Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

DIANE’S RED EYES opened wide in amazement.

Needless to say, it was Geo Margilus who floated in the air above her.

“Wha?!” She’d never heard of magic that allowed humans to fly in the sky. Of course, she’d also believed it impossible to make thirty warriors fall asleep at once.

“Are you a sorcerer? Are you Elisabel’s bodyguard?”

“Ahhh…well, something like that…” Geo scratched his jaw as he answered Diane, who leveled the tip of her shining, rainbow-hued sword toward him.

So, he could speak. Just that small piece of information put some of Diane’s fears to rest. It also helped that she didn’t sense any murderous desires in Geo’s expression.

In fact, after getting news of the ambush from Reyha, Geo had done everything in his power to make sure that the Schultz clan was disarmed without doing them any harm. He flew up using the Fly spell, then hid himself with Invisibility, and knocked them all out using Sleep. It would have been easy to slay the whole warband with attack spells, but he wanted to avoid loss of life, even if it took some extra effort.

Actually, his first plan had been to use Move Outer Plane to sneak around them, but he rejected that idea, figuring that some other innocent Filsand travelers or merchants might accidentally find themselves in the line of fire.

“I see,” Diane said. “So that means…”

“I’m sorry I took the first shot, but you were planning on ambushing us, right? If possible, I’d like to discuss—”

Naturally, Geo’s attempts at sweet-talking were pointless. Diane’s anger flared up, blowing away all hear fears. “Piss off!”

Diane took aim at the man flying above her head and stomped the ground. The stone pillars in Geo’s vicinity suddenly began to lift up at an incredible speed. The young warmaster, who stood on top of one of the rapidly rising pillars, kicked off her perch and flew even higher.

“Huh?! Whoooa!” Geo never would have expected something like this. He screamed like an idiot.

With absolutely no hesitation, the young girl aimed her divine blade at his abdomen, thrusting it forward in a mighty, flying lunge. But…

“What the hell?!”

Just before the sword would have pierced Geo’s stomach, it was stopped by something invisible. Diane felt like her hands were stuck between two pieces of hard meat. It was the work of an Invisible Demon, summoned by Geo and ordered to protect him from attacks.

“Ergh…! Damn it!” With her lunge deflected, Diane fell to the ground. She should have broken at least a bone or two, but like a cat, the girl deftly absorbed the impact and stood right up. Her red eyes hadn’t lost an ounce of their will to fight.

“J-just calm down for a second…”

“Shut up! I’ll kill you!” Diane ripped her dagger out of its sheath, preparing for her second attack.

“Such insolence!” This time, a dark brown shadow attacked Diane.

“Huh?!”

It was Reyha, ever ready to jump in and protect her master. The dark elf’s swift kick to Diane’s head…missed. Barely. Once again, the girl reacted with superhuman ability, thanks to her divine sword’s power.

“It’s a friggin’ dark elf?!” Diane dodged out of the way, using the momentum to carry her divine sword all the way around into a sweeping, circular counterattack. Her outstanding sense for battle was proof that her title as warmaster was no hollow honor. But then…

“Huh?!”

Reyha’s long, lean body had already vanished from the path of the sword, the blade leaving a rainbow trail through empty air. As soon as the elf’s foot came back from her kick to touch the ground, she swiftly flattened her entire body against the earth, nimble as a spider. She was so flexible, it was like she had no joints at all.

Diane snarled. “Ah! Argh!”

Reyha took a quick breath and jumped. She soared off the ground, high into the sky. Her kick hurtled nearly straight down—and knocked the divine sword right out of Diane’s grip.

“Damn it!” Diane gave up on her right hand, which was numb from impact, and instead nimbly hefted her dagger in her left hand. She was undoubtedly an extraordinary warrior. But in this world, an extraordinary warrior was still merely average in the face of Reyha’s truly unnatural ability.

“Reyha!” Geo called out. “Take it easy!”

