After the Battle of Hisphil Castle
"Sh-shall we begin...?"
"Yes. Please get ready."
We were on a mountain not far behind Valharat Castle. Before a vast lakeshore, Reika and I were conducting a kind of experiment.
"Th-then...!"
Eyes closed, Reika formed a fireball in her hand once more. I checked the rapier gripped in my own.
...It wasn't glowing.
What?
No matter how long I waited, there was no sign of anything changing. I spoke up to Reika and brought the trial to a close.
"That's enough, Reika. I don't think we need to see any more."
"Ah, y-yes...!"
Reika dismissed the fireball from her hand without difficulty.
What I'd wanted to test was simple: if this rapier was a mana amplifier, shouldn't I be able to use it regardless of the situation? And the results of that experiment had just come in.
So much for coming all the way to the lakeshore just in case something went wrong.
I'd half expected this, honestly. If the weapon reacted to mana, it should have lit up when Reika demonstrated her magic in front of me earlier.
So there are conditions?
And if there were conditions, what on earth were they?
I considered putting the question to my ability — asking what the conditions were — but since this wasn't something directly tied to a nation, the result would probably just come back as something like unknown.
"Um..."
"Ah."
Lost in thought, I looked up as Reika approached with a worried expression.
"Um, what's going on right now...?"
"I was hoping it might work the same way it did a little while ago, but it doesn't seem to be happening."
"..."
Reika's face went pale, as if the memory of what had happened earlier had just come flooding back.
"Reika?"
"Lord Swen... I'm starting to think magic might be far more incredible than I ever imagined. Will I... be able to control a power like this...?"
She spread her pale palm open and stared down at it. Her voice trembled. So did her slender arms.
Until now, magic for her had probably meant little more than conjuring fire or ice in her hands. But stepping onto a battlefield meant hurling those same things at living people.
Of course, in an age like this, she had surely come to terms with that fact somehow. As an orphan, she would have learned how the world worked, and she was one of those who had managed to survive — she wasn't about to start preaching idealism now. If she'd felt that way, she would have refused to learn magic in the first place.
But what if that firepower from earlier had been aimed not at a castle wall, but at a cluster of soldiers?
A single gesture from her, and dozens of lives would snuff out in an instant.
Having confirmed that her power exceeded anything she had calculated, it was only natural she would feel uneasy.
I slowly rested a hand on her trembling shoulder.
"It's all right, Reika."
"Lord Swen..."
"Your power is what will protect everyone. You're fighting to protect — so as long as you don't lose that resolve, you'll be able to control any power, no matter how great."
"The resolve to protect..."
Reika fell silent at my words, lost in thought for a moment — then slowly nodded.
She didn't answer, but I could tell the trembling in her body was gradually settling.
At any rate, figuring out the activation conditions right this moment is going to be difficult.
I looked down at the rapier, thinking how useful it could have been if only I could use it properly — and that was when —
"Um... Lord Swen."
"Yes?"
"That sword... could you let me hold it for a moment?"
"This?"
I pointed to the green rapier.
She nodded without a word.
It wasn't as though the blade was dull... but as a ceremonial weapon at its core, nothing dangerous was likely to happen.
"Here you are."
"Thank you...!"
Reika accepted the rapier with both hands, carefully and respectfully, then closed her eyes as she gripped the hilt. I watched her take a slow, deep breath... and before long, she opened her eyes and spoke.
"There's... mana inside it."
"What?"
"This sword... it seems to absorb mana."
Absorb mana?
"How can you tell?"
"When I close my eyes... I can feel something flowing inside the blade. I felt something similar when the fireball I created was drawn toward this sword. So I wanted to check, just in case..."
"Then why isn't it working now?"
Reika thought for a long while before answering in a very careful tone.
"I'm not certain, but... maybe the mana hasn't gathered enough yet...?"
"The mana hasn't gathered yet..."
I was about to sink into thought when I noticed she was still fidgeting, clearly holding something back.
"Is there something else you'd like to say?"
"What?! Ah, I, um...!"
