Chapter 29: Roanne, Winter

Part 1

It was December, and the winter was so cold that it was difficult to breathe.

This winter was harsher than the previous years had been.

The trials and tribulations that had begun on Thanksgiving only grew more trying. The people fought back desperately while hoping only to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It was now the middle of December.

“Whoaaaaa!”

The people of Roanne where cheering with tears streaming from their eyes. They were rejoicing about the good news that they still found difficult to truly believe.

“His Royal Highness Prince Schneider is coming back!”

And he’s even killed the previous emperor of Bahamut!

The true king of Roanne was coming home. He had killed one of the Bahamut Empire’s demons that had been tormenting them, and the people sobbed upon learning that he was marching back while defeating the nobles who had betrayed Roanne. Schneider was brining hope back with him.

But, a few days prior…

“Why do you think he did that?”

“Who can say……?”

Schneider had informed Arhad and Ianna that Philliad Sarvon Bahamut had taken his own life.

~~*~~

Schneider grew rapidly stronger. His was so strong now that his strength was truly blinding.

His rate of growth was abnormal. How was it possible to grow so strong so quickly?

Was it because he was talented?

It was true that talent was one of the reasons. His growth had stuttered during his political feud against Fernando, but his talent had always been superior than that of others.

Was it because he had put in the effort?

Effort was also one of the reasons. He had worked like a madman because he was desperate to defend Roanne, because he stubbornly refused to be defeated by a member of the Bahamut imperial family.

Was it because of the relic?

The aura imbued within the relic made him sturdier, revitalized his physical abilities, and helped him better control his divine power.

But these were not the only reasons.

Philliad Sarvon Bahamut was also one of those countless reasons. Schneider could not deny that Philliad’s cruel teachings had helped him grow.

Philliad, who was both an excellent mage and an excellent swordsman, had displayed his full might every day and had pushed Schneider harshly into a corner. Schneider had been in so much pain that he had wanted to die, but the battle experience he gained from Philliad had helped him grow faster than any other.

What else could he call this but the result of having been taught by a teacher?

And today, for the first time ever, Schneider was able to block Philliad’s attacks on his own.

‘It’s working!’

Schneider’s mind was enshrouded by the powerful will that dyed his divine power. The brilliant armor of silvery light not only blocked Philliad’s sword but also flung it away.

Shaaaa!

Dozens of Philliad’s Spear spells, which had riddled Schneider’s body with holes when they had first begun sparring, rushed toward him.

Dozens of silver magic circles appeared around Schneider and blocked the magical spears without missing a single one. A silvery aura surged explosively from Schneider’s eyes as he confirmed this.

‘Finally!’

Schneider realized that he had finally reached the bottom of Philliad’s feet.

“Your talent is remarkable. Well done.”

Philliad was sincere in his praise.

“It took some time, but you’ve managed to reach my level,”

he continued as he put away his sword.

“And so, though I find it regrettable, I have finished teaching you.”

Schneider ruminated for a moment and asked,

“What is it?”

“What is what?”

“The reason why you helped an enemy prince grow stronger.”

Schneider had hit the nail on its head. Philliad smirked.

“I thought I told you that I was doing this merely for my own amusement. I told you to entertain me by growing stronger and stronger. It was rather fun.”

“Do you mean to say that you’ve been doing this for over half a year for mere amusement?! Don’t lie to me!”

Schneider shouted as he shuddered with humiliation. He continued,

“You never intended on killing me. You don’t intend on killing me even now after I’ve reached your level!”

“It’s exactly as you say,”

Philliad answered emptily.

Schneider had survived only because of his enemy’s previous emperor’s hundreds of acts of mercy, and his self-confidence collapsed now that he had confirmed that he had no reason to die today.

“But why?”

Schneider could not comprehend for the life of him why Philliad had concurred so readily as if it had meant nothing to him. Which was why he had just barely managed to squeeze out his voice. Philliad laughed a hollow laugh, perhaps because he had taken a liking to how Schneider’s mien had crumbled.

“Are you curious?”

“…….”

“My personal merriment and a moment of freedom. These are two of the reasons why I decided to put up with you. But neither of those are my biggest reason. Nor were they the reason why I spared you. Shall I tell you why I’m doing this, if you’re so curious?”

“……Tell me!”

Philliad chuckled instead of answering and pulled out something that looked like a cigar from his pocket. He leisurely put it in his mouth and lit it right in front of Schneider.

“Phew.”

Philliad took a deep breath of the smoke in his mouth and exhaled it. It had a pungent scent —he was doing drugs. Just as Schneider flushed red, thinking that Philliad was taking him for a fool, Philliad spat,

“I was confined by my family for twenty years.”

Schneider flinched in alarm. The emperor had been confined? He almost wondered if Philliad was joking. But, instead of growing hazy from the drugs, the light in Philliad’s eyes were only growing more sober. Besides, Schneider did not think that Philliad was someone who would joke around at a time like this. Philliad continued,

“I have no complaints about my confinement. I may hate my family for it, but I acknowledge that I have wronged them greatly.”

Just how great had been his crime that the Bahamut emperor, who had the world beneath his feet, was put under confinement by the other members of the imperial family?

Had Bahamut paused the war for so long not because of his father’s, the late king of Roanne, valor but because the emperor had been imprisoned? Schneider pushed his bitterness to one corner of his heart as he focused on Philliad’s tale.

“Living under confinement drove me insane. There was nothing else in my room beside the steel chains binding my limbs and gagging my mouth, and all I could do was to ruminate over my body and my memories of the past. All I could do was think, think, and think some more. But then……one day, I recalled some surprising memories that had been buried deep within my soul.”

Philliad’s face, which had always been the picture of composure, suddenly crumbled like he was being tortured. He took in another deep breath of the smoke as he hurriedly continued,

“Do you know what the afterlife is like?”

Schneider made a face. Philliad’s story had been continuing just fine, so why was he suddenly bringing up the afterlife like he was about to sell him some sham religion?

“I do. After all, I’ve died once and came back.”

Philliad looked like he had truly lost his mind as he snickered.

“I paid for the karma I had built up in life in that place. I suffered excruciating pain beyond imagination, and I screamed and begged someone, anyone, to kill me even though I was already dead.”

What on earth was he talking about? Was he high on drugs?

“I was floundering inside that terrible agony when I suddenly came back to life. I don’t know how it happened, but it was like time itself had been erased.”

Philliad continued speaking like he had no care in the world.

“I began suffering the same agony that I had suffered in the afterlife once I remembered about it. Even just thinking about that place put my entire body through unbearable pain. Was that the price of taking a glimpse into the territory of the gods?”

Schneider remained silent, unable to comprehend the things that Philliad was muttering like a madman.

“That place was both the starting point and intersection between progress and retrogress. Time existed there as a jumbled mess, but to the contrary, it also felt like everything had stopped in that place ruled by chaos. It was a hell where the dead paid karmic retribution in accordance to the weight of their sins. Had I seen the Truth? Or did I simply go insane in my long confinement?”

Philliad dropped his drugs on the ground and stamped on it with his foot. The light returned to his bleary eyes once he had squeezed them shut and opened them again.

“I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about. This isn’t something you could understand unless you’ve experienced it yourself.”

Philliad blew his last breath of smoke in Schneider’s direction.

“But at least remember this. Everyone will pay in one way or another for the karma they’ve built up in life. Though I can’t tell you what it is that one’s karma is weighed against.”

“I have no idea what you meant when you said that you’ve died once or that time was erased. But, if everything you’ve said is true, that I think I know what your karma was weighed against.”

The priests of the Faith of Laos generally said that Laos was waiting in the afterlife. Good people went to Laos’ side upon death and enjoyed repose, and evil people were supposedly punished for their evil. Schneider continued,

“Your karma was weighed against the lives that you took in life. What you received was divine punishment!”

It was said that Philliad was rather moderate in disposition, but that was only in comparison to past Bahamut emperors. The blood that he had split in his youth was more than enough to flood a river. Schneider continued,

“And? So ultimately, what was the reason why you spared me and helped me grow stronger? Were you trying to erase the weight of the lives you’ve taken by sparing me? But my life alone won’t be enough for that. You’d probably have to save the entire world, don’t you think?”

Philliad smirked when Schneider quipped back sarcastically.

“Do you know what kind of people those who are born into the royal family of Roanne are?”

He had suddenly started talking about the afterlife, and now he was suddenly talking about the royal family. Schneider raised an eyebrow. Philliad continued,

“It was disorientating inside the chaos. I was so dizzy, almost as if I had smoked a thousand of the drugs I just smoked all at once. I couldn’t think straight, and my body wouldn’t move the way I wanted it to. But there was a lone white being inside the chaos who could move around as they wished. It was probably the absolute being we know as Laos.”

Philliad had watched Laos choose certain individuals and endow them with power. They were those with powerful egos who desperately wanted to continue their existences.

They had vanished quickly upon receiving Laos’ power. And Philliad had instinctively understood that they had been born anew.

“Those who were chosen by Laos —the royal family of Roanne.”

Something about Philliad’s words felt familiar to Schneider.

Wasn’t this similar to the contract he supposedly had with Laos?

“How do you know that they……were born as the royal family of Roanne?”

“I felt something so dreadfully familiar from the power Laos gave them. It was the aura of the royal family of Roanne —the very same one that I can feel from you now. Though, it also seems to depend on how you grow up after you are born.”

Philliad shrugged. He continued,

“In any event, I think you’re right in saying that karma is weighed against the weight of life. But I also think that ‘how one lives’ is the primary standard that karma is measured against. I am only uncertain because I am unsure of what exactly composes the ‘how.’ But let’s move on to my conclusion now.”

Philliad looked the perplexed Schneider directly in the eyes.

“Divine punished, you called it? I concur. I used to deny the existence of gods in the past, but I believe in them now.”

“…….”

“I want to lessen this horrible pain. That being said, I will not save people or do good deeds just because of this —it wouldn’t be like me at all. I don’t intend on repenting either, since I don’t believe that my actions constituted sins. And that is why I implored my son to allow me to come here.”

Philliad was grinning. He continued,

“You wanted to know why I was helping you grow stronger? You will never be able to defeat my son. What I mean is that the scales are tipped drastically against your favor. And it was because of me that the scales were tipped. Thus, we can say that my teaching you, who was chosen by a god, is a part of my desperate struggle to lessen the divine punishment I am to receive.”

Mana began simmering around Philliad.

“And now, I am done teaching you.”

His mana was deeper and darker than ever before as it tried to swallow Schneider whole. The blood drained from Schneider’s face.

“I will fight with my everything now. Do your best to kill me. Don’t even think about holding back. I will break your body if you cannot kill me.”

Then, it was battle, after battle, after battle.

December. Finally, Schneider had managed to restrain Philliad with the magic he had cast from his silver divine power.

“Pant, pant!”

Schneider collected his breath as he glared at Philliad, who was surveying the scene around him.

They were surrounded by a field of ice that glowed a brilliant silver.

It was snowing, and a storm was raging around them.

The earth had transformed into walls, mountains, roads, and lakes of ice, and it was so cold and dazzling that it was blinding.

Philliad’s limbs and torso were frozen from the extreme cold as he stood trapped in ice in the middle of the icy field. Thousands of icy thorns had risen from the ground, and they glistened mercilessly as they imprisoned him.

“This reminds me of the Himalapè Ice Fields. How nostalgic.”

Philliad was smiling, as if he found everything greatly amusing even despite his situation. His composure made Schneider feel horridly defeated.

Schneider clenched his hands into tight fists.

“……I will not kill you.”

Philliad looked to Schneider when the latter addressed the former with respect for the first time. Schneider continued,

“This is my way of preserving the last shred of my pride, as well as my way of paying respects to you for mentoring me.”

