Chapter 240 : Chapter 240
Chapter 240: Elaine (4)
"Actually, the Intelligence Bureau is rarely wrong. If they do not know something, they simply do not know."
Yet that Intelligence Bureau had been wrong.
Ellen had accepted it, and later she understood.
Ellen dreams, and Harad knows those dreams.
It would not be strange if he had changed like her, or even more so.
Because Harad knows more.
It had been a foolish answer.
No matter how much Ellen dreamed, Ellen was still Ellen. She would not become like that woman.
The same would be true for Harad.
No matter how much he knew, as long as it was indirect experience, it could not be otherwise.
People do not change easily.
Especially not in an instant.
The Grand Heir became the Grand Duke.
The Hostage became the Grand Duke's guard knight.
The Harad in the dream had needed that much time.
Only then did he finally resemble the Harad before her eyes.
So this side is above.
The Harad in the dream is below.
It is as if Ellen had surpassed that woman.
It might be possible someday, but absolutely impossible in such a short time.
"In reality, you must have been a pathetic person. Maybe not later, but when you were in Iagar, when you first became a Hostage."
The young Harad in the dream had been pathetic.
The Harad the Intelligence Bureau had learned about was the same.
"You probably would still be that way now. If you had not come out of the dream."
The Harad before Ellen's eyes was not like that.
He was more remarkable than the Harad in the dream.
Because he had been completed in the dream.
It must be because the Harad in the dream had emerged around the time that world ended.
"It was not a dream but reality."
Dream.
Ellen thought she should no longer dismiss that world as such.
"I might be wrong, but that is how I feel. There are two worlds. One on this side, one in the dream."
Everything exists in pairs.
In this world there is her, in that world there is that woman. The Kubel of this world is a simple-hearted father, the Shura of that world is dead.
"Except for you."
Only Harad alone stands singular.
"You are right. It is not only Seria who is special. You are special too."
It is not only Ellen who is special.
Harad is special too.
"You are a person from that world. You lived there with Elaine, then crossed over to this world. Much earlier than Elaine."
Only Harad had leaped between worlds.
That is why that Harad is fire-like yet not fire-like. He possesses outstanding intuition and deep knowledge. He is well-versed in the Otherworld, and immediately recognized that the beggar who shit and pissed himself was Bahav Enverque. He is skilled in swordsmanship, and his manner of speech and gestures resemble the Grand Heir.
Because he experienced that world.
Because Elaine trained him that way.
"I do not know what it was, but you must have crossed over through some Magical. I did not think further about this. Because not understanding is also an answer."
From Ellen's perspective, some vast vagueness she cannot yet comprehend must have been at work.
Such things did not matter. The Magical is not what is important.
"Did you know me in that world?"
Instead of answering, Harad shook his head.
That was the best he could do. Ellen knew the curse coiled in his heart was squirming.
Precisely speaking, it is not a curse but a Magical like a curse.
And one filled with selfish intent.
"It must have been that woman's, Elaine's plan. Not yours."
Ellen was certain.
Otherwise there would be no reason for such a thing to parasitize his heart.
"You tried to go together but failed, or she sent you ahead to pave the way."
"……"
"Or she did it to save you."
In Ellen's mind, it was the last one.
Elaine was an arrogant woman, but she loved Harad.
"I once dreamed of you and Elaine dying."
When deciding whose retainer Torch would be, Harad had clearly been dying.
Elaine was the same, but that crazy woman did not seem like she would die.
"I also think there might be another reason. Because the scale is enormous."
There are two worlds, and Harad crossed between those worlds.
There might be a reason commensurate with that, a moment she has not yet seen in dreams.
Even to herself, it was absurd talk.
But Ellen knew she had to believe that absurdity. Because only then could everything be explained.
As proof of that…… the Harad before her eyes had not denied it even once.
He is a person who would answer if he were wrong.
A person who cannot speak only the truth because of that curse-like Magical.
"You can only reveal what I have figured out. That is what the Magical does."
Ellen pointed at Harad's heart.
"Am I right?"
