Chapter 33: Bahamut

Part 1

In the beginning.

The weakest creature in the world lived at the bottom of the sea.

He had been born to balance out the noblest and most powerful queen in the world. He was so small and unimportant that he was at the very bottom of the food chain, where he could be eaten by anyone at any time.

He was always craving endlessly for something, as if his entire soul was comprised of desire.

His very first desire was to satiate his hunger.

He devoured other creatures like himself in order to fill his empty stomach. Once he had hastily managed to satiate his hunger, his next desire was for safety. What did he need to do in order to be safe in this vast ocean?

He needed to grow stronger.

And the only way to grow stronger was to eat.

So he ate and ate again. He ate anything and everything he could, without caring for his means or methods, until he finally ‘evolved.’

He continued evolving until most other life in the sea began to ignore him, and then he desired to see the creatures that had threatened him in the past shivering with fear. What did he need to do in order to make that happen?

He needed to grow stronger.

So he ate, and ate, and ate again.

And he evolved over and over again.

Eventually, he became one of the strongest creatures in the sea and was feared by all.

His name was ‘Bahamut the Greedy.’

Bahamut was not satisfied yet. He remembered the days when he lived in hiding and crawled in the terror that a predator might eat him. He wanted to crush those memories and ascend to very peak of strength.

He wanted to grow stronger.

So he devoured, and devoured, and devoured again.

He wanted to eat so he could grow stronger.

He wanted to eat bigger creatures, stronger creatures, creatures that were greater than he —the very strongest!

He could never best the dragon. But he was always able to wound the dragon greatly and flee. He was so infuriated by the humiliation, which ravaged his soul, and his tattered pride that he didn’t know what to do with himself.

He wanted to grow stronger, but there was no way for him to grow any stronger in the sea. He was the strongest creature in the sea after the dragon now, and eating anything weaker would not allow him to grow as much as he had grown before. It would be impossible for him to defeat the dragon even if he ate everything else in the sea and digested it all. That was simply how powerful the dragon was.

And so, Bahamut turned his attention to the land, which he had never cared about until then. Something on the shore was tempting him. He instinctively sensed that there was a way for him to grow stronger than the dragon above the waters, which was a world yet unknown to him.

Eventually, Bahamut left the sea and stood atop the icy fields.

He found it uncomfortable to move until he recalled how the mermaids would split their tail into two legs and transformed his colossal body into that of a mermaid’s human form’s.

He staggered across the icy fields for a few days. The Demon’s fragments that had been roaming above the surface appeared before him as if it was only natural —after all, Bahamut was practically the personification of desire.

Bahamut instinctively realized that the Demon’s fragments were the means of growing stronger that he had so desperately been seeking and absorbed them immediately. He had a very high affinity for the Demon’s fragments, which were stained in evil.

Bahamut then slipped into human, the dominant species above the waters, society. He didn’t find it difficult to communicate on land because the language was the same language that was used in the sea, but the way that humankind lived was so different. And so, Bahamut endlessly absorbed everything he could about human culture, history, and knowledge.

And then, he realized. That the providence of the food chain still held true even on land.

That the culture of the land was more complex than the culture of the sea, and he could not become the strongest with brute strength alone!

He became the leader of a group of people and founded House Bahamut. His house became a kingdom, and his kingdom an empire, in but an instant. Bahamut ruled the North as its liege and enjoyed a lust for power and conquest that he had never known while he had still been a sea monster.

I’ll make the entire world bow at my feet!

His goal was to complete the Demon, kill the dragons, and conquer the world.

But then, he clashed against Roanne in the South.

Bahamut was overcome with an animosity that words could not describe as soon as he first encountered the royal family of Roanne. He understood that he and Roanne were two polar opposites that could never mix together. He had to kill them.

But why?

He could not kill them no matter how hard he tried. Why was it that he grew weak and his heart throbbed whenever he stood before them? Why was he unable to grab them by the throats and bite into their necks?

Those emotions absolutely did not belong to him.

Bahamut realized that the problem was the mysterious crimson divine power that protected the royal family of Roanne, and that it was his Demon’s fragment that put him in such a bizarre state.

Having discovered a fatal flaw in the Demon’s fragments, Bahamut resolved to devour the Demon whole instead of simply co-existing together. After all, the problem would go away if he devoured the Demon.

But Bahamut had a finite lifespan.

Bahamut had learned, after living for millennia, that he could not live forever. At the end of the day, he was still a living being who must follow the laws of the world no matter how much he evolved or how strong he grew.

But Bahamut could not bear the thought that his existence might be extinguished before his goals came into fruition. And so, he married an orphan girl and sired a boy and a girl. He then ordered his children to intermarry so they could continue gathering the Demon’s fragments and recondense his blood running through their veins.

Bahamut wished for his descendants to devour the gods and shatter their laws. And he wanted to be there when it happened.

That was why he sealed his soul in the Bahamut bloodline as he was dying and at the end of his lifespan. He made it so that the seal would break when the ‘Demon’ was complete and his blood had recondensed back into being the complete ‘Bahamut’ again.

And so, his descendant who reached the zenith of power would obtain Bahamut the Greedy —the origin of their power. Whether he devoured his origin or his origin devoured him, however, was up to the descendant.

~~*~~

The great and cruel symbol of oppression —the Bahamut Empire!

Everyone who lived in this age agreed with the description. The empire had grasped the entire northern half of the continent in her hands —but where did her strength stem from? The rest of the world did not know.

Taylon, the Bahamut emperor, was sitting in front of a chess board. He was playing alone as he stared at the map hanging on the wall in his boredom.

The continent was currently divided into four general categories.

Bahamut in the North.

Ex-knights in the East.

Roanne in the South and at the heart of the continent.

And the other small and mid-sized kingdoms.

The continent had changed after Bahamut had set the monsters loose. Multiple kingdoms had vanished after the Gates had opened, and the surviving kingdoms had ballooned in size after absorbing their fallen neighbors.

But none of those kingdoms could possibly even think about opposing Bahamut. Bahamut was the culprit responsible for devastating the continent, yet they were still scrambling to offer tributes to the empire and begging to be allowed to continue existing.

Taylon did not care about them —he could destroy them whenever he so wished. Only Ex-knights and Roanne were important to him.

Especially Ex-knights.

Taylon’s eyes passed over the territory that Ex-knights occupied.

“You’re better than I expected.”

It was remarkable, even after accounting for the fact that Bahamut hadn’t gotten in the way of the new kingdom’s establishment. Even Taylon had to acknowledge the establishment of the powerful nation where humans and the mythical races came together as one. Taylon recalled the expression that Arhad had worn the last time they had met as he smirked.

“And quick to collect your emotions too.”

Taylon had not only ruined the Founding ceremony but had also provoked Arhad. He had hoped to watch Arhad fly into a rage or Ex-knights be flustered, but, insipidly enough, there had hardly been any reaction. Rather, they had set ablaze their animosity for Bahamut, had thoroughly braced for war, and were seizing victory upon victory in battle.

He recalled how calmly Ianna had observed him even as Arhad had lost his ability to reason in his rage right beside her. His cheek, which she had sliced in a surprise attack, still hadn’t healed and stung.

‘This is definitely that woman’s doing. Was she the one who gathered the mythical races too?’

He liked her.

It didn’t matter to him even if the emotion belonged to the Demon. He would eventually take everything that belonged to the Demon and make it his own, after all.

‘So I’m hoping you’ll hurry up already…….’

He was sick and tired of watching his opponents squirm.

‘I’ll have to work hard to provoke you even further. What shall I provoke you with?’

He had a general grasp of what Ex-knights’ military might was like through reconnaissance. He was also lowering their guard by allowing them to take successive victories in battle and having the imperial family remain silent. It was time to provoke them properly now.

‘An ordinary war isn’t nearly enough.’

Tap.

Taylon felt someone’s presence by the door as he moved a chess piece.

“Taylon.”

It was his mother, Shailince Bahamut.

Shailince had honestly acknowledged the fact that she had been hasty in starting the war and had voluntarily stepped back after entrusting everything to Taylon, her dependable son. Currently, she was helping with state affairs in the rear lines while waiting patiently for the ‘time’ when she could fly freely that Taylon had promised her.

But her anger tended to get the better of her from time to time.

“Just when on earth do you intend to catch that bastard and bitch?”

Fury was eating at her insides as she watched them flap their wings and take to the skies when she wanted to tear them apart from limb to limb and more. Taylon looked back at Shailince languidly as he chuckled.

“I’ll catch them soon.”

“Do you mean that?”

“Yes. They should have let their guards down about now too……. It’s the perfect opportunity.”

Taylon smiled in anticipation. He continued,

“And why don’t we formally invite ‘Ianna Ex-knights Rise’ to our banquet?’

Shailince opened her eyes wide at Taylon’s unexpected proposal.

“Her?”

“Yes. You need to meet her at least once too, don’t you, Mother? She’s the Demon’s woman whom the Bahamut bloodline craves.”

“…….”

Shailince had never met Ianna in person, and thus, she could not understand. Isabella may have a bad temper, but Taylon was the very picture of rationality. He would often look down at his inferiors from his seat at the top and jeer at them, but he had never reacted emotionally to any one specific target before. There was a reason why she had determined that the Demon would be completed in Taylon’s generation.

But that woman, Ianna, had managed to shake even Taylon.

Shailince sorely wanted to meet her at least once.

“Well then.”

Clatter.

Taylon wiped his chess pieces off the board. The pieces clattered as they hit the floor.

“Why don’t we goad our enemies into growing stronger a little faster for us?”

Crunch.

The pieces crumbled as Taylon mercilessly crushed them underfoot. White or black —it was impossible to tell which piece was which anymore.

If the white pieces were the citizens of Ex-knights, then the black pieces were the people of the North. Bahamut did not care about how many soldiers she needed to sacrifice so long as it meant getting what she wanted. And she had no love to spare for the barnacles that leeched off her strength to survive.

But Ex-knights cared for her people and did her best to protect them.

Those who had something to protect were weaker than those who had nothing to protect. That was why they grew stronger quickly when that which was precious to them was placed in danger.

‘Get desperate.’

Taylon was willing to let his enemies have his flesh if it meant he could crush their bones in return. Sundered flesh would heal with time. Just like how new skin was already growing over the wound on his cheek. He only stood to gain in the long run.

But he would find himself getting stabbed from behind by the rebellious insects, just like what had happened in his last life, if he was openly reckless about his people’s lives. At the very least, he had to pretend to care about them until he finally got what he wanted.

Besides, it was the perfect way to catch his enemies off guard.

~~*~~

At the gates to a certain territory.

“Straight flush!”

“Ugh! I lost!”

A group of guards were sitting in front of the gates. The gates were quite empty, as outsiders had stopped visiting and other territories had stopped attacking as of late. The soldiers, who had no real reason to be wary of outsiders at the moment, were playing cards.

“Huh? Look over there. Someone’s coming.”

Surprisingly, however, they had a visitor today.

It was a robed woman.

The evening was growing darker —what had brought her here to these remote lands?

“Why’d she have to come here of all places? She’s got some pretty rotten luck.”

The guards smirked at each other as they stood up.

They were soldiers now, but the men had once been members of a large bandit group. Their group had massacred the liege and the soldiers of these lands about a decade ago and had occupied the territory. Anyone could do anything in Bahamut so long as they had the strength to back it up. The leader of the bandits had become a noble and the new liege of these lands, the rest of the bandits had become his soldiers, and the people had been turned into their slaves.

In other words, this territory belonged to bandits.

“Hope she’s a pretty thing,”

The soldiers snickered.

“Halt!”

The woman stopped.

“Take off your hood.”

The woman flipped back her hood without much resistance.

“Ack!”

The soldiers balked when they saw the hideous burn scars marring her face. But then they recognized her and tilted their heads to the side in confusion.

“Wait. Didn’t she go missing a few months back?”

“You’re right. It’s Louise.”

“And here I thought that she’d died in a ditch somewhere —but it looks like she’s doing just fine?”

They remembered Louise even months after she had gone missing because it wasn’t easy to forget her face.

“Did she decide to come back after running away? Why’d she come back?”

“Maybe it was harder for her outside. I mean, who would willingly take in someone as ugly as her?”

“What a dumb wench. She probably left recklessly without any preparations at all.”

The soldiers clicked their tongues as they walked up to Louise.

“Let’s just arrest her for now. The things we do around here.”

But Louise waved her staff as soon as the soldiers grabbed her roughly by the clothes. Then, they slumped over, sound asleep.

Louise put her hood back on and slipped in past the gates like a shadow. She roamed around the village for a moment before she found her destination, a stone bridge, and walked under it. All kinds of beggars were squatting beneath the bridge. They had been mining rocks in the mountains all day long, and they were eating the dinner they had received in return for their work —hard bread and milk that was on the brink of spoiling.

Swish.

They turned around when they heard the fluttering of Louise’s robes and startled when they saw her.

“Isn’t that Louise?”

“You’re right. She was alive?”

Louise ignored the lot of them and made her way to her home.

The beggars were all wary of each other, but they still grouped together in order to survive in this harsh territory.

But Louise had been ostracized by even the beggars. She had not been able to even walk the streets peacefully because of all the glaring that people shot her way, and not only was she slow in the head but she was also slow with her hands and therefore could not work properly. She had survived simply by being grateful for the occasional scrap of food that people tossed her way in a fleeting moment of pity.

“…….”

An old pot, a blanket made from straw, and a few other personal effects that were no better than trash. Louise’s house had remained untouched. Not only did she not possess anything worth stealing, but the people were also afraid to touch her house lest she cursed them from beyond the grave.

Louise surveyed her house.

“I’m going to say goodbye to my past today. Farewell.”

She stepped back outside. Then, she set her house ablaze with magic in the midst of the people’s staring.

“It’s a fire!”

People began running out from the under the bridge once they had smelled the smoke.

“Louise?”

They opened their eyes wide in shock when they spotted Louise, whom they had thought was dead. They stared at her and found her strange as she simply stood there quietly in front of the flames.

The fire that Louise had conjured was terrifying. But Louise was simply watching the flames that threatened to swallow her whole, as if she couldn’t have cared any less about them —it was almost as if she had become another person entirely.

“I heard that Louise came back?”

Thugs from the area began to crowd around the scene.

“I thought she’d croaked —did she actually just run away?”

“And what’s with that shitty staff? Did her legs rot off like her face did?”

The thugs were jeering at Louise.

“Hey, what were you even doing out there?”

asked the leader of the group of thugs flippantly.

They had belonged to an ordinary underground organization before the bandits had taken over the territory. And their status had risen greatly once they had started bribing and buttering up to the bandits and had received the right to oversee the people as they pleased.

No one could say a word against them no matter how violent they were. The bandits turned a blind eye to their tyranny. And Louise had been whipped like a slave day in and day out by these thugs who ran this district.

“Aren’t you gonna say anything?”

The leader of the thugs glared at Louise because he thought she was ignoring him when she didn’t answer his question. He continued,

“I’ll teach you!”

He walked up to her and grabbed her by the collar. Then, he raised his hand like he was about to hit her. Normally, Louise would have gotten down on her knees and begged for his forgiveness, but she did not do that today. Instead, she simply stared back at him and kept her silence.

“We’ve been running low on money anyway, so let’s just sell her to a mage as a test subject. The bitch is useless anyway.”

“You should’ve just left for good if you were gonna run away —why’d you come back for?”

The bastards seemed to be having great fun as they cackled while sneering at Louise.

Swoooosh…….

The flames had finished burning down Louise’s tiny house. The fire vanished and left only the blackened ashes behind, like the darkness of night after the sun had set.

“You can’t even comprehend the situation you’re in —you people are incorrigible.”

The people began clamoring even louder when a dry and raspy voice mixed into them like a loach slipping into the water’s flow.

Louise always spoke quietly. People always had to ask her to repeat herself or listen closer just to understand what she was saying. She was so quiet that some people even thought that she was mute.

But the words that Louise had just spoken were loud and powerful, though they were not entirely articulate. Still, everyone could understand what she was saying.

“Let this be a warning.”

Slam!

Louise struck her staff into the ground.

“I will break a body part of any bastard who dares to threaten me.”

“Did she just lose her mind?”

A menacing look crossed the face of the thug who had been scowling at Louise for being a fool. He continued,

“I was going easy on you since I know that your life just sucks, but how dare you try to crawl up on me when I’m trying to be nice?”

“We’ll start with your hand,”

said the thugs who had been standing next to their leader as they walked up to Louise while cracking their knuckles. For a moment, it looked like pitiful Louise’s life was about to take a turn for the worse.

Swish!

But the tables turned completely when Louise gently flicked her staff.

Pow! Poooow! Pow!

“Arghhh!”

Clubs of wind suddenly flew in from nowhere and began beating up the thugs. The thug was sent flying and rolled across the ground.

“Ughhhh.”

The once-imposing thug groaned as he clutched his arm. It was dangling at an odd angle, just as Louise had warned.

The people stepped back in shock.

“D-did Louise just…?”

“She’s a mage now.”

The other thugs who hadn’t tried to lay a hand against her, including the thugs’ leader, was perfectly fine. The leader of the thugs glared daggers at Louise and shouted,

“Looks like someone taught you a trick or two!”

Louise simply opted to ignore him for the trivial thing he was.

“Let this be a warning. Another step, and I’ll break your limbs.”

She uttered similar words from her haggard lips as she had spoken before. But the thug did not dare step forward recklessly this time.

“Hey, you deal with her! Just stab her or something!”

The leader than kicked the rear of his subordinate who had been dithering close by. The subordinate, who was always trying to butter up to his leader, began rummaging around his pants.

Click.

He drew his knife and walked up to Louise, thinking that all he had to do was simply avoid her magic.

“Ahhhh!”

But then, someone suddenly started screaming from behind him. The man turned around before he could stop himself and balked. The leader of the thugs, who had given him the order, was writhing on the ground with all four of his limbs bent at unnatural angles. He was frothing at the mouth as he asked,

“Why me……?”

“Because you’re the one who gave the order.”

Louise’s apathetic eyes turned to the man who had been about to close in on her. She continued,

“Let this be a warning. I’ll kill you if you don’t step back.”

The blood drained from the man’s face as he was left with no choice but to quickly run back.

“J-just you wait!”

One of the thugs screamed as he turned tail and ran away.

“You stay right there!”

The other thugs delivered cheesy lines as they picked up their leader and carried him away. Louise decided not to wait until they came back with the rest of their gang and simply began to walk somewhere else.

“Louise’s gotten so strong.”

“Didn’t she get weirder too?”

The people stared at Louise’s retreating figure as if they had seen a ghost. Her face was just as hideous as it had been before, but the way she carried herself had changed completely. They had never even imagined that she could defy others so boldly like that before.

“Where’s she going?”

They were curious about why Louise had changed so drastically, how she had grown so strong, and where she was going and what she planned to do there. They sensed that something special would happen today. The people could not hold back their curiosity and began following after her one by one.

Louise simply let them be because they were only following her out of curiosity and did not mean to harm her. It was dark out, and everyone kept a source of light by their side —whether it be a torch or a magical fire.

The people were startled when they finally figure out where Louise was going.

“Doesn’t this road lead to the castle?”

The thugs, who had gathered together the rest of their gang, flocked in and blocked Louise’s path once she had neared the lavish residences close to the castle.

“Stop right…….”

“Let this be a warning.”

Louise interjected them before they could even say anything and pointed her staff at the middle of their group. She continued,

“I’ll kill the lot of you if you don’t get out of my way by the time I finish counting down from three.”

Crackleee!

Louise counted quickly. White bolts of lightning began crashing down upon the thugs like a stomping giant. Thirty or so thugs were burnt black by the time they finally fell to the ground.

Squish.

Louise stepped over the thugs, who were no longer moving even in the slightest, and simply went on her way.

“…….”

The people paled. It was difficult for them to comprehend what was happening. This was no longer one woman’s mere defiance —it was the start of a revolt.

“What the? What’s going on?”

The villagers, who had been eating dinner, startled when the white lightning dyed the evening sky white and came out from their homes.

“I have no idea…….”

The number of people trailing after Louise only increased as people explained and listened to others’ explanations over and over again.

The soldiers standing guard at the castle gates blocked Louise’s path once she had reached them.

“What……?”

“Let this be a warning. I’ll break down the gates if you don’t open them by the time I finish counting down from ten. Ten, nine…”

“What the hell is this crazy bitch talking about……?”

Then, the soldiers saw the people holding up torches behind her.

“It’s a revolt! How dare they?!”

“N-no, you’re wrong! We’re only here because we were following her!”

“It’s a revolt!”

The people startled and waved their hands, but the soldiers had already blown their horns.

“Eight, seven…”

Blooooot.

The castle illuminated, and bells began clanging all throughout the land.

“Six, five, four…”

Clatter! Clatter!

The castle grew noisy with the sounds of soldiers donned in armor running outside.

“Three, two…”

The people were terrified and turned around to run away.

“One.”

The gates had not opened by the time Louise had finished counting down.

The mana imbued in Louise’s staff became a spell that ushered forth a powerful gale. No normal breeze could have possibly broken down the castle gates, but the winds blowing from behind her were twisters.

Craaaaash!

“Ahhh!”

The soldiers who had been standing behind the gates were sent flying as broken pieces of the gates collided into them.

The soldiers, who had so chaotically rushed out from the castle, were left dumbstruck when they witnessed what was happening outside the gates.

A single hideous woman.

The dazed people scattered around the ground.

Louise said,

“Let this be a warning. I’ll kill you all if you don’t form a path for me by the time I finish counting down from ten. Ten…”

“Kale! Move!”

“Nine…”

“Primm!”

“Eight…”

The people, who had been watching the bizarre spectacles that Louise was creating, starting screaming each other’s names. They were the family and friends of the people who had gotten ahead in life and had become soldiers.

A few of the soldiers realized that the woman standing before them was a mage whom they could not hope to best when they heard the bloody screams.

“Kill that wench!”

But most people still thought that it wouldn’t take much to kill her —after all, she was only one woman. Spells fell down like hail as the mages standing above the ramparts began casting. The soldiers raised their weapons and rushed toward her.

But none of their attacks were able to pierce through the Shield that Louise had cast around her body.

“……One.”

Louise’s robes billowed, lifted by the flow of the mana around them. A single ray of light illuminated her turbid eyes for a moment.

Whoooosh!

A dreadful hell of fire started at Louise’s feet and made its way to the castle entrance in a straight line.

“Arghhh!”

“Ahh!”

The soldiers caught in the spell’s range were enshrouded in flames. They screamed as they began flailing around. The fires spread to every other soldier they came into contact with. It spread swiftly and quickly created a hell on earth. But Louise did not so much a blink even as she watched the dreadful scene.

Someone clung to her robes and cried,

“Please spare me!”

It was one of the people who had been following behind her. The beggar continued,

“I’ll do anything!”

“I already gave you your chance, but you ignored it.”

“One more, please just give me one more!”

Louise brushed off her robes and drew a circle with her staff.

“Arghhhh……! Sniff, sniff.”

“Ahh! Ughhhh.”

The soldiers, who had been rolling across the ground, slammed their heads against the earth as gasped desperately. The terrible pain, like their flesh was melting off, was subsiding. But, strangely enough, the flames were still enveloping their bodies.

“The fire is just an illusion, but it’ll hurt just as much as a real fire if I want it to. You’ll die after suffering agonizing pain. But your corpses will be perfectly intact.”

“Please spare us!”

“Spare us!”

The burning soldiers and their friends bowed before Louise and begged.

“Fine then. This is your last chance. Tie up the liege and his subordinates inside the castle and bring them to me. The number of people you bring to me will be the number of flames I extinguish. You all still have your weapons, right? Oh.”

Then, Louise pointed her staff at the soldiers and continued,

“You can also bring me any former bandits from your ranks too.”

The soldiers began looking around. A few of them paled like corpses as they felt several sets of eyes digging holes into them.

“Catch them!”

The former bandits were quickly overpowered and brought to their knees before Louise.

“Please put out the fire —please!”

“I’m going to extinguish them all at once later. Hurry along and go to the castle.”

The soldiers tripped over themselves as they scrambled to the castle.

The people of Bahamut were generally cold-hearted, but they still cared about themselves and their loved ones. Even the people who had been trembling behind Louise quickly picked up weapons and ran inside the castle too.

Louise slowly walked after them.

“W-what are you…?!”

The liege lord, who had been enjoying a leisurely dinner with the people closest to him, was stupefied when a bunch of burning people suddenly barged in.

“Get him!”

The people grit their teeth and attacked. The liege, who had once been the leader of a group of bandits, was very strong, and the people had been powerless to do anything but adapt to his reign. But they still rushed toward the liege like moths to a flame when a mage who commanded magics that were more terrifying than even the liege suddenly appeared before them and threatened their lives.

“You insects!”

The liege was a large man, and he shook off the people who were clinging to him and brandished his greatsword. A few people dropped away while screaming, but others came quickly to take their place. The liege continued,

“What the fuck is wrong with all you lunatics?!”

Louise stepped inside the entrance just then and greeted the liege.

“Hello there.”

“What……?”

“And goodbye.”

She had greeted him and had bid him farewell in quick succession.

Then, the liege’s eyes rolled up when Louise pointed her staff at him.

Bang.

His knees buckled, and he began bleeding from his ears and mouth as he planted his head against the floor. His subordinates took fright and declared their surrender when the most powerful man in the land crumbled down all too readily.

Part 2

Louise forced them to kneel outside the castle as she went through the documents she had brought with her one page at a time. Each page was filled to the brim with photographs and words.

She separated out anyone who’s photograph was marked with an X. They were those who had committed unforgivable crimes and included the liege lord in their number. Louise wrote their crimes down on their foreheads in bright red letters and hung them from the castle ramparts.

Once she was done, she walked up to a certain village man who was quivering as he knelt with his entire body flat against the earth. He was the aide who had shouldered all of the actual work in the village in the lieu of the dim-witted bandits.

“P-p-please spare me, Lady Louise.”

Louise sat down on her knees, stared into the man’s face, and pulled out a document to read. The informant who had acquired the real Louise’s corpse had investigated everything about her and had written it all down.

“Devon, you were the only person who ever gave me freshly-baked bread in return for the work I did.”

Louise hadn’t even been able to complain when she hadn’t been properly compensated for her hard labor. But Devon had called Louise over frequently to give her work, and he not only compensated her fairly but had even given her a little extra sometimes.

Devon had only done so out of pity, of course, but his pity had been more precious to Louise than words could ever say.

“I liked you.”

Devon looked up at her in shock for a moment before he quickly looked down again.

He had already known about Louise’s feelings. He had feigned ignorance because all he felt for her was pity, but there was no way that he could have missed the way her eyes sparkled whenever she looked at him.

‘Louise has become another person entirely.’

But that light was gone from Louise’s eyes now. How was it possible for someone to change so completely?

“Give people work to do and pay them fairly if you ever run into someone like me again. Have mercy on them, and give them anything extra that you don’t need yourself. Who knows? —they might show up again as a powerful mage just like I did.”

Bang!

Swooosh!

The fires covering the people’s bodies extinguished when Louise slammed her staff against the ground. The people began touching themselves, dumbstruck.

Devon knelt before Louise.

“Please spare me!”

“I wasn’t planning to kill you.”

Devon sighed in relief.

“Will you be taking over this land now?”

“No. You deal with it.”

“I beg your pardon……?”

Devon sounded more puzzled than alarmed.

Why didn’t she want to become the new liege? She was so strong now that she could extort the people more than the bandits had ever done. She could take revenge on the people who had scorned and harassed her.

As if she had read Devon’s mind, Louise replied,

“I don’t want to torture those who are weaker than me if I can help it.”

She pointed at her face and continued,

“I hate people who torture those who are weaker than themselves just because they can. I retaliated against the bandits not only because I hate people like them but also because they were the people who did this to my face. In the same vein, I considered slaughtering the rest of you too for always scorning me…….”

Louise surveyed her surroundings. Anyone who met her eyes swiftly looked away. Her hideous face, which had once been the target of their contempt, was now the target of their fear. She looked so different now that she was powerful.

“But I’ve decided to just leave quietly in light of the small goodwill you’ve shown me, Devon.”

Louise shrugged.

“Remember this. Strength is relative, and it can change at any time. So, don’t treat the weak so poorly.”

“…….”

“And remember this too. Even the strong will eventually fall if dozens of people rush them at once with their lives on the line. Just like how you were able to bring those bastards here before me.”

The people looked uncomfortable as they looked back at Louise.

What she was saying went against the lives they had led until now. It was very rare for the disparaged weak to suddenly come back as someone extremely strong in actual reality. It was also rare for people to overcome their fear of death and work together to topple their enemies.

Reality was not a novel.

But the people’s hearts stirred as they realized that someone who had achieved that one-in-a-million possibility was standing right before their very eyes. ‘Is there anyone among the people I harassed who might grow to be as strong as Louise?’ ‘Can I grow as strong as Louise too?’ They had only rushed in because they were being threatened, but the fact that they had been able to work together and topple their wicked liege left a deep impression in the villagers’ hearts.

“Um, Lady Louise?”

Devon asked gingerly. He continued,

“May I ask how you became such a powerful mage in the span of just a few months?”

Everyone was curious.

“I was lucky, I was enlightened, and I had a kind, lovely, and powerful teacher.”

Louise began tapping the ground with her staff. Then, she continued,

“I’m going to go now. Do feel free to spread around stories of my past when you start hearing rumors about what I’ll be up to. I want to be famous, you see.”

Louise left only her ambiguous words behind as she turned around and left the territory without ever looking back.

“What just happened?”

The people began pinching their own cheeks because they were unable to determine whether they were dreaming or whether this was real. They were terrified of Louise, who had started at the very bottom but had suddenly grown strong enough to deal with the liege and his men in the span of a single night, but they were also awed by her. She was like the protagonist of a novel.

Later, they would come to know that the protagonist of the surprising news that they spread from afar was none other than ‘pitiful’ Louise.

~~*~~

Her renown started in a small village named Rentille.

“Hand over all your food!”

“The bandits are here!”

The village of Rentille was a nomadic village that was special in that it sought peace over warfare. The villagers spent their peaceful days herding goats, milking cows, singing songs, and playing instruments.

But they lived like a herd of deer on grassy meadows, and their surroundings did not allow them to enjoy their peace. The bandits, in particular, menaced the village constantly. The village had migrated to avoid the bandits, migrated to avoid the bandits again, and had kept migrating over and over again until it had finally been cornered at the base of a mountain. The villagers feared other people more than they feared the smaller monsters that lived in the mountains.

But the bandits had somehow found the village yet again and were attacking the village on horseback.

“Fine, take everything and die! Just die!”

The villagers were exhausted.

There had been several stretches of plains lush with grass even just a few decades ago. But it was so difficult to find any now. It was undoubtable that the North was dying.

Their livestock, their main source of food, was withering away. Meanwhile, the taxes only climbed higher and the bandits only increased the scope of their violence, and the villagers were growing exhausted weary lives.

But then, a mage with burn scars all over her face had appeared before them. She was a foreigner, but the villagers took pity on her and invited her for a meal because she did not seem to harbor any ill will.

And in return, the mage gifted them a pouch filled with seeds. She had said that they were grains that would flourish even in the North. The villagers found it difficult to believe the mage, but the amazing spells she had shown them had piqued their curiosity, and they had decided that the seeds were worth a try.

The mage taught them how to cultivate the seeds, and she promised to come find them again once the seeds had begun sprouting as she left. But the bandits had attacked before the seeds could sprout.

But the mage that had visited the village just a few days prior —Louise— showed up again like a bolt from the blue just as the villagers were about to resign themselves to fate.

“How dare you?”

She raised her staff high in the air. She continued,

“Consider this divine punishment.”

A blinding light sundered the clear skies as slender bolts of lightning began touching down like a squall.

Rumble rumble!

The villagers had shut their eyes tightly against the blinding light, and they found that the bandits had been burnt black and had fallen from their horses by the time they opened their eyes again.

Eek!

The villagers were perfectly fine, unlike the surviving bandits who were coughing out smoke and screaming in agony. Louise bound the horses in place when magic when they startled and tried to run away. The surviving bandits quickly crawled to her feet and began to beg.

“Please spare us.”

“We won’t come after this village ever again.”

Their pleas belied their true intentions.

‘Fuck this.’

‘Since when did this village have such a powerful mage?’

‘She’s definitely a foreigner. We should retreat for now and come back later.’

The bandits wore pitiful expressions as they undid the pouches at their waist and poured out all the coins inside over the ground.

“We’ll give you everything we have.”

“If you’d like, we can fetch some good-looking fellas from the neighboring territory and give you special service —just please spare our lives.”

They always employed the same strategy whenever they were faced with a formidable enemy whom they had no hope of defeating. Beg, hand over everything, and entertain.

But Louise asked them for something else.

“I don’t need any of that —just take me to your base.”

“Our base?”

The bandits signaled to each other with their eyes and came to a silent agreement.

‘Our boss will be able to take care of this crazy mage.’

‘Stupid bitch. You’re as good as dead now.’

“Of course. We’ll take you there right away.”

“Lady Mage! You mustn’t!”

One bandit glared back fiercely when the villagers cried out to Louise pitifully. The people shrieked and cowered, and the bandit spat at them threateningly.

“Kgh!”

He bit back a groan when Louise immediately smacked him over the head with her staff.

“Boss!”

The bandits’ boss and other members of their group were drinking beer and being served by women when they arrived at the base. The women had been kidnapped when the bandits had devastated other neighboring villages. There were shadows cast over the women’s faces as they were forced to pour the bandits more beer against their will.

“You’re here?”

The bandits’ boss narrowed his eyes. He continued,

“I should be hearing animal noises from the livestock since you went to rob Rentille —or did I just go deaf? Why don’t I hear them? And who’s that woman?”

The bandit underlings ran behind their boss’ back when their boss began to grow annoyed.

“She’s a mage of incredible skill. There was nothing we could do about her.”

“Please deal with her for us, Boss!”

“You useless pieces of shit! The hell did you bring her here for?”

the bandits’ boss raged as he stood up. He picked up the giant axe that was on the floor behind him, spat on its handle, and rubbed it with his hands. Then, he continued,

“Watch carefully, you pricks.”

And a few minutes later…

The bandits’ boss and the bandit underlings were on their knees as they trembled.

Louise dragged one underling with her to free the people who had been about to be sold to a large slave market from the base’s prisons.

“Phew.”

But the people’s faces were just as dark outside the prisons as they had been inside. They believed that only their master had changed, but not their situation.

“Let me untie you.”

The people were startled by what Louise had said.

“You’re letting us go?”

“Yes.”

“But we don’t have anywhere to go back to…….”

Their villages had already been wiped off the face of the world.

“Then would you rather I just sell you off as slaves instead?”

“N-no. Thank you for saving us.”

The people scrambled to flee the bandits’ base. Then, in a voice that was neither quiet nor loud, Louise called after them and said,

“You’ll find a village if you keep going that way. They’ll let you in if you tell them that a mage named Louise sent you. Wait there.”

“Y-yes ma’am.”

Louise pulled the bandits’ boss back up to his feet once the people had crawled out of the base.

“You’re a part of the southeastern bandits’ alliance, right? Guide me to another group that’s affiliated with your alliance.”