“Is that so? Well, I never planned on letting you kill me to begin with.”

Philliad’s high-handed response made Schneider feel wretched. Philliad apparently had no intention of dying at Schneider’s hands despite having told him to kill him previously.

This could only mean that, despite having pushed the situation to becoming what it currently was, Philliad had always known that Schneider would not kill him. Schneider gnashed his teeth.

“I am much weaker now than I once was. I’ve lost the power I commanded in my prime. It would trouble me if you grew conceited after just barely managing to defeat me as I am now.”

He had crushed Schneider’s pride thoroughly underfoot, but Philliad did not stop there. He continued,

“I will be murdered this time for certain if I return to the empire after sparing you.”

Crack.

The icy thorns pointed at Philliad began to change.

“But I don’t want to die at the hands of my family, who kept me under confinement for so long, either. Nor do I want to die at the hands of the royal family of Roanne, my lifelong nemeses.”

Crack, crack.

“And yet, I’m so exhausted that all I want to do now is put an end to everything…….”

Schneider’s cheeks quivered as he watched what Philliad was doing.

Stab, stab, stab.

The icy thorns that Schneider had created were growing longer under Philliad’s mana and gouging into the latter’s flesh. The icy thorns were dyed with blood as they dug into his entire being. There was a peculiar expression on his face as he laughed, as if he both was and wasn’t in pain.

“I suppose I’ll find myself there again.”

The beating of his heart began to slow as a thorn of ice started to pierce through it. Philliad continued,

“Revenge, conquest, destruction —I no longer care about any of that anymore. So, do your best on your own from now…on…….”

And then, it stopped.

And thus, Philliad Sarvon Bahamut had died.

Philliad and Schneider’s surroundings were always empty as they fought. The Roanne and Bahamut armies always fought their battles from afar and to a draw without their respective commanders.

Bahamut was notified of Philliad’s demise later that day.

The new commander of the Bahamut army was a veteran named Bakatrio who had fought alongside Philliad in the war twenty years prior. It seemed that he had predicted his previous emperor’s death, as his voice was surprisingly dry as he said,

“I would like to retrieve our late emperor’s body. And I would also like to propose a temporary ceasefire in the East. I am hoping you will accept.”

His calm requests suggested that Bakatrio had already been aware of what the late emperor had wanted. Schneider accepted because he felt like he could not bear it if he didn’t do at least that much. Rather, he was actually grateful for Bahamut’s proposal because he was in a hurry to resolve the kingdom’s internal affairs.

And so, the East was now under a temporary ceasefire. Representatives from both countries vowed upon their names that they would send an advance notice before resuming the war and that neither side would launch a surprise attack in the meanwhile.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Ensheila and Ryan, who had aided Schneider in leading the war, praised him, but Schneider was not happy for their praise. Still, he did his best to set his personal feelings aside as he set the army’s moral ablaze.

“We return to Theodore!”

Schneider’s army marched in a straight line back to Theodore. Whenever they passed through the lands belonging to traitorous nobles, they took those nobles from their dream-like perches and sent them crashing down to the ground.

“Ack!”

“Ahhh!”

Schneider’s overwhelming silver divine power became as a mace of retribution as he swept through the nobles who had betrayed Roanne. None of them could stop Schneider because he had grown so blindingly strong.

“You shall all be arrested!”

The traitorous nobles were either executed on the spot or dragged away to be executed publicly in Theodore.

Schneider, who had been marching in a straight line until then, suddenly changed course to make his way to the Owen lands. The territory was surrounded by monsters, and the mages controlling them were busy hustling to and from the region. Schneider clenched his hands into tight fists.

He had received a letter from Ianna a few days back.

Prince Linus has fallen into Martin Owen’s clutches.

Please destroy the march and rescue your younger brother on your way back. But please remember not to kill Martin Owen on the spot. Instead, please execute him publicly alongside Fernando, just as we had planned.

Schneider was so disgusted with Martin Owen and he asked Ianna why they should delay his death because he wanted to get it done and over with, but Ianna’s reply had been short and simple.

It is something that one of mine wishes for.

One of hers. The words made Schneider feel strangely envious, but he did his best to suppress the emotion.

“…….”

Schneider shot a glance at the person wearing black robes and a white mask beside him.

There were about thirty members of Camastros present. They were led by a man who was very large in stature. And Schneider could not help but think that the man felt somewhat familiar.

“Have we met before?”

“…….”

Rust, who had a dragon painted on his mask, did not reply. But Schneider had already surmised Rust’s true identity, and he let out a sigh of despondence.

“I don’t know who the founder of Camastros is……but the damned bastard is a nightmare to me until the bitter end.”

First, he had taken Ianna, and now he had taken Titus too.

Most people thought that Ianna had always been the leader of Camastros, but Schneider had already met the original leader and founder.

Arrogant bastard. Schneider gnashed his teeth together as he told himself that he would unmask the damned man at least once. He was certain he would despise the man just as much as he despised Arhad, Ianna’s lover.

“Forward!”

Schneider’s army raided the Owen lands.

His soldiers, who had been tempered through warfare, were not pushed back by the monsters, and his and Ensheila’s magic overpowered the enemy mages. The Bahamut mages, who had already heard news that Schneider had defeated Philliad, who was to them as the heavens were to the earth, fled with the monsters in tow as soon as the situation grew disadvantageous to them.

Then, Schneider’s army surrounded Martin Owen, who had been attempting to flee through a secret escape route.

“Lord Brother!”

“Not a step closer, Prince!”

Martin Owen had a knife at the crying Prince Linus’ throat. Schneider was furious as he shouted,

“Martin Owen!”

“Stand back and permit me to flee. Prince Linus will die the moment you try to lay a hand against me.”

Schneider clicked his tongue.

“How absurd and disgraceful. You enjoyed abundant wealth and power as the head of one of our kingdom’s founding houses, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy you, and your avarice will be the very reason why House Owen will be erased from existence.”

Martin’s features contorted. Schneider continued,

“Acknowledge that this is the end and let Linus go.”

“End? What end?!”

“Your end,”

said a voice from behind Martin. Martin startled and tried to stab Linus, but it was already too late.

“Ahh!”

Rust immediately bound Martin Owen in heavy steel chains and gagged him to prevent him from committed suicide. The rest of House Owen surrendered meekly and obeyed Schneider’s army once their head had been captured.

And then, at the end of December.

Schneider’s army finally arrived at Theodore.

“Whoaaaa!”

“Your Royal Highness Prince Schneider!”

The people scrambled out the city gates to welcome the army back even though Wiffheimer and his monsters presented no small amount of danger. Their faces were shining with hope.

Standing before the gates were the nobles in Schneider’s faction…….

And Ianna.

“Your Highness!”

“We’ve been waiting for you!”

Unlike the nobles, who were kneeling with tears streaming down their faces, Ianna was standing as upright as a tall mountain. Schneider continued to sneak glances at her even as he greeted the nobles.

His patience eventually failed him, and he pushed the nobles aside to walk up to her. Ianna, who had been watching over him brusquely, sketched him a simple greeting.

“Good work.”

Schneider felt his heart wrench for some reason.

How should he put his feelings to words?

He didn’t know, so all he could do was to close his mouth again without saying anything. Then, Ianna said to him,

“I’ve kept my promise.”

She truly had. Theodore was safe. His eyes started stinging for some reason. Schneider pressed his palm against his eyes and, with heartfelt sincerity, barely managed to reply,

“Thank you.”

“Not at all.”

Ianna smiled gently and tilted her head to the side as Schneider found himself on the verge of tears.

Schneider’s heart began racing as soon as he saw her smile, and a peculiar scene appeared before his blurry eyes.

He blinked, and he saw an older Ianna with the crest of Roanne —and with the crest that specifically symbolized himself— pinned on the left side of her chest above her heart standing before his very eyes.

“……!”

Schneider rubbed his eyes.

Then, Ianna returned to her younger self wearing simple clothes suited for battle.

Schneider gasped.

Have I lost my mind……?

Perhaps he had hallucinated because it was something that he so, so badly wanted to see.

The hallucination had powerful lasting effects. Schneider grew dizzy, unable to control his emotions.

And yet, his were emotions that he had to erase.

~~*~~

The paralyzed state affairs began to return to normal as soon as Schneider returned. Angelina’s and Schneider’s closest aides had been doing their best, but there had been a limit to what they could do.

Schneider sat down at his desk as he took on some of the duties they had been performing. There was a mountain of documents piled atop his desk. He had been receiving reports from Shingardra while he was away at war, but those reports had been drastically summarized. He would have to struggle through several days’ worth of documents before he grasped the intricate details of the situation.

“Let’s call it a day.”

His retainers, who had been assisting him with his work, courteously left the room when Schneider ordered them to disperse while rubbing the bridge of his nose. Angelina, who had been assisting him, also made to leave.

“Let’s talk for a moment, Angelina.”

But Schneider stopped her. Schneider got up from his desk and made his way to the comfortable sofa, and Angelina took the hint to follow after him.

They sat face-to-face. Angelina thanked the lady-in-waiting when she poured them warm cups of tea, and Schneider stared deeply into his sister.

“You should drink —surely, you must be tired.”

Schneider brought up his teacup without saying much in return.

Angelina pitied her brother, who seemed so fatigued.

“You only just came back, but you’re already so busy.”

Schneider truly had a lot of work to do. He had to restore everything Fernando had ruined, and he also had to prepare to go to war against Bahamut.

But Angelina was proud of and respected her brother greatly. He did the work quietly without a single complaint, as if it was something that had always been his job. And things were progressing smoothly all thanks to him.

Angelina was Linus’ full-blooded sister, but she had always thought that it was Schneider who would one day reign as Roanne’s king. Her opinion had only grown stronger as of late.

“It’s only natural that I’m busy. But I’m all right —I was prepared for this. More importantly, I’ve been meaning to speak with you, but I haven’t been able to find the time until now.”

Schneider put down his teacup and looked to Angelina, who had matured rapidly as of late. He continued,

“I heard that you’ve made quite the impact, Angelina.”

“Pardon? M-me?”

“Yes. The capital is filled with rumors about you. I always thought that I had a good eye for people, but it appears that I was sorely mistaken.”

Schneider had heard, in great detail, about all the things that Angelina had been doing in his absence. She had become as the heart of the kingdom as a member of the royal family, and she had gently defended the anxious people. It sounded simple when put to words, but this was easier said than done.

Especially for someone like Angelina.

“You were never permitted to learn kingship because of your blue eyes.”

Angelina had silver hair but sapphire eyes. But the right to the throne was only given to members of the royal family of Roanne who had silver hair and silver eyes, so Angelina had never been granted the opportunity to vie for the throne. Thus, she had only been taught miscellaneous lessons that could make full use of her gender and her beauty. She had never been allowed to learn the art of kingship, the art of governing people.

And so, Angelina had been treated like a dainty flower cultivated inside a greenhouse. The kind of flower who would never know the rain or wind and was destined to be plucked and handed over to another when the time was ripe.

But even the daintiest of flowers could have survived just as well as any other had it been planted outside from the very beginning. Rather, it would have only made her sturdier and more naturally beautiful.

After all, just look at everything she had accomplished recently.

Flowers had never needed anyone to tend to them. The idea of locking a flower inside a greenhouse and tending to it methodically had only arisen from the gardener’s biases.

“I occasionally find myself wondering what the point of adhering to tradition is. Take our Lord Father or Fernando for example —having silver hair and eyes isn’t everything. You would have been more than capable of competing with me for the throne, if only you had been born with silver eyes and were taught properly since you were a child.”

“Not at all. I am not as capable as you suggest.”

