Zenith.
I decided to consult someone about her.
When I thought about it calmly, this wasn't a problem I should try to shoulder alone.
There was someone I could talk to.
After all, there was another family member here.
"Professor. I think I'm going to consult Lillia about what comes next."
"Yes, that would be wise."
Roxy and I got ready and stepped out of the room.
The moment we did, we ran straight into Elinalise, who was coming out of her own room.
She looked at me, then at Roxy, and her eyes went wide.
"Roxy, you..."
"Rudeus, I'm sorry, but I have something to talk about with Elinalise. Could you go to see Lillia by yourself?"
What did she want to talk about?
I had a pretty good idea.
But if she put it that way, it was probably better if I wasn't there.
"Sure."
I left Roxy behind and headed further in, to the room where Zenith was sleeping.
As I was about to enter, I glanced back to see Elinalise and Roxy stepping into their own room.
"..."
For now, I went into Zenith's room.
Zenith sat on the bed, and Lillia sat in a chair beside her.
That hospital-room-like scene tightened my jaw.
"Lillia."
"What is it, Lord Rudeus?"
Lillia had been taking care of Zenith, and it showed on her tired face.
I should have talked to her first, should have exchanged opinions with her.
"I'm sorry for pushing Mom's care onto you."
"No. This is my job."
"Is that so."
Job, she said.
It wasn't like anyone was paying her.
"How is Mom?"
I glanced at Zenith. She was staring intently at me.
But she didn't do anything, didn't try to speak.
She just looked.
"She seems to have no memory, but oddly enough, her body is healthy. She has stamina, no strange aftereffects. Once shown how, she can eat and change clothes on her own."
"I see."
So she wasn't completely incapacitated.
She had simply lost her memory.
"According to Shelah, the leading theory is that it's some kind of mana-related side effect from being sealed inside that mana crystal."
"Will she recover?"
"............According to Elinalise, there's no hope."
Elinalise said that?
Was she knowledgeable about that sort of thing?
Still, it felt too early to give up.
It wasn't like we could take her to a proper doctor around here anyway.
"Lady Zenith was very good to me.
Now that the Master has passed, it is my duty to look after her."
"I intend to do whatever I can as well..."
The moment I said that, Lillia shut me down flat.
"There is no need."
It was a cold, cutting tone.
"Huh...?"
I blurted out in surprise, though I also felt resigned to it.
When my father died and my mother was in such a state, I hadn't done a thing.
Even if Lillia had lost all patience with me, I had no grounds to complain.
But Lillia went on.
"Lord Rudeus. I hope you'll forgive me for being a little forward, but may I speak somewhat candidly?"
"What is it?"
"I believe Lord Rudeus should focus on what he himself needs to do."
"...What I need to do?"
"The Master would have said the same."
I doubted Paul would have, actually. He was more the selfish type.
"Looking after Lady Zenith is my responsibility. That is why I am here."
Lillia was exhausted.
There was no way she wouldn't be.
But she was strong.
She had already come to terms with Paul's death and taken a step ahead.
I needed to follow her example.
"Lillia. You might get angry if I ask this, but..."
"...I won't be angry."
"What is it that I should be doing?"
I knew I should figure it out myself, but I asked anyway.
Lillia looked at me with mild surprise.
I already had a sense of it.
But I wanted to hear it from someone else's mouth.
"First, I think you should inform Lady Norn and the others of the Master's death."
Yeah.
I had to go home.
---
The next day, I gathered everyone and declared that we were leaving this town.
It felt like I was the leader, but everyone agreed.
Maybe they saw me as Paul's stand-in.
Then I'd have to fill that role.
I explained the route we'd take home.
I avoided the phrase "Teleportation Magic Circle" and instead said we'd travel by a special method.
I also stressed firmly that no one was to tell anyone else about it.
"But Geese might blurt it out at the bar over a drink."
"Hmm, well, even if he did, he wouldn't give up any of your names, so don't worry."
You can't put a muzzle on everyone's mouth.
I wouldn't tell them the exact location.
Ideally, I'd blindfold them once we were inside the ruins.
Yeah, let's do that. Blindfolds.
Just not seeing the magic circle might be enough.
"The trip itself is fine, but前辈, are you really okay?"
Geese seemed worried about me.