A bandits’ alliance.

It was an alliance of multiple bandit groups, just as the name suggested.

Territories often invaded each other, much like bandit groups would, because plunder and pillage were lawful in Bahamut. Conversely, bandits had families too, and their camps were no different from any other village.

But then, what was the difference between a normal territory and a group of bandits? It was simply that territories were official and lawful groups of people under Bahamut rule, whereas bandit groups were unofficial and unlawful.

Territories had to obey Bahamut law and pay taxes to the crown. Bandit groups didn’t have to obey the law, but they had to pay exorbitant fines if they wanted to avoid being suppressed by the army.

There were many reasons why a citizen of Bahamut would become a bandit despite the danger. For example, they could become a bandit to escape the fate of being sold as a slave after their territory was defeated, to get revenge on the territory that had ravaged their own, or simply to flee their territory because they saw no future in it.

People also became bandits because they were so weak that they would have been treated like trash for the rest of their lives otherwise, or so strong that they wanted to gain more power as an outlaw.

Bandit groups, which were comprised of these kinds of people, were held in contempt because they were seen as the failures of Bahamut, and they were hated for the heinous crimes and plunder they committed so they could pay their exorbitant fines. There were many territories that either retaliated against the bandit groups or offered handsome rewards to those that did. Thus, bandit groups were precarious organization that could fall at any time.

This was why they had banded together and formed an alliance.

And thus, the bandits’ alliance was born.

There were two purposes to the alliance: first, to increase their numbers and deter their enemies from attacking them recklessly, and second, to work together and wipe out their enemies if any one group was attacked.

Territories had stopped being able to lay a hand against the bandit groups after the alliance was established. It was highly likely that the territory would be reduced to ashes if it touched the bandits’ alliance carelessly. Several of the bigger bandit groups even executed contracts with territories where the territories would pay them periodic taxes to avoid being attacked.

And yet, this crazy mage was openly being hostile to the bandits’ alliance.

“Why are you dawdling? Hurry up.”

Louise jutted her staff into the boss’ waist when he dithered from the preposterousness of it all.

“Of course, Lady Mage. I’ll take you there at once.”

The boss sneered at her inwardly even as he bowed before her.

There was a hierarchy of strength in the bandits’ alliance, and his group was situation toward the bottom. There were larger bandit groups that dominated southern and eastern Bahamut, and even groups that were infamous all throughout Bahamut, in the upper echelons of the alliance. He had never met the bandit group that led the alliance, but he had heard many rumors of their immense strength.

It was certainly true that Louise was a powerful mage.

But even she would be forced to her knees before the bandits’ alliance.

‘I don’t know what you ate to grow guts as big as yours, but you’re as good as dead now.’

Bandit groups had to pay each other expensive bribed in order to enlist individual help. But this was worth the cost. He didn’t care as long as he could kill the mage who had humiliated him in front of his men!

The bandits’ boss had brought Louise to the highest-ranking bandit group that he was allowed to contact with the intent to teach her a lesson.

And yet…….

Pow pow pow!

“Arghhh!”

Pooow!

“Please spare us!”

She had shattered his hopes.

Louise overthrew stronger and stronger bandit groups back-to-back with her terrifying magic until the day started to grow dark. The bandits, who had jeered at the mage for coming all this way just by herself, ended up gruesomely scattered along the ground.

Several renowned mid-sized and large bandit groups had collapsed without a single sound that day. The alliance never had any time to react because Louise had appeared before each group suddenly with only a few bandits in tow.

Caw, caw.

A flock of ravens were circling high in the sky.

Louise took a peek at the sunset as she tapped her staff against her shoulder.

“I guess this is enough for today.”

Her surroundings had been reduced to ashes. The sturdy rocky mountain had collapsed as if a landslide had passed, and its thick trees lay broken on the ground. Unmoving people were scattered across the earth like dirty laundry.

There were dozens of bandits trembling in their boots as they stood behind her. They were the executives of the bandit groups that Louise had devastated today.

“Follow me.”

They immediately fell to their knees.

“Lady Mage! Ma’am!”

“Please spare us! We have families to feed back in our villages!”

“We’ll never forget the mercy you’ve shown us if you let us live!”

The bandits, who had borne witness to Louise’s terrifying magic as they followed her around, crawled before her feet.

They assumed that Louise would be compassionate, seeing that she hadn’t laid a finger on their noncombatant family members who lived in their camps. Moreover, anyone who had heeded her ‘warnings’ had escaped death. All the bandits who had died were the fools who had ignored her warnings and had tried to rush her like moths to a flame.

“It’s not my mercy you’ll never forget, it’s the grudges you bear against me. Shut up and follow me.”

Then, Louise smiled spookily and continued,

“You’re fully aware of what’ll happen to you if you try to get me from behind or run away, right?”

Of course they knew. The bandits shuddered.

They had clearly witnessed how other bandits had tried to attack Louise from behind only to get buried alive in a giant pit or get struck and killed by a bolt of lightning.

They couldn’t run either. The monstrous mage might as well have set up bladed wires all around them. Anyone who tried to run would lose a body part once they gained a certain distance. And they would lose their heads if they tried to keep running even still.

And the most chilling part was that there was absolutely no warning.

The magic was bone-chillingly terrifying, and the swordswoman of superhuman skill guarding her was terrifying too. The bandits were powerless to do anything but follow after Louise.

Louise made her way to the bandits’ warehouse.

Creaaaak.

There had been a locking spell cast on the warehouse, but it had been to no avail. The spell was dispelled, as if Louise had inserted a key, and the doors opened for her willingly.

All sorts of goods were stacked inside the warehouse like small towers. Money, jewels, food —you name it.

The blood drained from the bandits’ faces as they gauged Louise’s mood. They wondered if she was truly capable of taking it all away. But their doubts came true soon enough.

Buzzzz.

Louise opened up a subspace that she had created with spatial magic.

“Eat it.”

The subspace began swallowing everything in the warehouse at Louise’s short command.

Louise returned to the village of Rentille with the discouraged bandits in tow once she had finished cleaning out the warehouse.

“The Lady Mage is here!”

The villagers had grown nervous as a group of people approached the village with a cloud of dust behind them, and they were relieved to see Louise leading the group.

The village was jam-packed with people.

Louise had been liberating the people whom the bandits had imprisoned as she destroyed the bandit groups. Those whose original villages still existed returned home, but anyone whose futures were bleak because they had no village to return to had gone to Rentille.

“Lady Mage!”

The village chief of the village of Rentille was fretful.

He had heard so many tales about Louise’s might from the people she had freed that he thought his ears might bleed if he heard any more. But he was so anxious that he didn’t know what he should do.

Why was she sending so many people to the village while destroying the bandit groups of the bandits’ alliance?! Was she planning to simply leave after bringing out this situation?

The village of Rentille would be forced to bear all the losses in that case. The bandits would hack the village to pieces with their blades. The village chief was frustrated because he didn’t know how to beat back the danger.

The village chief’s face was dark as he looked between Louise and the bandits in turns.

“Why did you bring…….?”

“To use them. Where is the village’s warehouse, Village Chief?”

The village chief brought Louise to the warehouse. Louise opened up her subspace and showered the warehouse with all the goods and foodstuffs she had taken from the bandits. The warehouse was filled up in no time at all, and the villagers could do nothing but stare in mute amazement. But Louise wasn’t done yet.

“You’ll have to build more warehouses. I’ll just pile everything up next to it for now.”

Louise took out about half of the goods inside her subspace and began piling the rest up outside next to it. The village would need to build at least ten more warehouses to house it all.

The village chief thought he might suffocate as he watched.

“Lady Mage.”

He was skilled at reading the situation, and he was more worried than he was overjoyed. He continued,

“Our village isn’t capable of managing all of this. It will only be taken from us later.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll give you some guards.”

“Guards?”

The village chief’s face relaxed a little. He had no idea why Louise was doing any of this, but he was grateful that she would give the village guards nevertheless. But he was left dumbstruck when he heard what Louise had to say next.

“I’ll turn those bandits into your guards.”

The village chief immediately shook his head as hard as he could.

“But you don’t plan on settling down here yourself —isn’t that so, Lady Mage?”

“I was planning on staying for a few days.”

“A brief stay won’t accomplish anything. The bandits will ruin our village as soon as you leave. And other bandit groups from the bandits’ alliance will come for us too.”

The village chief’s resignation shone vividly in his eyes. He continued,

“We will leave this place in a few days’ time.”

“You don’t need to worry —I’ll solve all your problems for you. Come follow me.”

Louise brought the village chief with her as she walked over to the bandits, who had been glaring at the warehouse with enmity in their eyes from afar. The quickly erased all traces of their hostility as soon as Louise approached them.

“You are to protect the people of this village starting today, Bandits.”

“What?”

“I cast psychic magic on you on our way here. Your brains will explode, and you will die if you threaten any of the villagers or if you stray too far from the village.”

The bandits trembled. Louise continued,

“Does anyone want to test me?”

Test her? They had already witnessed her alarming prowess with magic on their way here and then some. The bandits bit at their lips.

“B-but what if they try to kill us……?”

“Then you die. Aren’t you guys bandits? —why are you complaining?”

“…….”

“Let’s visit the farms now, Village Chief.”

“Y-yes…….”

The village chief stole glances at the bandits as he accompanied Louise to the farms. His eyes opened round when he they arrived.

“The seeds have sprouted!”

Greed sprouts were peeking out from the dirt. He continued,

“I didn’t see anything even just this morning!”

The village chief could not conceal his astonishment. He had half doubted that they ever would, but the seeds had really sprouted. Would they truly become grains if they continued growing like this?

“Indeed. How mysterious.”

Louise sounded like she was in disbelief even though she had planted the seeds herself. The village chief was puzzled, but Louise wasn’t kind enough to assuage his doubts. She crouched down and began touching the sprouts when a cat suddenly mewed from behind her.

“Miss, you’re here?”

Lyel was grinning as she held Butterfly in her arms.

Lyel had made her way to the village of Rentille as soon as Louise had left to wreak havoc on the bandits’ alliance. The village chief had remembered that Lyel had been with Louise when the latter had first visited, and he had welcomed the child into the anxious village.

There was a strange light in the village chief’s eyes as he looked at Lyel.

‘What a mysterious child.’

His heart felt calmer whenever he looked at Lyel, though he didn’t know why. Other people felt the same way about Lyel, and the village, which had been unsettled by the bandits’ attack, calmed down as soon as Lyel and Butterfly began going around and talking with the villagers.

And that wasn’t all.

The people of Rentille were much more considerate than the average citizen of Bahamut, but they didn’t simply give without abandon just because they happened to take pity on someone.

They had given Louise, the wandering mage who looked pitiful, and the little girl she had brought with her out of cheap pity. But there were so many people who had escaped from the bandit groups that the villagers’ hostility won over their sympathy and they picked up their weapons instead of their ladles.

But then, Lyel had started taking out bread and meat from her mysterious magic bag and handed it out to everyone.

The villagers’ grips on their weapons had loosened as they watched the little girl run about while looking after people. And they had started feeling like they should help too.

Thus, they had melted down the hard cheese stored in the warehouses and made soup to share with everyone. They had given out the warm food without demanding anything in return.

The refugees had been nervous at first as the villagers, who had initially taken up their weapons, suddenly turned around and showed them goodwill instead. People never helped others for no reason in Bahamut. They had wondered if the villagers intended to make them slaves.

But the people of Rentille had simply continued to brusquely offer their soup without asking for anything in return, and Lyel was the first person to accept their offer and eat the delicious meal. Then, the bewildered refugees had also accepted the soup and had begun to eat with gratitude.

The people of Rentille were using the food they had stockpiled ahead of the bitter winter, but they did not feel that it had gone to waste when the refugees thanked them. The gratitude embarrassed them a little, but it wasn’t a bad feeling.

A nice and warm feeling had started to circulate throughout the village. But the warmth began fading away like a dying match as the number of people seeking out the village increased exponentially.

The village chief remembered the warmth as he looked between Lyel and Louise in turns. Louise had Lyel sit down as she pointed at the sprouts.

“Aren’t these supposed to be planted in the spring and harvested in early autumn?”

“Yes. They were planted a little late.”

“In that case, we’ll have to use magic,”

Louise said, prompting Lyel to put down the cat she had been holding tightly in her arms.

“Go, Butterfly!”

Butterfly looked disgruntled as she sat on the ground. Elly continued,

“Didn’t you hear me?”

Butterfly glared at Lyel when the girl nudged the cat with her foot. But Butterfly eventually shook off her behind and slowly began to walk forward.

A yellow butterfly came flying for the new sprouts right in front of Butterfly. Butterfly was distracted by the butterfly and began prancing about. Her bell jingled every time her feet touched the ground.

The two butterflies —one animal and one insect— were playing, and —why was it? The village chief felt a tickle in his heart. And the once barren earth suddenly began looking warm and soft.

“Um, Lady Mage? Is the cat activating a spell by prancing around like that?”

“Yeah. I use her as a medium for some of my magic.”

The village chief, who knew nothing about magic, looked deeply impressed and nodded back even though Louise had told him absolute nonsense. Would the soil grow soft and warm if the cat stepped over it?

Louise pointed at the sprouts in the ground one by one.

“Normally, those are edible grains that will be ready to harvest in early autumn. Those over there are sweet and savory bulbs that can be eaten in late autumn. And those…….”

How nice would it be if the earth could produce such an abundant amount of food, just like what the mage was saying? —the village chief nodded back half-dubiously before he suddenly snapped back to reality. There was a more pressing problem before him.

“Um, so what do you really intend to do with the bandits……?”

“I told you before that you can use them as guards. If you don’t need guards, then you can just put them to work. There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done before the grains can be harvested. You have to give them fertilizer, and you have to plow the fields too. You won’t need to worry about feeding the bandits either. I gave up a bunch of food and piled it all up next to the warehouse, remember?”

“But how will be possibly……?”

“No one here is capable of defying my magic. I cast physic magic on the bandits that will destroy their brains if they try hurt you with malice, so feel free to use them as you please.”

The village chief looked like he was about to cry.

“No. It’s not that I’m doubting your magic, Lady Mage, but I don’t know how we should go about living alongside them. We would have to accept them as members of the village, according to what you’ve just said, but I’m not confident that we’ll be able to get along.”

“Who said you had to get along? I only told you to use them. I’m giving them to you as servants. You can just kill them if you don’t want them.”

A question crossed the village chief’s mien. Louise continued,

“But keep this in mind. I gave you a chance.”

She wasn’t done yet.

“You need to seize this chance if you want to survive in our country until the bitter end. You need to use the bastards as guards, cultivate the crops, and stockpile food, and you need to train yourselves and grow stronger. You’re just running away from reality if you really think you can raise cows and goats peacefully forever without having any power of your own. You’ll just be nibbled at and devoured in the end, don’t you think?”

The village chief’s conscience prickled.

The village of Rentille had always survived despite the bandits’ attacks. But the village chief knew best that this was only because the bandits hadn’t felt like going all the way, that the bandits could destroy the village at any time they so wished. He knew this, but there was nothing that he could do about it. The village of Rentille was tiny, and the bandits’ alliance was ever so powerful. His sense of defeat told him that there was no point in resisting, and the only thing he could do was flee.

“I’m only giving you a chance —what you choose to do with it is up to you.”

The village chief stared at the warm earth where the cat was playing and asked,

“Why did you give us this chance?”

“Let’s say that this is my way of paying you back for the meal you gave me when I first visited the village.”

That was it? Louise continued,

“This was also the first village that was attacked by bandits while I was traveling from village to village planting the seeds.”

In other words, they had simply been unlucky.

“I’ll stay here for a bit and solve the issue with the bandits’ alliance for you. I need to make sure the grains are growing well too.”

Or perhaps they had been lucky instead? The village chief couldn’t tell.

But more importantly.

“Why are you doing this, Lady Mage?”

he asked gingerly.

She was a foreigner who wasn’t a member of the village, so why had she given them these special seeds, and why was she eliminating the bandits for them? There must surely be something she wanted in return.

“Are you planning to take over our village, perchance?”

“The thought has never crossed my mind.”

Louise crossed her arms. She continued,

“I hate the bastards who pick on the weak just because they happen to be stronger. That’s why I plan on rounding up the bandits like the little rats they are. But I don’t plan on being responsible for your lives either. I’m only showing you a way to survive because I happened to take cheap pity on you.”

“Then, is there anything you want in return……?”

“Nope. I’m just doing what I want to do. Just like how you handed out soup to the people who lost their own villages.”

The village chief stared back at Louise.

‘What a truly unique person she is.’

Good was right, and evil was wrong.

That was why good and evil were relative.

Like how it was good for the lion but evil for the deer when the lion hunted the deer. Like how plunder was good for the plunderer and evil for the plundered.

But good and evil were universal too. A long time ago, back when the Faith of Laos had dominated the world, the values that let the majority live well had been defined as good, and the opposite had been defined as bad.

The justice that was called righteous in the Bahamut Empire was something that the rest of the world denounced as evil. This was because every value in Bahamut was considered from the perspective of the strong. And most of the people of Bahamut were selfish and cruel because they followed their nation’s ideology.

But the world was vast, and there were so many different kinds of people living in it. There were people who did good acts that ran contrary to Bahamut’s definition of justice even within the empire. There was good in an evil land, just like how there was also evil in a good land.

The village chief had always done things in moderation until now.

He was altruistic in moderation, and he was selfish in moderation.

But the scales in his heart began tipping toward the side of altruism after he had received the gratitude of others and had accepted Louise’s words today.

Part 3

“Get them!”

The bandits’ alliance heard the news and rushed to the village of Rentille in droves the very next day. But they could not help but falter when they saw who their enemies were. Louise had sent the bandits she had defeated to the frontlines.

“You bastards dare to betray us when we came all this way to rescue you?”

the alliance roared in rage.

“We’re not here because we wanted to be either!”

the bandits of Rentille shouted back. They continued,

“The mage cast a spell on us! Just go back and leave us alone. We don’t have to fight!”

“Huh?”

Louise languidly raised her staff. She continued,

“Attack your former comrades. Unless you’d rather die at my hands, that is.”

“Uwahhhh!”

And so, the terrified bandits began attacking the alliance that had come to rescue them.

“You crazy bastards!”

Thus, a battle broke out between the bandits.

The confused alliance suffered tremendous losses and had no choice but to retreat when Louise began supporting the village of Rentille’s bandits with magic too.

The alliance came again a few days later. They had discussed and regrouped amongst themselves. They had come to give notice to the bandits of Rentille.

“You aren’t a part of our alliance anymore. We don’t care if you live like slaves to the village or drop dead. Your families are still waiting for you back in your camps. But we’ll burn them all down!”

“No!”

The bandits, whose families meant everything to them, screamed.

Rumble.

Just then, a colossal mass of flames came down and flattened the alliance bandits. The village bandits stopped their screaming and stared blankly at the resulting carnage before their eyes.

“Who said I’d let you?”

Louise was floating in the air. Then, she continued,

“What are you waiting for? Let’s go pick up your families.”

The entire situation had been Louise’s fault to begin with. But the bandits did not dare defy her, and they only had one option to choose from now that the bandits’ alliance had abandoned them. They loathed the fact that Louise, their terrifying enemy, felt so reliable.

Louise brought the bandits’ families close to the village of Rentille whether the bandits liked it or not.

Craaaash!

A war broke out between the alliance and Louise after that day. Louise took the bandits, who were enraged at the alliance for attempting to harm their families, with her as she began attacking the bandit groups of the bandits’ alliance indiscriminately.

The bandits had become traitors to the alliance, willfulness aside, and disclosed the locations of all the other bandit groups to Louise. Louise visited them all and destroyed the lot of them.

High-voltage lightning struck, thunder roared, lava melted, and a colossal wave swallowed all……and the sudden apocalypse overwhelmed the bandits’ alliance.

It didn’t take long before the bandits’ alliance understood just how amazing a mage Louise was.

They decided that they could not keep this up for much longer.

And so, a representative of the alliance had come to find Louise.

“Let’s make a deal.”

“What deal?”

“Please just leave us alone. We’ll promise that we won’t so much as look at anything that’s under your protection.”

“No way. Let’s keep going until the bitter end.”

The representative began to vent his frustrations when Louise refused to compromise.

“Why are you even doing this to us? Do you have a grudge against someone in our alliance? We’ll hand whomever it is over to you if you tell us who it is, so please, stop this.”

“What if I’m doing this just because I don’t like you guys?”

Louise replied obstinately. The alliance representative’s complexion changed from red to blue to shadowed like a chameleon.

“You’ll be in danger if this continues too. Our leader isn’t here right now because he’s busy, but he’s also a powerful mage, much like yourself,”

the representative replied with a threat.

But Louise refused to yield.

“Then tell him to come out here already.”

“You crazy…! I can’t get through to you at all!”

The representative jumped up from his seat and left.

The representative reported to the vice leader of the alliance as soon as he returned to their headquarters. The vice leader, who had wrapped heavily in bandages, jumped up as soon as he saw him.

“How did it go?”

“Negotiations broke apart. No, not even. She didn’t want to negotiate at all. She just said that she didn’t like us.”

“You idiot! Then you should’ve gotten on your knees and begged!”

The representative lost his temper and shouted back,

“Then would you have agreed if she told us to hand over the alliance or break it apart?”

“Of course not! That’s what negotiations are for! We could’ve offered her periodic bribes or something.”

“She would’ve refused. You know this as well as I do. The mage gave the villages in this area crops they could cultivate and eat. And yet she’s waging war against us. I don’t know whether she’s genuinely doing it out of the goodness of her heart or whatever, but do you really think that she’d accept bribes from us?”

“Fuck!”

The vice leader let out a deep sigh and plopped back down in his seat. Then, he asked,

“Did you tell her about our leader?”

“I told her that he’s a powerful mage, but we both know that Lord Fieber isn’t all that famous. There aren’t many people who know about him.”

Bang!

The vice leader slammed his fist against the table.

“Shit!”

The bandits’ alliance, which had been thriving in southeastern Bahamut until then, had been reduced to half because of just one woman.

Anyone caught in Louise’s clutches was doomed to either die or have psychic magic cast on them. After they were caught, they would be forced to act only for the village’s benefit, like helping with the tedious farm work or guarding the village without being allowed to budge from their post. It was impossible for them to wield their strength to pillage or engage in adult entertainment. They were forced to live an honest and hard-working life.

The number of captured bandits only increased endlessly by the day.

The bandits of the alliance grew terrified of Louise after their never-ending string of defeats and either withdrew into themselves or deserted the alliance entirely. They hid themselves in hideouts that were made secret to even the alliance and trembled in their terror, or they simply fled…….

The vice leader sniffled as he buried his face into his hands.

“Where the hell did that crazy mage even come from anyway?”

“She must be like Lord Fieber,”

the representative said with a sigh.

“When will Lord Fieber come back?”

“Don’t you know best that he never responds when he’s away to experiment with magic, Vice Leader? And he’s been leaving more frequently as of late too.”

“But we’re in an emergency situation, so he should be coming soon, right?”

“I did tell him the news, but who knows……?”

Louise only continued her crusade.

She had planted the seeds in villages other than the village of Rentille too, and she destroyed every bandit group near any of those villages as the continued to expand her area of influence. She only stopped when the bandits she had bespelled grew so large in number that they were becoming unmanageable. It was only when Louise stopped to stabilize the situation that the bandits found the leisure to breathe again.

And finally, the bandits’ alliance received good news.

“It’s been a while. I heard that you’ve been in a mess?”

Fieber Pistol, the leader of the Southeastern Bandits’ Alliance, had finally returned.

Fieber Pistol.

He was a man in his mid-thirties, and, though he wasn’t very renowned, he was a mage of immense skill.

The bandits hadn’t been bluffing about him —he was truly the real deal. He had once been a disciple to Wiffheimer, the now deceased greatest archmage of the age. He had studied under Wiffheimer together with Margarita, the Witch of Curses, and Keigus, the Archmage of Dolls, who were also both dead now. Though Fieber had run away from his teacher because of Wiffheimer’s overbearing methods…….

Fieber’s father was the boss of a bandit group called Alpha, which was the strongest group in southeastern Bahamut, and had been the previous leader of the alliance before Fieber. Fieber’s father had let Fieber take his place after Fieber had fled from his teacher before departing the world.

Bur Fieber enjoyed his freedom and liked to be alone, so he had loathed the thought of becoming famous. There were many mages who weren’t very well known but where immensely skilled nonetheless because these were common traits among mages. Fieber was simply one of many.

Fieber had pushed all his work to the vice boss of Alpha, who was also the vice leader of the alliance, and often left to conduct magical research or satiate his wanderlust. He received funds and magical research materials from the alliance, and in return, he lent the alliance his hand whenever they asked for help.

And so, the leader of the bandits’ alliance’s name had become something of a secret, and the vice leader had kept all the profits under his own name.

In short, Fieber did not care about the alliance.

“This is too much, Lord Fieber!”

But he had been extraordinarily neglectful as of late. Fieber was normally of a cheerful temperament, but he had been rather depressed recently. He left his post often, and it was normal for him to cut off all contact. It had gotten so bad that the alliance feared that he might really abandon them at this rate.

“Louise? Never heard of her.”

Fieber said as he tilted his head to the side, failing to notice that the vice leader was so happy to see him that he was practically reduced to tears.

“Please erase that mage for us, Lord Fieber!”

“Why should I? She’s doing something interesting. She’s making it so that people can survive without having to resort to banditry. You guys should take this as an opportunity to turn over a new leaf too.”

“Lord Fieber!”

“Fine, I hear you. Anyway, you said that she was using psychic magic? Only extremely smart mages are capable of using psychic magic. Have you tried undoing her spells?”

“We contacted some skilled mages to try and undo her spells in secret. But every last one of them told us that it was impossible.”

Fieber nodded.

“Well, whatever. I’ll be in trouble if the alliance falls too, since I need my research materials to keep coming in. And the villagers will be able to farm the crops just fine even without her. I guess I’ll go!”

And so, Fieber immediately made his way to the village where Louise was currently staying.

He walked up to the gloomy guard standing at the village entrance.

“Who’re you?”

“A traveler. I was in the area and was wondering if I could enjoy a meal here.”

Fieber showed the guard his ID, and another guard sighed and gestured to the village entrance with his chin.

“Go in. But don’t try anything funny once you’re inside.”

Fieber scrutinized the guard carefully and asked,

“I heard the rumors —are you a bandit who was caught by the mage named Louise too?”

The guard’s visage immediately grew fierce.

“Are you making fun of me? You look like you couldn’t even take a single punch! I might not be allowed to lay a hand against the villagers, but I am allowed to beat up outsiders, you know!”

“Enough. Hey you, just go inside already!”

the woman standing next Fieber said as she pushed him inside the village.

Fieber stepped inside the village and slowly took a look around.

‘There’s a nice mood in the air. Especially considering that it’s dark and gloomy everywhere else.’

The villagers’ complexions were bright. Even the bandits didn’t look like they were doing poorly.

There was a soup line in one corner of the village. A large man was glaring at the man who was handing out the soup.

“You didn’t put poison or anything in this, did you?”

“Sure did. Eat and find out or stave —I don’t care.”

“…….”

The large man looked sour as he brought a spoonful of soup to his mouth, but then his lips twitched because it was delicious. The others around him followed suit.

Fieber knocked out a passing bandit by hitting him from behind, dragged him to a dark alleyway, and began to study him.

‘Wow, this arrangement really does look difficult to undo. It’s really no joke.’

But then, Fieber made a face.

‘But this arrangement of mana looks somewhat familiar……. No. I must be mistaken.’

Fieber left the unconscious bandit there and stepped back outside. He found people who were walking around with farming tools and cow manure. Fieber decided to tail them.

“Whoa.”

He could not help but express his astonishment. The scenery before him was green —something that you usually couldn’t see in Bahamut.

“Who are you? I’ve never seen you around,”

a group of people approached Fieber and asked.

“I’m a wandering mage who decided to drop by for a meal in the middle of my travels. I just happened to chance across this amazing sight and couldn’t help but stare.”

“A wandering mage?”

Curiosity crossed the villagers’ faces. On the other hand, the bandits’ faces were dyed in fear. They had polar opposite reactions to the words, ‘wandering mage.’

“Please enjoy your stay.”

“I will, thank you.”

The villagers were so kind that they almost didn’t seem like they were from Bahamut. Fieber looked awkward as he scratched his head, and then, with great curiosity, he asked,

“I heard that there was a mage named Louise here. Will it be possible for me to meet her? I’d like to discuss magic with her.”

“Lady Louise? She’s right over there.”

Louise. She was sitting against a large tree near the fields. Fieber was certain it was her because everyone was stealing glances at her.

Fieber walked up to her. Louise had her eyes closed.

“Hello. My name’s Fieber. Are you Louise?”

Louise opened her eyes.

“And?”

As soon as Fieber saw the dry light in Louise’s eyes —why was it?

Badump.

His heart skipped a beat. He shook his head, wondering what on earth that had been about, and smiled.

“I’ve heard much about your fame, Lady Louise. You’re marvelous. You’ve been cultivating crops in the North for the betterment of the world. It’s really amazing. Those green fields…….”

Fieber continued singing praises of Louise for a while. Passersby who had dropped in to listen out of curiosity were nodding along as they agreed with everything he said.

“And? Your conclusion?”

Louise and Fieber locked eyes.

“Please die for me.”

Crackle crackle!

A colossal bolt of blue lightning fell on top of Louise’s head.

“Ahhhh!”

“Lady Louise!”

Everyone was screaming. Black smoked climbed into the sky as the tree that Louise had been sitting under caught ablaze.

They could see a black doll sitting inside the smoke.

The villagers paled in discouragement, and the bandits grew excited. They wondered if heaven had finally answered their prayers as they threw away their farm tools with their sweaty hands.

Everyone thought that Louise had been burnt black and had perished. But Fieber continued to stare into the flames with great interest.

Fwooosh!

A twister stirred up and scattered the ashes everywhere.

Louise was perfectly fine, and she looked as expressionless as if nothing had happened.

“I don’t know what that was about, but how fun.”

“How are you not dead? That was supposed to be a deathblow —you’re pretty dangerous.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the leader of the Southeastern Bandits’ Alliance.”

“Whoaaaa! It’s the leader!”

The bandits cheered as they kicked aside their farm tools. The villagers trembled in fear at the appearance of another mage who might be as powerful as Louise.

“Ah, someone did come find me to spout some nonsense about the alliance leader or something of that sort —is that you?”

“So you know about me.”

Louise brushed the ashes off her clothes as she stood up.

“Come with me.”

“But I want to fight you here?”

Crimson clouds began forming over the green fields when Fieber raised his hand. Then, it started raining fire. It was clear to everyone present that the fields, where the crops had only just started growing, would be reduced to ashes once the flames touched down.

Shaaaaa.

A stream of water shot out from the tip of Louise’s staff and struck the clouds.

Fieber’s clouds of fire were extinguished immediately, and Louise’s staff targeted Fieber next.

Clunk.

“Huh?”

Fieber stopped moving, and his body floated into the air. He was forced to follow after Louise when she started walking away.

“…….”

The bandits picked up their farm tools again when they saw what had happened.

Louise brought Fieber over to a secluded mountain.

“Ack!”

She threw him along the ground.

‘This is bad. She’s even stronger than I am. Where did a mage like her even come from?’

Fieber jumped up with a stiff look on his face because he realized that this was serious. Louise pointed her staff at him.

A beautiful arrangement of mana twinkled behind her.

Crackle crackle!

Dozens of lances of lightning were aimed at Fieber like nocked arrows.

“……!”

The blood drained from Fieber’s face.

“Talk. Who are you, and how dare you steal my mana arrangement?”

“Y-y-y-you’re…!”

Fieber plopped down and looked like he was about to burst into tears. He continued,

“That magnificent and beautiful arrangement! I knew it! You’re Dor…….”

Boooom!

Fieber lay flatted on the ground after being hit by Louise’s lightning. He looked like a cooked frog.

“I’m Louise.”

“No! You’re not! You’re Dor…….”

Booom!

“It’s Louise.”

“Yes, Lady Louise.”

“And who are you?”

“Y-you don’t know who I am? I’m Fieber Pistol.”

“Never heard of you.”

“I studied magic under Wiffheimer once a long time ago. But I fell for your magic at first sight, and I’ve been your faithful follower ever since.”

Fieber was so desperate to introduce himself that he was practically spitting, and then he wailed and clutched his head. He continued,

“But why do you look like that, Lady Louise, when you’re so beautiful……!”

“You’re disgusting,”

Louise said as she stepped on Fieber’s head. Then, she asked,

“What should I do, Lady Tara? I didn’t kill him because he might be useful.”

“He does seem useful.”

Fieber startled when he suddenly heard a new voice from behind and sat up. A woman with a chilling light in her eyes had appeared behind him like a ghost. She continued,

“You really don’t know who he is?”

“Nope. I’m not in the habit of remembering people who don’t interest me.”

Then, Louise looked Fieber, who was kneeling before her, up and down and continued,

“But I’ve just starting to take an interest in him now. The mana arrangements I devised are so complicated that it takes more than a smart mage to use them. And the fact that he was able to steal my magic just by looking at it means that he has exceptional observation and analysis skills. You’re something special, aren’t you?”

Fieber blushed and looked so happy to hear Louise praise him that he didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Thank you. I……I observed you and studied ridiculously hard. I thought you might know about me because I used to be one of Wiffheimer’s disciples, but it also makes sense that you might not know about me, Lady Louise. I used to greet you back at the imperial castle, but you always ignored me. Ours was a very one-sided relationship.”

“You seem to have a good head on your shoulders, but you’re also gross and sketchy.”

“Yes, I’m gross. And sketchy. But that’s not the point here,”

Fieber concurred with sparkles in his eyes, as if every word that Louise uttered was the absolute truth. He even began beating himself up for being gross and sketchy.

Then, Fieber took one glance at Louise’s face and his mood instantly changed from rapture to chilling bloodlust.

“What happened to your face? It’s not just the burns —the placement and structure of your features changed so much that you look like another person entirely! It must be real, since I can’t feel the aura of magic……. Did the bastards in Ex-knights do that to you?”

Pow!

Fieber punched the ground.

“I heard that you left for Ex-knights last year —just how badly did they treat you there?! The rumors that paint them as being even worse than Bahamut must be true. How dare they, when they should’ve been treating you with only the utmost respect and reverence?! I won’t forgive them for this!”

Fieber’s face turned red as he vented his frustration. He was so enraged that there were tearing welling in his eyes. He continued,

“You came back to Bahamut to get revenge on Ex-knights, right, Lady Louise? And you’re going around from village to village teaching people how to cultivate crops because you want to fill Bahamut’s war supplies! Kgh. Please let me help you!”

Louise and Tara exchanged looks before Louise turned back to look down at Fieber again.

“How did you know that I left for Ex-knights?”

“Well, it’s been a while since I ran away from Wiffheimer, but I’ve still been in touch with the other imperial mages. I wanted to cut them all out of my life, former friendships be damned, because I was frustrated at how they were cursing your name, but I kept in touch on the off chance that I might hear news about you…….”

