Lucius collapsed with a thud.
He'd only lost consciousness for an instant — by the feel of it, he'd be back on his feet before long. In fact, he probably hadn't sustained all that much damage.
...Ermes was light, so the raw impact of his strikes was inevitably limited, but his endurance was nothing short of astonishing.
Still. The outcome — the result — was an indisputable fact.
A brief silence fell over the battlefield.
So many unexpected developments had come one after another that no one seemed to know how to react.
After a few seconds of that stillness, however—
A cheer rose up.
It was a cheer filled with bewilderment, confusion... but above all, with admiration that dwarfed them both.
"......"
He looked around.
Everyone present was cheering. Naturally, the soldiers of Harvist territory — but also the knights of the Northern Alliance. Despite their symbol, Lucius, having been defeated, they were raising voices of genuine praise for the battle itself with remarkable sincerity.
Of course, there were voices of disbelief, voices of doubt. But among far more knights than he'd expected, genuine excitement and admiration were plain to see.
Ermes observed this with a measure of surprise.
Still — if he'd shown a fight worthy of that response, then that was good enough. And if they could react like this, then surely this country could change too. That was what he sincerely believed.
In any case, this was exactly what Lucius had intended. By displaying his strength and defeating Lucius, the Northern Alliance's future absorption into the Third Princess faction would proceed relatively smoothly.
And so, it was done.
The Northern Rebellion was completely resolved.
(......)
...Let him think about this again.
It had been a razor's-edge fight.
The enemy's sheer power, their cunning, their scale — all of it was on an entirely different level from anything before. Extreme situations that could spell instant defeat if he took one wrong step kept cropping up.
...His previous enemies had possessed great power, but they'd ultimately been individuals. They were drunk on their strength, ignorant enough to underestimate the world, and above all — they'd underestimated Ermes.
But from here on, things would be different.
His power was now known. Countermeasures were already underway. The stronger the opponent, the more thoroughly they would target Ermes — devising every cunning stratagem to seal him, defeat him, kill him.
This would be against not children but adults. Not individuals but organizations — and perhaps, nations themselves.
Surely... fighting that alone would be an impossibly difficult path.
Of course. Because if it weren't — Rose would never have had to leave the Royal Capital in the first place.
...But he wasn't worried.
He knew the power that existed in the bonds between people. The strength that came from sharing one's feelings with another. And it was because of that — because those bonds existed — that he'd been able to win this time as well.
Ermes raised his face and looked out.
The Third Princess faction — those who shared his will.
This victory would have been impossible without every single one of them. Katia, who had held together the nearly-shattered Ermes. Sara, who had desperately maintained the connection with Harvist territory.
Liliana, who had shown the greatest evolution of all and demonstrated this country's new potential — and Albert, who had apparently provided the spark for that idea. Yurgen, who had rushed about handling the countless small tasks and behind-the-scenes procedures that they themselves couldn't track.
And above all — Ermes fixed his gaze on the figure walking toward him through the crowd.
"Lady Nina."
The girl — Nina — wore a delicate expression full of various emotions. She seemed to have so much she wanted to say, yet couldn't decide which words to use first.
Honestly, Ermes felt the same. Since they'd parted at the academy, so many things had happened that he didn't know where to begin.
Naturally, he had plenty to say too — an apology for being asked for help and ultimately not being able to do much, gratitude for her having provided maximum support from the enemy's position despite all her constraints...
But first and foremost, he thought, this was what he needed to say.
With feelings that surged through every fiber of his being, Ermes smiled and spoke.
"——Welcome home."
"......!"
That struck home, certainly. Cheeks flushed as she fought to contain her emotions, she murmured softly, "...I'm home." Then she looked up again, and with a troubled yet somehow mischievous smile, she said:
"Hey, Ermes — have you noticed?"
"Huh?"
At the sudden question, Ermes looked puzzled. Sensing that he hadn't caught on, Nina's smile grew even more mischievous — the same expression he'd seen back at the academy, yet somehow different now.
She declared:
"Right now — I'm under your charm, you know?"
"......Ah."
He'd forgotten.
The Fairy's Dream Palace — the enchantment spell he'd cast to protect Nina from the Archbishop's brainwashing magic. He'd modified it slightly so it would function at range, left it running, and then completely forgot to dispel it. In truth, there hadn't been a moment to spare.
But the battle was over now. Realizing it would be rude to leave it in place, he moved to dispel it immediately — but Nina was faster.
"Geez, you're hopeless. ...Well, I'm charmed, and it's magic, so... I guess it can't be helped?"
She murmured before he could undo the spell, then lightly kicked off the ground and closed the distance between them — a distance she'd never managed to bridge no matter how hard she'd tried — in a single bound, throwing her arms around him from the front with all her strength.
Refusing to let the flustered Ermes escape, she tightened her embrace, made no effort to hide her deepening blush, and leaned in close to his ear.
And then, in a voice that seemed to melt, she whispered the words that would close out the Northern Rebellion:
"——I love you so, so much."
◆
This story is about...
...Nina von Frodaite.
A girl born with sword talent in the magical nation of Yustia.
She had no magical aptitude, and the magic she'd been granted was heretical in nature. Moreover, her temperament never deviated from that of an ordinary girl — she could never achieve the single-minded spirit or extreme conviction that such things demanded.
And so, in this country's grand narrative, she could never become the "main character."
But.
This girl, through some twist of fate, received a portion of the power connected to the very roots of the world. Despite the injustice, the oppression, and the malice that would have broken any ordinary person long ago, she never yielded — not even at the very end. She shattered the decades-long domination of one of this country's pinnacle figures, a church magnate, overturned a future that was never supposed to change, and pulled the final trigger for the kingdom's true transformation.
It was all for the sake of just one boy.
Therefore, the Northern Rebellion was —
The prologue to a great battle, the beginning of a war waged over the kingdom's future, and at the same time,
——A love story of one ordinary girl.