Chapter 24: Eiji

Part 1

“Find the bastard!”

Isabella Bahamut immediately summoned the heads of every intelligence organization under Bahamut’s banner as soon as she returned to her palace —she couldn’t have cared any less about the messy state her own body was in.

‘Goodness.’

Each organization leader trembled with their heads bowed low —it didn’t matter if they were communicating with her indirectly through a crystal ball or directly in an audience with her.

‘Her Imperial Highness Princess Isabella is obsessed with cleanliness, and yet…….’

The princess had always existed in a state of perfect beauty, and she had never been seen in such a mess before.

Isabella hated getting others’ blood on her. She always maintained her cleanliness, as pure as white snow, even when she was using her magic or her whip to render her victims into a bloody pulp.

And yet, her silky hair was disheveled, as if a bomb had gone off in it, and her normally smooth skin, as smooth as white jade, was horribly scarred and caked with dried blood.

She was wearing a mantle, but the dress she was wearing underneath was in tattered rags.

They didn’t know who the crazy bastard that had made her like this was, but he had surely not been in his right mind. Why else would they have dared do this to the woman who would one day become the empress of the Great Bahamut Empire and conquer the entire world?

The organization leaders did not even dare to breathe as they knelt before the princess who was emitting so much bloodlust that it made their head hurt.

‘But who?’

It was common knowledge that the Bahamut imperial family boasted the greatest military might in the world.

To think that someone powerful enough to do this to such an absolute figure, the likes of whom demanded obeisance from all others, existed in this world.

‘Are they strong enough to kill the imperial family?’

Some of them even entertained a dangerous interest. They were those who had been coerced into assimilating with the Bahamut Empire and had buried their raging defiance deep within their hearts.

But they were talented individuals from organizations that Bahamut had allowed to continue existing because of their usefulness, and they did not let their emotions show.

“From what we could tell, this person was of a similar height and build as Your Highness, but it is impossible to ascertain their age or gender. We would assume, from the fact that they could call upon powerful spirits, that they are a high-ranking member of the mythical races, but we cannot be certain. And lastly, their last confirmed location was in the Lotso Mountains, in the middle of the Basilisk’s territory!”

Isabella’s black eyes glistened as she ordered,

“Bring me a list of all those who are exceptionally skilled with the sword and find out their whereabouts. I don’t mind if you go outside the territories under your jurisdiction to get this done.”

Each intelligence organization had a territory that they were responsible for, but they were still able to freely obtain information from outside of their territories if they so wished.

But they normally operated only within their own territories, and their respective territories rarely overlapped. This was because they would be punished severely if they failed to work properly within their territory.

“You have one month to gather this information, and I will not punish you if your report is lacking. I will also grant and immense reward to whomever finds the bastard!”

The light in the organization leaders’ eyes changed when the prospect of punishment disappeared and a reward was dangled in front of them. They may be cruel, but the rewards granted by the Bahamut imperial family were always generous. So, how great would the reward be if the princess had even gone out of her way to call it ‘immense’?

Isabella gripped the armrest of the chair she had been sitting on. The wooden armrest broke apart feebly before her overwhelming strength.

“You may put aside the wench’s child who has evaded us for the past twenty years and left us with nothing to work with —find this bastard first!”

“We hear and obey!”

the bowing leaders replied in unison. Among them were Payne and Eiji, who had been communicating with her via crystal ball.

“Just who is this bastard?”

Payne grit his teeth and clenched his fist once Isabella had ended their call.

He was normally easygoing, but his countenance had been clouded over as of late because of the large mishaps that had been breaking out one after another.

One of his five Life production factories had been completely demolished not too long ago. It had truly come close to driving him insane.

‘I can just rebuild the building. And the masters will supply the defensive spells again.’

The main problems were that many of his brethren, whom he needed to actually man the factories, had been killed off and that so many samples of Life had been stolen when the next delivery date was coming up soon. The incident had created so many ripples that Payne had been forced to go without eating or drinking for some time as he focused on his work.

Payne clutched at his head.

‘Shit.’

The black foxes were somewhere around the middle of the food chain, so they had taken the Bahamut imperial family, who were at the very top of the food chain, as their masters to survive. Their masters’ strength was their own, and the black fox tribe had always dreamed of the day that Bahamut would conquer the world. Payne was of no exception.

Payne hoped that this wish would come to fruition within his generation. He wanted the Bahamut Empire to be able to focus solely on world domination, and this was why he overtaxed his body and devoted his entire life to assisting them.

He was the leading contributor in the production of Life. He had personally overseen the factories’ construction, and he had created the ridiculous rumors about the Ghosts to ensure that production would run smoothly. He had formulated the plan to foster cruel and powerful knights through Life, and had also set forth the plans to sell Life to the pigs in the South for money and to corrupt their personalities in so doing.

He had also been the one to expand the Black Fox exponentially in size, maximize their profits, and lead the organization to dominate the underworld in the South.

And so, for the last two hundred years before Camastros had shown up, the masters had said that Payne was the best among all the bosses of the Black Fox in history.

But nothing was going well for him as of late. A crack had formed in the once-perfect faith that Payne’s masters held in him, and he absolutely despised the obstacles who were delaying Bahamut’s path to world domination.

He hated the bastard child.

He hated Camastros.

And he hated the bastard who had brought about the most recent turn of events too.

‘You bastards, I’ll grind up your bones and drink them once I find you.’

Payne ground his teeth together.

‘The bastards who destroyed the factory definitely invaded on purpose. They were acting as a group, and their actions suggest that they had a special motive. Where are they from? Are they one of the bigger bandit groups in Sidian? The priests from Jinzai? ……They probably aren’t Camastros.’

The other two leaders of the Black Fox, Eiji and Bruce, who were on the same side as Payne but weren’t particularly close to him, did not interrupt Payne’s ruminations. They simply waited quietly for Payne to make his verdict and state it.

The annihilation of the Knights of Grundewalz, the destruction of the Life factory.

The messes that had broken out in succession had been so large that the Black Fox’s agenda would probably change depending on Payne’s wishes.

‘Hehe.’

Bruce saw the shadowed look on Payne’s face and thought that it served him right. Payne was always yelling at him or abusing him, so it felt good to see Payne agonizing bitterly for once.

“The bastard whom the second master was referring to —who do you think they are?”

Payne finally spoke up. Bruce cleared his throat and made sure his feelings weren’t showing through before he replied,

“Sound like someone from the mythical races to me.”

“The survivors said that they were using spirits, so it’s highly likely.”

“They’ll be difficult to find if they’re from the mythical races. Will it be possible to wrap this up in just a month?”

“We probably won’t be able to give her a definite answer because the clues are just too vague, but she ordered it, so we’ll at least have to try.”

“The masters are asking too much this time —they only gave us one rat’s tail of a clue and ordered us to find the guy……. It’d be difficult even if it was a human we’re searching for, never mind the mythical races.”

Bruce smacked his chops as he worked up an appetite. Payne then turned to Eiji, who had been silent all this time.

“I’ll try to look on my end too, but I’ll have to leave this matter entirely in your hands, Eiji, since you’re the boss of the Black Fox’s intelligence operations.”

Eiji shot a glance at Payne and shook his head.

“Do you think we can get it done?”

“We still have to try.”

“Well, I suppose so. But what about Camastros? Aren’t they our main priority?”

“The fourth master only gave us a month. We’ll focus on the organization that destroyed the factory and the bastard the fourth master spoke about until the time limit’s up. Start with finding out if Life is being distributed through any routes other than our own.”

“Hmmm.”

Eiji pulled out a notebook from his pocket and began scribbling in it half-heartedly.

Creak—

“Then what about me?”

Margarita asked as she climbed up from the trapdoor that led down to Payne’s medicine room. She continued,

“I came to Roanne to fight Camastros. I don’t want to waste my time.”

“Mm.”

“Are you really going to ignore them for an entire month? They’re pretty good, so it’d be better for us if we got rid of them as soon as possible. When will the second master send us reinforcements?”

“She said she was still considering the matter. But she agreed that they were fairly strong after reading Sir Miloutè’s report, so I’m sure she’ll send us reinforcements soon. How about you stand by and rest a bit in the meanwhile?”

Clack clack.

Margarita walked up to the table as she brushed the dust off her clothes. She bent down from her waist a little and shot a sidelong glance at Eiji, who was calmly scanning through his notebook. Then, her lips curled up into a smile as she said to Payne,

“That sounds boring, so no thank you. Can I take the time to try something out on my own instead? The masters said that we were allowed to turn Theodore upside down, and I’m thinking about giving it a go.”

“Hmm? How?”

“I found a certain ‘fun herb’ in your medicine room, and I can turn Theodore into one giant mess if I use it together with my magic.”

“Sounds good to me. Use as much of it as you please. But which herb are you referring to?”

“That’s a secret. But I’ll let you, and only you, know when I’m done preparing. We have a security problem here, after all,”

Margarita said as she placed a hand on Eiji’s shoulder. Eiji ignored her. She continued,

“Are you curious, kitten?”

Margarita stooped over and slowly brought her lips to Eiji’s ear as she sweetly whispered,

“Want me to tell you? I don’t mind telling you.”

Eiji smacked her hand away and stood up from his seat.

“I don’t need to know. Our meeting’s over now, right? I have things to do, so I’ll be heading out.”

Margarita massaged her aching hand as she grinned.

“Take care. I’ll see you next time.”

She said nothing of how rudely Eiji had smacked away her hand. All she did was bid him goodbye like all was normal.

“Oh dear.”

Margarita hated being ignored. Everyone present understood this and had thought that she would rail at Eiji for his attitude, but she simply sent him off without really reacting in any particular manner.

It was obvious to everyone that she had some secret designs in mind.

“…….”

Even Eiji, who had meant to ignore her as he left, hesitated for a moment, but he left without ever looking back all the same.

Margarita smiled with her eyes.

‘Go ahead —keep acting openly just like that. Wear your heart on your sleeve and show me the very depths of your soul. I’m going to use this chance to force you into showing your true colors, so go right on ahead and lay your heart bare for the world to see.’

She rested her cheek against her hand as the edges of her lips curled into a smile.

‘Is our little kitten being good and guarding the fish in our store just like he says he is?’

~~*~~

Fall semester had started.

It had been over a year and a half since Ianna had first stepped foot inside the Institution. And that was also just about the amount of time she had left to spend within its walls.

Today was the first day of lectures.

Ianna had familiarized herself with the things she had learned during her trip as she rested and had straightened out her body and her heart. And she had also tried laying out her future plans.

She would be as busy as a bee taking as many upperclassmen classes as she could, just as she had been, during the fall semester of her second year.

She would surely be busy during her third year as well, but there was something about her third year that would make it different from her first two. She would have to leave to gain practical experience.

Normally, students were supposed to spend about a month each year starting from their fourth year at a noble’s manor or on the frontier to gain practical experience.

Which meant that they had to go on three such excursions during their time at school. But those who wanted to graduate early were allowed to waive two of the excursions if they had their professors’ permission —though they were still required to attend at least one.

Ianna was planning to apply to work with Marquis Chaipan’s Knights of Exatium, just as she had previously promised.

Her circumstances had changed for the better now that she was officially being supported by House Roberstein and because Schneider had openly offered to recruit her into his fold, but the fact remained that her relationship with the nobility was strained. Working with Mariquis Chaipan would have been her best bet even without their promise because he was famous for being fair and impartial.

Besides, she also figured that it was better to work with people whom she had already met before instead of putting herself in a situation where she would only grow stressed as strangers harassed her.

Also, many of the upperclassmen lectures were deeper dives into topics covered by underclassmen lectures, and students could choose to get them waved if they did well in the underclassmen classes.

Most students in the department had applied to the Institution because they wanted to learn high-leveled swordplay and therefore did not waive those classes, but Ianna had them waived as if it was simply a matter of course. After all, she planned to shorten her time at school as much as possible and focus solely on her sword training and on Camastros’ activities.

Ianna hadn’t received any special orders from Camastros as of yet, so she was determined to concentrate on her sword training for now.

“Wooow, it’s been so long!”

Every Swordsmanship Department student had to gather in the swordsmanship assembly hall first because they had orientation at the start of the semester. It was there that Ianna met Eiji again after two long months, and he made a fuss as he greeted her cheerfully and even began tearing up in front of her. He continued,

“I was so sad. You should’ve at least said hello if you were done with your trip. What were you even doing all alone in your room……?”

“Here.”

Ianna cut Eiji off and pushed something toward him.

“Ack.”

He looked shocked upon seeing what she was holding out to him. He continued,

“Is this a present?”

“Yeah.”

She had gotten him a bracelet studded with peculiar gemstones from the Girohai Desert.

It had dark red stones strung along a sturdy string, and it gave off a simple but unique air. Eiji liked it a lot.

“Taro said that this symbolizes good fortune back at his village. I bought you one because I thought it would make a nice souvenir.

“I’m so happy! Thanks!”

Eiji was truly touched.

Ianna felt proud about buying the bracelet when she saw how delighted Eiji was for it. People apparently liked it when she bought them things —they never disliked it. And it was through their reactions that Ianna learned about the joys of buying gifts for those whom she was fond of.

Eiji touched at the bracelet on his wrist with a jubilant expression in his face as he asked,

“How was your trip?”

He didn’t seem sad anymore.

“Mm.”

Too many things had happened for Ianna to simply say that it had been good.

She told him about all sorts of things that had happened, save for the parts that she couldn’t discuss publicly.

Eiji had been listening quietly to her tale when he suddenly asked,

“Did you have fun?”

“I put myself in quite a bit of danger at times, but yes, I had fun. And I gained a lot too.”

Eiji smirked.

“And you didn’t get hurt?”

“No.”

“That’s good.”

“You should travel more too. You’ll gain a lot from the experience.”

“I wish I could. I was really sad, you know……?”

Eiji mumbled quietly, and he stared up at Ianna as he rested his chin against his palm. Ianna stopped flipping through the pages of her book and looked back at him when the staring had gone on for quite some time.

“What is it?”

“I just think you’re amazing.”

“What’s this about all of a sudden?”

Eiji straightened himself out and shrugged.

“Just…everything. But in any case, it’s nice to see you working so hard, even if it means putting yourself in danger, so make sure to always do what it is that you want.”

“I’d do that even if you didn’t tell me to, you know?”

“Right?”

He grinned after saying his puzzling words.

“Where are Taro and Herrace?”

“Taro slept in. And Herrace said that he’d stay behind and wait for him, so I came here in a hurry first. To see you, Little Ianna! But anyway, did something happen between you and Sir Arhad?”

“……Why do you ask?”

“Because he’s staring like crazy from behind us. I feel like he’s about to bore holes in the back of my head. And why aren’t you guys sitting together? Did you fight? Some bastards are even whispering about whether you broke up or something…….”

Ianna kept her silence as she snuck a glance back.

Their eyes met as soon as she turned around. But Arhad kept his gaze steadily fixed on her without ever looking away.

“You only fought, right? He’s staring at you so passionately…….”

Stare, stare.

It wasn’t just Eiji —other people had noticed that they were acting strangely too and were sneaking looks at them.

Ianna had arrived at the swordsmanship assembly hall first and had sat toward the front, and Arhad had arrived not too long afterward and had taken a seat toward the back, away from her. And neither of them had said a thing to each other. It was strange that they were acting like this after astonishing the entire Institution and generating so much gossip at the end of the spring semester.

And the funny part was that Arhad was staring ever so intently at the back of Ianna’s head. As a result, some people began wondering if Ianna had dumped him or if Arhad had stood her up and was regretting it immensely —it was like they were writing a novel in their heads or something.

“We neither fought nor broke up.”

“Then what’s going on? I become useless when I’m curious about something. Won’t you tell me? —please?”

Eiji kept poking at her because she wasn’t saying anything, and Ianna ultimately spat out,

“I don’t know either.”

“Huh?”

“I kissed him on the cheek.”

“Cough. Hack.”

Eiji, who had been wearing a puzzled look on his face, began coughing when he swallowed the wrong way. He looked pitiful to Ianna as he grew red in the face from coughing so much.

But it wasn’t just Eiji —others sitting around them reacted in a similar manner when they overheard what she had said. Ianna couldn’t help but wonder if she had said something she shouldn’t have.

Eiji returned to his senses and fumbled around his words to ask her something before the scowl on her face grew heavier.

“W-what? You did what? Did I hear you wrong?”

“I kissed him. On the cheek.”

“…….”

Eiji stared back at her wordlessly when he realized that she had been telling the truth. Calmly, Ianna asked him,

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“N-no, that’s not it —it was just so uncharacteristic of you……. It was always Sir Arhad who was assertive about your relationship before your trip, and you always seemed so burdened by it, you know? And I thought that it was very like you, Little Ianna. But now you just told me that you were being assertive about your relationship too, and it was so like you to just lay it out straight like that even though it was so unlike you, and it was just so strange…….”

“Assertive about our relationship…”

Ianna muttered while feeling odd. She continued,

“I didn’t think of it that way, since kissing each other on the cheek is something that close acquaintances do as well when they display their friendship. I just did it because I wanted to……does that mean I was being assertive about our relationship?”

“I think I understand how parents feel when they send their innocent daughter off to get married now.”

“What are you talking about?”

Ianna smacked her tongue because Eiji was speaking nonsense, and Eiji shot a sidelong glance at Arhad, who was still staring intently at Ianna, and asked in disbelief,

“But he likes you a whole lot, you know? He’s the type to cling to you like a dog wagging his tail if you kiss him on the cheek, so why’s he being like that?”

And he hadn’t even done his work properly for several days stright because he had been busy making rings. Eiji ground his teeth together silently as he looked to the ring resting on Ianna’s finger.

He recalled how Arhad had disappeared for a few days and worked like crazy to create a set of rings and shook his head.

“I said I don’t know either. Besides, me simply kissing Arhad on the cheek wouldn’t illicit such a reaction from him.”

“No, I’m pretty sure it would. How do you know so little about your own man, Little Ianna?”

“And what makes you so sure about him?”

“Jeez. You should pay your man more attention.”

Eiji furrowed his brows as he nagged at her.

Ianna recalled how Arhad had reacted a few days ago when she had kissed him on the cheek and told him that she missed him.

“Oh……. Me too.”

He had spoken in a bit of a daze, but that had been all there was to it.

He had been the same as always. They had chatted about her trip as they returned to the Institution together, and they had also discussed how their enemies would respond to the mess that Ianna had made.

They had talked about other topics in detail too, but, now that she thought about it, they had simply been repeating the conversations in person that had already shared via artefact.

But talking to him through an artefact felt different from talking to him face-to-face. So, hadn’t it only been natural that they discussed those topics again? Ianna did not find anything strange about that.

Then, they had parted normally in front of the dormitories, and Ianna had secluded herself in her room as she rid herself of the fatigue of travel and organized the information she had learned.

To be honest, Ianna had been somewhat bewildered because she had never kissed someone on the cheek before. But her bewilderment had slowly washed away because Arhad hadn’t really responded to it in particular. And she was completely calm about it now, perhaps because a lot of time had passed since.

Ianna combed through her memories again —surely, she had missed something if Eiji was raising such a fuss about it—, but she ultimately ended up shaking her head.

“I really don’t think he reacted in any special way no matter how hard I think about it. He didn’t seem to like it all that much either.”

He had been calm when he had kissed her on the forehead before her trip too —only she had been awkward about it. It was true that she hadn’t really been able to study Arhad’s reaction due to her own bewilderment back then, but she was certain that it was the case.

And so, Ianna concluded,

“Maybe Arhad just thinks of it as a greeting of sorts.”

Perhaps he simply saw it as a ‘display of friendship’ that most people were too awkward to demonstrate?

“……Did his brain stop working because he was so happy? It’s like someone passed the ball to you, and then you kicked it into outer space.”

“Stop making such weird figures of speech.”

“Ugh, whatever. But why are you guys sitting so far apart? I thought you said that things were normal?”

“It isn’t all that strange for us to sit separately. We’re in different years, and we have our own group of friends. But that aside……it is a bit strange.”

“What is?”

“He’s staring at me.”

“He’s always staring at you.”

“But he hasn’t looked away even once. And it’s not like he’s coming over to talk to me either.”

He was simply staring at her without trying to start a conversation with her.

Arhad was acting more oddly now that he had a few days ago. Ianna had simply brushed off his staring at first, but now she was beginning to wonder if there was a problem because the staring had continued for so long.

It had been weighing on her mind a bit, but she found it even more bizarre now that Eiji had pointed it out too.

“Did anything happen after you kissed him?”

“This is the first time I’ve seen him since. I was a bit tired, and I had a lot to think about, so I’ve been holing myself up in my room.”

“And that’s why you’re saying that nothing’s happened, right?”

Eiji furrowed his brows when Ianna affirmed. He continued,

“I really don’t get him. Maybe his brain froze up and he’s only starting to react now?”

“And now you’re just joking.”

The new Swordsmanship Department head and the professors walked into the hall from the front entrance just as Ianna shrugged. Taro and Herrace also rushed into the hall and sat down next to Ianna and Eiji. They looked rather haggard.

“Ugh, we got back two days ago but we’re still so damn tired…….”

“I thought I might die of exhaustion.”

Herrace’s fair skin had been tanned by the sun.

He apparently had not had any time in the shade during his stay at Titanus after Ianna had left.

The beastmen acknowledged Ianna, but they had grown competitive against humanity again and had wanted to avenge their defeat. And Herrace, who had accompanied Ianna to Titanus, had become the target of their redress.

But Herrace, too, had some skill to his name. The excited beastmen had challenged him to endless matches, and Herrace had accepted all of them, unable to refuse, until he had finally fallen ill.

And the beastmen who had challenged him belatedly had grown worried. Because they thought that he might not be able to spar with them before he and Taro had to leave.

And so, the beastmen had fed Herrace all sorts of healthy foods, and he had ultimately fulfilled all of his matches by continuously repeating the cycle of falling ill and growing healthy over and over again.

But he had stretched himself to the point of exhaustion by the time they had to leave, so Taro had been left with little choice but to carry him back.

Ianna had used Shweia’s powers to fly back through the skies in a straight line, but Taro and Herrace had passed through the Lotso Mountains instead of crossing through Sidian.

But the strife between Sidian and Jinzai over the invasion had grown into a full-scale war within the month, and that entire portion of the Lotso Mountains had become as a battlefield.

Taro and Herrace said that they had nearly lost their lives multiple times over as they traversed the perilous battlefields.

But the war hadn’t been their only problem.

“All the monsters’ territories became a right mess ‘cause of the dragon.”

The dragon that had appeared in the western regions of the Lotso Mountains had been the topic of the continent all August.

The black dragon was the absolute ruler of the Lotso Mountains and lorded over all other monsters, and it was said that it had never once left the heart of the Lotso Mountains in all of human history.

The monsters’ territories, which had pretty much been cemented in stone until then, had been upturned when the dragon had suddenly shown up in the wrong place.

The territories were mixed up and monsters had started spreading all throughout the region haphazardly, rendering the travel routes that humanity had taken long years to cultivate utterly useless.

“It was either the war or the monsters. Wow, I seriously thought we were gonna drop dead the entire way back…….”

“I was sleeping on Sir Taro’s back once, and a snake monster nearly bit my head off as soon as I woke.”

“The hell was up with that dragon anyway? Everything’s a mess ‘cause of it.”

Mankind had challenged the dragon since ancient times only to be wiped off the face of the planet without so much as leaving their bones or ashes behind. The history of death had made the dragon a divine being of sorts that could never be defeated.

And the people grew nervous even despite their intrigue now that the divine being had suddenly begun acting strangely.

A wall that humanity could never surmount. Something that stirred the anxieties lying dormant in their hearts.

Interest in the dragon had dwindled and people had pushed it to the furthest recess of their minds while it had been living quietly in the heart of the Lotso Mountains.

But that interest broke past even the limits of their imagination now that they had seen it flying about.

The dragon had wreaked havoc on the Lotso Mountains’ ecosystem with just one flight, and it had made a huge impact on trade between the West and the South.

What would happen if the dragon suddenly starting roaming the entire world? Would it kill every last living being on the continent by raining down its breath attack from above?

“Everyone we came across was asking if the world was ending soon.”

Just as Herrace had mentioned, they had come across people who had been frothing at the mouth as they proclaimed the world was ending.

Several kingdoms that had laid their roots down in the South had taken these ridiculous theories as the truth and had begun hosting international conferences. The conferences were held to discuss whether the entire world needed to band together and subjugate the dragon before it began moving again in earnest.

“Everyone was super nervous. Things settled down a bit ‘cause the dragon was quiet again after that, but it was the only thing people ever talked about our whole way back,”

Taro grumbled, and Ianna, the main culprit behind that incident, had nothing to say for herself. The dragons had locked themselves down to one place to maintain the barrier for an unimaginably long period of time —the people should be worshiping them, but now they wanted to subjugate them?

“…….”

But then again, Ianna’s knowledge of the dragons was limited to Terranodin, and he had become humanized in her eyes.

‘They can turn human too.’

Ianna subconsciously turned to Arhad again, and their eyes met once more. She tilted her head to the side in utter bafflement before facing forward again.

Arhad’s gaze never once left her even as orientation concluded.

In the end, Ianna decided to walk up to Arhad as soon as orientation was over. He continued staring openly back at her until she grabbed him by the wrist. He allowed himself to be dragged along like a puppy being dragged away by the collar when she pulled.

Slam!

Ianna was the first to open the door and exited the hall with the docile Arhad dragging behind her.

“Wow.”

Eiji expressed his marvel in what was almost as sigh as he watched Arhad be pathetically dragged away. He continued,

“So even he could be dragged away like that.”

“Huh? But Sir Arhad has always been really weak against Little Ianna,”

Herrace said with a smile on his face, as if he found their antics pleasing to watch.

“I know that, but it’s still hilarious.”

“They say that the person more in love is always the one who loses,”

Taro said while nodding as if he fully comprehended what was going on.

Eiji flashed a grinned as he turned to his two friends who apparently could not see that Arhad was being weird.

“I guess. Ignorance is a bliss, after all…….”

Part 2

Ianna went to somewhere secluded once she had exited the swordsmanship assembly hall. She eventually walked around to the back of the building, which was devoid of people.

“What are you playing at?”

“What?”

Ianna looked up at Arhad, who had asked back as if he hadn’t comprehended her question, and took another step forward. Arhad startled and stepped back, but he was forced to stop when his back hit against the wall.

“I’m asking you why you’re acting like this all of a sudden.”

“What did I do?”

“You were looking at me.”

“I look at you all the time…….”

“The back of my head has been burning all morning. You never took your eyes off me even once. And you’re staring even now.”

“……Did I really?”

Arhad said dumbly, apparently not having realized what he himself had been doing. Ianna could not understand him.

‘What the hell?’

Her bewilderment about kissing him on the cheek that day had died down because he hadn’t reacted to it in particular, and she did not think that her actions were something that warranted special joy from him anyway.

And she had understood Arhad’s reaction once she had returned to her dorm room and pondered over the matter carefully. All she had done was to simply press her lips against his cheek —it was no different from a kiss on the back of the hand, really—, so it shouldn’t have been a problem.

Ultimately, Ianna had decided that a kiss on the cheek wasn’t something that she needed to do unless she felt like doing it and had put it on her ‘list of special actions.’

Had she been mistaken?

Ianna began doubting her conclusions as she trapped Arhad against the wall. She was scanning over him when her eyes locked with his again —he was vacantly staring back at her.

They stared at each other in silence for a while until Ianna asked,

“Is there something on my face?”

“No.”

“Then why are you looking at me like that? What are you thinking about? This surely isn’t because I kissed you on the cheek a few days ago, is it?”

Ianna promptly startled even though she had been the one to pose the blunt questions. It was because Arhad’s face had suddenly flushed bright red.

Ianna forgot what she had been about to say not only because his reaction was so candid but also because the fever lingered on his face for a long stretch of time —it hadn’t been merely temporary.

“Sorry.”

She only regained her senses when Arhad apologized while turning his scarlet face aside. Arhad’s sudden strange behavior made Ianna feel strange too.

“Is this truly because of that? There’s nothing for you to apologize over, but you didn’t seem to care at all when it happened —so why are you acting like this so suddenly…….?”

“At the time, you took me by so much surprise that I didn’t even register that fact that you’d just kissed me on the cheek. I only started growing a bit bashful after I saw you off and returned to my room.”

But he wasn’t only a bit bashful, considering how he was acting now.

Ianna realized that Eiji’s hypothesis that Arhad’s reaction had simply been delayed was correct.

‘Just how much does he like me that’s he’s reacting like this just because I kissed him on the cheek?’

She was beginning to find herself pathetic. She realized now that Arhad had always been openly displaying his love for her —he had simply never put it to words. She couldn’t help but find herself a bit foolish for believing that it had all been simply out of the friendship between liege and knight.

But she was asking new questions now that she was aware of his feelings.

‘Why has Arhad been hiding his feelings?’

She could answer that one immediately.

She had probably frightened him because she had made it bitterly clear that she saw love in an incredibly negative light. He had likely suppressed his feelings because he hadn’t wanted her to start thinking negatively about him too.

“And I didn’t see even a hair on your head ever since. I couldn’t tell if it was real or if it had simply been a dream……. So I probably ended up staring at you without realizing it. I’m sorry. I’ve returned to my senses now.”

Ianna stared openly at Arhad as he fretted and looked like he didn’t know what to make of himself. He was trapped between her arms, but he made no move to free himself until she let him go. Ianna was assaulted by an unfamiliar and bizarre feeling.

‘I’m a bit strange myself.’

Arhad was much larger than her, but she found it adorable that he remained squished between her arms without doing his larger size justice. He was clever and composed, but it was also adorable how he lost his mind and acted like a fool just because she had kissed him on the cheek. And the fact that he had done his best to hide his feelings for her because he was afraid that she would feel burdened and put off was also incredibly adorable to her.

Ianna didn’t know why, but her insides bubbled and her heart squeezed.

She wanted to poke him. She wanted to provoke him just a little more.

She tilted her head ever so slightly to the side.

“Why so bashful? A kiss on the cheek is nothing more than a simple greeting. Didn’t you kiss me on the forehead yourself when you saw me off before my trip?”

“……A greeting…….”

“Did I do something wrong? In that case, I won’t…….”

“No, that’s not it.”

Ianna had asked even though she was fully aware of what his answer would be, and Arhad had answered her expectations by denying her while cutting her off. He continued,

“You absolutely didn’t do anything wrong. I was just alarmed because it was so sudden. A kiss on the cheek can be used as a greeting, just as you noted, but it’s not used very commonly.”

“Of course it’s not. It’s an action only made possible if the two parties involved are very close. But to my knowledge, it is normal for lovers to kiss each other on the cheek or forehead in the lieu of an ordinary greeting. And we’re pretending to be lovers, no? I assumed it should be all right.”

That was simply an excuse. She hadn’t thought about any of that before she kissed him —she had simply acted on impulse before she could stop herself.

She had been happy to see Arhad again after so long, had been happy that he had come out to meet her, had wanted to repay him for kissing her on the forehead, and more importantly……she had wanted to seize everything he was and make him belong only to ‘Ianna’.

Ianna pushed down the unpleasant anxiety that was crawling up back down deep inside herself and looked away from it.

“Yes, you’re right. I was simply being clumsy. I’d thought that I was a genius when it came to dating, but it looks like I was nothing but an amateur after all,”

Arhad replied with a joke, his head finally starting to work properly again. Ianna could almost hear the gears in his brain working hard to figure out a way to get her to kiss him again. She cast him a sneaky grin.

“How amusing. It seemed like you were planning to slyly teach me your ways, but you were an amateur yourself all along?”

“I suppose so. I know a lot, but I don’t have the experience to back it up. I suppose this is what people mean when they say claim to have learned about dating through reading. Just having the knowledge doesn’t make you immune to its pitfalls.”

“And your thoughts?”

“My thoughts?”

“Did you like it? Did you dislike it? If I’m being honest, I quite liked it when you pressed your lips against my forehead. So I am curious to know how you felt.”

Ianna poked at Arhad hard with her frank impressions.

His face flushed bright red again.

She could already guess the answer without his telling her. Arhad was surprisingly unskilled at hiding the change in his emotions. His skin immediately grew feverish when he was happy, so Ianna could readily tell if he liked something or not just by reading the color of his face. And it pleased her to see him react with no room for doubt.

‘Oh, but does he only react this way with me?’

It would also please her if he treated her differently from the others.

‘I’ll have to run a few experiments to see.’

She was curious to see how he would react to certain actions.

Though Arhad would probably like it no matter what she did.

“Of course……I liked it. I was happy to feel how fond you were of me, and it also made me feel like I had a monopoly over you because I’m probably the only person whom you act that way with.”

I see. It was just a simple greeting kiss, but you felt that way about it and it made you so terribly happy. Ianna was recording this result in the experimental notes in her mind when Arhad suddenly began looking uneasy. He continued,

“……You don’t do things like that with anyone else, right?”

His question made Ianna try imagining herself kissing someone who wasn’t Arhad on the cheek. But she couldn’t. She didn’t even want to imagine it.

I see. So Arhad truly is special to me.

Ianna’s lips twitched a little as she responded,

“Why would I do that with another? I would only do it with you.”

“That’s good to hear,”

Arhad mumbled to himself as he mulled over the hypothetical situation that still somehow managed to make him uneasy despite being so unbelievable. Ianna observed him as if she was studying an adorable creature when a familiar impulse seized her as her eyes rested on the crimson heat that was still lingering on his cheeks.

She had learned that kissing him on the cheek meant something rather special to Arhad, but she had already internalized the action as something that wasn’t all that big of a deal.

So what sort of results would this difference bring about?

“And even beyond the fact that we’re dating, I’m happy to see you overcome your wounds and try out new…….”

Ianna suddenly grabbed Arhad by the collar while he was still talking. Arhad was helpless because it had been so sudden and simply allowed her to do it.

“What are you……?”

Ianna pulled him down by the collar until his face was level with hers and kissed him on the cheek once more. It was a much deeper kiss than the one she had given him a few days prior, and it lasted for significantly longer too.

The unexpected contact made Arhad’s eyes shake. And, though she didn’t know what Arhad was thinking, Ianna felt different from when she had kissed him a few days ago.

She had been bewildered and awkward back then because it was her first time kissing someone on the cheek, and she hadn’t been able to remember how she had felt because she had been too focused on reading Arhad’s reaction.

But Ianna was certain of the sensations from the kiss that were filling all five of her senses now that she had the leeway to register them.

His tidy fragrance tickled the tip of her nose. Their gazes were tangled closer together then they had ever been before. Her lips, sensitive enough that they strung from even the smallest of injuries, were excited by the warmth of his taut and cleanly skin.

All those sensations mixed into each other and became as a warm intimacy. And the intimacy made her feel like she had grown closer to Arhad as it settled weightily in her heart.

And it also gave her a sense of satisfaction that made her feel like she was monopolizing him as she used her lips, which she had only used before to kiss the back of his hand when she had sworn him her oath, imprinted her warmth against his cheek, which had no reason to be touched by any other.

“…….”

Ianna savored those sensations to her heart’s content before she slowly pulled away from him. There were nearly a million question marks in Arhad’s eyes as he looked down at her.

“I’m most certainly an amateur too, but I’m quick to pick up on things once I’ve learned them.”

Arhad wordlessly brought a hand up to his cheek where Ianna’s lips had been. He almost looked like a maiden who had been harassed by a ruffian. But he never looked discontent. He mumbled,

“Was that……a greeting too?”

“No. I simply wanted to do it.”

Ianna knew that Arhad could never undo the fact that he loved her, that she had foolishly allowed herself to be tricked into pretending to be his lover, that her repulsion toward the concept of love had vanished —and so, she simply decided to do as her heart bade her.

She would entrust her body to her heart’s flow. Arhad would still love her no matter what she did, and he would never reject her.

Ianna grinned.

“It’s fun to watch you react like this.”

Arhad, who had suffered Ianna’s assaults in multiple senses of the word today, quietly watched over her smile for a while as he opened his mouth, closed it again, and repeated the process a few times before he finally managed to squeeze out,

“There’s something I’m curious about, Ianna.”

“Yes?”

“Did you eat something strange during your trip?”

he asked with a shaken breath.

His question was truly absurd. Ianna stared back at him and his absurdity for a moment before she shook her head.

“Why do you think that? I learned a lot during my trip, and I’ve simply decided to do as my heart wants from now on.”

Arhad quietly listened to her answer and ruminated over it again and again as the light in his eyes gradually settled down.

“So you didn’t eat anything strange? You’re just acting as your heart wants to? Then, by any chance…….”

Arhad had been wondering whether it had all been a dream or if everything was real during the few days of Ianna’s absence, and now that he had learned that it had indeed been real, he hesitated for a moment before he finally saying aloud the question he had brooded over so many times now.

“Do you like me?”

“Of course I like you.”

“No, no. That’s not what I meant.”

The real intent behind his question had flown entirely over Ianna’s head, so Arhad wracked his brains for a moment before he asked again,

“Do you see me as a man?”

“Obviously, I see you as a man. After all, you’re not a woman.”

And Ianna still didn’t understand his question.

Right. There’s a reason why this woman likes being straightforward in her speech.

Arhad stiffly resolved himself before he asked one last time,

“You once said that your feelings for me were close to love —have you reached that point yet?”

It was only then that Ianna finally understood what he was trying to ask and her expression turned strange.

Arhad stepped up to Ianna as he felt the change in her and grabbed tightly at her wrist so that she couldn’t run away. He continued,

“What did you mean……when you said that you simply wanted to do it?”

But Ianna had not been planning to run to begin with. She was simply contemplating over how she should answer.

Her relationship with Arhad was precious to Ianna, and she was cautious about altering it. She would have to live with him for the rest of her life, and it would be impossible to turn things back once they had changed.

Therefore, if she had to change something about it, then she would only do so after careful consideration so that the change would happen in a direction she wouldn’t regret and wouldn’t leave her any room for doubt.

The same was true of love. Ianna knew that Arhad loved her, but she wasn’t certain if she loved him back yet, and that was why she was keeping their relationship from progressing any further.

She had definitely kissed him on the cheek on impulse. But that did not convince her that she was truly in love. After all, friends kissed each other on the cheek too.

Ianna did not wish to argue over the state of her heart when she couldn’t be certain about anything yet. She had no desire to progress their relationship while she was still so utterly perplexed.

To be completely honest, she wanted to maintain their ambiguous relationship for now and test out several things so she could learn more about her own feelings.

“I meant exactly what I said. I kissed you on the cheek simply because I wanted to.”

Ianna decided to answer him honestly while hiding only the cowardly feelings she harbored about altering their current relationship. She continued,

“I thought it was rather nice after I tried it, and you said you liked it too, so I was thinking about doing it whenever I wanted to since I don’t see it as that big of a deal. A kiss on the cheek is often a sign of close fellowship, so I do not believe that I am strange for thinking this way.”

“…….”

“And since we’re pretending to be lovers anyway, I decided that I would try enjoying it as if it were a game, just as you once said, now that my trip is over. Others seem to think my kissing you on the cheek was an expression of love, but that is fine too.”

Ianna collected her breath once she had calmly said her piece, and she continued,

“I don’t know very much about love. So please allow me to ask you this in return. Why did you kiss me on the forehead?”

She asked her questions as if she was lobbing bombs at him one after another.

“Why did you tell people that you liked me, and why did you embrace me? You connected my kissing you on the cheek to love just now —did you do these things because you love me?”

How would Arhad answer?

Would he confess? Or would he cover his ass?

Though, Ianna hadn’t ascertained her own feelings as of yet, so there was nothing that could be done immediately even if he chose to confess.

Still, while she found the way that Arhad had hidden his feelings for her for so long adorable, she was also sorry that he had done it. And so, Ianna believed that it wouldn’t necessarily be a terrible thing even if Arhad recklessly chose to confess to her on the spot.

Was it because she wanted to reward him for all the time he had spent carefully hiding his feelings from her? Was it pitiful that he could only express his true feelings through a pretend relationship? Nothing would change in the fact that Arhad would have to wait until she had finished ascertaining her own feelings for a reply, but wouldn’t he feel better once he had gotten it out of his system?

But it wouldn’t be all that bad either even if he made up an excuse. After all, it would simply mean that Arhad could still endure it and that she would have ample time to think things through because their current relationship would be maintained.

So, what will you do?

“…….”

Arhad looked directly at her as she awaited his answer with a look on her face that suggested she had no idea what was going through his mind. Ianna looked back at him without looking away, but she began growing a little uncomfortable as time passed.

‘What is this?’

It felt strange. It was almost as if…

“I’m the same as you.”

Finally, Arhad had spoken. He continued,

“I simply wanted to do it, and I wanted to enjoy our relationship as lovers. I don’t know much about love either.”

He had chosen to make up an excuse. But Ianna had no idea why she was feeling this way.

“But you feel the same way too now, right? That’s great. The feeling’s mutual.”

She felt like he was picking a fight with her.

Crackle.

An invisible spark went off between their intertwined gazes. It felt like they were facing off against each other even though they were not hostile to one another. There was a tension in the air, just like there was when they were pointing their swords at one another.

And, though Ianna could not quite put her finger on it, she felt like something about the air Arhad was giving off had changed.

“Does this mean that I can start enjoying this in earnest now?”

Arhad pulled at Ianna’s wrist. Ianna had been disconcerted by the peculiar situation and ended up ramming her nose against his shoulder when he pulled.

He wrapped one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulder before she could protest.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

He stooped down slowly before she could push him away and brought his lips down close to her ear.

“I simplified things earlier, but in truth…”

Ianna heard his voice from so close that it seemed to pierce through her eardrum, just like it had when she had put the plush puppy artefact right by her ear. But hearing his voice through an artefact and hearing him in person while being pulled into a tight embrace affected her in two entirely separate ways.

And Arhad whispered,

—I was so happy when you kissed my cheek that I nearly lost my mind.

“…….”

People called it the devil’s temptation when they lost their minds and their hearts were completely stolen away.

“So I’m certain that I’ll thoroughly enjoy the days to come.”

Is this what the devil’s temptation was like? Ianna simply froze in place, unable to even react. He had counterattacked with something several times more potent than how she had been teasing him earlier, and her face flushed red against his shoulder.

“I wonder why I’m so happy and why I’m having so much fun even though we’re only pretending to be lovers? I don’t know, since I’m an amateur at dating. But you’re far cleverer than I……so do tell me if you ever figure out why I’m acting this way.”

Ianna could hear people laughing —perhaps because they were walking behind the building? But Arhad didn’t let her go even though their voices were growing louder. Rather, he tightened his grasp on her instead. And he stared them directly in the eyes when they finally walked behind the building where they were.

“Ack.”

And Arhad struck home even before they could excuse themselves and walk away. He placed a loving kiss on Ianna’s forehead, as if she was really his lover, right before their eyes as if he meant to imprint the image into their retina.

They coughed when they were suddenly made to spectate the public display of affection and ran away, and it was only then that Arhad let Ianna go with a satisfied expression on his face.

Ianna, who had stiffened up without being fully aware of the situation, looked up at him. He was wearing a brazen expression on his face, having fully recovered his composure.

“I won’t go easy on you anymore. I’m going to start doing everything that I want to, just like you.”

He wouldn’t ‘go easy’ on her?

Did that mean that he had been ‘going easy’ on her until now?

Crackle.

Sparks flew between their crossed gazes yet again.

Oh. So basically…….

Is he asking for a fight?

Ianna instinctively understood that this, too, was yet another kind of ‘duel’, not unlike a sparring match.

It made her realize that Arhad might have noticed that she already knew that he was in love with her. That was what the nuance in his words suggested when he had asked her to do tell him.

In other words, he was challenging her. And the terms for his victory was if she realized her feelings and confessed to him first.

But it was just so ridiculous.

Hiding his feelings had been his way of ‘going easy’ on her?

Ianna furrowed her brows at the thought that he had been ‘going easy’ on her all this time and flared brightly in her competitive spirit. She, too, smiled back at him brazenly.

“All right. Please give me your best shot. Without ‘going easy’ on me.”

She now understood that yet another important match had begun in their lives.

Mutual defeat. That was how their previous lives had ended.

Mutual victory. Such was the amazing result that Ianna was aiming for in their current lives.

Ianna had thought that Arhad had achieved his victory over her when she had sworn him her knight’s oath. She had been training hard because she had thought that all she needed to do now was to defeat him in order to nicely wrap up the competition between them that had begun during their previous lives.

But she had been wrong. She only realized it now, but Arhad had not been completely victorious just yet.

Her ‘sword’ was only one part of the ‘Ianna’ that Arhad so badly wanted. Arhad was in love with her, and he wanted a complete monopoly over her because he wanted for her to love him back.

And this was why he was still so anxious no matter how many times Ianna told him that she was his. He hadn’t been victorious quite yet, so all he could do was to continue craving for her nervously. Their duel of emotions was still at a draw, just as their duel with the sword currently was.

But, was it due to greed?

Ianna still wanted to win their duel of emotions even despite the situation. She wouldn’t mind obediently losing so that Arhad could gain some peace of mind —but what could she say? She kind of wanted to see the outstanding man run out of patience, confess his ardent love for her with everything he had, and obsess over and cling to her while stirring up a fuss.

It annoyed her to no end that only she was focusing on her swordplay with everything she had to give. And it offended her that he had been going easy on her until now.

It felt like there was a little imp living inside her heart.

Ianna’s competitive spirit blazed like a volcano, and she wanted to emerge victorious in their emotional duel and see Arhad run out of patience and confess to her also.

Ianna placed a hand on her forehead where Arhad had kissed her and studied his expression while she schemed. Arhad was looking back at her in a similar fashion.

They exchanged looks and smiled.

~~*~~

Fall semester went by quickly.

Ianna was incredibly busy. She had classes all day long because she was trying to complete a six-year curriculum in just three years, and she spent all night doing her homework just to be given more the next day.

But Ianna was already accustomed to overtaxing her body because she had been training every day since she had first taken up the sword and her concentration was phenomenal, so she still excelled in her studies. She was working so hard that she left the people around her both frightened and befuddled.

She impressed seniors, juniors, and peers alike and other students tried to emulate her example, but they all gave up quickly enough.

There were still a few people who cursed at her simply because they didn’t like her, but no one could belittle the effort she was putting in. Her monstrous talent and her effort, which somehow managed to surpass even her talent, increased her reputation by the day.

Despite her wishes, Ianna did not have much time to meet up with Arhad because she was always busily traversing between the training grounds, the library, and her dorm. Arhad, on the other hand, was attending the Institution normally, so he had ample time to spare during the day.

So, ultimately, it was Arhad who went out of his way to visit Ianna because she was so busy. They always saw each other in the training grounds because they sparred, but now he was visiting her in the library too.

It was rare for anyone to see Arhad outside of the lecture halls, training grounds, or cafeteria.

Which was why the number of female students frequenting the library exploded once Arhad started making an appearance. They savored in bliss as they stared at his handsome face —he was practically a healing factor to soothe their difficult Institution life.

‘Sniff.’

Alas, he had been a fruit perched at the very top of the tallest of trees, and he had long since allowed himself to be picked by a lovely yet terrifying tiger.

The female students’ envy was directed to Ianna, whom Arhad was looking at with great delight.

Arhad would read quietly next to her and habitually stare at her lovingly for long stretches of time while Ianna was focused on her studies. The kindness in his eyes was so overflowing with affection that even the girls who already had lovers of their own could not help but envy Ianna.

He flirted with her ceaselessly —he would stare at her and pat her head when his endurance ran dry, and he would take an interest in the things she was studying and be pleased with himself when he helped teach her something new.

But the most surprising part was the Ianna, who was normally brusque, would sometimes look back at Arhad from time to time as she simply let him do as he pleased, would sometimes flush at the cheeks, and even place her hand on top of his sometimes when he pat her head……she was openly being kind to him in return.

It wouldn’t have been such a big deal had it been any other, but this was the famous Ianna.

She was infamous for being cold, so she appeared incredibly loving when she reacted to only Arhad’s affections for her, and it made the hearts of even the other female students who had been glaring at her skip a beat —which was nothing to say of the male students who often snuck glances her way.

And so, Arhad, too, ended up being the target of others’ envy as well.

Arhad was a cold man of the kingdom who drew a distinct line between himself and others, but Ianna was someone who was truly difficult to approach. How nice would it feel to be treated as special by someone who normally treated others like she was the frigid winds?

And it was so pleasant to see Arhad be in bliss now that his ardent crush had come true…….

In the end, everyone agreed that Ianna and Arhad were the best combination possible —whether it be in terms of appearance, the air about them, or personality. They felt like they were looking at the coolest couple ever. Practically everyone acknowledged this.

‘They look good together…….’

Something strange began happening after that. The number of people who cheered them on and were delighted to see them together increased exponentially. There were even a few people who were raptured just by imagining the details of their romance.

“Good job, Lady Ianna.”

Rikijen had been overjoyed ever since Arhad had first begun visiting the library.

Ianna had always tacitly been Rikijen’s study buddy, and Arhad naturally ended up joining them as he chased Ianna around.

“It’s been a while since we last conversed within the Institution, Rikijen.”

“Yes.”

Rikijen’s normally level tone of voice shook rather conspicuously as Arhad, the target of his respect and admiration, sat opposite to him.

“Ianna tells me that you’re clever and a very good friend of hers, so we’ll likely be seeing each other like this more frequently. Feel free to ask me anything if you have questions while you’re studying.”

Rikijen was over the moon. And it was only natural that his goodwill for Ianna had increased rapidly.

Rikijen had begun studying harder to look good in front of Arhad ever since. Today was of no exception.

“Cough.”

Rikijen was coughing.

“Cough, cough.”

He wouldn’t stop coughing.

He opened the bottle he had brought with him and gulped down the warm water inside. But his coughing still wouldn’t stop, and he quickly brought his handkerchief to his mouth as he ended up spitting out the water he had drank.

Ianna looked up from her books and at Rikijen as he struggled.

He had started coughing a few days ago.

