Third Arc: Forty-Third Chapter

"Phew... easy win!"

"Thanks for saving us, Georg!"

"Yeah! Glad you're safe... hm? You're shaking. You were scared, huh. Poor thing."

Georg pulled me up by the hand, my knees trembling like a newborn fawn, and looked at me with pained sympathy.

...Georg has always been so kind, ever since we were little. Like a bear in the woods.

But I wasn't shaking from fear.

"Don't worry. It's just that the chills won't stop, from all the new possibilities in diet gear."

"Are you sure...?"

To Georg, still watching me with concern, I turned a bright smile.

"Yes! In fact, I think this calls for a good long talk."

Forcing back the words that wanted to leap out of my mouth, "Meet me behind the schoolhouse later," I kept the smile on.

"Lord Georg, my thanks. Things are settled on this end too, so they are."

Looking over toward Master Hattori, I saw Dunhill wound round and round in the training tube. He was struggling to get free, but the tube binding him was the extra-thick, super-strong kind. No way he'd tear through it.

"This weapon is groundbreaking! To think it can bind a man too, amazing! And that ring from before, what was it?! A splendid weapon!"

"Hahaha! My hula hoop is a special make!"

As Michael praised it, twanging the training tube, Georg rubbed his nose smugly.

...This guy. When did he go and make a special version. A summons behind the inn is confirmed for later.

A little irritated, just as I picked up the hula hoop lying on the floor, hurried footsteps came, and a crowd of people rushed in.

"Brother! Brother! Are you alive?! Are you safe?!"

"Hi! Elliot! Long time no see!"

Elliot came tumbling in, saw Michael raise a hand and grin loosely, and sagged, all the strength going out of him.

"Huh? Did you get hurt somewhere?! Ah, you tripped again, didn't you! Honestly, Elliot's been clumsy since he was little."

"Ngh..."

"Th-there, there, Elliot..."

After glaring at the smirking Michael, Elliot let out a huge sigh.

"Haah... well, if you're safe, that's fine. When I heard you'd vanished from the castle out of nowhere, I felt like I might die. Please, don't do anything so reckless. You are the king, you know."

"Haha! Yeah, sorry. But Cosette is someone I won't give up on."

Michael declared it in his carrying voice and tossed me a pointed wink. Struck by the words that came with no warning, a memory from a little earlier, one I'd shoved into a corner of my mind, flashed back.

...I love you from the bottom of my heart. Please be the companion of my life.

The obsidian glitter of the eyes that had held mine, even the breath slipping from those fine lips, seemed to come back to me. Wait, Michael's face is close!

When did that happen?!

Before I knew it, Michael was peering into my face at point-blank range. Gone red in an instant, I shoved his too-perfect face back where it loomed before me.

"Too clooooose!"

"Whoa!? Cosette, your face is bright red. Heh... a brain fever, maybe?"

"...Oh, be quiet!"

Being around Michael throws me right off my stride! To cool my boiling head, I kept my guard up and put plenty of distance between me and the bed Michael was on, and Elliot let out another big sigh.

"Haaah... glad you're well, at least. And I'm glad Lady Cosette is safe too."

"Haha! Thanks to you, Elliot!"

"Hmph... used me nicely again, didn't you."

Elliot grumbled a sour retort, but his face somehow looked pleased.

After that, we decided to pull out early. Antidote or not, Michael was fresh from his sickbed and worn down, and I wanted him to rest soon. Elliot, it seemed, would stay at the mansion for the various work still to do, arresting those involved, searching Lyonetta's house, securing the evidence, and the cleanup after.

And so, rocked along in the carriage Elliot arranged, by the time we reached Lumelica's royal castle the eastern sky had begun to lighten.

Let me back up a little. On the way from the room where we'd been shut in toward the mansion's entrance, Lyonetta's private soldiers lay collapsed here and there, with vivid traces of the swordfighting. Trying not to take too much of it into view, I walked briskly on.

The others didn't seem to mind much, but the men aside, I found myself thinking how many terrible scenes Anje must have come through, and my chest ached a little.

At the mansion's carriage porch, two carriages Elliot had arranged were waiting. Both were plain but clearly well made and sturdy-looking.

"Georg, are you all right? Just a little more to the carriage."

"By rights this one should be carrying him. My apologies, so it is."

"Master Hattori, you're injured too! It can't be helped!"

"To be caught off guard by an old man like that. This is Hattori's blunder of a lifetime, so it is."

"...A frustrated Master Hattori is... nice too!"

"Hm? This guy's light, so I'm totally fine."

"Mm, being called light does sting a little... just kidding! I'm perfectly fine!"

Chatting away around Georg, who carried Michael, we neared the carriages, and one carriage door opened and Remie flew out.

"Lady Remie!"

"Cosette, Anje...! You're safe... you're safe, aren't you?! Oh, God! Thank goodness...!"

Remie threw herself at us as if colliding, big tears rolling down. Her figure, worn thin in just this little while, made my chest clench hot.

"Lady Remie..."

"I was really, truly worried! You two, always so reckless! Before doing something like infiltrating, why didn't you tell me!"

"I'm sorry..."

"I'm sorry..."

Glared at by eyes brimming with tears, we could only droop and hang our heads.

"Julia's surely angry too. Be ready for the thunder to fall."

"Kh...!"

Julia's thunder. It'll surely be tremendous. But I'd realized something. Probably, no, certainly, Sissi's thunder would fall at the very same time.

"I don't wanna go hooome..."

"Oh! Should you be saying that? When the very person who's been longing for your return couldn't stand it and came to fetch you!"

"Surely not, Sissi?!"

At Remie's words, hand on her hip, I braced myself despite myself. And as if that line were the signal, the carriage door opened again.

"Cosette! I wanted to see you!"

"Y-Your Highness the Crown Prince...?!"

Tossing his silk-thread silver hair, alighting lightly on the ground, was Leonhardt, with Remias behind him.