Shun's Perspective "Sensei. I'm still going to help my brother."
My voice, heavy with determination, made Sensei bite her lip.
She surely understood that I wouldn't back down.
"You're absolutely determined to go?"
"Yes."
"Very well. I'll come with you."
"Sensei, this is my problem. There's no need for you to force yourself along."
"I can't very well let Shun go off on his own."
"He won't be alone, naturally. I'm coming too."
"Kathia, but—"
"Please let me go. Even if I was being manipulated, I should at least help clean up a mess I caused with my own hands."
In Kathia's eyes, I could see the same resolute color as my own.
In other words, she had no intention of backing down either.
"Fine. But please, don't push yourself too hard."
"Yes."
She nodded agreeably enough.
But somehow, I couldn't quite believe those words. The way Kathia was acting, she seemed like she'd push herself to the breaking point without a second thought.
"If Shun's going, then obviously I'm coming too."
"Heilinz."
[*Relax, I'll protect the young lady.*] Heilinz spoke to me through telepathy.
Then I could rest easy.
"So, what's the plan?"
"Take down Yugo. There's no other way."
"We can't do that."
That was Sensei.
"Yugo, or rather, Yugo has already teleported to the Rengzant Empire. Together with
"What!?"
"Shun, you acquired Spatial Magic, right? What level?"
"No good. Spatial Magic levels up too slowly — I'm only at level 3. There's no way I could train it enough to learn teleportation in time."
The Royal Castle of the Analight Kingdom had a teleportation circle that connected directly to the Kasanagara Continent, but even using that, the Rengzant Empire was still quite far away. No matter how I struggled, there was no way to reach the Rengzant Empire before my brother's execution date.
"He ran away?"
"Yes. Which means it's impossible to kill Yugo."
"Kill... him?"
Sensei's words shook me.
"Shun, don't tell me you intend to let Yugo live after what he's done?"
"Well, no, but—"
"Shun. I'm regretting something. Back then, I only took the approach of stripping away his Skill and Status. If I had provided proper care afterward, this might never have happened. But if I had killed him back then, none of this could have come to pass."
The dark gleam in Sensei's eyes sent a chill down my spine.
She was serious.
She was genuinely trying to kill Yugo.
I couldn't forgive Yugo either. Father had been killed. Sue and countless others had been manipulated. There was no way I could forgive him.
But killing... that was something I hadn't considered.
I couldn't consider it.
Even after everything that had happened, I still hesitated at the thought of taking a life.
"In any case, we deal with Yugo only after we've rescued Reston. Let's think of another plan."
Everyone besides me accepted the ominous word "deal with" without flinching.
Was I the one who was off?
Yeah, probably.
Looking at it objectively, what Yugo had done warranted death a thousand times over. And yet the very victim — myself — harbored no killing intent. That was probably strange.
But still, what kept surfacing in my mind was the image of that great Hero.
He hadn't exactly gone through life without killing anyone either. He'd surely sent many of the Demon race to their graves with his own hands. And yet, somewhere in his heart, didn't he carry that same aversion to killing that I did?
I shook my head.
For now, I needed to focus solely on rescuing my other brother — Reston-niisama.
"On the night before my brother's execution, we infiltrate the place he's being held and break him out. To avoid unnecessary combat, I think this is the only way."
My proposal set everyone into deep thought.
"It's a mess of problems," Heilinz muttered.
"What kind of problems?"
"First — we don't know where Reston is being held. Without knowing the location, there's no way to infiltrate."
"In that case, my Skill should be useful."
At Heilinz's words, Sensei raised her hand slightly.
"I have a special Skill meant for rulers. It has the ability to search for specific beings based on their Skill composition. Since I know Reston's Skill set, using this Skill should reveal his location."
I nodded in understanding.
So this was how Sensei had managed to gather us — her former students — in such a short time. She must have used that Skill to search for the unique, garbled Skill that only we possessed.
"Right, then the second problem. There will definitely be guards stationed around Reston. What do we do about that?"
"We're strong enough that ordinary soldiers won't be a match for us. Stealth has its limits too, so if we're discovered, we'll just fight our way through."
This time I answered. Every member here was among the most capable fighters of the Human race. None of us would be outdone by common soldiers.
"There will absolutely be traps. What about those?"
"We'll crush everything in our path."
I said it flatly. We had the power to do exactly that. At least, I believed we did.
"Now then, let me raise the biggest concern. What if Reston himself has been brainwashed?"
Heilinz's question left me speechless.
That was something I'd been thinking about too. Given Yugo's personality, he would absolutely do the thing I dreaded most. And that was to brainwash Reston-niisama and set him upon us as we came to rescue him. Even worse — forcing Reston-niisama to take his own life right before our eyes.
Being attacked was one thing. We could subdue him and be done with it.
But suicide was far harder to prevent.
Either way, if my brother had been brainwashed, we'd be in a dire situation.
"I have an idea."
But I had a secret weapon.
I'd rather not use it, but if it came to that, this was no time for holding back.
"If my brother has been brainwashed, could you leave it to me?"
"Will that actually solve anything?"
"Yes."
I said it without hesitation.
No one was going to get their way with Yugo ever again.
"There's also the matter of rescuing everyone besides my brother."
My words made everyone look troubled.
"Shun, that's impossible."
"Why?"
"I don't know exactly how many people were captured in this incident, but it's certainly a large number. We won't have the bandwidth to escort them all out."
"But—"
"Shun, I share Heilinz's opinion."
"Kathia..."
"Shun, we are not gods. There are things we can do and things we can't. Trying to save everyone will only end up spreading the damage further."
I was about to argue with Kathia's words when I noticed her hands were clenched tight.
Right.
Kathia hadn't said a single word about what had become of her parents or the people of the Duke's House. From her demeanor, I could guess. But she wasn't asking to save them. Kathia had given up on rescuing her parents.
Even though she must have wanted to.
"Understood. This time, we're only rescuing Reston-niisama."
The words felt like they were being torn from my gut. I was curious about what had happened to Clevea afterward too. I wanted to save Sue and the others who had been brainwashed. But that wasn't something we could achieve. We simply didn't have the power.
"Having Yugo absent works in our favor. But Shun — just in case, keep Appraising everyone regularly. The fact that he teleported back means he can teleport back again. We could end up in a situation where one of us has been brainwashed without realizing it."
"Yeah. You're right."
"Sensei. With that in mind, please submit to Shun's Appraisal."
Kathia's words were sharp.
So that was her angle.
Sensei's expression changed.
"What's wrong? If you have nothing to hide, there should be no problem accepting the Appraisal, right? Or is there something you don't want us to see?"
"That's..."
"Sensei. If you won't accept Shun's Appraisal right here and now, I cannot continue to act alongside you."
After Kathia's words, Sensei was silent for a while before nodding weakly.
"Go ahead."
At Sensei's words, I activated Appraisal.
High Status.
High-level Skills.
I'd expected as much, so there was no surprise.
And there was also what Sensei had been trying to hide.
"There's nothing suspicious in Sensei's Status."
"I see. If Shun says so, then I'll believe it. Sensei, I'm sorry for doubting you."
"N-No, it's quite all right."
As Kathia bowed her head, it was Sensei who looked flustered.
[*Why are you doing this?*] [*What do you mean?*] I feigned ignorance at Sensei's telepathic question.
[*You know perfectly well.*] [*I had my suspicions.*] Yes. I'd suspected it all along.
That Sensei's Skills included a Taboo.
[*Shun, you didn't—*] I deliberately ignored Sensei's telepathic message.
Right now, the only thing I needed to think about was how to infiltrate the place where my brother was being held captive.