Chapter 13: Clash

Part 1

It was October 1^st.

Ianna’s relationship with Arhad had not changed. They were still awkwardly junior and senior, just as they had been before. One thing that had changed, however, was that Ianna was now more cautious than she had been before. She still said everything she wanted to say like she always had, but she now spent more time carefully, quietly, and thoroughly studying Arhad.

Arhad enjoyed having Ianna’s evaluative gaze on him. He either stayed still or smiled in her direction whenever she stared at him. If he did the latter, Ianna would look him in the eye for a moment before turning away.

Ianna hadn’t asked anything. She had decided that she would dig deeper into Arhad’s past and secrets only after she began working as a member of Camastros. And so, she organized the questions she wanted to ask in her head as she observed him.

The identity of Arhad’s house and his correct title.

Arhad’s ambitions and his general plans for the future.

His past and his current situation.

These six questions and their answers would serve as the foundation for a deep relationship between them.

~~*~~

On October 1^st, Ianna and Arhad donned their black robes and headed for the slums. People looked to them for a moment because they seemed suspicious, but they quickly turned away and resumed what they had been doing.

As soon as they had reached the entrance to the slums, Arhad said,

“Put on your mask and rings.”

Ianna put her rings on her thumb and ring fingers. Her hair and eyes faded into a somber brown. Something in her throat seemed to wriggle at the same time. Ianna scowled because it felt like there was a bug squirming inside her throat, but the transformation did not take too long.

“Ah, ah.”

Her vocal cords had been safely rearranged, and her voice sounded completely different. Her voice was very husky now. Her altered voice made it impossible to tell her gender by her voice, though it sounded like she was trying to talk with her throat slit.

Ianna had tested the ring out multiple times already, but she touched her at throat because it still felt bizarre. Arhad narrowed his eyes and smiled as he watched her.

“You’ll get used to it.”

Next, Ianna donned her white mask. Her mask stuck to her skin like it had been glued there the moment it made contact. Her appearance was now completely concealed. The thick robe wrapped around her frame made it difficult to even tell apart her gender. The crude sword drawn beneath the eyehole on her mask was the only thing that identified her as Ianna, or rather, as ‘Ann.’

The light gradually faded away as they kept walking and darkness fell upon them. The slums reeked of its unique musty stench of dust and vile trash. Ianna followed quickly behind Arhad and memorized their path by using the buildings around them as landmarks.

“Hehe, I’ve got you now……eek!”

Every once in a while, a group of hoodlums blocked their path and drew glistening daggers at them. But they all squealed like pigs and immediately ran for their lives upon seeing Arhad’s and Ianna’s peculiar attire —and especially upon seeing the golden eyes gleaming from behind Arhad’s mask. Ianna clicked her tongue after it had happened a few times.

“I see. Camastros really is notorious in the underworld. And you’re especially infamous.”

Ianna stared openly at Arhad before continuing,

“You don’t need to alter your appearance?”

Arhad had not altered anything besides his voice. His hair wasn’t visible, but what about the color of his eyes? Arhad’s eyes were always a brilliant gold regardless of whether he was acting as a model student in the Institution, slaughtering his enemies at the slave auction, or even now. Golden eyes were rare and were unsuited for acting discreetly with, so why did he insist on keeping his eyes gold?

“The color of my eyes won’t change no matter what I do to them.”

“You mean that magic doesn’t work on them?”

“Yes. I don’t know exactly why. And psychological magic doesn’t work on me either. But spells that leave a physical impact on me do.”

Ianna pondered. Why would certain spells not work on him? Arhad was able to control mana as if it belonged to him. He had said that it was a genetic trait. Ianna wondered if there was a connection between his genetically inherited talents and the fact that some spells didn’t work on him.

“Most people probably think I dyed my eyes gold to differentiate me from my subordinates. No one would ever think that the leader of Camastros, who needs to keep his identity secret the most, would forget to alter his appearance. I’m actually quite pleased with the circumstances. I’m the final boss, so wouldn’t I need to set myself apart from my subordinates anyway?”

Ianna forgot her reverie and broke out into laughter at Arhad’s joke.

Patter patter.

The path they were walking suddenly split in two, and twenty or so people suddenly poured out around them. They were armed with weapons and leather armor, and they had throwing knives and suspicious-looking pouches dangling from the cheap leather belts at their waists.

There were people climbing out from the windows of the shabby buildings around them too. The sharp blades pointed at Ianna and Arhad glistened in the darkness.

Unlike those who had started talking first before attacking, this group immediately shouted and rushed for them —perhaps they had been lying in wait to catch them by surprise. They had probably set up the strategy because they knew that Arhad was Camastros’ leader.

Ianna stole a quick glance at Arhad beside her. He was looking back at the attackers in nonchalance.

Whoosh!

Ianna dodged the arrow that flew past her ear by turning to the side as she asked,

“Is this normal?”

Ianna’s eyebrows twitched from behind her mask when Arhad nodded back. No wonder he had unusually good battle senses. This man had always lived around constant bloody violence.

There was no need to talk for long. Ianna nodded at Arhad as she stood in front of him, and Arhad, who looked between her and the attackers rushing for her, nodded back.

“Yaaah!”

The fearless brutes focused on Ianna, perhaps because they figured they should deal with Arhad’s subordinate first. Ianna’s eyes flashed with bloodlust. She unclasped her sword from the scabbard above her left hip with her thumb.

She held her scabbard with her left hand and the hilt of her blade with her right. Her robes fluttered behind her as she tore through the air in a sharp semi-circle.

Crimson blood flowed. All those who had been close to her collapsed on the spot, and those who were behind them staggered in alarm. Ianna wove through them and began slaughtering them. She grabbed the enemy closest to her and used them as a human shield whenever another arrow flew toward her from a window.

“Ack!”

A terrified few turned tail and began to flee as they saw their comrades fall like broken puppets.

“You monster!”

someone screamed as they tore the pouch from their waist and threw it at Ianna. The pouch was frothing white from its open mouth. Ianna grabbed the man standing next to her by the collar when a dubious white power began pouring out from the pouch and threw him at it. The man collided into the pouch face-first as he flew and fell to the ground.

“Kgh, urk.”

The man spasmed before quickly falling silent.

Swish.

The man standing directly in front of Ianna brought out his own pouch while she was distracted, but Ianna sliced his hand clean off his wrist. Things would only grow more tedious if they were allowed to spread the poison.

The situation was dealt with swiftly, and no attackers were left standing. They were all either corpses laying sprawled about the ground or grievously wounded and only just barely managing to breathe.

Ianna felt someone’s presence behind the crates stacked along the wall and walked up to them. Whoever it was stepped out and revealed themselves when they heard her footsteps drawing closer. It was a delicate-looking woman who, judging by her ragged clothing, was a prostitute who sold herself in the slums.

“Please have mercy! I just thought I might be able to snag one of them as a customer……!”

“Go.”

Ianna sheathed her sword and jerked her chin, and the ashen-faced woman bowed multiple times from her waist before breaking into a run past Ianna.

The woman screamed as her arm was bent sharply upward. In her hand was a dagger that had been aimed at Ianna’s heart. The woman staggered and lost her balance when Ianna pulled her by the wrist. She looked down into the woman’s face and smiled.

“I was going to spare you since you’re just a trifling wench, and yet you dare?”

“Let go, you damn bastard!”

Ianna leisurely looked down at the woman’s ferocious countenance for a moment before slapping her hard across the cheek.

“Kyaah!”

Ianna slapped her senseless a few times before grabbing her up by the hair when she fell to the ground quivering and indifferently whispered,

“How would you like me to kill you?”

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Ianna was being indifferent, but she sounded like the grim reaper in the woman’s ears. It would have been one thing if Ianna had killed her promptly, but she was beyond terrified now that Ianna was holding her up by the hair and asking her how she wanted to die. Her pupils were shaking and she was crying a river, but the expression on Ianna’s face remained cold.

“You aren’t going to show mercy to the weak?”

Ianna furrowed her brows when Arhad, who had been overlooking the situation, walked up to her and asked.

“That’s preposterous.”

“Preposterous?”

“P-please spare me! Spare me! I won’t do it ever again! I only did it because I needed the money!”

The woman knelt and clutched at Ianna’s robes. Ianna, however, shook the terrified and quivering woman off like she was something dirty and kicked her hard in the face. The woman passed out immediately as broken teeth fell out from her mouth. Ianna kicked the unmoving woman aside, caring not as to whether she was alive or dead, and began walking ahead.

“I am not trying to play the part of merciful hero. Anyone who attacks me is my enemy, regardless of whether they are weak or strong.”

“I see.”

Arhad quietly accepted Ianna’s reasoning as he followed her along the path she had cleared for him.

They arrived at an old and shabby building shortly after. The building, which was three stories high, was built from cheap brick and seemed unstable, like it could collapse on itself any moment now, probably due to the numerous years it had seen.

There was a stairway leading upstairs directly behind a decrepit wooden door. The air was half-filled with dust, likely because no one lived there, and there were cobwebs strewn about everywhere.

Ianna followed when Arhad began climbing up the stairs without a moment’s hesitation. When he reached the second floor, Arhad opened the fifth of the eight wooden doors that lined the narrow hallway. The small bell attached to the door chimed brightly, which was ill-befitting of the building.

“You’re here?”

Six people, who had been seating around a square table, stood up. Arhad nodded and stepped a little to the side. In doing so, he revealed Ianna, whom they couldn’t see at first, to them, and their gazes poured upon her.

“This is Ann, a new member of Camastros.”

Ianna gently bowed her head. The teardrop mask, whom she was familiar with, nodded back at her, but the others expressed their curiosity toward the newcomer —save for the two with a moon and a star on their masks respectively.

Ianna’s hand instinctively moved to the hilt of her sword. Standing around her were highly capable individuals of rare and remarkable skill. She was curious as to when, where, and how Arhad had gathered such talent.

“These people are Camastros’ top executives, and they’ve been with me since Camastros was first established. They each have their own specialties, and they are the top talents in their respective fields.”

The founding members of Camastros.¹

They would each play a part in Arhad’s ascension to the imperial throne, so it was possible that they would one day become as his loyal retainers and members of Bahamut’s nobility. Perhaps some of them had even laughed in relief as they watched her die when Arhad had pierced her through the heart.

Ianna had clashed often with the warriors under Arhad’s banner, so there were many of them whom she was familiar with whether she liked it or not —perhaps she might even recognize some of them by sight if they took off their masks. In any event, it was impossible to confirm their identities at the moment because they were all wearing white masks and black robes.

“Enough —Ann is an individual of incredible skill who will be assisting us in our endeavors.”

“Haha, well then, we’ll be in your care, Ann.”

Everyone immediately stood at ease and welcomed Ianna, the newcomer, immediately. Camastros was extremely picky about who they allowed into their fold, so they were always short on members. Someone whom their leader had personally brought in and even complimented was surely someone of incredible skill who would make up for their lacking quantity with quality.

“Ann will be operating under my direct command and will not be taking orders from anyone else. He will not be receiving instructions from Shawn, and neither will he be taking orders from Hill. Bear that in mind.”

Everyone nodded in silence. They all obeyed quietly, as though no one was afraid that the newcomer would usurp their place.

Arhad began introducing them to Ianna.

“This here is Shawn —though I’m sure you know since you’ve already met? He is in charge of our strategy and espionage.”

“I’m really glad you joined us, Ann.”

There was joy clearly written in Shawn’s husky voice as he approached Ianna with open arms like he was about to pull her into a hug. He put his arms down and stepped back when Arhad glared at him, but he stilled failed to hide his smiles and joy.

“Gold. He has a rather special intuition for traps and explosives, and he also manages our overall finances.”

“Just give me the word if you need a lot of money and quickly. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve discovered a new dungeon that needs clearing.”

The man behind the mask with a circle drawn on it crinkled his eyes and smiled.

“Next, are our executives who oversee our close-quarters combat operations. Caesar is a martial arts and reinforcement specialist. Rust’s main weapon is his spear, but he is capable of handling just about every weapon in the world.”

“…….”

Caesar, who had a lone bird drawn on his mask, nodded without a word. He was not very tall, but his physique was sturdy.

“It’s nice to meet you. A sword is a fine weapon.”

Rust, who was standing on the other side and had a dragon drawn on his mask, was very large in stature. Of the three who had stood on alert when Ianna first entered the room, he was the one who’s competitiveness had felt the strongest. He was easily over two meters tall, and there was a giant spear strapped firmly against his back.

“And next are our ranged attack executives. You’ve met Hill before —he doesn’t participate in battle, but he oversees our spells and artefacts—, and Van specializes in archery and long-distance cover.”

“Hello. I’ll be doing my best to cover you from the rear so you can focus on attacking.”

Van, who had three short stripes drawn on his mask, stood up and bowed a little from his waist. He smiled a little when Ianna bowed back and sat back down slowly and with good posture. There was something graceful about his each and every movement. His elegance reminded Ianna of the Roanne nobles’ etiquette that Ianna was ever so familiar with. Was he a noble?

“Giselle,”

Arhad said as he looked to the woman who had a star drawn on her mask.

“Yes.”

Giselle got up from her seat. She continued,

“It’s nice to meet you, Ann.”

Arhad had personally introduced the other five members, but he ordered Giselle to introduce herself. What did that mean? Ianna looked to Giselle with curiosity.

“I’m Giselle.”

Giselle slowly brought her hands together. Ianna opened her eyes wide as she recognized both the familiar energy coming from Giselle’s body and the familiar beings that were eating away at it.

Fweeee—

Clumps of air gathered together and began circling around Giselle. They were just balls of air, but they circled around Giselle in apparent welcome and even seemed to be having fun as they spun around.

“I walk as one with nature, and I am in charge of overseeing our use of the spiritual arts.”

‘Spirits —but how?’

Ianna had only ever seen Finn and Chendelf summon spirits before. And they were both of the mythical races —they weren’t human. Was Giselle a member of the mythical races too?

But no. Ianna could not be certain that Giselle was a member of the mythical race quite yet.

‘I can supply the spirits with divine power too —I just don’t know how to summon them yet. It’s still possible that there might be some humans who know how to summon them.’

Spirits manifested in the physical plane by eating divine power. Anyone who lived could theoretically control divine power and summon the spirits so long as they knew how. That being said, however, Ianna could not help the fact that her eyes were drawn to how tall and slender —traits she had heard were characteristic of the elves— Giselle was.

Giselle beamed when she saw Ianna looking at her.

“I, like Van, am also in charge of our rear support. I look forward to working with you.”

Ianna turned to the other executives. They hadn’t reacted in particular. Spirits were a type of miracle that worked differently than did magic, but they seemed to be accustomed to them.

As a rule, members of Camastros were not allowed to ask about each other. And so, Ianna decided to curb her intrigue. Anyone wearing the black robes and white masks was simply another member of Camastros, regardless of whether they were human or of the mythical races. And neither was she planning on doing anything if she learned that Giselle was a member of the mythical races. After all, they were essentially no different from humans.

Ianna was simply glad that Giselle was here.

‘We might even be able to discuss the spirits together if things go well.’

There was no one with whom she could discuss the spirits with around her. Finn only really knew about the spirit that took the form of a lump of water, and Arhad, while he clearly knew a lot about them, seemed to detest the spirits.

Ianna also needed to learn how to summon the spirits on her own. It was possible for her to learn how to control divine power now, so perhaps she could learn how to summon the spirits without using Finn as an intermediary anymore too. She could have simply asked the spirits or Finn to teach her at any time, of course, but she preferred to learn from an experienced summoner, rather than from the summoned or from a young child.

In any event, she would have to grow closer to Giselle first for any of this to be possible.

Ianna turned to Arhad once her thoughts had run their course. She was more hesitant to call upon the spirit kings at her every whim and fancy like she had been before now that she had tasted his blazing anger, but she didn’t want to completely cut her ties with them just yet. They were extremely useful to her, and even if they weren’t, they were still adorable beings who showered her with their genuine love and affections.

“Let us begin our October meeting.”

The introductions were over, and everyone took their seats after Arhad had sat down in the seat of honor. Ianna pulled over a chair and tried to sit down somewhere a bit distant from where Arhad was, but Shawn pointed to the seat next to Arhad and said,

“You’re Ro’s direct subordinate, Ann, so you should stick close to him from now on.”

“Do that.”

Ianna had known that the seat next to Arhad was empty. She had tried to sit somewhere else anyway because she had determined that it might not be good for a newcomer to skip ahead of the other executives and sit next to the most important person at the table. But both Arhad and Shawn had told her to sit next to Arhad, and a brief survey along the table told her that the other members were nodding, letting Ianna know that she wasn’t committing mutiny.

Ianna sat down, and Shawn stood next to Arhad and cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Our plans for October are as follows. We’ve been using hit-and-run tactics until now, but things will be different going forward. We’ve made contact with Prince Schneider and successfully obtained his official sponsorship, so we will no longer need to worry about leaving trails behind when we clash against the Black Fox head-on.”

Ianna flinched. Schneider. His was both a familiar and nostalgic name. He had once been her master in her past life, but she had all but forgotten about him because she had thought that she would have no ties with him in this one.

Ianna stole a glance at Arhad. He was listening to Shawn with his eyes closed.

‘Did this happen in the past too?’

She had never thought even in her wildest dreams that Arhad’s organization, Camastros, would have ties to the prince. She had only been appointed as Prince Schneider’s knight a few years later down the road, so she had no way of knowing that he and Arhad had been connected somehow at this point in time.

“We will begin thoroughly destroying the Black Fox’s branches one by one next year. However, we will have to adhere to one of the Prince’s demands at the same time, as the Prince has requested that he be given credit for our achievements in exchange for assuming the risk of becoming the Black Fox’s target.”

“He needs to be ‘the Prince who refuses to tolerate the Black Fox’s harassment of the good citizens of the kingdom,’ after all,”

said Van, who had been relatively silent from the very beginning. He continued,

“Does that mean we will ultimately be working for the Prince?”

Arhad smirked.

“Can you not see how much of a benefit it is to us that we can start seizing more power without the Black Fox’s eyes on us? It doesn’t matter how much credit the Prince takes, so long as we can use his name. He won’t know just how big of a burden he’s taken on for a long while yet.”

“We know that you’re hostile toward the royal family of Roanne, Van, but you’ll need to keep yourself under control. Others might look at us and think that we’re the Prince’s lapdogs, but the truth is actually quite different, no?”

“……I understand.”

Shawn smiled in satisfaction once Van had nodded in assent and passed along a thick packet of paper to each of the executives as he continued the meeting. Ianna flipped through the pages and listened in on their conversations to get a better understanding of what the job was about.

She learned all sorts of information, such as the number of Black Fox branches they had destroyed and the number of casualties that had resulted, the organization’s financial status and that they still needed more members, the successes and failures of any alliances they had been trying to forge, and their plans for the coming months. The executives actively exchanged opinions, but everything new that Ianna had learned was resolved neatly and effectively. The meeting progressed quickly without any major conflict, as each member was thinking only to benefit the group instead of thinking of their personal gain, and it concluded within an hour.

“And without further ado, we will now conclude the meeting.”

In conclusion, Ianna decided that she rather liked Camastros. Though perhaps it was only expected, since it was Arhad’s organization.

“And now, it’s time for some entertainment~.”

Shawn brought out a large roll of paper and spread it across the table. Entertainment? Ianna looked to the paper with interest and was promptly shocked.

It was a map of Theodore. And not just any map, but one that contained every district in the capital and every secret passageway —the type that was regarded as a military secret and given only to the royal family and the highest-ranking nobles in the royal faction…….

‘How did he get his hands on this? Did Schneider give this to him?’

But, upon a closer look, Ianna realized that it was actually somehow more detailed than even the secret maps used in the military. This map even marked and listed street vendors and residences. An enemy of the kingdom would find nothing more useful than this. The royal family would burn the map at once and have its maker beheaded for treason if they ever learned of its existence.

Gold stirred up a fuss as he latched onto the map.

“Shawn, how on earth do you learn about these things? You manage to surprise me every time.”

“Evidently, one of Shawn’s many talents include making others want to smack him whenever they see him.”

It was surprising enough that he was managing to leak information from the Black Fox, but to think that he could get his hands on such extremely detailed information like this too. Just how high were Camastros’ intelligence capabilities?

Ianna saw Shawn in a new light. She had known that he was an executive at the Black Fox too, and his intelligence capabilities were amazing. Just what, and how much, did he know?

Ianna let out a quiet sigh. She had figured out yet another reason as to why the Kingdom of Roanne had been pushed back by the Bahamut Empire without even the most trifling resistance in her past. Shawn was one of Arhad’s people, which meant that Shawn’s intelligence capabilities had also been Bahamut’s intelligence capabilities.

