There was a fire burning in her eyes. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.
“So if the end is to come anyway, it might as well be by my own doing. If you want to know, I’ll tell you everything.”
But she refused to shed a tear. She held them back with all her might and continued, “My name is Sofie Deanlurk. Does that make the situation clear?”
I shook my head.
“In that case...” she murmured to herself. She then declared, “I am the daughter of the lord Jin killed. I am also the one who sent the Headhunter after him.”
Sofie looked at me with the gravest of expressions. She spoke with such gravity, like she was revealing the darkest of the world’s secrets. In contrast, I was a little disappointed that was all she’d had to say.
“What? I knew that already.”
Though it might have been rude to Sofie, who was clearly deeply troubled by it, that was the truth. I was privy to everything she’d just told me. It was hard to feign surprise.
“You knew...?” Her eyes shot wide open, as though she couldn’t believe my reaction.
I added in explanation, “I know your father was the guy who turned Jin into an assassin. And I know he lost his life to his creation. That’s why you hired the Headhunter.”
Shock flashed across Sofie’s face.
“There’s no way I couldn’t know all that, you know? I was the one who pitted the Headhunter against Princess Leyfa, remember? He told me everything.”
In truth, it was technically his informant, Eisha, who’d told me. I’d sent a letter to her and Hugel asking for help against the princess. I’d ended up throwing around the Headhunter’s reputation as a hitman for justice, but my original plan had only been to ask for information on some weakness to use against her. When Eisha realized that Sofie was involved, however, she’d put two and two together and offered up her intel on the young knight too. That was how I’d learned of Sofie’s connection to Jin.
“I see...” Hearing this was like a bolt out of the blue for her. She went slack-jawed in disbelief. “Why... Why did you let me into the Arrivers if you knew that?”
That was her crime. The secret she hadn’t wanted anyone to find out. She’d probably kept it under such tight wraps because she thought we’d kick her out of the party if we learned of it.
“Because it’s irrelevant,” I told her. “It’s not like you killed Jin yourself. I stopped the Headhunter with my own hands. We lost Jin to the dungeon.”
If the Headhunter had actually taken Jin’s life at Sofie’s request, I might not have been able to forgive her. But in reality, Jin had died in completely unrelated events. We got complacent in the dungeon and paid the ultimate price for it. Regardless of what Sofie had meant to accomplish, blaming her for Jin’s death was misguided.
“Even so! I tried to kill one of your party members! Though I failed, I still tried...!”
“If you want to play that game, then I tried to kill Princess Leyfa. We’re even.”
“That was because we kidnapped Neme!”
“And in your case, Jin killed your father.”
I couldn’t condone what Jin had done. He was the man I admired most, but he still didn’t get a free pass. By his own admission, he’d once been a cold-blooded killer. Who was I to deny it? Yet in spite of his past, I adored Jin. Not the assassin who’d once served Deanlurk, but the Arriver. To me, what he used to be didn’t matter. The past was behind us, and it didn’t change who he’d become over his life. It didn’t lessen the respect I carried for him to this day.
“Still, I find it questionable that you’d recruit someone who’s tried to kill one of your party members,” Sofie said warily.
“Really?” I responded.
“At the very least, it isn’t normal...”
“Yeah, you might be right there. Princess Leyfa told me I’m just the kind of guy who does whatever it takes to achieve his goals, apparently.”
And in Sofie’s case, that goal had been filling our sixth slot. In order to accomplish it, I’d picked up a girl who’d been cast aside by her master and had no will left to live. That was why I invited Sofie to the party. I could look past my own feelings and a grudge or two if it meant getting what I wanted.
“Come to think of it, she did say that,” Sofie sighed tiredly. “You really are strange. Do you honestly think I can remain in the Arrivers?”
“If you don’t mind the fact you’re part of a party founded by your dad’s killer.”
“I do mind a bit, but I can turn a blind eye since I don’t hate my current life.”
She didn’t hate life with us. While that would’ve been an underwhelming statement coming from anyone else, it was momentous from Sofie. The sadness in her eyes was gone.
“Still, I’m surprised you could convince the others to keep me on board. Even if you’re fine with it, I imagine they don’t enjoy adventuring with the person who tried to have Jin assassinated...”
“Actually...” I was briefly at a loss for words but ultimately decided to come clean. “In truth, the others don’t know. Not about your family or about you trying to assassinate Jin.”
“They don’t...?”
“In fact, they don’t even know about the Headhunter. I haven’t told them anything.”
I proceeded to lay everything out for Sofie. I told her about how I’d driven back the Headhunter with the help of a former Valkyrie thief, and how I’d used the connection I forged with the Headhunter then to recruit his help against Leyfa. I chose my words carefully so as not to reveal Hugel and Eisha’s identities, but I was otherwise perfectly honest with her...including the fact that no one else in the party knew about all this.