He had only coughed from time to time at first, as if he had simply gotten something stuck in throat. But he was coughing much more frequently now, and his symptoms had worsened to the point that he practically had a bottle filled with warm water glued at his side.

“Cough, cough.”

But it wasn’t only Rikijen who was coughing. So many people were coughing in the library that Rikijen’s coughing hardly warranted special mention. The library’s peaceful silence had long since been shattered.

“I hear that the flu’s been going around —did you catch it too?”

Rikijen nodded.

“Yes, I think……so, cough, cough.”

Rikijen grew red in the face as he tried to stop his coughing, but he ultimately failed and had to step outside the library. It was only a while later that he returned with a handkerchief over his mouth, and he hoarsely said,

“I’ve, cough. I’ve never even caught a cold before, so this…….”

“Perhaps it’s because you’ve been pushing yourself because Arhad’s with you now.”

“It’s true that I’m, cough. Doing more than before, but it’s only a little more than what I used to do. I’ve always devoted all my time to my studies. Cough.”

Then again, Rikijen was always in the library if he wasn’t in lectures or eating. Rikijen had always studied hard to begin with, so him studying harder was simply a matter of adding just one more book on top of the hundreds he was already poring through. Or rather, it was equally as possible that he was actually studying less because he was so distracted by Arhad’s presence.

“Why don’t you take some medication?”

“I detest medicine in general. I don’t even want to bring it near my mouth.”

Ianna could understand where his loathing stemmed from. He was the victim of a drug addict who had lost control over himself, so it was only natural that Rikijen distrusted all drugs.

But just then, Arhad, who had been reading in front of him, uttered just two simple words with extreme nonchalance.

“Do it.”

“Understood.”

“…….”

Ianna looked between Rikijen and Arhad in turns from the absurdity of it all. Rikijen had been as Arhad’s right arm in the past, and he showed traces of it even now.

“Cough!”

Ianna surveyed her surroundings. Everyone who was coughing immediately stood out in her eyes.

At this rate, there was no point to studying in the library. She would be able to focus better in her dorm room.

Ianna closed her books and stood up.

“Go visit the hospital, Rikijen. And rest in the dormitories for a few days instead of coming out to the library.”

“I’m perfectly fi…….”

“Go.”

“Understood.”

Ianna led them both outside once she had gotten confirmation from Rikijen, with Arhad’s assistance, that he would go to the hospital. She easily spotted several people coughing even outside of the library.

They were all wearing masks so that they would not spread their colds to others. Contrary to their efforts, however, the coughing had spread like wildfire.

There were even a few students who were coughing so badly that they had lost their voices and couldn’t speak. The anxiety that they might never speak again at this rate also spread rapidly.

Arhad, who had also been looking at them, said,

“Let’s head outside and observe the situation in Theodore, Ianna. We should take Rikijen to the hospital while we’re out so we can talk to people from the hospital too.”

Then, he mumbled,

“I’m certain this is an epidemic, considering how quickly it’s spread. We’ll have to confirm the severity of the situation.”

Ianna fell into thought.

‘Was there an epidemic this bad at this time in the past?’

She could not recall. Her memories of her past life had grown too faded. She had grown so accustomed to her current life now that she even forgot that she had been reborn from time to time.

“You’re going to take me, cough, cough. To the hospital?”

Rikijen asked in astonishment even as he coughed, and Arhad nodded back.

“I can’t be sure that you’ll actually visit the hospital, and Ianna’s worried about you too.”

“I’d definitely go if you tell me to, cough, Sir. But I would never turn you down if you’re offering to go with me.”

Then, he turned to Ianna and smiled proudly. He continued,

“I most definitely picked the right person for the job. Please continue to keep looking out for me, Lady, cough, cough…”

“You’re being loud, so stop talking.”

Rikijen snorted.

“Goodness, cough, you’re never honest. You’re actually only saying that because I end up coughing more when I talk…….”

“I don’t particularly enjoy hitting patients.”

It was only after Ianna had muttered and raised her hand that Rikijen shut his mouth.

All three of them were done with classes for the day, so they walked directly toward the Institution entrance. They passed by a crying female student along the way.

“Cough, was that doctor a quack? Why am I not getting better? Sniff. I have to get better before the school festival…”

Rikijen looked worried and hoarsely said,

“This is terrible. We might not even be able to do the school festival at this rate…….”

The school festival that took place every October was only two weeks away.

People from all over the world came to see the school festival. But if the sickness truly was an epidemic, there was a possibility that it could spread all throughout the world if the school festival was still held. Which was why there were whispers in the workings that claimed that the school festival might be cancelled this year.

“Cough, cough.”

Everyone all throughout Theodore was coughing —not just the people at the Institution. The hospital they had taken Rikijen to was bursting to the seams with patients.

Ianna felt like the noise would drive her neurotic if they stayed in the hospital filled with coughing patients for too long.

“This is more than just terrible. No one knows anything about why people are coughing —not the disease’s name, not the cause, nor how to treat it.”

They checked Rikijen in, and a nurse, whom they had used a fat envelop from Arhad’s pocket to coax into sparing them some of her time, wiped the sweat from her brow as she grumbled,

“We’ve kept prescribing patients with cough medications, but none of them are working. We’ve been getting a lot of complaints calling us a quack hospital. This might sound coldhearted, but there’s no use in coming to the hospital right now. It would be better to stay at home doing nothing and reserving your strength until a treatment is found. People begin growing visibly weaker after coughing for a few days.”

Rikijen was made to return to his dorm as soon as they had heard what the nurse had said.

Ever the study bug, Rikijen was disgruntled at first when Arhad told him to stop studying and simply rest for a bit, but he eventually agreed and said that he would only read non-stressful books.

“Don’t go outside too often for the time being. And don’t go to the training grounds either, since there are always a lot of people there,”

Arhad said as he escorted Ianna to the female dormitories after they had dropped Rikijen off.

“I won’t get sick. Rikijen got sick because he doesn’t exercise enough. I’m too healthy to get sick, so please don’t worry about me.”

“Exercise isn’t the problem here. Several guys in the Swordsmanship Department are sick too.”

Ianna smirked.

“Then you should be careful too. I worry about you.”

Arhad’s expression softened up a bit when he heard her say that, but he grew annoyed when he heard what she had to say next. She continued,

“You already have a bad heart, so what will happen if you push your heart too much while coughing and you suddenly collapse?”

“Stop worrying so much about my stupid heart already. You only saw me having an issue with it once while we were in the Karankell Rocky Mountains.”

“But you still need to make sure you take your medicine on time, no? Why are you so frail?”

“Frail…….”

Arhad forced a laugh as he turned around and reached his hand out. His hand hit against a wall and blocked Ianna’s path as she made to return to the female dormitories. Ianna blinked when his thick arm suddenly shot out before her eyes and looked up at him.

Their eyes met.

Arhad slowly lowered his head. The space between grew narrow as Ianna made no move to evade him.

“Do I look that frail to you? You’re the only one who’s ever said that about me in my entire life…….”

His chilly yet gentle fragrance tickled her nose.

His silky black hair glimmered decadently before her eyes.

His listless lips lingered just close enough for her to reach.

His words, muttered so quietly with his pleasant voice that they could have been a whisper.

His golden eyes, so concentrated with dense emotions.

“Do I really look that frail to you?”

Arhad was absolutely oozing with a peculiar air about him that could have bewitched someone and then some even as he pretended not to. It was one of the things that he had been doing rather often as of late.

She had never seen him like this before in either her past or current lives —this was completely new to her. The pheromones he was freely giving off sent a chill down her back and seemed to be whispering, “Do you really think you can keep yourself from being enchanted by me? Hurry up and fall for me,” as he attempted to seduce her.

I don’t need anything else —just give me the answer that I want. Fall to my temptations and do as I want you to.

That was what it felt like he was saying to her. Even Ianna, who had a steel shield around her emotions, had felt her heart skip a beat the first few times. If even Ianna was reacting like this, then anyone else would have immediately been enticed into giving Arhad anything he wanted, be it money or material possessions.

“…….”

Her heart was still disturbed even though she had already experienced this several times. Ianna narrowed her eyes as she scowled at him.

Arhad had ignited a great war between them a month ago that only they knew about. Their war was carried out not by sword and sorcery but by words and actions. Victory was contingent upon whoever broke through their current relationship first.

From what Ianna could tell, Arhad clearly wanted to shed their fake relationship and progress into a new, real one. He was trying to seduce her because he wanted her to wrap up her preparations quickly and break past the starting line.

But Ianna intended otherwise.

He had stirred up a bizarre desire for victory within her when he had claimed to have been ‘going easy’ on her, and now she was determined not to budge from her position until he clung to her and confessed his feelings first even if she did one day finish preparing herself.

She had thought about it after coming home on the first day and decided that it was unfair for only Arhad to be dancing with glee while she was still struggling to best him at swordplay. She was too enraged to simply hand him his victory.

Arhad always gave her his very best in their swordplay matches, so Ianna decided to give him her very best in their emotional matches too. After all, it was only by giving it one’s all in a match that one would not regret the results.

And so, their warring continued in terms of both swordsmanship and emotions.

“Hmm?”

Arhad pressed her for an answer. Ianna was a fast learner, however, and she knew to ignore the agitation in her heart. Her rationality was as sturdy as steel and did not crumble before his seduction.

Ianna opened her mouth.

“Well, you’re famous around the Institution for being a handsome yet frail man because you’re out sick so often…….”

“Just drop the pointless rumors already,”

Arhad said quickly when he felt like his image as a frail man was suddenly about to solidify. Then, Ianna targeted the split-second opening she saw in Arhad and grabbed his face and turned it to the side.

Mwah.

Ianna’s healthily colored lips lingered patiently on Arhad’s cheek. They left behind a splash of red as they left. It was the faint mark that had been made as she had drawn him in.

Recently, Ianna had been obedient to her feelings and had been studying many different things. And kissing Arhad on the cheek was the subject that she had made the most progress in.

Kissing him on the cheek had taken on another meaning inside Ianna besides its meaning as a greeting or as an expression of friendship.

She was marking her territory.

Pressing her lips against his cheek and leaving behind a mark was like placing a stamp on something using red ink, and it made her feel as though she was placing her seal on something that was hers. She liked it quite a lot.

But she could not leave behind a mark on his skin with a light kiss. Ianna disliked that, so she decided to study and conduct a bit of research. And she had finally succeeded after a few failures.

Ianna looked at Arhad’s cheek in satisfaction before she quietly whispered,

“Please head back now.”

“…….”

She let go of his face as he fell into silence, removed his arm, and walked away to her dormitory.

Ianna had suffered more than a few kisses to the forehead from Arhad by now. She thought of it as just another greeting in the lieu of a more normal one, but his forehead kisses were also special in the fact that Ianna was the only one whom he gave them to.

Ianna had been a bit bewildered by the monopoly at first, but, again, she was a fast learner and she had grown accustomed to it within a month.

Arhad, on the other hand, had not. The warmth he felt on his cheeks was still like a magic spell that stopped his entire being in his tracks.

And so, he had no choice but to continue losing to her.

Ianna snuck a glance behind her. Arhad was leaning against the wall with a hand over his face. She could guess what his face looked like behind his hand. It was undoubtedly a very bright red.

She found him hilarious. And…

‘He’s cute.’

He was bigger than her and attractive enough to send shivers down her back —there was hardly anything cute about him—, but Ianna was referring to his conduct and not his appearance.

He had a face handsome enough to seduce anyone he chose to and charismatic enough to dominate all on just the merit of his charisma alone, and yet he froze up stiff just because she had kissed him on the cheek —what else was he if not adorable?

Contentment stirred her heart whenever Arhad reacted like that. And Ianna had been enjoying his reactions immensely as of late.

But she absolutely wasn’t being foxy and predicting how he would react in advance.

Ianna had been alive for a long time now and she obviously knew about physical contact, but her knowledge was superficial and a rough estimation at best. She knew so little about the minute details that she might as well have been a blank page when it came to the matter. She still had little idea about how her actions affected others and how she made them feel.

‘But all I need to do is to try it out for myself.’

Ianna acknowledged her lack of knowledge but chose to ignore her ignorance anyway. She refused to learn from another. When it came to Arhad —and only when it came to Arhad—, she wanted to learn things by herself directly from experience without being influenced by any other factor. This was true of her determining Arhad’s likes and dislikes, and it was also true of her learning about her own feelings.

And so, Ianna was quite delighted by her state of ignorance. She was in a pleasant cheer as she walked away.

~~*~~

Part 3

The mysterious coughing illness never subsided. Nothing had happened even when the doctors prescribed powerful medications that were supposed to be effective for coughing. The people grew anxious as the epidemic spread throughout Theodore with no known cause.

And then, the first mortality had been recorded.

The deceased was an elderly person who had been ailing in the hospital since before the cough had truly spread. The cough had depleted the elderly patient of their already dwindling stamina and had ultimately killed them.

Weaker patients began dropping like flies after the first death.

Even people who had been perfectly healthy and had no medical history of illness were forced to pause their daily lives due to the coughing. They could not focus on their work because their throat hurt too much and their bodies were fatigued. They were also emotionally exhausted because those who had not caught the cough yet were glaring at them whenever they were out in public. And so, those affected with the cough eventually stopped going outside and quarantined themselves indoors.

It was only natural that the school festival had been cancelled.

The students were wistful, but they understood that it had only been the obvious response. Their once-excited hearts sank, and they only wished that this peculiar disease would go away soon.

But the school festival wasn’t the only festival in autumn. The Thanksgiving of Laos, the harvest festival, was to come in November.

Autumn was harvest season, and the harvest, which had begun in September, was almost concluded now. A festival began in the beginning of November where people cooked various dishes with the crops that had been harvested, and their first crops of the season where offered on an altar to give praise unto the God Laos on the Thanksgiving of Laos.

The citizens of Theodore were unsure of whether they would be able to enjoy the harvest festival this year. Now was not the right mood for a festival.

“There we go —is this the last one?”

A farmer asked wistfully to his colleague beside him as he brushed off his hands after shoving his last sack of wheat inside the warehouse.

“It was a rich harvest this year too. The harvest festival would’ve been an exciting one.”

“Do you think there’s a chance we’ll still hold it anyway. The school festival’s hosted by the Institution, so it’s easy for them to decide to cancel it, but the harvest festival is enjoyed by everyone all over Roanne. Theodore might fall into a recession if we don’t hold the harvest festival. Besides, the high and mighty nobles really like the harvest festival because eating and having fun is practically their job —do you really think they’ll cancel it?”

The farmer’s colleague practically spat out that the harvest festival would not be cancelled, and the farmer nodded along, having seen the reason behind his colleague’s logic.

“Right. They might still hold it anyway since it’s not like everyone who catches the disease dies.”

But it was only the lucky people who weren’t sick who had the leeway to wonder if the harvest festival was going to be cancelled.

The sick never grew any better no matter what medicines they took, the state had not put any directives in place to resolve the situation, and people were beginning to die…….

Their anxieties were growing worse by the day, and they were starting to get neurotic from the sound of their own coughing.

“Could the entire city of Theodore be under a curse?”

“Maybe a wicked mage cast a spell on us?”

No one could find a solution to solve the issue, and people finally began wondering whether the cough wasn’t a disease but a magical phenomenon instead.

“Cough.”

Rikijen was bedridden. He had lost his voice from coughing, and he had visibly lost weight because he hadn’t been eating properly.

“It doesn’t seem contagious, ya know?”

Taro scratched his head as he looked to Eiji and Herrace, who had paid Rikijen a visit. He continued,

“Rikijen’s been in our room coughin’ all day long, but I’m perfectly fine.”

Taro was Rikijen’s roommate again this year. He had spent a lot of time with Rikijen while the latter was ill, but Taro was completely healthy.

Eiji smacked his tongue.

“Aren’t you just too healthy?”

“I don’t think being healthy or not is the problem. Several people in the Swordsmanship Department have fallen ill too.”

“Maybe there’s some kind of condition for how it spreads?”

“If you’re going to talk……can you please do it outside……? Cough.”

“Oh, sorry…”

“And there’s something I’d like to tell you,”

Rikijen said to the best of his ability with his hoarse voice. He continued,

“I’m planning to, cough. Leave the dorms. Tomorrow, cough, cough. I just can’t, cough.”

He fell into a horrible coughing fit after just a few short words.

Rikijen buried his face into his blankets and coughed for a while before he finally settled down. His eyes were sunken as he looked up again.

“Hack, hack. I’m being a huge nuisance to Sir Taro and my other peers. I’m even considering taking a leave of absence, which I’ve never even dreamed about taking before.”

“Really? Then again, a few people have started taking leaves from here and there. So many students have gotten sick that people are even wondering if the Institution might actually close.”

Eiji smacked his tongue and asked,

“Do you have somewhere to go?”

Rikijen replied that there was a research hospital that was only taking in patients sick with the cough and was looking for a treatment.

Eiji already knew about the hospital. He also knew that they fed disgusting low-sodium food to their patients despite the exorbitant fees they charged.

He felt bad for Rikijen.

“Is there anything you’d like to eat. I’ll buy you something as a parting gift.”

Rikijen had been about to say no before a thought suddenly popped into his mind. He began salivating.

“Bread.”

“Right, you were a bread lover.”

Rikijen ate the delicious bread that Eiji had bought him later that day, and he had packed his things and left the dormitories by the next.

Ianna, who had only been able to hear about Rikijen’s condition through her friends because she was not allowed inside the male dormitories, joined everyone in seeing him off at the Institution gates.

“I’ll come back when I’m better, cough.”

“Don’t die,”

Ianna muttered quietly.

He wouldn’t die. After all, he had been healthy as he had hated her while standing by Arhad’s side in the past after Arhad had taken the imperial throne……is what Ianna wanted to believe, but the situation had changed so drastically that she couldn’t be certain anymore.

The carriage that Rikijen had boarded grew distant with a cloud of dust behind it.

“This is a right mess, I tell ya.”

Taro smacked his tongue.

“I’m worried. I hope they find a treatment soon,”

Herrace said to his friends as he watched the carriage grow farther away. He continued,

“I have somewhere I need to be. Please get back safely.”

“Take care.”

Herrace had disappeared off to somewhere, and Taro had left after saying that he would be with Lalatua. Ianna left as well, since she wanted to train harder precisely because the situation was what it was. Only Eiji remained at the gates.

“…….”

Eiji lost himself in thought and stood there vacantly for a while, and he had a grave look on his face when he finally turned around.

Camastros held and emergency meeting that night.

“This is Margarita’s doing,”

Shawn declared. He continued,

“She said that she would use some kind of herb and magic to cause a disturbance in Theodore about two months ago. I’m certain this is it.”

“What does the herb look like?”

Giselle asked. She continued,

“I’ve looked into the matter myself because one of my subordinates fell sick as well, but I don’t have a treatment because I don’t know the cause. But I might be able to find a treatment if I know what type of herb Margarita used.”

But Shawn could only shake his head in response to Giselle’s question.

“I couldn’t investigate into the matter because Margarita has been suspicious of me as of late. I never imagined that something like this would happen.”

“Margarita is a mage who specializes in curses and disease magic. If this is her doing, then she likely used some special characteristic of the herb and magic in combination.”

“Then the problem lies in the fact that we don’t know how the herb and magic was used together to create such this disease.”

“No. I know.”

“Pardon?”

Arhad tapped his fingers against the table.

“I’ve looked into matters on my own, and the coughing is caused by magic. Anyone better than Margarita at controlling mana should be able to dispel it, but that woman is a skilled mage. There probably aren’t many people in Roanne who can break through her spells.”

Ianna thought about Rikijen, who was ailing from the disease.

‘That means that I can cure him.’

But her eyes met Arhad’s just then. And he shook his head no as if he knew what she was thinking about.

‘He’s telling me not to even think about it…… But why?’

She realized the answer soon enough.

Isabella and Arhad had felt it when she had undone the spells set up at Bahamut’s Life factory in Sidian. It was possible that Margarita would be able to feel it too.

Not many people in the world were able to dispel the magic cast by beneficiaries of a Demon’s fragment. She could find herself caught in a net if she tried to dispel the magic while the Black Fox was growing frustrated at the leader of Camastros and Bahamut was still searching for the person who had undone the spells at the factory.

Giselle shuddered in mortification.

“She’s truly one remarkable woman. But shouldn’t the spell be lifted after a set amount of time? One would need to keep concentrating on maintaining their spell for it to last. And yet, her curse has been affecting so many people for over two months now…….”

“No. It’s because of the characteristics of the herb that the magic’s lasted for so long.”

“Do you happen to know what the herb is, Lord Ro?”

“I do. But you could also say that it isn’t quite the same herb as the one I know of. The herb was being kept by the Black Fox, but they actually come from Bahamut, and Bahamut has been improving the herb’s properties through experimentation and are likely still improving the herb even now.”

“It can’t be…….”

Shawn’s voice turned grim as he realized something after hearing what Arhad had said. He continued,

“Is it……that herb?”

Arhad looked quietly back at Shawn for a moment before he nodded.

“…….”

Ianna watched as Shawn clenched his hands into tight fists. The uncontrollable tremors of his hands were a testament to his rage.

This was the first time she had ever seen the brazen man fail to control his emotions. Arhad explained,

“The herb has many functions. For starters, it has a powerful ability to pull in mana and can therefore be used to stabilize magic. If you crush it into a powder, then a single grain of it can be likened to an artefact capable of being imbued with a magic circle. Margarita probably cast the coughing magic on it and spread the powder all throughout Theodore.”

“……So it isn’t an epidemic. The herb is expensive, so its effects were probably limited to just one specific area. I will go and figure out where that is.”

“There’s no need for that.”

Arhad looked Shawn in the eyes. He continued,

“The situation is already what it is, and there isn’t much we can do even if we know the cause. You know, do you not? That herb is poisonous. If it’s already entered people’s bodies, then the only thing that will heal them is time.”

“Shit! Is she out of her mind? How could she use that herb on normal people……!”

Pow!

Shawn pounded his fist against the wall, unable to hold back his rage.

“Don’t give the witch any more excuses to be suspicious of you by getting caught while trying to find the source or by failing to control your emotions.”

“……I know. I’ll step out for a minute to cool off.”

Shawn huffed as he kicked the door on his way out. Arhad turned to the rest of the executives, who were bewildered by how strangely Shawn was acting, and said,

“I can’t tell you what the herb is. It’s the target of Shawn’s wrath, and there is nothing you will be able to do about it even if I tell you. What we should be thinking about is whether or not this situation will be beneficial to our plans of having the Black Fox and Roanne destroy each other.”

His composed words rendered everyone mute. He continued,

“Many of the Black Fox’s members have fallen victim to this as well. This situation will obviously clip Roanne’s influence if it continues, and it will likely reduce the Black Fox’s influence as well. There is no chance that Payne will simply wait and see how things play out. I don’t know what the Witch is trying to accomplish, but she will likely undo her magic on her own accord when the time is right. This will not be as a loss for us, so there is no need for us to make a move. But be sure to tell our members to mind their health.”

“I truly can’t figure out what the Witch is thinking.”

“Indeed,”

the executives mumbled.

“This is so, so fun.”

Margarita curled her dry lips into a smile.

“I think I might be able to take down Theodore all on my own at this rate.”

She was clutching a grotesque black herb as she spoke. The hideous herb had leaves that jutted out from it like the sharp teeth of a beast, and it smelled oddly of rot and decay. A dense cloud of mana was glimmering around it.

“Hohoho. I’m amazing. I should propose this to the masters as a new battle tactic.”

Payne, who had been watching Margarita twirl around the herb in circles, said,

“To think that you would use that herb for something like this. This is a waste of money. Do you even realize how difficult those herbs are to cultivate?”

Margarita pouted through her smile.

“Of course I know. We’re only given a very small supply of it even for research. But we were the ones who made improvements to it, weren’t we? I played a huge role in researching this, so it’s only right that I should be allowed to use at least this much of it to my heart’s content.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“Besides, I originally said we should just kill everyone so the herbs don’t go to waste. I only changed it to a coughing disease because you stopped me.”

“I can’t have you kill all of our members.”

“It’s annoying, but I can simply dispel all the magic affecting our people.”

Payne fell into silence.

He did not trust the capricious Margarita.

She treated everyone in the world like insects save for a select few, so would she really use her precious time to make the effort and personally dispel the magics ailing individual members of the Black Fox?

Margarita was a truly impulsive woman. She may agree to treat their people at first, but it bothered Payne that he could not know if she would keep it up later.

“But anyway, you can focus on finding the guy who broke the spells on the factory now that I’ve made a mess of Theodore and Camastros is being quiet, right?”

He could not deny that. He had gained a lot from Margarita’s shrewd plans. Like time and money, for example.

“Be sure you only keep this up until the end of November, like we promised.”

“I know, I know. But, the thing is…”

Margarita smiled sulkily. She continued,

“The rule is that you should be rewarded in accordance to how much you invest. So, who knows? We might even end up catching fish that we never intended to catch. And this will surely help your mission as well. Not just anyone can break through my magic. It would have to be someone like the bastard the masters are searching for or the leader of Camastros, so I’ll try tracing the culprit immediately if my magic is ever dispelled. Just you wait and see.”

She placed a hand on her cheek as Payne nodded back obediently.

“To be honest, all I want is to take this chance to observe a certain little kitten.”

“I know. Do you still doubt Eiji?”

“Yeah. Shall I say that I just had this strange feeling as the ‘experimenter’ who’s run experiments on that child……? I would’ve really liked it if the masters permitted me to take things to a larger scale. This isn’t nearly enough.”

Payne’s ring flashed brightly just then.

Their second master gave her orders now that a month had passed, and Margarita smiled as she heard them.

~~*~~

Eiji.

A grudge-filled voice yanked at his ankles.

Do you enjoy being alive?

The voice crawled up his legs and swallowed his thighs, squeezed his waist, and crushed his heart.

Do you enjoy being alive even if it means being wretched and dirty?

Do you enjoy being alive even if it means torturing other people?

It ultimately tightened around his throat, covered his face, and began whispering in his ear.

All of us are dead.

But you, alone, are alive.

You alone managed to survive by sucking up to the enemy.

You just enjoy being alive, isn’t that right?

You filthy bastard.

Eiji screamed silently. No, you’re wrong —I’m not alive just because I want to be. I’m alive so I can avenge you.

Then, the voice sounded almost relieved as it replied,

Then die once you’ve avenged us.

It dictated his life with hair-raising sternness.

Die, and fall to hell.

“Ahh!”

Eiji screamed as he awoke. His bloodshot eyes darted around as soon as he sat up. It was still nighttime, and only the placid darkness was around him.

But Eiji could not help but feel like he could see something lurking in the dark. He felt like whatever it was would begin whispering to him in the waking world as well.

“Hey, what the hell……?”

“Oh, my bad. I had a bad dream.”

Eiji pulled his covers over his head and hid himself as his roommate, whom he had woken, chided him. He was drenched in sweat as he huddled into himself.

‘Shit…….’

He wiped madly away at the sweat on his pallid face in irritation.

~~*~~

It was decided that the harvest festival would be held as planned even though the cough was still spreading around Theodore.

People had recently grown more relieved now that it was known that not only was the cough not a fatal disease that killed everyone who caught it but that research had shown that it was not contagious. They still didn’t know the cause behind the illness or how to treat it, but they took heart in the fact that the mysterious disease was slowly being analyzed.

Moreover, the harvest had been exceptionally bountiful this year, and it cheered people up despite the gloom that was going around. Theodore needed something to change the mood, and the harvest festival, held to celebrate the good harvest and to offer thanks to the God Laos, was just the thing for the job.

The king had proclaimed that the harvest festival would begin a little earlier than planned, and the people regained a bit of their vigor as they began preparing for it.

But the recession in Theodore had suddenly peaked just a few days before the festival was supposed to begin. It was because the symptoms of the coughing patients had suddenly worsened drastically.

They vomited yellowish bile, vomited crimson blood, and burned up with such fierce fevers that they were brought to death’s door…….

The mortality rate had increased because, unlike the coughing, these symptoms also affected the organs.

Ianna and her friends visited the hospital where Rikijen had been admitted. The mood inside the hospital was terrible, and the group also felt terrible when they met Rikijen.

“Cough!”

Rikijen was coughing up bright red blood. He coughed up blood for a while before he slumped back to sleep like the dead.

Rikijen was doing poorly even among the other patients in the hospital. He was coughing up blood like he was about to die, and his friends were anxious that he might really drop dead at this rate.

“…….”

Moreover, the color of Eiji’s countenance was also growing worse by the day. And he had stopped replying with his normal cheer when spoken to.

“You aren’t sick too, are you, Sir?”

Herrace asked with worry, but Eiji shook his head no and vaguely replied,

“I’m not sick, but I’m not feeling all that great either. Maybe it’s because Rikijen’s sick?”

Eiji squeezed the sleeping Rikijen’s hand as he mumbled.

Ianna looked to Rikijen’s face with mixed feelings. She could cure Rikijen in a heartbeat, but Arhad hadn’t permitted it and she, too, understood why the circumstances didn’t allow it, so all she could do was to leave Rikijen to suffer.

And she acknowledged it without a doubt.

There was no way that she would have failed to remember something this big happening in the past.

In other words, this had never happened in her past life —this was entirely new.

Which meant that it was possible that Rikijen could die.

She could not simply let things be if Rikijen was truly in danger. Ianna was determined to dispel the magic afflicting Rikijen if push came to shove. Surely, Arhad was either thinking the same or was searching for another option on his own.

But the true problem lied not in dispelling the magic but in the fact that the effects of the herb might still linger in his body even after the magic was dispelled. Arhad and Shawn had both said that the biggest problem at hand was the horrible illness caused by the herb’s poisons.

“…….”

Ianna studied the dark look on Eiji’s face. His image overlapped with Shawn’s, whom she had seen just a few days ago.

What on earth was this herb that tortured Shawn so?

What was it that even Arhad of all people had stated that he had no way of treating the patients?

Ianna did not intend to pry into the matter because it was the target of Shawn’s wrath, but she could not help that she had grown curious.

And so, she decided to learn more about the herb from Arhad.

She also thought about Saki. Arhad had said that there was no solution for this situation, but Ianna wanted to hear Saki’s opinions on the matter as well, as the archmage was one of the best doctors in the world.

“Sigh…….”

Eiji dragged his feet toward the Black Fox’s hideout after he had seen how badly Rikijen was suffering. Payne had summoned him because he apparently had work to discuss.

He had already been down in the dumps lately, and his grip on his rationality had slipped ever so slightly because of the nightmare he had seen early in the morning and because of the guilt he felt about Rikijen.

And the very first person he saw as he opened the door, was the Witch.

“Goodness, you’re here, kitten?”

The cruel experimenter who liked to call him ‘kitten’.

Margarita…….

Eiji lost his grip on his emotions for a moment.

“……How much longer do I need to suffer you treating me like this?”

He ran up to Margarita and grabbed her by the collar. He continued,

“I told you that I’m not in a position where you can just shake me like this anymore!”

Margarita decided not to take the option of slapping Eiji across the face and looked down at him like a satiated savage beast instead.

“Our little kitten’s all grown up now, aren’t you?”

“Shut your mouth. Stop calling me that. I’ll kill you if you say it just one more time.”

Eiji grabbed her throat and squeezed. The edges of Margarita’s lips curled up in ridicule even as her head tilted back because of how tight Eiji’s grasp on her was.

“Go ahead and try.”

Her white teeth flashed as she grinned. She continued,

“Do you really think you’re capable of killing me?”

She pricked Eiji with the pointed tips of her fingers and pushed his chin up. Her silver-white nails were dyed crimson by the trickle of blood she had drawn.

Eiji’s hands trembled. Margarita smirked.

“You say that you’ll kill me, and yet your hands are trembling around my throat. It’s not very easy to raise a hand against me when your fear of me has already been imprinted into you, now is it?”

“…….”

“You kill me? You’re just a slave who shares the blood of the bitch who stole the Bahamut blood. You’ll kill me, Margarita, a disciple of the head imperial mage and a countess in my own right? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not the brat you used to torture in the torture chambers anymore.”

Eiji’s eyes were burning a ghastly blue. He continued,

“Neither am I the brat who used to scream in agony as you stuck your needles all over me and ran your experiments on me. Nor do I fall into despair when I see your illusions anymore. I don’t need to plead with you to spare my life anymore, and I don’t need to get whipped around by you either. I don’t need to suffer from the experiments your teacher and fellow disciples used to put me through anymore. There’s no reason for you to treat me this way anymore. So why……?”

“But you’re still just Eiji, aren’t you? Just because you’ve become a frog, it doesn’t mean that you should forget the time you spent as a tadpole, no?”

Margarita licked her lips with her crimson tongue. Her saliva glistened over her lips like a glossy layer of venom.

And then, her lips twisted widely.

What sort of atrocious words were about to spill out from them?

Eiji was overcome with the impulse to reach into her mouth and rip out her tongue.

“You’re just a whore who climbed up to your current position by running your tongue between the masters’ legs.”

“Shut up.”

“A sinner who alone survived by stepping over the corpses of your own family.”

Eiji’s breath caught for an instant when he heard what Margarita had said. He let go of her throat and stepped back before he realized what he had done.

“……Shut up.”

“Oh my, now you keep your head held high even when you hear about your family. Have you forgotten your sins, Eiji?”

The clacking of Margarita’s heels chased after Eiji as he backtracked. She pressed herself right up against his slender frame before he had the time to escape her. Her twig-like hands touched his arm and snaked their way up to this throat.

Oh, how nice it would be if only I could grab this damned woman by the throat and break her neck?

If only I could wrap my fingers around her nape and crush the cartilage up front with my thumb, ending her life.

Eiji had murdered Margarita dozens, hundreds, thousands of times in his fantasies. But the fear ingrained into his body made him shake, and he could not lay a hand against her.

“You’ve sinned just by being alive.”

He had failed to kill the Witch, and now her curses were dribbling quietly into his ear and crushing his heart. She continued,

“You crawled in between our legs and begged us to save you when the masters were slaughtering your relatives in their rage. Remember? Don’t you remember how you crawled under my legs, sweet kitten?”

She brushed the smooth skin of her thumb across Eiji’s dry lips.

“You kissed the masters’ feet while your relatives were bleeding to death at their hands. With these very lips, as you were seized by terror and clinging to life.”

Her pale and slender hand gently stroked his cheek.

“Don’t you remember how you screamed as we remolded your mind and whipped your flesh? You were so cute back then. But now you’ve gained such a rebellious light in your eyes just because we haven’t seen you for a while. Insolent little kitten. Was the brainwashing incomplete even though we’d pushed your mind to the brink of collapse? It’s possible, I suppose, since this is a Demon’s fragment we’re talking about.”

Margarita stood on her toes and brought her lips right up to Eiji’s ear as he remained silent.

“Did you think you’d escaped? But you can’t do that, Eiji. You will never be saved. You have no one to save you and nothing to rely on. You’ll suffer your entire life and be thrown away when you aren’t useful anymore, and you will die. And then, you’ll fall to hell. You won’t be going to the place where your foolish relatives are.”

Her words ripped Eiji’s consciousness into teeny tiny shreds.

Eiji’s eyelashes fluttered as he eyes lost their focus, and he felt as though Margarita’s gaze was penetrating through to the deepest reaches of his soul.

“You’ll be all alone,”

her lips whispered.

“Forever.”

Smack!

Eiji grabbed Margarita by the collar and shoved her roughly against the wall. She reeled from the powerful impact before she turned her skewed gaze back to him.

Her vile disparagement had helped Eiji regain his composure.

He wiped away the blood that he had shed where Margarita had pricked him. He glared back at her with eyes so chilling that he could have frozen someone to death.

Margarita shuddered. The slave who had matured from a boy to a young man was oozing with such cruel bloodlust that it was sending shivers down her spine.

“You vile, wretched wench……. Shut your mouth and just do your damn job.”

Eiji spat curses at her before immediately leaving the room, loath to breathe the same air as her for even a moment longer.

She smirked as she touched at the red marks that he had left on her throat.

It’s not like you can actually do anything.

But…

She looked to the door that Eiji had kicked open on his way out and tilted her head to the side.

Eiji shared the fragment that was owned by the bastard child. This was why it was impossible to brainwash him with magic, and the words she had just uttered had been implanted into him through whipping and torture.

He should have frozen up in terror and sunken to his knees if the effects of the brainwashing were still intact.

But Eiji had rebelled.

Margarita smiled.

“I think I might have to drag you back to the brainwashing factory, kitten —wouldn’t you agree……?”

~~*~~

Reborn.

The herb had been given a name that signified that something had been born anew.

Mystic, the herb that Reborn was based off, had only had the simple ability to retain mana a little better than most materials. It had not even had the ability to stabilize the arrangement of mana so that magic could be manifest.

But those who studied Mystic’s abilities had begun making improvements to the herb. And Mystic had been born anew as it devoured vast quantities of death during the process of those improvements.

The experimenters had added all kinds of traits to it, and it had ultimately become able to be imbued with spells just like artefacts were.

Ianna had gone looking for Arhad as soon as she had returned to the Institution after visiting Rikijen in the hospital and had asked him about the herb, and he had answered her quite honestly.

“Vast quantities of death……?”

“I’m referring to the deaths of the Roygen Clan —Shawn’s and my relatives.”

Slowly, Arhad continued,

“The entire clan was branded as criminals when my mother ran from the empire after getting pregnant with me.”

At first, the Roygen Clan had been put through agonizing torture and were even cruelly slaughtered at the Bahamut imperial family’s hands as they raged.

But, by the time that about half of the clan had been murdered, Payne had brought Mystic to the imperial family’s attention and had asked if he could use the Roygen Clan to improve the herb.

The imperial family had accepted his request because he had fiercely contested that Mystic could aid in Bahamut’s conquest of the world once it had been born anew.

Then, the Roygen Clan had been treated worse than lab rats.

“The bodies of the Roygen Clan’s fragment beneficiaries were deemed suitable for magical experimentation. The Bahamut mages used their body parts……like their blood, bones, flesh, and heart, to make improvements to Mystic, and they even performed clinical experiments on the Roygen Clan while they were still alive. And Reborn was the result of those experiments.”

It was cruel. Ianna was certain that the Roygen Clan had suffered a fate worse than the horrors that she had witnessed at the Life factory.

“I don’t know the exact details of everything that the Roygen Clan suffered. But Shawn was in Bahamut with our relatives ever since he was born. In other words, he’s a survivor of everything that’s happened to them.”

Ianna was surprised to learn that Eiji was a member of the Roygen Clan.

It meant that he was related to Arhad.

“Which is why Shawn is severely traumatized by Reborn. He hates it and despises it, but he’s also terrified of it. So try not to talk about it when he’s around.”

Ianna nodded gingerly. Shawn had once been a slave, but he was an executive of the Black Fox now —she could not even imagine how desperately he must have struggled to get to where he was today.

Now that she knew about Shawn’s circumstances, she couldn’t help but feel like his entire life reeked of blood. Was his somewhat bombastic cheerful attitude just a sturdy mask to hide his true self?

But that only made him all the more remarkable. He was suppressing his hatred with a mask and was deceiving Bahamut with nothing short of perfection. He had managed to trick monsters like Isabella for so long.

He must surely be incredibly strong.

And as Ianna thought this, she also thought that he must surely be so incredibly exhausted. It took no ordinary amount of courage to walk the fine line between life and death while acting completely different on the outside from what you felt on the inside.

Walking across a cliff where the slightest mistake could send you falling was exhausting even only after a brief moment. But Shawn had been living his life that way all this time without any rest.

Ianna thought of Eiji.

Rarely, ever so rarely, Eiji sometimes looked so utterly exhausted without seeming to realize that he was letting it show. But he would immediately hide away his fatigue as soon as someone approached him and respond to them with a bright mien and cheery gestures, so it was difficult to imagine him being exhausted.

He had been enduring his extreme fatigue all alone this entire time.

How had he been relieving his fatigue? Was his even the type of exhaustion that could be readily assuaged?

Had he simply been letting it all pile up inside his heart? He might really just be cramming it all inside himself.

Ianna pursed her lips together when she realized that she had completely assimilated Shawn and Eiji together.

‘Eiji, you’re Shawn, aren’t you?’

She was fully certain of it now. Shawn and Eiji were one and the same.

She had grown more certain of this every time Shawn was weirdly over-cordial with her and every time Eiji would grumble at Arhad in a familiar manner on occasion.

And she had other evidence too.

‘He was interested in me when I fearlessly dealt with the members of the Black Fox when we first met at Elona’s Paradise. It was strange that the Black Fox never came after me to avenge that incident —perhaps Eiji pulled a few strings for me.

‘He said that he was affiliated with a very dangerous organization.

‘He knew what the medicine Arhad gave me was. And he even went out of his way to warn me that the man who gave it to me was someone dangerous.

‘He wasn’t shaken up at all even though he knew that the person who tried to buy me for 500,000 gold at the Institution action was Arhad.’

Ianna recalled Eiji’s merry visage.

He was the first friend she had made after having grown rigid when it came to personal relationships when she had first come to Theodore after everything that had happened in the Roberstein lands.

She could even say that, among all her friends, Eiji had been the one to make the most positive impact on her.

And now, Ianna considered Eiji as a dear friend.

‘And this is how you’ve been living all this time?’

She felt herself growing more hostile against Bahamut and the Black Fox. She had always disliked them for their cruelty, but her dislike had evolved into hatred after hearing about Eiji’s circumstances.

She did not feel as though she could ever be on friendly terms with the Black Fox even if Arhad decided to absorb them into his fold.

She would be obedient to Bahamut because Arhad would one day be her emperor, but she did not feel as though she could ever hold any love for the empire.

“What is the illness that Reborn causes?”

For now, Ianna decided to start by having her questions answered. She continued,

“You said that it was already too late once it enters the body. Why is that?”

“One of Reborn’s improvements is a special ‘addictiveness’. It’s the trait that Payne, who is in charge of drug operations, was the most concerned about. The addiction is impossible to treat because it doesn’t act the way other drugs do.”

Once someone had ingested Reborn, they would become overwhelmed by an immense craving to ingest it again.

“They wouldn’t have used too much of it because Reborn is an incredibly expensive herb, and the people of Theodore probably only ingested very little of it. They’ll suffer from unexplainable craving for a bit, but they’ll get better with time.”

“What happens if you ingest large quantities of Reborn at once?”

“Reborn is one of the most addictive drugs in existence. Those who are addicted to Reborn experience such horrible physical and psychological cravings that they would rather die if they can’t get periodic doses of it. And people who’ve taken Reborn for a long time will actually die if they can’t get it in time.”

“It’s a terrible herb, in more ways than one.”

“You’re right. I never even imagined that they’d do something like this with Reborn. And I can’t figure out the intent behind their actions.”

“We were planning to begin attacking Bahamut in earnest the year after next, but we might have to speed up those plans at this rate.”

“You’re right about that too. Bahamut’s actions are starting to get serious. It’ll be wise for us to prepare a safety net just in case.”

Ianna hesitated for a moment before she asked,

“When do you think they’ll undo the magic?”

“I think it should be soon……but I can’t know for sure.”

“Will it be all right to simply leave Rikijen like this? His condition was serious when I saw him.”

“You must never break the spells cast by a person of special interest within Roanne. It’ll only let them track down your location. You understand this, right?”

“I do.”

“I’m planning to make Rikijen my subordinate one day, so I have been looking for a way. I’m sure I should be able to save at least one person. Oh, but there is a simple way to resolve this entire situation.”

“That being?”

Ianna was returned a very composed answer when she voiced her interest.

“Killing Margarita.”

“Killing the Witch……. But she’s been holing herself up in Payne’s manor as of late, and she’s been extraordinarily cautious in her actions, likely because prior events have brought her to her senses.”

“Right. And Bahamut will grow even warier of Camastros if Margarita dies at Camastros’ hands even after all the precautions she’s been taking. It might even lead to the imperial family taking direct action. And that’s why Camastros will not be making any move to kill the woman. But on the other hand, Camastros will still be allowed to kill her on sight if any of our members should ever come across her. Do you see what I’m getting at?”

“You mean that we’re allowed to kill Margarita personally so long as no one finds out that we’re affiliated with Camastros.”

“Exactly. But Ianna, don’t do anything if you’re only doing it to save the people of Roanne.”

She would do no such thing. She would find their deaths regrettable, but Ianna had only opened her heart up to those she was close to —she was still egoistical in nature.

But she still wanted to murder Margarita.

Ianna scowled heavily as she thought about Margarita hiding away like a rat in a rathole.

It disgusted her how Margarita had used Reborn to traumatize Eiji, but the fury and bloodlust she felt toward that woman had already become as a bitter grudge in her heart.

She had not made any mistakes and it had not been intentional, but it hurt Ianna’s pride that she had let Margarita slip through her fingers without even being able to catch a glimpse of her back when she had been ordered to exterminate the enemy. And it vexed her that she had bawled disgracefully in front of Arhad because of that woman’s spells too.

Ianna hated the woman as much as she hated Keigus Dimitri. No, she hated Margarita even more.

‘I’ll kill you the very moment I catch sight of you.’

A sharp light glistened in Ianna’s eyes.

~~*~~

Part 4

“You really came, Saki.”

Saki Celtz came looking for Ianna a few days later.

Ianna had contacted Saki as soon as she had learned about Reborn’s properties from Arhad, and she consulted the archmage for a way to treat its addiction.

Saki had expressed her interest once Ianna had told her everything about Reborn except for how it had come to be and had said that she would come visit Ianna soon.

Sidian and Jinzai were still at war, and Saki, who was high-ranking in Jinzai, was likely busy acting in Jinzai’s rear support. But Saki had still dropped everything to visit Ianna as soon as Ianna had asked. Ianna was grateful for it.

“How could I not come when you requested for my aid, Lady Ianna? I’ll be done preparing a place where you can see the relic soon too, so please wait just a little while longer.”

“Please feel free to take your time. Reborn is the bigger problem at hand…… And thank you for being here even though you must have surely been busy.”

Saki waved her hands when Ianna expressed her gratitude.

“The war as at a lull right now, so my absence won’t be an issue. And besides, I’d heard about the mysterious epidemic in Theodore and was worried about you.”

Ianna brought Saki to the hospital where Rikijen had been admitted. Saki examined Rikijen, who was dead unconscious, and declared,

“This is the work of magic, just as you’ve told me. I felt something powerfully wicked. I wonder why? It’s weaker than the spells at the factory, but it’s the same kind of feeling that I felt back then.”

It was only natural that the magics felt the same, since they had both been cast by beneficiaries of a Demon’s fragment.

Saki truly was an archmage.

Ianna had only told Saki that the disease had been cause by magic —she had not told Saki anything about Bahamut. But Saki had seen through the spell’s propensity and the feeling it gave off and had immediately connected it to the Bahamut imperial family’s magic.

“You wouldn’t be able to procure a sample of Reborn, would you?”

“I think that will be difficult. It isn’t widely circulated.”

Ianna contemplated for a moment before she spoke up again.

“But Mystic, the herb that Reborn was based off of, might still be around. Can Mystic be used as a reference?”

“I can use it as a reference, but it would only be just that. I would require a sample of Reborn in order to research it properly. But there’s something else I would like to tell you about Reborn, Lady Ianna.”

“That is……?”

“There are too many ears here.”

“This way, then.”

Ianna was curious as to what Saki wanted to tell her, promptly brought her on to a secluded scenic route. And even then, Saki checked her surroundings multiple times and even had Ianna confirm that no one was nearby before she quietly whispered,

“I believe that Mystic is the raw ingredient for Life.”

Life.

Ianna blinked upon hearing Saki’s surprising words as Saki calmly continued,

“Mana and divine power have the exact same constitution if you remove the trait of life from divine power. Mystic is an herb that can stabilize mana, but I had thought that it was the raw ingredient for Life because it can also seize a very small amount of divine power and because I hadn’t known about Reborn. But Life has properties that can’t be explained with Mystic alone, like its addictive nature and its ability to stabilize magic, so I hypothesized that there must be another component to Life and was trying to figure out what that was. But now that I’ve heard what you told me, Lady Ianna, I believe that it isn’t Mystic but Reborn, the improved version of Mystic, that is used to manufacture Life. And so, I must ask. Is this incident Bahamut’s doing?”

Saki was already certain of this. And so, Ianna honestly confirmed her suspicions.

“I knew it.”

Saki pulled out a box from the bag that was hanging at her side. Ianna saw familiar bottles lying inside the box when Saki opened it.

“I brought a few samples of Life back with me after I heard from you. If Reborn is the raw ingredient for Life, then Life is a sample of Reborn.”

“Life…….”

Ianna touched the bottles as she asked,

“Have you been able to learn anything about Life yet?”

“Not yet, no. I’ve been studying Life’s functions.”

First, Life used divine power to extend the lifespan and maintain youth.

Second, Life was addictive and created intense cravings, and it was being used to turn high-profile individuals into addicts.

Third, Life could be used to stabilize magic.

“If my hypothesis is correct, then Bahamut is not only creating Life to get high-ranking people addicted and selling it to them but is also likely exploiting the Life’s first function to cultivate powerful soldiers. And they are probably also exploiting the second function to prevent subordinates whom they don’t trust enough from betraying them by forcing them to drink it.”

Saki’s hypothesis matched up perfectly with Ianna’s own.

‘Then what about Arhad’s medicine?’

But the medicine that Arhad had given her did not give off the same unpleasant feeling that Life did.

‘Arhad said that his symptoms come periodically. Is that because of his heart condition, or is it because of the medicine? And if it’s because of the medicine, then it might even be similar to Life…….’

Ianna’s thoughts moved from Arhad’s medicine to Eiji.

‘Is Eiji being forced to take it too?’

If Bahamut was using Life to prevent people from betraying her, then it was possible that Eiji was being forced to take it too.

“Lady Ianna, you asked me if there was a way to treat an addiction to Reborn. And I was already researching a way to treat Life addiction to begin with.”

First, Saki began by explaining more about Life.