“Now, now, let’s make sure everyone gives it their all today, shall we? We’ll have to show our newcomer just how strong we are, no? Everyone here is capable of taking down any of even the bigger branches in no time at all, so why don’t we target the really big ones today?”

“Oh, sounds fun.”

Shawn grinned as he pointed to the map.

“We’ll be taking care of three bases today……here, here, and here.”

The other executives began choking when they saw the red dots on the buildings that Shawn had pointed to and they began raising up a fuss about how Shawn really had it in for them today.

“Will we need to kill every member of the Black Fox we find?”

Ianna disliked pointless killing to some extent. This was why she had not gone out of her way to kill every last attacker who had attacked her today, though she had at least gravely wounded all of them, and it was also why she had not confirmed whether the woman who had tried to attack her was dead or not.

They had not been worthy targets of murder in her eyes. They were simply like flies whom she could exterminate whenever she wanted to. She hadn’t cared in the slightest when the woman had begged for her life —it had simply been too much of a bother to draw her sword again once she had already sheathed it. This was why Ianna had merely slapped her hard a few times and kicked her in the face, and if the woman still died anyway, then that was simply the woman’s fate.

Though, Ianna would make sure to kill her next time if the same woman ever tried to attack her again even after Ianna had shown her mercy.

In any event, she needed to confirm whether she needed to kill every last member of the Black Fox regardless of whether there was any point in killing them. Shawn waved his hands.

“Oh, you can kill them if you want to, but it doesn’t really matter even if you don’t. You’ll tire yourself out quickly if you try to kill all of them, since the Black Fox has so many members. Besides, it’ll also be a pain to clean up afterward.”

“Is that so?”

“Rank and file members who don’t know who the real master of the Black Fox is will start leaving the organization in droves once they start taking heavy losses. We have no use for them. But things are different when it comes to the executives. There’ll be a few executives I’ll specifically mention when we raid the branches —please make sure you capture them alive—, and if possible, I ask that you kill the rest while the dregs are watching.”

Arhad, who had been waiting for Ianna and Shawn to finish, grabbed the table and stood up as Ianna nodded in understanding.

“Then, shall we go?”

The group began chattering leisurely, like they were simply going on a field trip, as they walked out of their hideout’s shabby doors.

“Lord Shawn, when are you going to give me back the money you borrowed?”

“I said that I would. Don’t you trust me, Lord Gold?”

“Not at all. There’s so much you haven’t paid back yet. And I can’t even send my men after you because I don’t know your face —I might as well just donate the money to you at this rate.”

“Then just donate it, Lord Gold, the great and wealthy.”

“Shut it,”

Rust grumbled from beside them as he concurred with Gold. He continued,

“What’s this bullshit about donating? It’s nearly been a year since you borrowed the money saying it was urgent and never paid it back. You would’ve had your head cracked open with a bottle of beer several times by now if we ever met outside the organization.”

“But what should I do? I really only have the clothes on my back.”

“That’s what you always say, damnit. I’ll just have to toss you up as bait when we go dragon hunting later.”

“Aren’t you being a bit too harsh? —we’ve been comrades for years now. And I doubt that a dragon would have an appetite for a skinny and handsome young man like me. Wouldn’t they prefer to eat someone bigger and with more meat on them like you, Lord Rust?”

“You little……”

Shawn, Gold, and Rust seemed to hit it off well as they bickered amongst themselves, while Van and Giselle, who apparently liked to read, discussed the latest books they had read. Caesar, who had kept his silence ever since they had left the hideout, followed behind them as he listened in on their conversations.

Hierarchical relationships existed in any organization where some members were superior to others. Ianna had always kept this firmly in her heart, and so she felt awkward when the other executives began acting like they were at a simple social gathering. Nothing to mention about the fact that they were on their way to raid a few bases of the Black Fox, who were so notorious that an ordinary person would immediately flee just at the sight of them.

Still, Ianna found the atmosphere rather pleasant. Everyone was relaxed in a way that was only possible because they had already trampled the Black Fox underfoot multiple times over.

Giselle, who had been walking next to Ianna, saw how the latter was observing them with a curious light in her eyes, and slowly drew closer.

“We seem close, don’t we?”

“Yes, you do.”

“We truly are. We’ve known each other for many years now, after all. And yet, we know practically nothing about each other despite all this. All that we do know about each other is that we’re all members of the same organization.”

“That way, we won’t be able to disclose anything about our comrades if we’re ever captured and tortured. Only Ro and Shawn, who run the organization, know our real identities,”

Van, who was walking next to Giselle, added.

“We become members of Camastros first and our real identities second the moment we put on our black robes and white masks.”

“We don’t even know who Ro, whom we follow, really is. We can only guess by his skills and his voice that he must be somewhere in his mid-thirties. But everyone in Camastros knows his background, of course. And we each have a terrible curse cast directly on our brains because of this.”

Giselle tapped against her head as she continued,

“I will lose my mind the moment I even think of trying to disclose Ro’s background. Hill’s psychic magic is serious business.”

Hill was Heinrich, one of the Ten Archmages, and it was widely known that he was an expert in psychic magic. He was so good at it that the Grey Magic Tower, in which Heinrich resided, was sometimes called the Psychic Magic Tower.

Why did Heinrich want to eliminate the Black Fox and the Bahamut Empire? Now that Ianna really thought about it, she realized that Heinrich was the person who had saved Arhad’s mother, had overseen his birth, and had hidden him from the empire all these years. It was almost as if he had a great grudge against the empire.

“Surely you must also know that Ro’s background is serious enough to merit such precautions, right, Ann?”

Arhad, who had been listening in as Giselle and Van told Ianna more about Camastros, cut in when Ianna neither confirmed nor denied.

“Ann doesn’t know that much yet, Giselle.”

Giselle’s eyes opened wide behind her mask.

“Truly? I was certain he would know, since he’s your direct subordinate.”

“Ann only knows that I’m the son of a powerful noble from the North and his concubine. I’m still in the process of coaxing her into our fold.”

“I see. But to think that he’s so skilled that you’re so excited to coax him in, Ro —the Black Fox is as good as dead today. Hoho!”

Giselle’s laugh sounded gentle on the surface, but there was violent malice hidden inside it. She continued,

“I want to hurry up and send those vile creatures back down to hell where the Demon is said to sleep. They’re practically the Demon’s children, and the Demon has not even the right to turn to God.”

Giselle’s attitude made it obvious that she had joined Camastros because she held a deep grudge against the Black Fox and the Bahamut Empire.

“It seems like everyone in Camastros has a grudge or two against the Black Fox.”

“There are those who do, as well as those who simply thought it might be fun to join or those who genuinely wish to follow Lord Ro because he’s strong. There are countless reasons among us.”

“I loathe the Black Fox. And I hate their master so much it might drive me mad.”

Giselle’s voice was so unbelievably clear in timber that it was difficult to believe it had been altered like Ianna’s was. It was like the warble of a singing canary, or like the clean wind whispering through a forest. But the malice embedded into her voice was so acrid that Ianna was curious as to why the executive had joined Camastros, though she decided not to inquire any further all the same.

Instead, she looked to Caesar, who had been tagging behind Van and Giselle this entire time. He had a bird drawn on his mask, and Ianna had yet to hear him speak. Ianna thought he must be rather taciturn.

“I don’t believe I’ve heard Lord Caesar speak up yet.”

“That would be because he can’t.”

Caesar nodded in agreement when Van calmly replied, and Ianna learned of her mistake and apologized for her hasty judgment.

“My apologies.”

Caesar waved his hands as if to tell her not to worry about it. Meanwhile, Giselle pulled back her malice deep within and smiled gently.

“But he’s still a very dependable man whom we can trust to watch our backs. He’s very strong.”

“He is indeed.”

Caesar raised his hands as if to convey that it wasn’t true, but he only smiled when Van and Giselle then began saying that he was far too humble.

Ianna surveyed the group. No one would have been able to tell who was who if they were only wearing their black robes and white masks. It was the different patterns drawn on their masks that set them apart. Shawn had a teardrop, Caesar had a bird, Van had three short lines, Rust had a dragon, Gold had a circle, and Giselle had a star.

“I was wondering —do the patterns on the masks mean anything?”

“Hoho. They’re simply a symbol depicting what’s important to each of us.”

Giselle pointed to the star on her mask and continued,

“I love the beautiful stars. I often lie on grassy fields with the bugs and with my friends to gaze at the stars in the night sky for fun.”

Giselle, who was tall and slender even with her robe on, grinned from beneath her mask. She continued,

“Yours is a sword? It’s very cool. I look forward to seeing your skill with the sword.”

“Ann is exceptional,”

Arhad praised Ianna wholeheartedly.

“Oh? Rust, it looks like you have a new rival. Ro, whom you’re so desperate to defeat, praised him lavishly just now. Between Ann’s sword and yours, which you say will knock a dragon out of the skies one day —whose is stronger?”

Gold, who had been listening in to their conversation from afar, smiled slyly and hit Rust a few times, prompting the latter to smile broadly beneath his mask and use his large hands to grab the former by the collar.

“I am, at the very least, strong enough to knock you down.”

Ianna surveyed them again. Shawn had two daggers hanging from his waist like a common street rat, but, judging by how he had noticed Ianna’s presence when she had tailed him and had sent a mana-infused throwing knife flying at her, he probably had a least a few knives hidden under his thick black cloak.

Gold, like Shawn, wore a dagger at his waist, though the large bag on his back suggested that it wasn’t his main weapon of choice, while Rust had a spear large enough to split a building in two strapped against his back.

Van was equipped with a bow and arrows, both of which looked extraordinary even at a first glance, while Giselle had nothing but her delicate body, like any ordinary mage.

“Hmm, there are only two guards posted outside, probably because no one’s usually gutsy enough to sneak into a place like this. It’d be best to just hit them with an area-of-effect spell from afar.”

Shawn was carefully scouting out the base when Ianna suddenly saw the image of a certain man in him, and she forgot the question she had been about to ask as she observed him from behind.

That familiar physique, that familiar manner of speech.

His voice sounded different and his eyes were a different color, but was it just a wild guess on her part to say that he reminded her of a certain young man she knew?

The fact that he belonged to the underworld, the fact that he was an informant, and the fact that it might have been Arhad whom she had met in the Allacamorah Forest. He had seemed to know exactly who it was she had met and had known about the medicine, and he had told her that the robed man was dangerous and had warned her not to get too close to him…….

“……?”

Shawn turned around when he felt Ianna’s stubborn gaze clinging to him, and it was only then that she asked,

“Do we just rush in?”

“Oh, you’re free to fight however you wish. Everyone here is fully capable of taking care of themselves. But, could I ask you to start, Lady Giselle? You sounded pretty serious earlier.”

A pair of brown eyes narrowed beneath their mask.

“It would be my honor.”

“Please bring everything outside. Oh, and please lend Lady Giselle a hand, Lord Caesar.”

Giselle stepped across the pointed bricks jutting out from the building’s wall and surged up to the rooftop like she was shooting up toward the heavens as she observed the base with a wintry light in her eyes. Caesar, who had climbed up after her, stood beside her. Quietly, Giselle recited,

“Those people are evil beings who worship the Demon. Isn’t that so, Lord Caesar?”

Caesar didn’t answer. Instead, he placed a hand on Giselle’s trembling shoulders in the lieu of a reply. Giselle stopped trembling as her once-crystal clear eyes grew bloodshot.

“And so, I am doing the right thing when I kill those who dare squander the precious life that Lord Laos has given them.”

The wind began blowing toward her when Giselle clasped her hands together. The small clumps of air that had been circling around Giselle mixed together and condensed into a distinct form. It was a tiny bird. A strong gale blew around her.

“Destroy their building and separate out those bastards from the other things inside. Pile the objects up next to the building, and hold just the people in place.”

The spirit whistled as it circled once around Giselle’s head before speeding toward the building like an arrow. The little bird drew more wind into itself as it flew, and it scattered into smaller breezes as it ripped audibly through the air. The seemingly meek breezes grew stronger until they became a twister breaking out from the center of the base.

Craaaaash—!

“Aaah!”

“W-what the?!”

The spirit gently set aside the things inside the building, just as Giselle had asked it to, and swept up the building wreckage and the thirty or forty or so people who had been inside into the twister.

Clap!

Caesar, who had been watching over the situation, clapped his hands loudly together. Ianna, who had thought Caesar had accompanied Giselle to provide the latter cover, questioned his sudden clapping before seeing divine power seep out from his body and grow into a fiery blaze. The blaze was yet another spirit.

Caesar was too muscular to be an elf, but he was also too tall to be a dwarf. So then, what was he? Ianna observed him with interest.

The spirit of fire stretched out when Caesar pointed silently at the demolished building and threw itself into the twister. The wind and the fire helped each other grow larger, and the burning tornado swallowed the building whole.

Booooom!

The two spirits working together produced tremendous results. The large wooden building had been utterly demolished after the tornado had passed through it. Everyone who the wind had been carrying had disappeared as well. All that was left behind as the tornado disappeared was black ashes, as though nothing had been inside the building in the first place.

Shawn put his hands in his pockets as he sauntered up to the pile of things that the spirit had put aside and brought out a gold medal. The medal began sparkling when he imbued mana into it and created a large magic circle that sucked up the pile of stuff into it whole.

Ianna intoned, “Oh?—” as she studied Shawn’s artefact. She didn’t know if he was using spatial magic or teleportation magic, but it was impressive either way as both magics were highly technical and difficult to master.

Giselle and Caesar leapt gently down from the two-story building they were standing on as if they had simply conducted some light exercise after a meal. Giselle even stretched as if she was feeling refreshed.

“Good work.”

“Damn. The two of you were the only ones who needed to be here tonight.”

The guards at the second base, to which the group had walked leisurely, were already stirring up a commotion. They were anxiously running about this way and that, and one of their number spotted the group of ominous black robes and screamed,

“It’s Camastros!”

“Let’s go.”

Arhad and Rust stood at the lead, and the others followed behind them. Ianna, too, followed from the rear. She kept herself hidden and only used her sword to deal with any enemies who tried to attack them from behind as she observed the other Camastros executives.

Arhad moved as she had expected. He brushed aside the enemies before him like he was simply waving away tall grasses in his path.

“Uryaah!”

Rust’s movements were rather large. His spear was large and crude —it had probably been made for slaying monsters with. It looked like it would be able to behead a cow just by dropping down from high to low. Rust heartily swept his spear sideways, like a woodcutter cutting down trees with his axe, as the members of the Black Fox poured out in front of him.

“Ack!”

“Ahhh!”

Every enemy that had been standing in his spear’s path was either bisected horizontally or pushed away as their comrades’ corpses flew at them. Rust seemed to be as strong as an ogre, a monster that was strong enough to rip out a fully-grown tree and swing it around.

Caesar was quiet, but he was making quick work of the Black Fox’s members with just his bare hands.

Swish— Pow!

The arrow, which had flown in from seemingly nowhere and had pierced precisely through what was now a Black Fox corpse, was likely Van’s. His arrows were occasionally fortified and sometimes exploded and blew away parts of the enemies’ bodies.

Giselle was either using her spirits to provide cover for everyone else or cutting down members of the Black Fox with blades of wind.

Gold was taking out all sorts of explosives from his bag and throwing them at crowds of Black Fox members without any hesitation whatsoever.

Shawn had erased his presence. Ianna could only barely make out where he was if she looked hard enough. He was sneaking around the battlefield and repetitively appearing behind an enemy to stab them like a snake lunging for Achilles’ heel.

Watching the executives destroy the Black Fox buildings and members as if they were simply on a light stroll after a meal made Ianna realize anew that they seemed to enjoy wiping out the Black Fox.

Crackle, crackle.

Ianna stared at the second ruined and burning base in tedium. She began to wonder why the Black Fox hadn’t washed their hands of Camastros while Camastros had only just been newly established. Shawn began prattling away gleefully as they walked toward their final target when Ianna asked him about Camastros’ future plans.

“There are a lot of people who go around destroying Black Fox bases while keeping their identities hidden, so it’s quite often that they get their hideouts destroyed. A lot of people are too afraid of how the Black Fox might retaliate to do anything to them, but there are more than a few who had deep grudges against them too. And, we haven’t been harassing them to the point where the top brass felt the need to have to deal with us personally until now. We’ve actually done quite a lot of damage to them, but they haven’t noticed just yet. I’ve been messing around with their intelligence reports, after all.”

“Black Fox truly must be rather influential, I see.”

“Indeed. And not only do they have a lot more manpower than us, but there was also the possibility that the Black Fox’s top brass might report to Ro’s household if they started growing too wary. But we at Camastros have completed our preparations, and we’ve also won ourselves a sturdy shield in the Roanne royal family, so now we can start destroying them as we please. This way, it won’t matter to us even if there’s a bit of friction between Ro’s household and the Roanne royal family.”

In other words, they were planning to use the royal family’s name to pick off the Black Fox and draw back when the Bahamut Empire grew angry.

It was somewhat shameless, but it was a good strategy nonetheless. Arhad was to ascend to the Bahamut throne one day, so the royal family of Roanne was his enemy regardless.

“We’ll start working toward another great work we’ve been preparing for once Roanne takes care of the Black Fox for us. That’s why Lord Gold is here with us. Lord Gold is renown as someone with a golden touch who can complete any business with just a single touch.”

“Ahem.”

Gold stuck out his round belly and put a cigar in between his lips. Shawn tapped against Gold’s belly as he laughed playfully.

“He’s not too good in a straight fight, but his mastery over explosives can even put experts to shame. And he’s incredibly talented with traps too. He’s probably the only person in the world who personally hired a trap specialist to teach him how to protect his money, don’t you think?”

“What?”

Arhad, who had been leading the group, stopped in his tracks when they made it to the third and final base.

“Come here, Shawn.”

“I was in the middle of a conversation —why’re you calling me like I’m your dog or something out of nowhere……?”

Shawn, who was grumbling as he walked up to Arhad, stiffened up. The two of them had been the most at ease as they walked, and the other executives followed suit from behind them when they grew tense. And they all frowned heavily before they could stop themselves.

There were countless repulsive creatures drooling as they walked around the third base. It was difficult to pinpoint exactly what they were. Some had the body of a lion, the wings of a bird, and the head of a goat and others looked like wolves with two heads —altogether, these creatures could only be called chimeras.

Disgusted, Shawn mumbled,

“Is it Keigus Dimitri?”

Arhad tapped against a wall as he contemplated.

“It looks like the Black Fox has been making their own preparations. They seem to be enlisting chimeras in their larger branches. But why is Keigus here in the South? The old coot likes to hole himself up in his laboratory in the Himalapè Ice Fields.”

“Ugh…….”

Shawn had a hand on his forehead.

“Seriously, my head feels like it’s about to split open and my body hurts all over whenever I even think about that guy…….”

Shawn signed and continued,

“I’ve said this before, but I’m pretty sure that geezer did something to me.”

“Hill said you were fine.”

Shawn broke out into uncontrollable laughter.

“Maybe the memory’s just been embedded too deep into my body. That son of a bitch. But in any event, I don’t know what Keigus will do either. He doesn’t make any contact with the Black Fox unless it’s to squeeze more research money out from them. And he’s cut his ties with me too, since he knows that I don’t like him.”

“If Keigus is here in the South……then the Black Fox isn’t our only problem here.”

“You’re right. This is an opportunity.”

“Shall we hunt?”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.”

—Ruff! Ruff!

—Grrr!

They heard something bizarre, like a mixture between a dog barking and a leopard growling, just as Arhad and Shawn finished their conversation. The chimera’s, which had been meandering aimlessly, cried out as they began running toward them.

“This suddenly got dangerous,”

Gold grumbled.

“What will we do, Ro?”

“We’ll have to kill all the chimeras here, since chimeras lock onto an enemy’s scent and track them down until they die. And their blood is poisonous too, so don’t let it get on you. You’ll have to kill them with blunt force or by strangling them if you want to kill them without using fortification, but if that’s too difficult, just knock them out and move them aside. Giselle and Caesar, stick to using spirits.”

One of the repulsive chimeras —she couldn’t tell what species it was from— ran toward Ianna with its mouth wide open. Ianna unfastened her scabbard from her waist and used it to smack the chimera on the head.

Slam!

The chimera was beaten back into a wall and bounced upon recoil. Ianna brandished her scabbard, with her sword still inside, and used the flat of the blade to hit the chimera again hard on the head and break its skull. Then, she kicked at the legs of another chimera that had rushed her from the side, grabbed it by the throat, and bent its neck at a right angle. The chimera crumbled to the ground and spasmed for a bit before it stilled.

