Chapter 22 - Resolution and the Court Mage
"I'm home—"
"Onii-chan! Onii-chan! Onii-chan! Onii-chan!"
When Louis transferred back from work, he found Lumina in her school uniform running down the hallway in a panic. Even though Elenoa had told her, "Your body isn't strong, so please don't run too much," what was going on?
Lumina, who had run to Louis, was out of breath.
"I told you not to run."
Louis was dumbfounded, thinking she had brought this upon herself, but Lumina glared up at her brother as if such things didn't matter.
"Onii-chan, you idiot! What did you do to Elenoa! I want a proper explanation for what kind of injustice you committed to make things end up like this!"
"Huh?"
"Are we skipping the seventh sibling quarrel and going straight to war?! If so, I'll fight you! Don't think you'll get away without being bathed in my returning blood!"
"Please calm down a bit. What happened to Elenoa?"
"She ran away from home!"
"What?"
"She. Ran. Away! I said she ran away!"
Louis stood there, dumbfounded. Running away from home. It was a word unrelated to House of Stylus. It was more incomprehensible than the ancient language often used when handling magic.
As Louis slowly processed the word thrust before him, he pushed his sister's back and moved to the living room.
The tea that usually appeared was not there. Indeed, it seemed to be a fact that Elenoa was not in the house right now.
Sitting in a chair, Louis asked Lumina for the details.
All she showed him was a shabby piece of paper.
"When I came back from school, this was here. Anything else?"
"Nothing else. The meal looked delicious."
"No clues, then. By the way, what was on the menu?"
"Simmered horse mackerel, spinach with sesame dressing, and miso soup."
Her check seemed thorough.
Louis stared at the piece of paper and leaned back against the chair, looking tired.
Her brother was thinking about something. Lumina waited silently for that time to pass. She was certain her brother had done something, but there was no point in ranting about it.
After a while, Louis said,
"I didn't think she was childish enough to leave without writing down her destination."
"Even if she wrote not to worry, that's true. And if she didn't write the time either..."
"Even if the time was written, if she went far away, she wouldn't be able to return as scheduled."
"Eh?"
Instead of answering Lumina, who tilted her head, Louis looked out the window. Lumina, following his gaze, muttered softly, "Ah, that's no good."
It was raining. Large raindrops were hitting the window glass, pit-a-pat. It had just started raining. If a little more time passed, it would likely become even more intense.
The sky was a darker gray than when Lumina had looked up on her way home from school. The streetlights were on earlier than usual.
"The wind will probably get stronger too. Creatures with wings like that don't fly on rainy days."
Louis had heard from Elenoa that when Fairies smell the rain, they look for a roof and hide. This was because, although small insects could fly to some extent at low altitudes, if a Fairy of considerable size forced themselves to fly, their delicate wings would be damaged by the raindrops.
The siblings frowned and gazed outside.
At the signal of low rumbling thunder, Lumina suddenly remembered something 'unpleasant.'
"Onii-chan, you didn't happen to talk about that medicine, did you?"
That medicine.
Louis, without changing his expression, said, "Not yet."
"But I should probably talk about it soon."
At her brother's words, Lumina gripped her skirt tightly.
She was afraid to confess the sin named the honor of House of Stylus. If she told the Fairy, she might be hated. No, she would definitely be hated.
Saying nothing to his depressed sister, Louis stood up and was about to leave the living room.
Lumina spoke quietly.
"Elenoa is hungry. Please find her quickly."
"Eh..."
"I've had that feeling since a while ago."
Leaving his sister in silence, Louis stepped out into the cold hallway.
Stepping onto the magic circle at the entrance, it immediately glowed blue.
—Well, I can sense her location immediately.
What should I do when I find her?
Louis made his staff appear in his hand. It was his favorite everyday staff, which contained Elenoa's hair as a component.
*
Elenoa, having exhausted her magic power and reduced to Fairy size, was in the forest. She had sneaked into a hollow in a tall tree, hugging her knees together with maple leaves. She would feel sorry if sparrows or squirrels were nesting here, but they were mostly reasonable animals. Even if she was found, she probably wouldn't be driven out.
