Swamp Girl! Chapter 63

“…Just what the h.e.l.l does Leon have to do with this?”

Thrown off by his words, I inadvertently lapsed into my usual way of speaking. Even that time I tried to hit him, my tone hadn’t slipped, but I honestly didn’t give a s.h.i.t about it now.
It was that disconcerting for me, hearing those words a.s.sociated with the topic we’d just been discussing.

“Oh? As I thought, it’s a shock to hear Leon’s name come up, then?”

“…Shut up.”

When he hit the mark, my irritation intensified.

It no longer had anything to do with manners anymore. Now Palmira, who I’d stopped just earlier, was all shaken up. But I didn’t have the leeway to worry about her.

Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it.

In my heart, my instincts set my internal alarm bells to maximum. Lucien’s words, his eyes, were dangerous. Like they were when we met before.

Inside me, [Chris] awoke.

— But is it okay like this?

Isn’t this just denial, simply averting my eyes from reality?
Shouldn’t I know the truth?
[Chris] and Leon. And Lucien, too. The truth about them.
I have to know.

That’s right, I have to know.
I’m going to disappear from this body, and after that, what will become of [Chris] and Leon?

That’s why I have to know.
For Leon’s sake, I have to know. It’s coming — the day that I disappear.

My chest p.r.i.c.kled, suffocating. Unconsciously, I placed my hand against it.
It’s okay. It’s okay. This is right. This is what I should do. What I have to do.
Biting my lower lip, I fought it back.

“…What the h.e.l.l are you and Leon up to here?”

Steeling myself, I questioned Lucien.

“A seal on the verge of coming undone. A ma.s.s of magical power that will inevitably explode. The conclusion writes itself, doesn’t it? …It’s all about dealing with Tetra’s Heart.”

Well, duh.
If it’s about to break, fix it. Just that simple.

But, if that were all, I’d have nothing to do with this place to begin with.
Before I could press him further, Lucien continued.

” — Using you.”

In one breath, Lucien’s eyes turned ice cold.
It was like those eyes were looking, not at a human being, but a thing.

I clenched my teeth tightly.

It was more unpleasant than I imagined. Not the fact that I was being used.
But the fact that Leon had something to do with it.

a.s.suming Lucien was telling the truth, then in the end, the very last thing Leon was hiding from me, turned out to be this. It was too bitter a pill to swallow.
Mine was an essential existence. For this Heart. For the Imperial Capital.

“You get it, right? Leon’s reasons? Why he got mixed up with you?”

Stop.
I don’t want to picture it. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to believe it.
But what’s essential isn’t the likes of me.

“Shall I tell you how we’re going to solve this? To be precise, what we want is [Chris’s] body. [Chris] possesses the six-Attunement affinity that surpa.s.ses Tetra’s five. If it’s her, then she’ll be able to suppress Tetra’s power. It was for that purpose, Chris, that you came to the capital. What did Leon say to get you to come here, I wonder? But this is the truth. And that is the lie. You were deceived — you were betrayed.”

— Betrayed.

That time when I was found outside the city.
Being sheltered at the estate. Being given food to eat.
What he said in the bedroom.
What he spoke of the riverbank.
What he told me under the elm tree.
What — he did on the balcony.

That was the lie. This was the truth.
I —

I — was betra

“You’re — WROOOOOONG—!!!!”

“Chris!?”

Breaking off my racing thoughts, I screamed with all my might. Startled, Palmira looked at me. But I didn’t have any attention to spare for her.

I don’t know where my true feelings lie.
My reason and my instinct both — are about to reach that conclusion.

But, it’s wrong. It’s wrong. It’s wrong!

It’s not like that! I haven’t been betrayed! He hasn’t deceived me!

“Aha–! You’re a strong one! That was enough to finish [Chris]. But it seems like you’ll need more than that. You must love Leon quite a lot, huh? Or is it that you trust him? Believe in him?”

As I agonized over the conflict that threatened to consume me, Lucien pressed me for an answer.
‘That was enough to finish [Chris]’?
I don’t understand what he means. What is it? What the h.e.l.l is Lucien trying to do? What has he done? What the h.e.l.l has he done to me — to [Chris]?

“I’ll go into a bit more detail. Chris, you’re a nuisance. A vessel is needed to contain Tetra. The vessel being that body. But the contents? No thanks. They’re a bother. So, Chris. I’ll have to have you disappear for me. You should never have been in there in the first place. I’ll have you return her to me, shall I? [Chris], that is.”

“Where the h.e.l.l do you get off…! Get out? You don’t need to G.o.dd.a.m.n tell me twice!”

That’s right, I don’t need to be told a d.a.m.n thing. If you were to ask me to disappear, then yeah, when I return to my own body in due time, I’ll disappear from within [Chris].
But now isn’t the time.
Right now, it’s still impossible for me to return.
I still can’t do anything. Not for [Chris], not for Leon, and not for myself. Nothing.

“That’s where you’re wrong. You’re a swamp man. By nature, you weren’t supposed to be there. Who are you?”

“I’m Chris!”

When Lucien abruptly changed tack, I replied almost defensively.
What the h.e.l.l? What do you wanna say, huh? The f.u.c.k is a ‘swamp man’?

” — Let’s leave at that, Lord Lucien.”

The voice of an outsider, with a calm out of place given the current location, came from behind me.
I sucked in my breath in surprise, and along with Palmira, I turned to look behind me.

There stood a big man, dressed in robes.

I had absolutely no idea how long he’d been there.
Lucien should have been able to see him, at least. And yet he had an identical look of confusion on his face. Just like the man loitering there had suddenly materialized out of nowhere.

But it was a man both Palmira and I had met before.
I could hear Lucien’s displeased voice coming from behind us.

