No More Running
"Is Leo going to be okay?"
Who was worrying about whom, when I couldn't even move a muscle in bed after overusing my mana? It had been a week since the flowers that had bloomed across Joshua's body began to regain their vigor.
While Joshua straightened her clothes, I channeled mana through her to check her physical condition.
"Joshua, you should worry about yourself first. How does your body feel now?"
"My condition is good, and my body feels fine too."
The results of circulating mana to examine her showed no particular problems. If I hadn't helped, Joshua would have fallen under the curse's influence as well. It had been worth noticing the strange signs and even using my Ulti.
The power to interfere with the divine realm in a single instant and overturn the laws of the world. I'd expected to only manage it two hundred years from now, but the world was impossible to predict.
To think she would choose to save Leo there. It was an option I would never have taken.
When Joshua had lost consciousness and opened her eyes, I'd spent a long time pondering how best to scold her. Was it right to risk your life saving the man who tried to kill you? Didn't you nearly die from the curse yourself? Using someone else's mana is incredibly dangerous...!
I simply didn't want to imagine a world without Joshua.
'I'm sorry…. Hehe. Mom helped me, right? I somehow felt like you were right beside me.'
When she hid under the blanket, peeking out only her eyes while her hidden gaze smiled softly through her hair... I nearly went soft, but I fulfilled my duty as her mother.
"What about Leo?"
"Leo's dead. I'm going to kill him now."
"Mom!!"
They say raising a daughter is pointless. How many times had she asked only about Leo...? I teased her with a prank laced with a hint of resentment, and she reacted with fierce intensity.
It was true that Joshua had desperately blocked the curse, but conditional curses activated their effects the moment they triggered. His heart had taken a significant shock. For an ordinary person, it wouldn't have been strange if he'd died. Whether the medicine-soaked body had aided his heart's recovery, or the power of the Holy Eye had protected him... he was breathing perfectly fine now.
"Can't Mom even make a joke?"
"It doesn't sound like one. Mom, please don't joke about that anywhere."
Joshua finished adjusting her appearance by slipping on her robe. While I pondered how her chest seemed fuller and whether it was time to increase her undergarment size by one, the sight of her checking the mirror and carefully arranging her hair was unmistakably that of a young girl.
"What do you think of Leo?"
His rare golden hair, impressive height, and skin that was a bit rough from lack of care—yet Leo's heavily muscled frame was more than enough to stir a girl's heart. Moreover, Joshua's desperate efforts to save him would look, to anyone unaware of the full story, like a girl head over heels in love.
I asked the question half in jest and half seriously, wondering if she might have feelings for him. This really made me feel like one of those aunts who watch morning dramas.
"He feels like a disobedient younger brother."
"If not, then never mind."
She replied so coldly, as if refusing to play along with my teasing any longer, that my enthusiasm died. Other families say mothers and daughters talk about everything together.
We left the room and stopped in front of Leo's door. Joshua took a deep breath and knocked twice.
"Leo, may I come in?"
There was no answer. Ever since Leo arrived at this house, he seemed to spend more time asleep than awake.
To think he was sprawled out sleeping in front of Joshua, who had been bedridden for a full week because of him.
"Don't worry. Your efforts weren't in vain. His body simply took a shock, so he hasn't regained consciousness yet."
"When do you think he'll wake up?"
If he was going to wake, it wouldn't be strange for him to do so right this moment. At Joshua's request, I'd checked his condition every day for a week, and his heart was functioning without issue. He ought to be on his knees with hands raised until Joshua recovered, yet here he was. Honestly, it was infuriating.
"Who knows? Maybe he just doesn't feel like waking up?"
Or perhaps he was already awake and only pretending to sleep. Having seen his past inside his mind space, I couldn't help but have reasonable suspicions.
I'd told him to sort out his heart. A week was more than enough time, wasn't it? How should I wake this timid, fearful coward? A sigh escaped me.
"Mom, do you dislike Leo?"
Joshua must have noticed how coldly I'd spoken about him earlier. She watched my expression carefully as she asked.
"Considering what he did this time, it's minus a million points. What about you, Joshua? Are you sure you won't regret it?"
"Regret?"
Seeing her turn serious, I was filled with the urge to tease her. I leaned close to her ear and whispered.
