Chapter 265 – Revelations

My brain was trying to make sense of what was going on, since nothing seemed to be making sense, no matter how I thought of it.

“Doctor, did you and Maiara-san go and rescue Oriel-sama right away? And that’s why Oriel-sama is…”

I turned to look at Doctor Eltharion and asked. 

My brain automatically assumed that the remaining person here would be Maiara, who was a female elf. 

The female elf standing in front of me had a look that changed dramatically from the Maiara I knew. Even her voice changed.

The body seemed similar, but…

It just didn’t make sense for Maiara to suddenly transform into Oriel, right?

Moreover, if Maiara was indeed Oriel, why would King Deus keep Oriel close as Maiara? It simply didn’t make any sense…

It made more sense for Oriel to be rescued or helped by both Doctor Eltharion and the recovered Maiara. 

Thus, me and my friends would indirectly be Oriel-sama’s savior. We were like the missing small gear that managed to trigger things to move again. 

And it would explain why Maiara remained as the royal family’s close servant. 

The reason King Deus kept Maiara so close to his side was to monitor her and if she were to recall any information about Oriel, then he could act sooner. 

That was how I could make sense of it…

But either way, better ask rather than assume, right?

I could quickly assume that Maiara was indeed Oriel, but… that seemed too far-fetched, and… what if it wasn’t true and Oriel-sama thought I was insulting her by thinking that her, a royal, was the royal family’s servant instead? 

Right, right!

I am so, so confused and afraid of saying the wrong thing, so please help explain everything to me!!

“Pfft… Hahaha, what a cute reaction!” Oriel-sama laughed. Her laughing voice sounded so nice to the ears and at the same time, it differed from Maiara’s. 

So… they must be different people, right?

The personality seemed to differ quite a lot, too.

I turned to look at my friends.

Carbuncle… She was focused on wolfing the meal down so that she didn’t bother to be confused about this.

Ein… observed Oriel-sama carefully with a hint of confusion and wariness as well.

I guess I’m not the only one confused about the situation…

“Let’s sit down first, everyone. Shall we talk over food?” Doctor Eltharion said.

With that, all of us sat down.

I looked at the table configuration.

Carbuncle and I sat on one side, with Ein and an empty seat opposite of us.

There was a chair each to the left and right side of the table, and Doctor Eltharion took the right side that was closer to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Oriel-sama took the chair on the left side, that was closest to where she walked in from. 

Which meant… there was still one empty seat, the one next to Ein.

Is it for Maiara-san…?

“Now that everyone’s here…,” Doctor Eltharion began to speak.

What ‘everyone’s here’? Aren’t we missing Maiara-san…?

Does that mean…?!

I widened my eyes in surprise as I was more sure of which guess was actually true, no matter how absurd it was.

“As you might have guessed, I am indeed Oriel. Ah, let me explain more. After the incident, I lost my memories and had that curse that altered my appearance, voice, as well as restraining my magical power. From then onwards, I became Maiara,” Oriel-sama quickly revealed.

“…!!” We were surprised to hear the truth from the person herself.

Observing our reactions, Doctor Eltharion spoke, “How odd. I thought the reason why you were intent on helping ‘Maiara’ was because you knew that she was indeed Oriel-sama.”

“Doctor, if we knew, we wouldn’t have asked you to tell us where Oriel-sama was, in exchange for fetching the herbs to cure ‘Maiara’!” I quickly said.

“I thought it was just a psychology play. Like… you knew, that’s why you offered,” Doctor Eltharion said as he caressed his chin.

“No… Of course not!!” I said again.

“Then, the fact that you became friends with Prince Manasye, then went to me to help the saintess, Eneida, then offered to cure ‘Maiara’… was it all a coincidence?”

“You thought we orchestrated everything, Doctor?” Ein chimed in with a question.

“Of course! It’s really weird that everything worked out so smoothly like this. I thought it was part of your plan… and I was willing to go along with it if it meant Oriel-sama could be cured, though.”

…

Now that he laid it out like that…

I guess everything was so smooth that it wouldn’t be too far-fetched for the doctor to think we planned this all!!

