Chapter 2: Battle on the Alesia River

A few days after my reunion with Isaac, we received word that the Llewynian army was on the move.

First, a number of their troops had left their fort ahead of the rest. Thousands of soldiers split off in different directions to chase after Alan’s men, who had set out to join up with us after our capture of Fort Inion. Alan had thought their behavior strange for a group that was supposedly on the attack—and that was when the enemy approached him with a white flag. There, he finally identified them as Lord Delphion’s men.

What’s more, the baron himself came up to kneel before Alan—who, deputy commander though he was, was two or three times younger than the man—requesting to merge with his forces. According to Lord Delphion, as soon as they heard word that Reggie had captured Fort Inion and freed Emmeline and the girls in the process, they had defected from Llewyne.

After consulting with General Jerome, Lord Limerick’s younger brother, and Lord Enister, a veteran of countless battles, he made the decision to accept Lord Delphion’s men into their ranks.

Such were the contents of the first report. After hearing it, Reggie frowned. Surely the Llewynians had kept the hostages’ whereabouts secret out of fear that the Delphion troops might run off to take them back.

“That they knew regardless must mean Llewyne leaked the information to them on purpose.”

No doubt Alan was wary of that, too. Reggie thought perhaps he should send over reinforcements, but just as he was preparing to deploy them, the next post-horse arrived.

Evidently, the forces of Llewyne and Salekhard were in hot pursuit of Alan’s troops. At that point, Alan was about a full day’s walk away from Fort Inion. He had the option of escaping to the fort, but considering how fast the enemy was closing in, he instead chose to confront them on the spot.

When I heard they had opened hostilities along the Alesia River, I was taken aback. It was somewhere Alan had fought the Llewynians in the RPG.

In that section of the story, not long after making an ally of Lord Delphion’s brother Ernest, Alan launched an assault on the Llewynian army. After talking with Ernest in the heat of the battle, Lord Delphion was persuaded to turn against Llewyne. In the end, the baron died, taking a great deal of Llewynians down with him.

Now, though, we had recovered the hostages; thus, I’d been convinced that Llewyne would turn their attention to Fort Inion instead. Reggie, too, had assumed the baron would wait until they’d marched all the way here to turn on the Llewynians.

“It would be much safer to betray them with allies in the immediate vicinity.”

Yet Lord Delphion had chosen to defect almost immediately.

“Someone must have put him up to it,” came Reggie’s ominous murmur.

But if that was really the case, what was in it for the Llewynians?

“Clashing with them along the Alesia River would be much harder than fighting them from inside our fort. What’s more, I’ll bet our troops have fallen completely out of sync after bringing the Delphions into our ranks,” was Reggie’s assessment after listening to the report. Adding those 3,000 men of the baron’s to his forces would just put Alan at a greater disadvantage, he claimed.

I didn’t quite understand the logic there, so Cain explained it to me in a hushed whisper. “It’s because we’ve fought against the baron’s soldiers once before. Our men will be plagued with suspicions that they’re only pretending to be our allies as part of Llewyne’s plan.”

Now I got it. A deep wedge had been driven between the two forces after fighting each other for their lives; it was only natural that they wouldn’t let down their guard around each other. Perhaps Llewyne was aiming to sow discord among the Farzian ranks with this move.

While Cain was explaining the situation to me, Reggie consulted with Lord Azure and Lord Ernest and decided on a general outline of what to do next.

“I’ll leave the fort in Lord Azure’s hands. Where the Delphion forces are concerned, I think bringing Lord Ernest’s men along would be the best remedy for the issue.”

“But no matter how fast we hurry, that’s at least a day’s journey. We can only hope the situation doesn’t worsen in that time,” remarked Ernest, his expression grim.

“I’m sure Alan and his men can handle it. I simply hope it doesn’t escalate into a battle of attrition,” Reggie replied. There was no smile to be found on his face, either.

I came forward with a proposal. “I’ll set out before everyone else. If I’m riding solo, it shouldn’t take a full day to get there; I can arrive ahead of schedule.”

That would take some of the burden off of Alan. The enemy had probably relaxed their guard under the assumption that the spellcaster wasn’t around, which gave me the perfect opportunity to strike.

It only took Reggie a few seconds to consider my suggestion. Then, rather than me, he flicked his gaze toward Cain. Noticing that, the knight responded with a small bow, as if asking for permission.

I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach when Reggie refused to look at me. It was almost as if Reggie had handed his rights as my caretaker over to Cain instead. I knew it was strange of me to be so upset about that; it was only natural for an older man like Cain to be treated as a guardian of mine.

And yet... why did it feel so much like Reggie was abandoning me?

We received permission almost immediately. I left the main tower, which we had gathered in to hear the report, my gait sluggish as I trudged back to my room. Fortunately, I had packed for so many trips by now that no matter how out of it I was, my hands practically moved on their own.

I put on my cloak, laced up my shoes, and stuffed all the bare essentials into a single bag. This was an emergency situation, so I would be leaving everything else behind. If we ended up abandoning the fort, Reggie’s lord-in-waiting, Colin, would grab my things—and if there wasn’t even time for that, someone would just dispose of them.

My anxiety had died down while I was busy getting my things together, but once I’d finished the tasks at hand, it reared its head again. Telling myself that the emotion was just a trick of the mind and that I didn’t have time to focus on anything else when I was heading to battle, I left my room. Once I’d exited the main tower, cut across the courtyard, and was just about to pass through the gate, I looked back over my shoulder, forlorn.

I knew there was no way he could see my face; still, I looked up at the main tower with just a little spark of hope. Disappointed when I saw no one in the window, I lowered my gaze.

That was when I spotted Reggie leaving the main tower, heading somewhere else with his knights.

“Reggie,” I called out in a soft voice.

As surprised as I was to hear the voice inside of me slip out, I assumed Reggie would never pick up on such a faint whisper, given how far away he was.

However, he stopped in his tracks and turned his head.

When his eyes met with mine, his lips parted slightly in a rare show of dismay, and then he flashed me a small smile. Just that was enough to make all the noise in my heart, like static on a TV screen, calm down until it had fizzled out completely. His watchful gaze brought me back to my senses.

Don’t worry. I know I can do it. I gave him a small wave and finally walked off.

“You’re still such a kid,” Master Horace muttered not a few steps later.

“Did you say something?”

“Aw, don’t worry about it. Eeeheehee! Must be tough being at your mercy... but he’s just accepted that as part of the deal, I guess. Some things are better left unspoken.”

Everything after his weird cackle had been mumbled, so I couldn’t quite hear what he’d said. But Master Horace laughing at his own soliloquies was nothing new, so I decided not to pay it too much mind.

◇◇◇

Once I’d left the inner fort, I met up with Cain and Emmeline. As a precaution, we set out with twenty cavalrymen led by Reggie’s knight Cyrus.

Nothing particularly dangerous happened along the way. I rode my own horse for the first time in a while. If we were going to cover that much distance in one stretch, it didn’t seem like a good idea for me to ride double with Cain; after all, we’d be putting too much strain on our poor steed.

Besides, I was feeling a little extra stubborn today. Seeing Reggie look to Cain for permission had stuck like a thorn in my heart. It’d made me feel like he didn’t trust my judgment.

Unfortunately, it had been ages since I’d last ridden a horse by myself, so I was exhausted by the time we finally stopped to rest. I pushed on nonetheless, but after our second break, I was too tired to fool Cain’s eyes any longer.

“I knew we should have ridden together. Why don’t we use your horse most of the way, then switch to mine right before we reach the battlefield? That way, we won’t tire them out.”

I almost considered taking Cain up on his offer. However, if we wanted to keep a fast pace, we were better off sticking with our current plan.

When I said as much, Cain scooped up my bangs in his fingers, lightly stroking my forehead. “Don’t push yourself too hard.”

I was so flustered by the gentle touch, I nearly squirmed under his hand.

“You’re putting the cart before the horse. If you’re too tired, you won’t have the energy to do what you have to when the time comes.”

I knew Cain was right, but I just couldn’t bring myself to agree. That was when he grabbed me by the wrist and took off walking.

“Hey, what are you doing?!”

“I don’t know why you’re being so stubborn about this, but I’m not waiting for your answer any longer. It won’t be an issue if we start riding together from this point onward, and besides, it’s not as if you’ll be staying on your horse once we get there.”

Once he had dragged us all the way over to his horse, he grabbed me by the waist and threw me over his shoulder. He then mounted the horse, wasting no time in sitting me down in front of him. Only after I was settled down in the saddle did I notice Cyrus and the rest of the knights casting unimpressed looks our way.

“Let’s head out. Have someone look after her horse,” Cain requested of Cyrus. My horse was consequently entrusted to one of the other knights.

Once we’d set out, it became quickly apparent how much easier this was on me. By the time we made it to our next break, I was regretting how pigheaded I’d been—and that was when Emmeline came to rub salt in the wound.

“You’re amazing, Miss Kiara. You always exceed my expectations, even when it comes to these matters,” she said deliberately, standing next to me as I sat with my back against a tree. “For the betterment of Delphion, I’m hoping to marry a strong military man. From that angle, His Highness’ knights seem like very capable prospects. It would work to my advantage whenever I seek the prince’s ear, too. Any chance you could teach me the trick to seducing one of them?”

“WHAT? Seduce?!”

Goodness gracious, Miss Emmeline! From the sound of it, she’d set her sights on the royal guard as potential husband material. This sort of calculating move sure seemed in line with her character.

Reggie’s knights were all more than competent enough to be welcomed into a high-class noble family. Plus, they had a plethora of actual combat experience, so if they were to join a military campaign at any point in the future, they would have plenty of useful knowledge to share.

But why are you asking me? I swear I’ve never seduced anybody in my life!

“I’d love to hear about how you got so close to Sir Cain. I’ll draw my own conclusions from the facts, so leave the heavy lifting to me.”

What heavy lifting?! You’re crazy optimistic, Emmeline!

Like a deer in headlights, I stood frozen to the spot—until Cain came and hauled me away to his horse.

Then, the battlefield came into view at last.

◇◇◇

The Farzian and Llewynian forces were clashing swords. Considering it had been several hours since we’d heard the initial news, there was a good chance they had fought once, drawn back, and then taken up arms yet again.

Observing the scene from slightly higher ground, it became clear that Alan and his forces had engaged with the enemy here in order to use the river as a makeshift bulwark. The rugged stones stopped the Llewynians in their tracks, preventing them from blindly charging in. Our forces were taking advantage of that as best as they could, intercepting the enemy as they carefully navigated around the rocks.