Reborn was the improved version of Mystic. Mystic had the simple property of being able to pull in mana, but Reborn was able to fully seize not only mana but divine power as well.

Reborn had also been modified to cause a horrible addiction and to be able to stabilize magic.

Saki hypothesized that Life was a liquid drug that was made by fixating divine power to the juices squeezed out from Reborn. As they had seen in the factory, Life took on a dark Idea during the process of extracting divine power.

Sake said that there were generally two types of illness that derived from Life. One was the addiction, and the other was a change in personality brought upon by the Ideas.

“As you know, the change in personality is caused by the Ideas that stain Life. Most people with weak egos are affected by the Ideas and turn violent. Some people even begin hallucinating and are driven insane. I’ve personally confirmed all of this.”

Ianna furrowed her brows.

“Do people who take Life because they wish to prolong their lives truly decide to bear with all that just to live a little longer?”

“They probably don’t think that anything bad will happen to them when they take their first dose. And then they have no choice but to take more Life when they finally realize that something is wrong because of the addiction. But only a very few even realize that something is wrong to begin with.”

Most people did not notice their personalities had changed after taking Life. The change was slow and gradual, like something being naturally dyed in another color.

Moreover, Life was a type of drug. It came with the additional pleasure of being a hallucinogen, and most people enjoyed the hallucinations it caused like they would any other drug. And Life was considered one was the most pleasurable drugs in existence. Saki continued,

“I don’t know about Roanne, but the ruling classes of most other countries have generally explored drugs before.”

Most people in the ruling classes already possessed everything even though they always felt like they were lacking something, and they could not satiate their sense of lacking because they could easily get their hands on anything they wanted.

“And they seek out things that give them a primitive sense of pleasure. They do not harbor much revulsion to the thought of taking drugs. And Life takes advantage of this. They were thrilled by the dizzying pleasure that Life gave them.”

A grave look crossed Saki’s face.

“I believe that it will be difficult to restore the victims’ personalities once they have been warped by an Idea. I’ve been researching Ideas for a long time before I ever learned about Life, and I’ve learned that it’s not only difficult to restore a soul that’s been tainted but it’s also downright impossible to treat it unless the patient is personally willing to change back.”

Ianna pondered for a moment before she asked,

“Then what about the addiction?”

“I am still doing my best to research the addiction. There isn’t a lot I can tell you because I haven’t made much progress, but we at Shalino have successfully researched many drugs before, so I ask that you wait just a little longer. I will bring you results without fail.”

“Wait. Let’s try asking the sprits about this too.”

“Oh, will you be calling the spirit kings……?”

“Yes.”

Ianna ignored Saki’s astonishment as she drew out her divine power. The crimson divine power in her hands became as a hot flame that took shape in Ianna’s palm.

[Ianna!]

Kagomyne burrowed against Ianna’s hand with great cheer as soon as he was summoned. His warm fur tickled her hand as the bristles shivered. He continued,

[Aww, I missed you.]

“I’m sorry for ignoring you last time. I’m sure you must have felt lonely.”

Kagomyne jumped up from her hand and struck out his chest when Ianna apologized.

[Not at all. I know just how awesome I am, after all. So I get it! I’m pretty happy that you still called me out like this, you know?]

“Thank you for thinking that way.”

[So, why did you call for me?]

“Do you remember the thing that you purified for me back in Sidian?”

[Purified? You mean that nasty liquid?]

“Yes.”

Ianna told Kagomyne about Life and the people who had been tainted by it. Saki listened quietly in on their conversation, and she covered her mouth with her eyes wide in surprise when she heard about how Kagomyne had purified Life with his powers.

“I was wondering if it was possible for you to purify people whose personalities were turned evil because of an Idea.”

[Hmm, I think that would be hard.]

“Why is that?”

[I was able to erase the Ideas back then because it belonged to people who were dead. Ideas don’t have ‘wills’ of their own, you see. So I think I should be able to erase any Ideas from dead people that stick to the living and have a bad effect on them.]

“Hmmm.”

[But I can’t touch the souls of the living. And if they’ve changed because of the Ideas’ influence, then that’s that. That’s their personality’s domain. They’re still fundamentally the same person even if their personality changes, so I won’t be able to be able to ‘purify’ them.]

“Their personality’s domain?”

[Yeah. So if they want to go back to how they used to be, then they have to will for it themselves.]

Then, Ianna called Innis.

[Kyaaah! Ianna! Ianna!]

Ianna grabbed Innis as he flopped around and stirred up a fuss as soon as he was summoned, and she also explained to him about Life and asked him a few questions.

“Would you be able to use your power to treat it?”

[Hmm, I can use my powers to get rid of any liquid drugs in people’s blood, but it’ll be hard for me to treat ruined organs. It’s like when you hurt your arms back then.]

“Then what about if you worked with Towe?”

[We can treat anything as long as it’s not the heart or the brain. The heart is a territory that we can’t touch without the soul’s permission, and we’d feel bad about messing with the brain because it’s the medium that connects the soul to the body.]

“Lord Innis,”

Saki called out to Innis and bowed her head toward Ianna in apology when Ianna turned to her.

“My apologies for interrupting your conversation. But there was something that I wanted to ask as I was listening…….”

“Please don’t mind me and speak at ease.”

Ianna brought Saki right next to her. Innis looked to Saki with intrigue.

[Ask away!]

“Does that mean you are able to treat the brain? It’s generally the brain that is affected by drugs.”

[Yeah. We technically can treat it. But there’s a lot of risk of things going wrong. Treatment can create a disconnect between the body that the soul perceives and the actual body itself, and the person might turn retarded if the disconnect causes the brain to stop working properly.]

In which case there was no point in treating the person. This was not a viable method of treatment unless their purpose was to turn patients into vegetables.

“Oh…….”

Saki’s countenance shaded over, likely because she had realized this too. But then, Innis began waving sashaying his tail.

[But it should be okay if the treatment is very, very slow. It’ll take a lot of time, but I’m pretty sure that people will return to normal again if you keep treating them just a little bit at a time so there’s no disconnect between the soul and the body. You would have to call on us every time the body and the soul get used to their new state of being, I guess?]

Still, Ianna and Saki brightened up after learning that there was a cure, but then Innis’s voice took on an uncharacteristically quiet tone.

[But Ianna and Saki, are the people you’re trying to treat really worth calling on both me and Slowpoke on a continued basis for several years at a time? Are they worth using that much of your lives over?]

It was something worth considering.

Ianna knew that the vast quantity of divine power in her heart poured out without end, but she did not particularly wish to use it for people who didn’t even know what that divine power was, especially if they themselves had chosen to take Life because they coveted life.

‘But I would use it without question if it’s for Eiji.’

“Then I suppose it’s still impossible.”

Ianna had the ability to choose to treat someone this way because she had the divine power to spare, but Saki, whose divine power was limited, believed that it would be impossible to treat patients with the spirits’ help as she shook her head.

Once the spirit kings had been unsummoned, Ianna turned to Saki and said,

“Please let me know anytime should you ever require my help. I have close friends who are associated with Life, and I am very interested in any potential treatment.”

“I will. But it seems like it will be better to use medicines created by us doctors to treat the addiction rather than to rely on the spirits’ powers. After all, it would still require the same slow, continued process as using the spirits’ powers.”

Saki and Ianna returned to the hospital. Rikijen was still fast asleep even though several hours had passed.

Saki checked to make sure no nurses or doctors were in his room before she took his hand.

Buzzz…….

The pure-white divine power she had called upon poured into Rikijen’s hand. His complexion grew visibly better.

“Mystic is digestible. But it pulls at not only mana but other things as well……so the herb is very adhesive. The same is likely true of Reborn.”

Saki continued with a serious expression on her face. She continued,

“If the magic is still affecting his body even though so much time has passed, then that means that he hasn’t finished digesting the Reborn yet. I would imagine that a part of the magic that was imbued into the Reborn is keeping it from being easily digested. And the undigested Reborn is probably using its unique adhesive properties to adhere to his blood and organs.”

“Then what exactly does that mean for Rikijen?”

“Reborn becomes addictive after it’s been digested, and it wreaks havoc on the body. Little Rikijen doesn’t seem like he’s suffering from withdrawal, so that probably means he has a lot of undigested Reborn inside of him right now. And that’s also likely why his condition is so much worse than average.”

Saki had only just learned about the herb’s name and origins, and yet she was already able to deduce the cause behind his condition. She was undoubtedly an archmage and one of the best doctors in the world.

Saki reached into her pocket and pulled out a white needle. Then, she proceeded to stab it into one of the veins protruding from Rikijen’s wrist.

“What is that?”

“It’s an artefact used to detect Life. I was able to create it because we procured so many samples of Life from the factory to use for my research. If Reborn is the raw ingredient for Life, then this artefact will be able to measure how much of it is in his system. Please wait and see.”

The needle slowly turned a light shade of grey.

Saki had been keeping track of the time, and she pulled out the needle and gauged its color.

“And with this, we can be certain that Reborn is the raw ingredient for Life. And only a very small amount of it was detected in his system. Little Rikijen’s illness can be fully cured once the magic afflicting him has been dispelled so long as he makes sure to take care of himself.”

“But the Reborn addiction will take hold once the magic is dispelled. Will he still be all right?”

“He’s only ingested a very small dosage, so his addiction symptoms will go away with time even if they manifest. The magic is the greater problem at hand, but dispelling it will prove impossible for most mages.”

Saki grabbed Rikijen’s wrist again as she muttered to herself. She fumbled with his wrist for a while before she spoke up again with a strange look on her face. She continued,

“The magic seems to be very small in scale, now that I take a closer look. It seems more like a spell being stabilized by an artefact instead of being directly maintained by a mage, and it’s not very powerful.”

“And?”

“A skilled mage might be able to dispel this if they concentrate hard enough. I should be able to dispel it myself. Shall I?”

“……No.”

“Why not?”

“Bahamut is on the hunt for the people who destroyed the factory. There aren’t many mages out there who can dispel this, just as you’ve noted, and Bahamut will grow wary and start trying to track you down if you dispel it. It’s why Isabella came to the factory after she felt the magic in the factory being dispelled.”

“Goodness.”

Saki looked troubled. But she wiped the expression off her face immediately. She continued,

“In that case, Little Rikijen will have to hold out until the mage decides to undo the spell. The magic at work suggests that their goal was to torment people instead of killing them outright. Which means that this will be a battle of attrition. It will be imperative that he face the magic directly without giving up while still maintaining his stamina. And we’ll have to find and get rid of the source behind the magic’s spreading so that he doesn’t grow any weaker.”

“Ugh…….”

Rikijen groaned and opened his eyes just then.

“La…dy Ianna…….”

Ianna sighed quietly to herself in relief when Rikijen recognized her and greeted her hoarsely. He still looked terrible, but it was nice to hear his voice again after so long.

His face was still flush with fever, but Rikijen still looked much better than before, likely thanks to Saki’s divine power.

“Am I getting better? I…feel like I am……huh?”

He spotted the lovely hand holding his and looked up at Saki. Saki smiled back at him gently.

“Hello, Little Rikijen.”

“Who……?”

“I am a friend of Lady Ianna’s. And I’m also a doctor. Lady Ianna asked me to visit because she was worried about you.”

“Oh…….”

Rikijen stared at Saki’s hand.

It was warm.

She was only holding it, but he felt like the pain was going away and it made him lethargic.

Was it because it belonged to a doctor?

But no. There was something special about her.

Rikijen turned to Ianna when he noticed that there was something special about Saki.

“Is it…because you brought her here that…I’m feeling…so much better right now, Lady Ianna? It is, right?”

He was visibly grateful. Ianna turned away because she felt guilty about not doing anything when she could cure him immediately.

“I haven’t done anything. But it’s true that she helped stabilize your condition.”

Rikijen smirked as he continued staring back at Ianna.

“Thank you…… I really did…choose the best person for the job.”

“…….”

“And thank you too, Doctor. But……will I really get…better? I heard that…a lot of people…have died from this…….”

“You will get better, Little Rikijen. You have Lady Ianna with you, after all.”

Saki replied in a way that Rikijen, who knew nothing, could only hear as a jest.

But Rikijen was intelligent, so there was no way that he would take her words at face value. Ianna waited for him to reply sullenly, but, contrary to her expectations, he smiled instead.

“Haha. Is that…how it is……? That sounds about right.”

Perhaps it was because he was sick, but Rikijen not only didn’t mind what Saki had said but even seemed to agree with her.

“We should begin looking for the cause now. The magic isn’t contagious, so the problem must lie in the food supply. Is there anything that he eats often?”

“Knowing Rikijen, probably bread.”

“Bread…you say…….”

Saki pondered for a moment before she turned to Rikijen and asked,

“There’s something I’d like to ask you, Little Rikijen. What do you generally eat here at the hospital?”

“Soup, vegetables, and bread……?”

“And what is it that you want to eat the most right now?”

Rikijen’s eyes glazed over as he looked at Saki and mumbled a response. He was salivating.

“Bread……?”

Saki turned to Ianna.

“We should start with the bakeries.”

Saki pat at Rikijen once more. Her white divine power flowed into him.

“Now then, Little Rikijen. Please stay strong until you get better.”

Saki stepped out of the room first after giving Rikijen a word of encouragement. Ianna was about to follow suit when she suddenly turned back around. Rikijen was staring quietly at her retreating figure.

Ianna’s lips twitched for a moment as she wondered if she should speak up or not before she ultimately said,

“Don’t die on me, Rikijen.”

Rikijen smiled faintly back.

“I won’t…die.”

His voice sounded feeble, but the words he had squeezed out were filled with determination. He continued,

“I wonder…why? I do feel a bit ridiculous…for being so sure that I’ll survive this even though so many people have died already. But I have this feeling…that I’ll survive since I have you with me, Lady Ianna…….”

“…….”

“I truly…rely on you…and not only because you said that you’ll help me get better. I really did…choose the best person…for the job……you know?”

Ianna watched over Rikijen for a moment as he mumbled himself back to sleep before she stiffened her expression and stepped outside the door.

Saki was waiting for her outside. She smiled and asked,

“Shall we be off?”

“Why does Rikijen want to eat bread so badly?”

“Not all of the Reborn is left undigested in his system. He’s probably digested at least some of it, and he’s beginning to get addicted. But Rikijen doesn’t know about Reborn, so it’s likely that he naturally started associating it with the food that has Reborn in it. And that food is bread. But we can’t be fully certain if there truly is Reborn inside bread just yet.”

Ianna brought Saki to the bakery that Rikijen liked to frequent. But she could not find the couple who greeted her warmly every time the doorbell chimed as she stepped inside.

Above the firmly shut door was a simple sign that stated that the bakery was closed because its owners were in poor health.

“We should look for a bakery that’s open.”

They visited every bakery in the city. But none of them were open.

“Strange, isn’t it?”

“Indeed. It’s highly likely that there is Reborn inside bread.”

“I can’t imagine a normal baker purposely putting Reborn inside their bread, so if we consider the raw ingredients…….”

“Then perhaps there is Reborn contaminating the water or the flour.”

“Is there a shared flour warehouse nearby? We should try heading there.”

They followed the road and immediately visited the nearest warehouse.

There was a farmer dozing off by its entrance. He dozed away until they were directly in front of him and Ianna had shaken him by the shoulder.

“Do you have business here……?”

the farmer asked cautiously after awkwardly getting up because Ianna and Saki did not look like the average passersby. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was gaunt —it didn’t look like he was feeling too well.

“Hello, good brother.”

Saki stepped forward. She continued,

“May the bright light of Laos be with you. My name is Saki, and I serve the God Laos at the Temple of Laos.”

“Oh, a priest.”

The farmer bowed, influenced by the elegant air Saki was giving off.

“There is something we wished to confirm —could you please open the door for us? We only need a moment.”

“Well, Lady Priest…”

The farmer looked embarrassed. he continued,

“This is a public warehouse managed by the state and not a personal one, so I’ll need to get permission from my manager before I let anyone inside……huh?”

He opened his eyes wide when he recognized Ianna. He continued,

“Wait, are you the swordswoman who won the swordsmanship tournament last year……?”

He jumped up with glee when Ianna nodded back, unable to refute it.

“Goodness! How could I ever block your way?”

“We will obtain the appropriate permissions if we must. Who is the person managing this warehouse?”

“No, there’s no need for that. You’re not the type of people to try anything funny, and you said you only need a moment, so I’ll just let you in. There’s nothing here but a bunch of flour, but please enjoy your visit.”

The farmer quickly opened the warehouse door.

Ianna felt a subtle yet dense aura of magic as soon as she stepped inside.

Someone who couldn’t perceive mana would never be able to notice it, and even those who could perceive mana might mistakenly think that they were only finding it difficult to breathe because of all the powder in the air.

The magic was incredibly subtle and concealed itself well.

“Was it the flour after all?”

Ianna opened one of the sacks and ran her fingers through the flour. She stared at the fine white powder resting airily in her hand for a while before she finally said,

“I can feel the presence of magic from all over the warehouse, but there surprisingly doesn’t seem to be a lot of Reborn mixed into the flour. I can barely feel the magic at all.”

“I would have to agree. I’d been thinking about what the conditions for getting sick are, but the density of the Reborn mixed into the flour suggests to me that the chances for getting sick are random. The people who accidentally ingested the Reborn were simply unlucky.”

“And those who eat a lot of flour are more likely to get sick than most.”

Ianna retied the flour sack and looked to Saki, who was looking through other sacks from here and there.

“How do you think that the Witch managed to affect the flour? This isn’t the only warehouse, and I doubt that someone who’s been in hiding would have personally visited the warehouses to sprinkle Reborn into the flour. I don’t think she would have contaminated the flours at the mills either, for similar reasons.”

Saki stared holes into the flour in her hands before she nodded.

“I believe the flour was contaminated even before the milling process. It likely happened somewhere it would spread on a very large scale even after just a few doses.”

Saki was right.

“Then it wouldn’t be the wheat fields either. Since there are multiple of those too.”

“Yes. It was likely somewhere even more fundamental. There’s something I felt as I observed the flour.”

Saki sprinkled the flour on the floor. She continued,

“The Reborn wasn’t mixed in with the flour —it’s already inside it.”

Ianna exchanged looks with Saki.

“Then it was contaminated during the cultivation process.”

And they both simultaneously thought of the same place.

They immediately traveled to the river that passed right through Theodore. The river was flowing languidly beneath the refreshing winds.

“It’s not the river. They would end up wasting too much Reborn because the current would wash it away too quickly. It’s probably somewhere where the water is being stored.”

And so, they headed upstream. There was a dam farther up the river.

“It’s here.”

Ianna and Saki realized that this was the source of the magic as soon as they laid eyes upon it.

“The mage almost definitely sprinkled a vast quantity of Reborn here. She likely also added more Reborn to dams or reservoirs every time she produced a new batch of it and cast her spell on it. There aren’t many of them in Theodore, after all.”

No one ever came to visit the simplistic dam because it had nothing noteworthy about it besides the water, and the area around it was secluded because no one came by unless they were here to inspect the water quality, in which case their identifies would be confirmed beforehand.

Ianna placed her hand inside the water and stirred.

It looked very clean. But there was disgusting Reborn, imbued with the Witch’s spells, floating around inside it.

‘I’ll kill you.’

She despised the Witch for being able to do something like this like it was nothing to her.

Ianna had no qualms about murdering others for her own gain either, but even she did not torment good people for no reason in times of peace.

And even beyond that, she loathed the Witch for not only interfering with Camastros’ work but for also harming those she was close to. Ianna was overflowing with hostility.

She would kill that woman on sight.

But for now, she summoned Innis as she prepared for the worst.

[Wow, you called me twice today……kyaah, it’s water!]

Innis jumped for joy as soon as he appeared, having felt the presence of a large quantity of water nearby and enjoying it.

He dove inside the water in the dam and began swimming, only to immediately jump back out like a dolphin.

But his cheerful swimming only lasted for a moment, and the water at the heart of the dam exploded like a bomb had gone off in it. Innis, who had been an adorable fish until then, had turned himself into a whirlpool.

[What the heck is wrong with the water here? There’s so much nastiness mixed into it! Which bastard was it who messed around with my water like this?!]

He dropped his silly act and raged like a fire. The whirlpool grew to the size of the entire dam as if it meant to destroy it completely.

It was only after seeing Innis like this that Ianna understood why the dragons had kept the state of the world a secret from the spirit kings.

“Stop doing that unless you’re trying to harass me.”

[Ahhhhh……huh? I’m harassing you?]

Innis’ fury subsided after Ianna had spoken, and he turned back into a fish. The water stilled once more. He continued,

[What is this, Ianna? You called me to clean up this water, right? Then I’ll start right……!]

“No.”

Innis, who had been ready to get to work immediately before Ianna had stopped him, faltered and grew teary-eyed.

[N-no? Are you trying to harass me……? I hate this so much.]

“That’s not it at all. First, I wanted to know if it’s possible for you to get rid of the foreign substances that are polluting the water.”

[Of course I can. Water’s my domain, after all! Oh, but I can’t eliminate the foreign substances completely. It’s some kind of herb that was mixed into it, right?]

“Yes.”

[Every herb in this world has a lot of Slowpoke’s and Wily’s properties, and I can’t eliminate them because I have a lot of synergy with those two. You’d need to borrow their powers if you want to dismantle the herb, or you’d need to borrow Moody’s powers if you want to burn it away. All I can do is push it around inside my water and gather into one spot.]

“Push it around and gather it……?”

Ianna chewed on his words. Just then, Saki interjected,

“That’s perfect. We can treat Little Rikijen using Lord Innis’ powers. The problem was that Bahamut would take notice if we break the spell, yes? We can avoid that if we simply remove the Reborn from his body without breaking the spell.”

[I’ll do anything if you ask me, Ianna!]

“And we should be able to purify all the water here if we borrow the spirit kings’ powers.”

[Yup yup!]

Ianna had been lost in thought as she entertained the same idea.

She wanted to go and treat Rikijen immediately if she could have things her way.

But she would need to tell Arhad if she was planning to use the spirits’ powers to treat Rikijen. It would be impossible to treat Rikijen behind Arhad’s back because Arhad was concerned about Rikijen as well.

‘But Arhad hates the spirits.’

But when she thought about it, the reason why he hated the spirits was because her divine power was consumed every time she called them. So, what if she told him that she had an infinite supply of Roberstein’s divine power pouring out from her heart?

“Lady Ianna.”

Gingerly, Saki continued,

“May I give you a word of caution?”

“What about?”

“The spirits’ powers are the great powers of nature. The spirit kings are like the epitome of nature, and their powers are practically miracles. And you would need to consume a lot of life to borrow them.”

[Of course. I’m super awesome!]

Ianna watched over Innis as he swaggered. It was true. He was so frivolous and adorable, but Innis was a being of legends.

Calmly, Saki continued,

“I don’t know why you are able to call upon the spirit kings so freely like this, Lady Ianna. But I am against your continued use of their powers.”

[Wait, what?!]

Saki ignored Innis’ flopping around and spoke aloud her thoughts.

“I can agree with you using your abilities for your friends. But please don’t feel like you’re responsible for stepping up to protect mankind from crisis. This problem was created by human hands, and that is why it ought to be solved by human hands too. Lady Ianna, you must not feel guilty about staying quiet even if you do have the power to resolve the situation.”

“…….”

“The kingdom of Roanne is not incompetent, so I am sure they have noticed that this incident was caused by magic by now. It is likely that the state is simply keeping quiet as they prepare a countermeasure so as to not create a disturbance among the people.”

“I’m sure that’s true.”

“I will begin researching a way to remove Reborn from the body as soon as today. There’s a need to research this to resolve this incident too, of course, but Reborn can be used in an infinite variety of ways, and it will be better to find a way to counter it since it’s possible that Bahamut may use it as a weapon of war one day.”

Saki lowered her head as Ianna stared back at her. She continued,

“Lady Ianna, I would prefer it that you only did just enough that you don’t bring harm upon yourself. There is no need for you to feel responsible for this situation. I felt so guilty toward you after what happened at the factory last time.”

Ianna understood what Saki was trying to say.

But Saki didn’t know. It wasn’t just an unusually skilled mage who had brought about this situation.

The mana, which had spread all throughout the world.

The Demon, who was the mana’s master and had failed to die.

The Demon’s fragments, which had ripped apart and scattered all over the world.

And the people who swallowed those fragments and did things like this.

‘It’s because Roberstein failed to kill the Demon properly at the End that the Bahamut imperial family was able to become tyrants in this world.’

Ianna didn’t feel responsible for the failings of her previous incarnation, but she still thought it was for the better that she helped people as much as she could, to the extent that it didn’t harm her, instead of simply folding her hands behind her back and doing nothing.

Moreover, this had never happened in her past life. Which meant that this had been caused by the butterfly effect of her being born into this life again.

Ianna came to a decision and asked Saki,

“Don’t you need a lot of samples for your research, Saki?”

“The more I have, the better. By any chance……are you planning to procure samples from the water here?”

“Yes. I just thought of the perfect way to handle this water is a very natural manner that will not risk the Witch’s suspicions.”

Then, Ianna turned to Innis, who was tilting his head to the side.

~~*~~

Part 5

The Kingdom of Roanne was holding several emergency conferences every day.

“There’s just nothing we can do.”

“We must order the mage responsible to be executed. Won’t everything be resolved once the mage is dead?”

“I ask this every time, but do you even know who this mage is?”

There were many skilled mages in Roanne, and the state had realized early on that the illness was the work of malicious magic.

It was only obvious that Shingardra Solsavier, one of the Ten Archmages, would uncover the cause behind the illness in his blazing love for his country.

But he could not figure out the culprit behind the cause, and the said cause that could trigger the illness was ‘water,’ and so the top officials of the government were trying to keep things quiet as they searched for a solution.

No one could live without water, after all.

Moreover, it was highly likely that the crops that had been grown in soil watered by the polluted water was also contaminated. The resulting unrest in the populace would be severe if these facts were made known to the public.

One noble, who had been persistent in his claim that the mage responsible should be executed as soon as they were discovered, forcefully said,

“Duke Solsavier has stated that it would take an extremely skilled control over mana to dispel the magic responsible for this situation. This narrows down our list of suspects to only mages of extraordinary skill. We ought to procure a kingdom-wide search warrant and summon every high-leveled mage in our lands for interrogation.”

Schneider furrowed his brows from his place beside the seat of honor.

“I’ll say this again, but mages tend to be egoistic and prideful. And all the more so if they are skilled. That would only serve to make them hostile to Roanne.”

His expression grew stiff as he straightened out his posture. He continued,

“Of course, I am not trying to quibble over something like that in this situation. But I am concerned about the sorts of questions you intend to ask the mages after summoning them. I am only saying this as a mage myself, but it is easy for us to hide our skills should we wish to. Summoning them for questioning would only prove to be in vain if we don’t have any way to confirm anything, unless we were actively trying to make enemies of them. And most importantly, there is also the possibility that our culprit isn’t a mage from Roanne, no?”

“…….”

“That being said, I am not suggesting that we don’t try to track down the mage responsible. I have specialists doing their best to chase down the mage even as we speak, so I would ask that you be patient. Right now, we should be focusing on how to handle the materials that were contaminated by the magic.”

Schneider continued on to say that they may see the problem repeat itself if they could not find a solution to address it on a fundamental level. He continued,

“Duke Solsavier, myself, and a few other mages have confirmed that we are able to lift the spells, but it will be impossible for us to treat every patient individually. It is imperative that we find a way to eliminate not the magic itself but the ‘unknown substance’ that was imbued with the magic. That way, we will be able to purify the contaminated water and soil on top of also being able to cure the disease. And we will also be able to prevent this from ever happening again.”

Fernando, who was sitting opposite of him, sarcastically quipped,

“The problem lies in how long that will take.”

Several nobles agreed with him and nodded along. This empowered Fernando, and he continued,

“It still remains a fact that magic is being used to torment the people. There is logic to what you are saying, but I believe that the people have the right to know what we’ve discovered. It isn’t too late to begin disposing of the crops that were grown in Theodore that the mages have tested and found traces of the magic in and block the reservoirs and dams.”

“…….”

“We should collect surplus crops from other regions to feed Theodore for now, and, since we don’t know how long this situation will last —it could even last for years—, we must sign treaties with foreign countries so we can import food and water from them. It doesn’t matter how much it’ll cost…….”

They had tried to resolve the situation quietly as to not create a panic when they had initially learned that the coughing was triggered by magic and was not a fatal disease.

But even Schneider agreed that they could not keep things a secret any longer now that the illness had suddenly changed and the mortality rate had increased exponentially.

But he felt suffocated when Fernando suggested that they must import food and water from outside the kingdom. He could practically hear Roanne’s national power fading.

Besides, what would they do about the people’s unrest and anxieties, which were sure to continue until the situation finally came to a close, once they had made the cause behind the illness known?

The stress generated from the fact that an unidentified mage was targeting them would cause the people to turn away from mana. This repulsion would paralyze all national activities that were based on mana and create even greater societal problems.

And yet, Schneider had no solution.

Then, Fernando criticized him once more.

“Are you still opposed to this, Schneider? Surely, you aren’t trying to keep things quiet because you’re afraid that, as a mage yourself, this will cost you the people’s support?”

“Please don’t be ridiculous, Lord Brother.”

There was a chilling look on Schneider’s face.

Fernando had chosen the path of the sword, whereas Schneider had chosen the path of sorcery. Their respective paths also divided their support bases.

It was already an established truth that Schneider would lose some support because of this matter. But it wouldn’t pose Schneider a problem, and he was confident that he could beat Fernando even still.

“I recognize that there is logic to your words as well.”

He ultimately gave up on explaining the drawbacks to what Fernando was proposing.

The right to decide now lay with the king, who was sitting at the seat of honor.

“Both princes are correct.”

The king had grown much sicklier than before, and his countenance was haggard as he spoke.

His condition signified that war was closing in on them.

Prince Linus was too young and too weak to join the struggle for power. That left Fernando, the crown prince, and Schneider, the second prince, to vie for the throne, but the king stubbornly kept Fernando as the crown prince despite the many achievements Schneider had earned because the king had little love for Luria.

Fernando, the crown prince, would ascend to the throne at this rate if the king passed away, and it would only be natural for his enemies, including Schneider, to be driven out of the kingdom. They might even be accused and executed for crimes they hadn’t committed.

Thus, the only remaining recourse was war.

Both factions were quietly preparing themselves for battle.

“We will hold the harvest festival in mid-November as planned. All of the preparations for the festival have already been made, after all. Until then, we will focus our efforts on negotiating the best deals we can for importing foreign food and water.”

But Roanne would be at a serious disadvantage during negotiations if other kingdoms discovered the true cause behind the epidemic in Theodore.

“Then, we will unveil the cause behind the illness during the harvest festival, and we will begin disposing of the contaminated crops and water in Theodore.”

The king was far too ill to be discussing matters of government, and he had even been absent for some of the conferences, but everyone present still believed that his decision was correct as they bowed their heads.

“Just who is the crazy mage that did this?”

Schneider sank down into his sofa as he failed to contain his rage. He continued,

“How are things on your end, Duke Solsavier?”

Shingardra Solsavier had kept his silence through the duration of the conference, and it was only after he had entered Schneider’s chambers that he finally spoke up.

“I haven’t made any progress. I cannot even say for certain if we will truly find a solution. I am a mage specializing in defensive magic and am lacking in my knowledge of plant biology, and this makes it difficult for me to research this illness. And more importantly, I cannot even begin my research because of how difficult it has been to procure enough samples.”

“I recall you saying that there was too little of the substance dissolved into the water. Sigh. I’m at my wits’ end. You may be excused.”

Schneider clutching his aching forehead was the last thing Shingardra saw before he returned to his own manor.

“Sigh.”

He did his best to suppress his frustration as he took off his overcoat. Just then, his butler spoke up cautiously as he put away his master’s clothes.

“You have a guest waiting for you in the sitting room, Master.”

“A guest? I thought I told you that I would not be entertaining guests for the time being.”

His butler replied awkwardly when Shingardra expressed his irritation.

“That’s……I did not feel as though I had the authority to turn her away.”

The butler was from a lineage who had served House Solsavier since the current duke’s great-grandfather’s time. Shingardra realized that something was off about the situation because he knew of how faithfully devoted his butler was.

“Who is this guest that’s giving you so much trouble?”

“Perhaps it would be for the best that you meet her in person? I did not feel as though she was lying……but she said that her name was Saki Celtz. The archmage.”

“……!”

Shingardra practically ran to his sitting room. And he found a familiar face when he opened the doors wide. She put down the warm tea she had been drinking before she slowly stood up.

“It has been a while, Shingardra.”

“……Saki.”

He could not hide his surprise. He continued,

“Saki, is that really you?”

“Indeed.”

Shingardra was flustered as sat down opposite of Saki, and he stared into her face as she looked back at him.

“I’d heard the rumors that your appearance never changed, but you truly do look exactly as you did when I last saw you decades ago. Actually, you almost seem younger now.”

Saki chuckled quietly.

“I haven’t changed?”

“……Well, your ambience, at least, certainly seems to have changed for the better. You used to be an excellent doctor but a cruel mage who performed human experiments as if it meant nothing to you. You used to be so difficult to approach back then, but you’ve grown much mellower now.”

He had met Saki once as a boy.

Saki had been a renowned doctor back then too, but those who knew her had used to call her a psychopath for conducting so many human experiments. She had been mad in her efforts to progress her medical arts.

She limited her subjects to her enemies in battle during times of war, but she had still been extraordinarily cruel. Still, no one had ever reproached her because she was so skilled in the medical and magical arts and because she had treated so many people. Rather, most people supported her in what she did.

Shingardra had also been treated by Saki as a boy, and he had studied magic under her tutelage while she was being sponsored by House Solsavier. She had always been a bit of a wanderer, however, and she had suddenly vanished one day without a word.

Then, a decade or so later, Shingardra had heard news that Saki had become the greatest authority on healing magic and was now one of the Ten Archmages.

“It is thanks to God Laos’ grace that I have changed. I am always reflecting upon how I used to be back then.”

“I see. But why are you……?”

Shingardra’s eyes opened wide as he muttered.

Wasn’t Saki Celtz the one person he should be the happiest to see in this situation?

“Are you here because of the epidemic in Theodore?”

“I am. After all, I belong where illness can be found.”

Shingardra’s visage brightened. Saki Celtz was the best doctor he knew of, and she was unrivaled in her research of disease and plants as a mage. She might even be able to find a solution.

“Then in that case, I should start explaining……”

“There is no need for that. I already have a good grasp on the situation.”

It took no time at all to share information about ‘Reborn’ and the mage affiliated with the Black Fox with Shingardra. Saki described Ianna as her ‘friend from the mythical races’ because she could not avoid mentioned Ianna in her explanation.

Saki finished telling Shingardra everything that she and Ianna had agreed to inform him about in advance and awaited his reply.

“This was another of the Black Fox’s heinous acts……. Do you mean to say that the Black Fox has a mage this skilled in their ranks?”

Shingardra asked with a grave expression on his face. Saki looked at him quietly for a moment before she closed her eyes.

The Black Fox was Bahamut’s hands and feet. She could drastically decrease the number of victims that would arise from the battle about to unfold if she told him that the Black Fox was affiliated with Bahamut.

But Saki kept her silence because Ianna had asked it of her. The organization that Ianna was working with wanted Roanne to fall into chaos, and Saki respected them. She was a great doctor, but she also understood the ambitions of those in power.

“Please keep the information about my friend between yourself and the prince.”

“But of course. I am already grateful enough that this friend of yours has helped us so much. Reborn……it’s a dreadful herb.”

“Shingardra, our job must be to focus on finding a treatment for the addiction once the magic has been dispelled.”

“I came to the same conclusion.”

“But we must first filter out the Reborn in the water before we can begin researching in earnest. This way, we can keep more people from getting sick while also securing research samples.”

“It will be difficult to filter out the Reborn because it was ground into fine particles and dissolved into the water supply. How are you suggesting we do this?”

Shingardra looked awkward as he posed the question, but Saki answered as if it was but a trivial matter.

“Have the levees damming the water collapsed. Send all the water out to sea. My friend and I will take care of it from there.”

“We can’t do that. The Kingdom of Roanne does not have much water, and what will we do if Reborn begins affecting the life in the sea?”

“You won’t need to worry about that —please trust us on this.”

“How could I not…….”

“There will be a lot of rainfall soon.”

Shingardra looked to the sky outside the window. The autumn skies were very clear, and the sun was shining warmly. The rainy season had long since passed.

“But it’s so clear outside…….”

“The rain will come without fail. Please make sure to open all the dams and send all the water out to sea when it comes —you can use flooding as your excuse. My friend and I will take care of the rest.”

~~*~~

The officials running Roanne were busy for the next few days as they scurried around trying to negotiate contracts with companies and other countries who mostly traded foodstuffs with Roanne.

Governmental institutions and merchant companies practically lived off of information, and everyone knew about what was happening in Theodore. Many people began wondering if food was the cause behind the epidemic when Roanne suddenly began buying food and water in bulk.

But Roanne bought food in bulk every year because it received less rainfall than the world’s average, the harvest had been good worldwide and others had no one else to sell their surplus to, and most importantly, they could not reject negotiating a contract, for ethical reasons, if there truly was a problem with Roanne’s food supply. Especially if they were on friendly terms with Roanne.

The contracts were unfairly advantageous to the sellers, but that being said, Roanne did not suffer any tremendous losses.

The problem lied in the fact that they had not met even half their targeted amount of foodstuffs because many countries and companies had refused to sell to them.

They had given a colorful assortment of excuses —they didn’t want to send their employees into an epidemic, they were busy, etc.—, but their true intentions were painfully obvious. They were waiting for conditions to become more advantageous before they began negotiations.

Rumble, rumble…….

Meanwhile, grey clouds began forming outside the windows one after another. The clouds covering the overcast azure skies turned black, as if to proclaim their presence.

The majesty of the thick and dark rainclouds foretold the abnormally heavy rain that was to come.

Those who had been sharply anxious already because of the disease grew worried still as they wondered if the rain would bring about even more problems.

Shaaaa.

The rain began just a few days later.

And, as predicted, the rain was unusually heavy. The downpour continued on for multiple days as if it would never stop.

The river running through Theodore looked like it would swallow its vicinity whole any minute now.

“God Laos must be angry…….”

“Oh, God Laos…”

The people of Theodore trembled as they pessimistically believed that the entire city would be flooded. The voices claiming that god was angry and everyone must beg for his forgiveness grew only louder. The gloomy mood spread faster throughout the city than the disease ever could.

The upper echelons of Roanne were in a crisis.

“What do we do?”

Roanne was keeping her reservoirs and dams tightly closed so that none of the contaminated water could leak out.

But they would have to build tall levees around the river and open the reservoirs and dams to prevent flooding.

“…….”

No one had a solution. Everyone was rendered mute, and Schneider had his arms crossed with his eyes closed.

Fernando smacked his tongue.

“The rain doesn’t look like it’ll stop anytime soon —do we even have a choice? The water is bound to overflow anyway, so we ought to open the dams before they explode like bombs.”

“But the water is polluted…….”

“Then what do you propose? Shut your mouth if you have nothing better to say!”

Fernando raged. But the government officials could not stop their worrying and continued to discuss at length about the drawbacks.

“We decided to make the cause of the illness public during the harvest festival, so everyone will naturally come to realize that we released the polluted water out to the rest of the world.”

“But that’s a problem for another time. Are we supposed to simply allow Theodore to be flooded?”

“Every country in the world will censure us.”

“What does that matter? Roanne is the strongest nation in the world. The insects can run their mouths as they please, but it will not affect our status.”

“But don’t we have to procure more food? We cannot foster hostility.”

“Food prices will skyrocket, and so many of our people will starve.”

Conceitedly, Fernando replied,

“And so what? Such is simply the fate of the poor. We have many contaminated foodstuffs in the warehouses. They can eat that if we don’t have enough food for them. There is nothing else we can do about the matter.”

“…….”

The officials grew silent in their discomfort, and it was only then that Schneider finally spoke up.

“My Lord Brother is correct is saying that we must open the reservoirs and dams.”

Even Schneider, Fernando’s mortal nemesis, agreed with the idea. The officials, who understood that this was truly the only way but had tried and tried to come up with more options anyway, finally bowed their heads. Schneider continued,

“We should actually consider ourselves lucky. We cannot hold onto the polluted water in our reservoirs and allow it to rot forever. Releasing it during heavy rains where the waters will be flowing quickly is the best possible solution available to us. The polluted water will immediately flow out to sea without polluting any other lands, and we will also be able to secure clean water. We will have no choice but to bear with the criticism.”

The officials were convinced by his calm and reasonable explanation and nodded.

“What you say is true.”

“There is nothing that can be done about the crops already grown, but we will at least have no problems in next years’ harvest since the rain will purify the water and the land. And our kingdom’s accumulated wealth is the greatest it has ever been, so let us send relief freely to any who should need it.”

“……Hmph.”

It made Fernando wonder if he should take back what he had said when Schneider, who was always at odds with him, suddenly agreed so wholly to his proposal.

But he ultimately decided against it not only because of what his mother had told him but also because the filthy animals would finally quiet down and quit their wailing once the cause behind the illness had disappeared.

“So, when will we make some progress in eliminating the contaminants? I was of the understanding that Duke Solsavier was responsible for it…….”

Fernando quipped sarcastically even still because he would not be satisfied until he had quarreled with Schneider about at least one thing.

Shingardra was a terrifying archmage, but Fernando’s hostility toward the mage outweighed his fear because the mage was Schneider’s faithful retainer all the way down to his very bones.

Schneider shot Fernando a glance and shrugged.

“I have no way of knowing that.”

But Schneider’s thoughts were elsewhere as he replied.

‘Just who are the Black Fox? Those bastards. To think they had a mage skilled enough to bring about this situation in their ranks.’

Schneider was clever, and he was certain that the mage who had cursed the royal palace previously had also been affiliated with the Black Fox.

‘How dare they?’

He was seething in displeasure. So many people had suffered lasting effects from that spell.

It had freely wrenched out the traumas that people had been trying to ignore from the deepest depths of their hearts, and people had fallen into depression as they revisited their traumas.

And now they had spread this disease and had attacked the entire nation in so doing…….

‘It’ll spell trouble if they have more than just a few mages of this caliber.’

Shingardra Solsavier was the greatest mage of Roanne in both name and in fact. But if these mages were beyond even Shingardra’s capacity, then Roanne had little other choice but to suffer pathetically.

‘The best alternatives are the mythical races.’

The mysterious members of the mythical races he had seen during the king’s birthday had used their miraculous crimson powers to dispel the curse. And now, a member of the mythical races had predicted the heavy rain and had even agreed to filter out the unknown substance from the water.

‘But wait —they might have even been the one to call upon the rain to begin with.’

He began growing greedy for the mythical races. If he could have his way, he wanted to blackmail Saiwè if he had to and ask Saiwè to bring the persons from before to him. But he relented because Saiwè had been incredibly unyielding and had promised to consider him an enemy should he ever mention them again.

Schneider wanted to visit the Solsavier manor and ask Saki Celtz to introduce him to her mythical race friend, even if it meant bowing his head and begging. But Saki had declined to meet with anyone other than Solsavier.

Saki was a figure as equally influential as Schneider, a prince of Roanne, and, according to Shingardra, she hated it when people crossed the line and would grow cold and potentially even malicious to those who did.

That being said, it wasn’t as if Schneider could go and seek out the mythical races in person. After all, he knew just how much they hated humanity.

It would not be possible to undo their hatred on his own. And other greedy humans might lay a hand against them even if Schneider somehow did manage to successfully forge a relationship with them and invite them to Roanne.

‘But…….’

Schneider was deeply lost in thought. A national-level threat that even an archmage could not resolve. And the fact that Roanne had emerged victorious against it after suffering many long years…….

He had a sense of déjà vu.

‘I feel like I’ve read about something similar somewhere before.’

He could roughly recall the details, but he did not wish to believe that they were facing the same enemy now as the enemy he remembered. After all, he would have to take measures at once if his guesses proved correct.

Schneider decided that he had to reference a few royal documents once the conference was over.

The conference ended after he and Fernando had exchanged a few more clashes with pointed words. The king was indisposed and could not attend the conference, so Fernando, the crown prince, had the authority to make the final call.

“We will open the reservoirs and dams!”

Splaash!

Every dam holding back the flow of water was opened shortly after Fernando had ordered it.

The blockaded water poured out violently as it rushed downstream. People shivered in fear as they watched the water flowing unhindered.

But the rain came down only just enough that it did not encroach upon the places where people lived. The clean water from the heavens grabbed hold of the polluted water and washed away the tainted soil as it carried both to the ocean so far away.

“Everything’s been so chaotic lately, and the rain is just making it all the gloomier,”

Priscilla said as she sprawled about. She continued,

“All of my classes are on hold because so many of my peers are sick. I thought I was going to die myself when I began coughing a little while back, so I’m really glad that I got better.”

It was only because Ianna had been paying close attention to her that Priscilla was the picture of health as she grumbled. She had asked Innis to draw out the Reborn inside of Priscilla while the latter was asleep when Priscilla had started coughing.

“…….”

Ianna was watching the rain pour down outside the window as she sat on her bed in her dorm room.

She would have almost definitely made Margarita suspicious if she had removed the Reborn directly from the water.

And so, she had decided instead on calling down clean water in the form of rain to avoid the Witch’s eyes and scrape together the Reborn once it had flowed out to sea so Saki could use it for research.

The rain was technically made by consuming Ianna’s divine power, but no one would ever know that it was artificial because Innis was dyeing the divine power in his own color first before using it, just like what Towe had done back when they had fought Isabella.

‘This is frustrating.’

To think that she would have to go so far just to hide her identity.

Personally, she wanted to fight Bahamut head-on. But she was not strong enough to stand against the monsters lurking inside Bahamut just yet. Moreover, it was said that the power that Bahamut had accumulated over the generations was more than enough to devour the entire world and then some, so Ianna would have to stay in hiding until she was fully prepared to take them on.

‘If only that day would come quickly,’

Ianna thought as she watched the raindrops beating against the earth. There was a brilliance swirling in her crimson eyes.

‘It’s magnificent.’

It was unpleasant to have her divine power being continuously drawn out of her like this, but she would endure it anytime if it meant bringing about a miracle like this.

[This feels great!]

Innis’ shout of joy reached Ianna’s soul as he roamed about somewhere up high in the heavens. He was having great fun swimming above the clouds while creating clean water.

“…….”

It was such an awe-inspiring power.

And it was a miracle that no one could bring about if they only had a limited amount of divine power.

But, like Terranodin had told her, Ianna had an infinite supply of divine power pouring out from her heart. Her heart was always filled to the brim with divine power even though she had been supplying it to Innis nonstop for several consecutive days.

Saki had told Ianna not to abuse the power of miracles, but she had not pressed the matter when Ianna had insisted on using the spirit kings’ powers even still.

‘He said that the Balance always seeks to maintain equilibrium.’

Ianna had been pondering ever since she had heard Saki’s warning.

‘If I was given this miraculous power, then it must also mean that there is something that I need to use it for. But what could it be?’

It certainly wasn’t the Bahamut imperial family. After all, Arhad had successfully eliminated all of them even without her help in the past.

But the only being that could stand against this miraculous power was another being from the myths —the Demon.

The dragon had said that she needed to grow strong enough to pull the sword free from the Demon’s heart.

‘Is that what I need it for?’

But it was too simplistic to even things out. This powerful ability would remain in her heart even after she had pulled the sword free and continue to empower her.

‘Does that mean there’s something else I need to do even after pulling the sword free?’

Ianna pondered for a bit longer before she decided to shelve the matter.

If Fate truly existed, then it would surely guide her path. All she need do was what she herself wanted to do.

‘But what will happen to the Demon after I pull the sword, and what will happen to those who benefit from the Demon’s fragments? Will it harm Arhad?’

She absolutely refused to do anything that might harm Arhad, fate be damned. Fate was only a guide —the choice to follow it was ultimately hers to make.

‘Anyway, the Thanksgiving of Laos is in just a few days…….’

Founding Day, the king’s birthday, and the Thanksgiving of Laos —Ianna had promised Sarachè that she would attend the parties hosted on these three holidays.

She had hoped the party would be cancelled, but she had little choice but to being preparing for it because it had been decided that it would be held as planned.

‘But everything’s in chaos right now, so I’m sure it won’t be too bad.’

~~*~~

“This is annoying,”

Margarita cursed as she looked outside the window. She continued,

“What’s with this sudden downpour?”

“It looks like all that Reborn went to waste.”

Payne sighed. He continued,

“It’ll be difficult to use the plan to contaminate the reservoirs and dams with Reborn to afflict our enemies as a long-term war strategy. It all went to waste just because of a little rain.”

“Hmph.”

Margarita nodded as she acknowledged the variable that had made things go awry.

She had thought that a little rain wouldn’t pose a problem.

Of the four natural elements, water had the greatest fluidity and earth had the greatest stability.

Reborn had great synergy with the earth, so it would leave the water and adhere to the soil as soon as it touched it even if it had been dissolved into the water first.

But it had failed to stick to the earth and had been washed outside of Roanne and out to sea, perhaps because the rain was too heavy.

“I thought that it would seep into the soil and completely contaminate the land if they opened the reservoirs and dams. This was beyond my expectations.”

Margarita was determined to improve upon this flaw in Reborn once she returned to Bahamut.

“And now some people know that there’s a substance out there capable of stabilizing magic because they perceived it in the water. At this rate, they might find a way to eliminate the Reborn and treat the addiction…….”

“Don’t worry. We haven’t used enough Reborn for that to happen.”

Margarita, who had been expressionless until then, curled up the edges of her lips as she spoke. She continued,

“All the water was washed away, but so what? Most of the residents of Theodore are already sick. And they’ll never get better before I end the spell unless they figure out a way to remove it from their bodies.”

