358 – Afterword: Yurensto – 2
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
In the deep darkness, all lanterns extinguished, Yuna and I lay side-by-side on the bed, our eyes wide open. In silence.
Because our attempts to fall asleep, our attempts at tenderness, had both failed.
It wasn’t as if we hadn’t tried to create that kind of atmosphere. We had permission for a shared bed, and figured we could at least playfully caress one another, even if we didn’t go all the way. So we cautiously touched each other.
“Ahem⋯⋯.”
“Hmm⋯⋯.”
At that moment, we saw the same emotion in each other’s eyes. That unsettling feeling, that suspicion.
The Yurensto couple, these folks don’t seem to have changed. What was the point of talking about a joint wedding ceremony? And above all, that Ju-whatever. The part about Yuna’s younger sister feels uneasy. Even if she is supposedly dieting, shouldn’t her family at least show her face once?
I subtly groped around Yuna’s ribs, trying to feel her figure, but then that conversation from before kept coming back to mind.
They talked about aristocratic pride, but ultimately the Yurensto couple didn’t offer a single coin when the Violet Magic Tower was most strapped for cash, right?
The risqué mood vanished at that sudden thought.
Yuna, too, explored my neck with her small fingers, tracing down to my collarbone, but then, as if a suspicious point had occurred to her, she suddenly fell deep in thought.
“⋯⋯They didn’t boast about the 『Wall of Glory』. Huh. They used to love that wall so much. Ah, sorry. It just popped into my head.”
“Understood.”
And so, the atmosphere was shattered. Two characters in a melodramatic drama were filming the opening scene of a detective novel.
“Um, should we just⋯⋯ sleep without doing anything else today?”
“Uh, let’s do that.”
In the end, we just decided to lie flat.
You could say that if we were so curious, we should just investigate, but there was a reason we hesitated.
If we didn’t pry, if we just pretended not to know, Yuna could at least maintain the facade of a happy family. I remember how happy Yuna was at the Yurensto couple’s praise.
Truth can be painful sometimes. Hope was said to be at the bottom of Pandora’s box, but all sorts of dreadful things were crammed on top of it.
A pretty facade isn’t always a bad thing. If you can find joy and meaning from it, whether it’s an illusion or reality, isn’t that a good thing? So I was just⋯⋯ trying to pull the blanket over myself and fall asleep.
Yuna seemed to be thinking something similar.
I didn’t have parents in my past life, and in this life, my parents sold me off. She might have been thinking that if Yuna herself could just ignore her curiosity, I could at least indirectly experience some familial affection from her mother’s side.
Without a word, we could roughly understand each other’s thoughts. And so, for each other’s sake, we kept our mouths tightly shut. But our eyelids just wouldn’t close.
“…I can’t stand this nagging feeling.”
*Thwack.*
Yuna and I simultaneously threw back the covers, rising to a half-seated position. Yuna hastily tied her loose hair into pigtails, and then spoke tentatively.
“…Want to go take a look?”
“…Should we?”
Right, can’t hold back. We’re the types who need to investigate anything that piques our interest, and deliver a low kick to anything that rustles in the dark. What we need right now isn’t a honeymoon, but the wisdom of Artemis.
I snapped my fingers, and the robe of the Violet Tower enveloped me. Yes, this feeling of security. The ornate gowns were awfully cumbersome and inconvenient. Yuna seemed pleased with this familiar appearance, too.
I felt a little wistful.
“…Didn’t you like the dressed-up me? It seems like you prefer my everyday attire.”
“No, that’s, it’s not that I disliked it… I did like it. But seeing you all dolled up makes my heart race and it’s a little overwhelming. Your usual self gives me a sense of calm, so it’s comforting.”
“If it’s that kind of issue, then fine. Shall we go comfortably tonight, Detective?”
“…Yeah. Let’s begin, Watson.”
We returned to our Violet Tower duo form, and silently, *sashay-sashay*, slipped out the door. Time to see what this unsettling sense lurking in the darkness truly is.