It was doable, Ianna figured. She had been a little nervous because they were so ugly, but, besides the fact that they were swift and powerful, they were little different from ordinary monsters. Giselle and Caesar were steadily decreasing the chimeras’ numbers with their spirits, so finishing off the rest seemed easy enough.

But just then, as Ianna chased after a fleeing chimera and struck it on the flank with the flat of her blade.

Boom!

“……!”

The chimera suddenly exploded and showered her with its black blood. The black blood, which looked like it could have had paint mixed into it, splattered all over her even though she had quickly stepped back.

Ianna scowled. How was she to have known that the chimera would explode like a bomb and splash her with its blood?

‘Is it a type of chimera that even Arhad and Shawn didn’t know about?’

She had made an error, in any event. She had been careless, and she had not been wary about the fact that the chimeras could explode.

“Some of it got on Ann!”

Shawn, who had just so happened to see her as he wove between the chimeras rushing toward him, shouted. Arhad’s sharp gaze turned toward Shawn when he heard the later shout as he was using his own scabbard to crush the chimeras’ heads. The sight of the black blood visibly soaking through Ianna’s robes struck his vision like an arrow.

“Ann, don’t breathe, and take off your robe before it touches your skin!”

Ianna looked down at her robes. The cloth was smoking as the black blood burned it. Her robes looked like blackish daggers had been trying to claw through to her skin by the time Ianna swiftly took it off and flung it to the ground.

“There are exploding chimeras…….”

But just as Ianna was about to warn the others. A throng of chimeras caught scent of their exploded brethren’s blood and rushed toward her like an avalanche, as if they were determined to take at least her down with them. Ianna’s, who had already been tensed up by then, eyes glistened with a sharp light when she saw that there was no one standing behind them.

“Haah!”

Ianna drew her blade as she shouted and drew her sword in a horizontal line. The fortification that she had created over her sword flew toward the oncoming chimeras. The chimeras’ blood spurted backwards, naturally, since they had been running forward, but there were also a few that burst forwards as well, perhaps because more of the exploding type had been added to the mix.

Ianna quickly drew back and uttered the word she had been preparing to say when she felt her back hit against a wall.

“Shield!”

A hemispherical and translucent wall of mana surrounded her. It had come from the bracelet Hanidelf had given her, which she had been wearing just in case.

She had tested it out previously out of curiosity, and she had found that Maimayè shield spell, recorded onto the bracelet, was the best of the best. It could withstand any attack that didn’t use mana like it was a solid rock wall, and it cushioned spells or fortification well enough too. It needed to charge for about five to six hours once it had been deployed, but it was still an amazing artefact when you considered the fact that it could be used by uttering just one simple word.

Ianna had no doubt that it would be able to withstand blood with ease. And yet, the situation turned on her yet again.

“……!”

Driiip.

Droplets of blood broke through the shield. Ianna stared at the blood that had broken past the shield. And she also witnessed how the shield seemed to open up, almost welcomingly, and allow the blood to pass through before closing back up again.

‘This blood’s not even magical, and yet it can pass through a shield cast by none other than the archmage Maimayè himself —a shield strong enough that even fortification can’t damage it— with no resistance at all?’

She didn’t have the time to ponder. Ianna quickly flung herself sideways, and the black blood melted the wall when it splattered.

“Tch.”

She had dodged it well enough, but it wasn’t over yet. She held her sword upright as she saw the chimeras swarming around her.

Things would’ve been better if she hadn’t tried using the shield to begin with. She could block something as trivial as blood well enough by stirring up enough wind with her sword. It used up a lot of stamina, however, so she had decided to defend herself with the shield instead for efficiency —who would have thought that she would end up rolling around the ground like this?

The best strategy in her current situation was to attack with fortification from afar, but she already had her back to a wall. She was hesitant to slip past the onslaught of chimeras because some of them might explode. They were cumbersome opponents.

Ianna determined that her best course of action was to destroy the wall behind her and deal with them from a distance, and so she raised her scabbard and slammed it hard against the wall behind her. Fissures spread out into the wall like spiderwebs from where she had hit it before the building collapsed, and the chimeras, which had been approaching her cautiously, rushed forward when Ianna, their target, vanished with a loud noise.

Naturally, the offensive scene reached Arhad’s eyes as well, as he had been keeping an eye on Ianna even as he mowed down the chimeras. And it was also only natural that his gaze had turned sharp.

“…….”

Arhad normally kept the mana around him quelled and he had been culling the chimeras’ numbers with his swordplay alone, but his surroundings suddenly grew so heavy it was hard to breathe around him. The immense pressure he created had flattened the air around him like a carpet being unfurled with him at the center. The chimeras that had chased after Ianna but were still within the space Arhad had created flinched and froze in place.

The mana that had been floating in the air blew gently toward Arhad like a lost dog that had finally found its owner, and it became as a ferocious monster as soon as it became aligned with his emotions. It rushed forward with its maw gaping open and seized the chimeras when Arhad reached out toward them.

Shawn grabbed Arhad by the shoulder in shock.

“Are you out of your mind?! That bastard might be here! What will you do if he sees you using mana like that?!”

“I would already be dead if he was. I looked around carefully, and I didn’t find him.”

Shawn beat at his chest with his fist in frustration.

“A familiar might have seen you!”

All mages who had mastered the basics of both psychic and bio magic had at least one familiar. Familiars were creatures that physically weak mages who could not fight their enemies head-on hid behind in battle or used to eavesdrop in conversations with. A familiar was a living creature whose mind was controlled by their mages, and they shared their five senses with the mages controlling them.

Shawn’s heart pounded nervously. Arhad shook his head.

“It’ll be fine as long as I don’t get Keigus’ blood on me. It’s not the five senses that perceive the soul —it’s the sixth. Keigus’ familiars are neither owners nor shareholders, so they won’t be able to perceive a fragment no matter how much of his blood he injected into them. Even if he did see me, he would only think that I had used wind magic.”

“I’m still uneasy. You don’t normally control mana —what made you decide to do it now all of a sudden? You should have hidden yourself more carefully now that Keigus has made an appearance, but you brought more attention to yourself instead. Leave this to the others.”

Arhad ignored him. The chimeras crunched audibly and became as minced meat when he closed his extended hand into a fist. Arhad’s gaze lingered strangely over the corpses of the chimeras he had just mercilessly ended. Shawn followed his gaze, curious as to what he was looking at.

“They dared to put Ianna in danger…….”

Arhad, who had executed his prior vicious actions as if they had meant nothing to him, muttered coolly. Reflected directly in his eyes, showing gold beneath his mask, was not the chimeras he had just killed, but the wall that Ianna had disappeared behind. His gaze was so straightforward as he looked to her that it was almost hair-raising.

Shawn turned around and stared into Arhad. Did Arhad loathe the fact that Ianna was in danger so much that he had been unhesitant to do something he was normally unwilling to do?

But Arhad continued just then.

“To think that woman would be put in danger by someone other than me……this is the worst.”

The words he had uttered sounded strange. They had deviated greatly from the simple desire to protect that any man would have of the girl they loved. ‘Other than me’? What on earth was he talking about?

“I beg your pardon?”

“If she is to be put in danger, then I will be the one to endanger her.”

“What?”

“If she is to die, then I will be the one to kill her.”

“…….”

Shawn’s hairs bristled up and he broke out in goosebumps when he heard Arhad’s chilling replies. And so, Shawn simply decided to keep his silence. Arhad’s words felt off-kilter.

The edges of Arhad’s lips curled up into a smile.

“……You wouldn’t understand.”

It was just as Arhad had said. Shawn didn’t think he’d understand for as long as he lived. Was Arhad more than simply fond of Ianna? Arhad had jabbered away something incomprehensible during the slave auction too, and his words now were just as inexplicable. Arhad continued,

“It’s not a feeling I can define with mere words.”

Part 2

He simply ignored it back then.

But Shawn, though only vaguely, had actually realized what it was that Arhad was feeling. He had always thought that Arhad was indifferent to everyone until now, but Arhad’s feelings for Ianna were somewhat warped, though they were as persistent as a swamp and as deep as an abyss.

It was normal, to some extent, to want to tie down and possess someone you loved. No man in his right mind enjoyed seeing the girl he loved fooling around with another guy. But there was something almost frightening about Arhad’s possessive desire. If she was to be in danger, then he would be the one to endanger her, he had said. If she was to die, then he would be the one to kill her. He was crazy. Just what on earth did Ianna mean to him?

Pow! Boom!

The chimeras that the other executives were fighting were also exploding here and there —it wasn’t just the chimeras that had gone after Ianna—, and they painted the battlefield black. The executives were able to move away as soon as they saw the chimeras quivering because they were being cautious after having heard the explosion and having seen the burst of black blood from where Ianna had been.

Part of the reason why they had been able to keep even a single drop of blood from touching them was because most of the chimeras had chased after Ianna and not many of the explosive-types were left behind.

The situation wrapped up quickly not too long after Arhad began fighting in earnest. They had killed every last chimera without letting even a single one escape them.

“Ugh.”

It was difficult to keep looking at the numerous hideous corpses sprawled out about the ground. Toxic gasses were steaming out from the corpses and reeked as they rose up toward the heavens.

“It’s really pungent. So much so that even the spirits are loath to touch them.”

“Damn. I got some on my spear.”

The executives held their noses as they began cleaning up.

Arhad vanished as soon as the situation had settled down somewhat. He had surely gone after Ianna. There was a strange look on Shawn’s face as he recalled the sight of Arhad’s retreating figure. Arhad seemed simply like a man in love judging by the way he couldn’t keep the smile off his face whenever he looked at Ianna or how ashen he was as he ran after her…….

Shawn did not consider that Ianna had been hurt by the chimeras for even a moment. He trusted Arhad to bring her back, and he and the other executives removed themselves far away from the scene. They breathed out in relief once they had put some distance between themselves and the smoking base.

“What were those chimeras?”

Shawn tousled his hair.

“I couldn’t explain properly earlier because we were in a hurry, but their blood was created by Keigus Dimitri, a crazy mage from the North. It’s lethally poisonous and will kill you within seconds if it touches you. And Keigus’ blood also breaks through magic and fortification because a special material was mixed into it. So the best thing to do is to simply avoid it. It’s a good thing that Caesar and Giselle could handle them with their magic and high-level spirits.”

“Such a peculiar material exists?”

“There are a lot of peculiar things in this world. But Keigus likes to move alone and in secret, and he likes to keep his research a secret too, so that’s all the information I have. But in any case, we have to get him now.”

Shawn clenched his hands into fists as he continued,

“Keigus is a direct descendant of Wiffheimer’s.”

His eyes were gleaming with bloodlust.

“He’s someone we absolutely must kill, so I’m actually rather grateful that he’s decided to show himself first.”

“Ianna!”

There was a mountain of carcasses inside the building. There were so many chimeras inside that their number was comparable to those outside. There were even human corpses mixed into the pile of dead chimeras……. Still, there wasn’t any reason why Ianna wouldn’t be all right. Arhad continued to look for her.

“I’m here.”

A composed voice echoed from somewhere in the darkness. Arhad ran quickly to where it had come from.

“……!”

He was startled by the figure he saw in the darkness. Arhad was disoriented as soon as he saw Ianna, and he quickly turned his flushing face to the side.

“It was such a pain. The blood went everywhere, instead of travelling in just a straight line.”

Ianna’s shirt was burning black on the floor where it had been flung, and Ianna, who was still wearing her pants as she sat atop a pile of boxes near the window, was wearing only her bra around her chest. She continued,

“I took my shirt off because I got some on it by mistake. I was in the middle of contemplating if I should just go back out like this or not.”

Even Ianna was hesitant to walk around nearly naked in front of others. Still, she was used to having her leather armor and clothes tear in the heat of battle, and her current situation had been unavoidable. There was nothing she could do about it.

“But I didn’t think that you’d come all the way here in person. I see this wasn’t the best time to worry about being embarrassed. It’s dangerous, so we should get out of here soon.”

Something was thrown at her as Ianna made up her mind and jumped down. She grabbed it reflexively. It was Arhad’s robe.

“Wear it.”

“No thank you,”

Ianna replied firmly before jumping down from the boxes and landing lightly on a part of the floor that wasn’t covered in chimera blood. She slowly walked up to Arhad and tried to hand his robe back to him. She continued,

“Camastros’ leader should remain mysterious. The only part of you that others may see are your eyes.”

“…….”

“I’ll be all right. Let’s go.”

But Arhad didn’t accept the robe. He couldn’t keep his eyes on Ianna either. Ianna chuckled as she watched him grow embarrassed even though she was the one who was unclothed. Arhad snuck a glance at her when he heard her laughing quietly.

“Shall I head out first?”

Ianna shoved the robe in Arhad’s arms and walked past him. She heard something rustling from behind her. Ianna wondered if Arhad was putting the robe back on.

But then, the piece of cloth fell onto her. A strange look crossed Ianna’s face as she grabbed at the cloth over her shoulders. It was a shirt a size too big for her —Arhad’s. Arhad covered his face with one hand when Ianna stopped walking and looked behind to stare at him.

“I’m not all right. Just hurry up and put it on.”

Arhad put the robe back on and walked outside no later than the words had left his mouth. Ianna tilted her head to the side. Was he really that embarrassed? Had he never seen a woman’s body before —with his looks and at his age? Ianna looked down at her own body.

She had thought he had always been bold and daring since the day he was born, but he was actually quite timid and easily embarrassed. She learned something new about him every time she saw him. Ianna smirked as she accepted his consideration and buttoned up the shirt one button at a time.

The other executives looked to them when Ianna and Arhad exited the building. Ianna’s curves, showing through quite obviously from beneath Arhad’s large shirt, made her sex crystal clear. A few of the executives were genuinely surprised, but no one expressed it out loud. Camastros was a meritocratic organization, so it didn’t matter to them what gender Ianna was so long as she had the skill to prove herself.

They had originally been planning to part ways after their excursion was over, but they returned to their hideout instead. They gathered back around the table and conducted an emergency meeting.

“I’m sure some of you already know, but Keigus Dimitri is an archmage specializing in bio magic, and he is unparalleled when it comes to chimera research. He’s evil and he’s criticized all around, but he’s still one of the Ten Archmages acknowledged by every mage in the world.”

A big shot had shown up on stage. Knowing that Ianna was still kept in the dark on a few matters, Shawn explained that Keigus was cooperating with the Black Fox’s true masters, and that one of them must have requested Keigus for assistance because the Black Fox was being pushed back by Camastros.

“Keigus used to live up north in the Himalapè Ice Fields to keep the carcasses he uses for research from decomposing too quickly, but he’s in the South now —and somewhere close by. He has to be near the chimeras to be able to give them orders.”

“We rank our targets for elimination as ‘very high’, ‘high’, ‘middle’, ‘low’, or ‘very low’ difficulty, and Keigus ranks as ‘very high’.”

“……So he’s rather strong.”

“He is an archmage, after all. But the real reason he’s ranked ‘very high’ also has to do with the fact that he never shows himself. He turns his chimeras into familiars and shares their senses. Which makes him difficult to catch. His difficulty rank will fall to ‘high’ once we actually find him.”

“But we absolutely must catch him. We have at least some idea of his whereabouts, so this is a great opportunity. And we’ll need to eliminate him as quickly as possible. It’ll be too dangerous for us to act freely at this rate. We might take a lot of damage.”

Van gingerly raised his hand.

“Aren’t there only so many chimeras out there? Wouldn’t it be better if we quickly mobilize the entirely of Camastros and take care of them first?”

Arhad shook his head no.

“Getting rid of the chimeras is too short-sighted a strategy. We have to go straight for Keigus himself. Keigus is capable of using even normal animals to quickly create new chimeras with. And he can even make chimeras using humans too. He already has.”

“Ugh.”

Gold placed a hand over his mouth as if he was about to vomit.

“Camastros will stop being active until we come up with a plan to catch Keigus. Make sure our members know exactly what’s going on, and tell them that they are not to engage with a chimera even if they see one.”

“And make sure you wash up thoroughly when you get home, since you might still have some of the toxins on you. And throw away anything that’s touched chimera blood. We will be abandoning this hideout today.”

The mysterious black blood, which was toxic enough to melt through both clothing and walls, smelled like rotting sewage and was nauseating. The executives carefully examined themselves and switched their robes out with spares that had been stored in the hideout before tossing most of the things inside the hideout into the fireplace. Then, they left at their leisure.

Ianna and Arhad returned to the Institution together. On their way back, Arhad asked Ianna, with worry written plainly in his eyes, about all sorts of things —like if she had gotten the blood on herself anywhere or if she was hurt. Ianna stretched out her stiff muscles as she inspected herself.

“I’m a bit tired, but there’s nothing wrong with me. That horrible stench soured my mood, but I’m not hurt. I’m certain that I didn’t get any of the blood on me, since it was toxic enough to melt even walls and steel.”

“Thank goodness.”

Ianna stole a glance at Arhad as he sighed in relief. Warriors lived while getting wounded. It was only natural that they were injured over the course of their training or their battles.

She recalled how angry Arhad had been when she had gotten seriously hurt while being reckless with her body as her heart settled down. She had made mistakes today, but Arhad didn’t get angry over the fact that she had been careless and had nearly gotten hurt by getting the blood on her.

“I’m sorry. I got some blood on me by mistake…….”

“Why are you apologizing? It’s my fault for not knowing some of the chimeras could explode, not yours. Besides, all is fine so long as you aren’t hurt.”

The female dormitories and the Grey Magic Tower were in the same direction, but Arhad would still have to walk significantly more if he dropped her off at the dormitories first. Ianna had tried to quickly but indirectly turn down Arhad’s offer to escort her, just in case something was wrong with her body, by telling him to go back and rest at first. But she had not refused Arhad a second time when he stubbornly insisted he couldn’t do that.

They walked while talking together as the chilly autumn wind blew around them, and they arrived at the female dormitories before long.

“Go to bed early. And let me know immediately if you feel like something’s wrong…….”

Arhad gestured at her to go inside once he had spoken. Ianna, however, stood there and stared up at him instead. Arhad looked quizzical as he put his hand back down. Ianna pondered over whether she should speak up or not for a moment before she dropped her eyes and decided that it was better for her to be honest with him, since she wasn’t saying anything bad anyway.

“I’m……grateful that you’re always so concerned for me. I grew angry with you when I hurt my arm last time, but I was happy for your worry. I’ve been wanting to tell you this.”

“…….”

“And, just as I told you before, I don’t want you to push yourself too hard or get hurt either. So, please don’t feel the need to escort me back like this next time. You need your rest too.”

“Haha.”

She heard him chuckling as soon as she finished. She gingerly looked back up at him when she was done, and opened her eyes wide in surprise. Arhad looked truly, truly happy.

Was it because of the chilly air, or was it because of the sudden surge of emotion he was feeling? She had seen Arhad being happy several times in this life, but this was her first time seeing Arhad smiling with his teeth showing while blushing all the way to the rims of his cheeks. He looked truly happy.

“You don’t need to thank me for that —I’m only doing what’s natural. Just the fact that you’re willing to be with me is more than enough for me.”

Arhad lowered his gaze and chuckled to himself for a while after that, and Ianna didn’t know what he was thinking. She simply stared back at him and waited for him to say something again.

Arhad looked back up and quietly observed Ianna after a little while had passed. He reached out and took Ianna’s right hand. Ianna didn’t avoid him and gently squeezed back instead. The smile didn’t vanish from his lips as Arhad said,

“I escorted you back tonight simply because I wanted to keep walking with you and talk with you for just a bit longer. I’m not tired at all.”

Arhad pulled at Ianna’s hand. The wind blew. Arhad’s hand was trembling a little as he held hers. His moon-like eyes held Ianna firmly in their sight. Ianna did not turn away from his gaze.

And then, Arhad’s dry lips pressed against the back of Ianna’s rough hand more deeply than anything else.

~~*~~

“Little Ianna! There’s only two more weeks left until the school festival……huh?”

Priscilla ran up to Ianna as the latter walked through the door and tilted her head to the side when she saw what Ianna was wearing. What Ianna was wearing now wasn’t what she hadn’t been wearing earlier. Priscilla, who had a good eye for these things, immediately noticed that Ianna’s shirt wasn’t simply too big for her but had been tailored for a man.

“Men’s clothes? Little Ianna……?”

Priscilla busily circled around Ianna this way and that as she studied the younger girl closely. She even looked up to stare at Ianna’s lips and snuck a glance at Ianna’s exposed collar as well. Ianna calmly looked down at Priscilla before saying,

“What are you thinking about?”

“Hmm. How disappointing. Well, it’s nothing, I suppose. But Little Ianna, the ends of your hair are a bit singed?”