“Hmm. I suppose. It’s regrettable that we wasted so much Reborn, but we did still gain a lot thanks to you. The fact that they released the polluted water out to sea will damage Roanne’s reputation, and their finances will be a wreck too because their crops were contaminated with Reborn and they’ll have to import it from elsewhere even if they don’t want to. We’re planning on selling them crops at exorbitant prices, so it’s three birds with one stone.”

“About that. Can’t we sprinkle some more once the rain stops?”

“That might be difficult. I hear that the bastards at Roanne increased the security around the dams and reservoirs.”

“That’s too bad —I had a mountain of spells I wanted to experiment with.”

Margarita clicked her tongue. She continued,

“In that case, let me delay undoing my spells instead. It’s difficult to conduct such large-scale clinical experiments back in Bahamut, and I want to take the opportunity to examine the effects of Reborn’s characteristics on healthy average citizens.”

“Go right ahead. You’re undoing the spells on any important personnel on our side anyway. It won’t be a problem.”

Payne had been doubtful of Margarita at first, but he had mellowed somewhat because she had been diligent in her work.

Moreover, rumors had spread that his hospital could cure the mysterious illness because Margarita had been making visits to randomly remove her spells from some people, and its profits had skyrocketed.

But the money hadn’t been his greatest profit. Many influential nobles had been admitted to the hospital, and he had gotten them addicted to Reborn by giving them a high dose of it under the guise of a cure. In other words, they had corrupted those nobles and turned them into the Black Fox’s puppets.

Furthermore, the companies that the Black Fox had power over had refused to negotiate with Roanne so they could push the kingdom harder, and they were preparing and ample supply of food and water to sell to Roanne at expensive costs later.

Rumble rumble!

The downpour and transformed into a typhoon.

Boom!

Thunder clapped. Margarita frowned as the white light colored her vision for a moment.

‘This is the kind of night that reminds me of that wench Dorcianni.’

That awful bitch. Margarita quietly cursed at her. Her cousin, who always acted indifferent but always took the things that Margarita wanted and left her feeling depraved.

Her thoughts then turned to Eiji, her cute little test subject whom Dorcianni had stolen from her.

A short while back, on the day that Margarita had mentally cornered him, Eiji had been waiting outside as if he had loathed to breathe the same air as her and had only come back inside and sat down at the table when Payne had found him.

Eiji had conversed with Payne as if nothing had happened. He discussed official matters with a dreary tone without a single stir to his emotions, and he had even replied with composure when Margarita had slipped herself into the conversation.

She had wanted him to panic, but he had only remained calm with his emotions under perfect control.

Part 6

“You threw a tantrum at me because you found out that Reborn is the cause behind this situation, didn’t you?”

Margarita followed Eiji out the door once their discussions were finished and prodded the thorn at his side once more.

She walked up to him and touched his arm when he stopped in his tracks.

“And that’s why you couldn’t hold back your anger toward me. Our little kitten even knows how to get angry now……it’s disgusts me the more I think about it, wouldn’t you agree?”

Their eyes met when Eiji turned his head. She continued,

“I’ve so many test subjects now, so I think I’ll need to experiment for a little while longer. I haven’t had many chances to experiment on such a large scale ever since the Roygen Clan died out, you know. So it’s your fault, for disgusting me, that so many people are about to suffer even more.”

Eiji’s eyebrows twitched as he listened quietly to the heavy emphasis she put on certain words.

“You’ve already been carrying out those experiments anyway —so what are you patronizing me for? If you’re spreading the illness with magically imbued Reborn just to press my buttons, then you’re barking up the entirely wrong tree.”

“That’s not a part of the experiment. I’m simply repeating the results of an already successful experiment.”

“…….”

“I’m talking about my experiment on you. I’m testing to see how you react to a wide variety of stimuli. Just like how I used to experiment on the Roygen Clan back then,”

Margarita whispered her vile words into his ear as if she was carefully cramming the words inside one by one. She continued,

“The thing is, kitten. The truth is that I only used the Reborn ‘because of you.’ I was curious to see how you’d react. So many innocent people have suffered and died —and it’s all because of you.”

Eiji didn’t react. He simply glared down at Margarita with his cerulean eyes. But the ghastliness that he barely managed to keep inside him threatened to burst out howling whenever Margarita prodded at him.

And Margarita enjoyed observing his state of being. He had pretended to be perfectly fine in front of Payne, but he had actually still been shaken. And then she began blackmailing him.

“The results have been quite nice, you know? You dared to defy me, and you even managed to resist my brainwashing. What shall I make of this situation? What will the masters say if I report back that you might be dangerous, that you still haven’t thrown away your humanity, and that you hate us for torturing you?”

“What do you want from me?”

Margarita laughed in satisfaction as Eiji treated her with contempt.

“I can stop everything I’m doing in Theodore if you agree to come back to me. I’ll even keep this from the masters if you kiss my heels and flatter me from beneath my feet like a scared little kitten. How’s that sound?”

“Like a complete waste of my time.”

His actions were oozing with hatred as he brushed Margarita’s arm off like it was rubbish. He continued,

“I don’t give a damn about who you say what to, so do as you like.”

“Are you being serious right now?”

“I’ve no reason to participate in your bullshit. My hatred for you has nothing to do with my loyalty to the masters. And, what was that about me defying you? I’ve been traumatized by Reborn, so isn’t it only natural that I’m not too happy about this situation?”

His each and every word was perfectly articulated and dripping with loathing as he pulled at the fine strands of Margarita’s hair. He continued,

“Stop and think about the things you’ve done to me before you start prattling away. You’re the one who force-fed me Reborn and conducted all sorts of experiments on me and brainwashed me, so you should know, right? I’d have ripped off your limbs and head already if it weren’t for the brainwashing.”

Margarita narrowed her eyes and glared back at him when Eiji’s gaze suddenly warped. He continued,

“Stop trying to threaten me with this bullshit. Does me acting this way make you think I’m being cocky? Then either erase my traumas completely or just bite your tongue and kill yourself where I can see you. I won’t have a reason to be cocky anymore then.”

“Oh my.”

Lightning crackled between their eyes as Margarita and Eiji glared at each other.

“If you don’t like me being fresh with you and you don’t plan on offing yourself either, then stop concerning me with anything that has to do with Reborn. I don’t give a damn about whether or not you murder every last soul in Theodore, so stop this bullshit about how it’s all my fault or that you’ll stop if I crawl back between your legs and just do what you want. Oh, but I’m certain about something now that I’ve heard what you had to say.”

Eiji sneered at Margarita. He continued,

“You’ll keep your mouth shut if I become your little kitten again? The reason you’re so fixated on my supposed betrayal isn’t because of your loyalty to the masters or anything of the sort —it’s because Dorcianni stole me right out of your grasp. You feel inferior to Dorcianni, and that’s why you want to take away the freedom she’s given me and turn me into your test subject again. Since that’s the only way you’ll feel like you’ve beaten her!”

Smaaack!

Margarita slapped Eiji’s cheek hard. Eiji’s bloodied lips curled into a sneer as he saw rage ignite in the normally-easygoing Margarita’s eyes.

“All of your magical power comes from Dorcianni, doesn’t it? You’re just a parasite feeding off of Dorcianni’s powers. An insect who can’t do anything without her.”

Smaaack!

Margarita lost hold of her rationality after hearing what he had said, and she slapped him a few more times for good measure. But Eiji escaped her nimbly after a while and her hand whisked vainly through empty air. She tried to catch hold of him at once, but Eiji had already hidden his presence.

She was so infuriated that she killed every last human in the hideout she had been toying with in his place.

‘Cheeky little brat.’

It vexed her every time she saw Eiji acting fresh.

He had been so adorable when he had begged her to save him with his delicate looks while the others had struggled desperately with their resent on full display.

And that was why she had tortured, experimented on, and brainwashed Eiji into being her beloved little pet ever since he was young.

But then Dorcianni had taken him from her, and Eiji had changed.

“That damn awful bitch.”

Margarita grit her teeth —just thinking about the day still infuriated her to no end.

Dorcianni Demariposa was the youngest of the archmages, was peerless in her skill in electricity magic, and was truly indifferent to anything that didn’t interest her. But on the other hand, she never failed to get her hands on something if she wanted it.

And Dorcianni treated Margarita as the former and Eiji as the latter.

Margarita, Dorcianni’s younger cousin whom Dorcianni could not have cared any less about, was one of Wiffheimer’s many disciples.

But unlike Margarita, who had begged on her knees for Wiffheimer to make her his disciple, Dorcianni stood equal to Wiffheimer and had begun cooperating with Bahamut on Wiffheimer’s recommendation.

And she had eventually even succeeded in owning a Demon’s fragment.

Everyone else who shared her blood hadn’t been able to withstand the Demon’s powers and had perished. And Margarita’s status had risen drastically when she alone had survived and had successfully become a shareholder.

But Margarita was anxious that Dorcianni might kill her, her worthless cousin, off to keep the Bahamut imperial family from using Margarita as collateral against her. And that was why she had little other choice but to agree to Dorcianni’s every demand during the few occasions her cousin sought her out.

And then, one day, Dorcianni had demanded Margarita to hand over Eiji, whom she had been training.

“What an interesting child. Give him to me.”

“……I don’t want to.”

In truth, Eiji may have been a cute little pet until then, but he was still worthless and Margarita wouldn’t have minded killing him if she ever felt like it.

But she had grown strangely possessive and obsessive over him as soon as Dorcianni had demanded she hand him over. And then, Dorcianni had apathetically replied,

“Then, would you rather die?”

Margarita had no other option but to obediently hand Eiji over after that.

Dorcianni had persuaded Wiffheimer and the Bahamut imperial family by telling them that she would raise the boy so that he could never betray them and that she would make him useful in helping them find the bastard child.

Dorcianni had been allowed to keep Eiji on the condition that she would stay in the castle too, and that was how Eiji had just barely managed to survive.

Margarita ground her teeth together as she watched the lightning flash across the skies.

‘Just you wait, Eiji. How dare you compare me to Dorcianni? I’ll uncover your betrayal and force you both to roll around in the mud.’

She stared at the sky for a while before she finally asked Payne,

“Is there anyone whom Eiji’s close to? He’s so quick on the uptake that he’ll just vanish if I try to stalk him.”

Generally, one had to observe a test subject patiently, over a long duration of time, and in excruciating detail in order for an experiment to be successful. She had tried to observe Eiji ever since she had first sprinkled the Reborn in the water, but it had been impossible for her to shadow him.

“I can’t tail him either. But I don’t think there’s anyone he’s close to in particular. I know that he’s frivolous and goes through women fairly quickly.”

“Women…women, huh……. Gather some information about these women for me.”

“Sure, that won’t be too difficult. But are you still suspicious of Eiji?”

“Of course.”

Margarita’s continued misgivings started to make Payne, who hadn’t really cared much about Eiji until then because Eiji had always done his job well, begin to question Eiji’s loyalty ever so slightly.

“Hmmm……. Someone he’s close to. Oh, I did hear that Eiji started attending the Institution about two years ago.”

“The Institution?”

Payne shrugged when Margarita expressed her interest.

“It’s a school of sorts for talented commoners. The campus is located in the south-east corner of Theodore, and Heinrich is the dean. He’s been working to slip the research documents that each successive dean who lived in the magic tower there piled up over to our side.”

Heinrich was the strongest mage in the world after Wiffheimer. Margarita had met him once in Bahamut a very long time ago.

“I don’t really care about Heinrich. But why is Eiji attending this Institution?”

“He said something about being on the lookout for talented personnel? Well, it does have its benefits like he’s claimed, so I’m not about to say anything about it at this point, but I remembering wondering if he was trying to play house to make up for the childhood he never had and thinking it absurd. And oh…”

Margarita listened attentively as Payne continued to tell her new information about Eiji.

“Now that I think about it, one of my subordinates who works at my hospital said that they saw Eiji there.”

“A normal subordinate knows the faces of the Black Fox’s bosses?”

Margarita asked in surprise. Her rage at Eiji aside, she did still understand how the Black Fox ticked. As a rule, only the bosses of the Black Fox knew each other’s faces.

“It’s because he’s a high-level executive who’s responsible for carrying out my duties as the boss of the drug operations under my orders when I’m in Sidian. You’ve seen him —he’s the one who always greets you when you visit the hospital to dispel your magic sometimes.”

“Ohh.”

He was apparently the man who met Margarita at the hospital, guided her to a secret room, and sent patients her way in Payne’s stead when Payne was busy. She continued,

“He saw Eiji at the hospital? But he has no reason to be at the hospital —he’s already chronically addicted to Reborn, and my magic doesn’t work on him in the first place.”

“My subordinate looked into the matter too, since he was curious as to why the boss of our intelligence operations was visiting the hospital, and he was apparently visiting a friend. A lot of students have been admitted to the hospital, and I suppose one of the fake friends he’s made is one of them.”

“Hmmm…….”

Margarita’s eyes narrowed.

~~*~~

The harvest festival.

It was the festival in which the people prayed that things would stay the same next year if the current year’s harvest was bountiful or that things would change if they were not.

It was also the festival in which people offered their first crops to Laos to celebrate the successful harvest of the year’s crops.

It was hosted on a holiday known as the Thanksgiving of Laos, named as such as a day to give thanks unto Laos for providing food to his hungry creations.

Shaaa…….

It was still raining on the day of the festival. The rain never seemed like it would stop, but the citizens of Theodore felt much more at ease then when the rain had first begun.

The downpour was frighteningly fierce, but they had not suffered many harms. The river never rose above the levees as it rushed toward the ocean, and the clean water replenished the fertile soil that had been damaged from cultivating crops.

No new symptoms of the disease had been found ever since the rain had started, the mortality rate had fallen, and the people had come to know of this because several hospitals had heard the news from the kingdom’s Department of Hygiene for the central region.

The citizens of Theodore viewed the rain as god’s divine protection and sang praises unto Laos, and some even believed that the rain was a divine purification of sorts.

And they grew more fervent in their prayers as they begged Laos to deliver them from their suffering.

“Lady Ianna!”

Saki met Ianna in secret so early in the morning that the sun hadn’t risen yet. She brought Ianna to one of her research facilities in a remote corner of Theodore, and Ianna handed Saki a box when they arrived.

The box was filled with bottles containing samples of the Reborn Ianna had gathered. Some of the Reborn was in liquid form while the rest of it was in powder form, but it all felt equally evil all the same.

Saki studied the blackish Reborn filling one of the bottles for a moment before accepting the box with a gloved hand.

“You truly are amazing. These samples will be imperative to my research. But the fact that it’s still raining…….”

“Innis said that it will take some time because the Reborn has spread throughout the land. But he believes he’ll be finished by tonight.”

“It’s been raining for several days straight…….”

Saki studied Ianna with a solemn look on her face. Ianna didn’t look very well. She continued,

“How are you feeling, Lady Ianna? You look a little pale —are you sure you aren’t pushing yourself?”

“I’m all right. I asked Innis to make sure he takes my condition into account.”

No, that was a lie —she was definitely pushing herself.

This was her first time drawing out her divine power continuously to supply a spirit king with for such a long duration of time.

She was only fatigued —it was barely comparable to the agony she had felt when she had summoned Towe’s true form—, but her fatigue had piled and piled up and now she felt sluggish whenever she moved even just a little.

And she ultimately hadn’t been able to tell Arhad anything yet either. She hadn’t told him that the spirits could treat Rikijen, nor had she told him that she was using her divine power to create the rain that was purifying the water and cleansing the earth.

Ianna still hadn’t fully organized her thoughts quite yet. What should she leave out of her explanation; should she even tell him at all; or should she just come clean? —she thought about it multiple times a day.

She might have babbled and simply confessed the entire truth if Arhad had noticed what the rain really was and interrogated her about it. But he hadn’t because the rain was too natural and was as kind to her as he normally was, so Ianna had been left alone to stew in the uncomfortable silence.

But she ultimately came to the conclusion that she had absolutely no choice but to explain that she had an infinite supply of divine power in her heart. Arhad would not be convinced otherwise, and he would be angry with her when he saw how much she was struggling.

However, she needed to explain everything that had happened in the Girohai Desert from beginning to end if she was to explain about her divine power, and she did not have the confidence to deal with any problems that might arise from that. Not only was it difficult to guess how Arhad would react but she also didn’t want to argue with him over their differing opinions.

And so, she had been leaning toward not telling him at all as of late.

The most fundamental reason why Ianna couldn’t come clean was because Arhad was related to the Demon, whereas she was related to Roberstein.

Arhad had said that he feared the negative effects that might come to pass if Ianna learned about the secrets of the Holy Age. Ianna, too, feared that it might cause Arhad to change.

And that was why she wanted to tell him everything and be scolded for her secret-keeping only after she could prove that she would not change even after inheriting all of Roberstein’s power and only after she was certain that Arhad wouldn’t change because of the Demon. That was what Ianna had decided.

‘I’m sorry, Rikijen. Hold out for just a little longer.’

According to the information Saki had learned from Shingardra, there would be a public announcement today that the disease had been caused by an unidentified mage and the royal mages would begin dispelling the magic afflicting the people.

And so, Ianna planned to remove the Reborn inside Rikijen body later today and pretend that he had been treated by Shingardra’s mages.

“How do you plan on conducting your research?”

“I am planning to work here with people from Shalino under Shingardra’s sponsorship. I’ve already gotten permission from the Temple of Jinzai to take an extended leave.”

Saki said that she would begin by studying Reborn’s constitution and develop a means of destroying it.

Then, she would research Reborn’s addictive properties, learn how to undo them, and find a way to treat the parts of the body that the Reborn had ruined.

“It will take additional time to remove the Witch’s magic from the Reborn first, but please be patient.”

“I will find and kill the Witch as quickly as I can.”

Ianna hid herself around the reservoirs and dams whenever she had time just in case the Witch decided to show herself. She had meant to decapitate the Witch on sight, but she had only ended up wasting her time and the harvest festival had come before she knew it.

And so, Ianna was exhausted.

“Please don’t overdo it. And come to me at once if you aren’t feeling well.”

“I will. But in any event, I never knew that you were acquainted with Duke Shingardra Solsavier, Saki.”

“I have a rather large circle of acquaintances. So please reach out to me anytime should you ever wish to meet with a high-ranking noble.”

“I am not interested in anything of the sort.”

“Then how about high-ranking clergy from the Great Temple of Laos?”

Saki smiled and placed the box down on the table when Ianna hesitated. She continued,

“You’ve been hard at work, Lady Ianna, and I, too, have taken the opportunity to make myself busy in Theodore so I could fulfil your request while I was here.”

The only request Ianna had made of Saki was that she be able to see Laos’ relics, the treasures of the temple.

“You mean…….”

“Would you be interested in seeing the relic beneath the Great Temple sometime today?”

According to Saki, the relic was open to priests today because it was the Thanksgiving of Laos. Ianna could dress up as Saki’s valet and slip in amongst the priests to see the relic. Saki continued,

“I came at the perfect time.”

Saki added that she might not be able to sneak Ianna to the basement where the relic was kept because her influence in Roanne’s Great Temple was not as great as her influence in Jinzai’s and because the relic in Roanne was kept under tighter security than the relic in Jinzai.

“Oh…….”

Ianna immediately wanted to skip the party that was to be held later today. She wanted to spend the rest of the day focusing on the relic. But Ianna was the type to keep her promises.

She immediately reorganized her schedule. The harvest festival party began at two in the afternoon, and she still had ample time because it was still early in the morning.

She had no interest in the party, so she would hole herself up in a corner of the hall and spend her time thinking about the relic. And after the party was over, she would go to the hospital, get Rikijen discharged, and treat him.

She had organized everything neatly.

As soon as she had finished, Ianna immediately spat out,

“Let’s go at once, Saki.”

“Pardon? Right now?”

Saki and Ianna had met early in the morning to avoid prying eyes. There was little traffic, and now was the best time to visit the temple. But even Saki was surprised at how quick Ianna was to act.

“It’s raining, so won’t we have to prepare a carriage?”

Saki was an archmage for her healing magic —she had no talent in spatial magic. She could cast Teleport if she took the time to study the coordinates and prepare thoroughly, but that was pretty much it.

“There’s no need for that. I’ll carry you. I’ll be waiting outside, so please come out once you’re prepared.”

Ianna was in a hurry to see the relic, so she stepped outside to stretch as soon as the words had left her mouth.

Saki, now left alone inside the research facility, stood in a daze for a moment before she packed her badge, which proved that she was a priest of the church of Laos, and put on her habit.

Ianna opened her umbrella and knelt on the ground so Saki had easier access to her back as soon as Saki had finished her preparations and stepped outside. Saki hesitated for a moment before she finally made a decision and carefully climbed on.

“We won’t need the umbrella. I’ll use magic to keep the rain off us.”

Ianna immediately tossed aside the cumbersome umbrella upon hearing that. She briefly told Saki that she was taking off before she poured strength in her legs.

They instantaneously vanished from the spot.

Boom! Boooom!

Small explosions burst every time Ianna’s feet hit the ground. Her vision changed rapidly. She raced across the rooftops as she looked down below.

It was raining, but preparations for the festival were being made beneath the tents.

The harvest festival hadn’t been cancelled because it was being used to invigorate the people during hard times and help them work their way back to normalcy. It was a last-ditch effort to break free of the gloom that had been eating away at the city.

And there were also many fervent believers who claimed that the festival must be held so they could beg the God Laos for forgiveness, as only then would the illness go away.

Saki’s research facility was quite a long way from the temple, but Ianna could get there within an hour if she imbued her legs with mana.

“Ah, haha…”

Saki sank down to the ground in exhaustion as soon as Ianna set her down even though she had been carried on Ianna’s back the entire way.

Ianna felt a sting of guilt as she watched Saki quiver as she gathered her breath. Saki was remarkable and looked young, but she was still an elder. She wondered if she had been inconsiderate of Saki.

“I’m sorry.”

Saki shook her head and said it was all right when Ianna apologized.

“It appears that I need more exercise.”

Saki collected her breath as she pulled herself up by the hand Ianna had extended to her.

The temple was crowded even though it was still early in the morning.

There was always a crowd on the Thanksgiving of Laos —comprised of priests from all over the world who wanted to see the relic in the basement and ordinary civilians who wanted to thank Laos first thing in the morning.

But there were much more people this year because of the epidemic that had spread throughout Theodore. At this rate, it would be impossible for Ianna to take her time studying the relic and analyze it thoroughly.

‘I might have to be satisfied just to see it even once today.’

Saki asked her to wait outside for a moment before going inside the temple and coming back out with a set of white clothing.

“This is the streetwear for priests of the temple in Roanne. You’ll be pretending to be accompanying me as a priest on my trip, Lady Ianna.”

Ianna changed in the bathroom that had been set up outside the temple. She looked in the mirror and found that she looked like your average priest —her hair was completely hidden, as was about half her face.

Then, she followed Saki directly inside the temple without waiting in the line outside. She stopped in her tracks, like her feet had been suddenly tied together, as she saw the familiar idol of the young boy inside.

‘So that child really was Laos.’

The white boy who had come running toward her in tears at the very end of the memories she had glimpsed in Pandemonium had looked exactly like the idol.

The desperate look he had worn, which had never left her mind, overlapped the serene expression on the idol.

‘I’m curious. Just what on earth happened back then?’

Ianna followed behind Saki, who was walking around the temple as confidently as if she owned the place, and made her way toward an entrance that was being guarded by templars. Perhaps she had prepared everything beforehand, but the templars simply nodded and let them inside as soon as Saki showed them her badge.

They passed through several more security checks as they headed deeper inside.

“It’s quite cramped, isn’t it? Ordinary civilians are never allowed inside here, and even priests must have their identities verified and confirmed first.”

Ianna stared at Saki’s back as she explained while walking in front of her.

She was truly glad to have gotten to know Saki. Ianna had to leave Roanne next year, and she would have had to either trespass inside the temple or force her way inside while Roanne was being invaded if she had never met Saki.

They eventually made their way to an area that was swarming with priests. They were lined up on the stairs leading down to the basement, and Ianna straightened out her costume as she stood at the very end of the rather long line.

She tried imagining the goal that lay at the end of the line. But she found that it was quite difficult to draw in her head.

The five relics of Laos were parts of Phaemdra. The fifth relic in the mountain behind the Roberstein manor was Phaemdra’s stump.

So why was the relic in the Great Temple called a gravestone? Gravestones were normally made of, well, stone.

“Saki, what does the relic in Jinzai look like?”

“It’s a wooden staff. It symbolizes the temple’s authority.”

The relic in Jinzai was made of wood.

Ianna, who had been lost in thought for a moment, looked up. There was no need for her to wrack her brains like this. Her curiosity would be satiated soon enough.

They continued their way down. The line moved slowly, perhaps because the priests were allowed to view the relic for quite some time. Ianna wanted to see it soon, but she waited patiently because it also meant that she would be able to take her time as well.

And finally, she had reached the last step.

She smelled the damp musk unique to basements before a cave opened up in front of her eyes. Ianna had traveled all over Roanne in the past life, but this was her first time seeing this place where the cold moisture traveled down the sturdy stone walls.

They followed the path until they reached an area that looked like the entrance to a large gravesite. As usual, the templars were regulating the flow of traffic at the entrance.

Badump, badump.

Ianna placed her hand above her heart. Her heartrate grew faster and her breath grew labored the closer she got.

“Phew…….”

It was beating abnormally quickly. Her heart had acted strangely before when she had seen Roberstein’s belongings, like the sword fragment, but it was much worse now. She felt like her blood was circulating through her blood vessels at twice its normal speed.

[Are you okay, Ianna?]

Innis, who was still summoned, expressed his concern through his will. Ianna looked around, but she did not find him anywhere.

‘Where are you?’

When Ianna thought this, Innis replied,

[Up in the sky. I didn’t want to go to you because you’re with a lot of people right now. But don’t worry, since you’re the only one who can hear me! But are you sure you’re okay? Your heart’s beating too fast. Did something happen?]

Ianna had learned how to temporarily share her heart with a spirit a few days back. It was possible to share even if they were far apart. And so, Innis had been using the divine power in Ianna’s heart as he pleased while making sure that he wasn’t putting too much of a burden on her for several days now.

The relic had an incredible influence on her already even though she couldn’t see it yet. She was beginning to grow excited for when she finally could.

‘It’s no big deal, so don’t worry too much. How’s gathering up the Reborn going?’

“Mm, I’ll work hard and finish it today! But, and I know I’ve told you this before, but this stuff’s really toxic. Just touching it makes me nauseous.]

Ianna looked around at her unusually quiet surroundings as she listened to Innis act queasy. Most priests had their eyes closed with their hands brought together. Was it because they felt something?

Ianna posed a question to the clamoring Innis just before she stepped into the entrance.

‘Innis, can you teach me how to break a seal?’

[A seal? You just need to perceive where it is and think about breaking it. But the person breaking the seal has to have a stronger ego than the person who created it for this to work.]

Eventually, Ianna passed through the entrance. Her field of vision expanded, and a large rock that pierced through the ceiling jumped at her eyes.

It was the ‘gravestone’ with Roberstein’s ‘will’ engraved onto it.

Everyone else was focused on the gravestone, but Ianna was looking at the green vines wrapping around it. The vines looked like they had laid their roots inside the gravestone, and their fresh leaves dangled from the gravestone’s entire height.

‘Is that a part of Phaemdra?’

Most people would think that the gravestone with a god’s words written onto it was more mysterious than normal-looking vines that one could find anywhere.

‘Then that means a part of Roberstein’s heart was sealed inside those vines.’

Ianna was a bit disappointed. Her heart hurt, but she did not see Roberstein’s memories like she had been struck on the back of her head like last time when she had seen the sword fragment.

“Ah, it’s so warm,”

Saki mumbled vaguely from beside her. She continued,

“It was after I saw the relic in Jinzai that I first decided to become a priest. And I can feel a similar feeling from here as I felt back then. I didn’t always believe in god, but this feeling made me want to run immediately into god’s arms. And the warmth I felt inside me only grew stronger as did my faith.”

How was Saki able to feel this supposedly warm feeling? Ianna looked around to find that some of the priests were crying or even offering up prayers of overflowing joy.

“The reason why there are so many ardent believers in Jinzai is because the relic there is comparatively easier to see. Like I told you before, the pope traditionally uses the staff —the relic, that is— to bless the king on the day of his coronation. And those who bear witness to the relic start believing recklessly in god.”

The relic in which Roberstein’s heart had been sealed.

What did humans, Laos’ creations, feel from it?

‘But I’m still just calm.’

Ianna focused on the vines, but she could not feel any special warmth beside the fact that her heart was racing like crazy.

Rather than warmth…….

She actually had this strange impulse to rip the vines apart, just like what she had felt when she had stabbed her grandfather in the heart. Was it because her heart was sealed away inside?

‘But all of the priests of Laos would be furious with me if I did that.’

Ianna could hardly even speak because of her uncontrollable heart and powerful impulse, and she only barely managed to keep her thoughts straight. And then, she saw the familiar words engraved into the gravestone.

My Golden Demon.

I weep bitterly.

For Phaemdra’s, the token 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…….

The language used in the passage was still being used in Roanne today. But that was only natural, considering that it was Laos, man’s creator, who had taught it to him.

Ianna understood what those sentences meant now. She wasn’t completely certain about why the Holy Age had to End or why Phaemdra’s life had run dry, but she roughly understood the gist of the rest of the passage.

Roberstein had definitely wanted to die alongside the Demon.

She had been thinking about the world that Laos would create, and she had wanted to be born again inside it with the Demon.

But neither of them had died completely because of Laos’ seal, and everything had gone awry.

‘I hope that Laos is still alive. I want to know exactly what happened in detail.’

Ianna and Saki followed along the line and circled around the gravestone while observing it with careful consideration.

Ianna was trying to break the seal the entire time as she walked. But nothing seemed to happen, as if she was trying to punch through a tall cliff with only her bare hands.

And so, Ianna gave up.

‘I’ll come again once I’ve grown stronger.’

Then, a long vine that stretched past the blockage of templars around the gravestone caught her attention. Normal priests touched it cautiously, and the wary templars in the area did not stop them.

Only those priests who had the permission to could touch the gravestone. But the templars only stopped other priests from touching the gravestone —they did not stop them from touching the vines.

And Ianna, too, had truly only touched it without much thought.

Ping—.

But the ripples had spread as soon as Ianna’s fingers had brushed against the vines. Her entire world distorted. She couldn’t tell if she was in a dream or in reality, and Ianna startled and tried to step back when she felt like the vines were wrapping around her hand.

But then, the divine power filling the vines made her giddy. Just like when she had thrust her sword through her grandfather’s heart.

Badump, badump.

Ianna was seized by a feeling of satisfaction, as if she had finally found something that had been taken from her. The divine power that had been pooling inside the seal traveled up her blood vessels and sobered her up as it refilled her depleted stamina.

Badump, badump.

Her heart was thumping furiously, and she seemed to register all the information in the world at once as if she was on drugs —a sensation she had never experienced before. She could not make sense of the memories she saw because they did not flow in any chronological order but were all jumbled together.

But the one thing she was certain of was that she was always isolated in her memories.

She poured out her grace on pitiful organisms and was made a hero for putting the rampant wars that erupted as powerful gods struggled against each other to a close, but in the end, she was always alone and resting against a single tree with her eyes closed.

She had spent most of her time sleeping in the quiet stillness of a forest where none came to find her.

Shaaa!

A powerful and darkly-colored memory shone through her monochromic recollections. Ianna subconsciously focused on it.

Her friend had opened up the earth. And a black boy with shining yellowy eyes was staring up at her from the deep, deep underground —the chaos she had long since stopped caring about because she had thought that no more gods would be born from it. The boy stared directly at her with such a brilliant light in his eyes.

And the world was overturned.

“Ro.”

The unfamiliar boy waved his hand before her eyes.

“Are you sleeping?”

He carefully pressed his lips against her cheek when she didn’t answer.

“My blinding sun.”

Slowly, she opened her eyes. The black boy’s cheeks were rosy, and his radiant eyes reflected her and only her.

She embraced the boy. His entire being flushed. He buried his face into her neck and hugged her back.

“I love it. I love it more than anything in the world when you hug me like this. I want to be with you forever. Ro, you’re all I ever need.”

The boy, the boy who recklessly only ever looked to her, never hungered to learn more about the world even though he had been left alone inside the dark underground for so unfathomably long, and he worried her.

Her sole possession. The lonely god was possessive over the boy, and she wanted to raise him forever like a bird trapped in the tiny world of her making even as she wanted to help him broaden his perspective.

“I’ll stay with you,”

she said as she stroked his fine hair, and the boy burrowed deeper into her embrace.

“I love you…….”

“I know.”

“I love you so much.”

“I know.”

“For all eternity…….”

The boy’s mind matured as he learned more about the world, and so, too, did his body.

His blind envy had become as rabid desire with time. His small fingers touching at her face had grown long enough to wrap around her entire cheek, and the tiny body in her arms had grown large enough to cover her in his own embrace.

The boy had become a man, and his eyes had darkened with the color of his overflowing affections as if he meant to entice her with them. And as the boy said,

“For all eternity…….”

That earnest mark he left on her forehead.

The déjà vu brought Ianna back to her own world.

She opened her eyes to a white ceiling.

“Ugh.”

Throb, throb.

Her head ached something fierce as soon as she returned to her senses. It hurt so much that Ianna wondered if this was what it felt like to have a hole drilled through her skull with an awl.

“Lady Ianna!”

Saki, who had been bringing over a bowl of water and a cloth from afar rejoiced as she ran closer. Saki was saying something, but all Ianna could hear was a ringing in her ears —she could not hear Saki’s voice at all. Blankly, Ianna thought,

‘Did I pass out again? It’s problematic that I lose consciousness whenever I try to do anything that has to do with the Holy Age.’

Waking up again after fainting felt horrible. The fact that she completely lost control over her body and was left utterly defenseless before others for some time was terribly unpleasant to her.

But what had happened at the dwarves’ cemetery had happened today too —her mind wouldn’t listen to her when it came to matters relating to the Holy Age.

Ianna’s mental fortitude was so strong that she could count how many times her consciousness had slipped from her on her fingers despite the many decades she had lived, so this concerned her greatly.

‘I have to start by getting a grasp of the situation, but I really don’t want to do anything right now.’

Ianna was diligent, but her head hurt so much and her body felt so heavy that everything felt like a chore at the moment and she simply wanted to lie down and rest.

“Sigh…….”

Ianna let out a heated sigh as she brought her hand up to her moist and icky forehead. But she felt something cold and heavy touch her fingers instead of her skin.

Ianna cracked her eyes open and picked up the thing on her forehead to figure out what it was. It was a towel that had been dampened with cold water.

‘Why is this on my forehead?’

Ianna sat up despite her reluctance only for Saki to push her back down with a grave expression on her face.

She gasped as Saki’s hands pushed her back down. She could barely summon any of the strength in her body.

‘Seriously, why is my body like this right now?’

Ianna closed her eyes and meditated on her body only to be promptly alarmed. Her organs were functioning normally, and her blood was flowing through her blood vessels at a normal pace.

But the amount of divine power she had inside her heart and blood was unusual. She had several times the divine power in her body now than she had had before passing out.

‘So, I touched the vines…….’

A fierce flood of memories had poured into her as soon as she had felt herself connecting to the vines. And she had found herself here when she had next opened her eyes.

Ianna studied her body a bit longer. And she concentrated on her heart when she felt something peculiar.

Divine power was exploding out from the walls that sealed her heart.

What Ianna felt was similar to the following:

There was a lake, and several reservoirs led into to the lake. Normally, only the first reservoir was kept open and only allowed as much water to flow through it as the lake could handle. But now, the second reservoir had also been opened, and its water was flowing into the lake as well. The reservoirs were Ianna’s heart, and the lake was Ianna’s body.

She naturally came to understand what state her body was currently in.

‘I failed to break the seal. But the seal was unstable to begin with, and a part of Roberstein’s heart ignored the seal entirely and connected itself to mine.’

Their hearts were sharing with each other now. Roberstein’s heart was producing divine power. Her heart had been split into five parts, and Ianna had already been connected to one of those parts. And now, she had been connected to the second.

And this had increased the total amount of divine power she had by an alarming volume.

She could naturally understand the phenomena of the Holy Age that she was experiencing. Ianna wondered why she knew so much about it. And she found her answer readily.

‘I’ve pulled out some of Roberstein’s knowledge that was sleeping in my soul.’

Her migraine was in essence a side effect of her reawakening to a vast quantity of knowledge. And her body also hurt for similar reasons.

Her mind was growing clearer, and Ianna began feeling nauseated from deep within as she thought about Roberstein and the things she had gained. Her insides were throbbing. Ianna panted for breath as she covered her eyes with a hand.

‘……It feels strange.’

It felt like it wasn’t hers, and yet it also did feel like it was hers at the same time.

As if Roberstein was her but was also simultaneously not her.

And the consentience felt so strange.

It almost felt like Ianna, the human, and Roberstein, the god, had been jumbled into each other. Personality, knowledge, emotions, memories……personal relationships, the state of the world……. Everything that made up Ianna’s identity and everything that made up Roberstein’s identity were being jumbled together, and it made Ianna nauseated.

Ianna’s adamant sense of identity rejected the chaotic and disorderly sense of wrongness she was feeling, and it made her headache worse.

‘Am I Roberstein?’

‘No, no.’

‘I’m not……but I am?’

She remembered something hot, like a brand, on her forehead just as something was on the verge of swallowing her consciousness whole.

“For all eternity…….”

The golden eyes brimming with dense affections pierced through her pupils and caressed the deepest reaches of her very soul, and the subtle movements of his cold fingers clung to her cheeks like sticky spiderwebs.

And she had felt affection bubbling up from her heart as he pressed his lips against her forehead.

“You didn’t like it?”

He overlapped with Arhad.

And, just as the crimson god’s affections for the Demon brushed against the door to the glass garden hidden in the deepest depths of Ianna’s heart.

“……!”

Ianna snapped back to her senses and scowled fiercely as she immediately sat up. She cursed viscously to herself and rubbed frantically at her forehead with the towel, which had fallen down when she sat up.

‘How dare you.’

Ianna had been extremely irked when Roberstein’s memories had touched her feelings for Arhad.

Her feelings for Arhad were like a carefully tended lone flower budding in the glass garden hidden deep within the impregnable fortress she had built up around her heart.

She was raising that flower carefully with her whole heart and soul. That flower was the one thing that she absolutely did not wish for anyone to meddle with or violate.

The garden was filled to the brim with the precious emotions she had gained from Arhad. She would not allow anyone to interfere with the flower that was growing there, watered by those emotions, or with the garden standing around it.

So how dare Roberstein touch the one place whom no one else was allowed to touch?

How dare Roberstein try to step inside the place where only one flower could grow and plant her own flower there like it was only natural —how dare she try to influence Ianna’s flower in any way?

Ianna still felt affection for the Demon in one corner of her heart, but even the affection felt horrible to her. She raged at herself for feeling this way about any man other than Arhad.

Roberstein may have loved the Demon, but that was all there was to it. It didn’t matter even if Arhad himself was deeply connected to the Demon.

Ianna’s feelings for Arhad and Roberstein’s feelings for the Demon were two entirely separate things.

And Ianna experienced a fierce possessive desire, or perhaps a sense of belonging.

For the man who was the one being in the world who could be solely hers, who would always take her side no matter what, who would always be with her no matter when and where, who always overflowed with his reckless goodwill for her.

Her possessive desire —she didn’t want anyone to take Arhad, who always trusted her, away from her— and her strange sense of belonging —if she ever were to fall in love, it would undoubtedly be with Arhad— became as a blade that cut away anything external that tried to interfere.

That sword was Ianna’s ‘will,’ which refused to tolerate anything from intervening between her relationship with him.

Her seething displeasure separated her own identity from Roberstein’s. She was coming back to her senses, and Ianna could not keep herself from breaking the two completely apart from each other inside her.

And the sense of wrongness subsided immediately.

‘I am Ianna.’

She had found her identity again. And she also began reflecting. It was because her ego was still weaker than Roberstein’s that her identity had been thrown into chaos just now.

‘I still have a long way to go.’

She was keenly aware of it now that she had obtained Roberstein’s knowledge. Roberstein had been a truly powerful god. Ianna still had a long way to go if she wanted to catch up. She had to devote herself more and leap over the near-eternity that the god had once lived.

It was impossible for Ianna to break Roberstein’s seal at the moment.

‘But you’re still just my previous incarnation who’s no longer here. I’ll devour you and use you without fail.’

Ianna’s, who had almost lost the initiative after being entangled with her prior incarnation’s existence, will blazed. She smirked and let out a feeble laugh.

‘It’s funny. To think that it was my feelings for Arhad that helped me find my identity again after almost being swallowed up by Roberstein.’

It only meant that there was no room for anyone in her heart but Arhad. Arhad was her one and only king……and he was the only person in the world who may one day become her one and only man.

Ianna realized just how important Arhad was to her anew. And she also realized how straightforward her temperament was anew —she could only look to one person.

Ianna collected her breathing for a moment as she fully found herself again.

But her body was still heavy, and her head still hurt.

Saki was sitting next to Ianna and had been waiting for her to calm down. Ianna opened her eyes and asked her,

“What happened?”

“Oh.”

Saki grasped her hands as soon as Ianna spoke. She continued,

“You’ve finally calmed down a bit.”

Ianna hadn’t been able to hear Saki’s voice through the ringing earlier, but she could hear it clearly now.

“Please lie down.”

Ianna feebly lied back down without refusing Saki’s urging as Saki reorganized her covers.

“I don’t remember anything after I touched the vine.”

“That would make sense. You suddenly collapsed.”

Saki told Ianna that she had drawn everyone’s attention when she had collapsed. Saki had been bewildered, but she had calmly removed themselves from the scene and had brought Ianna to rest in an empty room inside the temple.

And then, she had grown even more bewildered. Ianna had suddenly began burning up with a terrible fever. The fever had been so high that Saki’s medical knowledge had told her that there must surely be some sort of infection inside Ianna’s body.

“I treated you with every method I know of, but your fever never broke. I felt so powerless because all I could do was stay by your side and try to cool you down. I thought you might leave me for God Laos’ side today.”

“I’m sorry for worrying you.”

Saki sighed in relief and worriedly asked,

“I’m so glad you’re awake now. How do you feel? Please tell me at once if you feel any discomfort.”

“My head hurts, and it’s really hot…….”

Saki’s face stiffened as Ianna replied with a groan.

“Are you sure you haven’t pushed yourself too hard? I know that the rest of the world’s standards don’t seem to apply to you, Lady Ianna, but it makes sense that you’ve worked yourself sick by summoning a spirit king for so long.”

Ianna remembered about Innis when Saki mentioned him, and Ianna tried to call for him quietly. But he didn’t answer, perhaps because had been unsummoned when Ianna had lost consciousness.

Ianna looked out the window.

Shaaa…….

It was still raining, but normal rain could not wash away the Reborn from the soil because it adhered more strongly to earth than it did to water. She needed Innis’ power for this, so she decided to call him again.

“It’s not because of that. But more importantly, Saki, did anything change about the gravestone or the vines when I collapsed?”

“No, not at all.”

Ianna was sure that she had felt the vines wrapping around her hand, but perhaps she had hallucinated it.

Ianna fell into a daze for a moment before she snapped back to her senses.

“How long was I asleep for?”

Saki checked the time and replied,

“About three hours or so.”

Ianna was glad she hadn’t been unconscious for very long.

She didn’t have long until it was the time that she had promised to meet with Sarachè and Priscilla. Ianna raised her hands and slapped herself lightly on the cheeks before she sat up again. In alarm, Saki said to her,

“You must take it easy for the rest of the day.”

“I can’t. I still feel a bit dull, but I can move just fine, so please don’t worry over me.”

Saki could not persuade Ianna out of her stubbornness. After all, what more could she say when Ianna herself declared she was fine? Her medical knowledge had not been able to cure Ianna’s fever or aching.

“I’d still like to see the gravestone again —will that be possible?”

“It should be, but…….”

Ianna poured strength into ever fiber of her being as she climbed out of bed.

‘Ugh.’

Truly, her body wasn’t in its normal state right now. This was the worse case of rebound, the aftereffects she suffered every time her heart pulled out a vast amount of divine power from within its walls, she had experienced yet.

But Ianna still managed to lead the quibbling Saki out of the room with the strength of her willpower alone.

They went back to the temple basement. Ianna looked at the gravestone and vines. The priests were still deeply moved to see them, just like before.

Ianna touched the vine again.

She felt odd, like she was resonating with something, alongside its touch. And she now acknowledged that the heart sealed inside the vines had been completely connected to her.

But nothing else had happened after that.

‘Was everything from before all that I could get out of an incomplete heart?’

She had gained a lot today, of course. So much, in fact, that she would have to spend a lot of time at her desk to organize it all.

But she still could not help but feel wistful at the fact that it felt like she was missing pieces here and there.

~~*~~

Part 7

Ianna had absolutely no interest in dolling herself up, so Sarachè and Priscilla had been meeting with each other in the days leading up to the party to discuss what she would wear.

Sarachè had once been called the flower of high society when she had been younger, and she had a knack for choosing clothes and accessories.

Sarachè had noticed Priscilla’s talents early on, and she always left Ianna’s party attire in Priscilla’s capable hands.

The kind Sarachè and the cheerful Priscilla also had complementary personalities, and they naturally hit it off rather well.

They chatted with each other as they waited at the meeting location.

“You must attend parties quite faithfully, my Lady?”

“I’m almost always in the Roberstein lands, after all. Everyone sends me all sorts of invitations whenever I’m in the capital. They’re all good acquaintances of mine, so I find them rather difficult to turn down.”

Priscilla let out a sigh.

“It’d be nice if Little Ianna attended more parties too.”

It was such a waste. Priscilla could confidently say that Ianna’s figure, tempered by her training, was one of the best she had ever seen in a model.

She felt like anyone with Ianna’s face and figure would find it worthwhile to dress up from time to time, but Ianna favored simplicity and comfort in her clothes at all times.

‘Though I guess it doesn’t matter because she’s cool no matter what she wears.’

She had been pestering Ianna ever since she had first met the girl, and she had finally gotten to the point where she was making almost everything Ianna wore.

Priscilla was happy because she could have the model of her dreams wear the clothes she made, and Ianna was happy because she didn’t have to go out of her way to buy clothes —it was a win-win situation.

And so, Priscilla had recently stepped away from making unisex clothing because she could satisfy her greed just by making clothes for Ianna.

But she was still wistful, of course.

The dresses of noblewomen at parties were the very definition of extravagance, and their designers, too, were free to use the most expensive of materials to reach the epitome of their craft.

‘Little Ianna would be so dazzling if she wore something like that.’

Sarachè shook her head while Priscilla was lost in her fantasies.

“That child dislikes parties.”

“But it’s not like she’s not attending at all, no? Little Ianna’s the type of person who’d rather die than do something against her wishes, so I can never tell what she’s thinking since she’ll still technically willing to attend a few.”

Sarachè smiled wryly.

Ianna was only attending parties because she had been half-coerced into it.

Ianna had so little interest in high society and the nobility that she probably preferred to cut herself away from it entirely.

She had only attended two parties so far, but she had only stayed holed up in a corner both times. The girl would have already disappeared by the time Sarachè looked up from speaking with her acquaintances.

That was how pointless Ianna had found the parties to be.

And she was similarly disinterested in House Roberstein.

‘She truly is like a blade.’

The way she absolutely refused to reconsider something once she had rejected it was respectable, yet it was also terrifying.

Sarachè had given up by now. That she had failed to turn Ianna’s heart toward her was an undisputed fact, and now she was simply doing her best to rectify her wrongs. Ianna’s reputation was slowing getting better as Cherno and Sarachè brought her to parties and worked hard to change the people’s opinions of her.

To give back everything Ianna had lost because of House Roberstein. That was what Sarachè had to do.

Priscilla had brushed aside her wistfulness and had come to a decision while Sarachè was lost in thought, and she gleefully exclaimed,

“But it’s all well and fine since our Little Ianna’s still super cool! Her straightforwardness is charming, but it’s charming when she’s being vague too. She’s like a giant lump of charm.”

Sarachè smiled.

Priscilla’s refined dresses matched Ianna’s composed personality well and highlighted Ianna’s aloofness. This rendered the nobles who disparaged Ianna for her humble origins mute when they stood before her. Sarachè was immensely grateful to Priscilla for that.

“I’m so glad that you and Ianna are so healthy, Little Priscilla. Theodore’s been in chaos because of the epidemic as of late.”

“I don’t think the disease is contagious……but I still count my lucky stars.”

The streets were blooming with preparations for the festival. But there was a faint shadow over the people’s faces as they worked. Priscilla continued,

“Actually, I thought I was going to die when I started coughing a while back. But it went away completely after I had a good night’s rest. I deluded myself into thinking that I was about to die because of everything that’s been happening, but it was just a simple cold.”

“That’s wonderful to hear. But you don’t think the disease is contagious? What makes you think that?”

“I’ve been as hearty and hale ever since I started only eating imported foods because Little Ianna told me not to eat food from Theodore. Little Ianna’s the best!”

“Perhaps there’s a problem with the food that’s been grown in Theodore. But how did Ianna know about that?”

“One of Little Ianna’s friends got sick. And she’s been really worried about him. Maybe she’s been looking into things on her own?”

“She must be very kind,”

Sarachè said bitterly, but Priscilla failed to notice as she beamed.

“She’s always looking after everyone even though she pretends otherwise. Besides, hardly anyone believes the disease is contagious anymore. Most people think there’s a problem with the food.”

Sarachè and Priscilla had arrived at their meeting location a tad early.

They enjoyed the view as they waited for Ianna to arrive, but she did not come even though the appointed time had passed.

Ianna was like a blade in everything she did, and she was also precise about her appointments as well. Sarachè and Priscilla grew worried when Ianna failed to show.

“Do you think something happened?”

“Little Ianna ignores everything else when she has an appointment and she’s never late to them…… I hope it’s nothing big.”

Ianna finally arrived several minutes later.

“I’m sorry I’m late.”

