Chapter 16
"I'm scared...!"
"It's all right, Princess Krista. The knights will be here soon."
Inside the mansion, Fiene soothed Krista as she said this and gently stroked her hair.
Some maids approached Fiene with troubled expressions.
"F-Fiene-sama... Um..."
"What is it?"
"Well... many of the townspeople want to enter the mansion..."
By the emperor's order, the townspeople had been forbidden from leaving their homes or inns.
But with fighting breaking out nearby, they had grown anxious and wanted to enter what they believed was a safe mansion.
Fiene did not blame them for that.
"What about the lord's wife?"
"She said she was unable to decide and would leave it to Princess Krista and Fiene-sama..."
"I see... Princess, what would you like to do...?"
"...I don't know... But I'm scared..."
Anxious, Krista clutched Fiene's clothes tightly.
Fiene took the little hand in hers and spoke to her gently.
The lord was fighting alongside the emperor. Since his wife had entrusted the decision to them, Krista's wishes took precedence here.
"I see... Then will you abandon the people who feel the same way?"
"That would be... wrong..."
"Why?"
"...Big brother would be angry."
"Yes, I'm sure he would. Then we will prioritize the elderly, children, and sick. It may become noisy, but is that all right?"
"It's okay..."
"I will be away for a little while. Is that all right as well? Everyone is anxious. We have to reassure them."
"...Okay..."
Her face plainly said she did not want Fiene to leave, but Fiene smiled, seated Krista in a chair, and left the matter to the maids.
Then she headed for the mansion's entrance.
There, the few soldiers left on guard had drawn their swords and pointed them at the people.
"Return to your homes at once! Can't you obey His Majesty's orders!?"
"Please! Let us in!"
"You—!"
"Stop!"
With the situation on the verge of exploding, Fiene sharply reprimanded the soldiers.
Fiene was the daughter of a duke, but her fame as the Blue Gull Princess and the emperor's personal decision to treat her as a member of the imperial family gave her influence on a par with royalty here.
Because of that, the soldiers immediately put away their swords and knelt before Fiene.
"Fiene-sama..."
"The people aren't the ones you should be drawing your swords against. Is that not so?"
"Yes, as you say. We acted rashly..."
Satisfied with the soldier's answer, Fiene looked at the people crowding around the gate.
There were well over two hundred of them.
There were commoners, nobles visiting the city, and merchants. Anxiety showed on every face.
"I am Fiene von Kleinert. You may find it easier to recognize me as the Blue Gull Princess."
As she spoke, Fiene pointed to the blue gull hair ornament.
It was a gift from the emperor and proof of her unparalleled beauty.
Realizing that she was the duke's daughter whom the emperor cherished like a daughter, the people all knelt at once.
However, some young men pushed through the crowd and came forward.
"Oh! Miss Fiene! It's me—Gied!"
That was the last voice Fiene wanted to hear.
Gied von Holzwart, Arnold's childhood friend who had committed the unforgivable act of punching him, had found Fiene, and he and his entourage were smiling at her.
Their selfishness—pushing through the people, fully assuming they would be let inside, and planning to lord it over others from a safe place despite having no intention of fighting—disgusted Fiene.
Looking at them, Fiene felt as if the noble blood flowing through her veins had been defiled.
She had never felt that way when looking at her father. Even her lazy brother would never act to save only himself in a crisis. Doing so would make being a noble meaningless.
A noble was honored because they performed deeds worthy of honor.
That was why Fiene ignored Gied.
"We will give priority to children, the elderly, and the sick when admitting people into the mansion. Those who are healthy should gather in the largest buildings they can find and secure the entrances. The tsunami is a mass migration of monsters. It isn't after human lives. Even if monsters enter Kiel, we can manage as long as we buy time. If you accept these terms, we will open the gate."
"Miss Fiene? It's me, Gied! Don't you remember me?"
"I remember you quite well, Gied-sama of House Holzwart."
"Ah, good. Then may I come in?"
Even Fiene finally began to lose her temper at his presumptuous attitude.
For Arnold's sake, it would probably have been better to let Gied in. There was no point in creating conflict.
But Fiene did not do so. She felt it would go against Arnold's wishes.
That was why—
"Have you no shame!? Take a good look at yourself, trying to keep only yourself safe instead of fighting alongside His Majesty the Emperor! Don't you feel ashamed before the ancestors who founded the venerable House Holzwart!?"
"What—!? You... Do you know who I am!?"
"Who you are is irrelevant. The mansion will admit only children, the elderly, and the sick. Everyone else must go somewhere else. This is Princess Krista's decision. If you insist on wasting more time, you may appeal to His Majesty the Emperor later and accuse us of inhumanity. However, it seems blindingly obvious to me which of us ought to be punished then!"
"Tch... Don't get full of yourself! Just because Leonart is backing you! Remember this! I will never forgive you!"
With that, Gied left the area with his entourage.
After watching them leave, Fiene let out a deep breath, then smiled gently and ordered the gate opened.
Seeing her, the people began talking among themselves without being told to. They admitted only children, the elderly, and the sick into the mansion, while everyone else left for another location.
