It was the kind of story that made one’s heart dance from excitement. A story where a guy who loved napping was always smiling. A story full of love, laughing, crying, and other must-have experiences of a teen blessed with friends. A story where he fell in love with a teacher, the very one who had raised him in the orphanage. It was very much a May-December romance. Because he was five or six and she was in her twenties.
Obviously she wouldn’t date him in that scenario. But he didn’t give it up. He desperately tried to appeal to her tastes, and ended up flying off in the wrong direction because of it, going as far as to do stuff like steal her underwear. Then that was exposed, and he was scolded harshly and laughed at by his peers. He too came to laugh at it a few years later.
What a happy sounding story.
“……”
It was a fake story, the likes of which could never actually exist in the rotten country known as the Roland Empire.
“Stealing a middle-aged woman’s underwear… He’s a genuine pervert,” the girl he was telling that fake story to said. She was about fifteen or sixteen, had long golden hair, and had an inhuman beauty to her. But her face stood out in another way, too. Her expression was cold and black, completely lacking the ups-and-downs that humans typically showed over the course of a conversation.
Her name was Ferris Eris.
“Middle-aged? She was still in her early twenties when that happened,” Sion said. He had noble silver hair and willful golden eyes, which he was presently looking at Ferris with.
They were currently in the Eris gardens.
Sion had come to see Lucile, who had lost to that monster of a masked man last night, but instead he was faced with Ferris and her younger sister Iris, who looked just like her, and told, ‘We’re going to have a dango party all morning,’ which he was forced to participate in.
Apparently these dango parties occurred rather frequently, and they came with a strict set of rules. One such rule of the dango parties was that new attendees had to make it an entertaining dango experience for the experienced members.
“Entertain us. Immediately,” Ferris had said.
So Sion did his best to tell a funny, made-up story for their entertainment.
This was actually his third time telling it. But the girls just kept eating dango. They’d been at it for a whole hour now.
“……”
Still, Sion couldn’t think of this time as bad. Making up fake stories like this was actually really fun.
This one was a story about a smiling young man. A story about a boy who was always smiling despite the dark Roland stretching out around him…
He felt oddly at ease telling that story in the Eris gardens.
Sion looked around. The Eris gardens were awfully plain for that of nobility. There was a small, walled-up pond nearby and the path was lined with pebbles and flowers.
It was a nice and calm place perfectly suited to eating dango and telling stories.
Sion took another piece of dango. It was from Wynnit, a dango shop that Ferris was fond of. He often bought some and brought it here. It was pretty tasty. He ate it and continued telling his story.
“…Well, that’s just how it is, you know? That guy was born a sex maniac and pervert.”
Ferris’ eight year old sister, Iris, piped up. “Hey, hey, question!” She had the same feautres as his sister with one notable difference - her expressions. She was expressive throughout Sion’s story, smiling and gasping and reacting to it all.
Iris raised her hand, holding dango up and everything. “What’s a sex maniac pervert?”
Sion opened his mouth to explain, but Ferris beat him to it. “Mm. Good question, Iris.”
“Yaaay! You praised me!”
“I will tell you the frightening truth. A sex maniac pervert is man with a lewd face like that,” Ferris said and pointed to Sion.
Shock crashed into Iris’ expression. She looked over at him, fearful. “S-S-Sion, you’re ‘lewd!?’”
Sion laughed and gave his shoulders a little shrug. “I wonder. Personally, I think I’m pretty normal.”
Ferris popped another piece of dango in her mouth. “Fnk m’mnor’l’ whmghf pber sawfgh.”
“Sorry, Ferris, but do you think you could finish eating that and then repeat yourself?”
“Mmgh. Mm. I said that ‘I think I’m normal’ is what perverts say.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Be careful then.”
“Mm. I will.”
“Anyway, can I get back to the story now?”
“Yes.”
So he continued his story of the boy who was born a pervert, the boy with an endless enthusiasm for older ladies’ undergarments. Eventually he was able to make lots of friends, and then his interest in underwear faded as he grew into an upstanding adult—
“So who is he, anyway?” Ferris asked. “An acquaintance of yours?”
“He’s my friend,” Sion said.
“Your friend in perversion?”
“Well, I’m not a per—”
“I have no interest in what you have to say on the matter.”
Sion laughed.
“So he’s your friend, is he?”
Sion nodded. “Yeah. At least, I… I see him as a friend. I don’t know how he feels about me, though.”
