Date (5)
"K-Kiss? With me, and Cain...?"
Startled by my words, which had apparently lopped off the front and back of the sentence, Lia hurriedly covered her cheek with both hands. It was clearly an attempt to hide her embarrassment, but it was useless, because the blush spreading across her face still showed through the gaps between her fingers.
Glance.
Lia was practically clinging to me, peeking at my face again and again. Her tiny lips parted slightly, and she let out a breath that might have been an exclamation of some kind. Her cheeks, already red, turned even redder, and then she released a satisfied little sigh.
"If it's with Cain, I think it would be okay. Mm-hm. It's okay, it's fine..."
"..."
I had made a serious decision to save someone's life. Was it just my imagination that Lia seemed to be enjoying this situation halfway?
Thinking it must be my mood playing tricks on me, I cleared my throat to catch Lia's attention.
Lia's bright eyes, shimmering with something that looked suspiciously like desire, looked up at me intently.
"Lady Lia. I'm asking again just to confirm."
"Uh, y-yes?"
"If you kiss me now, it means you'll be putting the next ten years of your life in my hands. Are you truly all right with that?"
Spending ten years side by side with one another was certainly a major risk for me too. But for me, it was easy enough to think of it as simply an extension of the mission assigned by my family. Lia, however, was different.
For a full ten years—3,650 days—she would have to stay physically attached to another man for at least an hour every two days. For a girl like Lia, wasn't that a condition that would naturally feel burdensome?
The thought struck me all at once, and I waited for Lia's answer. I had blurted out the kiss request in a hurry, but if she refused even now, I didn't intend to force it.
Tap. Lia touched my shoulder.
"Cain?"
"Yes?"
"If Cain kisses me, you'll have to stay by my side for the next ten years, won't you? So I'm asking whether Cain is okay with that."
"As long as Lady Lia doesn't dislike it, I'm fine."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Really, really really?"
"Yes, really, really."
The moment I thought, What on earth is this conversation even about?
Grip—Lia grabbed my collar and tugged me forward. Under normal circumstances I would have caught my balance, but in my current posture I couldn't straighten my waist, and my upper body pitched sharply toward her. Seizing that tiny opening, Lia—
—smack.
kissed me...
...or rather, tried to.
"...Huh?"
Her upper body being just a little too short, Lia's lips landed not on mine but on an awkward spot on my left cheek before pulling away.
The soft sensation settling on my cheek vanished, and only then did I come to my senses. My gaze turned automatically toward Lia.
What just happened? Had Lia just tried to ambush-kiss me?
When I stared at her and asked the question only with my eyes, Lia's cheeks flamed red and she covered her eyelids with one hand.
"...Hah, hnngh, huah, hieeek-!"
"..."
Sometimes, Lia really did have a bit of a clumsy side.
For Lia's sake, who was now suffering from embarrassment and shame over what she'd done, I looked away for a moment and glanced in Grace's direction.
Until a moment ago, Grace had been watching us with eyes full of interest, but the instant our gazes met she looked down and started idly poking at the dirt with one finger, as if she had seen none of Lia's little scene at all.
...At any rate, if I spoke to Lia right now, she would probably die of embarrassment. So I stayed quiet and waited for her. When her ragged breathing had gradually calmed, I said casually,
"Lady Lia. I'll pretend that kiss never happened."
"Mm-hm. T-this time I'll do it properly... Cain, could you lower your head just a little-."
"Oh, there's no need for that."
Just as I was about to move my head as Lia had requested, Grace, who had been silent until now, suddenly cut in.
Both Lia and I turned to stare at her at the same time, as though we had arranged it. Startled, Grace flinched and timidly covered her cheek.
"I said kiss, but actually, a kiss on the cheek would be fine too."
"...What?"
"Well, the condition needed to share the curse is ultimately contact between the target's mucous membrane and skin. So as long as the other person's lips and skin touch somehow, it doesn't have to be mouth to mouth. Hiiiik...!"
By then it really did seem like she was doing this on purpose, so I drew my sword with my free hand.
And then it happened.
All of a sudden, I felt a strange tingling sensation on my left cheek.
Without thinking, I rubbed my cheek with my hand. What was this? Had something in the labyrinth bitten me?
"Ah...? Cain, wait a second. Move your hand!"
"Huh? Why all of a sudden?"
Though confused, I lowered my hand, and Lia carefully examined my cheek. Then she took a hand mirror out of her bosom and held it up so I could see my left cheek reflected in it.
"Cain, look. There's some weird pattern on your cheek."
