“Was it really right to call him back?”
“Do not trouble yourself over it. I was the one who summoned him.”
“Giselle.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I’m... afraid.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“...That I won’t be able to protect anything.”
Even as he said it, Ragniel felt the flaw in his own words. Had he ever protected anyone in his life? Ragniel had only ever been protected. He had never safeguarded anything with his own hands. They were arms that could not even properly hold a sword. He was a king who could not even properly manage politics. Every time something like this happened, he suffered for it, and yet he could change nothing.
'It’s all right.'
Someone’s voice rang through his head.
“My king.”
“Giselle. Is it truly all right... for someone like me to be king?”
Whooosh.
His hair whipped in the fierce wind. Giselle, having heard the voice nearly swallowed by it, looked straight at his king and nodded.
“It is because Your Majesty is king that the Seven Heroes exist. And in the end, we will protect this land... so please, my king, believe that without doubt.”
“...I’m sorry.”
Ragniel hid a bitter smile.
Even if he asked a hundred times, Giselle was the kind of man who would answer all hundred times that Ragniel ought to be king.
Whenever he met Giselle, his mind usually cleared as if the haze had lifted, and his heart felt lighter. But today, that was not happening. Without even realizing what he was doing, Ragniel caught hold of Giselle’s long hair blowing in the wind... and pressed a kiss to it.
Giselle silently watched Ragniel kissing his hair.
“Giselle. My eternal sword...”
Ragniel smiled with a pained expression.
“One day, I’ll protect all of you. I will. Even if it’s only once.”
He did not know why those words had suddenly slipped from his mouth. But Ragniel swore he would keep them.
The Milky Way, thick as if it might spill across the sky, shone over the young king’s face.
The king descended from the watchtower with his attendants, and before long Giselle was left alone.
Watching the king’s retinue disappear, Giselle slowly clenched and unclenched his hand.
“I’ve grown dull.”
He had sensed the king approaching, but he should have sensed it much sooner. He had only noticed him when he was nearly at his side.
“Has the time come?”
Giselle let out a short laugh.
Nothing in this world lasts forever. The world was fairer than people thought. Give up one precious thing, and it would always take one weighty thing in return.
Even so, for now, the prophecies he delivered would not yet be wrong.
Giselle turned his eyes toward Mount Geroa.
He hoped Temar would arrive in time. Whoever the traitor was, it would be unpleasant. But if it were Temar, even Giselle thought he might feel a little shocked.
“Or perhaps I was already wrong.”
The prophecy about the treasure had descended not long after Temar was sent away. A prophecy had activated saying it was all right to let him go—no, that he absolutely had to be sent away—and yet now, looking back on it, Giselle found himself wondering where the necessity of that prophecy had come from.
But back then, his power had been even firmer than it was now.
That prophecy could not have been wrong.
“No. I should be looking for the path ahead.”
Dwelling too deeply on the past was not to Giselle’s taste.
As always, he drew the future instead.
The most ideal future wished for by the gods, the one toward which prophecy descended.
***
Clatter. Clatter.
“You’re awake.”
My head felt heavy, like I’d been drugged. I blinked blankly for a moment, then jerked in shock.
I tried to bolt upright, but I couldn’t.
“What... ngh—”
When I grabbed my throat, a boy looked at me with an expression that seemed just a little exasperated.
He pulled up my shoulders from where I’d been lying with my head on his lap, leaned the back of my head against his shoulder, and held water to my mouth.
Who are you? Get off me! Move!
That was what I wanted to shout, but no sound came out.
Even though he had definitely seen the sudden vicious look that flashed through my eyes... the boy’s expression did not change.
“Drink. It’s water.”
“......”
“If you were going to be suspicious, you should’ve done it before you got dragged in here.”
I really had nothing to say to that.
The inside of the wagon was dark, but a faint light was slipping in under the covering over the window. Something about that dimness made it feel like dawn.
The one holding me was a boy tanned beautifully by the sun.
When I drank a little at a time, he nodded as if to say good.
He had a blunt, intimidating face, so it was strange that he wasn’t hurrying me to drink faster. When I finished and stared blankly at him, he laid me back down on his lap again.
Was that supposed to mean I could keep using it?
No, wait, is it really okay to be this relaxed...?
Is everyone asleep?
I rolled my eyes around. My head throbbed.
Once I’d had water, the boy seemed to think he’d done all he needed to. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall of the wagon again.
Questions like 'why am I here?' had already vanished.
If I kept denying reality even after someone had gone this far to explain it to me, that would make me a hopeless idiot.
'Though I’ve already done more than enough idiotic things...'
Thinking about how I had flailed at Mine, crying, 'Brother! Big brother!' and trying no matter what to get to him, was so humiliating and infuriating I could have died. Why the hell did that man have to say things that sounded genuinely worried and make people confused!? If I’d only heard cruel words from a bad person, I wouldn’t feel this miserable and devastated!
I realized something.
The truly bad ones came wearing the face of a good person....
