"Stop it!"
Katia shoved Sara away. At Zenos von Frenbreed, who had shouted that absurd accusation.
She rushed to Sara's side, and upon confirming the injuries weren't as severe as she'd feared, she unleashed her full fury in rebuttal.
"That spell just now—'Magic Bullet Archer,' wasn't it?! What were you thinking, injuring Sara—hurting an ally?!"
"Stop spouting such brazen lies! Y-You were the one who did it!"
As the initial shock subsided, Katia gradually began to grasp the situation.
These people were probably trying to frame her with a false accusation.
Aster had said he'd 'slip up eventually,' but he never did. So they had tried to fabricate something by force—a charge that would drag his reputation through the mud.
...Was that worth injuring Sara over?
"You must be prepared for what comes next...!"
Katia's magic power surged from her entire body, accompanied by a raging fury. The intensity of it made Zenos catch his breath.
"I don't care anymore—rank, status, none of it matters. Right now, I will absolutely—"
"S-Shut up, shut up, shut UPPP!"
Yet even as his courage wavered, Zenos screamed this:
"It's YOUR fault! If you hadn't been here, none of this would have been necessary!!"
"...What?"
That was, without question, a slip of the tongue from Zenos.
But it cut into a place in Katia's heart more deeply than anything else before.
"Now that you can suddenly use magic you could never use before, you must feel so great, huh?! Running around defeating monsters everywhere and playing the hero of the kingdom?! Don't make me laugh—you're not fit for that role! There is only one hero in this country, and that is His Highness Aster!!"
"That's—no, His Highness is far too self-righteous! That will eventually bring calamity—"
"Y-Eventually, you say?! Then has this 'calamity' of yours ever actually occurred?!"
"..."
It hadn't.
The supreme duty of nobility, in its most fundamental form, was to slay monsters.
And Aster had never once failed to slay monsters.
With magic talent that could only be described as overwhelming, he had trampled every monster in every battle without even struggling.
In matters of governance as well, Aster had repeatedly been tyrannical with his various assumptions—but Katia hadn't yet heard of any catastrophic monster damage occurring anywhere as a result. The many nobles who sided with Aster, and the mages they produced, covered for everything.
"Surely you understand—following His Highness, trusting His Highness, and everything works out! You lot are the ones needlessly opposing him! Because of you, I—we have suffered harm! Because of you lot resisting for nothing, Lady Sara is injured now!!"
For a split second, Zenos caught himself about to reveal his own selfish desire and corrected it to "we." But Katia had no composure left to notice.
She had realized something.
She had wanted to become a noble worthy of the name.
Someone proud—who would eliminate what threatened the people, and who would protect others' happiness even at the cost of her own life.
That was why she had tried to correct Aster's mistakes, which could destabilize the country—but in truth, it was the opposite.
"The fighting between the Ministry of Justice and everyone else, the nobles failing to unite—it's all YOUR fault! The ones destabilizing the country are YOU!!"
The moment that was pointed out, everything went black before Katia's eyes.
And then, when soldiers arrived shortly after, she was arrested without any resistance or defense.
She hadn't noticed. No—she had been pretending not to notice.
How intensely the covert conflict between the Ministry of Justice and the Aster Faction had escalated. How the exhaustion on her father Yurugen's face had grown deeper with each passing day.
The fact that because Katia and Ermes had been slaying monsters in so many places, other nobles had been left overwhelmed by monsters—because Katia's emergence and exploits had made it impossible for those nobles to settle their positions, leaving them unable to devote attention to monster subjugation.
And now.
Her own actions had circled back and endangered even her dearest friend—
"..."
She was afraid.
The impact of what she had been trying to do was the exact opposite of what she'd intended.
The harder she had tried to become like her mother, the further the results had strayed from that ideal.
...She didn't want to admit it. But she had no choice but to acknowledge it.
Because this—her current state—was the end result.
"..."
She looked around.
A dark, dark cell. The center of a fortress-like prison on the outskirts of the Royal Capital.