But… never have I thought in my wildest dream that things would have turned out this way!!

“I thought that we were taking an unnecessary detour to our plan, but turns out it was necessary,” Ein said as he turned to look at me.

Ah, I get it… so… I thought we were all taking side quests, when it turned out to be a prerequisite in progressing our main quest!!

But uh, Ein, why are you looking at me with an impressed expression?

“I was opposed to Big Sis Lyra’s request to help out. But turns out things worked out so wonderfully. I guess I still need to learn a lot, Big Sis Lyra,” Ein told me.

Eh?

But I swear I didn’t know anything as well!

Nor did I have a hunch that things would turn out very smoothly if we were to do this!

I also thought it would hinder our progress, and doubted it a bit, but…

“Kindness will be rewarded, albeit indirectly,” Oriel-sama said softly after sipping her tea.

“I guess that saying’s true,” she then smiled.

“Well, based on their reactions, it didn’t seem like they really knew. I guess this is indeed a reward for their kindness,” Doctor Eltharion said in awe.

“So… I heard about the situation. The elven kingdom of Cielle and the Oni empire of Naraka seemed like they’d be waging an all out war soon. And Riviera, being the human country in the middle of the two forces, wanted to help negotiate the peace. Since the Naraka emperor seemed to be harder to approach, your governor decided to approach Cielle who’s under my little brother, Deus’ reign. Around that time, my daughter, Celeste, who happened to be taking refuge secretly in Riviera, revealed her identity and believed that the key to peace was to find me and resume our cause… and…,” Oriel-sama seemed to hesitate a bit.

“Yes. Celeste went under the guise of a noble daughter from Riviera, as one of the delegates going to Cielle,” Ein continued.

“I see. Celeste… she’s matured too quickly, huh? Meddling in the politics between countries…,” Oriel-sama smiled bitterly, and I could see a hint of guilt in her eyes.

“Since it’s indeed risky, it was initially opposed. But apart from her, no one from Oni-elf faction could come. King Deus would have immediately known Fideline, and as for your partner–”

“Is Nagare alright?!” Hearing the mention of her partner, Oriel quickly cut Ein’s words and asked.

“Eh? Yes, yes he is… He’s currently under our country, Riviera’s wings,” Ein explained.

“I see… so he’s alive and well! Thank goodness!!” It felt as if Oriel was holding herself from crying.

When I turned to look at her with a questioning look, she continued.

“It was all my fault, honestly. If only I weren’t too weak, I might have been able to recover sooner and I wouldn’t have burdened my daughter with something like this,” she shook her head.

“Huh?” I tilted my head in wonder.

“Actually, we managed to procure the herbs before this, albeit in small quantities, and tried to cure Oriel-sama. It was not too long after she assumed the identity of ‘Maiara’. It failed to cure her, and her condition worsened a bit. We decided to hold off the treatment as we waited for more herbs to be found. Maybe we needed more time. Who knew that the problem lied in…,” Doctor Eltharion didn’t finish his words.

“My subconscious didn’t want to heal. It’s my fault, really. I was too weak to face reality that I knew. To explain,” Oriel began explaining, “At the time of the incident, the Oni-elf faction lost contact with Nagare, and we all assumed the worst had happened. Then, during the incident… my daughter was injured and I assumed the worst had happened to her. I also felt like a failure… for failing to protect my daughter, and that… I felt like it was my fault that Mother died. It felt as if I had lost everything… and I felt like that incident happened because of me.”

“…And based on what I saw… were you also… betrayed?” I asked quietly.

Oriel nodded, “By a dear friend I used to trust the most. I should’ve known… and if I had my suspicion, I could have prevented the whole thing from happening…”

“You couldn’t have known that. That’s why it’s called betrayal,” I said.

Oriel laughed bitterly, “I guess so. But what made me feel guilty the most is how I didn’t want to face the reality, the pain, and try. If I did it sooner, I wouldn’t have burdened Celeste like this. I could’ve met my family sooner.”

“But you didn’t know, right?” Carbuncle said as she ate.

After swallowing the food, she continued, “You thought everyone was gone. And you blamed yourself for it. I bet you also felt that if you were to recover, everyone remaining would have condemned you. There’s really no point in living if things were to continue like that, right?” 