Sarachè and Priscilla turned toward her voice with happy relief, but they stiffened up as soon as they saw her complexion.

“Are you feeling ill, Ianna?”

“I’m not in great condition, but I’ll be all right.”

Priscilla tottered up to Ianna and stuck close to her as she carefully placed a hand on the other girl’s forehead.

“You’re really hot. Shouldn’t you be resting instead of attending the party?”

Ianna saw the concern in Priscilla’s eyes and shook her head.

“It’s not that bad. I don’t plan on staying at the party for long, so I should be fine. Let’s go.”

Ianna walked on ahead, and Sarachè and Priscilla had no choice but to follow after her despite their worries.

They arrived at the Roberstein’s villa in the capital and began getting ready.

Priscilla was in charge of everything because she didn’t want to trust Ianna, her muse, in the hands of another.

Ianna, too, was far more comfortable with Priscilla than she was with the people working for House Roberstein, whom she was still awkward around, so she played along with Priscilla’s borderline obsessive love for her muse.

And so, Ianna and Priscilla took to one of the dressing rooms while Sarachè got ready in another with the help of her maids.

“Tada.”

As per usual, the dress Priscilla had prepared was very simple and humble in design. This one gave off a pleasantly plain impression.

“I used a dark reddish-brown since it’s autumn and the harvest festival. And I’ve only prepared as few accessories as possible, since now’s not the best time to be flashy.”

“It’s nice.”

Ianna was endlessly frank and stingy with her praises, so, “It’s nice,” actually meant that she rather liked it a lot. Priscilla flushed with joy as she helped Ianna into her clothes.

But she still frowned awkwardly as she tied the ribbon around Ianna’s waist.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Little Ianna? Your body’s really feverish. It’s so hot that I’m starting to sweat just standing next to you.”

Ianna had been trying not to let it show, but there was little she could do to hide her feverish skin, hastened breathing, flushed cheeks, or unfocused eyes.

Priscilla had asked her multiple times to reconsider going to the party, but Ianna had stubbornly refused to change her mind.

“You’re only sweating because you’re struggling to help me into these clothes while being so short yourself.”

Ianna kept deflecting the conversation.

“It’s so like you, Little Ianna. You don’t have your sword right now, so you pick apart people’s hearts with your words instead.”

Priscilla finished adjusting the dress as she grumbled and moved on to Ianna’s makeup.

Ianna advised Priscilla,

“I’ve already decided to attend the party, so please say no more about the matter.”

She was grateful for Priscilla’s concern, but her throbbing headache already put her on edge and she did not know what kind of poisons would spew out from her mouth if Priscilla continued questioning her decisions.

“Who could possibly stop you when you’re being so stubborn, Little Ianna?”

Ianna’s tone had been sharp, and most normal people would have quieted down out of fear by now.

But Priscilla had held her ground against Ianna’s bloodlust before, and her nerves, while still flexible, were as firm as steel. She continued,

“But come back as soon as you feel worse, okay? I’ll be waiting here like always, and I’ll make sure you can get out of everything quickly and rest as soon as you’re done. Mm.”

Priscilla continued to worry over Ianna even as she joked lightly.

“I’m always grateful for that.”

Priscilla smiled when Ianna expressed her thanks.

“I’ll try my best to use makeup to hide the fact that you aren’t feeling well.”

“Thank you.”

Ianna closed her eyes as she felt Priscilla powder her cheeks.

“…….”

Priscilla glanced over at the luxurious ring resting on the ring finger of Ianna’s left hand as she did the latter’s makeup and grinned.

‘Little Arhad’s one amazing man. He coaxed someone as scary as Little Ianna into being his girlfriend, and now he’s even managed to put a ring on her.’

Priscilla had a sharp eye for these things, and she had noticed the ring on Ianna’s finger as soon as Ianna had returned to their dorm after her trip. It had made Priscilla shriek with glee.

Ianna had planned to stay quietly in their room until summer vacation was over, but Priscilla had begged and pestered Ianna to tell her what happened.

And so, Ianna had summarized the gist of things for her because she felt like Priscilla would pester her for the rest of her life if she didn’t say anything.

And Priscilla had been satisfied.

‘To think he’s even made Little Ianna like him enough that she kissed him first. He’s as smart and crafty as he is handsome.’

Priscilla finished Ianna’s makeup and admired Ianna’s face while she was still closing her eyes.

Ianna’s lashes were long, and her nose was sharp. Her face grew smaller and its lines more distinct as what little baby fat she had left on her elaborate features slowly shrank away.

Priscilla was drooling as she lost herself in Ianna’s pretty face when Ianna opened her eyes.

Surely, Ianna’s eyes were her most appealing charm.

Their color was as beautiful and strong as a blazing flame.

Their distinct hue was so beautiful and pretty that Priscilla could not help but think that she would be sucked into them.

But, while their loveliness was one thing, Priscilla also felt safe beyond measure and like she wanted to be with Ianna for the rest of her life every time she looked into Ianna’s eyes.

Though they looked more dangerous than safe at the moment.

There was something sexy about how they were ever so slightly moistened…….

‘Oh shoot, oh shoot…….’

Ianna looked back at Priscilla for a moment before she asked,

“What are you doing?”

“Enjoying the view…….”

“Enjoying what view……? I ask that you finish up quickly since I’m tired.”

Ianna closed her eyes again, and Priscilla continued admiring Ianna’s face even as she worked quickly with her hands.

‘She’s getting prettier by the day. Little Arhad’s in for a lot of trouble. There’ll probably be more nobles interested in Ianna from now on at the parties —will everything be okay?’

Worried about Arhad’s love life, Priscilla asked,

“Will Little Arhad be attending the party too?”

“No.”

Ianna cut her off at once.

Arhad had faithfully kept his promise. He had promised to stay quietly in the tower after she had bullied and practically threatened him against coming to the parties.

He had only asked that she contact him through their rings should anything happen when he had dropped her off at the female dormitories as always last night. He had reminded Ianna of a dog being forced to watch the house alone as his master left when he looked back at her.

It had nearly made her heart grow weak, but she had exercised a vice grip over it.

Unable to comprehend, Priscilla asked,

“Why not? Does Little Arhad dislike parties too?”

‘But I’m pretty sure he’d chase after her in a heartbeat even still since he likes her like crazy.’

The questions were growing larger in Priscilla’s mind, but Ianna only replied vaguely before trying to end the conversation. Priscilla continued,

“But Little Ianna, wouldn’t it be better for Little Arhad to be with you today since you aren’t feeling well? Shall I call him over?”

“You absolutely must not.”

Priscilla closed her mouth when Ianna uncharacteristically replied with firm repulsion in her voice.

‘You really can’t.’

Ianna did not even want to imagine what Arhad might think if he ever learned how unwell she was right now. Nor did she want him to see her being so disgracefully sick.

More importantly, it was in Ianna’s nature to finish what she had started, and she had called Innis again and had asked him to finish washing the Reborn away as soon as she had left the temple. So, she was terribly loath to get caught by Arhad right now.

‘Is there a reason why he can’t come to the party? But I think I should at least let him know. I’ve never seen Little Ianna feeling sick before.’

Ianna let Priscilla finish decorating her without ever knowing what was going through the other girl’s mind.

“I’ll be back.”

Ianna bid goodbye to Priscilla and left the villa with Sarachè, and their carriage splashed the puddles on the street as it moved toward the royal palace.

Priscilla had stepped outside the manor to see her off, and she stood in place as she quietly watched the carriage grow smaller.

Then, she quickly walked away as soon as the carriage had left her view. She was not walking back toward the manor but to its gates.

Priscilla had been planning to stay in the Roberstein villa so she could help Ianna get undressed later.

Ianna had been sorry that this meant that Priscilla would be staying indoors on the day of the festival, but Priscilla had simply said that she wasn’t in the mood for a festival and would much rather be reading instead as she waved Ianna away.

And that was exactly what Priscilla had planned to do, but she was worried about Ianna’s condition and decided to find Arhad instead.

Priscilla walked quickly for a while in her concern for Ianna. But her pace slowed when Ianna’s firm attitude slowly slipped past the worries that were filling her head.

‘Little Ianna really didn’t want Little Arhad at the party. What if she had a really important reason for that?

‘I wouldn’t be worrying Little Arhad for no reason when he can’t go to the party anyway, right?

‘Little Ianna really hates it when people cross the line……. But I’m not crossing the line right now, right? Am I? What if this makes Little Ianna want to cut her ties with me? Ack, I really don’t want that.

‘Should I just go back to the villa?

‘Little Ianna said she’s okay, but she was obviously pushing herself. Little Arhad’s the only person whom she’s willing to show her weakness to, so it’s still probably for the best that he came to pick her up even if he can’t attend the party.’

Priscilla never stopped walking even as she agonized until she suddenly stopped in her tracks as a thought hit her like lightning.

‘I’m crazy. What do I even have brains for? I don’t even know where Little Arhad is.’

Not only was today a holiday, but most students had left the Institution grounds because they didn’t like the gloomy atmosphere around the school while it was closed. It was very unlikely that Arhad was still inside the Institution.

Some students had still chosen to remain in their dorms, of course, but Arhad did not live in the dormitories in the first place. And it wasn’t as if Priscilla could find out his home address either.

It had often been a topic for gossip that countless lovesick women had tried to figure out where he lived upon realizing that he didn’t live in the dormitories and had subsequently failed miserably.

The rain was pouring, her feet were plodding through the mud, and she was brushing bodily against people as she ran.

Priscilla found herself at a loss, devastated and flustered, but she found herself moving toward the Institution again even still.

‘I can still at least try asking around. And I’ll just go back to the villa if I can’t find him…….’

She trudged vacantly along when the people around her suddenly stopped moving.

‘Did something happen up ahead?’

Priscilla proceeded slowly while squeezing between people until she had found the reason why the crowd had formed. People were walking around something laying on the street.

Her curious feet carried her forward.

“This was reported so long ago —why aren’t the guards here yet?”

“Well, there’ve been so many people collapsed on the roads lately.”

Priscilla couldn’t see because she was short, but there was apparently someone collapsed on the street.

“He’s not dead, is he?”

“Can’t someone move him?”

“Then why don’t you do it?”

People had been reluctant to help others as of late. News that the disease wasn’t contagious had been cautiously going around, but it wasn’t enough for people to feel at ease just yet.

‘Life’s so hard these days,’

Priscilla thought as she smacked her tongue.

“But, judging by his clothes…”

“Yeah, that’s for certain.”

Her ears picked up the word ‘clothes’ from the heartless murmurs around her.

‘What about his clothes?’

Priscilla grew curious as she finally started being able to glimpse the collapsed person.

“Huh……?”

She flinched when she saw his familiar hair and figure.

Priscilla had a sharp eye for these things, and she could identify her close acquaintances by just the shape of their head and figure. Thus, she realized that the person collapsed with his clothes in bloody tatters was likely someone she knew.

No way, Priscilla thought as she cut through the crowd. She gingerly checked his face —he was as motionless as the dead— and screamed,

“Oh my god!”

She sank down to her knees in shock and shook him. She knew exactly who this intellectual, ashen-colored boy was. She continued,

“Pull yourself together, Little Rikijen!”

She could not understand why he, who had been admitted into a hospital, was lying unconscious in the middle of the street while still wearing his hospital gown. And while covered in wounds, no less.

“Ahhh, what’s going on?”

Priscilla was still lost in her bewilderment when the people around her began criticizing her.

“Hey, is he someone you know, miss?”

“Take him away already if he is.”

“He should’ve stayed quietly at the hospital if he’s sick —why’s he making trouble out here?”

Their heartless words brought Priscilla back to her senses, and she shouted back,

“Please help me!”

The crowd was staring at her in hesitation, but no one extended a helping hand. She grit her teeth and tried to carry Rikijen on her back, but the task was too difficult for her tiny frame.

Rikijen’s feet dragged across the ground as he hung limp.

“Help me! The disease isn’t contagious!”

“Ahem.”

Most people avoided her gaze and quickly walked away.

“Excuse me, sir? Is that how God Laos said we should live? I’ll carry him, so could you please just help keep him steady from behind?!”

But everyone was hesitant. It was only after Priscilla called someone out that he awkwardly started helping her.

The limp boy was heavy. Still, Priscilla desperately shouldered his weight and made her way to the nearest hospital.

She finally got him to a bed, laid him down, and helped the severely understaffed nurses change him out of his bloodied and muddied clothes and helped treat him by wiping him down with a clean cloth that had been heated by the fire.

Rikijen did not stir. He was burning up, and it was obvious that his condition had worsened rapidly.

“Oh my gosh. How did this…? I mean, Little Rikijen was supposed to be admitted to a hospital, so why was he laying in the middle of the street like that? Who am I supposed to report this to?”

She tried to recall who Rikijen’s guardian was, but she could not. She had only spoken with Rikijen a few times while Ianna had been with them —they were not very close.

So, it was only natural that she thought of Ianna.

“Little Ianna? But she’s at the party……no, what am I even doing right now?”

Priscilla paced about, her mind thrown into chaos, before she finally decided to stay put and help nurse Rikijen for a while.

Rikijen groaned and opened his eyes within the hour.

“Little Rikijen!”

Priscilla rejoiced as she called him name and walked over to him.

“Ack!”

The bedframe rattled. Rikijen had startled so badly he had nearly jumped. Priscilla started too and stopped in her tracks.

“You’re……sigh.”

Rikijen looked visibly relieved once he had confirmed who it was that had called his name. He continued,

“It’s…you…Lady Pris—cough—cilla. But why are you……?”

His relief only lasted a moment before he immediately sat up.

“Lady Priscilla!”

“Y-yes?”

Rikijen grabbed hold of Priscilla’s arm with an urgent look on his face. He, too, had immediately thought of Ianna as soon as he had laid his eyes on Priscilla. Priscilla’s roommate was someone who could help him.

“Do you know where Lady Ianna is right now? Please!”

He strung his words together even as he coughed uncontrollably. He was usually so cynical and his facial expressions barely ever betrayed him, and yet he was so openly desperate at the moment.

“N-no……ack, that’s not what I meant —I do know, but…”

Priscilla tripped over her words in her bewilderment when Rikijen tightened his grasp on her arm.

“Where is she?”

“At the palace. Today’s the Thanksgiving of Laos.”

Rikijen climbed out of bed.

“You know a lot of noble ladies, right? Please go to the palace immediately. It doesn’t matter whom you ask, so please call Lady Ianna over immediately. Cough, cough! Cough!”

“O-okay. I don’t know what’s going on, but okay. I’ll call her over, so please lie down, Little Rikijen. You shouldn’t be moving about.”

“I don’t have time to be lying down! Sir Eiji’s in danger.”

“Huh?”

Rikijen’s condition had already been a sudden surprise, so what was this about Eiji now?

Priscilla stared back at him blankly, and Rikijen shouted back at her with dead seriousness.

“He might die!”

Priscilla’s eyes opened wide. Rikijen pushed her away as he coughed. He continued,

“Hurry!”

“W-what do I…? What’s going on?”

She left the hospital in a hurry as he urgently pushed her off.

~~*~~

A few hours prior.

Though his condition could not have been said to be great by any means, Rikijen had improved enough to be able to wake up early and read after Ianna and Saki had visited him.

He had been reading in a hospital room filled with patients sleeping like the dead when Eiji visited. Eiji would often visit him early in the morning when there were fewer prying eyes.

Eiji stared quietly at Rikijen, who was looking much better than he had previously.

“You okay?”

“I’m feeling a little better. Is there something you needed? Why are you visiting so often? —it’s starting to get annoying.”

Eiji smirked because Rikijen, who had been sleeping like a sick chicken before, was apparently well enough to pick a fight with him now.

“Why don’t you exercise a bit more, you idiot? You got sick because you’re breathing in all that dust from your beloved books all the time.”

“Why’re you picking a fight with a patient?”

“Hey, you started it.”

“Well, it’s true that you’re annoying me by visiting so often, Sir. Aren’t you busy? I’m doing fine, so please stop worrying about me and go back to your work.”

Rikijen grumbled, but he was still visibly happy. He had no family, so he was obviously be happy that his friends were visiting him while he was sick.

He was only being curt because he was worried that he might be getting in the way of Eiji’s work. That was simply the kind of person Rikijen was.

“Stop being so coy, you twat. But I’m a bit curious. How did you get better so suddenly? This isn’t the type of illness that’s easy to recover from, you know?”

“I don’t know. Hmmm, though I do feel as though I started doing better after Lady Ianna and her friend visited me. My body suddenly felt a whole lot lighter after that. Though I think I’ve slowly been getter worse again.”

A strange light entered Eiji’s eyes.

“Did Little Ianna do something for you?”

“It was her friend who did something……but I don’t know what that was. Then again, it was Lady Ianna who brought her friend to me, so she technically did something for me too. And she also brought me all this and told me to only eat foods from last year’s harvest a short while back.”

Eiji looked over to the shelf when Rikijen gestured toward it. There was a heap of bread packed away in a bag sitting on the shelf.

“Bread?”

“They bought it for me when I said I wanted to eat some. It’s apparently been made from last year’s wheat.”

Rikijen scratched his head. He continued,

“But weirdly enough, I can’t seem to eat my fill no matter how much I eat.”

“Did you finally go crazy over bread?”

“No, that’s not it —it feels more like I thought I wanted bread but I actually wanted something else……cough.”

“Just pig out on your bread.”

Eiji picked up a loaf and crammed it inside Rikijen’s mouth before the latter could finish fully expressing his doubts.

Eiji’s expression grew cold as he watched over Rikijen chewing away in discontent.

‘It’s probably Reborn that he actually wants to eat.’

And everything was his fault.

“The thing is, kitten. The truth is that I only used the Reborn ‘because of you.’ I was curious to see how you’d react. So many innocent people have suffered and died —and it’s all because of you.”

Eiji clenched his hands into fists as he recalled Margarita’s curse.

“I don’t give a damn about whether or not you murder every last soul in Theodore, so stop this bullshit about how it’s all my fault or that you’ll stop if I crawl back between your legs and just do what you want.”

Or so he had said to Margarita, but the truth was that he absolutely did not want to simply let her do as she pleased.

The guilt he felt toward the general populace had long since faded away as he worked for the Black Fox, but the same did not hold true for his friends. He did not wish for his friends to experience the torture he had experienced in the past. Nor did he want his friends to break their hearts over the fact that their acquaintances were ill.

He had wanted to murder Margarita right there and then. But not only had it been a terrible time and place for that, but he also couldn’t kill her because he had not broken free of her brainwashing.

And that was why he had visited Rikijen in the hospital today —because of the guilt he felt in a corner of his heart. His heart grew somewhat lighter after seeing that Rikijen was doing better.

‘Margarita didn’t react to him, so Little Ianna must’ve done something while avoiding her eyes.’

He chuckled quietly as he recalled the girl who acted brusque but still did everything in her power for her friends.

‘She really is the type to never abandon her allies. How kind of her.’

He looked back at Rikijen who was now enjoying his bread as if he had never been displeased in the first place and nagged,

“Is bread really all you should be eating? Go eat some vegetables and meat too, you bread-loving twat.”

“I do want to eat something fresh now.”

“I’ll go buy you some, so just stay put.”

Rikijen grinned.

“Please get me something to drink too, while you’re at it.”

“Shameless, aren’t you?”

“Oh, and could you please close the window before you leave? It’s been raining so much lately……and it gets cold quickly.”

“Am I your servant or something?”

But Eiji closed the window even as he grumbled. He continued,

“Anyway, just stay put.”

“Yes, I know.”

Rikijen resumed his reading when the door closed behind Eiji and silence returned to the room.

But the tranquility was broken shortly thereafter.

“So it’s you.”

Rikijen looked up at the door, wondering if Eiji had accidentally left something behind, and could not hide his surprise. A skinny woman sauntered her way into the room.

Rikijen studied her up and down. She was a stranger to him.

“Is your name Rikijen?”

“Yes, but who are you?”

She giggled at him dryly.

“Well aren’t you a good-looking boy? You’re just my type.”

“…….”

She had walked in out of nowhere and was saying something insane. Was she crazy? Should he call for a nurse? Rikijen forgot what he had been about to say and fell into thought when she suddenly wagged a finger at him.

“Go to sleep for just a little bit, okay?”

Rikijen could not resist her, and he promptly fell passed out and fell asleep.

The woman, Margarita, picked him up as if in an embrace.

“This is your final moment of rest before you find yourself in hell.”

She had him float in the air as she opened the window. She turned back around and smiled.

“Chase after us quickly. Before this child dies.”

Then, she jumped out the window. She hummed leisurely as she used Blink and headed for a district in the city that she frequented.

She dropped Rikijen against a wall and undid her magic on him once she had reached her intended destination.

“Ugh…….”

He frowned and groaned as he woke. He looked around when he opened his eyes, unable to grasp the situation he was in.

“Where am I……?”

“Good morning.”

He looked up when he heard a voice coming down on him from above. He found the strange woman he had met before he lost consciousness looking down at him.

“……Who are you?”

“I’m Eiji’s master.”

‘Master?’

Rikijen knew that Eiji worked as an informant in the underground. If this woman was Eiji’s master, then it would make her his boss in the organization he was affiliated with.

‘But what does she want with me?’

Margarita began raising a fuss.

“My, my. I’m certain I can feel my magic coming from you……but why’s it so faint? Did Eiji do something to help you?”

Rikijen furrowed his brows a little.

‘Her magic’s……. Become faint……?’

Rikijen, still as sharp as ever, immediately connected her words to his condition and realized not only that his illness had been caused by magical means but also that Ianna’s friend had also cast some sort of spell on him when she had touched his hand.

And if the woman before him was the very person who had cast the spell behind his illness, then he could vaguely guess that the epidemic eating away at Theodore might be the work of the organization that Eiji was affiliated with.

Rikijen’s expression grew cynical and expressionless.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He scowled as he feigned ignorance, and the quiver in his voice was so slight that no one would have noticed unless they were listening attentively. He was so innately talented at it that he even managed to deceive Margarita, a seasoned veteran.

Margarita smiled, thinking that Rikijen was simply pretending not to be afraid.

“Mm, it’s fine if you don’t. But more importantly, what’s your relationship with Eiji?”

“He’s just an ‘acquaintance’ of mine.”

“I doubt it. Eiji doesn’t have the leisure of keep spending his time on others. So he must care about you quite a bit. Are you his lover? Does he have a taste for men?”

“That’s preposterous. We just happen to know each other. Why did you bring me here? Please take me back.”

“Goodness, what a composed child you are. But you know, you might not know it, but I’m certain that my kitten cares about you quite a bit. All of his supposed lovers ended up being a bunch of ignorant one-night flings. And he didn’t seem to care at all even when I tortured those wenches. It was so cruel of him.”

‘Her kitten……. Torture…….’

Rikijen extracted a lot of information from just the few words Margarita had uttered. He intuited how Margarita treated Eiji on a usual basis, and he understood that they must surely be on bad terms.

His turbid eyes glanced at the sweet smile on Margarita’s face. She was holding needles in her hands that were probably used for torture. And he could easily guess that those needles would be stuck into his body soon.

Rikijen sighed quietly.

‘Is this where I die?’

He couldn’t let himself die here, but Rikijen prepared himself for the worst. He was usually bold, but even he began growing a little anxious.

“Ahh, I always have so much fun when I think about how much pain my kitten’s about to be in.”

“…….”

Margarita’s eyes met Rikijen’s, and she used the tip of one of her needles to raise his chin up.

“I’m going to have my way with everyone that child cares about, starting with you. So don’t feel too bad —you’re not the only one who’s going to die.”

Rikijen was deeply offended by this crazy mage who was apparently planning to mess with everyone important to Eiji. But he didn’t let it show.

‘I have to buy time.’

The gears in his head began rolling quickly.

‘There’s no question that I’m going to get tortured. But if she’s only torturing me, then I’ll be able to drag this out for a while just by saying the right things at the right time. I’ll survive if I stay conscious until someone rescues me, and I guess I’ll die if I don’t.’

Despite his cold rationality, however, Rikijen’s twisted personality began to wriggle free.

‘……But I’m going to mess with you too.’

Part 8

Eiji returned a little while later with a basket of fruit, but Rikijen’s bed was empty.

“Did he go to the bathroom or something?”

He placed his basket down next to the bag of bread Ianna had brought and sat down in the chair next to the empty bed.

“Sighhh!”

Eiji sat quietly and waited for a bit before he let out a long sigh and buried his face in his hands.

“This is exhausting……,”

he mumbled.

‘I have to hurry up and kill her.’

But he hadn’t had the chance because Margarita had been glued to Payne’s side as of late. The very thought disgusted him, but he had also considered trying to seduce her. But Margarita was quick on the uptake, so she was bound to notice that something was wrong.

He had been busy thinking of how to murder Margarita when he looked at his watched and promptly grew alarmed. Rikijen had been absent for far too long.

“Is he taking a dump or something?”

He grew worried when a little more time had passed.

“He hasn’t taken a fall or anything, right?”

Eiji got up and went to the restroom. But it was completely empty.

He was starting to grow anxious now.

Thud, thud.

He broke out into a run as he was walking back down to the first floor. He ran to the reception desk and gathered his ragged breathing as he asked,

“Excuse me, have you seen the patient in room 305?”

“No, I haven’t.”

He pursed his lips tight and returned to Rikijen’s room.

He was looking around the entire room when something suddenly caught his eye. The window, which he knew he had closed earlier, was open.

“…….”

He betrayed no expression as he scanned the entire room.

There were skillfully hidden traces left behind.

Eiji threw his body out the window. He ran as quickly as he could as he followed the traces that had been left behind on purpose.

He didn’t know how long he had run before he found himself in the slums, which were a cut gloomier than usual due to the rain. And there, he found the woman whom he so badly wanted to kill clutching bloodied ashen hair in her hands.

“…….”

Eiji fell silent when he saw that Rikijen wasn’t moving. He felt like his blood was boiling up to the very top of his head. Margarita grinned when she saw him.

“You’re late.”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“He was pretty cheeky. He kept goading me little by little until I finally snapped before I realized it. So I wasn’t able to torture him for very long.”

“Is he dead?”

“No, I made sure he was still breathing. I was in the middle of wondering how I should kill him in front of you that would make this satisfying. You really are useless, aren’t you?”

She leered at him as if she was looking as something vile.

“You’re dirty……,”

Eiji mumbled.

“Hmm?”

“You’re dirty……. You’re so, so underhanded and foul! How could you do something like this? Are you even human? What the hell did I ever do to you? Why do you have to keep harassing me like this?”

Eiji screamed.

“I’m harassing you?”

“Yes, you are! If you have a bone to pick with Dorcianni, then go screw with her —why the hell can’t you just leave me the fuck alone?!”

Margarita’s eye’s twitched. Eiji’s breath was ragged as he quivered and continued,

“You know what? —fine. I don’t care if you mess with me. But isn’t that enough? —why do you have to mess with the people around me too? Why?!”

“You’re supposed to be focused on your work, kitten. Did you think you were sent here to fool around? Do you really think you ever stopped being a slave? You haven’t. You’re still just a leashed kitten.”

“…….”

“You were sent here to catch the mouse who stole the cheese, so why did you let yourself get distracted by other people? You’re nothing but a little kitten.”

Margarita pulled up Rikijen’s head so that Eiji could see his unconscious visage. She continued,

“Are you fuming right now because of this trash? I guess nice people like this child here were really good to you.”

Margarita laughed.

“Oh, I see. So that’s how it is. In that case, I’ll kill off all the people here you care about one by one. I’ll wipe away every last person at the Institution who’s ever been kind to you, families and all. You’ve grown too soft, so I’ll stay by your side and help you make sure you’re only focused on your work.”

“Margarita!”

Eiji went blind with fury as he rushed at Margarita. He wrapped his hands tightly around her throat and pressed.

Poow!

Margarita fell over backward, and Eiji landed on top of her.

“Die, just die!”

He squeezed her throat. But his strength failed him.

“You can’t even kill me…….”

Margarita smiled. She continued,

“No one else is here right now. No one’s watching.”

Eiji’s hands trembled as he heard what Margarita was saying. But he never let go of her throat.

“Go ahead and try to kill me. You can’t, right? Your hands are trembling around my throat.”

A wicked light flashed in Margarita’s eyes.

Poooow!

Her fist came flying at Eiji’s face.

“You can’t kill me even when I’m hitting you! But I see you still have your hands on my throat, huh. You’ve grown up, haven’t you, Eiji?”

“Hurry up and go!”

Eiji suddenly shouted. Margarita snapped back to her senses and looked to where Rikijen had been slumped over. He wasn’t there. He had already hobbled quite far away.

Rikijen looked back at Eiji with worry, but he never stopped moving. He understood that he would only be a hindrance in this situation —he couldn’t be of help.

“That little…….”

Margarita erupted in fury and began beating Eiji. But Eiji never lost his grip on her throat.

“Let go!”

Eiji looked down at the woman struggling beneath him with clouded eyes.

Just when?

When will I be able to break free?

This woman —I need to kill her.

So why can’t I?

His vision grew hazy. His hands, which couldn’t even snap the twig-like throat he was holding, looked like the tiny hands he had once begged with long ago as he pleaded with her to stop. His delusions, so realistic that he was practically convinced they would undoubtedly come true, told him that laying a hand on this woman meant he would be dragged back to the laboratory and be experimented on like a lab rat again and made his head hurt.

“Die…….”

But letting go meant that the Witch would go after Rikjen, so Eiji endured the skull-splitting pain in his head as he continued to squeeze tighter.

“Just die!”

“Hack…….”

Margarita was finally beginning to have trouble breathing. She was alarmed and began railing at him with everything she had. She hit him as she struggled to get his hands off her throat.

Eiji felt like his head would burst open from the pain. It hurt so much his vision was turning white.

Poow!

She clawed at his arm as she struggled. Her fingers caught on the bracelet he was wearing, and its beads, which Ianna had said were a symbol of good fortune, scattered about and made Eiji dizzy.

Eiji let go of Margarita’s throat before he could stop himself and tried to catch his bracelet so it wouldn’t break.

Pooooow!

Margarita grabbed a rock from the ground as soon as she was freed and smashed it over Eiji’s head. She quickly got out from under him as Eiji fell over sideways.

“Did you seriously try to kill me for real?”

Margarita pulled out a mirror from her pocket with a quivering hand and glared at the marks Eiji had left on her throat. She began beating him like she had lost her mind. Then, she stomped on his hands, which refused to let go of what they were holding, as if she meant to crush them.

But his hold was so tight that his hands refused to open even as his flesh tore. It was only after Eiji had passed out that Margarita was satisfied and spat out in ecstasy.

“You’ll have a lot to look forward to in the future, little kitten.”

~~*~~

The party began with the king proclaiming that the disease encroaching Theodore was the work of magic. The mood fell into confusion. Even the royal magicians could not find a solution to this crisis, and the nobles in the capital fared no better.

Not many nobles were gossiping, and most were conversing about the unidentified mage or about importing foodstuffs.

How to find the mage and kill them, or at what price the food would be imported —things of that nature.

Meanwhile, Ianna was resting on the sofa. She had walked over to a corner of the hall as soon as she had arrived at the party, sat down on one of the sofas meant for resting on, and had immediately hidden her presence.

But she still ended up drawing attention to herself.

That was because Schneider, who had been looking around as if in search of someone while conversing at the center of a group of nobles, and immediately walked over to her as soon as he found her.

Schneider was one problem, but he had also brought a flock of others with him too.

Perhaps he had seen the stiff look on Ianna’s face, but Schneider paused for a moment and turned around. And he only slowly continued making his way toward her after the people behind him had dispersed.

‘I saw Lady Ianna’s name on the list of attendees.’

Schneider had been looking for Ianna as soon as he had arrived at the party. He had hardly had the time because he had been immediately been swarmed by nobles, but he had searched for her with his eyes whenever he had the chance.

But he couldn’t find her, and he had been growing disappointed, wondering if she had decided not to come after all, when he finally found her sitting quietly in one corner of the hall and immediately brightened up.

She was wearing somewhat plain clothes and was hiding in the shadow of the wall as if she didn’t want to be found, but she was still shining radiantly.

However, Schneider’s bright expression clouded over immediately. Ianna did not look too well.

“Bring that here.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Schneider, who had spotted one of the servants busying making rounds in the hall carrying a teapot and some teacups, immediately took them and brought them over.

“It’s been too long, Lady Ianna. It’s so difficult to see you.”

“……Your Highness.”

Ianna tried to stand up, but Schneider stopped her.

“Stay seated —you don’t look very well.”

Ianna did not attempt to refuse out of courtesy. Schneider smiled —he rather liked how unhesitant she was—, but his face quickly grew serious again as he sat down opposite of her.

“You haven’t been affected by the magic, have you? Would you see a royal mage, just in case?”

“No. I have simply caught a cold.”

“I pray that it indeed the case.”

He didn’t know why, but he trusted her when she claimed to be fine. Even skilled knights in the royal guard had caught the illness, but Schneider trusted Ianna for some reason. He continued,

“But I still worry because you don’t seem well. Would you at least like to see a royal doctor? I can summon one at once.”

“I am not so sick that I require a doctor. Nor do I believe that it is appropriate of me to accept so much of your goodwill, Your Highness.”

“Very well. Then at least have some tea. I trust this is all right?”

Schneider, who hadn’t so much as blinked at Ianna’s repeated rejections, finally offered something that was difficult for her to refuse.

“I would not say so.”

Her throat hurt a bit anyway, so Ianna obediently accepted the teacup Schneider handed to her. He poured her some tea as he said,

“I’ve been keeping your letters. I always make sure to keep them safe in a special corner of my desk.”

“You have a strange hobby, Your Highness, as my letters are always short replies of refusal.”

Schneider felt Ianna drawing a distinct line between them, but he smiled anyway, finding it fun.

“But who else do you even bother sending letters to? I hear that it is normal to never receive a reply when one sends you letters, so I am glad that you are at least replying consistently to me.”

“…….”

“Though I do recall not hearing from you over the summer. Did something happen?”

“I went on a trip to the West.”

“The West. I’ve been there a few times myself —it is a very mysterious place.”

Schneider was deft at continuing the conversation, and he managed to keep talking even though Ianna’s answers were curt.

‘He’s just as sly as ever, I see.’

He was worth listening to when he wasn’t trying to win her over, so Ianna listened to him quietly as he spoke. She was facing forward, and she did not notice that he was studying her closely.

“You grow more beautiful by the day, Lady Ianna.”

Schneider suddenly gave her a compliment that she was not happy to hear.

“I rather dislike being complimented on my appearance, but thank you nonetheless.”

“I was not referring to your appearance.”

“……?”

Ianna saw how Schneider’s silvery eyes had taken in her crimson colors when she tilted her head to the side in bafflement.

“You grow to be able to differentiate the unique auras each person carries if you’ve studied mana for a long time. Sometimes, those auras feel dirty, and sometimes, they feel radiant, like light itself. And your aura has grown brighter and more beautiful than when I last saw you.”

Schneider smirked and shook his head. He continued,

“Even I would have given up by now, but I can’t seem to give up on you, my Lady. Your ever-growing beauty only makes my greed burn brighter. I had been thinking about whether I should give up on you, but seeing you again today has made me change my mind.”

“…….”

Ianna blinked, rendered speechless by his unexpected compliment, when Schneider caught sight of the luxurious ring on her finger and huffed as he smiled.

“I hear that you’re dating Sir Callisto —is that true?”

“Yes.”

Ianna was a little alarmed at herself because her reply had been so ready, as if it was only natural. The tea inside her cup sloshed. A strange light entered Schneider’s eyes when he heard her unreserved reply.

“I was truly surprised to hear it. You seemed like a woman of steel who would never know love. You even grew angry with me and asked me not to assume you were in a romantic relationship with him just earlier this year.”

“……Well. Things simply ended up this way.”

“And do forgive Angelina. She’s locked herself in her room ever since she quarreled with you a few months back, and I’m sure she’s been upset too.”

“A princess to her very core, I see.”

“Haha, your words have grown thorny.”

‘Is he trying to look after her because she’s still his flesh and blood? He only seemed annoyed with her in the past —he never once seemed concerned for her.’

Schneider had been more moderate than Arhad, but he had still been a cold-hearted king who could sacrifice anything if it was for his kingdom or his ambitions. Angelina had been of no exception. Though he had never let go of Ianna, his most useful card, until the bitter end, of course…….

Ianna tilted her head to the side when he continued,

“I pray that you be understanding of her. Flowers grown in a greenhouse sometimes stir up trouble when they’re influenced by the outside world.”

To which Ianna frigidly replied,

“Do you mean to say I must be understanding of everything she does simply because she is a princess? Never saying no to her does not bode well for the princess’ future either.”

“Does a flower grown in a greenhouse require the rain?”

“…….”

“I think that it’s best for her future that we take pity on the flower when she stirs up a fuss. After all, it is her fate to be plucked by the gardener and given to another of his choosing when she’s in full bloom.”

Sarcastically, he continued,

“But her thorns will still have to be pruned away if they grow too sharp.”

Ianna saw Schneider’s past self in his sarcastic words.

“Love is a dynamic emotion that can be a powerful motive, and that is why I don’t think too negatively of it, but it will be troubling if she believes love alone is enough to pardon everything.”

And Ianna, now that she had experienced so much and her personality had changed significantly, realized that Schneider was both the ultimate prince and incredibly cold-hearted.

“Your Highness.”

A lady-in-waiting walked up to Schneider with a grave expression on her face and whispered something in his ear, and Schneider immediately stiffened up.

“I’ll take my leave now, Lady Ianna, as I have matters I must attend to. You seem tired yourself, so feel free to retire from the party early to rest.”

“I will.”

Ianna stayed on the sofa even after Schneider had left. It wasn’t long until yet another man sought her out.

“Hello.”

Ianna looked up. It was Prince Saiwè.

‘So it’s Saiwè after Schneider.’

Why was she so popular with princes? She could only pray that Fernando and Linus wouldn’t seek her out next. Saiwè smiled and sat down next to her when Ianna made no move to return his greeting.

“Have you decided to stop treating me as a prince altogether?”

“Did you wish for me to treat you as one?”

“Perish the thought. But I still hoped you would at least say hello.”

Ianna ground her teeth together as she recalled how much he had teased her a few months prior.

“Please just be glad I haven’t decided to punch you yet.”

“Have I curried your disfavor? Oh dear…”

The topic at the center of today’s conversation was serious and the nobles were busy discussing it amongst themselves, so no one had the time to break free from conversation and display an active interest in Ianna, who was clearly doing her best not to stand out.

Ianna enjoyed her rest without another word, and Saiwè, who had been forced to attend the tedious party, simply sighed from time to time as he read next to her.

They shared some short conversations from time to time. Speaking with him was useful, so Ianna did not feel irritated by the endeavor.

“Haven’t you enjoyed enough of the party by now? You don’t look too well —wouldn’t it be for the best that you retired?”

Saiwè tried to send Ianna home after half an hour or so had passed. Ianna was tempted by the proposal.

‘My head’s starting to hurt even more…… Should I go home?’

Being sick was a great excuse to leave the party, especially considering the circumstances. She had been considering retiring herself, since she usually only stayed for about an hour after the opening speech anyway.

“Excuse me, Lady Roberstein?”

A noble girl whom Ianna had never spoken to suddenly called out to her. The girl tensed up inadvertently and flinched when Ianna looked up and stared back at her with her crimson eyes before she handed Ianna a note. The girl continued,

“I met Little Priscilla outside the palace entrance, and she asked me to hand this note to you and fetch you.”

‘Priscilla?’

Ianna wondered if there was an issue with her dress as she unfolded the note. On it were a few short sentences that had been scribbled down in great haste.

Please help, Little Ianna. Little Rikijen is seriously hurt. Little Eiji’s in danger.

“She’s waiting outside with a boy named Rikijen…”

Ianna remained seated in a daze because she couldn’t figure out what was going on, but she stood up immediately when she heard what the girl had added.

‘Rikijen’s supposed to be at the hospital —so why is he here with Priscilla? And what’s this about Eiji being in danger?’

Things had truly happened out of nowhere. How complicated and serious did the situation have to be if Priscilla had brought Rikijen over to the royal castle and sent her a note saying that Eiji was in danger —just thinking about it made Ianna’s head hurt.

Saiwè was looking at the note she was holding with intrigue when Ianna sketched him a greeting.

“I will be taking my leave now, Your Highness, as I have matters I must attend to.”

“I don’t know what this is about, but shall I assist?”

Ianna contemplated for a moment before she nodded back.

“We’ll meet at the castle gates. Right now.”

“Very well.”

Ianna walked in a direction that wasn’t where the exit was. She had walked over to a remote terrace far from prying eyes.

Jolt!

She stepped into the terrace and closed the doors and curtains behind her.

“Phew.”

She took her heels off with a sigh and swiftly climbed up on the railing. She was on the third floor, but she jumped down from the terrace without any hesitation whatsoever.

“……!”

The nonchalance on her face only twisted into something else when she locked eyes with someone who had been standing below.

She had been grabbing at branches along her fall to control her speed, and she landed lightly.

Thud!

Her disheveled hair fluttered behind her, and her dress billowed once before settling down.

“…….”

“…….”

She slowly straightened herself out and felt a tad embarrassed as she looked back at the man who was staring at her in open alarm.

Schneider.

Ianna grew agitated by her sudden encounter with Schneider, who had his hands clasped behind his back. Why was the prince even here? It was such an insanely awkward coincidence.

But her emotions cooled off immediately as she recalled the current situation. She composed herself and bowed to him from her waist in greeting before turning away.

She walked at first, but she gradually accelerated into a run. And she had vanished from his line of light in but an instant.

Ianna could not know that Schneider’s gaze had clung to her retreating figure until she had finally disappeared.

“Hwoo, hwoo…….”

She ran faster than the wind and arrived at the castle gates in no time at all. The corners of her eyes sharpened when she saw the pair loitering around the gates. And they, too, spotted her.

“Lady Ianna…….”

Rikijen was covered in bandages and was standing only with Priscilla’s support.

Ianna walked over to them and scrutinized Rikijen up and down.

“Why are you here? And what happened to you?”

The voice that came out of her mouth was chilling.

Rikijen immediately proceeded to explain the situation.

“A strange woman named Margarita found me in the hospital. She kidnaped me and tortured me. Sir Eiji saved me from her. But she was beating him like she meant to kill him when I last saw them. And Sir Eiji was on the ground. He’s in danger.”

Ianna clenched her hands into fists.

Margarita…….

A dignified blaze flared in Ianna’s eyes, which had been slightly moist like a dampened cloth from her fever until then. Her bloodlust was so poignant that she could have been steaming.

‘I’ll kill you.’

It already annoyed her enough that the woman had acted while she herself wasn’t in her best condition, but thinking about how long the vexing woman had dragged it out and the fact that she had dared lay her hand against Rikijen and Eiji set so much wrath ablaze in Ianna’s heart that she could barely endure it.

“Where are they?”

“……Somewhere in the slums. I know where. Let’s hurry.”

Ianna shot a glance at Rikijen. He was covered in wounds and in such bad shape that it wouldn’t be strange if he suddenly fainted at any moment.

Ianna wasn’t in her best condition either, but she could still carry him on her back. But she did not think that she had the leisure to ensure his comfort.

“I’ll carry you, but you might find it difficult.”

“I’m sure I won’t die. I’m just sorry that I’ll get in your way because I’m like this.”

“Isn’t there anyone who can help us, Little Ianna?”

Priscilla asked on the verge of tears. Ianna thought of Saiwè, who had promised to meet her soon, and Arhad, who should still be at the tower in the Institution.

‘Do I need to let Arhad know?’

Arhad absolutely must not meet with Demon’s fragment beneficiaries like Margarita. There was a possibility that he could be exposed to the Bahamut imperial family if things went wrong.

But Ianna also recalled what he had said to her regarding the time that she had been chased by the Bahamut princess. He had asked her to please tell him if anything happened because he would make sure to account for his own safety.

‘It’s probably better to at least report this to him, even if he can’t help.’

She didn’t want him to learn that she was unwell, but Eiji and Margarita took priority.

‘But I’ll still hide the fact that I’m not feeling well as much as I can…….’

She could contact him anytime using the ring on her finger. But the situation was urgent, so she decided to call him along the way and was just about to carry Rikijen on her back.

“I’ll carry him.”

A man walked out toward them out from nowhere.

He was wearing blue robes and a plain mask to hide his identity, but Ianna knew he was Saiwè as soon as she heard his voice.

Then, Ianna turned to Priscilla and asked for her understanding.

“I don’t have the time to change out of my dress, Priscilla, so I’ll be going as is.”

Priscilla tailored her dresses to Ianna’s tastes and made them easy to move around in. They did not billow out and were therefore easy to hide under a set of robes, and they were not inconvenient even when Ianna had to move around a lot. She continued,

“Your dress might get ruined, but I would ask for your understanding.”

“What are you talking about? The clothes aren’t important! Please just hurry!”

Priscilla pushed her forward, and Ianna nodded back before exchanging looks with Saiwè and Rikijen.

Ianna and Saiwè ran to where Rikijen directed them. Priscilla rolled her feet as she watched them grow farther away.

“Oh, I hope everyone stays safe. What am I supposed to do now?”

Priscilla paced around nervously for a moment before she suddenly ran off to somewhere with a look of determination on her face.

Part 9

The downpour had grown somewhat lighter.

[I’m done, Ianna! I’ve gathered all the Reborn in one place just like last time!]

An excited Innis called to her from the heavens as he awaited her praise. But he was sharing his emotions with Ianna, and he promptly noticed something was wrong and gingerly asked,

[Did something happen?]

‘I’m sorry, but I’m busy right now and I don’t have the time to talk with you at leisure. But there’s still something I need you to do. Can you wait for me for just a moment?’

[Of course!]

Buzzz!

Ianna crammed mana into her left ring finger as she ran, and the myriad of small jewels on its circumference began to glow.

Each jewel had been engraved in minute detail with miniscule geometric magic circles. Each circle had been made with knowledge that overwhelmingly surpassed the magical knowledge that was common to the Age of Magic.

It was a great treasure that many mages would have begged for with their eyes red with tears. Ianna didn’t know much about magic, but she knew that the artefact had so many functions that it was impossible to guess how expensive it could be, and she was grateful to Arhad for it.

The function that she used most often was its spatial magic.

Riiiiiip…….

The space in front of her tore open. Ianna reached out into the darkness without any hesitation. When she pulled her hand back out, she was carrying a set of ordinary robes, a mask, and a pair of boots.

It only took her but a moment to change out of her heels and into her boots, cover her dolled-up face with the mask, and hide her dress beneath her robes.

And finally, Ianna pulled her sword out from the subspace.

She was prepared to punish her enemies.

“Let’s speed up.”

Ianna shot forward.

Saiwè looked to her in admiration out from the corner of his eye as Ianna transformed from a lovely noble girl to a powerful warrior simply by altering her appearance as he moved his legs quicker so he would not be left behind.

It didn’t take long for them to find the place where Rikijen had last seen Eiji.

“This is…….”

Ianna’s countenance grew stiff. There were still faint traces of blood left behind in the mud that hadn’t been washed away. And those traces trailed off to one side as if someone had been dragged away.

But those traces were only obvious at first —they eventually faded away and vanished altogether.

Saiwè looked to the sky, then at the ground, and clicked his tongue.

“It’ll be difficult to track them. And we won’t be able to use hounds because of the rain.”

Saiwè continued,

“May I ask whom you are looking for? Is it a friend of yours?”

“It’s my friend and the Witch Margarita.”

Said friend was ‘Shawn’ —someone whom Saiwè also knew well—, but Ianna didn’t tell him that.

“……Why was your friend with that woman……?”

Ianna left the disconcerted Saiwè behind her as she scanned their surroundings. She hoped she could find some clue on how to find them.

But she couldn’t find anything besides the blood, perhaps because the Witch had made sure not to leave as tracks behind.

Then, Ianna’s eyes glistened as she spotted something from afar. Ianna dashed toward it.

There was something slowly rolling across the ground like bugs.

But they weren’t bugs.

Round beads were rolling on the ground as if they were being pushed by the wind. Anyone else would have simply regarded them as trash, but Ianna did not. After all, she knew them well.

It was the dark red beads from the bracelet she had given Eiji. Ianna looked up and saw where the beads had rolled from.

And her widened field of vision caught sight of more beads rolling from afar.

She clutched the beads tightly in her hands, finding them somewhat mysterious. She could feel them faintly trying to break free of her hold. They had not been simply rolling in the wind.

Ianna immediately called for Towe.

[Ianna!]

Towe called out to her with glee. Ianna pushed the beads toward him.

“You know everything about the earth and its geography, right? Would you happen to know what these are? Do they have some sort of special characteristic to them?”

[Hmm?]

Towe carefully studied the beads in Ianna’s hands. Then, he said,

[These stones received the desert heat from the West when they were made. Mm, right. I remember. I made these stones long ago when the world was still being created. If you pour some blood on them, they’ll imprint on the owner of that blood and follow them around.]

Ianna opened her eyes wide.

[A lot of people who had gone missing in the desert were rescued thanks to these stones. I don’t know if they’re still being used for this purpose today, but they used to be called stones of good fortune because of this.]

“…….”

She hadn’t known any of this and had simply bought them because they were being sold as symbols for good fortune, but they apparently did actually bring good fortune with them. Ianna glared at the direction the beads were rolling toward.

“Are you able to find where these stones are, Towe?”

[I’m sorry, but no. My powers extend to the creation, movement, and consumption of earth, but it’s outside of the scope of my abilities to track down something that was already created.]

“I see…….”

It was too bad, but it still remained a fact that she could find Eiji if she followed the beads. Ianna tightened her grasp on them.

Then, she brought Towe over to Saiwè, who was staring at her in alarm.

“And now you’ve even summoned spirits……. Am I simply deluding myself into thinking that yours is stronger than even Giselle’s?”

[No spirit is greater than I.]

Ianna gently covered Towe’s mouth as he spoke with pride.