They stood firm in their strategy of not pushing too far past the riverbank while still standing their ground on advantageous terrain—most likely by the recommendation of our cautious Jerome rather than the gung-ho Alan.

Amid it all, a giant goat pranced gloriously across the battlefield.

Lord Enister was dashing across the riverbed, first upstream and then downstream, knocking down enemy soldiers with his cane. Once the Llewynians had collapsed from the impact, Farzian soldiers would gather around to deal them the finishing blow.

As the corpses piled up, the river’s shores were dyed in black and crimson, and its water was tinged a pale red. The Llewynians gradually fanned out, launching attacks along both the upper and lower reaches of the river. Alan and his men met them head-on to fend them off, but keeping them at bay was the best they could manage.

“There’s not much momentum on the Farzian side,” Cain muttered as he steered our horse closer.

I got the same feeling; they just didn’t have the drive they needed to push the Llewynians back. Among the central troops, Lord Enister appeared to be single-handedly dominating the fight, but a squad of soldiers who looked considerably less striking after tying up their capes—probably the defected troops of Lord Delphion’s—was lumbering around the battlefield.

“Can you take us closer to the front, Sir Cain?”

With a nod, he gave his horse a light kick in the flank.

“Hold it right there!” Cyrus and company came chasing us down. Without my golem, I had all the attack and defense stats of a marshmallow, so they were probably worried it was too dangerous to let me go.

“I’m going to force the Llewynians back!” I shouted, turning to look back at them. Even Emmeline was staring at me like I was insane. No matter what they thought, though, I was convinced that now was the time to act. If the spellcaster everyone had assumed was elsewhere made a sudden appearance, the Llewynians might be shocked enough to fall back.

The units to the rear whipped around with startled expressions as a much smaller group of cavalry came galloping up behind them.

“Out of the way, please! I’m heading to the front lines!”

There were only two reasons they didn’t automatically assume we were an enemy: one, because of the dress I was wearing, which looked completely out-of-place on the battlefield, and two, because Cyrus and his knights had raised the flag of Farzia in a hurry. Surprised as they were, the Farzian soldiers opened a path for us.

“Wait, what?! Is that you, Kiara?!”

“We got here first!” I bluntly informed Alan as I passed him by. It was an incredibly succinct explanation, but I hoped it would be enough to get the message across.

Right before we reached the front lines, Cain let me down from his horse. The epicenter of the battle was just a few dozen mers ahead. While Cain stood watch for any incoming enemy soldiers, I touched a nearby boulder with a handful of copper ore, calling up an image in my mind.

If I really wanted to give them a scare, I had to bring them face-to-face with the strongest creature I could imagine.

“I’ll bet it’s easier to move around without wings in the way. Let’s do this Japanese style!”

The copper ore melted into the boulder, and in the next moment, the rock started to bulge and swell. I extended the reach of my mana to the surrounding rocks, too. Bending to my will, several of the stones along the shore were lifted into the air, twisting and winding together to form the shape of a single creature.

Its body was about fifty mers long. At the very front of it, held aloft toward the sky, was a crocodilian maw filled with sharp teeth. Its face was adorned with a long beard and two horns. Since I’d figured it would be a waste of energy, I hadn’t bothered etching scales into the stones of its body, but this was close enough to what I’d envisioned.

Enemies and allies alike shrieked and shouted, their voices all uttering the same word.

“It’s a monster!”

What I’d made was just a Japanese-style dragon—long, snakelike body and all—but the people of this world had never seen anything like it before. They were just as awed and frightened as I’d hoped. In contrast to the faltering Llewynians, the Farzian soldiers rallied at the news of the spellcaster’s arrival.

I had my dragon charge in headfirst toward the opposite shore of the river. After stretching itself out and towering overhead, it slithered down alongside the river, knocking Llewynian soldiers out of its path with its stone body. Each time, a sickening, dull thud rang out, accompanied by a bloodcurdling scream. I gritted my teeth, ignoring the sounds as best I could.

After clearing out an entire section of the riverbed, I had it slide to the center of the battlefield. Faced with my stone dragon, the Llewynians there either ran for their lives or threw themselves at it in desperation. Unfortunately, they had yet to show any signs of retreat.

I had my dragon curl in on itself like a hedgehog, ready to give the men an even bigger scare—but that was when it hit me.

“Huh? What’s... going on?”

All of a sudden, I was assailed with a feverish sensation, chills running down my spine. It felt much like falling ill, but I had no idea why I would be running a temperature now.

“M-Master Horace? I feel... weird...”

As soon as he noticed that I had lost control of my magic, Cain held out a hand for me. Desperate for whatever support I could get, I grabbed hold of his wrist before I realized what I was doing.

“Let’s pull back for now, Miss Kiara.”

“No... wait. I need to do... something... first.”

Through clenched teeth, I called back my gradually crumbling dragon, laying it flat along the opposite shore.

“Ugh...”

Fighting down a wave of nausea, I forced my mana forward. It caused me so much pain that I found myself squeezing Cain’s wrist a little too tightly.

In return for my efforts, my dragon instantly transformed into a myriad of stone pillars. Although they were no taller than me, they were sure to provide a sturdier bulwark than the stones of the riverbed.

The only issue was that it was still perfectly possible to get by on foot. Spurred on from behind, the Llewynians weaved through the stone pillars, fording the river made narrow by piles of corpses. A unit of Alan’s and Lord Enister’s men rushed over in an attempt to push them back, but unfortunately, the other soldiers in the area were sluggish in their response. They were clearly intimidated.

This is bad! At this rate, Alan’s going to get hurt! Why can’t I summon any strength?!

“Miss Kiara! Miss Kiara, what happened?!” Cain called out, his face twisted in a grimace. I was in too much agony to muster a reply. All I wanted was to crouch down on the spot.

As I did my best to hold myself together, I caught a glimpse of Emmeline nocking an arrow. She was aiming in the direction of a black-haired man near the prime of his life, his slightly plump figure clad in a military uniform. He was surrounded by three Llewynian soldiers.

Emmeline let her arrow fly at one of these soldiers. Struck clean through his face and neck, he crumpled to the ground. Her confidence was entirely justified, from the look of it; she was quite skilled with a bow.

The man at the center of the mob glanced back at Emmeline, stunned.

“Emmeline?!”

“You mustn’t let anyone see such a disgraceful display, Uncle Henry. If you carelessly leave a hole in our battle lines, my life alone won’t be enough to atone for it. My dear aunt will have to offer up her own alongside me.”

Emmeline had referred to him as an uncle, so this “Henry” fellow had to be Lord Delphion.

He howled, “Nooo! Don’t say that, Emmeline! Take me! Take me insteaaad!”

Still wailing, he charged at the Llewynians in a pure show of desperation. Determined to keep their baron alive, if no one else, the surrounding Delphion soldiers—from commanding officers to grunts—threw themselves at the enemy like men possessed.

Alan’s and Jerome’s forces were completely flabbergasted at the sight of it. Had it truly only taken three seconds to kick their troops into gear?

“Keep it up!” came Alan’s command, and his men joined the assault on the Llewynians.

While the Llewynian soldiers looked on in horror at Lord Delphion, who was darting across the battlefield with a bizarre battle cry of “Eeeeek!” they were thrown into disarray by Lord Enister’s men and cut down by Alan’s.

Once the baron’s men started to lose steam, Alan stepped forward to make up for the loss. Determining that it would be hard to secure a victory at this rate, the Llewynians finally began to fall back.

Just then, I was once again struck with an overwhelming sense of fatigue, and I fell to my knees on the spot.

“Hey, knightly boy! Get us out of here! You-know-who is here!” Master Horace instructed, panic seeping into his voice. Cain complied, lifting me up onto his horse.

“Master Horace... Who are you... talking about?”

Who on earth could reduce me to this state just by being nearby?

“If you head all the way to the back of the formation, the effects will start to wane. Hurry up and take her!” Master Horace kept barking orders at Cain, completely disregarding my question.

◇◇◇

I hid myself in the shade of a tree, where we could still see the soldiers at the rear. Had Cain taken me back to the tent to more carefully attend to me, everyone might have made the assumption that the spellcaster had been grievously injured, leaving our troops shaken for it. On the other hand, we couldn’t let anyone catch sight of me in bad shape either, so I had him set me down somewhere out of the way. To further cover our bases, Cain and Cyrus arranged for a few knights to surround the area and keep anyone from getting too close.

In the event that the other soldiers started to get worried, I asked the knights to say something like, “The spellcaster is meditating in preparation for her next spell.”

More important than any of that, however, was what had put me out of commission in the first place.

“Lord Credias... is among the Llewynian forces?”

“That’s my best guess. That pressure was definitely that of a mentor manipulating their disciple’s mana. The sensation’s a little different when I’m in this doll, but there’s no mistaking it.”

Seeing as Master Horace had died right after I had become a spellcaster, never before had I experienced the true binding force of a mentor-disciple tie.

So that’s what it feels like.

“It’s the only possible explanation for how you ended up like that.”

Perhaps because we had withdrawn from the front lines and thus distanced ourselves from the source, the mysterious lethargy had disappeared as swiftly as if I’d imagined it in the first place. The reason Cain had reacted so strongly, however, was because the tips of both of my little fingers were stained with blood. It had taken me a while to notice with how sick I was feeling, but they really stung. When I’d taken a closer look, I’d found that the very tips of my fingers had been shaved away, just like the time I’d saved Reggie.

According to Master Horace, that’d happened because, quote, “you pushed yourself too far, you clod.”

My mana had been completely wrecked by Lord Credias’ influence, yet I’d kept pushing myself to cast my magic. As a result, part of my body had turned to sand. I could only be grateful that it had stopped at my fingertips.

“Ouch...”

It was going to take a little while before the painkiller I’d just taken set in. I was pretty sure the bleeding should’ve just about stopped by now, but I was too scared to check. Even if too little had been taken off to be particularly noticeable, I didn’t want to look down at my own whittled fingers.

Emmeline was the one who had tended to my wounds, but she’d turned just about as pale as you could expect.

“I’m really sorry about this, Miss Emmeline. I know it’s not a pretty sight,” I had told her.

Emmeline had just shaken her head with a look of composure. “That’s not something the victim ought to be saying. This is a unique injury, certainly, but I understand now that it’s one of the idiosyncrasies of being a spellcaster. Why, they look so smooth that if you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t even have noticed the tips were scraped away.”

True. You’d never find such a bizarre injury on anyone but a spellcaster.