“Urgh?!”

Reyha had her legs wrapped around the girl’s neck like a two-headed snake. She’d twisted her body and was slamming Diane’s head toward the ground. If Geo’s frantic cry had come even one second later, her head would have hit the sharp corner of a rock sticking out of the earth.

“Hey, hey. Is the girl okay…?”

“My lord, I beg your forgiveness for my delayed arrival! Please, punish your unworthy servant for her unforgiveable lapse!” Reyha stood in front of Geo with genuine worry on her face. Arriving late to the battle, seeing Geo suffer an attack—to her, it was a profound failure.

The whole thing weirded Geo out. From where he sat, he could see her eyes glistening with tears, to say nothing of her peculiar request for punishment. “Calm down. That won’t be necessary. Right now, I need your help.”

Reyha remained obstinate. “Unacceptable! This is an unforgivable blunder! I am the Si of the great Orly, he who is the Lord of Flow. I am held to a higher standard! You need but name the punishment, and I will abide by your orders, be it whipping or stoning or whatsoever you desire!”

“I said no!” Geo rubbed at his forehead, exasperated. “Pick up this child. I’ll call the others. Make sure the rest of her clan doesn’t wake.”

“A-as my lord wills…”

Geo left Reyha behind, flying swiftly above the pillars. She looked oddly disappointed for some reason.

 

***

 

We arrived in the square to set up camp a little later than expected.

Thanks to Reyha’s scouting, we were able to prevent the Schultz clan’s ambush.

“Margilus!” Ted called. “We’ve got everyone tied and rounded up!”

“These barbarians must have a death wish if they’re willing to attack Lord Margilus,” said one of his subordinates.

I’d asked Ted and the dwarves to bind the Schultz warriors, still sound asleep, thanks to the power of Sleep. The others had started setting up camp, and I decided to parlay with the young girl, like the leader I was supposed to be.

I looked at her for a few moments. “She really does look exactly like you, Elisabel.”

“Yes. She’s probably the daughter of Cher, my mother Shayla’s older sister.”

We stood in front of the girl, still unconscious after Reyha’s strikes. Except for her light brown skin and silver hair, she could have easily passed for Elisabel.

Clara joined us. “Elisabel, your mother was the daughter of the Schultz patriarch, right? So that means…”

“Yes. My aunt Cher was a Schultz princess. After the clan fled south, she was supposed to be the wife of the new patriarch.”

“In other words,” said Ild, “this girl is the daughter of the current patriarch and your cousin?”

Reyha loomed nearby, watching the girl with the utmost caution and vigilance.

“So, let’s see,” I said. “The Schultz clan and the daughter of their patriarch were posted here, far away from their home in the south, waiting to ambush us. They must have been after Elisabel.”

“It’s hard to think of another reason,” Elisabel murmured. “But if they knew that I was in Axeholm, then they must have gotten their information from Filsand…”

The first thing this girl had said when she saw me was Elisabel’s name. All we could do was wake her up and see if she’d talk to us.

Reyha lifted the girl up to a seated position and shook her a little.

“Urgh…” The girl opened her eyes—eyes that looked identical to Elisabel’s, down to their specific shade of red. We’d taken her shining sword, which according to Clara harbored a terrifying amount of magic, along with her other weapons, but other than that she wasn’t restrained.

“I… Ah?! You?! You!” The girl, still not completely lucid, jumped up as soon as she saw me.

“Hold on.” Reyha grabbed the nape of her neck to keep her in place.

Diane hissed. “Rrrgh!”

“Whoa, just calm down for a second,” I told her.

“You bastard,” Diane snarled. “Mrgh!”

We waited for a few moments. Once the girl finally realized that she couldn’t get away from Reyha, no matter how she struggled, she looked ready to talk.