“…Okay, bring him here next time,” Ferris said. “I want to ask him why he’s so into underwear.”
Sion just smiled. “You want me to bring him… here?”
“Yeah. Because I’ve never met a panties fetishist before. It sounds pretty interesting.”
“Ahh. W, well, yeah, he’s a pretty interesting guy.”
“Bring him here,” Ferris repeated.
Sion’s smile turned sad. “I can’t really do that.”
“Why not?”
“Um, well…”
“According to your story, he grew up to be a happy adult, right? Why can’t you bring him here, then?”
Sion narrowed his eyes. He looked past Ferris. Nothing of interest was back there, really. It was just the flowers and the sky. The sun had already climbed pretty high into the sky. “Ryner, see… he’s in jail right now.”
Ferris nodded like she’d just been proven right. “For underwear thieving crimes?”
Sion nodded. It just seemed the appropriate thing to do. “Something like that.”
“I thought he was supposed to have reformed?”
Sion smiled sadly. “But the world doesn’t change that easily.”
“Are you saying that a lecher will always remain a lecher?”
“Who knows.”
“Hm. I suppose I won’t meet him since he’s gone to jail.”
“Are you disappointed?” Sion asked.
Ferris shook her head with ease. “Not really. He has nothing to do with me.”
“I see. I’m disappointed, though.”
“You want to see him?”
Sion smiled sincerely. But that was the only answer he had for her. He stood, then looked back up at the sun rising behind her. “I need to get going soon. Go ahead and keep talking without me, though.”
“We’re not just talking, we’re having a morning dango party!” Iris corrected.
“Oh, okay. Well, you two go ahead and continue your morning dango party. I need to head out. Thanks for the food.”
“You’re welcome for the food!”
“Hey, you… I’m the one who brought the dango,” Sion said.
“All dango is mine,” Ferris said.
What could Sion do but nod? “I see. Well, thanks for the food, then.”
“Mm.”
“I’d like to wash my hands before I go home, though. I got some dango on them…”
Ferris pointed back with a dango skewer. “First door on the right.”
“Thanks.”
“Mm.”
“Are you two going to stay here?” Sion asked.
“We have to prepare for the afternoon dango party.”
“You must really love dango if you’re going to eat even more.”
“Because dango is the single most delicious thing in this world.”
“I guess so.”
“Yeah.”
“Invite me again sometime. I’ll have more stories for you.”
Ferris nodded. “Mm.”
Then Iris mimicked her and did the same. “Mm!!!”
Sion smiled. “See you later, then.”
He turned his back to the girls and headed towards the estate. He headed in, and just as Ferris had said, there was a sink and mirror in the first room on the right.
He washed his hands, then combed his wet hands through his hair to fix it. Watched his useless face reflecting back at him. The face of trash who couldn’t save his friend who was locked up in jail at this very moment. Garbage who couldn’t save his crying friends. All he could do was throw around platitudes, powerless as he was.
“……”
He stared into his own face.
He was wearing Roland’s military uniform. He had been given the rank of major general. It was a post that someone as young as seventeen shouldn’t have, but here he was with it anyway.
The reason was simple: Rahel Miller was using him. He’d get him promoted to whatever position was most convenient. He did so by using him as a hero. By telling the whole country that he’d defeated the Kingdom of Estabul.
But the one who really stopped the war was Ryner. The guy locked up in jail as a monster right now.
Sion couldn’t do anything on the battlefield. Nothing but lead his friends to their deaths. He’d filled their heads with the illusion that they’d be safe if only they followed him, then held a scythe to their necks himself.
And yet he was now celebrated as savior of their country. The hero who saved Roland.
“……”
He stared into the mirror quietly. The weak didn’t have the right to speak in this country, after all… And he’d always been weak, ever since he was born. He couldn’t protect his mother, partners, or friends. He lost everyone dear to him.
The only reason he was even alive now was because he was Miller’s pawn. He could almost laugh at it all.
“……”
He did not laugh.
He stared. And then fixed his collar. Buttoned his sleeves. Made certain that he was wearing his military uniform properly.
And then—
“…Do you still see yourself as human when you look in the mirror?”
It was a small room. No one but Sion was there. But he still heard the clear voice of another man. “Lucile?” Sion said, though his eyes remained fixed on the mirror.
“Yeah,” Lucile, the head of the Eris family, whispered against his ear.
Sion could not see him. He was not reflected in the mirror. Because he didn’t have a real form. Rather, he existed between reality and the void, drifting to and from either side. So his body was not really ‘real.’
