Please Kill Him
Celenas looked up from the documents requiring the headmistress's signature. Her gaze found Rai half-reclined on the sofa, eating cookies.
Like a cat, he wandered into the headmistress's office whenever the mood struck him, lounged however he pleased, and left just as freely. Sometimes it seemed he came for the cookies. Other times, simply to kill an afternoon with idle talk.
At first, Celenas had taken him for a freewheeling man with no shortage of nerve. That assessment had since changed. She had the distinct sense that Rai was watching her. Perhaps being pressed by Leila had planted the idea, but there was an unmistakable pattern to his visits. Plenty of the Keilen Kingdom's central nobles had let their guard down around the easygoing air of the Devil of All Nations — and paid dearly for it. A slave who monitored his own master. The reversal of roles was interesting enough that Celenas found herself watching him with genuine curiosity.
"Come to think of it, Headmistress, you don't seem to observe Seria's Day. Or is it just me you skipped?"
Rai said it around a mouthful of cookie. Celenas shook her head with a wry smile.
"No. I'm far too old to fuss over a holiday for the young. It would be unbecoming."
"Why? You're still young. Your skin's great, and you're beautiful."
"Oh my. Thank you."
The compliment drew a seductive smile from her. Even knowing she was being watched, his casual praise pleased her.
"It wouldn't be Gammi, but shall I give you a different gift?"
"Is it something tasty?"
Rai's eyes lit up as he sat forward off the sofa back. Celenas shook her head and produced a contract. At the sight of a slave contract he hadn't seen in some time, Rai's eyes narrowed.
"You've been cooped up in Legandia, haven't you? How about a trip this weekend? Only a temporary one, of course."
She made it sound like a favor. Rai smiled faintly.
"And what would I be doing on this trip?"
She'd called it a gift, but expanding his range of movement meant she wanted something. Grateful that he'd read her intent and asked first, Celenas spoke with a look of satisfaction.
"I was told I'd only be doing instructor work. Seems your memory and mine don't quite match, Headmistress."
Even asked to commit murder, Rai showed no surprise.
"Contracts change with circumstances."
"They do. So who am I killing?"
Celenas pulled a bundle of documents from a drawer and set them on the desk. Rai trudged over as if the whole affair were a chore, perched on the edge of the desk, and began to read.
"You're taking this rather well. I thought you might be angry."
When Rai had left the internment camp, he had signed a slave contract stipulating that he would do nothing but instructor work at Legandia Academy. And yet he had almost nothing to say about Celenas's request for a killing.
"Everyone who wants to use me says the same thing. Contracts change with circumstances."
He answered offhandedly as he read, as if he'd heard it all before. But his words cut Celenas deeper than any accusation or curse could have. The "everyone" he meant was the king of the Keilen Kingdom. Soul-bound, he had spent half his life on the battlefield, following a king's orders to defend a realm already rotting from within. Equated with King Margos — that embodiment of filthy, incompetent humanity, the man Rai hated without reservation — Celenas bit down hard on her lip and forced a smile.
No different... I'm no different from him at all...
For a woman who held both respect and affection for Rai, the Devil of All Nations, that careless remark drove deep into her chest.
"A mercenary captain. Doesn't look like he's all that strong. Hmm — the fee's high for his skill level. A funding pipeline, then? The Empire looks peaceful on the surface, but I guess the political infighting keeps everyone busy."
From the information in the documents, Rai had already pieced together the Empire's situation. She had expected as much, but the ease with which he uncovered the true motive still impressed her. Careful not to let her feelings show, Celenas composed her expression before speaking.
"Who can say? I don't know the particulars myself. In any case, as a travel gift — bring me Haxen's life."
"Understood. Can I handle it however I like? I can do options, too — beat him to death with my fists, make it look like natural causes. Whatever your taste."
"Nothing like that. Just don't let your identity get out."
Celenas stressed the point to a man who could joke about a kill order: do not let your identity be discovered. Rai signed the contract expanding his range of movement, left the headmistress's office, and headed home.