Once Emmeline had left to put away the cloth she’d used to wipe up my blood, Master Horace had ordered me to get some rest. I was still running a fever from overusing my magic, so I’d decided to take his advice.

Cain asked, “How’s your fever?”

I thoughtfully tilted my head to one side. It was hard to tell. All I could say for sure was that I still felt out of it.

“Pardon me.” Cain reached out to touch my forehead. His hand felt cool against my skin, the sensation so comforting that my eyes drifted shut.

This really drove home how much Cain’s attitude toward me had changed. When we’d first set out on our campaign, he’d been awfully overprotective. If things were the same as back then, he’d be dragging me back to the fort as we speak. Now, though, he was doing everything in his power to help me fight—just like he’d promised.

“I’ll ask Lady Emmeline to bring us something to help with the fever.” He took off his cape and draped it over me before he took his leave.

You don’t have to go that far, I thought for a fleeting moment, but it was nice and warm. I imagined I’d be loath to hand it back to him whenever he returned. That aside, though, it seemed my temperature was still higher than I’d thought.

“Will it go back down by tomorrow? I sure hope so.”

“Hard to say. Nobody with a brain ever tries going against their mentor’s influence. Eeeheehee! Why don’t you keep a record of how long it takes to pass, then leave that behind for the next generation?”

“But I’ve never formed a proper mentor-disciple contract. Would that even serve as a guideline?”

As I wondered about that, I brought a hand to my own forehead. I still couldn’t tell how bad my fever was, but my fingers hurt just from moving them.

Boy, I really hope my fingers grow back.

That made me think back to when I’d touched Reggie’s injury. When I’d attempted to extract the contract sand in his system, that portion of his skin had swelled, sealing the wound. I wondered if I could pull off something similar here.

Closing my eyes, I tried to feel out the mana within my hand. I could sense it slowly circulating. But in just one area—which I assumed to be the tip of my finger—the flow had been stifled, like it was bumping up against a jagged pathway. I gathered more mana there bit by bit. Then, I willed it to harden.

I could feel the veins of my mana gradually mending themselves, but it hurt so much that I had to call it quits partway through. The pain, very similar to what I’d feel from a burn, had been nearly enough to bring tears to my eyes.

“Oww...”

All I could do was hope that the painkiller would kick in soon. It was no use trying anything like this.

Having sensed the stirring of my mana, Master Horace nudged at my arm. “Did you try something?”

“Yeah. I tried my hand at closing up the wounds.”

He followed up with a surprising response. “If my theory is correct, that should be well within the realm of possibility. Eeeheehee!”

“What, really?”

“We spellcasters turn into sand in our last moments, no matter what element we are—that’s one thing we can say for sure. And sand falls under your specialty, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, you have a point there.”

“Then how’s that apply to the body before it turns to sand?”

“That’s a good question. And is that really sand, you think?”

I knew that bones would crumble when burned, but that was a result of calcification, right?

Aah, but limestone and rocks have calcium mixed into them, I think. Then does it make sense to include that under the same category as dirt and rocks?

When I gave a thoughtful hum, Master Horace advised me to take a discreet look at my wounds, since the bleeding had probably stopped by now.

“Why do I have to be discreet about it?”

“Spellcasters aren’t supposed to broadcast the fruits of their research. Having an ace up your sleeve lets you catch the enemy off guard when you’re in a tight spot. You’re better off keeping your discoveries a secret—even from your allies.”

His hushed guidance basically boiled down to “keep your trade secrets.” That made sense to me, so I followed his advice. Pulling Cain’s cape over my head, I turned to face the tree I’d been leaning against.

I gently removed the bandage and gauze wrapped around my left pinkie. It looked like the bleeding had stopped. The tip of my finger looked a little bit flat, but otherwise, it was more or less back to normal.

Of course, since I’d just been injured, it looked like the flesh there had swelled a bit. Maybe it would start to look a little more natural with time.

“It worked... I guess?”

“If you’re confident enough to call it a success, you must’ve done a pretty good job,” Master Horace remarked.

I nodded. Yeah, I was pretty sure this did count as a success. Grinning with delight over my triumph, I put the bandage back on.

After sitting back against the tree once more, I was overtaken by a new concern. I could fix up smaller injuries this way, sure, but the pain of mending it had been too much to bear. Besides, the process had really taken a toll on me. Reggie’s injury had been a larger one, but that had only worked out because I had been so desperate to make it work; plus, I’d used my own blood to do it. Even then, I’d passed out afterward.

Whether I was casting it on myself or someone else, it was a pretty tough spell to use.

Wait a second. Did Reggie pass out partway through because he felt the same pain?

Humming thoughtfully, I filed it away as something that needed practice.

In the meantime, my fever still wasn’t going down. It was all because Lord Credias was on the battlefield. If this is what she’d had to deal with, no wonder Game-Kiara had never turned against him.

Still, how come Lord Credias never showed up in the game?

I’d thought about it countless times before and never come up with an answer. There were three possibilities I had considered:

One: Lord Credias had already died before he could confront Alan’s party, and Kiara had kept on fighting for a different reason.

Two: he was somewhere in the vicinity, but he died for some unrelated reason before he could make an appearance—a bit of an anticlimax.

Three: he was somewhere in the vicinity, but he knew he didn’t have a good chance of winning. When he saw Kiara die, he ran off.

I gave some thought to all three options. If the first was true, the only possible explanation was Kiara’s devotion to the queen. Lately, I’d become convinced that this was the most likely of the three possibilities. Options two and three still left the question of why the viscount had never fought for himself.

“Why doesn’t the viscount ever seem to use any magic?” I mumbled aloud.

“Hmm...” Master Horace sank into thought for a time. “If he can manage to create defectives, he should be good enough to show up on the front lines.”

If even Master Horace didn’t have an answer to that one, I was pretty stuck.

The immediate problem was that he was going to realize sooner or later what kind of impact he had on me. If my attacks died out whenever he willed it, he would make the connection instantly. If that happened, the Llewynians would be sure to bring Lord Credias to all future battles, and I would be rendered completely useless as a warrior.

Thus, I had to take Lord Credias down at all costs.

I didn’t subscribe to the idea that people’s destinies were set in stone from the moment they were born. Otherwise, changing just one decision wouldn’t be enough to change anyone’s fate. But perhaps it was possible that there were a few set obstacles to overcome in everyone’s lives.

For me, one of those might have been the viscount of Credias.

“No matter what kind of fate I have with him, I really wish it could’ve been a different guy.”

Lamenting my dashed hopes of never having anything to do with the man again, I heaved a sigh.

◇◇◇

The battle ultimately entered into a ceasefire. As evening fell, we and the Llewynians huddled around our respective bonfires, keeping a watchful eye on the opposing side. According to Alan, this was, in fact, the second time that the hostilities had ended in a standoff from across the river.

“There was no time for bellyaching the first time around, so we had no issues uniting under the common goal of beating back the Llewynians. It was during the ceasefire that my men started a blame game with Delphion. You saw for yourselves where that got us in the next skirmish.”

Our men had grown suspicious that the Delphion soldiers were only pretending to fall in line to lead us into a trap. Now that their motives had been called into question, the Delphion men had wilted, suddenly much more self-conscious. Lord Delphion had done his best to get the situation under control, but to no avail. Alan and Lord Enister had considered moving back their battle lines to compensate, but they couldn’t find a more desirable battleground than the river.

Just as they had been stuck for a solution, Emmeline and I had shown up, dispelling all the tension in our wake. Upon witnessing Delphion’s furious rush at the Llewynians, our soldiers had finally rid themselves of their doubts, shifting their focus toward defeating the enemy standing before them.

“How are you holding up?” Alan asked me.

I pumped a fist in the air. “All better! I’m good to fight in the next battle.”

Cain considered that for a moment, then gave me a nod. “If you say so.”

Alan shot Cain a look that said, You sure about that? before turning back to me. “I heard you fell to pieces due to a spellcaster in the enemy ranks. How are you planning to deal with that?”

“All I have to do is keep my distance, so I’m going to try out some long-range attacks this time.”

“Going to pop off your golem’s arm again?” he asked, thinking back to the rocket punch he’d witnessed during the battle on the border.

“Something like that.”

“I suppose that’ll do. If it turns into a free-for-all, hold your fire. Having your golem simply stand guard in the rear will be more than enough to keep the Llewynians scared.”

“Got it.”

The last thing I wanted was to accidentally crush one of my own comrades. The moment the situation escalated beyond my control, I would back off.

Alan always had his hands full with something, so as soon as he’d confirmed whether I would be participating in the fight or not, he took off to go find the other generals.

Instead, it was Emmeline who gave me an incredulous look, one eyebrow raised. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

“Yep! My fever’s gone down, so I’m good to go!”

After I bounced around to show her I was fit as a fiddle, Emmeline placed a hand to my forehead. That confirmed that my temperature was normal, so she was forced to acknowledge that I was hale and hearty, despite the skeptical look on her face.

“Does she seem okay to you, Sir Cain?”

“If Miss Kiara says she’s fine, then she’s fine,” he answered.

Emmeline frowned, looking more and more bemused. “So long as she said she could handle it, I imagine you wouldn’t stop her from putting one foot into the very chasm of death.”

“Spellcasters go beyond our understanding. We have no choice but to defer to Miss Kiara’s and Sir Horace’s judgment here.”

As far as I was concerned, he was just stating the obvious, but Emmeline was struggling to come to grips with it. She had other things to take care of, however, so she gave up on pressing the issue any further.

“Then if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wrangle my uncle,” she declared before striding off to where the Delphion forces were gathered.

As we watched Emmeline go, Cain said, “Whatever the case, now isn’t the time for you to be risking your life. Once you’ve reached the limits of where your obstinacy can take you, I’m dragging you back.”

“That’s all I need. Thank you, Sir Cain.”

Cain was the one who had given me the opportunity to fight. Alan wouldn’t have trusted me if he only had my word for it; it was because Cain had backed me up that he’d believed I was good to go.

“When do you think the next fight will start?”

Llewyne had fallen back for the time being, afraid of what the spellcaster might do. The considerable damage they had taken was probably a factor, too. As nice as it would have been for them to throw in the towel there, the fact that we were engaged in a standoff was a sign that Llewyne planned to mount yet another attack.

“Sometime before His Highness’ troops arrive tomorrow, I’d wager. Now that you’ve rushed over from the fort, the enemy likely realizes that they have to end this as quickly as possible, or else even more reinforcements are bound to show up. I’d say they make their move in the morning.”

It turned out Cain’s prediction was right on the money.

