18

“Please rest easy, Dinarts-san. Before the result, the process does not matter. Whether the ordinary citizens of Elias die, whether you and your people die, only the result that the warehouse district was destroyed will remain.”

Unable to even speak, Dinarts desperately shook his head. He kept shaking it to the limit of its range, as if the bones in his neck might snap, but Rubelmel merely watched him with a smile.

“Hey, Rubelmel, I did not go that far. I only told him to confirm it with his own eyes until the moment it explodes. I did not tell him to die. He might survive afterward, no?”

Darius said that, but his face looked refreshed, and there was even laughter in his expression.

“You are right… There I go, jumping to conclusions again.”

Dinarts and the others quietly welled up with tears as they slowly opened the warehouse door and went outside.

“Then I wish you fortune in battle.”

“If you succeed and come back safely, let us have a drink. …Ah, but spare me that god-awful wine. When the time comes, I will teach you one bottle I recommend.”

Darius and Rubelmel watched Dinarts and the others until their backs disappeared from view, then took as much of the money and furnishings left inside the warehouse as they could carry and left the place.

Carrying large loads on their backs, Rubelmel and Darius quickly began moving away from the warehouse district so they would not be caught in the explosion.

As they walked over the cracked stone pavement, the two headed for the checkpoint.

“Still, you understood my words well. I said what I said back there, but was that all right from the perspective of the Next-Era Luminaries?”

For Darius, who was a former noble with an arrogant personality, making Rubelmel, a woman, carry the luggage was nothing worth mentioning.

“Hehe, I could read your feelings immediately, Lord Darius. Besides, I truly do not care what happens to Dinarts-san and his people. Sooner or later, they were bound to die anyway.”

“Because of Ains?”

Rubelmel quietly nodded in affirmation.

“Even if not directly, they opposed Lord Ains. Considering how they will act from now on, they have undoubtedly crossed the line of the sorcerer Ains Silvetas. In addition, their actions are also treason against the kingdom, so there is even a possibility that the Eternal Witch may come forward.”

Even if Ains did not act, if they made an enemy of Lizelotte, their lives would undoubtedly end there.

Even Rubelmel did not know the exact circumstances, but the current Lizelotte held a position as though she were protecting the Santia Kingdom.

If the Next-Era Luminaries continued to associate with Dinarts like this, they might even give the witch an opening to exploit.

“Since our objective in Elias has been fulfilled, it is best to cut off the lizard’s tail early.”

“You are rather evil. Even though you talked to him as if you were so close.”

“Oh, surely not. I was merely going along with him out of compassion. There are countless others besides them who can be used as such cheap villains, so it would be a waste to grow attached.”

Besides, I am devoted only to Lord Darius, Rubelmel said, sending him a wink.

Darius snorted in laughter at that.

At his curt attitude, Rubelmel puffed out her cheeks and openly showed her dissatisfaction.

Just then, they saw a boy walking listlessly ahead of them.

It was the boy who had handed coins to Dinarts earlier, the boy who had continued to be deceived by him.

Because the boy was walking as slowly as a turtle, the two caught up to him in no time.

“Hey.”

When he came alongside the boy, Darius stopped and called out to him.

“Lord Darius?”

Rubelmel also seemed to have never expected Darius to call out to the boy, and she stopped a moment later.

“Hey, you.”

“…”

The boy looked up at Darius weakly.

His eyes looked as if they were dead. Until now, Darius had never paid attention to people who were merely on their way to death, but seeing lifeless eyes for the first time was deeply unpleasant.

“You actually realized it, didn’t you?”

“…”

The boy remained silent in response to Darius’s question. Seeing him like that irritated Darius.

“I will say it clearly for you. Your parents have been dead for a long time. Your little sister has already been sold as a toy, and even if she is still alive, she will be played with until she breaks.”

“…”

Though silent, the boy directed his empty eyes straight at Darius.

“What was that, handing money to him? Did you think it was a prayer? Because as long as you handed over money and kept being deceived, you did not have to make your family’s deaths certain. Because you could keep looking away.”

Darius met Rubelmel’s eyes and had her take three gold coins from the luggage.

Darius did not hand them over. He threw them down at the boy’s feet.

“If you are living like the dead because you want to escape the guilt of surviving alone, then die right now. Or I can kill you myself. You are unpleasant.”

“…”

“But if you pick up those gold coins, then live. Live, and mourn those deaths. That is something only you can do.”

From there, Darius stared fixedly into the boy’s eyes.

The boy’s eyes had been dry and reflected nothing, but tears gradually began to well up in them.

The boy sank to his knees and hung his head.

“Let’s go, Rubelmel.”

Darius took his eyes off the boy and began walking.

Rubelmel looked back and forth between the boy and Darius, smiled faintly, and followed after Darius.

“Please wait, Lord Darius.”

From then on, Darius did not look at the boy again.

Rubelmel came up beside Darius, who was walking quickly.

“You are kind, Lord Darius. Was that for that boy’s sake?”

Rubelmel’s voice sounded somehow cheerful.

“Of course not. You know my sorcery, don’t you? My sorcery governs words, as well as their value and price. Dinarts’s existence was something that trampled on my sorcery. I simply could not tolerate that.”

“Hehehe, I did not say anything about Dinarts-san, you know?”

At Rubelmel’s words, Darius nearly stopped walking for an instant and clicked his tongue softly.

“With three gold coins, that child can live for quite some time. Was that not too much to give him?”

“I did not throw them away for his sake. I merely wanted to make that idiotic prayer he wanted to give meaning to go to waste. Besides, it is not as if he is guaranteed to pick up the gold coins.”

“No, he will pick them up. You saw his eyes and knew he would, which is why you left that place, was it not, Lord Darius?”

“Do you think I, who was once a member of the Sobi House, have such a kind personality?”

“Yes, I do. And besides, you are no longer a member of the Sobi House, are you?”

Rubelmel smiled brightly as she peered into Darius’s face from the side.

“…You are just as unpleasant as Dinarts.”

“Mm, that is terrible of you, Lord Darius!”

Not long after the two left Elias, the warehouse district of Elias was swallowed in flames.