When she came to, Limalisha was lying inside a tent. The weak light provided by the lamp hanging from the ceiling seemed awfully bright. Not to mention her face or torso, she felt a strange sensation across almost all of her body, and as soon as she stirred, a pain as if having a cramp fiercely assailed her.
She groaned in reflex, causing someone, who had apparently heard it, to peek at her from the side.
“You came around?”
Silver hair, ruby eyes, and the face of the girl who was Lim’s best friend and at the same time her cherished lord. Lim tried to say, “Eleonora-sama,” but nothing but a hoarse croaking escaped her lips.
“Stay still. You suffered burns all over your body.” A faint timbre of blame resonated within the gentle voice.
Elen wasn’t wearing her uniform, but loose morning clothes covered by a wool jacket. Her hair missed its ornaments, bandages were twined around her forehead, and a cloth was plastered to her cheek. Lim was certain that she’d find heaps of bandages beneath Elen’s clothes as well. On top of that, the fragrance of medicines tickled her nose.
Looking up to the ceiling of the tent, Lim slowly, very slowly, recalled what had happened before she fainted.
While Elen and Figneria duked it out, she had pinned down one of Bargren’s blades. So as to not allow its return into Figneria’s hand. Back then Lim was fully absorbed with doing what she believed she could do. And thus her whole body got scalded by Bargren’s flames.
“The battle…”
“It’s over. Figneria is dead.” Elen answered with a voice that felt indifferent.
Lim inclined her head slightly as if to call it in question. She couldn’t perceive any strong emotions towards Figneria from Elen’s voice.
“Lim. Can your eyes see? Can your ears hear? How is your nose doing? Can you drink water?”
Elen brought a silver cup filled with water close to Lim’s face. Now that she had been asked, her throat was dry, causing Lim to nod lightly.
Elen gently inserted her left arm under Lim’s back, and tenderly helped her to sit up. At that moment Lim finally realized that her body was draped in bandages, helping her to identify the origin of the strange sensation she was feeling for a while now. She also comprehended that she was currently resting in the supreme commander’s tent.
While making Lim drink the water sip by sip, Elen told her about the battle.
“Liza arrived with her soldiers. It’s looks like we managed to win because of that.”
“Elizavetta-sama has…” Lim mumbled in blank amazement.
It was a weird feeling. After all, they had been at each other’s throats like cat and mouse until just a year ago.
“It will not do if I do not properly thank her.”
“Sure, but let me tell you this much: it can wait until you’ve healed up.”
Elen shifted the topic to Rurick’s tough struggle as deputy commander without touching on things like the losses among the soldiers. However, once it came to Figneria, her expression became complicated. The battle against her held an important meaning for Elen. It was unthinkable that it wouldn’t affect her emotionally.
“──Elen,” Lim used her friend’s pet name to call out to her, “We were the ones who defeated Figneria. Okay?”
Lim would never allow something like letting Elen shoulder all of it by herself. Seemingly having understood those feelings, a smile revealed itself on Elen’s lips, and she said, “Take your time and rest up.”
“Ah right. Lim, I have a little request.” Elen said with a serious expression, apparently having thought of something.
Lim urged her on to continue by nodding her head. But, she immediately regretted having done that.
“You like Tigre, don’t you?”
Lim got clearly flustered by the unforeseen question.
“W-Why w-would you m-mention Lord Tigrevurmud h-here…?”
“That’s of course because it’s a request related to him. So, how about it?”
Lim averted her eyes from Elen with her face bright red up to her ears. She almost fainted in pain as her blushing passed on the pain of her burns. And yet, it probably wasn’t that much of an embarrassing and cruel question either. The youth was her lord’s lover after all.
“I-I will not deny it…” Lim finally squeezed out that much with her voice trembling.
However, this wasn’t enough for Elen.
“Be more clear… No, I’m sorry for the way I’ve asked. It was a fairly blunt way, so forgive me for that. What I want to know is whether you like him to the extent of wanting to give birth to his children.”
“Children…!?” Lim cried out loudly with her eyes wide open.
At the moment she stirred, her whole body screamed at her again. After putting up with it until the pain died down, she noticed how Elen was staring at her with a serious look, and recovered her calm, even if only a bit.
“Is this possibly about what Vissarion had said he was wishing for us?”
By the way, Lim had also forgotten about it. After losing Vissarion, the mercenaries kept leaving 『Silver Gale』 one after the other, vanishing without finishing the aftermath of the loss. It simply wasn’t the time to think about such things.