She plopped down on the ground with a thump and crossed her legs. Although she looked like a distinguished warrior, as an older man, I couldn’t help but say one thing. “Now see here, little lady. Is that any way for a girl of your age to act?” I hadn’t initially planned to scold her, but she reacted to my words exactly as I would’ve expected.

“Shut up, old man!” There was no reason that such a young girl and I would see eye to eye in the first place.

Reyha tightened her grip on the girl’s neck. “The next time you speak like that to our lord, I’ll rip out your tongue. You hear me, girl?”

“Ergh!”

“The lord is not an old man…even if he is slightly more aged than the clan might find ideal.”

“Enough!” I yelled. Right now, I needed her to calm down so we could talk.

***

 

“I’m Diane. Warmaster of the Schultz clan.”

“Yes, she clearly is some manner of war leader,” Elisabel commented, upon hearing Diane’s rather absurd title.

Diane all but shrieked in response. “Elisabel, daughter of the traitor, Shayla! You’ll never be forgiven!”

“Traitor? My mother was kidnapped! And then forced to—she did not wed the duke of Filsand of her own free will!”

“Forced, you say? If it were me, I’d bite out Darmund’s windpipe, shred it into tiny pieces, and kill myself before he could impregnate me with a wretch like you. If she couldn’t even do that, then it’s because she betrayed her people for the sake of a comfortable, decadent life.”

There was silence. Elisabel bit her tongue, glaring at Diane, and said no more.

Her mother Shayla had indeed been forced into marriage with the duke of Filsand, but after she’d given birth to Elisabel, she’d lived a comfortable life. From the perspective of the Schultz clan, who’d been driven from their lands to live in poverty, it was only natural they would call her a traitor. Furthermore, Elisabel had the empathy to sense those feelings in others.

“It seems that your objective was to capture Elisabel,” I pressed. “Why?”

“Well, personally, I wanted to kill her. But we’re here on the orders of the magemaster. I have no idea what his plans are.” Even ignoring how rude she was, Diane’s answers were awfully honest and straightforward. Apparently, Reyha had scared her… Or maybe she was showing us respect?

“And who is the magemaster?” Elisabel demanded. “The orders weren’t from the patriarch?”

“The magemaster is the magemaster. Even the patriarch doesn’t argue with him.”

“Does that mean…” Judging from their exchange, this magemaster was some kind of authority in matters of magic. What’s more, that power might have allowed him to dominate all sorts of other matters as well. It might not be considerate to say so, but that kind of might-makes-right hierarchy was exactly what I’d expect from barbarians.

“Well, I’m very sorry, but we can’t give you Elisabel,” I said. “We’re happy to let you all go, so please go back quietly to your…fortress, was it?”

In this land, Diane and her team were rebels. If we released them on the spot and they attacked a Filsand village or caravan or something, I’d feel pretty guilty about it, to say nothing of any possible harm to my reputation. But Diane spat contemptuously on the ground at my suggestion.

“Don’t be a fool! Even if I promise to go home, I can’t speak for the adjutant. If he’s in a bad mood, he might just curse and kill us all. I won’t be able to stop the warriors, either.”

“Adjutant?” I wasn’t familiar with this term. Of course, I knew what the word meant, but I sensed a special meaning here. As I tilted my head to one side in thought, things suddenly grew dark.

“She’s talking about this guy.” There was a wall next to me— or rather, Lade’s enormous bulk, casting a correspondingly enormous shadow.

“Urph!”

Lade threw a bald, middle-aged man to the ground next to Diane. I’d seen him standing alongside her earlier, when I put everyone to sleep. He was easy to remember, since the tattoos on his face made him look like some kind of out-of-place punk rocker.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” the man quickly stood up, screaming. “What is this?!” Unlike Diane, the top half of his body was restrained, tied with a rope.

“Is this your ‘adjutant’? Even you, the warmaster, must do what he says?”

“More or less.”

Personally, I couldn’t see any sense of respect in Diane’s eyes for this man.

