Raid (2)
Raid (2)
The interrogation facility was quite far from where we were staying. That was only natural. No matter how important a prisoner was and how 'chivalrously' they had to be treated, an enemy was still an enemy. After all, they might just escape and try to assassinate someone important inside the imperial palace.
Even if the facility itself was said to be no different from an ordinary room, its purpose was effectively a prison.
The top of a tall tower within the imperial palace. That was where the interrogation chamber was located.
Naturally, guards protecting the perimeter were present in droves—
"This is..."
But the moment we arrived near the tower, Claire and Alice faltered, and that alone showed just how devastating the scene around it was.
Knights who should have been called the imperial palace's finest elite lay sprawled haphazardly everywhere. Some appeared to have stopped breathing. Red blood and scorched black marks stained the desolate dirt ground here and there.
It wasn't only knights; soldiers had apparently resisted as well. All sorts of debris, guns sliced cleanly in half, and unused grenades were scattered around the ground.
A siren pierced our ears.
Stepping past the fallen soldiers, we saw fresh reinforcements arriving. Over the siren's wail, the disorderly sound of boots tramping overlapped chaotically, and shouting could be heard from every direction.
Artillery guns had surrounded the tower, but they dared not open fire carelessly.
"Your Highness...!"
A knight came sprinting toward us.
"What in the world is happening inside?"
"Prince Lucas has launched a rebellion."
When I asked after rushing over without hearing a proper account of the situation, the knight immediately snapped to attention and reported in a rigid voice.
"Inside the tower?"
"Yes. He appears to be targeting the Holy State's prisoner. Furthermore..."
The knight glanced warily at Alice and me, then spoke.
"His Majesty and the Sword Saint are inside."
"... Father went in personally..."
"My apologies!"
As Alice murmured with a complicated expression, the knight shouted.
"We should have stopped him...!"
"No."
I answered the knight directly. There was no chance to stop him anyway. Before anyone could even open their mouth to say something, he had swept past like the wind.
And the reason the Emperor had gone inside that place... it wasn't simply to stop Lucas.
He must have been enjoying himself, undoubtedly.
I gritted my teeth and loaded my gun.
"Your Highness, wait...!"
The knight tried to call out and restrain me, but I was already running.
A considerable number of knights were already stationed inside the tower. The empire's finest, the Gryphon Knights, sworn directly to the imperial family.
The knights were packed densely along the spiral staircase that wound upward inside the vast tower, and even though I knew from the setting that Lucas could slaughter all of them, the thought did cross my mind: 'Can that really be physically possible?'
On top of that...
"Wait, Sylvia."
As I set my foot onto the staircase, Alice seized my arm. It wasn't a mere attempt to hold me back once; she gripped me tightly as if determined not to let me go.
"It's dangerous."
Before I could wonder whether she knew what was going on, I felt grateful that she had said it. But still.
"You know better than anyone what Lucas is like."
"And Your Highness also knows that I am the one who has dodged that sword the most."
At my words, a hurt look flickered across Alice's face for a split second, but the hand holding my arm didn't loosen its grip.
"...I have something I must hear from Lucas."
"Is that really so important? More than your life?"
Obviously, it wasn't more important than my life.
But I had something I believed in.
No matter how strong Lucas was, he couldn't face the Emperor and the Sword Saint simultaneously and come away unscathed. Even though the original work described him as having already surpassed the Sword Saint's level around this time, it didn't mean he possessed overwhelming ability.
During his duel with the Sword Saint, Lucas got his chest slashed. It wasn't a life-threatening wound, but it was deep enough to leave a scar.
So, with the Emperor, whose prime had not yet ended, present as well, Lucas had no chance of winning.
And the Emperor would not end the fight while keeping Lucas 'alive.'
If I wanted to hear anything from him, right then might be my last opportunity.
"It is something I must hear, without fail."
I put force into my gaze and spoke.
What my true identity was. Just how in the world I had ended up here like this.
Lucas was the only person who could provide even a minimal answer to that question. At least among the people I could think of at that moment.
"So, will you let me go?"
"...."
At my words, Alice released my arm. Seeing her hand drop limply did prick my conscience a little, but I looked straight at Alice and said,
"I will absolutely not be seriously injured or anything of the sort. Your Highness, wait here. And you as well, Claire. Leo."