He was craning his ape-like face toward me.
"Do I look okay?"
"Not really... but you're better than before."
"Then I'm okay."
I wasn't, really. Roxy had pulled me out of the depths, but that was all.
Still, I could manage a walk home.
"Lillia, how is Mom? We've got a month and a half ahead of us, including a desert crossing. Can she handle the journey?"
"I'm not sure. But I will take full responsibility for her care."
"...Thank you."
Lillia accepted with a serious expression.
I could help too. If stamina was the issue, we'd just move slowly.
"Why don't we buy a carriage or something?"
"We'd have to abandon it eventually."
"So what? We've got more money than we know what to do with."
It turned out that while I'd been moping around, Geese and the others had hired people and entered the dungeon, raiding the treasure room beyond the boss chamber and securing a haul of
magic-infused items
.
The Teleportation Dungeon was an ancient labyrinth where many adventurers had perished.
The magic-infused items numbered in the dozens.
On top of that, they'd apparently pried the magic stones off that hydra's scales — or rather, its skin.
Magic stones that absorb mana.
By selling all of this, they said we'd come into a fortune.
"I'm planning to carry as much as we can back and sell it in the Asura Kingdom."
Geese showed me burlap sacks stuffed with magic stones, along with pendants, rings, and other ornaments.
Paul had just died, I'd been falling apart, and this guy had been thinking about making money.
That irritated me a little.
But thinking about the future, it would've been foolish not to recover them.
Money was important, and they wouldn't have to work for nothing.
Geese's judgment was sound.
Besides, I was in no position to criticize — I'd been the one moping and doing nothing.
"Your share is with Lillia."
The distribution had been decided through lengthy discussion by everyone except me.
My share was quite large.
Paul's portion was included, but Talhand had also surrendered half of his, saying, "I was of no use this time." Vera and Shelah each gave half of theirs to Lillia, reasoning that she'd have it tough now that Mr. Paul was gone.
And Lillia intended to hand the entire sum over to me.
I thought they should each keep what they'd earned, but...
Oh well. I'd take it.
Things were going to get hard from here on out.
"I also explored the deepest part in detail, but in the end, I still have no idea why Zenith ended up like that."
"Is that so? You went to a great deal of trouble."
"Don't mention it."
We didn't know why Zenith had been sealed inside the mana crystal.
Even if we found out the cause, it was dubious whether that would lead to a treatment.
In any case, treatment would have to wait until we got back.
"Then I'll leave the travel preparations to Geese and... Elinalise. Can I count on you two?"
"Sure thing."
"Consider it done."
We'd be fine leaving it to those two.
---
The travel plan was laid out meticulously.
We knew the route.
Everyone here was a seasoned traveler.
But I didn't want any more casualties.
We planned carefully, planning not to fail.
The bandits we'd encounter along the way could be avoided by taking a route we'd gathered intelligence on.
It would be a slight detour, but that was fine.
Zenith was the only real concern, but that was resolved quickly too.
Geese purchased a cart drawn by an armadillo-like magic beast.
Think of it as a desert-rated carriage.
Nicely done.
This armadillo was apparently a domesticated magic beast native to eastern Begaritt.
It was a bit expensive, and I felt it'd be a waste to abandon it, but beggars can't be choosers.
...Actually, should I just teleport the armadillo home through the magic circle too? It could make it through the stairs, right?
No, wait. What if the climate on the other side didn't agree with it and it died?
But if I left it here in the desert, it would certainly die too.
In that case, it'd be better to take it back and sell it to some collector there.
Preparations were complete.
We set off.
---
The journey went smoothly.
Bandits were avoided neatly.
Encounters with monsters posed no danger with the full party assembled.
Two warriors, two mages, one battle-mage, one healer.
There were differences in individual ability, but the balance was excellent.
In a perfect world, there would have been one more swordsman here.
...Let's not go there.
Traveling without a left hand was more inconvenient than I'd imagined.
There was no pain, but I'd keep trying to use my left hand out of habit and slice through empty air.
There were also many situations where I was hampered by having only one hand.
But each time, Roxy was there to help.
Since that night, Roxy had stuck close to me like a shadow, supporting me every step of the way.
She always walked on my left side.
If anything happened, she would lend a hand immediately.
Her movements were almost like those of a lover.