“Have you become friends with my sisters?” The monster asked.
“…I wonder. You were watching the whole time, weren’t you? What did it look like to you?”
“It looked like you were very close,” Lucile said. He sounded quite pleased.
“I’m glad.”
“But Ferris ate a little too much dango,” Lucile added.
Sion burst out laughing. Then he turned around.
A man had appeared there at some point. He was an eerily beautiful man with blond hair and blue eyes. He very much resembled Ferris and Iris, but somewhere along the way he’d stopped being human and become a monster. He was the head of the Swordsman Clan, the Eris family, Lucile Eris.
“You care a lot about your sisters, don’t you?”
Lucile smiled. “Because we’re family.”
“Family. Family, huh…”
Sion recalled his mother’s face. His mother, who’d always smiled for him. His mother, who had died while still smiling at him.
“…I think your love is pretty different from familial,” Sion said.
“Is it, now?” Lucile asked. His smile didn’t falter. It was like Sion’s words didn’t bother him in the slightest.
Sion didn’t push it.
So Lucile continued instead. “Sorry for not having breakfast with you after you came all this way.”
“Whoa, no need to be so valiant. It’s not like you wanted to anyway.”
“That’s not true. It probably would have just upset Ferris if I did, though,” Lucile said. He turned a bit. He couldn’t see the garden from where he was standing, but he stared in Ferris’ general direction anyway. “Because… we haven’t eaten together even once for years now…”
Sion tilted his head. “Why not?”
Lucile did not answer. He just smiled.
So Sion answered for him. “Well, I bet having you for a brother would make anyone feel uneasy. It’d be a downer having you around.”
Lucile’s smile didn’t waver. “Would it?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s troubling,” Lucile said. But he didn’t sound troubled. If anything, he sounded bored.
Sion watched him, the monster who lacked interest in anything and everything. “So? Were you able to find your memories?” Lucile had said that he’d find the memories the masked man stole before disappearing last night, after all.
Lucile didn’t answer. He just smiled faintly.
“I’m so glad you aren’t my brother.”
“Why’s that?” Lucile asked.
“You’re creepy.”
“Haha. Maybe my sisters think so too.”
“Obviously.”
“Should I try to restart my image? Go for something more refreshing?”
“That’d be scary, so no,” Sion said and smiled. Then he decided to get to the point. “Anyway. Why’d you show yourself to me? It must be important.”
“…Mm. I was thinking I’d tell you about our true enemy.”
Their true enemy. “The identity of the masked man from yesterday?”
Lucile nodded. “Yeah.”
“What was he?”
“A magician.”
“Magician?” Sion repeated.
“Yeah. A magician who has gone mad with love. He’s been playing with the structure of this world… so it looks like he’ll get in our way.”
Sion thought back to the masked man. The monster who took Claugh out in one hit and even managed to overwhelm Lucile. But… “It looked like he was saving us, though.”
Lucile nodded. “But that was only yesterday. Our objective is in direct conflict with his.”
“What does—”
“I won’t explain everything now,” Lucile interrupted. “And I don’t know everything about him, either. But it’s very important that we move things away from how he wants them as quickly as possible. He will prevent us from becoming powerful.”
That reminded him of something the masked man said last night.
“Now it’d be nice if you’d run. I’ll pacify this Goddess somehow. You guys need to go find more power while I do. Just enough power to shoulder this country’s darkness.”
“…I think he told us to get stronger, though?” Sion said.
“Because the king will get weaker the stronger you get.”
Right. Sion thought of another conversation they’d had before, that of the two curses, the hero and the goddess. The story about Aslude Roland, a monster rotting the Roland Empire. About the curse of Human α, the curse that’d fluctuate with the emotions of the bearers of Aslude Roland’s power - the royalty.
In other words, their power would increase the more they were praised and lauded as a king, and their power decreased when people became suspicious or doubtful of their ability to rule as king.
Well, that was roughly the case in any country. But in Roland it was tied to Aslude Roland’s power, which slept in the body of their royalty.
Basically, the more the people admired Sion, the weaker the other royalty would become.
“…So you’re saying the only reason the masked man cheered me on now was to get the power of the current king to weaken.”
“Yes.”
“What if I get too powerful, then?”
“He’ll come to meddle with us,” Lucile said.
“So that’s how he works.”
“Well, he’s likely also looking down on us. Even if you take his hand…”
“I won’t gain anything from it?” Sion tried.