And Fairies did not feel the cold very much. Even if, like now, her one-piece dress was soaked through.
Since moving her wet wings would cause them to tear, she decided to wait for them to dry, but the serious problem was hunger.
"...I'm hungry, huh."
The plant she had eaten for the first time in a while tasted bad.
There was no high-quality magic power in the forest near the town. Even though she had resigned herself to that, she hadn't thought it would make her feel nauseous.
She had experienced this kind of hunger before. Shortly after being captured by Louis, she had stubbornly refused to tell him what her food was.
Elenoa curled her back and collapsed sideways. She looked at the round entrance of the hollow. It was raining. With a roaring sound, the wind was also increasing in intensity.
—Maybe I should just sleep.
If she was going to suffer from hunger, it was better to sleep. Thinking so, she closed her eyes.
And she opened her mouth.
—' '' '' '
A series of mysterious words that humans could not understand. This was the Song of the Fairies.
It was different from the ancient language used for magic. Elenoa did not know the principle either, but it was expected to have a sedative effect on both Fairies and humans.
As she was about to fall asleep while singing softly,
"Elenoa."
Another voice spoke.
"You are there, aren't you? Come out."
It was a command.
Elenoa, who had doubted the first time was her imagination, slowly began to move. Hesitating in the raging wind and rain, she stuck her head out of the hollow.
Louis was under the tree. He was still wearing his robe. Looking closely, raindrops were avoiding him.
Although there was a distance of about the height of an adult man between them, Louis narrowed his eyes and certainly captured Elenoa's figure.
"Come down."
"No. I can't fly."
"Then fall. Align your wings with your body and just fall down. I will catch you."
Elenoa stood up unsteadily and wrapped her wings around her body as instructed.
It was not that she didn't hesitate to go to Louis, the cause of her distress, but her thoughts were also hazy. Symptoms of being about to collapse from anemia. It was definitely a lack of magic power.
She fell headfirst.
Warm wind softly wrapped around Elenoa's body and carried her to Louis's hands.
"Going out on your own like that. I get angry too, you know? What were you doing?"
"Dinner."
"Dinner?"
In the hands of Elenoa, who sat down with a plop, there was a maple leaf. The edge was slightly missing.
"Did you try to eat something other than my blood?"
"...I was hungry."
"It tasted bad, didn't it?"
"Yeah."
When she nodded weakly and hung her head, Louis looked at her with a stern gaze.
"There is no point in being stubborn. Why do you endure it so much?"
"...Because..."
"Anyway, let's move. I found a hut over there."
He walked briskly, and they arrived at the hut in a few minutes.
In front of her, who was dazed, his finger was thrust out.
"Eat."
It was the pad of a bitten-off finger. Delicious-looking blood oozed out.
She could no longer bear it.
She held his finger with both hands and licked the bead of blood. Slurp, gulp. As soon as she swallowed the blood, she instantly returned to human size and sucked greedily as usual.
However,
Snap.
She was suddenly let go.
Shaken off with enough force to make a sound, Elenoa, while dumbfounded, lowered her hands that had nowhere to go.
She hadn't even eaten half of her usual 'meal.' She was about to ask why, but what she desired was something else. She couldn't bring herself to mention it.
She looked up at Louis dejectedly.
And he had a bright red face.
When their eyes met, he quickly turned his face away in another direction.
"What's wrong?"
"………………………………My clothes..."
"Eh, ...huh? ...Ehhhhh"
Only after becoming human size did she finally notice.
Her white one-piece dress was wet from the rain and transparent. The chest that pushed up the clothes and her slender lower limbs, which could not be hidden by the maple leaf that had fluttered to the floor. The clothes clinging to them emphasized her body lines and did not protect her skin color.
Protecting her body, she looked down saying, "Don't look," and immediately.
His robe was draped over her from head to toe with a flap.
"Wear this."
"It will get wet, won't it?"
"If you value your own safety, please wear it without saying anything, I beg you."