Oriel smiled wryly, “You’re correct. How come you knew?”

“I tried to imagine if I were in your position… even I would have wanted to run away, afraid of facing everything.”

I turned to look at Carbuncle with an obvious surprise in my face.

She always seemed so easy-going and carefree that I wouldn’t have thought she could have said so. 

As expected of a dragon who’s lived longer than me… I guess there was indeed wisdom beneath that carefreeness. 

“Anyway… what exactly happened?” Ein asked. 

Then, Oriel began narrating the incident. The details matched with the vision I saw when I was inside her dream world, her subconsciousness.

It was supposed to be a very important meeting to discuss how they would strive towards unification with the Oni. Many of the important figures gathered. And obviously, for safety reasons, they only notified the involved people and didn’t bother making an announcement to others outside the attending. 

Oriel thought everything was going smoothly, when suddenly, an explosion followed by attacks happened. The situation was chaotic since the attacks involved the tactic of teleporting people, causing them to be isolated–prone enough for attacks and assassinations. 

After defeating the enemies that cornered her, Oriel went to find Celeste, who attended the meeting alongside her. She thought that having Celeste by her side was safer than leaving her alone, especially when the important personnels were all inside the secure royal castle. 

Never have she thought that it would be unsafe instead.

And it turned out that there was indeed a betrayal involved, so no wonder they could be attacked.

“I was betrayed by my right-hand aide as well as my former best friend, Pilvi. I’m not sure who or what group was also involved in the mix… or whether her family’s involved as well… Her family’s a long-standing trusted ducal family in Cielle, that’s how we were able to get close in the first place… But the ones involved in the attack couldn’t be someone ordinary,” Oriel explained.

“Yes… I saw… the curse… it was something sinister. They couldn’t have been some ordinary folks,” I nodded remembering the attackers.

“And there’s been no definitive result on the investigations, right, Tharion?” Oriel asked Doctor Eltharion, who shook his head in response.

“Based on what I knew, there are indeed suspicions. But the case’s still open, though the investigations are stopped indefinitely,” he said. 

“Uhm… could it be possible that… it was part of… King Deus’ plan to usurp the throne? I… I apologize for asking this, but… we had suspicions…,” I said timidly.

Oriel looked at me, and I tried to scan her emotions from her eyes. 

Thank goodness it didn’t seem like she was angry with me for saying that. 

“Hmm… I guess with how he managed to rise to the throne and how he altered publication for the incidents, you would have been suspicious of him. Given how he’s not clear about his stance towards Oni-elf union as well…,” Oriel nodded, understanding where I came from.

“Y-yes!” I nodded my head.

There were rumors that King Deus was secretly anti-Oni and wanted to wage war due to it. That’s why Riviera tried to negotiate with him to not proceed!

“Yes… He has really changed from the Deus that I knew. No wonder you would have that suspicion… but I don’t think he’s involved in the attack,” Oriel said.

“Eh… why?” I asked, confused.

Everything seemed to have been checked out…

King Deus seemed to have gained lots of benefits from the attack. He managed to become the king! 

If not, why would he alter the publication with the risk of hindering investigation or clues? The fact that the investigation has been stopped indefinitely also added to the suspicion…

He might not notice that Maiara’s actually Oriel, and believing that she’s the only key witness to the incident and might hold the clue to finding Oriel, he tried to forge an identity for her that could keep her close to him.

The reason why he only said that Oriel’s disappeared and not deceased meant he wanted Oriel to be found if she were still alive. Like, if everyone knew she disappeared, and someone were to find her and announce it, he could get rid of the hindrance…

Was I thinking too far?

That was the hypothesis I made in my mind.

“Tharion was the one who told me, but… Do you know that the one who entered the room and found me–who was at death’s door, my deceased mother, and my unconscious daughter was none other than Deus?” Oriel asked.

“HUH?!” 

Eltharion nodded as he added, “He’s the one who begged me to save Oriel-sama at all cost. He’s also the one to give Celeste-sama to Fideline-san and let them go.”

“W-whaaa?!”