Chương 49: Not a Harem!

POV: Melody Constant - Present Day I could not, for the life of me, make sense of what Eve and Lunessa were telling me. She's joining the Dark Lord's side? After three years as the Hero? Because this one is somehow different? Because she—because she feels something for him? If that isn't a love spell, then what in the world is it? What could possibly turn Eve, who I have never once seen so much as glance twice at a boy, into this? I believe her.

I've always believed her, but believing a thing and being able to accept it are not the same, and the gap between them was swallowing me whole. And fighting Ywain? To protect the Dark Lord? Granted, Ywain had apparently been given blessings no Hero before him ever had, but how was that a bad thing? Wouldn't that just mean he could put the Dark Lord down faster, and the peace could come sooner? I looked at Lunessa, her arm still hooked through mine. She was in on it too, somehow.

She'd said the Dark Lord had helped her, once. Had he charmed her as well? Was I the only one here still free of whatever he'd done? That Dark Lord had put me to sleep and left me trussed up in that shack of his. He was dangerous. He was, and then, unbidden, the pieces began sliding into place. He hadn't killed me. He hadn't killed Ywain either. He'd only knocked us out. And then he'd let us walk away without so much as chasing us. I'd asked Eve about that, at the time, and never gotten an answer that fit.

My mind swung back and forth, doubt and doubt's opposite, until Eve finally said the thing I'd been thinking.

"Sis, are you serious?" Yes, what she asked. Are you?

"Maybe." Lunessa lifted a shoulder.

"I think it's an option worth having on the table, at least." She slipped her arm free of mine.

"Sorry, Mel. I'm not trying to press-gang you into anything. It's only a thought I've been turning over." She folded her hands.

"But think it through. If the Church wants to draw Eve out, is it really so far-fetched that they'd brand the people close to her as traitors too? And if that's where this goes, then the Dark Lord's side starts to look less like madness and more like the only door left open." But how do you know the Church is wrong? I wanted to say. What if it's the spell, tampering with her, with all of—"Mel." Eve's voice cut gently across the thought.

"And sis. I'll be honest with you. I don't know what to do. I feel like I never do." Her hands had found each other on the tabletop, fingers working restlessly.

"When I finally figured out the one thing I actually wanted, it was to stand with Milo. And that one thing seems to bring far more harm than good. It was selfish. And I may be dragging the two of you down into it with me. So I—" She stopped.

"I'm sorry." Lunessa reached across and took her hand.

"Then we'll be dragged down together," she said, plainly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I don't care where you're going, Eve. I'm not letting you go there without me; not when this time, I can be with you." Eve's breath caught, and something in her face crumpled and steadied all at once. How can she say it so easily? I thought. What about the Church? Has she just forgotten what the last Dark Lord did, all the lives he tore apart?... and then, quieter, from somewhere underneath: how can I not say it easily? Eve is my Hero; she pulled me out of the worst days of my life.

She saw me when I was nothing, a nobody the whole academy had written off, and I have looked up to her every single day since. So why couldn't I just trust her? I keep saying I do, but do I, really? When I've spent this entire conversation clutching the Church's word like a shield and blaming a love spell for feelings that might simply be hers?

"Mel." Eve had caught the war going on in my face. I flinched, then made myself hold still.

"It's all right," she said.

"I don't think the Church will come after you. You barely crossed paths with the Dark Lord, and you weren't in Ywain's party for the attack." She was right about that. The Church wouldn't launch a witch-hunt on someone like me; it would only stain their own name, especially when I had no record of ever harming a soul with a spell. I'd even received a letter placing me on hold, after Ywain was so suddenly named the new Hero.

That was why I'd gone looking for Eve in the first place—worried, unable to find her anywhere, until I'd come here to sis's house and learned Eve had left to see to some personal matter. A personal matter that turned out to be feelings for the Dark Lord. Absurd. Genuinely absurd. And yet she was so sincere about it, so grave, that even I had started to doubt my own certainty. She has always been there for me. even when I was useless, even when there was nothing in it for her.

If this is what she truly believes, shouldn't I stand with her in it? Isn't that what a best friend does?

"You shouldn't be thinking about running or hiding," Eve went on.

"Your family would worry. You've a bright future ahead of you, Mel. I don't want you throwing away everything you've worked so hard for. Not for my sake." If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Of course. Of course she'd say that. She's the one in danger. She's the one with a bounty coming and no home to go back to, and she's sitting here worrying about my future. A true Hero. Right to the end.

"Eve." She startled a little at how sharply I said it, cutting straight over her.

"I'm going to be honest with you." I kept my eyes on hers.

"I still have doubts. About all of this. About the Dark Lord, and—yes, even about you." Eve went quiet. Beside her, Lunessa's brows lifted a fraction.

"I chose to trust you. I did, and I meant it. But choosing to trust someone doesn't switch off the part of me that finds all of this deeply, deeply suspicious." I pressed my palms flat against the table to keep them from shaking.

"So no. I'm not going to pretend I've made peace with it. I haven't."

"Mel—""But you have always been there for me. Every time. And I'm not going to be the one who isn't there for you, especially not when you're walking into something this dangerous and this strange." My voice steadied as I found the words.

"That's the whole reason I clawed my way into the Hero's Party in the first place. To stand next to you. Not behind you, next to you."

