Chapter 54 - It Was Fun
—Huh?
When Elenoa woke up, she was in her bed in her room at the House of Stylus. Looking out the window, she saw the sun tilting toward the west.
In her hands was a piece of cloth with a half-finished pattern. It seemed she had dozed off while embroidering. She lifted her back slightly from the large cushion she had been leaning against and stretched.
She had been told not to do any cleaning or laundry, and lately, she felt a little bored.
Just as she thought she wanted to move her body sometimes, the moment she moved her legs, there was a knock at the door with timing as if someone had been watching her.
'Onee-chan, may I come in?'
—It was her younger sister-in-law, Lumina.
She must have returned from the academy.
When Elenoa responded, Lumina entered with a smile that bloomed like a flower.
'I'm home!'
'Welcome home. How were your tests today?'
'As usual.'
'That's good. With excellent grades, Lumina-chan is surely set for the Research Institute next year.'
'I wonder about that. The tests for the academy and the Research Institute are on different levels, after all... Well, even if I pass, I won't let anyone say I got in on my Big Brother's coattails. I just need to study a lot.'
Elenoa's younger sister-in-law would graduate from the academy in about half a year.
Knowing Lumina from when she first enrolled, still childlike, Elenoa felt tears welling up in her eyes.
Lumina had grown taller and was becoming a splendid young woman.
Someday, she too would fall in love and be loved, walking her own path in life, far from the gaze of this fairy. It was sad, but it could not be helped. —While Elenoa was deeply lost in twilight melancholy facing the sunset sky, Lumina laughed, saying, 'You're such a weird Onee-chan... as always.'
Then, another person entered the room.
'The Research Institute is a meritocracy, so coattails are meaningless.'
A beautiful young man stood there, a black robe draped over his arm. As the Mage Corps Commander, his name resounded throughout the world. He was Elenoa's husband.
He (Louis) smiled at Elenoa, saying, 'I'm home,' but his words to Lumina were indifferent and strict. The two women of the House of Stylus knew this was a form of affection.
'I have left the second exam (practical skills) and third exam (interviews) for hiring to others, but for the first exam (written test), I show no mercy, even to relatives.'
'Does that mean you're making the questions, Big Brother!?'
'That is correct.'
'Ugh... So, from the very first exam, it's going to be a survival of the fittest with piles of corpses...'
'Unfortunately, the Research Institute has a uniform passing score of eighty-five points, so I will strive to eliminate eighty percent of the applicants in the first round.'
'Idiot! You workaholic! Crazy psycho mama's boy!'
'Should I really fail this foolish younger sister?'
'You big oaf! I will not tolerate the oppressive domination of a person in power!'
'You should reconsider whether that attitude is appropriate for an applicant toward the head of the organization they are applying to... And how long do you intend to keep laughing?'
When Louis shifted his gaze from Lumina to Elenoa, he saw her shoulders shaking. She looked like she might be crying, but she was suppressing her laughter, letting out small 'kuh... fu' sounds.
'Mama's boy, mama's boy!'
'...If you want to laugh, then laugh.'
'Ahahahahahahahaha!'
'Please be quiet after all.'
Annoyed by his current wife, who used to act as a mother figure, pointing at him and laughing heartily, Louis's brow furrowed.
But pulling himself together, he took Elenoa's cardigan from a hanger on the wall.
He draped it over her shoulders.
'You must not let your body get cold.'
'I'm not cold?'
'Even if you are not cold, the child in your belly might not feel the same.'
Elenoa reflexively touched her abdomen.
—That's right, there was a child.
It was slightly swollen, and now that she was conscious of it, she wondered why she had forgotten it until now. At the same time, she remembered why she was in such a state, friends with the bed.
It had become a period where standing was difficult. It seemed it would improve in a few more days, but regarding this child, it was not good to believe too firmly in human pregnancy cycles.
Louis was worried about this and was being overly protective.
'I hope the child is dull like you, but if they are like me, they will be sensitive.'
'Big Brother is sensitive...?'
'Should I fail her after all?'
'O-Oh, that's right, Onee-chan! Today, everyone at the academy played Ball Poking!'
Lumina clung to her older sister-in-law. She seemed convinced that as long as she was touching Elenoa, she was safe for the time being.
'Ball Poking? The one where you go 'kon' with a long stick?'
