Valius sat slumped in a chair in the castle's executive office, head bowed.
According to the rumors circulating through the streets, hostages sent to Central would not come back unharmed. Word of this had even reached the common folk, and Valius—well aware from his own network of informants that things were not heading in a good direction—felt increasingly cornered.
Standing inside the room was a knight, one of his most trusted confidants.
"Lord Valius, we can no longer refuse Central's demands any further. If we keep stalling, Central will dispatch their Royal Guard. And if that happens..."
At the knight's words, Valius slammed his fist down on the desk. After a moment, he opened his mouth.
"I know. But when I think about my grandson and my daughter-in-law, sending them to Central is nothing short of hell for them both. My son was already taken captive by Ceres in Central. I can't..."
The knight understood Valius's feelings. That was precisely why he raised the matter of the second and third sons who had been sent off as sons-in-law to other houses.
"Would it be possible to recall the young masters who were sent away as sons-in-law?"
Valius shook his head.
"How could I do that? If I were to try, I'd have to go through proper channels and bring one of their second or third sons into our house instead. If I tried to flex our muscles even after having sent them off as marriage partners, all sorts of problems would arise."
Valius had sent his sons as sons-in-law to houses of lower standing, but even so, using his position to recall them would create problems. Furthermore, his eldest son was still alive. He even had grandchildren. On the surface, there was no reason to recall them.
The knight spoke with a resolute expression.
"Would you have us fight to protect them, even if it comes to battle?"
Valius could not bring himself to decide. His grandchildren were dear to him. His son had been taken captive by Ceres. He wanted to protect at least his grandchildren, if nothing else.
But—
"...I cannot sacrifice my territory for the sake of a single grandchild. But just a little longer... please, I'm counting on you."
Hearing Valius's decision, the knight nodded.
"Then let us wait until the Royal Guard arrives. I shall convey to them that we are still in a state of heightened tension and cannot easily divert our fighting forces."
At the knight's words, Valius gave a faint, powerless nod.
Inside the Jewel.
Surrounding the Round Table, we listened to the Seventh Generation's words.
"I know young Valius. I just remembered — he was beside the previous Count Lesneau. I never actually spoke with him, though."
We had spent several days investigating Count Valius's character while spreading rumors throughout the city. It was during this time that the Seventh Generation recalled the man, though he didn't seem to know much about him personally.
The Third Generation spoke with an air of boredom.
"Don't you know anything about his childhood blunders or whatever? You reclaimed Count Lesneau's territory, didn't you?"
The Seventh Generation shook his head.
"Reclaimed is putting it mildly. It would have become an exclave, and House Walt couldn't have managed it from here. So I handed it over. That said, we were given favorable terms in the border disputes of that era."
In the Seventh Generation's time, House Walt had served as advisors to the royal family. That alone was proof of how great the family's influence had grown. However, it seemed that troublesome burdens had been foisted upon them as well.
The Fifth Generation spoke with exasperation.
"Not much benefit in it either, yet you went through with it. I'd never touch something like that."
The Seventh Generation seemed to share that opinion, but it sounded like House Walt had its own reasons at the time.
"I didn't like it either, fundamentally. House Walt bore most of the burden, after all. But it's also true that we wanted prestige back then. The Sixth Generation took on a lot of the bad reputation, but the truth is our family's position was tenuous."
Mireia pressed a hand to her cheek and tilted her head slightly.
"Count Lesneau, was it? The previous count was quite incompetent... well, perhaps not incompetent, but certainly not outstanding. His son, though — judging from the territory, his capabilities don't seem bad at all."
The urban areas, the surrounding villages — from what we could see, he was a worthy ruler for his people. It was clear he was doing everything he could to defend the border with Fonbeau.
I began organizing the rumors I had gathered today.
"The rumors say various things — that he's soft on his grandson, that his son is quite capable, and so on. He apparently hasn't sent any hostages, citing his inability to leave the border defenses unattended. Though it doesn't feel like he's simply refusing to send them."
The Fifth Generation tapped his fingertips lightly on the desk in a steady rhythm.
"...So he's planning to send hostages after all? Or is this his last stand? A single count can't pick a fight with Banseim. Even if he defects to Fonbeau, this area was originally Fonbeau's land anyway. He'd either lose it entirely or have it used up and thrown away in a war against Banseim."
The Third Generation looked entertained. His fingers were laced together atop his knee, and he was grinning.
"How nice. One of his sons is stationed in Central. The other two have been married off to other families, so they can't get too involved. You can really feel how reluctant he is to let go of his precious grandson."
The Seventh Generation looked pleased.
