Master and Slaves

"Muriel, it’ll be a bit of a detour, but there’s somewhere I want to go."

I said that on the day we parted from Nadja and the others.

Two days later, we were at that place I wanted to go. No. The place I had wanted to go.

It was a place where you could barely tell a village had been.

In other words, the remains of a village.

The houses were covered in grass, trees, and vines.

Some spots had rotted, but most of it had been destroyed.

"This is..."

I caught my breath at the sight and could not speak.

Tiria and Cathy gripped my hands tight.

Both of them, no, the three of them if I counted Sophia, were stunned by the scene.

"It has already been fifteen years..."

Muriel spoke from behind me.

Muriel, Sophia, Cathy, Tiria, Yuki, and I had been here fifteen years ago.

And because Cathy, Tiria, and I had spent nearly all of those fifteen years turned to stone, we did not feel the years.

The only one who felt that time exactly was Muriel.

Sophia... a long-lived elf who would live a thousand years seemed to have a weak sense of time.

And Yuki... she was behind me, gripping the hem of my clothes.

Right now, the ones at the remains of this village were Muriel, Sophia, Lilli, Cathy, Tiria, Yuki, and me.

The others were resting on the riverbed along the road.

I had wanted Cathy and Yuki to wait with the other Dules. This place would be too hard on them. But they had gone so far as to prostrate themselves and say they had to come, so I had brought them, with no other choice.

Lilli, who had been walking behind me, slipped past my side.

"Hiroyuki came with me today."

Then she set down the flowers she had picked on the way, in front of a stone in one corner of the square.

There were two stones.

"Master Hiroyuki, these are Kuno and Thomas’s graves."

Lilli turned toward me.

I walked up beside her.

"Under here..."

When I spoke to Lilli, she nodded.

Under here, Kuno’s and Thomas’s bodies were surely sleeping.

I let go of Tiria’s and Cathy’s hands, crouched beside Lilli, and pressed my hands together.

"What are you doing?"

"...Praying that Kuno and Thomas can rest in peace."

I answered Lilli’s question.

"It’s fine. A priest already came here, looks like. And no ghosts have shown up since then."

Lilli answered plainly.

"Ghosts showed up?"

"Yeah. It was the talk of Lubeck. They said lots of ghosts came out in the village that was gone. So a priest from the Urilmex Temple in Lubeck quieted the ghosts here."

...I see. They could not pass on.

Almost all the villagers had been killed, after all.

I closed my eyes again and pressed my hands together.

"...Sniff... I’m sorry... uu... I’m sor... ry... guh..."

Just then, crying reached me from behind.

I knew who it was.

I stood, and without a word I held Yuki, who had collapsed into tears behind me.

This place was hard for Yuki.

That was why I had said it would be better if she did not come, but she had insisted, so I had let her follow.

Crying, and with me supporting her, Yuki pressed her hands together toward the two gravestones too.

Elsewhere, markers of stone and wood stood here and there.

We pressed our hands together at each one.

On my right, Yuki. On my left, Muriel. Behind me, Sophia, Cathy, Tiria, and Lilli. All of them pressed their hands together the same way I did.

Everyone but Yuki kept glancing at me, though.

...

"Hey, Muriel. The truth is, there’s something I kept from all of you."

On the walk from the village remains to the riverbed where Rosina and the others were, I spoke to Muriel, who followed at a diagonal behind me.

I had already told Muriel and the others that Yuki had been in that village on the day fifteen years ago when Cathy, Tiria, and I were turned to stone, and that she had killed the villagers.

Many had felt anger at that act, but Muriel had convinced them that Yuki had only followed an order received as a Dule.

Muriel herself had probably been made to do something similar, even if she had not been a Dule.

Because of that, when Yuki said she wanted to go to the remains of Rade Village, no one thought it strange.

They did warn her to know her place.

But I had not said that Yuki stabbed me then.

These were Muriel and the others, who held me dear.

And Muriel, Ilma, and Helma had had their lives changed.

I did not know how they would treat Yuki.

That was what I had thought. On the other hand, I had also thought I would have to tell them someday.

And with the visit to the remains of Rade Village as the trigger, I had decided to speak now.

"What is it?"

Muriel tilted her head.

...As I thought, it was hard to say.

In Muriel’s right hand was the lead attached to the chain that linked the piercings in Yuki’s nipples and her clitoris.

When I looked at Yuki, she looked away for some reason.

Did she understand what I was about to say?

Was that why she was anxious?

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

I could not read Yuki’s feelings.

But I could not leave Muriel standing there with her head tilted, so I steeled myself and said it.

"The truth is, the one who injured me back then was Yuki."

I spun the words out one by one, as if checking them myself.

Then I watched Muriel.

I thought she might fly into a rage.

"I know."

Muriel said it as if it were nothing.

"You know?"

I asked back before I could stop myself.

Then I looked at Yuki, and Yuki bowed her head, looking apologetic.

"Uh, what do you mean?"

"I heard everything from Yuki."

Muriel looked at me with cold eyes.

"I was waiting to see when you would tell us."

"Ah, no, that was..."

Pressed by Muriel’s quiet anger, I faltered.

"...I know you were looking for the chance. But could you trust us a little more?"

Then, all at once, she appealed to me with tears in her eyes.

"...Guh."

I could say nothing.

It was true. I had been looking for a chance to tell Muriel and the others.

Part of it was so that nothing terrible would happen to Yuki.

But wanting it to end quietly was my selfishness... no. I was just a coward.

"I’m sorry."

I stopped, bowed my head to Muriel, and apologized.

"...I forgot my place as a Dule and spoke selfishly. I am sorry."

Muriel bowed her head to me as well.

"No. I was the one in the wrong. All of you too. When we get back over there, I’ll apologize to the other girls."

"No. There is no need for you to apologize. Master, please stand proud, as a master should. And this was you thinking of us Dules. This... is my selfishness."

Muriel said that and bowed her head again.

Master and Dule, was it.

I had to act like the master of Muriel and the other Dules.

"But when it’s just us, it’s fine, isn’t it?"

"...What do you mean?"

"Ah, no, it’s nothing."

It seemed I had said it out loud without meaning to.

Asked by Muriel, I denied it in a hurry.

"Come on. Lubeck is close. Let’s meet up with the others and head there."

"Yes."

We walked toward the riverbed along the road, where Rosina and the others waited.

Lubeck was almost in reach.

—-

[A/N: Arc 6 Completed! To be continued from Arc 7!]