“We are the proud clan of Schultz, descendants of the ancient divine kingdom. I am the adjutant to the magemaster! He who controls the mightiest powers of conjury! Untie this rope at once and hand over that girl! Hand over the daughter of General Darmund!” The middle-aged man included a clear self-introduction in his hollering. It seemed that the term “adjutant” meant that he was an aide to the magemaster. That meant that it was more important to persuade him than it was Diane.

“Wait a second,” Clara snarked, looking over at Lade. “Why did you suddenly decide to help us? Normally, you won’t do anything.” She had a point. I found it a bit strange myself.

“I wasn’t helping,” Lade grated. “I just found a daemonist.”

“Huh?!”

Lade’s reply surprised everyone.

 

***

 

“M-me? A daemonist? Preposterous! I am a proud conjuror! The insolence!” The so-called adjutant ranted at us in a screaming rage.

Next to him, Diane stared in wide-eyed silence. She started to slowly scoot away. Apparently, she hadn’t trusted this adjutant much to begin with.

“I am from the warrior clan,” Lade intoned. “I can always sniff out a daemonist.”

“Th-the warrior clan?!” The adjutant snarled. “You dirty, ignorant hunter!”

Diane blinked. “That clan…? This guy?”

The warrior clan were a nomadic people destined to hunt daemons and daemonists. The Schultz seemed to know them by name. Both the worried expression on the adjutant’s face and the fear in Diane’s eyes held weight, if in subtly different ways.

“You would talk of smell? What you mean is you’re merely guessing. You can’t judge someone based on looks alone. Don’t you need to carry out one of your ‘examinations’?”

I had once undergone an examination by the warrior clan myself. In fact, we were technically still waiting for a judgment. The procedure consisted of using a tool called the “Daemon’s Sight,” a vessel containing daemon blood, and making a judgment based on the reaction of the fluid contained within. As someone who’d suffered the cloud of suspicion that came with an accusation of daemonism, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of sympathy for the adjutant.

“There’s no need for us to convene a formal tribunal,” Lade said, holding a tool that resembled a crystal ball in his hand. There was a red-and-black lump of daemon blood enclosed in the middle of the sphere. To conduct the examination, the adjutant needed only to touch the surface of the ball, and we would look at the reaction of the blood inside.

“I don’t like it, but he is an expert,” said Clara. “We should probably perform the examination, just in case.” She wore a complicated expression on her face. I felt certain she was recalling the commotion that had transpired when the warrior clan suddenly showed up at Castle Getaeus.

“Yeah…” I nodded, but I wasn’t ready for what the adjutant would do next.

“M-Margilus?! Is it really you, Lord?! Are you truly Geo Margilus?!” His distorted expression suddenly turned outright daemonic as he pressed me with questions. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t introduced myself, so what was he going on about?

“W-well, yes, but…”

“Then die!” The bald man glared at me with eyes opened so wide they looked like perfect circles. I could see a sinister flame flickering in their depths.

“He’s conjuring!” Clara stood steadfast in front of me.

“Adjutant!” Diane called out. “Stop this at once!”

What kind of attack was he attempting? My body went tense. Specifically, I felt a thump against the left side of my chest. It was light, like getting punched with a baby’s fist. “What was that?”

“Why didn’t that kill you?! Your heart is supposed to stop! M-my Evil Eye…it didn’t work?!”

Diane was aghast. “Y-you really tried to kill him?”

Both the trembling, bound adjutant and Diane were dumbstruck. Was his “Evil Eye” that thump I’d felt?

In previous experiments, I’d found that the magic of this world was considered a physical attack by most of my own spells. My wizardry couldn’t normally protect against sorcery. I didn’t really understand, but the inherent resistance of my body as a Level 36 wizard must have won out against his magical strike.

“Hyaaaaagh!” The adjutant’s mouth opened so wide I thought it would tear. His cry was fraught with so much hatred that it sent chills down my spine. His eyes turned yellow and clouded over. I remembered the daemonists of Relis City. Lade had been right.