Ianna pulled forward her hair, which was currently tied up, and examined her ends. Priscilla really did have a good eye for these things. Just as Priscilla had pointed out, a part of the tips of her hair was dyed black, as though they had been burnt, but it would have been impossible to tell unless you looked closely.

“Want me to cut it for you?”

Priscilla quickly proposed. Ianna, however, promptly shook her head no and walked into the bathroom. Priscilla pouted wistfully.

“Aww. How cold of you. I’m good at styling hair too, you know. But anyway, wash up quickly and hurry back out. I have something to show you!”

Slam.

Ianna closed the door shut as soon as she walked into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. She had not been aware of it because it was her hair. She didn’t mind asking Priscilla for a trim, but she couldn’t let the other girl touch the repulsive poison.

She had only gotten the blood on her because her hair was long. It had grown a lot since she had first started school, now that she thought about it. Her hair came down past her waist now. She wanted to cut it, but there were only two weeks until the school festival and she didn’t want to inconvenience Priscilla by altering her appearance from whatever Priscilla had in mind for the fashion show. Ianna cut off the parts that had been burnt black for now and decided to ask Priscilla for a trim or cut it herself later.

Ianna washed her face with cold water. She held back her hair and stared back at herself in the mirror several times as she did. Then, she muttered,

“I’m so stupid.”

Ianna always found herself foolish whenever Arhad was sincere to her, whenever she saw Arhad being so happy that he seemed unsure of what to do with himself.

How could a person possibly be so happy? He had been in such despair in the past, and Ianna hadn’t known that it was possible for him to look so delighted. All she did was thank him for worrying about her, and yet, just that had been more than enough to make him so overjoyed. And he had been so happy all over again when Ianna did not refuse the kiss he had planted on the back of her hand.

Ianna gripped the ends of the sink tight as she lowered her head.

“Phew…….”

“I fell for the sword that you are.”

His fierce words had pieced through and dug into her heart, and she would never forget them for as long as she lived. Just thinking about them made her heart clench tight and feel as if it had sunken to her feet.

Ianna bit her lips and she looked back up. Her cheeks were blushing an unsightly red in her reflection in the mirror.

A new feeling of pleasure was born and took breath as the days passed and she kept recalling his words.

She would forge her own path in life. This was why Ianna had always thought that she didn’t need anyone else to acknowledge the life she chose to lead. Her own satisfaction had been enough.

But ultimately, she didn’t hate to hear that she was cooler than any other when she held her sword, that she was captivating……that he was enamored. She gripped the sink tighter. His words hit harder because she knew that they were unquestionably sincere.

And this was why she felt so guilty toward the past Arhad and why she thought herself foolish. Why hadn’t she understood? He had wanted her so sincerely and had been looking at here more clearly than any other, so why had she been so persistently stubborn in isolating herself like some kind of lone wolf……?

“Enough.”

There would be no end to her guilt if she allowed herself to continue. There was no one extant to receive her guilt, as the Arhad from the past no longer existed in this world.

“Don’t compare them. Don’t feel sorry. Don’t think that I was stupid back then,”

Ianna rebuked herself. There was no reason for her to feel guilty. She mustn’t compare his past self to his current one. Her guilt was nothing more than a wild fantasy. And it wasn’t like her to be so delusional.

Ianna hated the subtle heaviness weighing inside her heart. She didn’t want to know what that sorrowful heaviness, which seemed to climb up from her heart and strangle her, was.

And so, as she continued to look at herself in the mirror, Ianna decided to put a hard stop on her thoughts.

“……?”

After washing herself clean and drying her hair off with a towel, Ianna stepped outside the bathroom only to find that something unusual and strange had been propped up directly outside the bathroom door. Two small hands were holding up some clothing by its shoulders —Priscilla had apparently been standing like this while waiting for her to come out this entire time.

“Is this what I’m supposed to wear?”

“Mhmm! What do you think? I’ll be adding a few more decorative pieces later.”

Priscilla held the dress up to her side as she peered in while smiling.

“Hmmm.”

Ianna studied the clothing up and down as she continued to dry her hair with her towel. It was the first time she’d ever seen it, but it didn’t look too bad at all. Rather, it was much nicer than what she had been expecting.

Ianna didn’t reply, however, and simply tied up her hair while walking up to the window. Stars were twinkling in the night sky outside.

“I know that this will look great on you, Little Ianna! So? What do you think?”

Priscilla tottered over as she asked when Ianna suddenly punched the window.

Craaaash!

“Kyaah!”

Priscilla screamed, alarmed by the sudden destruction. She curled into herself while wrapping herself protectively around the dress. She began tearing up and trembled in shock.

“L-Little Ianna? What’s wrong? Do you not like it? Is it bad enough that it made you want to break the window? Sob sob.”

Ianna was holding something squishy in her hand. Her hand was injured, but she refused to let go of the squirming creature she was grasping. The creature in her hand squealed loud enough to almost tear her eardrums.

—Squeeeeak! Squeak!

“W-what is that?”

Ianna answered the bewildered Priscilla, who had tears in her eyes, with indifference.

“A bat.”

“Ugh, a bat? It’s my first time seeing one, but it’s really ugly. Please don’t bring it closer. But you’re really tough, Little Ianna —you even broke the window to catch it…….”

Priscilla glared at the creature in Little Ianna’s hand with disgust before she straightened out the wrinkles that had formed in Ianna’s dress. She gloomily put the dress back on the mannequin beside her bed before climbing in and pulling her covers over her head.

Then, Ianna said,

“The dress is beautiful, Priscilla.”

Priscilla peeked out from underneath her covers.

“Really?”

“Yes. I like it very much. You must have worked hard on it.”

“Hehe. You’re saying that while holding onto that disgusting little……teehee. Please hurry up and throw it outside. You have a bit of a weird streak, you know that, Little Ianna? And jeez, it’s so cold now because you broke the window. Sniff.”

Priscilla was beaming, as if she had never been on the verge of tears to begin with, as she hid back under her covers.

“…….”

Ianna looked away from Priscilla and glared down at the screeching and struggling creature in her hand as she left the room.

Poow!

Ianna went deep inside the forest behind the dormitories before throwing the organism hard against the ground. It screeched— as its wings quivered from the impact. Ianna glared at it sharply.

Ianna drew her sword and stabbed it in the leg. The creature screeched again in pain.

Squeeeak—

But Ianna spared it no pity as black blood poured out from its leg. It was a chimera, just as she’d suspected.

She had felt a strange flow of mana and a stubborn gaze as soon as she had exited the bathroom, and she had pretended not to notice and acted like Priscilla was grating on her nerves as she walked up to the window. Then, she had snatched up the flying creature that had been spying on her from outside.

Chimeras would follow their prey to the ends of the world once they had caught whiff of someone’s scent. But they had killed every chimera that had been present. From the chimeras outside the base to the chimeras that had been hiding inside, Ianna had sharpened her senses to their furthest extremes and had exterminated every last one of them without letting a single one escape.

‘How did it follow me?’

When had things gone wrong? The gears in Ianna’s head turned furiously. Had she failed to notice that a chimera had been tailing her all the way from the Black Fox’s hideout? It hadn’t found Arhad, who had escorted her back, too, had it?

No. No matter how trifling the creature was, there was no way that both she and Arhad would have failed to notice a strange flow of mana shadowing them.

It had not been there while she had been with Arhad. She had only felt its gaze immediately after she had taken her shower. Which meant that it had somehow found her while she was showering after she had returned to her dorm.

Ianna stomped on the agonized and squealing creature so hard it nearly burst.

—Squeeeak…….

The chimera suddenly stopped struggling. Silently, it stared back up at Ianna, who was glaring down at it as it lay beneath her shoe.

Ianna scowled. Its greasy gaze made her feel uncomfortable. It was not the kind of look that any animal that lived off its instincts should be giving her. It was a gaze that seemed to analyze an experimental subject lying in a test lab.

Then, she felt like she had been hit across the head.

‘A familiar that shares it senses with its mage.’

Her conjecture became more conclusive as the chimera stopped struggling and stared back at her as if in amusement instead. Ianna removed her foot.

“……Hah!”

She wanted to curse. She barked with laughter with her head back before immediately wiping any expression from her face. Then, she stared at the chimera carefully, ever so carefully. As if she was staring at not the chimera but the mage controlling it.

The mana floating around her responded to her turbulent bloodlust and became as hundreds of sharpened blades. The green trees trembled when her bloodlust brushed against them, and the bugs in the grasses at her feet quickly scuttered away without uttering a single cry. Even the gentle breeze blowing past her seem to freeze up and shatter upon being torn to shreds by the sharpened mana.

The mana, soaked in bloodlust, rushed toward the chimera and exploded.

—Squeee…….

The chimera hadn’t even managed a proper scream before its eyes rolled back. It spasmed like it was about to die any moment now.

And yet, Ianna witnessed a bizarre phenomenon once again, just like when the chimera’s blood had passed through her shield. She had meant to crush it with mana, but the chimera had only reacted to her bloodlust —not to the mana. The mana seemed to avoid the chimera’s blood for some strange reason.

Blood that could pass through an archmage’s shield. Blood that could make mana soaked in bloodlust dither —what on earth was it?

—Squeeak! Squeak!

The chimera was writhing in agony but was only able to confront Ianna with its blood.

It eventually sprawled out, unable to withstand the confrontation. Blood was pouring out from every pore in its body. Ianna stared down at the carcass for a bit before covering it with a lot of dirt and leaving the forest. Her gait was wild.

‘The mage learned who I am!’

Even if it hadn’t been a familiar, the fact that the chimera, which moved under orders from its mage, had come all the way here for her meant that her identity and station had been completely exposed. Ianna irritably pressed down at her throbbing forehead.

What had been the problem? The foul stench of blood that had engulfed her during the battle? If not that……then the droplets of blood on her hair? Just what had the chimera tracked her with?

She hoped it was the latter —it would be a serious problem if the chimeras had followed the smell, since that would mean that every member of Camastros could be tracked.

Ianna’s senses bristled up as she carefully studied her surroundings. No one was watching her. She circled around the Institution several times over, but no one’s gaze followed her. She didn’t think that a new familiar had begun tailing her after she had killed the chimera.

Ianna made to go to the magic tower where Arhad resided to inform him about these events before she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

‘Can I be sure that there aren’t any other familiars spying on me?’

She could not. She had thought that she had killed all of them to begin with. But the mage had tracked her anyway. Which meant that she could neither be sure that she had actually killed every last chimera at the base nor be sure that nothing was spying on her right now.

Her heated thoughts made it impossible for her to make a sound decision. Ianna sat down on a nearby bench to cool her head. She kept her hand on her forehead as she quietly organized her thoughts.

‘Regardless of how it happened, to think that I’d get found out on my very first day…’

Her breathing grew ragged. She stooped forward and shut her eyes tight. She wrapped her hands around her head and grit her teeth together.

What kind of joke was this? It hurt her pride so much that she had messed up on her very first day that it drove her mad. She had been so confident, and yet she had messed up so badly. She hadn’t been thorough enough, and she was lacking in skill. Ianna wished someone would slap her hard across the face and rebuke her harshly. She wanted to punish herself for her mistakes regardless of how they had come to be.

Not that she hadn’t made mistakes before, of course. She had always given herself a hard time after every mistake and polished herself again until she was satisfied. But it had always been for her own sake, and she alone had had to put up with her errors as she continued her path in life.

But it wasn’t just her problem this time. If she looked back on the situation, everything had happened because she had squeezed into a future that she hadn’t been present in before. There was no way for her to predict what sort of influence she would have on Arhad, who had been acting while carefully hiding his identity until now.

Crunch…….

Ianna clutched her head tighter.

She wanted to leave the Institution at once. She wanted to cut off all contact with Arhad, find the mage, and kill him immediately. But, would Arhad agree to that? The man who was so happy that he looked like he had won everything he had ever wanted just because she had thanked him for worrying about her?

“Get your act together,”

Ianna told herself sternly. In any event, it was certain that she had been found out, and she needed to figure out how she would conduct herself until she found the mage.

There were two possible scenarios.

First, was if she had not been the only person who was tracked. In this case, a chimera would have tailed every executive, and Camastros would probably do something about it using any means possible. She would simply need to follow Camastros’ instructions and kill the mage with them.

Ianna decided to wait a few days for Camastros’ instructions. She would kill any chimera spying on her on the spot and avoid contact with Arhad. If nothing happened after three or four days, it would mean that she had been the only person tracked.

Which brought her to the second scenario.

‘If that’s the case…….’

Ianna clenched her hands into tight fists. If another familiar started tailing her, then she needed only to kill it again. If a chimera came after her, then she needed only to eliminate it. If members of the Black Fox came for her, then all she had to do was kill them in secret and hide their bodies. The only situation she was wary about was one that would make her a burden to Arhad.

She wanted to do everything she could to make sure Arhad didn’t stand out, since she didn’t know when a chimera might be spying on her. Even if he was posing as an ordinary student in the Institution, he might be marked as ‘a friend to a member of Camastros’ if the Black Fox took note of him because of her. And there was no way for her to know what kind of influence their notice of him might have in the future.

‘There’s a reason why that man has been in hiding all this time!’

It was because he wasn’t prepared yet. And now, he might be exposed because of her?

Ianna bit down hard at her lip as her emotions flared.

‘I’ll keep watch over the situation for now. For now.’

And she would have to avoid meeting with Arhad —forget about talking to him— until she grew accustomed to the familiars’ eyes and fully grasped the feeling of its presence and its behavioral patterns. She could not know how far the mage’s eyes could see. Keigus was out to find the leader of Camastros, so now that he and uncovered one of its members, he would likely focus on everything that was around her.

She would not make any mistakes this time. Ianna ground her teeth together.

~~*~~

Ianna did not sleep that night. Another familiar had shown up as soon as she had returned to the dorms. Another would show up once she had killed one and returned —all sorts of chimeras had snuck up on her as soon as she had killed one and let her guard down a little, and this had continued all night long until they only finally disappeared as the morning came.

She had immediately burned the hair in her trashcan, but there was nothing she could do about the fact that she had been exposed.

Then, another day had passed. She had not heard anything from Camastros yet.

“…….”

Ianna sat in the lecture hall and clutched at her throbbing head with both hands. She had reinforced her senses and cast her awareness wide while she was on the lookout for chimeras and she was overloading constantly with information as she focused on everything that was around her, and she hadn’t gotten the chance to sleep properly in two days —Ianna was feeling horrible.

But weighing heavier than the state of her body was the psychological stress that came with the fact that she might have put Arhad in harm’s way.

‘Chimeras…….’

She had been concentrating on feeling for any chimeras during her lectures as well. She had turned her head without fail every time she had felt something walking around outside the window. She was so sensitive that she caught not only birds, but even things drifting in the breeze or buzzing insects flying by with her senses.

She had captured every single chimera that her extended senses had picked up on. Familiars were different from other animals because they were under a spell that allowed them to act as a mage’s eyes.

‘I don’t feel anything right now —can I assume that there aren’t any chimeras around?’

She wanted to get some sleep. But, could she really assume that there weren’t any chimeras? She could simply not ignore an archmage.

Keigus was the most secretive of the archmages. Even Arhad and Shawn knew next to nothing about him. They had only mentioned that something toxic had been mixed into the chimeras’ blood.

Even they didn’t know much, so it was entirely possible that there existed a type of chimera that could completely erase its presence.

Normally, Ianna would have held absolute faith in her senses. But her confidence had collapsed when she had allowed herself to be tracked. The chimeras’ peculiar blood also aroused her misgivings. Who knew what else their blood could do?

The mage’s persistent fixation on her made Ianna compulsively self-aware. Ianna was overcome by a strong impulse to shave off her hair, the most likely culprit behind her current situation, and burn it all away.

“Little Ianna? Are you feeling unwell?”

But in any event, it was certain that she had been exposed. She had eliminated thirteen flying or rodent familiars. She never knew when she’d be tailed again if she let her guard down.

“Little Ianna!”

Ianna, who had been deep in thought, only returned to her senses and looked up when someone raised their voice.

“What are you doing? —the lecture’s over. Are you feeling unwell?”

Eiji was standing in front of her with worry written on his face. Ianna stared wordlessly back at him.

Shawn. A spy who had infiltrated inside the Black Fox and was Camastros’ highest-standing executive. He was a mysterious man who was hostile to the Black Fox and would probably work alongside Arhad until the latter ascended to the imperial throne.

One man seemed to overlap with him in her mind…….

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s nothing. I was just thinking about something for a bit. I’m fine. But more importantly, Eiji…”

“Hmm?”

Ianna leaned against the desk as she stood up.

“I felt somewhat lacking and I plan to train by myself in secret, so you probably won’t see me around for a while. Including between classes, during break, or even lunch.”

“Huh.”

“And so, could you please tell Sir Arhad that I will not be able to spar against him for a while?”

Eiji looked like there was something he was trying to say at the tip of his tongue but he coughed before he could stop himself.

“Why don’t you tell him yourself? I’m not exactly friends with him. You’re closer to him than I am, Little Ianna. And besides, he seems to like you quite a bit…….”

Eiji paled and shook his head as he continued,

“He’ll beat me up and send me flying with just his eyes alone if someone as lightweight as me talks about you in front of him. So, just tell him yourself.”

“He and I are close, but not that close.”

Ianna crammed her books inside a bag she had prepared in advance and she cut Eiji off before he could respond.

“Sir Arhad and I are not lovers, and you being lightweight has nothing to do with him. And, if he really sends you flying just for conveying a message, then it would mean that I’ve misjudged him severely. In any event, I don’t want to even discuss my training with him. Nor do I want to see him at the moment.”

Ianna looked to Eiji as she slung her bag across her back. She continued,

“So stop saying nonsense. Just tell him……why are you making that face?”

Eiji looked like he was caught between wanting to cry and wanting to laugh as he muttered,

“……‘Cause I’m really starting to pity.”

“What? Pity whom? Me?”

“Nah, I’m just talking to myself. Just ignore me.”

Eiji studied Ianna’s exhausted visage and gingerly asked,

“You sure you’re all right?”

“Yes. I’m fine, truly.”

“Alright, I know you wouldn’t lie, Little Ianna. And I’ll tell him, since you asked me to. But don’t overdo it, okay? You’re one of the strongest people ever, so it’d be weird if you suddenly got sick, right?”

Ianna thought of Shawn once again when she saw that Eiji was clearly worried for her despite his jesting. It was normal for a friend to ask about her health because she looked so tired, but if it was Shawn, who knew that she had been drenched in toxic chimera blood…….

Ianna closed her eyes and thought. Her intuition was screaming at her that Shawn was Eiji, but Ianna did not want to doubt Eiji without good reason. What did it matter to her who Shawn was, who Eiji was? They were both on friendly terms with her.

Even if she was right, there was probably a reason he was keeping it a secret from her, and he would tell her himself one day. It concerned her, but she would not ask him to confirm her doubts.

And, there was still the chance that she was wrong. It could still simply be one massive delusion.

“Thank you,”

Ianna said as she waved at Eiji, who had slung his own bag across his shoulder and was quickly leaving the lecture hall.

“I’ll be looking forward to your next match. You’re going to beat Sir Arhad, right? Go break that good-looking nose of his.”

The edges of Ianna’s lips curled up into an awkward smile.

~~*~~

Part 3

……Four days had passed.

During the last four days, Ianna had spent her time between classes staring vacantly at a book in secluded places. When she was done with classes for the day, she spent her time sitting on the rooftops of the shadiest buildings she could find in the slums.

She would catch and kill whatever chimera she found sneaking into the Institution, even if she was in the middle of a lecture. She would not allow them to catch even a glimpse of Arhad. But she did not kill any chimera that snuck up on her in the night.

The chimeras stopped appearing during the day, apparently having learned that she tolerated their spying during the night, and only observed her when it was nighttime. They settled down somewhere not too far from her and watched her with their glassy eyes.

Nothing had happened during those four days.

Ianna was at her physical limits by then, and she was persevering in her efforts through her willpower alone. Her skin felt rough from her sleep deprivation as she covered her face with her hands.

She was fighting a war of nerves with the chimeras. She had kept herself isolated to make it easier for Keigus or the Black Fox to make their move, and yet, they hadn’t done anything as of yet. The Black Fox detested Camastros, so they would have surely kidnapped her for torture by now if they knew of her existence.

‘Is Keigus not doing anything other than tracking me persistently because he’s trying to find Camastros’ leader? Or does he have another goal in mind?’

She had no reason to bump into Arhad, since he was in a different year. She had not met him even once during the past four days, perhaps because Eiji had been clever with his message. Though, Arhad probably also hadn’t had the chance to see her to begin with, since she had been making herself scarce whenever she was free.