"I've taken a bit of a liking to Lord Barius. Let's ease up on him just slightly in the negotiations."
I covered my mouth with my hand and considered what came next.
"We'll spend some time approaching from the Fonbeau side. We can pick up rumors about Fonbeau since it borders the territory... but should we wait for the Imperial Guard to arrive? There's also the possibility that the margrave might hire his own escort and send it to Central."
The Third Generation closed his eyes as he spoke.
"It would be unfortunate if it came to that, but let's have a few of them get injured. Make sure not to kill anyone. He's an important negotiation partner. There's no harm in not provoking him."
As expected, it seemed he was planning to allow an ambush to happen.
Once I steeled myself, I began formulating a strategy that would minimize casualties.
— Meanwhile.
Adele and the others had brought along a baronet and set to work breaking down resistance in the eastern territories.
This time the opposing family was also a baronetcy, but the other party wore a troubled expression.
They were negotiating in the opposing family's estate, surrounded by the other side's soldiers on all sides.
Adele was troubled by the other party's demands.
"You want ennoblement just for cooperating? Forgive me, but given the scale of your territory, a barony would be rather unreasonable. To fulfill that kind of responsibility is simply..."
In response to Adele's words, the other party pinched and adjusted his prized mustache with his fingertips.
"If I cooperate with you, I can provide three hundred soldiers. Surely that's not unsatisfactory? Besides, all I need is territory large enough to fulfill my duties. Don't worry—if it's any of the surrounding Knight Baron families, I can manage that much on my own. As long as you prepare a suitable reward."
Adele glared at the baronet sitting beside her. But he simply feigned ignorance. Yet he apparently couldn't stay silent forever.
"Without any accomplishments, isn't this rather greedy? To hold territory on the scale of a barony, you'd need to possess twice what you currently have."
The man was smiling fearlessly.
"Then I'll accept the territory transfer. Let me see... I want territory near Central. I've grown tired of the rural east."
Adele intended to chip away at demands piece by piece, but the baronets were troublesome and the Knight Barons even more so. In Banseim, Knight Baron families ranged from those the size of small settlements to those rivaling entire villages.
Each had different demands, and many would not be satisfied with mere land grants. Adele was beginning to see what Lyle meant—it would be difficult unless she broke the negotiations into much larger chunks.
Adele looked at the man.
"If I grant preferential treatment to one, the others will demand commensurate returns. I'm afraid I cannot agree to that."
The man replied with an air of composure.
"Then I'll leak information to Central. That Lyle Walt's party has been sneaking around, you see."
Adele glared at him, but he showed no sign of cracking—perhaps he truly thought of her as a naive girl.
However, the baronet sitting beside Adele lowered his voice.
"Then you'd be making enemies of those who've already pledged cooperation with me? That would be quite the problem. I'll need to return immediately and devise a countermeasure."
The man's expression soured. The man was a fellow baronet family. In terms of scale, the gap between them was not all that great. Turning the surrounding lords against him would clearly hurt.
"...There is a territory I've been disputing with a neighboring lord. That land has been ours since ancient times. If you'll help me reclaim it, I'll cooperate."
Seeing him cave so suddenly, it was clear he had been making grand demands from the start. Adele was growing weary of these kinds of negotiations.
"Which neighboring lord would that be?"
"A Baron family. Nothing to worry about—you'd make short work of them as allies. And naturally, you'll be able to provide a minimum of five hundred soldiers?"
The man's demands were giving Adele a headache.
(This is... just as Lyle said. If I don't break this into larger pieces, I won't be able to handle it.)
Adele had underestimated these small-scale lords, and here she was paying the price in lost time.
—Meanwhile, a party was setting out from Central.
The three hundred regular soldiers of Central were led by the knights of Ceres's personal guard.
They were heading for Baron Lezno's territory because he still hadn't sent hostages to Central.
The one watching the group depart from the castle was Ceres, being carried along the corridor on a woman's back. Standing atop the woman's back, she saw the group setting out through a window.
"Hm? Did I ever order troops to be sent somewhere?"
The woman looked pained, but she was no devotee of Ceres. That was precisely why she was being treated so brutally.
She was dressed in tattered clothes, made to wear a collar, and treated like a dog. The reason was simple: because she hadn't submitted to Ceres.
For Ceres, such people were nothing more than amusing toys. She delighted in playing with those who resisted her, finding it all the more entertaining.
Nearby, the commander of her personal guard, Bread Bumper, answered Ceres with a smile.
"Lady Ceres, that is the unit heading to the lands of Baron Lezno, who refuses to provide hostages. The foolish border lord who won't follow your will."