“You monster!” Reyha wrapped her arms around the still-screaming adjutant’s neck, trying to hold him down, but…

“Graaagh!” The bald man’s neck stretched like the body of a snake. His mouth, open to its limit, was now lined with sharp fangs. His long neck recoiled like a loaded spring, completely unaffected by Reyha’s grip.

He turned toward me. “Geo!”

“Eeek!” Clara and Elisabel both screamed.

“Whoa.” I never would have imagined this. I desperately wanted to protect Clara, standing before me, but I couldn’t think to do anything except push her out of the way.

The monstrous, snake-like head of the adjutant stopped just short of eating my face. That was thanks to the sudden sweep of Lade’s hand, striking like a falcon from the side.

Flustered, I took that opportunity to retreat with the women. Ild was also backing up, but he kept his eyes on the threat, shuffling one step at a time.

“Hmph.” Lade snorted, as if the whole thing was only a slight irritation. Clad in his strange armor, clenching the head of the adjutant within his fist, he looked like nothing less than an angry god.

“Gyaaaaaah!”

Squish.

Lade crushed the adjutant’s head in one hand. It was the most grotesque sound I’d ever heard, in this world or my own. If I hadn’t stepped back, I would have been covered with the bodily fluids that escaped his remains.

“Man…thanks,” I said to Lade. “You really saved me.”

“That was awfully impressive,” Clara agreed.

Lade didn’t reply. He just nodded, expressionless. He casually tossed the remains of the adjutant aside.

“Lord, this means…” Reyha looked understandably ill.

“T-to think that humans can become such monstrosities…” Elisabel and the others seemed to be fighting nausea.

“Master Margilus! Are you all right?” Ted and his team, previously busy preparing the camp, had noticed the commotion and started gathering around.

“Well…” So, even daemonists are involved in the Filsand and Schultz clan dispute. This is going to be even more of a pain than I thought. I rubbed my brow with my fingers. “First, let’s do something about the poor girl. Then, let’s restart the discussions.”

Diane, daughter of the barbarian clan’s patriarch, had screamed bloody murder and then fainted after seeing a fellow clan member get his head crushed right in front of her eyes. Where she lay upon the ground, she was speckled with his remains.

 

***

 

The camp was finally set up for the night.

I resumed my discussions with Diane, joined by Ild, Clara, Elisabel, and Lade. I had the dwarves eat a short distance away. The Schultz warriors had all regained consciousness. I wasn’t happy about it, but I left them tied up. Ted was keeping an eye on them with his team. From their group, we’d only brought the lieutenant to join our discussions. He seemed to have an idea of what was going on.

“What exactly was the nature of that adjutant’s transformation?” I wondered. “Can conjurers do such things?”

“Of course not.” Diane, who had finally cleaned up with the help of Reyha, was no longer trying to fight. It seemed that both she and the other Schultz warriors recognized daemons and daemonists as mutual, natural enemies.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing.” The lieutenant nodded in agreement with her.

“He was leeched,” Lade explained, in his typically dispassionate style. “I’ve seen it before. That’s what happens when daemonic influence grows especially strong in a daemonist.”

There are daemonists like that…?

“H-has the Schultz clan started worshiping the daemons, too?!” Elisabel asked.

“No! We are protecting the divine spirits of our ancestors! Not playing around with daemons!” Diane adamantly denied Elisabel’s accusation. Judging by the way the lieutenant trembled at her side, I believed her.

“But, you did say that the Schultz clan’s main residence is in the Holy Precincts, and that some of your warriors dwell apart in the fortress, right? What are the Holy Precincts like?”

“Th-the thing is…we don’t really know much about the Holy Precincts,” Diane admitted. “Those of us at the fortress are told not to intrude on their territory, and when we get our orders, the magemaster sends one of his lackeys.”