"...Okay."
And when the wind wrapped around her surroundings again, the moisture from her clothes disappeared.
It seemed he had removed the moisture with magic or sorcery.
"Thank you..."
While verbally expressing her thanks as a matter of courtesy, Elenoa looked at Louis, who was unnaturally averting his face.
She felt unbearable.
She wanted to run away from here.
But that was not possible.
But still, she didn't want to be here.
She realized that her body was helplessly that of a woman. And that Louis was a man whom she could no longer casually hug.
Different from the night she first found him scary, there was a heat like fear that made her chest tremble intensely.
She gripped the draped robe to hold it at her chest and turned her back to him.
Since neither spoke, the only sound was the wind and rain hitting the hut. Occasionally it creaked, but she was not worried about it collapsing.
Before she knew it, it had become night, and a fire had been lit in the stove in the center of the hut.
The fire illuminated the hut in orange. Swaying, swaying. It created deep shadows in the corners of the hut.
There was Louis watching the fire by the stove, and Elenoa with her back to the stove, looking down. It was quiet, and they did not even look at each other's faces.
Summoning her courage, she said,
"Um, well, I was taking a walk in the forest, and I thought about various things. Like dating, and doing those kinds of things. Probably, I don't mind if it's with you, Louis."
"...Yes."
Louis, who was on the other side of the fire, responded vaguely.
"But maybe, Louis might be different."
"Yes?"
"Because this is a world where the Hero might come. If Louis chooses that person, I will surely be lonely, and magic power won't even go down my throat."
"That would be the same for you. You might choose the Hero... no, you might be chosen by the Protagonist."
"The only elements that make me 'Elenoa' are my appearance, being a Fairy, and being bad with humans. Without strong key points like 'Elenoa's' hatred for the Demon Lord, there would be no gap to be captured."
"Then even I..."
"No. Not at all."
Surprised by her clear tone, Louis looked at Elenoa's back.
He could not see her expression.
"Probably, 'I' am fundamentally different, right?"
—Ah. He sighed.
Louis chose his response so as not to interrupt, letting her words soak into his ears.
"Did you know?"
"Somewhat. Louis, you are almost exactly the 'Louis Stylus' I know."
The soul of the current Elenoa was a pure modern Japanese person.
Louis's soul was originally Louis, and although it was unknown why it had taken a detour to modern Japan, as a result, he was probably reborn as Louis in this world.
The two were definitely not the 'same.'
"Probably, Louis, I think you are much more easily influenced by the scenario than I am."
"So I will sway towards the Hero?"
"It's only a possibility."
"So you won't accept me?"
"............"
For a while, silence fell in the hut.
"I cannot accept that."
"Louis,"
"I have endured it. In town, and when guests came, the young me was always protected by you, feeling only frustration, and now that our feelings have finally aligned, to think you would deny me."
"I'm not denying you. I just thought a bit about the future."
"What will happen to my feelings now?"
When asked painfully and accusingly, Elenoa became unable to speak.
No matter how much Louis desired Elenoa, the obstacles of the future could not be overlooked.
Louis was popular among the capture targets. If the Protagonist took a fancy to him and sought him, Louis might be captured. This world was an RPG, and also a romance game. A scenario where Louis and the Protagonist end up together existed within the system.
—Besides.
Elenoa remembered.
It was not only the Protagonist who was attracted to him.
—That Corps Commander too—,
"...About Claire-san."
When she said it while pouting, it had an unexpectedly childish ring to it. She thought, "Oh no," herself, but once it was out, it could not be taken back.
Louis looked suspicious, saying, "Claire?" Confused by the sudden name, he eventually said, "Could it be," and gave an outrageous answer,
"Are you jealous?"
Elenoa's shoulders trembled at the embarrassing fact being pointed out.
"N-no... that's not it..."
Impatience.
"I just felt a little, cloudy, that's all."
The truth.
"Because I am not human. If Louis is to be with someone, I thought he would surely prefer a human woman. That's all, ...Louis?"