Angelina turned toward the mountain of documents on Schneider’s desk and paled. She continued,

“This is something I’ve realized as I watched you work these past few days. Being a ruler……seems truly difficult. A ruler must fight against their siblings, and they must also butt heads with the nobles.”

Angelina shook her head.

“I only wish for the people to be happy and for everyone to get along well. Fighting is so difficult.”

Angelina had been born with a kindhearted disposition, and she certainly found it difficult to fight. Schneider, who had nothing more to say after Angelina had said her piece, could only but sigh. Gingerly, Angelina continued,

“But just as you suggested, Lord Brother, I do think that treating some of us different just because you have silver hair and eyes is a little unfair. After all, we’re still siblings.”

“Indeed.”

It truly was a problem, now that he thought about it.

Fernando, the wretched dastard, had been able to become king and make such a mess of things simply because he had been born with silver hair and silver eyes. Though admittedly, the fault lay fundamentally with Luria for raising him poorly.

Schneider finished thinking and asked Angelina,

“What do you want to do going forward? I will respect your will.”

“I don’t quite know just yet. For now, I’d like to keep assisting you and help protect Roanne. I want to help those who are in trouble.”

Schneider looked to Angelina with silent commendation, and Angelina’s grew embarrassed before her eyes began twinkling. She continued,

“Anyway, Lord Brother, Little Ianna is truly a remarkable person.”

The sudden attack using the name Schneider had been trying so hard to forget made his heart squeeze.

“You know… Neither the monsters nor the nobles can make her budge. And she rescues everyone weaker than her from danger one after another. And she helps people grow stronger so they can defeat the monsters on their own. And…….”

Angelina sang Ianna’s praises for quite some time. Schneider, who was listening quietly, finally managed to say,

“……She is remarkable indeed.”

Angelina observed Schneider carefully after he had said his piece and had fallen silent.

“Lord Brother, are you certain……that you don’t like her?”

“I do not,”

Schneider replied immediately, and Angelina sighed in relief, though he hadn’t quite managed to erase all of her apprehensions. Schneider hated himself for being offended and quickly looked away.

~~*~~

Part 2

Schneider had grown so strong that it shocked his closest aides senseless. He was Roanne’s new hope, and everyone hoped he would take the throne soon. They treated him like he was already the king even though he had yet to be formally crowned.

His coronation was already scheduled. Both his coronation and the public execution was to be held on January 1^st, on Founding Day, and a huge festival was to take place all throughout Roanne. Some people questioned why they were holding a festival in a time like this, but hope could not sprout if the lands were filled only with despair.

They needed something to raise morale. They had tried to hold a festival on the Thanksgiving of Laos for similar reasons, but Wiffheimer had ruined the celebrations. This was why they needed to succeed this time around.

But Wiffheimer, who despised the very idea of the people finding hope, would surely wait until their guards were down to launch his attack.

Like during the festival, for example.

Which was why Schneider had consulted with Ianna a few days before the years’ end and plotted a truly remarkable scheme. They planned to host a smaller festival just before the real festivities were scheduled to begin.

The purpose of the festival was to ridicule Wiffheimer, who had declared that he would bring Roanne to ruin but had failed at every turn, and to celebrate Roanne’s victories and exalt her veteran soldiers.

It was obviously a trap, and a childish one to boot, but Wiffheimer was likely to walk right into it because he was proud and had never been mocked so openly before. And even if he didn’t, it would still raise the citizens’ morale.

Schneider was busier than ever as he prepared for the festival day. He was arresting traitorous nobles and driving back the monsters.

Meanwhile, Ianna had taken a step back. She hadn’t completely washed her hands of Roanne quite yet, but Schneider was taking the lead now. Ianna was currently in Arhad’s room drinking tea with him as she enjoyed the scenery outside. This was her first proper rest in a while.

“Aren’t we being too good to Roanne?”

Arhad asked, unable to look away from how relaxed Ianna was. The woman was so lovely as she sat comfortably before him. She was like a sturdy shield when she was with others, but she was like melted ice cream when she was with him. The difference was even more pronounced as of late because Ianna had been so active. And Arhad absolutely loved the special treatment he was receiving.

“Roanne will be a good ally when we face Bahamut.”

“Bahamut already cares more about us than they care about Roanne. They will focus their attacks on only us once we reveal ourselves properly and step forward. Do you truly think Roanne will help us then?”

“But we aren’t aiding Roanne now because we expect the kingdom to help us later, are we? If Roanne will not assist us, then we can simply stop Bahamut with our strength alone. Though of course, we will no longer associate with Roanne if they wash themselves clean of us after everything we’ve done for them.”

“That’s true. In any event, Ianna, there’s something I have to tell you before you eliminate Wiffheimer.”

“Yes?”

“Wiffheimer might be able to use heart sharing magic.”

Ianna paused.

“What kind of magic is that? It sounds rather unpleasant.”

“It’s an ultimate-level spell that Wiffheimer’s been developing. I was able to connect my heart to the Demon’s because the Demon’s heart was originally mine to begin with. But heart sharing magic can force another’s heart to fall under your joint possession. And once the caster dies, it allows him to migrate over to another body. It has many limitations, but it’s still an incredible spell that would allow you to live forever. I’m only guessing for now because it doesn’t make sense to me that Wiffheimer is attacking us so recklessly until the bitter end, but I think it’s possible.”

“A spell like that……. There really is nothing you can’t do with magic.”

“Indeed. If he’s truly completed the spell, then he’s probably prepared his new body somewhere inside Bahamut.”

“That means that Wiffheimer will simply come back in his new body even if we kill his current one.”

Ianna scowled. She continued,

“How cumbersome. I will keep that in mind. But how did you know that Wiffheimer was researching something like that?”

Arhad’s conscious prickled, but he didn’t let it show.

“I received intel.”

“From Eiji?”

“No, from a different route.”

“Hmmm.”

Ianna tilted her head to the side, finding his response strange, but she decided to let it slide. Arhad quickly changed the topic of their conversation.

“But even if Wiffheimer dies, he won’t do it here. He still needs to give Taylon his Demon’s fragment. He’ll flee to the palace if he believes his life is in danger. Or maybe Taylon might watch over the situation and rescue him, like what happened last time with Isabella. You’ll need to kill him before his body is whisked away.”

“Understood. I’ll kill the bastard in one blow, so please stay behind me and wait patiently.”

“…….”

Arhad rested his chin against the palm of his hand as he watched Ianna declare herself so confidently.

Was he blinded by love?

Ianna had likely only said that to appear reliable, but her overflowing confidence and her gallant spirit were both so cool and so very adorable.

“When will Wiffheimer attack?”

Arhad looked out at the sky outside the window. The sky had been dark and clouded as of late, giving it a rather ominous aura.

“The flow of mana feels strange. It won’t be much longer. The bastard probably doesn’t want to wait for the new year to pass either. Anyway, what are you planning to do until Wiffheimer shows himself? Will you be fighting monsters?”

“No. Prince Schneider is back now, so I will entrust the upcoming battle to Roanne and Lord Heinrich while I step back. Lord Heinrich said he was confident in himself, so I’m sure everything will be fine. Besides, didn’t you say that Roanne should figure things out on her own now?”

Arhad’s face brightened up —he rather liked her response.

“I did. Roanne should figure things out on her own.”

Ianna blinked. Arhad was always in a good mood when they were together, but it was rare for him to be so openly happy like this.

“Do you like it that much that I’ll be leaving Roanne soon.”

“I like it very much.”

“…….”

She had no idea why he was so happy about it, but seeing him be so overjoyed made Ianna’s heart flutter too. But she did her best to feign ignorance as she changed the topic of their conversation and said,

“I will be hiding myself for now.”

“Hiding yourself? What for?”

“How much of a bother do you think Wiffheimer will be if he hides himself to the point where even the spirits can’t locate him? And how many times has Bahamut managed to surprise us already? It feels like we’re being made to dance in the palm of their hands, and this infuriates me. And so, I am planning to pay them back in kind.”

Ianna gnashed her teeth together because even thinking about it made her flush with anger. She continued,

“The best-case scenario would be for Prince Schneider and Lord Heinrich to kill him, but that won’t be possible as long as Taylon is also in the picture. I will hide myself, and I’ll strike at the very last moment right before Wiffheimer flees or Taylon steps in to help him. We need to catch them by surprise at least once too, do we not?”

Ianna’s expression grew wintry.

Bemused, Arhad asked,

“Are you confident you can do it?”

“Yes. I have grasped everything there is to know about Wiffheimer. I’m certain the bastards have no idea just how obsessively I’ve been observing him.”

A faint shadow fell over Arhad’s face. Previously, Ianna would have wondered why he had reacted like that, but now she knew at even a first glance. She continued,

“It looks like you dislike the fact that I’ve been observing him ‘obsessively.’”

“How did you know?”

“That’s, well…….”

Ianna shot a glance at Arhad, asking him if he truly didn’t know. Arhad froze up for a moment. He had thought that Ianna would always be as dull as a bear, but now she was even using such exceptional techniques on him. And her actions, which Arhad have never expected from her even in his wildest dreams, were rather fatal.

~~*~~

The day of the festival.

“Wiffheimer, you stupid fool!”

“You don’t even reach the soles of Lord Heinrich’s feet, you bastard!”

“You piece of shit!”

The people were enjoying insulting Wiffheimer so much they had practically gone mad. They made effigies of Wiffheimer to burn and drew pictures of him, which they then proceeded to throw daggers at —they had suffered so much at Wiffheimer’s hands, and their indignation was on full display.

A thoroughly prepared army quietly awaited Wiffheimer’s arrival behind the scenes.

“You damned bastards!”

Wiffheimer’s attack had launched that day.

Wiffheimer, who had been roaming around as he quietly observed the situation, was fuming with rage.

He had always been the target of fear.

His parents had feared him as a child because of his monstrous talent. He had been feared by the soldiers as he roamed the battlefields in his youth. In the older years, after he had formally received the designation, ‘Destruction,’ the entire world trembled in fear at even the mere mention of his name.

He had never been so ridiculed before in his life. After all, he had murdered anyone who had even hinted that they would dare. But today, the sneers, the censure, and the insults —all which he had never heard before in his life— were showering down upon him as he hid.

Wiffheimer knew that the ludicrously childish festival was a ploy meant to ensnare him and that the people of Roanne had made preparations to kill him. The correct course of action was to simply watch and wait until they grew tired and let their guards down.

But the ridicule hurled at him by those he considered inferior blinded him with fury.

‘How dare those lowly things mock me just because they have someone to trust!’

This was all because of that woman —Ianna Roberstein.

Wiffheimer, who had completed his preparations and had been waiting for the perfect time, decided to go ahead and launch his attach now that this had happened.

‘Very well. I may not be able to kill that wench, but I can still kill the rest of you!’

He reached out toward the heavens. The black mana began forming from his palms and transformed into a gigantic magic circle as it spread wider. The people were alarmed as they stared at the eye of the storm. Then, they began screaming and running away as soon as they say his notorious visage.

“It’s Wiffheimer!”

“Run!”

Wiffheimer cared not about what the small fry said as they fled.

Pitter. Patter.

The ultimate spell he had prepared had begun. Black smoke darkened the cloudy sky and became as a dense black cloud. Black rain began pouring down as if a hole had opened up in the heavens.

Shaaaa…….

“Ack, it’s cold.”

“Something strange. The rain’s black.”

The black rain didn’t do anything immediately, but it still provoked displeasure and uneasiness.

They heard screams from afar that cried about Wiffheimer making an appearance. It was only then that the people, who had been cursing at Wiffheimer as if in a trance, snapped back to their senses and looked up to the sky in terror.

Rumble!