According to Diane’s continued testimony, there was absolutely no sign of daemonists on the front lines or in the fortress. On the other hand, she didn’t have any idea what was going on in the Holy Precincts where most of her people resided. We learned that she hadn’t been allowed to enter the Holy Precincts for the past two years, not since she had been presented with her divine sword and named warmaster.

Forget about the daemons for a minute. I feel sorry to see a girl kept away from her family for so long…

 

***

 

“Hmph. So, to put it simply, the magemaster and company are daemonists and are up to no good in the Holy Precincts?” I crossed my arms. To sum up what Diane and the lieutenant had told us, over the past two years or so, the magemaster had suddenly become aggressive, as if he was a completely different person, and started a plot to instigate revenge on General Darmund (better known as the duke of Filsand). He had also sent spies to Filsand and given Diane and the other warriors orders based on their information.

“Worst-case scenario, there’s a possibility that the entire Schultz settlement has been taken over by daemon worship,” Clara remarked calmly.

“D-don’t be ridiculous! My father…and my mother would never worship daemons!” Diane’s face turned red.

“Urrrgh,” I grated. The entire thing made me groan. Either way, as a wizard, I can’t just leave the daemonists alone. But the whole reason we’re here in the first place is to bring Elisabel home to the duke of Filsand to negotiate trade and broaden the anti-daemon alliance, all after ensuring her safety.

“Get out that magical horse of yours. I’ll check out these Holy Precincts.” It was Lade who interrupted my thoughts with his request.

 

***

 

The next morning…

“Hey, just what do you expect us to do, old man?! Er, I mean, Margilus!” I’d set Diane and her Schultz warriors free. I’d also returned their weapons, including her divine sword.

This was because when Lade of the warrior clan had said he would investigate the daemon worship situation in the Holy Precincts, Diane had offered to help. The lieutenant and other warriors weren’t really sure about everything that was going on, but for the time being, they obeyed their warmaster, and gave up on capturing Elisabel.

“You want to get back to the Holy Precincts as soon as possible, right? So focus on that. Hold off a little longer for Elisabel.” After Diane gave us her reply, I took a look at the people who I’d soon be parting ways with.

I’d decided to trust Lade and Reyha with searching for the daemonists in the Holy Precincts.

Lade was silent. Truthfully, he intended to go no matter what I said.

“Lord, please don’t worry. I, Reyhanalka Haiklus Si, promise to prove my worth.” Reyha was clearly going as a service to me.

“But you know, I’m worried,” I told her. “Please be careful. Don’t do anything crazy. Even if someone who looks exactly like me tries to talk to you, or if you see one of your old friends, never let your guard down. If you suspect any danger, hop right on the phantom horse and come back, you hear?”

“I understand. Your concern touches me, my lord.”

I cast every protection spell that I’d charged on Reyha and gave her several magic items. I also gave her one Arcane Postcard, in case she needed to communicate with me. The only other thing I could do was trust them.

“I’m counting on you, Reyha. Or rather… I, Geo Margilus the wizard, formally entrust you with this duty as my Si.”

“My lord…these words please me very much.”

I turned away from the emotional Reyha to Lade, standing beside her.

“Meanwhile, I’ve never had to worry about you for a second. Don’t go too crazy and cause trouble for Reyha or the Schultz warriors.”

“Mind your own business,” he replied.

 

***

 

“You guys remember how to get back to the Holy Precincts, right? Now, concentrate on visualizing the route within your mind.”

“Huh?”

I gathered the thirty Schultz warriors, Lade, and Reyha all in one spot. There was also a black horse surrounded by a pale aura. The “magical horse” that Lade had mentioned was my phantom horse. (Incidentally, I combined the spell with Infinity, so the horse would be usable for seven days.) I invoked my next spell while targeting everyone gathered nearby.

“Open, Gate of Magic.”

