Chapter 62 - I Was Hesitating
――In my dream, my head was being stroked.
'Just so you know, you and Louis coming together is neither fate nor inevitability.'
I listened vaguely to such cruel words.
No, I wasn't listening.
It was like a song in a foreign language that simply entered my ears and passed through.
In a white, white space, unable to open my eyes.
I felt comfortable with the feminine fingers gently combing through my hair.
'It will not become the ending you wished for.'
A strange voice, one I felt I had heard somewhere before, yet also one I had never heard.
'You will make mistakes over and over again.'
Speaking of strange, it was also strange that my limbs would not move at all.
What is this?
It felt as if everything from my neck down had vanished and disappeared.
'Even so, do you want to live with Louis?'
――To that question, what did 'I' answer?
＊
The fact that everyone learned she was actually a high-ranking fairy proceeded exactly according to the scenario, as expected.
The still image for the scene where she saves the Hero is prepared for both male and female protagonists. It is an event long awaited by players who favor fairies. Since her size was adjusted to be suitable for hugging or being hugged by the protagonist, this was also the period when the fairy officially entered as a romanceable target.
At the inn. In Faras and Alois's room.
Chairs were brought from Emiel and Louis's room, and from Hasumi and Elenoa's respective rooms, arranged in a distorted circle, and an emergency meeting was held.
The knight was stiff. He stared intently, with a fixed gaze, at the human-sized fairy sitting on the bed.
"Um... is something wrong?"
Elenoa looked uncomfortable.
The knight's reaction was unexpected.
This is what it means for resolution to increase.
By becoming larger, aspects that were invisible to those around her became visible.
Setting aside the fact that Elenoa was a beauty who could compete with the romanceable characters, and the fragility inherent to her race, which seemed as if it would fly away if paid for—there was an etherealness that drifted from her. To that, the sex appeal of someone who had spent nights with her husband countless times was added.
With a height no different from a human woman, reaching out to her had become realistic. The knight was confused, not knowing how to accept this reality.
Among this small party, there were those who supported the relationship between the fairy and the knight. The Hero Hasumi and the Martial Artist Faras. These two had been grinning eerily for some time, and the Healer Emiel was observing the fairy's state with interest.
The Mage Louis placed a hand on the knight Alois's shoulder.
"One should not stare at a woman so intensely, you know?"
Feeling a crisis as his shoulder creaked and groaned to its limit, the knight strongly swatted that hand away.
"Gahhh! It's you, always, always, always, always! Did I do something to you!?"
"Now that I think about it, we haven't even had proper conversations..."
"Then why do you keep picking on me?"
"Who knows. You just catch my eye. Why don't you calm down a little?"
"...You really do hate me, don't you?"
"I will refrain from answering."
Louis stood up, ignoring the voice that scolded him with a "Hey," and approached Elenoa. Since her wings were slightly torn, he said, "Please excuse me for a moment," and began to apply healing magic by holding his hand over them.
The one surprised by this was Emiel.
"I'm surprised... To think you could heal a fairy's injuries."
"If it concerns fairies, it is within my domain. How have you been handling her injuries until now?"
"She has been healing them herself, I suppose. ...Since you are a Healer among Mages, you are indeed curious. Would you mind if I studied that technique of yours sometime?"
"I do not mind, but knowledge about fairies has advanced compared to decades ago. Would it not be better to learn from books rather than from me?"
Perhaps the two mages got along well.
Just as they were reaching the conclusion that they would look through books together another time, Faras, who did not read the atmosphere, interrupted with, "Hey, there was something I wanted to ask you mages." The party's most gentle couple did not mind much, responding dutifully with "Yes" and "What is it?"
Sitting on a chair while hugging the backrest, Faras twirled his hair around his finger.
"Recent magic, or knowledge about fairies? I heard that the current Demon Lord conceived all that knowledge and spread it to the world. Do you think that's true?"
"...I think rumors are just rumors, after all."
"Regardless of who that knowledge was based on, it does not matter."
