Chapter 10: The Empress’s Eye (2)

Einen went on a shopping spree at the department store. Even after buying the clothes, cosmetics, and accessories she had been wanting, she still had money left on her gift certificates. It was quite a generous prize for answering a quiz.

She was heading down to the basement to buy groceries as her final stop.

“?”

As she rounded a corner, someone fell into step beside her. He had approached from behind, so she had expected him to pass, but he matched her pace instead.

“...???”

She glanced over, wondering if she knew him, but he was a stranger. Not that she could see much of his face, with his suit and sunglasses.

“Um, excuse me?”

“Shh,” the man said quietly. “Someone is waiting for you, Ms. Einen. This way.”

The man moved a little closer and guided her in the direction he was going. He was polite rather than forceful. She could have pulled away if she wanted.

“Who’s waiting for me?”

“You’ll find out when we arrive.”

“There’s no one around. Why not tell me here?”

At that, the man leaned close and whispered in her ear.

“Lady Philly Terst wishes to see you.”

“Philly Te... Surely you don’t mean His Majesty’s...!”

“Shh.”

At his warning, Einen clamped her mouth shut. Perhaps she had done it too quickly, because she hiccupped.

“W-why me?” she asked in a tiny voice.

“My orders were simply to bring you to her, Ms. Einen.”

His answer sounded rehearsed. He probably would not answer any more questions.

Einen racked her brain as she followed his lead.

‘Philly Terst—the empress of the empire!’

She was far too exalted a person for Einen to deal with. Einen wasn’t even a combat instructor at Constel, just a librarian. She could not imagine why the empress wanted to see her.

‘And why all this secrecy?’

As empress, couldn’t she simply issue an open command?

Einen Flot, come before me at once and receive my orders!

That alone would spare them this whole complicated process.

‘Either there’s some awkward reason she can’t act openly, or she doesn’t want the palace to know...’

Either possibility was a nightmare for Einen.

The man led her through a door marked “Authorized Personnel Only,” turned right inside, and opened another door. From there, they went downstairs, passed an “Under Construction” sign, and went through yet another door.

Finally, they walked down an escalator against its upward motion.

‘H-how old-fashioned...’

It seemed like a thorough way to keep intruders out, but also terribly stingy.

Then, at last, the man opened a metal door.

“... Wow.”

This was certainly no department store. Lavish ornaments and works of art filled the space, as though transplanted from the palace.

‘Come to think of it, didn’t I hear that Philly Terst likes warm colors?’

Perhaps reflecting that preference, the room was full of reds, oranges, and yellows.

A little farther inside, she spotted a table. A cup of tea was already waiting on it.

“Please take a seat and wait.”

With that, the man left. Einen gazed blankly around the room.

‘... Should I make a run for it?’

She considered it briefly, but that was out of the question. However suspicious this seemed, she could not defy the empress’s summons.

Besides, she never got the chance.

“Oh, wonderful! You’re here, Ms. Einen.”

A warm voice greeted her, its manner and tone putting people at ease.

Einen hastily stood and started to kneel, but the woman waved her hands, sounding oddly unconcerned with formality.

“Oh, no, no. You don’t need to do that. Sit down, sit down.”

As the woman took a chair first, Einen finally got a proper look at her.

Snow-white hair. A face so youthful it was hard to believe she was a mother, and slightly open red eyes.

Before Einen knew it, the whole atmosphere seemed to soften around her.

‘... Such a languid air.’

That languor brought Constel’s Human Sloth to mind. He always looked languid too. Or perhaps sleepy was the word.

But unlike Frondier, Philly had a bright air about her. Hers was not the languor of drowsiness or fatigue, but a peacefulness that seemed to spread her gentleness to everything around her.

“You must have been quite startled. I’m sorry. I simply had to find a way to meet you.”

“Do you mean... me, Your Majesty?”

Einen’s way of speaking had become awkward. It wasn’t as though she had ever spoken with royalty before.

Philly smiled.

“Just speak freely. Here, I’m not an empress or anything else.”

If only that were easy.

Unable to find anything to say, Einen sipped her tea.

Philly asked, “Did you enjoy using your department store gift certificates?”

“Mmff?! Cough, cough!”

Startled, she gulped her tea. Her eyes watered as she coughed.

“C-cough... How did you know about that...?”

“Actually, we were the ones who put together that quiz.”

“You, Your Majesty...?”

Philly nodded with a smile.

“That’s why we sought you out, Ms. Einen. We never imagined anyone would answer every single question correctly.”

“Th-then, the reason you wanted to see me...”

“Yes. It’s because of the quiz.”

Einen nodded blankly at Philly’s straightforward answer. At least things were starting to make a little more sense.

She had wondered why royalty would seek her out when she had no connection to them. So it was the quiz.

‘They were looking for the person who got every answer right.’

Wait.

Then what the empress wanted to know now was...

Philly leaned closer with a subtle smile.

“So, Ms. Einen.”

“Y-yesh?”

Her voice cracked. Philly paid it no mind and asked,

“How did you learn that information about Dragon Hearts?”

* * *

I had an unpleasant dream.

A dream, or perhaps a memory. I saw something like scraps left over from absorbing Frondier’s knowledge.

It was too fragmented and hazy to make out the exact details, but someone had secretly given Frondier information about the ancient language.

Yet no matter how hard I searched his memories, I could not identify the bastard.

‘... Frondier probably doesn’t remember properly either. What that bastard said, what the voice sounded like, or what they looked like.’

Still, the fact that I instinctively thought of the person as “that bastard” suggested it had been a man.

In any case, the old Frondier had heard something strange from some guy and thrown himself into deciphering the ancient language. Presumably, it had been a way to remove Elodie’s Divine Power.

‘Frondier wasn’t stupid, considering he managed to decipher the ancient language. That guy must have made a convincing case.’