“Yeah. And there aren’t people who are devoted to you here. Who would devote themself to a poorly bred mutt…”
Sion smiled. “Are you trying to provoke me?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, don’t admit that so easily…”
“I was just thinking that it was something I ought to do… because we’re being controlled by Lieral Lieutolu. By that masked man.”
Sion’s eyes narrowed.
Lieral Lieutolu.
Apparently that was the masked man’s name.
Lieral Lieutolu. Lieral Lieutolu.
He threw it around in his head several times. But he couldn’t recall ever hearing it before. And because he wasn’t familiar with it at all, he couldn’t place why he’d come to move behind Roland’s curtains. Then again, what did he know nowadays? He hadn’t even realized what Miller was doing until they met on the battlefield. But he did know that he was moving closer to their country’s heart, its core, little by little.
He intended to stand at the center of the country’s darkness. He knew that, too.
But he was still acting within the range of someone’s expectations. Maybe Rahel Miller’s. Maybe Lieral Lieutolu’s. And while he was here, acting where they could predict him, he couldn’t change a thing.
That’s why Lucile was telling him to hurry. To really, really hurry.
…No, Lucile was being impatient.
“Is that what you went out of your way to warn me about?” Sion asked.
“No, I came to apologize about not eating breakfast with you.”
“Just spit it out.”
“Haha, well, that wasn’t the only thing…”
The smile disappeared from Lucile’s face. He looked to Sion.
“Wha—”
“Quiet,” Lucile interrupted. He raised his hand to lay against Sion’s cheek. “It’s been a while since you took the hero in. How are you faring with the pain?”
What a thing to ask. “Hmm, so you’re worried—”
“Just answer me,” Lucile said. His voice was a bit lower than usual. Sharper.
“…It hurts,” Sion said. “It feels like my guts are ripped out daily.”
“But you’re managing?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever fainted from it? Completely lost consciousness?”
“Nope.”
“…Then it’s fine. You can still move forward. Find the power to kill the rest of the royalty quickly.”
Lucile probably intended for them to do that faster than Lieral expected them to. Sion nearly responded, but Lucile took his hand off of his cheek.
“…Alright. I understand where you are now,” Lucile said. “Now, off to compare things.”
“Compare? Compare what?”
Lucile smiled. “To compare your current power with the king’s. He’s called on me for the first time in a while.”
The king. The king of the Roland Empire. His father, who’d thrown his mother away after forcing her to give birth to Sion. “He…”
But Lucile was gone. It was like he’d never been there in the first place. Like the door was all that’d ever existed there.
“……”
Sion scowled, shook his head, and sighed. Then looked back towards the mirror. His face was reflected back at him. He looked like he was in a horrible mood. But he smiled anyway. Double checked to make sure that his military uniform was just right.
He couldn’t go to his father now. He couldn’t stand by his father, king of this rotten country, right now. Because he was too weak. That was why he had to get stronger, and he had to do it faster than Miller or Lieral could ever imagine. And for that…
“……”
He smiled into the mirror. It was a bright and sunny smile, the kind that’d give anyone a good impression.
“Alright,” Sion whispered. Then he turned to leave.
He was headed for Captain Rahel Miller’s office. Because Miller said that he was going to change his plans to adopt Sion’s. He didn’t know for a fact what had caused Miller’s change of heart, but it was most likely that Miller had realized that something was off about Roland.
And he was right. Roland was strange.
Its royalty was inhuman. The country itself was inhuman. Instead, it was dominated by some kind of sickening power. Even Sion had come to feel that it was messed up, that it had always been messed up.
“It can’t be that this is also…”
Sion smiled bitterly.
“Well, even this is pretty absurd… It seems like I’ll be able to show Miller who’s boss after all.”
Sion set out.
He’d join Miller and revolutionize their country. He’d do it so he was praised as a lord, whether by one person or by many. They’d raise him up and aim for changing the country.
Whether the country was ruled by humans or not was irrelevant when the fact was that touching the human hearts of Roland would empower him. So that was his job for now.
Right now, he was still a make-believe, powerless hero. He was the protagonist of Miller’s fake story in much the same way that Ryner was the protagonist of his.
“…I’ll make that story into reality,” Sion whispered.
He didn’t know what may lie on the path ahead. But he was desperate. Desperate to change the country, the world, to save his friend locked in jail.
Maybe that was why he couldn’t see reality. Why he didn’t notice what was waiting on the path ahead of him.