Wondering what had happened to Louis, who said nothing, she tried to turn around cautiously, but froze as she was hugged from behind.
Her heart jumped at the solid feel of his body, which had come close without her noticing.
She was not used to close proximity, nor to being touched. And yet, because he touched her like this, it was unbearable for Elenoa.
"What are you? What do you want to do with my reason? Are you trying to test me? It's useless. I will easily fall for you, so the result is obvious."
"...Eh."
Perhaps intending to consider the tense Elenoa, the strength of his arms was not strong. But for Elenoa, the close contact was already an emergency situation that felt suffocating.
He deliberately whispered "Elenoa" near her ear, and his breath touched her.
—Could this possibly be...!
It was the atmosphere of entering a 'scene like that' peculiar to romance games, different from when his switch—something rational—was flipped in the Louis Stylus route Elenoa knew, revealing his dark hidden face.
The mage bullied the Protagonist with polite language. The sex appeal, which made one want to take off headphones, made her waist tremble.
To her, who was shrinking in fear, a low, relaxed laugh sounded.
"Fya...!?"
When her earlobe was nibbled, she let out a seductive voice. Not wanting to believe that such a flattering sound belonged to her, she covered her mouth to hide it. This time, he laughed refreshingly.
"A nice voice. I was surprised."
It was a man's low voice. She knew his voice had changed.
Why did his voice tickle her ears with such a sweet resonance?
She tightly gripped the hand that had been holding the robe. It didn't matter to the current Elenoa if it became wrinkled.
Called by name, "Elenoa," she timidly raised her face.
There were eyes looking down at her from behind. As if sucked into those golden ones, her body stopped moving. Was she petrified? She didn't know. Without being able to make a sound, her heart pounded at the gradually approaching distance of his face. She was reflected in his eyes.
For an instant, their lips touched.
Surprised by the soft sensation, Elenoa came to her senses and shook her head tremblingly with tears in her eyes.
"Louis, this... is no good."
"No good? Do you not realize what kind of face you are making?"
She knew without being told. Even if her reason did not wish for it, she was surely inviting him with her whole body. She felt happiness at the fact that they were touching, and although it was embarrassing, she didn't want him to let go here. Her heart, beating painfully, felt like it would burst. She had come to think that his body heat transmitted through the clothes felt good.
Whispering "no good" like a mosquito buzzing was only provocation. Her weak refusal was sealed with a laugh of "cute."
Gently suppressing her trembling body, Louis tried to torment her again.
"W-wait, stop."
"Be quiet."
He approached again.
From behind, the contact of lips was unstable, and she could escape immediately. But the arms wrapped around her seemed to gradually change Elenoa's posture to his convenience.
While being turned sideways, she still could not escape Louis's arms.
Supported by one arm at her back and attacked as if covering her, she could do nothing.
"Nn...!"
Her tongue, which had shrunk deep inside, was easily entangled with his. Only the sticky water sound, kuchu, and an indecent voice echoed in the hut, and she felt like she would die of embarrassment.
Elenoa did not know this kind of sensation.
The hand she extended to cling to something could only find his clothes, and she clung to it desperately.
As if to calm her, his left hand had been stroking her head the whole time.
"Actually, you knew this from before, didn't you? Mothers don't make such cute faces to their sons. They don't do things like smiling or touching their hair and getting shy."
Elenoa, with disturbed breathing, listened to those words vaguely. She was not looking at anything.
The man's voice, simply sweetly tempting, transmitted from her ears to her brain and permeated.
"If you admit it, it will become easier."
"...Eh..."
"Please forget about being a mother figure. No matter how much you worry, it is meaningless. Even if you feel this kiss is immoral, you can blame it all on me."
—Really?
Her moist eyes gradually regained their light.
Louis's answer could only be an affirmation, "Yes, of course." It was the moment the female Fairy admitted defeat.
"Now then, let's go home soon. Lumina is waiting too."
"Eh? But it's still raining."
"This is transfer magic for times like this."
"............"
"............"
"You tricked me, didn't you?"
"I think it would be strange if you didn't notice."
Our battle starts now!