Chapter 80
The path to the lake.
A dozen or so Monarchist Restorationists were gathered in the middle of the sewer. All of them were bent over, clearing away the filth blocking the path with their scabbards and bare hands.
The destination was right ahead....
But filthy sludge had piled up like a swamp.
“Damn it…!”
It was impossible to force their way through. Worse, slimes often lurked among filth piled this high.
That left them with only one option.
They had to dig it out and clear it away by hand.
Even as they cleared a path, the Monarchist Restorationists urged one another on in loud voices, their words thick with irritation.
“Hey! Dig out more over there!”
“!”
“Your comrades are working themselves to the bone, and you’re just fooling around in the corner by yourself?”
….
The man being called out clenched his teeth.
“Damn it, this is an insult to my family’s honor…! Why can’t we just blow away this filthy muck with magic?”
“You idiot! The sewer will collapse if you do that!”
“Damn it…!”
“This is for the greater cause. Put up with it! You’ll see worse than this in the war that’s about to break out!”
“Grr….”
Squelch.
Squelch.
It was a pitiful sight at first glance.
People with dark muck smeared all over their faces huddled together like children playing in the dirt. They used sticks and their hands to clear away the filthiest muck in the world.
They grimaced and gagged.
“Ugh…!”
“Grr….”
It was the absolute nadir of human dignity.
But there was only one reason they were so desperate.
-For the restoration of the great magical kingdom…!
….
….
When they recalled their convictions,
even this filthy work began to feel like a sort of sacred rite.
Before long, they silently resumed their work.
All the while, they steeled themselves with their fanatical convictions.
‘Everything is for the restoration of the great kingdom….’
The pure-blooded Republic noble acting as field commander felt his sense of duty flare up again and looked around. There was now room for two people to move ahead.
The first priority was to get the Grand Duchess out, along with the person who would lead the unconscious woman to the agreed-upon meeting place. That was the most important part of the plan.
….
‘I don’t know if they’ll be waiting at the meeting place. But at least, with the Gallian royal family turning a blind eye to this, they shouldn’t have been summarily wiped out by the soldiers.’
The pure-blooded Republic noble addressed those gathered around him.
“…That’s enough.”
“!”
“We’ve cleared enough of a path. We’ll go forward one at a time. First, we’ll take Lady Carla to them….”
And so,
just as he turned to look at the Grand Duchess…
the woman they’d laid down was gone.
It wasn’t as if an unconscious person could move on her own.
The pure-blooded Republic noble’s mind went blank.
“?!”
‘W-what is this?! We were right on the verge of success…!’
At his startled gasp,
the assembled Monarchist Restorationists realized something was wrong. They hurriedly looked around, searching in case the Grand Duchess had fallen into the filth.
Splash.
Splash.
They couldn’t imagine that someone had crossed that filthy sewer to pursue them. Panicking, they searched through the muck they’d just cleared.
“W-what?!”
“Where is she…?”
“Find her, quickly!”
Something had gone wrong right before the plan’s success.
The people gathered there briefly lost their composure in their haste.
And so…
they failed to sense the killing intent of the two people approaching.
The way they had come.
In the darkness far away, toward the academy, blue mana burst forth. Like two tigers leaping from the undergrowth, they charged in with mana pouring from their bodies.
Arti and Mave surged forward.
“Hah!”
“Yah!”
Shing—!
One blade cut straight through.
The other slashed diagonally.
Blood marked those simple arcs.
The startled Monarchist Restorationists’ eyes followed the tips of the swords.
Up toward the low sewer ceiling,
two heads shot into the air.
Squelch—!
The two bodies collapsed, their strength gone.
They grew cold, becoming one with the filthy muck.
Only then did the Monarchist Restorationists understand what was happening.
They drew the swords and staffs they’d been carrying.
“We’re under attack!”
“They followed us!”
“Everyone, attack—!”
“Risk your lives for the greater cause—!!”
A wave of killing intent poured toward the two of them.
Amid it,
like tigers among a flock of sheep,
Arti stood back-to-back with Mave.
His eyes shining fiercely, he said,
“The one at the front is their commander.”
“Yeah, I saw him pointing at everyone.”
“We have to capture him alive! I’m not confident I can hold back!”
“I know!”
The moment he finished speaking,
Arti’s Holy Sword clashed with the Monarchist Restorationists’ blades.
Clang!
“!”
Taking that sound as their signal,
Mave charged straight ahead.
Leaving Arti behind, she slipped through the encirclement as if running along the wall. She was heading for the pure-blooded Republic noble who had been ordering everyone around.
Tat-tat—!
Behind her, the sounds of Arti plunging into the melee rang out.
Clang!
Clang!
Shing—!
He slashed to either side.
He spun the Holy Sword around and knocked an attack aside.
Then he crossed blades with someone coming from behind.
He pushed back against the five people surrounding him.
“…!”
To Mave,
the clanging of that chaotic battle sounded slow.
She didn’t need to look to know.
Mave’s mind had accelerated so much that she could grasp the state of the battle second by second. But her eyes remained fixed on the pure-blooded Republic noble, who was panicking as he tried to flee.
Like a hunting dog,
she raced forward.
Tat-tat!
As Mave ran along the wall, she raised the shield in her left hand. She aimed it at the wall and focused. The battered shield trembled, responding to her concentration.
The shield seemed to ask,
-Which direction?
‘Launch me forward!’
At that, the lion shield’s eyes shone.
Mave braced herself for the coming impact.
Then a weighty sensation came from the shield.
“Hup!”
Thoom—!
With a shockwave that pounded her ears,
her light body shot forward in a straight line, carried by the force.
Like a single arrow.