Or he had bewitched him with magic or hypnosis.

Either way, I needed to be wary of that man.

Now, as for where I was doing all this thinking—

“Mmm... Mnyah.”

I was in a hospital bed, looking at Saibel sleeping slumped over me.

No wonder my stomach had felt heavy while I slept.

I didn’t know how long she had been watching over me, but she was dead to the world. Despite her awkward position, she looked so comfortable that I felt bad waking her.

... Even if I was the patient. Anyway.

CREAK

Just then, the door to the hospital room opened.

“Oh, Frondier. You’re awake?”

“Huh?!”

It wasn’t me who reacted to the nurse’s arrival, but Saibel. Her eyes flew open, and she whipped her head up and sat straight.

The nurse smiled at the sight.

“Your girlfriend has been taking such devoted care of you since yesterday.”

Still sitting ramrod straight, Saibel answered without moving a muscle.

“N-not hish girlfriend.”

“Saibel. Your pronunciation.”

“Uh, aww...”

At my comment, she raised both hands and pressed her cheeks repeatedly.

... Did that help with pronunciation?

“Saibel, there’s hair on your lips.”

“Oh, r-right.”

“Drool on your chin.”

“Huh?! R-right.”

“Your nose is running.”

“You’re lying!”

“Yep. I am.”

I couldn’t help it. It was getting fun.

Ignoring Saibel’s reproachful stare, I asked the nurse,

“How long was I asleep?”

“A day. Saibel and Elodie have been taking turns caring for you.”

“... Was I that bad? Bad enough to need someone at my bedside?”

“Um... I told them you’d be fine, but they insisted on looking after you.”

At the nurse’s answer, I looked back at Saibel. She avoided my eyes as she spoke.

“No, well, you know. You seemed to be having such a hard time. I guess I couldn’t just sit there.”

“... Well, everyone had a hard time at the cabin.”

“N-not that. I mean, it seemed like you’d been... struggling for a very long time.”

“Huh?”

What was she talking about? A very long time?

Oh, was she talking about my reputation as the Human Sloth? My bad reputation had played a part in causing this whole incident, after all.

But honestly, that reputation wasn’t particularly hard on me. People around me looked away or kept their distance, that sort of thing. I had never been openly bullied.

Well, they were probably afraid of the Roach family rather than me.

I said, “It’s fine. I’m used to it.”

“... Used to it? To something like that?”

“Yeah, well. I’ve never gotten hurt or anything.”

“That’s only been true so far!”

Saibel raised her voice, which was rare for her. Her eyes seemed to be scolding me—no, trying to persuade me.

“Going through that more than a hundred times...”

“... Huh?”

A hundred times? A hundred times what?

“No, never mind.”

Saibel fell silent.

For some reason I could not begin to understand, she seemed to be pitying me. It was a very strange feeling.

“Oh.”

Another person entered the room. She came over and smiled at me.

... Her expression looked much like Saibel’s, too.

“You’re awake, Frondier.”

“Yeah. Elodie.”

After that, the two of them filled me in on the situation.

First, Serf’s death had been confirmed. A penetrating wound to the forehead had killed him instantly. No weapon had been found, but they had settled on calling it Saibel’s magic arrow.

Then there was the other leader, Grobel.

I had wondered why only Serf spoke while they were in the woods. It turned out Serf had knocked Grobel unconscious in a surprise attack beforehand.

Serf had intended to control Rockbel. He must have decided Grobel would get in the way.

Grobel had been sent to the Teibeon Wall.

Teibeon was House Urpa’s territory, a frontier region on the exact opposite side from my family’s territory of Yeranhes. Governed by Lidwe Urpa, it was even more dangerous than Yeranhes.

My father Ampere’s outstanding leadership and management had kept every monster invasion out of Yeranhes. Teibeon had not been so fortunate.

In winter, the monsters of the Outside grew hungrier, and the scent of prey drew them creeping farther inward. As a result, brutal battles broke out in Teibeon every winter.

Grobel would be honorably “used” as one of the soldiers defending against that winter onslaught.

For Grobel, the way things had unfolded was far worse than his own actual wrongdoing. Even if he had been unconscious, he was still Aktober’s nominal leader.

Making his younger brother put on an act, arson, bodily harm, attempted murder—and to top it all off, the people they had tried to harm happened to be Elodie and me, children of two immensely powerful noble families.

Severe punishment was inevitable.

I asked, “When can I leave the hospital?”

“Today. They said the reason you passed out wasn’t serious, and there shouldn’t be any lasting effects.”

“Hmm. What caused it?”

“... Mana depletion.”

Elodie said it as though she were delivering a cancer diagnosis.

Why put it like that? Mana depletion wasn’t such a big deal.

I nodded.

“I thought so.”

Once again, I said it without much thought. But whatever Elodie and Saibel took my words to mean, they both lowered their heads.

... Seriously, what was with this atmosphere?!

Then Elodie spoke as though something had just occurred to her.

“Oh, right. Ms. Einen asked us to thank you when you woke up.”

“Ms. Einen did?”

“Yes. You helped her with something? A quiz, she said?”

“... Oh, that.”

She meant that Dragon Heart question.

“She said she won department store gift certificates thanks to you. For Terst Department Store.”

“... Terst Department Store?”

Terst Department Store. As the name made fairly obvious, it was a department store under imperial management.

‘An adventurer quiz, a final question nobody would know the answer to, Terst...’

I had a bad feeling about this.

DING

As if answering that thought, my phone chimed on the table.

Saibel handed it to me. I checked it and found a text message.

[Hello, this is Philly Terst speakinggg.]

... What?

Who did she say she was?

Before my thoughts could catch up, another message arrived.

[Let’s meet up sometime soon, shall we?]