The feeble candle flickering in the darkness seemed to hint at her own fate, and she suddenly thought—
If her taking action only brought chaos to this country, and if leaving Aster as he was would make everything work smoothly—
Then what she should do, as a noble, was—
And just as she reached that thought—
"I've kept you waiting, Lady Katia."
A silver gleam appeared suddenly inside the cell.
Its owner—Ermes—spoke in his usual gentle tone, unchanged as ever.
"By order of the Duke, I've come to rescue you. ...I apologize for the haste, but shall we break out of here?"
◆
"Erm...?!"
Ermes infiltrated the prison where Katia had been taken.
Before long, he found her inside a cell. Though she was emaciated, she still managed a gasp of surprise.
"H-How did you get in here?! What about the guards outside?!"
"Breaking into the prison itself required a bit of a 'Forbidden Move,' I'm afraid. I did incapacitate a few people, but I don't think it's become a major incident just yet."
Katia was dumbfounded. It was as though she wanted to ask just how many tricks he had hidden up his sleeve.
In truth, using a 'Forbidden Move' was fine as long as it wasn't discovered on a large scale, and what he had used this time was exceedingly simple in its effect.
Because of that, he had caught the guards off guard and successfully infiltrated with minimal effort. Given the escape that lay ahead, the less commotion the better.
But discovery was only a matter of time. So Ermes reached out to facilitate a swift escape.
"...I'm done."
"...Lady Katia?"
What she returned were words of denial, heavy with an ominous premonition.
"I don't intend to leave this place. I'm sorry you came all this way, but I don't need your help. ...I don't plan to commit any more sins."
"What are you talking about—besides, you haven't committed any sins—"
"I DID!! Because of me, Sara was seriously injured!"
The words of restrained fury rang out through the cell as she hung her head.
"I wasn't the one who did it! But she got caught up in it—because of my selfish actions!"
"...What?"
"That's not all—the more. How many people have I inconvenienced, how much harm have I caused with my attempts to warn His Highness?! This country is worse off now than when I did nothing—so I'm done!"
Katia paused there for a moment, but the passion with no outlet soon turned into a glare directed at Ermes.
"...Ermes, you too. You don't need to put up with me anymore."
"What do you mean, 'anymore'—"
"You served me out of obligation, I know. But I also know this—your eyes shine brightest, what makes you happiest, isn't in front of me. It's in front of magic! Deep down, you don't care about me at all, do you?!"
"!"
"There's no reason for you to be stuck in a place like this! Go outside and be free—master your magic or whatever to your heart's content!!"
After saying that, she looked at Ermes and for a moment showed a hint of regret.
But it was too late to take it back. After another stretch of silence, she murmured quietly:
"...I wanted to become like my mother."
She revealed the origin buried at the bottom of her heart.
"Someone noble and elegant like her, with a heart that could protect someone's happiness. I thought that was the duty of nobility, what nobility should be—but I was wrong!"
"..."
"What I was doing was no duty at all! It was just... selfishness...!"
After that, her words stopped.
In its place, an ear-splitting silence filled the cell.
Then—drip—a droplet fell, breaking it.
"...What?"
But the sound hadn't come from Katia.
"Why are—why are YOU crying, Ermes?!"
"...What?"
Only after being told did Ermes himself finally realize what was flowing down his cheeks.
Ah, so that was it.
He was feeling sad. He had heard her anguish, her despair, and empathized with it.
...Ah, that was—
Truly,
something to be
grateful for.
"...I'm sorry."
"Sorry for... what?"
She glared at him, hurt, and he first offered his apology.
"Because what you said is true. My obsession with magic is greater than my feelings for you—no, it's not just you."
And then he revealed the truth of the great distortion within him.
"From the day I was expelled from the Frenbreed family... my emotions toward other people became terribly dulled. To put it bluntly—everything except magic started to feel meaningless."
What Ermes had lost in the Royal Capital. What even Rose's care hadn't restored.
It was his heart.