Fieber wiped his tears away with his muddied sleeves as he continued to obsess over Louise.

“To be honest, I seriously considered traveling to Ex-knights too. Ex-knights is destined to fall in a few short years anyway, since they’ve made an enemy of Bahamut. I only stayed behind because I wanted to be able to save you when the time came. But it’s been so hard not being able to see you that it’s taken a toll on my health……. Sniff.”

Fieber had seemed like a normal person at first, but he clearly seemed to have lost a few screws after he had figured out Louise’s real identity.

Louise tilted her head ever so slightly to the side.

“How impudent. Who do you think you are to be saving me?”

“Y-yes. You’re absolutely right. But I still wanted to be prepared just in case…….”

“Enough. You said you were my follower?”

“Yes, I am. I fell for your beautiful arrangements of mana at first sight, Lady Louise. And your spell you cast just earlier was just as beautiful as ever! No, it was even more beautiful than before!”

“Was it? Look carefully.”

Crackle crackle.

Azure serpents made from lightning began writhing around Louise by the dozens. There was a crackle so sharp that it made your hair stand on end every time a serpent moved. The resulting gale of mana and the electricity scattering everywhere disheveled Louise’s hair.

“My magic’s changed a lot.”

Louise had lost the absolute and overwhelming pressure that anyone who wielded mana without a Demon’s fragment didn’t have when she lost her fragment. She continued,

“Will you follow me even still?”

“But of course!”

Fieber’s ecstasy hadn’t cooled in the slightest. Rather, it had only grown more pronounced. He continued,

“What I fell for was your revolutionary mana arrangements and the innate feeling they give off! I love that poised and artistic feeling that’s also tinged with madness that’s particular only to you. And that feeling has only grown stronger in your current magic.”

But that was only natural. Louise had been polishing her personal skills ever since she had gone to Ex-knights and lost her Demon’s fragment. She also had a much better understanding of the Truth that she was always chasing.

Her aura, which took after her life, had grown denser, like broth that had been boiling for a longer period of time, as her life had become richer. And Fieber could feel the difference.

“I don’t know what happened to you in Ex-knights, but I give you my heartfelt congratulations for your growth, Lady Louise,”

Fieber said as he bowed with his entire being.

“You said that you’d continue following me. Does that mean you won’t mind if I cast a spell on you to eliminate any possibility of you betraying me and use you as I please? You won’t mind if I have you do research for me?”

Most people would have taken fright and refused the offer.

“You mean……I…we can keep talking like this? We can research magic together? Please use me to your heart’s content. Sniff sniff.”

Fieber was genuinely moved and burst into tears. He was truly missing a few screws in the head.

“Is that okay with you?”

Louise asked Tara. Fieber raised his head and glared bitingly at Tara. He seeming to be demanding, ‘Who are you, and why does Louise keep asking for your opinion?’

Tara ignored him and replied,

“I don’t mind as long as you don’t find him too much of a bother. Besides, he might be useful in getting things done faster around here. And we might be able to obtain intelligence about the imperial mages too.”

“As long as you’re okay with it, Lady Tara.”

Crackle!

A white current of electricity flowed into Fieber’s brain. The shock massaged his brain and maximized the effects of Louise’s psychic spell. Fieber’s vision flashed white before it returned to normal.

“Hehe.”

Fieber grinned foolishly, overjoyed by the fact that he was being connected to Louise.

“There’s something you need to know first. I am a mage who is completely affiliated with Ex-knights now. And I’m here on a secret mission for Ex-knights.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Fieber was bewildered. He continued,

“Then why were you growing crops and getting rid of bandits in Bahamut? The citizens might become enemy soldiers one day —wouldn’t it be better to simply get rid of them?”

“You don’t need to know that. All you need to do is obey my orders.”

“Yes ma’am!”

Fieber immediately gave up on his rebuttal as soon as Louise gave the word.

“And keep this in mind too. You have absolutely nothing to do with ‘Dorcianni Demariposa.’ Neither are you a traitor to Bahamut. You’re just a Bahamut citizen who was caught under a spell cast by a Bahamut mage named ‘Louise’ and is being used by her like a marionette.”

Fieber was quick on the uptake, and he immediately understood what it was that Louise wanted from him and bowed his head. Louise continued,

“And you are not to tell anyone about me.”

“Even to your other followers?”

Louise paused.

“Do you spend a lot of time with them? How many of them even are there?”

“We meet up every once in a while. And there are plenty of people who love you —you’re the youngest, strongest, best, and most beautiful archmage there ever was!”

“Hmph. Give me a list of their names and where I can find them.”

She would either avoid them or use them as she pleased.

“I will. Please give me just one day!”

“Do you care about what happens to the bandits’ alliance?”

“Not at all! It’s something I inherited from my father, but I don’t care about it at all. Please do with it as you will! Though, to be honest, not all the bandits are wicked bastards.”

This wasn’t something that Fieber, who was not only the leader of said bandits’ alliance but also regularly received lots of money from it, should be saying, but no one bothered to point that out.

“Your job going forward is to…….”

Louise began giving Fieber all sorts of instructions, and Fieber took out a notebook from his pocket and began scribbling it all down while nodding back furiously. Louise continued,

“And lastly. Did you go around telling everyone that you’re my follower?”

“I explained just how amazing you are to any acquaintances who were mages, but I didn’t bother talking to the fools who know nothing about magic since they wouldn’t have understood me anyway.”

“Really now? Well, keep doing that. I’ll kill you on the spot if you start acting out because you know that I’m Dorcianni.”

Fieber looked sad for a brief moment before he began thumping his chest while claiming to be a very good actor.

Part 4

“The alliance will surrender to the mage Louise and disband.”

Fieber, the leader of the Southeastern Bandits’ Alliance, had returned with puffy eyes. He had cried so much that his eyes were barely even visible anymore. It looked like Louise had dragged him away and cast terrible psychic spells on him.

The bandits in the village lost all hope now that Fieber had become Louise’s prisoner of war and was declaring surrender.

Fieber announced his declaration of surrender after returning to the alliance’s base too.

Naturally, the alliance’s upper brass resisted.

“What are you talking about?!”

“I meant exactly what I said. Lady Louise is stronger than I am. I tried to undo the spells on the bandits in the village, but I couldn’t. And now, I’ve fallen under her spells too.”

“…….”

The alliance executives shut their mouths, and the vice leader looked gloomy.

Fieber Pistol was the strongest individual among them. It had only been thanks to Fieber that the Southeastern Bandits’ Alliance had been doing so much better than any other bandits’ alliances. They could not believe that Louise, the crazy mage, had made such quick work of him.

“What if you asked your friends for help, Lord Fieber……?”

“I don’t want my friends to resent me. Besides, my brain would explode if I did. If you don’t want to disband the alliance, then just keep going without me. You’re on your own.”

The alliance executives were rendered speechless and didn’t know what to do.

“Anyway…,”

But Fieber wasn’t done yet. He continued,

“You guys are my enemies now.”

“What?”

The bandits stood there in dumb shock, unable to comprehend what Fieber had just said, and they slowly began stepping back as Fieber began to cackle.

Rumbleee!

Dozens of high-voltage bolts struck down from the heavens and became as bars to imprison the bandits.

“Lady Louise told me to kill you all if you don’t surrender.”

A stinging madness entered Fieber’s, who had looked harmless when he was yet their ally, eyes. He looked bizarre because his eyes were still swollen. The bandits took fright when they were faced with not only the terrifying magic that Fieber presented to his foes but also his bone-chillingly bizarre looks.

“How could you do this to us, Lord Fieber?! We’ve practically been your family ever since you were young…….”

“Why should I care when I’m about to die? I’ll die if I don’t fight you —I don’t have a choice! So hurry up and decide! Are you going to fight me? Or will you give up on the alliance and work for Lady Louise with me? You don’t want to surrender? Then fine! I’m sure you’ll be happier getting burnt to death at my hands!”

The executives fell flat on their faces when Fieber rattled off on his own and raised his hands up to the heavens.

“We’ll disband the alliance!”

“Oh yeah?”

It was only then that the bars of lightning dispersed. Fieber continued,

“Great! Make sure you tell all the bandit groups too.”

“Right…….”

The alliance executives had no choice but to climb back listlessly to their feet as Fieber grilled them.

The bandits’ alliance, which had existed for decades, had fallen because of one single mage.

They had been persecuting others with their might and wielding their power as they pleased, so there was nothing they could say for themselves when they themselves suffered at the hands of someone stronger. He who lives by power, dies by power.

Their lives had been in vain.

The bandits shed tears at the futility of it all.

The Southeastern Bandits’ Alliance crumbled completely a week later.

The bandits were imprisoned by Louise’s and Fieber’s magic, save for those who had fled to other regions early on. The imprisoned bandits were allocated between the villages where Louise had planted seeds and put to work.

“Now, hurry up and get to work!”

Fieber, who had completely taken up his role as Louise’s agent, worked the bandits to the bone. The man who had once been the alliance’s vice leader protested,

“I don’t remember you ever working so hard when you were our leader. Why did you suddenly get so assertive?”

“It’s because I’m under a spell, obviously. Just like how you lot have no other choice but to work too!”

The former bandits were rendered speechless when they heard Fieber’s confident declaration. Fieber continued,

“Besides, life here isn’t all too bad, no? We’re fed three square meals a day as long as we keep working steadily, we get plenty of down time, and no one exactly mistreats us either. The only downside is that we can’t have any quick and dirty fun. Am I wrong?”

The former vice leader shut his mouth.

Fieber was right. The villagers were wary of the bandits, but they did not mistreat them. They even allowed the former bandits to eat and rest in peace.

And, while it was still forced labor, it was mystifying to watch the crops growing under their hard work. They couldn’t quite explain what it was that they felt as they cultivated life with their own two hands instead of extorting it from others with their blades, but something about it felt funny. All the bandits felt this way, and not just the vice leader.

But they would be forced to live as slaves, robbed of their freedom, for the rest of their lives at this rate.

They saw no hope.

“I have good news for you!”

“What is it?”

the vice leader grumbled back.

“I went to Lady Louise and begged. I told her that we’d listen obediently, and I asked her to undo her spells once she was no longer upset with us. And she promised to undo her spells if you worked hard to help the village and the villagers agreed to release you from her spells —though she doesn’t know how long that might take.”

“Whoa!”

the vice leader cheered as he found hope again.

“Let’s get to work!”

The bandits began working even harder. They even gave a shout of concentration as they brandished their farm tools whenever they happened across Louise by chance.

Louise had nothing more to do once Fieber brought the bandits under his control. Louise’s faithful follower did everything in his power to do whatever it was that she ordered of him. The executives of the alliance, who had been on good terms with Fieber, wagged their tongues about how they had never known Fieber to be so obsessed with life before.

“Do your best, everyone!”

Louise was watching over Lyel and Butterfly as they diligently made their rounds because she had nothing better to do. Other people were stealing glances at the child and the cat as well.

They always felt so strange whenever they looked at the perfectly ordinary young child and perfectly ordinary animal. Why was that? Looking at them made them feel all warm and fuzzy inside and melted their ill feelings away. Even the ground became softer and easier to plow whenever they walked past.

“I think the southeast will be okay now,”

Lyel said to Louise one day, prompting Louise to return to the village of Rentille, where she had started her activities, to bid farewell.

“I’m leaving.”

The villagers knew that Louise had nothing more to do. Other people were in charge of the farming, and Fieber had the former bandits well under his control.

Besides, the bandits had mellowed considerably and didn’t even need Fieber to supervise them anymore. They had only been grumbling in their rage and terror at first because they hadn’t known how else to react. They had even threatened to take revenge as soon as Louise’s magic was undone.

But they had gradually resigned themselves before Louise’s powerful might. And their once-ferocious dispositions had mellowed as they began devoting themselves to farming with some more peace of mind. The green fields, which were rare to see in the North, had mellowed their hearts.

The villagers and the bandits were still cold to each other. The villagers, who had been victims, loathed the bandits, their assailants, and the bandits also despised the villagers because of the situation they were in.

But the bandits had no choice but to apologize and reflect on their actions, even if only for show, if they wanted to win back their freedom. And the atmosphere began to mellow when they gradually started apologizing and reflecting for real.

This was why Louise’s only job now was to look after Lyel and Butterfly or to visit each village to see how the crops were growing.

“So you’re leaving us.”

The bandits, who were still terrified of Louise, were happy to see her go, but the village chief and the villagers were wistful.

It wasn’t because they would no longer be receiving her help.

“Please come back anytime should you ever find yourself in need of a place to stay. We will always rise to the occasion should you ever need our assistance, Lady Louise.”

She was their savior. She had given them so much without asking for anything in return.

“We’ll be harvesting the crops soon —won’t you at least stay until then? Weren’t you researching the plants?”

the village chief asked wistfully, but Louise shook her head no.

“No, I just have a lot of work left to do. I need to leave now.”

“Right now?”

“Yes. Well, I’ll be going then.”

And so, Louise turned around and walked away. Hers had been a truly sudden and forthright farewell.

“Goodbye, Lady Louise. Please feel free to contact us anytime.”

Fieber wiped away his tears as he stood next to the village chief. The former vice leader was smiling next to him —if Fieber was happy, then so was he. The others thought much the same as the vice leader, and no one found Fieber particularly strange for crying.

“Lady Louise!”

the village chief called out to Louise after she had walked only a few steps away. Louise turned around, and the village chief arduously continued,

“Why do you pity the weak? And why do you hate the strong for menacing them?”

He was continuing his line of questioning from before.

“You’re strong —so strong that you could have simply chosen to focus on your own life without caring about others if you wanted to.”

Someone as powerful as Louise could live in any manner she wished without anyone getting in her way. No one could tell her otherwise even if she began wreaking havoc and robbing people blind.

But Louise had willingly spent her own time to help people whom she had no reason to care about. Why had she felt the need to do so? The village chief still couldn’t fully comprehend her actions.

“I was weaker than any other in my hometown.”

“I beg your pardon?”

the village chief asked back, unable to even imagine that Louise could have ever possibly been weak.

“I was sick with a deadly disease, I couldn’t work because my illness crippled my hands, and all I could do was starve. And to add insult to injury, everyone began avoiding me after this happened to my face. Everyone who was stronger than me when I was at my weakest spat at me and scorned me.”

Her words made it easy to imagine just how wretched her life had been. Bahamut was a cruel land for the weak. Louise continued,

“I died once. But I was born again after meeting a certain mage. I started wanting to help anyone I came across who was weak and kill anyone who was strong and tormenting the weak ever since.”

Louise slowly looked around that the people who were staring back at her.

“Then, one day, I suddenly decided to go around the world and try out all sorts of things because I didn’t want to see anyone else in the same situation that the Louise of the past was in. I could do this because I’m strong and because there’s nothing that can stop me.”

Most of the North’s problems stemmed from the lack of food, so she had modified some grains so they could grow even in the North’s climate and had taught people how to cultivate them. Then, she had toppled the bandits’ alliance, which had been tormenting the weak and had made them protect the weak.

“I’m going to keep doing similar things from now on.”

“Are you trying to change Bahamut, Lady Louise?”

the village chief asked gingerly. His had been a truly dangerous question. After all, anyone deemed a rebel was being taken away in extreme numbers in central Bahamut.

“It’s too difficult to change the world with my individual strength alone. Nor do I even plan to. I’m just doing small things for fun in my pastime.”

“…….”

“Whether you change or not is entirely up to you. But think about it.”

With my help, you no longer need to starve or be afraid that someone stronger will hurt you.

And not only do I no longer have to see things that I didn’t want to see, but now even I have your goodwill too. Didn’t you say that you’d help me anytime if I needed it? I never asked for anything in return, but I’ve obtained people who will help me when I’m in trouble in exchange for doing something that wasn’t all that hard for me.

“It’s good for me, you, and everyone else when we all live while helping each other instead of tormenting each other. Wouldn’t you agree?”

The village chief fell into thought as he pondered Louise’s words. Louise continued,

“Oh, and I know that I said that it was up to you whether you change or not, but you’ll be in trouble with me if you start harassing any villages that are weaker than you.”

“Y-yes, of course.”

The village chief nodded multiple times as if to express that his agreement was only obvious. Louise looked back at him quietly before she added,

“Remember this. No one lives alone in this world. You have to forge relationships in life, unless you plan on killing everyone else, that is. And the relationship between the strong and the weak isn’t fixed —it’s fluid, much like life itself.”

There was always someone weaker than the weak, and there was always someone stronger than the strong. And the situation could always be turned on its head because the weak could grow stronger and climb above the strong.

Even the smallest help from the strong could be a turning point in the weak’s life. And the weak, who had grown stronger, could always turn around and help the strong too.

“Yes, we’ll be sure to remember that.”

The village chief finally felt like he understood what Louise was saying.

“Now, there’s something I’d like to ask you. Should you refrain from tormenting the weak just because they can always grow stronger than you, and should you help others just because they might help you back in the future?”

The people looked confused because they didn’t know what kind of answer Louise wanted from them. Louise continued,

“No. You should help others simply because you can.”

Louise waived her staff.

“I’m only telling you this because I think you’ve changed enough to be able to give it some serious thought. Think about it. Well, I’m really leaving now.”

Louise left behind a lingering impression as she teleported away with Lyel and Butterfly after giving the people her answer.

~~*~~

News that the Southeastern Bandits’ Alliance had been captured by a single mage spread all throughout the Bahamut Empire. In addition, rumors that the seeds the mage had planted in the lands where she was active had grown into edible crops shook the nation.

Louise, the mage with hideous burn scars on her face.

Territories were scrambling over each other to invite her to their lands. But Louise ignored them all and hopped all around the southern, eastern, and northern reaches of Bahamut as she pleased. She planted seeds everywhere, as if on a whim, and she destroyed infamous bandit groups one after another.

Meanwhile, the people in power simply decided to wait and watch in their arrogance.

“She’s nothing to worry about. I don’t know how bored the bitch is to be doing this, but she’s been proving beneficial.”

They simply saw her as a pushover who was fattening their pigs for them. And so, they ignored the situation for now and planned to devour the villages once they had grown richer. They ignored the situation even when the bandit groups that they had connections with reached out to them for help.

“Right this way, Lady Louise!”

Louise had started visiting large territories as well.

“It’s an honor to be able to serve you. You’re very famous. They call you the ‘Judge of Bandits.’”

But shortly thereafter……Louise started becoming famous under a different epitaph as well.

The ‘Judge of Lords.’

“Please spare me!”

“But I don’t want to? Just die already.”

Several liege lords of the territories Louise visited were either killed or left half dead, tied up, and left dangling from the ramparts of their own castles. Louise also put up notices listing all the evil that the liege lords had committed alongside them.

Then, Louise opened up the liege lords’ warehouses and instructed the less corrupted officials to distribute the food and goods to the people. She never took anything for herself.

Most people scorned her actions.

They called her stupid at first. Why didn’t she simply take everything for herself?

A little while later, they called her a hypocrite and pointed their fingers at her. They grumbled about how no one ever helped others without asking for anything in return and complained that she must surely have some underlying motives.

But Louise never stopped her incomprehensible actions, so then they began calling her an eccentric. Mages were a temperamental sort to begin with, perhaps, but why was she doing things that gave her absolutely no benefit?

“Is she anti-Bahamut?”

But that didn’t seem to be the case either. Louise went around cultivating crops and beating up bandits and a few liege lords, but she never incited the citizens to change the way things worked in Bahamut. Besides, several of the liege lords who had suffered at Louise’s hands had been anti-Bahamut themselves.

The only thing that the liege lords she judged had in common was the fact that they were ‘evil.’

And so, the people determined that Louise was some sort of righteous outlaw. Righteous outlaws tended to crop up from time to time. Though none of them had ever lived for very long.

Thus, the people thought that Louise would be dead soon too.

“It’s Louise, the crazy mage!”

But the number of liege lords who were judged at Louise’s hands only grew by the day. And others still were found assassinated even though Louise had never visited their territories. The rumor on the streets claimed that the assassinations were Louise’s doing as well because they were only conducted in areas where Louise was active.

Several corrupt liege lords sensed the oncoming danger and began forming an alliance.

“Let’s kill her!”

The liege lords gathered their rural knight orders and mages, lured Louise over, and attacked her.

A legend was born that day.

“The mage Louise won!”

“Louise leveled an entire mountain with a large-scale spell!”

No one could stop her.

“She’s a crazy mage who’s trying to overturn Bahamut!”

Eventually, the liege lords sought help from central Bahamut.

But central Bahamut dismissed their request. The law of the jungle was the law in Bahamut, and Louise’s tyranny wasn’t viewed as out of the ordinary because she was strong. Central Bahamut was indifferent to the liege lords’ plight because, at the end of the day, Louise was benefitting Bahamut by sharing the liege lords’ goods ­—central Bahamut couldn’t really have cared any less.

And so, Louise’s action continued unhindered.

The people of Bahamut began growing uneasy.

They regarded the Bahamut imperial family as gods, but it was their liege lords who ruled over them like kings in practice —as far as the people were concerned, their liege lords were the strongest people in the world. They felt strange as the liege lords, whom they had thought were beings of absolute strength, were battered and bruised and hung from the ramparts or plaza like butchered meat.

Their rulers, who had seemed so absolute and powerful, had been so easily reduced to such a lousy state. And Louise, who was strong, was not persecuting the weak but was rather sharing what she had with them instead.

The people were delighted, though they didn’t let it show. The terror they felt toward the imperial family was like a vice grip over Bahamut and had been suffocating them, but these new, if unusual, rumors finally gave them a chance to breathe. And, little by little, the people began growing fond of Louise. But that was only natural, since she was helping them and they had benefitted from her actions.

On the other hand, however, the liege lords twitched with rage at the mere mention of Louise’s name.

Louise was like a bomb, and no one knew when or where she would explode next. She seemed to be behind every new mayhem that was wreaked. She used Teleport, one of the strongest spatial spells there was, so freely that she always appeared out of nowhere at the most unexpected places to wreak more havoc.

“What did Louise do this time……?”

“The liege lord of Preiha was found with a hole through his chest…….”

Louise was always the topic of discussion at any of the liege lords’ dinner parties or gatherings.

“That’s terrible. It’s even scarier because she refuses to negotiate.”

“And Central only keeps ignoring us.”

“All I can do is hope that she’ll never visit my lands.”

The undefeated mage, who had won victory after victory, was like terror made flesh. She was even scarier because she could not be negotiated with or bribed.

“I can’t seem to figure out why no one knew about a mage as powerful as her until now. Did she used to be some kind of hermit?”

“That seems likely. She was probably living quietly while doing research into crops that can grow in the North.”

“So she only stepped out because she was done with her research?”

“There really are all sorts of eccentrics in the world.”

“I think that the mage Louise might be affiliated with an organization of some sort. It’s impossible for just one person to uncover the secrets of so many different lords without any help.”

“The same is probably true about the crops she modified too. It was probably researched at the organizational level for a very long time, and the fruits of their research only came to light in this generation.”

The liege lords were convinced that Louise must be affiliated with an organization. They began searching madly to learn more about Louise’s identity and the secret organization that was supposedly behind her.

But they could not conduct any meaningful investigation because Louise was a common name and they had absolutely no clues about the secret organization. Even the Black Fox, the greatest intelligence organization in the Bahamut Empire, knew next to nothing about her.

“Why don’t we focus on killing her for now?”

The liege lords posted an astronomical bounty for anyone who managed to bring them Louise’s head.

But any bounty hunter who chased Louise down ended up losing their own heads instead. And the bounty hunters stopped trying entirely when they heard that several imperial knights had decided to participate in the ‘Louise Hunt’ just for fun while they were on vacation only to be soundly defeated.

“What the hell are we supposed to do?!”

“She’s practically a walking calamity. We have no choice but to humor the woman for the time being.”

The liege lords decided to lay low until they could seize Louise’s weakness. There were even a few lords who decided to try getting in her good graces too. They started to do ludicrous things like mimicking Louise’s actions in the North just for show.

Those liege lords who had close ties with and were simply looking the other way when it came to the bandits were the first to step up and wipe the bandits out. They also gave their people, whom they had simply been using like slave labor until then, reasonable wages for the work they did. They ploughed the fields and planted the winter seeds that Louise had been handing around.

“My word.”

“The lords have lost their minds.”

The people grew distraught as the liege lords suddenly changed and began treating them well.

“This is amazing!”

Meanwhile, the first villages that Louise had instructed to cultivate the crops were just about ready to begin harvesting.

“All of this is edible?”

“I’ve never seen plants growing so well in the North in my life.”

The villagers and former bandits alike visited the farms several times a day just to stare at the yellow heads of grain in mute amazement. They were like a warm blanket of sunlight covering the ashen earth. The grains rustled, and the soft golden glow bobbed like waves whenever there was a breeze. It looked ever so beautiful and warm.

“We grew all this.”

Louise had cast magic this one time to help expedite the plants’ growth, but watching the plants grow by the day had been the definition of awe itself. The people found fun in trying to guess how much the plants had grown every morning.

“Now then, let’s get to work.”

The people found it awkward at first, because this was their first time doing this, but their satisfaction pushed them from behind as they took up their sickles and rakes in preparation for the coming harvest.

Swish, swish.

They were technically being forced to do it, but the bandits began to pile up the crops that they had toiled so hard to cultivate. The people who had been waiting for the piles began shaking the crops on top of large pieces of cloth they had laid out across the ground, and the grains fell out and began piling up in heaps.

Bleaaat.

The livestock, which had been tied up to the fences next to the farms, ate whatever crops that remained. The rich texture, which they could never taste from dry and withered grasses, stimulated their tongues and stomachs. The livestock fell in love with the taste and dove into the crops headfirst.

Scrape, scrape.

The people dug out the root vegetables with their rakes. It was electrifying to see the roots dangling from the vines. The crunchy vegetables tasted sweet even when they were raw and uncooked.

The people sat down on the fields and drank refreshing drinks once they were done with their daily tasks. The admired the view of the sunset casting a blanket glow over the crops as the sun sank beneath the horizon.

“It feels weird.”

“Yeah. We can satisfy our hunger with food that we grew ourselves from now on…….”

The bitter sense of deprivation swept over them for a moment.

“Apparently, the South has been enjoying this all this time.”

“How nice it would’ve been if the North had been like this from the beginning too.”

But the deprivation faded away as they watched the golden spectacle before them, and a peculiar feeling they could not quite name began surging up and touching their hearts.

“But this will become the norm now.”

Fieber Pistol was teaching everyone just how amazing Louise was as the people’s hearts grew mellow.

“Lady Louise is great!”

The people had ignored Fieber’s noisy praise at first, but now they were beginning to nod along.

“She’s a little scary, but she really is incredible. Yep.”

Had Fieber been brainwashing them? Even the bandits whom Louise had beaten mercilessly acknowledged her greatness and regarded her with awe.

The people of southeastern Bahamut had learned what it was like to derive joy from harvest instead of plunder. Especially if they had never enjoyed fighting to begin with.

“We don’t have to fight anymore, do we?”

So many people had begun to think along these lines.

Truth be told, Louise had specifically chosen villages of docile disposition when she was going around planting seeds. That was why most of the villages she had visited thought this way. The thoughts of the majority were contagious and eventually infected the minority too. The effect was so profound that people couldn’t help but wonder —did violent and militant people think this way too?

Even if she hadn’t visited their village to plant seeds there, the people of Bahamut were changing their mindset, if ever so slightly, after witnessing Louise’s actions.

It wasn’t that good people didn’t exist in Bahamut. It was simply that their environment had made them selfish and evil.

It was difficult for those whose fatherlands had been conquered by Bahamut or who had been kidnapped and sent to Bahamut as a slave to withstand the inhumane conditions of the empire. But, what other choice did they have? They had no choice but to adapt to Bahamut’s way of doing things even if they knew it wasn’t right.

But then, Louise had started performing outrageous acts of good, and no one had been able to stop her. The North was gradually covered in green, and the bandits began disappearing. The liege lords had changed, and the people’s quality of life had improved exceptionally.

The people who had been living in hiding in Bahamut slowly came on board with the new current that Louise had created and gradually began to show their true colors.

I’ll help you.

But why?

Just because…….

When they showed goodwill to others first, the people who received their goodwill repaid kindness with kindness. The citizens of Bahamut began exchanging goodwill without asking for anything in return, and they grew bewildered by the joy they felt —they had never thought it could feel this way.

“It’s so strange.”

Even the obstinate Bahamut natives, who had only insulted Louise at first, were starting to be shaken.

“She’s such a mysterious mage.”

“She’s amazing.”

The giantess’ colossal footstep had brought about a variety of changes in the small world around her. And the people were ever so slowly getting swept up under her influence.

“How can she be like that?”

The number of people who liked Louise grew by the day. And goodwill spread like a contagious disease. Even those who had hidden away their goodwill at first were parading it boldly now.

It was, rather, the people who disliked Louise who were in hiding now. And even they had no choice but to be swept away by the gigantic tides and take a step toward good.

Their good was hypocritical.

But the purpose of the tide was to push people toward being good, even if only out of hypocrisy. Their good may only be hypocrisy now, but given enough time, they would have the chance to rectify their thoughts and do true good out of their own volition.

“I thought she was going to drop dead a long time ago.”

Many had said that Louise would die in no time at all.

But Louise wasn’t dead.

Rather, she was raging like a hurricane as she swallowed Bahamut whole.

Louise had managed to bring about a wind of change to Bahamut without breaking any of Bahamut’s laws. She was someone strong who crushed the weak underfoot, just as the law of the jungle dictated. She was simply choosing to crush some and not others.

The people found her curious.

What kind of strong person sacrificed her own time to help the weak? Time was a limited resource that was allotted equally to all.

This was why the people didn’t hate Louise.

Meanwhile, the liege lords had figured out where Louise had come from.

The people of Louise’s hometown tried not to speak about her because they were terrified of her, but they scrambled over each other and desperately tried to say as much about her as they could when they were offered a handsome sum of money in exchange.

Louise’s past was shocking.

In the beginning, Louise had been weaker and uglier than any other in her hometown. She had grown stronger than any other now, but she had not taken revenge for her past. She was simply walking a new path.

She was like the protagonist of a novel.

No —Louise was so amazing that she deserved to be the protagonist of a novel.

There had been several debates about how to fill the vacancies in the archmages’ seats around this time.

Of the Ten Archmages, the two from Bahamut were dead. And the two mages who had grown famous recently were also from Bahamut.

And so, two new archmages were named.

Gilchop, the ‘Freezing’ Archmage, who had come into fame by standing his ground while doing battle against the archmages from Ex-knights.

And Louise, the Archmage of the ‘Weak,’ who had been born weaker than any other and had now become as a pillar of support for the weak.

~~*~~

Part 5

Boooooom!

“Die, just fucking die!”

the liege lord cursed as he struggled desperately.

Booom!

Countless spells showered upon one place. Arrows shot by trained archers and lances launched by ballistae also roared as they closed in.

“Die, Louise of the Weak!”

The traps and spells had all been prepared just to kill one person —Louise.

“I’ll have to use magic for real if I want to block all this,”

Louise mumbled as she deployed a Shield while standing in the middle of it all.

Someone heard her whispering.

“Die!”

Soldiers who were prepared to die jumped in through the spells and tried to stab her.

Shiiiing.

But a strange ringing resounded just then as it erased every other sound. Everyone stopped moving. It was almost as if time itself had stopped.

And, an instant later, the people surrounding Louise collapsed while spurting blood, and the arrows, lances, and swords were shattered.

“Hah.”

Louise brandished her staff. Blades of wind sliced up anyone who was still alive and left scars on the ramparts. Even the liege lord, who had been barking orders from afar, was killed. No one had survived the scene except for Louise.

“It’s starting to get difficult to kill some of these people without showing off my true skills, Lady Tara.”

“I’m aware.”

A shadow fell from above.

“Here I thought that you were having fun eating and sleeping as you pleased while making me do all the hard work, but I see that you were watching over me all along.”

“Between the two of us, you’ve been putting up with more of the trouble.”

“Life is always filled with trouble. Can’t you just accompany me normally?”

“It’s easier to focus all the attention on you this way.”

Louise —no, Dorcianni— concurred.

“You’re right. It’s more sensational for the people to think that I’m doing this all alone. They don’t like it when there are two main characters in the spotlight. But aren’t you getting tired of just watching over me all the time?”

“Not at all.”

“Well, I’m not complaining —I feel like I’ve become someone high and mighty when I have you guarding me in secret like this, Lady Tara. But anyway…”

The edges of Dorcianni’s lips curled up as she smiled. She continued,

“Isn’t this so fun? I’ve been named an archmage twice. I guess you could say that I’m double titled now? I want to brag, but there’s no one here I can brag to.”

“You can go brag to Eiji later, so let’s get going for now. Lyel and Butterfly are waiting,”

Tara —no, Ianna— said as she hurried the amused Dorcianni along.

~~*~~

Ianna spent most of her time hiding somewhere near Dorcianni. Usually, she was hiding in the branches of a tree with large, thick leaves, or sometimes sitting on the roof of a tall building, while training her mind as she protected Dorcianni whenever the latter wasn’t employing the true extent of her skills. Ianna also sometimes went around assassinating liege lords on her own.

“This is a vegetable you can plant in winter and harvest in spring.”

“Y-yes, Lady Louise.”

“Why are you trembling?”

“It’s n-n-n-nothing at all…”

Ianna was sitting in the branches of a tree as she watched Dorcianni hand out seeds. But her gaze shifted when Nissi shot out into her field of vision and began running around.

Ideas upon Ideas were layered over Bahamut’s lands. They bore into the earth itself and disrupted the cycle of nature’s divine power.

Jingle.

But the flow of the world began to mix into itself, as if someone was kneading it by hand, whenever Nissi’s feet touched the ground as she pranced.

Jingle.

The bell on Nissi’s neck rang clearly as it resonated with the world, purified the Ideas, and created a new path for the divine power.

Jingle.

The divine power returned to its normal flow and seeped into nature as new life. And the proper flow mellowed the hearts of the people of Bahamut, who were already hard-pressed just to survive.

‘It’s almost like the hand of god.’

Ianna simply accepted it no matter what Elly and Nissi did now. Elly seemed to have noticed, as she now had Nissi take the spotlight to do some truly absurd things without batting an eye. Ianna was watching the entire process with her own two eyes, but she still found it difficult to believe that the North’s geological problems could be solved so readily.

Truly, what were their true identities?

‘Am I guessing right?’

Ianna’s sharp intuition pointed to a certain possibility, but she did not put it to words because she couldn’t be certain that she was right.

In any event, she had originally planned for this mission to take a very long time, but now it was looking like things would wrap up faster than she had expected and still yield greater results. She had only planned makes the seeds sprout slowly —who would have thought that they would take root so soon?

The plan to sweep away the people of Bahamut’s terror and plant the seeds of rebellion in them by consulting a popular novel —also called Operation ‘Scary Louise’— had been a resounding success.

The chaos of Bahamut’s internal affairs, Louise’s pitiful past, Dorcianni’s flashy and powerful magic, Fieber Pistol’s, the leader of the bandits’ alliance, support, Maron’s exceptional intelligence operations, crops that could grow in the North, Elly’s and Nissi’s mysterious power……it had been the result of a happy marriage between several different elements.