"Hey. No training this weekend. Do your own drills."
During breaks they trained every day, but once the semester started the schedule became flexible, so the announcement itself wasn't unusual. Still, they normally gathered on their own without being called, and Rai would simply start teaching. He had never been the one to say there would be no training.
"What? Where are you going?"
"Yep. Decided to take a trip to the Baran Region."
"Baran? What's even there? Anyway, take me with you. I've got nothing this weekend. I'm bored."
"No. If you want to go, pay for it yourself."
"That's so damn cheap."
While Rai bickered with Aslan, Philia watched him in silence. With thriving Legandia right next door, Baran was a relatively unremarkable region. It clung to relevance only as a rest stop on the way to Legandia — hardly a place the Devil of All Nations had any reason to visit. She hadn't confirmed it herself, but from talking with Zeroa she knew Rai hadn't left Legandia once in a year and a half. Watching him head inside to pack as if the decision had been sudden, Philia sensed something was off and quietly set down her sword.
Once inside, Rai went straight to the basement door and woke Agnes, who was sleeping in a space without a single trace of light.
"Hey. Get up. Get up, you."
The only person at the academy who would wake Agnes — a famous knight of the previous generation — by nudging her with his foot was Rai. She was undead and had no need for sleep, but she loved it all the same. She stirred groggily, then caught sight of Rai's face, bolted upright, and dropped to her knees on the bed, looking up at him. To Agnes, who had suffered at his hands once before, Rai was an object of terror.
Facing her as she trembled, staring up at him with those enormous eyes, Rai spoke with a look of complete indifference.
"I'm leaving the house empty this weekend, so keep an eye on the place. Watch Aslan so he doesn't sneak the booze, manage the freeloaders, and... weird people might try to approach. If they show up, kill them all."
"I can kill them?"
"If they're not from the academy, kill them all."
Agnes asked again in surprise, but Rai was firm: kill them. Thanks to a defense system even the unicorn Tora couldn't breach, the academy was a peaceful place, and Agnes couldn't understand why he would say such a thing. Still, she figured he had his reasons and nodded. Rai gave her head a few light pats.
"I'm counting on you."
"Yes. Leave it to me."
Leaving Agnes with her eyes shining, steeling herself at those words of trust, Rai packed only the bare essentials and left the academy. Including the weekend he had a little over two days, but reaching the Baran Region took a full day, so he needed to make good time.
Black Horse let out an excited neigh, thrilled to be outside for the first time in a while. Rai smacked the back of the stallion's head, told him to keep quiet, and headed for the back alleys. The sun was setting, painting the world in orange, but the alleys remained dim and shadowed.
"You coming out now?"
"..."
Rai reined Black Horse to a stop. From behind him, Philia emerged with a grim expression.
"What are you planning to do?"
"I want to go with you, Instructor."
"I'm not going on a pleasure trip."
"Yes. That's why I want to go with you."
Philia's tone was firm, her resolve unmistakable. Rai studied her face for a moment, then shrugged and dismounted. Thinking he might knock her out, Philia tensed and reached for her sword — and Rai scoffed.
"What, you want to come with me when you don't even trust me?"
"Are you going to attack me?"
"Why would I? If you want to come, come. Your head works better than Aslan's, so you might actually be useful."
Rai pulled a small bag from Black Horse's saddle and tossed it to Philia.
"Go in there and change."
Without needing to check, Philia knew what was in the bag. She nodded, slipped into the corner Rai had indicated, and changed. The door had been torn off, leaving the space open to the outside, but she changed in the corner without a hint of embarrassment and stepped back out.
"Looks good on you."
"Light armor... no. A mercenary or adventurer disguise?"
Rai nodded and disappeared into the same corner she had used. While Philia scanned the secluded alley to make sure no one was watching, he emerged again.
"...I didn't know you had a hobby of dressing as a woman."
"Not the kind of thing you'd do as a hobby."
Philia stared in shock at Rai, now transformed into a woman. In that brief span he had even finished his makeup, becoming an attractive woman with red hair. Tight leather pants, a shirt that covered his body — and over it, something stuffed in to give even a modest swell of a chest.