It was the kind of story that made one’s heart dance from excitement. A story where a guy who loved napping was always smiling. A story full of love, laughing, crying, and other must-have experiences of a teen blessed with friends. A story where he fell in love with a teacher, the very one who had raised him in the orphanage. It was very much a May-December romance. Because he was five or six and she was in her twenties.
Obviously she wouldn’t date him in that scenario. But he didn’t give it up. He desperately tried to appeal to her tastes, and ended up flying off in the wrong direction because of it, going as far as to do stuff like steal her underwear. Then that was exposed, and he was scolded harshly and laughed at by his peers. He too came to laugh at it a few years later.
What a happy sounding story.
“……”
It was a fake story, the likes of which could never actually exist in the rotten country known as the Roland Empire.
“Stealing a middle-aged woman’s underwear… He’s a genuine pervert,” the girl he was telling that fake story to said. She was about fifteen or sixteen, had long golden hair, and had an inhuman beauty to her. But her face stood out in another way, too. Her expression was cold and black, completely lacking the ups-and-downs that humans typically showed over the course of a conversation.
Her name was Ferris Eris.
“Middle-aged? She was still in her early twenties when that happened,” Sion said. He had noble silver hair and willful golden eyes, which he was presently looking at Ferris with.
They were currently in the Eris gardens.
Sion had come to see Lucile, who had lost to that monster of a masked man last night, but instead he was faced with Ferris and her younger sister Iris, who looked just like her, and told, ‘We’re going to have a dango party all morning,’ which he was forced to participate in.
Apparently these dango parties occurred rather frequently, and they came with a strict set of rules. One such rule of the dango parties was that new attendees had to make it an entertaining dango experience for the experienced members.
“Entertain us. Immediately,” Ferris had said.
So Sion did his best to tell a funny, made-up story for their entertainment.
This was actually his third time telling it. But the girls just kept eating dango. They’d been at it for a whole hour now.
“……”
Still, Sion couldn’t think of this time as bad. Making up fake stories like this was actually really fun.
This one was a story about a smiling young man. A story about a boy who was always smiling despite the dark Roland stretching out around him…
He felt oddly at ease telling that story in the Eris gardens.
Sion looked around. The Eris gardens were awfully plain for that of nobility. There was a small, walled-up pond nearby and the path was lined with pebbles and flowers.
It was a nice and calm place perfectly suited to eating dango and telling stories.
Sion took another piece of dango. It was from Wynnit, a dango shop that Ferris was fond of. He often bought some and brought it here. It was pretty tasty. He ate it and continued telling his story.
“…Well, that’s just how it is, you know? That guy was born a sex maniac and pervert.”
Ferris’ eight year old sister, Iris, piped up. “Hey, hey, question!” She had the same feautres as his sister with one notable difference - her expressions. She was expressive throughout Sion’s story, smiling and gasping and reacting to it all.
Iris raised her hand, holding dango up and everything. “What’s a sex maniac pervert?”
Sion opened his mouth to explain, but Ferris beat him to it. “Mm. Good question, Iris.”
“Yaaay! You praised me!”
“I will tell you the frightening truth. A sex maniac pervert is man with a lewd face like that,” Ferris said and pointed to Sion.
Shock crashed into Iris’ expression. She looked over at him, fearful. “S-S-Sion, you’re ‘lewd!?’”
Sion laughed and gave his shoulders a little shrug. “I wonder. Personally, I think I’m pretty normal.”
Ferris popped another piece of dango in her mouth. “Fnk m’mnor’l’ whmghf pber sawfgh.”
“Sorry, Ferris, but do you think you could finish eating that and then repeat yourself?”
“Mmgh. Mm. I said that ‘I think I’m normal’ is what perverts say.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Be careful then.”
“Mm. I will.”
“Anyway, can I get back to the story now?”
“Yes.”
So he continued his story of the boy who was born a pervert, the boy with an endless enthusiasm for older ladies’ undergarments. Eventually he was able to make lots of friends, and then his interest in underwear faded as he grew into an upstanding adult—
“So who is he, anyway?” Ferris asked. “An acquaintance of yours?”
“He’s my friend,” Sion said.
“Your friend in perversion?”
“Well, I’m not a per—”
“I have no interest in what you have to say on the matter.”
Sion laughed.
“So he’s your friend, is he?”
Sion nodded. “Yeah. At least, I… I see him as a friend. I don’t know how he feels about me, though.”
