Chapter 58 - Volume 2 (2/2)

From his low voice, I could sense his definite seriousness. With a strained smile, I nodded. Then for the second time, I faced the door. Before I realized it, my nervousness had disappeared somewhere. Sensing the gazes of that man and the leader of the knights at my back, I turned the doorknob especially slowly. Then, I entered that room. From behind, I immediately closed the door.

The interior of the room was extremely simple. In the center was a table with two chairs in front and behind it. Along the wall was a plain bed, and there was nothing else. There wasn’t even a window, instead the only light source was the light from a magic jewel, permanently placed there. It wavered slowly, making the room awfully bright. Then, recognizing the sight of one person sitting on the bed, I gulped. He slowly lifted his head, making a gentle smile I’d never seen on him before.

「Hey, Suzette. …….Or, should I say, Filmina.」

「Sir… Celves…」

This room…… It could be called prison assigned to people of noble social status. I knew that in this room, he——Celves, would be here. But even so, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

Celves smiled bitterly at me as I froze in front of the door. He stood up from the bed, sitting again in the chair in the center of the room.

「You should sit too. Your condition can’t possibly have returned to normal, right?」

Celves pointed at the chair on the other side of the table. I somehow managed to nod in reply, sitting down into the chair as I was told.

The request I asked that man was if he’d let me meet Celves, currently in confinement.

Of course, I was stopped like it was only natural. I was also told 「Are you an idiot?」 again. Even I myself thought I was being an idiot. It was incredibly selfish, if I do say so myself. But in the end, he gave in. He talked to the leader of the knights and prepared this place for me.

I can’t thank him enough for this. But now that I was in front of Celves, I couldn’t figure out what the heck I wanted to say. Even so, I opened my mouth somehow, searching for words.

「Um, Sir Celves, your hair……」

Even I myself think that was a stupid thing to say for my first words. But even so, I couldn’t help but ask that. As far as I knew, his hair color was white mixed with grey, and it was supposed to be plaited, reaching his mid-back. But now, his hair was different. His hair had been cut short to the top of his shoulders, the grey that was certainly mixed in it before was lost, it had become completely white. It wasn’t like the princess’s hair, sparkling silver either. It was just… White. Even though it was just his hair color that changed, he looked considerably aged from the Celves in my memory.

At my question, 「Ah,」 Celves entwined his fingers in his hair like it was no big deal.

「This? It’s been like this ever since I was cuffed with this magic seal. The color came out.」

Celves showed me the slender white rings on both of his wrists, as if cutting through the dark red bruises entwined around his arm. It looked like the rings had been somehow welded onto his wrists, impossible to remove. As I lost my words, Celves just smiled gently.

「Don’t make that face, would you? It’s strange even for me, but I’ve gotten rather comfortable since it turned out like this.」

Those words were probably not just to comfort me, but what Celves really thought. The Celves I’d come into contact with until now normally had an atmosphere of a certain hardness to him. But now he was different. The gentle smile on his face told all that.

——Black hair is a sign of magical power. The closer a person’s hair is to black, the stronger that person’s magical power is.

I remembered a theory in a magical book I read with that man when we were younger. Celves’s hair turning to white meant nothing other than he had lost his magical power. But Celves didn’t seem to care, in fact, his atmosphere was gentler than before, and he was just smiling calmly like that. I couldn’t say anything. There’s no way I could say anything. As I remained silent, Celves continued.

「It’s not my place to say this considering what happened, but I’m really glad you’re alive.」

My shoulders shook. I didn’t know how to reply when none other than he was telling me that straight to my face.

「I’m sorry for saying these things. But in this room, when I heard that you were alive, I was certainly happy. Although I might not have been able to believe it, I was really happy.」

Unable to find the words, in the end I replied with nothing but silence. Celves smiled worriedly at me.

「But, I was also worried. Because once she found out that I’d failed to erase ‘Lancent’s wife’, she… Luna would definitely make a move herself.」

「……Sir Alhelm told me that they could arrest Lady Luna thanks to you testifying that you cursed me on Lady Luna’s command.」

「Haha. Luna must’ve been in a bad mood. Ever since the old days, she never let me oppose her.」

At his close way of speaking, I realized that Celves and Lunamerie were certainly engaged, as she said. It was rather ironic since his testimony had turned into a clue of truth that Lunamerie was quite literally aiming for my life.

The other day, the leader of the knights came to visit me and told me that when I was kidnapped by Lunamerie’s subordinates, they heard everything thanks to the magical jewel. That conversation was unshakable proof that Lunamerie was the mastermind behind all this.

While Lunamerie said everything there, it was all transmitted to that man and the leader of the knights through the magical jewel. But he told me with a wry smile that it was really hard to stop Agedilus, who kept trying to teleport there and scramble in first.

Then, based on that proof, Lunamerie was arrested just like Celves. According to what I heard, she still couldn’t understand her circumstances and kept wanting to see that man, Agedilus. Celves didn’t exist for her. Celves seemed to understand that already without having to be told that.

「——It was impossible, unreasonable from the start.」

「Huh?」

I reflexively raised my head which was cast downward, at those words he muttered. Celves looked like he was looking somewhere far away, narrowing those eyes of his, azure like a deep, clear sea.