
"But so long as Mariner blood flows in me, they won't give me up."
"Then they simply need to disappear from the world!"
Sirka shouted it, his heart dropping like a stone. A grim foreboding followed.
"Sirka. You said the thing I was afraid of wouldn't happen."
Bariya looked at him. Being dragged off to the Mariners didn't frighten her.
"What I hate is the Caliph name falling to the bottom because of me."
She owed the Caliphs a great debt. She had helped them too, of course, but none of it would have happened if they had not brought her here to begin with — clothed her, fed her, and given her love. If Sirka had not insisted on keeping her in this house, she might be locked in a Mariner cellar even now.
And now those same Caliphs would fall because of me.
That, she could not bear.