If there had been some kind of accident because of the chimeras, then either Arhad or Shawn would have come looking for her immediately. But, Arhad hadn’t said anything yet. Nor had she heard back from Camastros about staying on alert.

Had Keigus also uncovered the other members but was only focusing on her, or was she the only member whom he had uncovered?

If he was tracking them by the scent of the chimeras’ blood, then Arhad would have gotten some on him too. But the chimeras were only targeting her, like hyenas stalking their prey. Which meant that, in conclusion, the problem had been the blood on her hair.

Ianna pressed her face into her knees and grabbed at the tangled mess of her hair.

Life was fun this time around, unlike what it had been when she had been this age during her past life. She had met good people, and she had tied with Arhad again and again when she had only ever lost to him before. She shared long conversations with him now, though she had always ignored him and only crossed blades with him in the past, she had considered things that were uncharacteristic of her because of him, and she felt a sense of fellowship and intimacy, which she had never experienced before, now that she had confirmed his sincerity.

Ianna had been arrogant and egoistical prior to her rebirth, but she was cognizant of the fact that she was slowly growing from her once-stagnant state of mind one step at a time and she felt that her growth was worthwhile.

She had thought her life would unravel smoothly moving forward —she had never expected to find herself in such a tangled mess. The fact that she might be negatively influencing Arhad, who had ascended to the throne just fine without her help in the past, in the present tormented her.

Should she have refrained from coming into contact with Arhad until they were first supposed to meet when she was nineteen? Should she have waited passively until Arhad reached out to her first in her mid-twenties?

‘No, absolutely not.’

Ianna shook her head. There was nothing more tedious and pointless than retracing everything she had already done before. There would be no meaning in striving for a better future if she did that.

Nor was there a point in agonizing over something that had already happened. There was definitely a solution to her problem somewhere, and the solution she found might even influence Arhad’s future for the better.

Now that she had agonized and stressed herself out so hard that she thought her head might explode, it started to sound like it would be a good idea to throw everything else away and take care of things herself. She hadn’t been working with Camastros for long. A rather extreme option began to take hold of her heart —one that suggested she left the Institution without a word and went on a journey until she caught and killed Keigus Dimitri.

It conflicted with other potential problems, like the conditions for her being disowned by House Roberstein or how Arhad would react when she simply up and left, but Ianna thought it was worth considering because she was so stressed out that she thought she might just snap. She could leave House Roberstein even without meeting Sarachè’s conditions, and she was sure that Arhad would understand if she explained things to him when they met again one day.

Ianna was still just as self-centered as ever. She had simply begun taking more responsibility over her egoistic actions and was now slightly more considerate of others than she had been before.

In any event, Ianna resolved to slit the mage’s throat first and ask questions later if he ever showed up before her and she sprang up from the roof and began walking away as the day grew brighter.

—Screeeech—!

The crow-like chimera that had been silently observing Ianna flew off into the sky instead of following after her.

And, the very next day.

“Oh.”

Ianna had met Arhad truly by chance in the crowded hallway during the short break she had between lectures.

They may have both been in the Swordsmanship Department, but they were in different years and took different classes, so they had no reason to meet if Ianna made herself scarce whenever she had time to spare. And so, Ianna could only call their meeting a prank of fate.

“Ianna!”

Arhad looked obviously happy as he began walking toward her. His normally unmoving facial muscles relaxed, and his lips curled up into a smile. His eyes, normally dulled like wet sand, glowed bright with color. His countenance was almost radiant, like a puppy who had finally found his master.

Arhad was famous for being emotionless despite his good looks, so there was no helping the fact that sugary rumors suggesting that he and Ianna were more than just senior and junior or even sparring partners who clashed with each other fiercely sprang up when he reacted to her like that. The only iron-clad wall standing in the way of the otherwise credible rumor that they were dating was that Ianna’s reaction to him had yet to change. She was still scowling even as Arhad was smiling back at her.

‘What a mess.’

Ianna avoided his gaze and stepped back.

“……?”

Arhad stopped in his tracks when he saw her unexpected reaction. A pungent feeling travelled from his feet up to his heart.

“I’m sure you’ve heard.”

“What are you, oh, from Eiji…….”

Arhad nodded slightly in understanding, but he still furrowed his brows a little, as though he hadn’t truly accepted it in his heart. He continued,

“You could have just told me in person like this. Why did you go out of your way to have Eiji play messenger?”

“I didn’t want to see you, Sir.”

Ianna snuck a glance out the window before turning back to Arhad only to find that the smile had immediately been wiped off his face. She continued,

“……I thought I’d asked him to tell you that part too.”

Ianna tried to pass Arhad by and walk away as soon as the words had left her mouth.

“Wait!”

He grabbed her hard by the arm. Ianna broke out in goosebumps all over. Seeing Arhad touching her like this reminded her of the mage’s mysterious tracking abilities and made her want to explode in her rejection of him.

Wham!

Ianna shook him off as hard as she could.

She flinched immediately afterward, thinking that she might have overdone it, and looked up only to flinch again when she saw him looking so much more anxious than she had ever seen him before.

“Why……?”

Arhad asked with quivering lips as even the blood seemed to drain from his face from anxiety. Seeing him like this almost made Ianna forget herself and tell him everything then and there, but then she clamped her mouth shut upon remembering about the mage.

“I’m training in secret. Don’t spy on me.”

And so, she uncharacteristically made up an excuse for herself instead and quickly left the scene.

~~*~~

Things changed later that night.

Once again, Ianna had isolated herself in a secluded forest at night after her day at the Institution was over. The forest was damp and dark. The densely packed trees still acted like an umbrella because they had yet to drop their leaves even though it was already well into autumn, and small forest creatures pushed through the leaves in search of a place to lay down and rest. Ianna was sitting against one of the trees while blinking slowly.

“Why?”

She felt as though she had glimpsed Arhad’s true feelings hidden behind his cheery smile. The smiles she had seen him wear hadn’t been a lie, of course, but neither was the anxiety she had seen on his face today.

His smile had vanished like a mirage, and an anxiety so pale it almost looked like fear had spread across his face in its stead.

Ianna nestled her cheek against her knees and pondered carefully. Why had Arhad made that face? All she had done was tell him that she didn’t want to see him at the moment and shake him off. Ianna felt both embarrassed and like something was off.

‘I knew he wouldn’t like it, but I didn’t think he’d react like that…….’

In the past, you used to be so bold at first even after I’d already rejected you several times over —where did that boldness go? Why do you look so nervous when I’ve never rejected you yet?

Was it because she had only shown Arhad goodwill in this life? Was he anxious because she was suddenly acting this way after showing him only goodwill?

Raindrops fell from between the leaves and dampened her hair. Ianna lowered her eyes and brushed her hair back.

The man was so consistent, both now and in the past, that it was almost getting tiresome. Why did he like her so much? She was selfish, and she only ever wielded her sword for herself —so why did he like her so much that she could make him both so happy and so sad?

She was beginning to doubt his unconditional fixation over her, which she had once taken for granted. She recalled his pale countenance yet again. And she remembered the embarrassment and guilt she had felt upon seeing it.

Ianna was starting to find herself strange. She was ultimately doing all of this for Arhad, so why was it that she couldn’t help but feel like she was doing something wrong?

She had done nothing wrong. All her choices had been made rationally and for Arhad’s sake.

—Screeeech.

Ianna looked up when she heard the bizarre sound —it was probably yet another chimera— and quickly stood up. She placed her hand on the hilt of her sword. It was not a small chimera, like they had been until now. The thing that had approached her like a ghost in the forest was a blackish humanoid with a face full of thread and stiches.

The man-like creature opened his mouth while creaking like a marionette.

—Hello? It’s nice to meet you, beautiful lady of Camastros……or rather, Little Ianna.

Ianna drew her blade in a flash of light when she heard him speak. A savage fortification immediately covered her naked blade. The sharp fortification immediately cut the man through his left shoulder. His arm fell to the ground in a pool of black blood, but the man simply continued to cackle.

Ianna only just managed to keep herself from killing him on the spot.

“As I’d expected, it wasn’t the mage in person.”

—No need to get so upset. I’m only here to talk.

“Don’t come any closer. This is close enough for discussion.”

—Heheh.

The mage’s humanoid familiar raised his remaining hand and stopped in assent. Ianna warily eyed the black blood pouring out from his arm as she cautiously asked,

“Why are you here?”

—Who, me? Hehe. I only wanted to talk to you, Miss. But I’m far too fragile to face someone as violent as yourself, so I’ve sent over this dear creature in my stead. Hehe.

“You wish to talk to me? In that case, let me ask you this.”

Ianna aimed her sword at the familiar so she could behead it at any moment and continued,

“How did you find me?”

—It was all thanks to the chimera blood that was left in your hair. The blood carries a special scent to it that only the chimeras I’ve remodeled can smell. I couldn’t find the others, though, since the smells left on them were too faint,

the familiar replied obediently.

“Why hasn’t the Black Fox come for me yet? Weren’t you cooperating with them? Tell me why you’ve only been observing me through your chimeras instead of trying to use me to catch Camastros.”

The familiar stared at her gently. Its eyes were more hideous that the slimy eyes of a monster’s, making Ianna scowl. The familiar laughed eccentrically.

—Well, it’s true, but I just so happened to find something more interesting than Camastros. I can’t let the small fry be the reason why I simply hand over the big catch to the Black Fox, now can I? I’m sure you know who I am, yes? My name is Keigus Dimitri. I am the great mage of chimeras.

“I don’t want to hear your vile boasting. Just answer my questions.”

—Won’t you hear me out? You’re about to become my glorious test subject, Miss, so I would think it’s in your best interests to learn a little more about me, the experimenter.

Ianna fell silent for a moment when she heard the ridiculous things the familiar had said before she replied,

“Did you call me your test subject just now?”

—Yes, I did. No test subject has ever excited me more than you have. You should be honored.

The familiar trembled with excitement, ignoring Ianna, who was standing still without any response to speak of, as he lost himself in his emotions.

—Some of my own special blood was mixed into the chimeras’ blood.

Keigus’ blood. Ianna’s eyes glistened. That was the thing that had been frustrating her to no end. Ianna let the familiar prattle on without retorting back.

—I synthesized the chimeras’ blood by mixing the blood of all sorts of creatures and a variety of poisons into my own blood. This raises its resistance to magic or fortification, you see, hehe. My blood is the best!

The familiar’s black pupils danced in Keigus’ desire to show off the fruits of his research.

—But that’s not important right now. Listen close. You see, the very moment my blood made contact with your hair. My blood jolted when that happened, you know? I was hiding from afar, and I thought my heart would jump out of my chest even still.

The familiar cackled bizarrely as it continued,

—It made me wonder if you had a ‘Demon’s fragment’ too. But you don’t? There’s no way that you do. Absolutely not! But then, what was it about you that made my heart skip a beat? That is the subject for my current research!

A frightening light glowed in the familiar’s eyes.

—I want to dissect you. Allow me to be blunt. Wrap up everything you need to and leave the Institution in two days’ time. We can meet up again here. There must be something in the Institution you wished to hide, considering that you’ve killed every chimera that I sent there, so, if you don’t do exactly as I say, I’ll tell the Black Fox to not only to ransack the place but to also kill every last bitch and bastard here that has any sort of relation to you! Understand?

Ianna was so astounded by the absurdity of it all that there was something distorted in her voice as she said,

“Who do you think you are?”

—What?

A crimson fortification sent the familiar’s head flying after it had asked its brief question.

“Resistant to fortification? —what utter nonsense.”

Ianna glared chillingly down at the beheaded familiar before returning her sword to its sheath and turning around. Rain was pouring down upon her.

Ianna immediately returned to her dorm and began packing. She had decided. She would leave the Institution at once. She was quick to act once she had made up her mind.

Her hands moved harshly as she packed. He wanted to use her as test subject? He would kill everyone around her? Ransack the Institution?

‘How dare you threaten me……?’

Her entire being was brimming with bloodlust. She could not compose herself even when she tried. Just then, she happened to see her damp hair fall over her face. Her anger toward it flared and she sharply drew her sword.

Swish!

She yanked at her hair and cut it with her full might. The hairs that had been tangled in her fingers scattered into the air. Her head fell feebly forward now that she wasn’t pulling at it anymore.

Ianna slung her bag across her back and jumped up. She threw her hair in the trash and slipped out of her room. Her crimson hair looked pitiful as it hung from the trashcan.

Her hair was a mess, but Ianna was so angry that she didn’t care. She thought her head was about to explode. There was no way she could stay in the Institution at this rate. She would not return until she had murdered Keigus Dimitri. And, just as Ianna had resolved herself and brutally threw open her dormitory’s doors.

“……Where are you going?”

Ianna stopped in her tracks when she heard a familiar voice calling out to her from one corner of the wall.

It belonged, of course, to Arhad. There was something off about his voice, but Ianna knew it was him as soon as she heard his voice even though it was so dark that she could barely see in front of her. Her plan to disappear had failed even before she could truly begin.

Ianna grabbed tight to the straps of the bag on her shoulders and glared up at Arhad, who in turn was observing her as he leaned against the wall.

“What are you doing here at this hour?”

“I could ask you the same thing?”

Arhad quietly returned Ianna’s pointed question with another question. He continued,

“I’m hopeless, I know. But I couldn’t simply do nothing all day. I just couldn’t understand no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I thought about it, so I came to find you, but you weren’t here.”

The drizzling rain beneath the dark night sky. There was only just enough light to illuminate the dreary road between them, but his quiet voice, which also sounded somehow suppressed, did not carry through to Ianna properly.

She must not rendezvous with Arhad like this. What if the mage was using his strange magic to spy on her even now? She had not met the mage in person, but what if the chimera she had met just now had cast some sort of spell on her? Without her notice, just like how she had failed to notice the blood on her hair.

This was the worst. This was the worst of the worst. Ianna truly thought that this was as horrible as horrible could get.

She did not want to become a burden to him. She did not want the mage to expose Arhad because of her mistakes, and neither did she want to burden him by telling him what was going on. Ianna knew that, as a subordinate, she should report the situation to her master regardless of how well or how terribly she had performed, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to take care of everything before Arhad found out. She wanted to make it so that her mistake had never happened in the first place. She would erase her mistakes before they became public.

“……!”

Her cheeks flushed crimson from shame and disgrace as soon as she understood what she was feeling in her heart.

‘I was afraid that Arhad might get exposed by the mage? And that’s why I had to avoid him?’

Ianna sneered at herself internally. That was probably just an excuse. He had said that he had fallen for the sword that she was. She had personally witnessed his unfiltered sincerity. His sincerity was so pure and so heavy that it made her heart ache……and it was so persistent. She had been making light of his feelings until she had finally confronted him properly. And now, she could never allow herself to respond to his feelings so frivolously.

But, was she worthy of his sincerity? Was she truly as amazing a person as he wanted her to be? Was she truly worthy of his sincerity when she had messed up so badly as soon as she had begun?

Her face felt feverish. The feelings surging out from her heart were her violent hatred of the mage who had made her feel this way and her desire to flee from Arhad.

“I decided to wait because I heard from your roommate that you’ve been coming back late at night or even at dawn these last few days. I didn’t stop you when you came back just now because you looked so upset you might even kill, but then you stepped back out again. And with your hair in a mess and a bag on your back, as if you meant to go somewhere.”

Ianna was seized with rejection and took a large step back when Arhad got up from the wall and started walking over. Her anxiety, which had been on overdrive for some time now, and her rage and hatred for the mage that was driving her mad, her apprehensions that the mage might figure out who Arhad was, and her infuriating sense of shame made her irrational.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Arhad stopped upon hearing the rejection oozing from her cry.

“…….”

Arhad stopped walking, and he crossed his arms as he watched Ianna, who looked like she would take off running if he came any closer. Ianna could not read the expression on his face because it was dark, and she only had just enough leeway to see his silhouette. All she could think about was how she wanted to escape her current situation as quickly as possible.

“Why? Because of your secret training? Fine. I don’t care about that. But……why are you avoiding me? Why are you refusing to look at me or talk to me? Your one-sided avoidance of me is making me uneasy. So why?”

“I’m not avoiding you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re avoiding me right now.”

Arhad cut her off. He continued,

“You’re not focusing on this brief conversation we’re having, and you won’t even look me in the face. You look like you want to take off running any second now. I’m certain you were fine just five days ago. Did this start after we fought the chimeras? Did the fact that you got blood on you that day hurt your pride?”

Ianna was shocked. What would happen if a wandering familiar happened to hear him? The corners of her eyes raised into a sharp glare.

“Are you crazy?! Why would you bring that up right now?!”

“Why not? Is there some reason why I shouldn’t?”

“We’re outside!”

“So what?”

Ianna was so bewildered that she could only open and close her mouth without managing to say anything. It was so like Arhad to act as if he couldn’t have cared any less about who could be listening, about whether he could be exposed or not —but he must not act this way right now. He continued,

“I told you that it was just an accident. You did nothing wrong, and there’s nothing for you to be sorry about. You were fine, too. But sure, if it made you feel like you were lacking and you want to train harder because of it —then fine. I won’t stop you, and neither do I have any right to in the first place.”

Arhad starting walking toward her slowly again. The heat was boiling inside her and filling her head to the brim, but his calm voice in the chilly wind helped her regain her senses somewhat.

“But why are you avoiding me?”

It was only then that Ianna, who had been seized by her own thoughts and feelings, realized that Arhad was different from usual, that there was something strange about him right now.

“Why are you acting like you don’t even want me to touch you? Why won’t you even look me in the eyes?”

Ianna saw his face clearly under the dim light now that he had walked out from the wall’s shadow.

“Just why?”

Just then, a chill ran up her back that anyone would have felt if they had been in her shoes.

Arhad’s face in the light was expressionless, but it wasn’t emotionless. His lips were pursed into a straight line, and his eyes were sharp but not fierce. He looked otherwise the same as usual, but his striking golden eyes looked like all sorts of things had been mixed into them, as if feelings of every color were jumbled inside……and the light inside them almost looked like madness.

He almost seemed sad, almost seemed angry, almost seemed to be in such despair that he might do something on impulse —and his every emotion was directed solely at just one person.

Ianna was bewildered.

Why?

I’m only avoiding you. So why, just why, are you making that face?

Ianna was so alarmed by the look on his face that she stopped looking and simply stared back at him when he abruptly grabbed her hand.

“Let me go!”

“I don’t want to.”

Ianna was alarmed out of her wits as she tried to shake him off in irritation, but he would not let go as easily as he had earlier during the day. He was holding her hand so hard that he might crush it. Ianna grit her teeth from the pain, but the fact that Arhad was touching her right now when the mage might have put some sort of spell on her was so horrible to her that she looked up and glared at Arhad directly in the eyes.

“Fine, I am avoiding you. I can’t stand the fact that all I want to do when I see you is defeat you, so stop coming closer to me!”

Arhad was speechless. Ianna tried to brush him off again. But he wouldn’t let go. She could not escape him even when she tried to pull her arm back by force.

“Let go!”

“……I see that your head is filled only with your victory.”

There was a small smile hidden in the words that he had just barely managed to spit out. But his smile was bitter and twisted. He continued,

“Just what do you take me for? Do you even see me as a person, as Arhad, or do you only see me as an opponent you can’t easily beat? Is it the latter? It must be —and that’s the reason why you started avoiding me without a word without even considering how I would feel, and that’s also why you once told me that you liked me, that you were worried for me.”

Arhad’s once-expressionless face twisted as if it had only been a mask.

“Is that all I am to you?”

His golden eyes were shaking. Ianna flinched when she saw the sorrowful rage mixed into his gaze. Her red eyes were also wavering. There was no way that was all he was to her. He was someone to whom the current Ianna would offer up her entire life. But, as for Arhad…….

“Then, what about you……? What am I to you?”

“I’ve told you time and time again. I’ve fallen for you. I’ll say it again if you’ve forgotten. You’re the one and only person whom I’ve wanted so badly to keep by my side. I feel like I’ll lose my mind whenever you act like you hate me.”

Just then, Ianna thought,

Is this man stupid?

And, just what is it that I’m doing right now?

She was seized by a sudden doubt.

She would become a competent individual who could be trusted to accomplish anything. A companion whom he could trust with his everything…… That was the only way Ianna could return Arhad’s fervent feelings for her. And that was why she was loath to bring him harm, why she had agonized, had fretted, had been so frustrated, and why she had wanted to take care of everything by herself without telling him anything.

But was that really the right choice?

‘No, it’s not.’