Ianna periodically received reports about how Bahamut was changing from the inside from Maron. According to Maron, the ambiguous winds of change were flowing gently in Bahamut that central Bahamut could neither try to control or simply leave alone.

‘I’ve been really busy, haven’t I?’

Ianna sighed as she leaned against the tree.

Enough seeds had sprouted.

Her mission was coming to a close.

And the reason she had undertaken it to begin with. She had made some progress in uncovering the reason behind her stalled growth and how to break through it.

Ianna had obtained a lot of time for herself by leaving the war to Arhad and leaving her mission to Dorcianni. She had sought to learn more about her current state of being and Roberstein’s seal as she meditated deeply.

Her problem was that her growth was so frustratingly slow that it was suffocating her. Ianna believed that her growth was slow because she had reached such a supreme level. And so, she had looked to undoing Roberstein’s seal and obtaining Roberstein’s heart and power as her means of breaking through her rut.

But there was something she had learned as of late.

Roberstein was both her means of breaking through and an obstacle to her progress.

Roberstein was an incredible hinderance to ‘Ianna’s’ growth.

“Hwooo.”

Ianna breathed deeply as she focused on her heartbeat. Thump, thump, thump, thump —her heart was beating hardily. The sound of each beat grew longer, as if time itself was slowing down, as she engrossed herself in focusing on the flow. Thuuump, thuuump. The sound of her heartbeat grew louder and fragmented as she completely cut away any and all noise from the outside.

Th, uuu, mp. She found places where the beats were oddly out of joint instead of flowing smoothly.

It was due to the seal’s influence. Ianna’s heart wasn’t working normally, so it was no wonder why her growth had slowed.

‘My heart is one thing, but…….’

Ianna honed in on her mind next. She was looking up at a cliff in the world inside her mind. She could see a brilliant light shining on top of the cliff, and she most certainly had the strength to climb up, but she could not. Why? Why? She poured all her might into reached up. Her head hurt so much she thought it might explode. She almost felt like her soul was about to shatter.

Ianna had been looking only up at the cliff, as if she was being chased by something, and she only found the leisure to look down thanks to Arhad and Dorcianni.

And that was when she had noticed.

Heavy fetters were reaching up from the dark abyss below her and shackling her feet so that she could never reach the top of the cliff. Ianna was ready to break past her limits and soar to the skies above, but something from the abyss was shackling her with the seal and holding her down.

The bottomless abyss was ‘Roberstein.’

The shackles were like rubber bands. Even if one end wanted to spring forward, it could not if the other end behind it did not want to budge. Pulling at both ends would only serve to overload both sides. This was also a part of the reason why Ianna was so vexed.

‘I’ll be able to resolve the delay in my growth once I remove the seal.’

It had been worth taking on this mission to ascertain her problem and simplify a solution for it. But Ianna was still frustrated because solving her problem required undoing her seal, and she had no idea how to do that yet.

“Come down, Lady Tara.”

Louise looked up at where Ianna was and waved once the people she had been talking to had left. Ianna surveyed her surroundings for presences before she jumped down.

“Lyel is on her way here.”

She could see Elly coming over from the distance with a sealed brown envelope. Elly had recently taken on the role of rendezvousing with the informant in Ianna’s stead.

“Over here!”

Maron, the information organization made of radical elements from Bahamut.

Allying with Maron had been an excellent choice. Maron had been working in the shadows of Bahamut for a very long time and could offer a staggering amount of information. Maron had also been the main party responsible for spreading news about Louise all throughout the empire.

Crackle.

Ianna broke the sealing magic and read the documents that were inside.

As always, it contained information about evil liege lords and the change happening inside Bahamut.

But there were two more items today. They were answers to the questions that Ianna had posed: ‘What is the Black Fox focusing on right now?’ and ‘Has the Bahamut imperial family taken an interest in Louise?’

The answer to the first question was, ‘Western Bahamut.’

Reading the information that Maron had obtained hadn’t given Ianna a clear picture of what the Black Fox was up to. They had generally been gathering intelligence, manipulating the public opinion about Ex-knights, and abducting nomadic dissidents and dragging them to central Bahamut, but one of these were particularly out of the ordinary considering that this was the Black Fox.

So instead, Maron had stated that they were suspicious about western Bahamut. This was because the Black Fox was restricting so much information in the West that it was rather strange.

‘The West…….’

Ianna pressed at her furrowed brows as she read the answer to her second question.

The answer to her second question was simply, ‘No.’

Bahamut’s state administration was largely divided between central Bahamut and rural Bahamut. The rural provinces governed autonomously while sending monthly reports to central Bahamut under normal circumstances, but they reported to central Bahamut directly in the event of an emergency.

The administrative government directly under the imperial family dealt with the reports. Most reports were organized by the administrative government, but important issues were escalated up to the imperial family. If the imperial family decided that the issue could only be resolved by their direct action, then they would collect all the information pertaining to it and act.

But imperial family had only had to take a lot of direct action toward the beginning of the empire’s history, and they hardly took direct action anymore. The central knight orders and mage units were powerful, and they were more than enough to deal with most problems.

The administration government in central Bahamut had received reports pertaining to Louise, but they had not decided that she was an issue worth escalating, according to Root. Rather, there were some in the government who thought that Louise should be rewarded for supplying so many war provisions by making it possible to cultivate crops in the North.

Louise, the up-and-coming powerful mage, was a topic of gossip between the knights and mages of Bahamut, according to Karnitz and Fieber. There were also a few high-ranking imperial knights and court mages who wanted to find Louise and win the hefty bounty that the rural liege lords had placed on her head.

That was simply how great the rumors surrounding her were.

So it was certainly possible that the Bahamut imperial family at least knew Louise’s name. But the imperial family was so busy, though no one knew why, that they were hardly ever in the palace, so everyone assumed that they had no interest in Louise, who, at the end of the day, was nothing more than an up-and-coming mage.

Ianna also concluded that the imperial family was not interested in Louise.

‘They’re too busy working on something in the West.’

The imperial family had long since given the order that none shall be allowed to pass the Galak Citadel, where western Bahamut began. This was why Louise had not been able to act in the West.

Ianna and Dorcianni had visited the citadel out of curiosity at the start of their mission, and even they had been too nervous to approach it carelessly. Not only had the imperial family deployed sturdy barriers all around the citadel but there were also stern knights with a petrifying air about them standing guard throughout. Their shining armor, the lack of emotion on their faces, and the bone-chilling aura they gave off made them starkly different from Bahamut’s run-of-the-mill knights.

This was Ianna’s first time seeing them in this life.

“Pakalatua, the First Imperial Knight Order.”

“How did you know? By their armor?”

Ianna knew because she had seen them in her past life. But she answered Dorcianni half-heartedly and asked if it would be possible to teleport them inside. Dorcianni had said no.

“I can’t because the barrier’s too strong. And breaking it would lead to the imperial family discovering us immediately.”

In the end, Ianna had retreated after reporting back to Arhad. She could have broken past the barrier if she had wanted to, but she still had a mission she needed to accomplish, and she hadn’t found any reason to take on the extra threat of having the imperial family find out that she had infiltrated the empire just to get inside.

But Ianna couldn’t allow herself to retreat any more.

‘The bastards are definitely up to something in western Bahamut.’

Ianna had a hunch that the Bahamut imperial family and the Black Fox were working on something together in western Bahamut.

‘But what, exactly? They haven’t even shown up on the battlefield yet.’

Ianna contacted Arhad every day. And he kept her up to date with how the war was progressing.

Ex-knights and Bahamut were still at war in the East. But wasn’t it obvious which side was superior between a powerful and relentless offense and a sturdy defense? Ex-knights was slowly mounting the offensive as of late, and she was pushing into Bahamut’s borders.

But the Bahamut army deployed in the East was only concerned about fighting and did not seem to have any plans to occupy Ex-knights’ territory. The fact that Ex-knights had exceptional defenses was one thing, of course, but it was still quite strange.

The bastards were stalling for time.

And so, Ianna decided.

“Let’s go to western Bahamut, Louise.”

~~*~~

Payne had heard about the mage named Louise as well.

‘How bored is this bitch?’

But he paid her no mind. He couldn’t care any less about a mere archmage. His only job was to manufacture more Life.

Payne had gathered together his brethren in the North and had rebuilt the Black Fox upon his return.

“P-please just kill me…….”

“Please. I’d rather die…….”

“I can’t allow that.”

Payne had lost a lot of weight, and he looked more eccentric than he ever had before. His entire being reeked of blood, and the light of madness dwelt in his dulled eyes. He looked ghastly as he gnawed on someone’s crimson heart. There was a mountain of boxes piled up behind him. They were all filled with blackish Life.

Payne was living for only one purpose.

To enact dreadful revenge upon the bastards in Ex-knights!

This was why he was grinding up the slaves and the people of the lowest caste in Bahamut. They mostly consisted of people from western Bahamut or vassal states that paid tributes to the empire.

Bahamut to the North, Ex-knights to the East, and Roanne to the South.

There existed powerful countries that could hold their ground against Bahamut in the East and South.

But no such powerful player existed in the West.

That was why life was vanishing from the West like a summer haze.

And no one was any wiser about it because the Bahamut imperial family and the Black Fox were excellent at restricting the flow of information. No one knew what was happening in the West.

“Please grant me my long-cherished wish, Your Majesty……,”

Payne mumbled as he looked to the direction where the imperial family was.

~~*~~

A few days later.

[You’ve completed your mission with flying colors.]

Ianna’s mission had come to a close. He continued,

[Will you be coming home now?]

Ianna felt like her heart was being stabbed by the odd sense of guilt she felt toward the excitement in his voice.

[No……. I’d like to visit western Bahamut first.]

[The West?]

Arhad’s voice cooled instantly.

He always fretted over her and asked about what she had done that day, if she was tired, if she was eating and sleeping well, how she was feeling, and how her training was going every time they called.

And he openly expressed his loneliness, which was several times greater than his worry. He always asked her how her mission was progressing and when she thought she’d be able to come home, and he always made sure she knew that he wanted to see her, that he missed her sorely, and that he loved her.

It was as clear as day that he wanted to see her every time they called. He had surely been looking forward to the fact that Ianna would be coming home soon since her mission was wrapping up, and Ianna felt bad about bringing up the topic even though she knew that it was necessary for their work.

She didn’t even need to see him in person to know. Ianna could vividly see Arhad acting like a dog whose ears had perked up at the thought that his master was about to come home only to deflate when he learned that she was not in the mind to do so. He understood why she couldn’t come home yet in his head, but his heart was still openly disappointed all the same.

“I miss you too, but something strange is happening in the Northwest.”

[Right.]

They hadn’t needed much information about the Northwest until now because they hadn’t had any reason to need to know what was happening there. But they had found themselves lacking too much information now that they wanted to rescue the people there. And there were no intelligence organizations that could give them any information about the Northwest.

Eiji had been too busy building a new information network around Ex-knights that he hadn’t had the time to touch the Northwest.

The beastmen had lived in the West previously, but most of them had migrated to Ex-knights and now lived in the East, and what few beastmen still lived in the West were content with their lives in the desert and did not leave it. And they could simply use the Gates if they ever wanted to meet, so they had no reason to travel around the West.

Absilot had previously frequented between the Girohai Desert and Ex-knights, but now he generally stayed in Ex-knights and participated in the war with Terranodin’s permission.

Even Mursi, who was a merchant and needed to traverse the continent on foot instead of using the Gates, had also been busy out of his mind building a new business network after moving the Paella Company’s headquarters to Semastair. And so, everyone had naturally ended up neglecting the West.

Mursi still maintained a good relationship with the Kingdom of Toraca, where his company had originally been headquartered. Toraca had been sad to see him leave, but she didn’t make a problem out of it because he could connect her to Ex-knights, the eye of the storm, and she could begin trading with Ex-knights through Mursi.

That was why Arhad had tried asking Toraca for more information about the Northwest. But the only answer he was returned was that Toraca had cut all diplomatic ties with the countries in the Northwest. The countries in the Northwest had unilaterally closed their borders.

Neither Saki nor the Kingdom of Jinzai, the land of zealots, had better luck with the Northwest either. Jinzai had finished conquering Sidian, Payne’s kingdom, a few months back. And she was busy reorganizing Sidian’s territory and working in concert with Roanne to do battle against Bahamut on the northern front.

Not a single one of the people visiting Ex-knights had been from the Northwest either. Even though there would have been at least a few people who were curious about the newly established kingdom.

This was why they had no way to obtain more information about western Bahamut or the Northwest.

[I didn’t tell you before, but I actually visited the barrier myself during the early stages of your mission after you gave me your report.]

Ianna grew nervous upon hearing the discomfort in Arhad’s voice.

“You did? And your thoughts?”

[The barrier was of the same sort as the barrier around the royal palace of Roanne that cuts off all magic. No living creature other than the Bahamut imperial family can use magic inside it. They even added a function that prevents anyone they didn’t personally permit inside from entering. And the barrier covers the entire Northwest. I would have noticed immediately if the barrier had been made with magic, but I didn’t because the bastards made it with divine power.]

The barrier was incredibly dense and powerful, but it was also faint, as if it had been created from a very find thread. It was so faint that one wouldn’t notice that it was even there unless they actually came across it in person. It had been put up while Ex-knights was too busy to pay attention to the Northwest. Arhad continued,

[I could destroy it and go inside if it was made of mana, but I can’t because it’s made of divine power.]

Ianna had a terrible feeling about this.

Just what on earth was the Bahamut imperial family doing that they needed to go to such lengths to keep it a secret?

[But I have a general idea about what they’re doing inside.]

“What are they doing?”

[They’re carrying out a massacre.]

Those were heavy words.

“What makes you think that?”

[All mana is under my influence, but divine power is an innate aura that belongs solely to the user. And the fastest way for the imperial family to grow stronger in their current situation is to increase the amount of divine power they have.]

Arhad took a deep breath and continued,

[I think that the bastards are absorbing divine power from the Northwest while using the war to bide time. A lot of divine power is wasted in the process of manufacturing Life, but they can obtain divine power directly without wasting any from anyone they kill directly, so they’re probably doing the latter to increase their divine power.]

“…….”

[And the barrier is proof of that. Even the imperial family couldn’t erect such a vast barrier with only the divine power they were born with. The barrier was probably made from divine power they stole from the people they’ve killed.]

If Arhad was right, then the bastards truly were insane.

“In any event, we won’t be able to deal with it unless we know for certain what’s going on. I’ll go and confirm it myself.”

[In secret? Or by breaking the barrier?]

“The barrier will prove difficult. I don’t think it’ll be possible for me to slip inside unnoticed without tearing it. So instead, I’ll be breaking in from the front.”

[Very well. And what will you do once you’ve confirmed it?]

“I want to try fighting them.”

[I knew you’d say that.]

Arhad sighed.

“I’ll also destroy any Life factories and eliminate any black foxes I come across, so please send me a beastman with a good nose.”

[I was actually going to tell you later today, but Lalatua paid me a visit about the West earlier.]

“Princess Lalauta?”

[She’s from the Kingdom of Mardial, remember?]

Ianna had been confused by the sudden mention, but it made sense once she remembered where Lalatua had originally been from.

Lalatua El Mardial. The Kingdom of Mardial was a northwestern kingdom that shared a border with Bahamut, and she was a classic example of Bahamut’s vassal states.

[Lalatua cut her ties with her fatherland, but she’d been keeping in touch with one of her siblings. But she lost contact a few weeks ago, and she came to me because she wanted to pay the kingdom a visit. I warned her about the danger, but I permitted it because she was being stubborn about it. She left with Taro a few days ago.]

Lalatua hated her fatherland, but she was still worried about the lives of her family. Was the royal family of Mardial safe? Ianna had mixed feelings.

[Do you want to rendezvous with them? They said they would stay in Toraca while trying to figure out a way to go north from there, so you could probably meet up with them if you head there. And Taro can act as the beastman you wanted me to send you.]

Taro was more than enough for the job.

“I’ll meet up with them.”

[I’ll let them know, then. Meet them by the clocktower at the Grand Plaza of Toraca at six in the evening today.]

“Understood.”

[Right. And I know I always tell you, but safety comes first. Be sure to let me know if anything happens.]

“I will. But you must tell me if something happens too.”

[Of course. You’re my knight, after all.]

The two of them laughed through their rings.

“I’ll come home as quickly as I can.”

[Please do. I miss you so much. Nothing appeals to me when you’re not here. I love you, Ianna.]

“……Me too.”

I love you too. I miss you too.

Ianna ended their call and gathered Dorcianni, Elly, and Nissi, who had been resting in an inn.

“We’ll wrap up this mission tonight and move directly onto our next one.”

“I like it. I was getting bored of all the repetition.”

“Wow! A new job!”

Elly raised her hands in the air.

“We might have to act as Tara, Louise, Lyel, and Butterfly again, so don’t get rid of your masks. Let’s teleport to Toraca, Louise.”

“Okay.”

Dorcianni raised up her staff. A beautiful magic circle was drawn beneath them.

Part 6

At a small inn in Toraca.

Dorcianni took off Louise’s face.

“Ah, that’s much better.”

Her black hair cascaded down like a waterfall. Dorcianni, after returning to her original face, pestered Ianna into summoning Innis. Then, she asked,

“Please clean me up, Lord Innis.”

[That’s my specialty!]

Innis washed away all the dirt and dust that had been clinging to Dorcianni’s body. Then, he swallowed up Elly and Nissi and cleaned them so thoroughly that they were positively sparkling.

[Little Iannaaaa!]

And finally, they cleaned Ianna, who had also taken off her mask and had returned to her original appearance.

They were all freshly cleaned as they ate at a restaurant, and they made their way to the clocktower once they had confirmed that the sunset had begun dying the sky red.

“Little Ianna!”

They saw a beautiful woman with purple hair and a rugged-looking wild beast waving at them from afar.

“It’s been too long, Miss Dorci.”

“Indeed.”

Lalatua extended her greetings to Dorcianni as well. They had met for the first time in Ex-knights, and they had grown close enough to collaborate on research together because they got along well and had a similar outlook on magic.

“Three beers, one glass of wine, and one cup of orange juice please.”

The group ordered drinks at a tavern as they sat down.

“It’s been a while. How has your training been going?”

Most people thought that Ianna was busy with training. Ianna equivocated and said that things were going well before they moved on to the next topic of discussion. Lalatua continued,

“I was waiting eagerly for you because your husband told me to get the details from you, Little Ianna. You’re going to the Northwest?”

“I want to see what the Bahamut imperial family is up to with my own two eyes.”

Ianna told her what she knew about the Northwest and what Arhad assumed the imperial family was doing.

“Seriously? ­—your husband is just too much, Little Ianna!”

Lalatua threw a fit as she grabbed the wine glass in front of her. She continued,

“How could he just casually let me go to the Northwest after just one measly warning if it’s that dangerous? You’re the only person he cares about —please do something about your husband’s brain, Little Ianna.”

“I respect his opinions. Besides, he probably didn’t stop you because you insisted on going even after his warning.”

“I wouldn’t be here if he’d actually tried to stop me. He did warn me, but he said it as if he couldn’t care any less about whether I died or not.”

“He let you go because he knew that you’d be meeting me here anyway.”

Arhad had consented to Ianna’s trip to the Northwest much more readily than Ianna had expected. He had probably already organized his thoughts after predicting that this would happen.

And that was likely why he had sent Lalatua here. Arhad didn’t exactly like Lalatua, but he did treat her well. There was no way that he had simply sent her here without any precautions while also assuming that Bahamut was ravaging the Northwest.

“Are you taking your husband’s side right now? I almost miss how you used to be during our days at the Institution. You would’ve just ignored Arhad like there was a wall of iron between you.”

“I wouldn’t have ignored him.”

Lalatua was grumbling, but her facial expressions hadn’t changed very much. She hadn’t been very affected even when Ianna had told her that the imperial family might be massacring the people in the Northwest and that the Kingdom of Mardial might be among them. This surprised Ianna.

Ianna studied Lalatua’s mood as the latter twirled her hair around her fingers before she gingerly asked,

“I thought you insisted on going to the Northwest because you were worried about your family. But you don’t seem all that desperate to me. Was I mistaken?”

“I don’t care one whit about the Kingdom of Mardial. It may be my surname, but it’s a foreign kingdom that has absolutely nothing to do with me as far as I’m concerned.”

Lalatua rested her cheek in the palm of her hand. She continued,

“I don’t have any love for my family either. I don’t even remember what my mother looked like because she passed away when I was young, and my father, the king, was a debauchee who cared only about his woman and never paid any attention to his children —I barely even remember talking to him. And I have so many siblings that I don’t even know who’s who, save for one.”

Lalatua elegantly lowered her lashes in her weariness.

“I’ve always loved magic since I was very young. Mardial may be a kingdom in name, but it was really poor because of everything it had to keep paying Bahamut just to keep existing.”

Lalatua had endlessly requested her fatherland for support, saying that she wanted to learn magic seriously and that she would definitely prove to be useful to the kingdom. But Mardial was poor to begin with, and the kingdom could not support Lalatua’s magical studies when she was only one of many princesses.

Or rather, the kingdom had never cared about her at all. The Kingdom of Mardial had simply considered Lalatua as a reckless and annoying wench who wasted everyone’s time by causing mayhem while attempting magical experiments.

Lalatua had resigned herself to fate quickly and had searched for a way to survive while studying magic. Then, despite being so young at the time, she had discovered a simple yet convenient magical technique that was still valuable even today.

She had been broken, but she had still managed to sell her technique well and grow quite wealthy. But she hadn’t been wealthy enough to conduct all the magical experiments that she wanted to.

“I visited the imperial castle one day for the Bahamut emperor’s birthday celebrations, and I chanced across the disciples who were learning magic under Wiffheimer, the strongest mage. They were using expensive magical tools and materials as if it was nothing to them. And that was why I decided!”

Thwack!

Lalatua slammed her wine glass down on the table.

“I wanted to become a Bahamut imperial court mage!”

Perhaps it was because she had some wine in her, but Lalatua was freely exposing her humiliating past. She continued,

“I wished that a court mage would see my talent for what it was and take me away. I slip out of the party venue and loitered around the court mages’ building. And that’s when I happened to meet Teacher as he was leaving the building, completely by chance.”

Lalatua had no idea who he was at the time, but she clung to Heinrich because he seemed powerful. She showed him every spell she knew how to cast and begged him to take her as his disciple. She promised him that she would study hard, that she would do anything in return…….

Heinrich had been bewildered, and he had consoled her and taken her back to the party venue. Heinrich was Wiffheimer’s rival, but he was still an archmage of Bahamut nevertheless, and the blood had drained from the king of Mardial’s face when Heinrich had brought Lalatua, who was clinging to him in tears, back to the party.

The king had slapped Lalatua hard across the face then and there, and she had fallen down right in the middle of the party venue.

Lalatua had been immediately repatriated to Mardial and was locked up in a cold tower. The king had burned all the magical books that Lalatua had labored so hard to collect, and he had told her to think only about marriage as he began looking for a suitor among the older nobles.

But Lalatua had never been one to simply submit to him.

She had decided to do everything in her power to escape to Bahamut. And so, she plead for the king’s forgiveness in tears, pretended to obey his commands, and laid low as she quickly prepared her escape plans.

But then, Heinrich had paid Mardial a visit.

Heinrich had never intended to take in any disciples in his lifetime, but he regretted wasting Lalatua’s innate talent and pitied her circumstances. That was why he had taken Lalatua in as his disciple while generously telling her to treat him like a grandfather. Then, he had brought her to the Grey Magic Tower in Roanne and given her his overwhelming support.

That was when Lalatua’s second life had started.

“You knew that Heinrich was a mage from Bahamut?”

“Yeah. But I kept quiet about it because Teacher said it was a secret.”

Lalatua sipped at her wine. She continued,

“He’s my one and only family. Why should I care about what happens to Mardial? The one sibling who keeps in contact with me only does it because he knows that he can benefit off me.”

Ianna felt like she had seen the Lalatua’s, who was normally haughty and mischievous, dark side today.

“I assumed that Mardial had fallen long before you told me about what was happening in the Northwest, Little Ianna.”

Ianna was puzzled by Lalatua’s apathy.

“Then why are you trying to go there?”

“I wanted to confirm it with my own eyes, declare the fall of Mardial to the rest of the world, and erase it completely from my life. I’ve always wanted to erase my surname, Mardial, and the fact that I’m a princess, and I thought that now was the perfect chance,”

Lalatua said cold-heartedly before she grabbed Ianna’s hand. She continued,

“But Teacher’s settled down in Ex-knights, and, well……there are other people living in Ex-knights whom I’d be troubled to go without, so…….”

Lalatua snuck a glance at Taro before she could stop herself.

“Hehe,”

Taro giggled as he realized that he was one such person.

“Oh.”

Lalatua startled and pouted as she whipped her head the other way.

Their relationship had truly changed a lot. Lalatua had only ever treated Taro as a country bumpkin or a servant in the past, but now she was friendly with him and even fussed over him sometimes.

“Anyway, my home is Ex-knights now, not Mardial. I was going to ask you earlier, Little Ianna, but I’d like for you to stop addressing me as a princess —just call me Lalatua.”

“Very well, Lalatua.”

Lalatua smiled as she savored the refreshing way that Ianna had called her by just her name. Then, Ianna continued,

“Oh, I forgot to tell you something important. Taro.”

“Hmm?”

“There are probably more Life factories in western and central Bahamut. I was hoping to ask you to sniff out the black foxes for me. Can you do it?”

“Sure I can, since I’ve already learned their scent and all…….”

Taro looked bewildered.

“Life? Black foxes? What are you two talking about?”

Ianna paused when Lalatua seemed to have no idea what she was talking about.

“You didn’t tell Lalatua about the Black Fox or the Life factories?”

Ianna had assumed that Taro would have already told his beloved Lalatua everything without fail.

“Well, it was supposed to be a secret, so…….”

But Taro had surprisingly tight lips, and he hadn’t wanted to worry Lalatua. His crush on Lalatua was very one-sided, so he had never expected her to take an interest in his personal affairs to begin with. This was why he hadn’t told her anything.

“In the past…….”

Ianna explained everything that had happened during her trip to the West.

Lalatua had been completely apathetic when Ianna had told her about what was happening to the Kingdom of Mardial, but she looked extremely upset now.

“You’ve been keeping secrets from me?”

she mumbled, prompting Taro to flinch and flail his hands.

“No, that ain’t it —I just didn’t want to worry ya…….”

Taro quickly tried to explain himself, but Lalatua only sulked even harder. Ianna stepped in and said,

“I asked him not to tell anyone. There are only a very few people who know about this. Don’t be offended.”

“Fine.”

Or so she had said, but Lalatua still looked quite unhappy. Ianna felt like she had said the wrong thing and changed the topic.

“Anyway, you can hunt them down, right?”

“Uh, yeah. My nose still twitches every time I think back about what happened before. It shouldn’t be hard, since my senses got stronger after Lady Lalatua’s experiments and I’ll be gettin’ buffed with magic too.”

It had been a while since Taro had agreed to be his beloved Lalatua’s lab rat. And he had benefitted greatly from the experience.

She hadn’t debuted on the world stage yet, but Lalatua was a genius mage. She had, after all, been an archmage in Ianna’s past life.

Lalatua El Mardial, the Mad Magician.

The epitaph ‘Mad Magician’ had suited her well. She had used to cackle like she had lost her mind as she blindly casted high-level spells. The average person scorned her by calling her the Mad Magician, but anyone in the know focused more on her specialty hidden under her flashy spells.

Her true epitaph in the past had been the ‘Archmage of Reinforcement.’

Lalatua had specialized in bio magic. She had differentiated herself from both Saki, who specialized in healing, and Keigus, who specialized in dolls, even though all three of them used bio magic. Lalatua had specialized in remodeling the body to reinforce it to the extreme and in buff spells that could reinforce the body temporarily.

But her true goal had been to encroach on the territory of the gods.

To create a complete human who could both think and feel. Or, to resurrect the dead.

Lalatua had not been able to accomplish her goal at the time of Ianna’s death.

Had her distant goals driven her even crazier? She had loved her incomplete chimeras dreadfully. She had even been known to make out with them.

But then she would also destroy her beloved chimeras cruelly out of nowhere. It had made her look like she had lost her mind.

Ianna had never witnessed it herself, but she had heard the rumors circulating throughout the Allied Forces.

“Lady Lalatua…….”

Ianna stole a glance at Taro as he fidgeted.

Lalatua had dragged Taro with her as her servant everywhere she went, but she had never once kissed him.

The people had said that Taro was a fool for loving her. They had said that Lalatua only loved her chimeras. And Ianna had believed this as well.

Had Taro been all right with accompanying her all that time?

‘That won’t happen again in this life, right?’

Lalatua had taken an interest in the same field of magic that she had in her last life. She had researched emotion control magic while learning psychic magic from Heinrich, and she had turned to bodily remodeling and buff magic after dissecting all kinds of lifeforms. This was why Taro, her research subject, was growing so strong so quickly, just as he had in the past.

But Ianna could not know how this would bode for Taro’s future. Wouldn’t Lalatua follow the same track that she had in the past at this rate?

“But anyway, how do you plan to break the imperial family’s barrier?”

Lalatua asked Ianna while also ignoring Taro on the sly, though she pretended to have reorganized her shaken emotions.

“I’m going to rip it apart.”

“You can do that even though the imperial family created it with their divine power?”

Ianna adamantly nodded yes.

She had confirmed that she could tear apart the barrier when she had visited the West during the early stages of her mission. Cutting through a seal was a separate matter entirely, but she could rend apart any derivatives without issue. The only problem, perhaps, was that the imperial family could also break apart Ianna’s fortification.

“Can’t you just sneak inside?”

“No. The inside of the barrier is densely packed with the bastards’ aura, so I’d be caught as soon as I stepped inside anyway.”

“Can you beat them in a fight?”

“I can’t avoid fighting them forever just because I’m not sure that I’ll win, and I need to fight them anyway if I want to confirm where we stand because we’re about equal in terms of strength. But I can say for sure that I won’t lose.”

Even if there was a difference in skill between them, that difference would be smaller than a thin sheet of paper. It didn’t matter if there was only a tiny difference in skill between them. All she had to do was end the fight the very moment she saw an opening.

Besides, Ianna had an advantage against the Bahamut imperial family. They could not kill her. Just like how Arhad had never been able to kill Ianna in the past despite his overwhelming strength.

And the fact that ‘they couldn’t kill her’ would prove fatal to them, even after taking into account the fact that Arhad had always let her go freely because he loved her but the Bahamut imperial family would not care about injuring her because they were merely obsessed over her. They would still hesitate before dealing the final blow.

“What if the imperial family invades Ex-knights after you interrupt whatever they’re doing? Will you be able to stop them?”

“Arhad and I will have to try together. But ignoring them just because we’re afraid might come back to bite us and prove to be a fatal blow.”

“Well, if you say so, Little Ianna. I’ll be sure to work hard too.”

“Do you have any more objections?”

“Just one. Are we going to take the kid and her pet with us too?”

Lalatua asked as she pointed to Elly, who was still sipping her orange juice with Nissi sleeping in her arms. Lalatua continued,

“Why did you even bring them to such a dangerous place to begin with? I know Elly’s smart, but isn’t this too much for her? Or does she have some other special power that I don’t know about?”

“They’re special children. They may or may not be able to help in times of emergency, but I know that bringing them along won’t hurt us.”

Ianna had long since stopped worrying about Elly and Nissi.

“I really want to go too, Miss. I want to see what’s happening inside.”

A set of sparkling eyes fixated themselves on Lalatua’s face.

“Goodness Elly, a strong curiosity does an excellent mage make. I’m sure you’ll be an amazing mage in the future.”

Lalatua praised the child sincerely instead of quipping back. She continued,

“I’m sure it’ll be all right if Little Ianna says so.”

Lalatua also trusted Ianna completely. She pat Elly on the head, emptied the rest of her wine glass, and stood up.

“When are we meeting up tomorrow?”

“Come to the Kingdom of Toraca’s border by four in the morning.”

“All right. Let’s go, Taro.”

Taro had deflated a little, but he immediately revitalized as soon as Lalatua called for him. He followed behind her happily when Lalatua spun around and sauntered away.

‘I thought she was angry, but I guess she isn’t that angry, considering how she’s still making sure he’s following after her.’

Ianna watched their retreating figures for a moment before she, too, finished her beer in one go and grabbed the table as she stood up.

“Go wait for me at the inn. I need to visit the royal castle of Toraca.”

Arhad had surely informed them beforehand too, but it was only proper to make a courtesy call to the king since she might be raising a ruckus at Toraca’s border.

Ianna made her way to the royal castle.

She walked up to the gates and showed one of the guards her badge, and the guard, who had been ordered to wait for her, quickly ran inside. It didn’t take long before a nobleman came running out.

He identified Ianna at once because of her renowned crimson appearance. He bowed before her and extended his hand.

“Dame Ianna Ex-knights Rise! It’s an honor to meet you. I am Count Haken of the Kingdom of Toraca. And I’m a good friend of Mursi’s, the owner of the Paella Company which moved to Ex-knights recently. I’ve heard so much about your military feats, Dame Rise. If you wouldn’t mind attending a party that I’ll be hosting…….”

He was very obviously trying to get into Ianna’s good graces, even if Ianna tried to feign ignorance.

“It’s nice to meet you, Count Haken. I’m grateful for your hospitality, but let’s plan a party next time when Mr. Mursi is also here with us. I’m a little busy at the moment, and I’d like to meet the master of Toraca soon.”

“Ah, my apologies for the discourtesy. But I’d still love to invite you over sometime once your schedule lets up. Please, come inside.”

Ianna didn’t treat him too coldly because he was a good friend of Mursi’s. Count Haken didn’t seem offended at all as he invited Ianna inside the castle.

All eyes fell on Ianna at once as soon as she stepped inside. They belonged to the people who had come out to the castle gardens after hearing that Ianna was visiting.

Ex-knights was located in the far East, and Toraca, which was located in the far West, was too far away from her physically to form a cordial diplomatic relationship with her. The Gate that connected to Ex-knights was deep inside the Girohai Desert and was difficult for the people of Toraca to access.

But they shared a common enemy in Bahamut, and the people of Toraca had a lot of goodwill toward Ex-knights because she was not only a powerful nation no lesser than the likes of Bahamut and Roanne but also because Mursi, who had played a large influence on Toraca’s economy, lived in Ex-knights now. Thus, it was only natural that their goodwill also extended to Ianna, who was both Ex-knights’ queen and strongest knight.

Besides, Ianna was one of the most famous public figures in the world. Curious gazes showered upon her.

Ianna immediately made her way to the royal castle and met the king.

“Welcome, Dame Rise.”

The king greeted her courteously and invited her to a private audience in the sitting room. Then, he continued,

“I’ve already heard the details from the King of Ex-knights. I’ve been losing sleep over the ominous feeling I’ve been getting about what’s happening up north, and I’m grateful that you’re here.”

“I should be thanking you for agreeing to meet me like this. And I wanted to start by apologizing to the Kingdom of Toraca.”