◇◇◇

The Llewynians made their move the next day, before the sun had fully risen above the horizon—but all they did was fire their arrows from the other side of the river. If we struck back against them, they would just pull away, so Alan went to great lengths to make sure none of his men stuck out ahead of the pack.

I wanted to help out the soldiers who had pushed too far ahead, but it was difficult to carry out pinpoint attacks from a distance. Our own men were bound to get caught up in it. That said, spending all my time watching and waiting wasn’t doing us much good.

“If I don’t hurry up and attack, they’re going to figure out that I’ve been compromised!”

“For now, they might assume you’re hanging back as part of some strategy, but if you haven’t done anything by the time the battle’s over... then yeah, they’ll probably catch on,” Master Horace agreed.

“I could cut around from behind, but if the viscount heads that way, I’ll be right back where I started. Should I feint from the side, then launch a long-range attack with a projectile? Though, wait... just how much of a disciple’s magic can a mentor block?”

“Flames, water, and wind will all fizzle out and die before them.”

Wow. So if you form a mentor-disciple contract with someone, there’s really no way to attack them.

“Does that include the byproduct of a spell? For example, the caster may be the one who starts a fire, but they have no control over where the flames spread, right?”

“Certainly someone’s tried that trick before, but I couldn’t tell you how it went. Spellcasters are scattered all over the place, and they rarely interact with each other.”

“In other words, they’re a bunch of shut-in researchers?”

“There’s a reason for that. Nobody wants to stay tied down by their mentor-disciple contracts.”

It was a safety measure, apparently. The result was that it became even harder to pin down any information regarding spellcasters.

“Surely at some point or another, some brave spellcaster used every trick in the book to kill their mentor. If only they’d left a record of it somewhere.”

“Your mind goes to some disturbing places every now and then, you know that? You’ll just have to be the first one to pull it off.”

“Any chance the disciple could use the bond to exert control over their mentor?”

“No way. If it were possible, you wouldn’t see so many spellcasters willing to take on disciples. Since I’ve never heard any rumblings about that, it must mean that the moment someone becomes a spellcaster, all control goes right to the mentor.”

Every one of my ideas was a non-starter. Out of options, I did my best to think of a different strategy. I then said to Cain, “I’m going to move off to the side. There’s something I’d like to try.”

Staying put was the worst thing I could do in this scenario. Thus, I opted to take a trial-and-error approach.

First, I had my golem tramp over to a spot not far from the left flank of our forces. From there, I had it shuffle little by little over the ground, trying to get as close as I possibly could without wandering into Lord Credias’ sphere of influence.

Eventually, I reached a spot where I would be strapped for breath if I took even one step closer. I hastily had it move three paces back.

When I briefly crouched down on the spot, Cain patted me on the back. I appreciated the gesture and all, but the motion just made me want to vomit even more. I asked him to stop, then waited for the effects to subside.

Next, I searched in the direction I figured Lord Credias would be. It was the same method I’d used when I was hunting for Master Horace way back when; I didn’t have a contract stone anymore, but I could sense his presence as a fellow spellcaster. Just imagining his face made me sick, so I did my best to banish all worldly thoughts from my mind.

“What’s the verdict?”

“Feeling it out from both here and over there... I think he’s near the center of the enemy lines.”

Rather than assessing his whereabouts from just one direction, measuring it from two different points would give me a more accurate estimate of where he was.

Once that was confirmed, there was only one thing left to do.

“Now I just have to land an attack somewhere far away from Lord Credias. That way he won’t know I’ve been affected.”

I had my golem grip a handful of copper ore, then I laid its hand atop the ground. The earth moved with a loud rumbling noise, gathering in the golem’s hand and forming the shape of a dagger. Emmeline—who was waiting down on the ground, seeing as she wasn’t used to riding a moving golem—shrank back in dismay.

I swung my golem’s arm around once—a warm-up before the real throw. However, waving its arm around made the rest of the golem’s body pivot ever so slightly to one side and then the other, putting its riders in a precarious position.

“Whoa!”

Cain caught me as I lurched forward.

This wasn’t good. Each toss was going to put me in danger of being thrown off my golem. I’d have trouble pinpointing my target if I was unsteady on my feet, so I had to figure something else out.

I climbed down from my golem, this time building an earthen tower with a spiral staircase wound around it. Or maybe “anthill” was a more apt descriptor than “tower”? Either way, it was taller than my golem, which made it just the lookout I’d wanted. Going up the stairs had left me a little short of breath, but I had to push through.

Emmeline came along this time since she didn’t have to worry about the tower moving anywhere.

“We’re quite high up,” she remarked as she surveyed our surroundings, taking in just how far off the ground we were. Next, she tapped at the earth of the tower with her foot, assessing how firm it was. I, meanwhile, couldn’t spare a moment to catch my breath; I jumped straight into my next move.

“One, two, and... here goes!”

My golem finally hurled its earthen sword. It drew an arc through the air, and once it had flown too far from me to maintain its form, it fell apart and rained down upon the Llewynians—as nothing but rocks and dirt.

Being pelted with a shower of earth from above was no picnic. Sure enough, the troops in the rear quickly fell into disarray.

I continued to catapult dirt anywhere I could reach, from the center of the Llewynian troops to the rear. It was nothing more than a downpour of soil, so there was no way for Lord Credias to tell what effect he was having.

Before long, even the Llewynians on the front lines had become a mess, and Alan’s forces consequently had a much easier time forcing them back. And yet, Llewyne still refused to retreat.

Cain wondered about that himself. “I’m sure they’ll have no choice but to withdraw once His Highness’ troops arrive, but still... What’s more, I’ve yet to see any sign of Salekhard.”

“What about that group over there?”

Emmeline had a sharp eye; that was a master archer for you. I did, in fact, spot the green capes of Salekhard in the direction she pointed. Cain shifted his gaze to that cluster of men mixed in with the Llewynians. It looked like something was still bothering him.

When was Reggie going to get here? It wouldn’t be long before the sun was high in the sky. I’d originally assumed he would be arriving before then, but our troops had yet to hear any word from him. Whenever news finally did arrive, it was sure to boost morale. Impatient, I peered out at the road leading toward the Alesia River.

It was right when I turned my gaze back toward Alan’s men that something caught my eye.

Curious, I honed in on a cluster of trees lining the left bank of the river. There was nothing to see but a dense canopy of leaves, and—each time a breeze blew through—a glimpse of the ground and the water’s surface underneath.

As I was gazing out that way, I finally caught a glint of silver in the corner of my eye.

“Sir Cain! Take a look at that!”

Downstream, a short distance from the battlefield, a group of men in blue capes had come into sight. After taking a look in the direction I was pointing, Cain turned to Emmeline and instructed her, “Inform Lord Alan posthaste: His Highness is about to attack Llewyne’s left flank.”

Emmeline dashed down the stairs of the makeshift tower without a moment’s delay. That ambush from the side was bound to deal a heavy blow to Llewyne.

Relieved, I made to shift my point of attack. I figured the dirt and rocks would make for a good smokescreen, keeping Reggie and his men hidden right up until the moment they attacked.

“Ngh!”

But suddenly, my heart throbbed in my chest. Dangerously close to suffocating, I quickly called my golem to my side.

“Sir Cain, you have to jump over!” I frantically directed Cain toward my golem’s outstretched hand, then made the move myself, practically slumping forward onto it. Cain caught me right before I landed, stopping me from falling in headfirst. It would’ve been embarrassing to come out of this with a huge lump on my forehead, so I was grateful for the save.

“Are you alright?!”

“Lord Credias must have moved... We need to go somewhere else... so I can keep pretending I’m not affected...”

I rushed to put my golem in motion. Cain propped me up where I sat on its palm.

With each step, the pull of that invisible gravity weakened, both the asphyxiation and ennui gradually fading away.

“Hey, Master Horace... do you think he’s noticed?”

“Not necessarily. He might suspect something is up since you attacked from the rear today, but it’s probably fine. Just play it like you hit the time limit on your magic. He has yet to try anything of his own, so it’s possible he doesn’t know any spells that can be used for a direct attack.”

“Are there other kinds of magic?”

“Maybe. All I’ve heard of before is a spellcaster who could transcend time.”

“You mean, like... time travel?”

While listening to Master Horace talk, I’d gotten my breathing back under control. Still, I shuddered at the heat I felt gradually welling up throughout my body.

“We can talk about that later.”

At Master Horace’s prompting, I got ready to climb down from my golem so I could dismantle it, but first, I took one last look in Reggie’s direction. His march had come to a halt.

“What?! He’s already fighting someone?”

“Those are Salekhardian soldiers.”

Most likely, those men had been lying in wait for a while now. Only once they sprang into action did I finally realize that the Salekhardians had been lurking there all along. Had they disguised themselves somehow? I clicked my tongue, disappointed with myself for failing to spot them from above.

It would take more than that to put a stop to Reggie’s troops, however. No sooner had they split up into two groups than one of them marched out into the riverbed, heading upstream toward the Llewynians and launching their attack.

The remaining unit continued their battle against the Salekhardians. Reggie’s men appeared to be at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, so watching it had me on the edge of my seat.

“If Llewyne retreats, Salekhard will be forced to withdraw alongside them. Look over there, Miss Kiara.”

At some point, I had squeezed my eyes shut as I prayed for our men’s safety; when Cain clapped me on the shoulder, I opened them again to look in the direction he was pointing. Unable to withstand Alan’s onslaught, the Llewynians were falling back little by little. The Salekhardian soldiers fighting our troops withdrew alongside them. Reggie’s men drew to a halt after a certain point, declining to give chase.

Relieved, I observed the enemy more closely. The Salekhardian troops, which had split up into a total of three units, were joining up at a spot a short distance from the river.

Where they were headed, there waited a group of men in green capes, mixed in with the black capes of the Llewynians. Nearly all of them were on horseback, so I assumed that was the backbone of the Salekhardian army. Was the new king of Salekhard somewhere among them? I gazed more closely to see if I could tell—but I really shouldn’t have.

The rusty red color of one of the men’s hair gave me a sense of déjà vu.

There were plenty of Llewynians with that shade of hair. We were at war now, but people would often travel between the countries to do trade during peacetime, so even some Farzians had a similar hair color. Thus, it wasn’t all that unusual to see.

Still, thanks to my high vantage point, I had a perfectly clear view of him. I could tell how long his hair was. Even from afar, I could see the mischievous smile that rose to his face all too well... and it chilled me to the bone.

I swallowed down his name just as it was about to leave my lips, my whole body going ice cold.

“Are your symptoms getting worse, Miss Kiara?”