“That’s not all.” Elen answered and told Lim about her promise with Sasha. “At the moment of her death, Sasha entrusted me with the wish she couldn’t fulfill despite desiring it. For Sasha it was important enough to have me promise her to carry her wish on.”
The Vanadis who left this world, as if her life had completely burned out in the end, after being struck by disease. Thinking about her circumstances cast a sad expression on Lim’s face.
Elen continued, “Fortunately, I have Tigre. Even without my promise to Sasha, I’d want to bear Tigre’s children. But to be honest, I’m also slightly scared. Do you remember Oksana?”
Lim nodded. Oksana was one of the women in charge of miscellaneous chores in 『Silver Gale』 . She was a bright woman who doted on Elen and Lim. Later she fell in love with one of the mercenary band’s members, and married him. All the members, starting with Vissarion, blessed their bond.
But, their happiness didn’t last long. Oksana passed away during childbirth, and the child who should have been born, died as well. After the husband buried his wife and child, he asked Vissarion to allow him to leave the band and departed to some other place. It must have been painful for him to stay with the mercenary band which was full of memories of his time with his wife.
A pregnant woman dying during the birth was a possibility.
“It’s not like I can confidently say that I’ll be definitely able to give birth to his children. So, it’d be a huge relief if you could become his concubine, just like me, and give birth to his children. Of course, I don’t mind you giving birth to his child first. It’d also comply with Vissarion’s wish.”
“In that case, there’s also Titta, right?”
Both of them knew that Titta had confessed her love to Tigre and slept with him. And Elen had permitted Titta to do so. Even Elen couldn’t get in-between the string tying Tigre and Titta together as it was something that had been spun between those two ever since they became aware of the world around them while living together.
“This is what I want to request from you.” Elen declared with her red eyes gleaming. “I’ll succeed Sasha’s wish, and I’ll have you succeed my wish. How about it?”
Lim smiled wryly, partially because she was confused and partially because she was grateful for Elen taking her into consideration.
There was no doubt that Elen was talking about her true feelings here. But, it was also correct that she was trying to give Lim an excuse for loving Tigre. And, without such a reason, Lim would likely never try to advance her relationship with Tigre from where it was now. Also, Lim vaguely guessed why Elen had suddenly started to talk about something like this.
──She is kindly trying to give me a reason to cheer up and live on.
Within 『Silver Gale』 they fortified the will to survive among heavily injured comrades by asking about their wishes and promising them rewards and posts. Vissarion did that for anyone as long as they were suffering from injuries beyond a certain level.
At first she had wondered about the purpose behind him doing this, but eventually truth dawned upon her. After all, she witnessed several times how someone, who was so lively that you wouldn’t expect them to die at all, would be a cold corpse the next morning.
After Elen had understood it as well, she had started to imitate Vissarion.
“Let’s see. I will decide after consulting with Lord Tigrevurmud. But──” Lim revealed an impish smile, which was unusual for her, and added, “──as for me, I would like to see your child, Eleonora-sama.”
That counterattack had more of an impact than she had expected. Even though it was a topic she had brought up in the first place, Elen’s cheeks flushed red. And yet, even while being embarrassed, she nodded with a happy smile.
“Sure, I’ll also allow you to hold it at that time. ──Anyway, I think it’s about time for you to take a rest.”
When Lim answered, “Okay,” Elen quietly stood up, added, “I feel like wanting to hold your child as well,” with a smile, and left the tent.
While halfway entrusting her consciousness to the sleepiness swooping down on her, Lim wondered why she was alive despite having her body burned by the flames for such a long time. Enduring the pain, she carefully tried to move her hands and feet. All fingers were still present. She could also move her arms and legs. And since she could look around her like this, her eyes were both fine as well.
──Did Bargren adjust the flames? However, assuming Bargren has its own consciousness, it should have no reason to do so. Maybe Figneria ordered Bargren to do so? Assuming she tried to lure Elen into panic by tormenting me for a long time to find an opening in Elen’s defense, I’d be able to understand.
Lim tried to explore another possibility. Sometimes Figneria had displayed a warped kindness. It wasn’t unthinkable that she had told her draconic tool to lower the force of the flames to a level where Lim wouldn’t die right away while putting up a huge fire show to panic Elen.
──Even if I consider all of this now, I won’t reach a conclusion…
She closed her eyelids. She felt like she had seen Bargren at the corner of her eye, but the sleepiness had become too prevalent for her to make sure. Lim’s consciousness was lured into the world of dreams once again.
◎
———————- End of Part 5 ———————-
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