“I trust that you’ll keep your mouth shut?”

“But of course.”

Saiwè was now a colleague who had accompanied her to the open seas on a single shared boat. He could only die now if he ever betrayed her.

Ianna then studied Rikijen, who was still on Saiwè’s back.

“Do you have a way……to find Sir Eiji?”

Rikijen looked like he was on death’s door. He looked like he was just barely managing to keep his hold on his fuddled consciousness. His face, drenched with either rain or sweat —she did not know which—, was red because his fever had come back. Ianna pat him on the head as she replied,

“Yes. It’s all thanks to you.”

“Thank……goodness.”

“Innis, Towe.”

Ianna gathered the two spirits together and asked them to treat Rikijen.

[That won’t be hard at all!]

They melted into his body as soon as they grabbed hold of him and healed his ruined body nicely.

And they used their great spiritual power to draw out the Reborn sticking inside his body. The spirits, who had eaten the vitality of Ianna’s divine power, lifted the weight from Rikijen’s exhausted frame.

From the patient’s point of view, he almost felt as if he had been born anew.

“Don’t worry now, and just rest.”

Ianna, the person who had made Rikijen feel this way, filled his vision. He had already been at the very last dregs of his mental stamina, and he quickly fell asleep in comfortable relief.

When the spirits finished treating him and had come back out, Ianna said,

“I’ll call for you again once I’m done, so could you go back and wait for now?”

[Okay!]

Previously, they would have thrown a tantrum about not wanting to leave, but they left obediently now because Ianna had promised she would call them often.

“Van, please take him somewhere safe and watch over him. I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

“Understood. I’ll be waiting at the thirty-seventh hideout. But, are you planning to deal with Margarita by yourself?”

Saiwè expressed his concern as he readjusted Rikijen on his back, but Ianna told him not to worry about her and sent him on his way.

Now that Saiwè was gone and she was alone, Ianna took a deep breath and poured mana into her ring.

[What’s up?]

The ring was scarily devoted to its job. It connected her to Arhad in less than a second. Ianna cleared her throat before she explained the current situation.

“Please entrust this matter to me,”

she said firmly before Arhad even had the chance to reply. She continued,

“I’ll deal with that woman. I wasn’t able to complete Camastros’ mission to perfection last time, and this is the continuation of that.”

[…….]

“Moreover, Margarita is a fragment shareholder, so nothing good will come out of you coming here personally. Rather, it would actually make things more dangerous. I don’t wish for you to be exposed if something should go wrong.”

Once again, Ianna firmly declared,

“I will kill Margarita, and I will bring Eiji back. Please trust me.”

The strength of will in her voice was conveyed through their artefacts to the man who was thinking on the other end of the line.

[I trust you.]

Ripples stirred in Ianna’s heart when she heard his short but composed reply. He continued,

[I would have taken you away from all the danger if I could have my way, but that won’t be possible now that you’re a part of Camastros……. Nor do I think you’d like that, considering how worthwhile you seem to find your work.]

“……Of course.”

[It’s a superior’s duty to trust capable subordinates to do their job. It’s at times like these that I seem to regret how capable you are,]

Arhad muttered before his voice took a firmer tone once more. He continued,

[I’m happy that you told me before deciding to solve everything on your own. Just focus on killing Margarita and leaving no traces of yourself behind. I’ll start thinking about the problems that might crop up after Margarita dies.]

All the fatigue she had been building up because she was unwell vanished instantly. The trust in his permission made Ianna surge with the sense of responsibility that she absolutely must get this done and the confidence that she could do anything, and this restored her to her best condition.

In the meanwhile, the bloodlust she carried for Margarita had reached its zenith.

[Call me again when you’re done. And let me know at once if you need help.]

“Please entrust this matter to me,”

Ianna responded joyously before she ended their call.

Clack.

Ianna tightened her grip on the beads. They pulled at her hand like they were telling her to hurry even as they clattered around in her grasp.

“Hwoo…….”

Ianna closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before she opened them again. There was fire inside her eyes.

~~*~~

It had truly been hell.

The Roygen Clan had been treated as the worst criminals in Bahamut’s history. They had been dragged down to the deepest dungeons, where only those who had committed the most serious of crimes were sent, and had been treated even worse than animals meant for slaughter.

The Roygen Clan still gave birth, like livestock being bred, even as they were treated like lab rats for experimentation, and they continued to lash out in violence and bloodlust even as they were being tortured as criminals.

It was because they had inherited both the pure and clean elven blood and a fragment of the Demon’s dreadfully powerful soul that they were able to cling to their humanity even despite the horrible reality they faced. They retained their humanity and continued to defy Bahamut without yielding, and they swallowed their madness and endured for the sake of their earnest wish.

Their earnest wish for revenge against the Bahamut imperial family.

The Roygen Clan had determined that it wouldn’t be long before they gathered all the fragments and completed the Demon. They had predicted that the Bahamut imperial family’s centuries-long aspiration to become as the Demon itself would finally come to fruition within the next hundred years.

Their revenge was one thing, but they also could not know what would become of the Age of Magic if the Bahamut imperial family was to obtain the Demon’s completed power. The world would surely be destroyed.

And so, the Roygen Clan had stayed quiet for decades as they planned to crush the Bahamut imperial family’s ambitions. Their goal was to steal the seed of Bahamut and produce an even greater demon from their own lineage.

They would entrust the young heir who was to become their Great Demon to someone they trusted so that they may grow up to be righteous in character.

Then, when the heir was older, they would eliminate the Bahamut imperial family and rule the world as its most powerful ruler. The Bahamut imperial family would likely wipe out the Roygen Clan in their wrath, but the heir would surely survive as proof that their sacrifice had not been in vain.

The clan’s obsession over their earnest wish reached madness as the sense of duty they felt for bringing about world peace added fuel to their desire for revenge.

They used divine arts to hasten the conception of the beautiful woman whom they had raised with their utmost devotion. They succeeded in presenting her before the lecherous emperor, slipping her into his harem, and escaping with the emperor’s seed.

And then, the Roygen Clan had been cast down to hell.

The Bahamut imperial family had tried to torture the woman’s whereabouts out from the Roygen Clan, but the Roygen Clan had already gone mad in their sense of duty and had no reason to tell them.

“Just kill us instead!”

“Kill us all and empower the heir!”

The entire clan had cast its fate in the hands of one sole being.

But they could not afford to be considerate to any children other than the heir. Children newly born to the clan were never given option to choose, and they were fated to death as soon as they were born.

And…

Eiji Roygen.

The boy had been born a year after the heir and had been trained in the prisons as he grew older.

It was only obvious that his tormentors humiliated him, but they also tortured him before his parents to get them to talk.

And he had also been involved in the experiments over that terrible herb, Reborn.

The other children had all dropped dead one by one, unable to withstand the experiments, but Eiji alone had grit and survived desperately out of his will to live.

But he could never grow accustomed to the agony. The happiest days of his life were the days when he was not dragged off to the torture chambers, and the pain, which he could never grow accustomed to despite having practically been born into it, left him devastated.

“Remember this, Eiji.”

His mother had taught Eiji words so he would not forget his humanity, but she had also only spoke to him of death and had forced a sense of duty unto him.

“We suffer for the sake of the world.”

“This is for the oppression and pain our clan has suffered until now.”

“Our upcoming deaths will not be in vain.”

Eiji was clever and had learned his words quickly. He had also absorbed the sense of duty like a sponge.

“It hurts.”

“Please spare me.”

But he still hated the pain. He did not want to become another rotting corpse sprawled on the ground. And so, all he could do was to use the one thing he had learned in this hell, his words, to express his agony.

“I’m sorry, Eiji…….”

His mother had died. But Eiji had only be taught a sense of duty, so her tearful apology had not touched his heart at all. He could not understand why she had apologized. She had simply died like she had always said she would.

But Eiji did not want to die like his mother had. He was useless now that his mother was gone, and he quivered in fear as he wondered if death was soon to take him too.

Thankfully, he had not died immediately.

“You’re still not dead, Eiji?”

His torturers had taken an interest in Eiji because, unlike the others, he was reeking of his yearning to live. Which was why they put off his death and quite literally played with him like a toy.

It hurts.

Please spare me.

He had learned words, but that was all he could say.

He had been nothing more than an animal who happened to know how to speak.

On that day too, the little animal had been tortured by Margarita, who was in charge of him.

And then he had met her.

“What an interesting child. Give him to me.”

Dorcianni Demariposa, Margarita’s older cousin, had capriciously declared that she would take Eiji and had whisked him away. And so, Eiji had slipped out of hell while his dying brethren stared back at him.

“Read this.”

“Learn this.”

“Wash yourself.”

Dorcianni was a peculiar woman.

She had been completely uninterested in Eiji, and yet she had spent the time to care for him.

She normally gave him some books and a pen when she brought him to the library with her, but she also sometimes brought him outside and let him taste the clean and cool air that did not reek of blood, and she showed him the real world outside of the dark prisons in so doing.

Eiji’s world had broadened after meeting her. He no longer cried while clinging to pain. He began taking an interest in other things once he had finally been freed from his primitive desire to survive, and he had begun thinking about all sorts of matters.

Dorcianni was his savior.

But Eiji was always anxious. He had been living with Dorcianni for years, but she was always apathetic, and he could not feel any sort of connection with her.

He had always been afraid that Dorcianni might abandon him and vanish away like the wind. And he would be dragged back to the dungeons and tortured again should she ever leave him. Margarita had always glared daggers at him whenever they happened to meet, and he had been afraid that she would rip open his back and whip him to death.

Eiji had become human, and his rage flared from within his chest whenever he thought about his past, but his chilling terror always cruelly stamped out the flames. The fire was swallowed by the darkness and could not shine through.

He did everything Dorcianni told him to do because he was terrified that she might abandon him. He had even intentionally tried to be sexually seductive with her, like he had with his tormentors, so he could grab hold of her heart that way.

But Dorcianni had only ever watched no matter what Eiji did and had simply observed him like an unrelated third party.

Then, one day, Eiji had been stark naked on the bed and had gingerly called out to Dorcianni because she hadn’t seemed to be in a bad mood.

“Why did you save me, Dorci……?”

“…….”

Dorcianni had simply stared back at him in silence instead of replying. This had frightened Eiji, and he had faltered.

“Hwoo.”

She had taken out the cigar from between her lips and had blown a cloud of smoke at Eiji’s face. She continued,

“It was a whim.”

She then brought her cigar back between her lips and took in a breath while Eiji was coughing from having directly inhaled the grey smoke.

“And I took some cheap pity on a pathetic baby animal for harboring ambitions in his heart. I saved you because you alone wanted to live when the rest of the Roygen Clan was so adamant on dying. Your desperate struggle to survive drew out a tiny bit of interest and pity from me. And more importantly, I liked how your eyes are the same exact shade of blue mine are. That’s why I rescued you.”

“…….”

“It would be for the best that you didn’t try to find some grander meaning from me, boy. Don’t expect anything from me. I’m a woman devoted only to my interests and impulses. And I will cast you aside as soon as you lose my interest.”

He felt like he had been shot with an arrow when she confirmed his suspicions about her.

“Then, what do I need to do to keep you from abandoning me?”

“Why don’t you use that clever little head of yours to figure that out?”

“I don’t want you to leave me, Dorci. Please teach me.”

Eiji had loved the present because he did not have to live in constant pain. Which was why he had hugged Dorcianni tight and had pleaded with her sorrowfully.

But Dorcianni had remained expressionless despite his frantic efforts.

“There’s nothing I can teach you because I’m a whimsical woman whose heart changes by the minute. But I will at least teach you how to survive even without me. You will find a choice presented before you soon enough, and when it is, hide your true feelings and act servile in your desperation to survive just like you’re doing now. Those who dream of revenge perish quickly, but those who dream of life live long. You can hold off your revenge for later.”

“Huh……?”

“There will probably be a bloodbath soon.”

There had been no emotion on Dorcianni’s face as she rubbed her cigar out on the ashtray.

Her predictions had come true.

“You pieces of trash —fine, I’ll kill the whole lot of you if you wish to die so badly!”

Shailince Bahamut, who had endured and endured for a decade or so before her rage finally exploded, had gone blind with fury.

She had personally stepped down into the dungeons and killed the Roygen Clan off one by one in the most painful ways imaginable as she wiped them off the face of the world. Her family joined her, save for the emperor who had practically been confined to house arrest, and the crown prince and princess both took part in the massacre.

‘So these bastards finally die.’

The torturers who had been in charge of tormenting the Roygen Clan had looked on with both relief and sorrow.

Eiji had also been dragged down into the dungeons by Dorcianni, and he had watched as his brethren were killed. He had been shocked. It was in that very moment that he had been forced to starkly realize that his brethren had still been living in the agony while he had escaped and was living comfortably under Dorcianni’s protection.

His rage and guilt had made him hyperventilate, and the words his mother had once whispered to him when she had told him that it was only natural that they all died had ravaged his head like a storm.

‘Ah, ahhh…….’

His brethren were staring at him even as their heads went flying off their bodies. They seemed to be asking him why he was there.

‘I don’t want to die.’

Eiji’s face had paled as his body had begun to tremble. His rage had hidden deep inside his chest once more, and the fear that he had been born into had swallowed him whole.

“Bring that little brat here too!”

Eiji had become the last survivor of the Roygen Clan, and he had been made to kneel in the middle of the gruesome pile of corpses.

He had looked desperately to Dorcianni in his terror. But she had only looked back at him with simple disinterest.

And then, Eiji had realized without a doubt. That Dorcianna had truly only picked him up on a whim —she had never intended to save him.

Thus, Eiji had discarded his past self, who relied upon her, and he had decided how he would live his life.

“Your Majesty, Your Imperial Majesty the Empress……my beautiful Master.”

He had knelt like a dog before Shailince, who had been absolutely fuming in her bloodlust as she glared down at him, and planted a kiss on her feet. He continued,

“Please spare me. Please don’t kill me. I’ll do anything that you ask of me, my Master.”

“…….”

Eiji let his tears flow when Shailince didn’t answer and urgently added,

“I will do everything in my power to find the bastard who stole your blood. So please spare me. Please spare me. I want to live. Please grant me your mercy.”

“What an odd one.”

The way Eiji begged for his life gave Shailince a peculiar sense of pleasure as her rage and sadism subsided. The Roygen Clan had incited her rage with their open resentment and bitter defiance, and it stoked her sense of conquest to see the same bloodline quivering at her feet.

“I educated that child personally because I thought that this might happen,”

Dorcianni had cut in just then. She continued,

“You are free to kill him if you have no use for him, but why not see how useful he can be first? He’s very clever, and he is also skilled at night work. Weren’t young and pretty boys suited to your tastes, Master?”

Shailince’s lips had twisted as she studied Eiji’s face. Dorcianni had a point.

“And I’m sure you must be aware, no? It is still much more likely that a shareholder will be better able to find the fragment’s owner. You could search for the bastard yourselves, but I’m sure you must be busy, so why not let this child search for you instead?”

Then, Dorcianni had pointed at the corpses of the Roygen Clan.

“This child wants to live so badly that he kissed your feet and begged you for his life even in this situation. You will not have to worry about him betraying you.”

Dorcianni’s assistance had sealed his fate. Then, she had apathetically asked for a leave.

“Please do with Eiji as you wish, Master —I would like to leave the castle to do magical research. I will come back whenever you call, of course, as I have no intention of making Bahamut my enemy.”

She had turned around and made to climb up from the dungeons without so much as sparing Eiji a final parting glance. Venomously, Shailince had said,

“Arrogant wench. Are you leaving now that you’ve said everything you wanted to say? And that’s all you have to say for the child you’ve personally raised for so many years?”

“I’ve always been this way, haven’t I? Please ask Eiji directly if there’s anything you wish to know.”

Dorcianni shrugged and shot one last glance at Margarita, who was standing in the crowd of torturers and glaring at her, before she made her leave. She never once looked back at Eiji.

“Very well. I will spare you.”

Ultimately, Eiji had survived.

He had begged his mortal enemy for his life while sitting amongst a heap of his brethren’s corpses.

After that day, Eiji had worked hard as a slave who dealt with information and had proved his worth before coming to Roanne. And he had made them trust him by letting himself be brutally brainwashed every so often.

But Eiji was no longer an animal from the dark dungeon prisons.

He was human now, and he had nothing but his rage and revenge in his head.

‘I’ll get my revenge……I’ll get my revenge…….

‘I’ll survive this hell and kill every last one of you.

‘All of you bastards who tortured me and murdered every last one my brethren —all of you! I’ll kill you without fail. I’ll kill every last one of you.

‘That’s the only reason why I’m alive.’

Lies.

That’s not true.

A sarcastic voice coiled around his ears as Eiji burned with resolve.

“Eiji, my little kitten. You really are trash, aren’t you? The rest of your family is dead, but you alone survived like the pathetic thing you are.”

The Witch’s curse, which grew stronger with every round of brainwashing, grabbed the guilt that was huddling up inside him by the collar and dragged it to the surface, and his guilt became as the ghosts in his nightmares and strangled him. Just like now.

You just wanted to live. Traitor. Don’t use revenge as an excuse. You feel guilty for having done such dirty things to be the sole survivor, so don’t be ridiculous and use revenge as your excuse.

Poooow!

Eiji opened his eyes when he felt pain from his cheek.

‘Is this a dream, or am I awake?’

His vision was blurry. He furrowed his brows as he blinked. His vision was filled only with a face he didn’t want to see as it became clear.

“You’ve grown awfully feeble, kitten, seeing how you’ve passed out so many times already just from this.”

It was so dark around them that he could not tell what anything was unless it was close by. Curtains were covering the only two windows he spotted, and the firmly shut door blocked out all light.

Perhaps it was dark outside due to the rain, but no light filtered inside the room even though it should have peeked through the curtains had it been light out. But the shadow over Margarita’s face was so deathly pale it gave him goosebumps.

Drip, drip…….

The raindrops hitting against the windows and wall from time to time was the only sound that resounded in this quite building. Eiji had been listening to the rain when he suddenly dropped his head.

“Shall we stop here?”

Margarita smiled as she tapped her spider-thin fingers against Eiji’s cheek. She continued,

“Don’t you want to get comfortable? Just tell me everything you’ve been hiding, okay?”

Eiji kept his silence even in spite of her coy coaxing.

And Margarita did not quip back at him.

She didn’t need to.

After all, Eiji was sure this was a dream. Surely, the ghosts from his nightmares had finally appeared in his waking reality and adhered to his body.

The dead people of the Roygen Clan were struggling beneath his feet while choking and crying tears of blood. Their crimson eyes, filled with their resent, stared directly at Eiji.

Traitor, traitor.

Are you happy that you survived alone?

You dirty dog who begged at our mortal enemy’s feet because you wanted to live.

It was only then that Eiji finally replied to the ghosts’ resentment.

“I just didn’t want to be in pain anymore.”

It hurt so much. I thought I could do anything as long as it meant I could escape the pain.

“I didn’t want to die, either. I didn’t want to become like you.”

And that’s why I licked the feet of the enemy who murdered you, why I collared myself and handed them the leash.

Do you resent me for that?

It’s true. It’s just as you say —I surrendered because I wanted to live, not because I wanted revenge.

But my desire for revenge is sincere.

I’m still doing my best to fight against those terrifying bastards even now. I’m working hard to support the heir you bet all your hopes on as best as I can.

Do you scorn me even still?

What right do you have to scorn me?

What did I do that was so wrong? I haven’t done anything wrong.

So why is it a sin just because I’m alive……?

“Sob……sob.”

“My, my.”

Margarita smacked her tongue as she watched Eiji, who had been mumbling to himself like he had gone insane from the torture, finally burst into tears. He looked insane at a first glance, but Margarita could tell that he was desperately struggling to resist the brainwashing.

It had already been a few hours since she had dragged him to a shabby building in the slums. Margarita had been thrilled that Eiji was back in her hands again, and the first thing she had done was to tie his hands and feet to a chair.

Then, she drugged him, stabbed him with needles as he bled out, and tortured him viciously with magic, and yet she could not make him confess his betrayal.

“Hey, pull yourself together.”

“Ugh!”

Eiji had been wandering the boundary between dreams and reality, and he took a step closer to reality when Margarita stabbed a needle into one of his already painful wounds. Eiji grit his teeth as he looked up and glared at her.

The voices of the ghosts were still tormenting him, but Eiji ignored them and spat at Margarita’s face.

“Fuck off.”

Margarita smiled kindly as she wiped the spit off her face.

“You must have regained your senses now, I take it?”

Smaaack! Smaack! Smack!

Then, she changed like she had taken off a mask and slapped him multiple times across the cheeks. Her eyes quivered as she continued,

“You piece of trash. How dare you strangle me and spit on me? You really should have died back then. You’re just a dirty dog who happened to survive because of that wench Dorcianni’s jokes and the masters’ mercy!”

“Hah…….”

Eiji opened his split lips wide as he grinned.

He would probably never break free of these chains of agony until the day he died.

‘Ah, this is so hard. I’m exhausted. Would it be better just to die? But I need to see the bastards who tortured me and the Bahamut imperial family dead first…….’

Margarita’s glare grew sharper as she watched the light leave Eiji’s face while he distracted himself.

“Eiji, kitten. This is really your last chance. Just tell me everything you’ve been hiding from me until now,”

the Witch said sweetly as she caressed Eiji’s bloodied face. She continued,

“If you don’t, I’ll find every last bitch and bastard you care about, drag them here, and kill them where you can see.”

Eiji’s pupils, which had been staring blankly into empty space as if he hadn’t even heard her, suddenly shook.

‘Ugh, this is why I didn’t want to grow close to anyone.’

They got caught up in the fire because someone dirty like me loitered around in the light. I knew that something like this might happen, I knew that I shouldn’t have gotten close to them, but I was such a wuss…….

He stared painfully at the gemstones from his bracelet that were rolling beneath him. He had tried so, so hard to hold onto them, but he had ultimately let go because Margarita was too skilled at manipulating the body.

Margarita had lost her interest when the things that Eiji had struggled so desperately to keep hold of had tumbled to the floor and ended up being so trivial. She had long since forgotten about them after crushing them beneath her feet and kicking them away.

But Eiji saw those beads as a representation of his life, and he lamented.

Just submit.

Why don’t you just let go of everything and make yourself comfortable?

Don’t you hate pain?

That’s the kind of bastard you are.

Eiji could not withstand it when the ghosts’ goading added on to his already motheaten sense of shame, and he impulsively opened his quivering lips.

“I…….”

Margarita delighted as she grabbed his head up by the hair. He had a very cool visage. His limp features gave her an unbelievable amount of pleasure. So much so that her lower abdomen felt like it was bubbling up.

“That’s right, you piece of trash kitten. Just tell me everything and…….”

Craaaaaaash!

Smash!

A broken door suddenly came flying by Margarita’s head and splintered into pieces as it hit against the wall.

“……?!”

She grew alarmed and looked toward the door, but she squinted because the sunlight pouring into the darkness pierced her eyes like arrows.

Drip. Drop.

It wasn’t raining outside. The dark rainclouds had finally cleared away, and the sun was finally able to do its job and shine its bright light down to the world.

But then, where was that sound of water coming from?

Drip. Drop.

Someone’s silhouette was standing at the entrance, but it was difficult to see who they were because of the backlighting. The dripping had come from the clean drops of water that had fallen from their robes.

They stood quietly at the entrance, and next to their drenched boots was the pointlessly round hinge of the door that had fallen to the floor.

The dust that had been stirred up as the door went flying fell into the sunlight as it gently settled back down.

“…….”

It was the calm before a storm.

Margarita had been standing in a shocked stupor when the alarm bells in her head began sounding.

Swiiiish!

Crimson fortification fell upon her like a shower of stars when the silhouette brandished their sword. The fortification scattered everywhere and tore down the dark building as it tried to shred Margarita to pieces.

Margarita urgently cast a shield spell. She had been bewildered when the mysterious assailant had first appeared, but she did not doubt that her shield could block their fortification.

To her astonishment, however, the fortification penetrated through her shield and sundered her clothes and flesh. Margarita’s eyes opened so wide they could have bulged out from their sockets.

“What……?!”

Part 10

Margarita started and tried to teleport away to safety. But her arrangement of mana immediately scattered, and her calculations were thrown off.

“Why you little…….”

Margarita tried to curse as she was suddenly thrown into a situation that she could not comprehend. But she never had the chance to finish.

Poow! Smaaaash!

Margarita’s body went flying and struck hard against the wall. The assailant’s sword came flying at her, pierced her through the shoulder, and proceeded to dig into the wall with a deafening roar without losing any momentum.

“Ahhh!”

Margarita screamed because she felt like she was on fire. She writhed like a hunted bird as she tried to express her pain, but she could not even scream properly.

Craaash!

This was because the monster had flown at her before she had realized it and grabbed her by the throat as if to shut her up.

“Cough.”

Eiji was freed from the chair that had restrained his freedom, and he coughed as he knelt on the floor on all fours. The flying fortifications had cut away the rope that had bound him in place.

The powerful aura brimming with vitality dispersed the ghosts —no, the hallucinations— that tormented him.

He could hardly believe he had been saved.

‘Who……?’

Eiji slowly looked up. He saw Margarita struggling as she was pinned against the wall and the monster grabbing at her throat as if they meant to break it with veins popping out from their hands through with his bleary eyes.

‘Oh.’

It’s so bright.

Eiji squinted. He could not determine if he was being blinded because of the sudden baptism of sunlight inside the building or because of that person.

Something crunched in their hands and Margarita gasped for breath in their grasp. They glared at her as they quietly asked,

“What do you want to do?”

Eiji knew who she was as soon as he heard her voice.

‘Little Ianna.’

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but today was the Thanksgiving of Laos. Ianna was supposed to be at the party in the royal palace.

‘How are you here……?’

“Hack, hack.”

Margarita grabbed Ianna’s hand and struggled desperately to make her let go, but Ianna never budged. Margarita tried kicking too, but she only hurt her own feet as if she was kicking a cast iron wall. Most importantly, she was blocked every time she tried to use her magic, and she truly thought she was going to die.

She had failed to be elevated as one of the Ten Archmages because it was difficult to prove the effects of curse magic, but Margarita conceitedly believed herself to be an outstanding mage. And she was even a shareholder of a Demon’s fragment, to boot.

But her magic failed to deploy. The gentle crimson light on the hand grabbing her throat made it impossible.

It was undoubtedly a greater power —divine power— that was scattering her mana.

Margarita felt her heart begin racing as if it was terrified of that power. And that was how she identified the person who was strangling her.

“You’re……the leader……of Camas…tros…”

She was certain of Eiji’s betrayal now. She glared at Eiji with bloodshot eyes as she screamed,

“Save me, Eiji! You damned dog, you’ll be dragged back to the labs if anything happens to me…….”

Smaack!

Ianna’s other hand slapped against Margarita’s cheek. The insides of Margarita’s mouth tore as the ear-splitting impact landed, and blood spurted out from her lips.

Smack! Pow! Poow!

Margarita could not speak. Ianna slapped her so hard every time she tried to curse that her entire head whipped to the side and forced her mouth shut.

She gave up on trying to speak as her broken teeth poured out from her mouth. She had never been treated like this before in her life. Her eyes went red as the shame and indignation blazed all the way to her head.

‘You damn little……’

Margarita glared at Ianna.

But she immediately lowered her eyes before she could stop herself.

The eyes glinting fiercely behind Ianna’s mask reminded her of a savage beast’s. Margarita grew so terrified she thought she might faint when Ianna’s blazing wrath and bloodlust glared down upon her like a fire that threatened to burn everything she deemed dirty to a crisp.

“Shall I kill her for you? Or would you rather kill her yourself? Choose.”

Eiji’s arms trembled when he realized that Ianna was speaking to him. But he could only toss his exhausted gaze her way, and he did not reply. Ianna’s glare sharpened when Eiji did not answer her immediately.

Slaaam!

“Kgh!”

Ianna threw Margarita before him. She then stabbed her sword down next to Margarita as the witch groaned.

“This is the woman who insulted you and tormented you.”

“Cough!”

Ianna kicked Margarita hard in the stomach before using the heel of her boots to push the witch Eiji’s way.

“If you’re going to kill her, do it now.”

Eiji’s arms spasmed as he clutched the floor. Margarita was sprawled so shabbily out in front of him.

‘Is it really okay for me to kill her? It’s this easy?’

He was at a loss at the sudden opportunity presented before him. His opened and closed his hands as he reached for the sword, but Margarita glared at him with her bloodshot eyes as she panted. Eiji’s body stiffened with fear.

‘Can I kill her?’

Her gaze still terrified him. Nothing good had ever happened to him when Margarita looked at him like that.

The insides of his mind went white.

‘I can’t do it.’

Delusions rushed into and filled his brain, already motheaten from fear.

‘What happens if, just if, I mess up and fail to kill her, and then she escapes? Will I get dragged away and tortured again?’

The very thought that he would lay a hand against this woman seized his entire being with pain and caused him to sweat buckets. His heart raced so furiously he thought it might explode, and he was nauseated.

‘I’ll die this time for sure if I get dragged away.’

He trembled like he was having a seizure as he imagined himself becoming yet another corpse among the pile of his rotting brethren.

He was no longer afraid of death. The animal that had once struggled desperately to live had hidden itself completely away, and in its place was an exhausted human who saw death as his final stop, his final resting place.

But, despite the contradiction, he was still so afraid of death he thought he might lose his mind.

What if death wasn’t the end? What if he couldn’t find repose even after dying and he became one of the ghosts who had tormented him all this time?

Ianna spoke to him again frigidly as she watched him tremble, unable to take action.

“I will ask you one more time.”

Her words snapped him back to his senses. He looked up at Ianna with his shaking eyes. She continued,

“Will you kill her, or shall I?”

I can’t kill her. But…….

“Tell me if you can’t do it. If you won’t kill her, then I will.”

You’ll kill this woman for me?

“Please kill her.”

Cruunch.

Margarita’s neck crunched horribly beneath Ianna’s foot and broke as soon as the three words had left Eiji’s lips.

It was like Ianna had simply snapped a dry twig.

She had done it so easily that it was almost absurd.

Eiji finally understood as he looked at Margarita’s limply sprawled corpse. The Witch holding his leash had been nothing but a skinny, rotten twig all along.

‘Oh.’

He staggered as he was suddenly hit by vertigo. His insides were churning.

“Urp, blech.”

Ianna let him empty out the contents of his stomach as she used her ring’s spatial magic. She pulled out a large container of oil from the sundered space before her.

Sploosh!

She poured oil over Margarita’s corpse without the slightest hesitation. Then, she proceeded to pour oil throughout the rest of the building.

Slam!

Next, she took the bloodied chair that Eiji had been tied to, bashed it against the floor, and picked up its legs. She used one of the spells that had been embedded into her ring for convenience to start a small flame and set it afire.

Eiji watched her blankly as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

Ianna walked back to Eiji once she was done preparing. She held the wooden stick out toward him.

“You should do this part yourself.”

Eiji accepted it with trembling hands. He hesitated for a moment, but then he brought the fire to Margarita’s corpse as if he was possessed.

Shaaaaa…….

The crimson blaze flared up with terrifying speed and swallowed Margarita whole.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Ianna slung Eiji’s arm around her shoulders. She helped him out of the dilapidated building as he feebly limped along.

He brought up his hand and covered his eyes as soon as they walked out the door. It had been so long since he had last seen the sun, and its light was so bright as it stung his eyes.

The fire that had begun spreading inside shrouded the entire building in no time at all. Eiji’s legs failed him as soon as he made it outside, and he stared at the burning building in a blank daze.

Had that woman always been someone who could die so easily?

The Witch who had caused him so much agony.

The woman whom he had thought would torment him for all eternity.

Ianna took off her mask and stood next to him. She looked down at Eiji, who was unable to tear his eyes of the burning building.

“Let me know when there’s someone you wish to kill but can’t do so with your own hands. I am happy to bloody my hands for you as many times as it takes.”

“……Why?”

Eiji asked vacantly. He continued,

“Why would you go so far for me……?”

“There’s something you once said to me before. And I will return the same words to you.”

Ianna chose her next words carefully.

“I cannot simply sit and stay still when my friend is being insulted. It pisses me off more than I realized.”

Eiji was her very first friend. He was precious to her, in a different way than was Arhad. Ianna crouched down next to Eiji and pat him on the back.

“I am always happy to help you, so ask for me whenever you need me. I’ll do anything if it’s for you, Eiji, even if it’s dangerous. Don’t suffer through it on your own.”

Eiji’s heart squeezed every time her hand touched his back. His face crumpled, and tears poured down from his eyes.

“Sob……. Sob…….”

He pressed his forehead against Ianna’s shoulder and sobbed his heart out. Ianna continued to pat his back in silence.

Some time passed, and Eiji grew melancholy as his tears stopped and he pulled away from Ianna.

“I’m a dirty bastard.”

He looked quietly at the filth he had left on her clothes. Ianna thrust the marks of his tears and snot left on her clothes at his face and replied,

“Yes, you are.”

“……Wow, you’re mean. Can’t you just overlook it because I’m a pitiful bastard? Hmph.”

Eiji tried to laugh it off as he sniffled, but he found himself on the verge of tears yet again. And the tears flowed from his eyes once more. He continued,

“I’m so dirty.”

“…….”

“I did anything and everything I could just to live. Mm, I’ve probably even done things that you can’t even imagine, Little Ianna. All this time, I knew that I was dirty but I thought there wasn’t anything I could do about it, and I didn’t really let it bother me, but…….”

He covered his face with his hands. His tears seeped through his fingers and streamed down to his chin. His hoarse voice sounded miserable.

“But then I started hanging around someone cool like you, and I felt so dirty that I was sorry I ever got close to you to begin with.”

His words flowed out as he rambled like a sinner confessing his crimes to a priest. Ianna listened to him quietly and understood his circumstances as she added to what she had already known.

The Roygen Clan had been massacred by the Bahamut imperial family in their rage, and Eiji, the clan’s sole survivor, had done all sorts of things in his guilt.

He had humored the imperial family, did everything his torturers told him to, had tortured innocent people to death without any hesitation…….

“I can’t even imagine my own future. I don’t think I’ll be able to live while being harassed by others for much longer either. I’m so exhausted that I think I might just let go of everything haplessly in vain even if I get my revenge and win my freedom.”

Thwack.

Ianna smacked Eiji across the back of his head, unable to stop herself.

“Why are you so stupid? I thought you were smart, but I guess I’ve been completely had.”

Tears dropped from Eiji’s eyes as he clutched his smarting head. Ianna continued,

“For starters, you never did anything wrong. Isn’t it only natural for someone, child or otherwise, to dislike pain and not want to die? The Roygen Clan was insane. How crazy did they have to be to be so absorbed in their sense of duty that they even dragged innocent children down to that hell with them? They should be begging you for your forgiveness —they have no right to be resentful of you for surviving or to cling to you like evil spirits.”

In all the time Eiji had spent with Ianna, he had never known her to say anything wrong. She was always honest, and pretense was not a part of her dictionary.

And so, her each and every word felt sincere and righteous to him.

Something began to crack in his heart.

“Is that how it is……?”

“It is. You’re more than welcome to get revenge for yourself, but there’s no need for you to feel responsible for theirs too. Arhad is the heir who should be responsible for their revenge. If their ghosts wanted to cling to someone, it should be Arhad. Not that he’s enough of a pushover to let them cling to him in the first place.”

“…….”

“The only people who have the right to blame you for struggling to survive are the innocent people who died at your hands. But it’s kill or be killed in this world, no? It’s not possible to live without hurting someone else. If you had no choice but to trample over them, then mourn for them and grow selfish enough to keep pressing forward. Grow strong enough that their deaths weren’t in vain.”

Ianna’s convictions flowed into Eiji, who had lost his way, and showed him a clear path.

Clang!

Something shattered inside him, and its pieces were tumbling down.

“I understand that your life so far was horrible enough to traumatize you, but don’t think about something stupid like dying. I don’t want to call someone that weak my friend. Just lie down and get some sleep if you have the time to spout nonsense about dying.”

Ianna tried to stand up after she had rebuked him bitingly, but Eiji clutched at her robes.

“I won’t die.”

“…….”

“But what am I supposed to do once my revenge is over? I really don’t know. There’s nothing in particular that I want to do.”

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this? Just do whatever you feel like doing. Make money and become filthy rich or travel around the world or something.”

“That doesn’t sound very interesting.”

“What do you want me to say? I’m not nice enough to plan out another’s life for them.”

Ianna sighed and brushed Eiji’s fingers off her robes as if in irritation. Eiji’s eyes were about to grow murky again when his fingers lost their grip, but Ianna reached out to him just then. He looked up at her, unable to bring himself to grab her hands because they felt like pity.

“But if you have so much time on your hands that you have the time to waste by saying nonsense about dying…”

There was no pity in Ianna’s composed visage. She continued,

“Then stay by my side and assist me until you find something you want to do, Shawn.”

Shawn —Ianna had called him by his codename, but Eiji wasn’t shaken because he knew that she was quick on the uptake.

More importantly, he felt his heart race upon hearing the words she had uttered so nonchalantly. She continued,

“I have a lot of work to do. I need to help Arhad usurp the Bahamut throne, and then I have to help him change Bahamut from the inside. I don’t plan to let the country that is to one day be my homeland remain as the kind of trash that produces victims like you. Lately……I’ve even been wondering if it might be easier to simply create a new country instead because rehabilitating the empire seems like such a daunting task, but I still intend to try. You’re talented, and I’m sure you’ll be an immense help to me. So here.”

Ianna shook her hand as she gestured at him to take it.

Eiji took her hand like he was bewitched, and Ianna pulled him up. It was only after he had staggered to his feet that Ianna saw how severe his wounds were.

Ianna clicked her tongue and summoned all four spirits.

[Ianna!]

The four spirit kings went crazy and expressed their joy as soon as Ianna summoned them.

[You’ll praise me for gathering up all the Reborn now, right?]

Innis wagged his tail in excitement.

“……Reborn?”

Eiji had been staring at the spirits absentmindedly, but he asked when he heard a word that he was sensitive to.

[Oh, I’ve never met this human before. Ahem, the great being before you retrieved all of that dirty substance called Reborn that the evil witch poured into the water, ahem.]

“…….”

Ianna saw the look in Eiji’s eyes and covered Innis’ mouth.

“Good job. For now, Towe and Innis, could you two treat him, and Kagomyne, could you finish burning up the building? Shweia, please remove all the ashes so that no traces of them are left behind.”

Ianna had become far less hesitant about calling the spirits after she had obtained Roberstein’s knowledge and divine power.

There was also the fact that she impulsively wanted to pour out her overflowing divine power, which made her body feel like it was bursting at the seams even though she was using her willpower to hold it back, somewhere —anywhere.

[Okay!]

Kagomyne crouched before he turned to the burning building and howled. It had already been burning well to begin with, but a hellfire incomparable to the flames from before flared up and reduced the building to ashes in but an instant.

Only ashes remained once the fires had vanished.

Then, Shweia flapped his wings toward them. The wind stirred up by his wings carried the ashes to the skies until they disappeared from view.

“Oh…….”

Eiji felt like he had been born anew after Towe and Innis had treated him.

His flesh regenerated and covered up his wounds from being torn and pierced without leaving behind any scars, and new, smooth nails regrew from where his fingernails had been ripped out.

The throbbing pain from the drugs Margarita had fed him went away so completely he could hardly believe it, and the complicated thoughts in his head cleared away like he had taken a sip of fresh, cold water.

[Gosh, why’s your body in such a mess? There was a ton of Reborn inside you, so I did take it out, but your body’s already been messed up.]

[We treated most things, Ianna, but there are some things that we can’t touch. Like his brain or his heart…….]

“I know. Thank you.”

Innis washed Eiji clean because his appearance was a right mess too, and then the spirits began frolicking amongst themselves.

Eiji was perplexed as he stared at his body, which suddenly felt so much lighter.

“This is……amazing,”

he said dumbfoundedly before he quickly closed his mouth.

He was overwhelmed by everything that had happened to him in what had been less than an hour. The despair he had felt just a little while ago was nowhere to be seen, and he felt like he had been reborn. And all of it felt like a miracle to him.

He looked to the person who had brought about these miracles. Ianna was putting her mask back on.

Eiji decided to ask her the question he had been wondering about since the very beginning.

“How did you find me? Did you use the spirits’ powers?”

“No, it was these.”

Ianna rummaged around her pockets before thrusting her fist out toward Eiji.

“……?”

He placed his hand beneath her fist.

Drop, drop.

Familiar gemstones fell into Eiji’s open palm. Ianna told him about the gemstones’ abilities and how she had found him.

“…….”

His cerulean eyes shook as he stared at the stones in his hand for a while.

And then, he suddenly clenched his hands into fists as he grabbed hold of his good fortune, and, from the bottom of his heart, he said,

“Thank you, Little Ianna.”

“You’re welcome. Is everything over now?”

Ianna readjusted the mask on her face. She continued,

“Let’s go back.”

Ianna tugged at Eiji’s clothes, and he nodded as he turned away from the place where there was nothing to be seen without any lingering regrets.

“But when did you figure out that I was Shawn?”

Ianna was glad that Eiji had spoken to her. She had almost tripped over her feet because she had nearly lost consciousness as she walked forward in a daze.

She grit her teeth because her vision had gone white for a moment.

This was truly getting difficult.

She hadn’t let it show because she didn’t want Eiji to worry, but all her tension relaxed and she was hit by a sudden wave of fatigue as soon as she realized that her mission was over.

Her entire body was burning hot. Her vision had been getting darker for some time now, and she was growing giddy and just wanted to pass out.

Part of the reason why Ianna had finished Margarita with a surprise attack when she could have broken the Witch’s limbs and taken her sweet time torturing her to death was because she had thought that was the best for Eiji, but it was also because her own condition wasn’t great.

Her insides were churning.

She opened her mouth and replied because she sensed that she might collapse if she didn’t at least start talking.

“Don’t put my brains on the same level as a goldfish’s. I’ve been wondering whether you were Shawn for some time now, due to your similar circumstances and physique. I simply chose not to say anything about it until you disclosed it yourself.”

She felt a bit better now. She realized that she would need to keep up a conversation if she didn’t want to suddenly pass out. And so, she ended up asking him about something that she had been suspicious about for some time now. She continued,

“Oh, right. There’s something I’ve been curious about……. The man in black robes that I told you I met before our entrance ceremony —that was Arhad, right? As ‘Ro’?”

“There’s no reason for me to hide this from you. It was.”

Her convictions had been solidified as the truth now with Eiji’s affirmation. He continued,

“The medicine he gave you back then is something that Lord Heinrich has been devoting his whole heart and soul to make. Do you……know about Life, by any chance?”

“I do. It’s a drug made from diluted Reborn that’s been imbued with divine power.”

Eiji had posed the question gingerly, but Ianna’s reply had been refreshingly cool. Ianna was hugely interested in it, after all, so there was no reason that she wouldn’t have known.

“So it was you who destroyed the factory in Sidian, wasn’t it, Little Ianna? Are you also the person Princess Isabella’s been searching for?”

“I am.”

“I need to tell you that Isabella’s absolutely insane……be careful. But anyway, that medicine is similar to Life, but Lord Heinrich made it with Mystic instead of Reborn. It’s not as effective as Life, but it still grants a small amount of divine power to whoever takes it. Do you know about Ro’s illness too? Oh, right. He said that you found out about it when you guys visited the South.”

Eiji apparently shared a lot of information with Arhad. He continued,

“He only needs to take a little when he’s awake, but he needs an incomparably huge amount of divine power to wake up again once he’s fallen into a coma. And he gave you that medicine even still. And then he fell asleep for several months as soon as he got back.”

His answer landed in Ianna’s heart like and arrow despite her stupor.

“The reason why you didn’t see him again until the swordsmanship competition was because he was asleep the entire time until then. That man’s seriously crazy for you, so be nice to him, okay?”

“Do you know if Arhad ever saw me before we were admitted into the Institution? Has he ever visited the Roberstein lands or something? I never left the Roberstein lands until I was sixteen.”

“I don’t know. I only met him four years ago, and I’ve never interfered with his private life since he’s the type of person who knows how to take care of himself. It’s possible that he’s been to the Roberstein lands and saw you before, I think?”

But Ianna had always been in the manor while she had lived in the Roberstein lands and had only stepped outside to visit the bookstore. She had been devoted to training her sword in the mountain.

So how had Arhad…?

“But you know… You would know him best, Little Ianna.”

“Why’s that? You seem to know him rather well yourself…….”

“We only talk about work and official matters. The only reason why I know about what’s happen between you two in such detail is because we had to talk about all the work he pushed onto me while he was busy chasing after you.”

Ianna could not help but feel a little apologetic. Eiji continued,

“Oh, I’m not blaming you for that or anything, Little Ianna. But you know? I’m actually kind of happy that he’s so crazy for you. I used to not be able to tell what was going on in his head, and that made me uncomfortable. He never expressed his emotions at all.”

“Was it that bad?”

“Well, think about it —he acts like a dog wagging his tail when he’s with you, Little Ianna. You can practically see his tail.”

“A dog…….”

It was comical that she couldn’t refute it. She herself thought he was like a giant dog from time to time.

“But he’s only like that about things that have to do with you. I’ve even thought he was an inanimate object and not a human being before. Oh, and this happened too. I told him off about how he went to see you as soon as he woke up from his coma, and then he glared daggers at me like he was going to kill me and asked me how I knew you.”

“…….”

In other words, Arhad’s past was enshrouded in mystery.

Ianna fell into thought.

‘What did he mean when he asked if I wasn’t an illusion……?’

Then, she suddenly recalled Roberstein’s knowledge, which she had obtained at the temple.

The Demon’s soul had originally been black according to that knowledge. He had craved the light for so long as he lived in the darkness, and he had been affected by the perfect light he had seen the very moment he had first laid eyes upon the sun and Roberstein. He had obsessed over the golden light like crazy, and his soul had eventually been dyed golden too.

The blackness, his original color, did not suit the light very well. And so, he had not been able to mix the two colors together.

In other words, the Demon’s soul possessed two colors: black and gold. And that was why his completed form had been a black body and glowing golden eyes.

Those were Arhad’s colors.

But why?

“……What does the Roygen Clan look like? They were a minority people who were closed off to the rest of the world, so they should all have looked pretty similar, right?”

“Pretty much? We inherited a lot of elven blood, so most of us had green hair and blue eyes like me.”

“…….”

Why?

Then why?

Why had Arhad been born with the Demon’s colors?

According to Roberstein’s memories…….

The Demon had been severely obsessed with Roberstein. And he had confessed the fiery love in his heart to her until she had accepted it.

Wasn’t that similar to how Arhad acted around her?

She had been born with Roberstein’s soul, and Arhad possessed the Demon’s soul.

……Was that truly why?

She didn’t even want to think about it, but what if Arhad truly……?

Did he see Roberstein in her?

It didn’t matter whether that was his intention or not.

Arhad had claimed to only be looking at Ianna, and Ianna, too, did not believe he had been lying.

But Ianna was still Roberstein’s second incarnation. Ianna distinguished herself from Roberstein, but it wasn’t necessarily incorrect to say that the two of them were one and the same.

Had he been referring to Roberstein when he asked if she wasn’t an illusion? Had he?

Ianna lost control over her ability to reason as doubt smeared into her thoughts. Her doubts shook her level-headed rationality, made her emotional, and added an incredible displeasure to her fatigue that already made her want to pass out.

Her eyes blurred.

‘This is vexing…….’

But just as her breathing was beginning to grow ragged.

Crackleeeeee!

A deafening roar exploded from the sky. Ianna and Eiji startled as they looked up.

A bolt of lightning was flying toward them from the distance. Then, shortly thereafter, a white flash filled the clear skies.

Boooooom!

It was followed by a roar that seemed to shatter the heavens.

They both grew wary and looked up because they knew that it had been the work of magic.

Bang!

Something shot out from the light.

It was a wolf gushing with white strands of lightning. And, shockingly, there was a lone woman riding on top of it.

Crackle!

[Grrrr.]

The giant flashing wolf growled at them as soon as it landed. But it yelped and crouched down as soon as the woman riding it taped its back.

Thud.

The woman jumped down from the wolf and stood before them.

Clang!

Ianna drew her sword and pointed it at the unidentified woman.

“Hello there.”

She was a beautiful woman with long black hair, blue eyes, and a serene air about her. Eiji’s eyes shook like a ship sailing into a storm as soon as he saw her.

“……Dorci?”

“It’s been a while, my cute little boy.”

“Why are you…here……?”

A long time had passed since he had last seen her, but, much like it had been with Margarita, Dorcianni’s face had not changed at all. She looked exactly like she had back when she had collected him from the torture chambers.

She looked like she was in her late twenties, and she brushed back her long hair with no expression on her face.

“I came to see because Marie died, but there isn’t even a trace of her left.”

Ianna pushed Eiji behind her as she stepped forward. Dorcianni’s eyes fell on Ianna. She continued,

“There’s no reason why you would be able to kill her, Eiji……hmm, was it you?”

She had been emotionless until then, but Dorcianni’s eyes lit up as soon as Ianna came into her view.

“What an interesting girl.”

Ianna readjusted her grip on her sword.

Her instincts were screaming at her.

That the woman before her was none other than Dorcianni Demariposa.

The owner of the fragment that Margarita had shared.

“You came here because you tracked down Margarita’s location?”

Ianna’s caution peaked as she spoke.

It was impossible to track someone down with a Demon’s fragment. If it was, then the Bahamut imperial family would not still be gathering the fragments, and they would have found Arhad by now.

What should she do if this woman was an enemy and could track them down like Keigus Dimitri once had? Ianna was unwell, so what if Dorcianni cast a spell on her before she fled and was able to trace her later?

Ianna recalled the things she had suffered because of Keigus like a nightmare. Her rationality, which she was just barely clinging onto, nearly snapped, but Ianna scraped together every last drop of willpower she had to keep hold of it.

“I left a tracking spell on that child. After all, it’d be troublesome for me if she went missing while being able to use my power.”

