10

““!?””

The ones who caught their breath were Arabetta and Sophia.

Talidge merely rubbed his sleepy eyelids.

“Judging by those faces, it looks like you know them. Glad I don’t have to waste time explaining.”

Lydia approached Arabetta, who was sitting on the sofa, and Ains, who stood beside her.

Sophia watched Lydia’s movements while keeping her hand on the sword at her waist.

Having faced Corbelli, Sophia roughly understood the abilities of those connected to the Next-Era Luminaries. Lydia, standing before Sophia now, was supposedly the leader of the Next-Era Luminaries, where powerful people gathered. She could not make any careless movements.

“There’s a reason I came here. I thought I’d greet the sorcerer over there. As fellow sorcerers, I’d like us to get along.”

As Lydia gave a fearless smile, Ains wrinkled his brow.

“You people again? Rubelmel-san used interesting magic, but in the end, she was a magic practitioner, and the man I met before her was no different from any ordinary magic practitioner. I have no reason to get along with you magic practitioners.”

Ains turned his body toward Lydia and sighed, saying, “I wish you would stop making a fool of sorcery.”

“True enough. Everyone connected to the Next-Era Luminaries is what we would call a magic practitioner. They use distinctive magic, but they never go beyond that domain.”

In contrast to Lydia, who was smiling, Ains felt terribly displeased.

It was because Arabetta had been just a little away from awakening to sorcery, only for Lydia to interfere.

To make Arabetta interested in the power known as sorcery, Ains had prepared everything with words. Even if it was something Ains himself did not care about, he had lined up words to encourage Arabetta, whose heart had broken.

Strike while the iron is hot. This was precisely the timing when he could bring Arabetta into the questioning without letting her make any unnecessary suspicions.

Fortunately for the ignorant Lydia, Ains had not yet begun questioning Arabetta.

If Lydia had called out to him in the middle of the questioning, Ains would have used his power without asking any questions.

Even so, there was no doubt that he did not feel favorably toward Lydia.

“It sounds as if you want to say that, unlike them, you are a sorcerer.”

“Oh? Looks like you don’t believe me. If I make you believe I’m a sorcerer, will you get along with me?”

“Whether I believe you or not, if you are a sorcerer, then prove it through words and actions befitting a sorcerer. If you cannot, would you leave at once?”

It was clear that Ains was irritated, which was rare for him.

Lydia twisted her head and thought about how she could prove it to Ains.

After a little while, Lydia seemed to think of something, looked straight at Ains, and opened her mouth.

“I’ll ask you one question a sorcerer would understand. You don’t have to answer it.”

“Just say it already. I’ll decide whether to answer.”

“Won’t you tell me your restriction?”

“…”

Ains answered Lydia’s question with silence, but his brow moved slightly.

Sophia, who had heard the word restriction from Ains’s mouth, understood what Lydia’s question meant and caught her breath softly, but Arabetta, who did not know what it meant, and the indifferent Talidge showed no reaction at all.

“…I see. You do indeed seem to be a sorcerer. Otherwise, you would not ask that question to another sorcerer.”

After his displeasure eased, Ains took a breath and once again, this time properly, examined Lydia’s figure with his eye.

Not as an annoying clown, but as a single sorcerer.

If she was someone who handled sorcery, someone who would show him sorcery, then that alone would satisfy Ains’s desires. Of course, being present for the sorcery Arabetta would produce would have satisfied Ains far more.

“Do you understand now? Then let’s get along!”

“Haa. You are awfully familiar. Of course, as fellow sorcerers, let us build friendly relations.”

“Haha, that’s a loaded way to put it. Come enjoy doing whatever you want to your heart’s content with us! If you become a slave to reason, even interesting things turn dull.”

Perhaps because they were fellow sorcerers, Ains relaxed his guard and smoothly accepted Lydia as she tried to put her arm around his shoulder.

As Ains had his shoulder held with an exasperated expression, Lydia herself nodded repeatedly in delight.

“Wait! You intend to draw Ains-dono into the Next-Era Luminaries!”

Arabetta stood up and closed in on Lydia.

“What’s wrong with that? Ains-san would have a much more meaningful time spending it with me than in an environment with people like you, wouldn’t he? What you can do, I can do too. What you can’t do, I can do. So? Can you present Ains-san with more value than I can?”

Lydia finished with, “A mere lord like you.”

“Certainly, it might not be bad to freely explore magic and sorcery together with a sorcerer like you.”

Ains had not encountered many sorcerers until now. It was true that most of the people he met could not speak about magic or sorcery with him on the same level. It would be a lie to say Ains had never felt even the slightest dissatisfaction with that.

There was also one sorcerer he had met at the royal castle, but she somehow seemed to avoid Ains, and it did not become the kind of discussion he wanted at all.

Ains thought that there could be no discussion more enjoyable than speaking about sorcery with a true sorcerer.

“Then! Ah, good, good. You said something earlier like we couldn’t understand each other, so I was worried.”

Lydia rejoiced happily.

In contrast, Sophia’s expression as she stood by sank.

“However, as I said earlier, that is only toward you as a sorcerer. I have no interest whatsoever in the Next-Era Luminaries that you people gather under, and I do not care about them. In fact, if anyone other than you had interfered with me, I would have silenced them without question.”

“Ains-sama…!”

To Ains, who was interested in magic and sorcery, Lydia’s existence as a sorcerer had a certain degree of value, but that did not mean the Next-Era Luminaries she led moved Ains’s appetite. If they got in Ains’s way, then in other words, that was what it meant.

Sophia let out a relieved voice.