"..."
I was a dense man.
I'd always prided myself on being perceptive, but I was dense.
Still, after everything she'd done, there was no way I could remain oblivious.
Roxy probably loved me.
---
"...Um, Professor."
One day, during our watch.
Sitting before the campfire, I was side by side with Roxy.
The others were asleep in the shelter.
The shelter was sturdy, but you could never be too careful.
So we took turns, two at a time.
"What is it, Rudy?"
Roxy was sitting close.
She'd settled right next to me, her body pressed against mine.
Her small shoulder touched my robe, conveying softness and warmth.
Like a lover.
No — she'd done lover-like things to me.
Leaning on Roxy that way, clinging to her so desperately — calling it lover-like might be a stretch.
But regardless, she might have that intention.
Did she know I was married?
Maybe she didn't.
If she did, I couldn't imagine her being this forward.
No, it wasn't about Roxy.
It was about me.
What I was doing was cheating.
I'd sworn fidelity to Sylphie, and here I was, two-timing.
Maybe I should just come out and say it.
Thank you for everything.
I'm fine now.
I'm sorry, but since I have a wife, this has to stop.
"..."
Since meeting Roxy in this world, I'd relied on her endlessly.
She'd taught me magic. She'd taught me language.
The fact that I'd gotten along with Zanoba was, in a sense, thanks to Roxy.
Sylphie had cured my impotence, but for the three years before the cure, the one who'd kept me going was Roxy's teaching.
I could never repay that.
And now, she'd even used her body to comfort me.
It had been her first time. She'd given herself to save me.
She'd rescued me from the brink of despair.
She'd saved a broken, fragile wreck like me.
And even now, she was helping me without ever laying bare her own feelings.
Could I really just discard her when this was over?
That would be unforgivably rude.
...No, let's cut the self-serving rationalizations.
Saving me.
Common courtesy.
None of that mattered.
I loved Roxy.
I loved her deeply.
If someone asked me to choose between her and Sylphie, I couldn't.
It was love along a slightly different vector.
That was why I was wavering.
Now, in this situation.
Loving both Sylphie and Roxy.
But.
I had sworn an oath to Sylphie.
In the end, I'd broken that oath, but a promise was a promise.
Even if you'd already broken it once.
Of course, Sylphie had said it was fine to take a concubine.
But I'd rejected those words and sworn to take only her.
I had sworn.
At that moment, Sylphie had been genuinely happy.
I couldn't betray that.
"So, um, actually, I'm already married, and my wife is about to have a baby. So the whole lover-like thing — I'm sorry, but could we maybe stop?"
Roxy's shoulder twitched.
Then she spoke, quietly.
"I knew you were married. Elinalise told me."
"Oh, you knew."
She knew and was still doing this.
Which meant...
What was going on?
"It's fine. I understand.
There's no need for you to feel bad, Rudy.
I simply took advantage of when you were weak."
Roxy continued in a flat, even voice.
"I know that under normal circumstances, someone like me — plain and scrawny — would never catch your eye."
"Scrawny? That's not—"
"You don't need to console me. I already know."
Roxy's body was, admittedly, on the plain side.
Few curves, skinny.
In terms of feminine appeal, she'd lose to Sylphie.
But then again, it was just a loli body type, and I was the kind of guy who could say, "That's exactly my type."
"Rest assured.
I have no intention of barging into your life.
I will be your left hand for the duration of this journey only.
When the journey ends, don't give me a second thought. Just take care of your wife."
As she said this, Roxy looked up at me with a somewhat hesitant gaze.
"Understood."
"..."
But Roxy had saved me. She really had.
Just being saved wasn't enough.
"Could you at least let me repay you somehow?"
"Repay me?"
Roxy looked surprised.
"Yes. Anything I can do, I will."
Roxy's eyes wavered with emotion.
Ah, maybe I shouldn't have said "anything."
But hadn't Roxy already gone to extremes to help me within that very category?
"Well, um, then..."
"Yes?"
"...Could you listen to an excuse? Just listen — you don't have to respond."
"A what?"
An excuse.
What was she making an excuse for?
"Yes. Go ahead."
"..."
Roxy fell silent for a while.
Then, little by little, she began to speak.
"I fell in love at first sight."
"With whom?"
"Huh?"