“Because Bahamut might attack us once you cross our northern border? Bahamut is like a ticking bomb that might go off at any moment, and it’s better for us that you go and dig them out than to simply wait and ignore it until it catches us off guard. Besides, you needn’t worry about us. Toraca has agreed to ally with Jinzai and Roanne, and their armies are scheduled to come here today.”

“That is most fortunate.”

Ianna was strong, but she could not protect Toraca in its entirety if something went wrong while she was investigating Bahamut and Bahamut decided to attack.

Just then, a servant from outside the sitting room announced the arrival of a special guest.

“He must have come here after hearing that you were visiting, Dame Rise. May I invite him inside to discuss with us?”

Ianna had already noticed his presence. She truly hadn’t expected to meet him here. He entered the room after Ianna had nodded back.

“It’s been a while.”

He was Schneider Austin Roanne, the king of Roanne.

It had truly been a while since they had last met. Ianna had focused solely on her training after Ex-knights had been founded, and only Arhad had spoken with Schneider since. Ianna hadn’t had the chance to meet with Schneider properly ever since the founding ceremony.

Ianna stared quietly at Schneider for a moment and said,

“That’s right.”

Schneider twitched.

“T-that’s right?”

“I am a knight of Ex-knights and her queen, and there is only one man above me. I will no longer speak up to someone who speaks down to me, even if he should be the king of an allied nation.”

Schneider was no longer Ianna’s ruler, and Ianna was no longer Schneider’s subject. She needed to remind him of that fact. However, Ianna continued,

“……But I admit that it is a little awkward to speak casually with you so suddenly, so I will let it slide for now.”

“N-no. That is fine.”

Schneider gripped his forehead for a moment like he had grown dizzy, but his shock faded quickly, and he smiled. He continued,

“I’ll try to be more formal with you moving forward, Dame Rise. I mean, I’ll endeavor to mind my speech.”

“I’m grateful for your consideration.”

It felt new to hear Schneider speaking so formally, especially considering that he had always been informal with Ianna both in her past life and during her time in Roanne in this one.

Schneider proposed something that Ianna had not expected.

“I heard that you will be breaking through the Kingdom of Torarca’s and the Kingdom of Ermelle’s borders to head north —would you mind if I accompanied you?”

“Why would you?”

“I’d like to see what the Bahamut imperial family is up to with my own eyes.”

“Are you not busy?”

“Like you, I’ve also been focusing on my training instead of the war as of late. The war is coming to a lull because Bahamut is more focused on Ex-knights than it is on us, and I haven’t needed to step onto the battlefields personally. I’ve entrusted all administrative matters to my trusted retainers.”

The Ianna of the past was slowly vanishing from inside Schneider. She truly felt like the representative of a powerful foreign nation now, especially since he had begun addressing her with the proper respect she deserved. His goodwill for her had never changed, but he no longer felt the need to hold it in check.

“You may end up witnessing something horrifying if you come with me.”

“I’ve already witnessed my fair share of horrors.”

“I don’t mind, as long as you will not be a burden to me. But I will ask that you obey me if I tell you to go back. Also, please come back and defend Toraca should things take a turn for the worst.”

No one found Ianna’s discourteous remarks strange.

Schneider chuckled inwardly at the preposterousness of it all as he consented.

“Very well.”

At dawn the next day. Everyone gathered at Toraca’s border, just as they had promised. Lalatua was surprised to see Schneider, who was glowing faintly in silver.

“Goodness, what brings the king of Roanne all the way out here?”

“I am surprised to see you here as well, Princess Lalatua.”

“Please stop calling me a princess.”

“Have you decided to abandon Mardial?”

“I have.”

“Enough chit chat,”

Ianna cautioned, and silence prevailed once more.

Shhhhh…….

Ianna slowly raised her sword.

Schneider gripped his sleeves tightly before he could stop himself as he watched. All Ianna had done was to raise her sword, but his flesh was already prickling like it was being sliced apart.

The real reason he was here was because he was curious to know just how much stronger Ianna had grown. She was probably stronger than his every imagination.

…….

Her sword made no sound as it sundered the darkness and the sky.

~~*~~

“Now, now —hurry up and eat.”

The monsters did not dare defy Isabella’s command. They couldn’t even think about defying her. They were already full, but they were blinded by the food strewn about before their eyes and continued to eat.

Screeeeech.

It would not be an exaggeration to call the high-class monsters that were leading the other monsters at Isabella’s command kings among the monsters.

These monsters, which had lived for eons, knew how to steal, accumulate, and even transfer divine power. They ate their prey alive and collected as much divine power as they possibly could. Then, they whisked away to somewhere once they had reached their limits.

“…….”

The Knights of Pakalatua were also present. They were the first of the twelve imperial knight orders, were absolutely loyal to Bahamut, and had chosen to walk the path of monsters despite being human…….

Their hands were digging into human hearts as they stole divine power. They tossed the bodies that were drained of divine power to the ground, and the high-class monsters lying in wait ate them as if they were simply cleaning up the mess.

And so, countless lives vanished exponentially without leaving even a single trace on the earth. Where had all the people who had once lived in these lands gone? And to where was all that life flowing?

Soundless death was rampant here. Gruesome horrors were taking place everywhere, but there was not a single sound to be heard thanks to Isabella’s magic.

“Sighhhhh…….”

Isabella savored the aura of death. She loved the resentful Ideas, poignant enough to make her skin tingle, so much it made her hairs stand at edge. The bloodied earth was sickening and cruel, but Isabella alone was in a good cheer.

Crack…….

The sensation of the barrier around the entire Northwest shattering swept over Isabella just then.

“Oh my.”

She was finally here.

Isabella’s ring began flickering.

[Isabella.]

“Yes, Lord Brother. Did you feel it too?”

[I did. Come back.]

“I wanted to eat a little more……. Well, I suppose I could always absorb more while fighting in the war. But can’t I at least greet her before I leave?”

[No. You’d only lose your head.]

“You say that as if it’s only natural.”

Isabella was pouting, but she didn’t appear all that upset.

[You’ll see her soon enough, so there’s no need to hurry. We need to ready the appetizer for our banquet, so hurry back now.]

“Very well. I should make sure the decorations are pretty,”

Isabella replied in good cheer before casting a large-scale Teleport. She looked once at the direction where the tempting aura was coming from before she vanished from the spot.

~~*~~

Part 7

Craaaack!

A deafening roar billowed like a cloud of dust as the large power enveloped around the entire vast Northwest was shredded apart. The magic retracted from the point of rupture like a popping balloon.

Schneider and Lalatua began asking questions once the divine power that had comprised the barrier had vanished.

“Was the divine power consumed?”

“No, it vanished because it was reabsorbed.”

Ianna crushed the earth beneath her feet as she chased the divine power that was flowing fiercely away like a current with her eyes. She had been preparing to sprint.

But she never got the chance to. The being that was reabsorbing the divine power had vanished, and she had no means of tracking them down.

Buzzzzz!

The layers of magic that had been packed inside began springing forth now that the barrier covering it had disappeared. They were offensive spells meant to deal with invaders.

But the spells were all destroyed by Ianna’s fortification and the rest of the group’s magic. But Ianna’s group was only safe because they were who they were, and anyone else would have been reduced to dust in but an instant.

“Ugh.”

They choked on the mysterious but horrid aura that rushed forth like a flood as they pierced through the walls of magic.

“I don’t want to go in.”

“I must concur. It reeks of blood.”

Schneider covered his nose and agreed when Lalatua grimaced.

Ianna took a peek down at Elly. Elly was pretending to be fine, but the blood had drained from her face. It was a very slight change, but it did not escape Ianna’s notice.

Meanwhile, Nissi was clinging to Elly’s arms in terror and did not look like she was about to come down anytime soon.

“…….”

Ianna looked up at the ramparts that marked the border between Toraca and Ermelle, bent her knees, and kicked off against the earth. She leapt up to the top of the ramparts and looked around.

The soldiers that had been standing on guard against Ianna’s group just moments ago had vanished into thin air. All that was left where they had been were traces of an arrangement of mana.

‘Was it illusion magic?’

Ianna stood tall and looked far into the distance on the other side of the ramparts. Her vision, sharper than that of a hawk’s, saw the state of ruin that the earth was in. There were countless destroyed buildings, and not a single person was outside.

Ianna jumped off the ramparts and landed back on the ground. Everyone was waiting for her.

“Let’s go in.”

The land they walked into was an abandoned ruin.

The grasses were yellow and withered, and the sky was grey like it was filled with ash. The buildings had been destroyed so badly that it was difficult to imagine how they must have looked like originally, and there was dried blood splattered everywhere. They passed by a lake with dead fishes floating on the surface that reeked of decay.

Ianna recalled how the Great Forest of Shaob had been withering away because of a Demon’s fragment. This felt similar —like the Demon. But if the Forest had only been dying slowly because the Demon’s fragment had still been mostly sealed away and could only influence its surroundings indirectly, then this place had lost its light in but a moment, as if the unsealed Demon had run rampant here.

Ianna’s group visited several territories while consulting a map of Ermelle.

But…….

“There’s not a single soul in sight.”

It was just as Schneider had pointed out.

The people were gone, as if they had simply evaporated away. The land looked abandoned on the outside, but they still found meals sitting cold on tables when they entered some of the houses, as if the people who had lived there had left in the middle of a meal.

The flowers decorating the tables were withered and rotting, and all of the food had gone bad and was covered in mold. But it was difficult to tell exactly when the village had been devastated because there was no way to tell whether the decay was the result of the passage of time or an effect of the abominable aura eating away at the entire Northwest.

They tried walking inside a giant castle belonging to a noble too, but they still didn’t find a single soul.

“Let’s try another region.”

It was chilling. They continued roaming around but they didn’t find a single living being, much less a living person. There was truly nothing here.

And the strangest part was that there weren’t even any corpses.

“Everyone either ran away or they weren’t even able to leave their corpses behind.”

The latter was the more likely of the two, considering the blood that was splattered all over the place.

“Walking around won’t tell us anything. We should try searching for any presences.”

Ianna expanded her senses. She scowled heavily as she found presences that pricked her skin and senses.

Then, she looked down at Elly and Nissi, who had been quiet for some time now.

Elly hadn’t said a single word ever since they had crossed into this land. And Nissi was being held tight in Elly’s arms and hadn’t moved a muscle.

“We’re probably about to see a lot of horrible and cruel things. But I don’t want to torture you two like that. Do you want to go back to Ex-knights with Nissi?”

“No. I want to stay with you, Miss.”

Elly turned down Ianna’s offer and took her hand. Ianna squeezed back without another word.

A horrible sight unfolded before them when they arrived. It was all too obvious why there had been no corpses left behind.

Cruuuunch!

Grrr!

The eyes of the low-class monsters that were eating the dead’s bodies bone and all fell on Ianna’s group at once.

Groaaaar!

The monsters had simply been filling their stomachs as per their orders, and they lost their minds when they saw fresh life. They howled as they rushed toward Ianna’s group.

Click!

A brilliant flash of light poured out from Ianna’s scabbard.

Thump.

Ianna felled the monsters in an instant and began inspecting the corpses they had been eating.

“I saw this at the Ghosts’ Banquets.”

Taro walked up to Ianna, studied the corpses that crumbled away at the slightest touch, and concurred,

“All their divine power’s been sucked clean out of them. And the monsters were just cleanin’ up.”

“How vile.”

Lalatua looked bitter as she covered Elly’s and Nissi’s eyes, and Schneider appeared to share the sentiment. They both looked more furious than disgusted.

Ianna summoned Kagomyne.

[I hate this place!]

Kagomyne wrapped himself around Ianna’s neck like a scarf as soon as he was summoned and began to yelp through tears. He continued,

[The aura of death here is so strong that I feel like it’s going to suck out all the divine power you gave me.]

Ianna gave him another helping of divine power, and it was only then that Kagomyne began to looking around at his surroundings, though he still looked like he was in poor spirits.

[Want me to purify this?]

“Yeah.”

Kagomyne’s clean fires pierced through both the ground and the sky as soon as Ianna replied.

Ianna’s group confirmed that the flames had returned everything back to nature before they moved to another place. The second, third, and forth……they were all the same as the first.

“They murdered all these people just to obtain more divine power, just to grow stronger? Are those Bahamut bastards even human?!”

Schneider raged through clenched teeth. Ianna had told him about it beforehand, but the reality before his eyes was worse than his every imagination.

As they had predicted, there had been a great massacre in the Northwest.

Trivial low-class monsters were cleaning up now, but the traces left behind suggested that there had been an incredible number of monsters and humans present. And the people’s footsteps truly looked chaotic.

The rest of the Northwest had probably fared no better.

The Northwest was one of the six sections of the central continent. An incredible number of people had lived there, judging by the size of the region alone. If you took into consideration the fact that western Bahamut, which had been blocked off, had also likely been razed to the ground……it was horrible beyond imagination.

It had only been a few short years. The entire Northwest had fallen to ruin in just a few short years. Just how merciless had been the slaughter? How much life had been stolen by the Bahamut imperial family and their subordinates?

Had the imperial family truly only done this to grow stronger? Ianna broke out in goosebumps as her mood froze over.

They could not simply keep roaming around like this.

“Kagomyne, can you go around burning any monsters to death and cremating any corpses?”

[Yeah. But this environment is one thing, and I’m going to need a lot of divine power because there’s just so many.]

“You can use as much of my divine power as you like.”

[If you say so. Can you call the others here too? It’ll be faster if Shweia and I team up and Towe and Innis team up.]

Ianna summoned the other spirit kings just as Kagomyne had asked.

“I’ll leave this to you guys.”

The spirit kings seemed uneasy, but they set forth heroically to fulfil Ianna’s request.

“Is it truly all right for you to use your divine power so recklessly?”

Schneider asked as he watched. He had asked because he did not know that Ianna had an infinite supply of it.

“Yes.”

“That is most fortunate.”

Schneider stepped back, and Lalatua asked,

“Little Ianna, will you be able to deal with a surprise attack from the Bahamut imperial family if you use your divine power so recklessly? I don’t trust our dear king of Roanne very much.”

“The Bahamut imperial family isn’t here anymore.”

Ianna had most definitely felt a dreadful presence as she shattered the barrier, but it had vanished just as she was about to chase it down from the ramparts. They had surely sensed that Ianna had broken inside.

‘They ran away again.’

The persistent bastards.

“More importantly, can you track down the black foxes’ scent, Taro?”

Taro balked at Ianna’s request.

“There’s too many smells mixed into each other here. And everythin’ reeks horribly of blood and monsters.”

“Come here, Taro.”

Lalatua called out to Taro and extended a hand toward him. Taro closed his eyes with familiar ease and brought his face to her hand. A beautiful arrangement of mana unraveled from Lalatua’s hand like a thread as soon as she touched Taro’s nose. Then, she said,

“Keep thinking about the scent you want to smell, Taro.”

The tangled threads of mana melted into Taro’s face. It reinforced his senses and his concentration, and it helped him pin down his target.

Everything other than his target faded away from him.

Taro’s eyes were as sharp as a tiger’s.

“This way.”

The group chased after Taro as he dashed away.

They ran for a while before Taro stopped in the middle of an empty plain.

“I think it’s underground.”

Ianna raised her sword high into the air and struck it into the ground with every ounce of strength she had.

Boooom!

The earth burst apart from where her sword struck. The resulting shockwave reached deep underground, and dirt crumbled into the hidden space underneath.

Ianna’s group fell as well but landed safely, and they immediately raised their guards against a sudden attack.

It was a Life factory. But there was no one alive in the factory either. All that was there were divine power extraction machines, the dead, and pools of blood. There was also a pile of clothes that looked like the black foxes had been wearing them, which was probably what Taro had tracked down.

“It looks like they evacuated.”

They continued to track down Life factories across the Northwest. But the black foxes were always prepared to flee at a moment’s notice, and the factories were completely empty because they had evacuated as soon as they heard that Ianna had appeared.

Ianna abandoned the idea of tracking them down.

“We’re wasting time. Let’s head on over to Mardial now. Can you teleport us there, Lalatua?”

“Yeah.”

Lalatua, who had declared so audaciously that she didn’t care about what happened to Mardial at the inn, looked like she had mixed feelings now that she had seen what had happened to the Northwest with her own eyes. Her reply had been listless.

Ianna allowed the spirits to keep roaming about freely, and Lalatua teleported the group over to the royal capital of the Kingdom of Mardial.

“It looks like it’s been a while since it fell,”

Dorcianni expressed her honest impression as she surveyed their surroundings upon arrival.

Sure enough, the Kingdom of Mardial was in ruins. The once gorgeous royal palace had been reduced to rubble, and the once clean and straight roads and buildings had been shattered to pieces.

The damage did not look like it had been done recently. Mardial shared a border with western Bahamut, so she had probably been the imperial family’s second target.

“Is there a secret escape route that only the royal family knows about, Lalatua?”

“I wouldn’t know about it even if there was. They never taught me anything.”

Ianna fell silent and expanded her senses without another word. She could differentiate completely between human and monster presences. There were no people nearby. Mardial was a land of monsters now.

“This is enough. Let’s go,”

Lalatua said boldly as she took the lead and walked out of the palace grounds. Ianna followed after her and found Lalatua staring at the palace’s broken gates with no emotion on her face.

Lalatua began to speak once the rest of the group approached her.

“How pointless. They worked so hard to lick Bahamut’s feet, but they were still the first ones to get eaten in the end.”

Lalatua looked lonely for some reason. She continued,

“Mardial was probably like cattle that Bahamut was raising. They milked her at first, and then they butchered her because they suddenly felt like eating meat. Mardial was probably the first country they chose because it’s easier to butcher livestock than it is to hunt.”

The Northwest was filled with countries that were vassal states to Bahamut. Bahamut had chosen not to devour snarling beasts like Ex-knights or Roanne first but had chosen to eat the weaker kingdoms that had voluntarily collared themselves and had handed the leash to Bahamut instead.

“It was all so pointless. I guess it really is the best to just be strong,”

Lalatua muttered bitterly.

Lalatua despised Mardial, but it was still her home country that she had spent her childhood in. She could not help but feel empty to learn that her home had fallen so pointlessly.

Taro gingerly wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Lalatua took one look at his large hand and straightened out her features.

“Enough. It’s really over now. I’m really just Lalatua now.”

“Yes. You should establish your own household in Ex-knights.”

Ianna’s words of consolation included the implication that Lalatua was a citizen of Ex-knights now. Lalatua smiled back when Ianna spoke as if she was only stating the obvious.

“That’s the plan. I’m going to establish the greatest house in Ex-knights ever.”

Ianna was no longer as dense as she had been before.

She didn’t know exactly how Lalatua felt, but she could at least tell that Lalatua relying heavily on Taro. Lalatua had looked like a lost child earlier, but she had immediately returned to normal as soon as Taro hugged her.

“And one more thing, Lalatua —it’s true that you need to be strong if you don’t want to suffer one-sidedly, but Bahamut is an exception to the norm. Only Bahamut resorts to brute force like this. It’s not a problem of who’s weak and who’s strong —Bahamut’s just a piece of trash.”

“Yeah. I know. I hope Bahamut falls soon. I used to want to work for Bahamut in the past, but now I wish the empire would just disappear. That’s possible, right, Little Ianna?”

“I’ll make it possible.”

That was the job that Ianna and Arhad had to do.

Memories of Roygen suddenly flashed through Ianna’s mind.

Roberstein had not been able to kill Roygen, and she had ultimately chosen to die with him during the End in order to bring about a new world.

The Holy Age was supposed to have concluded completely back then. But Roberstein and Roygen had continued their lives through Ianna and Arhad for some reason. And the wreckage that resulted —the fragments of the Demon— had empowered the monster that was Bahamut and had brought about the current situation.

Ianna and Arhad wanted to put an end to the Holy Age now. They had built a new country, and they wanted to live in it with the people they cherished and move forward to a new conclusion that differed from how the Holy Age had concluded.

But a third party had appeared and was keeping them from concluding anything. And it wanted to be a monster that was even greater than the Demon of the Holy Age.

A greed that grew larger and never disappeared. If Bahamut’s most recent incarnation of greed wanted to be the strongest, then what would he desire after he had achieved that goal? Ianna loathed to even think about it.

In the end, this was all Roberstein’s fault for not concluding the Holy Age properly. And Ianna had a duty to break the chains that originated from the Holy Age.

Ianna’s group continued to roam around while searching for any survivors until the spirits returned while looking faded.

[This is too hard. We’ve never been this psychologically exhausted before. We can’t handle this. I don’t think we’ll be able to do any more today.]

[Even just moving around is so hard.]

Ianna had never seen the spirits looking so exhausted before. They had always been full of vim and vigor as long as they had her divine power.

[We’re psychological beings. Physical fatigue doesn’t affect us, but psychological exhaustion still does. We don’t usually get tired, but this place is dreadful. The entire space is filled to the brim with the Ideas of the dead,]

Towe responded listlessly as he read Ianna’s mind.

[Why did so many humans die here? They were all slaughtered without even being given the chance to fight back.]

[This reminds me of the Demon. He used to kill the gods indiscriminately too, and this happened to the earth back then as well.]

Kagomyne gently settled down wearily on Ianna’s shoulders.

[There are too many people who died here recently. This entire land is just dead. The Ideas here are so full of resent that it would take you and me several years to purify even if we were using our full power.]

“Even if the other spirits help too?”

[Innis, Shweia, and I make up most of nature, whereas Kagomyne imbues the nature we make with energy and heat to bring about change. Only Kagomyne is able to purify Ideas, and, though we can support him with our powers, we can’t actually help with the purification. It’ll take a very long time to purify all this.]

“I see…….”

Ianna looked down at Elly’s tiny crown —the girl was still holding Ianna’s hand as tightly as ever. The child was looking around at her surroundings quietly, as if she had regained her peace of mind. Ianna asked her,

“Can Nissi do anything to help, Elly?”

Nissi flinched and began mewing in protest.

“She technically can, but…”

Elly looked up at Ianna and shook her head no. She continued,

“It’s probably better to leave things to providence instead of trying to purify everything by force right now. Nissi can neutralize Ideas by injecting them with a sense of relief and comfort. That’s what she was doing in Bahamut. But the Ideas here are too raw……. It’s better to let some time pass before she tries anything.”

“I see.”

Ianna accepted Elly’s opinion. Then, she continued,

“Then, let’s leave this place be for now. Kagomyne, Towe, Innis, and Shweia. Thank you for helping.”

[Why would anyone do something like this?]

[Why can’t everyone just live in peace and have fun?]

Ianna’s group continued to search for survivors even long after the exhausted spirits had returned. But they only continued to find the same things. Just how many beings in the world could possibly avoid being found by the Bahamut imperial family and high-class monsters? Probably only a very few.

“There are some species of monsters here that look familiar, but they look a little different from what I remember.”

Dorcianni replied to the question that Schneider had posed as he observed the monsters.

“Monsters evolve as they eat Ideas and grow stronger and eviler. This is a land where monsters can grow to be exceedingly powerful. Bahamut must consider this place as a breeding grounds of sorts.”

“The bastards know how to control monsters, if I recall correctly. Does that make all the monsters here our enemies? I should bring my army here and subjugate them preemptively,”

Schneider pledged with great hostility.

The group traveled around all day, but their efforts bore no fruit.

This was a dead land. The imperial family had likely only withdrawn as soon as Ianna arrived because they had already wrapped up everything they needed to do.

Ianna let out a sigh and declared,

“Let’s head back now.”

Just then, a monster shaped like a black raven that had been sitting on a skinny branch flew over from afar.

It flew like a released arrow pointed at Ianna as its target.

“Stand back.”

Ianna had long since noticed that the raven was observing her. She glared at the raven after everyone else fell back behind her.

The raven sat perched on a nearby branch and opened its beak.

[What do you think?]

Ianna scowled. The raven continued,

[You’ve been wandering around for quite a while. But you gained nothing for all your efforts, right?]

The raven’s voice was feminine and familiar.

“Isabella Bahamut.”

[You knew it was me from just my voice. That makes me happy.]

“How unsightly of you. You ran away as soon as I came —is it Bahamut’s battle strategy to chatter away through the beaks of lesser creatures? Or were you just afraid that I’d take your head?”

[I wanted to fight you, but my Lord Brother ordered me to withdraw. And there’s no use in trying to provoke me, little lady. I already know that you have a shorter temper than I do.]

“…….”

[You didn’t find anything even after looking around, right? Hmm, I sure you didn’t. They’re all dead, after all.]

“And your reason for doing something like this is……?”

[To grow stronger, obviously.]

Ianna’s insides were boiling. She had no particular love for mankind, but the sheer brutality enraged her.

“It’s impossible for you to truly grow stronger by using these methods.”

No one could say that the strength they had robbed from others was truly their own. True strength was the sublime level one reached after sharpening and polishing themselves.

[Ah, while I do adore just how virtuous and antiquated you are, I don’t really want to talk with you at length right now. We can talk later when you attend our banquet.]

“Your banquet?”

[We’re going to host a banquet just for you sometime soon. We don’t mean to fight —we really only want to have a sincere conversation with you—, so I hope you’ll attend. And don’t worry —we’ll promise to send you back safe and sound.]

“Who said I’d agree?”

[It really is for your own benefit that you do. We intend to tell you everything we’re planning to do after the banquet, you see. And we’ve also prepared a little present that you’ll absolutely want to attend to receive……. Well, I suppose it is your call either way.]

The raven’s glistening eyes turned to Schneider next. Isabella continued,

[And as for the king of Roanne who’s been getting in our way for so long, you should go back home and wait with your neck cleaned up for when we cut off your head.]

“You took the form of a raven, but you speak like a snake. And eagles hunt snakes,”

Schneider retorted boldly, causing Isabella to huff. Then, the raven turned to Dorcianni.

[Hi there. It’s been a while.]

“Yeah.”

[You’ve gotten pretty curt, I see.]

“Who cares? —I don’t speak formally even to my new master.”

The raven conveyed Isabella’s laughter as she giggled.

[Is that so? Anyway, you should probably stay far out of my mother’s sight. She’s quite furious. I’m only warning you in consideration of the magical research we used to conduct together.]

“Thanks for the warning, but I’ll figure things out on my own.”

[As you wish.]

The raven took flight. Isabella continued,

[Well, I’ll be going now. Sit tight and wait until we send you an official invitation.]

Ianna didn’t reply, but the raven flew away as soon as Isabella had said her piece.

At the same time, Ianna’s ring began flashing.

Ianna imbued her ring with mana and connected with Arhad.

[Ianna, something’s strange.]

“What is it?”

[Eiji’s gone MIA.]

A wintry light flashed in Ianna’s eyes. Arhad continued,

[It’s been over an hour since he was supposed to report back to me, but I still haven’t heard from him.]

Eiji was supposed to report to Arhad at periodic intervals. And he had yet to miss a single report.

[I’ve been looking for him, but I can’t even find a trace of him anywhere. I think something’s happened.]

“I have a hunch.”

Ianna turned her eyes toward the raven that was gradually shrinking into a small dot.

Cruuunch.

Ianna picked up a rock from the ground and hurled it at the raven.

Pow!

The rock shot forward like an arrow and pierced through the raven’s wing. The raven fell.

“Bring me that raven, Dorcianni.”

Dorcianni didn’t protest as she grabbed the raven with magic before it hit the ground and died and pulled it toward Ianna.

“Where is Eiji?”

[Who could say?]

“…….”

[You know that you’re supposed to arrive on time for a banquet, right? It’s rude to come early and cause mayhem……so I’m hoping you won’t do that.]

Her voice was sticky. It was like each and every word was another string in a spider’s web.

Ianna drew her sword. Her swift blade broke through the spiderweb as it swung down.

Crunch!

Her sword pierced through the raven’s body. Blackish blood spilled over the ground like a spiderweb.

“I’ll do to you what I did to this raven someday.”

[How exciting. Why don’t you come over and try it? Not that I can guarantee you’ll be successful, of course.]

The raven cackled as it bled out from its laughing eyes and beak before it perished.

Schneider returned to Toraca, and the rest of Ianna’s group returned to the royal castle of Ex-knights. Ianna half-heartedly greeted several people whom she hadn’t seen in a while as she practically began running through the corridors immediately upon teleporting to the castle.

Slam!

“Calm down.”

Arhad had been waiting for Ianna inside the room, and he grabbed her by the hand and sat her down before she could say a word. He pat her shoulder when she began hyperventilating and waited patiently for her to regain her composure.

Ianna clutched her brows when she finally steadied her breathing.

“Eiji was kidnapped by the imperial family.”

She told Arhad about her conversation with Isabella.

“The circumstances prove that you’re probably right. But the imperial family probably didn’t kidnap him personally. There’s no way that I wouldn’t know if the bastards were here. There was probably a spy near Eiji who was waiting for the opportunity to act.”

“The imperial family must have only pretended to stop caring about Eiji to make us lower our guard. What do we do? Should I just go?”

Ianna wanted nothing more than to rush to the Bahamut imperial castle at once, but she was hesitant because of what Isabella had said.

[You know that you’re supposed to arrive on time for a banquet, right? It’s rude to come early and cause mayhem……so I’m hoping you won’t do that.]

It felt like a warning.

“I think they mean to kill Eiji if I visit the imperial castle ahead of the banquet.”

“I agree.”

Arhad pondered for some time before he finally came to a decision and summoned a large object over with magic. It was a mirror. Then, he said,

“Let’s just investigate openly, since we’ve gotten to this point anyway.”

The mana that had been floating in the air flinched.

All the mana in the royal castle of Ex-knights began to flow into him like it was one large organism as he slowed his breathing. The entire world seemed to move like it was Arhad’s breath.

The mana was dyed gold as it flowed into him. It was a light that the Bahamut imperial family could never obtain.

Arhad needed to maintain his extreme concentration if he wanted to pierce through the many barriers around the Bahamut imperial castle. He also needed one more thing if he wanted to make sure his magic was stable enough that the imperial family couldn’t dispel it.

Arhad pointed his golden eyes at Ianna, and Ianna grabbed him by the hand and transferred her divine power to him.

Arhad placed a hand on the mirror’s smooth surface. The moon’s gentle glow and the sun’s ferocious strength rippled across it.

It wasn’t long before the mirror reflected somewhere that was dark and damp. Arhad’s eyes were glowing brightly.

“I connected my vision to the mana circulating through the Bahamut imperial castle and projected it onto the mirror. This’ll use up a lot of my strength because I have to resist the imperial family’s aura while I investigate. I might take damage if they attack me while I’m in this state, so you’ll have to protect and support me with your divine power.”

Ianna squeezed Arhad’s hand tightly.

The view reflected on the mirror changed quickly. They saw the servants, knights, and mages of the imperial castle from up close, but none of them noticed Arhad’s gaze. The veins in Arhad’s face began to pop out, and the whites of his eyes began to grow bloodshot.

“I should be able to find Eiji quickly as long as he’s in my search radius because we share blood, but I can’t feel his aura at all. Either the imperial family’s keeping him hidden, or he isn’t here to begin with.”

Ianna squeezed his hand, which was growing sweaty, again.

And just then.

The scene that the mirror was reflecting suddenly changed drastically. It was being drawn away to somewhere.

A lot of static was generated on the mirror’s surface. Bloody tears welled up in Arhad’s eyes and dribbled down. Ianna was alarmed as she poured more of her divine power into him.

Then, the static in the mirror gradually disappeared and a certain man’s face was reflected before them. He was sipping at a glass of wine that was as red a blood with an arrogant expression on his face.

[You surprised me, little brother. I never thought that you would investigate my castle so openly. And while exposing yourself to a lot of damage too —what gives?]

Ianna glared back at Taylon, who was feigning ignorance, as if looks could kill.

“He brought all the mana in the imperial castle to him because he noticed that I connected myself to it. He can’t hear or see us.”

“Is there a way for us to talk to him?”

“I can connect him to my voice, but only mine.”

Arhad cast another spell on the mirror and frigidly said,

“You were the ones who forced my hand. The banquet and Eiji —what are you scheming?”

[Dame Rise must have returned to Ex-knights, I take it? The banquet is just that. We want to invite the renowned Dame Rise to a banquet here in Bahamut’s imperial castle.]

Taylon laughed like he was sighing and continued,

[But Dame Rise has herself quite a temper. It was only too obvious that she wouldn’t come if we invited her normally, so we brought Eiji here first since we needed to exact revenge against him anyway.]

Taylon boldly admitted the fact that he had kidnapped Eiji.

“Didn’t you forget about Eiji?”

[Of course not. We’re very thorough about cleaning up after loose ends, as I’m sure you very well know, dear brother. We’re not merciful enough to simply allow traitors to live out the rest of their lives happily.]

It may not be immediate, but they would settle their grudges one day without fail. And the perfect time for vengeance was when the traitor finally let down their guards because they had finally found so much happiness that they didn’t know what to do with it. Taylon snickered and continued,

[I take it that Dame Rise is there with you?]

“…….”

[She must care about Eiji quite a bit. So let me give her a word of advice. It’s better for powerful people like us to see others, no matter how talented they may be, as mere chess pieces to use and cast aside at our leisure. Otherwise, they can become a weakness, just like what Eiji is to you now.]

The veins popped out on the back of Ianna’s hands. Arhad rubbed her hand in an effort to tell her to calm down. Taylon continued,

[I’d like to sit down at speak to you at leisure, my lady. It’s not my intention for you to barge into my castle with fury filling your eyes. Attend our banquet in a weeks’ time if you want me to return the bastard to you. I’ll make sure to send him back with you alive if you do. I swear this upon my pride.]

Taylon’s pride was his everything. He truly meant it when he promised to send Eiji back alive. But there was a trap hidden in his words.

“When you say you’ll send him back ‘alive,’ it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll send him back in one piece.”

[Isn’t that only obvious? He deserves to die for deceiving us and hiding your whereabouts, little brother. But I’m still offering to send him back alive in consideration for poor Dame Rise, who cares deeply about her subordinates. I even went out of my way to stop my mother, who wanted to whip him to death after prying out all the useful information out of him first. Oh, and it’s far too late to hope to get Eiji back in one piece. Mother already beat him half to death for keeping his mouth shut out of his love and patriotism for Ex-knights. Want me to show you what he looks like right now?]

Ianna’s eyes were quivering.

Eiji was one of Ex-knights’ core personnel. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he knew Ex-knights best after Ianna and Arhad. Getting information out of him was practically the same thing as learning everything there was to know about Ex-knights.

But Bahamut already knew plenty about Ex-knights. And Eiji would have known that best, which meant that he could have bought himself time by disclosing information that he deemed was less important, but he had chosen to keep silent instead.

[Wait, I suppose it’ll be easier for you to imagine if I don’t show you. Besides, I feel as though you might really come barging in out of rage if I provoke you any further than this. Though I suppose that would also be quite entertaining in its own right, no?]

Taylon cackled mockingly from the other side of the mirror. He continued,

[Remember this. I’ll let you off the hook for today, but Eiji dies if you try to investigate my castle ever again. He dies if you visit the castle before the banquet as well. And he also dies if anyone who wasn’t formally invited comes too.]

“…….”

[It will be impossible for you to rescue him because he has the honor of being guarded by me personally. Though you’re free to come and try if you’re confident you can kill me, of course.]