When I thought of it that way, maybe the people in the village hadn’t been such bad people after all. At least they hadn’t worn a mask like this!
'Though they did plenty of pretending to be decent, so maybe not.'
Ugh.
I stole a glance at the boy.
Then what about this boy? The one who’d picked me up, given me water, and lent me his lap. Was he a good person, or a bad one?
Actually, maybe I didn’t need to wonder.
He was in the same position as me, after all....
Still, he somehow managed to give me water with his hands tied.
How long had I been like this?
Half a day, maybe?
'Doesn’t his lap hurt? It looks like it ought to be cramping by now.'
I’d be fine lying on the floor anyway. I squirmed, trying to slide down. Maybe my body had gone sluggish, because it didn’t move well.
“Stay still.”
“...Your lap...”
God, what is wrong with my voice!? Shouldn’t I sound at least a little better after drinking water!? My voice hadn’t changed at all from before.
“Want more?”
He lifted the water bowl.
...Don’t be stubborn. Just drink it!
I ended my little debate quickly and nodded. He gave a small laugh and fed me water again the same way he had before.
I felt bad about the way I’d flared up at him in my head earlier.
'Don’t act like a child...'
A little while ago, in my rage, I’d thought I should go back to living the way I always had. But I knew that was stupid. It was just a vow I’d made out of spite. To ignore every bit of kindness like that... the kindness Luman and Jepeto had shown me had taught me too much for that.
Damn it! I can’t even choose freely whether to trust people or suspect them.
As I drank, a sharp sting hit my nose.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
Only after finishing the water did I tack the question on.
Ugh. I wanted to at least clear my throat with a cough, but I didn’t even have the strength for that. It felt like if I coughed a few times, I might just black out on the spot.
That was how bad I felt.
Wait, why was ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) I... like that again? Did I pass out? Was it a seizure?
“What’s wrong? Does your body hurt?”
The boy’s hand came toward my forehead. When I flinched, he clicked his tongue.
“I’m not going to hit you.”
“That’s not it...”
I was just startled because you suddenly came at me like that!! What exactly did he think I was thinking?
The trace of sympathy in his eyes was so ridiculous it almost offended me. No, aren’t you and I both trapped here in exactly the same pathetic situation!?
“Do you want to know what happened?”
“Yeah.”
He caught my head as I was trying to ease it off his lap and lifted it back into place, then told me in a kind voice not to do anything pointless.
Wasn’t he the one doing something pointless, giving me a lap pillow when his legs had to be going numb?
I wanted to grumble that at him, but I didn’t have the strength to fight, so I just accepted the kindness.
Damn it! It made me angry! Kindness! That damned kindness!! If I hadn’t accepted it! If I’d only kept sharpening the knife of suspicion instead! Then I wouldn’t be lying here helpless after getting caught like this!
At what point did it become malice? No... hostility? No... the decision to use me? A calculation?
The more I thought about it, the more my head hurt.
Was it from the moment that man gave me a ride?
No.
Probably not.
I want to believe it wasn’t....
Maybe Mine... Ugh, damn it. Mine must’ve told him he’d take good care of me, so the man trusted him and handed me over.
“...You got a nosebleed and passed out. Why’d you slam your nose into your knee?”
“......”
His voice said he found it absurd.
My thoughts about the man flew right out of my head at those words.
'So I was right!'
That look I saw earlier—so I was right! He really had been looking at me like I was pathetic!
If I answered that I’d done it because I was making a vow to myself, I’d look even more like an idiot, so I just shut my mouth and turned my head away.
No wonder my nose hurt. Looking now, there was something dried hard on my knee.
Blood.
And not just a little, either. It looked like I’d had quite a nosebleed.
'...Come on, even so. Passing out just because I smashed my nose into my knee!?'
Passing out was bad enough, but not even remembering it after doing it?
I’d done it on purpose, as a vow to myself.
If I couldn’t even remember it, what was the point?
I felt miserable for a moment... and then I got horribly embarrassed.
No, wait. Was there even any embarrassment left to feel? Earlier had been worse.... The more my mind cleared, the more absurd and ridiculous it felt to remember how I’d screamed without understanding the situation and gone looking for Mine.
Since when did I ever trust people like that... especially someone I’d only just met?
It would be better if I were only angry.
So why did it feel this bitter too?
Even while my heart still blazed with the desire to make him pay, I kept thinking it anyway.
'I just... wish he’d been a good person.'
“I’m such an idiot.”
Every time I dream, someone steals it away. It has to be true. For all this to happen over the sea of all things.
So now what? Am I going to be sold as a slave and worked for the rest of my life?
Something Coco had said to me came back.
'If you don’t like people having dirty thoughts about you, then you ought to smear up that face of yours at least. Count yourself lucky. If your brother weren’t a Hero, you would’ve been sold off in no time.'
'What are you talking about? If I don’t mess up my face, I’m supposed to get sold?? You mean I’d have to spend all day being worked like a servant??'
So that wasn’t just something she said. It was a prophecy...!
