Oath With Elena
The female thief whose neck was snapped crumbled down. I saw the sorcery armor dispersing from her body. I cut her throat with a knife to completely finish her off.
「……cough-」
Blood spilled out when I coughed a little. Perhaps my internal organ got wounded when my stomach was stabbed, or perhaps the poison had circulated inside my body. I fell on my knees and fell backward when I heard a scream.
「Aria-!!」
When I turned only my gaze slightly to there, I saw Elena crawling to where I was. It seemed that the poison’s effect to her had lessened considerably, but she was still unable to move properly. ……Elena was safe. I also didn’t see any visible injury on her. I took a breath after seeing that my mission was complete, even so I used Heal to regain stamina even just for a little in order to keep my dying body struggling till the end.
Considering all the sorceries and Battle Skill I had used, my remaining magic power was around half. By using Heal on top of that here, I guess I only had around 30 or 40 remaining now. That amount also showed my 『remaining life』.
「Aria-, what a horrible injury……」
Elena who reached my location turned pale seeing my wounds.
「……You safe?」
「Think about yourself rather than me-! It’s impossible for Heal to treat a wound this deep. I’ll quickly use Cure to……」
「No……need. Rather than that……can you use……Treat?」
「I can but……but it’s impossible-! Without knowing what kind of poison it is, I can’t remove the foreign substance-!」
Elena shook her head with a white face knowing that I was inflicted with poison.
「……Kilg grass……venom gland of rock snake……Sakuar fruit……flower of autumn rain tree……」
「……eh?」
「Perhaps……the poison……use some of them.」
I had read the handwritten wild grasses book that woman stole from her teacher’s place over and over in order to learn how to read and write letters. I planned to learn alchemy too someday, so I kept reading it thoroughly even until the detailed explanations and memorized them.
According to that book, those four poison materials could be obtained around this country to make a poison that was accompanied by this kind of pain. There were also other ingredients, but looking at how the female thief spread the poison on her daggers so that she could use it anytime, I believed that she wasn’t using rare ingredients that were hard to obtain. Her poison was using one of the materials that I mentioned or perhaps multiple of them. Perhaps, she also mixed in other ingredient to increase the effect, but if the fundamental poison ingredient was erased, the rest should vanish on its own with time.
「I-I know about Kilg grass and Sakuar fruit. But, I never see something like rock snake’s poison gland or the autumn rain thing-!」
「……Then……imagine Sajua seed and lavender……to use the sorcery. That’s them ……counter ingredient……」
「Aria……where, did you get that kind of knowledge……」
「Quick……」
「I-I understand. But, even if I erase the poison your wound……」
「Look at……pouch…」
「Yours? Is it this……」
Elena took out two potion bottles made from porcelain from the pouch on my waist.
「The pretty…bottle, is cheap stuff……the old bottle……strong potion……」
「I just need to use them on you right?」
Those too were things that woman stole from her sorcery teacher. I thought of returning them if I could but, I wouldn’t be able to if I died. Elena tore the seal with a shaky hand, then she pulled out the cork that was fixed in place with a wax. I felt a sharp pain and unconsciously let out a groan.
「You won’t heal with just this potion-! As I thought first I should use Cure……」
「Elena, you use……Treat. I’ll……use Cure.」
Healing potion’s effect was closer to “healing” rather than “regeneration”, so I never expected to be healed with this from the start. I still never succeeded in using Cure sorcery, even so the only way I could survive in this situation was to have Elena erasing the poison while I was using Cure on my own.
「──Treat──」
「……Cure……」
Elena chanted the spell and used Treat on me. I too used the pain to keep my hold on my consciousness that almost slipped away and chanted the spell to use Cure. It only gave of a faint light before vanishing immediately.
Elena looked at me anxiously. However I shook my head and made her continued using the sorcery Treat.
Treat wasn’t a sorcery that immediately showed effect. Concentration was needed to comprehend the foreign object and erase it. It would take even more time especially in a situation like this where the foreign subject wasn’t specified.
