Chapter 562:
Seleiyu Runs Off
THE MAGIC EXCHANGE gathering between Yufaria’s and the royal capital’s academies had come to a close. Normally, I would be excited about how I placed, but a girl named Yuna, made me realize how inadequate I was.
She was so much stronger than her girlish exterior let on. I lost to her in sword fighting and even in a magical duel. Something was fundamentally different between the two of us. I hadn’t believed her when she said she was an adventurer, but our duels had proven her skill.
Her strength was due to her experience in real fights. In contrast, I had never risked my life in a fight before.
Yuna was an adventurer, so I believed that fighting deadly monsters was a normal occurrence for her. Compared to someone like that, I had practiced in tepid safety. Even though we were the same age, our experiences had created a difference in our abilities.
At the same time, I could not deny the person I had forged myself into. From the day my mother had passed on until now, I had done all I could to strengthen myself.
Yuna was Yuna. And I was me.
She must have worked hard to become a powerful adventurer too. She had gone through her own travails, ones different from mine. It wasn’t as though I was attempting to become the best at everything, after all.
The only thing I needed to be able to do was defeat my mother’s murderer if he appeared before me. That was the only reason I had learned to wield a sword and use magic. It didn’t matter if I lost to Yuna. I simply needed to defeat the man who had killed my mother. I repeated that mantra to myself, trying to convince myself of its truth.
In two days, it would be my sixteenth birthday. If I hadn’t dreamed it up, the man who murdered my mother would be paying me a visit. Everything I had worked so hard for would be finished on my birthday. But if the man who killed my mother did not appear, what would happen to me then? My life would have no purpose anymore. The thought chilled me to the core.
Part of me wanted the man who killed my mother to appear so that I could face him, but my wish for a peaceful life clashed with my other feelings. Which did I truly want, then? As my birthday got closer and closer, I only felt even more confused.
The fatigue of the gathering overtook me as I fell onto my bed and quickly fell asleep.
The next day, the sunlight streaming through my window woke me up. Today, we were supposed to spend the day at the lake to deepen the bonds between the students who participated in the gathering.
I didn’t like loud and gaudy events, but this was another part of the gathering. I needed to participate. This would also be a good time to ask Yuna for a rematch. She didn’t like crowds either, so I thought it might be a good opportunity. Perhaps I could ask her the key to her strength. I wanted to know why Yuna had become an adventurer at her age and how she had become so powerful.
As I changed into my uniform, I heard a knock at the door. Once I gave my permission, the maid, Collete, entered.
“Lady Seleiyu, good morning.”
“Good morning.”
Collete looked around the room.
“Is Master Keith about?”
She was asking about my younger brother.
“Not in my room. Is something the matter?”
“No, I just haven’t found him yet, so I thought he might be here.”
He was missing, then.
“Is he going for a stroll in the garden?”
Occasionally, I would see him out there in the mornings.
“I did think of that. I searched for him, but I couldn’t find him there either.”
Then perhaps he was in the restroom or somewhere of the sort. The estate was large, so it was easy to miss each other.
“I will check his room again and if he isn’t there, I will search the entire estate.”
Collete bowed her head, then left the room.
I fixed my hair in front of the mirror and went to the dining room. Father was not there, but we often ate separately. I finished my morning meal alone and went through the hallway to my room only to find the servants still searching for Keith. It seemed they had yet to find him.
He would sometimes hide, but he would always show up when called. We never had trouble finding him before. Most importantly, Keith wasn’t the type to create trouble like this. I guess there was that one time he had hidden after wetting the bed, but I doubted that was the reason he was missing.
I went to his room. No one else was there. The bed-wetting theory was indeed a bust. I wondered where he could have possibly gone.
“Master Keith? Is he here?”
Collete entered the room. But when she saw me, she looked despondent.
“Oh, it was only you, Lady Seleiyu.”
“You still haven’t found him?”
“No, though we have split up to search for him.”
“Did he change?”
“It does not seem so.”
That made things even stranger if he hadn’t gotten changed.
“Where is Father?”
“I informed him we couldn’t find the young master and he commanded all of us servants to search for him.”
So that was why everyone was on the hunt. I started to feel more and more anxious.
“You did search the garden?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe he may have gone out?”
“I find it doubtful, as he would still be in his sleeping clothes. We have split up to search the manor.”
If he hadn’t changed, then it was unlikely he had gone into town.
Had he been kidnapped? That word played through my mind. I began to shiver even though I had thought of it myself.
“I will help you find him.”
“But what about the academy?”
“The academy can wait. We don’t know where Keith is. It would be fine if he is only hiding somewhere, but he might be in danger. Please tell the others to pay particular attention to anything that seems unusual.”
“Yes, I will.”
The search for Keith began. We searched each room, the garden, the tops of the trees, the storage house, the horse stalls, and all sorts of other places after splitting up. As the time continued to pass, I grew more worried. No matter where we looked, we could not find Keith. Father began to panic as well.
It did not seem that he had left the manor. In the first place, I doubted he would leave in his nightwear. Yet he was nowhere to be seen within the manor either. If he was not in the house, he could only be outside.
Father instructed the search to extend beyond the estate. I returned to my room, then left to search outdoors.
“Where could he have gone?”
I noticed a piece of paper on my desk. I did not remember putting anything there, so I picked it up. It was blank, but as I turned it over, my hand froze.
I have taken custody of your younger brother, Master Keith. I will be at the eastern border of Yufaria. Come alone, Lady Seleiyu. Should you tell anyone, Master Keith will not return alive.
Sincerely,
The man who killed your mother.
My entire body broke out into shivers. I took deep breaths to calm myself. He had come. It hadn’t been a dream at all. The man who had killed my mother had resurfaced. He had even kidnapped my brother.
I remembered the words I had heard back then, when he had killed my mother.
“If you tell anyone else about this, your adorable little brother may end up just like your mother.”
Those were indeed the words of my mother’s murderer. It had not been an idle threat, The fact that he had actually killed her made that crystal clear. I remembered the sensation of my mother’s blood on his hands. I shivered. I slapped my own cheek.
I couldn’t run. This is what I had worked for until now. I kept repeating it to myself. I only had a few choices. If I told anyone about this, Keith would be killed, but I had prepared to face the man who had killed my mother alone. Even if I were to lose, I was fine with being the only one to die. Keith’s kidnapping complicated matters.
I saw his face in my mind. My dear younger brother. It was simple. I just needed to save him.
I took a book from my shelf and set it on the desk. Inside was a letter to my father. I had prepared it in advance for when this time came. I had made arrangements, because I could die at any moment. If I did not return, I was sure that Collete would notice the book I had left out.
I checked the inside of my item bag. I had my sword. It was not a practice sword this time, it was one with a sharpened, lethal edge. I had never killed a person before, but that was what I was tasked with now. If I was to be prepared to take a life, I needed to be prepared to be the one killed instead. If Father knew, he would likely scold me for keeping this a secret. If I came back alive, I would take the scolding, but I just hoped he would forgive me in time.
I clutched the paper and left the room. I pretended I was going to search for Keith and ran through the hall and out of the manor. I headed straight to the stables to mount a horse. After checking that no one was present, I left the stable and galloped out of the gate.
I ran the horse through town. We hurtled down the main street all the way to the gate. The guard looked surprised upon seeing me. I smiled, ensuring he would suspect nothing.
Once I left the town, I took my horse to the east, as directed in the paper.