Chapter 34
Kastian, who had frozen for a moment without even breathing, slowly put his arm around my back.
We held each other for a little while.
In the end we didn’t say anything, but I could only hope that at least my desire to comfort him had been conveyed.
After letting me go, Kastian stared at me for a long time with a strange look, then snorted and smiled.
“This is awkward.”
He showed no blame or embarrassment toward me, but given the situation, it was understandable he felt awkward. After all, we were in full view of the expedition party and the imperial troops — and a dark wizard had just hugged Duke Bernstein; of course he’d be embarrassed.
“I’m sorry…” I bowed my head and apologized in a small, shrinking voice. Kastian lifted my chin and said,
“You should break that habit of apologizing at any little thing.”
“But the duke looked so embarrassed just now…”
“You keep showing me good things. The more I learn, the greedier I get — it’s only natural I should be troubled.”
“…Huh? Good things?”
I had no idea what he was talking about from beginning to end.
Just to be clear, I’m not the sort of person who has any talent for teaching others. I didn’t even know what “good things” he meant.
Convinced he was misunderstanding something, Kastian ruffled my hair and smiled gently. His smile was sweet enough to make me forget the earlier commotion for a moment, but the conversation that followed brought me back to reality.
Kastian said he was going to search for any remaining demonic beasts. Even after leaving behind Commander Hamil and half the knights and the mage Ralf, he still didn’t seem reassured; he stood by the break in the barrier and twice emphasized that if things got dangerous, they should run.
I’d be with a thousand soldiers in the rear, so I couldn’t understand who was worrying about whom — he was going to look for monsters with fewer than a hundred people.
“I’ll wait.”
“Lydia.”
“I will wait. So come back safely.”
I stubbornly pressed my lips together.
I had come with Kastian, so I would return with him. Even if I was dead weight who couldn’t help, I wanted to show I wouldn’t back down on this, so I furrowed my brows and looked up at him.
Kastian looked flustered.
Did he think I was the sort who would run off and save only myself, no matter what happened? I’m not that unloyal.
When I looked at him with even more resolve, Kastian let out an incredulous chuckle.
“All right. I will definitely come back safely.”
Hearing that eased me a little.
I felt better still when I heard Marcus was going with him.
The repaired expedition set off along the road toward Malfren Castle, and I stood beside Eden to see Kastian off as he grew more distant.
It was pathetic that I could neither grab him nor follow; all I could do was wave my hand.
Eden, who had been standing silently beside me and waving listlessly, finally spoke.
“Lady Lydia, you should return to the carriage now.”
When I turned to him at that, his face looked gloomy too.
Maybe it was because I was useless and just hanging around, but Eden was the second-in-command of the Bernstein Knights — called a prodigy swordsman in his twenties. Watching a lord he followed like an older brother and comrades like family leave for a deadly mission must have weighed on him heavily.
Feeling pity, I tried to speak to him, and once again we said the same thing at the same time.
“Don’t worry too much.”
“Please don’t worry too much.”
Had he gotten fond of me? Eden had always made me uneasy because of his bad first impression, but now I felt a sense of camaraderie with him.
When I nodded at him with a look that said, I understand how you feel, Eden spoke up spiritedly.
“The knights left here are Bernstein’s elite. Commander Hamil is incredibly strong, and I’m here too. I will definitely protect you, Lady Lydia!”
Eden pounded his chest with a confident face.
I thought we were on the same wavelength, but I’d misread him. If the knights’ elite and an extremely powerful commander were here, he should have gone with Kastian instead.
What did he think I was worried about?
“I was worried about the duke.”
I said it intending to clear up the misunderstanding, and Eden tilted his head.
“Why would you worry about Kastian?”
“How can I not? He left all the knights and the elite behind and went himself.”
Eden tilted his head again. He looked like a big dog trying hard to understand its owner’s words.
He cocked his head from side to side for a long time, and then, with a calm expression, asked,
“Oh—are you worried Kastian might be harmed by the demonic beasts?”
