The Thirteenth Seat of the Rounds

Right after the trial was called off, Dmitri pressed a gold-ornamented insignia into Lupin's hand.

"Truth be told, I meant to give you this while Ekaterina was still watching. I'm sorry it's only reaching you now."

"What is it?"

"A badge marking you as a state guest of our Republic. Carry it, and you'll be received with the highest courtesy whenever you visit."

It was a tall, narrow ornament: a griffin-like beast rearing onto its forelegs, as if caught mid-roar. Lupin was not the sort to refuse a gift that was offered. She broke into a gleeful grin and pinned the badge to her harness belt. Her chest hid the upper half a little, but it would still do well enough at announcing a state guest.

"An important guest has turned up out of nowhere, so I must be going. You're innocent—whatever Ekaterina says, don't you dare give in."

"Yeah, yeah. Go do your job!"

He really must have been someone important. Tasili and Emelin left with him.

And with one nuisance gone, it was Ekaterina's turn again.

She had been watching the room from down on the floor. Now she shot upright and came striding over to plant herself in front of Lupin. She had a reason she could not give Lupin up.

If I'm thrown out of the Rounds... I'll be dragged off to Ginnungagap. That's as good as certain.

So long as she remained among the Rounds she enjoyed immunity, and even if she quit, her crimes would not be applied retroactively. That much would be no problem. But could Ekaterina go on living afterward with her true nature held down?

Not a chance.

Ekaterina knew better than anyone that the end of her wandering would be Ginnungagap, the special prison built for Aura Users.

The moment I'm locked in there, it's over... A solitary cell for life? I'd kill myself before that...!

That was why she had volunteered to become Lupin's slave. She had spent her whole life riding on top of other people, and a voice in her heart had whispered that it might not be so bad, just once, to be dominated by someone overwhelmingly stronger than herself—a thought founded on the mistaken common knowledge that a slave must serve her master sexually as well.

Then why hadn't she declared defeat sooner? Because of a scrap of pride. She could not become a slave without a proper contest of strength. If she was going to be a slave, it had to be real submission and real surrender, not a game, or she would never be satisfied.

In any case, she had kicked the chance away with her own two feet, and now Ekaterina had exactly one method left.

"Let me into your party too."

Namely, slipping into a party already stocked with women to her taste and living a harem life. A little regrettable, perhaps, but with two or more there would be a pleasure in taking them by turns, day after day.

But who said any of that was up to her?

Lupin had never actually formed a party in the first place. Vatslava had tagged along insisting she would repay a debt, and Yegor was an employee and a friend both. Klein was nothing more than bait meant to draw out the cult leader of the Heavenly Mandate Cult.

"Asking to be let into a party when there isn't one doesn't even make sense."

With the duel-trial voided, the spectators had all cleared out, but the two of them were still at it, and the worried companions happened to draw near just then. Lupin pointed at the people who had come over.

"Not a single person here is in a party. Right?"

Vatslava agreed and nodded over and over. In truth they had only traveled together; they had never once registered as a party with the Association. And in the middle of all that, Ekaterina watched Vatslava's enormous water-balloons sway and swallowed hard. A grandeur of motherhood she had never seen before set her lower belly aching and her heart trembling.

Who even was this one? She was completely insane. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Was this party an all-you-can-eat buffet?

Klein, Lupin, Vatslava. Beauties, and not one of them lacking. Ekaterina clutched at her runaway heart and barely managed to pull a human face back on.

"What are you talking about. Travel together and you're a party. What, so the three of you aren't actually a party, you're just simply se—"

Yegor raised his voice and cut her off before she could say something worse.

"Our conditions happened to line up, so we ended up traveling together. That's all."

Ekaterina, who had been grinning, changed color on the spot. A three-legged beast, daring to shove himself into a conversation between women? Four summoned clones closed around Yegor and shoved him back by force. Yegor, who looked as if he could have held his ground against almost anything, simply gave way without a fight. Even as clones they were the spitting image of Ekaterina, and he had no wish to lay a hand on them and start talk. A guy like that would survive just fine even if he turned up in modern Korea, Lupin thought, with a private pang of pity.

"To begin with, you're Rounds. What could the Rounds ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠possibly be lacking that you'd go play adventurer?"

Ekaterina stuck her lip out and muttered.

"I'm getting cut soon anyway. And once I'm cut, it's prison..."

She knew full well she was committing the kind of villainy that belonged in a cell, and she did it anyway? Lupin's favorability score toward Ekaterina punched through the floor and kept going.

"Then get locked up. It's a place that suits you perfectly."

"N-no! I don't want that. So. I mean. I mean, huh? How about we form a party right now? If I join while I'm still Rounds, our party will be the strongest there is. Right?"

A war of nerves dragged on between Ekaterina, determined to latch on however she could, and Lupin, who had no desire to be saddled with a weird lump of baggage. Lupin's stance, though, was harder than it had ever been, and the outcome was not going to change.

To Lupin, treasure chests were home and destiny both. Naturally, anyone who stole time from chest farming ran face-first into an iron wall. The assistant manager who had been good to her back at the company had set the first precedent, and afterward Her Majesty the Pigeon Queen had walked the very same path—currently being left to stew, so she might taste defeat, regret, and ruin.

In any case, to put the conclusion simply, Lupin kept beside her only the people who did not interfere with her life of chest-hunting. People who, rather than pestering a busy Lupin, steadily minded their own business and fell in beside her at a sensible moment, reading the room as they went. Vatslava read Lupin's mood and set out a drink now and then, so they got along without trouble. Klein was scared stiff, so she wasn't about to try anything. Yegor pulled his weight as a knowledge vending machine, a porter, and a restaurant besides.

