Chapter 36 - The Fairy and the Hourglass
It was late at night, not even the insects were chirping.
"Mother, Father, Grandmother, Grandfather—and for good measure, let me offer my deepest condolences to the Progenitor as well."
In the Stylus family's laboratory, Louis boasted as if singing.
He held two sets of documents in his hands. One was a bundle of papers, haphazardly punched with holes and strung together with hemp cord into a booklet. The other was the diary of the generation before last.
A lantern sat on the desk. It vaguely illuminated the shelves mounted on the walls throughout the room, lighting up various transparent chemicals in red, blue, yellow, and orange.
"What a shame. My condolences."
He dropped the bundle of papers onto a wide ceramic plate placed on the desk. He stacked the diary on top of it.
The diary was a memento he had been reading when he captured Elenoa. Just remembering that he had fallen asleep with this page open still sent a chill down his spine. This content was not something he could show her.
"'Fire.'"
He stroked the diary. Fire appeared from the touched area, charring both the diary and the bundle of papers black.
For a mage, research materials were living traces. Knowing this full well, the Chief Court Mage laid hands on his family's greatest research achievement. He brought this cruel deed to a shabby end in a small, confined room.
—Speaking of diaries.
As he climbed the stairs, he remembered. In the Royal Capital Grenole, which had become ruins in the game, one could find something like a diary in "a certain court mage's house." This was likely Louis's—or so went the story of a slightly troublesome key item. Elenoa had said something like that.
The current Louis did not keep a diary. If he had time to write such a thing, he would be writing magical research materials. Besides, he didn't necessarily have to follow the game—though he thought that.
"...Trying to write one here on purpose might be..."
Louis found himself thinking it sounded interesting.
Wondering if there was a suitable diary or memo pad in this house, he proceeded to his bedroom.
No matter how many times he saw Elenoa in her sickbed, he could never see enough of her.
Just as he placed his hand on the bedroom door, he stopped.
'Hic... kuh.'
She was crying inside the room. Her breathing, with a hitch in her throat, was muffled and hard to hear. She was likely covering her mouth with her hand to prevent any sound from leaking out.
This was the first time he had faced a scene where Elenoa shook her shoulders alone.
He had seen her cry quite recently, when she learned of Lumina's death. But on that day, Louis had no composure to spare, and they had clung to each other.
Unfortunately, Elenoa was firmly aware that she was Louis's adoptive mother, so there were many situations where she treated him like a child and rushed to comfort him when he was weak. —Although there was a time when Louis made Elenoa tearful when he could no longer distinguish between nightmares and reality, he would exclude that instance since Louis himself was hardly in a calm state at the time.
She had never shown such obvious weakness before.
Therefore, the current situation of her crying inside the room was, though indecorous, fresh.
It would probably be kindness to leave her be for now.
—But defying that was who he was.
Louis, who had stopped with his hand on the lever, opened the door without hesitation.
Elenoa jumped, her shoulders twitching as she wiped her tears, but that wouldn't fool him.
Louis stood firmly beside the bed and looked down at Elenoa. The fact that it wasn't 'looking down from above' revealed Louis's dissatisfaction.
"I cried before you twice. You should cry before me at least once more."
"What kind of logic is that?"
Her tone was enough to make tears retract.
It didn't sound like something spoken by someone bearing the title of Chief Court Mage, which sounded so intelligent.
"So, you can cry to your heart's content here. That will satisfy me for now."
"Are you a bully!"
"Cry."
"That's Louis's attack voice. It's rare. I didn't want to hear it in a place like this."
"If you like, I can include my special move voice as well."
"No, that's scary. I won't cry even if you do that."
"Oh?"
Elenoa turned her face away with a huff. Strength gathered in her small hands, gripping the bedding and creating wrinkles.
Watching her, Louis unknowingly softened his atmosphere. His moonlight-colored eyes narrowed slightly, waiting for her stubborn heart to unravel.
Once she let it all out, she would feel lighter.
This fairy had taught that to an eight-year-old child.
"I won't cry."
"............"
"...I absolutely... won't cry..."
"............"
"I said... I won't... cry..."
"Yes, yes, good girl, good girl."
Louis extended his arms at the signal of a single tear dropping from her eye. He embraced her and stroked her thin back.
"Is it about Lumina? About humans? About not having wings? You might as well cry about everything."
Elenoa began with a trembling voice, saying, "Well, you see," so Louis answered, "Yes."
"I hate everything now. I can't work. I can't cook, I can't do laundry, I can't even clean, and on top of that, I'm causing trouble. I don't even know why I'm here."
Those were words of weakness.
