by CHIROLU
“Alright, now then, I’ll just sneakily...”
“My servant said you’d be trying something like that soon,” said Gregor, sounding astounded as he opened the door and entered without asking.
Dale had long since recognized Gregor’s presence. That was why he faced his friend with a bitter expression and flailed about unnaturally, then responded, “I’m sick of this.”
“You’re aware that even though Rose’s treatment with her divine protection has limited the effect of the magical element as much as possible, you still haven’t been cured.”
“I know, and that’s why I’ve been taking it easy like I’m supposed to...”
“The two others who caught it that you had quarantined are recovering, too. Rose was impressed with how you handled the situation.”
“I grew up out in the country. We didn’t have a temple of Niili, so I needed to learn a certain amount of pharmaceutics and pathology to protect myself.”
That had been part of Dale’s training he had undergone to become the next head of the clan. The training had covered a great range of topics so he could become a leader that could protect his people. Those people were the Tislow clan, and they were feared even by the local lords in the surrounding area. Dale’s education had also been part of the reason the powerful Duke Eldstedt had come to favor him.
“It only happened because of the Second Demon Lord, but my father says he will be punishing the involved individuals who tried to flee and hide to protect themselves.”
“I almost feel sorry for them...”
“We finished investigating the surrounding settlements, but nothing seemed out of place, and we found no one else who was ill. As it’s clearly an abnormal situation, they seem to have kept their distance rather than letting their curiosity get the better of them.”
“In a way, blockading the highway to help cover things up probably helped, too.”
†
After leaving Kreuz and arriving in the capital, Dale was indeed given an assignment.
His task was to confirm Rose’s testimony that she’d had a run-in with the Second Demon Lord after being kidnapped. Normally, just a scouting party would be sent, but because there was a high chance of encountering a demon lord on the mission, it was ruled best to have one with the power to oppose such a being—a hero—accompany them.
The village believed to be the one Rose had testified about had been sealed off from the highway and treated as if it didn’t exist. The whole village had been wiped out in a single night, and anyone who went to check it out hadn’t returned, so the lord of the land had chosen to try to cover things up. According to Duke Eldstedt, he was a small shot who had chosen to handle things without reporting the abnormality to the government and had decided to “solve” the problem by ignoring it.
At a glance, everything in the village looked clean and tidy. But there was an indescribable, unpleasant feeling in the air. That stillness, which was without even the hint of a person’s presence, felt too out of place.
The strangeness of the situation only grew when they checked inside the buildings.
Each and every corpse had been played with, like an infant would handle their toys.
Most likely, to the Second Demon Lord, such things were toys.
In one house, there was a “painting” that made even the investigating party, who were used to the battlefield, feel ill. Using one of the walls as a canvas, those “toys” had been pulverized and mashed so thoroughly that they’d long since lost their original shape, but there was no mistaking what they were. It was a truly, utterly repulsive form of “art.”
This violence had all occurred inside the buildings, sometimes limited to just a single room. That was why at a glance, despite being the scene of such brutal murders, it looked like nothing was wrong in this silent village.
Feeling terribly nervous, the group at last reached the mansion that was their main target. Because of their investigation, they knew it had been built as a villa for a wealthy merchant.
What they had found when they opened the door was so far from what they’d expected that for a moment, they weren’t sure how to proceed. This was the entry hall, where the culprits who kidnapped Rose had been brutally murdered. Countless corpses were... nowhere to be seen.
It had been cleaned so well that not a single chunk of flesh remained, and no blood or gore was stuck to the walls. Only the dark stains on the carpet told of what had happened here.
In the middle of the hall, a young girl in a splendid dress was seated facing them, looking unharmed and as if no time had even passed since Rose had been there. Her empty eye sockets and colorless skin, though, made it obvious that she was no longer alive. She wasn’t an undead monster, either. It gave the impression of a terribly tasteless sort of playing with a “doll.”
This was clearly a trap. Even so, this was likely Rose’s maid Lily, so they also couldn’t just leave her be.
Two of the scouts who excelled at detecting traps approached her body, but because it was difficult to avoid tripping the unmanned proximity-detecting trap, the corpse—which was filled with a high concentration of magical elements—exploded before their very eyes.
It had been a parting gift left by the Second Demon Lord, who had figured based on Rose’s personality that she would surely return.
It was what could be called a disease bomb, and the two scouts had taken a direct hit.
The remaining members of the party had been a distance away, and with swift judgment fitting their first-rate reputations, they cast a simple wall spell to protect themselves followed by a second spell to seal off the source of the contagion, which helped to keep casualties to a minimum.
In the end, there was no sign of the Second Demon Lord, so they concluded that she was no longer there.
Ultimately, the investigators reached the same decision as the local lord, and the village was abandoned. It would take an extraordinary amount of time for such high magical element levels to lose effect. It wouldn’t be at all impossible for a number of high-ranking Niili priests to purify the area, but that wasn’t exactly something that could be carried out overnight.