Dozens of black tornados touched down and connected the heavens to the earth. The tornados colored the sky black with the life it had absorbed from the earth, and the earth was dyed black as the life atop it quickly withered.

Schneider had told the people to simply curse Wiffheimer without worrying about the repercussions. The people, who had been resolute in their trust in the prince as they hurled their insults, grew afraid.

“W-will everything really be okay?”

“I don’t think so…”

“God Laos!”

“We were wrong! Please, stop this!”

Some people begged God Laos to save them, while others pled for Wiffheimer’s forgiveness.

Flash!

A burst of light erupted from Heinrich’s magic tower just then.

“Well, this is new, no?”

“Please focus.”

“Hmmm.”

Heinrich, Maimayè, Shingardra, and Dorcianni, who had been visiting under her guise as a member of Camastros —four archmages were working together to create a new barrier centered around the core of the Institution’s barrier.

The barrier cut between the heavens and the earth. It forcefully removed the tornados and covered the sky over Theodore in a curtain of white.

“Wow, look at that,”

Elly expressed her admiration as she looked up at the sky.

She was looking out the window from a room within the magic tower. She had cast a sleeping spell over the frightened Finn and had gone outside with Nissi in tow.

“It’s marvelous. It really is.”

“Meow!”

Nissi cried in fright as she hid behind Elly’s legs.

“Hey, you couldn’t see something like this even if you paid good money for it. Let’s watch together.”

Elly grabbed Nissi by the scruff and tried to raise her up to the window, but she couldn’t because Nissi was struggling too much. The cat tried to run away as soon as Elly lost her grip. Elly shouted after her,

“Are you really gonna go? —we might even be able to see Miss Ianna in action.”

Her words stopped Nissi in her tracks. Then, the cat listlessly returned to Elly’s side.

“Stupid cat.”

Elly smiled impishly as she held the frightened cat in her arms. Then, the two of them began watching from the window again.

Five large Gates opened up inside the barrier as the black tornados and rain clashed against it from above. And the things that Wiffheimer had prepared began pouring out from them.

“My word…….”

The people were terrified as they saw the colossal lifeforms coming from the Gates.

“Grrrr.”

“Screech!”

They were all legendary monsters that were said to live in the deepest depths of the heart of the Lotso Mountains. They were creatures as mysterious as the dragons.

Venomous snakes almost tall enough to reach the barrier oozing poisons from their breath. The queen of ravens that embodied all sorts of plagues. A crocodile the color of sewage that looked like an entire swamp crawling. A black wildebeest that rained down cursed lightning —they were all creatures that were considered to be god-like beings among the monsters.

The monsters passed completely through the Gates. They expressed their contempt as they watched the screaming humans running around by their feet. It was as if they were looking down at mere bugs…….

Wiffheimer commanded them,

“Kill them all!”

But just as the monsters were about to obey.

“Halt!”

Heinrich shouted.

Everyone turned to look at him as he appeared before them.

He was supposed to be supporting the barrier inside the Institution’s magic tower, so why was he here? Did he have a way to stop the monsters?

Heinrich walked up to the powerful monsters. To the average person, it looked like he had willingly walked into the fiery pit of death.

Then, he said,

[Please go back.]

He was muttering in a voice that could not be comprehended by man. But the monsters understood his words. After all, he was speaking in their language. Heinrich continued,

[I am also one who bears the power of origin. Will you be able to attack me?]

The monsters dithered, unable to approach him readily.

“Gyaah.”

“Caw.”

[I am aware that you are here against your will despite your distaste for leaving the Lotso Mountains.]

As Heinrich had pointed out, they were obeying Wiffheimer’s orders against their will. They had not been brainwashed, but they could not defy commands that came from those who gave off the stench of origin.

As the monsters continued hesitating, Heinrich yelled,

[So I, too, shall issue you a command. Return!]

Wiffheimer was the highest authority in destruction magic, and he was also well-versed in the other branches of magic. But Heinrich was unmatched when it came to psychic magic. His psychological commands and his ability to control the mind were superior to that of Wiffheimer’s.

Heinrich’s words washed over the monsters like a large ripple.

“Caaw.”

A quarrel broke out between the powerful monsters. Some of them turned around and shrieked, while others cried out in discontent. They apparently weren’t able to reach an agreement, as they quickly began fighting amongst themselves.

“Gyaaaaah!”

“Kwoooh!”

More monsters began leaping out from the Gates. The monsters that were completely under Wiffheimer’s control chased after the delicious scent of human life even as they were caught up in the fighting between the powerful monsters and met their demise.

“Let’s go!”

The army stepped forward just then.

Schneider was standing at the vanguard.

“Protect Roanne!”

The Roanne army, which had been spread out all over the place, collided against the monsters head-on.

“You……you…….”

His ultimate spell was clashing against the barrier, the powerful monsters were bickering amongst themselves, and the other monsters were being stopped by the army.

“Damn you, Heinrich!”

Finally, Wiffheimer revealed himself before Heinrich. Heinrich simply looked back quietly as Wiffheimer burned in his wrath.

“You were always looking down on me. Your arrogance and disregard became as the poison that ate away at your life.”

Wiffheimer ground his teeth together, unable to hold back his indignation.

“Kgh. You truly were hiding your true skills, you old fox! Were you scorning me as I made light of you?”

Calmly, Heinrich replied,

“I have never scorned you because I acknowledge you. It is a practice called humility.”

“Shut up, you traitor!”

The two mages clashed violently.

It resulted in a banquet of only the highest-level spells.

A pillar of fire and a crashing wave of water.

A stormy gale and a wall of earth.

Pointed spears and sturdy shields. Fatal toxins and a breath of healing. Vast explosions and a ripple of stillness. Dark curses and a purifying light. Shackles of brainwashing and a liberating freedom. The tearing of space and the stitching of rifts.

Wiffheimer and Heinrich.

The two great mages, once rivals in their youth and enemies in their old age, created a magnificent spectacle as they clashed. They paraded all sorts of spells, as if they had gathered every miracle in the world to this one place.

“Wow.”

Other mages, like Maimayè and Shingardra, did their best to observe the entire fight as Heinrich and Wiffheimer battled in single combat.

The blood drained from Maimayè’s face as he observed them while maintaining the barrier.

“They should be called great archmages instead of mere archmages. But, will today really be Wiffheimer’s last?”

“Perhaps…….”

Dorcianni licked her lips behind her mask.

“How interesting.”

She took her hand off the barrier’s core and walked up to the window. Maimayè was taken aback.

“Where are you going? We have to maintain the barrier!”

“I want to watch from up close. Goodbye.”

“No, don’t go!”

But Dorcianni ignored him and flew up and out of the window. Maimayè jumped up as he griped about how crazy the woman was.

Heinrich wasn’t here, and neither was Dorcianni.

They left too great an absence. Shingardra hurriedly summoned more mages to their side. Lalatua and Angelina were included in their number.

Wiffheimer’s defeat was eminent. He thought he was going to die. Humiliation was devouring his soul and driving him mad.

“Kgh.”

He had lost to Heinrich. He had truly lost.

“Very well. I lose!”

His eyes grew bloody as he acknowledged his defeat and steeled himself anew. He continued,

“But I will kill every last one of you bastards here, even if it means using up my entire lifeforce!”

Poow!

A black aura engulfed his body like flames. It was his divine power, dyed in a bloodlust so heavy it was dreadful.

Before Heinrich had the chance to do anything, a powerful monster with the form of a snake —a Basilisk— wrapped itself around Wiffheimer and created a sturdy shield around its body.

Bloodlust and life —Wiffheimer’s divine power, harboring two contradictory traits, became as a curse of the ultimate level as it spread out and shot endlessly up at the sky.

Simultaneously, his skin, which had been too taut for his old age, quickly began to wrinkle. His bones grew pronounced and his hair became white, and he now looked older than his age.

His lifeforce was being drained away.

Buzzzz…….

He prepared to cast Teleport even as his poured his life out to the heavens. Taylon, who had been observing the situation from elsewhere, began opening a Gate.

But just then, someone flew in toward him with a flash of steel.

“Kyaaaah!”

The Basilisk’s body was torn asunder.

Wiffheimer’s Teleport was broken.

Taylon’s Gate was blocked.

Ianna had already completed her preparations.

And she had been waiting and watching a long time…

For this single strike!

Poow!

“Ahhhh!”

Wiffheimer’s heart was shredded apart as Ianna’s sword pierced through it precisely.

Fwooosh.

Ianna felt the aura swirling at the tip of her sword. Wiffheimer’s divine power, the mana under his domination, and ‘something else’ was jumbled into each other as it scattered apart.

Was it because she had seen the astral plane before?

Ianna found herself standing at the border between the physical and astral planes the moment she perceived the queer movements of Wiffheimer’s soul.

Shaaa…….

She could see Wiffheimer’s black-grey soul shuddering before her eyes, as well as a jet-black fragment that fell outside after having lost its center.

‘That must be the Demon’s fragment.’

The Demon’s fragment would have whisked away immediately if Wiffheimer had any blood relatives at least as close as cousins, but he had none. The fragment had no choice but to wander the world again now that his heart had been destroyed. How was Arhad, who was hiding behind Ianna, supposed to absorb it?

Just then, Ianna noticed that Wiffheimer’s undulating soul was moving strangely.

The Demon’s fragment stayed in place, but Wiffheimer’s soul was slowly inching north. And it began to hasten its pace. North —it was probably going to where his second body was waiting.

Ianna immediately tried to seize it, but she could not —it was like trying to grab smoke.

Her rage erupted.

You damned rat.

Do I have no choice but to let him go?

I don’t want to let him go —is there a way for me to catch him?

Her heart pulsed as soon as she thought this strongly.

[What will you Judge?]

She was accustomed to this sound now.

Ianna was tempted by the power of Judgment. She had grown much stronger than before. She had plenty of divine power too. Wouldn’t she be able to use this power now?

‘I will extinguish Wiffheimer’s soul.’

Tinkle!

Her bloodlust called forth the power of the Balance, and the Balance measured her wish. But the Balance told her that this was ‘impossible’ because she possessed insufficient divine power.

Ianna instinctively understood the Balance’s principles as soon as she was returned an answer.

The power of ‘Judgment,’ which utilized the Balance, was a miracle that brought forth a ‘result’ while ignoring actual probability. It omitted the process in between —in other words, it completely removed the time the process would have actually taken. But time was the absolute providence of the world. It was only natural that an enormous price was required to meddle with it.

Providence had dictated that Wiffheimer was to obtain a new body. He had taken a long time to complete his Heart Sharing spell, and thus, it was only right for his second body to awaken at the secret location where it was being kept.

Extinguishing Wiffheimer’s soul here and now without going through the actual process required to do so would mean disregarding providence. Which was why an incredible amount of divine power was necessary.

‘Is there truly no way for me to kill him for good right here?’

The Balance did not answer.

Ianna resigned herself and sighed as she was about to put a close on the situation at hand.

Or at least, she had most certainly tried to.

Boom!

Her heart jumped up unwittingly.

Boom!

‘Ugh.’

Ianna’s breath caught.

Her heart was thumping so fiercely she thought it might explode. Her heart continued erupting in explosions so loud there were deafening.

Shaaaa…….

Ianna’s heart absorbed her divine power like a black hole. The Balance had tilted this way and that in accordance to her wishes and had ultimately found a way for her to kill Wiffheimer using the divine power she had suppled.

Tinkle!

The coercive force of the Balance, which existed somewhere in the world, coiled around Ianna before she had even finished her thought. Ianna was sucked into a rift between spaces, a rift between times. She could not resist the incredible gravitational force that pulled her in.

Her field of vision warped at once.

The Truth was spread out before her very eyes.

‘……!’

It was a rather dizzying place.

