Into the Trap Ukria Prepared

Yujun had walked straight into the trap Ukria had laid for him, and he was nothing like as rattled as he looked.

It wasn't that brute force was holding him up. He simply had something to fall back on.

She used her head.

A head-on fight had obviously been out of the question, and she had gone with the best method left to her.

I expected the barrier. Illusion magic, mixed with something else?

Did that mean Ukria of the heavenly race could wield illusion magic as well? He had been certain the art belonged to the illusion-born alone.

So the talk of her excelling in every field wasn't exaggeration after all.

Even so, Yujun had already been sealed inside illusion magic once, and he had slipped free almost at once. He had found the spell's grain and cut it, and he had a feeling he could do the same here. Countless grains filled his vision. Only one of them would let him out, and he had to find the real grain. Touch the wrong one, and there was no telling how the situation would twist, so he held still and studied them with care.

Faint lines, hundreds of them. Some blazed with dazzling light. Others were faded, ashen things with no presence at all.

The odds are absurd on paper.

That didn't mean his chance of getting out was low. Sorting the false grains from the rest was not a difficult job for him, and an S+ rank Grain Finding trait only made it easier. Yujun had been picking out grains even before he obtained the trait. With the trait assisting him now, failing to find one would have been the harder feat.

Wait…

All he could see were fakes. The real grain was nowhere in sight. He could tell the counterfeits apart without question—the problem was that there was no true grain either. Every single grain before his eyes was false.

There's no real one?

The grains themselves were not different from one another, and he could tell that every line hanging in the empty air was a fake. And yet the true grain was missing as well.

Is this why Ukria was so sure I'd never get out?

She might already have known he could find grains. Perhaps the trap had been built to shut that ability down. The thought settled in his mind, and then, as if to mock the worry, he found the real grain almost at once.

She hid the true grain between the others…

Yujun laughed, hollow. Could Ukria designate even where a grain sat? He had started walking slowly toward it when he stopped short.

"…What."

There was another real grain, a little apart from the one he had already found. Two might have been written off as coincidence, but there were more. He searched every corner and turned up no fewer than five true grains.

"…"

It was absurd. Five real grains?

This isn't some five-star miracle stone bed from a late-night ad.

Learning that he actually had to cut five of them came as a bit of a shock. It wasn't worth despairing over, though. In the end, all he had to do was cut them.

One at a time, then?

He didn't even entertain the thought that any of the five might ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be fake. The moment he saw them, he was certain they were real.

Cutting one first still feels risky.

There was a way around that, too. Yujun drew up his mana and called on Sword Unity.

He shaped four blades, not five, so he could take the last grain himself.

Can I pull this off?

The sword in his hand was not enough. The other four had to move at the same instant. Cutting a grain demanded precision, and the slightest tremor could bring disaster. There was no room for a mistake. For the first time in a long while, Yujun used Super Concentration.

The world slowed, same as ever, but the clarity was stronger this time—his thoughts brighter, his head clearer. What had looked uncertain a moment ago, severing all five grains at once and without error, now looked absurdly easy. Yujun did not hesitate. He moved the swords.

Shhk!

Not a hair off, and not a beat of time between them, he cut all five grains clean. That was the end of it. Nothing looked different from the outside, but the formless force that had been blocking him and squeezing in on him vanished entirely. Less than fifteen minutes had passed since he was sealed in.

Yujun walked toward Ukria and Paulo. Slowly.

Ukria, who had been staring a hole through the place where he stood, let her mouth fall open.

"Wh-what…"

Not one of the devices she had prepared activated. The meaning was simple enough. Shin Yujun had cleared the exacting conditions she had set and gotten out before any of them could trigger.

"No. How in the world did you do that?"

In truth, she hadn't even known he could cut grains. She had only twisted the space as complicated as she possibly could, so that he would have no way out—a prison she herself could not have escaped if she had been locked inside it. Shin Yujun had barely seemed to struggle. A few quick motions, and he was free of the place. She had watched from beginning to end and still could not understand how.

He didn't cast a spell, and it didn't look like he smashed his way out by force. It was never something force could solve in the first place.

Paulo gripped his sword, face tight. Yujun was striding closer with a blade in hand and not a shred of mana charged into it, and yet an enormous pressure rolled off him. Cold sweat ran down Paulo's spine, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the hand on his sword was just as slick.

Swordsman against swordsman. Paulo had confidence in a duel of blades, but if the opponent was Shin Yujun, that was a different matter. He had crossed swords with Utria many times and come away with the better record, outstanding both as a swordsman and as a player. Even so, he was afraid. The thud of footsteps on dirt rang unusually loud in his ears.