Ianna took a ragged breath. It was only then that she realized that she had been extremely obsessed over the fact that she had made the wrong choice. She also realized why she felt so guilty about brushing Arhad away. The fact that he might get exposed wasn’t the real reason why she might become a burden to him.

Ianna lowered her head and quietly said,

“……A chimera tracked me down.”

“What?”

“I got some blood on my hair, and that’s how they traced me.”

Ianna took another step back. But Arhad still didn’t let go of her hand. She looked up at him with her now-composed eyes, only to find that Arhad looked like he was in a slight daze.

“So please stop making contact with me. Stop talking to me, too.  Don’t come anywhere near me either. You might be seen by a chimera……. And I absolutely don’t wish for that to happen. I don’t want to waste everything you’ve worked for until now, and neither do I want to do anything that could harm you.”

“…….”

“Chimeras have been coming after me both day and night. I’ve been killing them as soon as I felt their presence during the day so that they’d never catch even a glimpse of you, but that was what made the mage suspicious. ……And just today, the mage sent over a humanoid familiar and said that he wanted to make me his test subject. And that he would ransack the Institution, because I was being so sensitive about it, if I didn’t come meet him in the forest in the capital in two days’ time.”

“…….”

“I absolutely don’t want for that to happen. I’m planning to disappear just until I’ve killed him, so please……!”

Arhad pulled hard at Ianna’s hand. Ianna’s vision shook. She lost her balance, and her head crashed right below Arhad’s chin. Arhad had pulled her into a tight hug. His sturdy arms pulled her in by the shoulders and wrapped around her waist. He was holding her so tight she found it hard to breathe, and he dropped his head down and buried it against her shoulder. He squeezed her tight, as though he would never dare let go.

It was Arhad’s ragged breathing by her ear, which she could only just barely make out, that made Ianna certain.

That he was the black-robed man who had embraced her like this previously.

“You were avoiding me for a trivial reason like that?”

Trivial. Ianna’s bag slipped down from her arms while she was in Arhad’s embrace when all her worries and apprehensions were downgraded into a mere triviality.

“I will be the emperor of the Bahamut Empire one day,”

Arhad declared. Ianna looked to him in alarm when he suddenly unveiled his identity.

“I will ascend to the throne no matter what you do —even if you decided the tell the entire world that I am the hidden prince of the Bahamut Empire.”

“A prince……wait, that aside, I’d be nothing but a burden to you if I did that.”

“A swordswoman as accomplished as you are willing to stand by my side —how could you possibly be a burden to me? You’re my strength. There is absolutely no way you could ever be a burden. You’re already helping me immensely just by staying by my side without avoiding me.”

Listlessly, Ianna mumbled,

“But you said you were in hiding. You said it wasn’t the time to reveal yourself yet. How could you call this trivial……?”

“It doesn’t matter even if I’m found out. I’ll just kill them all.”

“You said that the Bahamut imperial family were monsters.”

“I just need to kill them somehow. And I can, in fact. There’s nothing for you to worry about. Besides, I have you now, so I’m fairly certain it wouldn’t matter even if I attacked them this very instant…….”

Arhad held her tighter.

“I will become emperor without fail. This will never change. I will give you everything you could ever want, so just stay by my side. It doesn’t matter what you do, even if you spend money like it’s free or even if you insult a foreign noble and start a war because of it —just stay by my side.”

Ianna blinked as she was held in Arhad’s tight embrace.

This man is truly an idiot.

“We can catch Keigus Dimitri, that rat-like bastard, earlier than expected now thanks to you. How is this a mistake?”

Thanks to you. Those three words taught Ianna for the first time in her life that words could sound so sweet.

“And that bastard hasn’t cast any spells on you, so don’t worry.”

“How do you know that?”

“I have my ways. And, as for Keigus Dimitri…….”

His eyes took on a strange hue —was it madness, or was it rage?— as he rested against Ianna’s shoulder. He squeezed her even tighter. Ianna was being held so tight she could barely breathe as she pondered yet again.

“I will kill him without fail in two days’ time so that you won’t have any more reason to avoid me. So, don’t worry.”

There was something horribly……twisted about this man.

To the point that she felt like there was something off about this younger version of him.

Emperor. Who could dare utter the word so lightly? A nation ruled by an emperor was greater than one ruled by a king. Only the ruler of the Bahamut Empire could call himself an emperor.

The Bahamut Empire allowed other kingdoms in the North to exist only if they paid tribute to her. The other kingdoms paid reverence to the Bahamut imperial family and regarded them as the true rulers of the North —they dared not even think about opposing the Bahamut Empire.

The Kingdom of Roanne, which had clashed against the Bahamut Empire for ages, had recently begun wanting to christen herself as an empire as well, but she was still just a kingdom for now as the other countless nations in the South were uneasy with the idea. And so, ‘Emperor’ was a lofty title which only one being in the entire world could claim.

So, how could Arhad declare that he would be emperor so easily when there was no way for him to know the future? Was it arrogance that led him to say that he would ascend to the imperial throne no matter what? —or conceit, or conviction?

“Phew…….”

His arms were tight around her, and his sigh of relief was long. His heartbeat, which Ianna felt though their contact, was uneven, and his weight shifted subtly as his nervousness relaxed and his exhaustion settled in.

Ianna could not possibly find it in herself to push away the man who had so rudely embraced her.

The cold rain traveled down her hair and drew trails down the curves of her cheeks. Ianna looked up at the black sky. The rain had started early in the evening. She had neglected to bring an umbrella with her, as she had not been in her right mind because of the mage, and she had gotten drenched. She wondered just how long Arhad had been waiting for her in the dark shadows of the wall as she felt his chilled body.

“How long have you been here?”

“Since classes were over.”

It was dawn now. Ianna bit down at her lip.

“All just because I turned away from you once?”

“It was more than enough to drive me mad. But it’s all right now. It relieves me to know that you won’t push me away even when I pull you in like this.”

“…….”

“So please, don’t ever do this again no matter what may happen. I’d rather that you simply get angry when something doesn’t sit right with you.”

Is he truly stupid?

For whatever the reason, the quiet laughter Ianna heard inside his relaxed tone made her chest tighten uncomfortably. She wanted to curse at him, as he was surely the most foolish man in the world. But she couldn’t. The cold rain had frozen her lips solid. No, it was because she pitied the way his temperature had fallen from his anxiety.

……No, it was because of her concern for him that was squeezing at her heart.

Ianna looked down and buried her throbbing head into Arhad’s shoulder.

“I’m sure you’re tired —I’ll keep watch outside for you, so go ahead and get some sleep today. I’ll exterminate any chimeras that come for you as soon as they’re here.”

“No. Why would you keep watch for me —why do you think I suffered so much in the first place?”

“I see. You’re right. You did it to keep me safe.”

Arhad chuckled quietly in a good cheer. He continued,

“Then, let’s go to Lord Heinrich’s tower. Spend the next two days there. Even Keigus won’t…….”

Ianna raised her arms and wrapped them around Arhad’s back, returning his hug. She found it funny how he was so alarmed that he stopped talking and flinched in surprise when he was the one who had pulled her into this embrace in the first place.

Her overtaxed body weighed so heavy that she simply leaned into the strength that she knew would never let her go. She tightened her grasp on Arhad’s clothes. Her hands were trembling. The shame that had stained her entire being seemed to wash away in the rain, leaving only traces of it behind.

“Just this once……I won’t ever mess up again…….”

Never, ever again, Ianna repeated multiple times. She never wanted to feel this awful stress again. So, all she could do was to grow more perfect, to grow stronger.

“No.”

Arhad, who had stiffened up in surprise, squeezed her again. Ianna was buried deep inside his arms. Arhad continued,

“It makes me happy to know that you’ll rely on me when you make mistakes. Let me know immediately if a problem comes up. I’ll resolve it for you.”

“You truly are a fool.”

Ultimately, she had said it out loud. Ianna cursed at him for being a fool for telling her that she would never be a burden to him even though nothing had been resolved yet, that the best thing she could do for him was to stay by his side, that he would much rather she brought him harm instead of turning away from him, and she felt an inexplicable heaviness settle inside her heart in place of her obsession and shame.

Ianna closed her eyes as she felt his once-chilled figure warm up with a quiet chuckle.

“I don’t mind, as long as you’ll stay by my side.”

She wondered if there had ever been anyone who had wanted her and had cared for her this much before in her life. Just what did her sword mean to him, what was she to him, that Arhad still desired her so both now and in the past?

He alone had not changed even when the rest of her life had. He had not changed even when the flow of time itself had. He had always, always been like this, and he was still like this even now, almost as if he had been born explicitly for her sake. And he would never change, even in the future. He would be like this eternally…….

Arhad was inexplicable for making her so certain of this. Rather, she had always thought that there was something strange about him.

He was so unchanging that it was actually bizarre. It was almost as if his heart did not feel the effects of time.

‘I wonder why?’

Every time she confronted Arhad, Ianna could not help but feel that he had yearned for her for a very, very long time —since so very, very long ago. The adamant strength in his arms as he held her, as if to say that he would never let go, and the madness she had seen in his golden eyes, as gold as the moon looming in the night sky……neither of these were things that could be built up in just a mere few months.

Back then, when he had first pulled her into his embrace, he had said in such a melancholy voice,

“……The you in my arms right now —are you not an illusion……?”

He said that he was enamored by my sword when he first saw it, didn’t he?

Then, when was that?

A tiny seed of doubt sprouted in her heart.

~~*~~

Part 4

Heinrich welcomed the two of them with open arms when they arrived at the tower late at night while dripping wet. Ianna changed in an empty room as soon as she arrived.

She had a lot to think about tonight. Arhad had told her to go to sleep, but she couldn’t. She had to exercise rigid control over her exhausted mind and ask him a few things.

Ianna walked out of her room and up to the door of another guestroom located on the same floor. The door was ajar, and she could see Arhad leaning against the sofa, illuminated by the hazy moonlight filtering in from the window, from the gap. He was tapping roughly against his armrest with his finger.

Tap, tap.

The strange rhythm echoing through the room and the uneven shadows the dim light cast over his face were almost frightening. Ianna observed him from behind the door for a moment. She could not guess what he was thinking because there was no emotion on his face. What was Arhad thinking as he sat alone in his secluded room while staring into empty space?

Ianna walked up to him slowly. It was only then that Arhad stopping tapping and looked up at her. He initially opened his eyes wide when she entered his room before a strange look crossed his visage.

“You’re not sleeping?”

“I wanted to speak with you……am I being a bother?”

“Not at all. Come sit next to me. Oh, and we can’t have you catching a cold.”

Arhad got up and picked up one of the logs stacked up next to the fireplace in the corner of the room.

Shaaa.

The log caught on fire when he used a simple spell to create a small flame at his fingertips. He threw the burning log inside the fireplace, and he tossed in a few more logs for good measure.

Ianna was standing awkwardly in place as Arhad made himself busy before leaving the room for a spell after telling her to wait there.

She sat down in front of the fire. It was warm, and she was getting drowsy. She gathered her knees together and rested her chin on top of them. She hadn’t been warming herself up by the fire for long before Arhad returned with hurried footsteps.

“Drink this.”

Ianna stared down quietly at what he was holding out to her. There was freshly brewed milk tea steaming inside the crude cup. Ianna looked away from the cup and turned to Arhad. His mien was animated. Where had the dark and deadened eyes she had seen just earlier gone? Or that dreadful emotion she had seen in the faint ray of light?

“Do you not like milk tea?”

He had been in the rain too, so why was it only now, when she was here, that he started the fire and brewed some tea?

She had no idea. She seemed to understand him less and less. She understood that he wanted her dreadfully, but the breadth of the emotions he seemed to feel for her could not be explained by him merely wanting a companion who could understand him.

Just how long had he been watching her?

“No, I like it. Thank you.”

Ianna turned away from the concern in his face before she knew what she was doing and accepted the cup. Then, once she had taken the cup from him, she realized his hands were suddenly empty.

“Where’s yours?”

“Oh, I forgot.”

She called him an idiot again in her mind. She was sitting on the floor, and Arhad sat down next to her. He continued,

“I don’t need any. I don’t get sick easily, after all.”

“Don’t you have a weak heart?”

“That has nothing to do with this.”

“You say the strangest things.”

Ianna stared into the fireplace, in which the flames were growing larger, and Arhad looked to it as well. They did not exchange any words, but neither of them were uncomfortable in the silence. This was partly because Arhad was satisfied just to sit next to Ianna like this and partly because Ianna knew this. They were gently enveloped in warmth.

Ianna, who had been sipping at her milk tea until then, quietly opened her lips.

“I was alarmed because you told me you were a prince of the Bahamut Empire so readily.”

“Do you not trust me?”

“I trust you, but only because I know that you’re not the type of person to lie about something like that.”

“I told you because you’re you.”

Ianna closed her mouth when Arhad chuckled a little with his reply. But there were still so many things she wanted to ask. And so, she started with the easiest.

“Mana is the Demon’s energy. Keigus said that there was something called the Demon’s fragment seeped into his blood. He also said that he had mixed some of his own blood into the chimeras’ blood, and the chimeras’ blood was able to break through even the shield spell that the archmage Maimayè Leviagè himself had sealed into my artefact. I once tried using mana to crush a chimera to death, but the mana avoided the chimera’s blood. And, I remember Chendelf saying something about the Demon’s fragment before. He said the Black Fox had interrogated him about the whereabouts of the Demon’s fragment. It’s in Keigus’ blood, it ignores magic, mana avoids it, and the Black Fox is after it —just what is this ‘Demon’s fragment’?”

Arhad listened wordlessly to Ianna’s flowing words and closed his eyes when she finally posed her question.

“What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know anything about it. All I know is that it has some effect on mana.”

“There’s no need to think that deeply into it.”

Thump—

Arhad tossed another log into the fire. He continued,

“It’s exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a fragment of the Demon from the Holy Age —or more specifically, a fragment of the Demon’s soul.”

“The Demon’s soul?”

Ianna blinked.

“Do you remember what Lord Heinrich told you before?”

“Yes.”

“Everything he said was true. Souls truly do exist, though they can’t be seen. But there is a way for us to see souls indirectly…….”

“Souls can only be seen in the astral plane, but we can observe it indirectly when it absorbs divine power, no?”

Arhad stared at her.

“You’re right. But how do you know that?”

“The spirits told me. I already know the basics. Like about the planes, or about the traits and abilities of souls.”

Arhad scowled.

“……Damned bastards. I don’t like them, but they do know a lot. The Demon never died. His soul was simply splintered into hundreds of pieces at the hands of a certain god during the last days of the Holy Age.”

Ianna was surprised. To think that the Demon was still alive. And, the god whom Arhad was referring to was unquestionably Roberstein.

“The Demon’s soul was split into hundreds of pieces. Each individual piece is called a Demon’s fragment. These fragments were scattered all over the world in an unconscious state, and they can’t be seen with the naked eye because souls are only visible in the astral plane.”

“I see.”

“You said you knew about planes? Tell me how much you know.”

“A plane is the boundary of what can be perceived or influenced in the same space. Matter can only be perceived in the physical plane, and only souls can see each other and influence each other in the astral plane. The actions taken by an element can be seen only in the plane in which they exist. Divine power exists in the robust plane, which refers to every plane combined —physical, astral, and spiritual.”

Arhad moved his arm where Ianna could see.

“Yes. Our eyes are elements of the physical plane, and that’s why we can see it when I take a physical action like moving around my arm. You know that divine power is consumed with every action, right?”

“Yes.”

“If you concentrate on my divine power while I’m moving, you can actually see that it’s being consumed as I move. When something alive takes a psychological action, such as being indignant, other souls can see that action and see their divine power being consumed as they rage. Though it’s difficult to actually feel it.”

Arhad put his arm down. He continued,

“The Demon’s fragments are unconscious and roam the world aimlessly because they have neither bodies nor divine power. They just float around like smoke.”

A soul separated from its heart needed to be supplied with divine power to maintain its awakened state, like how fire needed fuel to keep burning. A soul without divine power could not undertake any psychological actions. The splintered fragments could not even resonate amongst themselves.

“But when a fragment brushes against intense negative emotions or if it’s near a living being that fiercely yearns for power, it will respond to that being’s psychological actions and share their divine power. Then, it manifests in the physical plane and entices other living beings with the promise of power, and if someone accepts its invitation, it’ll seep inside their blood and feed off their divine power like a parasite.”

Mana was the Demon’s energy. The energy was governed by the Demon and therefore could not affect the Demon. And so, neither magic nor fortification posed much of a threat to those who had a fragment of the Demon in their blood. No mage had directly cast Ianna’s shield, and it was only natural that the blood could destroy something as trivial as a spell that had been inscribed into an artefact in advance.

“Once absorbed, a fragment uses its hosts’ divine power to maintain some semblance of a conscious state and demonstrates some of the Demon’s special abilities, including extreme skill in two of the talents required for controlling mana —affinity and volatility. Receptivity and willpower are tied to the controller, however, so the Demon’s fragment could end up killing its host if they’re lacking in either of these talents.”

“A double-edged sword, then.”

“Indeed. The fragments can also be shared or transferred. Let me start with sharing.”

First, a fragment could be shared through blood. Beneficiaries of the Demon’s fragments could be divided into two categories: owners, who actually had a fragment in their possession, and shareholders, blood relatives who shared the abilities granted to a fragment’s owner. Each fragment could have only one owner but could have multiple shareholders.

Second, owners demonstrated the strongest abilities. Shareholders had more power the more closely they were related by blood to the owners they were receiving the fragment’s benefits from. In other words, shareholders had stronger affinity and volatility if they were closer in degree of kinship with an owner. And, a fragments’ powers weakened if there were a lot of shareholders.

Third, both owners and shareholders had to continuously provide the fragment with divine power. Owners had to supply more divine power than shareholders, and shareholders had to supply more divine power the closer in relation they were to an owner.

Forth, shareholders who lacked in ability often died because of the Demon’s fragments.

“And next is how a fragment is transferred……. This can be divided into three cases: the death of an owner, the theft of a fragment, and the conception of a child.”

First, the death of an owner. If an owner died, the fragment transferred its ownership rights to the owner’s closest blood relative. If an owner without any shareholders died, the fragment would leave the owner’s heart after death and would no longer be able to be seen in the physical plane.

Second, was if a fragment was stolen. An owner or shareholder of one fragment could steal the fragment belonging to another owner. If there were two owners A and B, and A wanted to steal B’s fragment, then A would have to touch B’s heart with any part of their body and destroy B’s heart. Having lost its vessel, B’s fragment would then be pulled into A by A’s fragment.

Shareholder A could also steal B’s fragment in the same way. But fragments could not be stolen from shareholders because shareholders did not actually carry a fragment with them. On the other hand, when a shareholder successfully stole a fragment from another owner, they would then become the new owners of that fragment. And they would still receive power from the original fragment they had been sharing. In other words, they would be both a shareholder and an owner.

“Not only does the owner die when they are robbed of their fragment, obviously, but their blood relatives up to their first cousins perish as well. Unless they’re a shareholder who also owns a separate fragment of their own, that is.”

“How terrible. But why only up to first cousins?”

“The fragment’s influence is only strong until the fourth degree of consanguinity. After that, both the mana controlling abilities granted by the fragment and the individual’s ties to the fragment grow weak. And the last case is the only case by which a fragment can be transferred without killing the original owner —conceiving a child.”

Third, was the conception of a child. If an owner lied with another and the mother conceived, then the resulting fetus would become the new owner once they developed a heart. Souls were born shortly after the heart was formed, but the Demon’s fragment would be drawn to the empty heart in which no soul had been born yet.

If the fragment was conscious, it probably would have stolen that heart for itself before the fetus’ soul could be born, but it was not, so it was naturally absorbed into the fetus’ blood once their soul was born and imprinted on their heart.

“A fragment can live inside one lineage for long stretches of time, and it will only be released back into the world if that entire bloodline comes to a complete end. If someone from outside that lineage is brought into it, then their own lineage also falls into the Demon’s grasp forever until their bloodline is wiped out. And that’s the end of my explanation. Is there anything else you’re curious about?”

“How is the Demon’s soul able to maintain its fragment of chaos when it doesn’t have divine power? Wouldn’t it go extinct? Exactly what kind of state is the Demon in right now?”

Arhad stole a glance at her. He only turned back to the fireplace after he saw that she simply seemed curious.

“It’s only possible because the Demon’s heart is trapped in the rifts of time-space in which time is stilled.”

Ianna couldn’t comprehend what he had said, so she asked,

“In the rifts of time-space?”

“The rifts between progress and regression, the space between birth and extinction……Pandemonium, the Great Chaos.”

Ianna opened her eyes wide.