Ceres smiled, looking amused, and licked her lips.
"Ah, that's right, I did ask him to hand over hostages. Rufus, he was actually carrying it out faithfully. I'd forgotten."
The red-haired butler in a tailcoat—the automaton—spoke flatly.
"The woman you treated like a horse was also delivered as a hostage, you know. How many does that make now? You should really break that habit of getting bored and destroying them so quickly."
Walking behind Ceres was a girl, dragging long black hair behind her. Everyone around carefully avoided stepping on it.
Ceres looked at the girl, Rumel, and laughed.
"It's fine. Rumel here does the cleaning properly. Right, Rumel?"
The girl called Rumel opened her small mouth. But that mouth gradually grew larger, revealing sharp fangs and a huge tongue, seeming to affirm Ceres's opinion.
"She's cute, Rumel. When I killed her for defying me, I thought she was just a stupid Kirin, but once I brought her back to life, she became so docile and adorable. Too bad she still can't use her Skills properly, and in the end, she still can't talk."
Rumel—the girl who was once a divine beast, a Kirin, who had encountered and fought Ceres—was a puppet brought back to life from a corpse by Ceres.
Ceres crushed a trembling woman under her foot, grinding down with the heel of her shoe.
"If you get tired of it, just say so. I'll release you right away. Aha! Look at you shaking. How entertaining."
Whether the trembling woman amused her or not, Ceres settled herself down on the woman's back. Then she tugged on the leash attached to the collar.
"Come on, let's go. Today we're going to wander around the castle just like this. We're going to explore the inside of the castle."
Ceres's adorable laughter rang out. The humans who served at her side were transfixed by her.
Only the Automaton watched this version of Ceres with cold eyes—.
While spending our days gathering intelligence in the city ruled by Margrave Reznov, the three of us carried on.
I was napping in my room.
No—I had sent my consciousness into the Jewel.
The place was the memory chamber within my own mind.
Facing me was Lyle, a katana gripped in her hand. No matter how I slashed or cast spells, Lyle dodged every last attack and landed blows of her own.
"No good. Not even close! Your attacks are too straightforward. And you're putting too much strength into them."
While she lectured me, she split open my shoulder, then the back of my hand. When I dropped the katana, she lunged at me and unleashed a kick.
I was sent flying and tumbled across the ground, but Lyle was quicker—she got ahead of me and stopped my roll with her foot.
"Mmm, you might not be at the level where you can handle this on your own yet."
I looked up at Lyle, gasping for breath. She then held out her arm for me to see. When she rolled up her shirt sleeve, faint blue lines were visible beneath the skin.
"What is that?"
Lyle explained in her usual flat tone, yet there was something oddly gentle about the way she spoke.
"The flow of mana, I suppose you'd call it? Basically, they're like blood vessels. Mana flows through them instead of blood. House Walt has spent generations honing support-type Skills, so you should be able to see them as blue lines. Running them throughout the entire body is what makes a human."
With that, Lyle took hold of my arm. In response to her glow, lines became visible on my arm as well. But their shape was different from hers.
In simple terms, they were connected but jagged and frayed—a terribly mangled shape to look at.
Lyle looked at it.
"...Ceres tore this thing to shreds after snatching it. No wonder the efficiency's so poor."
Lyle sheathed the Saber and traced a finger along the lines on my arm. The lines glowed — but Lyle's expression turned grim.
"He wrecked it with remarkable care, too. He really must have been terrified of me."
I stood up and asked Lyle.
"If those line-things healed up, what would happen?"
"Your mana circulation efficiency would improve, but they're so thoroughly mangled that even I can't fix all of them. How to put it — even if you output ten units of power, only two or three actually get released. If I can treat them properly, reaching six or seven would be optimistic."
I took those words in.
"Then if you fix them, I could fight Ceres—"
"That's not going to happen. You can't even beat me as you are now — so how could you possibly beat Ceres, who has my power stacked on top of her own? She has Septem — and Agrissa on her side too. One-on-one, it wouldn't even be a contest."
My shoulders slumped in disappointment, and Lyle laughed.
"But I think that's fine, Lyle. Not being able to fight without someone's help... that just means you need other people."
I looked at Lyle.
"Are you calling me unreliable?"
"Not at all. I was just thinking that some things only turned out well because you lost. Probably. If I had tried to stop Ceres, I would have acted alone — with only a handful of allies. That might have gotten the job done. But that just wouldn't have been right."
Tilting his head, Lyle looked at me and smiled.
"I think you, Lyle, are one of the complete forms — a different kind from Ceres."