4
The rations provided were surprisingly generous considering the city’s current state.
That went for the food and the clinics, too, but it made Garfiel wonder where the city had the money to spare to cover it all.
“It is not spare capacity; it is surely just carefully choosing where to exert what little they have. If the quality of life drops dramatically, then people’s hearts will waver in the face of the monumental task of reconstruction. Sir Kiritaka has thought it through more carefully than I had imagined him capable of.”
“That naive guy, huh…?”
Garfiel’s fangs flashed at Wilhelm’s comment as he started into his food.
Because of the battle with the cultists, Garfiel’s opinion of Kiritaka had changed dramatically. He was unmistakably one of the people who had done everything he could to protect the city. He usually looked unreliable, but when push came to shove, he worked twice as hard as anyone. On that point, he had a bit in common with Subaru.
—That thought caused Garfiel’s chest to ache a little bit.
“Mmm, delicious, delicious! A tasty meal is bliss! Mimi is moved!”
“Ha-ha, it is wonderful that you are in good spirits. I am sure that is a relief for Sir Garfiel as well.”
“Ah, yeah.”
Wilhelm’s expression softened cheerfully as he watched Mimi’s energetic display. Garfiel’s green eyes twinkled as he responded to the old swordsman.
The two of them were comrades who had set out to take back Lust’s control tower together during the fighting.
On the way there, he had not pried, and they had been split up during the fighting and had not met back up until the battle was over for both of them, but—
“Is there something you wanted to ask me?”
Garfiel was at a loss for words as Wilhelm seemingly read his mind.
Seeing Garfiel’s eyes waver, Wilhelm nodded slightly.
“Of course, there are some things I cannot say, but I am in your debt for allowing me to face my wife. If there is something these old bones can answer for you, then I will gladly do so.”
“Face my wife.” Garfiel had heard him say a similar thing before the battle as well. And if he was still saying that afterward, then that was how it was.
The opponent Wilhelm had fought really was Theresia van Astrea.
In which case, the opponent Garfiel fought really was—
“Was I really fightin’ Eight-Arms Kurgan?”
“ ”
“…I’m aimin’ to be the strongest. I need to be the strongest. That’s my job. That’s my promise with the general. But this ain’t it. This ain’t the summit I was lookin’ for.”
Garfiel clenched his fist as Wilhelm’s blue eyes narrowed while he listened quietly.
Eight-Arms Kurgan, the war god, the Volakian Empire’s strongest warrior. At a dozen points at least during that fight, Garfiel had been prepared to lose, to die. He had thought there was no way he could win.
And yet here he was sitting before Wilhelm. He had won against that war god and survived.
And he was proud of that fact. And the people around him considered it something to be proud of, too.
But that truth and what others thought was something entirely different from what Garfiel could be satisfied with.
“Has winning a hollow victory left an unpleasant aftertaste?”
“He was definitely a crazy opponent. But that fight… He was…”
Was that legend really someone that Garfiel’s hands could reach?
That doubt, that disbelief was stirring in his fists, in his fangs, and in the depths of his heart.
“You are the one who faced him, so what you felt should be the correct answer. However, I can also understand the feeling of dissatisfaction with that answer. So if you do not mind, allow me to express what are merely my own personal thoughts—the two people that we faced both were and were not the same people they had been before death.”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“There is no denying the truth of the matter that their corpses were defiled and turned into puppets by the Witch Cult. But I also believe the words they spoke in their final moments were real.”
Hearing that, Kurgan’s final message echoed in Garfiel’s ears. The war god had left a single word for Garfiel, who had expended every last drop of his energy.
“In his last moment, he did say one word…”
“You should keep that word in your heart— That was the praise that Eight-Arm Kurgan offered up to the warrior who defeated him. It is not for an outsider to hear.”
“—Ngh. But are you sure? Was that really him? He was manipulated, and dead to boot, so if…”
Even if that was fake, if everything between them was meaningless, then did that mean that the fight between Garfiel and Kurgan wasn’t real, either?
Garfiel’s breathing sped up at that unease and fear.
“Garf, don’t go there.”
“…Ah?”
“The old man looked a little lonely just now. So Mimi thinks that isn’t something to push so deep into? Also, your eyes look really bad, too. Leave it alone!”
Mimi started jabbing him in the side. Garfiel furrowed his brow at the feeling of her finger poking him as he finally noticed the expression on Wilhelm’s face.
Finally, he realized that he had been unconsciously and rudely prying at Wilhelm’s own wound.