After admitting those given priority, Fiene ordered the servants inside to barricade the mansion's entrance with furniture.
"Seal it as securely as possible! When the monsters come, we will all hold them back! If we can make them give up and change course, that will be enough!"
"Yes, Fiene-sama!"
"Fiene-sama! Princess Krista is calling for you!"
"I will be there soon. Everyone, you don't need to be afraid. The knights will come, I promise."
After saying that to the people inside the mansion, Fiene did her best to act cheerful.
She felt that at least she had to keep smiling. In truth, that was about all she could do.
As the daughter of a ducal family, Fiene knew some magic, but although she was talented at healing magic, she was utterly hopeless at the kind used in battle.
She could not fight with the same elegance as Elna.
That weighed heavily on her. She had left her domain hoping to be useful, yet she had never once managed to help Arnold.
For Fiene, staying by Krista's side was the first duty Arnold had entrusted to her. That was why she had resolved never to leave, no matter what happened, but—
"We have to get the flute!! Tons of monsters are coming!!"
Seeing Krista cry out like that, Fiene remembered something.
The conversation between Arnold and Krista that she had overheard through the door.
Krista had said that monsters would surround the city of Kiel. She had been right.
Since Arnold had taken her words seriously, Fiene concluded that they must have some basis. So Fiene pulled Krista into a tight embrace.
"Princess Krista, don't worry. If you need the flute, Fiene will fetch it. Can you tell me where it is?"
"No... You'll die..."
"Don't worry. I'm a lucky woman. Besides, if things get dangerous, Al-sama will come to my rescue."
"...Really?"
"Yes, really. So please tell me. Where is the flute?"
"...I saw it fall onto the clock tower... That's what's causing this..."
"Understood. Then I will go and retrieve it."
Ignoring the maids' attempts to stop her, Fiene headed for the clock tower, the tallest building in the center of the city.
■■■
The clock tower in Kiel was on an entirely different scale from those in other cities.
Standing dozens of meters tall, it was a tourist attraction and a valuable source of tourism for Kiel.
Fiene climbed the tower, panting for breath.
Meanwhile, high above the city, Elna was fighting Sam and Dean to a standstill.
"Tch! How annoying!"
Dean gave up on defeating Elna head-on. The two of them could bring her down, but it would take far too long.
He decided to resort to an indirect tactic instead.
Dean pulled out the monster-controlling magic flute 〝Hamelin〟. If he used it to increase the number of monsters, Elna, as a knight, would have to return to the emperor's side to protect him.
If that happened, Sam and Dean could simply watch from above.
As Dean put Hamelin to his lips to summon even more monsters to Kiel, Elna instinctively sensed danger and attacked him.
"I won't let you!"
"Tch!?"
Dean dodged in time, but Hamelin fell from his hand and dropped toward the city of Kiel.
Seeing that, Dean hurried after it.
"This is bad!"
"Stop!"
The flute wasn't Dean's. A collaborator had given it to him. Using it, Dean and Sam had devised this plot with Carlos.
However, their collaborator had instructed them to dispose of it without fail. That had been the condition of their agreement.
Without their collaborator's aid, even if they survived here, escaping would be difficult. Safely disposing of the flute was essential to preserving their lives.
That was why Dean pursued it desperately. Seeing this, Elna sensed that the flute was no ordinary object and pursued it too.
Both clashed repeatedly in midair, while the flute fell farther and farther.
As it passed the clock tower, a white hand extending from the tower caught the flute.
"!!??"
Carried forward by her momentum, Fiene nearly fell, but somehow managed to keep herself on the clock tower.
After catching the flute, she let out a relieved breath, but Elna's sharp voice immediately rang out.
"Run, Fiene!!"
Fiene looked up with a start just as the mass of magical power Dean had fired struck the upper part of the clock tower.
The impact knocked Fiene off her footing, and she began to fall.
But Fiene paid no attention to that.
She had accepted the danger from the very beginning. That was why she threw the flute toward Elna, who was coming toward her. When Elna caught it in surprise, Fiene smiled.
"Ah... I managed to be of help."
"You little brat!!"
Consumed by rage, Dean hurled a mass of magical power at the falling Fiene.
Fiene had no way to evade the approaching magical projectile in midair.
"Fieneeeee!!??"
Elna's scream echoed through the sky.
Entrusting Arnold to Elna, Fiene gently closed her eyes.
At the moment she closed them, she thought something had flashed in the far reaches of the sky, but she had no attention to spare for it.
Fiene steeled herself and closed her eyes, but the pain and impact she had imagined never came.
Instead, she felt warmth.
When she cautiously opened her eyes, Fiene found herself in the arms of an adventurer wearing a silver mask.
Fiene was too shocked to speak. She had made that promise to Krista only to reassure her; she had never imagined that anyone would truly come to her rescue.
Meanwhile, someone else was just as surprised as Fiene.
Dean.
"You bastard... What are you...? You nullified my magical projectile...? State your name!!"
"...Silver, an SS-rank adventurer affiliated with the Imperial Capital Branch of the Adventurer's Guild... I have come to subjugate you."
The distinctive silver mask and black robe.
The adventurer hailed as the strongest in the history of the Empire had appeared on the scene.