She stared up at the blue sky.
It should have been the same sky she had seen after losing someone special, but for reasons she did not understand, it seemed clearer somehow.
And just like the chill, clear sky, the darkness looming over her heart had also disappeared.
“Finally back, huh? Didn’t lose a step, did you?”
“…Mr. Bete…”
Waiting in their home’s courtyard, Bete appeared before her.
She would continue her training with him starting today, honing the movements of a magic swordswoman by fighting him.
But the impatience she had felt before her time as an instructor was gone.
When he stood in front of her, he could tell she was neither tense nor unmotivated, and the spirit that had once possessed her was gone. Bete snorted.
“You’re back, huh?”
“…”
“I didn’t care what you picked. Either way, you would’ve regretted it. I just beat you up so you wouldn’t keep bawlin’ in that grating voice.”
Bete had known, too. Just how dangerous Lefiya’s condition was. And having realized it, he had gone along with training her. To help her build the strength she needed to not have to grieve anymore, just like he had said.
She finally understood why Loki had sent her there. It was a journey so that she could become Lefiya Viridis.
A detour so that the Lefiya chasing after Filvis’s shadow could remember herself.
Once she realized that, she asked a question that popped into her mind.
“Mr. Bete, did you get stronger after losing someone?”
It was just simple curiosity.
Lefiya did not know the past of the werewolf standing before her.
Had he taken a similar path as her?
After a moment’s silence, Bete sneered at the question.
“What’s it got to do with anything? I’m me, no matter who goes and gets themselves killed.”
That was certainly true. And the number of scars covering his body would continue to grow.
Annoyed by her clear gaze, Bete shot back scornfully with his sneer still pasted onto his face.
“That sinister elf must be miserable. You got left behind and ended up doing everything half-assed without picking a side.”
“Gh…!”
“And you go around swinging her weapons, making up convenient excuses for yourself. I never did like her, but I can empathize with her there.”
Lefiya’s eyebrows flared at his merciless contempt.
But then they immediately came down, and tears welled up in her deep blue eyes.
“…Ah? Wha—? Huh?”
Bete’s eyes shrank into tiny dots.
“Why would you say something so meeeeean?!”
“You dumba— This is where you’re supposed to hit back, idiot!”
“I know I’m selfishly using Ms. Filvis’s sword, and I’ve been worrying about it the whole time!”
Bete was badly shaken, seeing Lefiya rubbing her eyes over and over.
From the outside, he looked no different from a boy teasing a girl until she cried.
Lefiya had been consumed by the intense desire to change, and with everything going on, she never got a real chance to feel sad—even as she had grieved terribly.
And now that she no longer preoccupied herself with her students, all of the heavy armor she had cinched up tightly around herself had come loose. The werewolf’s thoughtless attack had shattered it easily, causing her emotions to spill out.
Bete was getting flustered. He had deliberately provoked her to peel away her armor, thinking she had some promise, and this was the thanks he got. If Gareth had been there, he would have said, “That’s why I told you to quit being so twisted,” with a heavy sigh.
As he watched Lefiya cry after he completely failed to do what he set out to do, Bete had no idea how to react, unable even to hug her or pat her on the head.
“…H-hey…”
“…Uuuuugh…you dummyyyy!”
“…………….”
“Stupid…”
“…I don’t think she’d wanna see you lookin’ that lame…”
With his wolf ears and tail curling meekly, that was about the limit of what Bete could manage. Sobbing, tears still welling in her eyes, Lefiya peered up at Bete, who had an odd look on his face.
“Don’t make Lefiya cry, you stupid wolf!”
“Gaaah?!”
“Lefiya, you should stop training with this piece of garbage. It’s no different from hanging around a beast who don’t understand the first thing about women.”
Tiona hammered Bete with a fist of iron while Tione sidled up to Lefiya, rubbing her back as she unleashed a kick into the werewolf’s side without looking.