The veins in Ianna’s neck popped out as Taylon quipped sarcastically. He continued,

[Besides, it’ll be to Ex-knights’ best interests for you to attend the banquet even if Eiji wasn’t in the picture. Aren’t you curious to know what I’m thinking, why I’m letting the war drag out despite starting it myself, how much stronger I’ve grown, and what my plans for the future are?]

“You were dragging out the war so you could buy the time to drain life from the Northwest.”

[That was one reason. But I’ve also been waiting……. And it irritates me that my expectations weren’t met. Oh, but I won’t tell you what it is that I’ve been waiting for.]

“It’s only obvious. You never change. And you won’t change this time either.”

Arhad’s frigid words seemed to have provoked Taylon from across the mirror somehow. Taylon had been haughty and leisurely until then, but now his lips were twisted in irritation.

[Who could say? Am I the same as I was back then? You must think you’re the main protagonist of this world. But the world hasn’t abandoned us quite yet either. I suppose I should be grateful.]

The conversation had taken a turn for the strange, but Ianna didn’t have the leisure to care too much about it. She felt like her head might burst as she thought about what she should to do next. Taylon continued,

[In any event, it’s up to Dame Rise whether she wants to attend or not. But I suggest that she does, since you’ll simply suffer at our hands without being able to do a thing about it if she doesn’t. I’ll teleport over the formal invitation now.]

Taylon exacted his vengeance. He pierced through the giant barrier around the royal castle of Ex-knights and openly dispelled Arhad’s influence.

Veins popped out on Taylon’s face, and his black eyes were dyed even blacker. The whites of his eyes began growing bloodshot.

Arhad glared black is displeasure when a magic circle was drawn in the air and an invitation letter came fluttering down.

[Well then.]

Arhad quickly slipped out before Taylon damaged his psyche by creating a mana explosion.

Ianna wordlessly picked up the black invitation.

The invitation contained some clichéd words about how Ianna Ex-knights Rise was invited to a dinner banquet and how the sender would be grateful if she agreed to attend. There was also a line underneath stating that the mage Dorcianni Demariposa should attend as well.

Were they mocking her?

Ianna crumpled up the invitation in her hand.

“What should I do? Must I play along with their absurd schemes?”

“Yes, if you want Eiji to come back alive.”

Ianna could treat Eiji with the spirits’ powers as long as he was alive. But what about the pain he would surely suffer in the meanwhile? Ianna jumped up from her seat as she recalled how Margarita had beaten him half to death previously.

“I can’t simply sit still and let it happen. I need to do something.”

Should she use her power?

But her heart had nearly exploded and killed her when she had used her power to teleport to the Bahamut imperial castle while chasing down Wiffheimer. It would be dangerous to track down Eiji’s coordinates while ignoring all probability and causality. That was how her power worked. And it would be especially dangerous if Eiji was somewhere under Taylon’s protection. It was more likely than not that something worse would happen if Ianna teleported over.

“In that case, we should use every card we have at our disposal. Contact Karnitz.”

“Karnitz?”

Karnitz was staying in the capital and sending Ianna valuable information. Maron had no connections to any core nobles in central Bahamut. The imperial knights were Bahamut’s very center and core, and the information that Karnitz, who was a very high-ranking knight even among the imperial knightage, provided was of a completely different quality than anything that Maron could offer.

Isphee and Karnitz were slipping into any gossip they heard about Louise among Bahamut nobility and stealthily spreading the rumors while claiming that they had met Louise briefly while they were on vacation.

“Eiji was already kidnapped out of the blue. What if the imperial family knows about Karnitz too? If something happens to him while he’s acting on my orders…….”

“Karnitz’s situation is different from Eiji’s. There is absolutely no way for the imperial family to know about him. Besides, he’s much more talented than you give him credit for. I can guarantee you that he’ll complete his missions successfully.”

How did Arhad know so much about what the imperial family did and did not know, and what did he know about Karnitz that he was able to declare this so confidently? Nevertheless, Ianna slowly regained her composure after hearing what Arhad had to say.

She recalled how Karnitz had been in her past life. He had survived every battle and had guarded Ianna by her side even back then. He had only perished during the same battle that Ianna herself had died in, as if he had foreseen her death and had wanted to die before her.

“Trust your faithful knight in the same way that I trust you.”

Ianna settled her heart and contacted Karnitz.

[You mean to say that Lord Eiji was kidnapped and is being held here?]

Karnitz pondered briefly after hearing about the situation before he continued,

[I’ll ask around the prison guards and see what I can learn. Do you have any clues I might be able to use while looking for him?]

“Give him the ‘gemstone,’ Ianna.”

Ianna opened the sub space that she used as her personal storage and pulled out the gemstone that Arhad was referring to. It was the stone of good fortune that she had used to find Eiji back when Margarita had kidnapped him. It could not be traced because it was not of a magical nature.

“I’ll send it over to you soon, so go somewhere with no one else around.”

[Understood.]

Then, Ianna gingerly said,

“Be careful, Karnitz.”

[Please trust me with this,]

he chuckled calmly.

~~*~~

Part 8

Winter was creeping closer.

The air was cold enough to freeze the flesh, the trees were bare and withered, and the people rarely left their homes due to the cold in this season.

But absolutely no preparations for winter had been made in this room. A shadow lingered over the frosted frozen walls.

Splaaash!

Eiji, who had passed out, was jolted awake by the icy water that was poured over his face.

“Exhausted already?”

The voice’s owner pushed Eiji’s face up with the handle of her whip. The face that he was so sick and tired of seeing reflected before his eyes. She continued,

“But that won’t do. We’ve only just begun.”

Shailince Bahamut.

His personal nightmare, who was now the empress dowager.

She had beaten Eiji half to death in her rage as soon as he was brought here. Then, she had promptly forced Life down his throat and poured it over his body to heal him.

They had repeated his process several times now.

Shailince had only regained her composure after beating Eiji several times over. Then, she began trying to pry information about Ianna and Arhad out from him.

And she beat him like a dog again when he refused to speak. And then she healed him again. Eiji had no idea how many times they had repeated this process or how long it had been since he had been kidnapped.

But he always kept a firm grip over his consciousness.

“Go burn in hell —you’re worse than the Demon himself!”

Shailince laughed chillingly.

“You’re praising us even in this situation? But you’re in trouble now, Eiji. Brainwashing magic won’t work on you because you’re connected to a Demon’s fragment, so all I can do is keep torturing you until you’re willing to talk. But I’ll let you be comfortable if you tell me everything you know.”

“Such lies. Aren’t you planning to torture me whether I talk or not? Besides, you don’t look like you’re planning to kill me anytime soon, though I have no idea why, so I’ll never tell you a single word. Don’t you think you’re better off just killing me before you faint from anger?”

Shailince raised an eyebrow because Eiji’s casual tone bothered her, but she did not lose her composure.

“You’re just as clever as you always were, I see. But we’ll still have to wait and see whether you decide to talk or not. I can keep you alive even through the worst form of torture you’ll ever know. Shouldn’t you know that best, since all of your brethren died in this very place while you watched from beginning to end?”

This was the very same prison-cum-laboratory where the Roygen Clan had once been tortured and massacred. The sticky bloodstains still remained even after decades had passed.

The Ideas belonging to the slaughtered Roygens penetrated deeply into this place. It had been closed off due to the danger because the Ideas were powerful enough to drive the people of Bahamut insane.

Shailince was cruel, and she had brought Eiji here explicitly to cause him psychological pain. Eiji looked like freshly butchered meat as he hung from the chains affixed to the ceiling.

“And you’re wrong to think that I don’t intend to kill you. That’s only what my son wants, but I want to kill you so badly it’s about to drive me insane.”

Bloodlust filled Shailince’s black eyes as she glared down at Eiji.

He would really die if he said the wrong thing.

Shailince’s hand came flying in and slapped him hard against the cheek just as the thought crossed his mind. She slapped him repeatedly until he thought the bones in his neck might break. It hurt quite a bit whenever these monsters so much as slapped him.

Shailince only lowered her hand slowly after Eiji’s face had burst open.

“I can also kill you accidentally if I lose my mind to fury, so watch your tongue. My son will be rather cross with me if you die, but that’s all there is to it.”

Eiji predicted that he was about to suffer even more. He repeated, ‘I need to keep myself together,’ to himself as he pressed his lips shut. He felt like it would do him better to simply keep quiet. Shailince continued,

“Isn’t it about time for you to beg me for my forgiveness through tears?”

Shailince threatened, and she pat at Eiji’s cheek when he kept his silence.

“I’m genuinely curious. The terror that you’ve shown for me until now was undoubtedly real. How did the idea even crawl inside your head? You were so terrified of me that you couldn’t even speak, and yet you had the guts to scheme about betraying us in the back of your mind. Just like how the rest of the Roygen Clan did.”

“…….”

“How was that possible? Was it the Demon’s power?”

Most people obeyed the Bahamut imperial family either out of terror or because they had been brainwashed. But the Roygen Clan had ultimately betrayed them.

Shailince grabbed Eiji firmly by the face.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Hurry up and blabber away.”

“…….”

She did not miss the hope and the desire to live that was buried deep within Eiji’s lowered eyes. Eiji had always been obsessed with surviving. But where had the hope come from?

Dorcianni? The thief who had stolen the fragment?

Or perhaps the women whom everyone was so interested in?

Shailince narrowed her eyes and sneered.

“It looks like you’re expecting someone to come and save you? My guess is that woman named Ianna.”

It was the first time that Ianna’s name had come from Shailince’s lips. Eiji flinched despite himself, and Shailince forced a laugh because she had confirmed her suspicions.

“She really is one remarkable woman. Does she give off pheromones that drive people out of their right minds or something?”

She continued to insult Ianna for some time after that.

She also slipped in a few choice words for Dorcianni on occasion too.

And her insults grew stronger and stronger. Eiji’s insides were boiling. He could not bear to hear her insult Ianna and Dorcianni so.

Shailince wanted for Eiji to beg her for forgiveness, but Eiji did not seem like he would answer to her wishes anytime soon.

“How could I possibly betray you?”

He spat on the floor. He continued,

“I’ve been planning to get revenge on you lot from the very beginning. Every act and emotion you’ve seen from me until now was just a lie. Oh, but it’s true that I was terrified of you, of course. But humans are capable of feeling more than one emotion at a time. My hatred was stranger than my terror, and that’s what made it all possible. I’m sure this is also how my clan was able to prepare the blade that will cut off your heads one day too. You’ll die pathetically without being able to fulfil the long-cherished wish that you’ve been dreaming of for ages.”

Shailince tilted her head to the side and dared Eiji to keep running his mouth. Eiji sneered and continued cursing her as if to suggest that she couldn’t stop him. He said,

“Oh, and you were saying crap about pheromones or whatnot and insulting my awesome master and Dorci before —do you have an inferiority complex or something? The man you called your husband lost the fragment while fooling around with some other woman, and you were betrayed by your favorite little slave. Why don’t I be honest since it’s already come to this anyway? I was only putting up with you. I wanted to retch every time I slept with you, and I really did retch every time afterward. I wouldn’t sleep with you willingly even if…….”

Smaaack!

The whip came flying for Eiji’s mouth. It burst his lips open before striking indiscriminately all over his body, which was already littered with bloody red lines. The spraying droplets of blood reflected Shailince’s face, and her lips, as crimson as blood, were both beautiful and vicious.

Her viciousness even suppressed even her extraordinary beauty and loftiness. Eiji loathed and despised her. The woman who had robbed him of his youth was always captivatingly beautiful, and she was always disgusting and repulsive.

Eiji endured it all while screaming an endless stream of curses to himself as he reproached himself yet again.

‘I let myself get kidnapped twice —I really am useless.’

He had started reproaching himself ever since he had been dragged here. He knew that it had been outside his control, but it saddened and infuriated him all the same.

‘I’m sure everyone’s worried about me. Shit, Bahamut’s probably scheming something since they haven’t killed me yet —what kinds of demands are they planning to make? Is it better if I just commit suicide before I end up hurting everyone?’

Eiji had considered killing himself several times over, but he also refused to die. He despaired over why his life was like this, but he still tried to figure out a way to survive all the same.

In the past, he would have simply bitten his own tongue and killed himself as soon as he realized that he had been uncovered and was dragged away. He would not have had any hope.

But now…….

“If you truly wish to work for me, then you’ll have to stay alive until I die,”

Those words, those very words.

“Just be my colleague. And I will help you so that you never find yourself drowning in the mud ever again.”

They had become as Eiji’s hope.

“I won’t die.”

The promise he had made to Ianna became as his will.

Eiji was determined to leave this place alive despite how terribly he was suffering, despite how much of a fuss Shailince was making in her want to kill him.

He firmly believed in his survival and did not doubt it even in the slightest. He would do his best to escape on his own, and if that wasn’t possible, then Ianna would come to rescue him.

After all, Ianna had promised him…….

The flame-like divine power that had settled in his heart safeguarded his soul whenever he thought the agony would drive him insane. It was the divine power that Ianna had imbued in him whenever she had the time to spare.

The fiery hot power, as hot as the sun itself, burned away the evil spirits that crept into his hallucinations and helped him keep living as Eiji.

Ianna was the sun. Eiji wanted to watch over her light from behind. He wanted to see how she would grow and what kinds of light she would cast in the future. He wanted to support her from behind.

He had a reason to live now.

He, too, had his own ambitions.

‘I respect you and care for you. I want to see the future that you live.’

Ianna had said that she needed him too. And Eiji knew this. There was still so much more that he had to do for Ex-knights.

Eiji tugged at the chains that pulling at his wrists painfully even as he was being whipped.

‘I want to escape on my own, but I don’t think that’ll be possible.’

His mood fluctuated because he genuinely wanted to die at times. Not because of the pain, but because he detested the idea that he might be used to harm Ianna so much that it shamed him. He wanted to escape on his own, but he did not have the means. There was absolutely no way for him to oppose these crazed monsters with his personal strength alone.

Craaack.

The whip went astray and struck the chains.

The chains broke away, and Eiji’s body plunged to the floor.

“Keep blabbering.”

“…….”

How did she expect him to keep talking after she had shredded his mouth with her whip?

He could beg for forgiveness and start insulting Ianna and Ex-knights. He could have bought himself some time and lessened his agony that way, but he did not. Eiji could never insult the country he had shaped with his own two hands or his sun. He may have lived a dirty life until now, but these things were sacred to him. Eiji was prideful and pure now that he had been reborn.

Eiji dropped his head. Shailince looked down at him like he was a broken toy.

“I’ve given up on talking to you now. There’s no need to, not when you don’t look like you intend on actually having a proper conversation with me. I’m just going to focus on prying the information I want out of you.”

She had exchanged her whip for a sword at some point. Its glistening blade hovered over Eiji’s hand. Eiji shuddered.

He had already lost a few body parts. Some of them had been reattached loosely with Life, but he was nowhere near completely healed.

‘I’ll probably lose a few more parts, but I’m sure Little Ianna can put me back together again.’

That was how he had so persistently endured all this time. The raw pain was still better than letting the virtue of his mind to collapse. The pain was terrible, but he had experienced it all before, and he could endure it again.

And yet…….

Despite everything, his mind grew fuzzier and stiffer every time he was beaten. Would he be able to endure without losing his mind until he could finally escape? He could not help but think that having to suffer through this with no end in sight might not only render him insane but also make him a vegetable.

‘But I’ll still hold on until the bitter end.’

Eiji’s quivering fingers were silenced. His complexion changed colors. He stared quietly at the blade that was hovering over what few fingers he still had left before he quietly closed his eyes.

“Are you going to talk?”

Eiji refused to answer, and the blade fell yet again.

~~*~~

Karnitz moved about diligently with the bead hidden inside his clothes.

“Hard at work again, I see.”

“You can take it easy while on patrol, you know.”

Karnitz always worked rigorously, as if there had been an intruder alert, even within the safe confines of the imperial palace. Karnitz was assiduous and honest to a fault to the point of tedium, and he was the very definition of diligent.

Some people insulted him for being slow in the head because he worked so hard, but most people acknowledged his efforts. The people were accustomed to watching him working so hard.

It was thanks to this that he was able to go where the bead led him without arousing any suspicion. But he quickly came across an obstacle. He could not pass through the gates leading to the mages’ laboratory-cum-prisons without sanction.

He sent Ianna an interim report as he deliberated about how to get past the gates, and then it was morning and it was time for the Knights of Perzenus to convene.

“Drink eight bottles each.”

There were boxes filled with Life stacked up next to Nox Kiehelven, the commander of the Knights of Perzenus.

The knights were being ordered to drink more Life more frequently as of late. From one bottle to two, from two bottles to four, from four bottles to eight. From once a month, to twice a month, to once a week…….

Karnitz shuddered, unbeknownst to anyone else, whenever it was time to drink it because he knew that Life was an elixir made from another’s life. But he had no choice but to drink it because he would elicit suspicion if he didn’t.

The Life tasted like bitter medicine as it washed over his tongue like wastewater. It was so bitter that it paralyzed his sense of taste.

“It’s eight bottles this time?”

“I could go for a hundred.”

Karnitz’s fellow knights finished their eight bottles quickly and ate candies as they snooped around for any leftover Life.

Everyone other than Karnitz enjoyed drinking Life. Not only did they enjoy getting high off its narcotic components, but they also grew stronger and better at fighting with every bottle.

They lost more of the humanity in their hearts with every bottle they drank. Their barbaric nature reared its head as they became engrossed in their greed, and they started to enjoy the act of ending lives. It was a very twisted sort of pleasure.

And it eventually turned the knights’ personalities strange.

They had still been knights who were appropriately prideful and exceedingly loyal to Bahamut, but who still knew to be merciful and avoided killing unless it was necessary back when Karnitz had first joined Perzenus.

But they started to enjoy murder once they had started taking Life, and they killed everything around them whenever they marched. On any ordinary day, they devoted themselves into growing stronger for the sole purpose of being able to reap more lives in the future.

This, in addition to the fact that they never fought amongst themselves because of the absolute terror instilled by Bahamut—.

‘It’s like they’re becoming monsters.’

Karnitz put down the bottles once he had finished drinking his ration of Life.

“You must have been bored out of your minds from all the insipid fights we’ve been engaging in, men,”

Nox said with an odd thrill in his voice as he raised as fist. He continued,

“But we will also be participating in the war for real starting next week.”

“Finally!”

Cheers erupted from all around Karnitz.

“His Majesty has declared that he will hold a departure ceremony for us in six days’ time.”

“Whoa!”

‘Six days from now is the day of the banquet that my lady was invited to.’

Karnitz had been wondering why all the servants in the castle had suddenly become so busy this morning, and this was apparently the reason. He could easily infer that their sudden marching orders were the result of Ianna interfering with what the imperial family had been doing in the West.

‘We’re going to battle.’

Putting aside everything else, the only reason why Karnitz had been able to apply for a vacation in the middle of a war was because the Knights of Perzenus and any knight order ranking above it had yet to be sent off to fight the war.

The Bahamut army’s main force was comprised mostly of knight orders and soldiers from the capital, who were comparatively weaker, and the imperial knight orders had been sent to march in turns and without much fanfare, as if they were simply warming up.

Zeigellant, the second imperial knight order, was making slow progress on the Ex-knights front to the East —had they been ordered to buy time?—, and no one had seen neither hide nor hair of Pakalatua, the first imperial knight order, until they had suddenly returned from wherever it was they had vanished off to yesterday evening. It was only after he had heard the details from Ianna that Karnitz realized that they had been carrying out a massacre in the West.

Every knight order save for Zeigellant was gathered in the imperial palace now.

And there would be a departure ceremony next week.

As far as Bahamut was concerned, the war until now had simply been a game where they hadn’t been fighting with their full strength. The fighting would change considerably once Bahamut decided to wage war for real. Karnitz couldn’t help but grow a little nervous.

‘I hope we’ll be able to minimalize the casualties.’

He was still slightly nervous as he continued to listen to Nox Keihelven’s speech.

“All we have to do is cut down our enemies like we’re starving ghouls once the great war begins. The upcoming banquet will be our last chance to eat at leisure. Finishing your preparations before you attend the banquet.”

“Yessir!”

The knights were excited as they went off to begin preparing for war after they were dismissed. Karnitz walked up to Nox Kiehelven.

“Commander.”

“Hmm, Karnitz Ulter? Did you have something to say to me?”

Nox was puzzled as he looked back at Karnitz.

“I’d like to expand the area I have under my jurisdiction for my patrols.”

Nox was unconvinced by Karnitz’s sudden request and asked,

“And why’s that?”

“This is my first time marching for Bahamut at such a large scale. Nothing bad will happen in the best-case scenario, but I think that it is inevitable that some accidents and problems will crop up because we only have a week to prepare. I’d like to prevent them from cropping up at all while I’m out patrolling.”

“Hmph!”

No one liked patrolling. It was one thing if someone invaded the palace, but all they did was walk around because no one ever did.

Nox had known that Karnitz was inflexible about these things for some time now, so he did not find the request particularly unusual. He simply looked back at Karnitz like the latter was an oddity as he readily permitted it.

“That’s fine. I’m granting you the authority to go patrolling everywhere except for the restricted area that was set up recently. Work hard for our success in battle.”

“Thank you. But what do you mean by the restricted area that was set up recently?”

“Everything beyond the gates that lead to the mages’ laboratories. Even the mages aren’t allowed to go there right now.”

“Understood.”

Karnitz sighed to himself even as he replied calmly. He felt like he had increased his workload for no reason, since that was exactly the place that he was trying to enter. But it was fine since this meant that he was allowed to go just about everywhere else.

He promptly began patrolling and stealthily spied on the people around him. The knight order working directly under the empress dowager was lingering around the mages’ laboratories. Karnitz was certain that this was where the empress dowager was keeping Eiji.

Then, he visited several prison guards with whom he was on good terms under the guise of saying farewell and handed out snacks to them. Karnitz was just about the only knight working directly for the imperial palace who was on friendly terms with the prison guards.

Karnitz had worked hard to turn people over to his side in his efforts to survive in the imperial palace, and the guards were some of the fruits of this efforts. They chuckled and told Karnitz the latest gossip before he even asked.

“There’s been trouble because we don’t have enough tools to torture the prisoners with.”

The guards complained about how the mages’ laboratory had stolen all the decent torture devices from them. But they accepted it because they had no choice but to obey the empress dowager’s wishes.

“They must be holding a prisoner who was accused of high treason in there. It’s strange. I’ve never seen the imperial family torturing anyone personally in all my time here.”

“A long time ago, there was a time when the imperial family was furious —especially Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager. It’s probably someone who had something to do with what happened back then. I’m sure it’s no ordinary prisoner.”

The old prison guard clicked his tongue.

“We’ll have to reinforce the security around here, if that’s the case.”

“I know how diligent you are, Sir Ulter, but do you truly believe that’s necessary? Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager’s hands and feet are strutting around with their eyes peeled open. Besides, the laboratories are vast, and it’s not like we know where the bastard is.”

“You don’t know either?”

“No, sir. The knights took away the torture devices personally.”

This hadn’t been very fruitful either. Karnitz had spent an entire day searching, but he had only ended up wasting time because the security was too tight.

The most important aspect of his mission was to figure out Eiji’s exact whereabouts without letting his cover slip. The exact location where Eiji was being held was of vital importance. Eiji would be killed in an instant if Karnitz messed up and Ianna teleported to the wrong location.

But it wasn’t as if he could simply waltz into the laboratories either. He would be executed under common law if he did.

A way to figure out Eiji’s location without actually entering the laboratories…

Karnitz fiddled with the stone of good fortune in his hand as he patrolled until his extraordinary diligence, simple honesty, meticulousness, and obstinacy allowed him to devise a method to do exactly that. It might take a little long, but it would work without fail.

Karnitz contacted Ianna immediately as soon as he had devised his plan.

“The stone you gave me grows weaker at set intervals, my Lady —would you be able to tell me the exact details of its nature?”

[Give me a moment.]

Karnitz heard muffled talking from the other side before Ianna quickly continued,

[The bead doesn’t work at all if it’s within a one-meter radius of its imprinted master, and it loses one-tenth of its strength at intervals of exactly one hundred meters.]

“Can an earth spirit measure how far away the bead is from its master?”

[Yes.]

“In that case, can you please send me a spirit that’s small enough it won’t be caught?”

[No. The imperial family’s aura is too strong in Takalon, and the palace is layered with barriers. I would need to use my divine power to break through the barriers, and that would get me caught.]

“Understood. Then, is there a spell that will let me measure distance and angles? It would need to be a spell simple enough for a beginner to use.”

[I’m told that there is.]

“Please send me the mana arrangement for that spell, the exact coordinates of a few locations near the Bahamut imperial castle, and a few stones of good fortune that haven’t been imprinted yet.”

Karnitz received the items he had asked for outside the capital.

He and Isphee tested the spare stones to see how their strength changed, and then he memorized exactly how the stone’s pull felt in his hands depending on the distance. It was only after all this that he began working for real.

Karnitz was diligent and honest to a fault, but that did not mean he was stupid. He was actually rather smart.

First, he went underground and roamed about until the stone pulled exactly horizontally, letting him ascertain the precise depth of where Eiji was being held. Then, he patrolled diligently and measured the distance, the angle, then more distances, and more angles from various places…….

Until finally, a few days later. Karnitz found the exact coordinates to where all of his measurements pointed equally.

Ianna was surprised when he sent her the coordinates.

[How did you find out?]

“Sometimes brute diligence pays out, even if it’s a bit unsophisticated.”

Karnitz had made no mistakes.

~~*~~

It had taken a few days, but Karnitz had brought back excellent results.

“These coordinates are accurate.”

Arhad reviewed and confirmed the measurements that Karnitz had sent over one last time before he prepared a Teleport. Then, he turned to Ianna and Dorcianni, who were preparing to set forth, and warned,

“The only thing I can do is to break through their influence for just a moment and teleport you and Dorcianni to these coordinates.”

It was much more difficult to control one’s strength from far away than from up close. Even Arhad could not do more than this. He continued,

“I won’t be able to do anything beyond giving you guys the chance to teleport out yourselves because I’ll need to wage war against Taylon as soon as he notices. You’ll have to figure out a way to escape by yourselves.”

“That’s more than enough. I’ll figure things out.”

Dorcianni, who typically liked to prattle on about pointless things, was unusually quiet as of late.

But just as they were about to depart, she suddenly asked,

“Do you think he’s dead?”

“He’s not dead.”

“That child always clung to life so desperately, so I think I’ll feel a bit empty inside if I find him dead.”

“I just told you that he’s not dead.”

“Shailince tends to act on emotion. And Eiji’s grown pretty cheeky recently. It’s entirely possible that she’s killed him for rubbing her the wrong way. Taylon promised to send him back to us alive, but he’s lenient to his family who shares his blood. He might tell us about Eiji’s unfortunate death as soon as we get there.”

“I’m telling you that he’s alive.”

“I’m sure he must be, if you say so, Your Majesty. Okay.”

Both Ianna and Dorcianni were nervous.

Ianna summoned the spirits in advance.

“You guys stay here and get ready to heal Eiji.”

[Okay!]

Arhad activated the spell as soon as they were ready.

Their vision was blinded for a brief moment.

Ianna, who had been anticipating the attack, sundered the floor with a powerful fortification as soon as the dark place came into her view.

Craaaaaack!

The dark and damp space was shattered apart.

Rumble rumble…….

The shock spread upward as the underground space crumbled down.

Karnitz had done well. They had teleported right next to the bloody mass that was likely Eiji himself.

Ianna cursed to herself as she glared forward. Dorcianni, with whom Ianna had shared her divine power in advance, was already beginning to prepare a Teleport.

“What……?”

The woman, who had fallen over because of the sudden explosion, pushed herself back to her feet. She was a beautiful woman with her black hair done up.

Ianna’s eyes met hers. And Ianna’s fortification had already flown up to the tip of the woman’s nose by the time their eyes had met. A black shadow leapt out in front of the woman like a lion and pushed away the fortification just as the woman was about to be cut apart because she was utterly unable to deal with Ianna’s fortification by herself.

“Marvelous. How did you find this place?”

Taylon was staring at Ianna like she was a mysterious lifeform.

Claaaang! Clang!

Ianna’s and Taylon’s auras clashed against each other several dozen times within a blink of the eye. Each resounding clang penetrated through the earth and created tremors.

“Well, whatever.”

Taylon smirked and raised his finger. He continued,

“I will kill that lump of meat since you not only ignored my warning but also have no reason to attend my banquet since you’ve gone ahead and retrieved the bait.”

Eiji’s breathing was shallow. He might die if he received too much shock while they were fighting. Taylon really might have simply given them news of Eiji’s death, just as Dorcianni had feared, if they had waited for the entire week to pass.

“You won’t be able to kill Eiji.”

“Do you truly believe that you can block me, protect the bastard, and teleport away all at the same time?”

Ianna, who had been facing against Taylon while blocking his path to Eiji, raised her hand. She was holding a thin envelope.

“If you sent an invitation, then you should have been expecting a response. I don’t accept compulsory invitations as a rule.”

“Hmm?”

Ianna sent her reply letter flying over to Taylon. Taylon caught it readily.

“But voluntary invitations are a different matter. And I accept your invitation. I’ll attend your banquet.”

The way her eyes burned with bloodlust despite the composure of her voice left quite the impression.

“What made you change your mind? And here I thought you’d never accept.”

“I grew curious about the utter rubbish you wanted to tell me.”

Taylon opened the envelope and read the short reply that was stamped with Ex-knights’ royal seal.

“What a tasteful reply. Very well. I’ll let you go back.”

Taylon did not interrupt their leave now that Ianna had declared that she would attend willingly. The intruders vanished quickly while leaving only traces of crimson divine power behind them.

Taylon quite liked the aura that filled the room.

The powerful aura told him that its master never lied. Thus, she would attend the banquet without fail.

But it would have been entertaining enough even if she had been lying. After all, she would have likely ended up crying tears of blood as she regretted not attending.

Taylon looked down at Ianna’s rough penmanship and chuckled quietly.

“Truly an entertaining woman indeed.”

How much longer would she have the leisure to write him replies like this?

Ianna and Dorcianni returned home safely with Eiji in tow.

[That’s……Eiji?]

Eiji was in such a terrible state that even the spirits were left confused.

Ianna’s arms and hands as she clutched onto him —every last inch of him was drenched with blood. The blood drained from Ianna’s cheeks as she quivered. Her rage was burning her mind white.

I should have murdered the bastards where they stood.

Why am I not strong enough to do that?

“Ianna.”

Arhad took Ianna by the wrist had pried her off. The pressure on her wrist brought her back to her senses. Arhad continued,

“Calm down, and let go of him.”

Ianna flinched and stepped back immediately when she realized just how tightly she was holding Eiji when he was already so injured. She was drenched in his blood from head to toe.

“…….”

Dorcianni held Eiji in her arms as she looked down at his ruined features. Then, she stood up quietly and laid him down on the bed that was prepared besides them.

Eiji’s complexion was dark, and his once-bright cerulean eyes were hazy. Dorcianni closed his eyes.

[We’ll get started.]

The spirits flew into Eiji.

They melted into his body and injected him with vitality. But Eiji’s body began twitching just as they were about to begin regenerating him. In a hurry, Innis yelled,

[His heart’s about to stop! Keep pouring more divine power into his heart, Ianna!]

Ianna immediately placed her hand on Eiji’s chest. She could barely feel his heartbeat. His heart had been pushed to the brink while he was being tortured, and it was dying because it had exhausted its supply of divine power. Ianna very carefully and continuously injected him with more.

Thump. Thump.

His heart began beating regularly again, as if it had regained its vigor, as it received Ianna’s divine power. The spirits followed its rhythm as they traveled down the memories recorded in Eiji’s body and mind and began restoring his body.

Cruuunch…….

His severed bones, his rotten flesh, his ruined organs, his torn blood vessels, his drained blood supply……. The elements that composed Eiji’s body slowly began restoring to their original state. The spirits devoted themselves into restoring his body completely without missing a single piece.

A long time passed before Eiji was restored to his original state.

[We’ve finished restoring his body.]

Ianna sank down and breathed out a sigh of relief. She was so glad that the spirits were here. She had never been so relieved before in her life.

“Why hasn’t he woken up yet if his body’s completely recovered?”

“Likely because his mind hasn’t recovered yet,”

Arhad muttered as he put a blanket over Eiji.

[He’s right. We can’t heal the heart or the soul. We have to wait until he recovers on his own. Your divine power can help him recover, Ianna, so keep giving him more periodically.]

Ianna nodded back listlessly and pushed more divine power into Eiji’s body. The spirits busied themselves by getting rid of the stench of blood and cleaning the room before their time was up and they left.

“Should I not have left for Bahamut?”

Ianna mumbled.

“No. I didn’t notice anything, so you wouldn’t have either. This would have still happened one way or another as long as neither of us were aware that Bahamut was still determined to punish Eiji.”

Bahamut had done an excellent job of pretending like they had stopped caring about Eiji and Dorcianni. It was true that they had been caught off guard, but Ianna could not help but be horrified by how dark and shady the bastards were for pretending not to care at all while they were being wary and striking at their Archilles’ heel with poisoned fangs as soon as they had lowered their guard.

Ianna waited for Eiji to wake up. Dorcianni also waited constantly by his side.

But Eiji did not wake even after several days had passed.

Ianna was anxious.

“Has his mind still not recovered yet?”

“Who could say……?”

Ianna called back the spirits and asked them when Arhad could not readily answer.

[Actually, Eiji’s soul is really hazy right now, like it’s been filled with fog,]

the spirits replied gingerly.

“It’s hazy?”

[Yeah. It feels like his soul is hovering over the boundary between life and death. It usually happens when someone is psychologically exhausted or badly damaged, but a soul needs to be self-aware to keep existing. His soul might be extinguished if this continues for too long.]

Eiji had been in so much agony that he had let go of his consciousness altogether.

“Wake up. You’re safe now.”

But Eiji still would not wake.

And so, Ianna asked her ‘power.’ She asked it to wake him up.

But the Balance replied that it was impossible. Not only was a soul innate to an individual, like the heart, but the Balance could not handle it easily because it was an astral component. It would be easy to wake  him if he was simply asleep, but Ianna’s power could do little if there was a problem with his psyche.

Moreover, the fact that his soul was hovering between life and death meant that it was also being influenced by the Akashic Records, the ‘afterlife.’ Anything that had to do with the Akashic Records ranked among one of the most difficult feats that Ianna’s power was capable of accomplishing.

Ianna keenly felt that all of this was simply because she was not yet complete. The Balance would have still given her at least a chance despite the difficulty if only she had been complete enough to use its full power.

“…….”

In conclusion, this was because she hadn’t been able to break Roberstein’s seal yet.

“You just have to be desperate to find your answer.”

Desperate? I’m already plenty desperate.

How can I possibly get more desperate than this?

Just what more do I have to do?

The circumstances were screaming that she needed to grow stronger, but there was so little time. Hard work was Ianna’s specialty, but she didn’t know where she was supposed to direct her efforts.

She needed to be stronger than Roberstein in order to force the seal to break, but she also needed to break the seal first in order to grow stronger as quickly as possible. She could not see any solution other than to find a different way to break the seal in order to break free of this circular contradiction.

