Contract (Part 6)
The beastkin who had been pinned to the floor pushed themselves back onto their feet.
It wasn't that the suppression from Tronios Aether and Lobelia had been weak. The enemy's hidden reserves simply defied imagination.
"Third Imperial Princess, would you be so kind as to evacuate everyone?" Tronios asked.
"……Understood."
Lobelia readily conceded to Tronios Aether's request. Ordinarily, she would have insisted on joining the fray, but in the presence of someone of Tronios Aether's caliber, anything less than absolute mastery would make her a hindrance rather than an asset. And above all else……
"Father," Ariel called out softly.
"Ariel, you must leave as well."
"But……!"
"Rascal, escort her out."
"……Understood, elder brother."
He had no desire to let Ariel bear witness to a fratricidal slaughter between kin. From what I had gathered, the one leading those beastkin was none other than Ariel's maternal grandfather. To be placed in a situation where he had to cut down his own family—naturally, he wouldn't want his daughter watching that.
Leaving Tronios Aether standing with unruffled composure, we slipped out of the villa.
And at that very moment……
"WAAAAAAAGH!!"
A thunderous battle cry rose from the barbarian horde encircling the grounds.
Though this place sat a little outside the city center, it was still a mere thirty-minute ride from the imperial capital.
"They certainly came in force. Where on earth do they keep swarming from?" Lobelia clicked her tongue in disgust.
Ariel, already visibly distraught, chimed in alongside her. "I know, right? It's like vermin—I really don't understand how they manage to boil out of nowhere every single time."
Their ability to appear so abruptly in places like this was precisely what made the Spearhead of the Snow Flower so terrifying. How did they move in their feral, untamed forms without ever getting spotted? That was a secret the imperial authorities had never managed to uncover.
I knew the answer, of course…… but I had no intention of filling Lobelia in. Some truths were far better left unlearned.
"Still, they seem to have gathered with considerable intent this time……." Lobelia's mouth twisted into a grimace as she glared toward the front line.
Standing there was a warrior of colossal build, towering a full head above the rest of the barbarians. A bear beastman who appeared to be in his late forties, possessing dark hair and piercing gray eyes.
Yeah, I was wondering why he hadn't shown his ugly face yet. Opportunistic bastards.
"This is our first meeting," Lobelia challenged him, "but are you the figure I suspect you are?"
"Most likely, Imperial scion."
"I see……. In that case, does that mean you are the Great Warrior himself?"
"Aye. I am Vidar."
The Great Warrior who led the Spearhead of the Snow Flower. The very man who belonged on the frozen northern plains had descended all the way to the capital? So suddenly? No matter how prime an opportunity this seemed, did the supreme chieftain really need to make a personal appearance?
"……What if we head back inside?" I suggested in an undertone. "Duke Aether should at least be capable of holding his own against him."
"I doubt it. Reaching out to Duke Aether right now strikes me as a terrible choice. If things devolve into a chaotic brawl, our side—burdened with so many non-combatants to protect—will be at an overwhelming disadvantage."
"Isn't our current situation already a chaotic brawl?"
"No. At least for the moment, our opponent doesn't seem inclined to turn it into one. Not unless we provoke him."
Lobelia's words prompted me to survey our surroundings once more.
Barbarians completely encircled the villa. Yet not a single one made a move to strike first; they simply kept their predatory eyes locked on us. They were the ones who had set the board from the beginning. There was room for dialogue, but we could not step beyond the boundaries of their stage. If we bolted back into the manor right now, the entire pack would charge after us in a feral frenzy. For now, stalling for even a few more seconds was our best course of action.
"Bwahahaha! Good, very good! I like that you're quick on the uptake, Imperial scion!"
His aura was bone-chilling. Even as he laughed heartily, the sheer weight of his presence stole the air from our lungs. My mother, delicate at the best of times, fainted dead away, and my father's face drained of all color.