Anyone not in the know would have no idea what Dorcianni was saying, but Ianna understood.

And if Dorcianni was being truthful, then there was only one important thing left to determine.

“Is she an enemy?”

Dorcianni would know to follow along if she was an ally, but Ianna would have to capture her alive if she was an enemy.

But Eiji, standing behind her, only looked confused as he grit his teeth together.

“I don’t know.”

“…….”

Ianna wasn’t in her best shape, and she realized that it would be difficult to take on this woman, who had appeared with a flash of incredibly powerful magic, and capture her alive.

‘But I absolutely must. It’s better to kill her on the spot and avoid further trouble if she’s neither friend nor foe, but Arhad has the final say if she’s a fragment owner.’

Dorcianni slowly scrutinized Ianna as Ianna wracked her brains. Her gaze had been fixated on Ianna as soon as she had first laid eyes on her.

“I am very likely your enemy. After all, you killed Marie, and I am affiliated with Bahamut……,”

Dorcianni said languidly as she drew forth her power. Lightning crackled around her. She continued,

“What will you do if I’m your enemy? No. I am your enemy.”

The light faded from Ianna’s eyes.

‘Catch her alive.’

That was the only thought that filled her head —she was already having troubling thinking about complicated matters as it was.

Ianna rushed at Dorcianni to capture her.

But she found it difficult to catch Dorcianni not only because she was already in bad shape but also because Dorcianni proved to be as slippery as an eel. She flashed from here to there like lightning itself, and she also used the lightning to counter Ianna.

“I have an intuition for movement spells. I don’t think there’s anyone alive who can catch me, a specialist in lightning magic.”

Ianna didn’t need Dorcianni to spell it out for her to know that the latter had been using magic, so, like always, she asked the mana to scatter Dorcianni’s spells. Simultaneously, Ianna tried to restrain Dorcianni with her martial arts.

“I don’t only use mana.”

But the magic didn’t dispel, and Ianna’s body whipped harmlessly through empty air.

Indeed. Dorcianni was also using divine power in her spells.

“Enough, Dorci! What are you even thinking?”

“Who could say —I suppose I’m just interested?”

Ianna didn’t have the time to think at leisure. Her heavy body would stop listening to her soon. Only her consciousness was fervently struggling to catch Dorcianni alive.

Boooom!

An enormous amount of divine power exploded out from Ianna. Her crimson divine power blazed as it wrapped around her, and it glowered at the culprit who had set its owner on edge.

“Oh my…….”

Dorcianni laughed in wonder, but the minute expression had escaped Ianna’s notice.

I must not kill her.

I can’t kill her.

In that case…….

Roberstein’s knowledge devoured Ianna.

Whom will you Judge?

Booom!

A fierce will and an unprecedentedly strong power pulled her to the truth of the world. A vast volume of her divine power was sucked into the great and absolute providence that existed in everything in the world.

I will Judge the worth of capturing that woman alive.

Creak…….

The weights of power began to tilt.

The power of Judgment, which weighed justice in terms of right and wrong on the ‘Balance’, demanded that Ianna determine what worth would be weighed on the other end. Ianna understood that she would have to sacrifice something of corresponding value in other to materialize the worth of capturing Dorcianni alive.

Take anything, as long as I don’t die.

Ianna’s eyes lost their light as soon as she thought this. And, just as her unconscious body and mind were about to be drawn into providence, someone pulled her hard by the arm.

They embraced her tightly. But Ianna’s mind did not stop moving toward the tyrannical and absolute truth.

Then, a golden light came flying toward her like chains and bound her tightly.

“Pull yourself together.”

A sudden chill passed over the stormy seas. The chill froze the entire ocean in an instant and forced it to calm.

It was a familiar voice. The light returned faintly back into Ianna’s eyes. Arhad’s frigid voice dug into her ear.

“Answer me if you can hear me. I’ll knock you out if you don’t.”

~~*~~

Part 11

Arhad looked out the window from time to time even as he worked.

‘The rain isn’t letting.’

The downpour, which had been falling constantly for the past week or so like a great hole had opened up in the sky, was finally beginning to grow lighter. Now, it was only a drizzle as it tapped gently against the windowpane.

The rain felt rather clean. The fact that he could feel such a powerfully refreshing sensation from nature meant that the rain carried nature’s aura within it.

‘Most of the Reborn will be washed away by the water.’

The people of Theodore were lucky. How had such cleanly rain known to fall at just the right time?

This was something that had nearly a zero percent chance of happening unless the spirits themselves had willed it and had created the water on purpose. Had the spirit of water simply happened to notice that something had polluted his water by chance and sent down the rain to cleanse it?

But this theory bordered delusion, because, as far as Arhad knew, the spirits’ actions were limited. It was impossible for the spirits to strut around the physical plane in the present day. And so, Theodore was simply lucky.

Well, not that he really cared either way. More importantly…….

‘Will I be able to see the sun again soon?’

Arhad put down the pen he had been scribbling with and leaned against the back of his comfortable chair. His gaze was fixed on the sky where the grey clouds were starting to clear one by one.

He tired of the cold rain. He wanted to see the sun.

Arhad liked the sun. He liked the sun for no other reason beside the fact that the sun’s color was Ianna’s color. He liked Ianna’s color, which felt radiant to him even though it had no reason to actually illuminate, and he liked the crimson sun, that hot and beautiful ball of flame wrapped in Ianna’s color.

Drip, drop.

He slowly closed his eyes as he listened to the clear sound of raindrops hitting the window.

He had been obsessed with the crimson ever since he was born.

He had reawakened in a blank state with only his fondness of the crimson, and he had obsessed over the sword as his peculiar fixation on the crimson had begun to subside. His obsession had surely stemmed from the ‘Demon’s’ feelings for Roberstein.

But it had been her smile that suppressed the Demon’s feelings and pulled Arhad out into the open like she was overturning the entire world.

Her crimson colors, her sword —none of it mattered during those moments when she smiled.

Ianna was, of course, someone who possessed everything that shook the Demon —her crimson colors, her sword, and Roberstein herself. And so, Arhad had once deluded himself into thinking that his obsession for Ianna had stemmed from Roberstein in the past before he had turned everything back.

But then, he had come to realize.

That his current incarnation’s emotions differed from his first’s.

That the Demon’s feelings for Roberstein were actually hindering the pure love he felt for Ianna.

That it was none other than his love for Ianna which safeguarded him and allowed him to keep existing as Arhad when he had nearly returned to being the Demon again.

Ultimately, that feeble purity had been swallowed up by the Demon’s madness. But it was tenacious, and it had survived by holding its breath deep within his heart.

And now, that very feeling was the strongest emotion inside him.

“Ianna.”

Arhad called her name.

Ianna, Ianna, Ianna…….

The beauty that brought warmth to his heart.

His absolute love.

Lately, Arhad had been so happy he thought he could go insane.

After all……Ianna was changing.

And she was almost definitely on the brink of falling in love with him.

He had realized this on the king’s birthday, the day when the ever-honest Ianna had lied about being his lover and had spoken her mind after suffering from Margarita’s spell.

Ianna was dull to her feelings and had said something about parents or whatnot, but Arhad had understood.

The doors to her heart had swung open, and her heart was ready to accept him now.

And a chance had been presented to him as he rejoiced.

Arhad had not let that chance slip through his fingers. He had subtly lured her in with bait, and Ianna had become like a cat trapped in a pen as she dubiously and cautiously followed him in.

Now, he was in the middle of soothing and coaxing her so that she wouldn’t try to run from his arms. He was openly trying to seduce her so that she would naturally come to realize that she loved him on her own and speak out about it.

He wished for her to tell him that she loved him first.

After all, she might feel burdened and run away if he confessed to her before she realized that she was in love.

If he waited and waited, then one day Ianna might fall in love with him too, and she would boldly confess to him then because she was straightforward.

Besides, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back anymore once the words of his love had left his lips.

‘Ianna might fall in love with me…….’

A faint heat took to Arhad’s cheeks.

It would be like his dreams coming true. He might even die of a heart attack.

Perhaps his seduction was paying off, as Ianna had gotten to the point where she was comfortable kissing him on the cheek. But, despite how hard he tried not to make a fool of himself, his head felt like it would go flying off whenever Ianna pressed her lips to his cheek like she was hanging to her victory.

And he fell even deeper in love every time he looked at her as her lips pulled away. The mischievous twinkle in her eyes, the way her face flushed ever so slightly even though she pretended nothing was wrong, and most importantly, the way she confronted his crazy feelings head-on without looking away…….

Her candor, her beauty, her loveliness.

How could he not love her?

His bottomless love only grew deeper and deeper. He liked her so much he wondered if he had truly gone insane, and it made him like her even more.

‘I resolved myself to wait, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to endure this.’

This was what Arhad thought as he opened his eyes when he felt the light hitting his face. The sun had finally peeked out from behind the clouds and had cast its radiant rays down to earth.

Seeing the sun made him want to see Ianna.

Arhad was waiting obediently because Ianna had cautioned him to stay quiet in the tower.

He had strongly wanted to follow her to the party, but doing so would have meant breaking his promise to her. He did not wish to do something so foolish. He couldn’t have cared less about losing face, but he hated for Ianna to find him pathetic.

Even he agreed that he was making a fool of himself. He was trying to seduce Ianna, so he had to look cool in front of her —he couldn’t be slovenly and accidentally lose points.

He felt uncomfortable when he thought about Schneider, but he trusted Ianna.

And then, she had gotten in contact with him as he was thinking this.

[Please entrust this matter to me.]

“I trust you.”

Arhad supported her wishes once she had explained the situation to him. Ianna was more than enough to deal with the likes of Margarita, and he also wanted to help Ianna save face if she felt responsible for the incomplete success of their last mission.

Arhad loved her radiant life. He wanted to support her both physically and emotionally so that she could accomplish everything it was that she wanted.

Ianna was someone who could do well even on her own, but nothing would make him happier if he was the first person she looked to when she felt lonely or needed assistance.

Though of course……he had never changed and he had also inherited the Demon’s abnormal personality, so his obsession over Ianna far exceeded all realms of normalcy. But it was his trust in and love for Ianna that suppressed the madness.

And so, Arhad waited. For her to return.

‘A serious illness indeed.’

He felt like a lapdog waiting earnestly for his master’s return. But he also didn’t dislike the idea. What did it matter if Ianna was like a cat and he was like a dog? He didn’t care that he was treated like a dog if it meant that Ianna would love him.

‘And there’s this ring too.’

Arhad touched the ring he was wearing on his left ring finger. He had heaped his knowledge of high-leveled magics on their rings.

His previous incarnation, the Demon, was both the master of mana, the magical power spread all throughout the world, and the progenitor of magic. There was nothing that he couldn’t do with magic.

Buzz…….

Arhad had been continuously tracking Ianna’s location. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, but rather that he was worried that something might happen.

He was in extremely high spirits.

But it didn’t take long for his spirits to plummet into the mud when he heard the news that the girl shouting for him outside had brought him.

“Little Arhad—!”

Priscilla shouted with all her might. She continued,

“Where are you, Little Arhad?!

“I have something to tell you about Little Ianna! About Little Ianna! Little Arhad!”

Priscilla was drenched from the rain as she ran all around the Institution shouting for him. And, when she came near the Institution’s Grey Tower…

“Why are you looking for me?”

Priscilla spun around when she heard his voice from behind. Arhad, whom she had been trying so desperately to find, was staring down at her with his arms crossed. He continued,

“You had something to say about Ianna……?”

“Thank goodness! You’re still here! There, there’s been trouble! Oh, gosh, I don’t know if anything will change even if I tell you, but there’s been an emergency, and I thought you should know since you’re her lover, and I thought that you might be able to do something to help since you’re you, Little Arhad…”

Priscilla explained her story to him with great haste.

He had already heard from Ianna about how Rikijen had come back after being kidnapped by some woman and that Eiji was in danger because he had taken Rikijen’s place.

However.

Priscilla said that Ianna was extremely unwell. Not only had Ianna been burning with a fever so hot that her entire body radiated heat, but her face had also been deathly pale.

“What should we do? Will she be okay alone?”

Arhad looked down at his silent ring while Priscilla was practically jumping in front of him.

“…….”

The expressionless look on his face as he kept his silence gave Priscilla goosebumps. The chilling air he was giving off made her instinctively uneasy, and Priscilla took a step back from him in alarm.

“Thank you, Priscilla. Allow me to repay you for this sometime,”

Arhad thanked her quietly before leaving her behind and casting Teleport.

A blackish flame had kindled in his heart as he listened to what Priscilla had to say, and it had flared all the way to his head and made his vision hazy.

He had nearly made a complete fool of himself.

His woman was apparently the kind of idiot who sauntered around without even realizing how ill she was.

‘Why on earth didn’t she tell me? Is it because she didn’t want to worry me again? She isn’t in danger right now, is she?’

He immediately arrived somewhere close to where she was.

And he knew by how furiously his heart started beating as soon as he got there. That there was a Demon’s fragment owner with Ianna.

Arhad just barely managed to cling to his rationality and he watched over the situation from afar. Ianna was fighting a woman who wasn’t Margarita, and Eiji was beside her.

He did not immediately interfere. Ianna was sensitive about displaying her skills. He had rushed over to her because he had heard she was unwell, but he decided to wait and watch over the situation first because he was afraid she might misunderstand and think that he didn’t trust her.

‘Is she all right?’

It was difficult to tell because she was wearing a mask. Ianna’s roommate was the type to raise a fuss over trivial matters, so it was entirely possible that Ianna was actually perfectly fine. If that was the case, then all he had to do was keep watching until Ianna safely made it out from the slums, return to the tower first, and wait for her to come to him.

But……the woman who was fighting Ianna.

‘Dorcianni Demariposa.’

Why was she here?

She was a vague woman.

She was —how should he put it? She did not take any sides.

Booooom!

His thoughts about Dorcianni were forcibly brought to a close when an enormous amount of crimson divine power burst out from Ianna’s entire being. And the divine power shrouding Ianna like flames began to fade like sunlight being choked by fog before Arhad could make a decision.

But it wasn’t scattering because Ianna had lost control over it. It was definitely being consumed. And an unidentified but great presence weighed down upon the entire area. It had no shape, but it was the absolute and great providence that dominated over everything in the world.

The Balance of the World.

‘Is that……her power?’

Arhad ran toward her like lightning as soon as he had confirmed it. Eiji, who had been watching over Ianna and Dorcianni at a complete loss, startled at Arhad’s sudden appearance and stepped back.

“Ianna!”

Arhad called her name as he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into his embrace. But Ianna did not reply. Arhad intuited something as he felt the powerful feeling her body was giving off.

Absolutely no one could harm Ianna at the moment. Her time would remain paused until the Judgment she desired came to a conclusion, and she would be protected from any and all impact.

‘Did she get swallowed up by it?’

She would not be free to move if her ego had been swept away by the absolute providence of the world.

He didn’t know what Ianna had wished for, but the Balance would designate an appropriate price for her wish at random if she did not designate one on her own. And there was no telling what that price might be. Ianna’s entire existence could vanish if things went wrong.

‘No.’

There were two ways to pull her out of her power. Either Ianna could escape on her own if she came to her senses, or she would have to lose her consciousness entirely.

But the second method was risky. It could turn her into a vegetable with her mind swept away by providence.

Which was why Arhad tried to force her away so he could pull her out of providence.

Shaaaa!

Muddied and dirty divine power that felt befuddled shot out from him like chains. The chains bound themselves tightly around Ianna, whom he was still clutching in his arms.

Shhhh…….

Then, the chains turned golden. His now-golden divine power manifested his coercive power and forced her time to rewind.

“Haah.”

Ianna was breathing again. Arhad hugged her tighter and just barely managed to keep down his boiling rage as he said,

“Pull yourself together.”

The light returned to her eyes. He continued,

“Answer me if you can hear me. I’ll knock you out if you don’t.”

“I……can hear you.”

Her voice was coarse as she replied.

“Then reabsorb your divine power.”

She was breathing heavily as she did as she was told. The crimson divine power that had been blazing around her like a fire immediately vanished like a chilly air had passed over it.

“Ugh…….”

Ianna groaned. Her body was like a lump of fire as she quivered. Arhad wasn’t in his best condition either, but his worry for Ianna and his rage that threatened to set his entire rationality ablaze came first.

“You…….”

“Urk!”

Ianna ripped off her mask before he could say anything, and blood poured down from her mouth and nose. The fresh blood dribbling down from her dyed Arhad’s vision.

“Why…are you here?”

Ianna asked tenaciously as she squeezed tight at his arm. Arhad’s patience snapped when he heard her foolish question.

He stopped her before she could say any more with her reddened lips and bleakly told her,

“Either go to sleep or keep your mouth shut.”

Experience told Ianna that Arhad was only a step shy of completely losing his mind, and she decided to keep quiet.

“Urk.”

She displayed her extreme willpower and did not pass out even as she vomited heaps of blood. Arhad held her tightly as she refused to sink down to the bitter end even as she staggered.

Ianna was drenched.

‘It smells like water……’

But he wasn’t referring to the smell of rain.

Ianna smelled strongly of the spirits.

Arhad’s jaw quivered in fury as he became convinced that the miracle that he had once thought was simply the humanity’s good luck had actually been brought about intentionally by the woman shivering in his arms.

Ianna had been busy as of late. She had been chasing after Margarita after claiming that she would find another way, visiting Rikijen in the hospital out of worry, and holing herself up in the training grounds to train in both the sword and her divine power because she claimed that now was the time to work harder…….

Arhad had never once doubted Ianna because they had been in frequent communication through their artefacts. He had no reason to doubt her because he trusted her. And so, he had not known exactly what Ianna had been up to.

But he knew now that he was with her.

‘Ianna…….’

He felt like the blackish flames in his chest would burn him whole when he grasped the full situation.

He squeezed his arms tight in his blind fury. He had nearly crushed Ianna’s enfeebled body, but he just barely managed to hold himself back.

Ianna had stabilized somewhat as Arhad’s arms helped keep her upright and she looked forward, so Arhad, too, suppressed his rage and glared in front of him as well.

“…….”

Dorcianna, who had pushed Ianna to her limits as she evaded Ianna this way and that, had sunken to the ground on her knees.

She was staring blankly back at Ianna.

She had not yet recovered from the aftermath of having been placed on the Balance like a sacrifice by a providence she could not defy.

To be precise, she was ruminating over the sensation of the great ‘compelling force’ that supported the entire world brushing against her.

Her slender lips opened.

“Amazing.”

There was an unprecedented sparkle in Dorcianni’s cerulean eyes as she took interest in that unfathomable power. Arhad could not endure the offense he took from her gaze and raised his hand.

Craaaash!

Dorcianni was flung backward and smashed into a building wall. Fissures ran up the wall, and dust and debris fell upon her as she crumbled to the ground. Eiji, who had been keeping an uneasy eye on the situation, immediately startled.

“Cough.”

Dorcianni wriggled out from the cloud of dust. She had only returned to her senses after being hit, and she coughed out blood.

But a moment later, mana rushed toward her and forcefully brought her kneeling at Arhad’s feet. It had truly happened in but an instant.

Dorcianni blinked. Before her eyes were the boots of the girl who had piqued her interest and the shoes of an unidentified man.

Thump—. Thump—.

Her heart thumped so furiously she thought it might explode. Her entire being was reacting to the man before her.

And Dorcianna already knew what this feeling was. She looked up, only now having realized that there was another owner of a Demon’s fragment present because the interesting girl had taken up her full attention before.

She saw his radiant golden eyes.

Booom.

Immediately, her entire body was crushed by pressure and a strange ringing assaulted her head. The sun hid itself, and the darkness fell upon her.

She hadn’t been hit by a spell, nor had she lost consciousness…….

But his trivial human eyes vanished, and Dorcianni found herself looking back at two gigantic, golden, monstrous eyes, burning like golden flames, from the pitch-black darkness.

She already knew what kinds of beings possessed such eyes, and she had even met one before.

‘A dragon.’

But he could not be a dragon, and therefore he had to be some other ‘unidentified being’ who was like a dragon.

What was he?

Dorcianni broke out in goosebumps all over.

‘Who are these two? —they’re so awesome.’

Dorcianni was having great fun when a hand reached out to her from the darkness.

“Wait!”

Something squeezed its way in between Dorcianni and the monstrous eyes, and the muddy darkness promptly withdrew. Eiji was standing with his back toward her. He continued,

“Please don’t kill her.”

“Move.”

The air was prickling. The mana around them had sharpened with bloodlust in accordance to Arhad’s will.

“She’s the person who brought me out of hell.”

‘Shit.’

Eiji cursed at himself silently for being such a wuss, but he did not budge. He did not wish to see Dorcianni die such a ridiculous death. His childhood memories of clinging to her and begging her not to leave him refused to let her die. He continued,

“I’m certain she’ll be useful. I’ll make sure to convince her, so please don’t kill her. She’s the type of person who always puts her personal interests first, so I’m sure we can win her over. I’m certain of this.”

“He’s right —I can be useful,”

Dorcianni immediately spat out. She continued,

“I’ve decided. I’ll side with you guys.”

In the moment, Eiji was so overjoyed by Dorcianni’s capricious betrayal that he could lose his mind.

“I’m not the type of person to lie over something like this. I know she’ll be use…….”

“I said move.”

“Don’t I have the right to ask at least this much of you?”

“This is as far as my respect for you goes.”

But just as Arhad ignored what Eiji was saying and pushed the latter aside.

“Please……wait.”

Ianna suddenly grabbed at Arhad’s arms from within his embrace. She was exhausted, her hold was weak, and her voice sounded like it was about to break off, but Arhad stopped moving and looked down at her. She continued,

“Can’t we do……as Eiji says?”

Eiji bit down at his lip as he watched Ianna speak while obviously struggling. It made his heart ache when he realized that she had come to save him despite how plainly unwell she was.

And the fact that she was still thinking of him until the bitter end despite her poor condition brought tears to his eyes. She continued,

“Of course…you can kill her if you’ve determined that we must, but…….”

“What a clever and pretty girl.”

Either she didn’t know what situation she was currently in or she didn’t care, but Dorcianni ignored it all and simply praised Ianna sincerely.

She then turned to Arhad when he scowled. Dorcianni continued,

“I feel a great evil from you. You’re the Bahamut bastard, right?”

“And if I am?”

Dorcianni continued to speak her mind even as she received the full brunt of Arhad’s bloodlust.

“Do you really think I came here without taking certain precautions first? I’m a very thorough person, you see. Bahamut will be notified of this location as soon as I die. Marie’s already dead, and I’ll be dead too. Don’t you think Bahamut will start being suspicious of Roanne?”

“If you’re trying to use cheap blackmail to bargain for your life, then you will simply die.”

“You’re a picky man, aren’t you? I can tell them that I killed Marie myself, if you’d like. How does that sound? Oh, you can even hammer psychic magic into my brain if you want. And I’ll even cooperate with you until the day you need the fragment inside me.”

“…….”

“So?”

Arhad looked down at Dorcianni like she was insane.

Dorcianni Demariposa —the woman hadn’t been on Bahamut’s side in the past when he had waged total war against Bahamut. The Bahamut imperial family had once raged about her because she had gone missing at such a crucial time.

And then, after Arhad had eliminated the Bahamut imperial family, she had come to him of her own accord and asked to die.

Arhad looked between Eiji and Dorcianni in turns before he glared at the brazen look on her face.

“What are you playing at?”

“Who could say —curiosity, perhaps? I’m a mage who chases only after the Truth.”

He had asked because the fact that he was being swept into her flow annoyed him, but he actually couldn’t have cared any less about her true colors or her designs.

He looked back at Ianna, who was hanging limply in his arms. She looked like she would collapse at any given moment but refused to pass out until everything was done and over with, and he did not want for the foolish woman to push herself any further.

“Fine. We’ll have it your way.”

It was true that Dorcianni had her uses —he had simply been angry that Ianna had been cornered this far. Besides, he could prevent her betrayal by imposing restrictions on her, and he could kill her at a later time if he so wished.

Arhad’s long finger pricked at Dorcianni’s forehead. A complex magic circle spread out from the tip of his finger.

The magic circle spun as it drew in mana, and it left behind powerful restrictions on her brain before it disappeared.

Dorcianni’s eyes glistened with intrigue.

“Goodness, what a solid arrangement of mana…….”

“Eiji, take this woman to the eighth hideout. I will hear the details from you later.”

Then, his wintry gaze turned back to Dorcianni. He continued,

“Dorcianni Demariposa. Be prepared for the consequences should you ever defy my orders. You’re chasing after the Truth? I’ll turn you into a retard.”

“I’d hate that. Well, not that it matters, since I don’t plan on disobeying you anyway.”

Dorcianni groaned as she stood up while patting down her aching body. She continued,

“Why don’t you look after that precious girl of yours before you start caring about little old me? I don’t want anything to happen to that adorable girl either.”

Now that things were beginning to wrap up, Ianna, who had been desperately clutching to Arhad’s clothes like it was the lifeline for her consciousness, asked,

“Is it…over…now?”

Arhad grit his teeth. His raging fury had been threatening to blind him with wrath for a while now, but he forced it down because he couldn’t be too rough with Ianna while she was unwell, and he told her that it was without much enthusiasm.

Ianna passed out in relief as soon as Arhad had affirmed. Arhad ground his teeth together as he thought about how truly overflowing her sense of responsibility was.

He picked her limp frame up and teleported away.

Shwoop!

Eiji stood around blankly as he watched Arhad and Ianna vanish without another word.

Ianna wasn’t there anymore, but her pallid countenance and limp arms etched into his eyes and wrung his heart.

Then, once they were gone, he turned to Dorcianni, who was patting down her thighs, with mixed feelings.

“……You really haven’t changed at all, Dorci.”

Dorcianni looked up.

“People don’t change that easily, Eiji.”

But there was an uncharacteristic faint smile in her cold cerulean eyes. She continued,

“I’ll be in your care from now on, my cute little boy.”

~~*~~

A miracle enveloped Theodore on the Thanksgiving of Laos, the day that people gave thanks unto the God Laos.

The entire city had been shrouded by despair just earlier that day when the royal palace had publicly announced the cause behind the illness.

What kind of deranged mage had cast this kind of curse on Theodore? How could they do something so wicked as a fellow human being? Did the crazy mage not have even a shred of morality? Were they not afraid of divine punishment?

The mage was a son of a bitch.

Those who had thought the disease was contagious raged.

But their rage had no specified target, so all they could do was pray for God Laos’ help.

And then, the rain, which had lasted all week, had stopped around noon. And the people found a miracle as the clouds cleared clean away and the sun’s radiance appeared before them again.

“Huh……?”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

The mage’s spells, which had been eating away at the people, evaporated away not too long after they had welcomed the sun’s return.

People who had been ailing were weeping as they ran out from their houses to savor the sunlight.

“It’s the grace of god!”

They sang praises unto Laos with tears in their eyes.

And the situation in Theodore settled quickly within the next week.

In the meanwhile, Ianna had been terribly sick all week long.

“Ah, ugh…….”

She had never been this sick before. She was not sick from external wounds, like when she was cut by a blade or hit by magic, and even Ianna found it difficult to endure the internal pain that seemed to boil her alive.

She suffered, feeling like she was on the brink between life and death, and she was not able to stay awake for very long.

But there were still times on occasion when she came to, though her consciousness was hazy. And she could confirm a certain person’s presence who was always watching over her at her side whenever she opened her eyes.

There was a cool hand holding her burning one. A kind hand that carefully wiped her tears away when she clenched her eyes shut from the pain.

“You’ll be fine.”

The chill comforted her beyond imagination. And Ianna fell asleep again, forgetting even her pain, when that hand stroked her head.

Then, one day, Ianna opened her eyes when she felt something cold on her forehead.

“…….”

She saw Arhad looking haggard and tired as soon as she opened her eyes. He was staring openly at her with his chin resting in his palm. How long had he been watching her like this?

There was something cold on her forehead, and Arhad’s other hand was resting on top of that. Ianna remembered how his hand had comforted her through her suffering. She placed her own hand on top of his before she realized what she was doing.

“Are you all right?”

Arhad asked, noticing that Ianna seemed to be feeling much better.

“Yes.”

Ianna’s voice cracked —she had been wandering the boundary between life and death all week long. It was so bad that she hardly sounded any different from the husky voice she spoke with whenever she put on her voice-altering ring for Camastros.

Arhad stared at her quietly for a moment as she cleared her throat before pulling back his hand and handing her a cup of warm water and some medicine.

“Thank you.”

Ianna took her medicine in a daze, not having fully grasped the situation quite yet.

“Ianna,”

Arhad said as he stared back at her.

“Yes?”

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

“Ask away.”

The fog in her mind seemed to clear away as she drank the water.

She had some questions for him too, particularly about what had happened while she was sick.

How long had she been asleep? What happened after Margarita died? And what was the deal between Dorcianni and Eiji?

“Do I look sane to you?”

Ianna spat out her water.

‘What the hell?’

Ianna looked back at him in bafflement, but Arhad betrayed no expression as he continued to ask,

“I know I usually act like I’m normal —did that make you think I was sane?”

“…….”

Ianna wordlessly brought her cup down from her lips. She hadn’t had the chance to get a proper look at Arhad until then, and now he was filling her vision to the brim.

His complexion was pale, like the blood had drained from his face, there were dark shadows around his eyes, his eyes were bloodshot, his lips were dry, and his skin was rough and haggard.

And he had asked her an incomprehensible question while looking like that.

‘Was he not able to sleep?’

Ianna didn’t know how long she had been ill for, but it was obvious to her that Arhad had been worried and had nursed her the entire time.

The way his cool hand had touched her forehead as he told her that she would be fine while she suffered still remained hazily in her memories.

She felt suffocated, as if someone was squeezing tight at her heart.

“I asked you if I looked sane to you.”

Arhad repeated his bizarre question when Ianna didn’t answer. The kindness he had displayed in her memories vanished, and he was looking back at her with a face so expressionless it could have been a mask.

There was no trace of the warmth that he was usually unhesitant to pour out to her whenever she entered his line of sight. His attitude toward her was dry, as if he had accidentally dropped his warmth somewhere.

“Can you not hear me? Or do you just not want to answer?”

She could not figure out why he was asking this.

‘I get that he’s angry.’

Several things pricked her conscience. Like the fact that she had strained herself to summon the spirits for such a long period of time, that she had gone to the temple to obtain information about the Holy Age, or that she had tried to use her power while she was not in her right mind.

‘I might have been able to capture Dorcianni alive if Arhad hadn’t stopped me, but I don’t know what I would have sacrificed in exchange.’

Roberstein’s Judgement.

It borrowed the power of the Balance that maintained the world’s equilibrium, the absolute providence of the world.

The ability to determine ‘equilibrium’ in the face of providence was its most fundamental ability, like how Roberstein had weighed the worth of evil gods’ lives against the weight of their sins as she measured their karma.

This power could be used in an infinite number of ways.

The Balance would ignore the laws of cause and effect and make her wishes come true if she placed the worth of what she wanted on one end and placed a corresponding sacrifice on the other.

Roberstein had generally used her divine power as the sacrifice, but other things could be used as well. For example, she could have used a part of her body or even ‘another value.’

And this other value could be anything. Though it was worth mentioning that it placed a heavy burden on Roberstein when she tried to use something that belonged to another as the sacrifice. Only a greater ‘being’ could rob others of their belongings as they pleased. And Ianna was merely human.

If she asked for something too great and could not find equilibrium no matter how much she sacrificed, then even her soul could be extinguished for using the Balance recklessly and disrupting the equilibrium it kept.

Still, Ianna could not deny that it was a terrifying power that could control the world with the high providence called Judgement. It placed an immense burden on her soul and had a lot of limitations, but it was a terrifying power that offset all its cons by the sole fact that she could make any desire of hers come true so long as she offered the appropriate sacrifice.

‘And Roberstein was a god who could use this Judgement freely.’

She was the first god born to the world after the world tree and the spirit kings, the creators of the worlds who were not themselves gods. The Arbiter of the world who had been born with the largest fragment of chaos.

She had been an absolute being in every sense of the word.

Ianna had used the power of Judgment subconsciously. She had lost her grip on reason because she could not catch Dorcianni, and Roberstein’s knowledge had surged up from within her. And in that moment, Roberstein’s identity, which only regarded her use of the power of Judgment as natural, had swallowed her whole.

And that was why Ianna had so readily used that power, as if it had only been a matter of course. She reflected over her actions.

She had nearly been devoured by something that she herself had to devour.

She did not ever want to lose the initiative again.

Roberstein had been an amazing god. But Ianna was not worried about despairing before Roberstein’s vast power. She simply let her will blaze fiercely.

‘She’s still just another part of me. I can do this.’

Ianna closed her eyes, and she looked to Arhad serenely when she opened them again.

……But what about you?

Calmly, she opened her mouth to speak.

Part 12

“Are you angry?”

“Are you ignoring my question? Answer me.”

He was scarily stubborn. Ianna did not know why on earth he needed a response to his bizarre question, but she realized that he would keep asking to the bitter end until she did.

“Of course you look sane to me.”

He did act strange from time to time, but that was only when Ianna rejected him. He was always kind and warm to her otherwise, and he was her master who could make logical decisions with his level-headed rationality.

“Really? Is that truly how you feel?”

His lukewarm tone did not make Ianna anxious, and Ianna simply nodded along in nonchalance. He continued,

“I see…….”

The edges of Arhad’s lips curled up into a smile, and he slowly grabbed hold of Ianna’s crimson hair as it cascaded over her covers. His open stare never once left her.

He was holding onto her hair like it was a priceless treasure as it fell from between his fingers, and his every action was directly only at her. But he had touched her hair like it was expensive silk before too, so Ianna was rather accustomed to it.

She only noticed the chilling change in his attitude when he crushed her hair in his hand.

“I see I must have hidden it too well if you truly feel that way.”

“What are you……?”

“Wait, no. That’s not it, Ianna.”

Arhad’s mask was cracking as he told her she was mistaken. His apathetic eyes, which she had thought were empty, were suddenly being dyed with a scary yet familiar emotion. He continued,

“I’ve told you several times already. And I’m sure you actually know the truth too. That I am severely abnormal when it comes to you. But I see you don’t take it very seriously. Did I hide it too well? Yes, I suppose I must have.”

“Wait, Arhad…….”

Feeling that things were getting serious, Ianna grabbed hold of Arhad’s hand, which was still crushing her hair. She continued,

“Please calm down. I was wrong.”

“About what?”

But Ianna could not reply immediately when he asked her what she had done wrong. She knew that she had done many wrongs, but she had not had the chance to organize her thoughts because she had encountered Arhad as soon as she had awoken.

“For starters……I hid the fact that I was unwell from you.”

Normally, she might have hesitated because she was embarrassed about the fact that she had failed to maintain her condition, but she would have still told Arhad regardless. Ianna would normally rather die than show her weaknesses, but Arhad was the one and only person whom she let spoil her. Besides, she rather liked it when he took care of her, so she had no reason to hide it.

But there had been a myriad of reasons why she had taken to a fever this time around. And those were secrets that she found difficult to share with him.

“Is that all?”

He pulled lightly at her hair and her hand while she was hesitating and brought them to his nose. He continued,

“You don’t smell like the spirits’ powers anymore, I see.”

Ianna immediately broke out in goosebumps.

“The random rainfall in the middle of autumn must have been your doing.”

“…….”

Had she been found out?

But how?

“You reeked of the cleanly stench of nature when I hugged you last week.”

Arhad gave her a clear answer as if he had read the doubts in her mind.

Ianna simultaneously learned that the spirits left traces behind if she summoned them for a long time at once and that she had been sick in bed for a week.

“Yes. It was me. I called on the spirit of water to make it rain, and I turned all the Reborn in the water into research samples.”

She had little choice but to admit it. She could not lie in front of someone who already knew the truth.

“Ianna. I had begged you not to use the spirits if at all possible, and you assured me that you wouldn’t.”

Squeeze.

Arhad tightened his grip. The hair in his hands rustled like dry straw. She felt like he was taking his anger out on her hair because he did not dare take it out on her person.

“So why……how could you call on the spirits so readily? Does your promise to me mean so little to you?”

“No. That’s not it at all. I had no choice because I wanted to treat Rikijen as quickly as possible. I didn’t tell you about the spirits because I knew you wouldn’t like it.”

“I don’t care about any of that. What’s important is that I trusted you would always be frank and honest with me, but you said one thing to my face and did another behind my back.”

She felt like her heart was being torn apart by a dagger. Arhad continued,

“You should have told me if you thought you might end up calling the sprits. I would have worried for you, but I would have let you do as you wanted if you insisted on it. I trusted you, and I respected your will. Ianna, when have I ever stopped you from doing something you stubbornly insisted on doing?”

“No, that’s not it…….”

“But you hid this from me. Why? Because you didn’t want me to worry?”

She could feel that Arhad was deeply hurt as she heard the despondence in his voice. Her hands trembled.

“That’s not it…….”

“Enough. Were you sick because of the spirits?”

“That’s…….”

It was true that the spirits had made her unwell, but her condition had only been grave because of Roberstein’s heart. It was an aftereffect of the deluge of knowledge and information that she had found difficult to withstand.

Arhad quietly tilted his head to the side.

“Shall I just write it off as a cold if you find it difficult to speak about?”

“…….”

“You said you were wrong to keep quiet about the fact that you were unwell, right? Then why didn’t you tell me?”

She had nothing to say for herself. She felt horribly guilty, but she could not open her mouth because she did not know how to refine the emotions swirling inside her mouth into words. Arhad continued,

“If this is hard for you to talk about too, then should I just forget about everything for you?”

“…….”

“Why did you use your power? I told you that you must never use it because it’s dangerous. I told you not to lend your ear to the impulses whispering to you.”

“I couldn’t stop myself.”

“What?”

Arhad laughed. He continued,

“Aren’t you the type of woman who always does what you say you will? You kept hold of your consciousness even though you pushed yourself so far that you were deathly ill for an entire week……and you’re telling me that you couldn’t stop yourself? That doesn’t even make sense. You wouldn’t have even thought about using your power if you had actually listened to anything I said.”

That’s not it.

That’s really not it.

“You used the excuse that you didn’t want to worry me as you pretended to agree with me to my face, but you were doing whatever it was that you wanted behind my back.”

Ianna wanted to run away. But she could not even turn her head to escape his gaze. The hurt in Arhad’s eyes had violently seized Ianna’s shaken gaze and refused to let her go.

Her eyes grew hot and her breathing grew irregular because her heart ached so much.

“I didn’t know anything, and I couldn’t do anything……not until you were so ill that you couldn’t even think straight while you were in my arms. If your roommate hadn’t told me you were unwell, if I hadn’t gone looking for you, then I could have lost you. Right. There’s something I’ve finally understood after watching over you this past week.”

Finally. Indeed —finally.

Arhad’s eyes grew cloudy. His eyes, which he had barely closed at all as he watched over Ianna all week long, slowly closed as if to hide the pitiful light inside.

“You’ve never once taken me seriously. Not even when I said I trusted you.”

She had to say something, but her lips seemed stuck together and refused to open because she had no idea where to even begin undoing his misunderstanding. Arhad was cornering her, and she did not have enough leisure in her mind to figure out what she was supposed to say.

She might even end up telling him everything at this rate.

She might even say aloud the unseemly doubts she had been violently rejecting and vehemently ignoring until now.

There was an intruder who kept trying to barge inside her glass flower garden.

Ianna refused to let herself be shaken and kept the door securely locked as she watered the flower like she always did.

But she always continued to doubt. She would one day pick that flower and gift it to someone……but who would that someone be?

Ianna hated herself so much for hurting Arhad because she was afraid that he might confirm her doubts, or that he would ask her something she couldn’t answer, that she felt like her head would explode.

But she would not be able to bear it if Arhad confirmed that his affections were not directed to her.

“You’re not even going to justify yourself? Right, you were always an amazing woman who never felt the need to justify your choices. Fine. You’re amazing. And I cherish your radiant life. I wish that everyone could see your light and be moved by it. But Ianna, sometimes…….”

He brought his lips ever so slowly to the edges of her hair he was holding in his hand.

Ianna felt her heart sink when his dry and pallid lips touched lifelessly against her hair, when Arhad opened his eyes again and their eyes met.

“……I get this crazy impulse to ruin your life and make it so that you have no choice but to listen to me.”

She could not feel any warm affection from him when he smiled as he spoke. She felt only his dreadful obsession bordering a hatred that seemed to want to destroy her.

It was similar to what she had felt from those who also possessed a Demon’s fragment, and yet Arhad’s fixation was much darker and murkier than theirs had ever been.

“I’ve been enduring and ignoring these malicious impulses up until now, but I’m not sure I can do that for much longer. Should I just give in?”

Suddenly, he pulled at her hair. Ianna leaned her hand against the bed because she had been unable to keep steady, and he grabbed her chin and pulled it up.

“If not……then shall I simply look the other way?”

Arhad whispered.

“Though I won’t be able to trust you anymore.”

Tears poured down from Ianna’s eyes.

“…….”

Arhad faltered when he saw the tears trailing down from her pallid visage.

“……!”

His eyes regained their focus as if he had suddenly snapped back to his senses. Arhad bit down at his lip, and he let go of Ianna’s face as if he was shaking her off. He covered his face with his hands and let out a ragged breath.

“I’m sorry. I guess I lost my right mind because I haven’t been able to sleep on top of already being angry.”

Ianna didn’t say a word. She simply cried quietly as she continued to stare at him. Arhad collected his breath as he glimpsed at her tears and he suddenly stood up.

“I’ll be outside. Let’s talk later. Get some rest.”

It was difficult for him to watch the tears fall from her eyes, so he promptly turned around.

“…….”

But Arhad could not leave, as if he had been ensnared in a trap. Ianna had grabbed hold of the hem of his shirt.

She pulled at his shirt as he whisked her tears away on her covers.

“……It’ll be better for me to leave for now.”

Arhad ignored her and pried her fingers off.

“I don’t know what else I might say to you if I stay.”

His shoulders heaved quickly as his breathing grew dizzy. He seemed extraordinarily unstable.

Ianna’s eyes drooped as she witnessed him fail to keep his emotions in check from behind.

The sound of his breathing only gave her peace when it was as calm as the serene night.

But he had no drop of composure remaining in him now. And it made Ianna similarly uneasy too.

Arhad walked up to the door. It made Ianna nervous, and she kicked away her covers as she stood up.

“Please wait.”

Arhad stopped just as he opened the door. He had reacted reflexively. She continued,

“……I don’t even know where I should begin, but I’ll tell you everything and explain why I acted the way I did, so please don’t go.”

“We’ll talk later.”

Ianna was nearly in a panic as she tried to stop him, but Arhad kept his back to her to the bitter end and left the room.

Ianna stood vacantly as she stared at the door. Her legs gave out a little while later, and she sank to the floor.

She had never seen Arhad be so upset before. She had felt just how disappointed and hurt he was from the words that had fallen upon her like a torrent.

It was only natural that he was angry. She would have been angry too, had she been in his shoes.

Regardless of her intentions, she had hidden a lot of things from him and hadn’t even been able to explain herself when he found out —it was no wonder he was angry.

“You’ve never once taken me seriously. Not even when I said I trusted you.”

She wanted to tell him he had misunderstood. But she could not because there was a chance that it hadn’t actually been a misunderstanding.

Ianna had always been confident. Because there was nothing that she feared.

But she could not be confident before Arhad. Because she was afraid.

Ianna no longer doubted that Arhad’s affections for her were eternal. His feelings would never change, but she could not help but doubt where they stemmed from.

And Ianna was so terrified that his firm and pure love might have been wrong from its very roots that it drove her crazy.

And her fears had only grown after she had confirmed that all Demon’s fragment beneficiaries were obsessed over her, after she had felt the Demon’s persistent love for Roberstein in Roberstein’s memories.

And her terror had peaked when Roberstein’s affections had tried to invade her heart, when she realized that the Demon’s heart, too, might have affected Arhad somehow.

And Arhad had felt so similar to the other fragment beneficiaries just now as he cornered her in such a scary manner.

Her fear had crossed the limit and poured out from her eyes.

It was the one and only thing Ianna truly feared, and it made her, someone who normally preferred to face things directly, want to flee.

Wouldn’t it be better to pretend she had never noticed? The very thought made Ianna miserable. She had once been so confident about Arhad’s sincerity, but her doubts made her despondent and had caused so many problems.

And Ianna had been cornered and cornered by the monster called fear until she found herself standing at the edge of a cliff.

She had been left dangling at its very edge when Arhad had closed the door and walked out.

Behind her was an empty sea of darkness.

Obscuring her vision before her was the colossal monster called fear.

She had been avoiding the monster all this time, afraid that she would only find an even greater despair if she cut it down, but now she was being forced to make a choice. She might fall off if she didn’t slay the monster before her, and then she would lose everything.

She would lose both Arhad’s trust and her self-confidence. She would be forced to stay forever in the mud if she did not slay this monster.

And so, Ianna drew the sword in her heart.

And she began to cut away at the monster.

Surprisingly, her heart grew at ease.

Ianna smiled.

Just how stressed had she been all this time? It did not suit her nature to run away out of fear. She had been doing something that didn’t suit her at all —no wonder she had been stressed.

Hilariously enough, Ianna grew excited now that she was able to cut down the cause behind her stressors —consequences be damned. There was something abnormal about her excitement.

Perhaps she simply wasn’t in her right mind.

After all, she was thoroughly determined to trample over the flower she was watering in her heart if Arhad betrayed her even after she had cut down her fears.

She would have him take responsibility for making her so miserable.

She had tried to dig up the secrets of the Holy Age alone because she had wanted to be certain of his heart, but she had been wrong and he had cornered her for being mistaken, and so he had a duty to erase her doubts.

Today, Ianna would change herself depending on how Arhad answered her.

If Arhad assured her, then her heart for him would grow a level deeper. This was only natural.

But if he betrayed her, then he would never have her heart. This, too, was only natural.

Their relationship would become a mess if she didn’t explain herself, so Ianna no longer felt the need to hide her fears. The secrets would only grow if she fled, and the situation would only get worse.

‘Whatever will be, will be.’

Ianna devoted herself to the feelings she felt at this moment.

A frost settled in her face, messy from her tears, as soon as she had made a decision. Her expression, once filled with her pain, grew emotionless, and her flushed cheeks became white. Her eyes, which had been shaking as she lost her way, found their focus again. Even the beating of her heart, which had been racing so fast it hurt, had slowed like it was freezing over.

Ianna had grown so abnormally frigid, and she could no longer bear how disheveled her appearance was.

[Iannaaa!]

First, she called Innis.

[Ianna —eek, are you okay?]

Innis cried small droplets of water as soon as he appeared.

He promptly swam over to her face and kissed away the tears dangling from her eyes.

[Were you crying? Why were you crying? Are you hurting a lot?]

“Innis, can you pour some cold water on me so I can pull myself together?”

[Huh? But…….]

“Make the water really cold and pour it on me hard —please.”

Innis sensed that she was acting differently from usual and quietly did as she asked. Icy water fell over her head like a cataract. It stopped as soon as she raised her hand when her lips were finally turning blue.

Ianna jumped up and walked over to the door before Innis could remove the water from her. Then, she opened the door and swiftly walked out.

[Ia…….]

Innis tried to follow her out, but Ianna was pushed backward inside the room before she could get too far.

Slaaaaam!

The door slammed shut. It had been slammed so hard that splinters of wood were falling down from it.

Thud!

Ianna’s back hit hard against the wall. She scowled at the pain on her back, but she looked up as she saw the hands holding her by the shoulder.

“What are you doing?”

Arhad’s eyes were practically spitting fire when she saw them. She simply stared back at him in silence. He continued,

“I asked you what the hell do you think you’re doing.”

Arhad had been moving farther away from the room Ianna was in because he could not bring himself to calm down. He wanted to remove himself from her presence because there was no telling what he might do if he stayed with her.

But he quickly turned back around as soon as he had felt a disturbance that was loathsome to him. And he had seen Ianna walking out of the room, drenched in the spirits’ clean waters, as soon as he had made it back.

“Ianna.”

His inability to understand her transformed back into a fierce rage that threatened to swallow him whole.

And his rage had become as a terrifying darkness as soon as it had crossed the line.

“I really can’t understand what you’re doing. Are you picking a fight with me?”

[Ahhhhh!]

Ianna still refused to reply, but Innis screamed in her stead. He had frozen in utter shock as soon as he had seen Arhad, and it was only now that he had returned to his senses and screamed. He continued,

[W-w-w-what, but that’s…!]

Innis palpitated as he jumped around.

[Ianna, Iannaaa. T-that’s the, ack.]

The blackened gaze slowly turned to Innis. Innis stopped breathing. The bloodlust was so terrifyingly potent that the tip of Innis’ tail had dyed black. He shivered as the dark emotions polluted his body.

[T-t-the Demon!]

Innis screamed as he swam circles around Arhad’s hand. It looked like he wanted to remove Arhad’s hands from Ianna’s shoulders. But he dared not actually touch Arhad.

[Go away! You stupid Demon! What are you doing to Ianna?!]

Innis sounded like he was about to burst into tears as he shouted, and he eventually began smacking Arhad’s hand with his tail.

Innis’ tail turned blacker every time he touched Arhad. He was so agitated that his entire body was bubbling.

[Let go! How dare you touch Ianna with such awful emotions, you creepy bastard?! Don’t you dare do anything funny to Ianna —I won’t let you off easy! Let go, let go of her!]

Ianna momentarily fell into thought as she watched how frantic Innis was.

Innis hated the Demon. Was he acting like this because he sensed the Demon’s fragment inside Arhad? But neither Towe nor Shweia had reacted nearly as violently when they had met Isabella.

But then she remembered how frivolous Innis was and was convinced. Then, she began wondering just how poignant Arhad’s emotions must be as he grabbed her by the shoulder that Innis was raising such a fuss.

[Ack! Ianna!]