All three of them had expressions of complete incomprehension at my words, but I immediately turned to the knight right beside me and spoke.
"Would you keep watch to ensure the three of them don't come up?"
"B-but Your Highness—"
"Do I look like I'm going up there to die?"
"...."
At my question, the knight became tongue-tied. Coming from someone who had personally swept away that entire army on the battlefield, he couldn't exactly brush aside my words.
"Sylvia!"
"...."
I heard the shout from behind me, but I simply turned around right away and stepped up the staircase.
*
However, things didn't go the way I had expected.
The Emperor and the Sword Saint. As they were people who stood at the absolute pinnacle of this world's setting in terms of swordsmanship, the fact that Lucas hadn't managed to defeat them was not so surprising.
But—
"Oh, our little sister has finally arrived."
The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, the stench of blood hit me. To the point where I was proud of myself for not flinching in that instant.
"Ugh, ughh..."
"I was just starting to miss you. After all, you're pretty much the only one who can perfectly dodge my sword techniques."
A sickening crunch sounded.
"Aargh!"
The groan of someone clenching their teeth.
It was the sound Berati made as he was stabbed by Lucas's sword. It looked like his stomach had been slashed, but it didn't seem like a fatal wound. At least his entrails weren't spilling out.
As the blade embedded in his thigh was yanked out, a few droplets of blood sprayed.
The inside of the interrogation chamber was already a complete wreck. The furniture that should have been there was shattered into fragments so small it was hard to recognize their original forms, and blood was splattered across the walls here and there.
That blood didn't belong to Berati alone.
"I am truly proud that my son has grown this much."
When the Emperor said that to Lucas, Lucas laughed as if dumbfounded. Judging by the blood trickling down his forehead, the Emperor had been slashed by Lucas as well.
... The Emperor, by Lucas.
"Well, to be honest, shouldn't you call it being carried by my gear?"
Lucas wore an indifferent expression.
"... Have you been to the Holy State?"
"That's right. You recognized it right away?"
The hand Lucas used to speak held a sword that Holy State knights wielded. An artifact created in the ancient era when humanity relied more on magic than the laws of physics.
Moreover, the clothes he was wearing were Vestments. As if he had just returned from a long journey, he had a small bag slung to his side. He had shortened the strap so the bag was pressed tightly against his body so it wouldn't interfere with swinging his sword, almost resembling the simplified field packs used by soldiers of this era.
Lucas probably hadn't suddenly experienced a religious conversion. It was far more likely that he'd simply stolen them because he deemed them useful.
Most Vestments looked similar, so I couldn't tell exactly what abilities it possessed. Vitality? Recovery? Defense? ... In any case, simply wearing it would provide significant help.
"Sylvia, he's not someone you can handle."
The Sword Saint, who looked even more wounded than the Emperor, said that.
"...."
Naturally, I didn't listen to the Sword Saint's warning. Even if I ran from here, Lucas would immediately chase after me anyway.
It was a misjudgment.
The moment Lucas leaped out this suddenly, I should have assumed he was thoroughly prepared.
"Well, normally I wouldn't have thought about pushing through like this just relying on my gear."
Lucas said as he flicked his sword. With just one flick, all the blood that had been on the blade flew off, leaving the sword perfectly clean.
"After all, if I'm going to deal with 'you,' I need to bring my own preparations. And besides—"
Lucas smiled as he spoke, looking toward one corner of the room.
"—there's a nuisance here, too."
I shifted my gaze to follow his line of sight, and then I froze completely.
There, cut by a sword and bearing a massive wound, was the Masked Woman. She hadn't collapsed, but she was leaning against the wall and breathing ragged, desperate gasps.
How...?
"Curious?"
I turned my head again at Lucas's voice.
"I'm not telling you."
And in the next instant, Lucas's face was right in front of mine.
"Kh...!"
The only reason I could immediately raise my gun was simply that my body could move the way it had repeatedly learned over all this time.
But luck only worked once, and then it was over.
Lucas's sword swung, and with that, my gun was sliced apart.
"Ah—"
"...."
As I panicked at the sight of my gun pathetically cut in half, the amused grin on Lucas's face went expressionless.
And that expression was, in a word, terrifying.
"That's what I mean. People who rely on tricks,"
Lucas spoke in a voice tinged with a sigh.
"the moment those fail, they can't do anything at all."
He pronounced it like a death sentence.