It fell to Dale to treat the two who had directly fallen prey to the trap and suffered a magical element malfunction. It was harder for priests with strong divine protection to be affected by such an illness, so Dale immediately decided that he was the best choice for the job. After all, the sort of highly skilled personnel in their party weren’t people that could be seen as disposable.
Along with the two sick men he was treating, Dale was quarantined in a carriage on their way back to the capital and until they reached the temple of Niili there. During the trip, Dale also caught a slight magical element malfunction. But with that said, there were many high-ranking Niili priests like Rose in the capital, and the city was also equipped with the best facilities for treatment.
Dale was stabilized without his condition growing severe or even showing any symptoms that made him seem especially sick. Because of that, he didn’t quite feel the need to rest, and ended up being forced into a boring recuperation period.
“Did you send a message to Kreuz?”
“I just explained the bare minimum, but... shouldn’t you have written something yourself?”
“Ah, I... I can write a report, but for some reason I’m just not good at letters... And right now, it’d be... kind of hard... to send it, I guess...”
“...Did you have a lover’s quarrel or something?” Thanks to the strange tension hanging in the air, Gregor uncharacteristically tried throwing out a joke.
“N-No...!” Dale overreacted, even though he should have easily picked up on wisecrack. He leaped out of bed, only for Gregor to force him to lie back down on his side.
That reaction, combined with Dale’s recent string of unusual behavior, made Gregor confident that the source of all this was his friend’s adopted daughter.
Normally, when Dale was called for work, he would throw a tantrum about ho
w he didn’t want to leave her, but this time he’d come to the capital on his own without being summoned. That alone was strange enough to make Gregor suspicious.
Gregor was able to come to such conclusions because in many ways, he knew his friend quite well.
“Did something happen?”
“Ugh...”
Dale gave his friend a brief synopsis, mumbling all the while. There was nothing else to do, and he also wanted to spit out what was going around and around in his mind. If Gregor would listen, then that’s what Dale should do.
“Latina...”
“Yeah.”
“She, sees me as, y’know, a member of the opposite sex, and... she confessed that she loves me.”
“I see.”
“You’re accepting this pretty easily...”
“Well, it’s not all that surprising,” Gregor said indifferently.
Dale made a strained expression in response and then kept talking. “That threw me for a loop, so I wanted to cool my head a bit and... I ended up running away.”
“What are you, a kid?”
“I know what I did was wrong...”
Even Dale knew it had been the wrong thing to do. He’d been shaken and had impulsively fled, but after about a day had passed, he cooled down enough to realize that he’d done something ridiculous. But with that said, at this point he couldn’t exactly head back to Kreuz with his tail between his legs, so he’d ended up heading for the capital as planned.
“Even if you ask me what I want my relationship with Latina to be like from now on... I’ve realized that I’ve been trying to avoid thinking about it.”
“I see.” Figuring this would take a while, Gregor summoned a maid and told her to prepare some tea, then sat down on a chair beside Dale’s bed.
“And then, I realized something else...” Just then, a truly strained expression appeared on Dale’s face. “Latina and I are only about ten years apart.”
“You only just realized that?”
“Yeah.” It really was something rather basic to realize now. “I mean, at the start, Latina was just so small. She was always sitting on my lap and smiling, and that just left so strong of an impression! But when I thought on it again, I realized that it’s more the sort of age difference you’d see between siblings, rather than a parent and child...”
“I only just recently met her for the first time, but the impression I had from your stories was that of a small child, so... I really was surprised.” Gregor thought back on how Latina looked when he met her in Kreuz the other day. He’d found that there was still some youthfulness to her appearance, but she still looked a proper, well-mannered, mature young lady.
“Oh, yeah. Latina’s cute, isn’t she?!”
“Well, that’s true...”
“Right?” Dale broke out in a smile that showed he was still the same old Dale. “And thinking more on it, it’s not all that rare to find a married couple with that big of an age gap...” he continued, his expression growing serious again.
His “big bro” Kenneth and his wife Rita were about that far apart. When you’re young, such a gap feels huge, but it feels less and less important as you grow older. That was the sort of age gap it was.
“She was just too young when we first met, and that impression stuck with me, but... Latina’s not a kid anymore.” Dale sighed and averted his eyes. “Even if I’m her guardian, I’m a man who isn’t related to her, so... I shouldn’t always be together with Latina the way I have been, right?”
“...There’s no lack of boors out there with suspicious motives, after all.”
“That’s true. As Latina’s guardian, I should’ve realized that...”
When he thought about how Kenneth had pressured him to clearly tell Latina if he was going to accept her feelings, Dale also realized that if he was going to turn her down, he needed to make that clear as well.
