A Brief Rest — The Dice Are Cast
"So you're really going to Erkia, the City of Water?"
Velita asked once more, and Alex drank his wine with the ease of long habit.
"I have to."
"Olivia might kill you."
"Even so, I can hardly skip the Human Alliance Conference. His Majesty Cromwell Clifort himself requested it, after all."
"I see..."
It was a lie. If he truly had no desire to go, there were any number of ways to avoid it.
The Human Alliance Conference was a grand name for what was, in the end, little more than a gathering to foster goodwill so that humanity would not go to war with itself. Most marriages between the races were decided at this very event. It was for this reason that the children of royalty and nobility so often married outside their own kind rather than within it. Marrying into another race was simply less likely to start a war than marrying among one's own.
Of course, not many people actually did so. By Alex's estimate, it was roughly one member of a royal house and one or two from the nobility. More often than not, the ones introduced at these marriage arrangements were people who would not inherit the family — or who were otherwise of no particular use to anyone.
At any rate, it was the kind of gathering he did not strictly need to attend. His reason for going was perfectly clear.
His pride would not allow otherwise.
To admit this was a crisis and hide away in the relative safety of the kingdom simply did not sit with his temperament. It was an act that courted defeat. Hiding just because something was dangerous was the kind of thinking only a loser would entertain. The greater the crisis, the more he had to move these legs of his and seize victory.
I'll win. There's nothing to worry about.
If he did not win, none of it meant anything. He would claim victory, and he would have everything. It was not born of wounds or some fracture of the mind — it was desire, pure and simple, and Alex Reynolds had surely been this way from the day he was born.
And yet there was one possibility he found himself turning over from time to time. If he had remained in those slums, where there had been nothing but garbage — he wondered, occasionally, whether something might have been different.
Meaningless rambling, of course.
If this is a crisis, I'll turn it into an opportunity.
Olivia would certainly appear, and that would simultaneously be a chance to kill her. She did not seem to want to make a spectacle of the Hero's assassination. That was surely because she feared Alex might do something irreversible in response. She was not wrong — but Alex, for his part, wanted to keep the power he held in the kingdom.
Even if everything else crumbled, shouldn't the kingdom be protected?
"What will you do, Miss Velita?"
"Me? I..."
Velita knew almost nothing. In a sense, she knew even less than Rayna. So even if she were to tell Olivia anything, she would have no real information to give. Should he take her along? Or leave her behind? He considered it for a moment.
"Well, we aren't leaving tomorrow. Take your time thinking it over."
"Wh-what should I do?"
He sighed inwardly.
How easy she was to manipulate was a considerable advantage, and he could acknowledge the effort she had poured into honing her healing magic despite not being a true Saintess — but she was a woman who lacked any real will of her own. If she married, she would be the type to leave everything to her husband and devote herself to the household. The type to fold the moment opinions clashed.
No opinions of her own. No confidence. Nothing at all.
It would be no exaggeration to call her empty. If even desire had stirred within her, that would have been something — but even that was absent. She feared becoming a villain, yet found it tiresome to keep being a good person.
How thoroughly human.
"Miss Velita."
"Y-yes!"
"You and I are the only two accomplices left. We cannot trust anyone else in this world — but we can trust each other, because we committed the same crime."
"...Th-that's true."
"So let's lean on each other and live. Once we get through this crisis, we won't have to struggle for the rest of our lives."
"Of course. Yes."
"Then I'll give you another day or so. I'd prefer we went together, but if you'd rather not, remaining in the Royal Capital is fine."
"...Yes. Please give me time to think."
"Of course."
With that, Velita stood.
"I'll be going, then."
"Yes. Take care of yourself."
Velita bowed her head slightly and left the room, and Alex kept smiling until she was gone.
In the City of Water — in Erkia — fate will begin to move once more.
Last time, the die Olivia threw had come up a one, and Alex's a four. He had succeeded in bringing her to the brink of death, but he had not killed her, so calling it a six would have been a stretch.
What about this time? What numbers would their dice show when they threw them again?
You always have to account for the worst-case scenario.
He needed to prepare a means of throwing the dice a second time, in case unexpected methods came into play. There would be situations in which Olivia Reinhardt, being the Hero, would have no choice. Even if she had been disappointed in people, at her core she was a foolishly good person who would never succumb to the temptation of evil.
In this world, there were people who could never become heroes, and people who could never become villains. Olivia was a textbook example of the latter — and he needed to use that.
A knock sounded at the door.
Quite the procession of visitors today.
He let out a short sigh.
"It's open."
"Then I'll come in."
At that familiar voice, Alex found himself rising to his feet before he knew it, and the person who opened the door and entered was exactly who he had expected. Alex greeted him with proper courtesy.
"Prince Felix Clifort. To what do I owe the honor of your visit?"
"Ah, don't concern yourself. No need to stand on so much ceremony. You're royalty yourself, with a legitimate claim to the throne, are you not?"
