The Purge (2)
Isaac staggered onward without purpose, one foot dragging after the other. He couldn't very well snatch the hard ice cream from Charlotte's tongue — never mind the backlash that would invite. Just watching her flick that vivid red tongue over the frozen treat was torture enough.
Which was how he'd ended up fleeing the ducal castle in such a hurry.
Crazy bitch. Crazy bitch...
But a mind once shaken did not settle so easily. In all the five years of this life — a lifetime, as far as he was concerned — he had never once cursed her like that. The words had just slipped out.
And how, exactly, had she managed to turn that tiny amount of liquid into an entire ice cream? Had she mixed something in? Sugar, maybe, or honey, just to make it palatable?
"Haa..."
The truth of it didn't interest him in the slightest. If anything, finding out would only make it worse. Isaac decided to purge the thought entirely.
Besides, this was no time for that. Sephirot — those parasites rooted deep in the Havertz Duchy — still needed to be wiped out.
Rats who had spent years gnawing at the territory alongside Douglas. More precisely: the bastards who had intended to fulfill some long-cherished wish of theirs through Charlotte, once she awakened the most powerful ability this world had ever known.
In the end, Douglas — who had cooperated with them — had died a pile of ash by my own hand. The household servants who'd served as their informants had met the same fate, dissolving into handfuls of bloody water. What remained were the small fry still lurking within the duchy.
Even those leftovers were skilled enough that, in any ordinary territory, they could have served as knights or court mages. But that changed nothing.
I won't let a single one of them walk away alive.
He and Sephirot had already crossed a river that could never be uncrossed. They had tried to break Lottie. I had shattered their ancient ambition. There was no reason left to tolerate their members on my land.
I would sweep them all away, and after that the battlefield would simply shift to the Altmain Imperial Academy — where Sephirot was already operating in the shadows.
Conveniently, their assembly day was two days from now. According to my informants, nine-tenths of the membership had already gathered at the meeting place.
Was there any reason to hesitate?
"Cain. Elena."
"Yes, Your Grace."
"We'll seal off the abandoned building as planned, but make sure no one slips out unnoticed."
"As you command."
The two trailing behind me bowed their heads. I snapped my thumb and forefinger together.
Snap!
A clear, bright sound rang out, and space inverted. We had barely left the ducal castle, yet in an instant we stood somewhere else entirely.
"...What the hell? All of a sudden—"
"Th-that man is...!"
Chaos erupted on all sides, as expected. Some of them bolted to their feet at once. Others — drunk, or high, or both — blinked stupidly, too addled to grasp what was happening.
I had no intention of sparing either kind. There was no need to bother distinguishing between them.
Shiiing—!
A low metallic rasp. The black-haired man a step ahead of me — Cain — drew his blade from its sheath.
"What in the—"
Before the Sephirot informants could even react, a flash of black sword-light split the air.
KRRAAAANG—!!
A black aura blade tore through the abandoned building with a sound like an explosion, shearing it clean in two. No small number of bodies were cleaved apart in that single stroke — but these were members of one of the most notorious villain organizations on the continent, even if they were rotting from the inside.
They moved with swift, silent efficiency, not so much as a raised voice among them. Swords, spears, axes, bludgeons — even staves and wands.
Whoooosh...!
Weapons of every kind flared with light, flooding the entire space with a violent current of mana.
"Kill them."
From deep within the building, a woman seated in the shadows issued the command in a low voice. She seemed to be serving as the ringleader of this particular nest of vermin.
"...Hmph."
I tugged down the hood of my robe, just enough to reveal my face. Judging by her tone, she still thought Cain's strength alone was something they could handle.
"...Ah. Ah?"
I had never been the type to take pleasure in revealing my identity just to watch people tense up. It was a distasteful hobby. But Sephirot's people weren't worth the courtesy of remaining anonymous, either.
I unleashed the ocean of mana I had been holding in check. The moment the woman saw my eyes — dyed the color of the sea — the muscles of her face began to twitch.
"Y-you..."
"That's right."
Even with nothing but the gray robes Cain, Elena, and I had been wearing, they should have recognized the people who had been tormenting them to death for the past five years. And after Douglas Havertz's death, they would have realized that those few remaining gadflies were connected to me.
Judging by how they'd been moving, their plan had been to dispose of Cain and Elena quickly and then flee the scene.
"Isaac Havertz...!"
"Yeah. That's me."
Not a chance. My mouth twisted into a cold smirk. The woman's face went deathly pale as she snatched something up in a hurry — something that looked like a pocket watch. Given the way mana flowed through it, probably an artifact.