"……You are right."
Harad finally opened his mouth.
His expression was strange. It seemed like he was smiling, and also like he was sad.
The former was longing, the latter was worry.
The closer she gets to the dream, the more Elaine approaches.
"Do not make that face, just answer."
Ellen hated that worry.
Because it is useless. No matter how much that woman Manifests, Ellen will not disappear. So there is no need for Harad to suffer.
"Am I right?"
"More or less."
Almost correct.
At those words Ellen felt a rush of pleasure. It was brief.
"Fuck."
Ellen gulped down Eternal Snow straight from the bottle.
She had expected it to be correct.
She had also expected it to be unpleasant.
But her mood was worse than she had thought.
"You were raised according to that woman's taste."
Elaine had intended to raise Harad to her taste and devour him.
"But I like you too."
The completed Harad, Ellen likes him too.
That was unpleasant. It felt like defeat.
"And I am going to scoop him up entirely."
Ellen was the interloper.
"……Is that what is important right now?"
"It is important to me."
Ellen grabbed Harad by the collar and pulled him close.
'If I want to win, I have to do something.'
Competition is naturally ruthless.
* * *
"How is it?"
"……It tastes like Eternal Snow."
The saliva remaining on his tongue was unusually sticky.
Eternal Snow was that kind of liquor. As much as Serzila loved it, the alcohol content was tremendous.
"Is it good?"
"It is good."
Eternal Snow was delicious liquor.
Harad in his previous life had liked it too. Elaine just normally forbade him from drinking it.
"The liquor? Or me?"
"……"
It was an awkward moment, if one could call it that.
In his previous life there had been no issues with women.
"Answer."
"Let us say both."
Harad evaded vaguely.
Ellen smiled, so it seemed he had passed.
"When did you know Elaine was a woman?"
"……"
"Ah. Let me guess. You must have found out very late. You were dying, and at that time Elaine was in male form. You found out then, did you not?"
Harad nodded.
He had only learned just before regressing. He had been subdued because of that shock and had swallowed the stone.
"What. It has not been long then?"
"……"
"And yet you kissed her?"
Ellen snorted.
Certainly. In terms of romantic relationships, Ellen held the advantage over Elaine.
"Is that not sexual harassment?"
"One could see it that way."
Harad nodded vaguely.
Certainly. It had been out of the blue. The fact she was a woman, the confession of love, the kiss, the declaration that he was hers.
"That woman is presumptuous."
"What woman. To you she is a man."
"But she is a woman."
The years he had known her as a man were overwhelmingly longer.
But Elaine was clearly a woman. Harad could no longer see that Grand Duke as a man.
"What are you saying. What matters is not the outside but the inside. If you thought she was a man, then she is a man, how is she a woman."
Ellen spoke with unusual coherence today.
It seemed what she had prepared was not only the correct answer.
"Too bad. If you had met me in that world too, that would not have happened."
"Hm?"
"It is true. If you had met me, you would have fallen for me. Because I am a woman."
Ellen licked her lips as she spoke.
'Is that the concept?'
He recalled meeting Elaine in front of the Grand Duke's manor.
At that time Harad had dispelled her concerns about lies.
"That might have been so."
"Not might have been, it would have been, definitely. No, why did you not meet me at all? That cannot be."
You wandered around too much, so there was no chance to meet.
Harad in his previous life had rarely gone out.
When there was an occasion to go out, Elaine was with him. It was a structure where he could never meet Ellen.
"Well. Perhaps you did not exist on that side."
He tried to lead her in that direction.
"That is not it."
Ellen became serious.
She seemed to have a separate concept in mind.
"Fundamentally, this world and that world are the same. Only you are different."
Oh.
Harad secretly admired it.
It was a rare moment when Ellen became smart.
"Because you are different, what you did is also different. That is why this world and that world became different."
Ellen was certain.
Kubel and Shura must be her basis.
Ellen had dreamed about that father and daughter.
In reality, she is living with them in the Inner Fortress.
"Decisively, you knew the inside of the Flower District was the problem. The tunnel."
