I Stand in the Wilderness (3)
It drew closer.
The emotions that had withered away boiled up with a strange intensity.
And yet, beyond that—
they grew cold.
They froze over.
…Endlessly.
Thud.
Thud.
Like ripples spreading across a still lake, the silence was breaking apart.
“Cariel.”
His face was rigid with fury.
Remarkably so.
…Exactly as it always was.
“What were you doing here?”
…….
“You dare not answer when His Highness asks you!”
“So you showed off one little trick and now you think the world belongs to you?”
“I suppose you act this way because you trust Sir Rueld….”
“Enough.”
The prince raised a hand, silencing his retainers.
“…….”
Even this was.
The usual course of things.
“Don't make me say it twice. What were you doing here?”
“…….”
“You bastard, even now—!”
He had been waiting for that.
“……?”
Alesius wondered if he had misheard.
What did he just say?
Waiting for what?
“Human malice tends to show remarkable drive when it comes to self-interest and entertainment.”
Out of nowhere, he began to mutter.
“What?”
The instant the prince opened his mouth to spit back a retort—
“The strong oppressing the weak to reaffirm their own standing—that process is the greatest entertainment a person of power can enjoy. Isn't that right?”
So then.
“I understand it all perfectly well, in my head. So I won't bother blaming you for it.”
“What did this bastard just….”
His head snapped back.
Crash!
…….
……?
“??”
Alesius could do nothing but earnestly ponder, for a long while, why he was lying on the floor.
A ringing filled his ears.
His vision swayed, and only the dull, stinging ache somewhere in his face registered clearly—yet he still couldn't quite grasp what had happened.
He—he hit me?!
Has this bastard gone mad, out of nowhere?!
Do you—do you even understand what you've just done?!
What are you all standing around for?!
Like voices echoing from far away, shrieks and cries of disbelief rippled outward.
Only a few seconds had passed.
As his senses gradually sharpened back into focus—
the situation became clear as day.
“……?”
He hit me?
Me?
That pathetic little wretch… struck… me?
In the first place—
…there was no reason he should ever be struck at all, was there?
That this dim-witted fool had resorted to violence first was itself an extraordinary anomaly. But more than that—
the notion that he, Alesius, could be knocked flat by something so crude—
…he was not that kind of half-baked man.
Never mind the sword—even in practical close-quarters combat,
he had no equal among his own year at the Academy, and across all the years, only a handful had ever rivaled him.
With a blade in hand, it went without saying.
And it wasn't merely the sword.
The magic he'd learned as part of a noble's education, he could wield and deploy better than most students of the magical sciences themselves.
Did excellence in practice mean his theory lagged behind?
Not at all.
That, in fact, was his true specialty.
But whether suited to a thing or not—
he was required to excel at everything.
Such was the bloodline that even the blue-blooded nobility revered without end.
Precisely because it was the duty of the golden line.
Blue blood or red—
wolves and men alike rush at whatever seems easy to take; there, they are no different.
Power, in the end, flows from overwhelming strength.
Symbol and legitimacy alike only acquire meaning the moment force stands behind them.
Therefore—
he must never have shown such disgraceful weakness.
It couldn't be helped.
Fortune had simply been against him.
The circumstances had been far too unfavorable.
But excuses like those could never serve as comfort under any circumstances.
Improper.
Unbecoming.
“Ugh!”
And yet.
Falling once means I'm that shaken? So I'm crippled from it?
That was a vice beyond mere disgrace—it deserved nothing but contempt.
“You dare…!”
Only a few seconds had passed.
So why—
…why was everyone except himself, who had just staggered to his feet, sprawled across the library floor?
“Hik—!”
Save for those tending to the fallen prince,
every single one of them who had borne open hostility toward him—who had gone so far as to act on it—
none of them was standing upright.
“Come at me.”
“…You have well and truly lost your mind.”
Inside the library, where silence ought to reign—
the sudden uproar, small as it was, drew the gazes of the few souls present, all of them at once.
Ordinarily, he would have moved elsewhere.
And then done this or that about it afterward.
But this situation had not been started by Alesius himself.
Shocking as it was—
no—finding this shocking was itself the greater shock—
the one who had struck first was that side.
Cariel.
So you have no intention whatsoever of minding appearances, is that it?