"Surely it wasn't my dad?"
"Of course not. With you, Rudy. When you saved me in the dungeon."
Our reunion, then.
At the time, Roxy had been so distant and formal that I could barely hold back the flood of emotion.
I'd hugged her out of nowhere and thrown up on her.
What was there to fall for?
I thought it would've been a bit later than that.
"What could I do? When you're on the verge of death, when you've given up and think it's all over, and then a dashing man appears out of nowhere and saves you — anyone would swoon, even if it weren't me."
"Was I... dashing?"
"You were exactly my ideal."
Exactly her ideal, huh.
I nearly grinned.
"During the dungeon exploration, I kept staring at your face."
"Now that you mention it, we did make eye contact a few times. You always looked away right away."
"Well, because — facing a handsome man like you head-on was embarrassing."
She'd been embarrassed.
"...I knew it was wrong."
Roxy's words came out in a trickle.
"I had a drink with Elinalise and the others at the bar.
We talked about what you would do from here on.
Elinalise and Geese said you'd be fine, that you'd pull yourself together on your own.
But I remembered the time we spent together in Buena Village.
I remembered Paul and Rudy practicing swordplay together.
The two of them had been so close back then.
And then it hit me.
I remembered when you first rode a horse.
You were terrified, your whole body tense, unable to move an inch.
I thought — this boy has talent and seems mature, but he's actually fragile.
Then I thought back to your old sword practice sessions, and the way you and Paul interacted during the dungeon exploration.
When I saw you, so broken you couldn't do anything...
I remembered that you were far weaker than you looked.
Paul's presence in your life was bigger than any of us realized, wasn't it?
If Paul died, would you be so devastated that you couldn't recover?
That you couldn't pull yourself up alone?
I mean, of course I never imagined I could be the one to pull you back up.
I'd heard you had someone you loved.
Surely that person had the power to bring you back from the depths.
But that person wasn't here.
When you needed saving the most, she wasn't here.
So someone had to step in.
Elinalise and Geese were content to leave you be.
Lillia was at Zenith's side nonstop, unable to pull away.
So it had to be me.
I know it sounds like nothing but excuses, but I never planned for things to go this far at the start.
I could tell you respected me, but I'm flat as a board.
I don't know what your wife looks like, but since Elinalise is her relative, she's probably beautiful.
I never thought I'd be seen as a romantic option.
I just hoped that, at most, this might be some kind of spark.
But then you actually grabbed me, and when I saw your face from so close...
Well, of course I started hoping.
Maybe, just maybe, it could be me.
I'd just heard all that from Elinalise and the others, after all.
And you can't help it. Because I love you."
At that point, Roxy's tears spilled over.
The instant I saw them, a searing pain tore through my chest.
"...You're cruel. You knew I was married, you knew I'd fallen for you, and you only told me afterward? That's just wrong."
Who were those words for?
They weren't aimed at me.
Maybe at Elinalise.
But I hadn't told Roxy about my marriage either.
There'd been no particular reason to, and no natural opening to bring it up.
If I was going to blame anyone, I was just as guilty.
But if I had reunited with Sylphie, been saved by her, fallen in love with her, and then gone on the attack all on my own...
Only to find out she already had someone?
I would have been devastated too.
Without question.
...I wanted Roxy to be happy.
She deserved it.
"Um, Roxy Professor."
"What is it?"
But what could I do?
How could I make her happy?
Without betraying Sylphie, could I satisfy Roxy?
"Could I at least — even if just for this journey — fulfill your wish?
Until we get home, I could be Roxy's boyfriend, and then..."
And then what?
It wouldn't solve anything.
I knew that perfectly well.
It wouldn't help me, and it wouldn't help Roxy.
It would amount to betraying Sylphie.
It was the most half-baked, worst possible proposal.
"...That's a very tempting offer."
Roxy said this, then grabbed my arm and gave my cheek a light smack.
"But please, don't. Don't do things like that. There's no need."
"...Understood."
There was no need.
If Roxy was fine with that, then so be it.
That was how it had been up until now, and that was how it would be going forward.
That was okay with you, Professor, right?
---
A little over a month later, we reached the Bazaar.
I bought some souvenirs for Sylphie and the others — a glass bottle of interesting shape, and a hair ornament made of red glass with colorful ethnic patterns.