Ellen spoke like a detective.
"If you stay still, this world flows exactly like that world."
"That would be so."
Harad nodded.
He could not say more than that. The restriction had been continuously touching his heart since earlier.
"Now you stop talking. It is enough."
Ellen was aware of that movement.
She looked down at Harad's chest with a hardened face. She seemed worried his heart might burst.
"I will figure out the rest on my own again. I will have to anyway."
"Are you not going to ask about the Harad of reality?"
"Why would I ask that. You are you."
"……"
"If you were truly a different person, I would not have been so angry at Torch either. Because that Torch would also be a different person."
It was a correct statement.
But it was not something Ellen should say.
"Of course I am different. I am special, am I not?"
Instead of answering, Harad smiled bitterly.
This is why she is a different person, and why she is lovable. Ellen is.
"Thank you. And I am sorry."
Then Ellen's eyes narrowed.
"Those words. Did you say them to that woman too?"
"I do not think I did."
"Then I will accept them."
Ellen grinned.
Then she suddenly clapped her hands. Though it was a small gesture, it made a sound loud enough to echo through the tavern.
"You would know best, but this world and that world are fundamentally the same. Except for you."
Ellen spoke as if summarizing.
"I will tell you a secret."
"Do not."
The fact that Elaine and Ellen are the same person must not be revealed.
That is a matter for Grand Duke Aratus to decide.
"No. I will. It is not really a secret to you anyway."
Did she notice?
Harad doubted it. Right now Ellen was in a smart state.
"The Elaine of that world was a man. But in truth she was a woman."
It seems I should cover that mouth.
Harad could not. He had no justification.
"Actually, the Elaine of this world is also a woman."
Too late.
Ellen's mouth was far faster than Harad finding justification.
"That cannot be."
"It is true. His Excellency the Grand Duke gave her a special Magical Item. She uses it to disguise herself as a man."
"Come on."
"It is really true."
Ellen spoke as if shouting.
"When we are alone together, she sometimes steals my clothes too."
"Hm?"
"She is not a male cousin but a female cousin."
"……?"
Harad tilted his head.
The secret Ellen was talking about was different from the secret he knew.
"You?"
"I am obviously a woman."
Ellen straightened her chest.
"The Grand Heir is also a woman?"
"That is what I am saying. So the Elaine of that world liked you."
"……"
"The Elaine of that world was lucky. Because there I could not meet you."
Elaine exists, and Ellen also exists.
In the previous life, Harad simply did not meet Ellen.
That was what Ellen was claiming.
Elaine and Ellen are different people, and their genders are the same.
'She is selling Elaine to keep Ellen.'
This was another innovative lie.
'It makes sense, though.'
No, it explains everything.
If this is the case, the secret that Elaine and Ellen are the same person will not be revealed for the time being.
Though Elaine has ended up becoming a woman.
'She is a real woman, though.'
The Harad who regressed is Ellen's guard anyway.
He has no particular relationship with Grand Heir Elaine. It does not matter whether she is male or female.
"You absolutely must not tell anyone. I will keep it secret from Elaine too."
Ellen even drove in the stake.
Let us just go on as we have been.
The secret that Elaine is a woman, that fact-yet-falsehood, will exist vaguely like an unspoken rule.
It will function and yet not function.
'I just need to stay quiet.'
It means nothing will change.
Elaine will remain the Grand Heir just the same.
From now on, what Harad will meet is Ellen.
'Genius.'
Not simply smart.
Right now Ellen was in a genius state.
"That cannot be!"
So this was an opportunity.
He had to accept it somehow.
"The Grand Heir is a woman!"
Harad acted surprised with all his might.
"I find it hard to believe, but I will keep it secret until I die."
"You seem to be pretending to be surprised……"
Why is she smart particularly today.
"I want to eat something delicious."
Ellen's eyes narrowed.
Suddenly? That was her expression.
"You know you are suspicious right now, do you not?"
"Do you not want to?"
"……"
The restriction dwelling in his heart squirmed.
It hurt quite a bit.