“Arc, is it! For G.o.d’s sake, you always pick the best time to appear, don’t you!”

Arcteur Vanburke.
The head of the Brellwandy Adventurers’ Guild.

“Yo, Chris. Palmira. Looks like I’ve got perfect timing.”

In contrast with Lucien, whose tone had changed dramatically, Arc addressed us with the same nonchalant voice he did when we met before.

“Guildmaster… Why are you in such a place?”

Openly wary, Palmira trained the tip of her sword on Arc. Because her adversary wasn’t of high rank, she wasn’t the least bit hesitant.

The fact is, Arc’s entrance was too suspicious.
Why is he here? And even his status as enemy or ally wasn’t definite.

“Aww, come on, didn’t I ask you to call me Arc…? Well, we can clear that up later. Prince Lucien.”

Regardless, Arc’s att.i.tude didn’t change.
He’s still hung up on that?

“…You… Are you here to get in my way again?”

Lucien’s earlier easygoing tone had disappeared to G.o.d-knows-where. His face was filled with bitterness, and there was even a murderous hostility mixed into his gaze.
Still, there was some kind of relationship between Lucien and the sudden intruder, Arc. And it was connected to the Heart, as well as to [Chris].

“Get in your way? I suppose so. I’ll get in your way. Again and again. As many times as you like. Someone has to take responsibility. I do, and so do you, no?”

“What responsibility. What getting in my way! Don’t whitewash things! — Maddox!”

Tearing off his mask with a snarl, Lucien finally shouted that unforgivable name.

‘Maddox’, he said?

” — Cut me some slack here, it wasn’t my turn, was it?”

His casual tone out of place in the tense atmosphere, the man emerged from behind Lucien, taking the stage again as a new player.
Nothing about him had changed from when I saw him at the fortress, at least. Didn’t I blast him through a wall? I’m pretty d.a.m.n sure I did.
I expected him to survive, but to be completely without injury, and to meet him again in this short a time-span on top of that? I never even dreamed it would happen. h.e.l.l, Rupert fought him and he should still be lying in bed at the fortress.

In the end, my magic didn’t deal any significant damage to the man.
It was like that.

“Ah, if it isn’t the little lady. Don’t glare at me like that. I was surprised by that business before, but no hard feelings. I thought it was interesting, but I’ve never been that fond of fighting magi.”

Apparently I unconsciously ended up glaring at Maddox as my tension rocketed upward. The man posed a much more immediate threat than Lucien.
Having beat him last time, I was more or less wondering if this would end up being a rematch, but Maddox seemed completely uninterested.
It was something to be thankful for. When all’s said and done, I only managed to take him by surprise back then because he didn’t know the extent of my power, and though it might seem possible for me to win if we fought again, all I can say is, I’d definitely get my a.s.s kicked.

“Maddox. Secure the woman. Kill the man behind her.”

Lucien’s tone was casual. Upon hearing his words, Palmira, undaunted, readied herself with her sword turned toward Maddox.

So at least, Maddox was in Lucien’s employ. That very same Maddox attacked us, Leon included, at the fortress.
Then, was there no connection between Leon and Lucien?

Lucien said that his objective and Leon’s were one and the same.

But while it may be true that they share the same goal, they aren’t allies? Or is that bit about their goals being the same a lie itself?

“Weeell, my Prince. That there’s Arc, right? Even if I fight him, it’s not going to be any fun, y’know. I mean, honestly, I got no fighting spirit for this.”

“You know very well, don’t you? Maddox.”

I picked up Arc’s response from directly behind me. Without me noticing, he’d closed the distance. Confronting Maddox face-to-face, there wasn’t the slightest waver in his voice.

Arc was really suspicious.

Suspicious, but at least, his antagonism toward Lucien and Maddox was a definite thing. In that case, stuck here and virtually powerless, Palmira and I had no choice but to count on him.
It was frustrating, being forced to leave matters in the hands of an outsider, and not a particularly trustworthy one at that. But right here, right now, it was the right decision.
No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t seem like Palmira and I would be able to make it out of this place by ourselves.

“And that’s why I’m running away. You guys won’t mind, will you?”

It wasn’t good or bad. I didn’t know how he was going to pull it off, but I nodded to Arc.

“ジ.”

I didn’t know whether he saw it or not, but with the exact same timing, Arc chanted the incantation.

‘Come to think of it, he was a magus — ‘ Before I could complete the thought, the invocation stone floating before Arc’s eyes — h.e.l.l if I know when he took it out — began to glow red. And at the same time, with a terrifying speed that far outstripped Irene’s, he began to trace a spell in midair.

A beat later, with his other hand too. Intuitively, I could tell that he was using both hands while simultaneously activating two spells.

“Maddox, don’t let them get away! Stop him!”

“Well, that’s impossible, isn’t it?”

“Exactly right.”

The three voices almost perfectly overlapped. Arc’s magic reached completion that quickly. The first manifested with a flash of light.

In the s.p.a.ce of a moment, the shining spell symbol came apart, transforming into a wall of golden radiance.

It was similar to the magic produced by the magus tool Guibenague had. Or rather, it was the exact same one. In other words, a teleportation spell.
The moment the thought came to me, Arc’s other spell finished. Its symbol radiated light in a similar way.

“I’m a bit sorry for this.”

Giving me a mild warning, Arc touched the top of my shoulder with the hand that had been casting the spell.

“Gah–!?”

In that moment, a tremendous shock smashed into me from my shoulder and tore through my entire body. At the same time, crack, there was the sound of something breaking open at the back of my head.

I knew it. Arc —

Before I could reach whatever that conclusion was, darkness interrupted my consciousness.