‘Pandemonium…… From chapter 1 verse 1 of the Holy Book!’

Ianna quickly recalled the verse.

My Golden Demon.

I weep bitterly.

For Phaemdra’s, the toke of our promise, life has run dry

And only the End remains in Paradise.

Today, you will obey my sword and disappear.

In Pandemonium, located at the end of birth and immortality.

It is there that you shall slumber.

I, too, will be at your side.

And, at long last, the blinding moment of the sun shall come upon the world…….

Ianna mumbled,

“In Pandemonium, located at the end of birth and immortality. It is there that you shall slumber…….”

“Yes, that. The Demon’s soul probably can’t be influenced because the real body, the heart, is located in a place where time is still.”

“Please tell me more about this. Wait, but how do you know about this in the first place?”

“I picked it up from here and there. I don’t know much more either.”

Ianna was sorry to hear that. But this in and of itself had already been a tremendous gain. Ianna worked her brains hard as she memorized everything he had told her. Arhad continued,

“But I’m certain that the Demon isn’t dead and that the fragments don’t have their own will. They only want, instinctively, to have their scattered pieces gathered up and put back together like a puzzle. And they resonate with each other.”

“Resonate?”

“A Demon’s fragment will ring out loudly when it senses that another fragment is nearby, and we call that a resonance. And that’s why all owners and shareholders will know that they’re related to a fragment somehow as soon as they meet. The fragments want to join together and become one. Though, those who crave for power would gather up the fragments anyway even if the fragments didn’t have this characteristic. Their ability to control mana grows stronger the bigger their fragment is.”

“Oh…….”

“The Bahamut imperial family is the prime example of this. The bastards are drunk on their power and authority, and that’s why they seek out the fragments most aggressively. And this is also why they’ve married exclusively into themselves. For centuries.”

“……!”

“The imperial family’s goal is to complete the Demon, so they practice questionable customs even outside of intermarriage. Fragments are transferred during pregnancy, so the crown prince and the crown princess must have a son and a daughter before the emperor and empress pass away. If they have a child after inheriting a fragment, then that fragment would be transferred directly to the child instead.”

It was shocking. Ianna hadn’t thought even in her wildest dreams that this would be the secret behind the Bahamut imperial family’s practice of intermarriage.

“Once the emperor and empress pass away, their firstborn, either the crown prince or crown princess, who inherited their largest fragment is crowned the new reigning emperor. Everyone in the imperial family is an owner of a fragment because they wander all over the world in search of more fragments, but the large fragment passed down through the lineage for generations belongs exclusively to the reigning emperor.”

Arhad let out a soft sigh before he continued,

“I’m a bastard child born into another bloodline. The emperor’s ownership of the large fragment was transferred to me. Do you see why they’d want me dead now?”

Arhad closed his mouth once he had finished saying his piece. Ianna took a moment to organize everything he had told her before she turned to him and said,

“I feel like I heard something incredible just now.”

“Of course you do. This is a secret known only to a select few.”

Arhad looked nonchalant and simply gazed at the fire despite having told her such an incredible secret. It was only after hearing this that Ianna finally understood why Arhad and the Bahamut imperial family had such unusually skilled control over mana.

“So the reason why you’re able to control mana so easily…”

“Is because the Demon dwells inside my blood.”

Mana instantly obeyed his will and twirled around his fingers as soon as he raised his hand. Ianna buried her cheek against her knees as she stared at the gently clumping mana in the palm of Arhad’s hand.

Mana rushed toward Ianna like it loved her, but it was closer to say that it offered to answer her every wish as a separate entity than to say that it submitted to her will, whereas with Arhad it felt like the mana simply moved passively with his each and every thought.

“Does that mean you’ll get stronger as the Bahamut imperial family collects new fragments?”

“Yes. But it’s also why I have to collect them too. They’ll get stronger too if I collect them, but the owner gets the lion’s share of a fragment’s power. There aren’t that many wandering fragments left. And they’re usually flowing in someone else’s blood already, so they’ll need to be taken by force.”

“Like Keigus’?”

“Yes, you’ll be able to see the process happen in person this time around.”

Ianna continued to stare deeply, ever so deeply, into the palm of Arhad’s hand.

“What happens when one person gathers all the fragments?”

“Their bloodline would rule the world, I suppose. After all, this is the Age of Magic, where everything in the world is composed of mana.”

The thought that enveloped Ianna’s mind at the moment was neither wonder at nor curiosity about the Demon. She was thinking only of the reason why she hadn’t been able to beat Arhad in the past.

The Demon’s fragment was a cheat. To be granted power regardless of one’s efforts? It was so cheap. Arhad would only grow stronger with each new fragment he gathered. She had been able to fight him evenly up until now, but she would probably be defeated in the end.

Ianna wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her face into them because she hated herself for thinking this way. It was endlessly shameful and endlessly disgraceful of her. After all, it wasn’t as if Arhad had wanted to be born with the large fragment, and it was because of this that he was being pursued by the Bahamut imperial family —he might never even be able to live an honorable life.

She would become his sword. But, would that truly be enough? All he wanted was for her to stay by his side? Someone as disgraceful as her? Arhad would be satisfied, perhaps, but she would not. That was neither the victory nor the victorious life that she had longed for.

Ianna peeked up just enough so that she could watch the flames blazing in the fireplace. Fire simply blazed forward without any lingering attachment to anything. It burned everything in its path and carried out a selfish life without any regard for the things it passed by. Ianna thought that she had been living like the flames until now. No, she had wanted to be as fire itself.

So, why was it that her life seemed so sorrowful now? She had lived like a blaze, so why did her life seem so wretched and pitiful?

Ianna buried her head back in her arms.

“What’s wrong —are you hurting somewhere?”

Ianna found that she was often lost in thoughts that were ill-befitting of her ever since she had confronted Arhad’s sincerity. They were thoughts that lacked in confidence —was she worthy of the sincerity he showered upon her?

She had thought about asking. The man who pointed his bloodlust at me in the temple, the man who shadowed me like a thug and pulled me into an embrace, the man who saved me from the minotaurs, the man who kissed my fingers —was it you?

But, it didn’t matter to her whether it had been Arhad or not. The fact that he desired her so fervently would never change. Besides, what would she even do even if she learned more about his past? There was no way that she could ever be worthy of him with the current state of her heart.

I’m so tired. That was what Ianna thought.

~~*~~

Arhad stared holes into Ianna, who had not moved for a while after burying her head in her arms. She was curled up into herself as if in exhaustion, and she had not budged in over ten minutes. Arhad realized that she had fallen asleep when her back began moving steadily and her breathing quieted down.

“…….”

Arhad rested his chin in his hands watched her for a while before raising his hand again. Should he reach out or not? Ultimately, he gave in to temptation and picked up a few strands of her crimson hair. Her once-long hair was now a mess that ended just past her shoulders. It looked like she had been unable to fend off her fury and had chopped some of it off.

“Idiot.”

Arhad gently, but tightly, gripped her hair, now soft after having dried. Her hair was tangled between his fingers. Even that was enough to satisfy him, and he smiled gently.

“You should’ve just gone to bed if you were tired —but there’s no stopping you, is there?”

Arhad stood up and picked Ianna up with ease. Her arms fell down because she was fast asleep. Arhad placed her on the sofa and brought over a blanket to cover her with. Then, he sat down next to her. He leaned his elbow against his knee and planted his chin in his hand as he began watching over her once more.

To think that someone as cautious as Ianna was so tired that she had let herself fall asleep in the presence of a man. She hadn’t woken up even when he picked her up. She must have been completely exhausted.

But it was no wonder, really. She probably hadn’t been able to sleep in five days because she was busy chasing down the chimeras, and she had probably been stressed about avoiding him as well.

“…….”

Arhad’s mouth, which had been loosened into a smile, pursed. His countenance was shadowed and chilling even though he was sitting before a fire. The air around him, which had once been warm and cozy, suddenly chilled and froze over as if a winter breeze had suddenly blown past.

He had only just managed to take hold of this chance, so how dare some piece of trash put this woman in danger and goad her into avoiding him?

“I was wondering why your mood was so bloodcurdling this late into the night, and as I thought, it had to do with that girl.”

“Please keep it quiet.”

“Goodness. My apologies.”

Heinrich quieted down at Arhad’s censure and leaned against the door. He continued,

“Did something happen? Your mask fell off. Girls would run away from you in fright if they saw you as you are now.”

“I don’t care. But more importantly, do you need Keigus Dimitri’s head?”

His tone was placid, as though he was only asking Heinrich if he had eaten yet, and Heinrich opened his eyes wide when he grasped what Arhad had meant. He struggled to find his next words for a while before he quietly asked,

“You found him? How?”

“I haven’t found him yet, but I am planning to kill him in two days’ time —so I will bring you his head should you require it.”

“It must be set in stone if you’re saying it. But to take out a big shot like him so suddenly……will this be all right?”

“The quicker we catch him, the better. He will pose a hindrance to Camastros if we leave him be. And more importantly, do you need it?”

Arhad asked again in the same placid tone. He continued,

“I was planning to rip out his heart while he was still alive, but I will cut off his head first should you need it.”

“You say the cruelest things as if it’s nothing. ……I have no need for such a thing. Though Eiji might, perhaps.”

“You’re right. What Eiji truly wants isn’t for me to be emperor but Wiffheimer’s and the imperial family’s heads…… He probably holds quite the grudge against this bastard Keigus too.”

The dense light of Arhad’s golden eyes never left Ianna even as he was talking to Heinrich. Heinrich felt a chill as he watched. Arhad was terrifying at the moment.

Until now, Arhad had lived like he found everything pointless and was simply going along with the flow. Even when he had been young, when Heinrich had told him that he would need to live in hiding because he would be emperor one day, he had simply agreed without any questions and had lived while holing himself up in the tower. Even when Eiji had come looking for Arhad and asked him to slay the entire Bahamut imperial family, he had simply nodded and agreed. As if it had only been natural. As if he had known the future.

But Arhad had changed after meeting this girl named Ianna.

“What is it that you want?”

Arhad Roygen. Heinrich was still terrified of the being lurking inside the shell, but he had grown somewhat accustomed to it now. Which was why Heinrich asked things like this on occasion. He was curious. Arhad had always adapted to whatever life threw at him with utter disinterest. What was it that Arhad was living for?

Was it simply to gather all the fragments? Or…….

“Do you truly want to be emperor?”

Arhad would only find himself sitting on the imperial throne if he continued living his life like this. Heinrich had posed this question often because he wondered if the throne was Arhad’s true aim. And Arhad had never answered him.

“No.”

But he answered today. Heinrich opened his eyes wide, shocked by the answer he was returned.

Rustle.

Ianna’s blanket fell to the floor when she turned. Arhad got up from his seat to carefully pull it over her again and placed the back of his hand tenderly against her cheek while she was fast asleep. And still, the sleeping girl did not stir. Arhad wrapped his palm over her cheek like a thief coveting an invaluable treasure. He was satisfied by the sensation he felt in his hand.

“I don’t particularly want to be emperor, but I am trying to take the throne regardless because this woman isn’t the type of woman to be satisfied just to stand next to me. The throne is but a boring and useless seat…….”

Did that mean that he would become emperor for Ianna’s sake?

Heinrich found it absurd that Arhad, who had begun walking the path toward the imperial throne long before he had ever met Ianna, spoke as if he had made that decision for her sake to begin with, and dropped his jaw.

“……You seem to view the entire world as nothing but a box of toys. Except for Little Ianna, that is. Just what does that girl mean to you?”

“You would not understand even if I told you.”

“I have met many people in my long life, but you are the only one whose thoughts I have never been able to read. Is the Demon……truly that different from man?”

“Perhaps.”

Arhad smiled.

~~*~~

Ianna was in a terrible mood all morning.

Whisper whisper.

She had no choice but to return feebly to her dorm, a stark contrast from the rage in which she had left it, change into her uniform, and attend class because Arhad had earnestly told her not to miss her lectures. But she was getting a lot of strange looks today.

“Last night…….”

“Yeah. I saw too.”

“Damn.”

It had started with Priscilla, whom she had run into in their room this morning.

Priscilla had actually been awake when Ianna had cut her hair and packed her bag like she was possessed by something evil. Priscilla had stayed up all night clutching tight to the hair that Ianna had thrown away and feeling like the world had ended, and she breathed in relief only after seeing Ianna come back in the morning with a somewhat peaceful look on her face.

Ianna had apologized for cutting her hair, but Priscilla had simply shaken her head. Her muse was beautiful even with shorter hair. But……but……had it simply been a lovers’ quarrel?

Priscilla, who had trimmed Ianna’s hair into a lovely bob, was obviously fantasizing about something strange as she focused on how Ianna was wearing different clothes than she had been when she had left, and her eyes moistened with tears.

“Little Ianna……. So in the end… Ahh, my beautiful Little Ianna, you…….”

“What are you thinking about?”

“It’s okay. You don’t need to hide it from me. I understand, okay?”

“What nonsense…….”

“It didn’t hurt?”

Ianna ended up ignoring the other girl and kicked the door back open. Ianna was sixteen, but some girls still got married at her age. And there were also girls who got involved with a guy at that young age too. And besides, mentally, Ianna was an adult in her forties. That being said, there was nothing that she didn’t mind talking about.

But Priscilla wasn’t the only one.

“Will you be getting married? The rumors were running wild.”

This was the first thing Rikijen said to Ianna after barging into the Swordsmanship Department and seeing her for the first time in a while.

“What rumors?”

“The rumor that you packed your bags and was hugging Lord Arhad tight in the middle of the ni……ack.”

Ianna eventually found herself unable to hold back and smacked Rikijen across the back of his head.

“Dang it! Why do you always hit me on the head?”

“Your head just looks like it wants to get hit.”

“Damnit.”

“Nothing happened, and I’ll make it so you won’t be able to chew properly for a while if you bring it up again.”

“What are you, a gangster……?”

Rikijen massaged his head in discontent but immediately shut up upon seeing the veins popping out from Ianna’s fists. Then, he looked back at her gingerly. Contrary her normal composure, Ianna was blushing a little at the cheeks in embarrassment, but the chilling bloodlust emitting from her entire being suggested that she found the entire situation disagreeable.

“How did a rumor like that…….”

“But seriously, did something happen? I heard that you and Lord Arhad had a row in the middle of the hallway yesterday, and that Lord Arhad waited for you in front of the female dorms all evening long? Then, you apparently had a huge argument in the middle of the night, but then you hugged it out and vanished —like you had a bad lovers’ quarrel and spent the night passionately making it up to each other or something like that…….”

“Shut up.”

It got worse the more she listened. It was certainly true that their actions had warranted some possible misunderstandings, but how did such obscene rumors begin spreading about her and Arhad? Besides, why were people spying on them from their windows at that hour in the first place? —they should’ve been fast asleep…….

Ianna placed a hand on her throbbing forehead.

“Why do you know so much about other people’s affairs anyway?”

“You learn a lot just by listening to what others are gossiping about. So if I’ve heard the rumors, then everyone else has heard them too.”

People continued to sneak glances at her, and Ianna grew more and more disgruntled. Normally, she would have never even reacted to such worthless and unconvincing rumors. She had not cared even when she had been caught up in a whirlpool of scandalous rumors when she first stated school. And yet, these rumors made her furious.

Craaaack—! Pow!

“Eek!”

People cried out in astonishment. Not only had Ianna broken a dummy’s head off clean while she trained, but she had also flung it at those who were still glancing at and whispering about her too.

The gossipers grew petrified as the dummy’s head flew past their faces and slammed into the wall behind them so hard that it was embedded into it. They could only laugh awkwardly and quickly scatter when a glare so bloodthirsty it practically screamed murder fell upon them next.

Ianna threw her wooden sword aside and left the training hall.

She found it pathetic how she had been downgraded from being Arhad’s rival or companion to a girl who had stayed up all night thinking about a guy. She felt like her already sour mood had hit rock-bottom. She wanted to cram her wooden sword into the mouths of those who were spreading these ridiculous rumors so they could never flap around their tongues so carelessly ever again.

Ianna went directly to the tower after classes were over because Arhad had told her to stay there instead of her dormitory for the next two days if she was worried, only to find that Arhad had been waiting for her at the tower entrance. He awkwardly ran his hand across his face when he saw that Ianna’s mood was plainly thorny with indignation.

“It’s my fault. I was so bewildered yesterday that I wasn’t in my right mind. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings.”

“…….”

Arhad gauged Ianna when she openly stared back at him without saying a word and flushed bright red.

“Sorry.”

“Did you do something wrong? Why are you apologizing?”

Ianna smoothed out the creases in her brow and sighed deeply when she saw Arhad flushing red and feeling so guilty that he didn’t know what to do with himself. His apologizing didn’t sit too well with her. All he had done was to wait for her in front of the dormitories all day long like an abandoned and anxious puppy, so why was he acting like he had committed a crime he should be executed for? It had been her own fault for making excuses for her behavior to begin with.

Is this man truly stupid? And why is he blushing? Ianna, whose thoughts had grown crooked because she was boiling in such rage, immediately seized control over her heart after thinking something disrespectful of someone whom she meant to serve.

Right, the correct answer is to ignore those preposterous rumors. The rumors will go away on their own if I keep acting like normal. Ianna earned herself a measure of peace once she thought this.

Ianna returned to her normal expression and looked around at her surroundings.

“I assume there aren’t any chimeras around?”

“Yes.”

“Then, let’s talk.”

Ianna followed Arhad up to the very top of the tower and closed the door behind them upon entering a room there. Arhad looked to Ianna as he leaned against the wall.

“I didn’t get the chance to ask properly last night…… What will we do about Keigus? It’s tomorrow night.”

“What are you thinking of doing?”

“I was planning to kill him on sight if he shows up where he promised to meet me, or to obediently follow along if he sends a chimera instead and kill him the moment he shows himself.”

“Keigus is a very thorough and cautious man. He would be accompanied by dozens, or even hundreds, of chimeras if he showed up in person, and if he sends a chimera in his stead he would either drug you or render you unconscious before taking you to wherever he was waiting.”

There was reason to what he was saying. Ianna dropped her gaze and looked out the window.

“Even if I did leave last night, things would have only grown much worse if my absence angered him and he began ransacking the Institution because of that. I definitely wasn’t thinking straight yesterday. I was only thinking about how to kill him…….”

She found herself more pathetic the more she thought about it. Ianna shook her head. She continued,

“I nearly made everything so much worse yesterday by trying to leave on my own like a crazed fool. Thank you for stopping me, and I apologize for making you worry. I won’t let anything like this happen again.”

There would be no end once she started brooding over it. For now, all she had to do was accept her mistakes and ensure that she would never make them again. Ever. Ever! She would always remember to be cautious, always remember not to grow arrogant, and always face her enemy with everything she had, as if she was facing off against Arhad himself.

Ianna pushed the uncomfortable sense of shame to one corner of her heart. Then, she made a fist as she burned in her newfound resolve.

Phew— Arhad sighed softly as he watched over her.

“It’d be nice if only you were a little less capable.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Ianna took what he said as a joke and smirked. She continued,

“What a strange thing to say.”

“In any event, you don’t need to worry. All you need to do is show up where you promised to meet him. I’ll tail you in secret.”

Ianna had not sensed a single chimera that day. She asked Arhad if he had done something, but all he did was smile and say, “I can’t just let them be now that I know.”

~~*~~

Part 5

It was the night that Keigus had told her to come and meet him. Ianna and Arhad left the tower while wearing black robes. As she wrapped herself tightly in her black robes, Ianna asked,

“Do we have a plan of action?”

“Our goal is to kill Keigus, but there isn’t any plan in particular. We just need him to show himself. But just leave if he tries to drug you or something.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll be following you in secret, so you go on ahead.”

Arhad melted into the night as he hid himself.

Ianna glanced behind her as she briskly walked ahead. The wind was blowing and the dead leaves were rustling beneath her feet, but she didn’t feel anyone there. It might have been possible for her to feel something if she sharpened her senses to the extreme……but he was truly one incredible man.

Ianna hastened up her gait. The fact that Arhad was behind her gave her some measure of comfort. While she didn’t particularly enjoy her current state of mind, it was still a fact that she was somewhat relieved. After all, Ianna herself acknowledged that Arhad was the most skilled there ever was.

A humanoid chimera was waiting for her when she arrived at the forest. The chimera’s eyes were blazing as it glared at her with the brunt of Keigus’ emotions.

—What sort of trick did you play?

“What nonsense are you prattling about all of a sudden?”

—I’m asking you why all of my chimeras have been exploding as soon as they crossed over the Institution’s walls!

Arhad had apparently been killing every chimera that entered the Institution as soon as he sensed them. He had handled the chimeras from a distance —did he have some experience with magic too?

