I spent the entire time on standby impatiently, but managed to hear something unexpected. I never would’ve known about Kudou’s opinion of Heaven’s Voice if not for Berta. Even if we had no positive proof they were involved, it was better to consider the possibility. Coming to that conclusion, I turned to Berta once more.
“At any rate, I have to apologize to you, Berta,” I said.
“What about?”
“Getting you involved in our situation.”
She said she would protect me, but Berta was different from my servants. That said, faced with my apology, Berta simply wagged her tail lightly.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I told you before. My king has commanded me to protect you, and I wish to do so myself.” Berta let out a quiet huff. Somehow or other, she seemed happy. “Thinking back on it, I’ve gotten rather accustomed to being here.”
“True. At first, you were sooo cold,” Lily joined in.
Ayame also gave us a “kuuu.” Now that she mentioned it, even Ayame, who got along great with Berta, had been extremely wary of her at first. Berta really fit in now.
“I thought my king had abandoned me at first, so I was at a complete loss...” she said sadly, then suddenly stopped.
“Berta? What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing... I simply remembered something,” she said bitterly. “I had a talk with Iino Yuna once.”
“With Iino?”
“Yes, right before being sent to that labyrinth.”
“Oh yeah, I heard you were with her before that whole incident.”
It wasn’t that unexpected. It sounded weird for a principal member of the exploration team to be hanging out with the Demon King’s strongest monster, but Berta had a secret. The upper body of her true form was exactly identical to Iino’s best friend, Todoroki Miya. I didn’t know whether that factored in, but the two were apparently close enough to chat.
“Did Iino tell you something?” I asked.
“Yes. During our time in the capital, we couldn’t let the Demon King’s subordinate come in contact with the exploration team, so I was made out to be your servant, remember? Iino Yuna said that was a good thing and smiled. She said my king was unsuitable for me. It surprised me a little. I always thought the opposite.”
It chilled me somewhat. Even if Iino didn’t know, Berta’s loyalty to Kudou remained as strong as ever. Saying that to her was like stepping on a tiger’s tail. It hadn’t angered Berta, though. She spoke of it calmly.
“I never told you this,” Berta continued. “My king names his promising servants in order. It’s something called a phonetic code from his world. They go A, B, C, D, and so on.”
“That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” I said. “Meaning you’re number two?”
“That’s how it is. However, to my king, despite his giving me a name, I am far too flawed. He only has a need for disposable pawns. My perceived imperfections are from my inborn nature. Thus, I always thought I was a failure unsuitable for my king. However, after talking to Iino Yuna, I started to think maybe that’s wrong.”
Berta’s tail slowly wagged about.
“No, I suppose I faintly realized it while traveling with you,” she corrected. “Who is unsuitable for whom? My sensibilities are similar to all of yours. Being a failure is a matter of perspective.”
Berta was honest and good at looking after others, and genuinely wished for the happiness of those dear to her. From a general perspective, she was full of virtues. She simply hadn’t been blessed by her environment. During her time with Kudou, she hadn’t even been able to realize this. Being her king’s servant was everything to her, after all. But now things were different. Oddly enough, by distancing herself from her king, she’d been able to notice this.
“That’s why I’m grateful to all of you,” she said.
“Huh?” I muttered, bewildered by her sudden gratitude.
“My king is plunging toward his own destruction, toward a hopeless demise. I want him to at least find salvation before that. There’s little I can do, however. My king is absolute, and I’m an unsuitable failure as a pawn. Nothing can be done about that. That’s what I believed. But I was wrong.”
Berta wagged the end of her tail shyly yet happily.
“My king and I live differently,” she continued. “He’s not absolute. Maybe it was impossible for him to choose my way of life for me. That’s what I think now. And then, in truth, he even accepted my true form.”
“Berta...”
Now that I thought of it, during the battle against Edgar, Berta had revealed her true form as a scylla. Kudou had banned her use of that form. I’d even witnessed him punishing her harshly for using it without permission. Taking that into consideration, fighting in that form while Kudou was there was symbolic. I suddenly remembered a certain conversation I’d had with Kudou in that labyrinth.
“So it’s been thinking of such things...?
“Good grief. That one really is a failure.”
I’d informed Kudou that Berta wished for his happiness. Having heard his servant’s feelings for the first time, Kudou’s words had seemed cruel, but unexpectedly, his expression hadn’t been heartless. He’d sounded stumped. In all likelihood, that hadn’t been intentional. It had been a defenseless moment.
I didn’t know what Kudou was thinking. Still, his reaction at the time was a little different from the impression I’d had of his relationship with Berta. Did Kudou really hate Berta as a failure? There had to be some kind of circumstance behind his behavior.
When I thought of it like that, Berta’s true form came to mind. She was the spitting image of the Beast of Darkness Todoroki Miya, who’d gone missing when the Colony fell and hadn’t been seen since. Perhaps that girl had something to do with the bond between Kudou and Berta. Why did Berta have that form to begin with? Perhaps Berta’s “inborn nature” had something to do with that.
“Berta, are you...?”
I didn’t want to force her to say something she didn’t intend to tell me. Still, I couldn’t remain detached enough to turn a blind eye to the wolf before me and the sad Demon King she obeyed. I wasn’t able to ask my question, though. The situation began moving before I could.
“Master!” I noticed right as a voice called out to me. Mist spread around me, scattered by the headwind, and Salvia revealed herself. “The Dimension Door is close!”