Crackle...!
Useless, of course. I didn't know its exact function, and I didn't particularly need or care to find out.
I lifted a fingertip without ceremony. A dark crimson thunderbolt shot forward.
BANG!
"Ghk...!?"
A simple, unimpressive attack. But more than enough.
The artifact shattered on the spot. The woman clutched her wrist, her eyes trembling. That was when a shadow of a terrible color fell across her back.
"...!"
She noticed too late and tried to react — but it was, quite literally, too late. Cain swept his blade sideways without a moment's hesitation.
"Ah... uh...?"
A beat later, her last dying gasp still hanging in the air, her head dropped to the floor.
Thud...!
"..."
"..."
Silence swallowed the room. She had probably been a fifth-circle mage — reasonably capable — and their leader had just lost her head in an instant. The shock was understandable.
Understandable, at least.
I gave a single nod, then let both hands hang loosely at my sides.
FWOOOOSH!!
Blue flames bloomed from each of my open palms. And with that, the silence that had filled the abandoned building finally came to an end.
"Uh... uhh..."
"AAAAAGH!"
Screams and shrieks, pitiful whimpers unworthy of villains, the wet sound of steel carving through flesh — all of it echoed through the banquet hall of hellfire that Elena and I had created.
Crunch!
"Eek!"
There was one last survivor — a middle-aged man whose thinning scalp was a pitiful sight. Cain drove his sword into the floor beside the man's cheek and muttered, indifferent:
"Give the word, and I'll take his head."
He was probably talking to me. The man's reaction, however, was far more violent. He let out a strangled scream, yet still looked up at me with desperate, pleading eyes — both hands planted on the floor, knees slammed hastily to the ground.
"S-spare me! Isaac Havertz — n-no, Duke Havertz...!"
"..."
"Didn't we have a deal?! I informed on this assembly — the day, the place — and you promised you'd let me live!"
I gave him no answer. I merely looked down at him, cool and unhurried. That gaze alone must have settled over him like a weight he could barely breathe under.
"Please...! I'll beg — I'll get on my knees and beg! I-I'll be useful to you. I know a great deal about them! You don't know the first thing about this organization...!"
I shrugged off my robe, handed it to Elena, and walked toward him. Then I dropped to one knee, bringing my eyes level with his, and asked quietly:
"There's something I don't know, you say."
"...Th-that's right."
At that ice-cold voice, the man swallowed hard and shrank into his own neck. I tapped my knee a few times, considering, then added one more thing.
"Kether..."
"...?"
"If you know anything about that name, say it. If what I hear sounds like the truth, I'll let you live."
It was a compromise I had reached after some thought. From my perspective, at least.
But.
"W-what kind of name is that...?"
"..."
The man kicked his last chance away with his own two feet. He had just admitted, all on his own, that he knew nothing about Sephirot.
He must have noticed my expression hardening, because his face went even paler as he slammed his forehead into the dirt.
Thud!
"Spare me, Your Grace...! I-I was wrong. I won't ever go near Charlotte Havertz again. No — I'll cut all ties with this organization...!"
"..."
"If you have any orders, I'll do anything. As long as you're not telling me to die, even if you order me to kill my own brothers—!"
"Wait."
I cut that unbearable rambling off at the root. Then I lifted a finger and pointed at one of the building's walls — specifically, at the boxes and chunks of ice piled in front of it.
"What's that?"
"...Pardon?"
I'd asked because something about it had been bothering me. For him, though, this would be his truly final chance, and he seemed to sense it — his answer came faster, more breathless.
"I-it's an icebox, as you can see. We don't use it much in winter, but on assembly days in the hot season we always make ice treats from—"
"...So ice cream, then."
"Yes? Ah, yes. That's ri—"
Crack!
"..."
That was his last answer. I scowled for no good reason, and — not wanting to hear another word — punched a bolt of lightning straight through his body.
It was a small hole. But it went through his heart, and the man died in an instant.
"Haa."
I raked my bangs back in irritation and let out a long sigh.
"You're pissing me off. You bastard."
"..."
"..."
The dead, of course, were in no position to reply. As for the other two people present — Cain and Elena exchanged glances, watching my face for cues, and began whispering to each other in voices they clearly thought were small enough.
"W-why is Master acting like that?"
"I don't really know either... More importantly, address him as Your Grace. What kind of vulgar title is that?"
"Shut up. I'll call him whatever I want."
I pressed my fingers to my temple.
I can hear all of that, you know...
What exactly do those two think of their lord? Do they think I won the 8th Circle in a card game...?