“…Okay, bring him here next time,” Ferris said. “I want to ask him why he’s so into underwear.”
Sion just smiled. “You want me to bring him… here?”
“Yeah. Because I’ve never met a panties fetishist before. It sounds pretty interesting.”
“Ahh. W, well, yeah, he’s a pretty interesting guy.”
“Bring him here,” Ferris repeated.
Sion’s smile turned sad. “I can’t really do that.”
“Why not?”
“Um, well…”
“According to your story, he grew up to be a happy adult, right? Why can’t you bring him here, then?”
Sion narrowed his eyes. He looked past Ferris. Nothing of interest was back there, really. It was just the flowers and the sky. The sun had already climbed pretty high into the sky. “Ryner, see… he’s in jail right now.”
Ferris nodded like she’d just been proven right. “For underwear thieving crimes?”
Sion nodded. It just seemed the appropriate thing to do. “Something like that.”
“I thought he was supposed to have reformed?”
Sion smiled sadly. “But the world doesn’t change that easily.”
“Are you saying that a lecher will always remain a lecher?”
“Who knows.”
“Hm. I suppose I won’t meet him since he’s gone to jail.”
“Are you disappointed?” Sion asked.
Ferris shook her head with ease. “Not really. He has nothing to do with me.”
“I see. I’m disappointed, though.”
“You want to see him?”
Sion smiled sincerely. But that was the only answer he had for her. He stood, then looked back up at the sun rising behind her. “I need to get going soon. Go ahead and keep talking without me, though.”
“We’re not just talking, we’re having a morning dango party!” Iris corrected.
“Oh, okay. Well, you two go ahead and continue your morning dango party. I need to head out. Thanks for the food.”
“You’re welcome for the food!”
“Hey, you… I’m the one who brought the dango,” Sion said.
“All dango is mine,” Ferris said.
What could Sion do but nod? “I see. Well, thanks for the food, then.”
“Mm.”
“I’d like to wash my hands before I go home, though. I got some dango on them…”
Ferris pointed back with a dango skewer. “First door on the right.”
“Thanks.”
“Mm.”
“Are you two going to stay here?” Sion asked.
“We have to prepare for the afternoon dango party.”
“You must really love dango if you’re going to eat even more.”
“Because dango is the single most delicious thing in this world.”
“I guess so.”
“Yeah.”
“Invite me again sometime. I’ll have more stories for you.”
Ferris nodded. “Mm.”
Then Iris mimicked her and did the same. “Mm!!!”
Sion smiled. “See you later, then.”
He turned his back to the girls and headed towards the estate. He headed in, and just as Ferris had said, there was a sink and mirror in the first room on the right.
He washed his hands, then combed his wet hands through his hair to fix it. Watched his useless face reflecting back at him. The face of trash who couldn’t save his friend who was locked up in jail at this very moment. Garbage who couldn’t save his crying friends. All he could do was throw around platitudes, powerless as he was.
“……”
He stared into his own face.
He was wearing Roland’s military uniform. He had been given the rank of major general. It was a post that someone as young as seventeen shouldn’t have, but here he was with it anyway.
The reason was simple: Rahel Miller was using him. He’d get him promoted to whatever position was most convenient. He did so by using him as a hero. By telling the whole country that he’d defeated the Kingdom of Estabul.
But the one who really stopped the war was Ryner. The guy locked up in jail as a monster right now.
Sion couldn’t do anything on the battlefield. Nothing but lead his friends to their deaths. He’d filled their heads with the illusion that they’d be safe if only they followed him, then held a scythe to their necks himself.
And yet he was now celebrated as savior of their country. The hero who saved Roland.
“……”
He stared into the mirror quietly. The weak didn’t have the right to speak in this country, after all… And he’d always been weak, ever since he was born. He couldn’t protect his mother, partners, or friends. He lost everyone dear to him.
The only reason he was even alive now was because he was Miller’s pawn. He could almost laugh at it all.
“……”
He did not laugh.
He stared. And then fixed his collar. Buttoned his sleeves. Made certain that he was wearing his military uniform properly.
And then—
“…Do you still see yourself as human when you look in the mirror?”
It was a small room. No one but Sion was there. But he still heard the clear voice of another man. “Lucile?” Sion said, though his eyes remained fixed on the mirror.
“Yeah,” Lucile, the head of the Eris family, whispered against his ear.
Sion could not see him. He was not reflected in the mirror. Because he didn’t have a real form. Rather, he existed between reality and the void, drifting to and from either side. So his body was not really ‘real.’