And Ekaterina? Take her along and she would paw at every woman in sight. Lupin had no intention of turning the party into an episode of the animal ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kingdom.

"I don't usually say I don't want something. I truly don't want this. Please go back."

That was how much she hated it. She had gone polite.

Ekaterina, of course, was never going to accept the demand.

"Ah! Why—"

Kkak-gak!

An aura whip came cracking out of nowhere and shoved back Ekaterina, who had been creeping in on Lupin. Klein, plastered head to toe in every kind of juice, came stepping closer, murky droplets pattering off her clothes.

"That's enough. Back off, won't you? Just how much longer do you mean to bother Lupin, you filthy lecher."

"What did you say?!"

"What, what. Whatcha gonna do. Wanna go another round with Klein? Huh?!"

Lupin was not someone who reached for violence unless a treasure chest was on the line, so Klein had simply listened to the whole conversation for a while. But keep scratching an Apostle of the Calamity Star and what came of it would not be a sore. It would be the omen of annihilation. So shouldn't she tear Ekaterina away before Lupin flew into a rage—even if it meant hearing, yet again, that a Shrine Maiden had gone and done what a Shrine Maiden does?

Lupin, however, did not let Klein off this time either.

"Aigoo. And that outfit was so nice..."

There had been a separate reason Lupin's eyes had flashed when Klein swung that aura whip. Cute little Klein, the one who was supposed to make the leader of the Heavenly Mandate Cult jump out of his skin, covered in juice! Like this, forget startling the cult leader—he wouldn't even recognize her. And Elysium's laundry was nothing like the modern world's. Wash the clothes all you liked, and you still could not get all that gaudy dye out. In the end she had completely ruined one outfit that suited Klein perfectly, and it stung. Lupin rummaged in her harness pouch once more and held out a single gold coin. To say it again: even the cheapest clothes at the tailor she had stopped by cost ten gold coins.

"Go change and come back. I'll handle things here."

And so one more misunderstanding piled itself onto Klein.

"B-but. Klein helping is..."

"I said it's fine. Hurry up. And while you're at it, take a bath. You reek of sweat."

At the word sweat, Ekaterina's eyes flashed. Startled by the creep of that sensation, Klein snatched up the coin and bolted. Ekaterina smacked her lips as she watched Klein flee at a trot—and right in front of that face, clap. Lupin's hands came together, pulling her attention back.

"Anyway, if it's no, it's no. Please go back."

"Ugh... I can't. I can't do that. I can't give up..."

On any other day Lupin would have beaten her into listening, but today she was holding back from force with everything she had. The sea of information had irradiated her with the lesson that, for a psycho pervert like this, a single punch became a reason to obsess. Show anyone the terrifying sight of a stalker slapped across the face and then charging in to beg for another, and they would end ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up the same way.

A deadlock that, looked at one way, seemed as if it would never come undone. There was, however, a solution.

"Then would you care to try drinking this?"

"......"

What Lupin drew out was one of Parmenia's extreme poisons.

Anyone from Rostov could not fail to know Parmenia's special poisons. The effects were that vicious, and no antidote could be made. Of course they knew. A terrible future unfolded in Ekaterina's head. The plaza packed with protesters, more than half of them men. To be thrown in among them with her reason gone—something unspeakable would happen.

"Ah... uaah, no. That..."

She babbled like something broken for a moment. Then, throwing away every last scrap of a Rounds member's dignity, Ekaterina clung to Lupin's boots and begged.

"No. Then I'll just be your slave. Huh? Just make me your slave! I'll listen, I swear. Please!"

Lupin's expression did not change by a hair.

"Ah. If you don't like that one, there is another way."

"W-what is it?! Just say it! I'll do anything!"

Only then did the corner of Lupin's mouth lift, just a little.

In effect, she was saying she would not be taking her at all.

Meanwhile, at the Prime Minister's residence.

An unannounced guest had the Republic's leading figures—and even the knight order—wound tight with tension.

"Prime Minister. I only came to see the face of the Rounds member we're sending off, and the face of the candidate who will take that seat. Why do you keep calling people in?"

"I know that, Kain. But however sudden your arrival, a guest must still be received properly. So wait a little, if you would, and at your leisure."

Grand Masters were all old men of considerable years, but having passed through body reconstitution, their faces were far younger than their ages. The same was true of the Rounds' 1st Seat, the Flawless Sword, Kain. He had grown a beard to preserve the dignity of the 1st Seat, and still he looked to be somewhere in his late twenties. Looking young, however, was no reason to treat him lightly. He was a man who stood shoulder to shoulder with the Emperor of the Blumang Empire, and so it was only natural that the Republic's Prime Minister, and the high figures of the assembly with him, came crowding in to observe the proper courtesies.

"I am not so idle that I can wait forever. More than that, stay like this and people with no business here will all get dragged in. So I'll be going."

"Even so. Just a moment—"

Kain reached out and swept a hand toward the window. Unlike the upper-floor window Lupin had smashed, the second-floor window opened smoothly, clearing him a path.

"We'll finish the important talk two days from now, at the Golden Council. The black tea was rather good."

Bang!

With the sound of tearing air, Kain, who had been seated on the sofa, vanished. A teapot and teacups rattling wildly, hair and hems whipping in the gust, curtains fluttering as they were swept out the window—these alone announced that someone had been sitting on that sofa a moment before.