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ED: LonelyMatter
Chapter 5 – Something, Only She, Can Do
Part 1
It was late enough to enjoy lunch but still early enough in the evening to have dinner.
Olivia greeted Krone with a cheerful smile, as usual, despite her sudden arrival.
Olivia apologized at the beginning of her speech. It was about Krone’s decision to go to the Tower of Wisdom with Katima, but Krone shook her head and said,
“I went there because I wanted to. It was not Olivia-sama who ordered me to go.”
“…..But I couldn’t help you. I just said what I wanted to say and left it all up to Krone and the others.”
“No, we were able to act only because of Olivia-sama. So please don’t say that.”
Realizing that their conversation was going to endlessly parallel, they said nothing more.
“May I come to your side?”
Krone asked Olivia, who was sitting on the sofa.
The reply was, of course, “Of course.”
But it was unusual. Normally, Krone would sit opposite Olivia, but today, for some reason, she sat next to her.
“Olivia-sama──”
Krone suddenly hugged Olivia. This was something she had never done before. Yet Olivia was neither stunned nor surprised and wrapped her hands around Krone’s back and pulled her into a hug.
“This is the first time that Krone-san is being so spoiled.”
“….. I’m sorry. Just a little bit more is all that is needed.”
“No problem. You can do this for as long as you like.”
The calmness and softness. The scent of flowers enveloped her.
“When I first met Olivia-sama at a social gathering long ago, I had no idea I would be allowed to be so close to you.”
“Krone-san, you have been a wonderful girl since then. I also remember your slightly nervous face.”
“Geez… Please don’t say that again. I thought I was behaving well even then.”
“Fufufu. You were so cute.”
When loving the memories of the past without any preamble, as expected──this peace of mind was also a strong reminder that she never wanted to let go of it.
“I’ve always wanted to be pampered by Olivia-sama.”
“Ara ara, you are always welcome to be pampered by me. You can come to me whenever you want.”
“…..Thank you very much. I am very, very happy.”
The reason for the fading of the words was that there was no guarantee that they would be able to meet in the future.
“I never want… to ever lose it.”
Once again, she strongly felt that she did not want to let go of this comfort, and unlike before, she muttered it out in words.
“Hmm? Did you say something?”
“Yes. I said that I have to be careful not to be spoiled every day.”
If she did this for even a few more seconds, she would not be able to leave. So, shortly after she told a lie, Krone left Olivia’s side and stood up.
“Are you finished?”
“I’m sorry to leave you. But I’m afraid I won’t be able to leave if I don’t hold back.”
“No, you can’t. If you say such cute words to me, I want to put out the tree roots so you can’t escape.”
“Fufufu. It’s going to melt my brain as well.”
Then, Krone performed a graceful courtesy.
“Unfortunately, I have to get back to work now. Thank you for taking the time for me even though I came on such short notice.”
“No problem. Please come again anytime.”
She exchanged a last smile with Olivia, turned her back, and left the room.
As soon as she stepped out into the hallway, Krone contorted her cheeks and turned over with her hands on the leather pouch tucked into her chest.
“…..Olivia-sama. She looked pale again.”
Olivia was acting so stoutly that she didn’t want to mention it, but her complexion was even worse than before, and her body temperature was unusually low.
It goes without saying that all of this has something to do with her unconscious connection with Ain.
In other words, the situation was still not good.
“No…”
She hugged her upper body with her arms and trembled slightly. What she thought was the worst possible outcome.
──Then Martha approached with a panicked look on her face.
“Krone-sama! I’ve heard a report about the situation in Heim!”
After hearing that, Krone adjusted her breathing, slapped her cheeks, and refreshed her mind. When she heard that Sylvird had also gone to the audience chamber, she hurriedly left the place.
◇ ◇ ◇
The reason why Sylvird, Laralua, and Krone gathered in the audience chamber was because Lloyd had received word from Misty.
According to Lloyd, a glowing little bird came to the deck of the Leviathan, emitted Misty’s voice, and disappeared.
