Rally (1)
It was the afternoon of the day I had barely scraped my way out of MacHart's ambush alive.
Naturally, I couldn't focus on the magic department lecture that followed, my mind forced to turn over the crisis I'd just survived.
That was genuinely too close…
If MacHart had been in the mood for it, I could have died in the most absurd way imaginable. I'd managed to escape through fierce resistance and baiting him into letting his guard down, but the fact remained that my life was still under threat.
No — if anything, I might have been tangled up in something even more troublesome than a simple threat to my life.
If all he did was threaten to kill me, I could resolve things by killing him first and dealing with the aftermath however I had to. But if MacHart truly wanted me myself, that was an entirely thornier problem.
Because if things went badly, even after I killed him there was a real chance the label of human who conspired with demons would be pinned on me.
And even setting that aside, getting entangled with the Fourth Prince's status was a headache in a dozen different ways. Being mixed up with demons was bad enough — did he have to be obscenely high-born on top of it?
Depending on how things shook out, sparks could easily fly toward Ethan as well — my fake fiancé, technically.
One way or another, I have to handle this as quickly and quietly as possible.
Originally, this was someone I'd only be able to dispose of in the episode right before leaving the Empire after graduation. In terms of the game's main story, he was essentially the final boss of Part Four.
After the battle with him, the story moved into the Empire's demon-occupied zones, and Part Five began — an entire arc spent fighting the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings and, eventually, the Demon King himself.
In theory he's the Part Four final boss, but that doesn't mean there's no way to take him down right now.
MacHart had received power from the demons roughly four and a half years ago. Not long after accepting it, he would assassinate the First Prince and the Imperial Consort — so that calculation was rock solid.
And in the fifth year after accepting that power, MacHart succeeded in transforming into a demon. No longer able to hide his true nature, he killed his body double to fake his own death at demonic hands and slipped out of the Empire.
In other words, MacHart only attained final-boss-level power after his demonic transformation — which meant, thankfully, that I had roughly half a year left before he reached that point.
It wasn't exactly a leisurely window, but it was enough time to make an attempt on his life. If I gathered the main-cast heavyweights of Luminor Academy and committed to a single all-out fight, we might actually pull it off.
…The problem was that even for the person I was now, gathering those main-cast heavyweights wouldn't be easy.
I don't exactly have any points of contact with the Hero Party, and approaching the Hero in the first place would mean breaking my word to Ethan…
Even if it was for the sake of saving my own life, that didn't change the fact that I'd be disregarding Ethan's orders to contact the Hero.
Worse, I already had a track record — back at the end of last year, I'd gone to see Agnes without telling him. If I pulled the same stunt again, even Ethan would surely be disappointed in me beyond redemption.
Which meant that in the end, I would have to explain to Ethan not only that my life was being threatened by MacHart, but why I needed the Hero's help to resolve it smoothly…
Could I explain all of that to Ethan without ever mentioning my previous life? Honestly? I had zero confidence.
If only it were Gehmajoshigi-gwat I had to tell — I could unload the whole truth and be done with it.
I'd been certain from the very first moment I saw his name, and after observing his behavior for a while now, it was confirmed: Gehmajoshigi-gwat was, without a doubt, a player of Luminor Academy.
Which meant that with him, at least, I could come clean about being a transmigrator who had played Luminor Academy in my past life, and he'd take it in stride without finding it the least bit strange.
Ethan, on the other hand, was a person of this world. Getting him to even comprehend that he was a character in a game would be the first hurdle.
He wouldn't have the concept of a computer game in his head to begin with, so I'd have to substitute some other medium — a novel, maybe — for the analogy.
…And beyond all that, there was one thing I really, really didn't want to reveal to Ethan of all people: that I had been a man in my previous life.
I mean, obviously. If I told Ethan — who was in love with me — that little fact, he'd either become a man who loved men, or a man who fell for anyone with a woman's face regardless of what was underneath.
Neither outcome came with pleasant side effects, so there was no need to inflict that harsh truth on him.
And above all, if I revealed to Ethan that I used to be a man, then going forward, to me he'd…
"Lilith? Lilith."
"Ah — yes? Yes?"
"Class is over. How long are you planning to sit there staring into space?"
"Oh…"
…Right. We were still in the middle of afternoon classes, apparently.
I clearly remembered entering the lecture hall, exchanging a brief greeting with Agnes, and taking my seat — but when I finally came back to myself, all I saw was a blackboard with freshly erased chalk smudges, and an empty classroom with only Agnes and me left in it.
"Is something wrong? You've been staring at nothing since earlier."
"I-I'm sorry, Lady Agnes."
"…You don't need to apologize for that."
Still, the fact that she'd stayed by my side until everyone else filed out of the room said something about her loyalty as a friend.
She hadn't been one of my favorite characters back in my Luminor Academy player days, but the more I learned about her in the game world, the more I realized she was the real deal.
I quietly apologized in my heart for my past self's crime of labeling her "the pom-pom-headed red chihuahua."