"What did you do about the shoulders and the rest of your body?"
Rai wasn't particularly large, but a man's body and a woman's were distinctly different. Most people would hide the difference with baggy clothes or a cloak that covered nearly everything. He was wearing form-fitting clothes and still looked like a woman.
"You just adjust the musculature. Like this."
His shoulders ballooned wide, then cinched narrow, cycling through the grotesque transformation. Philia grimaced in disgust.
"So it isn't just makeup on the face — you changed the bone and muscle structure too. That's an incredible technique."
"Not really. The kind of trick guys who are into cross-dressing would love."
Rai answered as if it were nothing, but it was a technique invaluable to anyone doing infiltration or intelligence work. Philia looked over his newly beautiful form, then stopped at the red eyes and red hair.
The symbol of the Devil of All Nations. At the sight of that color — like blood and fire — Philia's eyes wavered for a moment before she turned her head away.
Black Horse snorted, completely failing to recognize him. Rai gave the stallion's head a smack, mounted up, and held out a hand to Philia.
"Are we riding together?"
"What else would we do? The horses in the academy stables aren't yours."
The horses assigned for training were academy property, so Philia couldn't use one. Strictly speaking, Black Horse was academy property too, but she had forgotten that and took his hand without question, climbing onto the horse. She hesitated over where to hold onto the Rai sitting in front of her, but he seemed to feel nothing at all as he spurred the horse and rode out of Legandia.
Seeing how thoroughly prepared he was — he even had forged identification — Philia was at a loss for words.
"From now on my name is Elli... yeah. Ellie."
"I don't know who prepared that ID, but they have a terrible sense of humor."
The identification had been made by taking the first part of Rai's original name, Elliot. Philia smiled awkwardly.
"Clay made it. That bastard — even if I wanted to look at him kindly, I couldn't."
"That's very like Clay. And I'm Persha, I see."
"Yeah. Sounds like a Belucasico name, but whatever — make up your own backstory. Anyone can tell you're from the Empire."
"I can say I had a Belucasico immigrant among my ancestors, then?"
Rai nodded at her answer — she'd found the right solution without being told — and urged Black Horse toward their destination.
Black Horse had excellent stamina and ran hard, but they had left so late that they hadn't even covered half the distance before they had to rest at a village along the way.
The door clicked shut. The moment Rai closed it on the inn room they'd taken in the village, Philia flinched, her back going ramrod straight.
Before they'd left, she had been firmly resolved to stay by his side and watch over him — the Devil of All Nations, her academy instructor. Now her mind had gone completely blank. They were both women, so sharing a room was only natural.
No, no, no. We're not both women.
Philia shook her head wildly. Rai looked at her as if she'd grown a second head, then sat down on the bed.
"Ah, um. Dinner. Shall we have dinner? We haven't eaten anything yet."
Watching her flounder, Rai let out an amused little laugh.
"The innkeeper already said it's too late for dinner. And I'm not going to eat you, so sit down."
Fortunately, the room had two beds. At Rai's chin-jerk, Philia sat carefully on the opposite one, unable to meet his eyes, staring at her own toes. He untied a pouch of jerky on the table between the beds and told her to eat. She picked one up and barely chewed it, just holding it in her mouth, until she realized he was watching her steadily — then she startled and leaned back. The playfulness was gone from his eyes. They looked serious. Philia swallowed hard and shook her head.
"No. Don't. I'm not thinking anything like that. Don't say a word."
Rai tilted his head at her words, then let out a disbelieving laugh and leaned back against the headboard, settling in comfortably.
"I don't know what romantic line you were expecting, but that's not what I was going to say."
"...I wasn't expecting anything."
Philia's eyes darted around as she denied it.
"I wanted to tell you what I'm going to do in the Baran Region."
Her flushed face went still, her eyes locking onto him. The flustered, embarrassed look was gone, replaced by a serious gaze. Meeting it, Rai smiled faintly.