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Chapter 4.5

A womanizer, a playboy, a man who has made more women cry than there are stars in the sky.

That’s how the world sees me, Hector Alderde. And of course they would, because I deliberately act in a way that makes them think so.

(Truth is, I actually hate women…)

Ever since I was a child, they would chase me around, and there were times they came at me breathing heavily enough that I genuinely felt my life was in danger. My face must be extremely appealing to women. They have no interest whatsoever in what’s inside me, only praising my exterior as 「beautiful」 「cute」 and endlessly glorifying and pursuing only my looks.

Until I learned how to play them in the palm of my hand rather than simply fleeing, I was honestly terrified of these creatures called women. …Even now, I still can’t bring myself to like them at all.

(At best, they’re just a convenient source of information.)

Women love gossip. Though of course, it’s still just gossip, plenty of it is messy and pointless. But sometimes it becomes useful. So for the sake of gathering information from them, taking on the image of a frivolous guy who can sweet-talk anyone turned out to be convenient. I was aware that my appearance was very much to women’s taste, so when I tried using that, the effect was overwhelming. Thanks to that, I can no longer freely go out with my face uncovered, but I don’t regret it.

Anyway. When I consciously use my face and voice, they become powerful weapons against women. With young girls in particular, no matter how composed they may act, if I whisper sweetly, their faces turn red and they instantly lose composure. And once they’re like that, they eagerly tell me everything they know.

(I really thought this case was perfect for me… but they canceled the investigation, huh.)

Apparently there was someone who predicted that pirates would attack the busy harbor.

The person who predicted the pirates’ arrival became a topic within the knight order. If, just as rumored, there is someone who can foresee dangers threatening our nation or this town, then as knights who stand at the front line of danger, we’d want that power. Maybe they’re even some kind of future-seeing magician. If so, we should find whoever made that prophecy.

…However, the investigation that began was called off almost immediately.

Why? Because right after they started looking, word came out that it wasn’t a prophecy of danger at all, but merely something a currently popular fortune-teller had said.

「There’s a fortune-teller whose readings are extremely accurate.」
「Especially love consultations, they tend to succeed if you talk to her.」
「She said people might get injured that day, and look, it came true again!」

Hearing things like that, everyone lost their tension.

So it wasn’t prophecy, just fortune-telling? Ridiculous. Then the pirates appearing must’ve just been coincidence, huh?, That was the mood everyone settled into.

And in the middle of that atmosphere, I remembered a certain girl I’d only recently met.

A young girl with white hair and red eyes who stopped me while I was walking disguised through town so as not to attract attention. Her hair and eyes were unusual enough to leave a strong impression.

She grabbed my arm, shouting something like, 「Don’t go that way, you’ll die」 and forcibly stopped me. She looked shocked when she saw my face under the hood, so she clearly hadn’t stopped me because she recognized who I was. And right after that, a runaway carriage crashed violently into the exact spot I would have been walking if she hadn’t stopped me.

That was most definitely a genuine danger warning. And as for the fortune-teller who supposedly gave advice on the day of the pirate attack, I’m nearly certain it was her.

The knight order let themselves be fooled by the word 「fortune-telling」 but that ability of hers is completely different from the kind of thing girls squeal over for fun. The official investigation was canceled, but personally looking into it shouldn’t be a problem. …So I decided to do a little investigating myself.

「Hello there, beautiful butterfly. Mind letting me ask you a few questions?」

「H–Hector-sama…!?」

If all I needed to do was find the fortune-teller, that was easy. I just had to smile and ask passing girls about this 「accurate fortune-teller.」 If I smiled and said something like, 「My next mission will take me somewhere dangerous, so I want to see if there’s anything I should be careful of」 they kindly told me everything.

Her shop location, what she looks like, her name, her reputation. Just asking one girl gave me that much. A woman named Cyril, with snow-white hair and apple-red eyes, with a mysterious atmosphere about her, that was the fortune-teller reputed to be accurate. That was all the information I needed.

Finding it convenient how easily my looks loosen women’s tongues, while at the same time despising those who place their trust in me based only on appearance, I kept my smile plastered on as I said goodbye. I repeated that process two or three times.

Now I had the necessary information. All that was left was to disguise myself so I wouldn’t attract attention, visit her shop at a time when there wouldn’t be many people, and then proceed as usual. My opponent is just a young girl, getting her to talk shouldn’t be difficult.

(If I just smile and talk gently, that’s enough. I’m the flower, and they’re the butterflies gathering for nectar… It’s simple.)

Even though I’m knowingly using my own appearance like this, I still can’t help feeling a sense of contempt toward the girls who fall for it. Is that contradictory, I wonder?

Just watching these women, who look only at the surface and desire me for it, makes my face feel like it wants to twist. Enduring the constant stabbing pain in my right hand while forcing myself to smile is actually easier than forcing that fake smile not to break when dealing with them.

…But this is the path I chose. Since I became useless with a sword, I at least wanted to be useful somehow by using whatever strengths I still had.

