Before Death Comes
The moment she stepped into the room, a wizened old clergyman whose scalp was a thicket of wrinkles was already there to greet her.
"It has been some time, Hero."
She knew exactly who he was. She spoke his true name and his title.
"Cardinal Yoas."
"Haha. To think you still remember this old man's name... I am truly moved."
The instant his name left the Hero's lips, the cardinal's face lit with a joy brighter than anything else in the room. Not that it did a thing to improve the atmosphere. The Hero's mood had been foul from the moment she set foot in this place.
Cardinal Yoas wiped the cold sweat from his brow and pressed on with his persuasion.
"I understand your thinking perfectly, Hero. But this is nothing more than coincidence. The royal family may invite suspicion, yet our investigation has turned up no connection whatsoever."
"Is that... so?"
"It is. And even if it were otherwise, we cannot hold the Crown Prince who advanced this matter to any further account. The Church has no authority to interfere with the royal household."
The Hero ground her teeth. The grief welling from her chest seized the entire room.
"Then how am I to honor the souls of the dead?"
"...I understand your sorrow, Hero."
A light kindled in Cardinal Yoas's eyes. His persuasive, modest voice began, little by little, to dissolve her anger.
"Hate the Demon King. Her savage schemes, her plots, drove those examinees to their deaths — and even now, somewhere, she is surely weaving some filthy, brutal design."
"...I see."
"The only way to break through such shadow-work is to grow stronger. Devote yourself, Hero. Devote yourself again, until the day you sever the Demon King's head. Reach that end."
Cardinal Yoas laid out a path that was nothing if not reasonable — the path the Hero was supposed to walk.
"Then everything will be resolved."
"I understand."
And so the Hero accepted it. The heavy air lightened by a degree, and Yoas let the gravity fall from his face and broke into a broad smile.
"Well then, Hero — it has been so long since you last visited the Church. Should you not rest from the journey a little?"
"...I have little time to spare."
"Consider the Church your home whenever you wish, and come to us if something troubles you. Had this not been a matter involving the royal family, this old man would have found a way to put his hand to it."
The Hero rose from her seat at last.
Once, she would have believed the Church. It was her sanctuary — the thing she was supposed to trust. She would have accepted, faster than anyone, that the royal family had nothing to do with this.
Not now.
The greatest of her suspicions gnawed at her mind.
What I saw in the dream...
The image of Argal tearing the royal family down. That Argal — so kind, so devoted to others — had become a monster who wanted nothing but the royal family's destruction.
Why is it coming back to me now?
If that dream was a future that would actually come to pass. If the Argal in the dream had a reason to fall. If the cause of that fall was the royal family —
She stood. She had no more business here. Distrust had taken root in the Hero's heart.
She would investigate the royal family herself. And this happened to be the Capital — the royal family's own stronghold. If she looked, something would turn up.
That was what the Hero believed.
I hadn't really expected him to show.
Detection magic or not, I was already awake. Magi thick enough to make my nose throb was sitting just across the way — sleeping through that would have been the strange part. A familiar Magi. A face I had met more times than I could count. A thing I had hated more than anything else in the world.
I just hadn't expected it to come back here. Especially not after it was already dead.
"Wake up. We've got company."
"W-what?"
"Nngh... what's going on?"
The girls stirred at my voice. Fran and Raeli had been through enough crises that they snapped alert fast, sudden as the situation was. Not that it was much of a problem. Enemy or not, it was only one of them — and not even a fully living black mage. Just a Lich.
"An enemy? Nothing's tripped the detection magic yet."
"Because it isn't here yet."
"...What? Then how do you know?"
Fran looked puzzled, then figured it out a second later. She hadn't forgotten I could sense Magi.
"Ah — did some kind of demon show up? Is that how you noticed?"
"Close enough. It's a Lich."
"A Lich...!"
Fran's eyes went wide and bright, packed full of curiosity. She looked like she'd been waiting her whole life to meet one.
"Curious about Liches?"
"Y-yes! An undead that keeps its knowledge and keeps moving even after death — a Lich is a mandatory item on my list of things I have to figure out!"
Not that there was anything that special about a Lich. Her curiosity was about to be satisfied whether she liked it or not. The detection magic Fran had set let out a grand, blaring alarm.
Death was coming toward us. Fran was delighted she'd get her answers, but she tensed all the same with an enemy on the approach.
"A Lich's weakness is simple."
Only bone showed on his fingers. The last scrap of the man he had once been clung as a few patches of flesh to the bones of his face. Gaudium had lost all reason. He moved with a single purpose, and his Magi was so familiar I knew who it was in an instant.
"They're dumber than you'd expect."
A black mage turned undead does not keep the reason and wisdom of its former life. Unless it is a true Lich possessing a Life Vessel, something like this is basically just a walking black-magic turret. The power is a problem, sure — but the weakness is glaring.
I cast the magic myself, aiming straight at that weak point. A Lich with dull senses and no capacity for quick reactions is extremely vulnerable to the illusion school. False information woven from magic swallowed the space around it.
I had crafted an illusion of an opponent that, with the knowledge the Lich possessed, it could never defeat. While it reeled in confusion, I passed the word to Raeli.
