Ch.294Liar

Oh no…!

I’d been so caught up in the chaos of the morning that I completely forgot about the person who would react most sensitively to rumors about Demian!

“Haschal. Are you in there? May I come in?”

Though her voice was sweet as usual, for some reason, just hearing it sent a strange chill down my spine.

My heart pounded as if facing a formidable opponent. I had the intuition that if that door opened, something terrible would happen.

Florence must have felt a similar premonition, as she held her breath and stared at the training room door with a tense expression.

What should I do…?

[Why are you so flustered? Just explain the truth and be done with it.]

‘Because I don’t know if she’s in a state to listen to reason…!’

Normally, explaining the situation would be enough, but I wasn’t confident that Millia in her current state would be willing to listen to me.

After all, in the corruption route, Millia became so mentally ill that she completely stopped listening to others…!

One of the bad endings that occurs if you lose to the corrupted Millia, “If I Could Reach Beyond Sorrow.” The image of Millia dissecting Demian and her companions’ corpses with unfocused eyes flashed before me.

“Why isn’t there an answer…? Is no one in there?”

Her muttering was spine-chilling, but if she would just leave, that would actually be fortunate.

If I could meet her after some time had passed and explain, Millia would be calmer than she is now—

– BANG!

A loud noise interrupted my thoughts.

The wooden door of the training room flew open with enough force to break it.

The latch that had secured the door scattered into pieces as if hit by a cannonball.

As if foreshadowing our future.

Florence gulped audibly.

Light from the hallway poured through the wide-open entrance.

In the blinding backlight, a girl with long hair peeked in, looking in our direction.

“See? I knew you were here. Why are you ignoring me, Haschal? We finally meet again and you’re making me feel sad… Is Demian here too?… Ah. There he is. It’s true. You two really are together. Hehe… So it was true after all…”

Dark eyes that had lost their light, shadowed as if behind a curtain. A smile that conveyed no joy despite its appearance.

Though she looked like Millia, I could hardly believe it was her.

“Um, Millia…?”

“Hmm? Did you call me, Haschal? …You didn’t say anything when I called you.”

Click, click. Footsteps echoed.

Millia, no longer smiling, slowly walked into the training room.

“No, wait. Calm down, Millia. I don’t know what rumors you’ve heard, but I can explain everything…!”

[…You sound like someone caught in the act trying to make excuses. Speaking like that is like pouring oil on a fire.]

What is this woman saying?

Now that I think about it, I did sound like a typical cheating partner, but this is no time for such jokes!

“Calm down? What a strange thing to say, Haschal. I’ve never felt more clear-headed. Why is that? I feel like I could shoot and kill even a Champion right now.”

Millia revealed her right hand that she had been hiding behind her back. Along with what she had been firmly gripping.

A sharp dagger gleamed with a blue light.

“No, it’s really a misunderstanding! If it were true, would I have beaten him up like this? So please, put that dagger down…!”

“Your words of support. I believed them… I wanted to believe them… How could you, of all people, Haschal…”

Why was it? Considering the difference in strength, I should be able to subdue her instantly.

Yet I found myself backing away, overwhelmed by an inexplicable pressure.

“…You betrayed me. Yes. You betrayed me. Just like everyone else. It’s always been like this. Everyone lies. Saying they’re not interested in Demian. Saying I misunderstood…”

An emotion neither killing intent nor anger… something far more sticky and gloomy.

Muttering in a voice dark and viscous like a tar pit, Millia tilted her head toward me.

The green hair covering her face flowed to the side.

Her finally revealed eyes were a chaotic mix of jealousy, resentment, self-loathing, and despair.

This is bad. No matter how I look at it, she’s on the verge of corruption…!

Should I knock her unconscious? She won’t die from one hit, right?

“I felt reassured because Haschal seemed genuine… I never thought you would do something like this so openly…”

“No, I didn’t! I really never touched him! I can swear to it, so please listen to me!”

I’m innocent!

Physically I roughed him up plenty, but not in that way! I don’t even want to!

“……”

Perhaps my oath had some effect. Millia, who had seemed ready to lunge at me, fell silent and stared in my direction.

As if trying to observe my expression, she narrowed her darkened eyes.

“…Prove it.”

“Prove it…?”

“Yes. I want to believe Haschal, but… everyone has lied to me until now… I can’t believe anymore. So, show me evidence that you weren’t lying, evidence that it was all my misunderstanding.”

No, how can I provide evidence for something I didn’t do…

Do you want me to cry to prove my innocence?

