https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5562hc/68/
Two Arrows
Lily assumed that Nerine’s recent suspicious behavior had something to do with this.
The plan was to drag Nerine, who was currently standing guard in front of the building, inside and force her to confess everything. For the sake of that goal, the stage was set.
Following Lily’s instructions to the letter, I pretended to be dead. The blood from my head had already begun to clot, so Lily used a knife to splatter her own blood all over the floor. I laid down on top of the blood pool to sell myself off as a corpse.
I don’t care if it came out of Lily’s body or not, lying down in a bunch of blood sucks, but this really isn’t the time for me to be acting selfish. After I watched Lily finish wrapping up her wounded arm with some bandages, I closed my eyes and became the corpse I was born to be.
Koha and Sawa had their hands tied behind their backs and were restrained with Ran watching over them.
“Nerine! Get down here!”
“R-Roger!”
Nerine fearfully jumped down from the ceiling at Lily’s yell.
“Liffy-san? No….”
Even with my eyes closed I could clearly see Nerine’s speechless expression as she covered her mouth with her hands. I feel sorry for deceiving her like this, but with the current situation weighing heavily on Lily’s mind, I have no choice but to obey.
“Nerine. Liffy’s dead…. because of you. Because you betrayed us. Why…. why did you do this?”
Lily’s acting skills are amazing. Her voice trembles, and every now and then she throws in a good sniffle. It’s exactly how I would picture someone grieving over a dead loved one. I wonder if this is how she’ll react if I ever do die for real.
“I…. I…. no. I didn’t…. this isn’t…. but…. I was told….”
I’m dead. And Nerine had lost herself in a rambling string she hoped would let her escape from that reality. If we don’t bring this farce to a close real soon, we are going to leave a scar on this girl’s heart. I’d like to just stand up and tell her the truth now, but she’s a single step away from falling.
“What did they tell you!?”
“To unlock the gate…. that’s all. If I knew Liffy-san would die…. I would never….”
“But it did happen exactly because you unlocked the gate. Not knowing what would happen isn’t an excuse!”
“T-That….”
“Who sent the orders? Tell me! Which of these two was it!? I will never forgive them. I do not care about the dragon or anything else. I will give them a taste of their own medicine and end them here and now. And then, you. But tell me who your accomplice is, and I will forgive you.”
Lily’s realistic performance had Nerine in tears.
“Wrong…. you’re wrong…. I’m just the second arrow. I really don’t know….”
“Nerine…. who told you!? Tell me!”
“O-Oi. Lily, calm down. You’re going to strangle her!”
Lily’s acting suddenly got even stronger. Peony and Ran were rushing over to stop her with a volume and strength in their voices that didn’t sound like acting anymore.
Then there was a loud sob. But it didn’t come from Nerine. My curiosity finally got the best of me when a strong silence set in, and I opened my eyes just a crack and looked through the gaps of my hair. Lily had collapsed on the ground and was covering her face with her hands. Somehow it came to the point where Lily is the one in tears.
“My father…. Nerine. Was it him?”
Lily’s hoarse voice filtered through her hands. Nerine nodded, clearly apologetic.
“Liffy, that’s enough. You can get up.”
“Ah…. okay.”
I waited until Lily gave me permission before I stood up.
“R-Resurrection!?”
Nerine fell flat on her butt as she stared up at me. She genuinely believed I was dead.
“I was just pretending. Sorry we had to trick you.”
“Eek! The ghost is talking!”
“That’s why I already said….”
When I took one step closer, Nerine crawled two steps back. The frightened Nerine is incredibly cute, so I couldn’t stop myself from putting on a creepy grin and pressing forward towards Nerine.
Once her back hit the wall, Nerine’s spirit finally reached its limit, and she fainted right then and there.
“Liffy, you took it too far.”
“S-Sorry. I didn’t….”
I started making an excuse, but I stopped when I saw how widely Ran was grinning. She called me out despite enjoying it just as much as I did. Nerine’s reactions are always so straightforward which always makes it worth it to bully her.