Before I knew it, I’d sunk down on the spot. Cain was worried for me, but I couldn’t tell him what I’d just seen. After all, what if I’d been mistaken? What if it was just someone who bore a striking resemblance to him?

“I-I’m fine. Now that it’s finally over, I just ran out of steam... I think.” It was all I could do to answer him in a quivering voice.

I squeezed my cold, pale hands together, awash with despair.

Why does he look so much like Isaac?

◇◇◇

Evidently, looping all the way around to attack Salekhard had been Reggie’s plan from the start. Seeing as I had been deployed in advance, he had planned to take advantage of all the attention I’d drawn to strike. Under the guise of running late, he’d waited for Llewyne’s scouts to finish scouring the area before marching ahead, but it turned out the Salekhardians had prepared a similar ambush.

“Who could have guessed they’d have the same idea?” Reggie lamented with a grimace after joining back up with Alan.

Nightfall was quickly approaching. Time had flown by, what with tailing the enemy post-battle, assessing how much damage had been done to our troops, and then eating dinner.

Reggie, Alan, Cain, Emmeline, and I were all gathered inside the same tent. I’d come by to check that none of them were injured, and I was relieved to find that that was the case. I had wanted to see them badly enough to force myself to eat despite my total lack of appetite, and now I had an upset stomach for my troubles.

Once he was done giving a rough rundown of the situation, Reggie looked over at me. “How are you feeling, Kiara?”

“Well...”

To be perfectly honest, my head was still a mess. I couldn’t claim I was feeling well. It wasn’t as bad as it had been the previous day, but my body still felt hot.

But if I let myself zone out, Isaac’s face would pop back into my mind.

There was no way I could tell Reggie about any of that. I didn’t want to seem off my game around him because he might tell me not to fight.

When I fell silent, Master Horace snickered. “Seems Llewyne brought along a spellcaster of their own. It’s probably that viscount, Credias. His influence has had her mana spiraling out of control.”

“Master Horace!”

“Didn’t think you could get away without telling him, did you? A spellcaster in the enemy ranks is something you have to report.”

He was right. Even if Master Horace hadn’t mentioned it, Alan would’ve informed him later.

“Her mana is spiraling? What does that mean, exactly?”

“The mana in her body was overstimulated, and now she’s showing fever-like symptoms. Isn’t that right, my little disciple?”

A beat. “Yeah.”

I had the chills. That had to mean I was running a fever, but I was so focused on my inner turmoil that I wasn’t really registering it.

“I think I’ll be fine after a little rest.”

I wasn’t lying. But Emmeline, who was sitting next to me, didn’t seem terribly reassured. “Then shouldn’t you be resting now? Unlike me, I doubt you could recover through sheer willpower alone. You ought to stay in bed until you’re fully healed.”

“Did you say ‘sheer willpower’?” Alan shot her a baffled look, then flicked his gaze over to me. I really wished he’d stop making that face that screamed, You two are birds of a feather.

Well, this was Alan’s first time meeting Emmeline. No wonder he was thrown for a loop.

It seemed Alan was in good enough shape to sweat the small stuff, at least. Of course, given that’d he been running all over the battlefield, he hadn’t escaped without a few light scratches and a whole lot of exhaustion.

“Go get some rest, Kiara. We’ll move out tomorrow. We can have you ride in a carriage on the way back to Fort Inion,” said Reggie.

Taking his advice to heart, I went back to my private tent.

With Cain to accompany me, I made my way down the nighttime road. I was apparently having trouble walking straight, seeing as he placed a hand on my back to keep me steady. He didn’t ask any questions.

Deep down, what I wanted was for someone to tell me that it wasn’t true. And yet, there wasn’t anyone I could talk to about it. This was the one thing I couldn’t even tell Cain, the one who had promised never to stand in my way. Even if I wanted some way to know for sure, who was going to know anything about Salekhard?

Wait. I do know someone who’s an expert on Salekhard.

“Do you know where Gina and Girsch are?”

“Shall I call for them?”

I nodded.

Both of them were Salekhardians. They had to know who their own king was. What’s more, Gina had seen Isaac’s face when she was looking for me in Cassia. Thinking back on how she’d reacted, I had a feeling she knew him somehow.

After I asked Cain to summon the duo to my tent, it wasn’t too long before they showed up. Lila came along with them.

“Just leave this to us! It’s girl talk, I’ll bet. You ought to go get some rest yourself,” Girsch said, clapping Cain on the shoulder. Cain made a face at “girl talk,” but left without further comment.

Girsch and Gina came inside the tent, leaving Reynard and Sara to stand watch outside. Lila snuck in alongside them, snuggling up against me.

Oh, that’s right. Lila has the power to absorb mana, I was reminded. I could feel the heat of the magic bubbling up within me draining away, finally providing me some relief.

Master Horace clattered unhappily, but Lila was lounging on the opposite side of him, so he didn’t bother complaining.

Once everyone had taken a seat, I got down to business. “I’d like to ask you some questions about Salekhard.”

Girsch and Gina beamed, happy to oblige. They probably assumed I wanted to know more about the country as a whole.

“What? So this isn’t your girly gossip hour?” Master Horace butted in.

“If it were, I would’ve left you with Sir Cain.” After flashing him a wry smile, I asked Gina, “Did you recognize that red-haired man I met in Cassia? Or should I say... do you know him?”

Gina’s eyes went wide, and then it dawned on her why I’d called her here.

Girsch stood up. “If that’s what this is about, Gina is the one you want to talk to. I’ll stand watch to make sure no one comes near.”

After watching Girsch go, I murmured, “I didn’t realize Isaac was such a big secret of yours. You knew him from the start, and that’s why you were glaring at him back then, isn’t it?”

“Kiara, I...”

“I saw him among the Salekhard army today.”

Gina closed her eyes for a moment, then said, “Isaac is Salekhard’s reigning king: Isaac Vladlen Salekhard.”

So Isaac... is the king of Salekhard?

“Why didn’t you tell me back in Cassia? Given the way you were looking at him, you must have realized who he was.”

“It was a brief encounter, so I didn’t think it’d stick in your memory for this long. I assumed the two of you would never cross paths again.”

I balled the hands in my lap into fists. “I could never forget him. I’ve been thinking of him all this time. He was something of an oddball, but it was my conversation with him that inspired me to stick to my guns.”

“Wait, what? You guys talked for that long?”

Gina had assumed that Isaac had struck up a conversation with me while I was spaced out and nothing more. I was the one to blame for that; I’d avoided saying much about it since I hadn’t wanted to tell her the things we’d talked about.

When I nodded in response, Gina looked stunned. “I’m surprised he didn’t take off with you.”

“I was being careful. I made an awful comment about being scared to get near a stranger, and he was still willing to hear me out after that.”

He had given me candy, consoled me, and even encouraged me to adopt a more positive attitude. Never for a second had I dreamed he could be an enemy.

“You were pretty down on yourself at the time. It must’ve made a lasting impression,” Master Horace muttered, thinking back on everything that had happened before and after our encounter. That was the one and only time I’d run off and made Gina drag me home.

“We saw each other at Fort Inion, too.”

“Seriously?!” Gina’s eyes nearly popped out of her head, and she slapped a hand against her forehead. Now that I knew who he really was, I shared the feeling. What was a king doing wandering around like that, completely defenseless?

“I wonder if he was just fishing for information.”

“He knows you’re a spellcaster, right? I figure he was planning to kidnap you, but who knows.”

The second time I ran into Isaac, he had made no attempt to abduct me or lure me anywhere. He had just talked to me and given me some sweets.

None of that changed the fact that he was an enemy, of course.

I’d thought we were friends. He felt like something of an older brother to me, in a different way from Cain, so the news had given me quite a shock. Everything else aside, if he was the king of Salekhard, it meant there was a good chance I would have to kill him in battle.

Gina let out a small sigh. “Since you’ve confided in me, it’s only fair for me to do the same. I’ll tell you why I hid the fact that I knew Isaac. The truth is... I’m the illegitimate daughter of a Salekhardian marquis.”

Her legal name was Ginaida. Her mother had been a servant working at the marquis’ estate, and the master of the house had laid his hands on her, leaving her pregnant with Gina. Not only had it been a nonconsensual affair, but Gina’s mother had also been convinced that the jealous wife of the marquis would kill her if she found out. Thus, she’d fled from the estate and continued to live in hiding even after giving birth.

However, her mother was a fairly powerful person in her own right. Born in a village of hunters, she had made use of her skill with a bow and arrow to join Girsch’s mercenary band. Thanks to that, the marquis—who had been specifically searching for a woman who used to work as a servant for a noble family—never managed to find her.

It was when Gina turned ten that her mother fell ill. To earn the money to pay for her medicine, Gina had taken up a sword and bow and had gone to work.

Taking a job as the beater in a nobleman’s hunt had become the turning point in her fate.

“My face bears a strong resemblance to the marquis. And to make matters worse, he was right there at the hunting ground.”

The marquis hadn’t been searching for her mother out of love, Gina explained. If the child born to her was a girl, he’d wanted to find her as quickly as possible, raise her as his own wife’s child, and use her as a pawn.

Once the marquis had discovered Gina, he had taken custody of her in exchange for promising medical treatment for her mother. Her mother had passed away a year after that, but Girsch had later informed her that he’d held up his end of the bargain and sent the medicine.

“Fortunately—is that appropriate to say?—the marquis’ wife had already passed away by then. I had one half-sister, but she was perfectly happy so long as I sucked up to her, so I didn’t have to deal with as much bullying as I’d expected.”

That half-sister of hers, Natalya, had eventually been summoned to the royal palace to serve as a conversation partner for the crown prince, Yefrem. Piggybacking off that connection, the frail and sickly prince would often stay in a villa of the marquis’ to recuperate, accompanied by the second prince, Isaac.

That was how Gina had met Isaac and Prince Yefrem.

“How should I describe Yefrem? He was the modest type. Not very confident in himself. He had something of an inferiority complex toward Isaac, who was a robust, mischievous little rascal, always adored by the adults around him. I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason he bothered talking to me.”

Gina had learned to get by in the marquis’ estate by fawning over Natalya, enough to seem like she was the girl’s own personal servant. Yefrem’s interest had been piqued by that behavior of hers.

Even after returning to the royal palace, Yefrem had found every opportunity he could to talk to Gina. By the time Gina had turned fifteen, the pair had finally realized they were in love with one another.

“Of course, there was no way we could actually be together. The crown prince and a nobleman’s illegitimate daughter? Forget it. But he refused to give up on us. He turned down years and years of marriage proposals before he finally caved and got engaged to a duke’s daughter—just so that Isaac wouldn’t end up on the throne instead.”