Then again, he had said that mana obeyed Demon’s fragment beneficiaries as if the mana were their own hands and feet. There was no reason why he shouldn’t be able to use magic.

Ianna raged for a moment before shaking her head in disgust at herself for feeling it. Ianna pulled up one corner of her lips into a smirk as the chimera stared at her with a strange light in its eyes.

“I don’t know. But I find it pleasing nevertheless.”

Keigus began muttering to himself in vexation.

—Then it must’ve been that bastard Heinrich. Damn him —not only does he block my Teacher’s path at every turn, but he dares kill my adorable chimeras too? And to think that he was trying to monopolize such an interesting test subject for himself! Damn that bastard. I’ll rip him to shreds one day.

Keigus grumbled on about Heinrich for a while —perhaps he had a grudge against him— before finally looking Ianna in the eyes again. He then surveyed their surroundings before scrutinizing her up and down again and laughing with his mouth wide open.

—But you truly are the best test subject there is. Just looking at you makes my heart skip a beat. How will I feel when I see you in the flesh? You’re mine now. I won’t hand you over to anyone else. Hehehe.

Ianna’s eyebrows twitched. The chimera’s bluish hand was holding out a bottle of some unidentified liquid out to her.

—Hahaha. Now, drink this.

“Screw off.”

Ianna swept the bottle aside. It rolled across the ground.

Pow!

The chimera had frozen up due to the sudden turn of events, and Ianna took the chance to kick it hard in the chest. It did not scream, perhaps because it didn’t share its sense of pain with the mage, even as its ribs broke to pieces.

—What?!

Ianna walked up to the chimera sprawled across the ground and stepped on its head. She dug the heels of her boots into its face. Ianna smiled with her eyes as she saw its features distorting.

“I’m quite prideful, you know. I’m only here today to see your face in person, since you’ve managed to push me so far.”

—…….

“Why would I trust you to leave my organization alone after I became your test subject? I was found out anyway, so I left Camastros and the organization has nothing to do with me anymore. You asked me if there was something in the Institution? I just didn’t want the other students to get hurt because of me. Why don’t you try ransacking it if you think I’m lying? And, what’s that about Heinrich? You seem to be at odds with the dean —but do you really think he’ll simply let you do as you please? He’s much stronger than the likes of you.”

—What……?!

The chimera shouted in anger for a moment before shutting its mouth and smiling uncannily.

—Hehe. Go ahead and run your mouth. I’ll kill everyone who’ve been friendly with you as soon as tomorrow!

“Go right on ahead. It’s not like I’m particularly attached to any of them.”

The chimera looked disconcerted when she replied without a moment’s hesitation, as if she truly wasn’t lying. Ianna hid her emotions and kept her composure. It was best to act completely disinterested when one was trying to hide their weaknesses and threaten the other party instead.

—An incredible bluff!

“You really are all talk. I just told you to go ahead and kill everyone tomorrow.”

—I-I’ll exterminate all of House Roberstein if you don’t agree to be my test subject!

“Please do. I’d actually be grateful if you got rid of that damned household for me. Did you not look into my past?”

Ianna put more strength into her leg as she continued to trample the chimera’s face. She crushed it hard enough that it crumbled, though not so hard that it burst, as her lips curled into a smile. A chilling bloodlust gathered around her.

“How dare you try to blackmail me……? Just thinking about the stress you put me through makes me want to start brandishing my sword even in my sleep. I cast everything else aside just to kill you today. You’ve made a mess of my life, so I’ll make sure to murder you no matter what I have to do to make it happen!”

—…….

“But still, you damned dog. You dare try to make me your test subject, and all you send is one measly chimera?”

It truly infuriated her. How much had he looked down on her, how delighted had he been to grab hold of her weaknesses…….

The sheer amount of stress she had been under had been nearly enough to snap her rationality in two. But Ianna just barely managed keep herself from mutilating the chimera like she wanted to and continued to crush its face with her foot.

“I feel ridiculous for expecting more from you. But then again, why would an old, shriveled up coot of a wimp like you who can’t even face a girl as young as me properly ever show up in person? All you know how to do is to keep back like a rat and snicker to yourself. Are those chimeras you’re so proud of just a bunch of trash that can’t even deal with little old me? I mean, I’m crushing one underfoot even as I speak. It’s no better than foul-smelling trash. No?”

The chimera’s face contorted.

“How lame. It must be the cheapest of cheap filth. It’s shabbier than even a mound of dirt piled up by a small child. I find it difficult to believe that someone as vulgar and feculent as you counts as an archmage. Were you only elevated to the position because your magics are just so obnoxious?”

Ianna looked down at the chimera and smiled contemptuously.

“Surely, no one’s ever called this lump of trash remarkable. It’s squirming under my feet like a squashed bug —what else would it be if not trash? Moving trash, I suppose? Whoa, that was surprising.”

Keigus failed to keep his emotions under control and quivered in fury as Ianna poured slander and mockery upon his beloved chimeras and lofty pride like a violent storm.

—You little wench……fine! I suppose I wouldn’t mind dragging you back to my laboratory by your hair!

The mana around her raged and was sucked into flowing air. Ianna scowled and covered her eyes with the back of her hand as the wind whipped and kicked up dust and dirt.

“Damned wench. Why don’t I shut that mouth of yours for you?”

Keigus Dimitri was a small man. The brown goatee under his nose and his weaselly, shriveled up face reminded Ianna of a rat. He looked like he spent most of his life holed up in a small room.

—Screeeech!

—Grooowl!

The area immediately surrounding Keigus was swarming with dozens of hideous chimeras. They felt different from the chimeras she had seen at the Black Fox’s base. There were large chimeras and humanoid ones, and some of the humanoid ones were even carrying swords.

The chimeras were drooling. The grasses that their saliva touched shivered for a moment before wilting from the poison. A foul odor, like the stench of rotting food, permeated the entire forest.

“Go catch that bitch!”

The chimeras began looming closer to Ianna when Keigus pointed at her. Ianna scowled heavily and brought her hand to her nose when the wind carried the stench over to her. She had belittled him earlier, but she knew that Keigus Dimitri was skilled in the magical arts. Teleportation was one of the highest of high-leveled spells, and yet he had managed to teleport not only himself but also a large number of chimeras with him. Was it due to the Demon’s fragment?

But she could still face him. She had fought against even Arhad one-on-one all this time, after all. Ianna drew her sword and brandished it against a chimera that had rushed her.

“Don’t be careless……,”

Ianna muttered to herself. All of this had happened because she had been careless. Even back then, she would not have gotten any blood on her if only she had been fully alert and wary of the fact that the chimera could do anything as she fought it.

Ianna’s eyes slanted like an inverted mountain.

Shaaaa…….

The mana around her sword was drawn in like a tempest and condensed into a translucent fortification. Her fortification instantly dyed crimson, like fire taking to oil, and raised the tension in the air as if it meant to devour everything whole.

Bam!

Her fortification burst explosively from her sword the very moment she heard one chimera cry out and break the tension. The released fortification fell upon the chimeras running toward her and turned them into mincemeat before they could even get close to her.

Ianna heard ragged breathing from afar as she flung out her fortification mercilessly. She found it strange how Keigus was struggling to breathe and clutching at the left side of his chest while flushing red.

“You’re even better in person. You’re wonderful. My heart is pounding like mad! Ahahaha! How much fun will it be to dissect you with my own two hands?”

“Crazy bastard.”

“I know for certain now that there is something that makes you different from normal, since you’re not only able to control mana to this extent without carrying a fragment but you can even make my heart beat so……! Hahahaha. But I’m still a cut better than you when it comes to controlling mana!”

Boom!

The air burst as it froze over. It was almost bizarre to watch how one, two……dozens of cone-shaped icicles formed around Keigus.

“Mana has no choice but to obey me. You may have excellent control over mana, but it will never defy someone who carries a portion of its owner!”

Ianna frowned as she saw some of the mana leave her fortification.

‘He’s stealing the mana that I’m already controlling?’

Apparently, a beneficiary of a fragment could even steal mana that was already being controlled. She knew that the energy technically belonged to the Demon, but Ianna still felt like she was personally being robbed of something that was hers.

Mana continued to flow toward Keigus. Some of the confused mana left her while some of it stayed behind when Ianna focused on maintaining her fortification. The mana that had been dyed completely red stayed on her blade. Ianna looked down to her sword. Her fortification had certainly grown less dense.

“What an incredible lass you are.”

The look on Keigus’ face was somewhat stiff.

“To think your control would be so strong even without a fragment…… This won’t be easy.”

And, just then, Ianna realized a certain truth.

Her heart sank with a thump. Thoughts she had been trying so hard not to think about flooded her mind and pushed everything else away when the dam broke. The feelings she had pushed to one corner of her heart poured into her like a deluge. She felt like she had been struck by lightning.

Oh, I see.

He never fought me with everything he had even once in the past.

He only kept level with me, like he was toying with me in a battle he would obviously win.

And even now…

The fortification suddenly vanished from her blade.

“What’s this now?! Have you given up?!”

Keigus looked visibly relieved as Ianna limply hung her sword down and laughed as if he was enjoying himself.

“You piece of filth. Stop laughing.”

Keigus looked back in alarm when a wintry voice suddenly called out to him from behind.

Pooooow!

“……!”

A large, rake-like hand grabbed him by the face and slammed him against a tree. He was slammed so hard that there were crimson bloodstains left behind on the tree trunk.

Keigus simply trembled without being able to make a sound at first due to the shock of having his skull crack open. He began moaning, “Ah, ahh,” shortly afterward.

“Gaaaaah!”

Then, he screamed so loudly his throat could have torn apart. He kicked vainly in the air because his feet weren’t touching the ground. He had never felt so much fear before in his life.

Ianna turned around with a dark expression on her face. Arhad, who had been watching over the situation, had finally stepped out. He was holding Keigus up by the face while the latter cursed at him.

The chimeras growled as they lunged at Arhad from every direction, but they all exploded as soon as their feet left the ground. Even the chimeras that hesitantly tried to flee burst open and sprawled against the earth.

“Aaaack!”

Keigus screamed. He felt like the bones of his face were about to be crushed. He tried to shake off the hand grabbing him by the face, but the task proved too arduous for his aged and feeble strength. The hand holding his face was far too strong.

Arhad leaned in as Keigus continued to scream in pain and amicably whispered in his ear.

“Hello, insect.”

The tendons in Arhad’s hand were raised, and his joints were locked. His golden eyes were oozing with bloodlust as he glared at Keigus.

“Ahh, aaack! It hurts it hurts! Let me goo!”

“Hilarious. You’re just an old fart who can’t even twist off my wrist.”

Arhad let Keigus go. Keigus’ eyes were bloodshot as he clutched at his face and groaned. Arhad continued,

“How dare you put that woman in danger. And you even went as far as to call her your test subject…….”

His voice was as cold as ice as he glared down at Keigus, who was quivering from the pain, with such contempt he could have been staring at a writhing maggot.

“I find the fact that you uttered her name with that dirty mouth of yours so unpleasant it’s driving me insane. You’re just a piece of trash who happened to come across a fragment through sheer luck.”

“W-what are you? Ugh, cough.”

“What do I look like in your eyes?”

Keigus looked up as he hacked away while still on his bottom. He couldn’t see well through his tears, but he regained his senses, which he had lost because of Ianna, from the pain and he recognized Arhad through the familiar ringing in his heart that he felt whenever he met one of his own kind.

“You bastard……! You have a Demon’s fragment!”

Keigus looked up at Arhad’s shadowed figured once his vision grew a little clearer. He saw Arhad’s pupils, which were as round and as gold as the moon looming over the sky. His eyes narrowed into crescents.

“Is that all? I’m the bastard who inherited the blood of Bahamut.”

“Ugh!”

Keigus was flabbergasted. He continued,

“Y-you’re the one who stole the blood! Eek!”

Keigus sprang up and ran away. He tried to cast Teleport, but the mana around him jolted.

Arhad smirked and leisurely reached out toward Keigus’ back. The mana around Keigus immediately dispersed. And, just as Keigus’ eyes were colored by shock.

Pow!

“Aaaaaaaack!”

“Stole? It’s you lot who are using them without permission.”

Keigus screamed dreadfully and fell over while covering his eyes with both hands and struggling. Crimson blood poured down through his fingers.

“Ugh, urgk.”

Keigus’ eyeballs had exploded. Blood and the remains of what used to be his eyeballs oozed out from his empty sockets. Arhad walked forward once he had released the fist he had clenched.

“Let me ask you again.”

Keigus was seized by incredible terror as he heard the sound of grass being crushed underfoot growing closer. He flailed, grabbing at this way and that as he lost his sense of direction, for a moment before he stopped.

“What do I look like to you?”

What was that?

Keigus shivered. Everything was dark, and he should not have been able to see anything because his eyeballs had burst —and yet he did. He saw a bright and brilliant golden light. And his heart was beating so violently it might explode as it resonated with that golden light. He had never experienced this before. Not even when he had been before the Bahamut imperial family.

The darkness around him weighed heavier just then. The only thing actually around him was the darkness of night that enshrouded everyone, but what he saw in the pitch-black darkness was a pair of vividly glowing eyes.

Badump.

Badump.

What was that? Those eyes filled with golden light……those monstrous eyes.

The blood vessels in Keigus’ face bulged. Arhad, who had been standing in front of him, slowly knelt down.

“Gulp.”

“I’m sure you can’t help but want. That’s it’s nature, after all. But I’ll have you give it back now.”

Then, Arhad buried his hand directly in Keigus’ chest.

Poooow!

“Cough!”

Keigus began sputtering his death throes. But Arhad’s gaze remained unshaken and heartless. There was nothing twisted in his countenance, as if what he was doing was only natural.

Arhad was holding Keigus’ wildly palpitating heart —was it throbbing in excitement, fear, or welcome?— in his hand. And then, it burst.

Bzzz—

“…….”

Arhad’s eyes glistened in a hair-raising manner and strange golden patterns began glowing around his arm. The patterns twisted into and into each other and drew a geometrical magic circle of golden light. The circle, which glowed as softly as the lights of night, both drew in and spat out mana. A tempest of mana swirled around Arhad’s arm.

Every vein in his arm swelled and wriggled. Some of the veins in his face bulged up as well. He was drawing something inside himself through his blood vessels.

The golden magic circle shattered as a line of blood dribbled down from his mouth and mana burst out from him, carrying away the stench of Keigus’ and the chimeras’ blood with it.

Arhad pulled his hand out from the left side of Keigus’ chest.

Shaaa!

A black flame arose from Keigus’ chest. It was not a warm flame, but one that spewed out a blackish mist that seemed to make the darkness grow darker. The black flame immediately enveloped Keigus’ body and vanished. The flame, which had incinerated Keigus in but a moment, left no traces behind. It was as if Keigus had never existed in the first place.

“Let’s go.”

Arhad grabbed Ianna, who was standing around vacantly, by the arm with his unbloodied hand and pulled. They left behind the gruesome scene of their kills and headed to a part of the forest that didn’t reek of blood. A clean stream was flowing through it.

Arhad sat Ianna down on a nearby rock and washed his hands clean.

“Phew…….”

Arhad walked back to Ianna and took off his robe once he was done. His face was stiff.

“Why did you suddenly undo your fortification? I was so alarmed while I was watching you. That was dangerous.”

“……Why do you think I did that?”

Ianna had her head down, and her voice was gloomy. Arhad silently observed her and waited for her to speak. But his shoulders jerked in surprise when he saw a drop of water fall on Ianna’s robes. No way…

“Are you……crying?”

Arhad carefully sat down in front of her. He looked up at her face to find that there were tears swelling in her eyes.

Ianna was a woman who, except for when she had been young, cried so rarely, if ever, that people had often wondered if her blood was blue. She had not cried when her dear subordinates had died or even when she herself had been at death’s door. She had only shed a single tear from the injustice of it all when Lebony, her own mother, had wanted to kill her. And yet, it was Ianna of all people who currently had tears running down her face.

“Ah…….”

Arhad was so bewildered to see her like this that he clenched and unclenched his hands repeatedly, at a complete loss for what to do, as the blood drained from his face. He covered his face with his hands.

“Did what I did disgust you? I’m sorry. I…….”

“I wish that were the case.”

Arhad, who was about to fall into a panic, brought his hands down when he heard Ianna mumble. He looked up as Ianna wiped away her tears while frowning a little. Ianna bit down at her lip. She continued,

“It’s disgraceful, truly. To think that I’d even shed tears over this.”

“If it’s not because of what I did, then why are you crying?”

“Because I’m angry.”

“What are you angry about?”

Ianna couldn’t continue. It was too shameful to put into words. She thought she might die of disgrace. She hated the fact that she was so dyed in her defeat, and she didn’t want to acknowledge it.

It was disgraceful. She was sure that she had acknowledged her defeat as she died. But her goal to be victorious in this life had been planted firmly in her heart like a flag fluttering in the wind. And she felt like she had been broken even before she could truly begin. Her goal had been torn to shreds.

Ianna buried her face in her hands. She did not want for Arhad to see her disgraceful feelings. But she felt like they would rot inside her and become as poison if she didn’t let them out. She felt like she would always be angry and resentful of Arhad at this rate.

“I’m angry at the fact that I will never defeat you no matter how hard I try…….”

She fully exposed the ugliness inside her. She continued,

“You’re going easy on me even now, aren’t you?”

A true match in the Age of Magic involved both pure martial prowess and mana. Fortification was a powerful skill that could cut through even steel. It was often fortification that decided the victory between two swordsmen of similar skill.

It was true now, and it would be true in the future to come. Even Keigus had managed to disrupt her fortification, so she was sure that Arhad, who had killed Keigus, could dispel it with ease.

She felt like she had been made a clown.

Arhad watched as tears continued to drip down from between her fingers and quietly asked,

“Do you want to beat me that badly?”

“Yes. I feel like this horrible temper of mine will only be quelled when I finally break you with my skill and stand above you. I find myself unable to lie to you.”

“Then all you have to do is beat me. Isn’t that right?”

Ianna took her hands away from her face and looked down at him.

“Are you making fun of me right now? You’ll only grow stronger as you gather more fragments —it’s almost like a fraud!—, and erasing my fortification isn’t even difficult for you at all, is it?”

“I can’t disagree with that.”

“…….”

“But your skills with the sword are currently on par with mine. Isn’t mana the only problem?”

“……So?”

Arhad took her hands in his when she stopped crying and retorted. He looked up at her with unwavering eyes.

“Instead of controlling mana, control the power centered in your heart —your divine power, which is spread all throughout your body.”

“……!”

“That power belongs to you and you alone. It is a completed power infinitely stronger than mana, which is but an empty husk. You’ll find that mana can’t even begin to compare to divine power once you learn how to handle it.”

“Didn’t you tell me not to use it?”

Arhad shook his head.

“I meant that you shouldn’t consume it or lose it. Controlling it is a different story.”

“…….”

“It won’t be easy to learn how to control the divine power inside you. Nor will it be easy to reabsorb it once you’re done controlling it. I’d personally rather that you didn’t, because it’s dangerous, but you’re more than capable enough to handle it. I’m only saying this because I have faith in your abilities.”

Arhad smiled like he couldn’t help himself as he wiped away the tears in Ianna’s eyes. He continued,

“If this is what you were so angry about that you cried, then start learning from me as soon as tomorrow. There really is no stopping you, is there? You’re always so mature, but it’s only in times like these that you act like a child.”

Ianna stared deeply into Arhad.

“And I think you’ve misunderstood something, but there is no way that I could possibly go easy on you. Mana? It clings to you so tightly because it loves you, so how could I pry it away? That would be a cowardly thing to do.”

“…….”

“And also, I too have no choice but to give it my all when I fight you because I hate losing too. I couldn’t imagine losing to you on purpose even in my wildest dreams. And I have never once made fun of you.”

Arhad squeezed as he continued to hold Ianna’s hands.

“So……stay by my side and get stronger. Stay by my side and seek out my weaknesses, come at me as many times as you’d like……and break me completely one day. With your own skills…….”

—“Clash” End

↑The Camastros members’ genders are not disclosed at this point in the story (except for those characters we already knew: Arhad (Ro), Eiji (Shawn), and Heinrich (Hill)). Giselle is referred to with female pronouns without much fanfare in Volume 5, so I don’t think her gender was meant to be that much of a secret to begin with. Her style of speech in Korean is also very effeminate. The Korean raws do not use gendered pronouns when referring to Camastros members. However, I am going to go ahead and use gendered pronouns for everyone for the sake of my sanity. (Also, everyone else is either definitely or almost definitely male anyway…)