You Are Qualified to Be Happy
You have the right to be happy.
You have the right to be happy.
Rai led Black Horse into the mountains.
Philia watched him disappear toward the distant peak and tilted her head in confusion, but she held her tongue.
In her mind lingered the face of Haxen—the mercenary captain she had once seen chatting and smiling with the restaurant owner while kindly teaching a curious child how to hold a sword.
It might have been an act. She had only glimpsed him briefly, after all, so she could not know his true flaws.
Yet in that short time, Haxen had seemed genuinely kind.
Ordinary mercenaries strutted arrogantly and barked at people; they needed no emotions at all.
Since he was someone’s financial backer, he was politically connected, but Philia had seen through her own connections that many people were neither good nor bad simply because of their faction.
They differed only in what they pursued or what they ranked highest, yet all humans were the same at heart.
No one was specially kind or righteous just because they belonged to one side, nor bad or wrong just because they belonged to the other.
Good people and bad people existed everywhere.
Count Tello, who treated everyone kindly regardless of status and governed his territory well, supported the Second Prince.
Even though the Second Prince, steeped in the ideology of a chosen people, claimed they must expel the filthy commoners and rule the empire centered on the nobles, Count Tello backed him.
Count Tello discriminated against no one and looked down on no one.
He believed that to keep the empire stable after it had swallowed so much land in such a short time, the central authority must be strengthened.
He feared that any deviation would spark rebellions in the regions and split the empire into dozens of pieces.
By siding with the Second Prince to concentrate power at the center, he hoped to maintain unity.
Count Tello cared nothing whether the center was filled only with commoners or only with nobles.
The single thing he pursued was the stability of the empire.
Returning to Haxen, he was simply too good a person to lose his life in political struggles.
Such a trivial matter as losing one’s life would never befall someone like Haxen, but a greedy opportunist like Philia’s father, Count Infante.
While Philia continued to ponder, Black Horse climbed the mountain path without hesitation, and they reached the wide-open summit.
The vast land spread out so expansively that it stirred the heart, and one could feel the grandeur of nature.
Yet because the mountain lay far from the village, the settlement was hidden behind distant hills and invisible.
Rai dismounted, patted Black Horse’s cheek, and told it to go play.
Black Horse, as if understanding the words, whinnied happily and vanished into the bushes.
Philia worried that even if clever, if it never returned, what would happen.
Rai gazed at the plain beside the river and began drawing magic circles on the ground.
He had demonstrated instant circle creation many times, but this magic was of a higher level.
Rai walked around the large circle, drawing intricate rituals, and placed rune stones and mana stones in their proper positions.
Philia watched with growing interest, but after the middle of the process her understanding failed.
She sat on a nearby rock and observed Rai completing the circle.
“What kind of magic is this?”
“Long-range sniping magic.”
“I’ve never heard of such a spell.”
“It exists. On the battlefield, mages surround themselves with detection magic, and because the power is extremely weak, it is impossible to target important figures like commanders.
It is a magic no one will ever see in their lifetime.”
While explaining, Rai glanced at the distant plain, then changed the rune stone.
“It is focused on range and stealth rather than raw power. Still, sniping that far is hard to believe.”
Philia, noticing the target from his gaze, looked at the plain as well.
Probably that plain lay on Haxen’s route today.
“You’ll believe it soon. The ritual is disgustingly complex, and it takes a long time to calculate and prepare, but it is useless trash magic with no purpose except range.
No need to be interested.”
Rai cursed his own magic and returned the rune stone to its original spot.
Watching Rai struggle to calculate distance and improve accuracy despite his excellent magic skills, Philia smiled faintly.
“But that is not what you want to ask, is it?”
Rai spoke quietly without turning to look at her.
Philia stared at his defenseless back, hesitated, and opened her mouth.
“Is Haxen someone who can be killed?”
“Well, I don’t know. For someone it is gain, for someone it is loss.
Someone will rejoice, someone will grieve.”
“The villagers will grieve.”
“Probably. How many people in the world can be killed without hesitation?
If you worry about every little thing like that, you can do nothing.
The imperial soldiers I killed deserved to die?”
Rai turned, laughing with provocative eyes.
But Philia showed no reaction and simply met his gaze.
“If this fails, what will happen to the instructor?”
“I don’t know that either.
His Highness the kind master probably won’t punish me, and when I made the contract, killing others was never part of it.
It only said to do instructor work.”
“Then why did you accept the assassination order?”
“Hmm… When force is activated, it is unavoidable, and… and… because I am a slave.
No matter how free it seems, slaves must lick their master’s feet.”
Philia’s face hardened as he laughed with self-deprecating humor.
His joke was too sad, and strength entered her hand resting on her knee.
“If Haxen does not die, will the headmistress be in trouble?”
“Hmm… I don’t know.
The only thing I heard was ‘kill Haxen’.
It seems there is something since it is an easy target that does not require borrowing my hand.
But how far to speculate.”
While answering “I don’t know” to every question, Rai completed the magic circle and stood.
“Now I just need to wait.
Without a mage or a mercenary with poor skills, it should be enough to catch him.”
Rai still did not show his face to Philia.
Watching his lonely back fixed on the plain, Philia stood as well.
“Then may I ask something I might know?”
“You have asked many things so far.
Why suddenly be polite?
But I really know nothing.”