(Public reactions, rumors… that kind of thing still has value.)

Even if I lost my place fighting on the frontlines, I can still act as a knight and serve my country in other ways. That’s why I deliberately turned myself into a 「flower knight」 something dazzling that attracts attention.

Because of that, I can no longer freely walk around with my real face, but I absolutely do not regret it.

Since then, Caios has constantly worried about me. I didn’t want him to notice the pain that never goes away in my immobile right hand and feel even more guilt, so I began forcing a smile. I’ve endured this pain for so long, always relying on painkillers, that by now I’ve grown rather accustomed to it.

Even now, I still occasionally meet Caios and chat about pointless things. It’s been over six years since I was removed from duty as his bodyguard, and neither he nor anyone else has realized the pain in my right hand never disappeared. But that’s fine.

(A fortune-teller who’s always accurate has to possess some kind of special power. …Caios will definitely bite onto this story.)

Honestly speaking, I mostly thought it would make for an interesting story to tell my friend. That was really all. That’s why I decided to look into the fortune-teller. I truly went to meet her lightly, without thinking deeply.

When I approached the fortune-teller girl who had come outside to open her shop, instead of being pleased when she recognized me, her face twisted in sincere annoyance. That left a strong impression.

It surprised me, sure, but in the end, she’s just a young girl. I figured I could easily handle her, and basically forced my way into her shop to talk, but…

(Huh… weird. This is probably the first time I’ve been treated like this.)

She didn’t react anything like I’d expected. In fact, she treated me rather coldly, and didn’t tell me anything I wanted to hear at all. Or rather, she barely even looked at my face. Sometimes it almost looked like she was staring not at me, but at something above my head, past me entirely, maybe deliberately avoiding looking at me?

(I see… everyone gets flustered when they look at my face, so if she simply refuses to look, then my usual approach won’t work… is that it?)

That reaction was refreshing, since most people practically can’t help but stare at my face. In that case, if I forcibly made her look at me, would she blush like the other girls? Thinking that, I reached toward her pale cheek, but before I could touch her, my other hand, my right hand, was grabbed instead.

Being touched doesn’t make the pain worse, but I was so shocked to have my painful right hand suddenly grabbed that for a moment, my smile slipped. She didn’t notice, because she was staring intently at my right hand, and I quickly put the smile back on anyway. …But I couldn’t even voice a 「What are you doing?」 because the red eyes staring at my right hand were so incredibly serious.

「If it hurts, then make a face like it hurts. It’s hard to tell otherwise.」

How did she know? I wasn’t showing it on my face. No one had noticed it for years. Frozen in place from various shocks, I could do nothing as she smoothly applied medicine to my hand and wrapped it with a bandage.

…Strangely enough, ever since she rubbed that medicine in, the pain eased so smoothly that it shocked me again.

(The pain has eased a lot… Just what is this medicine…?)

Medicine that, just by applying it, eases mysterious pain. Expensive, but worth the price. That alone was surprising, but even more than that, it was something else. The words spoken by this expressionless girl in such a calm tone shocked me the most.

「This happened because you’ve been leaving it untreated. …If you’re in pain, you don’t need to force yourself to smile, you know.」

「If you’re in pain, you don’t need to force yourself to smile.」 Hearing that, I truly forgot how to smile for once. For someone like me, who believed I needed to keep smiling, those words strangely sank deep into me.

Just what is this girl? I didn’t wonder that out of distrust, but out of curiosity. Even after leaving her shop, my head was full of thoughts about this strange, special girl.

(It’s certain she has some kind of special power. There might even be a tiny possibility that she’s… a magician.)

Just like magical creatures known as 「monsters」 are nearly extinct now,
human beings with magic, called magicians, are also nearly extinct.

Magicians were special humans who could use unique magic inherited within their bloodlines, but that power could only be passed down within the family, and even then, not all children inherited it. Their numbers gradually dwindled, and on top of that, in history, there were cases where power-hungry rulers captured them and imprisoned them.

So magicians stopped flaunting their power, lived quietly among ordinary people, mingled with them, and through intermixing, their blood rapidly diluted and their powers faded. No magician has been officially found in over a hundred years, and they are now considered extinct.

(But whether she’s a magician or not doesn’t matter right now. What matters is, )

Since we now each hold the other’s secret, I can’t even tell Caios about whatever ability she has. Even so, I will probably keep visiting her as I 「buy medicine.」

I just want to know what that strange girl named Cyril sees, what she thinks about as she goes through her days. I want to know what would make her blush like the women in town. And when she does, what kind of face will she make? I want to see it.

It’s pure curiosity. For the first time that day, I felt not hatred toward a woman, but interest. I never imagined such a day would come, so it feels strange. But it isn’t unpleasant.

(If I’m the flower, and the women who gather around me are butterflies… then what is she, I wonder?)

Thinking that, a smile naturally slipped out beneath the hood pulled low over my eyes.