Every disgrace he suffered led straight to the dishonor of our parents.
Yours and mine alike.
…No one should know that better than you.
“Pay it no mind.”
No hesitation at all.
The man approached with perfect composure.
“If things go badly, one might as well die. Isn't that right?”
What did he…?
“You've gone utterly, completely mad—!”
Shouting, he swung his fist on pure reflex—
and the man deflected it with his forearm.
No—that wasn't the end of it.
The deflected arm was seized, just as it was.
“Ugh?!”
In an instant he drove mana through his body, reinforcing it, boosting his strength, sharpening his senses—
What—?!
It came undone.
As though forcibly dismantled, everything simply stopped responding.
“Kuh!”
His head was forced back.
A rapid flurry of light right-hand jabs.
They were nothing but feelers, and yet the moment those strikes slipped onto the optimal line of attack, his vision stung and ached.
But—
Weak.
True, the clumsy blow of this frail body that couldn't even reinforce itself had landed with a jolt of confusion.
But that's all it is!
Yet there was something Alesius had overlooked—
the fact that this weakling had subdued and neutralized his entire retinue.
Heat rushing to his head, unlike his usual self, he failed to parse that single crucial detail.
He channeled mana once more and tried to wrench his captured right arm free—
——?
It was no illusion.
And in that instant, the world turned over once again.
“Kuhk!”
With a tremendous crash, Alesius's hurled body came down like an axe dropping in freefall, splitting the library desk clean in two.
The impact made his spine spasm and buckle.
“You… fucking… bastard!”
“Get up.”
We still have plenty left to discuss, don't we.
“Khhk! What? A conversation?”
This lunatic… spouting nonsense even now!
“Ah.”
There, again—
as though arriving at some realization.
Cariel stopped in place and looked up at the empty air.
And even that—
“You'd forgotten, hadn't you. And it happened only this morning.”
“Khhk! I'll—I won't let you get away with—”
“Get up.”
Cariel simply stood there, silently watching Alesius flounder about in his wretched struggle.
“The grown-ups would brush this aside as a mere squabble between children, no doubt. But you and I—we've already crossed the river too far to turn back.”
Even if you were to take a different stance hereafter—
“I no longer have that luxury.”
“Feeling awfully proud of yourself, aren't you?! All because you landed one measly trick on me! You got one hit in and—what?! Feel like you own the whole world?!”
“Since a while ago, now—”
Cariel asked back with indifferent eyes.
“What is all this senseless yapping?”
“You! You dare say that to me?! You! A thing like you!”
“Stop barking.”
He approached, slowly.
Stepping lightly around the splintered wreckage of the desk.
“There will be no second chance.”
“Second chance?!”
“If you fall to the floor this time, you had best be ready.”
“You insane bastard, even now—!”
He worked the mana pooled around his heart through a secret breathing technique.
As though everything from moments ago had been a lie, vitality came flooding back through his whole body.
I didn't let my guard down this time.
His mind went cold as a lie.
Some had called this peculiar disposition of his a flaw of character.
But if you use it properly, isn't that all it needs to be?
That was what His Majesty had always said. Father and Mother both.
And more—
Never lament what you have, and never envy what you lack.
Hadn't His Majesty said as much, over and over?
As the seething emotions cooled and then froze over, prickling cold, the things that had gone unseen now spread rapidly through his brilliant mind.
If he touches me, the mana scatters.
He had no idea what manner of trick it was.
But if that was all there was to it, then he need only avoid being touched. Wasn't that so?
…And yet.
The man's movements had a startling economy to them—far beyond what he'd imagined.
No—wait. That was a mistake.
Waste was everywhere in them.
It was simply that they were impossibly difficult to counter.
It wasn't that they couldn't be seen.
It wasn't that he was so quick, so nimble, that the eye failed to track him.
The movements were… simple.
What had happened moments ago—
humiliating as it was, how could he ever forget it?
Looking back, no matter how hard he searched, nothing about it had been remarkable.
They both had the same four limbs and one body, after all—his side and that one alike.
Was this also some secret application of mana?
But if so, that made even less sense.
What in the world is going on?
The distance had closed to where an outstretched arm would reach.
Alesius, biting down on instinct and pulling his body back to widen the gap—
there, once again—
exploded.