“What? But didn’t you say Isaac was the king’s second son?”

The only reason he was king now was because he had imprisoned the crown prince and usurped the throne.

“See, that’s where Llewyne comes into the picture. You noticed the color of his hair, didn’t you? He got that from his mother—a Llewynian princess.”

Yefrem and Isaac were half-brothers.

“Llewyne is an aggressive nation. They’ll marry off their princesses for political reasons, then attack that country as soon as their guard is down. Then they repeat the process all over again, marrying the same princess to someone else without batting an eye. And naturally, they’ll tack on a justification that makes it impossible for the groom’s side to refuse.”

The marriage between Isaac’s mother and Salekhard’s former king had been brought about by a border dispute. Llewyne had forced the deal upon them almost immediately after the first queen had passed away, so many Salekhardians suspected that the entire conflict was just a pretext for Llewyne to marry their princess off.

Meanwhile, having been married four times now, Isaac’s mother had been completely spent. In her third marriage, her husband had beaten her as a means of venting his frustrations with Llewyne. By that point, she had been broken enough to spill everything she knew about Llewyne to the former king of Salekhard, crying and begging him to let her live in a corner of the royal palace in peace.

Physically and mentally exhausted as she was, it hadn’t been long before she passed away. It was before that, however, that she had given birth to Isaac.

Isaac had presented yet another potential trigger for war.

“Some feared that Llewyne would try to push Isaac as the next king. Isaac idolized his brother, so he did everything he could to keep himself as far from the throne as possible. That’s why he proposed to me.”

“What...? Does that mean he was your ex-fiancé?”

I recalled her mentioning a dispute over her engagement that had caused her to miss her window for marriage. That was him?!

“Yep. It was Isaac.” Gina forced a smile. “If he took a bastard child as his wife, it would become that much harder to recommend him for the throne. Llewyne had no choice but to throw in the towel. Isaac got engaged to me to protect his big brother.”

For a time, everything had sorted itself out.

“But then Yefrem’s betrothed passed away.”

Allegedly, it had been an accident. After chasing down a fleeing cat, she had fallen from the castle wall and died. Immediately after that, Yefrem had received a marriage proposal from Llewyne.

“His Majesty had always been faint of heart. Due to the frequent monster attacks at the time, he was deep in debt to the Llewynians, so he gave in without a fight. I think the one who took the decision hardest was Isaac.”

“Even though the woman was from his mother’s homeland?” I asked.

Gina shook her head with a bitter laugh. “Ever since he was little, he’d been treated like an enemy pawn by the nobles who hated Llewyne. Isaac’s grudge against the country is nothing to shake a stick at. Besides, the entire reason his brother’s accession to the throne was under threat was because he had Llewynian blood running through his veins.”

Whatever the case, the country of Salekhard had been at risk of being hijacked. Thus, Isaac had devised a plan to destroy the entire premise for accepting the engagement.

“Destroy it? But how?”

“He invalidated the agreement by killing his father, the one who made it in the first place. Then he usurped the throne and imprisoned Yefrem, leaving him in no position to get married.”

So that was the true explanation behind Salekhard’s internal squabbles.

“He broke off his engagement to me before he started putting everything into action. It was so that he could flaunt himself as an attractive marriage prospect to lure the other nobles to his side... and so that he wouldn’t drag me into it. But,” Gina went on, “I think the real reason behind it was that Isaac knew I was still in love with Yefrem. After all, he did ask me to be there for Yefrem once he was free again.”

“Does that mean Isaac plans to abdicate the throne one day?”

Yefrem could only be released if Isaac gave up his claim to the throne.

“That’s right. Once all the problems are taken care of, he plans to hand the throne back to Yefrem.” Gina hung her head, hiding her face from view. “By taking part in this war, Salekhard will have repaid its debt to Llewyne. But if we don’t take responsibility for our invasion of Farzia somehow, the postwar reparations could bankrupt the country. Isaac will have to abdicate.”

If Farzia won the war, Salekhard would atone for aiding Llewyne’s war of aggression by having its king step down. Since Isaac was the one who had made the pact with Llewyne, it would be possible to have it annulled. The true king had been imprisoned at the time, after all.

“I was another part of the plan to reduce Salekhard’s burden.”

“What?”

“Sorry. Whether you picked me up or not, the plan had been for me to lend my services to Farzia somewhere down the line. The whole reason I tagged along with you as a mercenary was so I could get Farzia to hire me without looking suspicious.”

“So you were looking for Farzia to employ you from the start? But why?”

“It’s more convenient for Salekhard if Farzia wins. It was so I could help that along... and so that I could make a name for myself.”

Gina was always so articulate, yet now she stared at the floor, like she was having a hard time getting her words out.

“You know how I keep monsters at my side? Isaac has always let me do whatever I want—maybe as penance for proposing to me for selfish reasons. That’s why I could do things like travel in and out of the mercenary band and raise Reynard and the girls. It makes me pretty useful on the battlefield, too. If I make a name for myself, then throw my weight behind Yefrem once he takes over, Farzia will think twice before crossing us.”

That made sense. If Évrard hadn’t already had a spellcaster like me, Gina would have been a pretty valuable asset—valuable enough to give Salekhard an advantage in reparation negotiations.

“To cover for me, summons were sent to mercenaries all over the country.”

Apparently, that was the reason Salekhard’s mercenaries had been issued a call to arms.

That concluded everything Gina had to say about Isaac.

“What do you think, Kiara? Did that tell you what you wanted to know?”

My head was spinning from all this new information. I understood it, sure, but it felt like we were talking about someone from a distant world.

“I understand his reasons, at least.”

“This means Girsch and I hid our circumstances from you, too. You aren’t mad at us?” Gina had an uneasy look on her face. It seemed she felt guilty about keeping things from me.

“No, I’m not.”

I gave her my best smile. After all, it wasn’t like she had outright lied, nor had she violated her contract as a mercenary. Circumstances aside, if I believed everything she’d just told me, it meant that she had joined up with us to help Farzia win. And here she was, performing her job perfectly.

Gina had never been anything but kind to me, either.

“I don’t doubt anything you’ve told me. It’s just hard to think of the man you described as the same Isaac I know.”

And yet, he was someone I’d been fighting against all this time. Gina seemed to pick up on how hard it was for me to accept the truth.

“If you met him back in Cassia, he might’ve been just the right person to lift you up when you were at your lowest point. So don’t think of it as him having tricked you; think of it as you having used him,” Gina said, doing her best to cheer me up. She was trying to convince me that I hadn’t been taken in by his lies; I may have benefited from our talk, but there was no need for me to thank him, and there was nothing for me to feel hurt about.

But I’d never thought about anyone that way. I definitely felt like Isaac had done a lot for me, and it was hard to make the gratitude I felt just go away. Even assuming that his intentions hadn’t been good, it was difficult to think of him as an enemy.

Picking up on my distress, Gina wrapped me up in a tight hug.

“I know you can’t get over it that quickly. But don’t worry; if I ever have to fight him, I’ll get in a good punch for you.”

What she said felt like a promise—we were going to have to fight Isaac sooner or later. He had his own reasons he couldn’t back down from this war. Since Gina had promised to hit him for me, it meant she was fully prepared to face Isaac on the battlefield herself.

Wrapped up in Gina’s warmth and Lila’s soft fur, I thought to myself, I need to steel my resolve to fight him, too.

Depending on the circumstances, I might even have to kill him.

◇◇◇

“What’s wrong?” Alan asked before he could stop himself, still holding out a wooden cup that Reggie refused to take off his hands.

When Alan, Lord Enister, and Jerome had been engaged in a post-dinner discussion about their next move, Reggie had seemed the same as ever. Now that he was alone with Alan, however, he would spend long stretches of time just spacing out. He had fallen so deep into thought during a lull in their conversation that he hadn’t even noticed Alan offering him a glass of water.

Only when Alan spoke up did he finally lift his head. “Oh. My apologies, Alan.”

“Are you still feeling off?”

A while back, Reggie had been shot with an arrow—not just any arrow, but one coated in a stone with the power to turn one into a spellcaster. Alan wondered if he was still feeling the effects of that, but Reggie shook his head.

“It’s not that.”

“Are you sure? Even Kiara was affected because Lord Credias was among the enemy soldiers. She lost the ability to wield her magic at will, and she was indisposed on top of it.”

In order to become a spellcaster, one had to split a stone rich in mana between mentor and disciple and swallow it down. If the disciple skipped that step and attempted to absorb its power all on their own, the mana running through their body would spiral out of control, destroying their body from the inside.

Kiara hadn’t actually split that stone with Lord Credias. Before becoming a spellcaster, however, Lord Patriciél had administered her a potion to determine whether or not she had the makings of a mage. Lord Credias had likely ingested part of the same stone used in that.

That explained how the viscount had assailed Kiara with a pressure strong enough to keep her from attacking him. Still, after hurling all that dirt, she had managed to throw the enemy into enough disarray that Alan counted it as an overall success.

And yet Reggie claimed that wasn’t the issue.

“I’m not having the same problem as Kiara. What was coated on the arrow that struck me was probably made from a different stone—one the viscount turned into sand and passed around to make more defective spellcasters. Shall we consider that a small mercy?”

“I certainly hope that’s the case. Then what is it? Are you worried about something?”

“Worried? I suppose you could say that.”

Now this is unusual, thought Alan. Reggie was constantly plagued with troubles, enough that he often failed to register them as worries at all. He filed the majority of them away as merely “matters to be dealt with.” Watching the prince cast his gaze downward, heaving sigh after sigh, Alan started to fear the worst.

It meant that Reggie didn’t have a solution for whatever had happened. If he didn’t know to deal with it, then Alan didn’t stand a chance. Alan was starting to lose his cool just thinking about it.

“What happened? Are you having trouble with the soldiers? Or is it the generals?”

If he was worried about the soldiers, it had to be the Delphion men who were the problem. Alan relived those bitter memories of simmering distrust laid bare on the battlefield. Of course, he couldn’t fault his own soldiers, either; he realized that accepting yesterday’s enemy as a new ally was easy enough to accept in one’s mind, but not so much in one’s heart. Still, if that was all it was, Reggie would surely find a way to smooth over the issue.

He also doubted it was one of the generals. The scrupulous, sensible Jerome would never start anything, and if Lord Enister were to make any sort of trouble, it would probably come down to that goat of his.