Those were the first magic words I’d ever spoken in this world. My imagined self passed under the thick, black Gate of Magic created in the inner world of my consciousness and then descended its spiral staircase.

I stopped on the sixth level and entered the spellbook archive. I then selected one of the nine bookrests lined up in a row. The title of the book I’d chosen was Forced March.

“As a consequence of this spell, any army that obeys me shall be granted swift and sound legs, more vigor than flame, and travel at triple their normal speed. The spell shall last until reaching the final destination of the Schultz Holy Precincts.”

As both my real and imagined selves chanted the spell, the book turned into two ten-sided dice, one black and the other white. These are often known as percentage dice in tabletop RPGs. The white die represented the tens place and the black die represented the ones place. I rolled them together to get a random number between one and one hundred. If they both landed on zero here (which technically represented one hundred, not zero), then I would fail in casting the spell.

I’m sure Diane will have some words for me if I fail. Please let this work…

Just in case, I had prepared two instances of Forced March this morning. Even so, I didn’t want to fail at spells unnecessarily, so I silently prayed as I tossed the dice onto the bookrest. They clattered around, making a sound I’d now grown accustomed to…

“It worked. Forced March!”

I’d rolled a 52. So, in short, there was a 1 in 100 chance that I would fail at casting any spell. This time, my spell was successful. The two dice turned into chaotic energy and shot upward, out into the real world.

“Hey, what are you mumbling about?!”

Just as I finished the chanting, I could see the chaotic energy envelop the Schultz clan, Reyha, and Lade, rippling through the space around their bodies. They probably felt unbelievably energized.

“Wh-what the hell,” Diane gasped.

“Holy mackerel,” one of the warriors said. “This power… It’s amazing!”

“I feel like I could walk to the ends of the world. Reaching the Holy Precincts will be a cinch!”

I allowed myself to feel a little satisfaction. “With my magic, you’ll be able to walk at triple your normal speed from now until the time you arrive at the Holy Precincts. It would take you about twelve days, normally, isn’t that right? So in this case, you should be able to arrive within about four days.”

“A-are you serious…?”

“Oh, but be careful. If you have to break ranks for something like a battle, the effects of the spell will be cut off. And once you arrive at your destination, you’ll feel severe exhaustion for half a day. Make sure you get enough rest before taking any action.” By the time I finished explaining, the attitude of Diane and the Schultz warriors toward me had changed quite a bit.

“Old m—Margilus? Just…what the hell are you?” Diane asked me.

“The lord of Castle Getaeus, a wizard, and an ally to all those who fight against daemons.”

Hey. I think I just pulled off the dignified look for once.

“Ms. Diane,” Elisabel started.

“Elisabel! Remember this: You’re just getting a temporary reprieve! Someday, I’ll take down that Darmund asshole and get Filsand back! Be ready for it!”

Elisabel’s expression was complicated. Unfortunately, there had been no progress in lessening the hatred and hostility between these two.

I’m pretty sure Elisabel wasn’t expecting a happy family reunion right off the bat, anyway. I let out a gentle sigh.

“I will not be ready,” said Elisabel.

Diane gaped. “You what?!”

“Even if I were to prepare myself, I have nothing left to protect. At the very least, I want you to protect that.”

Diane was silent for a moment. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’ll keep that in mind.”

Perhaps being bound by blood meant that they understood each other in some way? I didn’t really get it. One thing I did know was that Elisabel’s words were depressing again. The two girls were complete opposites, but it seemed to me like Diane’s principles kept her more grounded than Elisabel’s.

“Let’s get going,” Diane shouted. “To the Holy Precincts!”

“Await my return, my lord,” said Reyha.

Lade was silent.

I watched as the Schultz warriors and my two friends headed south. Thanks to the effects of Forced March, they were making good time already. I watched until their shadows disappeared into the distance, and then turned to the allies who were still with me.

“Let’s go. Filsand awaits.”