If he was going to keep being just her guardian, he’d need to draw a line between them. He would need to clearly distance himself before she became an “adult,” to nip things in the bud before nasty rumors started floating around about her.
As a man, Dale didn’t care about how crass the rumors about him may get. But for Latina, as a girl, it would be a serious matter if that happened to her, and Dale needed to avoid that.
“It was normal for Latina and me to be close.”
“Dale...”
“Looking at it objectively, well... it probably looked like we had that sort of relationship.”
He was now well aware that he was treating her like a little kid. That was why he’d been able to sleep calmly, thinking nothing of how he shared a bed with her.
It wasn’t the sort of thing he should be doing with a girl her age.
“So, what are you planning on doing?”
“Ungh...”
While watching Gregor sip away at the tea the maid had prepared, Dale searched for words.
“I think I probably... want to stay with Latina... I... don’t want her to become someone else’s, and I want her to stay by my side.”
That was probably the simplest response to the feelings he had inside. Even from an outsider’s point of view, it was a clear, simple wish.
He’d accepted that he could die at any moment and had tried not to wish for anything, but there was still one thing he wanted. That was Latina.
Even now, it was painful to think about dying and leaving her behind. But if he could accept that it would happen, then he could at least indulge his selfish desire and spend their limited time together. She would remain by his side, with that gentle, happy, soothing smile.
“In that case, it’s easiest to just go ahead and do it then, right...?” That was the conclusion he had reached.
If she’d stay by his side happily smiling away, even when she grew up a bit, then that would be a truly happy future, right? And if he could be the one to grant her that happiness, then he shouldn’t hope for anything else.
He decided that it was fine for him to be the one to do that for this girl, who he wanted to be happy above all else.
“In the past, I... used to think that I’d end up in a political marriage.”
“Right.” Gregor was also familiar with the unique clan of Tislow. The clan possessed vastly more power than even the lower-ranking nobles of Laband, so obviously the ducal household paid them special attention.
As someone set to become the next head, Dale had no doubts about accepting a political marriage for the good of the clan. He had been prepared to marry someone regardless of their age or appearance, or even someone he was meeting for the first time.
“I was earnestly prepared to marry whoever I needed to, regardless of who it was with or how I felt. I wouldn’t have even had a problem with someone younger than Latina.”
“Such things aren’t at all rare when it comes to political marriages.”
“That’s right.”
When he entrusted the duty of being the next clan head to his younger brother, all that had also gone along with it, but Dale simply hadn’t felt like searching for someone to marry.
“So I’m sure that choosing to stay together with my precious Latina will make me happy, too.”
He could already imagine the people around him nagging him, saying he was just worrying about himself.
Latina was a devil. As a devil, she had a much longer lifespan than humans. His own joy came from making sure she was happy, but as time went on, the gap between them would continue to widen.
I may end up turning into an old geezer before I even realize it...
It was easy for those around them to imagine Latina remaining young and putting her happiness second to take care of Dale when he grew old. That was a reason to worry. Thinking on it logically, he couldn’t imagine it ending up any other way in the future.
“Anyway, I can deal with that another time,” Dale said, his tone shifting.
“Huh?” Gregor questioned, taken aback.
“I mean, that’s a bridge to cr
oss later,” Dale responded in his usual, carefree tone.
“Is that so...?”
“I mean, Latina’s still just a kid, after all.”
Dale put his hand up into the air and drew a gently sloping curve. Gregor didn’t ask what that line, with hardly any ups and downs to it, indicated.
“Figuring out just what to do can wait until Latina’s a little older.” Dale didn’t have an interest in little girls. As a result, the troubled laugh Dale gave seemed to be half out of embarrassment and half due to awkwardness.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
“Enter.”
The single maid who entered the room with Gregor’s permission looked flustered in a way unfitting of a servant of this estate. As this household was one of the foremost in the nation of Laband, its servants were also thoroughly trained to be first-rate. They should have been able to remain firm when dealing with nearly any situation.
After she whispered her report to Gregor, a look of surprise flashed over his face. Wondering just what was going on, Dale prepared to ask the reason his friend had reacted that way, only for that “reason” to enter the room.
Gregor stood up straight in response, but being in bed, Dale didn’t have a chance to get his appearance in order. He tried to get up and show proper respect, but the man held him back with a single hand.
“Father,” Gregor said. Gregor’s father, a man with a cool gaze and hair that was greying as he entered his twilight years, gave a nod.
His mere presence was enough to make those around him correct their posture. It wasn’t as though he had an especially intimidating appearance; rather, he gave off a gentle, calm air. However, that wasn’t all that there was to the man.
This man, Vladimir Rot Eldstedt, was responsible for the foremost family in Laband, that of Eldstedt. Having “Rot” in one’s name indicated that they were qualified to succeed the Laband throne. In both name and substance, this man came only after the king in terms of authority in this country.