"I was mulling over something important. Something deeply connected to my future, in fact."
"…Career plans? Wondering where you'll go after graduation?"
"Something far more fundamental than that. Whether I'll even be able to graduate from the Academy at all, you see."
"…You're second seat in the magic department."
"Er… that is true."
…That was not what I'd meant by graduating, for the record.
Anyway — now was not the time to be picky about means and methods. If surviving MacHart meant accepting help, then this was the moment to accept it from anyone who could give it.
Agnes in particular was a relatively easy ask, since I'd already incurred a debt to her once before.
"Lady Agnes."
"Mm?"
"Before I head back to the dormitory today… could you walk me as far as the swordsmanship building?"
"…Sure. No problem."
Agnes hadn't yet joined the ranks of the Grand Mages, but even so, with her at my side MacHart wouldn't be able to approach me as easily as he had last time.
A short window of protection from her would be enough. Just until the end of this semester, before summer break began.
Because during that summer break — right before MacHart's final transformation into a demon, before his last semester began — I intended to bring him down one way or another.
With Agnes's help, I made my way to the swordsmanship building where Ethan was, and from there walked back to the dormitory at his side.
After dinner, once the two of us had returned to the dormitory together, I laid out everything that had happened that afternoon.
How Prince MacHart had approached me after I parted ways with Ethan at lunch, how he had targeted my life, and how he had ultimately given up and walked away.
Nothing Isabel needed to hear — nothing she'd benefit from hearing — so naturally, it was just the two of us.
"…What… did you say?"
"This afternoon, Prince MacHart came to threaten my life. In the end he demanded I become his wife, gambled my life on it, and then gave up and left."
Crack!
"M-Master Ethan?!"
"That son of a bitch…"
…I had deliberately brought it up over lavender tea, telling him to breathe and keep calm — and sadly, it appeared to have had no effect whatsoever.
The teacup in Ethan's grip had shattered right along with his clenched fist. Thank goodness his body was sturdy enough that his hand came away unharmed — if you could call that lucky.
Shards of porcelain rained down across and beneath the table, but if I'm being honest, sweeping up the glass wasn't nearly as much work as holding back Ethan, who was two seconds away from grabbing his sword and charging out into the middle of the night.
"Master Ethan, please calm yourself."
"…No. I can't calm down. Before dawn breaks, I'm hanging that vomit-inducing neck over the Academy's main gate. Then I'll dump the body in the stables and let the horses trample it to paste all night long…"
"If you do that, it's lèse-majesté and treason! Do you intend to erase the entire Blackwood family from the Empire?!"
"…Fine. I understand. Then I'll content myself with sneaking in and killing him instead. If he dared point a blade at Lilith, he should have been prepared to die by one…"
"Master Ethan!"
It wasn't that I'd wanted him to shrug off the news that I'd nearly died and accept it flatly — but it also wasn't that I wanted him to lose his mind to this extent.
The whole reason I'd told him the truth in the first place wasn't to egg him on toward assassinating MacHart. It was to strategize — to figure out how to dispose of MacHart properly.
If he moved rashly, not only would nothing come of it, things would only spiral into a far worse mess.
"Let me say this once more. I understand your feelings, Master Ethan, but as of right now, that prince cannot be killed."
"If you're worried about covering my tracks, I'll handle it myself. It'll take some time, but forge a false identity and I can wash away the trail well enough. If I don't use mana, there'll be no trace at all."
"That isn't what I'm warning you about. What happens after Prince MacHart is killed is certainly a problem, but the problem I'm raising is the act of killing him itself."
"…What do you mean?"
"Prince MacHart was using power granted to him by the demons."
"………Power from the demons?"
"Yes, Master Ethan."
At my words, deep concern clouded Ethan's face. Only after hearing that MacHart wielded demonic power did he finally grasp how much graver the situation was.
For a moment I'd agonized over what to do if he stubbornly insisted on going to kill the man anyway — but thankfully, true to a nobleman of his considerable experience, he didn't dig in his heels quite that far.
"If I may offer one piece of advice — acting rashly in his current state could put you in danger instead. At least, that's how it felt to me, and I'm the one who faced Prince MacHart directly."
"Then what am I supposed to do? Just let it slide because the man who threatened your life has ties to demons?"
"No, of course not. I simply want it finished under the right conditions — with him cornered beyond any hope of escape."
"…Cornered beyond escape?"
"Yes. Ideally, in circumstances where executing Prince MacHart would leave no repercussions whatsoever."
"Do you actually have a real plan?"
"The plan still needs some refining, but there is someone I absolutely must meet. …It seems the person who knows best how to deal with demons happens to attend our Academy."
"……"
The moment he heard the words someone who knows how to deal with demons, Ethan's expression went rigid.
He could probably guess whose name was about to leave my mouth — but at this point, I couldn't afford to forgo my most reliable asset over some petty grievance.
"I believe we need to meet the Hero of our era… Lord Gehmajoshigi-gwat."
"…That Hero?"
"Yes. It's necessary."