I hoped nothing would break before we got home.
I also bought some rice.
Seed rice, to be specific.
I doubted it would come to anything, but I wanted to try cultivating it.
If it failed, I'd just eat it.
That night, Elinalise took the women out drinking.
A girls' night, I suppose.
There were no actual girls among us, though.
Lillia declined, as she was looking after Zenith, but the others — including Roxy — went along.
Geese and Talhand went out too, claiming they had errands to run or something.
I stayed behind to help Lillia with Zenith's care.
Zenith spent the entire day in a daze.
She could walk, eat, and go to the bathroom.
But she didn't speak and never initiated anything on her own.
She was like a machine that simply carried out whatever it was told.
But sometimes, she would stare at me for a long time.
She never said anything particular — just looked.
Maybe, when it came to her own flesh and blood, she felt something.
Perhaps some trigger would bring back her memory — well, it wouldn't, but still.
If Paul were here, what would he have done?
What would that guy have done?
Would he have handled it well?
Or would he have failed?
Late that night, Roxy came to me.
She was completely drunk.
It seemed she'd confessed everything about us to Elinalise and then unloaded her frustrations.
Elinalise's feelings must have been complicated too.
She'd said she considered Roxy a close friend.
She wanted to support Roxy's love, but didn't want to interfere with her grandchild's marriage.
It must have been a difficult position.
Roxy punched my chest with her little fist, then went back to bed.
---
The next day, we reached the Griffin's Rock Shelf.
Normally, no carriage could make it up there, but I used magic to haul it up onto the shelf by force.
On the first day, the armadillo had been spooked by the griffin's scent and refused to move.
I'd been planning to leave it at the Bazaar.
But then, after we killed a griffin and Geese ate its meat right in front of it, the armadillo seemed to pick up on something.
From the next day on, it marched along happily.
Apparently, one of the training methods a demon-race acquaintance had taught him involved killing and eating a natural predator in front of the animal.
That made it believe its own group was stronger than its predator.
When I asked who'd taught him that — some lizard-faced guy, I heard — he laughed cheerfully and said, "An old buddy. You know him, right, senpai?"
After a full day of walking, we entered the desert.
Three more days of trekking got us through a sandstorm.
When I used Sand Magic to stop the storm, Roxy murmured in a slightly envious tone, "So earth magic is saint-class too? That's amazing."
From here on, there were many monsters, so we proceeded with caution.
That said, we had a large group this time, all veterans.
Even if one or two of us ran into trouble, support would arrive immediately.
The Sand Garudas we'd avoided on the way here were taken down in seconds.
A tyrannosaurus-like lizard that appeared after was also defeated.
Along the way, I'd been worried about Sandworms, but Geese spotted every last one.
There was a trick to it, he said.
He pointed out that there were faint donut-shaped ripples on the surface of the ground.
Once you knew what to look for, they were easy to spot.
But the desert wasn't perfectly flat, so it was still hard for me to tell half the time.
That probably came with experience too.
Succubuses attacked as well, but we dispatched them without trouble.
Since most of the enemy were female, there was no real disadvantage.
Geese and I got hit by pheromones, but we had mid-grade antidotes, so it was fine.
Well, the worst that happened was I showed my true colors a little and came on to Roxy.
What surprised me was that the pheromones had no effect on Talhand.
He said, "Of course not."
So a sound body truly did house a sound mind.
Cool.
We reached the ruins.
As originally planned, everyone except Elinalise was blindfolded before entering.
Shelah was a little reluctant, but Vera talked her around, and it was settled.
Blindfolded, we crossed over.
It was probably just a token measure, but if they didn't see the magic circle, they wouldn't know what had happened.
We left the cart behind — it wouldn't fit through the entrance.
Zenith could probably manage on foot for another week or so.
Since we'd come this far, a small delay didn't matter.
The armadillo did make it through the entrance, so we brought it along.
I had no idea if the climate on the other side would suit it, but abandoning it here to be eaten by monsters would be worse.
When Geese and the others removed their blindfolds, they were stunned to find the landscape had changed completely.
One moment, desert. The next, forest.
Of course they'd be surprised.
I warned them sternly not to talk about anything they might have figured out.
And so, I left the Begaritt Continent behind.
Just a little further now.