Ianna didn’t want to fret, but her heart grew anxious because of Eiji. She was clutching her head in her hands when Arhad suddenly grabbed her shoulders. He kissed her on the forehead when she brought her hands down and looked up.

“Trust him, Ianna.”

Her nerves, which had been sharpened as if she had been cornered to the edge of a cliff, mellowed somewhat. Arhad continued,

“Besides, I can always use my last resort if all else fails, so don’t worry too much.”

“Your last resort? What’s that?”

Arhad smiled quietly but did not answer.

Ianna felt something ominous in his smile. And she was certain. She absolutely needed to do something before Arhad ever decided to act.

~~*~~

Part 9

It was the last banquet before the Bahamut army’s grand departure.

Takalon, the imperial capital of the Bahamut Empire.

If Ex-knights’ had Semastair, the city built upon a harmony between magical engineering and nature, then Roanne had Theodore, the city of ultimate elegance and glamor, and Bahamut had Takalon, which was overbearing and large. Takalon was a monochromic city filled with steeples so tall they seemed to pierce the heavens and buildings built from blackish grey bricks.

The great city Takalon, where only the crème of the crop of Bahamut gathered. Anyone of great talent in Bahamut came to Takalon in hopes of climbing the social ladder.

Only those whose identities had been thoroughly vetted could enter Takalon. In particular, only high-ranking nobles with express sanction from the imperial castle were allowed into the Bahamut imperial castle, located at the heart of Takalon, and the city’s central district built around it. Even the servants serving those nobles were only allowed to enter after they had pledged a life contract.

The people dreamed of setting foot in central Takalon someday as they gathered in Takalon’s outer district and the cities beyond it. The area was always jam-packed with people, and this was why the price of land was exceptionally expensive inside the imperial capital and the cities immediately beyond it. The way that the people ignored the rest of Bahamut’s vast territory to do their upmost to live in just one single city could be viewed as both comedic and tragic.

And finally, the opportunity that everyone in Takalon had been eagerly awaiting had finally come. War was both the greatest opportunity and steppingstone for people who wished to climb the social ladder. Everyone dreamed of rising in the ranks as they prepared for the departure tomorrow.

Evening fell.

“Hmm? What’s that?”

The nobles who had been riding their carriages or walking their way over to participate in the banquet hosted by the Bahamut imperial family felt a large fluctuation in the mana and turned around.

A great power penetrated through the top portion of the barrier surrounding Takalon’s central district. The power not only dented but pierced cleanly through the barrier as it landed squarely before the castle gates.

‘The barrier was broken? Was it someone from the imperial family?’

The nobles who had been paying close attention to the gates immediately drew their weapons as soon as the mana scattered and they saw the three individuals who had arrived.

They recognized the visitors at once because all three of them were infamous.

Dorcianni Demariposa, the archmage who had once been one of Bahamut’s greatest imperial court mages but had betrayed the empire and had sided with Ex-knights.

Arhad Rise Ex-knights. The bastard who had stolen the blood of the Bahamut imperial family and the king of Ex-knights.

And Ianna Ex-knights Rise.

The greatest knight of their enemy nation.

She looked much younger than the rumors painted her.

Her fierce red hair which just barely fell to her shoulders.

No one could say that the woman, who was wearing lightweight leather armor over her black uniform, was old even as empty words. But her figure, which never once wavered even though she was smack in the middle of enemy territory, gave off a feeling of pressure that none could dare ignore.

Why were people whom they would either kill or be killed by standing in the middle of the imperial capital? Why were they here? There were only three of them, and they had not brought any other soldiers with them. Did they have a death wish?

A servant quickly ran out from the castle gates and greeted them just as the mood and the air was about to grow worse.

“Welcome, noble guests from Ex-knights. His Majesty has instructed me to thank you for accepting his invitation. Please come this way.”

The unwelcomed guests from Ex-knights walked after the servant and passed through the castle gates. Had His Imperial Majesty the Emperor truly invited them here himself? The nobles were bewildered because they had no idea what on earth was going on.

“Would you like to tour the castle before the banquet begins?”

“No.”

The servant stopped asking questions when the reply fell upon him like a blade.

They were being led along a different path from the roads that the nobles were walking.

They could see the imperial knights lined up along both sides of a wide road as they followed after the servant. Taylon had placed strict standby orders on his knights where Ianna’s group could see them instead or ordering them to put on a welcoming show.

It was almost as if he was showing off the knights that their kingdom was soon to do battle against, as if he was showing off his military might. Ianna did not refuse his offer and studied the knights carefully.

‘They’re very high-leveled. There are a lot of them, and there’s probably more of them elsewhere.’

The passed by the many buildings of the Bahamut imperial castle until they finally arrived at the largest one. It was where the banquet would be taking place today.

There was a red carpet rolled out in front of the main entrance, which was emptied specifically for the guests from Ex-knights.

Creak.

They stepped inside the castle.

The Knights of Pakalatua, the First Imperial Knight Order, was lined up inside.

They were wearing pitch-black armor, and no one could see the expressions on their faces because they were wearing black helmets. They way that they didn’t move a single muscle, as if they were dead, almost made them seem like armored decorations. But Ianna furrowed her brows as she sensed the condensed power that was packed inside them.

The Knights of Pakalatua opened the gigantic set of doors at the other end of the red carpet.

“You’re finally here.”

The Bahamut imperial family had been awaiting their guests from Ex-knights beyond them.

“I welcome you to Bahamut,”

Taylon greeted them quietly.

Standing on either side of him was Isabella and the woman whom Ianna had met previously.

Empress Dowager Shailince. She was wearing a fur coat of the highest quality and a luxurious black dress, and she looked eerie because she seemed so similar in age with her children.

Ianna glared ferociously at Shailince. The edges of Isabella’s lips curled up, as if she enjoyed even Ianna’s ferocity, and Shailince looked strangely impatient as she looked Ianna up and down.

That damned Demon’s fragment. Ianna was getting sick and tired of this.

“I don’t recall inviting you here, little brother, but I see you’ve come here with your wife like a restless foal. Do you not trust her skills?”

“It’s you lot that I don’t trust,”

Arhad calmly replied to Taylon’s derision. He continued,

“Besides, I don’t need an invitation. I will go wherever I want.”

“You’re only half-blooded, but you really do take after our lineage. Well, that’s fine too. I’ll play the proper host since I’m not entirely heartless.”

The banquet hall, where the Bahamut imperial family had been waiting for Ianna’s group, was very tall and vast. The hall was several stories tall but completely roofless, and it was circular in shape.

The highest level was empty because only Ianna’s group and the imperial family were seated there, but the rest of the levels were so crowded with Bahamut nobles and members of the Bahamut army that it felt justified to call the event a great banquet.

Most of the people in power in Bahamut were powerful members of the military. They were allowed to sit closer to the highest level, where the Bahamut imperial family was, in order of strength. They thoroughly scrutinized the people who were their greatest obstacles to world domination.

“Have a seat.”

Taylon sat opposite of Arhad, Isabella sat opposite of Ianna, and Shailince sat opposite of Dorcianni.

The Bahamut Empire’s flag unfurled from the sky. Everyone looked up at it. The orchestra, which was located on the middle levels, began playing Bahamut’s national anthem, and all the people of Bahamut who were sitting in the banquet hall sang along with its arrogant lyrics. The three guests from Ex-knights did not stand and simply watched their enemies, whom they would have to fight against soon enough, with chilling looks in their eyes.

Taylon raised his wine glass once the anthem was over.

“For Bahamut’s victory.”

“May you walk the path of blood and iron, o absolute one!”

Everyone else raised their glasses too.

Then, the servants began bringing out the dishes. Glossy foods began filling the black tables, which themselves had already been decorated with gorgeous jewels, flowers, and scented candles. The servants were only sent back after they had brought out all the appetizers and had poured crimson wine in every glass.

“Enjoy yourselves.”

Taylon was the only person who seemed interested in the food. Isabella was staring openly into Ianna, and Shailince was going between giving Dorcianni a death glare and stealing glances at Ianna.

“The North is blessed with marine resources. I heard that you enjoy seafood? Have as much as you’d like,”

Taylon said gently, as if to suggest that he was only interested in the food because of Ianna. Ianna picked up her fork without a word.

The appetizer consisted of lightly seasoned shrimp, vegetable salad dressed with freshly grated cheese, and a creamy bean soup. There were also various other light and colorful dishes, every dish was made with only the best ingredients and cooked with the greatest care, and all the food was stimulating to the tongue.

But Ianna’s mood was so sour that none of it tasted good to her. To think that she was sitting at her enemy’s departure ceremony and enjoying their food while the war was right in front of her and Eiji still hadn’t woken up yet. Bloodlust boiled up from within her as she thought about Eiji.

Taylon, who had been observing Ianna, smirked and said,

“Put aside your bloodlust. I’d like to share a pleasant conversation with you.”

“Just what on earth did you even want to discuss that you’re pulling this ridiculous nonsense?”

“We’ve been fighting all this time, yet we hardly know anything about each other. I’d like to learn more about you. Aren’t you curious to learn more about me too?”

Taylon slowly added that they need not worry about any of this information being leaked to the masses because he had cast a soundproofing spell around them. But he had never needed to cast the spell to begin with.

“I have no intention about telling you about me, so why don’t you just talk about yourself?”

“How uncooperative of you. But that’s fine too. Besides, my sister and mother seem happy just to be able to look at you. And we can discuss your tastes and preferences later after the war is over. I’m sure you won’t be nearly as obstinate then.”

Ianna did not respond to Taylon’s confidence in winning the war.

“How has Eiji been?”

Taylon asked lightly, as if he was only asking Ianna if she had already eaten, and Ianna suddenly wanted to rip out his tongue.

“Screw off.”

“Hoho. But you know, Miss Ianna?”

Ianna glared at Isabella out of the corner of her eye when the latter addressed her so casually by her given name. Isabella feigned ignorance and repeated Ianna’s name to herself, as if she loved how it sounded in the tones of her voice, before she grinned and continued,

“We were incredibly merciful with him. We could have had him killed for betraying us, but we only tortured him and sent him back to you alive.”

“You never sent him back —I stole him back from you. Before you could kill him.”

The corners of Isabella’s eyes dropped, as if in sorrow, when she heard Ianna’s callous reply.

“But we didn’t kill him even though we could have killed him as soon as we captured him, you know? Think about it from our shoes. Let’s say that one of your subordinates was actually a Bahamut spy and he betrayed you after learning everything there was to know about you. Wouldn’t you want to stab him to death too? But we still didn’t kill Eiji. Even when we absolutely could have tortured him to the point of rendering him comatose and killed him while he was in agony.”

“You have no right to claim that Eiji betrayed you when you not only slaughtered his entire clan but also ruined his life.”

“Well, I admit that we were in the wrong too. We should’ve crushed him more thoroughly so that he could never even consider betraying us. No, we should have killed him with the rest of the Roygen Clan so that he’d never have the chance to betray us in the first place. It was Mother’s fault for letting Dorcianni convince her otherwise.”

Shailince ground her teeth together when her daughter reprimanded her on the sly. A cold that seemed to freeze everything around it was pointed at Dorcianni, who was simply enjoying her soup with her eyes lowered.

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

Dorcianni slowly tilted her head to the side.

“Anything to say? Hmmm……. Anything to say……. No, not really?”

“How long have you been planning to betray us? Ever since you handed Eiji over to me?”

“It hasn’t been long since these two here with me won me over. I really couldn’t have cared any less when I gave Eiji to you. I simply showed him a way to survive because he was so desperate to live. It was ultimately out of your sadistic lust that you decided not to kill him back then, so can you not blame me for getting stabbed in the back?”

A vein popped out of Shailince’s chin as she heard the haughtiness in Dorcianni’s reply. Isabella cut in before dishes began flying off the table.

“But it’s still so strange no matter how hard I think about it. How are you even still alive?”

Isabella was studying Dorcianni carefully, as if she was examining a corpse that shouldn’t be alive. She continued,

“How is it possible for you to still be alive after handing over your Demon’s fragment? And Heinrich is still alive and kicking too. How on earth did you manage it?”

Her eyes looked like that of a snake’s who was about to split apart her prey’s flesh and bones.

“I haven’t been so eager to conduct research that has nothing to do with slaughter or passion in a while. Will I get my answers if I dissect you? Or should I just use magic instead now that you aren’t an owner anymore?”

“It’s no use, since His Royal Majesty the King has placed a powerful spell on my brain. And you won’t learn anything by dissecting me either. You’ve dissected so many test subjects while researching how to transfer fragments, but none of those experiments yielded meaningful results. Remember?”

Dorcianni’s smile did not extend beyond her lips. She continued,

“The short time that I spent in Ex-knights was much for fruitful to me than the twenty-odd years I spent in Bahamut. It’s thanks to Ex-knights that I’m still alive after handing over my fragment and that I’ve gotten closer to the Truth. And there’s something that I’ve been feeling as I get even closer. You will never be able to best these two.”

“Don’t be haughty. We’ve also grown much closer to the Truth ourselves after you left us.”

Both sides were hiding things from each other.

Ianna was hiding Roberstein’s heart and power of Judgment. What was Bahamut hiding?

The only things that they could gain from the Demon were his knowledge of magic and the history of the Holy Age, but the Bahamut imperial family wouldn’t be so persistent if that was all they had.

Ianna put down her spoon.

“Stop trying to interrogate us. We have no intention of telling you anything about us, so why don’t you start talking about yourselves already? Surely you’re not planning to feign ignorance after convincing me to attend this banquet of yours by telling me that you would reveal your schemes?”

“Of course not. That’s the true purpose behind his banquet, after all.”

To be honest, Ianna still had no idea why they were even willing to tell her any of this.

“Did you enjoy your tour of the Northwest?”

Ianna recalled the horrible state the Northwest was in when Taylon asked. She could not help but scowl.

“Yes, very. You lot really are the worst of the worst.”

“Thank you for the compliment. But I’m not quite sure how to react when you praise us so highly for only doing the obvious.”

“The obvious?”

“Of course it’s obvious. We were hungry, so we ate our fill.”

The crimson wine in Taylon’s class sloshed around like blood. He continued,

“We are always starving for power. And everything else is nothing but sustenance. This was true even in the time of Bahamut’s founder, who was once the humblest creature in the sea.”

Ianna flinched. Silausa had told her that the imperial family was ashamed of their founder and had erased him from their history.

“It seems you already know about him, seeing that you aren’t very surprised. I only learned about this after I obtained the knowledge that the founder of Bahamut left behind a few years back, but you must have learned about this from the mermaids’ history, or perhaps…….”

Taylon glanced at Arhad and smirked.

“In any event, it’ll be much faster to explain if you’re already in the know. Our founder was a microorganism who was the very personification of the greed for power. And the way he chose to grow stronger was to eat all the other life around him, absorb their knowledge, and evolve. We, the Bahamut imperial family, are the descendants he left behind after finally evolving into a human. That is why we’re so obsessed with growing stronger —you could even say that it’s in our very genes to regard every other lifeform as mere sustenance.”

“Then do you mean to suggest……that you aren’t human right now?”

“It’s correct to call us humans because our bodies are completely human. But if you want to split hairs, it might be more accurate to say that we’re a mythical race that’s taken on the form of humanity, or even monsters wearing human shells.”

Taylon grinned as he spoke, as if he found what he was saying rather amusing. He continued,

“Our founder hid away his past because he was ashamed of it, but I dissent. Actually, I find it quite fascinating. I’m curious to know just how far we, who started as the weakest of the weak, can go. And so, I have no choice but to keep eating.”

Ianna couldn’t accept the reason why the Bahamut imperial family was so cruel, but she could comprehend it. But there was still something that she just couldn’t understand.

“I saw with magic that western Bahamut was ravaged just as badly as the Northwest was.”

Ianna accepted that Bahamut could be cruel to the Northwestern kingdoms because they were not a part of the empire. She continued,

“Why did you sacrifice your own people?”

Even monsters would want the country they governed to grow powerful. They would need subordinates who could support them firmly from behind. In that case, and all morals aside, wasn’t it better to only sacrifice the people outside of Bahamut’s borders?

“Didn’t I tell you? Everything else is mere sustenance. That which is outside the empire’s borders are wild game, and everything inside is merely livestock. They’re all food that we can breed whenever we feel like it. And the empire is nothing more than a fence we erected for our convenience.”

Ianna came to a conclusion. There was no need for her to discern whether the Bahamut imperial family were humans or monsters. They were simply crazy bastards who did not understand common sense. Their way of thinking was so different from her that understanding where they were coming from, or even just trying to, was a waste of time.

Ianna decided to stop debating with Taylon about rights and wrongs. But that only served to make her even more curious.

“Then, what you do plan to do after you’ve eaten and grown strong?”

He seemed intent on eating everything in the world, including his own empire, in order to grow stronger.

“My goal is to conquer the world and kill the dragons, the strongest creatures in the world.”

“And after that?”

“After? There is always someone above you. So I’m certain that there must be something stronger to face after I’ve killed the dragons. I will kill whatever that something may be.”

Just how far did the bastards want to go?

“And what if there’s nothing stronger above you?”

“Who could say……? I’ve never thought about that before. Perhaps I’ll destroy the world and then commit suicide to put an end to history while I’m at the very top?”

He spoke as if he was only joking, but it didn’t sound like one. Taylon continued,

“Or perhaps I’ll keep you by my side spend the rest of time lazing about in a life of debauchery? I don’t really want to kill you, you see.”

“You will never have me.”

“Don’t you know that the world doesn’t always revolve around what you want?”

“I could repeat the same thing back to you.”

Ianna cut down the sly greed that Taylon had let show. Taylon simply shrugged no matter how Ianna reacted, as if she was nothing more than a peevish but adorable pet.

“In any case, you’re the center of everything. Everything will be so much easier once you’re out of the picture. But we don’t plan on facing the either of you quite just yet. Even though our army is setting off to war tomorrow.”

“And what bullshit is that supposed to be?”

They were sending their army off to war, but they wouldn’t be fighting personally? Transcendental beings had to fight amongst themselves. There would be so many casualties on both sides otherwise.

“I mean exactly what I said, my honest and innocent Dame Rise.”

Taylon bared his teeth as he grinned. He continued,

“You’re supposed to savor the main dish after you’ve stimulated your hunger with the rest of the cooking and before finishing with a sweet dessert. We will be avoiding the two of you as we participate actively in the war, and we’re going to eat up all your underlings first.”

The servants took away the appetizers and brought out the main dishes. It was slightly cooked lamb steak side a side of roasted asparagus.

Ianna masticated over what Taylon had said, and it was only after she realized that she had neither misheard nor misunderstood him that she replied,

“You mean that you’ll be agitating the war while actively avoiding the two of us?”

“Precisely. We’ll be jumping inside the flock of sheep while avoiding the sheep dogs.”

Taylon brought his knife to his steak. The tender meat didn’t require much strength before it split, revealing its lustrous scarlet insides. Blood and juices poured out from the steak and mixed into the sauce when Taylon pressed down against it using the flat of his knife. He continued,

“We will keep slaughtering without rest. And we won’t stop ripping out the sheep’s hearts until our hunger is satiated.”

The sheep will never escape us even if they struggled for the lives, for they are nothing more than meat, Taylon added as he continued to slice away at his lamb steak.

“…….”

Ianna, too, slowly began cutting at the lamb steak in front of her. Bahamut’s hunger was their desire for power, and they viewed people as food just like the lamb steak. They satiated their hunger by robbing divine power from others. Ianna said,

“Just like what you did in the Northwest?”

“Indeed. We ate to our hearts’ content in the Northwest.”

Taylon smirked and placed a piece of steak inside his mouth. He continued,

“We will no longer avoid the eyes of the world. We’re going to eat boldly in the open. And we’re going to eat everyone —both the humans who’ve been fattened up after enjoying their easygoing lives and the mythical races who were blessed by god. We’re going to make them our sustenance and grow stronger, and then we’ll climb up to even greater heights.”

Ianna finally lost her appetite and put her knife back down onto the table.

There was a frigid look in her mien as she replied,

“Growing stronger means tempering and polishing yourself. Stepping over others to reach greater heights is merely relative strength —it can never be absolute strength. You will never be able to satiate your hunger if stepping over others is the only form of strength you know.”

“That’s our problem to deal with. Besides, I don’t think now is an appropriate time for you to be lecturing us about our way of life while asserting your antiquated values, Dame Rise. Are you not able to grasp the situation?”

“I’ve grasped the situation just fine. But you said it yourself —do you really believe that the world will always revolve around what you want? If you attack our troops while avoiding us, then we’ll simply hunt you down as we defend against you. We won’t simply watch and let things go the way you want.”

“No, I don’t think you’ve grasped the situation quiet yet.”

Taylon chewed the piece of meat in his mouth and swallowed. Then, he continued,

“We’ll be moving quite quickly as we avoid you. You’ll only end up chasing our tail. Indiscriminate attacks that are both merciless and can happen at any given moment, verses a defense that can only stop those attacks after they’ve begun. Who do you think will have the advantage? Hmm?”

You are the only match for us, and we are the only match for you. Ianna’s side would end up suffering extreme losses, according to Taylon. The light in Ianna’s eyes slowly withdrew.

“If you’re going to attack indiscriminately, then we can always do the same —why have you not considered this? If you’re going to massacre our army mercilessly, then we will also wipe the Bahamut army clean away.”

It was said that there had never been a war where one transcendental being had wiped out an entire army. This was because the other side had also had their own transcendental being.

That is why transcendental beings only ever fought against other transcendental beings in war —a large battle in which many people participated. There was a tacit rule that transcendental beings did not touch normal people unless the latter resisted them openly.

If a transcendental being had no suitable opponents, they would either force the enemy to surrender quickly or declare their victory after taking only the enemy leader’s head, which was the honorable thing to do. Even Arhad had only ever battled Ianna in their past life despite how powerful he was —he had never carried out a massacre.

Of course, it wasn’t that there had never been any villains who had carried out brutal massacres after getting carried away by their own power. But they had always been killed by transcendental beings even stronger than they, and they had left behind only their disgrace as they vanished from history.

“Oh, is that so? I suppose it’ll be fun to go around slaughtering each other’s armies too. Shall we make a bet and see which side can wipe out the other side’s army first?”

The problem was that the villains in this case were the Bahamut imperial family, who were powerful transcendental beings whom only Ianna and Arhad could stand against. Moreover, the crazy bastards did not have any common sense. Ianna pointed up.

“We would have the advantage, in that case. After all, we could simply raze this castle and murder all the nobles and knights dining up there.” ¹

“You want to start today? I was planning to give you a day to prepare after we told you about our plans, but I’m happy to start as soon as today if that’s what you want. Just try it. I’d get in your way, of course, but it wouldn’t really matter to me even if you managed to kill every last bastard here.”

“Your faithful retainers would be sad to hear you say that.”

If only everyone else could have heard what Taylon had said. Ianna contemplated breaking through the soundproofing spell when Taylon slowly replied,

“Who would blame me? —it’s only natural to be killed if you’re weak. All my retainers believe this.”

It sounded plausible. Ianna and Dorcianni had planted the seeds as they traveled across the Bahamut Empire, but they had been limited in where they could travel. Takalon, the imperial capital, was the very epitome of exclusivity and self-supremacy, so it was only natural that her nobles would think in the same way that the Bahamut imperial family did.

“You’re welcome to try it. But will you, a kindhearted knight from Ex-knights, really be able to keep up the massacres all throughout the war? You might be able to carry out a massacre today, but it’ll be psychologically difficult for you to keep it up. Your king and the mage sitting beside you might be a different story, Dame Rise, but you wouldn’t be able to handle it,”

Taylon quipped sarcastically in a tone that made it difficult to tell whether he was complimenting Ianna or insulting her.

“Shut up.”

Ianna’s eyes, which had been shining like the flames of the sun, quickly darkened into the color of blood. Her divine power boiled and began to manifest outside her body.

The nobles of Bahamut all turned to Ianna at once when they felt her fighting spirit flare up. Their leisure, stemming from their belief that their emperor would never be defeated, their twisted curiosity, stemming from their desire to see just how strong she was, and their hostility, stemming from their outrage as she dared picked a fight in the Great Bahamut Empire’s imperial palace, rained down upon her.

“What do you even know about me?”

The bastards knew absolutely nothing about her. Ianna responded to senselessness with senselessness and violence with violence, depending on the situation. She never felt repulsed by what she did because she never doubted herself once she had chosen to act.

“Right, I don’t know anything about you. My apologies for running my mouth despite that. Then again, you would have had to be at least somewhat abnormal to have grown so strong. I’m happy to know that there are a few similarities between us, Dame Rise.”

There were only two reasons why Ianna was holding back right now.

She did not want to put herself on their level. And she knew that countless citizens of Ex-knights would perish if she took the gamble and played a game of chicken with Taylon.

“You’re saying that you don’t care even if all your people die either, right? That’s a good attitude to have. You shouldn’t get too hung up over individuals like ‘Eiji.’”

Of course she cared. Ianna never wanted to find someone in a similar situation as Eiji’s again if she could help it. There was nothing she could do about the fact that there would be casualties in war, but she still wanted to minimize the damage as much as she could. Taylon continued,

“Let me help you lessen any guilt you might feel. Starting tomorrow, everyone out there will become as merciless demons who won’t leave even a single blade of grass behind in their wake. So, it’ll be to your advantage if you killed as many of them as you can today. Well, shall we begin our war of slaughter now?”

Taylon was evil, so he had surely had all of this in mind when he planned this.

“You truly are insane.”

“Hmmm. I don’t particularly think that I’m insane, but by your standards, I most likely am.”

The crazy bastard would actually carry out a war of slaughter if he was willing to admit this. Ianna stole a glance at Arhad, who had maintained his silence until now. The look on his face was cold and composed.

She and Arhad had discussed many things before their arrival. Like what Taylon might say, and how they should respond…….

That Taylon had suggested a war of slaughter had been within their expectations. And, of the countless options before them, there was ultimately only one that they could choose.

To show their enemies no mercy, and to trust in their allies!

Taylon had never needed to help lessen her guilt. After all, Ianna could be crueler than any other when she felt like being cruel.

“In that case, I suppose I should kill you here.”

“Kill me? Are you even capable of that?”

Taylon sneered. He continued,

“Besides, I’m sure I told you that I’d be avoiding you.”

“But you’re sitting here with us right now.”

A flash of light burst out from Ianna’s waist. A crimson fortification closed in on the Bahamut imperial family.

Baaaaang!

A black aura shot out, pushed away the crimson fortification, and began to rage.

Bang! Babang!

The two auras became as storms and thundered as they clashed dozens of times. Ianna’s and Taylon’s swords, which they had both drawn at some point, also clashed hundreds of times.

Baang! Bang! Baaang!

Each clash erupted like a large bomb and ravaged the hall.

“Dodge it!”

“The castle’s coming down!”

The dishes and glasses that had been on the tables fell down and covered the floor with food. The banquet was ruined, and the people realized that they could not interfere with this fight and began to flee.

Buzzzzz…….

But Arhad used magic to kept the people of Bahamut from escaping.

Arhad had not joined in on Ianna’s conversation with Taylon because he had been studying the imperial castle’s construction, which he was already familiar with, one more time. He had also been pinpointing any strong warriors of note who might cause trouble in the future if they were left alive.

And now, he was using the knowledge he had gained to carry out a massacre.

Poooow! Pow!

Gruesome screams and roars resounded throughout the Bahamut imperial castle.

If Bahamut wanted to do battle so openly, then they could only respond in kind. Any enemy who genuinely wanted to surrender would be given just one chance to survive, but the merciless iron hammer would fall upon them until they did! Ianna and Arhad needed to protect their own people by decreasing the number of Bahamut citizens who would come invading as soon as tomorrow as much as they could.

Crack. Craaack.

The castle walls began to shatter, unable to withstand the impact.

But just then.

A black aura exploded out from Taylon.

“Kgh!”

Ianna fell back because she suddenly felt like she was about to vomit. His aura was so black that she felt like her entire existence might be erased if she touched it. It was a perfect darkness —there was no other way to describe it.

Swoooooosh…….

The black aura rose up to the ceiling and sank the entire castle into darkness. The darkness was so black that it even swallowed up any light and erased the lights’ existence.

Ianna’s and Arhad’s divine powers were the only sources of light left.

A shadow fell over Taylon’s visage as he looked back at them. He was smiling. And blackish smoke was seeping out from his lips.

“An astute choice.”

Taylon’s smile felt dreadful to Ianna.

Just how much life had he drank?

All of the black aura was divine power. Countless lives had Fallen and become as his foundation. Grudges surging with evil were bursting forth from the black divine power like an erupting volcano. And Taylon was so overwhelmingly strong that he had crushed even all that evil underfoot.

Taylon’s divine power was still divine power, which meant that it carried the trait of life, and yet Ianna could only smell the scent of death.

It was contradictory, but Taylon’s divine power was death itself. It disgusted Ianna, and she hated it. The death felt like it would wrap around her being and immediately suck out her life and decompose her body.

But she also felt a sense of déjà vu. She had most definitely felt this sense of repulsion before.

The black scale. The black scale had felt similar to Taylon during the ceremony in the Great Temple of Laos at Roanne when the white and black scales that been brought together.

Kandemayon, the Chaos Dragon.

It was undoubtedly true that Laos had greatly influenced Roanne whereas Kandemayon had greatly influenced Bahamut.

Taylon, the completion of Bahamut’s long-cherished with, was very similar to the Demon of the End. No, perhaps he was even worse. In that very moment, Ianna had clearly felt that Taylon, who had inherited Bahamut’s blood more strongly than any other, was trying to swallow even the Demon himself.

Her frightened anxiety traveled down her blood vessels and seeped deeply into her bones. Ianna felt very uncomfortable to be near Taylon, who was wearing the black aura like a cloud. She didn’t want to admit it, but what she was feeling was almost fear. Ianna had never felt fear before in her life, but her anxiety was sounding loud alarms in her head.

“Hmmm.”

Taylon’s visage, which had assimilated into the darkness, reappeared very dimly as he fumbled with his hands like he was trying to warm them by a fire. He studied Ianna, who was shining even inside the darkness, with a faint glow in his eyes. He continued,

“You’re even more captivating this way.”

Taylon’s large Adam’s apple heaved in his greed. His eyes were like those of a nocturnal savage beast’s as they reflected the light. Like a beast who had extinguished the light and was waiting with bated breath to catch his prey.

Ianna glared sharply. She did not intend to allow him to keep staring at her with such a dirty look in his eyes.

Shaaaaaa!

Ianna released all the divine power from her heart that she could and illuminated her surroundings. It burst out like a great flare that could burn down the entire castle and then some. Life, blazing like the sun itself, clashed fiercely against the chaotic death.

“…….”

And Ianna was alarmed.

She had thought that no one in the world could rival how much divine power she had. She had even taken into consideration the fact that Taylon drank Life constantly and robbed the lifeforce of others. And she had optimistically believed that things would work out one way or another if she was working together with Arhad.

But the amount of dark divine power Taylon carried was not only equal to Ianna’s but actually greater. Even though he possessed an ordinary heart, unlike Ianna, who’s heart produced divine power…….

“Just how much life have you devoured?”

It was vile and revolting.

Ianna had posed the question because she could not hold back her contempt, but she did not want to hear the answer.

“Who could say? Do I really need to count? If you insist, I suppose I’ve eaten about a fourth of the world. But there’s no real meaning to my answer, since I’ll only keep eating at a faster pace and the number will only grow bigger.”

Until now, the Bahamut imperial family had acted like humans as they governed their country. But now, they planned to barbarically keep eating like monsters. Taylon continued,

“I don’t mind if you hold me in contempt, since it really only boils down to a difference in values. Besides, I find it difficult to understand you too. It’s only natural for those up higher on the food chain to eat that which is below them. Rabbits eat grass, foxes eat rabbits, lions eat foxes, humans hunt lions, and I rip out human hearts and eat them……. It’s only the logical conclusion.”

“…….”

“And I think that you eat life too. You’ve probably eaten hundreds of animals in your lifetime, including the lamb you ate today, so why are you looking down on me? You’re being hypocritical.”

His serpentine words seemed correct at first, but it was important not to get lost in his brilliant sophistry.

The world was not a paradise filled only with light.

Eating was essential to survival. It was only natural and logical that those who were lower on the food chain would be sacrificed as long as the chain was a vertical construct, as Taylon had suggested, and there was nothing that could be done about this.

But the world was charged with trying to make things as horizontal as possible. Simple hunger had a limit called satiety, so it was important to adjust to satiety while adhering to nature’s logic and minimize the sacrifice. For everyone to live together, the strong must not sacrifice the weak indiscriminately, no matter how strong they may be.

“You go too far, and you take sacrifice for granted.”

“Aha. But am I going too far even if I can’t help my own actions?”

Ianna readjusted her grip on her sword when Taylon sneered.

“Likewise, I don’t mind even if you look down on me because, as you said, this is merely a difference in values. Besides, according to you, does that mean that you shouldn’t complain even if I eat you because you’re weak? After all, it’s only natural for the strong to survive.”

“Do you truly believe that you can kill me?”

“You’re the one who should keep your delusions in check. You seem to believe that you’ll beat me no matter what, but there are no absolutes in this world, and one can always lose no matter how strong they are.”

Taylon’s eyes twitched. He almost looked offended for some reason as he neglected to reply. It looked like he, too, had finally decided to stop arguing.

But the most important question still remained.

Taylon was strong. He was very strong. So why…?

“Why are you planning to avoid us?”

He was so strong that he would be at the advantage in a head-on fight.

“Didn’t I tell you? I like to save the tastiest part for last. Shouldn’t you be familiar with my personality by now?”

Who could say? It was impossible to explain all the insane things he was doing with just his twisted personality alone. Ianna believed that Taylon was still after ‘something,’ and that his schemes were still in motion.

“You’re waiting for something, aren’t you?”

Taylon smiled back slyly when Ianna asked.

“Yeah. I am. I’m waiting. To be honest, I never planned to go this far out of my way to avoid doing battle with you. I would have struck at the speed of lightning if you had already lived up to my expectations. But you broke my expectations, so now I’m just shoring up my strength while waiting. Ultimately, it was because of you that I decided to destroy the Northwest. And the deaths that are to come will be your fault as well.”

Ianna ignored his sophistry and focused on the word, ‘expectations.’

“And what exactly do you ‘expect’ from us? Are you waiting for us to invade Bahamut first?”

“Who could say? Perhaps, or perhaps not.”

It wasn’t as if Ianna could simply go ahead and ask if he was waiting for them to obtain the Demon’s heart. After all, she would only end up handing him valuable information like an utter fool if he hadn’t known about this yet. How nice would it be if only she could break open his head and take a look inside?

No, she didn’t need to look. She just needed to kill him.

Ianna readjusted her grip on her sword, Rise, and steadied her heart.

She could kill him. The only reason she hadn’t been able to was because she had been trying to guess how strong he was and had thought that she wouldn’t be able to kill him. Ianna covered Rise with her crimson fortification and brandished it at Taylon.

Booooom!

Her fortification shattered and scattered like a solar prominence and chased away the darkness as it reduced the place where Taylon was to dust.

Craaack!

A muddy brawl had started in the castle that was enveloped within Taylon’s Abaddon and Ianna’s light.