"A pattern? There's no way something like that would just suddenly appear... Huh?"
The moment I looked at my face through Lia's mirror, I was startled. On my left cheek, where there had definitely been nothing a moment ago, there was now a mark that looked exactly like a clover split in half along the reverse direction.
No, what was this? My hand moved on its own toward the mark. Maybe it was soot or something stuck there, so I scrubbed at it hard, and I even wiped the mirror with my sleeve. But the pattern reflected on my cheek remained exactly the same.
"W-what is this... What is happening...?"
Other than my older brother and my master, no one had ever managed to leave even the smallest scratch on my cheek, yet now some bizarre mark had appeared there. Could this be a dream?
My mind going a little hazy, I wobbled and nearly lost my balance, and Grace, who had been about five steps away from us, suddenly shouted,
"Aha! Ohhh, that's it! That's the thing from the book!"
"What? That thing?"
"Ah, you see, people who share the Curse of Misfortune are said to have a mark like a clover split in half in reverse carved somewhere on their body as proof. But it didn't say where the mark would appear, so I didn't know either. But now I get it. The location where the Curse of Misfortune appears must be the place where the person sharing the curse kissed them!"
"..."
That meant if Lia and I had kissed on the lips, this ugly mark would have been branded onto my mouth.
It was at least fortunate that it was on my cheek rather than my lips... But that meant it could have been placed somewhere less visible, like my neck or the back of my hand, didn't it?
Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking that, because Lia, who had been studying my cheek, suddenly gasped and, in a voice full of apology, muttered,
"S-sorry. Cain, I'm really sorry! If I'd known, I would've done it somewhere less visible, like your wrist or your back..."
"No, it's fine. What would you possibly have done wrong, Lady Lia?"
I swallowed the rest of my thought—The one at fault here is that Grace bastard, for not telling us any of this in advance.—and glared at her in silence.
Meeting my murderous gaze, Grace flopped backward onto her backside and recoiled.
"...Grace. You know how to remove this mark, don't you?"
So Lia couldn't hear me, I mouthed the words, severed limbs. abnormal sexual desire. old nobles.
Grace's face went white as paper, and she shook her head frantically.
"I-I'm sorry! It wasn't written in the book, so I don't know either...!"
"Ah... Is that so? So that's how it is."
The condition I had imposed through the Oath of Mana was, after all, only protection of our safety inside the underground labyrinth. In other words, once we left the labyrinth, whether I sliced Grace into pieces or made fruit punch out of her was none of my concern.
Having made up my mind, I cracked my neck and moved toward Grace.
But then—grab. Lia caught the sleeve of my clothes.
"Cain, wait. About Grace, wouldn't it be better to keep her alive for now?"
"Huh? What for?"
"She said she's deeply versed in dark magic, so for now we keep her alive and make her find a way to remove the mark on Cain's cheek. Then it wouldn't be too late for Cain to deal with her however you like, would it?"
"...Ah."
So there was such a method. As expected, Lia was smart.
"D-deal with me...? Saying something so terrifying so casually... As expected. Is the only woman fit to travel with monsters just another monster...?"
"Hey."
Unable to listen any longer to Grace's relentless monster nonsense, I crouched down in front of her.
"You have two choices. The first is to find a way to remove whatever's on my cheek, as Lady Lia said. The second is for me to drag you out of the labyrinth right now and make sure your arms and legs-."
"I'll... I'll find it! No matter what happens, I promise I'll find it!"
Before I had even finished speaking, Grace threw herself flat on the ground in terror.
"Is that so? Good. Then let me be clear."
Grace slowly lifted her head.
I held her gaze for a long, steady moment, then smiled pleasantly.
"You'll swear the Oath of Mana, won't you?"
"Y-yes..."
With Grace's willing consent in hand, I added a few extra restrictions while we were at it and made the Oath of Mana. First, she swore that she would never harm me or any other innocent person. The reason was simple. Grace was a demon human, so if I left her alive and went away like this, there was a hundred percent chance she'd go around hurting people.
I couldn't cause harm to innocent people just because it suited me, so I placed a strong restriction on her from the very beginning, making sure she wouldn't be able to do it in the first place. From now on, Grace couldn't use magic for anything other than research without my permission.
And the second point—actually the crucial one—was decided after I heard a more detailed explanation of the so-called "sect" Grace had mentioned earlier.
This place called the sect, which had no fixed name and whose founding date was unclear, was far more dangerous than I'd imagined.