"There's just... too much. Even about Lumina-chan, I still... I..."
She spoke haltingly. Her thin, wavering voice was cute and sweet to Louis.
He no longer needed the 'adult' version of her. The fact that she could be weak like this only by Louis's side was cruel but dear. With his sister gone, the reason he could somehow keep going was that Elenoa relied on him.
"Louis is strong. I'm still no good."
"Strong is out of the question. If I don't manage somehow, I'll be causing you hardship, won't I?"
"Kuh... As expected, housework and..."
"That's not what I mean."
"But... kuh."
Louis's clothes were damp with a large amount of moisture, and realizing this, Elenoa felt ashamed and quietly turned her face away.
She seemed not to hear his murmur, "Have we finally become equals?" Louis gently stopped her arm as she began to rub her eyes to stop the tears.
"Even so, it's not that I'm ungrateful for being taken care of. For now... just think of it as a period of filial piety toward family. However, since I still feel different from being a mother—"
He searched his bosom.
He took it out from inside his jacket and placed it in Elenoa's hand.
"I give this to you."
"...This?"
"It's an hourglass. Did it not please you?"
"No, that's not... eh... eh?"
It was an hourglass about the size of a woman's thumb, with a thin gold chain attached so it could be worn around the neck.
Elenoa cautiously brought it up to eye level. When she turned the small hourglass over, fine sand flowed smoothly through the extremely narrowed glass tube.
'Louis Stylus's Hourglass'.
In the story, the hourglass was slightly larger, with simple brown sand and wooden carvings. But the one in Elenoa's hands now had beautiful blue sand. Moreover, the decorative frame was silver. For fairies who were weak to silver, platinum was used. Not the heroine's color, but Elenoa's color.
"...It's beautiful, isn't it?"
She turned it over several times, gazing at it, unable to measure even a minute.
Her childish expression, like that of a child receiving a toy for the first time, tickled Louis's heart more than he had expected.
"I'm glad you like it."
Elenoa said in a fading voice, "Th... thank... you..."
Embarrassed, she did not look at Louis.
"I, I think a bit more, you know, atmosphere is important, isn't it? If this were in the game right now, it would be an incredibly important event."
"Are we already having a clash of values so soon after getting married?"
"But, in the story, giving this was supposed to be... on a snowy day, I think..."
"It's not snowing now, so we'll pass."
"Hey, capture target."
Why did things have to become so awkward at such an important time!
Elenoa pouted and appealed to Louis. Even that was amusing.
"Atmosphere and such."
"...Hm?"
"The situation, the time of day, the location... none of them are particularly important to me. I do read the atmosphere of a place if it's necessary for activating magic. I think calculating the scene is somewhat important in interactions between men and women, but was I not conveying it well enough that you wouldn't accept it unless I did so?"
He placed his hand on Elenoa's cheek.
"I am serious, you know?"
He slid his hand behind her ear, invading into her hair. Lightly digging his nails in, combing and probing. Louis knew Elenoa was weak to this atmosphere, so he was determined to attack at this very moment.
He brought his lips close.
"Mmh..."
When he tried to pull away, she surprisingly chased after him. Louis froze for a moment at her subtle counterattack.
"That's rare. Even though it's the first time."
Elenoa looked at Louis with a red face. Shy as she was, she was not used to affection from her lover and would stiffen up at first. It was always after several deep kisses that she would respond with such a melted expression.
"This feels like it's been a while. Lately, everything has been painful, so having something not painful, being treated gently, feels nice."
Elenoa said such things with a relaxed cheek. Noticing Louis's silent, serious face, she retracted her statement with "W-wait! Cancel that!" and dove into the bed.
"I, I was crying heavily just now, so it's dirty, right? Even normally, I felt like I couldn't face a beautiful person, and now like this, I'm sorry."
"No, that was dangerous... Is this the seriousness of a capture character? It's amazing. The effect is outstanding."
"Did I say something dangerous? Sorry, I didn't mean to."
"That destructive power without calculation... how terrifying..."
"I understand that you're saying something embarrassing... kuh."
Louis wondered what to do with the bulging lump on the bed, but before much time passed, she revealed her face on her own.
Elenoa, appealing with her eyes, was like a small animal. Her ears were red, and her tear-filled eyes seemed inviting.
She likely wanted words.
If so, he would give her words that were true to himself and firm, so Louis gently issued a command.
"Your name shall be Elenoa Stylus. Is that acceptable?"
It was indirect yet direct, admitting no right of refusal. These words from the heart, representing Louis's twisted personality without any twist, were what she needed.
"...Yes."
She narrowed her eyes. Softly. Looking very happy.