Thorough Preparation (2)
What on earth is wrong with him today?
Amelia fidgeted with her armor, her expression uneasy.
Wear your armor today.
Huh?
Wear it if I tell you to.
Obviously no one dressed up in full armor just to go to the Academy. But because of Luid, she had ended up putting it on anyway.
Amelia finished preparing and headed out. In the carriage, she found Luid resting his chin on his hand.
She sat down across from him. The bulk of the armor made it endlessly awkward, but she couldn't voice a single complaint. All she could do was steal furtive glances at him.
"Luid, are you feeling better now…?"
"I was never mad."
…The Melan Mountain Range incident.
Amelia had thought she was going to die inside that day. She had never once seen Luid that angry. She must have been away for far too long.
"I'm sorry. So please forgive me, okay? I promise I'll never leave you behind for that long again."
"Whatever."
Amelia let out a sigh. Siblings bickered every other day, sure, but she had no desire to pick a fight with her much younger brother. Luid was someone who needed looking after, first and foremost.
If Mom or Irene ever found out I fought with Luid, I'd be dead.
If word of their quarrel so much as reached their ears, she'd be shaken down to the very last coin. Amelia swallowed hard, and Luid shot her a sidelong glance.
"A black mage is going to attack today."
"I see…."
Amelia answered on autopilot, then blinked. And promptly panicked.
"Wh-what did you just say?"
"For now, only you know."
Amelia had been racking her brain for a way to make up with him, and in an instant her expression hardened. Luid was not a child who talked nonsense. If he said it was so, then that was the future that would actually come to pass.
"What's your basis?"
"I can feel it. The aura of a powerful black mage."
With a look touched by sorrow, Luid turned his gaze to the sky beyond the carriage window.
The tension made Amelia's mouth go dry.
He must be sensing something absolutely enormous.
Rattle.
The carriage jolted. Luid, who had been striking a rare dramatic pose, lost his balance and bit his tongue with an audible gnk.
Tears sprang to his eyes. Even a genius mage could not escape the misfortune of biting his tongue.
"A-are you all right?"
"…Yeah."
Enough to break Luid's composure? Just how powerful is this black mage supposed to be?
Amelia cranked her alertness up a notch.
"Scale and level?"
"There's no comparing him to that fake black mage last time. This one's real. A genuine black mage. It'll probably be a real headache."
"Driver."
Amelia called to the coachman with a face set in stone. Her plan was to have the carriage turned around and head straight for the Imperial Palace.
"No."
Luid poked her in the cheek.
"…Hm?"
Luid thought for a moment. Coming up with an argument that would convince Amelia wasn't particularly difficult.
"We can't pinpoint the exact location. My guess is the Academy is the target, but if the Palace starts moving, they'll catch on immediately."
"What are you talking about?"
"We won't catch them. Nuna, do you have any idea how well black mages can run and hide?"
"…!"
Amelia's eyes went wide. This was something she had known one thing about and nothing about the other.
"I'm sorry to the Academy, but this is an opportunity. An opportunity to smother a potential danger while it's still latent. And—"
Luid lowered his voice.
"Wouldn't it be a huge plus for your succession trial too, Nuna?"
"Luid."
But this time, Luid had miscalculated. Amelia straightened her dignified posture and rebuked him sternly.
"Where did you learn to think such ugly thoughts? Pursuing personal gain when countless people could be harmed? The people of the Imperial Capital are every bit as precious as the people of Windsor Castle."
"……"
"A Windsor must understand the greater good."
Luid couldn't muster a rebuttal. He just stuck his lip out in a pout.
"Answer."
"…Fine, I got it."
Seeing that Luid showed signs of remorse, Amelia's expression softened. She gave his head a firm, affectionate pat.
"Good. If it weren't for you, no one would ever have known about this. Thanks to you, so much can be protected. Well done, Lui."
"Spare me the knightly platitudes, you old fogey."
"…What is a fogey?"
"Someone like you, Ame-nuna. Anyway."
Luid looked up at her.
"Only you know about this. Understood? Tell no one."
"Shouldn't the people at the Academy be informed?"
"The black mage could be one of the students or professors."
"…What?"
If that were true, it would be catastrophically serious.
"That's not what I mean. They're masters of deception, so they could be concealing their identity and slipping in among us. Or someone might let slip that we're onto them. We are dealing with a black mage, after all."
"I see. …I hadn't thought of it from a mage's perspective. I'll have to reflect on that."
Amelia pressed her lips together in thought.
"Lui, how close would this black mage have to be for you to identify them?"
"I'd have to see them directly."
The reason black mages were treated as such a nuisance was simple: if a black mage wanted to hide, they could never be found.
They were truly, supremely good at hiding. The fact that even Luid couldn't tell unless they were right in front of him was the unvarnished truth.
…Which is why everything else is complete nonsense.
That's right. Luid had lied to Amelia. At this very moment, he couldn't sense so much as the first syllable of a black mage's presence.
All of it had been fabricated for the sole purpose of telling her, a black mage is targeting the Academy.
"Then we have no choice but to patrol."
Amelia wore a helpless expression. The Academy's grounds were so vast that covering all of them alone was impossible.
"What the black mage is after is this."
Luid drew a wine glass out of his subspace.
"Hm…? Isn't that your orange juice glass?"
"'Orange juice glass'? How insulting. This is a sacred relic—the Chalice of Mana."
"……"
Amelia pressed her lips tightly shut. Then, with the gentlest of smiles, she asked:
"Lui. May I ask where that came from?"
"I stole it."