Ianna found herself in the rift where the time-space flowing forward and the time-space retrogressing backward intersected. There were all sorts of time-spaces jumbled into each other. All the time and information that existed in the world existed there.

And there were countless astral existences that looked like souls at the heart of this place. New souls were being created, and other souls were screaming as they vanished. Some souls were wailing in agony, while other souls had found repose.

The myriad of emotions released by the souls sloshed together and became as a sea. The souls floundered within the sea of souls, unable to pull themselves together.

Ianna witnessed both life and death in this place.

There were souls being sucked into the flow of progression. They were those who were currently being born. There were also souls that were flung outside the flow of progressions and sucked into the flow of retrogression. They were those who had died.

Creak.

The Balance was exerting its power even here, the ‘stillness’ where progress and retrogress collided.

‘Where on earth……?’

The world inside the Truth. Ianna, who was in a daze, suddenly found herself being forcefully pulled away again. She was sucked into progression as if she was being fished out.

~~*~~

Part 3

Arhad reached out to absorb the fragment as soon as he saw Ianna destroy Wiffheimer’s heart. Wiffheimer’s body plummeted while spurting blood everywhere, and the fragment that had been in his possession was flung out into the world. Arhad successfully absorbed the fragment.

But that wasn’t important to him right now.

His face was completely pallid.

‘Ianna!’

Ianna had disappeared.

She had suddenly vanished immediately after she had stabbed Wiffheimer’s heart.

It hadn’t been magic.

She had simply disappeared without any warning.

She had been completely erased, as if she had never existed in the first place.

Arhad immediately tried to locate her through his ring. Every location in the world had coordinates, but Ianna’s coordinates had turned up strange.

∞, ∞, ∞.

These coordinates could not exist in the world.

He tried contacting her too, but the call wouldn’t go through. Had her ring been broken?

But that shouldn’t be the case —he had included dozens of protective spells inside that ring.

It was almost as if Ianna had simply vanished from the world.

‘Ianna.’

It was a tad reckless to put it this way, but he felt like a light that was always nearby had suddenly gone out. His world had become dark. He could not breathe, and he felt like he had suddenly been dropped into the deep sea. He covered his mouth because he suddenly grew nauseated.

‘Where did you go?’

His rationality was desperately trying to analyze why Ianna had disappeared. And then, he recalled her power.

‘Did she use Judgement? She didn’t accidentally erase everything that she was my mistake, did she?’

Hell had unleashed upon the earth while Arhad was lost in thought.

“Ahhh!”

“Save me! Ack!”

The spell that Wiffheimer had poured all of his divine power into had not been cancelled and was penetrating through the barrier.

Shaaaa.

The black rain, which hadn’t done anything initially, was now eroding through everything. Living creatures rotted away, buildings were reduced to dust, and the earth became dead lands in which nothing could live where the rain struck.

The black tornados connected the heavens to the earth once more and sucked away divine power from the things that had eroded. The divine power converted to magic and exacerbated the calamity. It was practically self-perpetuating.

Arhad stared at the scene before with his ashen visage.

‘Ianna. You’ll come back, right? I trust you.’

He reached out his hand up to the sky.

Wiffheimer’s spell had been cast not with mana but with his divine power. His divine power and the resulting magic were so filled with powerful hatred and Ideas, as befitting of someone who have lived with a Demon’s fragment for so long, that even Arhad could not easily see through it.

But it was only a matter of time.

After all, who could surpass the abyss that Arhad carried within him?

If anyone could, then they were surely a doppelganger who had copied him.

Swooooosh!

The divine power dying the sky black shook like it was being ripped apart. The nightmarish spell was being devoured by an even greater nightmare.

“Woooooo…….”

“Whimper…….”

Every monster present shuddered as they fell to their knees.

“Why are they acting like this?”

Even the monsters that had been fighting people had suddenly stopped moving and simply sank down shivering where they stood. The monsters were too terrified to move and had become unable to continue battling. Even the most powerful monsters present had fared no better.

‘Come back. Please.’

This was all that Arhad could do for now because he couldn’t ascertain where Ianna was.

Ianna would be displeased if she saw what was happening. She would surely find a way to blame herself again. Arhad stood between reason and madness as he concentrated only on breaking Wiffheimer’s spell.

But the spell continued to be active even as Arhad was destroying it. And Arhad was too busy destroying the spell to care about the rain that managed to penetrate through the barrier.

Neither Heinrich nor the other mages in the magic tower could stop the black rain that Wiffheimer had summoned before his death.

“God Laos…….”

Every mage inside the tower was drowning in their powerlessness as they watched Theodore die.

Elly and Nissi were also watching.

But they were not in despair.

“That looks dangerous.”

“Meow, meow.”

Nissi mewled in her worry for Ianna. She grabbed the hem of Elly’s pants and shook her gently as if she was telling the girl to do something.

“I guess there’s no helping it, right?”

Nissi immediately nodded in agreement as soon as Elly had spoken.

“Sooob. Sob. What do I do?”

Angelina sobbed as she looked out the window. She was giving her everything to maintaining the barrier, but she was still helpless to stop the black rain from falling down to the earth.

‘Please, please block it. Block it.’

She was grasping onto the barrier’s core with all her might when her vision was suddenly overturned.

Why was it? The people around her had suddenly turned into their own unique colors.

‘Huh……?’

Angelina tried to voice her confusion, unable to comprehend what was going on, but she could not form the words.

Fweee…….

Then, a breeze blew in from somewhere and settled in front of her as a white light. She suddenly found a boy glowing white standing before her.

‘You can see me, right?’

Her soul was resonating. Angelina stared blankly at the bright and clear face of the boy before her. She instinctively wanted to kneel before him, but she wasn’t permitted to do so.

‘I didn’t want to meddle, but this is a problem from the Holy Age that has nothing to do with the present.’

The boy’s thoughts were conveyed to Angelina without words. Then, the boy nodded toward the barrier’s core, which Angelina was clutching to.

‘This artefact is being used at the Institution now, but it was originally something that Zicara Valgenta created for the Queen. It was designed so that the Queen could protect those who protected her if they were in danger. Only women who strongly inherited the Queen’s blood may reveal its true worth.’

The boy slowly drew closer and took Angelina’s hand. He continued,

‘Now then, Princess. You begged me to allow your ego to subsist even though you were destined to extinction.’

The white boy smiled.

‘I don’t make contracts with those who are weak. I’ll help you, so show me your will.’

Flash!

A burst of silvery light erupted from Angelina’s hands.

“Ah!”

The other mages turned to Angelina in alarm. Angelina’s gaze was focused on a single spot. But there was no one at the end of the gaze.

“…….”

The mages tilted their heads to the side as they looked back out the window, and they dropped their jaws as they witnessed what was happening outside.

Light was enveloping the barrier. The curtain of light, which had started from the barrier’s core, was spreading all over the whole of Theodore. And the curtain’s magic resurrected everything that had decayed within its boundary. It had become as a steadfast umbrella to block out the falling rain. Everyone was entranced as they witnessed this miracle.

Fwooosh!

Arhad had finished absorbing Wiffheimer’s darkness while the miracle progressed, and the sky regained its azure.

Then, he said to the monsters kneeling before him,

[Return.]

The monsters urgently sprang up and began fleeing at his single word. They were in a panic to get away as quickly as possible.

“…….”

Everything was over.

Arhad buried his face in his hands and sank down, unable to bear it any longer now that he had lost his object of focus.

He couldn’t breathe properly.

He wanted to trust Ianna and wait. He had great perseverance, after all.

But his perseverance, which endured so persistently when it came to love, bottomed out immediately at the mere thought that Ianna might have vanished from the world. The darkness that ate away at him was so dreadful that he almost wanted to die.

Flash!

The ring that had been searching for Ianna’s location suddenly brought back results.

“Ah!”

The light returned to Arhad’s eyes. He promptly imagined the coordinates his ring had returned in his mind. But his brain stopped working yet again as soon as he realized where the coordinates pointed to.

His cheeks twitched.

“Why is she there……?”

Ianna was thrown to the ground where her target was after having skipped past space and space and passing through time and time.

“Blech.”

Her world was spinning. Ianna collapsed on the floor and retched. She held back her nausea as she clutched to the floor. She was still quite dizzy, but this would pass soon enough.

‘Where am I?’

Black stone walls and a dizzying assortment of chemicals.

A bloody floor and altar.

And the small figure of the boy who was laying there.

Ianna looked down at the pallid boy laying on the altar. And just then, the boy gasped and sat up.

“Arghhh!”

The boy clutched at his heart and struggled before slamming his head against the solid altar. He trembled for a while, perhaps due to the pain. But he straightened out his limp frame before long.

“A success…….”

The light returned to his blank eyes as he mumbled. The boy then made a fuss about touching his own body.

“I’ve really succeeded!”

he boy exclaimed brightly as his shoulders jerked —he was so happy he didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Ahaha, ……huh?”

The boy was about to burst out in laughter when he suddenly realized that Ianna was observing him quietly from the shadows. He then opened his eyes so wide they nearly fell out.

“Oh shit!”

His curses escaped him like death throes. Ianna rushed toward him, covered his mouth before he could scream, and threw him to the floor.

The boy flailed his hands as he tried to escape, but to no avail. Ianna prevented him from using magic before she gently took away her hand and whispered,

“Wiffheimer.”

“…….”

The blood had drained from his face, and he was unable to speak. He could not even say that she was mistaken in a desperate bid to get her to spare him because of his pride. Ianna’s hand fell over him like the reaper’s.

“W-wait…….”

Crunch!

His neck twisted mercilessly in her hand.

The heartbeat that Ianna could feel from her hand stopped its pulsing.

And so, Wiffheimer’s second life had come to an end.

“…….”

Ianna brought her hand away from his throat. An unpleasant sensation lingered in her hand, but there was little else she could have done because it had been Wiffheimer inside that body. She now had the ability to see souls at will. And she had only found Wiffheimer’s soul inside the boy’s body when she had looked. The boy himself had likely already died.

Ianna recalled the world inside the Truth that she had seen before coming here. It had probably been the afterlife. If that was where the boy’s original soul now was, then she hoped that he could at least rest peacefully.

She put the boy’s corpse inside her subspace with the intent of cremating him later. She could put anything inside her subspace, provided that it wasn’t alive.

She thought about her current situation as she did.

‘The Balance determined that, while it was impossible for me to immediately extinguish Wiffheimer’s soul, it was possible to send me to where his second body was. It still required me to cut out a lot of the process in between to even figure out the coordinates, of course, so it was only natural that it consumed a lot of divine power.’

But in any event, Wiffheimer was now dead. Ianna felt smug about having successfully eliminated him. It was only then that she thought to take a look at her surroundings.

“Is this Wiffheimer’s laboratory?”

she muttered, and it was only then that she suddenly realized as if she had been struck by lightning. Her hairs stood at end.

‘No way.’

She heard footsteps running closer from afar. Ianna quickly concealed her presence and stuck close to the wall.

Clatter.

A slew of mages kicked open the door and shuddered as they saw that the altar was empty, and they began roaming around a moment later.

“Lord Wiffheimer!”

“Teacher!”

They began searching for Wiffheimer rather anxiously. But there was no way that they would be able to find the corpse inside Ianna’s subspace.

“Where did he go?”

“I’m sure I heard a scream coming from here just earlier.”

“Did the spell fail?”

“That’s unlikely. Perhaps he teleported somewhere outside.”

Ianna took the opportunity while the mages were busy searching for Wiffheimer to escape the room. She put on a set of random black robes as she sped down a narrow corridor. She was moving so quickly that any normal person would have only seen her as a gust of black wind.

She spotted a circular stairwell. She quickly made her way up the stairs floor by floor, and there was a single door on every level. She could see mages busy researching through the doors that were left slightly ajar.

