TL/ED – Miso

Lumia wished for everything to end without a drop of blood being shed.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand. If one didn’t know the future, the things Sharmia had done might be difficult to make sense of. She might even think the kidnapping itself was something unavoidable, and extend mercy on that basis.

But, that was something that simply could not be allowed.

“Your Highness.”

“Uh, um, hmm.”

Having returned to the commoner’s house, I bound the still-unconscious knights with rope and left a reluctant-looking Lordran kneeling in the living room.

Lumia, who had woken up and now sat before him rubbing her head, whispered to me with a dumbfounded expression.

“What in the world is going on here?”

“This man is the monarch of this country, and the one who ordered Your Highness’s kidnapping.”

“Ah. I see.”

Lumia’s expression grew even more bewildered, and she asked me.

“But, what am I supposed to do about it…?”

“Princess Lumia.”

I lowered my head toward the flustered Lumia and answered her in earnest.

“Ordinarily, as a subject of the Empire, I would have done what duty demanded. Reporting this to Lady Sharmia, and sealing the borders so that not a single soul in this country could escape. I had the means to do so.”

“…”

“But Your Highness did not wish for that. And so, I have arranged this.”

I grasped Lumia’s head, which was growing downcast, and turned it to face Lordran.

I saw her swallow dryly, flinching but accepting my touch.

“Please pass an appropriate sentence.”

“…And if it’s not appropriate?”

“Whatever falls short, I will deliver myself.”

This wasn’t particularly for Lumia’s sake.

Foolishness needed a lesson. If I had my way, I wanted to report this to Sharmia and show everyone what fate awaited countries that dared join the Crimson Circle at a time like this.

But the result of that would lead to the wholesale slaughter of innocents.

If they had melted plows into swords, that would be one thing, but having even ordinary citizens who simply lived their lives without knowing a thing bear the weight of that sin left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.

It was arrogant, but that was why I gave them a chance.

Next was Lumia’s turn. She wasn’t someone who would miss the subtext in what I said.

“Haa. Lordran, was it?”

“…Yes.”

Lordran closed his eyes as though he had nothing left to say.

“If an unspeakable traitor may offer a word, I believe the proper punishment would be to sever my head and execute the knight order along with me.”

“And that will satisfy you?”

“Yes. Only, the people of this country bear no guilt.”

“You know full well it won’t end with that, don’t you?”

Lumia crossed her legs languidly and frowned.

“As if the head of a king could be taken without reason. For that, we would have to announce publicly that you kidnapped me, and that is not a matter that ends with just you and your knight order. You set every one of your people’s lives on the gambling table from the very start, and now you’re trying to quietly pull the stakes off and pretend to be noble. Stop it.”

“…”

Struck to the core, Lordran quietly clenched his teeth and bowed his head.

“…Your Highness speaks nothing but the truth.”

“If you admit your guilt, there is nothing more to say.”

“But…”

“Enough. I know.”

Lumia shook her head, refusing to hear any counterargument.

“I am well aware of your pain and your grievances. But it is not as though the Imperial Household is mindlessly targeting only the Crimson Circle without a thought for anything else. Can a victory in which only the head remains truly be called a victory?”

“…?”

“I am a powerless princess. I have tried, but I cannot hope to reach the heights of my sister… the Empress Regnant. Even so, there are a few things I can do.”

Right there on the spot, she drafted some kind of contract and showed it to Lordran.

“You said with your own mouth that you did all this to save your people. Is that truly your sincere intent?”

“Yes.”

“Then, agree to this contract.”

Lordran took the contract, and his eyes widened.

“This is…”

“From today onward, you and every single knight of every tributary state that plotted this rebellion, without exception, shall be incorporated into the Wax Wings Knight Order and operate as a unit dedicated to destroying the Crimson Circle. In return, I promise enough support that they will not starve to death.”

“…With no set term, I see.”

“Because that is the scale of what you have done.”

All forces and authority would be ceded.

In effect, it was close to annihilation. Because the arrangement took the form of a contract, the Princess’s kidnapping could be concealed, and it meant using every one of these troops as arrow fodder. It was practically an insult dressed up as an offer.

Even for one who had resolved to die, it was treatment worth reconsidering.

“I accept.”

“Hmm. Do you mean that?”

“For myself and my knight order, this is a fate worse than death, but it is still better than oblivion.”

And yet Lordran signed with a bitter smile.

It seemed his claim of having acted for his people wasn’t entirely empty bluster after all.

Watching him, Lumia glanced sidelong at me.

Her expression seemed to say, “Well, satisfied now?” Momentarily taken aback by Lumia’s shrewdness, I shrugged and stepped out of the house.

I wasn’t needed beyond this point. The two of them could negotiate and settle the particulars. And if either tried anything strange, they were within the range of my Current Sense, so it was fine.

In the end, the result was far better than if I had intervened myself. We had gained considerable ground from the enormous incident of the Princess’s kidnapping.

As I stepped out thinking Lumia would have done well even had she become Empress Regnant, Linmel, who had been standing guard with her sword held aslant, brightened up and greeted me.

“Jern! Did everything work out?”

“Thankfully, it looks like I won’t need to kill anyone.”

“Phew… that’s good. Master told me the first kill has to be done carefully.”

“…First kill?”

“Yeah. Not killing bad people, but killing someone innocent. She said it’s something a knight has to do eventually.”

That crazy woman really will say anything to a child.

Linmel came walking over excitedly, then her leg gave out and she stumbled.

“Ah.”

“Looks like some of the poison’s still in you. Are you all right?”

“…Yeah. But… so that’s how you catch me.”

When I caught the falling Linmel with Current, she hung suspended in midair, wearing a strangely sullen expression.