Philia asked with a calm expression.
“Do you want to assassinate?”
“… …”
Rai remained silent.
With patience, Philia waited, and after a long silence as if refusing to answer, Rai spoke.
“Where is there a man who wants to assassinate?
Those men are simply crazy for murder.”
“Is that so.
I understand.”
“You understand, yet why draw your sword?”
Rai smiled and turned around.
Philia slowly drew her sword and raised mana.
“To stop you.”
“Have you come to like Haxen that much?
Good people should not die?”
“No.”
Even as Rai laughed, Philia said firmly without changing expression.
“It does not matter whether Haxen dies or not.
I will stop you from doing what you do not want.
Convey to the headmistress that I stopped it because I could not do anything about it.”
“A rather forced claim.”
“Yes, it is forced.
This force might make your position worse or cause problems at the academy.
You may think of it as the rash words of a young sprout with short experience.
I will stop you.
You are a great commander.
You are not a trivial assassin.”
Rai, facing the serious eyes of Philia, shook his head and laughed.
“You are a stupid commander who lost his country.
And my hands are already stained with a great deal of blood.”
“Yes, I have stained my hands with blood to protect the country and our citizens!
I have not stained them with dirty power games!”
Turquoise lightning burst from Philia’s body.
The ultimate secret art of the Lizard of Viridian style had been unleashed—Crazy Lightning.
Rai, who had not expected Philia to manifest the ultimate secret art despite Selma’s praise and her promise of achievement through hard work, watched her with curious eyes.
But there was no time to observe further.
As if creating clones, long afterimages appeared following Philia’s movements and rushed toward Rai.
While casting protective magic on the circle, Rai retreated to the side, and Philia approached, leaving snake-like afterimages.
Rai placed his fist on his palm and drew a blue-glowing sword to block Philia’s swing.
With swords between them, they faced each other.
“You now have the right to be happy.
You have worked hard all this time.”
Rai’s pupils trembled for a moment at Philia’s words, but he soon wore a playful smile.
“To realize your will, you need strength.
Words without strength are merely noise.”
“I will stop you.
I will make you happy by stopping you.”
Even while bleeding from her mouth due to excessive mana control, Philia stared at Rai with intense eyes.
Rai pushed her away with strength and threw her down.
Before she could correct her posture, the blue sword fell toward her head, so Philia rolled on the ground and barely avoided it.
Philia, covered in dirt and dust, jumped up and rushed at Rai, throwing a dagger.
- Swoosh
Rai’s sword made a desolate sound as if cutting the wind and sliced the dagger itself, then tried to cut Philia as well.
Even though she had clearly cut the dagger, the sword was drawn again on the same line, which Philia had not expected.
She bent her waist to barely avoid it.
Philia, whose belly was almost flat on the ground with her knees bent, received a punch from Rai on her stomach.
“Kyaa, kuh-!”
She avoided a direct hit by twisting her body, but the strong impact caused her to spit up gastric acid and blood.
While dirty spit came from her mouth, Philia swung her sword to prevent Rai from approaching, frowned, took a deep breath, and ran forward with the sword raised.
The blue sword bounced off the sunlight-reflecting blade, but Philia did not stop and kept swinging.
Their countless sword strikes created a barrier, and Rai squeezed through the gap and punched Philia’s face with his fist.
Philia, held by the face and weakly retreating, knelt on one knee and sat down, then wiped the blood flowing from her mouth and rushed again.
Rai had never won against others even when he passed the test in sparring.
Philia had not expected to win from the beginning.
She simply forced her arms, growing heavier with each passing moment, to move with the thought of somehow stopping him.
Every time she showed a gap, Rai’s fist or foot came without fail.
Even when her stomach was hit and she fell to her knees, or when her foot was stepped on and she fell clumsily, Philia kept rising like a dumpling.
Her cheap iron armor for hiding her identity was already broken, and her top was stained red with the blood she had vomited.
Philia, whose legs were not strong enough to even stand, kept hitting them with her fists to somehow stand straight.
Her hazy eyes that told it was not normal never let go of Rai to the end.
Although the Crazy Lightning had already been released earlier, she did not realize it and made meaningless gestures that hypnotized the eyes.
Her movements without afterimages like clones were sluggish and pitiful.
“Why are you doing this so much?”
“You… can be happy… kuh… so… you do not have to… do… the… things… that… you… do not… want… anymore… ha… ha…”
Philia, who could not speak properly because of her breathing, approached Rai with difficulty while looking at him coldly.
Raising the iron sword, which had lost its weapon function, high to the sky, she swung it as if falling.
The sword with no strength reached Rai’s shoulder but did not pierce even the thin leather armor, and Philia weakly buried her face in his chest.
She tried to push his chest with her hand and stand up again, but since strength did not enter, she kept falling onto Rai.
Rai looked down at Philia moving as if drunk and turned his head to gaze at the plain.
A mercenary group that looked like dots from far away was passing through the plain.
“… …”
Rai stared blankly for a moment, then let out a snort and supported Philia’s waist that was about to fall.
“You won.
Haxen has gone off the target point.
Big trouble.
Failed.”
Even to Rai’s words, Philia did not answer.
As soon as she heard his words, Philia fainted and leaned weakly against Rai.
Her face was dirty with blood, filth, dust, and sweat, but the smile visible between them looked happy.