Amelia sank back into silence. Luid's brazen candor had left her utterly speechless.
"Put it back."
"No."
"Lui. Stealing is wrong. As it happens, the Church came by yesterday asking about it. Why did you take the Easter egg?"
"I wanted to make egg fried rice."
"…Out of all the chicken coops in the world, why on earth did it have to be the Church's coop? The Church's eggs aren't ordinary eggs—they're a natural potion, soaked in holy power."
"So that's why it tasted so good."
Amelia spoke with a stiff face.
"I wanted to try one too."
And that was probably the real problem.
"In any case, you're going to put this back where it belongs. All you have to do is wait nearby."
Just then, the carriage came to a halt.
Amelia lurched backward and her armor clattered against itself. She stared down at the metal plates.
"…So that's why you told me to wear the armor."
"Yeah. Listening to me never costs you a thing. So keep listening to me from now on, okay?"
"Mm."
Luid stepped down from the carriage.
Amelia, who had been lost in thought, suddenly flushed scarlet.
"L-Luid! That came out all wrong! I'm your elder sister, you know!"
Episode: "The Seven Deadly Sins."
The episode in which the mastermind first bared its fangs in this world.
The mastermind's identity, of course, was the black mages.
Their purpose was simple. Black mages all followed one common existence—and their goal was that being's resurrection. The black mages called him the Demon King. They invoked their mission of "For the Demon King's return—" as casually as they ate their meals.
But the truth was rather different.
The black mages believed the one they served was some devil who would unleash calamity upon the world, a being of divine terror—
when in reality, he was nothing more than a greedy mage who wanted to live forever. A single foolish human who simply refused to die.
'Even if he claws his way out of his grave, I'd still win.'
Naturally—Luid was confident he would win even if the Demon King did resurrect.
Be that as it may, black mages who yearned for the Demon King's return naturally had an organization of their own. Its executives went by the utterly childish name of the Seven Deadly Sins, and in this episode, one of those seven was scheduled to make an appearance.
Luid didn't care about any of the rest. His only goal was making sure the kids didn't get hurt.
"Everyone familiar with your equipment?"
"Yes!"
Luid had summoned them all under the pretext of a lesson, and now he scrutinized each student carefully.
'Thank goodness none of them are here.'
The students were all clutching gleaming new gear, gazing up at him with bright, shining eyes.
'At this level they won't get hurt. As long as they don't get greedy.'
One could never underestimate the power of good equipment.
Besides, this episode's difficulty was the kind where Justin nearly died four separate times.
Given how weak Justin was, even he had managed to survive. That said plenty.
"Excuse me."
Just then, a girl raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"When are we supposed to return these?"
Not a single noble present believed Luid had simply given them the equipment. Nobles were firm believers in give-and-take—devout followers of the principle that nothing in this world came free.
And they were quite right. Even Luid had no intention of handing out this much wealth for nothing.
"Around graduation."
"…I'm sorry?"
He did, however, intend to lend them out.
For quite a long time, at that.
"U-until we graduate?"
"Yep."
"…!"
The students' eyes went wide.
"Ho. Now there's a fellow who understands how things work. A true sovereign bestows lavishly when he bestows at all."
"…If His Majesty hears that, he'll be furious."
"Luid. You have the makings of a sovereign."
Damon said it with complete sincerity.
Luid was dumbfounded.
"This is a cooking class, not a legion…"
"Well, at any rate, I've managed a glimpse of Windsor's wealth after all. I did wonder whether the North's armaments might be something special—turns out they're the same as anywhere."
Damon glanced at his spear and smirked.
No one knew why a mage had picked up a spear, but he seemed quite taken with his new equipment.
He appraised it with an imperious air.
"It rather resembles the Sacred Spear of Regulus from the Imperial treasury—stopped by there just the other day, in fact."
'Because it is.'
Luid decided the uncomfortable truth wasn't worth volunteering.
"By the way, why have you gathered us today? You instructed us to come in full gear."
Hershey raised her hand as she asked.
"Simple. Carrying out my orders to the letter is the whole of today's lesson. Don't ask why—just do it."
Luid tugged at Amelia's sleeve.
Amelia handed out the slips of paper she'd been keeping in her breast pocket to the students.
"…'Walk for thirty minutes toward the West'?"
The girl who'd asked the first question tilted her head.
"'Five thousand thrusts at the training grounds.'"
Despair washed over Gilbert's eyes.
"'Stay near Justin, first-year in the Magic Department, and approach if anything happens'?"
Irina's face lit up with curiosity.
"'Walk the fox' is what, exactly…? I already did it for an hour today."
Miho nuzzled her face against Hershey's calf.
"'Kick Justin in the rear.' My, what petty errands. But this should be entertaining."
Last came Damon.
Every last one of them stared at Luid in utter bewilderment. The instructions written on their papers were all different—but every single one was baffling beyond comprehension.
"I must protest. Five thousand thrusts is far too many."
Amid it all, Gilbert raised his objection.
Luid gazed blankly at the sky. It was broad daylight, yet a faint moon was visible. And the faint moon was tinged red.
'Almost time.'
Hershey hugged the fox close and spoke. He'd told her not to ask, and to obey. Then obey she would.
"When are we to begin carrying out these instructions?"
"When Delin's Forest catches fire."
"…Pardon?"
Had she misheard? Hershey frowned.
Luid silently pointed somewhere.
Toward Delin's Lake.
Every gaze turned in that direction.
Delin's Forest lay as serene as ever.
But—
Just as Luid lowered his hand.
"No way."
Delin's Lake began to burn.