So I was right on the mark.
"It's all right. You can speak freely."
"It's just... it's not solid information, only a guess..."
"I make my living off guesses myself, you know."
Reika answered in a voice that nearly disappeared into itself.
"I-is that so...? But you're such an incredible person, Lord Swen..."
"Then this incredible person would very much like to hear what Reika has to say. Is that not enough?"
"Uuuu..."
Her face flushed red, as if my words had embarrassed her.
"So... um, maybe... the meditation helped...?"
"Meditation?"
"You've always done it with me, haven't you...? Every time I meditated with you, Lord Swen, I could feel the mana flowing inside me more and more clearly. And since you've been carrying this weapon around... maybe it was influenced by something like... meditation? Or something similar... I just thought..."
Huh?
Now that I heard it, the idea was surprisingly plausible.
From my perspective it had been little more than a way to pass the time, but I had been meditating all the same. And every time we did, Reika — a mage — had testified that she could feel the mana gathering. We'd come up this mountain often precisely because she said the mana overflowed here.
So if I think of it as a kind of 'battery' that's run dry... that roughly fits?
I'd still need to run a few more tests to confirm — but even so, it felt like I'd managed to find a tiny thread of a clue in a situation where I couldn't see anything ahead at all.
I slowly stepped closer to Reika. The way she looked up at me was strangely endearing, and before I knew it I was stroking her hair.
"That's our Reika. You've been a tremendous help."
"Ah... y-yes..."
Watching her bow her head, ears burning red, thanking me over and over — for the first time, I found myself wondering what it would feel like if she became my wife.
And then, a few days later.
The morning scene was much like any other — except today, something was different.
"Our lord has issued a summons?"
"Yes. A soldier I met on the way to the barracks passed the word along."
Before the day had even properly begun, Irene — who had been heading to the barracks to carry out her duties — spoke to me as I prepared to leave the house.
"What's it about?"
"That much I don't know... but the soldier who came to me had urgency written all over his face. It seems to be something serious. Swen — have you no inkling of what it might be?"
An inkling, she says.
Honestly, I wasn't entirely without one, and a faint unease stirred in me —
We'll just have to go and see.
If our lord called, we simply went.
"Let's go for now. We'll find out once we're there."
"Mm. Very well. It's been some time since I last went to the castle with you."
"Have you been waiting for a day when you could go with me?"
"What? W-waiting? That is not what I meant at all...!"
Watching Irene's face turn an easy, obvious red, I smiled at my leisure.
"I was waiting, though."
"...?!"
"Were you fine not being with me, Irene? I've been rather lonely, you know. Lately we've been going our separate ways so much that our time together has dwindled."
"B-but after our duties are done... w-we are always together at night...!"
"So we're always together at night, are we?"
"No, th-that's not what I—!"
Irene's eyes went round as saucers; she clearly had no idea what to do with herself.
On the battlefield she wore the face of a demon, but the way she came completely undone in front of me was, I thought, thoroughly adorable.
"Th-this is no time for that, Swen...! I shall deal with you later — for now, should we not make for the castle...!"
I could have teased her further about whether she truly meant to "deal with me" later, but there was no real need to push it that far. I laughed lightly and set off for the castle with her.
Along the way I traded a few more idle jokes with Irene... and in my own way, I was trying to erase the unease blooming inside me.
When we arrived at the castle, something oppressive hanging in the air began to press down on me harder and harder.
"The atmosphere seems especially heavy."
Irene seemed to share the same sense; her tone was extremely grave.
"We may need to brace ourselves."
And so, carefully, we made our way to the audience chamber.
Inside, every general serving at Valharat Castle had gathered — Zinor among them. Yuuri herself was not yet in sight...
How many minutes did we wait?
Yuuri approached the throne with an extremely dark expression and sat down.
And before long — the unease that had been lingering somewhere in my heart became reality, staring down at me with perfect clarity.
"Anima has... been captured by Serpina's forces."
The moment Yuuri spoke those words in a trembling voice — an air heavy enough to crush a person began to fill the castle.