Since I failed the previous time, I had been thinking why Cure didn’t activate……and why there were only a few people who could use it. The meaning of Cure’s incantation was generally known as 『return the body to before』. But, when I tried unfolding the incantation, the words 『regenerate』 and 『true form』 were hidden inside it.
Most likely I was lacking knowledge. Furthermore it was the knowledge of biology.
This was only my hypothesis but there was degree of difficulty in Cure. Although Elena said that she could use it, I guessed that she most likely could only regenerate the part that she could see. As for the part that she couldn’t see……for example the internal organs inside my body, wouldn’t she need specialist knowledge to heal that?
That was why I couldn’t use it. I only used Heal to treat normal wound. I failed in healing unseen part because my knowledge about it was vague. I guessed that I couldn’t use it unless I understood human’s vital parts like Sera. That woman had also learned about the body structure of human at the school in her previous life, but that didn’t mean she knew the precise location of internal organs.
I couldn’t fail anymore considering my remaining amount of magic power. But, the current me had the method to supplement that knowledge.
「──Feel──」
The original way to use this sorcery wasn’t to shoot out magic particle to 『grant the sensation of being touched』, but to 『obtain the sensation of being touched』 at where I shot the magic particle. I grasped the position of the internal organ that I felt from the reflection and identified the injured part. The injury was at……the stomach and liver parts.
「──Cure──」
My fingertip slightly shined when I chanted. The sorcery finally activated and my internal organs started to regenerate back to its unwounded state.
I recalled the function of stomach and liver from the “knowledge” and aimed Cure at the accurate location. With that the pain started to soften and my consciousness was sinking into darkness as I listened to Elena’s voice calling my name.
When I opened my eyes next, I was lying down again on the bed of the room that also doubled as sickbay.
It seemed that three days had passed since then. My injury had also healed without any trace, even so because my internal organ got injured, I was told to rest for a while from Viro who came visiting while bringing meat again.
I got praised and scolded by Sera. It seemed that female thief was famous around here. Apparently she was a thief who specialized in kidnapping noble and had the nickname as 『The Kidnapper』. It was good that I detected the kidnapping and stopped it, but rather than challenging an opponent who I had little hope to win against, but apparently the correct action I should take was to leave behind signs while continuing to pursue until the high ranked butler arrived.
Even so I was still an apprentice, and it was the high ranked butler who allowed the princess’s shopping to happen, and yet he didn’t realize the underground tunnel’s existence despite having changed the security detail. So he was the one who got asked to take responsibility while I was given cash reward without any reprimand.
This time there was no skilled scout placed at Elena’s side as her guard in consideration for her feeling, so in a sense this incident could be considered as inevitable, but apparently it wasn’t that kind of problem. In reality, an encircling net had been expanded from the moment Elena got kidnapped. No matter how skilled that female thief was in kidnapping noble, it seemed that the high ranked noble had the mean to rescue the princess.
That was why I was given cash reward this time wasn’t because I risked my life and rescued Elena, but because I resolved the problem before it got any bigger and prevented Margrave Dandall from taking the blame and responsibility because he was the one in charge of the security on the surface. Viro told me that secretly.
However the reason Sera highly evaluated my performance because my action kept the burden on Elena’s weak body from this kidnapping to the minimum. But I got scolded by Seo who did it while crying because my recklessness made me injured. However I was still alive in the end, and it looked like Elena and Sera had erased the scars of the injuries, so I thought that there was no problem in the work that I did though…….
I was unable to meet with that Elena since that day.
Although she was travelling incognito, Elena was the princess of this country, and I was nothing more than a maid apprentice who was formerly a street urchin, so there was no reason that she had to be concerned about me or me having to meet her at all cost.
Elena would stay in this place for two more weeks. I too thought that I would recover my stamina and be able to get back to work in several days, but that monitoring target of my job Elena had become completely obedient, so I was told to spend the remaining time to rest.
I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t concerned about her, but I resolutely accepted that there was nothing to be done about it and focused myself to my training and repairing my damaged tools. But then Sera handed me a memo. She ordered me to burn it immediately after I finished reading.