I left taking care of the fainted Nerine to Peony and walked over to Lily who was still staring at the ground.
“Lily-san. What does this mean? Your father is working against you? Why?”
Lily released a heavy sigh and raised her face. Rather than being annoyed over being asked questions, it felt more like she was just trying to center herself.
“My father’s favorite saying has always been, ‘Knock two arrows.’ It means that whenever you want to do something, you should have two plans to accomplish it.”
“So that’s how you were able to figure out who was giving Nerine orders? Even still, he’s being really sloppy like this. What could he want?”
Ran made a good point. She usually acts stupid, yet she sometimes says things that are right on the mark. I guess it’s more that she likes to ignore things she isn’t interested in.
“Well…. right. It will all depend on the purpose. Hey, you two! Koha and Sawa? What were you two supposed to do if you managed to kidnap me?”
“We weren’t supposed to do anything. We just had to kidnap you and hold you for two months. We were told that after two months passed, they would give us our pay with the excuse that they were paying a randsom.”
It must’ve been a hell of a lot of money judging by how regretful Koha looked.
“Two months…. The Hero Audition will be over after two months….”
Lily voiced her thoughts aloud under her breath.
“What would happen in the Hero Audition if you were to go missing in the middle? You’d have to give up right?”
Lily looked at me as I interrupted her thoughts. It looked like she didn’t want to just think this through on her own and wanted me to help.
“Well…. you can vote for someone even if they’re there. But if I remember right, there was a couple who eloped during the first audition, and they were treated like they resigned.”
“The first audition was made up of men and women, so there was apparently a lot of disputes.”
“Oh my. There’s no end to the disputes in a group of women either though.”
“Well…. true enough.”
I got nervous because it felt like Ran was talking about us specifically.
“That is not the point. We are talking on what my father’s goals are.”
Lily put an immediate stop to the digression and got us focused back on the topic at hand.
“My father’s aim should be to have me drop out of the Hero Audition. He has treated my attendance as a nuisance from the very beginning, moving forward with an engagement without discussing things with me first as a way of trying to deal with the trouble. He wishes for me to not stand out as it might overshadow my brothers before they take over the house.”
“So his plan is to keep Lily-san captive until the audition is over?”
“I believe so. These two had no contact with Nerine beforehand, so their kidnapping attempt would have been the first arrow. It was most likely through my father’s connections that she was hired on here as a maid. As for the second arrow, Nerine would have served in as the role of the maid while there was most likely a second kidnapper waiting outside the mansion. If that plan had proved successful, he would have kidnapped Nerine and me both. After two months, Nerine and I would have been made to drop out of the competition. I assume that Nerine’s partner withdrew after it looked like the first arrow had succeeded.”
Lily managed to piece together what had happened today while anticipating her father’s strategy.
“How to say it…. for a minister of the country, the whole thing seems really makeshift and sloppy….”
“I agree. The kidnapping itself would cause its own issues and controversy. It would not be something he could deal with openly. Looking at the larger picture, I think it is safe to assume the entire kidnapping plan is the first arrow. The second arrow is the message sent via Nerine.”
“Message….?”
“I believe my father wanted to tell me something with this. ‘I will definitely interfere against you in the election. I can move anyone I wish for that purpose.’ As such, Nerine was moving at his beck and call. He wants me to simply give up.”
“Doing things in such a roundabout way…. you are a parent and child. Why wouldn’t he just tell you as much?”
“I did talk to Father. He told me to stop then, and he is telling me to stop now.”
Lily stared at me. The answer to my own question is something I should know well enough already.
Lily is someone stubborn who never moves past her own principles. She’s someone who if you ever asked her to say she likes you, she will dig in her heels and refuse to say it no matter what because she thinks it’s pointless.
“But why would Nerine listen to Lily-san’s father’s orders? I know she doesn’t want to be a hero, but that shouldn’t have anything to do with you right?”
“That is a question best asked to the girl herself.”
Lily turned her eyes towards Nerine. As if on cue, the girl was just getting up after rubbing her eyes awake.
Experimental Translations 