“Thanks to the efforts of everyone who went to Heim, Ain-sama’s rampage has been brought to a halt. I have received a report from Misty-sama that he is now in a dormant state.”
“──Ain was saved?”
“Of course! Your Majesty!”
Sylvird stood up to express his joy, and Laralua and Krone, who were present, hugged each other to express their relief.
However, Lloyd opened his mouth, interrupting the situation.
“But at present, we don’t know how to recover Ain-sama’s self-awareness. Misty-sama is searching for a way, and the three of them will remain in Heim to watch over him.”
“I understand. But what about Ain’s will? Did Misty-sama say anything?”
“Yes. I heard that Ain-sama is still fighting alone in his heart.”
Sylvird wrinkled his brow deeply and approached Lloyd.
“The will of Ain and the will of the Demon King….. or something like that, are clashing, isn’t that right?”
“That makes sense.”
Lloyd affirmed the question posed to him.
“Is there nothing we can do?”
“…Misty-sama told us to just wait and see what would happen. …I heard that even the four of them, including Marco-dono, had been driven to the brink of defeat.”
“W-what do you mean… Ain has become that strong…?”
“Yes… This is the result, even with the presence of Arche-sama. Now Ain-sama has become a being that we cannot even say that we can be of help.”
Sylvird covered his eyes and fell silent at Lloyd’s answer. Laralua, who was standing right beside him, was also speechless.
But only one person.
Krone opened her mouth.
“May I speak first?”
She saw Lloyd nodding and continued to speak.
“You didn’t tell us about the certainty of Ain’s return to normal. Does that mean that Misty-sama didn’t guarantee it either?”
“…It is indeed as you say, Krone-sama.”
She knew this, but it came to her mind.
Unlike Sylvird, who looked shocked, Krone asked calmly without raising an eyebrow.
“Please let me know what you think, Lloyd-sama. What do you think about the possibility of Ain running amok again? And if he does, what are the chances that we will have to defeat him?”
For Lloyd, this was a question he did not want to hear.
Actually, he did have an answer to this question. Because in Misty’s report, she provided the answer to that question.
──Although honestly, he’d rather keep his mouth shut.
“Lloyd. His Majesty and I are curious about that too.”
But keeping his mouth shut was no longer an option, as Laralua stated.
“If we can’t find a way to regain his consciousness, or if the will of the Demon King defeats Ain-sama, I’ve heard that this time he will not be able to suppress his rampage.”
He did his best to keep his words vague.
Combined with what Lloyd said earlier, it becomes clear what action will have to be taken as soon as signs of a rampage appear again.
“If we are to consider the impact the rampage will have on the world, we need to defeat it before it happens, don’t we?”
Krone uttered the words that no one wanted to say or understand.
Then Lloyd finally kept his mouth shut.
He could not deny it with a lie, nor did he want to affirm it. To lose Ain. No, not just Ain. He would lose one more person who was important to all of them.
──Yes. Olivia.
When it came to defeating Ain, Olivia, who was also rooted in the city, would also lose her life. Because everyone had not forgotten this fact, the air was even grimmer.
“──Therefore, I have to go by his side.”
The emotion that Krone had earlier was a strong feeling that she absolutely did not want to lose both Ain and Olivia.
“Your Majesty.”
Krone remained resolute.
“Those four of them together risked their lives to finally stop Ain. I don’t think they will be able to stop Ain when he wakes up next time, having grown even more.”
She went on to explain why it was necessary to take down Ain next.
“As soon as the signs of rampage appear… no, then it may be too late. It seems that the only way to prevent the world from being destroyed is to take Ain’s life before then or to save him.”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
The answer is always somewhat violent and throwaway.
“──I will struggle.”
Struggle for what? She didn’t say it.
Sylvird also looked at Krone’s profile and, like Lloyd, kept his mouth shut.
“My beloved has always been like that. He never gave up in the face of any unreasonableness and always stood up bravely. ──But I can never be like him.”