「…………」
.
The night before Elena returned to the capital, I climbed the castle wall while still wearing my maid uniform in order to head to my destination.
The designated time was at midnight when the clock tower’s bell rang once. I twined my pendulum’s string on the terrace’s handrail at the same time when the bell rang, then I strengthened the string with my magic power while getting down to the terrace. Seeing my entrance, the girl in pajama who was sitting beside the terrace’s table looked slightly surprised before she smiled gently.
「I come……Elena-sama.」
「Right in time. Welcome, Aria.」
That memo was an invitation from Elena. It ordered me to come meet her from outside at midnight tonight without being discovered by anyone. I could feel the presence of Sera’s colleagues outside, but they let me passed without doing anything.
I didn’t feel the presence of anyone from Elena’s room. Perhaps someone like Sera was hiding there, but there would be no end to it if I started getting bothered by that possibility, so I put it out of my mind.
「Aria, first thank you for saving me. Thanks to you, I was able to spend my time here till the end without falling sick.」
「No problem. It’s my job.」
「That’s just like you.」
For some reason Elena smiled. She stood up from her chair and moved to stand beside the handrail just like me. She touched the handrail, then we faced each other with a distance longer than our reach between us, as though to show our respective position.
「……Aria, who are you?」
My figure was reflected on Elena’s serious eyes. The me who was reflected there shook her head slightly.
「I’m just an orphan, just an adventurer, just Aria.」
「Right……」
She looked slightly lonely. Perhaps she was expecting some kind of reply.
「Aria……won’t you work under me?」
「I have no intention of serving anyone.」
「Even just as a guard?」
「I’m just an adventurer.」
A gust of wind blew. Elena’s blonde hair and my pink blond hair that was starting to grow fluttered.
「Aria, we aren’t “friends”.」
「Yes.」
「I’m a princess, and you are just an adventurer. We can’t stand on the same standing no matter what.」
「I know.」
「Then-……」
Elena’s voice got slightly louder, then she fell silent while searching for words. The usually mature and dignified girl was gone, and in her place was Elena with watery eyes wavering like a normal girl her age. I opened my mouth in her place before her lips could choose words that didn’t match her standing.
「We are the same kind.」
「Same kind……」
Both of us possessed bizarre knowledge that didn’t suit our age and continued to fight against our fate and solitude. But, we weren’t alone by any means. Even if our path was different, our feeling was always at each other’s side as we were heading to the same direction.
Did my meaning came across to her? The next moment, Elena’s face turned into the face of the 『princess』 who commanded this country and her clear blue eyes gazed straight at me.
「Then, my fellow kind Aria. As the princess, I swear that no matter how your standing become in the future, I will become your “ally” with all the strength that I have just for once.」
「In that case, I swear to my fellow kind Elena, no matter who it is……even if it’s the “king”, I shall stake my life just once to “kill” who you asked me to.」
We swore an oath not to anybody else, but to each other and ourselves.
Elena’s words were an oath to help me just once even if it would bring her to rebel against the king and caused herself to be disposed. That was why I swore that if she wished for it, even if it cost me my life, even if the opponent was this country’s king or the demon king, I swore that I would absolutely kill her target.
We…..weren’t alone.
「Just tell me one thing……tell me your real name.」
「……If you allow me to call you without any honorific then」
When I replied like that, Elena smiled just a little saying 「Asking that at this point」.
「Alicia.」
When I breathed my real name into the wind, Elna nodded solemnly nodded to carve that name inside her.
「……Farewell Aria. And my only Alicia.」
「Sayonara……Elena.」
.
Elena turned her back to me and vanished into her room without looking back even once. I saw her off silently before also disappearing soundlessly by jumping down from the terrace.
The next morning, Elena got into the carriage still with the expression of the princess. I too saw her off from the end of the line of the maids as one of the apprentice maids. I wonder if we would ever meet again. However both of us were fellow kind. Even if we were separated, the “oath” was living inside us.
Like that the work that Viro brought me for met its end, but after that for some reason I was called by the high ranked butler instead of Sera.
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