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After traveling the vast distance between Lycoris and Clematis, I finally made it back to the manor. “Whew... I ran a lot more than I did yesterday, so I’m actually kinda pooped.”
“Good work, Hisui. You should go to your sisters.”
“Yeah.”
With a shove on the back from Aruna, I opened the entrance doors while checking to see if Glenn or Mikhail were around. Thankfully, the foyer was empty.
“Let me know if you pick up on anything, okay, Dandelion?”
“Chirp!” Dandelion called out from his place on top of my head, his adorable little chirp serving as an acknowledgment. If there was anything he was better at than me, it was his ability to detect other creatures, so I was relying on him to help with that.
Furtively, as if I were a thief in my own home, I decided to start by looking for Armeria. First, I climbed the stairs and headed directly to Armeria’s bedroom.
Just as I approached her door, I could hear her voice from within.
“Hisui... Where has he gone? I haven’t seen him since yesterday... He’s never just disappeared like this before...” I’d headed to Lycoris without a word to her, so of course she’d be worried. I had assumed only Cosmos would be worried about me, but evidently I was totally wrong. My chest tightened. Wanting to rid myself of the pain as soon as possible, I knocked on Armeria’s door.
“Huh? Who is it?” came her voice.
“It’s me, Armeria,” I replied.
“Hisui! Where’d you go! How could you leave home for a whole day?!”
“Let me just come in first.”
She was terribly angry. Armeria was usually very mild mannered, so it was rare for her to get truly upset—so rare, in fact, that a sense of dread came over me. But running wasn’t an option, so I turned the doorknob and entered her room.
“Sorry for barging in. And I’m sorry for making you worry too, Armeria.”
When I opened the door, I could see her sitting on her bed. A single book had been abandoned on top of her blanket. She must’ve been reading the book up until I’d come in; I practically couldn’t imagine her doing anything else. She was still the same old Armeria, whether she was bedridden with illness or perfectly healthy.
“Hisui!”
“Oh!” When I stepped into her room, Armeria leaped off her bed and came speeding toward me like a bullet. I managed to catch her, and she wrapped both arms around me in a tight embrace.
“Thank goodness... I was so sure something had happened to you...” She was crying—which, again, was a response I completely failed to predict—anger would’ve been the more obvious response, I thought. But she was crying...so I had no idea what to do or say.
“I’m really sorry, Armeria. I just went on a little excursion.”
“An excursion? But where to?”
“Lycoris, the neighboring marquisate. A lot happened over there.”
“Lycoris?! But why...” Armeria’s shock wasn’t unwarranted. I’d been gone since early evening yesterday, and I hadn’t come home all through the night. It’d be hard for anyone to imagine an eight-year-old child making it through monster-infested woods in the dark—and on top of that, the fact that I’d made it all the way to the neighboring territory and back in that time was difficult to believe.
“I went to go sell some parts from a monster I’d defeated earlier. I mean, you know how we can’t support an adventurer’s guild in Clematis? That means there’s no place here to buy or sell monster materials.”
“You risked danger just to do that?!”
“It wasn’t dangerous at all. You remember what I told you before, right? About how I can use magecraft? None of the monsters around here are a match for me.”
“Even if you can use magecraft, you’re still a child! You’re being too reckless!” Armeria was telling me off like a dog who’d broken a vase. Making her angry was really sapping the life out of me, especially considering how gentle she was ordinarily.
“Is it still reckless if I can defeat a dragon?”
She was silent for a moment, clearly taken aback. “A dragon?” she finally repeated. Her puzzled expression clearly showed she didn’t believe me.
“Yeah, like I said, a dragon. I can kill a green dragon by myself.”
“D-Dra—”
Whoa, now that was an uncommon reaction. She was usually so calm and composed that seeing her really lose her composure was actually kind of funny. But I was sure she’d start lecturing me if I laughed too much, so I decided to push the conversation along.
“Yeah. I coincidentally ran into Marquis Lycoris as his carriage was being attacked by a dragon. Since his retinue was injured, I gave them a hand. After I defeated the dragon, I healed the wounded knights...and then escorted the marquis to town. We’re pretty good friends now.”
“Wait. Hold on, Hisui, let me get things straight—you’re going so fast and skipping so many details that I just can’t follow your story. But let me just make sure we’re clear: You are telling the truth, right?”
“I would never lie to you. You know that, right?”
She eyed me thoughtfully, then sighed. “Yes, I do. I can’t imagine you’d ever try to tell me such a ridiculous lie. So that means it must all be true.” Armeria didn’t doubt me for a moment. She grinned at me and, reaching her right hand out, she gently stroked my head. “I won’t forgive you for leaving and going somewhere so far away without so much as a word, but I think it’s wonderful that you helped someone. You’re such a kind boy. As your sister, I’m proud of you.”
“This was all really just a coincidence, though.” I’d just gotten lucky. Had I left home just a little later, I never would have met Claus or encountered the dragon. I wouldn’t have been able to come back to the manor until much later—and on top of it all, I wouldn’t have been able to save anyone’s life.
Thank goodness we’d both had a stroke of luck when we needed it most.
“Anyway, I have something important to talk to you about. You’ll listen, right?”
“Sure. If you need to tell me something, I’ll never ignore you.”
“Then, I’ll get straight to the point. Armeria... I’m planning on leaving this place for good, and I want you to come with me.”
“Huh?”
Armeria froze in place, shocked. She couldn’t have predicted I’d say this. Even her hand, which had still been stroking my head, stopped where it was as her eyes widened.
“It’s nothing all that complicated. I can’t let them marry you off, so I actually went to Lycoris to make money in order to take you away from here.”
“You did all that...for me?”
“I’ll bring Cosmos with us too, of course. I got a lot of money from Lord Lycoris for saving him, and I still have the basilisk and green dragon parts to sell. Once I do, we’ll have even more money. After that, I was thinking of becoming an adventurer.”
“Cosmos too? Money? The basilisk and...green dragon? An adventurer! W-Wait a second, Hisui! Give me time to process all of this!”
She retracted her hand from my head with a whoosh and flailed her arms in panic. I guess I’d given her way too much information all at once, overloading her mental capacity in an instant. I could almost see the steam coming off the top of her head as she overclocked her brain to catch up with all the stuff I was saying.
“Sorry, sorry! You can have some time to think about it. Just know that I can take both you and Cosmos away from here whenever you like. I’ll go look for Cosmos for now, so I hope you can give me an answer by the time I come back.”
“Of course. But let me just say one last thing.”
“Hm?”
“I’ve always trusted and believed in you, so I’m not afraid to leave here with you either. Please...promise me you’ll take me away no matter what, okay?”
“Armeria... Yeah! Just leave everything to me,” I cheerfully replied, then left her room.
Treading down the quiet hallway, the emotion that welled up in my heart perplexed me. Was this...joy? My heart was beating so rapidly, I felt like it might burst. Armeria trusted me with everything she had, and knowing that made me so happy I was tingling from the excitement. But more than anything else, it meant my decisions hadn’t been wrong. I really was going to bring happiness to the two of them. That was my main priority now.
Determination curling my hand into a fist, I went to find Cosmos.