There was no trace of pessimism on her face. On the contrary, her face was clean and dignified, yet still noble.
“That is why I am struggling. I will risk everything to have another word with him.”
A moment of silence fell over the audience chamber.
Everyone ruminated over Krone’s words again and again in their minds, and a multitude of emotions took hold of them. It was awe, pain, courage──but the greatest of all was a disappointment.
“…..To be taught at this age.”
The most prominent of these was Sylvird. He says to Laralua, who has kept silent.
“Any little detail will do. Gather information from the researchers. I will ask Sierra to contact the elven chief.”
Laralua stood up and began to follow Sylvird, who had begun to walk away.
“W-wait, Your Majesty… Darling! Calm down! Oh, good heavens! Lloyd! Send all the reports to me! I’m going after that man!”
Seeing the two of them hurriedly leave, Lloyd stood up in dismay and turned to face Krone.
He was secretly shrugging his shoulders, but he, like Sylvird, was encouraged.
“I can’t let the two of them beat me. I will acknowledge the report as soon as I can and move on to find out what I can do… How have things been in the castle while I was away?”
Lloyd knew that the castle was also damaged. Then it would be something else, but if there was anything of note that happened…
“I hope it wasn’t anything special…”
“…No. There was one thing.”
There was one thing Krone remembered.
At dawn, she didn’t have time to tell Lloyd that Katima had taken Dill to the underground laboratory as soon as he left Heim, and she had not yet told him about this.
“Please go to Katima-sama’s basement lab. I think it would be better for you to see what happened rather than for me to tell you.”
“Mm… I don’t know, but sure.”
The fact that Krone usually gave detailed explanations made him tilt his head a little. But Lloyd quickly nodded back and left the audience chamber, leaving Krone’s side.
◇ ◇ ◇
Krone was headed for Chris’s room. Sierra was in that room, sitting next to the bed, watching over Chris.
“Chris has always been a hard worker.”
She opened her mouth immediately upon receiving Krone’s visit.
“She always wanted to be like Celestina-san──Her big sister, and she always followed her into the forest. The reason she decided to become a knight was because Celestina-san said so as if it was an idea that had just occurred to her.”
Until then, the two had never been outside of Sith Mill and had only been to nearby villages and towns.
“So after the disappearance of Celestina-san with His Highness the First Prince, she was depressed for a while… Or rather, she was lonely. After that, Her Royal Highness the Second Princess, whom she had been by her side as her personal attendant, also got married, so she must have lost her emotional anchor.”
Krone also knew that there was a royal prince named Rufai von Ishtalika. He was the first child of Sylvird and was a genius who did everything better than anyone else around him.
However, the first prince disappeared with Celestina in a place called “The Dungeon of the Unseen.” The case was still a mystery.
Ain, who was not present here, heard this information from Majolica, and Krone learned about it through an assignment Warren had given her when she was a child.
“Looking back, I often received letters in those days. But after a certain point, I stopped receiving them.”
“Was it, by any chance, about ten years ago?”
“You are right. The last letter I received from her was that the Second Princess had returned with the Crown Prince.”
Just by looking at the smiling Sierra, one can imagine that the contents of that letter were full of joy.
“Sierra-sama. Krone-sama. Pardon my intrusion.”
Martha then stepped in to serve tea for the two of them.
Just in time. Krone asked Martha.
“Martha-san, do you remember when Chris-san used to write letters?”
“Letters, you say──I see. You are referring to the letters to Sierra-sama, aren’t you? I remember the last time she wrote it was about ten years ago.”
Sierra’s eyes widened in surprise, and she said with a look of admiration.
“I-I am surprised. Remembering such things from so long ago, you must be a first-class servant.”
“I don’t remember everything, you know. I only remember the letter because I was involved in it.”
Martha finished pouring the tea and told the story.
──The letter was written in the early days of Ain’s arrival, shortly before Krone crossed over to Ishtalika.
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