Chapter 88: A Background Character’s Denouement

"Reyn."

"Seraph?"

I looked back to find her standing with both hands clasped in front of her, swaying slightly on her feet, almost nervous about what she was about to say.

"S-Should I pack my things as well?"

What?

I gave her a look of confusion.

"Well... I said that I would protect you, remember? I can’t do that if I stay in the Federation."

Meanwhile, Aqua stared daggers at the side of my head, waiting to see how I’d respond.

"No need."

"What?"

Both women spoke at once, clearly surprised.

"Live the rest of your life with your father. Enroll in another school here in the Federation. That’s your job."

"What!?"

Seraph repeated, her usual composure cracking wide open. For someone who’d spent years burying every emotion beneath a mask of stone, the raw disbelief on her face was almost jarring.

"You heard me. Your father’s been bedridden for six years. You think I’m going to drag you across the continent the moment he can finally stand on his own?"

"But I promised—"

"You promised to protect me if I saved him. I’m releasing you from that."

I said it plainly, without ceremony. Promises made in desperation weren’t the kind of chains I wanted wrapped around anyone. I already had multiple women strong enough to protect me by now anyway.

Seraph’s hands tightened around each other.

"That isn’t fair."

"Fair?"

"You don’t get to decide what my promise is worth."

Her voice was quiet but steady now; the nervousness burned away.

"I know what I said. I know what it meant. My father is alive because of you. That debt doesn’t disappear just because you’re being generous."

Aqua let out a slow breath through her nose, and I could feel her glare soften into something more like appraisal.

"She’s got a point," Aqua said. "You’d be furious if someone tried to wave off a debt you owed them."

"Whose side are you on?"

I turned that over. She wasn’t wrong. Trish had spent weeks nearly sick with guilt because I wouldn’t let her repay me. I’d told her to be patient, to wait until she had something worth giving.

And here I was, doing the exact same thing to Seraph.

Honestly, I have no idea why they care so much about paying me back.

Seraph took my silence as an opening.

"I’m not asking to follow you around like a guard dog. I’m asking to finish what I started. Let me come to Leonis. I’ll enroll, I’ll train, and when you need me, when something actually threatens you, I’ll be there. The rest of the time, I’ll be with my father. I have enough savings to buy a small house in Leonis with him anyway."

Seraph caught her breath, then continued. Her pale eyes not wavering once.

"I’ve had six years of thinking about nothing but buying medicine. This is the first time I’ve been able to plan further ahead than that. Let me use it."

I exhaled, raking a hand through my hair.

"Fine. But you’re enrolling as a student, not my shadow. And if your father needs you, he comes first. No arguments."

This should keep her from getting too distracting when I focus on actual villainesses.

Seraph’s mask slipped again, this time into something dangerously close to a smile.

"Agreed."

Aqua made a small sound that might have been a laugh, poorly disguised as a cough.

"Something funny?"

"No, nothing at all."

? ? ?

It didn’t take long for a professor to overhear the conversation, and as it turned out, Anna, Aqua, and even Lucius and Celeste had all credited me as the main hero in calming the situation down.

Because of that, the professor looked more than happy to grant such a simple request. Enrolling one student was easy enough. Enrolling a student who had once been a Citadel prodigy? He probably would have agreed even without my now near-flawless reputation.

And... that was it.

The Federation arc had ended, and now I was back in the carriage with Anna and Lillith.

Because of course it would end this way. Lucius would go on to face the more climactic developments. For a background character like me, I was now just slightly more popular, with an extra bodyguard in tow.

Good enough for me, really.

I had no interest in being the chosen one.

"I’m sorry about Lucius, Reyn."

Anna sighed, scratching her head. She still seemed bewildered by Lucius’s motivation to kill me, more focused on that than on the fact that he’d been influenced by an illusionist.

"Let bygones be bygones," I said.

"I disagree. He should have died for what he did."

Lillith cut in. I’d almost forgotten about her mood change after becoming a vampire queen. I still needed to do more research on that once I got back home.

Anna turned on her with a flat look.

"He was being manipulated, Lillith. I’m allowed to be upset without wanting him dead."

Lillith shrugged, unbothered. "You’re too forgiving. He pointed a sword at our master."

"Again, he was being manipulated. If he wasn’t, then I would agree with you."

"He was being stupid." Lillith examined her nails with studied disinterest. "Who falls for an illusion like that, anyway?"

I let them argue. It was strangely comfortable, the two of them bickering across the carriage while the countryside rolled past the windows. A week ago, Lillith wouldn’t have dared speak to Anna that way.

Now she was lounging against the cushions like she owned the carriage, one leg crossed over the other, radiating the kind of lazy confidence that made it very easy to forget she’d been crying in Anna’s arms a few nights ago.

The evolution had changed more than her power.

But more importantly, some of that power was now coursing into me, and I could definitely feel it fighting against Lucius’s divine healing.

Of course I can’t cheat recovery...

The moment we arrived back in Leonis, I’d be just as weak as when I’d first healed Seraph’s father.

Well, at least it gave me an excuse to get spoiled by my villainesses. So it wasn’t much of a loss.