His attachment to others. The capacity to cherish someone. That had been lost.
The day he told Rose about his past, when she held him and showed him a new hope—
With burning joy and admiration for his master—it was as if that were his final blaze of light.
Everything except magic faded rapidly in color.
"Probably during those three years, from when I was seven until my expulsion. Somewhere along the way, something wore through."
Ermes analyzed himself.
Certainly, Katia's presence had been a saving grace during that time.
But even so, it hadn't been enough. During that period, he had been exposed to so much malice—from his father, his brother, and the many nobles influenced by them.
Because he had known happiness before, the contrast had been all the more devastating.
To protect himself, he had no choice but to strip it all away. The painful feelings, the sad feelings. And also—the joy and happiness that, the more he had of them, would only make the present harder to bear.
He wore down everything, making magic his sole refuge and throwing himself into it.
But his efforts went unrewarded, and he was discarded. At that moment, something must have worn through.
Only his obsession with magic remained, like an empty shell. And that was how the current Ermes came to be.
He felt gratitude toward his master, and his respect was unquestionably genuine.
But—it was equally undeniable that it was largely obligatory, stemming from a sense of 'this is what I should do.'
His desire to honor the debt he owed was part of that.
Rose had understood all of this, yet sensing that Ermes himself was troubled by it, she had poured out a master's love without reservation, hoping to restore his heart.
But even so, it never returned.
That was why he had come back to the Royal Capital.
Because he thought that in the place where he had once lost something, he might be able to reclaim it.
"That's why—I want to treasure my feelings."
That was precisely why he would act in accordance with the faint feelings within him.
He believed returning to the Royal Capital had been the right choice. He had felt joy at reuniting with someone to whom he owed a debt. He had felt sadness at the reality of that situation.
And... for the first time since coming to the Royal Capital, he had been able to feel a powerful anger.
"That is precisely why I want to empathize. With someone like you—whose feelings are beautiful, whose heart is noble."
That was what he needed now, and it was his wish.
And because he knew that those feelings were what gave birth to magic.
That was why he had come to the Royal Capital.
If the bond that connected him to this place—what mattered most to him—was about to be lost—
He wanted to cling to it. He wanted to hold on.
"Just one correction. Saying 'you don't care about me at all' hurt. I would hate it terribly if you were gone. That's why I came—all the way here."
"...Ermes."
At some point, his speech had returned to how it used to be.
But just then, a sudden commotion arose outside.
They had likely been detected. It seemed time was running out.
"I can't give you the answers to your worries and conflicts right here. So I'll ask just one thing."
Steel returned to his voice as he posed the question.
"Do you want to die?"
"...!"
The question was too fundamental.
Confronted with it, Katia hung her head, more conflicted than before, but at last—
"...No."
She whispered it softly.
"I don't want to die—I still have things I want to do, things I haven't accomplished! But...!"
"If you have that feeling, then for now, that is more than enough."
Once again, he extended his hand.
"Let's live first. I lost everything once, but because I survived, I was able to meet my master. And besides..."
"...?"
"If it's not just pride—wasn't that what the old you wanted to do for me as well?"
"...!"
At his words, she hesitantly reached out her hand. Before long, warm fingers touched his.
Simultaneously, he used Enhanced universal magic to cut through the iron-barred door. As he led her out, she leaned against him.
"...I—I'm sorry... for saying such horrible things..."
"We can apologize later. Right now, let's escape."
He held her firmly as she mumbled with a bright-red face, and fixed his gaze on the exit.
The commotion had spread further. The escape would likely be met with fierce resistance.
But there was not a sliver of anxiety. Because—
"I received His Grace's personal blessing to 'go all out.'"
His magic—which Yurugen had forbidden him from using freely in public.
What he had been stockpiling. And what he had newly acquired since coming to the Royal Capital.
If he used it all without restraint, there was nothing to fear.
With that conviction, he took Katia's hand and broke into a run.
Next time, prison break. Ermes's one-man-show time!