Episode 73 (Burkhardt’s POV): Like Father, Like Daughter
“She’ll be alright. She’s only lost consciousness, and I think she’ll be waking up soon.”
Even with Yuria telling him so, Burkhardt couldn’t settle.
Fiine had been carried to the city’s hospital and was lying on a medical bed.
Her complexion was poor, and on top of that her left leg was injured.
According to Yuria, Fiine had inflicted the wound on herself, and it would probably leave a scar.
(On a girl her age… not that I have any right to think that.)
Not once since taking her in had he managed to let her do anything a daughter should.
All he could teach her was magic and hand-to-hand combat, and he’d understood nothing else.
Even so, he remembered the day he’d danced with her, dressed up for the occasion.
The magic academy had many children of the nobility among its students, so parties were held from time to time.
Fiine had worn a white dress that Yuria had apparently chosen for her, and she’d danced with awkward steps.
It was Yuria who had suggested it: why don’t you two dance together?
Neither Fiine nor Burkhardt was the type to bring it up on their own.
“…Fiine.”
He said her name and gently stroked her head. It was so small it fit within his palm.
He had taken her in because he’d noticed how enormous her magical talent was.
He hadn’t been able to leave her be. Her talent was too large for an ignorant girl who had just lost her parents, and the mere thought of what sort of people might use her if left alone had frightened him.
A person has to be aware of their talent.
To live a life, one needs to know what one can accomplish.
With that thought, he had taught her how to fight.
But it would be a lie to say he hadn’t also felt expectations as she grew stronger at many times the speed he’d predicted.
(I wasn’t able to keep Fiine away from fighting.)
Precisely because she had such extraordinary talent, once she learned how to fight, an ordinary life was no longer possible for her.
He’d known that somewhere in himself, and still he’d gone on honing her talent.
Burkhardt, too, had been captivated by it.
“…I’m sorry.”
This time as well, it had been he who brought back a girl who’d run away.
Yuria had given him the opening, but the decision was Burkhardt’s own.
Instead of summoning her to a battlefield, there must have been other ways.
He could have gone to her house with a load of food, could have given her jewels or clothes, could have taken her on a trip to see some beautiful scenery.
But Burkhardt hadn’t been able to. That was the sort of man he was.
“If you make that face, Teacher, Fiine will be sad.”
Ha ha, Yuria laughed.
Her appearance hadn’t changed in the slightest since their student days, and he still couldn’t get used to it.
“Fiine didn’t put it into words, but she was really fired up for this request. I think it made her so happy to be relied on by you, Teacher.”
Smiling, Yuria touched Fiine’s cheek.
The gesture looked so natural that Burkhardt felt close to tears.
“Most of all, she looked like she was having fun. Fiine ran away because she got sick of everything around her, but… I think she’s really the kind of girl who wants to fight to protect people, if it’s alongside comrades she can trust.”
Fiine had someone important to her whom she could touch like this, as a matter of course.
But Yuria was one of the dead.
From here on, she couldn’t grow old alongside Fiine.
So he found himself wanting, no matter what, to help Fiine build new relationships with other people.
One reason he’d brought her on this mission was that he’d wanted her to interact with outstanding mages of her own age.
“Fiine’s bad at honestly telling people how she feels, and at asking others for things. So all the more, she ends up shouldering everything herself.”
He remembered how, in their student days, Yuria had looked after Fiine at every turn.
Even toward Burkhardt, whom the students feared as a demon of an instructor, Yuria had been willing to make demands whenever it was for Fiine’s sake.
He ought to prepare a proper birthday present. He ought to invite her to come home. She’d earned good marks on the exam, so as her guardian he ought to praise her.
He’d been aware of falling short as a father, so he’d followed her words as much as he could.
He had assumed she must be someone who’d grown up loved, someone who knew a great deal about a father’s love.
But he had been wrong.
She’d been born the child of a maid, he’d learned, and raised in mistreatment. Even so, Yuria had thought it through in her own way and given him her advice.
“Honestly, Teacher, you and Fiine are so alike. Parent and child, after all, I suppose.”
“…Me, and Fiine?”
“Spitting images. Oh, not in looks, of course! Fiine’s cute.”
He and Fiine shared no blood.
He had no children, so he didn’t know what feelings a parent held toward a child.
He couldn’t tell, therefore, whether Yuria’s observation was right.
“You and Fiine both need to be more honest, and rely on other people more.”
“But…”
“Don’t ‘but’ me.”
Just as Yuria sighed, Fiine slowly opened her eyes.
“I’ll go and get some food. So the two of you, please, talk properly.”
She said it in a rush, then hurried out of the infirmary.