“Have you become friends with my sisters?” The monster asked.
“…I wonder. You were watching the whole time, weren’t you? What did it look like to you?”
“It looked like you were very close,” Lucile said. He sounded quite pleased.
“I’m glad.”
“But Ferris ate a little too much dango,” Lucile added.
Sion burst out laughing. Then he turned around.
A man had appeared there at some point. He was an eerily beautiful man with blond hair and blue eyes. He very much resembled Ferris and Iris, but somewhere along the way he’d stopped being human and become a monster. He was the head of the Swordsman Clan, the Eris family, Lucile Eris.
“You care a lot about your sisters, don’t you?”
Lucile smiled. “Because we’re family.”
“Family. Family, huh…”
Sion recalled his mother’s face. His mother, who’d always smiled for him. His mother, who had died while still smiling at him.
“…I think your love is pretty different from familial,” Sion said.
“Is it, now?” Lucile asked. His smile didn’t falter. It was like Sion’s words didn’t bother him in the slightest.
Sion didn’t push it.
So Lucile continued instead. “Sorry for not having breakfast with you after you came all this way.”
“Whoa, no need to be so valiant. It’s not like you wanted to anyway.”
“That’s not true. It probably would have just upset Ferris if I did, though,” Lucile said. He turned a bit. He couldn’t see the garden from where he was standing, but he stared in Ferris’ general direction anyway. “Because… we haven’t eaten together even once for years now…”
Sion tilted his head. “Why not?”
Lucile did not answer. He just smiled.
So Sion answered for him. “Well, I bet having you for a brother would make anyone feel uneasy. It’d be a downer having you around.”
Lucile’s smile didn’t waver. “Would it?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s troubling,” Lucile said. But he didn’t sound troubled. If anything, he sounded bored.
Sion watched him, the monster who lacked interest in anything and everything. “So? Were you able to find your memories?” Lucile had said that he’d find the memories the masked man stole before disappearing last night, after all.
Lucile didn’t answer. He just smiled faintly.
“I’m so glad you aren’t my brother.”
“Why’s that?” Lucile asked.
“You’re creepy.”
“Haha. Maybe my sisters think so too.”
“Obviously.”
“Should I try to restart my image? Go for something more refreshing?”
“That’d be scary, so no,” Sion said and smiled. Then he decided to get to the point. “Anyway. Why’d you show yourself to me? It must be important.”
“…Mm. I was thinking I’d tell you about our true enemy.”
Their true enemy. “The identity of the masked man from yesterday?”
Lucile nodded. “Yeah.”
“What was he?”
“A magician.”
“Magician?” Sion repeated.
“Yeah. A magician who has gone mad with love. He’s been playing with the structure of this world… so it looks like he’ll get in our way.”
Sion thought back to the masked man. The monster who took Claugh out in one hit and even managed to overwhelm Lucile. But… “It looked like he was saving us, though.”
Lucile nodded. “But that was only yesterday. Our objective is in direct conflict with his.”
“What does—”
“I won’t explain everything now,” Lucile interrupted. “And I don’t know everything about him, either. But it’s very important that we move things away from how he wants them as quickly as possible. He will prevent us from becoming powerful.”
That reminded him of something the masked man said last night.
“Now it’d be nice if you’d run. I’ll pacify this Goddess somehow. You guys need to go find more power while I do. Just enough power to shoulder this country’s darkness.”
“…I think he told us to get stronger, though?” Sion said.
“Because the king will get weaker the stronger you get.”
Right. Sion thought of another conversation they’d had before, that of the two curses, the hero and the goddess. The story about Aslude Roland, a monster rotting the Roland Empire. About the curse of Human α, the curse that’d fluctuate with the emotions of the bearers of Aslude Roland’s power - the royalty.
In other words, their power would increase the more they were praised and lauded as a king, and their power decreased when people became suspicious or doubtful of their ability to rule as king.
Well, that was roughly the case in any country. But in Roland it was tied to Aslude Roland’s power, which slept in the body of their royalty.
Basically, the more the people admired Sion, the weaker the other royalty would become.
“…So you’re saying the only reason the masked man cheered me on now was to get the power of the current king to weaken.”
“Yes.”
“What if I get too powerful, then?”
“He’ll come to meddle with us,” Lucile said.
“So that’s how he works.”
“Well, he’s likely also looking down on us. Even if you take his hand…”
“I won’t gain anything from it?” Sion tried.
