We're Doomed

I did it.

I pulled my hands away from my big sister the Empress, who was breathing steadily once more, and fastened her clothes back into place.

Maybe it was the sheer relief of having gotten through the emergency without disaster. The sensation that had lingered at my fingertips came flooding back a beat too late, and a wave of guilt washed over me.

...What if Big Sister the Empress decides to hold me responsible for daring to touch the imperial body?

I'd think about that later.

"You... undid the curse...?"

"I undid it for certain. Every last scrap of mana that had been circulating through Her Majesty's body has been cleanly expelled."

"How is that even..."

Silvia stood there gaping, stammering, then ran her hands over the Empress's body in a quick examination. Her jaw dropped open.

With all her mana temporarily gone, the symptoms of mana exhaustion had dragged her under into sleep. But Her Majesty's mana production was so exceptional that she would recover her strength soon enough.

Put another way: until Big Sister the Empress recovered and woke up, the most powerful combatant in this room was out of the fight.

"Yulia. Stay here and keep an eye on Her Majesty for a while — make sure her condition doesn't take a turn for the worse."

"W-wait!? Where are you going? ...yo?"

"There are still people left."

"The skeleton grandpas are still fighting, too!"

Charlotte hoisted the Jjang-sseh-jjang-sseh Sword and chimed in. The escort detail and Reinhardt were still holding the banquet hall against the corps soldiers. The safety of the nobles still under the curse's thrall was a worry as well.

If we simply locked the panic room door and waited for the army that would come running at word of the rebellion, the whole affair would eventually end. But by then, there was no telling how many casualties would have piled up.

We had to finish this with as few dead and wounded as possible.

"We find the warlock who put everyone under that curse. This panic room is safe, so anyone who wants to stay can stay. Yuri. What about you?"

"For the rest of today I am Count Belmont's close escort. I cannot abandon my duty."

"Good. Charlotte?"

"I'm coming too! I don't ever want to just stand and watch and worry myself sick like back in the ant nest...!"

"Then let's move."

Yuri and Charlotte nodded and fell in behind me. Silvia tore the hem of her skirt clean off so she could run properly and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stuck close to my side. For all that brisk efficiency, though, her lips kept twitching into a pout — she clearly had a lot of complaints.

"...Why didn't you ask me?"

"Why would I need your consent? You're basically a slave who has to follow whenever I say go."

"What kind of inhuman—!?"

"If you wanted to be treated like a human being, you should have wiped the brand when you had the chance. Who was it that threw their own freedom away?"

"Ha? Ha! Hah...!"

Silvia was so flabbergasted she could only huff empty little laughs and couldn't manage a single retort.

She'd had the chance to erase the brand and given it up herself. Which meant she wanted to follow my orders for the rest of her life, right?

It was a little overwhelming, if I was being honest. But as the one who held the brand's control rights, I decided to be magnanimous about it. If not me, who else was going to take in a poor dependent case like Silvia?

I had no idea who had stamped that brand on her and dumped her on me in the first place. I decided to take responsibility as a form of community service.

As we hurried toward the banquet hall I glanced down the opposite corridor. Huk-huk-i hadn't given an inch — it was planted there like a wall. But it was being edged back, little by little, which meant the number of corps soldiers packed on the far side was considerable. At this rate the line would break eventually.

We had to end this before Huk-huk-i was breached and the rear became a problem.

"Huk-huk-i! If your life is in danger, spirit-form yourself and run immediately!"

"Huk-huk-i is so cool...!"

"..."

Charlotte's eyes sparkled with pure, starry admiration. For a second I wondered if she'd only said it as a well-meaning lie to keep Huk-huk-i's spirits up — but looking into her face, she meant every word.

What part of that is cool, exactly...?

Charlotte's psychology had these corners I just could not understand sometimes.

"Ah! Count! You're back? I was just about to go after you."

"..."

The moment we set foot in the banquet hall, a hearty voice rang out. The whole way here I had been uneasy because I hadn't heard a single clash of cold steel — and now the only one still standing in the hall was Reinhardt. The escort knights were all sprawled on the floor.

I'd dared to hope, but it seemed even Reinhardt hadn't been able to resist the curse.

What is this? He feels like a completely different person...

