11

“Hmm… That is a problem. That would not be complete, would it? It means you are friendly with me, but you may still be hostile to us.”

“That is true.”

Lydia removed the arm she had wrapped around Ains’s shoulder, folded her arms, and thought for a short while.

“My weight is on the Next-Era Luminaries, you see. It is not as if becoming friends with Ains-san as an individual sorcerer is my highest priority.”

Lydia slowly stepped back and began putting distance between herself and Ains.

“If it is my enemy alone, my friend alone, I will love all of it. But if it is a factor that gets in our way, that is another story. We must be loved beyond myself.”

After putting enough distance between them, Lydia stopped moving.

Sophia took a guarded stance and watched Lydia carefully.

“Hey, the mood changed somehow, but when do I get to sleep?”

Talidge asked while placing his hand on the greatsword propped up beside him, as if doing so just in case, but no one answered.

“Besides, you asked a sorcerer’s question, but I wonder how it really is. If you turn out to be an insignificant sorcerer, or a magic practitioner not even worth talking about, then you will have to take responsibility for interfering earlier, depending on that degree.”

“The greeting is done. Now…”

In an instant, the gently flowing atmosphere of the room changed completely into something as violent as a storm.

“She disappeared!”

Sophia, who had been observing her carefully, lost sight of Lydia before her eyes.

When Sophia immediately looked around, she was able to confirm Lydia’s figure.

However, that was.

“How did she get there in this instant!”

Lydia had already slipped into Ains’s chest area, made a fist, gripped several needles between her fingers, and drawn that arm back.

“!”

Even Ains seemed surprised by this, and he opened his eye wide before immediately leaping back.

“Oh my, that panicked face of yours is not bad either.”

Ains dodged Lydia’s fist by a hair’s breadth.

Lydia had swung her fist down from above. Her fist cut through empty air, and this time, she swung it upward from below. At that moment, she opened her fingers and threw the needles she had been holding between them.

Ains deployed a wind wall with chantless magic against the flying needles. This wall did not have particularly high defensive power. However, it was simple magic more than enough to block an attack on the level of needles thrown by a human.

This was also Arabetta’s study. He hesitated to suddenly use magic that might damage the surroundings. If the situation was beyond help, he would not choose his means. In the extreme, releasing a single high-firepower spell powerful enough to blow away the mansion would immediately solve the problem, but that would make him no different from a mere magic practitioner intoxicated by the magic he had learned and acting arrogantly. As Ains the sorcerer, he wanted to avoid that.

After finishing the deployment of the wind wall, Ains watched the flying needles and Lydia, who continued to smile fearlessly behind them, while considering his next move.

At that moment, Ains could tell from the movement of Lydia’s mouth that she had muttered something softly.

(A chant? No, she was not clad in magical power, so that is not it. And if she is one of their companions, it is not as if she would be unable to use chantless magic.)

The needles that struck the wind wall lost to the wind pressure and fell to the floor on the spot.

What had that mutter been? In the end, Lydia’s attack showed no follow-up after that and settled down for the moment.

“What? Is it my turn?”

Talidge stood up with his greatsword in one hand. His fighting spirit seemed sufficient, and he appeared fully motivated.

“No, you take Arabetta-sama and leave the study.”

“Why?”

Sophia continued without turning her face toward Talidge.

“Your sword would be hard to handle in this cramped space. Guard Arabetta-sama.”

“Hah, that’s easy enough.”

“If you pointlessly destroy the furnishings, you will be paying for them yourself. If that is still fine with you, then by all means, lend a hand.”

Talidge looked back and forth between the claymore in his hand and the furnishings placed around the study, then broke out in a single cold sweat.

“Fine, I’ll follow what you say this time. Come on, you, we’re going.”

Talidge held out a hand to Arabetta, who remained seated on the sofa.

“You, use proper respectful language.”

“Ah… hurry up, if you please.”

Beside Sophia, who sighed, Arabetta took Talidge’s offered hand and stood up, then once again confirmed Lydia’s appearance.

So she would not forget the face of Lydia, the leader of the Next-Era Luminaries.

“Ains-dono, Sophia-dono, please stay safe.”

“…”

“I do not know whether that one will be of any use, but you stay safe as well, Arabetta-sama.”

“Yes.”

Talidge merely shrugged at Sophia’s insult, and without minding it, left the study with Arabetta.

In the study remained Ains, Sophia, and Lydia.

“Was it all right to let those two escape?”

“Two small fries like that are no trouble at all.”

“That is not what I meant. Your wanted poster will definitely be spread around, with a portrait attached.”

“If my name and face don’t spread around a little… well, what was it? If my existence stays unknown, it won’t have any prestige, will it?”

The evacuated Arabetta would undoubtedly have her subordinates convey Lydia’s features and create a composite portrait.

If that happened, wanted posters of Lydia, the leader of the Next-Era Luminaries, would spread throughout the kingdom. Lydia was not someone who did not understand how much that would restrict her movements.

(Or does her sorcery allow her to escape those restrictions?)

Ains formed a hypothesis from the conversation between the two.

“Now then, the distractions have decreased. Let’s clash a little more violently, Ains-san. When I fought the witch, it was a bit fiercer, you know? I got beaten up pretty badly, though.”

Lydia scratched her head with a wry smile.

“Oh, you fought that sorcerer Lizelotte as well? That is interesting.”

As Ains walked toward Lydia, he called out to Sophia.

“She is my opponent. Do not interfere, Sophia.”

His eye held no hostility at all. Rather, it seemed to be shining.

“Under… stood.”

Sophia had witnessed this sort of scene from Ains many times. That was why she was gradually beginning to understand when she should step back.

In this situation, no matter what Sophia said, Ains would not change at all. Instead, it would only worsen the situation and become an action with no benefit whatsoever.

“…”

While keeping Lydia and Ains in her sight, Sophia stepped backward and quietly retreated to the wall.

“Now, show me your true power. Of course, aim it only at me, not her.”