'Yes. Embarrassingly, I didn't understand the rules at all, so I had my friends teach me. At first, I didn't know what was happening and took a full swing...'
'I'm glad it was fun.'
'Yes, it was fun!'
Her smile, shining brightly like a sunflower, was the only sun-attribute presence in the House of Stylus.
Lumina stepped away from Elenoa's bed and mimed swinging a long stick. Ball Poking was indeed a game where you rolled a ball on a platform and poked it with the tip of a long staff-like stick. Thinking that Lumina's energetic gestures looked just like golf, Elenoa opened her mouth to say so, but was interrupted by an innocent voice.
'Because I was killed like this.'
—Eh?
Elenoa's smile froze.
Lumina narrowed her pitch-black, empty eye sockets and laughed shrilly at Elenoa, who had stiffened on the bed.
The deep red sunset had not shifted its position at all since earlier, illuminating the room in red.
Louis's figure had disappeared without a trace.
And then she sat up abruptly. It was morning.
Her body, sandwiched between feather bedding, felt strangely hot. The sweat was clammy and unpleasant. It was a terrible awakening, to the point where the sensation of the supreme bed felt annoying.
Glancing to the side, she saw that Louis, who should have been sleeping beside her, was gone.
She felt a chill.
She rubbed her arms. Yesterday, she had made a contract with Louis and had not worn anything resembling clothes.
After moving from that ruin-like place and being pushed onto the bed, there had been intentions entirely separate from the contract. In that flow, it had been impossible to even ask for clothes.
If he was not here, what should she do about clothes? Before that, could she borrow the shower room here—?
Blue particles generated from her skin, activating a self-cleaning effect, but right now, she felt like bathing in water.
She looked around for something to wear. Then, on a table away from the bed, she saw familiar clothes folded neatly.
A black, military-style one-piece dress and a full set of underwear. On top of them sat an hourglass.
The all-black attire, fitting for the Demon Lord's side, was something she had tried on once before. Was it the finished product?
Elenoa put it on and left the Demon Lord's room. The Demon Lord's Magic Stone, a cursed item, had somehow brought along its companion hair tie and gathered a lock of Elenoa's hair.
"...Louis..."
—Where was he? Why was he not here?
As she started walking down the long corridor, her whole body throbbed with pain.
Stopping and leaning against the wall, she searched for Louis.
She was gripping the watch she usually kept hidden under her clothes tightly.
She wanted to meet him, be embraced by him, and forget that nightmare.
This castle had only the minimum necessary staff.
Instead, powerful monsters swarmed around the castle.
This was out of consideration for the promise they had made earlier to 'live only as the two of us.' There were a few people to prepare meals, Bis, two members of the Dragon Clan who seemed to have been found as guards while Elenoa was sleeping for a long time, and a few others for cleaning and miscellaneous tasks.
As she moved around the castle at a turtle's pace, she did not meet anyone.
On the verge of tears from the stone walls that felt colder than usual, she simply searched for Louis.
—Kashu.
There was the sound of someone's footsteps.
Elenoa suddenly lifted her face. Coming out from the side was a familiar face.
The other person also looked at Elenoa with an expression of shock.
"...You are..."
A woman with burning red hair who called Elenoa that. Due to her height, which had grown more than Elenoa remembered, and Elenoa's hunched posture, their eye levels were almost the same.
"Claire-san"
Elenoa uttered her name in a daze.
Monster blood dripped from the tip of Claire's sword, staining the floor.
It was proof that she had slaughtered monsters. And her clothes had discarded all decorations, with hard materials like steel and mithril standing out heavily. Above all, she showed strong caution toward Elenoa, armored in an ominous atmosphere.
Kiiin.
A characteristic 'sound effect' rang out.
In Elenoa's eyes, Claire's name, level, HP, and MP appeared in wavering, distorted fonts.
—An enemy.
Elenoa recognized Claire's hostility.
Unconsciously, she tightened her grip on the hourglass in her hand. Claire stared at it as if glaring, and asked with a voice suppressing various emotions.
"That is something you received from Louis, isn't it?"
Elenoa was in a state where she had to lean against the wall,
"Yes."
She nodded.
"I see. Then you also acknowledge yourself as one who serves monsters—the Demon Lord."
"One who serves Louis, perhaps."
Hearing Elenoa's response, Claire turned predatory eyes toward her. Elenoa felt like fleeing, but she endured it silently. In her heart, she was calling out Louis's name desperately.