According to Grace, its very reason for existing was to resurrect the ancient evil god Sisyphus and bring him into the present world. And the method was to offer the bodies and blood of innocent people as sacrifices?
The "believers" of this cult, grotesque enough to make your skin crawl just by hearing about them, had already sunk deep roots throughout society and were operating in the shadows.
As it happened, there already seemed to be believers among the nobles I knew, and the person who had given Lia the necklace containing the Curse of Misfortune also seemed to belong to the sect.
...I couldn't just stand by and watch people belonging to such an antisocial organization breathe the same air as the rest of us.
So Lia and I, for the sake of tearing down the sect and making a better world, appointed Grace as a spy and gave her the special order to dig up internal information on the cult.
Of course, Grace had vehemently refused. But I knew a magic spell that made her unable to refuse our proposal. It was nothing more than a string of seemingly unrelated words: "arms and legs, nobles, abnormal sexual desire."
After hearing my magical spell, Grace ended up accepting the offer anyway, while crying things like, "T-this will really get me killed, I'll really die if I'm caught...!"
And so, having peacefully taken Grace under our wing, Lia and I left the underground labyrinth and headed toward the village.
"Say, Cain."
"Yes, Lady Lia."
"The sect Grace told us about... isn't it kind of shocking? If what Grace said is true, that means even people around us could be believers in the sect."
"It isn't just a possibility. It's probably true that some of them are believers already. Grace, who is herself a member of the sect, said there were so many believers that even she couldn't grasp the full scale."
"Yeah, I guess so...? Ugh, I hate that. I really hate having to suspect the people around me..."
Lia shook her head from side to side as if she didn't even want to think about it.
I cleared my throat and said bluntly,
"Then Lady Lia can simply trust me."
"Mm? Trust you?"
"I'll do all the doubting. So..."
I stopped walking.
Following me, Lia stopped too.
"Lady Lia, you just need to trust me."
"I, trust Cain...?"
"Yes. After all, the two of us are already inseparable."
I didn't bother saying aloud the rest of it: So whether you like it or not, you have no choice but to trust me too.
Instead, I gently extended my right hand.
Lia looked quietly at my palm, then took it a little shyly.
"Mm-hm, okay. I'll trust only Cain."
"...Yes, thank you. Then shall we go?"
"Huh? Go where?"
"Now that we're done with business, it's time to continue our unfinished date. Still, don't be too disappointed. It's a little embarrassing for me to say this myself, but Reinhardt Territory is a dull place. There really isn't much to see."
Now that I thought about it, I realized I'd said something a little awkward, and before I knew it, both my pace and my speech had quickened.
Lia hurried after me with small, quick steps, tightening her grip on our joined hands.
"Cain. After our date, what are we going to do?"
"Well, aren't there plenty of things we can do?"
"Hmm, for example?"
"We'll look for those believers, think up a way to dismantle the sect, and also see if there's a faster way to break the curse."
"If we're doing all that, we're going to get incredibly busy."
"Probably. We'll be busier than we know what to do with."
We murmured nearly the same thing and looked ahead.
A ribbon of light stretched across the edge of the forest.
Before we knew it, the village was right in front of us.
"Hey, Cain."
"Yes."
"I'm not going to forget the promise you and I made today. Ever, okay?"
"The promise? ...Ah."
At the thought that she might mean the one where I asked her to trust me, Lia smiled brightly.
"Yep. Cain has to marry me when we grow up later. You promised me that earlier, remember?"
"..."
I don't remember making a promise like that, though... but saying so would probably be pointless, wouldn't it?
Well, in any case, it was a promise made before we were old enough to have the sense to take seriously. It was just a childish whim. She'd probably forget it in no time.
I nodded mildly and stroked Lia's hand softly.
"Yes, fine. I understand. But for that, you know we'll need to get engaged first, don't you?"
"Ah, right. Girls could only officially get engaged after their debutante, couldn't they?"
"A debutante can be held in the year a woman turns seventeen, so you can get engaged to me in seven years, Lady Lia."
"Oh, that's not as long as I thought."
"Yes, not as long as you thought."
"Mm-hm. Then we'll be able to get engaged soon!"
Seven years.
By the time that much time had passed, the promise made at age ten would surely have been forgotten by now.
That was honestly what I believed, and I let out a snort of laughter.
And then, seven years later...
—Cain, Caaiin!
—clunk!
"I'm seventeen starting today!"
On the morning of January 1st of the year I was supposed to enter the Empire's academy—on the very day I turned seventeen—
"So, like you promised, get engaged to me!"
"..."
I had my leash firmly in Lia's hands.