—
*Sashay-sashay-sashay-sashay.*
Concealed by optical camouflage from illusion magic, we moved with swift stealth. The second floor where we were staying seemed truly devoid of staff. Not a soul in the corridor.
Where to begin our search?
“The ‘Wall of Glory’ should be in the corner of the first floor, if it hasn’t been moved. If we see that, we might be able to figure out if your parents have changed, or not.”
“Okay. Then, instead of using the stairs like good little girls, let’s take the window.”
We opened the window in the second-floor corridor and climbed out, sliding down the wall. Then, we disabled the security device on the first-floor corner room’s window and slipped directly inside.
*Thump.*
Invasion complete in an instant. The inside was dark, without a light on, so I created a cone of light with my fingertips and projected it onto one wall. Like a flashlight.
I didn’t want to illuminate the entire room, lest light leaked through the door cracks.
The walls were filled with achievements. The accomplishments of Count and Countess Urensto, and below them, the names ‘Siscel,’ ‘Yuna,’ ‘Yuna’s Younger Sister.’ Their ‘Glory’.
‘Award from the Redburn Dukedom’s Children’s Martial Arts Competition’.
‘Praise from Madame Alorad’s Salon’.
‘Academy Admission Certificates,’ and so on.
The family’s various accomplishments were plastered densely all over the walls. The obsessive density made my head spin, but Yuna tilted her head, looking puzzled.
“…Why?”
“Not much seems to have changed, considering…”
“You think?”
“Yeah. It looked about like this even before I left the family. And look at the dates. These records on the wall are all from years ago.”
He was right. The ‘glory’ plastered on this wall was definitely from a bygone era. Had they stopped updating? Had the Urensto couple shed their obsession with prestige and turned over a new leaf?
If so, all the better. Our misgivings were just needless worry.
“Did Juelle and Sissel do something while I was gone? Or maybe they had a sudden realization and changed their minds… ＜i＞Hic.＜/i＞”
“…………?”
Yuna gasped, like someone who’d stumbled upon something truly shocking. Her gaze was fixed upwards. The ceiling, to be exact.
I aimed the flashlight beam above. And saw.
“…………”
‘Concerning Sissel Urensto, Knight of the Eastern Front’
‘The Violet Magic Tower Lord: The Reason for Receiving Imperial Funding’
‘Records from the Year 445: Praised for Her Beauty at Count Browsh’s Banquet’
The ceiling was crammed, barnacle-like, with ‘glory.’
I swung the light around. The wall next to it, the wall beyond that, the whole room was choked with ‘glory.’ It even carpeted the floor. All of it was brimming with stories about Sissel and Yuna.
Small compliments, even the most trivial tidbits, were immortalized. One wouldn’t amass this much material even when worshipping someone.
“Holy shit…”
A chill ran down my spine.
The Urensto couple hadn’t changed. They’d only gotten worse.
Perhaps Sissel and Yuna’s ‘successes’ had reinforced the Urensto couple’s beliefs. Oblivious to the fact that their daughters’ souls were crumbling, they smugly believed their methods had led to such triumphs.
That, in itself, wasn’t the core issue. The problem lay elsewhere.
I gleaned two unsettling things from these walls. Name-brand Eastern Front Knight Sissel Urensto, Violet Magic Tower Lord Yuna Urensto… Their ‘glory’ was mountainous.
But their youngest sister’s, Juelle’s, ‘glory’ was scarce.
Yuna’s complexion rapidly worsened.
“…They must have compared her. Compared her, to us. ‘Your sisters are doing so well, so what are *you* doing?'”
I couldn’t even fathom the sheer pressure the gap must have created.
Which meant…
*’I’m only eating one meal a day to lose weight. As her wedding draws near, a bride must be at her fairest!’*
The countess’ words took on a cruelly new meaning. We began searching the dense *Wall of Glory* for clues. A meager glory hung in one of the corner in the room:
-Juelle Urensto, betrothed to Count Monteub.