“Arghhh!”

Arhad and Dorcianni were facing off against Shailince and Isabella as they indiscriminately attacked any Bahamut noble who got caught up in the fray. The people of Bahamut cast their spells back at Arhad and Dorcianni.

Rumble rumble.

Rocks fell from the ceiling as if the entire castle was crumbling down. The melee was so fierce that the sturdy castle, which had stood for centuries, had begun to collapse, unable to withstand the impact.

“…….”

Arhad was keeping an eye on Ianna even as he fought. Then, he shot a gigantic lightning bolt at Taylon when the latter showed an opening. His lance of lightning flew straight toward Taylon’s back. It had been an excellent shot.

“How dare you?!”

Isabella’s whip coiled around the lance of lightning like a snake and veered it off course. Meanwhile, a shield made from black divine power parried the lance entirely.

Taylon’s lips twisted as he sneered,

“Enough with the cowardice, little brother. I’m quite tired of getting stabbed in the back.”

“You’re the only coward here. You’re planning to keep running away while waiting for the chance to stab us in the back first.”

Taylon had lost sight of Ianna because of Arhad’s attack. The crimson light had vanished. She had pulled back all her divine power in an instant and had hidden herself in the darkness.

She was surely inside here somewhere, but he could not find her. Taylon was inwardly astonished. But now wasn’t the time to marvel. After all, Ianna wasn’t the only person after his head —his dangerous younger half-brother was here too.

Taylon studied the aura that Arhad was giving off.

It was neither the muddy color of a bottomless swamp nor the pale gold that Taylon so obsessively sought after, but the color of the night sky. Arhad’s aura, glowing gently of the night, felt distant and deep.

Taylon was displeased because this was something he did not know.

“You’ve changed.”

The Demon had grown up in the darkness while eating evil, and his darkness was destructive and overwhelming. There was gold in his color, but it was nothing more than a faint imitation of the sun. He could not cast away the darkness and become as light unless he had shed the entirety of his own identity.

It was better to simply become as pure darkness. A strong darkness that could even devour the light he so desired. The Demon had abandoned his golden light and had chosen the darkness, which was in line with Taylon’s thinking. That was also what Arhad had chosen in the past.

But in his second life, Arhad had chosen not to devour the light but to embrace it. He had chosen to co-exist with it over crushing it out of existence. The brilliant and radiant golden lights had embroidered the darkness and turned it into an endless universe, a different kind of abyssal darkness than Abaddon.

Both his darkness and his light were perfect.

Taylon was amazed, but he was loath to understand it, and the mysterious color of the night sky, which he hated to understand, repulsed him.

Why have you changed?

No, why did you turn back time to begin with? You had everything. You became the strongest —Bahamut’s long-cherished wish!— and you had everything beneath your feet! Taylon had rummaged through both the Demon’s memories and Arhad’s personal memories but could not fathom an answer.

Not until he met Ianna, that is.

“I’m sure that both your crazy whims and your foolish change have something to do with Dame Rise.”

Taylon barred his teeth. He continued,

“You used to be the Demon himself —what’s happened to you? Is this because of that thing that humans call love?”

“It’s an emotion that you, who sees others as nothing but sustenance and don’t comprehend their value, will never understand.”

There was a deep-rooted emotion lurking inside the coldness of his voice. But just as Taylon raised his eyebrows.

Poow!

Taylon, who had only noticed the attacked once it was already upon him, just barely managed to evade, but Ianna’s sword had still sundered his shoulder. Her sword had rent through space without any warning whatsoever.

Taylon grabbed his dangling shoulder joint.

“How surprising. I really must acknowledge your swordsmanship.”

I was planning to take your head.

Ianna gnashed her teeth. That was the perfect opportunity that Arhad had given her by taking away a part of Taylon’s focus! Ianna’s swordsmanship was remarkable, but, just as she could not best Arhad yet, she could not kill Taylon yet either.

“Let’s wrap up the introductions and head on to the main topic now.”

Taylon slipped away like the fog, walked over to Isabella, and grabbed her shoulder. He continued,

“Isabella.”

“Yes. It’s finished. It’s a shame we couldn’t eat dessert.”

Isabella looked to Ianna and licked her chops. She continued,

“But I suppose we can always enjoy it after the meal.”

Crumble crumble.

The castle was collapsing.

They had long since finished preparing to go to war. Their brief fight had only served to shoot the people of Bahamut’s competitiveness and bloodlust up to the heavens.

“Shall we be off, then?”

Taylon poured his vast divine power into the dozens of wide-scale Teleport magic circles that had been prepared in advance.

The official departure ceremony was scheduled for tomorrow, but the soldiers were already ready to move out because Taylon had announced that their departure could be pushed forward ‘in the event of an emergency.’

And the Bahamut army stationed in Takalon had quickly moved to its assigned location as soon as the party from Ex-knights had stepped foot inside the imperial castle today.

“Ahh…….”

The citizens of Takalon moaned.

The Bahamut imperial castle, which had looked down upon all creation. A black aura was flowing down from the very top of the tallest building in the castle like volcanic lava. It continued to boil like magma even after touching the ground and spilling outside.

It was like being inundated by a black sea without a floor. All of Takalon was being enveloped in darkness.

The black aura was overwhelmingly terrifying. The people’s minds went blank with fear, and they gasped because they couldn’t breathe properly.

There were at least a few among the Bahamut populace who doubted Taylon’s strength. This was because, though Taylon had been infamously called a little demon when he was younger, no one had really known what he had been up to in the twenty-five years since the late emperor Philliad Sarvon Bahamut had been incarcerated.

But today, the people of Takalon, and the people living near the capital, were made to witness just how truly powerful Taylon was.

“He’s a god.”

They fell to their knees and bowed their heads in terror. Neither the soldiers, the ordained imperial knights, nor the strongest of mages who had tempered their mana to the extreme were an exception. Their awe and obedience surged up from their hearts and into their throats.

The people of Bahamut had believed in two gods in the past: Laos the Creator, and the Bahamut Emperor.

But they only believed in one god now.

Their god was Taylon Helkan Bahamut, who resided in the imperial castle.

“Your Majesty!”

There was a paper-thin difference between life and death.

If life was their daily routine and stability, then death was unusual events and destruction. People differed in their opinion regarding whether they favored stability or destruction more, but the citizens of Bahamut, and the citizens of Takalon in particular, were more mesmerized by death than life. After all, they had lived alongside death for generations.

And so, a show of absolute strength was like honey presented before a beehive to them. Such was what Taylon’s existence meant to them.

They drooled at the mere thought that this absolute power was about to seize the entire world in his hand and slaughter the pigs who lived in the warm South.

“Good work waiting, men.”

Taylon’s voice roared like thunder from Takalon, the imperial capital, and echoed all the way to the empire’s borders. It sounded like the voice of god as it descended from the heavens. He continued,

“We will put an end to our patience as of today and begin our conquest.”

Everyone knew that he was their master, the emperor, by the darkness dwelling inside his voice. Not only was it widely known that Bahamut’s main army would begin its great march tomorrow, but everyone everywhere was preparing to both secure their respective regions and accomplish great things on the battlefields themselves.

“There will be no rest until our conquest is finished. We will not return to this land until the entire world is placed under Bahamut’s rule.”

The terrified citizens of Bahamut fell to their knees even though their emperor wasn’t even directly in front of them.

“Slaughter your enemies. Kill them, and kill them again. Kill them if they resist, kill them if they surrender, and kill them even if they beg you for their lives. Your only job is to kill. Keep killing until you are the only people left on this earth.”

The command to kill their enemies was nailed into their brains like they were being brainwashed.

“Kill all your enemies in this world and place their corpses at your feet. Clean the path before you with their flesh, bones, souls, and grudges.”

They could do everything if it was for the master of that voice.

“Keep killing until I reach the ends of the world and slay even the gods themselves!”

Taylon, whose sundered shoulder had stitched itself back together in no time at all, raised his hand.

“March!”

The black power that burst out from Taylon’s being became a tornado that swallowed the imperial castle whole.

Roaaaaar.

Rocks fell from the ceiling. They heralded the oncoming collapse.

But the castle did not crumble. It was dyed in the black light and began palpitating like it was alive.

The black divine power reflected its muddy light as it stuck to the castle walls like blood.

The beating bundle of blood vessels reached down to the earth that the imperial castle was built upon and made it swell.

Rumble rumble!

The ground shook furiously before it suddenly jolted up. The view outside the windows steadily climbed higher until they showed not the earth but the sky. The castle, which had been on the brink of collapse, became sturdier as it towered over the land in its horrific new form.

Rumbleeee!

A black aura exploded out from the imperial castle, which was now like the very origin of darkness itself. The fearsome aura surpassed the hundreds of Teleport magic circles arranged around the imperial castle and dropped down hundreds of thousands of magic circles like lightning.

Craaash!

The magic circles drank in the black aura deeply and began vibrating so hard they shattered the earth. The black power roared as if to pierce the very heavens as it shoved the soldiers standing on the magic circles onto the battlefield.

“Ahhh!”

The soldiers leaped out into the battlefields and began to reap lives blindly. Those who had been attacked before they had a chance to prepare had no choice but to die as they screamed.

More magic circles were also densely packed around the Lotso Mountains, where the monster camps had been lying in wait.

Creaaaak.

Screeeech.

The monster kings wriggled and stood up as the magic circles activated. Even the colossal monsters that had been ruling over the Lotso Mountains had long since surrendered themselves to Taylon’s dominance, and they had no choice but to obey his commands. The same was true of the monsters that belonged to the monster kings’ colonies.

Gyaaaaah!

They roared as they jumped into the Gates that had opened up out of nowhere. Death poured out unto the world like a hailstorm.

And the entire world was filled with screaming.

~~*~~

Part 10

Karnitz had already informed them that the departure ceremony could always be moved up. Ianna and Arhad had already been working under the assumption that their meeting with the Bahamut imperial family would be the trigger to start the great war. And the people of Ex-knights were already thoroughly prepared for the fact that the tides of the tedious war could change today.

But they were still bewildered when the Bahamut forces they had been squaring off against at the border suddenly billowed to multiple times its original size. The reinforcements included not only people but also monsters.

“Yaaaaaah!”

The dawdling bastards suddenly began charging forward like they had lost their minds. They kept charging despite the numerous defensive spells in their path like crazed bulls charging at a red flag.

Craaash! Crash!

The heavy impacts shook Ex-knights’ ramparts and gates. Ex-knights soldiers clutched their weapons nervously. But they did not remain bewildered for very long.

A ferocious roar that stopped the mindless monsters in their tracks erupted from the top of Ex-knights’ citadel.

“Stay calm!”

Absilot, who had transformed into his half-human half-beast form, gave the order, and the commanders of each army corps took care of the unrest within their respective ranks. They all understood what was going on because Arhad had notified them about the situation.

Absilot pointed at the flood that was the Bahamut army coming their way with a gigantic claw.

“Open yer eyes and look carefully. They’re numbers may have increased, but they’re still the same bastards we’ve been fightin’ all this time!”

The mythical races of Ex-knights were accustomed to battling monsters, and the humans were accustomed to battling fellow humans. Their enemies may be from Bahamut, but they acknowledged the fact that their enemies were still the very same beings that they had been fighting for generations.

“Have faith in yerselves, and we’ll fight them in our own style!”

They were not afraid once their bewilderment had subsided. They would have been afraid of Bahamut, the very definition of terror, if they had heard what Absilot had said in the past, but they were not afraid now.

After all, they had their own steadfast pillars of emotional support.

Ianna and Arhad!

They would emerge victorious without fail if they worked together with Ianna and Arhad. All they had to do was keep working hard until the day that Bahamut finally fell!

“Fire!”

Powerful arrows, spirits to stave away the wicked, destructive spells, and divine arts of infinite potential showered upon their enemies from the citadel like hail.

“Truly, they’re playing us for fools until the bitter end,”

Ianna mumbled from a corner of the Himalapè Ice Fields in the North.

They had tried to teleport to the same place where the Bahamut imperial family had fled, but Ianna’s group had lost them because the imperial family had scattered about so many fake coordinates as dummies.

The silver lining was that Arhad had managed to remotely control the mana and twist dozens of the large-scale Teleport magic circles that had been set up in Takalon while Ianna had been conversing with Taylon in the banquet hall. Those magic circles would now teleport users not to the battlefields, but to certain death.

He had been hoping to fiddle with as many magic circles as possible, but the bad news was that hundreds of them had still worked properly as intended because Taylon had obstinately activated all of them at once…….

“Are you able to track down the imperial family?”

“No, because we’re too far away from the heart of the continent. Let’s get out of here for now.”

Dark clouds would gather over the entire world if they didn’t catch the bastards soon. Ianna glanced at the horrendous thing that Dorcianni was holding while Arhad prepared a Teleport.

“Whose hand is that? And why do you even have it?”

It was still oozing with blood because it had only been severed very recently.

“Shailince’s. I was going to give it to Eiji as a gift once he wakes up. Do you think he’ll like it?”

Just when on earth had she had the time to grab the empress dowager’s hand? But Ianna found it hilarious when she realized that mother and daughter were now both missing a hand each. She could not help that her stiff features softened into a sneer.

But her tension only let down for a moment.

Ianna looked slightly anxious as she looked to the south.

The real war had just begun.

She trusted in the time and effort everyone had invested. They would surely be victorious if they all worked together. She must believe this, even if she had to force herself. After all, she wouldn’t be able to beat back the danger if she allowed herself to be seized by anxiety.

Things were a right mess, according to a situational report that they received from the national border but the army was fighting well because they had prepared thoroughly in advance. Also, the Bahamut imperial family hadn’t made an appearance there.

Ianna’s group headed straight for Semastair from the Himalapè Ice Fields.

They could have gone to the border and massacred the Bahamut forces there. But Ianna and Arhad had decided to devote their entire attention to killing the Bahamut imperial family. They might not be able to kill the imperial family just yet, but they were undoubtedly carrying out a massacre somewhere and needed to be stopped. It didn’t matter whether this was happening inside Ex-knights’ borders or out.

They could have ignored any tragedies that befell foreign countries and focused on protecting only their own, since, after all, defending their own country came first and foremost. This would have been the best plan available to them if growing stronger this way could lead them to overthrowing the Bahamut imperial family.

But it was said that one’s teeth would freeze if one did not have lips. Simply allowing the Bahamut imperial family to victimize other countries and doing nothing but watching as other countries fell to ruin would surely become as poison and come back to bite one day.

This was why Ex-knights, Roanne, Jinzai, and Toraca had formed an alliance. Only the kingdoms fighting at the frontlines had allied together because it was realistically impossible to bring every single nation together. It was difficult for armies to freely traverse the continent because it was so vast, but the alliance vowed to do their best to help each other and minimize losses as much as they could.

Most importantly, they had agreed to share everything they knew about the Bahamut imperial family and ignore national borders between each other. The Bahamut imperial family was a calamity that no ordinary army could possibly face —only certain special individuals had a chance against the bastards.

“Desia!”

Ianna and Arhad went to the information bureau comprised of the informants they had gathered.

Countless communication devices, which connected to informants who were scattered all throughout the world and intelligence organizations from foreign countries, were blinking ceaselessly inside the office. Voices that were briefing the situation on the other end of the communication devices, battle cries, and screams were making a cacophony inside. The staff almost looked bewitched as they busily organized the information they were receiving.

“Your Majesties!”

Desia, the deputy director of the intelligence bureau, was a talented woman who had been working alongside Eiji for a very long time.

Eiji had done the most work for the intelligence bureau, and he had a huge presence inside it. Work had flooded Desia because he was currently unconscious and out of commission, and there were many days when Desia genuinely wanted to pass out because of how busy she was. Her sense of duty was the only thing keeping her conscious.

“Give me a summary of the war both inside and outside our borders.”

Desia pushed up her glasses, which had slid down all the way to the end of her nose, as Arhad asked her a quick question and began mechanically reciting the information she had organized in her head.

The western border was all right, as Ianna had expected. Their army was still waging a bloody battle, but they were not being pushed back by the Bahamut forces and had not suffered great losses. It was rather the Bahamut army, which was attacking blindly, that was suffering greater losses.

No battles had broken out inside Ex-knights’ borders.

The mages and elves of Ex-knights had prepared large-scale teleportation disruption barriers all over the kingdom, save for a few specific locations, back when the kingdom had been established. The barrier also functioned as a kingdom-wide sensor for the Bahamut imperial family. After all, only the Bahamut imperial family was powerful enough to force their way through it.

The Bahamut imperial family would be caught by Ex-knights’ surveillance network like fish trapped in a net if they broke through the barrier and teleported their army inside. And they would suffer tremendous losses because of all the traps that had been set up. However, none of the Teleports that had activated at the Bahamut imperial castle had connected inside Ex-knights’ borders.

“The problem lies with our southern border.”

The region below Ex-knights’ southern border was not adjacent to Bahamut and had previously had no reason to have anything to do with the empire.

It was filled with many small kingdoms that were squeezed in between Ex-knights in the Northeast and Roanne in the South. They had been collapsing one after another because there had been no transcendental beings to assist them after the monster Gates.

The people who lived there had either taken refuge in Ex-knights or Roanne, unable to withstand their horrible situation, or had outright asked that the entire region be annexed voluntarily. As such, Ex-knights’ southern border had changed continuously as the kingdom expanded. And it had weakened the border’s defenses. They had used the spirits’ powers to build new ramparts, but the southern border was still blatantly lacking in weapons and soldiers. The teleportation disruption barrier there was also incomplete.

They had wanted to supplement the southern border slowly, but they didn’t have the time. Still, everything had been okay until now despite the lessened security because they had not had any reason to be too wary about the South.

“A large Bahamut army and many monsters have set up camp near the southern border.”

“Are our borders being attacked?”

“Not at this moment. They started attacking the small and mid-sized kingdoms near our border as soon as they teleported over. Sir Kyle Nocturn is building a defensive line at our southern border as we speak. The defensive lines were postponed a little because of the SOS’s we received from neighboring kingdoms.”

“I see. Have you determined where Bahamut’s armies were teleported to?”

“We’ve narrowed it down to four places, generally speaking.”

Ex-knights’ western border, where Ex-knights and Bahamut were waging total war, Ex-knights’ southern border, where there were many small and mid-sized kingdoms, the Kingdom of Toraca’s northern border, and the region that had formally been Sidian, which was now a part of Jinzai’s territory and bordered the Kingdom of Roanne to the east.

All four were great locations for Bahamut to set up camp.

The lands north of the Kingdom of Toraca’s northern border were dead —not even a single mouse had survived the massacre. The Sidian region was likewise an empty wasteland because Jinzai had evacuated the area after annexing it, which made it yet another perfect place to set up camp. Moreover, Bahamut had the territorial advantage in Sidian because Payne had previously prepared it to be a bridgehead for the Bahamut army.

Bahamut’s lands were located to the west of Ex-knights’ western border and the empire’s army had already been stationed there, so there was nothing more to say about that location. And the kingdoms to the south of Ex-knights’ southern border were like a flock of helpless sheep because they had no one who was exceptionally strong.

Bahamut’s larger armies had been by and largely divided up between these four locations, and her smaller armies were scattered all throughout the continent. They were like fire ants who had built nests in these four locations and were digging their way to every other corner of the continent.

“Have you been able to locate the Bahamut imperial family?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

Arhad fell into thought for a moment before he continued asking,

“Are there any informants that we’ve lost contact with?”

“Yes, too many to count. We keep trying to reach them, but there are many who have gone MIA.”

“Mark the missing informants’ locations on a map and show me.”

Desia nodded quickly before she ran back to her subordinates while barking orders.

It was highly likely that the reason why they hadn’t been able to locate the Bahamut imperial family yet was because they had slaughtered all the informants who had been reporting back to Ex-knights as soon as they teleported.

“Here you go.”

Desia hastily brought over an armful of maps after a little while. Arhad opened them up and studied them together with Ianna.

He marked several areas with an unusually large concentration of dots with his pen.

“Ianna, take Dorcianni with you and visit these places. I’ll go visit the rest.”

“Understood.”

Ianna quickly ran over to the room where Eiji was sleeping. That was where Dorcianni was.

She could have simply summoned Dorcianni over, but Ianna wanted to check in on Eiji too. The nervousness that had been eating away at her heart crawled up to her throat when she thought about him.

Eiji’s breathing was growing shallower by the day. They could not rule out the possibility that he might suddenly stop breathing altogether.

Ianna could hardly believe that Eiji could die so abruptly. But she had no idea what she needed to do to wake him up either. She hoped that he would wake up on his own, but that didn’t look like it would happen anytime soon. She regretted the fact that, while she could restore his body any time she wished, she could not do the same for his soul.

Bang!

Ianna kicked open the door. The small lesser sprits that had been lying next to Eiji waved at her.

The spirits were instructed to rush to Ianna at once if anything strange happened to Eiji’s body. But they were quiet, so it didn’t look like Eiji’s situation was too bad.

“Dorcianni.”

Ianna called Dorcianni’s, who was sitting at the edge of Eiji’s bed and looking down at him quietly, name after breathing out a sigh of relief. Sitting on the bedside table was Shailince’s severed and embalmed hand.

“I thought you’d wake up and start dancing if I brought you your greatest enemy’s severed left hand, but you didn’t.”

Dorcianni’s mutterings sounded as murky as they always did. She continued,

“What must I do to wake you up?”

Her voice sounded blank and emotionless as she whispered to Eiji.

“Did I overestimate your will to survive?”

But her whispers also sounded a little empty somehow.

Then, Dorcianni stole a quick glance at Ianna, who was standing as still as a statue, before she brushed off her pants and stood up.

“Where do we need to go?”

Ianna swallowed back as she showed Dorcianni a map. Dorcianni took it and traced out a teleportation path with her finger.

Ianna nodded back and walked up to Eiji.

“Wake up already.”

She took his hand and squeezed it.

~~*~~

Arhad worked alone, and Ianna worked with Dorcianni to hunt down the Bahamut imperial family.

There were many different reasons why Ex-knights’ informants had gone MIA. Some hadn’t had the chance to report back because of the Bahamut army and outpouring of monsters, some had lost contact because their communication spells had been damaged, some had been wounded, and others had been killed, etc.

“They’re not here either.”

This was the eighth time they had teleported.

Their efforts had been in vain this time too. This place was simply a battlefield. The Bahamut army and Roanne army were locked in a bloody battle before their very eyes. The roars and shockwaves that resulted as weapons and spells clashed disturbed the world.

Ianna clenched her hand into fists.

‘If only the information bureau came back with good news.’

The dead only increased exponentially as they wasted more time. The faster they found and stopped the bastards, the more they could reduce casualties.

‘But we can’t solve the root of the problem if stopping them is all we can do.’

This would only end if the bastards died, and the problems continued endlessly because they couldn’t be killed.

The anxiety that had settled into her heart was only growing bigger. Ianna felt like she had swallowed a mouthful of sand. She felt dry all the way from her throat down to her intestines.

She had never felt so anxious or frustrated while fighting Arhad in her past life.

After all, she had not had anything to protect back then.

But with power came responsibility. Ianna had people who were precious to her now, and she thought it was only natural that she also had the duty to keep them safe. That duty weighed ever so heavily, but she absolutely never wanted to go back to the past when nothing and no one was precious to her. She would probably freeze to death if she had to live in the coldness again after she had learned what warmth was.

That was why she had to kill the bastards quickly.

I have to kill them.

So why, Roberstein?

Why can’t I undo your seal?

Why are you getting in my way? Why?

Just why? Why?

Her eyes were growing blinded by anxiety and bloodlust.

“Let’s rest for a moment,”

Dorcianni said.

Ianna snapped out from the wave of her emotions and turned to Dorcianni. Dorcianni continued,

“I’m tired.”

Dorcianni, who usually looked just fine no matter how much she grumbled, genuinely looked exhausted right now. But it made sense —she had returned her Demon’s fragment and was an ordinary person now. Ianna felt bad about hurrying her so much even though this was an emergency situation.

“I neglected to think about your situation. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine after a little bit of rest. I have mermaid blood in me, so it won’t take me very long to recover.”

Dorcianni tilted her head to the side when Ianna was visibly surprised. She continued,

“Why are you so surprised? I’m not like the Bahamut imperial family, who uses divine power to maintain their youth —did you never find it strange that I don’t have a single wrinkle on me and still look young despite my age? There’s also the fact that I’m the Guardian to Frillianu, the Ice Dragon, who spends most of her time under the sea, and the fact that I’m pretty good at handling divine power…….”

She had a point. Now that Ianna thought about it carefully, Dorcianni looked too young for her age and had so many superhuman aspects about her that could not be explained away otherwise.

“I see. It’s that I never found your age or accomplishments strange before. I simply accepted you for who you were.”

The edges of Dorcianni’s lips curled up ever so slightly.

“Your Majesty is already so strong that you probably just don’t find it worth noting when there’s something a little strange about someone else. I rather like that attitude of yours.”

But her smile only lasted for a moment, and the edges of her lips uncurled as her features returned to being expressionless. Dorcianni continued,

“I’m not that old, but I’m not exactly young either. I’m practically no different from a human because I have more human blood in me, but my mermaid blood maintains my youth.”

Dorcianni looked slightly different to Ianna now that she knew that Dorcianni had mermaid blood mixed into her. Her black hair reflected the color of water ever so slightly, and her turbid eyes were also blue…….

To put it in so many words, Dorcianni was the deep sea.

Her personally too, while she was a little eccentric, was composed, which only added to the image.

“I’m only telling you this because I don’t want you to slow down for me because you think I’m just a regular human. I’ll be fully recovered in no time after just a little rest, so we can keep up the pace.”

“All right.”

Ianna looked away from Dorcianni as the latter closed her eyes. Nothing changed just because Ianna now knew that Dorcianni had inherited mermaid blood. Dorcianni was still Dorcianni.

‘I need to calm down.’

Ianna composed herself a little after exchanging a few words with Dorcianni, who was like the deep sea. Her field of view was dark, but she needed to calm down and find her path. She could accidentally fall off a cliff if she rushed herself because she was flustered.

“Anyway, Your Majesty, what are you planning to do if we find the imperial family?”

Dorcianni asked. She continued,

“It’s not possible for us to kill the Bahamut imperial family right now. Then……do you plan to keep focusing on chasing after them and stopping them?”

Her words stung quite a bit.

“Whoever takes the initiative takes the advantage, as Taylon pointed out. Moreover, we have something to protect while the imperial family doesn’t. You’ll only end up getting dragged around by the imperial family at this rate, Your Majesty.”

Ianna had only just managed to calm down, and she resented Dorcianni a little for dredging it all back up again. And her resentment quickly turned into shame because she understood that it stemmed from the seal.

“There’s nothing I can do about that. This is all I can do right now. All I can do is do my best to stop them while growing stronger.”

But her plan was vague at best even after taking the seal into consideration.

“I recall that we spoke about your growth being in a rut while we were traveling around Bahamut, Your Majesty. Have you been able to solve that problem yet?”

“I figured out the cause, but I still haven’t found a solution.”

Dorcianni had opened her eyes at some point and was staring openly into Ianna.

“Then let’s discuss your problem seriously. We need you to grow stronger to end this war quickly.”

Her deep blue eyes were flowing like water. Dorcianni continued,

“What exactly is this ‘wall’ that’s blocking your progress, Your Majesty? I’ll help you find a solution, so tell me.”

Ianna was conflicted for a moment.

Dorcianni was a good person to go to for advice. Dorcianni was a mage who was digging into the Truth, and she was more knowledgeable than most. She had seen the astral plane before, and she had also experienced the power of Judgment twice. In terms on ancient magics, Dorcianni was the person who knew about Ianna best after Arhad.

Moreover, Dorcianni was a woman whom Ianna could trust. Ianna had confirmed this when she had seen Dorcianni’s eyes as she looked down at the unmoving Eiji.

And so, Ianna decided the disclose most of her secrets. She was willing to tell Dorcianni anything if it meant she could help solve her problem.

Ianna told Dorcianni about ‘Roberstein,’ who was a god like Laos and Roygen and had reincarnated her soul, that the god’s heart had been split into five pieces, and about Roberstein’s ‘seal.’

Dorcianni had been looking listless as of late, but there were sparkles in her eyes now.

“Was the ‘power of the Balance’ that you used to take out my Demon’s fragment the power that belonged to this god named Roberstein?”

“Yeah. I call it ‘Judgment.’”

“This is so interesting. You should have told me this a long time ago,”

Dorcianni mumbled as she organized the information she had learned, and then she placed her hand over Ianna’s. She continued,

“I’ve concluded that both the fact that the power of Judgment is weakened and that Your Majesty’s growth is stalled point to the one thing that’s causing this problem. I’m referring to the ‘seal.’”

Roberstein’s seal was the heart of the problem.

“Let’s organize all this, shall we? Laos put Roberstein’s soul inside the Roberstein Clan’s blood in the ancient past, and her soul’s been passed down with each generation. And Roberstein’s heart is sealed inside Phaemdra, the world tree, and split into five pieces.”

“Right.”

“But Laos’ seal over her heart was undone twenty years ago, and Roberstein’s soul, which had been flowing inside the Roberstein Clan’s blood, unconsciously placed a new seal over her fragmented heart to keep it from getting destroyed. Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m familiar with the principles behind a ‘seal.’”

A seal’s strength depended on three factors.

The strength of the soul’s ego.

The drive behind the seal’s purpose.

And the stubborn will maintaining it.

“The condition to lifting the seal is probably for Your Majesty to ‘completely accept Roberstein’s goals.’ There’s no reason why the seal hasn’t been lifted yet if Roberstein’s only goal was simply to prevent the destruction of her heart.”

“But the seal is still there.”

“Which would mean that she had a more concrete goal beyond her mere survival. This goal is probably something that can’t co-exist with ‘Ianna’s ego.’ Maybe it’s like what you said? —her goal might be to ‘live as Roberstein and not Ianna.’”

Ianna flinched. Dorcianni continued,

“But it could also be a different goal entirely. What we can be certain of is that there’s something about her goal that clashes with Your Majesty’s ego, and that Roberstein’s ego, which is slumbering inside your subconscious, is unwilling to compromise her goal. I think that’s why you aren’t able to undo the seal. And Your Majesty doesn’t know what it is about her goal that’s clashing with you.”

“…….”

“Previously, I told you that there were two reasons why you couldn’t find an answer to your question. Either it’s because the answer doesn’t exist, or the answer exists but you don’t know what it is. In Your Majesty’s case, I think it’s the latter.”

Dorcianni crossed her arms. She continued,

“The first step to undoing the seal is for Your Majesty to confirm what Roberstein’s goal for creating the seal was. You need to figure out ‘why’ she wanted to live. It’s like how you need to figure out the shape of a lock first before you can open it.

Dorcianni had pointed Ianna in a direction that she had never even considered before.

“And I think Your Majesty needs to understand Roberstein completely instead of simply accepting her life for what it was and putting it behind you in order to do that. The answer can probably be found in the life she lived.”

“…….”

“Then, once you’ve figured out her goal, you need to decide whether you’re going to fulfil her goal and undo the seal smoothly, or whether you’re going to be even more desperate and tenacious than she is and break open the seal forcefully. It’s like how there’s two ways to open a lock, right? You either find the key, or you just break the entire thing.”

Ianna realized that there were parts of the problem that she had missed as she discussed with Dorcianni. And those parts had been so fundamental to the problem.

Ianna was Roberstein, but she was not Roberstein.

Ianna acknowledged that Roberstein’s life had once been hers. She acknowledged this, but she did not let it control her. She simply put it behind her like it was merely a part of the distant past.

As she was now, it wasn’t wrong to say that Ianna and Roberstein were similar but ultimately separate entities. Ianna possessed Roberstein’s soul and continued moving forward with her life in a straight line, but they were two distinct beings if you cut their timeline in two.

Ianna had thought that she understood Roberstein better than any other, but she was wrong. Ianna had inherited Roberstein’s emotions and memories, but she cut them out of her current life and used only the parts that she found worth using. It was like pulling out and reading the select books that she needed from her personal library.

Dorcianni’s suggestion that Ianna needed to know Roberstein’s goal in order to break her seal and to fully understand Roberstein’s life in order to uncover her goal was a valid suggestion that Ianna had never considered.

“That’s great advice. I’ll have to retrace Roberstein’s life properly from beginning to end.”

“Mm. That’s probably the most straightforward way of going about it, Your Majesty. But there’s something else that I just thought of……. What if you bring your ego closer to ‘Roberstein’ instead of ‘Ianna?’”

Ianna blinked. Dorcianni continued,

“Wouldn’t it be easier to uncover why she placed the seal if you think about it from closer to her perspective? Though I can’t guarantee that it’ll work for sure.”

It was a groundbreaking idea.

Ianna had only been trying to figure out how to break the seal from ‘Ianna’s’ perspective all this time. She had been waging psychological warfare against Roberstein as ‘Ianna,’ and she had been trying understand Roberstein’s goal as ‘Ianna.’

But it sounded reasonable that she might be able to solve this problem rather easily if she tried to think about it from closer to ‘Roberstein’s’ perspective, just as Dorcianni had suggested.

“Thanks. I should’ve tried that ages ago.”

Ianna had benefitted a lot from her conversation with Dorcianni.

Arhad had been the only person she had ever consulted about any problems that pertained to the Holy Age. There was a lot that Arhad knew, but he had never offered Ianna an answer like this before.

Arhad not only avoided talking about the Holy Age but he loathed to even remember it. There was absolutely no reason why he would ever propose that Ianna try to understand Roberstein’s life or bring her ego closer to Roberstein’s.

But no, it was Ianna herself who had declared that she would undo the seal by growing stronger than Roberstein —that is, by ‘defeating’ Roberstein—, so he had only been cheering her on without thinking too much into it. Dorcianni had been able to propose a different approach precisely because she could view the problem objectively.

“Was this helpful to you?”

“Very.”

“Then, what are you planning to do moving forward?”

“I’ll try retracing Roberstein’s life first, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll bring myself closer to Roberstein like you suggested.”

Ianna distinguished Roberstein’s life from the present, but she also felt that Roberstein’s memories and emotions were her own. Perhaps she could say it was similar to what an amnesiac would feel after recovering their memories.

She thought it should be possible for her to think in Roberstein’s shoes. The fact that her ego identified very strongly as Ianna might get in her way, but she was confident that she could overcome it with effort.

The problem was that overindulging in Roberstein’s memories and emotions might have an influence on Ianna’s ego.

‘I’ll have to be careful and make sure that doesn’t happen,’

Ianna resolved to herself over and over.

It was clear to her that Arhad was going to hate this. But there was no other choice. A new path had suddenly opened up while she had been at a complete standstill —didn’t that mean that she had to at least try it?

“Okay. I’ll be cheering you on, Your Majesty, so that you can solve this as quickly as possible.”

Dorcianni stood up. She continued,

“I’m completely recovered now. Let’s go.”

Her words brought Ianna back to reality.

Ianna swallowed back a sigh.

She regretted the fact that she didn’t have the time to contemplate over her new realization because of the terrible situation. She wished that the Bahamut imperial family could just stay put and keep quiet, but there was no way that they were going to do that anytime soon.

~~*~~