“Um, well… Ah, right! Demian, if we ask Demian…”

I turned to look at Demian.

Unlike the corruption route where he actually did get involved with multiple women and caused trouble, this was all just a misunderstanding, so if Demian explained the truth, Millia might calm down.

However, the culprit who caused all this trouble with one careless remark maintained his silence without offering any explanation.

…Ah. Right. I had knocked him unconscious.

“Demian is sleeping… He must be very tired?”

Though his foaming-at-the-mouth, sprawled-out appearance looked nothing like someone tired and asleep, Millia seemed to have lost the ability to distinguish between unconsciousness and sleep.

“Besides, I can’t trust Demian’s words either. You and Demian might have put your heads together to come up with a suitable excuse to deceive me. Yes. Putting your heads together… pressing your lips together… pressing your bodies together… Hehe… Must have been fun…?”

As she spoke, her emotions seemed to intensify, and Millia’s speech began to become incoherent again.

It was clear that persuasion would be impossible.

…No choice then.

I’ll have to subdue her and wait for her to calm down.

I tensed my legs and bent my body slightly.

I’ll rush in, grab her right wrist, and strike the back of her neck as gently as possible…

“So Haschal is also lying-!”

Just as Millia noticed my movement and raised her dagger,

– THUD!

With a dull sound, Millia’s body lost balance and staggered.

“Ugh…!”

The dagger slipped from her weakened grip and stuck into the floor, and the unconscious Millia fell forward.

Florence, who had somehow appeared behind her, extended her arms to support Millia’s upper body.

Ah. Come to think of it, she was here too.

Given the situation, both Millia and I had completely forgotten about Florence’s presence.

—-

“What a mess so early in the morning…”

Florence sighed as she laid the unconscious Millia down on the training room floor.

“Thank you. I can breathe easier now.”

“Don’t mention it. However… could you explain to me what exactly happened here? Both of you seem too young to be engaging in a crime of passion with knives.”

Well, it’s not a crime of passion but a farce caused by a misunderstanding…

Having just woken up and headed to the training room with me, Florence hadn’t yet heard about the morning’s incident.

Sitting next to her, I explained the whole story as if complaining.

“Hmm… I can see why she would misunderstand. Do you think that boy had ill intentions toward Lord Median?”

“…I don’t think so.”

If it had been done to make me suffer, Demian himself suffered even more damage.

Looking at his half-beaten state… he was probably just terribly oblivious about these matters.

“Even so, for Lord Median’s honor, we need to clarify the truth. But first, we need to calm this person down.”

Florence pointed at the unconscious Millia.

Unlike earlier when just looking at her was chilling, now that her eyes were closed as if sleeping, she looked as peaceful as before.

Though there were marks where her nails had dug into her right hand that had held the dagger, and tear stains around her eyes.

“True. I wonder what to do with Millia… I’m not sure if she’ll be in a state to talk when she wakes up, or if she’ll be as unhinged as before.”

“I have a solution for that. After blessing her with mental stability, we can show her evidence that the rumors are false.”

Easier said than done.

“Isn’t the problem that we don’t have evidence? There were no witnesses besides me and Demian, and she said she can’t even trust Demian’s words.”

“The evidence is right here.”

Florence smiled and pointed at me with her finger. More precisely, at my lower abdomen.

What?

Surely not…?

—-

Thankfully, she wasn’t suggesting I expose myself.

Really, thank goodness.

As Florence had promised, Millia, who woke up after receiving the blessing of mental stability, accepted that everything was a misunderstanding after seeing the evidence we presented.

Once she understood what had happened, the dark emotions that had been tormenting her mind completely vanished.

Only then realizing what she had been doing, Millia trembled with guilt, knelt down to apologize, and cried her heart out for a long time.

She cried so pitifully that I couldn’t bring myself to scold her.

Now she was asleep, exhausted from crying.

—-

So, how did we prove it…?

Florence directly cast a healing miracle on my lower body and showed Millia…

Explaining that if it had been my first experience, there would be a healing reaction to damaged areas, but since there was no reaction, it meant that “such things” hadn’t actually happened.

[How humiliating…]

Yes. I think so too…

—-

The uncontrollable rumors were finally put to rest when I returned from the training room, explained the truth, and warned everyone not to spread false rumors.

Whether they believed me or not, no one would carelessly gossip after hearing a direct warning from the person involved.

Frider also ordered his retainers and maids to keep quiet.

And so, that morning’s hot spring incident came to an end.

It truly was an exhaustingly terrible morning.

…Though the evening would bring even more exhaustion.