…There was something she had always regretted.
The day her fate changed. The label of Flawed Lady, the arrogant Second Prince, and everyone around her who tormented her.
When she was backed into a corner, ground down, and on the verge of having a heinous crime forced upon her at the moment her life would run out — he came for her.
And after that, he gave her so many things... truly, so many things.
He analyzed the very magic that marked her as flawed, and elevated it to power befitting a ducal house.
Every injustice that assailed her — he stood up to them all, straight and fearless.
In the end, he destroyed an entire corrupt power structure, and freed her from everything that had held her captive.
Even after that, his exploits never ceased. To be by his side as he reshaped the world according to his will, true to his convictions — it brought her indescribable joy.
Along the way, she received so much from him.
Again and again, he came to her aid.
Each time she became conscious of that —
— that day. The moment he was expelled from his birth family, when she was ten years old.
Her original sin — having been able to do nothing, to help no one, watching helplessly as he was cast aside — gnawed at her like embers buried beneath the ash.
"Do you even have the right to such happiness?"
That was what she turned upon herself — the girl who, on that day, could have thrown all pretense aside to stop him from being taken away, yet chose to put her standing first and couldn't take that final step. To smile at his side, to be supported by him — who did she think she was?
Surely this guilt would never fade.
No matter what she did going forward, it was something she could never forget — nor was it something she should ever forget.
— And that was precisely why.
She had always been certain. If the day ever came when he hesitated, or agonized, or suffered...
That when the time came — this time for certain, she would become his strength above all else.
Fortunately.
With the way he was now... there were things she could say to him.
With that resolve, Katia opened her mouth once more.
◆
"...It's a terrible story, isn't it?"
Katia, having seated herself in front of Ermes, spoke again with renewed composure.
First, she told him this.
"Up until now, the foundation she believed in — the one she thought was something bright and radiant — disappeared, and she doesn't know what to do anymore. But she has to get back up.
So she wants a reason — just one reason — to be able to face forward again, in place of that lost foundation."
"...Huh."
He was surprised.
After all, Niina had — for the very first time — just told him what was in her heart, and Katia, who shouldn't have been there to hear it, had perfectly captured every word of it.
"You don't have to be so surprised. ...I know you well enough to figure out something like this."
"Ah, well, yes."
When she told him that so gently — and it was, in fact, entirely true — he couldn't say anything more.
Ermes could only nod, and Katia pressed on.
"...Shall I tell you?"
"!"
Those words.
What she was asking about, he understood without needing to hear the question.
Ermes nodded at that too, urging her to continue, and Katya smiled.
"All right.——Let me start with the conclusion."
She spoke quietly, delivering her words.
"Probably, anyway.……
Even if you
weren't here
,
the Third Princess's faction
would manage somehow
."
"————"
How cruel.
In a sense, a downright brutal thing to say.
"...Wh...y?"
"Well. For the first reason, the significance of 'individual against individual' combat has already diminished, I'd say. There's the question of how to put it all together, of course——but honestly, your abilities don't factor into that much. Your greatest strength is overwhelmingly your personal combat power... and now, with combat forces readily available in abundance, that matters less than it used to."
That's what he'd meant when he asked "why" — literally.
It wasn't just Katya. Nina, Sarah, Albert, too.
All the people who had, until now, placed something on him, asked something of him. This time, every single one of them would... say something like that, as though stripping all of that away.
"Second, regarding the opponents we still can't take down——in other words, the organization's executives. For that, your absence certainly hurts... but I don't think it's to the point where we absolutely can't win without you. Rose is here now, and if it comes down to it, we can overpower one of them through sheer numbers... and above all,"
Despite Ermes' bewilderment, Katya pressed on.
"—I have at least one trump card of my own, you know."
That, too, caught him completely off guard.
"...A trump card?"
"Yes. I can't go into detail, and honestly, the intuitive part is so strong that I couldn't have you verify it, which is why I never told you before. But... instinctively, it's something only those who possess it through Bloodline Magic can understand—I can feel it—"
"—Ah, probably—"
"I can use this."
"—or so I think."
...That, too, was the same kind of feeling.
All the people he had helped until now. The ones he had connected with, the ones he had saved... and perhaps, without even realizing it, the ones he had thought it was his duty to protect.
"Hey, El. ...I can walk on my own, you know."
"I'm not the only one. The other girls can too. Sarah and Albert go without saying... Nina chose you even though she could walk on her own. And Lady Lily—you taught her how to keep moving forward, so you must understand that perfectly well by now."
At some point, she had let go of his hand.
The sensation of having stepped forward onto their own path, with their own stride.
"...That's why, El."
And it was then that he realized.
"Everyone's fine now. Even without you, they'll be all right."
"So... there's no longer any need for you to carry anyone else on your back."
That string of words, starting with Nina. What all of them truly meant.
After returning to the Royal Capital, his journey until now—meeting so many people, learning so many things. It had been a journey to find more people who could tether him in place, so that he, who might otherwise wander off on his own at any moment, would have someone to keep him from drifting away.
──But from here on, that alone wouldn't carry him forward.
This time, the opposite was needed — a ritual to strip away everything he'd been carrying on his back, to unearth something buried so deep beneath layers upon layers that it had become invisible.
Everyone had understood that, which was why they'd said those words to him.
And at the same time, he thought.
At the end of that ritual, Katia would come. If she was going to have this conversation —
Then beyond it — his answer, the "reason" he'd been searching for — would surely exist.
That was what he believed. That was what he held onto.
Having everything that had shaped him until now stripped away would be agonizing, but —
He would trust the girl who'd been by his side from the start — the girl who'd first tethered him in place.
And so Ermes would once again... lend his ear to Katia's words.
Sorry it's a bit short!
The long-awaited protagonist name chapter — I want to really dig into it, so I'm splitting it into two parts. Look forward to next time!