“…I know this man. It was long ago, but I heard about him often from my parents. He carries the imperial bloodline, strong and true. If one were to marry such a man and bear children, the golden hair of the Yurensto family would only grow richer.”
“Perhaps, the marriage was pursued specifically to strengthen the noble bloodline. Like…some sort of eugenics program.”
Being constantly compared to sisters who soared to such heights, only to be virtually sold off to another family in marriage… a conjecture.
An unpleasant tale.
But so far, it remains conjecture. Could it not be that Yuna’s little sister coincidentally fell in love with a man of good lineage and successfully tied the knot?
That thought was shattered by Yuna’s next words.
“…This Count Monteuv, he was already in his fifties back then. He must be in his sixties now…”
“Heavens.”
Yuna and I met each other’s gaze in the darkness. When we look at each other like this, we can read each other’s minds without uttering a word.
Tear it all down.
They are beyond the boundaries of what we can accept.
“…I wanted to be loved. I could even endure love tainted with lies and deception. But love that inflicts pain on others? That, I cannot abide. I cannot just stand by and let this happen.”
“Then let us rewrite the story. At the very least, we must extract your sister from this situation. Cissel has found her own life, so your sister, too, deserves that chance. Let’s go hear her story.”
“Yes, let’s go.”
I raise a finger and extend my mana. Scanning the entirety of this mansion, pinpointing the location of Yuna’s sister’s room. The bio-signature emanates from the third floor.
We transformed into a butterfly and a raven, flapping our wings and soaring upwards. We gently opened a third-floor window and slipped inside, landing with careful grace.
A gaunt young woman lies on a lavish bed. She sleeps as if dead. By no stretch of the imagination does she appear to need to lose weight.
“Where is there even any fat to lose…”
“Juel, Juel… wake up a moment.”
Tap, tap.
Yuna gently shakes her, and her eyelids flutter open, revealing violet eyes. Heavy with sleep and drowsiness.
The gears in her brain grind to life, and Yuna’s sister realizes that two intruders have somehow entered her room. She opens her mouth to scream.
“…Quek!”
But the scream is cut short. The truncated sound is somewhat endearing.
Her eyes dart back and forth, before she attempts a casual tone.
“…If you are thieves, you would be better off ransacking other rooms. All that is here are dresses and corsets, and there is not even any food. If you are willing to take the gemstone fragments that decorate the dress frills, then by all means, be my guest.”
I am impressed.
“Indeed, her bloodline is extraordinary. She is Yuna’s sister; her judgment is remarkably swift.”
“… … … …?”
Suppressing the urge to scream bloody murder—lest she find herself on the receiving end of a blade—Yuna had swallowed her own noise and presented the thugs with everything they might conceivably desire.
Yuna’s sister, it seemed, had finally completed her assessment. She stared, piercingly, into Yuna’s violet eyes, at last recognizing the shared blood.
“…Yuna, elder sister?”
“Yes. It is your Yuna, sister.”
“Ah… the mansion was in such an uproar; it must have been your return. A very… belated welcome. You abandon the family, live comfortably in the Mage’s Tower, and now—”
“Enough.”
*Thump.*
To forestall needless trouble, Yuna clapped a hand over her sister’s mouth. She preferred a swift resolution to a recital of the horrific time she endured in the Mage’s Tower.
She spoke plainly, directly.
“I can rescue you. If you wish to remain in the Urensto household, shake your head. If you wish to escape and live elsewhere, nod.”
“…”
Yuna’s sister moved her head in a triangular fashion.
“?”
We were still puzzling over the meaning when Yuna’s sister removed the hand from her mouth and spoke, with startling audacity.
“Not that I’d want to live as a commoner. Unless I possessed some talent like my esteemed elder sisters, I would likely end up toiling in a brothel if I were to leave the family. Better to keep my noble title, then.”
“…”
“I appreciate your willingness to assist. However, I must inquire whether sufficient monetary support will accompany this…rescue. How much debt has accrued? And are there any other conditions?”
“…!!”
Yuna’s sister was not your average person, either.