“Of course I am! You saw the gargoyle earlier too, Sir Eden.”
“Ahahaha. You don’t need to worry about that. A gargoyle couldn’t put a scratch on Kastian. Unless the Demon King himself appears, perhaps.”
He said it so cheerfully and matter-of-factly that I had nothing to retort with.
Was a gargoyle really a creature you could dismiss with “couldn’t even do that”? Its wings were huge and it was swinging a spear around — wasn’t that something only a Demon King-level being could handle?
Now it was my turn to cock my head. I couldn’t tell if Eden’s reassurance was bluster or fact. If it was bluster, it was utterly absurd; if it was fact, it made no sense.
Just as I started to get confused about what, exactly, I should be worrying over, Eden said seriously,
“He only needs to make sure Lady Lydia is safe.”
“No… I also want the duke to be safe…”
“I’ll risk my life to protect you, so rest assured.”
“You don’t have to risk your life…”
“I will protect you.”
“Th-… thank you.”
I didn’t know what was going on anymore, so I replied with thanks. Eden grinned from ear to ear.
After that we went back to the carriage and whiled away some idle time.
At first the mage Ralf seemed tense, but he seemed to get bored later and started chatting with me and peeking into the carriage.
When I told him to come in instead of peeking, he made a show and immediately took a seat.
Ralf was chattier than he looked.
He told me various things related to the expedition, but he wasn’t very worried about Kastian either.
“Now that Duke Bernstein has gone, the area outside the castle will be cleaned up soon, but the problem is inside Malfren Castle. It seems they prepared thoroughly this time; we don’t know what they might be up to in there.”
“They’ll throw everything into preventing the Demon King’s summoning — they’ll be fighting for their lives.”
“But isn’t it strange? If they summon the Demon King into this world, the dark wizards would all die too. Why would they do something like that?”
Hearing Ralf’s question, it did seem strange.
Even when I read the original story, I thought it was a contrived setup that, driven to oppression, the dark wizards would rashly decide, “Fine, let’s all die!” and summon the Demon King.
Living in this world made it feel even stranger.
These dark wizards were not some cult; why would they all decide to die at once? They were the sort who avoided gathering together and lived solitary lives — why would they assemble?
“Don’t you know anything either, Lady Lydia?” Ralf asked carefully.
He was probably wondering if I, being a dark wizard in the original, was hiding something. I wished that were true this time — that I had some secret knowledge.
Before I was possessed, the Lydia who had been in this world had only passed along to Kastian that the dark wizards were gathering at Malfren Fortress to perform a Demon King summoning ritual. That was all I knew.
From what I’d seen — the barrier appearing and demonic beasts popping out — clearly something serious was happening, but no one knew exactly what was going on inside Malfren Castle.
“No, Ralf. I don’t know either.”
“Is that so…”
Ralf rubbed his chin and nodded.
He didn’t seem to distrust me, but his skepticism about the situation couldn’t be erased.
“The stranger thing is this: why did those bastards kidnap the Saint?”
“They probably took her to prevent her from interfering with the summoning…,” I began to answer as in the original story, but something felt terribly off.
Irene’s abduction happened on the way back from Duke Bernstein’s mansion to the palace. While being escorted by paladins, she was ambushed by dozens of dark wizards and, after a battle on the main road, they kidnapped her. Many dark wizards were killed in the process — they went to such lengths and paid such a price to kidnap her?
If it was to stop an interferer, wouldn’t it have been easier to kill her on the spot…?
Ralf voiced the thought I hadn’t dared to finish.
“It’s blasphemous to say, but if that were the case, wouldn’t killing the Saint have been easier? I don’t understand why they would kidnap someone whom dark magic doesn’t affect.”
“Maybe they needed the Saint?”
“If someone needed the Saint, it would be for her holy power — but dark wizards and holy power are opposites.”
Ralf widened his eyes and asked again, but I had no answer for that either.
Dark wizards who borrow power from the demon realm are diametrically opposed to holy power from the divine realm.
Why would they bring along someone they should avoid even being in the same place with?
