14

The threads of Darius were released, and the four of them became able to move again.

What Kirishiya and Seidel looked toward was Ains and Lizelotte.

“So, you have produced another sorcerer again.”

“It was not that I did it. I merely happened to lend a hand to someone who was bound to become one.”

Lizelotte glared at Ains’s unconcerned manner.

Beside her, Kirishiya watched uneasily.

“…Honestly, what is that child Haral doing at a time like this? He truly does carry Wenceslav’s blood.”

Despite having told him so many times to protect his younger sister, Kirishiya had already ended up in the very middle of the storm.

And on top of that, most frightening of all, Ains’s right arm still had not been released.

Which meant—

“(The storm still has not settled…)”

Lizelotte watched Ains’s movements.

“Kirishiya, that was sorcery. The shape of desire beyond magic, distorting reason.”

“Be silent, Ains!”

Lizelotte pointed her fan at Ains as he spoke to Kirishiya.

“I said something harsh to you earlier. Justice and evil are two sides of the same coin. What lies beyond the pursuit of justice is the evil path of hurting others. There is no justice beloved by all.”

“Ains-san…”

Kirishiya’s eyes, young and wavering in a way fitting her age, reflected Ains.

“Kirishiya, do not listen! And Ains, be silent as well. What is so fun about provoking a child still so young!”

From Lizelotte’s desperate attempt to restrain him, Ains sensed something.

“…I see. That would not be bad either.”

“Tch.”

Ains walked toward Kirishiya.

Lizelotte immediately tried to ready herself, but Ains pointed that manifested right arm toward Lizelotte.

Ains’s sorcery locked Lizelotte in as its target.

“There is no justice loved by all people—I only said that because everything I have seen until now has been that way. …But perhaps that too is merely because I do not know. Perhaps it may already exist in reality.”

With his right arm still aimed at Lizelotte, Ains approached until he stood right before Kirishiya.

“Even if it does not, it may be born later. A universal justice loved by everyone. And the ones who create miracles in any age are those who desperately continue resisting the present. Yes, perhaps that might be you, Kirishiya.”

“…Me?”

Ains nodded with a smile.

“(This man, could it be…!?)”

Lizelotte could not move carelessly.

However, Lizelotte was beginning to dimly grasp Ains’s intention, why he was so persistently provoking Kirishiya.

“If that proud desire of yours, that ideal of yours which has not yet fully taken shape, were given flesh and form, then surely it would be the very justice that Kirishiya truly seeks. Surely it would be beautiful…”

It might be that, unfortunately, I still do not know true justice.

And the one who may teach it to me might be Kirishiya.

“I would… teach you, Ains-san…?”

“…Do not take the bait, Kirishiya.”

Lizelotte cut in from the side, but Kirishiya did not even look at her.

“(I could manifest my sorcery here. But if I do that…)”

It would mean showing Ains the sorcery Lizelotte possessed.

Now was still not the time to make a move against Ains. Thinking that, Lizelotte judged that she should not reveal her hand so easily.

“Perhaps I have only withered of hope because I have lived in such a savage world…. The justice Kirishiya shows me may be what saves me.”

“I would save Ains-san…?”

“Would you not try giving form to the justice you desire? As sorcery?”

“…As sorcery.”

Kirishiya looked at Ains’s right arm.

She looked at the corpses of the knights lying on the floor. That too, done by Darius, had been sorcery. The result of his desire taking form and interfering with the world.

“I cannot do it, but Kirishiya surely can. If you yourself desire it strongly, and desire it rightly. Then surely the justice you seek can be made real.”

That gentle expression on Ains’s face, that voice.

That was exactly the Ains Kirishiya knew. It was as though the Ains from earlier, who had spoken to her so sternly, had been nothing but a lie.

“The justice I seek, through sorcery…”

“Stop, Kirishiya!”

Ains smiled from the corner of his eye at the sight of Lizelotte raising her voice.

“(…So this is your objective!)”

Ains recognized Lizelotte as a sorcerer, but he did not know what her sorcery was. Since Lizelotte had not shown Ains her sorcery in the royal castle, his interest lay in Lizelotte’s sorcery.

But also, before Ains now stood Kirishiya, who might awaken to sorcery.

Ains’s interest and curiosity extended only to magic and sorcery. In that case, merely seeing the sorcery Kirishiya awakened to would satisfy him.

If Lizelotte took action to protect Kirishiya, then she would have to confront Ains, and it would be inevitable that she manifest the sorcery she possessed.

Even if he could not see the sorcery Kirishiya awakened to, he would be able to see Lizelotte’s sorcery, and Ains would be satisfied.

“How truly hateful…”

“I will provide the knowledge necessary—knowledge sufficient to give shape to Kirishiya’s wish. For that too, we must first begin with Kirishiya properly facing herself.”

Kirishiya placed a hand on her chest as she repeated Ains’s words.

“Face… myself.”

“There is no need to be on guard. I will only pose a few questions to Kirishiya, that is all. You only need to answer them honestly.”

And then Ains glanced sideways at Lizelotte, provoking her as if asking whether she really would not resist.

As if to say, if you do nothing like this, the very outcome you feared will simply come to pass.

Lizelotte twisted her face as if she had bitten into something bitter, and hesitated.

“(With my ‘Arbitrary Flux (Flow): Stagnation (Stagnate),’ I cannot completely suppress him. He is as close to stopped as possible, and yet he still moves, if only slightly.)”

Just as when Lizelotte had confined Ains in the forest.

Because it had been imperfect, Ains had emerged from the forest. Even if the flow of time was different, she had been unable to completely ‘stop’ him and sever him away.