As for Chris…… Chris was actually holding his ground. It seemed his newfound vitality wasn't merely physical; he took the Great Warrior's bellow with only a slight furrow of his brow, standing firm like a grizzled veteran.
"I am Vidar, Great Warrior of the Spearhead of the Snow Flower! I shall grant you a chance! Is there anyone among you who dares challenge me?!"
"And what happens if we decline your challenge?" Lobelia demanded.
"Then a one-sided slaughter shall commence."
A frigid smirk answered her question. The suffocating bloodlust radiating from him was palpable.
Swallowing hard, I leaned back toward my father, who was gripping the hilt of his sword with pale, trembling knuckles. "Father, this is the sort of thing your son deals with on a regular basis."
"Yohan…… just what kind of madness have you been fighting through……?"
"Do you understand now?"
"Even so, you're not dropping out."
"I didn't even say the word……. Whatever. Since your mind is clearly set in stone, I'll keep my mouth shut."
Even in a crisis like this, my father prioritized the future of our county. Admirable. And thoroughly exasperating.
"The Great Warrior, is it……? Yohan, in your assessment, what are our chances of victory?"
"First off, winning is impossible."
"Not difficult, but impossible?"
"Even if the Duke joined the fray, buying time would be our absolute ceiling."
If one were to rank individual combat power across the world at this point in time, Vidar would easily claim second place. First place, naturally, belonged to the Emperor.
In Promotion Tale, encounters with the Great Warrior were strictly reserved for the late game. Your first encounter was a scripted defeat, followed by several more mandatory losses before you finally confronted him as a potential final boss. And the route where Vidar became the final boss occurred under only one condition: getting constantly entangled in his affairs.
He was a boss who was utterly unbeatable in the early stages, but progressively grew weaker as the timeline advanced. Yes—he was actively deteriorating. Therefore, the fewer interactions you had with him, the more advantageous your position became. By the endgame, if you left him entirely alone, he would fall out of the final boss running altogether.
Which meant that in this reality, running into him early on was a monumental disaster.
Goddamn it……
This was all because Andvaranaut had started consolidating the plot threads. By dragging the brutes who were supposed to be camped out in the northern snow plains all the way down here, I was getting screwed over by pure developer spite. I couldn't even fathom where this avalanche of unintended consequences had started rolling. Was it when Faust wrecked the Cradle ahead of schedule? Was it meeting Yuna? Or had this entire mess snowballed from the moment I pulled all those desperate stunts during the entrance exam just to dodge Class F?
"……If you intend to fight," I muttered grimly, "you must frame your strategy entirely around stalling for time."
"Thanks for the advice."
With that, Lobelia stripped off her outer coat, tossing it aside as she stepped forward.
"I shall take the field first."
"Oho! Truly worthy of imperial blood! State your name, Imperial scion!"
"Lobelia Vicious van Miltonia."
"Pointlessly long name. I'll never remember it. So just come at me! Lia!"
"How flattering. I've been gifted an adorable nickname."
Crackle!
Crimson lightning tore across the earth. Lobelia's innate Authority, Red Lightning—renowned for its erratic, unpredictable trajectory across open terrain—roared through the air.
KRA-BOOOOM!
The lightning surging across the ground collided squarely with Great Warrior Vidar, painting the world in blinding crimson brilliance.
"Hmph……!"
"Kh!"
Vidar intercepted Lobelia's decisive strike with an open palm. It was Lobelia, the one who had thrown the blow, whose face twisted in agony.
"The lion cub shows fine spirit!"
Crunch!
Snaring Lobelia's wrist in a vise-like grip, the Great Warrior cocked his free fist and hurled a counterpunch straight toward her.
"Hup!"
KABOOOOM!
The casual swing of Vidar's arm caused the very atmosphere to shiver. I couldn't even track the motion. One instant his fist was clenched, and the next, his arm had pierced clean through the empty air beside Lobelia. The only thing I could confirm was that Lobelia had narrowly evaded the brunt of the strike.
"Cough!"