Just as his tension reached its peak, Yujun spoke.

"Don't even think about running."

He released a vast surge of mana. It was not meant as an attack. The mana spread thin as paper, then stretched all the way out behind Ukria and Paulo. Yujun had set a barrier of his own so they could not leave. It was nothing like the meticulous iron fortress Ukria had built, but it was enough to keep them from fleeing at once.

Ukria bit down hard on her lower lip. She had been turning over how to answer him since before he closed the distance, and nothing came. Her mind went white. She had already concluded that she could never beat this opponent by force. He was smashing through everything she had prepared, and there was no proper way to face him. Of course nothing came to mind.

"Kill him."

She said it like someone who had already given up.

"Pardon? You're surrendering just like that?"

Paulo stared at her, incredulous.

"Then what do you propose, Paulo? Can you beat him?"

"You never know until you actually cross blades."

For all that bravado, Paulo was wound just as tight, and he was working to look calmer than he felt, if only to shake the tension off. Ukria's mouth twisted.

"I can tell at a glance, you know. Don't tell me you're the only one here who still doesn't know how this ends?"

"Pardon? That's a bit harsh."

"Hey. Why are the two of you fighting and leaving me out?"

With Sword Unity, Yujun set ten swords afloat and spaced them so they ringed the two angels, cutting off every path of retreat.

Tadak!

Paulo charged first. He came on fast enough that it was clear Ukria had not brought him along for nothing.

Shhk!

"Ghk!"

He could not withstand Yujun's cut. The right arm that held his sword was severed from the elbow. Paulo did not despair. He caught the arm still hanging in the air, retreated in a long bound, and used healing magic and a potion to set the severed limb back in place. The power of magic and potions was astonishing—the arm knit itself on at incredible speed. Even so, after taking a blow that hard, he could not bring himself to close in again. Yujun's sword had swung faster than Paulo's eyes could follow, and once he understood that, he realized that if he rushed in carelessly, the next thing cut might ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not be an arm but his neck.

"Help me, please. This isn't someone I can handle alone."

Ukria nodded, having no other choice. That was when Yujun spoke.

A proposal—no. A threat.

"What?"

"I hear you're carrying a pile of especially rare items. Give me a few, and I'll let you live."

With that offer, Yujun had opened the only road by which Ukria could survive. Whether she took it was entirely her choice. Paulo's head turned toward her.

"You'll… spare me? How far are you planning to drag me down?"

"So you'd rather die?"

"How am I supposed to trust a word you say?"

"Figure that out yourself. I keep my promises."

Paulo looked at Ukria with poorly hidden hope. She glared back.

"Wh-why?"

"What exactly do you want me to do, Paulo?"

"W-well, obviously…"

His eyes rolled—toward Yujun, then toward Ukria. His gaze could not settle anywhere. At last he forced his mouth open.

"I want… the sort of thing where all of us can be happy."

"Right. And what would that be?"

"Hold on, Ukria. This feels an awful lot like you're shoving the answer onto me because you're too embarrassed to say it yourself."

"As if. I am not ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that shameless a person."

"Wow. Your face is shameless enough that I don't even know what to say."

"So? What did you mean by that just now?"

"Never mind my opinion. You should do as you wish, Lady Ukria. I'm only an attendant."

Paulo bared his gums in a forced, brilliant smile. Ukria shook her head, her face heavy.

"No. A true superior cannot simply dismiss her attendant's opinion. Speak. If we are to reach an ending where all of us can be happy, what must we do?"

"No, no. The opinion of someone as lowly as me doesn't need dismissing. Please just mash it into paste."

Watching the two of them feed each other lines like a comedy duo, Yujun let out a hollow laugh.

Are these two doing a bit?

He had only been curious what items Ukria was carrying. If something good was in there, taking it would be pure profit.

Doesn't look like they're trying to make me drop my guard.

He let out a thin sigh and spoke.

"So you're giving me the items in the end, yeah? Hand them over."

"I haven't decided y—"

"Good. Then here's how it is. You've suddenly decided you want to give me your items. No problem, then."

"…Right."

At his words, Ukria bent her pride, if only a little. Begging for her life in front of the enemy who had killed her sister sat poorly with her, but revenge was only possible while you were still alive. If she died, none of it would mean anything. This was a time to lower her head.

"I'll give them to you. The items."

Paulo brightened at once.

Why are you the one who's happy…

For the first time, Yujun and Ukria were of one mind.