"He might put you in trouble again, you know. Like forcibly grabbing your hand..."
"Hiiii...!"
Her face flushed bright red as if it might explode any second. I couldn't hold back my laughter. If simply mentioning holding hands got this reaction, I wondered what she'd do if she learned the truth....
"Leo isn't that kind of person...!"
Not that kind of person? He'd attempted far worse. I couldn't tell if she had no awareness of what kind of situation she'd been in, or if she knew and still acted this way... As her mother, I couldn't help but worry.
It was amusing to watch her frantically defend someone she barely knew, but unlike the person who did nothing but sleep without understanding the world, her refusal to run away seemed admirable. I found myself rooting for her.
Still, I couldn't interfere with Joshua's decision. People's futures were impossible to predict. All I could do was hope her efforts wouldn't be wasted.
I hid my hands inside my robe. To give the currently malfunctioning Joshua a moment to cool her head, I prepared one last act of kindness for my adorable daughter.
"...He's gotten good at chopping firewood, and he prayed for those people, and also..."
I calmed Joshua, who had moved beyond defense into listing every trivial detail. At this rate she seemed ready to present an entire observation log on Leo.
"Yes, yes. Mom must have misunderstood."
"Anyway, I think this is how it would feel if I had a younger brother...."
A younger brother, huh. Earlier I'd thought she was just answering vaguely because she didn't want to respond, but it seemed she genuinely saw Leo that way. She was about three years younger than him, yet her behavior made her seem far more mature.
"Then would you bring some water for your sleepy younger brother? It would be hard to have a proper conversation if his throat is dry when he wakes."
"You won't do anything strange to Leo, right?"
"Do something strange? When have I ever done that?"
The most I'd done was plant a bomb in his heart. Given my previous record, I could only click my tongue at how she left the door open a crack to monitor the room.
"I'll be right back."
Only after the sound of her rapidly retreating footsteps faded did I let out a small sigh.
"You're awake, aren't you?"
"......"
I hadn't expected an answer. If he could speak, he would have opened those proud eyes long ago.
From peering into his mind space, Leo's life could be summarized in roughly three lines: a coward with no will to live who had spent his entire life running; an idiot who wanted recognition without making any effort; and a scoundrel of a prince who begged favors everywhere and only made problems worse.
"You have nowhere left to run now, do you?"
His blind faith in the Heresy Inquisitors, his final bastion, had shattered. He no longer had anywhere to return to or flee toward.
"Unlike someone pretending to sleep, our Joshua seems determined to stay by your side until you wake up."
As expected of a child raised by a witch—how tenacious. Sometimes I wondered who the real witch was.
"If you don't understand anything right now... wouldn't it be good to try looking forward to something? Seeing the world with those eyes, feeling it—maybe then you'll find an answer."
"And... you still need to tell Joshua the secret you couldn't say before."
Leo still had something he needed to do: face Joshua and apologize properly.
"......"
What was I doing, talking to someone who might not even be listening? My energy suddenly drained away.
The sound of approaching footsteps suggested Joshua had returned with the water.
"When Joshua comes back, I'll step out for a while. So face her properly."
Whether she slapped him or whatever else happened. Running away would render everything meaningless.
I hoped Joshua's first act of stubbornness wouldn't become something she regretted. She couldn't depend on me forever.
"This is my final act of kindness. For you... and for Joshua too."
I threw the curtains wide open. Morning sunlight poured in through the window. Beyond the glass, a blue butterfly gently settled on a dew-kissed flower, and the sight made me think of Joshua. A smile rose to my lips.
"Shouldn't you wake up now? Prince with minus one million points."
Twitch. Leo's finger jerked.
See? He'd been listening to everything.
I considered punishing him for his impudence, but Leo's greatest punishment arrived first—panting heavily as she threw open the door.
"You're back early. What if you hurt yourself running through the house?"
"Haa. Haa. I'm... I'm fine, you know."
She must have been terribly anxious. More than half the water in the cup had spilled during her dash.
"Mom will step out for a bit. I'm counting on you, okay?"
"You're going to do something weird aga—!"
I can't hear anything. I can't hear anything. Ignoring whatever Joshua was saying, I left the room. I made a mental note to create a medicine that prevented sleep next time, so he couldn't run away.