I—I pulled back? I retreated from that creature out of fear?!
From that?
From me?!
Alesius was finally forced to admit it.
So it was true.
Utterly—
the moment I look at you… I cannot keep myself cold and composed.
All of it—you brought this on yourself.
He hardened his killing intent.
That side had surely steeled itself as well, before setting this whole affair in motion.
Therefore, all of this was justified self-defense.
Therefore, there was no reason for him to hesitate—
no reason to hold anything back—
none whatsoever, on my word!
Alesius hurled his body forward at a speed that outpaced his retreat by far.
The world streamed past in a rush, while Cariel simply looked on, distant and unhurried, as though he were frozen in place.
Yes. I'll admit it.
Then and now.
You…!
…….
And so, once more—
the world turned over.
“……?!”
A violent shock slammed into his back and waist.
No—the reverse.
His body, his entire body, had been driven down into the ground.
“Khek!”
As though it had all been a lie—
the body that had overflowed with vitality became as fragile as an invalid's.
“Uh… ugh?”
When did he grab me?
The heat that had filled his skull moments ago cooled past neutrality and dropped into a frozen nadir.
Labored breathing came coupled with the pain.
Emotionally, confusion churned and boiled within him—
but his reason, in opposition, was colder than ever.
As though perceiving his own self through a third party's eyes.
He grabbed my arm.
And threw me over.
“Kuk!”
More than anything—
this was not yet over.
With his seized arm still held fast, Cariel swung himself up over his chest, bending it like a lever—
Crack!
“?!”
His shoulder came out of its socket.
A deliberate, unmistakable piece of work.
But Alesius had not been raised so frail that a single gesture would wring screams from him.
Though being accustomed to pain, of course, did not mean painlessness.
“I warned you.”
If you fall to the floor—
“You had best be ready.”
“Wha—?!”
Cariel, riding atop him, drove a fist down.
THUD!
“?!”
He threw up his one unharmed left arm to block it—
and the weight bore down deep into his elbow joint, nearly forcing a scream out of him.
THUD!
My knee—?!'
There, again—
Crack!
“?!”
Mid-fist, aimed at his face, the man abruptly shifted his posture—seized his left shoulder, and popped it out.
The joint had merely been dislocated; to the eye, nothing seemed much wrong.
But for the man whose both arms had been rendered useless in an instant, no terror could have compared.
“You bas—”
THUD!
“—tard—!”
THUD!
“—what—?!”
THUD!
Both arms spent, Cariel mounted his chest once more and rained fists down, blow after blow.
THUD!
“You thought—!”
THUD!
“—after this—!”
THUD!
“—you would—!”
THUD!
“—be—!”
THUD!
“—safe….”
Suddenly, Alesius's body was flipped over.
What is he—?!
No sooner did weight settle onto his back than—
THUD!
His face was driven into the floor.
Its side, to be precise.
Impacts came in steady rhythm.
This bastard, I swear—!
“Ngh!”
His face was wrenched forcibly up off the ground—
his ruined, disheveled hair seized roughly in a fist.
“Bear it.”
I endured it for a long, long time as well.
“This time, it is your turn.”
THUD!
Straddling his back, gripping him by the hair—
he swung his fist into his face.
THUD!
THUD!
THUD.
“Hiiik!”
“Wh—what is happening?”
“That lunatic… that madman! How is he going to clean this up!”
“He—he dared lay hands on His Highness the Prince— th—this is! This is t—tre—treason?!”
Let the people around him prattle all they liked.
What did it matter.
I was sinking in a pit.
And so—
by one means or another, I did climb out of that pit.
But it meant nothing at all.
In the end, I had to drag back the ones who had shoved me in.
And throw them into the pit I'd climbed out of.
Until that day—
reality, appearances, the future, happiness, dreams—what were any of them to me?
All I had to do was take my revenge. That was all.
“This is only the opening skirmish, so I won't kill you.”
Not yet. For now, I merely—
“Bear it.”
Just as I, trembling through my whole body, had barely endured it.
Just as I had barely, barely held on.
“From now on, you and I are fated never to live under the same sky again.”
He swung his fist.
CRACK!
And again.
CRACK!
And again.
CRACK—!
Without end.
CRACK—!