"Hardly. I'm merely a nouveau riche who got lucky because the previous Hero happened to come from the Reynolds family."
"Humble, aren't you."
Felix Clifort. Younger brother of Lilith Cliphort, and the eldest son. Because Lilith's health was poor and she could not engage in public activity, he was all but confirmed as the next king. But Alex had also taken part in the subjugation of the Demon King while holding succession rights of his own, so depending on the circumstances, Alex could become king himself.
In childhood, Felix had been outmatched by his older sister in every respect. Then her condition had worsened until she could do nothing, and Felix had surpassed her in everything. And yet the defeat left behind in those childhood years would surely continue to haunt him.
"Do you know where my sister is?"
"I know she used a teleportation orb to transfer to East Port, but I have no other information of note."
"I see."
"You must be concerned, as siblings often are."
"Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried as family. But that's not what I'm concerned about."
"Then what is it that worries you?"
Felix toyed with his chin as he spoke.
"My sister has extraordinary intuition. She skips the process entirely and lands on the result. But she knows her own condition well, so she's always stayed quietly in her place."
"She used to tease me, saying she was destined to be sold off as a fiancée to some other race in the Human Alliance that she didn't even like, so I'd better run the country well."
"That's an honorable position. To tease you about it..."
"Does it look that way to you? A seat that comes with every kind of heavy responsibility wouldn't sit well with some people. My sister was one of those people."
"I see..."
"Ah, I've gone off on a tangent."
Felix let out a small sigh, then continued.
"Anyway, my sister was someone who could be content with her place, and no matter how much she acted like a tomboy, she never crossed the line. ...That sister of mine moved without telling anyone, taking only Sebas with her."
"She must have had some kind of intuition of her own, and acted on it. I can't dismiss this as nothing. Something happened. It must have."
"Something like what, for instance?"
"Hmm. Well."
Felix smiled.
"Perhaps she found a marriage partner?"
"That would be an intuition worth celebrating."
"Wouldn't it? Anyway... Ah, right. The reason I came was to tell you that I'll be going to Erkia, the City of Water, as well."
"Prince Felix, going to Erkia... In other words, you'll be going in my place?"
That would wound his pride in its own way, but even so, forcing his way to Erkia against Felix would carry too much risk. If Felix truly intended to go in Alex's stead, it would be better for Alex to quietly give up.
"No. I'll be going as your aide."
"Th-that's... If I were serving as Your Highness's aide, that would be one thing, but the reverse is a bit..."
"Father recommended it, apparently."
"You two seem to talk quite often. More than he does with me, his own son. Enough to make me jealous."
"That's... His Majesty is simply awkward with his children."
"True enough."
Felix rose, straightening his clothes as he spoke.
"But if Father trusts you that much, I simply want to watch from the side and learn what there is to learn. No need to be nervous."
"Haha. The way you put that, it rather sounds like you're telling me I ought to be nervous."
"Does it? Hahaha, well, how about that... But you're right. Father was never a man of many words to begin with, but lately he seems to have grown even quieter."
"Is that so?"
Felix looked at Alex.
"Do you know anything? He might have told a trusted subordinate something he wouldn't tell his own child."
"Surely not. I believe Your Highness overestimates the relationship between His Majesty and myself. He treats me well simply because we happen to see eye to eye on certain things."
"Is that so..."
Silence settled over the room for a moment, and then Felix laughed.
"Well then, we'll be departing in a few days. I'll be counting on you."
"Yes. I'll do my utmost."
"Prince Felix!"
The door burst open. The knight who appeared to be Felix's guard threw it wide with a force that made Alex open his mouth to shout at the rudeness — then immediately think better of it. A knight who knew his manners would not do something like this without good reason. Felix seemed to have reached the same conclusion, because he said nothing about the impropriety.
"What is it?"
"A message has arrived from Princess Lilith!"
The nobility possessed magical tools that allowed for brief communication within humanity's territories. They were not nearly as long-ranged as the one Alex possessed, but still. At any rate, it seemed she had used one of those to make contact.
"What? Where is she now? Is my sister unharmed?"
"Y-yes... It was a short message, but she seems to be doing well..."
The knight's face had gone deathly pale, as if to say the real problem was that she was doing too well.
Felix tilted his head.
"So what's the message? What did my sister say? Was it addressed to me?"
"Well... She says she's built a rapport with Titania in Elvenheim, and that she'll be going to Erkia, the City of Water."
Silence. A stunned, ringing silence.
Felix, who had risen to his feet, sank back down as if struck by vertigo.
"P-Prince Felix!"
"She still hasn't changed... acting first and thinking later..."
Felix pressed his temple and muttered.
"My head hurts..."
Behind him, Alex's eyes gleamed.
So Lilith is coming to Erkia with Titania as well.
That was the only piece of information that held any meaning for Alex.