It looked like she was rather deep down in an underground tower. She could smell the damp and musky smell distinct to the underground. The walls were only adorned with black bricks. There were torch artefacts installed on the walls to illuminate the darkness, and the flames of mana flickered eerily whenever she passed by.

Ianna broke out in a cold sweat as she abruptly recalled that the Bahamut imperial castle was made of black bricks.

‘Surely not?’

She tried her best to deny it, but she had an ominous feeling that her premonition was correct.

Then, she suddenly came across a mage who had been climbing down the stairs.

Pow!

“Ack.”

Ianna knocked him out and stepped over him to continue climbing as he collapsed on the stairs. There was only one path. She had no choice but to continue running until it came to an end.

She crossed several other mages on her way up, but fortunately, she passed by them without much incident. In any event, she was apparently rather deep underground, considering that she still couldn’t see the light no matter how long she climbed. She wondered if the tower simply had no windows and tried to break a hole through the wall at one point, but she only found dirt crumbling in from the other side.

Still, she managed to clear the tower eventually. Every floor had looked the same until now, but she saw an open and empty space on this one.

But this only made her more uneasy.

Ianna rushed outside through the exit.

“Ack!”

The knights who had been guarding it startled and fell prey to Ianna’s assault before they could react. Ianna grit her teeth.

‘There’s a limit to how many people I can simply knock out like this. They’ll catch on to me soon.’

Ianna ran to a place where she didn’t feel the presence of other people. It was so dark that she still couldn’t tell if she was underground or if she had made it to the surface.

She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. She hid herself in an empty room and gathered her breath.

Ianna touched her ring.

‘Is it all right to contact Arhad?’

There were infinite uses for magic. She was worried that the enemy might be able to trace Arhad if she used magic to contact him.

Normally, Arhad would have contacted her immediately after she had disappeared. The ring simply blinked instead of making noise like the plush animal artefacts had, so they should have been able to contact each other whenever.

So why was it that Arhad hadn’t contacted her yet?

Ianna decided to activate her artefact with divine power instead of mana. She had nearly depleted her divine power after using Judgment, but she was recovering it quickly.

The artefact connected immediately. Arhad whispered,

[Are you all right?]

“Yes. But I don’t know where I……”

[You’re beneath the Bahamut imperial palace.]

Ianna swallowed back a sigh. Arhad continued,

[We’ll discuss the details later. The bastards have their eyes all over the palace, so we have to make this quick. It’s possible that they haven’t noticed you yet, considering that you’re still all right, but they might also just be observing you.]

“……!”

Ianna’s wariness heightened to the extreme.

[I can’t use magic in the imperial castle. All the mana there is under the imperial family’s domination, and outsiders aren’t permitted to use it. I probably could if I tried, but they’d notice me instantly and I’d get traced. You shouldn’t use mana either. You contacted me with divine power, right?]

“Yes. I assumed there was a reason why you didn’t contact me yet.”

[Good thinking. I’ll tell you where to go, so do everything in your power to escape the imperial palace for now.]

According to Arhad, Ianna was currently two floors beneath the imperial palace. The underground building she was inside was rather closed-off, and it only had one exit. But in any event, she would have to make it to the next level up first.

And then, she would have to carefully find her way out. The Bahamut imperial palace was built like a labyrinth, and it was easy to get lost even if you knew your way around. She could probably manage to escape if she continued to force her way through one direction, but that would create too large a ruckus. Ianna concentrated on the directions Arhad gave her and memorized them.

[I’ll open a Gate in front of you as soon as you manage to escape the palace. And I’ll keep an eye on your coordinates too, so contact me immediately if you get lost or something happens.]

“Understood.”

[……If I could have it my way…]

The composure he had been forcing himself to keep crumbled down all at once. Arhad continued,

[I wish I could go to you at once. But we’d find ourselves in a full-scale war if I do.]

“Absolutely not.”

They absolutely could not face Bahamut while their preparations were still incomplete.

“I will escape the imperial palace without fail,”

Ianna vowed.

[I know. I’m only going to tell you where to go because this isn’t the worst-case scenario and because I trust you. But I still can’t make any sense of it. Why are you in the imperial palace?]

Arhad’s voice grew a little louder, as if he was losing his grip on his ability to reason. Ianna felt rather apologetic. How alarmed must he have been when she suddenly disappeared only to reappear in the Bahamut imperial palace? She was sure to be chastised when they finally reunited. Arhad continued,

[We can discuss the details later. Get out of there for now.]

“Understood…….”

Ianna replied gloomily after being unable to even mention the fact that she had successfully slain Wiffheimer’s second body. Arhad ended their call.

Ianna shook her head.

Escaping the palace came first.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Just then, a bell tolled all throughout the castle, likely to alert the presence of an intruder. Ianna’s keen sense of hearing heard the sound of footsteps and weapons closing in toward her. Ianna tensed up as she opened the door and stepped outside. No one was nearby quite yet.

She concealed her presence as much as she could. Then, she immediately ran to where Arhad had directed her. The fact that the Bahamut imperial family could be monitoring her urged her feet faster.

“It’s an intruder!”

But she was still sighted every now and again. There was only one path, all the doors between her and the exit had closed once the alarm had rung, and more guards had been put on watch.

And the imperial knights and mages standing guard were highly skilled. But Ianna still managed to eliminate them as she continued to run. The Bahamut army had no choice but to allow Ianna to slip through their grasp as she continued to race desperately.

And yet…….

Just as Ianna had made it a third of the way through the directions Arhad had given her.

“It appears that a little bird has fearlessly flown inside this place.”

Pow!

“Kgh!”

Ianna, who had been focusing her full concentration on escaping, failed to completely respond to the surprise attack. She had managed to avoid the hand that had tried to subdue her, but she had been forced to jump back and was unable to proceed forward. The hand approached her again like a ghost and grabbed her by the collar. Ianna was pushed against the wall.

Black eyes met crimson ones.

“How surprising. I didn’t feel anyone teleporting, so how did you manage to get here?”

Ianna glared back as she imbued her arm with crimson divine power. He let go just as she was about to break off his wrist. Ianna immediately stepped back as soon as she was freed.

Ianna drew Rise from her subspace and pointed her sword at him.

She immediately recognized the man standing in her way.

He had black hair and black eyes.

He should have been much older than Arhad, but he didn’t look that much older and still retained a youthful visage.

Ianna was familiar with his appearance and figure from the portraits she had seen.

Taylon Bahamut.

She had only ever heard about him before.

He blocked the narrow passage with his large frame.

Shaaaa!

Black mana swirled around him. Ianna grit her teeth as she anchored her crimson divine power into Rise. The bastard was no weaker than Arhad. She could lose here if things went badly.

‘What do I do?’

Ianna was so conflicted she thought her head might burst.

‘I can’t kill him.’

She had confirmed this as soon as she had suffered a hit and had encountered his mana. He was either her equal or was possibly even stronger than her.

“…….”

But Taylon was acting strange. He had been smiling like he was having great fun even just a moment ago. But now he was staring holes into her with no expression on his face. Ianna would have been stabbed death and then some by now had his gaze been a sharpened blade.

Then, he said,

“I see. The missing memories were all about you, weren’t they?”

Ianna had no idea what he was talking about. She simple turned around and ran while Taylon was unfocused.

‘Shit!’

It was humiliating, but she had to retreat once again. She had run from Isabella once, and now she had to flee from Taylon as well. But she vowed that things would still end in the same manner. She would surely come back for his head one day, just as how she had come close to taking Isabella’s head previously.

“…….”

Taylon watched quietly as Ianna whisked away like the wind before he slowly began walking after her.

Fragment owners could obtain the Demon’s memories if they came close to a rift into Pandemonium.

And, a few years prior, Taylon had obtained some truly surprising memories from one such rift.

The memories of the thief who had erased an entire lifetime.

No, they were memories belonging to ‘the true Demon.’

But the memories cut away strangely from time to time.

Both the memories pertaining to the ancient past and those pertaining to the time that had been erased.

It was not strange for the memories to be fragmented because each Demon’s fragment contained different memories. But several things had been missing even from the continuous memories Taylon had obtained. It was as if they had been crossed out by black ink —no, as if they had been removed entirely.

The memories were disorderly and unreliable because of this. The bastard was undoubtedly obsessed over something, but Taylon had no idea what it was, and he could not understand the motive behind the bastard’s actions.

But he understood now that he had finally met the woman in person today. The fact that the memories of the Demon that he had failed to obtain, as well as the thief’s memories, were all related to that woman…….

Just how obsessive was he that he had taken every memory pertaining to her with him even as he did something as ludicrous as erasing time and his soul was ripped apart?

And so cleanly too, without leaving even a single speck of dust behind.

Taylon had tasted some of his incredible greed in how he had taken everything that pertained to her with him even as he lost everything after erasing time.

“Hmmm.”

Taylon finally understood why Isabella had been so stubborn about the woman now that he had met her in person. And unidentifiable greed and passion was blazing inside even his own heart. The Demon’s ego was running rampant as it told Taylon to make that woman his.

“What to do?”

Taylon had been planning to let her go atop the large picture he had painted. It wasn’t quite time yet.

But it wouldn’t be much longer.

He planned to shoot an arrow through the thief’s wings and heart just as the thief had risen to his peak. But that woman must not be caught here for that to happen.

He needed that woman to complete the Demon.

Taylon had realized it instinctively now that he had finally met Ianna Roberstein, whom the thief was so stubbornly obsessed over.

He determined that Ianna must be precious to the Demon, considering how the story told by the memories was being distorted around her even though she wasn’t inside them.

Which was why he decided to spare her. He had only meant to see her face in person today…….

But his greed had crushed his arrogance underfoot and was demanding him to capture that woman. What was this strange feeling that was telling him that he didn’t need to complete the Demon so long as he could have her? Taylon chuckled quietly —the unfamiliar greed was pleasant even as it trampled over his ambitions.

Taylon began moving the mana around the palace to locate Ianna.

The entire palace was within the palm of his hand, but Ianna’s presence was so faint that he could not locate her. She was rather skilled for a wench so young. Taylon narrowed his eyes.

‘Shall we make a bet?’

I’ll let you go if you manage to escape, but I’ll imprison you if you’re caught.

Part 4

“It’s an intruder!”

“An intruder!”

“That way!”

Mages tracked Ianna’s location, and knights in black armor chased her down.

“Her name is Ianna Roberstein!”

“She has crimson hair and crimson eyes!”

the knights shouted —perhaps Taylon had conveyed that information to them. The Bahamut army rushed inside the castle like a deluge just to find her.

Swiiish!

Ianna brandished her sword to her heart’s content now that she had been discovered anyway. She made her way deeper inside, where she felt fewer presences, as she did. Things had gone awry because Taylon had blocked her path. She needed to contact Arhad.

But just then, an upper-ranking knight in black armor suddenly jumped in front of her.

“……!”

Ianna was about to cut down the Bahamut knight to who stood in her way. But she could not. Her pupils dilated. Her eyes were dyed with astonishment.

“Ah…….”

The large knight pulled Ianna, who was frozen in shock, and began running.

‘Impossible.’

Why are you here?

But she was absolutely not mistaken.

The blood drained from her cheeks.

His dark brown hair, that earnest and upright look in his eyes. He had envied and supported her once —how could she ever forget him?

In both her past and present lives, only he…….

“This way, my lady.”

Karnitz, her personal knight.

“Why are you here?”

And why are you donning Bahamut armor?

“Karnitz.”

Ianna pressed Karnitz for an explanation because she simply could not comprehend the situation, and, with a calm and steady tone, he replied,

“You told me that you would go to the Bahamut Empire, my lady. And you told me not to follow. And so, I decided to come here first and wait for you instead.”