That goat was absolutely savage, for the record. Yesterday, it had gotten so riled up that it had charged ahead and ripped into the enemy with its teeth. A goat! What were the chances it was actually a monster in disguise? When he’d caught sight of it bleating as blood dripped from his mouth, even Alan had been left horror-struck.

At any rate, he couldn’t think of a single other problem beyond Reggie’s power to resolve... or could he? One more idea suddenly occurred to him.

“Is this about Kiara?” Alan muttered.

Reggie’s eyes snapped open, and then a dry laugh escaped his lips. “You know me too well, Alan.”

He was right. Of course, all he’d done was voice the last possibility left after narrowing the options down, so he felt bad taking the credit.

“What did she do this time? I can go give her a talking-to.”

“Just listen to that. You sound almost like her mother.” Reggie giggled.

It was only then that Alan realized he had just said the equivalent of, Has my little girl been making trouble for you? Who else was going to step up to the plate, though? That mentor of hers was hardly a stern enough guardian for such a blockhead of a spellcaster.

“Oh, right,” Reggie suddenly added, “I sent one of my knights, Lowen, into Delphion’s castle town. I told him to get rid of Lord Credias through whatever means necessary.”

Evidently, Reggie had ordered Lord Credias’ assassination.

“Already?”

He was moving too fast. Alan couldn’t hide his shock.

“I’m not acting prematurely. If the viscount is indeed a spellcaster, there was always a chance he would show up to the battlefield. Kiara doesn’t have any recollection of him fighting, but that doesn’t completely discount the possibility. I’ve been hoping to get him out of the picture for a while now,” Reggie explained, his tone as casual as if he were saying, You’re in the way, so move it.

“You’re right, of course, but I didn’t think you would be in such a hurry.”

“Normally, I would feel the same as you. I’d be more inclined to wait until we’d found our footing to jump into action. But I’m not going to give him that much room to breathe. I don’t want to give him the chance to meet her.” Reggie took a sip of water, then went on, “I’m sure Kiara has no desire to lay eyes on the person who was destined to become her shackles. She’s already too emotional under regular circumstances. I’d prefer to eliminate any potential stumbling blocks.”

He was right that Kiara had been off-balance ever since departing Évrard. She had pushed herself to fight despite her fear of murder, constantly bringing herself to tears, yet whenever someone tried to give her a chance to rest, she’d just dig in her heels.

“I suppose she has calmed down as of late.”

Ever since they’d arrived in Cassia, to be more precise. Though she still came across as strangely impatient at times, the tension in her expression had eased. She seemed to have stabilized after Reggie conceded to her in Sorwen.

“I get what you’re saying about the viscount, but shouldn’t you go check on Kiara?”

Alan didn’t understand all the talk about mana this and mana that. All he had to do was listen to her explanations, visualize the effects on her physical condition, and determine whether or not that would hold her back in a fight.

But wouldn’t Reggie be considerably more concerned for her?

“Wentworth is looking after her. I should leave it to him.”

Alan almost bought that answer, but then he furrowed his brow, sensing that something was off about it.

Somehow, it didn’t add up.

Alan reflected on why that was. Outside of his bodyguard duties, had Reggie ever left any Kiara-related matters solely in Wentworth’s hands? On the contrary, he had been keeping a watchful eye on the knight, wary of any man who spent that much time around Kiara.

When Alan glanced over at Reggie, the prince answered with a guileless smile—enough to make Alan wonder if he had misheard him.

Alan grew so preoccupied that, in the end, he forgot to ask what had been bothering Reggie in the first place.

◇◇◇

The next day, the Llewynians retreated to Delphion Castle. We Farzians returned to Fort Inion.

While we were getting ready to evacuate the area, I headed over to the bank of the Alesia River. Now that we were on the heels of a battle, we had to be more cautious than ever, so Gina, Girsch, and the frostfoxes joined Cain and Emmeline (my new overseer) in accompanying me.

I couldn’t afford to take up too much time, but still I said, “If we just leave these corpses lying along the riverbed, the resulting plague won’t be a pretty sight to see.”

To my greatest delight, mosquitoes didn’t exist in this world, but the last thing we needed was for the water to be contaminated. The nearby villagers and townspeople may have gone to wells for their drinking water, but some people would still use water from the river throughout their daily lives. If disease spread downstream, the citizens of Delphion would be in trouble.

“I’m impressed, Miss Kiara. Where did you come upon that knowledge?” Emmeline asked, standing witness to my ritual for the first time.

How am I supposed to explain this one?

My eyes darted back and forth until Cain finally threw me a lifeline.

“After moving to Évrard, Miss Kiara read a great deal of the books in our archives. I’d assume it was outlined in one of those. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes! Exactly!”

I gave a little let’s go with that nod, and Cain shot me a dryly amused look. Emmeline seemed to buy the explanation.

“The margrave’s library, hm? I’m sure there were plenty of old records there.”

“Yes. I even found journals belonging to the margraves of old.”

I had, in fact, devoured so many of those books that I didn’t have to scramble for lies to tell.

“Delphion has a much shorter history than Évrard. The inside of the castle was completely refurbished, and there aren’t many old records left over.”

“Why not?”

“Delphion used to be part of the territory of Fergus. When the marquis of Fergus turned against the king, his house was laid to ruin. One of the contemporary king’s retainers was the head of the House of Delphion; he was given a peerage and a cut of the marquis’ territory to rule.”

While I listened to Emmeline tell the history of Delphion, I created a golem out of stone and had it gather up the bodies a short ways from the riverbank. Some enemy corpses had been left submerged in the water, so I decided to pile them together and bury all of the men in one place.

There were a handful of bodies I couldn’t do that for, seeing as they’d been crushed a little too thoroughly. Considering how many of those mangled corpses were concentrated along the riverside, I had to assume I was the one responsible. I had run them over with a stone dragon and all.

“Sorry. It must have hurt.”

I felt bad, but if I were put back into the same situation, I knew I would do it again. I didn’t regret what I’d done, but I started to wonder if there was a less painful way I could have killed them.

“Don’t let it get to you, kid. That’s just what happens to your enemies in a war. Even the men who didn’t choose to be here knew what they were getting into. Besides, if you’d been on the other side of it, I bet you anything the enemy wouldn’t be feeling sorry right now,” Master Horace said, punctuating the statement with a villainous chuckle.

Once a soldier took a weapon in his hand, there was always a risk of this happening. I knew that, but it didn’t make it any less sad.

I buried all the disfigured corpses right where they lay. As for the bodies I’d gathered in a pile, I created a giant hole and put them into the earth together. A large mound of dirt popped up in the riverside grove.

That was when a few soldiers passed by after doing their rounds, on the lookout for scouts who might be hiding somewhere after missing their chance to run. As soon as they spotted me, they started whispering among themselves.

“What’s she doing?”

“Didn’t you hear the generals? The spellcaster performs a magic ritual after every battle to keep disease at bay.”

It sounded like the “magic ritual” interpretation had stuck.

“But those are enemies!”

There were a lot of people who weren’t happy about me laying the enemy to rest. Lord Azure was like that, too. Perhaps he found some kind of meaning in abandoning corpses to rot and leaving the wretched remains of our enemies on display.

However, it seemed the patrolling soldiers were Ernest’s.

“Then again... if Lord Finard had fallen in line with the baron, we could have died enemies. Better to see them buried, in that case.”

One wrong step and they would have met the same fate. It was a thought that would only occur to the men of Delphion, whose very own province had been divided into friends and foes. Still, even if their motivations were self-centered, I was happy to see a few more people approving of my funerals.

That was when I finally noticed that Master Horace was patting me on the side reassuringly.

Thanks and all, but that’s a little uncomfortable, Master Horace.

◇◇◇

After that, it took us two days to get back to Fort Inion. We had to carry the injured, and our soldiers were exhausted from the battle, so we had to slow the pace of our march.

Once we arrived at the fort, Alan and the generals put the soldiers to work. They set up tents between the inner and outer walls, creating more places for the men to sleep. Seeing as the number of our troops had increased, just the rooms in the fort would no longer be enough to accommodate everyone. I offered to make a shelter that wouldn’t require us to put up tents, but given what poor shape Lord Credias had just left me in, nobody took me up on it.

“Keep yourself in tip-top shape, and in the meantime, think of a plan for next time,” Alan responded, bluntly turning me away.

But, as was my custom, I refused to give up. I was worried about the area near the gates, so I tried constructing a stone hut there.

“Kiara?”

Unfortunately, that was when Reggie stumbled across me.

“Weren’t you instructed to get some rest? The meeting should be starting soon. Why don’t we head there together and wait?”

With a smile on his face, he grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me along with him.

Once we’d entered the inner fort, I noticed something was a little strange. Considering there hadn’t been any sort of attack on the fort, the soldiers who had stayed behind were looking awfully apprehensive.

While I gave a puzzled tilt of my head, we headed into the hall in the main tower, which we would be using as our conference room. After everyone had arrived, Lord Azure started us off with his report.

“There was a fire inside the fort?” Reggie parroted back.

Lord Azure, who had been left in charge of the stronghold, nodded. “A fight broke out among fellow soldiers, which escalated into murder.”

The section of the tower that had gone up in flames in the middle of the night was where firewood was stored for the winter. Autumn had only just begun, so there wasn’t a huge amount of kindling in storage. However, dead bodies were found among the charred remains.

“Two soldiers died. Someone had witnessed them fighting earlier, so it seems likely that the fire from their lanterns spread to the kindling during the incident, killing both of them.”

Seeing as one of the soldiers involved hailed from his own territory, Lord Azure apologized to Reggie in hushed tones the likes of which I’d never heard from him.

Fights would break out every now and then. After all, thousands of men had gathered in one place, each one of them prepared to go fight for their lives. The tension and fear would sometimes drive them toward less-than-upstanding conduct.

Generally, I had someone like Reggie or Alan around, so our soldiers were careful not to show us that side of themselves; plus, Cain would always steer me away from any fighting that did break out, so I’d never actually witnessed one of their brawls. Ever since Girsch came along, I had sometimes caught sight of the mercenary holding a counseling session for soldiers with bruises on their faces or lumps on their heads.

However, this was the first time a brawl had caused a fire and led to deaths. That explained why the soldiers who’d stayed behind in the fort had seemed a bit off.

It wasn’t an enemy attack or anything, so Lord Azure ended his report there. One of Reggie’s knights, the sandy-haired Felix, didn’t seem satisfied with his explanation. Once the meeting was over and the marquis had left the room, I overheard him whispering to Reggie. He was skeptical about why no one had noticed any of the fuss before the pair burned to death.