Yet even the passing shockwave was devastating enough to force a spray of blood from her lips.
"Haaah!"
Hardened by a full year of grueling combat, Lobelia pressed her counterattack despite the pain. With her arm still locked in his grasp, she drove her boot straight into Vidar's midsection.
CRACKLE-SNAP!
A kick saturated with Red Lightning slammed against his flesh, yet his expression didn't so much as twitch. Instead, he flashed a hearty grin.
"Splendid. Give it a few more years, and you might actually stand a chance of defeating me."
"Quit your drivel……!"
ROOOOOAR!
Did she feel insulted? Scowling fiercely at his remark, Lobelia snapped her remaining leg upward in a vicious rising kick aimed directly at his jaw. A pillar of crimson lightning erupted from the soil, surging toward the heavens.
"Urgh!"
Whether from the sheer concussive force or the blast, Vidar's grip loosened. Seizing the opening without hesitation, Lobelia sprang backward at maximum speed to put distance between them.
"Haah…… haah……. To think the disparity was this vast."
Only now did Lobelia seem to grasp the true weight of my warning, letting out a breathless, self-deprecating chuckle as cold sweat trickled down her neck. I had wondered why she rushed in so recklessly; she had wanted to test the validity of my claim through a direct clash.
"Pbt-haha! I was in the middle of talking and bit my tongue! That actually smarts!"
As the crimson lightning dissipated, Vidar stood there rubbing his jaw, nursing his bitten tongue. While Lobelia's parting strike had been fierce, it was clear that his injury was purely an accidental byproduct. After enduring a blow of that magnitude, the most damage he took was biting his own tongue while trying to banter? Against anyone else, that kick would have taken their head off at the neck.
"Hup……! Then how about I take my turn?!"
BOOM!
The instant the words left his mouth, Lobelia's figure vanished from where she stood. A heartbeat later, the stone wall behind us collapsed in an ear-splitting cascade of rubble.
"It's over."
An exchange too fast for human eyes to perceive. Only the horrific aftermath remained to tell the tale. Embedded deep within the ruined masonry, Lobelia slumped unconscious, slick with her own blood.
The duel was settled. She hadn't managed to buy even a fraction of the time we needed.
"Now then……"
"I shall take her place," Ariel stepped forward hurriedly. "Or do you insist on taking her life?"
She was Lobelia's loyal sworn mage. Naturally, she couldn't stand by and let her master die. But still……
"If you step out there, you could die," I warned her.
"Are you worrying about me?"
"Well, of course I am."
A bashful smile broke across Ariel's face. Please don't look at me with that gentle grin. It's going to make my resolve crumble.
"With Her Highness incapacitated, I'm the only one left who can fight. Unless House Damus's knights are far stronger than I anticipated?"
"What say you, Sir Humpty?" I asked.
"Begging your pardon, Young Master Yohan," Humpty replied with humble honesty, "but I couldn't even see what just transpired."
"Neither could I."
A true knight of our household, gazing upon the exact same reality as his young master.
"Had I known things would unfold this way, I would have requisitioned elite knights from our estate as well. What a shame."
"Please stop talking like someone who's about to die, Lady Ariel."
"Ah, my apologies. Yes, at times like this, one should strive to think positively. Um…… Sir Yohan? If I return alive, will you grant me a reward?"
"……If you return alive, let's share a meal together. Back at the Cradle."
"Not just once, but multiple times, please. That way, I'll truly feel motivated."
"Then let us do that. Though honestly, making promises like this feels horrifyingly like raising a death flag."
"Oh my!" Ariel's eyes widened in mild alarm, but her gentle smile returned as she pivoted smoothly to face the giant. "Your name?"
"Ariel Aether."
"Too long. Riel! Come at me!"
"It seems your mind cannot retain anything exceeding two syllables. I truly wonder how you manage to remember your own name."