"Mel..."

"I am not going to let myself get benched two fights in and shoved out of your life. So I'm staying. If you're going to the Dark Lord, then I'm going to the Dark Lord, because I need to see him with my own eyes, and decide for myself whether he's anything like what you say he is." I held her gaze.

"And if he isn't — if he's exactly what I'm afraid he is — then I'll drag you out of there myself. Kicking and screaming, if it comes to that." For a moment Eve didn't say anything at all.

"... Thank you," she said, at last, and her voice wasn't quite even.

"Well!" Lunessa clapped her hands together, brisk and delighted.

"That settles it. Shall we head out once we've thrown some things in a bag?"

"Sis, are you certain you want to—""I wasn't allowed to be at your side for years, Eve." Lunessa's tone lost none of its lightness, but there was something firm underneath it.

"For years. And now that you've landed yourself in the middle of something like this — something you chose, of your own free will, for once in your life — you think I'm going to turn around and save my own skin? Not a chance." She stood, smoothing her skirt.

"Besides," she added, entirely too pleased with herself.

"That Dark Lord of yours still owes me a very long conversation." POV: The Dark Lord, Milo Miles I wasn't doing much of anything, just sitting on a patch of grassland, waiting for Eve to wrap up whatever she was discussing with Lunessa. The Distance Ball, or the Distance Marble, or uhh, I'd already lost the name, but it's the little blue orb sat in my palm; I was watching it, waiting for the glow that meant it was time to go fetch her. My head, though, was going a mile a minute.

I kept wondering whether Lunessa was in there tearing into Eve for making such a spectacularly dumb decision. Whether her friendship with Mel was quietly falling apart on the other side of that wall. Eve had told me, plainly, that the choice was hers and hers alone, and I was grateful she'd said it, but that didn't stop the guilt from sitting on my chest. All of this was happening because of me, one way or another. And what would come next?

Honestly, I couldn't see a single path for Evelisse that didn't end with her running off with me.... Which did not sound great when it was phrased like that, but it's true, which meant she'd be living in the kingdom now, wouldn't she? Under the same roof as me and Nyx. Holy crap. Sharing a house with two girls. That was, like, a textbook harem-anime setup. Three, if you counted Luke, though Luke was... well, different.

And I absolutely should not have been even slightly pleased about that, because there were roughly a thousand actual problems stacked up in front of me. How Evelisse would cope, for one. She'd have to watch me terrorize people, maybe even help, and that would go against into everything she believed. Then there was Ywain. He'd vanished, but that woman, Lulu, I think, had said she would play the game fair this time, which was a nice word for "still absolutely trying to have me killed, just without the cheat codes."

Assuming she even meant the fair part, which I doubted. When would he come back? Not today, please. Nyx was on her own out there, with only Luke for company. If the attack came now, and Nyx lost again, I wouldn't be able to live with it; that would mean I'd screwed up. Again. Thinking about Nyx dragged my mind straight back to the demon princess thing. So she used to be royalty? And I was fairly sure Lulu had said something about moving on, about heartbreak. Was that about an ex?

But Nyx had told me I'd taken her first kiss. So did she have an ex she'd never kissed? Was that a thing? Some kind of tragic, chaste, doomed— Oh, for—why is this my business? It has nothing to do with me.... But why did she stay? She'd been threatening to leave since the day we met. Complained about every second of it. And then Greg hands her a clean exit, and she turns it down without even thinking. It made no sense.

Yet, for some reason I couldn't name, I had this nagging feeling that the reason had something to do with me. I really need her to just tell me things. If she doesn't want to explain, fine, but at least give me a yes or a no. Throw me something. The thoughts kept circling, tangled up with the bigger one I couldn't shake; what did I actually want to do here? If I did beat Ywain, then what? By Lycora's usual rhythm, they'd just appoint a new Hero.

Would I have to spend the rest of my life killing Heroes, one after another? What would Evelisse think of a version of me that did that? For some reason my brain kept manufacturing questions and refusing to attempt a single answer. It went on like that for a good while, until the orb in my hand let out a soft hum, and its blue light swelled, brightening in my palm. I took off and flew for the gates. From a distance I could see them already out in the middle of the grassland, three figures, which was unexpected.

One of them spotted me and started waving with both arms overhead enthusiastically. Lunessa? What was she doing out here? Had she come all this way to personally beat some sense into me? And Eve, of course, and... the support mage? I could also see all three of them carrying a backpack, with Lunessa also holding something like a briefcase. I set down, and Lunessa had me in a headlock before my feet had fully settled. It didn't hurt in the slightest, but the sheer surprise of it had me flailing anyway.

"Long time no see, Milo!" she said cheerfully into the side of my head.

"Even if it's only been about two days." Crap. Definitely angry. Not that I didn't have it coming.

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry! You can tell me what to do, whatever it is, and if it's something I can do, I'll do it!" She let go.

"Oh, good. I do have a few things in mind. We can discuss them at your place."... Sorry? Eve stepped forward, one hand lifting in a small, slightly sheepish gesture, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Umm, so... sis and Mel... insisted on coming along with us. I hope that's... all right?" Huh? Sorry? What? Is this a harem setup now? I thought it wasn't supposed to be one?