“They were quite thoroughly roasted, I hear. Are we to believe that no one noticed the stench or the smoke from the burning firewood, leaving them be for long enough that they burned to a crisp?”

What an incredibly disturbing explanation I’d just listened in on. I did my best to chase the thoughts from my head before I could picture it.

“Do you suspect that he neglected to look into it, shrugging it off as a trivial matter, or that he gave me a false report? Hmm. Perhaps we should go visit the scene of the crime.”

Reggie stood from his seat. Then he threw a glance to where I stood nearby, issuing me a warning.

“I’m sure you’d like to know what’s going on, but you should be resting, Kiara.”

He probably knew I’d been eavesdropping from the start.

“No way! I’ll be too curious to sleep!”

I couldn’t go back to bed after hearing such a juicy tidbit. There was a chance Lord Azure was hiding something from us! I wanted to have them bring me along, if I could. I made puppy dog eyes at Reggie, and with a helpless laugh, he turned his gaze toward Cain, who was standing behind me. It was like he was asking, Is that alright with you?

I felt a pang in my chest, just like I had when I was getting permission to go to Alesia. I didn’t understand why I was so upset, either. Was it because I didn’t want him checking what I was allowed to do with someone else? That didn’t seem fair. I knew that Cain had better judgment than I did.

Whatever the case, that conversation was enough to make Reggie give up on sending me to bed.

“Alright. Let’s go together. It’s safer to do this than have you sneak a peek on your own later.”

With that, it was decided. Reggie and I would go check out the scene of the crime.

There were several places to store fuel inside the fort. Among those, the site in question was located in the northern part of the inner fort. The bodies had been cleared away, so the only traces of the incident were the black soot and the stench of smoke permeating the walls and floor.

Felix briefed Reggie on where exactly the bodies had been found. I stepped out of the room and glanced around. If Lord Azure rushed over here now, it would mean he was hiding something. After all, that would be a huge overreaction, considering Reggie may have only come to take a look out of idle curiosity.

Why would Lord Azure need to lie, though? What with how fanatic he was about Reggie and the royal family and all... Besides, with a voice that loud, I doubted he could hide anything to save his life. It seemed more likely to me that he’d taken his men’s report at face value and dismissed it as a trivial matter.

Reggie performed a thorough inspection of the room, and nobody came by in the meantime. With our business finished, we decided to head back and filed out of the room.

I was more relieved than anything. There was a chance that Llewyne would be attacking the fort soon, so the fewer things we had to worry about, the better.

“Is Llewyne going to attack, you think?”

The battle of Alesia had more or less ended in a draw. It was unlikely that Llewyne would be withdrawing from Delphion just yet.

Reggie responded to my mutterings. “They have Salekhard on their side, so they could attack if they wanted to. That said, they may choose to stay holed up in the baron’s castle until they can call in troops from the neighboring territories.”

The word “Salekhard” caused yet another pang in my chest. It was upsetting to think that someone I’d considered a friend had thought of me as nothing more than a source of intel. I couldn’t have anyone else finding out about that, though. It meant I’d have to tell them about Gina, too, and then she and Girsch would be cast under suspicion.

I believed that Gina and Girsch were trustworthy. After all, Gina herself had said, “Once my foxes have taken a liking to someone, it’s almost impossible to make them attack that person. It’s their one weakness. Though of course, that’s what makes it possible to tame them in the first place.”

That wasn’t a lie. Master Horace, who hated frostfoxes more than anyone, had backed it up.

“Still, I’d prefer to do something about the viscount of Credias before our next fight.”

“We have his defective spellcasters to worry about, too. Why can he make so many of them now?” I wondered aloud. It was a question that had sprung to mind several times before.

Had he discovered a huge stash of contract stones? Perhaps he’d been lucky enough to strike a rich vein. According to Master Horace’s explanation, they were similar to fossils, anyway.

“There aren’t many who can stand against a defective spellcaster. The fewer of them in the fray, the better. We can handle one or two, but beyond that?” Groul sighed. “I’ve heard there was another vial of the sand that gives birth to defective spellcasters found in Fort Inion, where the hostages were being held. Just how many of those stones does Llewyne...?”

Groul trailed off, and the rest of us came to a halt alongside him. When we looked straight ahead, we saw someone standing in the entrance to the main tower.

It was Ada. I hadn’t seen her for a while. I sensed a greater severity in her expression than before, but only for a fleeting moment.

With a blissful smile, she declared, “I’ve learned bits and pieces about why Llewyne is producing all those defective spellcasters.” After waiting to observe the looks on everyone’s faces, she turned to Reggie and went on, “Would you like to hear it, Your Grace?”

Her question was directed at Reggie, but Felix took a step forward and answered it before he could. “Yes, that sounds very interesting. Let’s move this conversation elsewhere.”

Felix smiled sweetly and grabbed Ada by the wrist, but she was insistent on speaking with Reggie.

“What? No! I want to talk to His Highness!”

“Take care of it, Felix. I’ll be expecting a report later.”

Refusing to give her the time of day, Reggie headed for the main tower while Felix was holding her back.

Is he that bent on avoiding Ada? To be fair, it’s a little scary that she was camped out waiting for us.

But then, Ada yelled out something that stopped him in his tracks. “If Kiara Patriciél hadn’t run away, none of it would have happened!”

I forgot to breathe for a moment.

What does she mean, “if I hadn’t run away”?

I couldn’t even get out a whisper. All I could do was stare blankly at Ada.

She wasn’t looking back at me. Her eyes were fixed on Reggie.

Reggie gave an order to Felix, who was still holding Ada by the wrist. “Take her to an empty room. Groul, go call for more men.”

“Understood.”

Reggie walked off, following after Felix. I watched him go in a daze, only snapping back to my senses when Groul gave me a pat on the shoulder.

“Are you alright, Lady Kiara?”

“Oh... Yes.”

My voice came out unsteady, trembling ever so slightly, and Groul’s face clouded over at the sound of it.

“Wentworth. Make sure she gets some rest.”

“I will.”

At Groul’s prompting, Cain led me into the main tower. When he gave me a push from behind, something suddenly occurred to me.

“Hey, Sir Cain? There’s something I want to ask Sir Groul about, actually.”

“You want to know what she was just talking about? I figured. But there’s a good chance no one is planning to tell you anything. And naturally, no one is going to let you sit in on the conversation, either.”

I did my best to stay put, digging my heels in, but Cain just picked me up and passed through the tower door.

“Why?! It has to do with me! She just said that!”

“It’s because it involves you.”

I would’ve done anything to stay rooted to the spot, but I stood no chance against a man who trained day in and day out. In the end, he took me up the stairs, carrying me like luggage under his arm.

But as it happened, I was bad at giving up.

“If I’m involved, of course I’ll want to know about it!”

“Please stop struggling, Miss Kiara.”

“What else am I supposed to do?! I want to hear what Ada had to say, no matter who tries to stop me! There might be something I can do with that knowledge!”

I had to do whatever I could to stop more defective spellcasters from being born. I was tired of having to kill people to save them.

I flailed and kicked my legs like a captured dog, but Cain wasn’t about to let me go. Before long, he had taken me all the way back to my room. I had been plotting to make a run for it the moment he set me down, but my plans were foiled when he lifted me up, ready to fling me down onto the sofa. I was stunned.

“Eep!”

My yelp brought Cain back to his senses, and he opted to set me down gently instead. I stared up at him from the sofa, too startled to say anything.

After glancing off to the side and heaving a sigh, he looked back down at me. “My apologies. You were putting up such a fight that I defaulted to treating you like a younger Lord Alan. In any case, please calm down. His Highness may try to hide the truth from you, but if you truly want to know, I can look into it. I promised you as much, remember?”

I nodded. That’s right. Cain is on my side.

“If you try to force your way in, you’ll just be sent away. It’ll be easier to get Groul to talk if I simply inquire about it later.” Cain gave me a pat on the head. “Don’t worry; I won’t break my promise. I’ll do everything in my power to ensure you can keep fighting. Understood?”

“Ngh... Yes. I’ve cooled down a bit.”

“Besides, judging by that woman’s tone and the general circumstances, I can more or less guess what she has to say.”

“Huh?”

“When she says ‘it’ happened because you ran away... rather than the defectives themselves, I imagine she’s referring to his attempts to create a new spellcaster.”

“Who’s ‘him’? Lord Credias? Wait. Do you think he wanted a replacement for me?”

Was that it? In my absence, he had created one defective spellcaster after another in a desperate search to replace me.

It seemed that Cain had more than just that in mind. “If he’d only been experimenting to create a new spellcaster, I could wrap my head around it. I’m more interested in why he’s so fixated on taking said spellcaster as his bride.”

“That’s a good point. If all he really wanted is another spellcaster, there was no need to marry me.”

PLEASE don’t tell me the answer just comes down to his tastes. I’ll seriously have to suspect him of pedophilia. It’s way less disturbing to assume he just wanted my power as a spellcaster.

Cain mercilessly dashed my hopes. “This is just a guess, but I’m assuming the viscount had a reason he was so obsessed with you.”

“Yuck.”

Great. So Lord Bullfrog screams “pedo” even from an outside perspective.

“I doubt this ‘Ada’ knows many details herself, but once we hear her testimony, we’ll be able to make a more educated guess. I’ll go find out. That said...”

As he stared down at me, Cain reached out to pinch my cheek.

“Mmph?!”

It doesn’t hurt or anything, but why?!

“I made a promise to you, but you still don’t trust me. Why is that?”

“Erm, well... I’m sorry!”

Okay, now why is he still pinching my cheek? I’d already apologized, yet he refused to let go.

“Are you really?”

“Yes!”

I hoped that would be enough to make him stop, but instead he turned his head to the side and started cracking up.

That’s so mean! He’s totally laughing at me! I puffed out my cheeks, full sulk mode engaged. Cain finally released his grip, as though his fingers had been repelled by the air pressure. After staring at me in disbelief for a moment, he laughed even harder, doubling over and clutching his stomach.

At least he wasn’t pinching my cheek anymore, but I hadn’t intended to give him something to laugh at in the process. I grew even more indignant.

“Quit laughing, Sir Cain!”

“But... I’ve never met a girl... who fights back like that! Haha!”

Excuse me! Are you trying to say I’m not normal?! Maybe he has a point, though. Do I not know how to act like a girl?!

Just as I started to fret, Cain finally stopped laughing and said, “Wait here, then. I might be a while, but I’ll do my best to make it back to you by dinnertime. Don’t leave your room until then.”

“Ouch!”

Once I’d nodded my agreement, Cain delivered a flick to my forehead before leaving the room.