Like before, they watched from the skyway and came running as soon as they heard her sobs. Aiz patted Lefiya on the head reassuringly, too.
“Piss off! Not like you’re any different, you Amazons!”
“You’re awful…Bete…”
“Gaah?!”
Bete immediately stood back up, only to catch Aiz’s genuinely chilling glare and sustain heavy damage.
He looked gut-punched and like his knees might give out at any moment. Just this once, he was being pummeled not by their fists but by their utterly disgusted glares. Then suddenly, Lefiya ran away.
“Ah…Lefiya!”
She heard their voices behind her, but she leaped over the fence surrounding Twilight Manor. As the gate guard watched slack-jawed, she kept running.
The reason was simple.
She didn’t want anyone to see her red, weepy face anymore.
Nooo.
I thought I could at least hold it together now.
Nothing’s changed.
Nothing’s changed at all!
She had reverted back to the crybaby Lefiya—pathetic, miserable, sentimental. She ran through the streets, arms swinging. She ran and ran, becoming like the wind as dozens of people looked surprised when she passed, wondering what had happened.
She rubbed her eyes repeatedly.
She didn’t have a destination in mind.
She just kept running without aim.
And eventually, she arrived at a familiar overlook.
This place was difficult for her to visit, as it was where she had once promised to go see the crown of light with a certain someone.
This was the first time.
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“Haah, haaah……Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
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Totally out of breath, despite being an upper-class adventurer, she shuddered just before suddenly bending backward.
“Ms. Filvis, you dummy! Liar! Brute! Lying liar! You promised we would go see it together!”
Since no one was around, she squeezed her eyes shut and shouted to the blue sky overhead.
The resentment had built up, hidden beneath the sadness of all that had happened.
“I know things were painful for you! But you could have at least talked with me a little bit, couldn’t you? Maybe something could have been changed if you did!!!
“And why?! Always looking gloomy like something was wrong, making me worry! You drama queen!
“And then you would smile and be so pretty and cute! How could I ever ignore you?!!!
“And even though you said you worried about me, you still just indulged Lord Dionysus no matter what he asked! That’s the perfect example of getting involved with a bad man, just like Loki said! You’re the worst, Ms. Filvis! I’m disappointed in you! —That’s a lie. I really do love you!
“But you followed your god! You chose a man over a woman’s friendship! Well, fine, be that way! Hmph!!!”
The complaints became more groundless part way through, but she vented everything she had always wanted to say.
“Ms. Filvis! Ms. Filvis! I love you! I really do! I won’t ever forget you! I won’t let you have your way!”
With a nasty desire to trouble Filvis as much as she could if she could hear these words from the heavens, Lefiya shouted and shouted, pouring all her feelings out.
And as her tears began to dry, breathing heavily…Lefiya slowly smiled.
She stared up at the endless, clear blue skies:
“And…I will keep moving forward.”
She could not return to her old self. She would not forgive herself if she did.
That was what she had thought before, and yet her heart was strangely refreshed. She had graduated from being a crybaby, becoming a bit more dignified an elf, but even so, she still cried sometimes.
By doing that over and over, she would become none other than a strong Lefiya.
Even after she had lost someone precious, Lefiya had kept her head up and that was the clichéd answer she had found.
“Mr. Bete called me out on it, too, but…lend me your sword and rod. I did tell my share of lies, too, so this is enough to make us even, right?”
She smiled when she made her request, just as a breeze whistled by.
Her heart was clear and pure like a spring reflecting the blue sky.
It was already winter. This cold wind would bring a white frost to Orario that reminded her of someone, bringing about yet another change in Lefiya’s heart.
Perhaps she would have even more juniors by then. In which case, she would have to become even stronger.
“You did say we’d always be together…”
Closing her eyes, she felt like she could sense someone nodding at that.
She put her hand on her shoulder, which still felt warm.
✦ ✦ ✦
The girl, who would no longer become anyone else, clutched the sheathed shortsword to her chest and donned a sunny smile.
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