"Hit it. Now."
"Got it!"
Raeli burst out, and her blade struck Gaudium dead-on. The blow landed with a heavy crash. A clean hit to the head knocked him out of the illusion for a moment — and Fran's illusion settled over the Lich again with perfect timing. She learned fast. The second I told her illusions were the weak point, she put it to use.
"Again! Now!"
Bone cracked under the next strike. Judging by the pace, the Lich looked ready to crumble back into dirt and die any second. I stopped stacking the illusions and gave Raeli a different order. In the end, undead don't die. Beating one to death with a sword alone was never going to cut it — especially not an undead made by the Lord of the Black Magic Tower.
"Can you hold it without the illusions, Raeli?"
"Of course I can!"
Leaving that confident shout behind, I reinforced my body with mana and moved. Worry filled Fran's eyes as she looked at me.
"Are you all right, Argal?"
"It's a very light enhancement. Don't worry, Fran."
Maybe because she'd watched me suffer the side effects last time. Fran immediately fixed me with a look packed full of concern. I had no intention of letting this Lich drag things out.
"...I don't particularly want to give you peace."
I checked the strings of control that only my eyes could see. Then I charged Gaudium.
I intended to put Gaudium down clean. No loose ends. I moved my hand, and the line connecting Gaudium to the Lord of the Black Magic Tower was severed.
I did not want Tiagris descending on this place. Not an opponent we could beat easily with our current strength. If I cut the connection here, even if Gaudium met his final rest, the Lord of the Black Magic Tower wouldn't know the details.
Following the movements of my enhanced body, Gaudium was subdued in moments. Fran's support and the combined assault with Raeli packed a serious punch, and my own reinforcement-backed assists were effective too. Layer illusions tailored to a Lich's weaknesses on top of that, and Gaudium came apart fast.
A fitting end for a sinner who had used others as sacrifices for black magic and made them suffer. Barring some enormous variable, the three of us were more than enough to take one Lich.
And then I sat down hard on the ground.
"Argal!"
"Are you okay?!"
Both girls rushed me. My body was already in bad shape, and the side effects of the enhancement hit hard — I hadn't even pushed the reinforcement that far. Fran knew that, which is why her warning came out so sharp.
"Argal, stay still. Don't even think about stepping up again. Your body can't handle even the slightest physical enhancement!"
"I know."
"Don't just say it!"
The faintest sheen of moisture gathered in her eyes. Warned like that, I had no choice but to nod. Raeli soothed Fran as her emotions ran high.
"It's late. Let's just sleep."
"...Okay."
Fran collected herself and turned to climb back into the carriage — until she spotted the Spear Saint standing there with his spear, coughing violently.
"What are you doing, Asel...?"
"...Thought there was a fight. Came outside. Cough."
"Put him back, Raeli."
"Okay."
A heavy thud.
"Hyaaah!"
The Spear Saint, who had mistimed his entrance completely, was packed back into self-isolation. We loaded ourselves into the carriage and spent the rest of the night in quiet.
"...Nngh."
Fran, who had been sleeping near me, had somehow pressed herself a little closer. By the end, she was holding me completely.
I knew how she felt. I stayed still.
Fran's breathing was soft.
Reaching the Capital wasn't going to take that long. It had been scheduled for two days from the start, so that tracked.
The carriage arrived, and the mood in the Capital was off. There had been the Crown Prince's enormous blunder, and black mages had been running wild near the city — quiet rumors would have spread. Still, with the authority of House Russelmani, we passed the gates easily. Even without a crest or banner, a carriage operating under a ducal house was something the guards couldn't so much as lift a finger against. They had to let it through.
And so, though it hadn't actually been that long, it felt like a long time since I'd last set foot in the Capital.
"Shall we head straight to the church, then?"
Fran was moving fast, trying to get things resolved. Worry for my health and worry for Besia's situation were mixed together. I felt the same. The moment we arrived in the Capital, we made for the church.
When we got there, the security was far tighter than before. Holy Knights blocked the main gate with a murderous intensity. Getting through casually didn't look likely.
"Should we borrow the Russelmani name?"
"A ducal house's influence won't work on the Church."
"...Then how about this?"
Fran walked straight up to the church's front gate. To the Holy Knight blocking the way, she said:
"I'm a friend of the Hero. May I see her?"
"A companion of the Hero?"
It was a better approach than I'd expected. The Hero had gone to the church to make her report, and that church was the one here in the Capital — she would be staying here. And claiming to be her friend wasn't strange. They were comrades who had survived the entrance exam's ordeal together.
The Holy Knights, apparently unused to this kind of request, looked flustered — but they held the entrance firm.
"The Hero is out at the moment. Perhaps you could enter together with her when she returns?"
"...What? That won't work."
Her trump card had been shut down. We were out of options. Force our way through? Could we even beat Holy Knights? Finding the Hero and going in with her was another option, but finding her would take time too.
I was just starting to consider simply telling the truth — that we'd come to see the Bishop — when a familiar face appeared beyond the gate.
"Wait... aren't you that patient from back then?"
It was the priest who had treated me and kept me under watch when we escaped the Black Magic Tower with Besia.