Only Emiel responded sincerely to Faras's question. Louis gave a slightly off-topic answer and turned his attention back to Elenoa.
"Does it not hurt?"
"...Mm, I'm fine."
＊
When camping outdoors, watch duty was rotated. Hasumi's insistence that she disliked being treated specially just because she was a woman prevailed, so physical differences based on sex were not considered.
Several months had passed since they began their journey.
In a forest where broad-leaved trees stood in rows. Hasumi, who had grown in both body and mind, sat with Elenoa on her shoulder, staring at the traces of a campfire.
The cry of a beast echoed in the distance. The shadows of the trees narrowed their field of vision, and through the gaps, an overcast sky was visible. There was no moon.
Only Elenoa's figure, scattering blue particles, was vivid.
Hasumi took a deep breath and whispered, "Hey."
"Elenoa, you're always holding onto something when something's on your mind, aren't you?"
Upon being told this, Elenoa took out an hourglass from under her clothes. Hasumi had noticed her habit of gripping the clock when she was anxious.
Elenoa was no longer a romanceable target, and as long as it was not known that Louis had given it to her, it was fine. Without much hesitation, she showed the hourglass, her treasure.
"This, right?"
"A clock, if I recall correctly, is an engagement ring in this world, isn't it? Or is it a wedding ring? Do you have a fiancé or something?"
"...Something like that, I suppose."
Thump!
On the other side of the campfire, Alois unnaturally turned over in his sleep.
Elenoa did not mind.
"Poor Alois... and sorry..."
"What happened to the knight?"
"It's nothing. By the way, the person who gave you that, was it perhaps the same person who gave you that hair ornament?"
"Yes, that's right."
"What do you like about that person?"
"Eh..."
Elenoa was flustered for the first time.
"Do you have to talk about it? Can't it wait until tomorrow?"
"No way. You never talk about yourself, Elenoa, so it makes me curious. We're going to sleep anyway, so don't worry about the men, okay?"
It was talk about love. An unavoidable topic between women. Elenoa, whose cheeks twitched at the thought that it had finally come, thought and thought and thought, but the answer was just one phrase.
"His face, I guess."
Clatter!
Rustle!
Fluff...!
Rustle.
Unnatural sounds continued, one for each of the men. Immediately, silence returned, and quietness came back.
The two looked in the direction of the sounds for a while, and decided to ignore it.
"That's it? Isn't there more? Like his personality?"
"No, when it comes down to it, nothing else really comes to mind."
As expected, it was not just about appearances. While being pulled along by Hasumi, who shone with curiosity, Elenoa tried to put her vague feelings into words.
――She had never considered what she liked about Louis.
Before she knew it, she had fallen in love, and before she knew it, they were married. She had always lived being dragged along by circumstances.
――Perhaps, it had started with his appearance after all.
"At first, I thought he was an angel."
To Hasumi, who asked if angels really existed in this world, she answered no.
No matter how much of a fantasy world this was, she had never seen a race called angels.
Yet, even now, when she recalled it, those siblings were pure, precious, and to Elenoa, they were children from the heavens.
――'I have been taking care of my younger sister all this time, and I intend to continue balancing both from now on.'
――'Elenoa-san, are you a fairy-san?'
While reminiscing about the sepia-colored scenes, Elenoa put them into words.
"He was devoted to his younger sister, and could do housework properly. I became a mother figure to that child, but for her, it was not like that. In ten years, he surpassed me in height, stopped being a child, and perhaps I was overwhelmed."
Elenoa gripped the clock. The mysterious hourglass, which grew larger or smaller according to her body size, was her favorite.
Hugging her knees, she toyed with the clock, rolling it around.
"...Sorry, I don't understand it myself either. He is just a kind person, and a good boy who saved me when I was in danger. I did not raise him wrongly. It was just that his luck was extremely bad."
Hasumi furrowed her brows at Elenoa, who smiled lonely.
Was it something she should not have touched upon? Thinking so, the honest girl opened her mouth to apologize.
But Elenoa noticed something with a "Ah!" and suddenly flew away from her shoulder.