Chuckle though she did at Vidar's boorish consistency, Ariel waved her staff in a sweeping arc. In that fleeting instant, her entire aura chilled into profound, unnatural tranquility. It was a sight I had witnessed once before: the terrifying dissonance between physical vessel and soul. It meant she was unleashing the absolute pinnacle of her current power.
RIIIIIP!
Ariel's telekinesis literally tore the earth apart. The footing beneath Vidar gave way in an instant, pitching him headlong into the yawning abyss.
"Hah!"
RUMBLE-CRASH!!
A localized earthquake seized the grounds as the fissure slammed shut again. Worse still, mass upon mass of displaced stone surged upward, coalescing into an artificial mountain that buried him beneath thousands of tons of crushing rock.
Overwhelming destructive output. She was Ariel Aether, after all. At this stage in the timeline, her magical potency surpassed even Lobelia's, making this level of devastation entirely fitting. But……
KRA-KRA-BOOOOM!!
Against the terrifying baseline Vidar had displayed, even this was a trifling nuisance.
"Bwahahaha! Magnificent! To manipulate the very crust of the earth! But surely, this child's play isn't all you have to offer!!"
Shattering the artificial mountain into airborne debris, Vidar stepped out into the open completely unscathed. And what was obvious even to an observer like me could not possibly have escaped Ariel. That initial display of telekinesis was merely a diversion to buy time for her true spellwork.
"Drop dead."
KABOOOOM!
A colossal pillar of crimson flame erupted from the ground, engulfing Vidar. Unwilling to settle for mere heat, the flames bound his massive frame like clinging tar, appearing as though they would never detach until every fiber of his being was reduced to ash.
"Hmm!"
Recognizing the nature of the curse-flame immediately, Vidar didn't even bother brushing it off. Instead, he simply marched forward with long, steady strides. It was as though a wall of fire possessed no power to harm him whatsoever. Striding through the conflagration like an incarnation of war, his silhouette was terrifying to behold.
"Hah!"
Faced with this unstoppable juggernaut, Ariel unleashed every single spell in her repertoire in rapid succession.
BOOM!
A kaleidoscopic barrage of high-tier magic bombarded his advance. Spells that did not merely shatter stone, but upended the landscape and pulverized it into fine dust.
BOOM!
Yet through that howling torrent of magical destruction, Vidar advanced without a pause.
BOOM!
A living fortress in motion. Watching him close the distance stride by inexorable stride, Ariel's composure broke into a desperate grimace.
"Kh……!"
She scrambled backward to maintain range, but the gap narrowed with every passing second. Ceasing her bombardment was out of the question; the instant her spells let up, he would close the distance in a single bound. In the end, the only choice she had was to pour out every drop of her mana.
"Bwahaha! Caught you!"
Having cleaved his way clean through the magical storm, Vidar loomed directly over Ariel. His massive fist reared back, aimed straight for her head, and Ariel squeezed her eyes shut as if accepting her impending demise.
Vidar swung his fist with murderous momentum.
KRA-BOOOOM!!
A deafening roar tore through the air. A blow devastating enough to reduce flesh and bone to red mist.
Yet that catastrophic punch cleaved nothing but empty space, whistling harmlessly over Ariel's head.
Had he shown mercy? Or had the relentless barrage of magical artillery finally rattled his balance? In truth, neither was the case.
"How dare you! Who dares interfere in a sacred duel?!"
High-Tier Illusion Magic
⟨ Sensory Disruption ⟩
"……Let's settle this with words, shall we?"
It was my doing.
No, seriously—I had no idea that would actually work. I hadn't even fully mastered High-Tier magic, which was why I had been racking my brain trying to track down a proper tutor in the first place. Yet it suddenly triggered without a hitch. Was this what they called the curse of metaknowledge?
Regardless, the die was cast. To hell with it. Since things had already spiraled to this point, I might as well flip the entire script.
"Cut the farce, Great Warrior. It's not like you're a real barbarian anyway."
So drop the wild savage routine and sit down at the negotiating table. Let's talk this out like civilized men.