Still, I couldn’t catch Linmel in my arms while she was wearing that heavy armor. I set her back on her feet with a worried look and asked.

“Rakshasa, you called them. Anyway, they’re dangerous, aren’t they. There’s no way you’re fine after being poisoned by that sort.”

“Ah, that’s fine. I have resistance.”

“Even if you have poison resistance…”

“Look at this!”

Linmel rummaged around inside her armor and pulled out several small bottles.

Every one of them held some unpleasant liquid tinted red, green, or purple. Enough to give you a bad feeling just looking at them without knowing what they were.

“…Poison?”

“Yeah. I drink a drop every day. Master told me to. She said most knights end up dying from poison in the end, so I absolutely had to build up resistance to it. She said every poison in the world is mixed into these five bottles, and if I keep drinking them, I’ll build immunity.”

Just what is that crazy woman actually doing to this child.

When I moved to confiscate the poisons, Linmel startled and quickly tucked them back away.

“It’s fine. She does all of it thinking of me. It helped this time too, didn’t it?”

“Still, if you don’t want to, say no. Becoming a knight is important, but there are things more important than that.”

“Yeah!”

Linmel nodded her head vigorously as though she had understood my words a hundred percent.

“There is something more important than becoming a knight. That’s exactly why I went out of my way to ask Master. To let me become the strongest knight in the world. A knight who can do anything, in any situation.”

“Is that so? Why?”

I asked with genuine curiosity, watching Linmel speak so proudly. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The Linmel I had seen at the orphanage had been an ordinary girl chasing whatever pleasures came her way, not one harboring any dream of becoming a knight.

Even her becoming a knight had been closer to something she was pushed into because her talent left no other choice. She hadn’t seemed to have the kind of motivation that would make her want to be the greatest knight in the world.

When I asked, thinking that, Linmel narrowed her eyes into half-moons and glared at me.

“…Jern, you’re smart and kind and good with magic and handsome and strong, but you really are clueless.”

“What are you talking about?”

Creak. As we were talking, Lumia stepped out through the door alongside a weary-looking Lordran.

“The details have been worked out. Let’s head back now. The Imperial Palace must be in an uproar right now… hmm, shall we say I ran away from home?”

“Are you satisfied with that?”

Lumia turned to take in the beautiful view of the lake with her eyes, and let out a small smirk.

“Well, it will do.”

The carriage for Lumia had already been prepared.

I intended to send Linmel along with her. Since I had decided to follow after finishing what I had to do, I only watched as the two of them climbed into the carriage.

Lumia glanced back briefly, her lips parting and closing before she let out a sigh.

“…Jern Aspandal. Thank you. For, well… various things.”

“It was only what had to be done.”

When I gave a light bow in the Imperial etiquette I had been taught, she clenched her teeth.

“Ugh, I am genuinely expressing my gratitude. Receive it a little more seriously.”

“I am receiving it seriously.”

“Is there nothing you wish to ask of me?”

“Hmm…”

After thinking for a moment, I shook my head.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything.”

“That is strange. Last time, I feel you asked something of me…”

“A request?”

“Yes. Well, since I can’t remember, it must not have been anything important.”

Lumia climbed into the carriage and, with one last mischievous smile, pulled up the window.

“When I inherit the throne someday, I will find you a position of some sort myself.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

I kept silent about the fact that I had already received an absurd position from her older sister, and saw the carriage off.

When I turned to head for the lake, Lordran was still standing there.

“Something you still want to say?”

“…It’s nothing much, but.”

He wore a strangely unburdened expression.

A king stripped of his army. Since he now held power that was effectively in name only, there was nothing more to fear. I shrugged and began to walk.

“Then step aside.”

“Rakshasa… or rather, there’s something I should tell you regarding the Crimson Circle.”

Until he raised a rather intriguing topic, that is.

When I stopped, Lordran slowly opened his mouth and began his confession.

“My planning of all this began when I made contact with the assassin group called Rakshasa. Their abilities were such that they made one dream of a glory beyond one’s station.”

“And what sort of bastards are they?”

“An assassin group that has wandered battlefields since long ago. What sets them apart from other groups who purely worship the idea of the absolute assassin, however…”

“…The absolute assassin?”

“Yes. I don’t know what exactly that means. They seem to think they’ll create one someday. So they’ll reach for any means to grow stronger, whenever the chance arises. First, they cooperated with us to obtain the knights’ techniques, and those who possessed Rakshasa’s arts together with a knight’s body came to be called Heaven’s Judgement Knights, meaning ‘knights who slay knights’.”

“…”

It was information I’d already heard, but it certainly seemed clear they were no ordinary assassin group.

Lordran slowly went on.

“And, just as they reached for the knights, it seems this time they’ve reached for the Fallen.”

“Tsk.”

So that was it.

I sighed, recalling the abilities Aksha had shown.

“Those bastards will have ties to the Crimson Circle. You’d do well to be careful.”

“Thanks. Still, asking the man himself would be more accurate.”

“…?”

Lordran wore a puzzled expression.

Paying him no mind, I walked over to the lake where I’d fought the guy, took a boat, and headed to an empty corner.

About here, was it? I stopped and waited for a moment.

Bloop, bloop…

Until bubbles began to rise from the bottom.

“…Pwah!”

Soon after, something burst up through the water.

Our eyes met.

“?”

“You really are persistent, aren’t you. Even in that state, you still want to live?”

I propped my chin on my hand as I looked at Aksha, whose head was the only thing bobbing on the surface.

After taking a moment to grasp the situation,

He eventually let out a sigh and ground his teeth.

“You’re the last one who should be saying that, you crazy son of a bitch…”

Somehow, he looked deeply aggrieved.

*****

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