"...Eh?"
If she had found a monster, she should have said so without hesitation. But Elenoa said nothing and disappeared into the depths of the forest at high speed. Moreover, the cheek she saw for an instant was red.
To Hasumi's ears, who blankly watched the fairy's back, a chuckling, joyful laughter reached. Louis had risen. He was hastily putting back on the robe he had been using as a blanket.
"Did I wake you? Sorry."
"No, I couldn't sleep well anyway, so do not worry about it. I will go look for Elenoa."
"I will go."
"No, I cannot ask the Hero to do so, and if it is me, I will know her location immediately."
"Ah..."
Hasumi's hand, which moved to stop Louis, scratched the air and hung down powerlessly.
Alois, who had heard the voices of the three, pulled his sleeping bag back over himself and squeezed his eyes shut tightly.
Under a certain tree, Louis stopped his feet.
"An angel, you say? That is the first I have heard of it."
When he teased her, something rustled above in response. A leaf fell.
The small fairy, silver and blue, hid her red face in her knees, sitting on a tree branch.
Louis reached out his hand to her.
"Come here."
She hesitated whether to float down through the air or not, but eventually landed on his palm.
"I do not recall raising a child who eavesdrops..." she pouted, glaring at Louis. Soothing her like this was also within his capabilities. Louis sat down, leaning his back against the trunk, acting as if he did not mind, saying, "Yes, yes."
The sky remained overcast as always.
The fairy on his shoulder was cute.
Louis did not know about her earlier story of memories. Thinking that their first meeting had apparently left a not-bad impression made him simply happy. He wanted to touch her to his heart's content on impulse, but even if he asked her to grow larger now, she did not seem likely to comply.
"...It is about the first time we met."
Here, Louis brought up the 'main topic.'
He had chased Elenoa not to flirt.
"I remembered. Were my words not a little strange back then?"
"...Hm?"
The fairy did not seem to get the point.
But Louis remembered.
He remembered when he was listening to her story. Accompanied by a discomfort like a bad premonition, creeping slowly. His inner memory called out that it was unnatural.
At that time too.
――'...Are you really Elenoa? Your appearance looks the same, but I feel some sense of incongruity.'
At that time too.
――'...Apologies?'
As Louis's polite language, he had chosen words that were somehow off. Or perhaps only parts of it were different.
He had returned to his usual polite language immediately because he had unconsciously judged that 'this was good' for her. In the first place, even the hesitation in his tone was unconscious.
"Because at that time, I..."
A strange tone where blunt, mature speech and polite language were mixed. As far as Louis remembered, only at that moment had he become 'like that.'
"I was hesitating about the tone I should use with you."
It was such a distorted way of speaking that it was strange he had not questioned it at the time.
"I wonder why. Even though I had just recalled my memories, I was not the Demon Lord, nor did I intend to become one. For some reason, at that time, I did not know how to treat you... Yes, I was confused about whether I should treat you as family, or as a subordinate."
"...Eh? At that point, we didn't have that kind of relationship yet, did we?"
"That is what should have been the case... but why, I wonder?"
Why?
Why did he hesitate over such a thing?
"Ugh...!"
Suddenly, Louis's brain cried out in pain.
Even if he abandoned his thoughts, the pain did not stop. Sweat seeped from Louis due to the throbbing pain that deepened in sync with his pulse.
He thought his skull would split. It felt as if he were being tightened in a vise.
"Louis!?"
The fairy was forcibly removed from the shoulder of Louis, who held his head.
Surprised, she enlarged her body to human size, and seeing Louis's state, she tried to fly away immediately. She could not carry Louis herself. It was a wise judgment to call the Healer.
"Wa-, ...Wait, enough already..."
But Louis caught her.
This is not the time to be flirting! Even as she scolded him and tried to escape from his arms, his strength was strong. Louis's breathing was rough, yet he desperately held onto Elenoa.
While apologizing, "I'm sorry."
It was exactly like the past Louis, who had struggled to stop the fairy who was trying to escape.