Mave slammed into the fleeing pure-blooded noble.
His head reeled from the tremendous force.
“Gah…?!”
His vision swam—!
Mave immediately wrapped her arm tightly around his neck, pinning him in place and trying to knock him unconscious.
As her arm tightened around him,
the bones in his body shifted bit by bit.
Crack…!
“Stay still!”
“D-damn it…!”
The pure-blooded noble struggled desperately.
He rolled across the damp floor, trying to pry her arm loose. But that only hastened his loss of consciousness. His vision slowly darkened and flickered.
Blink—
His ‘comrades’’ heads shot into the air.
Blink—
The boy wreathed in blue mana roared.
“Haaaah—!”
Blink—
Someone’s spell was knocked aside by a sword.
Boom—!
Now his vision
slowly
darkened.
….
Success
was
right there…
‘The restoration of the great kingdom…!’
And with that, he passed out.
*
“Mmm….”
Carla managed to open her eyes.
After spending more than a week blindfolded, her vision was hazy, like a dream. Darkness and light tangled together, and she couldn’t tell which shapes were objects and which were people.
….
All she could do
was faintly sense the smell and the breeze.
And sound.
Splash—!
‘The sound of water?’
At that moment, something enveloped her head and her whole body.
Clear,
cold,
and transparent…
Splash—!
“!”
Carla came to her senses. She turned her stiff neck and squinted. As her vision slowly sharpened, something red rippled before her.
Whether it was a woman,
or a man,
she couldn’t tell.
Someone with red hair was washing her. Thanks to them, the foul stuff clinging to her whole body was slowly coming off.
Carla opened her dry, stiff mouth.
“W-who…?”
….
She answered.
“Hmph, you don’t even remember me.”
“R-remember…?”
“Forget it. I don’t need you to remember me.”
….
“The nightmares, the misery, the bad memories, your childhood.”
….
“Forget everything. Starting tomorrow, live as if nothing happened. Live without knowing a thing among those idiots. I’ll take all the bad things. And no one can take them from me.”
….
“Forever.”
As she spoke, she poured cold water over Carla’s face.
Splash—
The clean, refreshing sensation tapped against her forehead.
….
Her vision slowly widened,
and her hearing slowly cleared,
until she understood what was happening.
She was being washed by the lakeside.
And the person washing her was…
“Red… hair….”
“Hmph, even in this situation, you still hate commoners?”
“I heard… there was a commoner borrowing the Driagh name…. The family told me never to get… involved with them….”
….
“You saved me.”
“No, I just dunked you in the water.”
“I won’t forget this.”
“Hmph, at least you still have some pride….”
Carla weakly took Morgan’s hand.
“This debt…”
….
Morgan froze for a moment.
But then she pulled her hand away.
“Too late. And I don’t need it.”
….
“Just forget. Forever.”
….
“The war, the Monarchist Restorationists, tonight—all of it will be over.”
“That can’t….”
Carla’s eyes closed.
Exhaustion from her long captivity forced her body to rest. As she slowly sank into darkness, she thought,
‘I have to remember….’
The Republic’s crisis.
Collusion with the demon worshippers.
And…
‘The red-haired woman saved me….’
*
“Phew.”
Lydia sighed.
Near the lakeshore, the pure-blooded Republic noble who had coughed up ‘information’ lay beside her. She’d finished interrogating him using the ‘methods’ she’d learned from the Ember Knights.
The methods were a little rough,
but they were effective.
That was how she’d gotten information out of him:
the demon worshippers would be coming here soon.
“…So in the end, we have to settle this tonight.”
Lydia looked ahead.
Before her eyes, Arti and the others were washing the filth off their bodies in the lake, quietly, almost as if they were being baptized.
And farther away, Morgan was washing Carla by herself. She’d volunteered to wash her while removing the mana-sealing curse placed on her.
-I’ll do it.
It was the first time she had shown interest in someone else,
despite always being indifferent to other people.
….
‘Whether this is a falling-out or a reconciliation, does Morgan’s route ultimately lead to her growth through a sub-event?’
Thinking that,
Lydia looked up at the sky.
The White Lake at the academy’s boundary.
Stars glittered in the sky above it.
Time had passed, and night had fallen.
….
Soon…
they would come to meet.
A bishop-level member of the Black Temple.
‘Before the other demon worshippers head to the academy, I need to deal with their commander here.’
Lydia gripped her sword tightly.
….
‘Mirian needs to find Sir Zack soon.’
*
Black Knight Zack breathed heavily.
Dozens of demon-worshipping cultists lay fallen around the academy forest. In the end, he was the only one still standing among them.
“Huff, huff…!”
“Gah…!”
‘There’s still one left.’
He crushed the head of the demon worshipper in his grasp.
Splurt!
Along with the red remains,
another cultist fell.
….
Silence descended.
His vision was blurry.
….
Since the Northern War,
it had been a long time since he’d exerted himself this much.
‘Is it because I’m getting old…? My body can’t keep up.’
Just for a moment.
I’ll close my eyes…
Thinking that,
he started to crumple forward.
But…
a warm hand reaching from beside him stopped him.
“Good work.”
….
Zack looked to the side.
Through the eye slits in his helmet, he saw a familiar face. She supported him with a warm smile.
“Mirian.”
“Yes.”
“Thanks. I don’t think I can move on my own.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Mirian said,
“Let’s head back to the academy now. We’re ready.”
“A-already…? I only just saw those guys, too….”
“Hehe, we have a knight who moves faster than anyone else.”
….
Zack smiled faintly. His muffled laughter echoed inside his helmet.
“Heh-heh, that’s true.”
He said,
“We have a princess.”