“…Sorry, I couldn’t see anything goin’ on around me.”
He apologized. He had been kicking mud all over the sword devil’s one-night rendezvous with his wife.
He had been forced to see his dead wife against her will and then ended it with his own sword. And Garfiel had been trampling on their parting words by suggesting it might all be a lie.
I’d have no right to complain if he cut me down right here and now for that.
But Wilhelm just shook his head.
“You needn’t trouble yourself. At your age, it is only natural that you would be impatient to find your answer. Indeed, that you could bring yourself to apologize proves you are far more adult than I was at your age.”
“…It’s hard to believe you were ever like that.”
“Not at all. I was a fool. Then…and perhaps even now.”
Wilhelm looked down, as if in thought, and Garfiel felt a sting of awkward embarrassment.
Wilhelm was famed as the sword devil and the stories about him were legion, but it was hard to imagine with his genteel manner now. If anything, his words sounded like the merciful consolation of a kindly older man.
I’ve got a lotta things I’ve screwed up since coming to Pristella that I needa think about…
But either way—
“Sparing the roundabout phrasing, the two people we fought regained themselves only in the very moment of their death. Before that moment, the skill of her sword was false… Were it not, if I had truly fought my wife in her prime, there would be no way that I at my age would have returned alive. And I can say the same for Kurgan.”
“If we fought them in their prime, we wouldn’t have won?”
“Neither you nor I. I would be a corpse, and you would be naught but hunks of flesh scattered about. That is the truth.”
“Y-you say that, but I…”
“—Don’t get cocky, kid.”
—The next instant, there was a massive swell, and Garfiel reflexively leaped backward.
“ ”
Garfiel had launched himself toward the door and was crouched on all fours breathing wildly. As everyone around them looked stunned at his sudden, strange action, Mimi was calmly still eating, cleaning the fish’s meat off the bone.
“Th-that was…”
“You give off the feeling of great potential, Sir Garfiel. But you are as yet untempered, and that talent is still being forged. I am already in the realm of the ancient past, but…I know the real deal. And that just now was but one small fragment of it.”
“ ”
“The summit you are reaching for is not weak enough that you can reach it as you are now.”
Saying that, Wilhelm wiped his mouth and stood up, indicating that he had said what needed to be said. In addition, his gaze turned not to Garfiel, but to Mimi.
“Being able to recognize in an instant the lack of malice behind this great an aura. Splendid.”
“Mmm? I mean, it’s not like you have any reason to do anything bad to us, right?”
“You have quite the discerning eye. With you by his side, there is no need to worry about him taking the wrong path.”
Nodding at Mimi’s easy answer, Wilhelm turned to the exit. Naturally, he passed by Garfiel at the doorway in doing so. And as he passed:
“It is a good thing to have someone who cares about you. A woman like that will surely be a boon in your life.”
“—Ngh! Her?! I already have another woman I’m in love with.”
“Be that as it may, do not allow yourself to lose that blessing— May you not end up like a certain withered old devil.”
With those last words, Wilhelm walked outside.
Garfiel watched his back silently and then gnashed his teeth in annoyance. Going roughly back to his seat, he quickly scarfed down all the food that was left.
“Ah, that’s bad manners, Garf!”
“I don’t wanna hear that from the girl who was stealin’ from my plate. Argh, damn it! I’m more pissed now than before I talked to him.”
After cleaning up the empty dishes, Garfiel violently ran his hand through his hair.
Instead of his confusion clearing up, it felt like he had a whole new thing to worry about. Mimi and Wilhelm. The two of them had both solved the problem troubling Garfiel before him, and their answers weighed heavily on him.
He was one step away from being able to come to terms with his strength and with what he should be doing, but he couldn’t seem to get the last bit of the way there, and it was bothering him.
“All right, let’s go, Garf!”
“…You sure are cheerful. So where are we going?”
As they stepped outside, Mimi smiled as she held her hands up to the blue sky. Garfiel lined up beside her, grimacing as she cocked her head.
“Hrmmm, isn’t it obvious? To your brother and sister and mom’s place!”
Mimi had started walking lightheartedly. He began to follow her, but his legs stopped. His pupils shrank, and he flashed his fangs. Keeping his calm, he turned around.
“What’d you say?”
“We’re going to your family’s place! That’s the most important thing for you right now!”
Mimi puffed out her chest at that entirely unfounded statement, and her tail was standing up straight.
She pointed straight at Garfiel, who was speechless.
“It’s best to properly talk with your family! That’s what Roshi taught me!”
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