And yet Reinhardt's presence was off in a way that didn't match the others. The atmosphere around him was nothing like the Reinhardt I knew. At the same time, he wasn't jerking around like a puppet the way the rest of the thralls were — his movements were natural.

Yes. That was definitely—

"Sefirot. Is that you?"

"You figured it out in one go? Strange. I'm fairly certain we've never met..."

Reinhardt tilted his head with a seductive little sway and smiled a deep, knowing smile. Watching a man's face do that nearly made me throw up, but I managed to hold it down.

I'm going to lose my mind.

Sefirot was Reinhardt's lieutenant, so she would have had plenty of chances to share drinks with him. Which meant Reinhardt had been drinking the cursed wine longer and more often than anyone. It hadn't stopped at simple brainwashing — she had possessed him outright.

"That hideous demonic sword is the legendary blade that cleaved a mountain, isn't it? I'll need it to break into the panic room. Hand the demonic sword over and step aside. Do that, and I'll spare your lives."

"It's not a demonic sword, it's the Jjang-sseh-jjang-sseh Sword! And if you're going to do bad things with it, I am absolutely not giving it to you!"

"You heard her. If you want to keep your own life, stop this nonsense at once and surrender in your real body."

"Ahaha...! What a terrifying threat!"

"..."

Shhhhing.

Reinhardt drew his sword and laughed in a high, ringing voice.

...Negotiations had just collapsed.

If we clash head-on, we lose for certain.

Reinhardt was at a level that both the captain of the guard and Big Sister the Empress had acknowledged as a Sword Master. With the people we had here, we could die and come back to life and still never beat him.

But did we really have to fight him? That thought crossed my mind as well.

"Haa..."

It was time to test the power of my newly evolved skill — Black Magic.

One quasi–Sword Master. One little brat playing at Sword Master with a demonic sword's power. And the last one... hmm. Just a girl who's a bit stronger than average, is she?

Sefirot hummed through her nose as she surveyed the party ringing Count Belmont. Their combat strength didn't look like much. With this body she had already crushed a true Sword Master — the captain of the guard. As if she would lose to a pack of nobodies who hadn't even reached that level yet.

Meaningless resistance. She would finish them all off quickly, take the demonic sword, and head for the panic room. Once the Empress was dead, this endless war would finally be over...!

Sefirot raised her arm, and Reinhardt's arm rose with the sword. She was ready to spring at any moment.

"Haa..."

Just then, Count Belmont let out a long, thoroughly put-upon sigh. There was no fear in him — not even a hint of worry. Where was this confidence coming from? How did he plan to stand against a Sword Master with that collection of strays?

She tensed, half-expecting him to produce some hidden weapon.

"Ah?"

KUUUUUUUU!

A shockwave burst out from Count Belmont. From his body, darkness like black tentacles surged up and began to writhe.

What in the world is that...!?

Magic? She hadn't sensed any mana stirring at all, so it couldn't be magic. No — she couldn't feel any mana in the air at all right now.

How was that possible? A technique that annihilated every scrap of ambient mana? She had never heard of such a thing.

Count Belmont was supposed to be researching black magic — was that it? Black Magic?

He actually completed Black Magic...?

The moment that thought landed, Sefirot felt her connection to Reinhardt crackle and turn unstable. Only then did her eyes go wide as she realized it wasn't just the mana in the air — the mana inside her own body was vanishing like snow under a sun.

"I—I have to get out of—!"

The instant Sefirot tried to turn Reinhardt's body and flee, a second shockwave slammed into her, and the connection snapped completely.

Sefirot gasped and staggered to her feet.

"Ah...?"

Far in the distance, the Imperial Palace. From it, something like a colossal black tentacle had thrust itself skyward without regard for height, writhing as if it meant to ravage the living world.

What was that? The body of an Evil God? What in the hells had Count Belmont dragged up out of the abyss?

"So this world was nothing more than a plaything for some vast existence all along...?"

Before that supernatural spectacle, every last shred of Sefirot's will to resist crumbled. Only helplessness and a primal terror remained to rule her body.

"Found her! I'll restrain her right away!"

"Clack-clack!"

"Ahh... This world is going to be destroyed... by the Evil God Belmont has summoned..."

"What's this auntie even saying?"

Even as Yuri and the skeleton soldiers rushed in and locked the magic-sealing tools around Sefirot's wrists, she remained completely vacant, out of her mind.