“Yeah. And there aren’t people who are devoted to you here. Who would devote themself to a poorly bred mutt…”
Sion smiled. “Are you trying to provoke me?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, don’t admit that so easily…”
“I was just thinking that it was something I ought to do… because we’re being controlled by Lieral Lieutolu. By that masked man.”
Sion’s eyes narrowed.
Lieral Lieutolu.
Apparently that was the masked man’s name.
Lieral Lieutolu. Lieral Lieutolu.
He threw it around in his head several times. But he couldn’t recall ever hearing it before. And because he wasn’t familiar with it at all, he couldn’t place why he’d come to move behind Roland’s curtains. Then again, what did he know nowadays? He hadn’t even realized what Miller was doing until they met on the battlefield. But he did know that he was moving closer to their country’s heart, its core, little by little.
He intended to stand at the center of the country’s darkness. He knew that, too.
But he was still acting within the range of someone’s expectations. Maybe Rahel Miller’s. Maybe Lieral Lieutolu’s. And while he was here, acting where they could predict him, he couldn’t change a thing.
That’s why Lucile was telling him to hurry. To really, really hurry.
…No, Lucile was being impatient.
“Is that what you went out of your way to warn me about?” Sion asked.
“No, I came to apologize about not eating breakfast with you.”
“Just spit it out.”
“Haha, well, that wasn’t the only thing…”
The smile disappeared from Lucile’s face. He looked to Sion.
“Wha—”
“Quiet,” Lucile interrupted. He raised his hand to lay against Sion’s cheek. “It’s been a while since you took the hero in. How are you faring with the pain?”
What a thing to ask. “Hmm, so you’re worried—”
“Just answer me,” Lucile said. His voice was a bit lower than usual. Sharper.
“…It hurts,” Sion said. “It feels like my guts are ripped out daily.”
“But you’re managing?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever fainted from it? Completely lost consciousness?”
“Nope.”
“…Then it’s fine. You can still move forward. Find the power to kill the rest of the royalty quickly.”
Lucile probably intended for them to do that faster than Lieral expected them to. Sion nearly responded, but Lucile took his hand off of his cheek.
“…Alright. I understand where you are now,” Lucile said. “Now, off to compare things.”
“Compare? Compare what?”
Lucile smiled. “To compare your current power with the king’s. He’s called on me for the first time in a while.”
The king. The king of the Roland Empire. His father, who’d thrown his mother away after forcing her to give birth to Sion. “He…”
But Lucile was gone. It was like he’d never been there in the first place. Like the door was all that’d ever existed there.
“……”
Sion scowled, shook his head, and sighed. Then looked back towards the mirror. His face was reflected back at him. He looked like he was in a horrible mood. But he smiled anyway. Double checked to make sure that his military uniform was just right.
He couldn’t go to his father now. He couldn’t stand by his father, king of this rotten country, right now. Because he was too weak. That was why he had to get stronger, and he had to do it faster than Miller or Lieral could ever imagine. And for that…
“……”
He smiled into the mirror. It was a bright and sunny smile, the kind that’d give anyone a good impression.
“Alright,” Sion whispered. Then he turned to leave.
He was headed for Captain Rahel Miller’s office. Because Miller said that he was going to change his plans to adopt Sion’s. He didn’t know for a fact what had caused Miller’s change of heart, but it was most likely that Miller had realized that something was off about Roland.
And he was right. Roland was strange.
Its royalty was inhuman. The country itself was inhuman. Instead, it was dominated by some kind of sickening power. Even Sion had come to feel that it was messed up, that it had always been messed up.
“It can’t be that this is also…”
Sion smiled bitterly.
“Well, even this is pretty absurd… It seems like I’ll be able to show Miller who’s boss after all.”
Sion set out.
He’d join Miller and revolutionize their country. He’d do it so he was praised as a lord, whether by one person or by many. They’d raise him up and aim for changing the country.
Whether the country was ruled by humans or not was irrelevant when the fact was that touching the human hearts of Roland would empower him. So that was his job for now.
Right now, he was still a make-believe, powerless hero. He was the protagonist of Miller’s fake story in much the same way that Ryner was the protagonist of his.
“…I’ll make that story into reality,” Sion whispered.
He didn’t know what may lie on the path ahead. But he was desperate. Desperate to change the country, the world, to save his friend locked in jail.
Maybe that was why he couldn’t see reality. Why he didn’t notice what was waiting on the path ahead of him.