Ianna broke away from her thoughts when Innis screamed again. One of the hands that had been restraining her had grabbed hold of Innis’ streamlined figure.

[L-let go of me! I hate you!]

“Get lost, and take your water with you.”

[Why should I take orders from you?]

Innis growled in defiance as he sprayed more water inside the room.

A terrible bloodlust fell over Innis. Innis stiffened up for a moment, and then his once-transparent body was dyed a deep black.

Poooow!

Innis exploded in Arhad’s grasp and disappeared. He had been forcefully unsummoned. I don’t know how he did it, but anything’s possible for Arhad, so……, Ianna thought indifferently.

She brushed back her drenched hair as she figured she should apologize to Innis later when Arhad grabbed her firmly by the wrist. He the dragged her over to the bed and made her sit.

His lips quivered as he stood before her, as if he would begin lashing out at her any minute now.

“……I really can’t understand you.”

That was all he had spat out. Then, he promptly turned back around and tried to leave, but Ianna pulled over a chair next to the bed and said,

“Please sit.”

“…….”

“Sit. Unless you don’t want to understand me, that is. I’ll explain everything to you.”

Ianna’s words were scarily sharp. But Arhad simply stared down at her —he did not take a seat.

Ianna scowled as she grabbed his hand and pulled, but she was suddenly pushed down on her back as soon as she touched him.

She immediately tried to sit up again. But she could not because something was pressing down at her shoulders and the shadow above her was emitting a fierce pressure.

“Ianna, I’m begging you —don’t provoke me beyond my control.”

Ianna looked directly up ahead. There was a scary look on Arhad’s face as he held her down. He continued,

“I’m only just managing to keep hold of my mind. You don’t know how many times I nearly lost it while I watched you suffer at death’s door this past week…….”

Arhad grit his teeth and stopped in the middle of his sentence.

“You want to explain yourself? I said we’ll talk once I’ve managed to calm down a bit. I admit that I walked out after saying my piece, and I know that you probably had your reasons……. But I don’t want to listen to what you have to say right now. I might lose my mind in fury if I hear you blabber something about how you didn’t want to worry me again.”

Presssss.

Arhad tightened his grasp on Ianna’s shoulders.

“If you want to be considerate of my feelings, then you should’ve waited until I was ready to listen to you. But now you’ve even called the spirits again. Did you decide to stop respecting me altogether? Did you decide to just go ahead and do whatever it is that you want?”

Arhad grit his teeth.

“……Ianna, am I that worthless to you?”

He was crumbling down.

“Well? I’m waiting.”

Ianna felt a twisted ecstasy as she watched the normally level-headed Arhad blaze in fury because of her and come crumbling down because of her.

“Ianna.”

“How could that ever possibly be the case?”

Something must be wrong with her head because she was fine with any emotion he displayed so long as his emotions stemmed from her, and she was strangely satisfied by how desperately anxious he sounded as he so clearly called her name…… Or so Ianna thought.

It didn’t matter to her whether this was simply a momentary satisfaction she had found as she stood at the edge of the cliff or whether she had always liked to see him like this.

Ianna was immensely satisfied as Arhad called her name, and the fixation in his eyes as he looked directly to her satiated her hunger.

Ianna regained some of her composure, and she placed her hand on his arm and rubbed it slowly to calm him down.

“You’re the most important person in my life.”

She could feel his agitation subside somewhat as he heard this.

“……Then why are you doing this to me?”

Arhad was also drenched because of Innis. Droplets of water trailed down his chin like tears before they fell onto Ianna.

“Please take a seat and listen to what I have to say. You’re hurting me.”

It truly did hurt. She was sure that she would have bruises on her shoulders by now.

“…….”

Arhad stared quietly at Ianna as she lay beneath him before he slowly got up and sat down on the chair beside the bed. Then, he said,

“Well? What did you want to way?”

Ianna sat up and looked Arhad directly in the eyes.

“You’re angry……because I summoned the spirits again even after you told me not to and I said I wouldn’t, because I pushed myself without telling you and made it rain for several days to gather the Reborn, because I went after Margarita without telling you that I was unwell because of that, and because I tried to use my power even though you told me not to heed its impulses……right? No wonder you’re angry.”

“You know so well —well enough to list it all out one by one. So what of it?”

Arhad quipped back, still angry, but Ianna ignored him and calmly strung her words along.

“I was very happy to know that you trusted me.”

“…….”

“But that’s also why I need to stop hiding things from you. There was a secret I was keeping from you. But once I starting keeping that secret, it just created more things that I had to keep quiet about and do behind your back. And now I’ve tired of all of that……and I think I’ll just tell you everything.”

A secret —the dubious nature of the word turned Arhad solemn as Ianna uttered them. Ianna took a deep breath and broke the ice so she could finally confess her secrets. She continued,

“I’ve told you before that I’m related to the god who killed the Demon during the Holy Age.”

Arhad stiffened up when she suddenly began talking about the Holy Age.

“Her name was Roberstein. She towered over every other god in the Holy Age, and she possessed a heart —no, a fragment of chaos— that could produce an incredible amount of divine power.

“I don’t know how it was possible, but her soul did not go extinct after the End and was sealed inside House Roberstein’s bloodline instead. That soul obtained a new heart and was reincarnated. And that is me. Roberstein is my prior incarnation.”

Ianna studied Arhad’s expression after she had said this. But he was simply listening attentively with a stiff look on his face, and he did not say anything.

She could not know if he was simply finding it difficult to believe or if he had other thoughts in his mind, but Ianna decided to continue anyway.

“I wanted to learn more about myself. It’s my body, and I cannot stand the fact that there is something inside me that is beyond my perception or my control. But if Roberstein is my past, if I can’t fully separate her from me……then I would rather digest everything and make it all mine. And that is why I’ve been trying to learn about Roberstein and the Holy Age for some time now.”

Everything she had said up until now was only the tip of the iceberg. She only wanted to hurry up and get to the secrets and explanations she was to confess, but Arhad suddenly grabbed her arm as the blood drained from his face.

“Putting aside how you even managed to learn all of this in the first place —haven’t I told you before? If you have the god who killed the Demon inside you, then I, too, have that very same Demon inside me. I told you that it would have a negative influence on our relationship if you learned more about the Holy Age. And didn’t you agree to stop caring about it?”

“No. I intended to devour Roberstein, my prior incarnation, even back then. I am confident that I will never be shaken even if I do one day learn about Roberstein’s and the Demon’s story. But……I had decided not to broach the topic with you because I was afraid that you might change. And you were reluctant to talk about it too.”

Ianna’s voice quivered for a moment, but she quickly hid her unease behind her composure once more. She continued,

“I didn’t want to keep it a secret from you, but this is why I decided to keep everything about the Holy Age hidden from you and why I tried to make progress on my own. But I never intended to keep it a secret forever. I had always planned to confess everything to you once I had ascertained everything.”

“…….”

Perhaps his earlier agitation had subsided, or perhaps he was suppressing his emotions again, but Arhad’s expression had vanished like she had first awoken.

But Ianna would not yield no matter what it was that he was feeling or thinking. She had drawn her sword, so now she had to cut everything down.

“But now you’ll be disappointed in me if I don’t explain myself. And so, I’ve decided to tell you everything and gain your support.”

“And?”

Arhad placed a hand on the bed and slowly leaned toward her. He continued,

“What have you been hiding from me……and what have you learned?”

He was growing so nervous that she could almost hear the air around him creak.

“There should’ve been no way for you to learn more about the Holy Age. Even the spirit kings you call on shouldn’t know the details.”

So what could you possibly know?

There was a strange composure to his voice. But his shaking eyes, his rigid cheeks, and his pallid lips belied the tension evoked by his anxieties.

And Ianna realized from his behavior that he knew quite a lot about the Demon.

He had once told her that he knew the full story behind the End.

So perhaps he had already obtained a lot of the Demon’s memories and emotions. Perhaps he was already being influenced, like he had imagined they would be.

Perhaps it resulted in hatred, or perhaps even affection.

But even if he was being influenced, Arhad was clever and would likely know that he was being affected. Perhaps this was why he assumed that Ianna’s learning more about the Holy Age would negatively influence their relationship and why he didn’t want her to dig into the Holy Age’s secrets.

Ianna bit down hard at her lip.

She would cut down all of her immaterial fears.

Now was the time to fight. Now was the cut away her repulsions and draw out her sincerity.

Ianna quickly finished organizing her thoughts.

She would give up on everything and spit out everything that had been suffocating her inside. She had devoted herself fully to this life after she had shaken herself free of House Roberstein during the school festival last year, and she hardly ever thought about her past life anymore.

Her memories of the past were being buried by the new memories piling on top of them.

She barely even remembered them anymore even when she tried to force herself to reminisce about them. They were simply growing too distant.

There was no need for her to talk about something that any other would simply assume had been a bad dream, that she herself was beginning to forget by now. She didn’t even want to talk about it anymore.

It was a wicked tale in which she had grown heartless in her inferiority complex, in which Arhad had given up on her and killed her —why would she want to discuss it? She was already terrified enough of change as it was.

Ianna did not regret her past, but she was also reluctant to talk about it because she had despised Arhad for shameful reasons back then. It only made her realize just how deeply she cared about Arhad in the present.

Arhad might regard it as a topic of interest, perhaps, but Ianna did not want to speak about it so frivolously.

It might have been so long ago that it felt like a mere dream now, but nothing would change the fact that it was still a life that she had once lived.

Perhaps she would come to be able to talk about it in passing one day, but she could never do it now.

Ianna wanted to focus on her current life. The past had been erased from everyone but herself, and there was no reason for her to squeeze it into her explanations of the present.

“First things first, the reason why I can call on the spirits so readily is because I will never run out of divine power no matter how much of it I use.”

Arhad’s arm, which was still leaning into the bed, visibly flinched.

“What do you mean?”

“Roberstein’s heart still exists, just like her soul. It’s sealed away at the moment, and seal was split into pieces, but her heart is still producing divine power just like it used to in the distant past, and my heart is connected to a portion of hers. And that’s why divine power gushes out of my body without end…….”

Thump!

Arhad suddenly jumped up. His chair clattered as it fell over backwards, and his face was pallid as he muttered in disbelief,

“That god’s heart still exists, and you’re connected to it?”

Ianna tensed up a bit, realizing that Arhad’s reaction was serious.

But she did not intend to step back.

After all, she had already released all of her restraints.

“Yes. Her heart was sealed into a certain ‘tree’ behind the Roberstein manor, and the seal was split into five parts because the tree was split into five pieces. I was connected with one piece long ago because I had touched the tree’s stump when I was very young, and I connected to another piece in the Great Temple during the harvest festival last week. That’s why I was unwell —it wasn’t because I summoned the spirits.”

Arhad grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Did you see Roberstein’s memories?”

Ianna closed her eyes to organize the emotions that threatened to boil over inside her again, and her eyes were cold when she next opened them.

“Yes.”

Arhad’s visage was growing paler by the minute. And Ianna grew more anxious as Arhad grew paler.

“Did you really obtain that god’s memories?”

“……Yes. But not all of them. I only saw pieces from here and there. And it’s difficult for me to even recall them now that I’m away from the seal.”

This was true. Perhaps it was because she hadn’t obtained all of Roberstein’s heart yet, but she hardly remembered Roberstein’s memories anymore and all that was left were only the memories that had left a deep impression on her and an intense feeling that made her feel like she would be swept away.

Ianna was actually rather wistful that the situation hadn’t allowed her to make those memories fully hers. Or perhaps she did not have the right to take those memories quite yet.

“Ianna.”

Arhad’s hands moved from her shoulders to her dampened cheeks.

Ianna, who had been chewing over the thought that she might not have the rights to Roberstein’s memories yet, was pondering over how she should go about improving herself when she met his gaze.

“I understand your circumstances. I understand that you had no choice. And if calling the spirits won’t pose a burden on you —then sure. There wasn’t a reason for me to be angry about that to begin with. I’m sorry.”

“……I beg your pardon?”

She had barely told him anything yet, but Arhad had told her that he understood. Even despite how furious he had been.

And he had even apologized to her when she was the one at fault.

“But please stop. Stop trying to dig any further. I don’t want you to learn any more about Roberstein than you already know.”

“…….”

Arhad understood Ianna, but Ianna did not understand Arhad. Rather, she didn’t even want to understand him.

“Can’t you just be satisfied by the way you are now?”

Arhad muttered as he caressed her cheeks, and Ianna caught a glimpse at his extreme anxiety. She was accustomed to his anxiousness because she had seen him be anxious before, but the anxiety he expressed now was so extreme that precedent could not compare. Arhad continued,

“I’m begging you.”

He let go of her cheeks and stepped back. Ianna jumped up to her feet when she saw him turn around and walk toward the door.

“Stop right there.”

But Arhad didn’t stop. It was like he was fleeing.

Ianna ran forward and kicked the door closed as he opened it, and she pulled Arhad by the arm and made him turn back around. He looked down at her with distress in his eyes, but Ianna scraped her voice together and said,

“You want me to be satisfied as I am now? No —I can’t do that.”

The flames in her eyes burned hotter. She continued,

“I am incomplete. I could cast my previous incarnation aside if it was something that held absolutely no influence over me. But I am capable of calling on the spirit kings —something that no one else in the world can do. My divine power never depletes no matter how much of it I use, and that god’s power still exists inside my heart. I don’t know how it happened, but Roberstein is my previous incarnation and cannot be separated from me —which means that she is a part of me and mine.”

“…….”

“I cannot stand it when there is something that I don’t know about myself. Why? Because the only things I have ever been able to wholly own are myself and my sword!”

She wrung out all the darkness in her heart as she shouted,

“I have nothing……and I absolutely don’t intend to let myself be robbed of what little I do have. I will make Roberstein’s memories, knowledge, and life completely mine now that I know my past incarnation holds influence over my present. I don’t intend to let myself be swept away, but I need to learn more about Roberstein if I am to dominate over her.”

Ianna glared at Arhad as she wheezed out each and every word.

“And this is for your sake as well. I can become an even greater sword at your side if I obtain all of Roberstein’s power. I have to know everything about myself with certainty if I am to reassure you when you are anxious!”

Her grip on Arhad’s arm grew stronger.

“I will never give up. And I will never change even if I learn more about my past incarnation. So, why are you simply telling me to quit without even explaining anything to me? Why are you so hung up over the Holy Age?”

Her desire to not be robbed of what little she had applied to Arhad as well. Ianna did not want anyone to take him from her.

Roberstein might be a part of her, but Ianna wanted Arhad to look directly to her and only her.

Yes.

So, hurry up and answer me.

Give me a valid explanation to my questions, and reassure me.

Ianna awaited his answer when Arhad slowly opened his mouth.

“It’s not that simple. Can you really say that the crimson god’s life is merely your previous incarnation now that your hearts are connected?”

Ianna’s nerves were on edge.

“Then what else would she be?”

“What if she’s not your previous incarnation, but you yourself?”

Ianna pursed her lips. She could not find the words to say, and she let go of Arhad’s arm and stepped back.

“I am Ianna. I am not Roberstein.”

Arhad stepped toward her as she stepped back, and the distance between them neither grew nor shrank.

“You are Roberstein’s soul, and now you’re trying to obtain her heart too. But Ianna, the only two things required to perfectly complete a being are a soul and a heart.”

“…….”

“A while back, you told me that seeing Roberstein’s memories felt more like you were recalling something you had forgotten rather than like you were seeing an illusion.”

Ianna simply looked back at Arhad without replying. He continued,

“That means you and Roberstein are assimilating together. You will empathize with her more as you continue to collect her memories. And one day, you will stop being yourself.”

Ianna clenched her hands into tight fists as she glared daggers at Arhad, who still looked distressed.

“I will always be me. I will never change.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“How many times must I repeat myself? I won’t change!”

“Then tell me!”

Arhad let out a stifled breath as if someone was squeezing at his throat. He continued,

“You said that you obtained some of Roberstein’s memories recently, right? When you did, did all of her emotions feel like they were yours?”

Ianna couldn’t answer. Arhad took her silence as confirmation and laughed dispiritedly.

“That’s what it means to obtain your previous incarnation’s heart. You won’t be able to ruminate over a previous lifetime anymore. Your two incarnations will merge together into one. The only way to keep separating the two in that state is to maintain a powerful will to keep one suppressed. And your two egos will keep fighting each other for dominance until the day you die.”

“…….”

“You’ll only have two options to choose from after you obtain your previous incarnation’s heart. Either you let your lifetimes merge together, or you suppress your previous incarnation forever. You want to devour it? What does that mean? ­—do you want to wholly accept that god as yourself and let her mix into you, or do you want to suppress her forever?”

The answer Ianna wanted was not one of the options Arhad presented. Ianna did not plan to let herself mix with Roberstein, but she did not intend to recklessly suppress Roberstein forever either.

“What you want is probably the latter.”

Ianna wanted to keep the initiative, accept Roberstein completely, and use her —that was it—, but if she had to choose, then the latter was closer to what she wanted.

“The god’s memories might stay quietly asleep inside you at first, but they’ll keep mixing into you every time you grow weak.”

“How would you know that?”

Arhad kept silent for a while before he covered his face with his hand and quietly replied,

“The Demon’s fragments are similar. They hold a powerful influence over the souls of those who are parasitizing on them, and their souls become similar to the Demon’s. All fragment beneficiaries have to choose between two options: either assimilate into the Demon or fight back and maintain their sense of selves.”

“…….”

“And if they find themselves near a ‘rift into Pandemonium’ and get influenced by the Demon’s heart and obtain his memories, then they can even be swallowed up by the Demon’s powerful emotions. I……have gotten close to the Demon’s heart once long ago. And now I’m about halfway assimilated into the Demon.”

Ianna felt her insides begin to ache as she heard him speak. Arhad continued,

“You’re the god who killed the Demon, and I’m the Demon. The more you obtain what once was Roberstein’s, the more you’ll grow to hate me. You might even want to kill me.”

Ianna quietly walked up to him and brought down the hand that was covering his face. He looked dead, and there was a shadow cast over his countenance.

“Listening to you makes me wonder if you already know a lot about the Demon and Roberstein.”

“I do.”

“Then, did you always know that the god who killed the Demon was my prior incarnation, ever since you first met me? Is that why you don’t like discussing the Holy Age with me?”

“I didn’t think you were actually her, but your surname is Roberstein, and I always figured that you were related somehow, so I won’t deny it.”

Ianna clenched her hands into fists when Arhad affirmed.

“In that case, are you being like this because you’re afraid that I might grow hostile to you since you have the Demon’s soul and I have that god’s soul?”

“Yes!”

Arhad grabbed hold of her and pushed her against the wall. He brought his face down close to hers. He continued,

“You said you obtained Roberstein’s memories, no? Then you must surely have seen the Demon crushing someone’s heart and stealing their divine power.”

Ianna recalled the very first memory she had obtained during their trip to the South when Arhad had crushed an orc’s heart.

And, if she rummaged through the memories she had obtained just recently……if the Demon wasn’t whispering his love to her……then he was always showering his endless hostility and bloodlust at another.

The times he had spent alone in the darkness craving for life had made the Demon greedy for it, and the negative emotions the gods had cast away had made him rage against the gods and despise them. And the Demon was always murdering other gods and stealing their lives whenever he wasn’t with Roberstein.

The edges of Arhad’s lips curled into a smile. He grabbed hold of Ianna’s face.

“Ianna, what did you feel as you recalled those memories? You felt rage as you remembered them, didn’t you?”

She could not deny it. She had most certainly been infuriated.

“Roberstein is the god who killed the Demon. The god who killed the Demon and tried to put an end to everything. Roberstein will only grow stronger inside you if you keep trying to obtain what was hers. And if you slip up and lose the initiative, then you might really try to kill off every Demon alive today. You might still end up hating me even if you don’t kill me. Roberstein hated the Demon, after all.”

“No, she didn’t.”

Ianna denial was firm this time, but Arhad simply sneered.

“How would you know that when you only have a part of her memories?”

Because I felt her ardent love for the Demon as she killed him.

But Ianna could not answer readily because Roberstein’s exact feelings for the Demon were still shroud in fog and she did not know what it was for certain.

Ianna smacked Arhad’s hand away.

“And you’re certain that I’ll be swept away? I’ve already told you so many times now. I won’t change. I haven’t been influenced by Roberstein in the past, and I won’t be influenced by her in the future either!”

“Can you truly declare that you haven’t been influenced by her?”

The fires raging inside Ianna suddenly extinguished. She grabbed Arhad by the collar and pulled.

“Did I hold you in contempt when you stole the monster’s life? Did I run away from you in disgust? Did I get angry with you, rage at you, grow repulsed by you, and hate you like Roberstein did?!”

“But that was a monster. I’ll keep collecting more of the Demon’s fragments moving forward, and, while I’ll still do my best to keep his ego suppressed, I won’t have a choice but to keep assimilating into him. Will you still stay by my side even when I start craving for human lives like the Demon had in the ancient past? Even if I become the ‘Demon’ who hates all life and even kills off every last one of your friends?”

“Yes. I will. I will never leave your side. If you crave for life, then I will take the divine power overflowing from within me and pour it onto you. And if you insist on taking innocent lives even still, then I will bully you and beat you out of it. I will stand by your side and protect you so that you may live as Arhad, and not the Demon!”

Ianna said desperately, but Arhad only shook his head.

“No, you won’t be able to do that.”

“Why not?”

“The crimson god had promised to protect the Demon too.”

Ianna couldn’t breathe. Arhad continued,

“She promised to supply him with divine power eternally if he craved for life, and she promised to stop him and beat him back if he couldn’t withstand his malice. She promised to teach him everything there was to know until he matured and could live a normal life, and she promised to gift him every positive emotion in the world. She promised him that, even if all the other gods were hostile to him, she would be his guardian until they acknowledged him and accepted him,”

Arhad droned as if he was talking about the distant past before he suddenly smirked.

“Indeed. She promised she would protect him for all eternity. So that he may live not as the Demon but as Roygen, the boy in her arms…….”

He peered into Ianna’s shaking eyes.

“That was Roberstein’s hubris. She probably didn’t realize that the Demon had already gone completely insane long before she ever met him. She never predicted that the Demon could grow stronger than her……. Ultimately, she was always raging at the Demon, and then she plunged her sword into the Demon’s heart without warning after whispering her love to him like she always used to. She broke her promise. And she’s the god inside you.”

Ianna grip on his collar tightened.

“I am not Roberstein. I won’t ever change. You don’t need to change either! You’ve told me before —you said that you wouldn’t change no matter what you learned about the Holy Age!”

“I care for you, and that will never change. But I can’t say that I’ll never be influenced. And I want for there to be absolutely no possibility that you might be influenced too.”

Influence. That damned influence!

Ianna doubted Arhad’s roots. And the things he was saying seemed to suggest that he had already been influenced.

Her vision was growing white.

“Fine. Let’s say that I might be influenced too. But I’m fully confident that I won’t change because I will completely devour Roberstein’s ego. And I trust that you won’t change after you’ve gathered all the Demon’s fragments either. So please, I ask that you trust me too.”

She grit her teeth when Arhad didn’t reply. She continued,

“……You once called me selfish, didn’t you? Yet you won’t trust me when I say that I won’t change, and you’re trying to keep me from finding my own identity —you’re just as selfish!”

Her hands quivered.

“Why can’t you trust me? I have never shied away from you ever since the day I first met you. Are you such a cowardly fool who can’t even trust someone who’s sworn to offer you her everything?”

“And what if you’ve already changed?”

Part 13

“What are you talking about?”

“You said that you first came into contact with Roberstein’s heart when you were very young.”

“…….”

“Roberstein loved the sword.”

Just like you.

Something snapped inside of Ianna as soon as she heard those words.

She had felt it this entire time as Arhad had been talking.

No way.

No way.

“You’re not……projecting that god onto me when you look to me, are you?”

Since the very beginning. Since the day they had met.

That day, when Arhad had embraced her from behind while wearing those black robes —was that because he had seen Roberstein in her?

Had Arhad been seeing Roberstein in her sword, which he claimed to cherish dearly?

“Ah…….”

An incredible rage flared from within her. The dark thoughts she had been pushing away came surging over her like turbulent waves. Black miasma shot up from her heart and made her insides churn. She felt like her entire life was being denied.

Ianna’s feet gave out from beneath her.

Oh, that’s right.

Arhad was always looking to her.

He had supported her up with his desperate need for her.

“What are you……?”

But Ianna clenched her fists and grit her teeth before he could finish saying anything.

“……Is that why you hugged me from behind back then?”

“What?”

“Don’t pretend it wasn’t you. Don’t try to deny it. The swordsmanship competition wasn’t the first time you met me. You saw me two years ago at the Temple of Laos and shot your bloodlust at me, and then you hugged me tight from behind!”

Arhad opened his eyes wide. Ianna continued,

“You must have been looking at Roberstein and not at me.”

She had thought that he was always looking at her, but he had been looking to Roberstein instead. Roberstein may have been her prior incarnation, but she could not let this be.

“You asked me if I wasn’t an illusion!”

After all, she was Ianna.

“But you were probably referring to Roberstein. Did you want me so badly because you knew I was related to Roberstein? Not me, but Roberstein? Because you possess a Demon’s fragment? Is that how it is?”

Tears fell from Ianna’s eyes.

It was unsightly. It was truly unsightly.

But she could not help herself.

Why? I can’t control my eyes. My heart hurts.

Her tears stained her face and dyed the floor dark.

This is disgraceful.

Her falling tears were black.

You have to be looking at me.

But you weren’t?

Look at me. Please look at me. Me, and no one else.

I don’t care if no one else sees me. But you, only you…….

Ah, this is disgraceful. This is so disgraceful.

“Roberstein was a righteous god, wasn’t she? The Arbiter of the gods? But I am not a righteous god, nor am I the Arbiter. I’m just a selfish human being who only knows the sword, and I am a knight who vowed to follow only you!”

I am Ianna. I was Ianna since the day I was born, and I will be Ianna until the day I die. Roberstein is merely my previous incarnation!

“So what if Roberstein broke her promise and killed the Demon? If you fail to beat back the Demon and continue to be cruel, then I will be right there and be cruel with you. If everyone in the world turns against you, then I will stand before you, protect you, and I will dirty myself more so than any other!”

And yet you’re looking to Roberstein instead of me?

Ianna vomited blackened poisons from her lips.

Did you only want me because of my previous incarnation —a lifetime that I knew nothing of?

“But you were looking not to me, but to Roberstein?”

Ahh, this is disgraceful.

Ianna finally realized that she was sobbing and felt faint.

This was so, utterly disgraceful.

Ianna, who had been pouring out her heart like crazy, could not hold herself back any longer and she pushed Arhad aside as she made to leave the room.

Arhad, who had been listening in a daze, startled like he had been struck by lightning and hugged her tight from behind.

“Wait!”

“Let go!”

She didn’t want to hear anything. Even his hands, which she so liked, felt horrible to her because she felt like he was holding onto something that wasn’t her. She continued,

“Let go of me!”

She was so astonished that she might even faint if Arhad didn’t let go. Ianna pushed at him with everything she had, and Arhad eventually lost his grip on her.

Slaam!

But he slammed the door shut when Ianna grabbed the doorknob, and he pushed against it so it wouldn’t open.

“Wait, just hear me out…….”

“Move!”

“Ianna!”

Ianna covered her ears and turned her back to him, but Arhad tried to turn her around to face him again.

Smack!

Ianna went blind with fury and slapped Arhad hard across the face. His head whipped to the side, and the stinging pain left in her hand brought Ianna back to her senses somewhat.

“…….”

Arhad spat out the blood that had pooled inside his mouth. Ianna watched him in silence for a moment before she said,

“……Every last Demon’s fragment beneficiary has been oddly fond of me, and some of them have even been obsessed with me.”

Like Keigus, Wiffheimer, Isabella, and Dorcianni.

“You have no choice but to be influenced? Very well. I’m sure they were being influenced by the Demon’s soul, just as you say.”

Perhaps even Margarita, Heinrich, Herrace, and Eiji.

And even mana, the Demon’s power.

And even Arhad.

Ianna had desperately believed that Arhad was only looking directly to her. But Arhad himself had shattered that belief, and Ianna found herself a child who had lost her way.

“I don’t know what exactly it is that the Demon wants from Roberstein. But I’m sure he wants to lock her up and make her his.”

Tears were still brimming in her eyes as Ianna sarcastically added,

“Aren’t you the same?”

She had finally brought her doubts to the forefront.

“I, I’m……yes.”

Arhad buried his face in his hand and spat out a ragged sigh. He was just as unsettled as she was. He continued,

“You’re right. I hugged you from behind back then. I was the person you met at the Temple of Laos. But I never projected Roberstein onto you. Trust me on this. I am always looking to you —you, and only you, Ianna.”

Arhad abruptly looked up and looked at Ianna. Her figure was reflected clearly in his eyes. He continued,

“I wasn’t looking at Roberstein. I was never looking at Roberstein. I am always only looking directly at you. You!”

Arhad was speaking frantically, but Ianna couldn’t trust him. There was no basis for her trust. She could not trust him even when his eyes were looking straight at her. And so, she smiled flippantly and said,

“Then why did you ask me if I wasn’t an illusion?”

“…….”

“Why did you speak as if you knew who I was? It doesn’t make sense unless you were seeing Roberstein in me.”

Arhad furiously shook his head.

“I’ve been to the Roberstein lands before.”

Ianna faltered. He continued,

“I’ve seen you once before you were admitting into the Institution —no, long before we met at the temple, even. There’s a small mountain behind the manor, and in it, there’s a clearing with a large tree stump.”

“…….”

“And there, I saw a girl whose face was overflowing with vitality as she wielded her sword. You were laughing like you were having so much fun, like you were the happiest person in the world.”

Arhad was grabbing at the front of his shirt so hard that he might rip it off. His hand was growing pale as his veins bulged. He continued,

“The sight of you dyed my monochromic world with color, and you shook up my entire life, which had only been filled with my objectives until then. It was the first time in my life I had ever been so shaken, and it made me want to get to know you……and it made me want to keep you by my side.”

I only learned about Roberstein afterward. I didn’t know anything back then. My breath just caught when I saw you smiling with such incredible vitality. You were so blinding, and it made me want to keep you by my side.

“Do I need a reason for being drawn to you? Even if my attraction stemmed from instinct, it doesn’t change the fact that I fell for you. It wasn’t Roygen falling for Roberstein, Arhad fell for Ianna!”

Arhad clutched at Ianna’s shoulders.

“Ianna, I am terrified that you might change.”

Ianna froze up stiff, and Arhad desperately continued,

“You smile at me so readily now, but I’m terrified that you might turn your back on me and leave me, that you might grow hostile toward me like the crimson god had back then, that you might even turn your sword against me in the end!”

“…….”

“You don’t know how terribly Roberstein hated Roygen toward the End. What happens if you collect more traces of her and end up becoming like her? If you end up hating me too and you don’t want to stay by my side anymore? If you try to leave me?”

His eyes were colored by a tremendous fear as they looked to her. He continued,

“Just thinking about it is dreadful to me. I’d rather that you were completely unrelated to Roberstein. I would separate her out from you completely if only I could. I wish I could erase Roberstein from this world. So please……”

His arms were trembling.

“I’m begging you. ……Please, stop trying to find her memories.”

“But…”

“Ianna, I’m not saying this just for the sake of saying it. I lied to you before. I am not being influenced by the Demon’s fragment.”

The hands holding Ianna tightened with an uncontrollable pressure. Arhad continued,

“I was born with a fragment of the Demon as my soul, and my heart is connected to the Demon’s heart in Pandemonium. I have already been living the same exact situation that you’re experiencing now.”

Ianna could not immediately comprehend what he was saying.

“The Demon is my previous incarnation. The Demon’s soul is my own.”

Ianna finally and completely understood why Arhad was acting like this when she heard his frank admission.

“The Demon’s ego surges forth when my own sense of self grows weak. And I become horribly cruel whenever that happens. I stop caring about my means when I want something, and my greed for life makes me irrational. And that’s why, from time to time whenever you reject me, I start hating you like crazy even though I like you and care about you so much. Because……a part of the Demon’s feelings for Roberstein includes the hatred he’s been piling up for millennia.”

Arhad recalled how he had slowly gone insane as he was swallowed up by the Demon in the past.

Ianna had seemed to overlap with Roberstein every time she hardened her heart toward him. The Demon’s horrible emotions had mixed into his feelings for Ianna and had burrowed inside his heart, and they had slowly eaten away at his pure love for her.

It had happened to him, and it could happen to Ianna too.

And the very thought of it made him nauseated.

His legs were beginning to give out from under him, so Arhad slowly sank down as Ianna stood before him. He knelt as he clung tightly to her legs.

“……I don’t want that to happen to you,”

Arhad muttered, and silence fell upon the room. Ianna was standing still as she looked down at him, and Arhad could not find the strength to stand back up. And yet, he kept his desperate hold on Ianna’s legs.

Slowly, Ianna reached out.

Rustle.

His black hair caught between her fingers when she placed her hand on his head. His hair was trapped in her hand when she closed it and could not fall out.

Abruptly, Ianna said,

“Please say my name.”

“Ianna.”

“One more time.”

Arhad buried his face into her thighs as he mumbled,

“Ianna…….”

“Please keep saying it.”

“Ianna.”

The rigid lines of Ianna’s lips slowly mellowed into a smile. The sharpened corners of her eyes gently settled down, and the slants of her eyes arched again. Vivid vitality and a burning heat found her pallid flesh once more.

“Ianna…….”

It made her tightly ecstatic to hear him say her name. Lightning crackled on her every nerve ending. The biting pleasure gave her chills.

She had thought she would fall into the mud after she had slain her fears, but what she had found there instead was paradise.

Indeed. He was clinging so ardently to Ianna, and no one else.

Finally, Ianna spoke up.

“Once upon a time, I had thought that my problems would go away if I ignored them for long enough. Just like my childhood. But I was wrong. I just wanted to look away. I had wanted to simply brush over everything, but I found it hard to breathe when I tried to think about things seriously, my heart ached, and I forced myself to think about something else. I was just running away.”

“…….”

“Indeed. Covering things up even when I know there’s a problem is no different from running away. You taught me that. And now, I don’t want to run away no matter what kinds of hardships I might face in life. I want to confront them, fight them, beat them, and overcome them.”

Ianna let go of Arhad’s hair and slowly sat down too. She opened her arms and pulled him into a tight hug.

She wrapped her arms around his back and buried her face into his chest —it felt more like he had pulled her in rather than the other way around. But she was most certainly the one hugging him.

Ianna was familiar with his embrace by now. The one sturdy place of refuge upon which she could always rely.

She cast her eyes down as she felt how furiously his heart was beating.

A moment later, she burrowed deeper into his arms and whispered,

“And I’m even more loath to run away when things have to do with you.”

Arhad’s hands tightened their grip once more. Ianna was promising him all over again. She continued,

“I will emerge victorious no matter what it takes, even if Roberstein hated you in her memories. I understand you, and I want to stay by your side.”

Her words were ever so sweet.

“I can do it if you’re with me, just like how I was able to overcome the festering wounds left by my family that I was ignoring after I met you. So please, I ask that you trust me too. I am Ianna, and you are Arhad. We are us —it doesn’t matter that we’ve both had prior incarnations. I will always stay by your side, so please trust me. Am I not your knight?”

In the next life, I will be your knight.

I offer to you my life and my sword.

He had never forgotten the things she had said to him, and they ate away at his soul. Ianna’s arms felt like steel chains. Her body, snuggled so close to his heart that there existed no space between them, was a single sword.

Ianna remained still for a while before she burrowed deeper inside Arhad’s arms like a fretful child.

“……Please trust me always. Your trust is my strength. I find myself at a loss when you’re anxious. It makes me anxious and nervous too. I will never betray you, even if it costs me my life……so please, trust me.”

He found it difficult to breathe, like someone was strangling him, and a pool of emotions seeped out from his skewered heart.

Arhad’s soul sank as he looked down at the crown of Ianna’s head while she was in his arms. Down and down…

His eyes twisted.

The defeated had no right to speak. His heart had been pierced through, and his decapitated head had already been presented to the victor.

And Arhad always found himself defeated before Ianna.

I can’t escape the steel chains that are piercing through my heart, and you’re always so terribly selfish for making it so that I can’t budge.

“……All right.”

It was ridiculous that he could never do anything as he was always being swayed by her, but he had already given up long ago.

The sturdy steel chains were like beautiful flowers.

They were so beautiful that he did not want to leave them even if it meant being pricked by thorny vines.

He was so happy that Ianna had pulled him into an embrace first, that she had bound him so tightly in chains he could not move and driven a steel wedge through his heart, that he had nothing more to say.

Arhad lifted his arms and pulled her in. He tightened his hold around her.

He burrowed his face into the lines of her neck. His black hair fell over her round shoulder and mixed into her crimson strands.

‘I like you.’

Arhad slowly slid his hands down and fixed them behind her neck. The sensation of her crimson hair tangling into his fingers made his heart shiver.

‘I like you so much it’s driving me crazy. I love you.’

His heart raced as her fragrance tickled his nose. It was so vivid he thought he might lose his mind. An immoral impulse that made him want to take the sun, who shone brilliantly on her own, in his arms, wrap her up in darkness, and drag her down to the mud shook him as if he was a celibate priest learning of lust for the first time.

I love you.

I love you. I love you…….

I have never stopped loving you.

Even now. I love you. I love you so much.

I love you so much I’m going insane.

Do you……not know this about me?

‘No, maybe she’s only pretending not to know.’

His insides wrenched. His adamantine perseverance shook as he lost his grip on everything he had been keeping under control. Was this how it felt when the restraints and abstinence that stemmed from one’s love and reverence for a god suddenly corrupted?

She was so terribly wicked……and yet the woman was still just as endearing.

But Arhad no longer harbored any doubts. He was certain that this woman, who found relief at his side, would one day bring him a greater bliss than he had ever known.

And so, he decided to wait until that time came. He had already waited for so long —what was a little more?

He pulled Ianna deeper into his embrace in the lieu of blurting out the insane love he was harboring inside.

There was a hurricane brewing in his heart, but Ianna simply kept her eyes closed within his embrace, unbeknownst to any of it. She was drenched, and she wet Arhad’s clothes too as she clung to him. Arhad kept her in his arms as he thought,

‘Are you still feigning ignorance?’

Arhad smirked.

Who cared if she was? She was always wicked and always endearing no matter what.

Arhad, who had kept his head buried against her for a while, slowly looked up. Ianna followed suit and looked up at him.

There was a smile lingering on her face, and she was so lovely as her eyes and lips curled into round arcs. The woman probably had no idea how much her reliance on him, this face that she showed only to him, got to his head.

He ignored his boiling insides as he brushed aside her hair.

“How foolish. You were so upset over something like that?”

“Calling the kettle black, are we?”

Ianna said as she pulled free from Arhad’s embrace and stood up. His wistful gaze trailed after her face.

“……My legs have given out, and I don’t think I can stand.”

“You’re the bigger fool here.”

Ianna reached out to him. She caressed his cheek. His cheek had swollen red where she had slapped him, and his lips had bloodied where it had burst. She continued,

“You always think so highly of me, but I’m not the perfect person you seem to think I am. I am a fool who’s lacking in a lot of ways. And I’ve hit you too.”

“It’s all right. I misspoke. I’m just glad the misunderstanding was cleared up.”

Ianna was apologetic, but she was also twistedly satisfied to know that she was the only person in the world who was capable of hurting the man before her like this.

And she was taken by a sudden greedy impulse, the likes of which she had never experienced before, as she saw a scarlet drop of blood moisten Arhad’s lips.

Ianna was not the type of person to hold back when there was something she wanted to do. She grabbed his chin and pulled.

“……!”

Their noses locked together, and Ianna’s lips touched Arhad’s as they regained their vitality.

It had happened so suddenly that he had not had the time to process it, and Arhad stared blankly at the long shadows extending from the eyelashes of Ianna’s closed eyes.

“…….”

Ianna slowly opened her eyes again as she felt the heat on her thin and sensitive skin grow hotter. Arhad’s golden eyes were embedded directly into Ianna’s red ones —filled to the brim with her color that he so dearly loved.

Arhad felt like he had been dragged into a blaze, like his entirety was being burned to a crisp.

Smooch…….

He froze stiff as the heat completely encased the stinging pain when Ianna parted her lips ever so slightly and sucked gently at the blood on his lips.

All she had done was to do exactly what she had been doing on his cheeks again on his lips, but Ianna felt so different.

She quite liked it.

She liked how close Arhad was. That they were exchanging looks from the closest distance possible. That Arhad was at such a dumbfounded loss. That crimson flush on his face.

She liked that this was an action allowed only to her.

This contact of the lips, which she had never thought she would experience in her lifetime, actually wasn’t all that bad. It actually felt quite nice.

Ianna was satisfied by how she felt and slowly pulled her lips away.

It felt sticky as their lips parted, but that wasn’t too bad either.

“Like I said, I am someone very lacking.”

Arhad was looking back at her blankly, unable to utter a single word, and Ianna smiled as she added,

“So please complete for me what I lack.”

~~*~~

“Lady Dorcianni,”

Payne called out to Dorcianni, who was sitting opposite of him, as he groaned.

Dorcianni Demariposa.

The archmage of lightning who was affiliated with the Tower of Truth deep within the Himalapè Ice Fields north of the Bahamut Empire.

The Tower of Truth was closely affiliated with Bahamut, and so was Dorcianni.

But that was that.

Payne had a headache. She had shown up out of nowhere and had calmly told him that she had murdered her cousin.

“Little Margarita was important. She was responsible for the epidemic spreading around Theodore right now. Why did you kill her?”

“I got tired of how she always started yelping at me whenever she saw me. And it annoyed me that she was harassing Eiji just because I wasn’t here.”

She savored a breath of her cigar for a moment before she blew it out. She continued,

“So what? My wench of a cousin was nothing more than a parasite on my powers —is there a problem that I killed her?”

Payne could not reply. After all, his masters had also traditionally murdered off their blood relatives for centuries. Insulting Dorcianni for doing the same was no different from insulting the Bahamut imperial family.

“It’s preposterous that I’ve even kept her alive for so long in the first place.”

“But…….”

“What? Is there a problem? Or…”

Dorcianni’s tranquil cerulean eyes pierced through him. She continued,

“Are you doubting me right now?”

Her lips were crimson as she took in another breath of her cigar. The smoke she spat out spread a murky fog over his eyes and further obscured her expression. Her terrifyingly emotionless pupils slowly observed Payne’s insolence. He stiffened up nervously.

‘I feel like bait that’s been thrown to a monster alive.’

The woman who had the same powers as his masters. She was not as emotionally volatile as they, but he still felt the blood-curdling presence of a predator from her.

Payne lowered his head, unable to dare look her in the eyes.

“Of course not.”

Then, Dorcianni dryly continued,

“Don’t fret, little black fox.”

She took another breath of her cigar as she looked to Payne, who had suddenly grown more obedient. She continued,

“I’ll stay here and do the rest of Marie’s job.”

She displayed about as much will or desire as a drop of dew hanging from the edge of a leaf, but Payne did not find anything strange because Dorcianni had always been like this.

~~*~~

Many people had died, but those who had survived the incident had fully recovered from their horrible conditions within a week. The entire disease had been written off as the work of magic, and the royal family of Roanne had passed out a special restorative tonic to cover the disgrace of having been toyed with by a single mage.

Ianna returned to the training grounds for the first time in a week while looking as healthy as ever. The other students greeted her fervently.

“I heard that you were on a secret mission, Little Ianna?”

“They say that the dean personally asked you to take it!”

“Miss……I respect you so much for taking on missions like that!”

“I’ve been curious about it, but I probably shouldn’t ask, right?”

Arhad had asked Heinrich to say that Ianna had been on a secret mission while she was sick so that it wouldn’t negatively affect her attendance.

‘He’s rather thorough.’

Ianna halfheartedly returned their greetings as she recalled what had happened yesterday.

She had been recovering in the manor Arhad had taken her to on Founding Day.

She checked herself after the commotion they had caused, and she had doubted Arhad at first when she found that she was wearing clean clothes instead of the dusty and dirty clothes she had been wearing when she had passed out.

Arhad’s face had flushed scarlet, and he had said something about how Belle, his servant who resided in the manor, had been the one to help her change as he ran away. Ianna had asked Belle if this was true as Belle politely handed her a fresh set of clothes, and Belle had confirmed that it was.

“However, the master did everything else that he did not require my assistance for by himself as he nursed you. He didn’t even sleep as he took care of you, Miss.”

Ianna smirked as she recalled how Belle had asked Ianna to take good care of her master. She had sought Arhad out so she could return to her dormitory at the Institution after she had finished changing, but Arhad was gone like the wind and had vanished from the manor.

That had been yesterday. Ianna had not seen any sign of Arhad since.

‘He’s surprisingly cute.’

She thought he was being cute, but everyone else was wondering what on earth he was up to…….

Priscilla had bawled and was sunken-eyed as she welcomed Ianna back as soon as Ianna had returned, and she confessed that she had told Arhad that Ianna was unwell.

Ianna had told her that it was all right because everything had worked out well in the end, but Priscilla had not been able to stop shuddering.

“Little Arhad was such a scary guy. My legs nearly gave out from under me when the light in his eyes suddenly froze over. I almost thought that he might be the one who kills you. He said he’d repay me sometime, but I’m too scared to meet him again alone.”

Ianna could not help but feel apologetic.

“Little Ianna!”

Herrace and Taro greeted her warmly.

“It’s been so long. I don’t know what you’ve been up to, but good work.”

“Right? It felt so empty without ya, Lil’ Ianna. And Eiji’s been actin’ all funny too. He’s been spacin’ out all week.”

“It’s true. Sir Eiji’s been acting strange,”

Herrace and Taro whispered as they looked over to the side, and Ianna found a man with familiar green hair sitting down in the corner of the training hall while staring blankly at the wall.

Ianna told the others she had something she needed to discuss with Eiji and asked them for some space. Eiji didn’t even notice Ianna was there until she had walked up to him.

Pow!

Ianna smacked him across the back of his head.

“Ack! What the…?”

The light returned to his eyes. He turned around to see who had hit him as he yowled, and he opened his eyes wide when he saw who it was.

“Pull yourself together.”

“Whoa! Little Ianna!”

He jumped up and grabbed her hands. He asked,

“Are you okay?”

“I’m perfectly healthy.”

“Thank goodness……seriously.”

Eiji let out a sigh of relief.

“So? What’s the problem?”

“Huh?”

“Herrace and Taro are worried because you’ve been spacing out.”

“Oh!”

His eyes sparkled as he tightened his grip on Ianna’s hands. He continued,

“I figured out what I wanna do from now on!”

“Did you now? Well, I suppose it’s good that I won’t have to watch you act like an idiot anymore.”

Eiji looked to Ianna with overflowing joy as she clicked her tongue in her pity for him.

He had been vacantly thinking back on the miracle of Ianna saving him all week long. His heart had bubbled over every time he thought about it, and he felt both bitingly apologetic and extremely grateful toward Ianna.

To think that such a lovely and poised girl was the very same frightening person who had stepped on Margarita’s neck and set her corpse on fire just last week.

And yet, it was true. The fact that Ianna was the coolest person in the world had solidified as an eternal truth inside Eiji.

The sun had risen over Eiji’s dark and cold world.

‘And she calls herself my friend…….’

Eiji was touched.

Ianna looked back at him awkwardly as his eyes filled with tears.

“What?”

“I want to be your lacky, Little Ianna.”

“What nonsense is this?”

“I want to work for you. So work me to the bone.”

“…….”

“You said that you were willing to dirty your hands for me. In that case, I’ll dirty my hands for you too —as much as it takes.”

Eiji was being sincere, and Ianna was listening to him quietly because she knew he was being sincere. He continued,

“I want to watch you from behind as you get more awesome, and I want to help you. I suddenly start feeling the will to live when I think about helping you do the things you want to accomplish, you know?”

Ianna stared at Eiji’s open excitement as she spat out,

“……You’re highly capable, and you’re already too deeply entrenched into our work to back out of it. I won’t say no if this is your choice and is to be your drive to live. But I don’t need subordinates —just be my colleague. And I will help you so that you never find yourself drowning in the mud ever again.”

“You’re the best, Little Ianna!”

“But stop treating me like I’m some kind of saint —it’s embarrassing. I’m not so amazing as you seem to think I am……you’ll probably get bored eventually. So try to find something else you want to do while you assist me.”

“No way,”

Eiji immediately denied. He continued,

“Everything you do moving forward will be amazing in my eyes. You’re amazing even when you aren’t doing anything, you know?”

Eiji winked.

“Did you hurt your head somewhere……?”

Eiji chortled when Ianna muttered in disgust.

“I’m being serious, you know? So just do whatever it is that you want to do, Little Ianna. I’m happy just to be able to watch over you. I could even offer you my life!”

Pow!

Ianna shook Eiji’s hands off.

“I dislike things like that. If you truly wish to work for me, then you’ll have to stay alive until I die,”

she said in sharp discontent before she pushed the water she had meant to drink while training in Eiji’s arms. She continued,

“Why don’t you drink some water and come back to your senses? I dislike working with absentminded people.”

“Mm. Okay. I’ve pulled myself together now. Thanks.”

Eiji laughed as he accepted the water from her. He continued,

“And I’ll say it one more time. Thank you, Little Ianna.”

“That’s enough of your gratitude. I’m off to train.”

Ianna waved at him and picked up a wooden sword from a nearby bin.

Eiji opened the water bottle as he stared zealously at her retreating figure.

The sun rose up to the heavens on her own and did not need another’s help. It was only the obvious truth, but he still wanted to clear away the clouds so they couldn’t cover her light.

A new goal, the sun, had started shining down on the dark road ahead of him called revenge. He was gushing blindly with desire.

‘I’ll have to work really hard.’

He raised the bottle up as a smile lingered at the edges of his lips.

To Little Ianna’s honor, ambitions, convictions, and dreams.

Bottoms up!

—“Eiji” End