She felt faint. Ianna recalled the words she had said to Karnitz when they had parted ways years earlier.

“I will go to the Bahamut Empire.”

Ianna found it difficult to breathe.

‘Just because I said that…….’

She tried to deny it, but she knew best that her stupidly loyal knight was someone who would indeed do just that. What reason did Karnitz, who had loathed the Bahamut Empire, have for being in the imperial palace while donning Bahamut armor if not for her command? He hadn’t even broken the last command she had given him, because he had come here first to wait for her here instead of following after her.

“Why……would you do this for me? Why?”

Karnitz had been one of the five greatest knights of Roanne in the past. He had been so exceptionally skilled that high-ranking nobles had tried to appease him left and right. He had also been reputed for his honesty and faithfulness. At the time, people had said that it was such a shame that he remained under the banner of the wicked Ianna Roberstein, who, while being the most powerful knight in the kingdom, was depraved from her lust for power and had never wielded mercy in her hands.

But Karnitz had remained by her side as her personal knight until the bitter end. He had kept away all her other enemies so that she may focus on her battles against Arhad. And he had ultimately died on the same battlefield as her.

Karnitz had chosen to follow her in this life as well. He had helped her polish her emotional foundation so that she could get along with others even as she was withering away.

She had been so grateful to him that she had decided to let him go in this life. She had wished for him to live his own life instead of dedicating it to her. She did not want for him to walk the bloody path behind her.

That was what she had wanted. So why…?

“I will make it brief because the situation is urgent. But please tell me this. It looks like your plans have changed. Am I correct?”

“Yes. I won’t be siding with Bahamut…….”

Ianna said, out of breath, when a bolt from the blue struck her head. She continued,

“Isphee isn’t here too, is she?”

“She is. My mother passed away……and Isphee came here with me.”

“……!”

Ianna wanted to punch her younger self for being too reckless with her words. She could not even imagine how difficult it must have been for them to settle down in Bahamut. And they would only continue facing countless dangers here.

Karnitz pondered for a moment before he told Ianna several routes that led outside the castle. He knew several because he was a high-ranking knight. Ianna was burning up inside even as she mechanically memorized what Karnitz was telling her.

Once he was done, Karnitz said,

“Please attack me, wound me, and escape the castle.”

“No.”

Not only was she loath to hurt Karnitz, she was also loath to leave him behind. Ianna grit her teeth and continued,

“Let’s leave this place together.”

“I don’t mind staying behind. Please escape on your own, my lady.”

“No, you’re certain to find yourself in danger. You might even be tortured if they find out that you were once a knight in service to House Roberstein. I can’t just leave you here!”

“I made sure to erase my past identity before I came here,”

Karnitz grinned slightly. He continued,

“Besides, I think I’ll be just fine since I have a rather high standing here. I will stay behind and do my best to be a source of intelligence for you. But we can discuss this later —please attack me now.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Ianna stiffened up in resolve. She raised her hand. She continued,

“I’ll take you back with me even if it means having to knock you out first. I’ll bring Isphee back with me too, so tell me where she is.”

“I was hoping to tell you slowly, but…”

Karnitz was speaking gingerly, unlike how he had been speaking before. He continued,

“Isphee and I got married and have a child together. It hasn’t been long since she was born.”

Ianna flinched.

“But our child was born with a weak heart and needs an artefact’s help from a hospital to survive. It isn’t a particularly bad case, but the baby isn’t able to breathe the outside world just yet.”

Putting aside the surprise Ianna felt upon learning that Karnitz had married Isphee and they now had a child together, she could not continue being stubborn now that she had learned of their child’s condition.

Ianna would have gone to heal the child with the spirits’ powers at once had it not been for her weak heart. There was nothing Ianna could do about a weak heart. And she could not simply put her blind faith in the power of Judgment either.

After all, what if something happened to the child while they fled? She didn’t even want to think about it.

As Ianna hesitated, Karnitz calmly said,

“Please have faith in me, my lady. You have my word that I will survive.”

Karnitz was a man of few words, but he never failed to keep his promises. But this wasn’t a decision that Ianna could make purely on the basis of her faith in Karnitz alone. With her face frozen stiff, Ianna did her best to objectively consider every variable that could affect the current situation.

The only variable was Taylon.

According to Arhad, Taylon was capable of monitoring the entire castle with his magic. What if Taylon was watching them even now?

‘No.’

Ianna denied the possibility.

Taylon had grabbed hold of her collar earlier, but he had given her a warning before that. She had felt a blade-like gaze pressing down on her for an instant, and then she had immediately felt a presence materializing beside her.

Ianna had been moving with her presence erased as much as possible after leaving the laboratory. Even Arhad couldn’t easily track her down in this state, which meant that Taylon wouldn’t be able to either. The only reason why Taylon had caught her earlier was likely because he had guessed the route she would take and had found her by chance.

But now she was running around haphazardly and had picked a route at random. And she had been spending even more of her focus to erase her presence after she had been caught by Taylon once.

‘He won’t have found me quite yet.’

She could only trust what Karnitz had said about erasing the fact that he had once been in service to House Roberstein.

Indeed. All she could do was trust him.

Ianna grit her teeth and pulled out a spare communication ring from her pocket.

“This ring can connect you directly with me. Activate it with mana a week from now once you’re safe. I will personally infiltrate Bahamut again if I don’t hear back from you.”

Ianna’s vision grew dark as she wondered if she had pushed Karnitz and Isphee into a pit of evil because of her slip of tongue. She continued,

“I will never, ever forgive you if you came all the way to Bahamut to wait for me only to die before we could be together again. It would be the greatest act of disloyalty you could ever show me. A complete betrayal of my trust! I won’t forgive you even in death if you die. You must survive and contact me. You absolutely must. Do you understand?”

Ianna said urgently. Karnitz firmly replied,

“But of course.”

She wanted to trust Karnitz, but Ianna could not shake off her dreadful anxiety. She still found it difficult to believe that the two people whom she had let go because they were so precious to her were here in Bahamut.

“How could I die when I’ve only just met you again, my lady? Even I would find that much too unfair,”

Karnitz cracked a joke in an attempt to ease Ianna’s tension. Ianna opened her eyes wide because it was rare for someone as inflexible as him to joke around.

“I would not insist on staying behind if I could not back up my claims. Besides…”

Honestly, Karnitz continued,

“I would never die and leave you or my family, Isphee and our child, behind. Please trust me on this.”

His words gave Ianna a measure of relief, somehow.

“I trust you.”

Ianna bashed Karnitz’s armor hard with her sword.

Craaaash!

“Kgh!”

Karnitz vomited blood. But that wasn’t the only impact he suffered.

Crash! Craash! Tumble!

Karnitz was sent flying, and he only tumbled across the floor after breaking through several sturdy walls first. The crumbling bricks fell on top of his frame. His heavy armor had absorbed some of the attack, but he had been struck with such force that he was unable to get back up. It was to the point that Ianna almost wondered if she, not Bahamut, would ultimately be the one to kill him.

But Ianna had taken their brief encounter to carefully study how his armor had been constructed and had struck only the sturdiest parts. She had broken through his armor and wounded his flesh, but only to make it look like he had just barely managed to survive only thanks to his armor. Still, her attack had been powerful enough to make a mess of his internal organs, and Karnitz would have to take some time off to recuperate.

‘I can also use the spirits’ powers to heal him if he was hurt badly.’

Karnitz’s collapsed figure caught her eye, but Ianna did her best to squash down her lingering regrets. She would be ashamed if she failed to escape even after Karnitz had done so much for her.

Karnitz would never betray her. He had never failed to repay her trust in him until his death even in the past. He was ever her reliable personal knight.

‘I’ll have to tell them to come to me as soon as their child is well enough. And if they aren’t able to escape alone, then I’ll plan thoroughly and infiltrate again instead of coming here unplanned like this time.’

“Over there!”

Those soldiers who had heard the noise came rushing toward her.

But they could not catch up to Ianna, who was running with everything she had. Her presence grew fainter as she picked up speed.

Ianna purposefully went in the direction opposite from where the soldiers were running from and took several turns before she went down one of the routes that Karnitz had told her about. It didn’t matter which route she took because Arhad was tracking her coordinates.

Thud thud thud.

She could finally see the finish line as she raced.

The dark corridor ended with a brick wall. But Ianna’s eyes perceived its artificiality. There was a faint light slipping through the cracks in the wall.

Crash!

Ianna broke through the wall.

Taylon did not miss the moment when a hole opened up in the castle’s solid walls. The very moment when Ianna, whom he had carefully combed every corner of the castle in search of, finally announced her presence.

“Caught you.”

Taylon instantly teleported and reached out toward Ianna as she made her way outside. His hand grabbed tightly to the hood of her robes.

Splash!

The crimson hair that Ianna had tucked away inside her hood because it was too eye-catching spilled out like a crashing wave. Her crimson, as radiant as the sun, momentarily seized Taylon’s vision.

Slash!

Ianna sliced off her robes while greed was filling Taylon’s eyes. Taylon reached out yet again.

Shaaaa…….

A Gate opened up before her.

Taylon’s visage stiffened when he looked to the Gate, which was emitting an overwhelming presence as it swirled. Ianna flung herself into it.

“No!”

Taylon tried to disrupt the vortex of mana. The Gate pitch as it battled Taylon in a contest of strength. It didn’t collapse, but it did grow unstable. Ianna would die instantly if the Gate collapsed while she travelled through it.

But two sturdy arms shot out from the Gate just then. The person at the other end had personally stuck his own arms through the unsteady Gate to stabilize it.

His hands took hold of Ianna as she made it through. He pulled her in and protectively swallowed her into his arms. The Gate, which had been waging a war of wills against Taylon, crumbled away as soon as it had swallowed Ianna.

“…….”

Fwoooosh.

Taylon tasted the wind that resulted as the mana flowed unsteadily after the Gate had imploded.

“This…….”

Taylon gripped the ripped off hood in his hands.

“This feels worse than I thought it would.”

A chilling grin alighted his lips.

Swoosh!

Ianna made it through the Gate. She grew dizzy after making it through and buried her face into the shoulder of the man who was holding her.

“Arhad…….”

Ianna had been inside his embrace as soon as she had reached the Gate. It was only then, now that she felt like she was being protected, that she began to relax.

Squeeze…….

Arhad hugged her tight. Ianna stopped loosening up and flinched instead.

He was quivering.

It felt as if he was trying to suppress his quivering by holding her tightly in his arms. Ianna hugged him back worriedly because she didn’t know what was going on, and something wet touched her cheeks. Ianna startled.

‘Are you crying?’

Tears were falling from Arhad’s eyes as he held Ianna tight without saying a single word.

“…….”

Not only had she suddenly met Karnitz again, now Arhad was even crying. Ianna found herself thrown for another round of bewilderment. Arhad was always supporting her so steadily, and it was the first time she had ever seen him cry. It was rather shocking to her.

They were standing in the middle of a secluded forest.

Arhad sank down against a tree and was quietly pulled Ianna closer to him. His tears flowed silently for quite some time.

“…….”

Ianna’s face grew colored by strange emotions as she quietly remained in Arhad’s embrace.

Her shock gradually subsided, and only her faint guilt and her tranquil sorrow lingered. The two remaining emotions crashed against her heart like great waves.

‘He’s crying. Because of me. Because he was so worried for me.’

That was the only reason why Arhad would be crying.

“I’m so sorry……for making you worry.”

The arms around her squeezed her tighter when she apologized.

“Your presence…”

A sunken voice buried deafeningly into her ears as he squeezed her tighter still. He continued,

“You stopped existing for a moment. It was almost like you had never existed in the first place. I couldn’t find you anywhere, as if you had gone extinct.”

