Chapter 108
“Then that would mean he awakened before you, Lynette. And before the aftereffects piled up, he just happened to meet you, and by chance realized you were his Guide through the pendant. Don’t you think that sounds absurd?”
“…”
“The pendant… fine, that can be explained somehow. If you said it was a family heirloom passed down through generations, it wouldn’t be entirely incomprehensible.”
Eshar calmly added that such an explanation was hardly enough to overlook the pendant’s extraordinary ability.
“If Sillian were just an ordinary Esper, he would have already been lying in one of the Empire’s Esper asylums. That’s how it usually is.”
“There are cases where an Esper miraculously meets their Guide before losing consciousness.”
“Such cases exist, but not even one in a thousand. Yet that man conveniently found you before collapsing from the aftereffects, happened to realize through the pendant that you were his Guide, and furthermore never even reported himself as an Esper to the Empire.”
“…”
“Lynette, when exactly did you say you awakened?”
“…What?”
“You said you awakened as a Guide. But if I remember correctly, you hadn’t awakened yet on the day you confirmed it with the pendant.”
There was no way out. Even if she lied and said she awakened right afterward, the time before then would still remain suspicious. Since an unawakened Lynette could not have guided him, it would only raise the question of how he had not collapsed during that period.
Even vague excuses failed her, no words came to mind. As Lynette clamped her lips shut, Eshar frowned slightly, lost in thought. A heavy silence settled between them.
“Is it that you don’t want to say?”
“That’s not it. But… I don’t know what I should say…”
“What I want is the truth.”
How much should she reveal, and where should she stop?
Her troubled expression made Eshar speak flatly.
“If someone poses a potential risk, removing them is one way.”
“…What?”
“I don’t know how much Euphen has told you, but moving toward the throne is no simple matter, Lynette. It’s quite literally ‘a matter of life and death.’”
Hearing aloud what she had only vaguely imagined sent chills down her spine. There was only one throne, and those pushed aside by their siblings rarely met a good end. But she had never once considered that Euphen himself could be the one at risk.
‘A matter of life and death…’
Lynette clasped her hands tightly together. In this life, she had thought she was protecting him, but instead she had placed him in danger.
No, perhaps even if things had unfolded just like in her previous life, Euphen would have ended up contending for the throne anyway. Since her fate had always been with Eshar, after her death the same outcome might have occurred. Was this, too, simply one of the paths fate had laid out?
Even so, the guilt of worsening the situation was inescapable. If she hadn’t acted rashly, he might have had more time.
She looked quietly at Eshar. Her face carried the resolve of someone that has already decided.
“This may sound cruel… but Guides can live perfectly well without their Espers, can’t they?”
Euphen suddenly came to mind. Did Eshar think the same even while having her own Esper? Or was it because Euphen was an Imperial Prince, useful to her, and someone she could never afford to abandon, that she wouldn’t so easily discard him?
“Sillian will be fine.”
Lynette answered in a slightly trembling voice. She couldn’t tell if her fear came from thinking of Euphen, or from the thought that Sillian might die.
“Calling it fine doesn’t erase how suspicious his very existence is.”
But no matter how suspicious he seemed, she could never agree to killing him. The memory of those red eyes looking at her, and the desperate voice begging her to take care of herself, came vividly to mind.
‘Sillian is an Esper.’
And he was remarkably skilled at wielding his ability. It reassured her somewhat that he did not seem like someone who would be easily killed. Yet that relief quickly vanished, for Eshar was not one to retreat so simply.
Strictly speaking, the matter itself wasn’t even that complicated.
If she left with him, far, far away, there would be no need to endure such suspicion. That’s what she was about to say, until a sudden thought flashed across her mind, startling her.
“…Does His Highness the Imperial Prince know of this as well?”
At that, Eshar paused, then answered as though it were nothing.
“I don’t think he would oppose it. In a sense, the man is a rival, so he might even be pleased.”
“His Highness is not that kind of person!”
The words burst out of Lynette instinctively. Euphen was not someone who would kill another and take joy in it, he was not cruel like that. At her reaction, Eshar let out a faint laugh.
“If you don’t kill, you die. Do you really think Euphen would act like a saint in that situation, Lynette?”
“…”
“Even if he would, I am no saint.”
Her meaning was clear. She would deal with Sillian as a threat, no matter what.
Lynette pressed her lips tightly together, then lifted her gaze to meet Eshar’s directly.
“I will leave.”
It was the only answer she could give. She repeated herself once more, firmly.
“When you awaken, Miss Eshar, Sillian and I will leave this place.”
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