The interval of time between from when she had stabbed Wiffheimer in the heart until she had crashed down into the Bahamut imperial castle. Ianna recalled the world inside the Truth that the Balance had dragged her into. Her entire world had turned upside-down, and she had briefly found herself in a place that she thought could have never existed. Had she stopped existing during all that?

“I almost wanted to die until you finally reappeared. I just barely managed to pull myself together and tracked down your coordinates, and then I learned that you were inside the Bahamut imperial castle. I thought I’d go crazy and only just managed to wait until you contacted me and I could tell you where to go, but then you starting going somewhere else and I didn’t even know if it was because you were being chased. And then, when I finally thought you’d managed to escape while I was tracking your coordinates, Taylon came after you.”

Arhad vividly conveyed the struggles he had suffered today. Listening to him made Ianna realized that his emotions had been fluctuating up and down all day. Ianna felt even sorrier as she listened quietly to how he had slowly gone insane.

‘It was my fault.’

Ianna acknowledged the fact that she had used the power of Judgment too recklessly because she had been blinded by her desire to kill Wiffheimer. She should have confirmed things with Arhad before rushing into the fray.

Just how much had she worried him?

She wanted to slap herself once she imagined them being in each other’s shoes. She would have erupted in a fiery rage if Arhad had apologized like he was unaware of anything after doing exactly the same things that she had done.

Ianna acknowledged her faults and remained quietly in his arms like a stuffed doll. It felt like Arhad was stabilizing because Ianna was inside his embrace. His quivering settled down, and his ragged breathing steadied.

“I trust you……but I also go crazy when I think about anything happening to you. I’m contradicting myself, I know. Does this mean that I actually don’t trust you?”

Arhad mumbled quietly. Ianna pushed him away gently so she could look him in the face. She felt strange as she saw the redness of his eyes and the moisture on his cheeks.

“Trust and worry are two separate things. You can never know how things will work out. I am happy that you were worried for me.”

Ianna brushed her fingers against Arhad’s eyes. They were hot, a contrast to his usually low body temperature. Their heat stabbed at her heart.

‘How strange.’

The messiness of his face felt peculiar to her. She did feel sorry, but she also rather liked seeing him cry —or more precisely, she liked seeing him cry because his emotions for her had spilled over. She thought she must surely be wicked for feeling this way after watching someone cry. It felt as strange as it was unfamiliar.

But, wasn’t even the strangeness acceptable so long as it was Arhad? After all, he must surely be the strangest man in the world. He would accept her no matter how bizarre she herself became. He would never be able to let her go no matter how wicked she was.

Which was why Ianna kissed him without holding back. It was a short kiss. Arhad tried to grow angry once their lips had broken apart and Ianna quietly looked up at him.

“Don’t think that…….”

But Ianna kissed him again before he could finish speaking. His lips could not finish their sentence as she crushed against them. And the jumbled words melted inside his mouth.

“…….”

Ianna gently drew her lips away again and looked up at him without a word. Arhad’s face was flushed red. Perhaps he was simply blinded by love, but Ianna looked like a cat swaying her tail side by side after causing an accident. It was almost as if she was asking, “Are you really going to get angry with me?”

The boiling rage inside of him broke away.

Unlike the way she had used to act like a statue of stone, Ianna had started having her way toying with him at some point.

Was she doing it on purpose? He felt like he had no choice but to do as Ianna wanted even though all she was doing was to merely look at him like she wanted something.

“You…….”

Just as he was about to slowly regain his ability to reason, Ianna clung to him and kissed him deeply as though she meant to send his rationality flying away and thoroughly crush his heart.

‘I like you.’

I like you so much.

I like your hands, I like your black hair, and I like your radiant eyes.

I like it when you smile. I like it when you cry, too.

Ianna entrusted herself to the emotions that gushed out from her like stream water. Her emotions had become a brook, then a lake, and then the sea once she had decided to accept them honestly for what they were instead of denying them. They grew by the day.

Why not just confess to me?

You like me no matter what I do.

All you have to do is declare your defeat, and you can have me.

I can have you too as soon as I confess to you with all my heart. Why are we so stubborn?

So hurry up and tell me. Tell me what you feel.

I’ll never meekly admit defeat.

I don’t want to lose, but…….

Arhad did not refuse her kisses.

But her kisses were more risqué than usual today, as if she was persistently trying to pull an answer out from him. Arhad grew dizzy as Ianna expressed her emotions physically without actually putting them to words.

Was it because his perseverance had depleted after everything he had suffered today, or was it because the temptation exceeded even his perseverance? The closeness of their bodies felt dangerous to him, and he wanted to both simultaneously pull her in and push her away. He felt like he was about to cross a line.

‘No.’

Arhad barely retained his ability to reason as he pried Ianna off. He avoided her gaze. Ianna looked back at him discontentedly even as she obediently allowed herself to be pushed away.

“Let’s start by going over the situation first.”

But, as Arhad was saying, now wasn’t the time for this. Perhaps she had truly lost her mind. Ianna snapped back to her senses as she slapped herself silly in her mind.

Arhad listlessly dropped his head when Ianna promptly sat down straight and wore a firm expression on her face. He had lost all of his worry and rage because of her, and he bitterly commented,

“I feel like I’m growing simpler by the day.”

He said this as if he hadn’t been simple to begin with.

“I like you just as you are. But in any event, we should consider the results first. I did need your help at the end, but I promised you that I would escape from the imperial castle even though I was trapped inside. And here I am.”

“Skilled at sophistry, aren’t you?”

Arhad sighed after scolding her. He calmed down after a moment and calmly said,

“Anyway. Let’s talk. What happened?”

“Well…….”

Ianna generally explained what had happened to her. Arhad listened to her quietly, and the first words he offered next were words of praise.

“It was rash of you, but good job killing Wiffheimer for good.”

Ianna felt smug for being praised. Arhad continued,

“Let’s organize things one by one. You said something about the world inside the Truth?”

“Yes. It was a very curious experience. I instinctively felt that all the time and space since the beginning of the world was recorded there.”

Ianna told Arhad about the souls and the birth and death she had seen there. She continued,

“It was a very curious experience. Where was that place?”

“……Who can say?”

Arhad mumbled quietly. He continued,

“I suppose it was the world inside the Truth, just as you claimed. It’s not somewhere you can go to through any normal means, but the Balance must have pulled you inside when you skipped over spacetime. You might even be the only person in the world who’s experienced being there. I don’t really know much about it, so let’s skip over this for now. Tell me more about Taylon.”

It strangely felt like Arhad wanted to pass over that topic as quickly as possible. But Ianna didn’t see anything out of the ordinary about that.

She began telling him about her encounter with Taylon.

“But Taylon said something strange toward the end. He said that all the missing memories pertained to me —what did he mean by that?”

“……!”

Arhad felt like lightning had touched down in his head.

‘No way…….’

He had known that Taylon had been gathering the Demon’s fragments rather quickly. He could feel the fragments fusing together with every new fragment Taylon had found.

He had simply brushed it off as a butterfly effect because the past had changed. He had, apparently, made too light of the matter.

‘Does he have my memories?’

Arhad was not a separate existence from the Demon. His soul was both the Demon and Arhad. Because of this, the Demon’s fragments had contained both the Demon’s memories and his own when his soul had ripped apart again as he erased time.

‘I failed to consider that. The spartoi are quick to patch up any rifts into Pandemonium, but there was always the possibility that he could find one first. He would be able to see all my memories inside the fragment he possesses if he did.’

He could understand how Heinrich’s and Eiji’s betrayal had come to light now. And the fragments that Arhad had collected in the past would not have changed location, so all Taylon had to do was collect them himself.

The look on Arhad’s face grew grave.

‘If my hypothesis is correct, then the bastard already knows everything about me. And it’ll also be important to figure out what other memories he has too……what a pain. I don’t know.’

Arhad had endured the excruciating agony of his soul being ripped apart when he had erased time. His memories had fallen away from him as the fragments of his soul had.

But he had tenaciously recalled his memories even as his soul was being ripped apart so he wouldn’t forget anything. And so, he had managed to ‘replicate’ his memories. This was how he had managed to retain his memories completely, but it was also the reason why he couldn’t pinpoint exactly which memories Taylon had in his possession.

‘I suppose I should just be glad that I made sure to take every memory that had to do with Ianna back with me.’

It was good that he had obsessively maintained a monopoly on any memory that pertained to Ianna. Taylon could never know about her existence.

‘What on earth is Taylon scheming?’

The mood around Arhad grew grave, and Ianna gingerly asked,

“Is something wrong?”

“……No. I just can’t figure out what the bastard is thinking.”

Arhad never hid anything else from Ianna, but the past life was the only thing he never told her about.

He would have to explain it to her if he was to explain Taylon’s situation, but he didn’t want to. The fact that he had personally killed Ianna with his own hands was in and of itself a nightmare to him.

Ianna liked him dreadfully in the present. He didn’t even want to imagine how she would react upon learning that he had killed her once or how she would feel about that.

Ianna was bold, so it was entirely possible that she would be greatly amused to learn of this. But Arhad did not have the courage to tell her. He would have to confess this to her someday, but today was not the day.

“It’ll be all right. It doesn’t matter what he’s thinking —all we have to do is simply break through his plans,”

Ianna said gallantly before she suddenly stiffened up. She continued,

“What I’m worried about most right now if the fact that my personal knight and my nanny are still inside the imperial castle. The two of them and their child —we need to rescue them from Bahamut.”

Arhad sounded perplexed as he asked,

“But why did they go to the Bahamut Empire in the first place?”

“……I don’t know,”

Ianna equivocated because she couldn’t elaborate.

What should she even say? This had happened because Ianna had told them she would go to the Bahamut Empire because she had thought that Arhad would take the imperial throne.

“I see.”

Arhad did not find anything strange about her reply. He continued,

“Are you certain that they’re both still loyal to you?”

“Yes,”

Ianna replied firmly before she began expressing her worries. She continued,

“Will they be all right? They won’t be in danger because of their connection to me, will they?”

Arhad contemplated for a moment before shaking his head no.

“Your knight promised you that he would survive, didn’t he? Trust your people. They’ll be just fine.”

“They will, right?”

She knew she was being optimistic, but she truly did think that Karnitz and Isphee would be just fine because Arhad had said they would. Her expression brightened.

But Arhad had offered her more than empty words.

‘Karnitz.’

Arhad recalled his memories of Karnitz.

He was a simple and honest knight who had always stood by Ianna’s side even in the past. He recalled how Karnitz had survived to protect Ianna until the bitter end no matter how many traps Arhad had laid to kill him. Karnitz was a tenacious bastard.

Arhad considered the possibility that Taylon might learn about Karnitz through his memories.

That possibility was zero.

His memories of Karnitz always overlapped with his memories of Ianna. He had never cared about Karnitz if the knight wasn’t with Ianna, so he had no idea about what Karnitz had done when he was without her. Arhad alone possessed every memory that pertained to Ianna, so Taylon would not be able to see his memories pertaining to Karnitz either.

And so, Arhad concluded,

“Let’s wait for an opportunity to present itself before we rescue them. And we can simply ask them why they went to Bahamut later. You should discuss things with them when you feel the time is right. Make sure you tell me about it too.”

Ianna opened then closed her mouth without saying anything.

Did this mean that she would have to tell him about their past life?

Ianna didn’t want to tell him about the past if she could help it. Not only was she ashamed about how she had continuously hurt him because of her inferiority complex, but he had even killed her in the end —and she wanted to bury this fact inside herself.

Ianna pondered for a moment before shaking her head.

‘Later.’

She would confess to him someday, but today was not the day.

—“Roanne, Winter” End