20

After Darius had warmed his body sufficiently, he sat on the edge of the bathtub and cooled his upper body. Steam rose from Darius’s white skin.

“I mean Ains. Why did you not tell that woman about him?”

“There is nothing to tell. I have nothing left to say beyond what I already reported to Lady Lydia.”

Rubelmel deliberately tilted her head slightly, but Darius snorted at it.

“Do not lie. When I awakened to sorcery, we faced Ains at the Sorcery Academy, did we not? You must have noticed something then.”

“…”

“I was not very conscious of it at the time, but after hearing Ains’s words, you were clearly shaken then. Why did you not tell her something that was enough to shake even you?”

After acting together with Rubelmel, Darius had noticed something about her. Rubelmel did not bring her own emotions to the surface very much.

Of course, she did laugh and show anger, but Darius knew that those things did not come from her pure true feelings. In everything, Rubelmel basically acted with calculation. Even the gestures where she showed momentary emotion were driven by Rubelmel’s calculations.

Rubelmel let out a small breath, saying, “You noticed?” then paused before opening her mouth.

“…It is true, as you say, Lord Darius. At that time, I learned a part of Ains-sama. However, I have no proof. Even I, who understood it, still find it unbelievable even now.”

“Even without proof, she is your leader, is she not? Normally, I would think information should be shared.”

Rubelmel touched the magical formula scars carved into her body with her finger and looked up at the ceiling, where the steam had struck and formed scattered droplets.

“…In the end, I am merely a spellcaster, Lord Darius. For someone like me to intervene between two sorcerers like Lady Lydia and Ains-sama and meddle in various matters would be far too tactless. And Ains-sama, of all people…”

Rubelmel swallowed her words there.

Darius had not realized Ains’s true identity. He only recognized him as one sorcerer.

“Even so, despite being someone like that, I have one request for you, Lord Darius.”

“…What?”

“I may be nothing more than a fraudulent spellcaster, but I earnestly do not want you, Lord Darius, to face Ains-sama.”

“…”

The sorcery of Ains that Rubelmel had seen was truly just the tip of the iceberg of his power. From what Lydia, who had faced him, had said, he must have exercised power beyond that.

And from Rubelmel’s perspective, knowing Lydia’s sorcery, Ains, who had so easily defeated Lydia, was a monster beyond her imagination—or rather, considering Ains’s true identity, a monster exactly as she imagined.

“I wish to keep watching you from beside you, Lord Darius. Please, though this may be the nonsense of a petty woman, keep it somewhere in the corner of your mind.”

Just as he had felt various things while acting together with Rubelmel, she too had felt things while acting together with Darius.

Rubelmel had been watching one cheeky, arrogant, ignorant brat grow independent as one man.

“That is precisely a matter between sorcerers. It has nothing to do with you. I will simply act as I see fit. If he stands in my way at that time, then that is what it means.”

That was what sorcerers were. Otherwise, they would never reach the point of manifesting their thoughts, desires, wishes, and prayers as power.

“I see…”

Rubelmel lowered her eyes.

“…However, I too would find it a little lonely if I could no longer see your clownish act. I do not know what will happen when I actually face that situation, but I will keep your words in the corner of my mind.”

Darius got out of the bathtub and began wiping his body with a towel that had been left there.

“You people are surprisingly not a monolith either.”

Seeing Darius about to finish his bath, Rubelmel also picked up a towel and began wiping her body.

“I owe Lady Lydia a debt. And our goals also align. That is why the Next-Era Luminaries came into being. However, I think what each person finds in that goal differs from person to person. I feel by intuition that Ains-sama’s principle of action is surely the same as the value I have found.”

“Hmph. What are you saying now that you are enemies?”

“I simply thought that there may have been a path where we could have acted together.”

“…”

A principle of action. Darius asked himself. What was his own principle of action? But Darius, who had only just stood up with his legs trembling like a fawn’s, was still in the middle of looking back at himself. He had not yet found the answer.

“Come on, let us go, Rubelmel. Where are we heading next?”

“Next is—”

At the very least, Darius thought that this time spent together with Rubelmel was not bad.

Several days had passed since Lydia’s attack on Elias.

With Arabetta at the head, having been roused once again by Ains’s words and by a letter from her old friend Kansas, the reconstruction of the city had begun.

For now, they were still in the middle of clearing the piles of rubble in the warehouse district, but the people of the domain followed with relief when they saw Arabetta standing at the front.

Ains and the others, who were receiving accommodations from Arabetta, also helped. Since they had to work for the lodging and food they were being given, Ains made use of magic, Sophia worked beside him as his assistant, and Talidge fully displayed the stupid strength he was so proud of.

“Ains-dono, thank you for your hard work again today. I am sorry that I keep receiving help from you, but I am truly grateful.”

At dinner, as everyone sat around the dining table, Arabetta praised Ains for his efforts.

“No, no. It seems I do not have the nerve to live as a freeloader. Rather than being looked at coldly, it is easier on my mental health to work for this delicious food.”

“No such thing! I can never raise my head before you, Ains-dono!”

Talidge ate heartily with clattering noises while Sophia kept nagging him with small criticisms. Arabetta also addressed those two.

“I am grateful to both of you as well. Thank you for helping from the subjugation of the fishmen all the way to the reconstruction work.”

“Please do not mind it, Lady Arabetta. We are the ones who have allowed such a rude person to stay in Lady Arabetta’s mansion.”

“Huh? Are you talking about me?”

At Sophia’s words, Talidge raised his face suspiciously.

“Do not speak with food in your mouth, fool. Be aware of your own rude behavior.”

“Ains spills things a lot when he eats too, doesn’t he? That makes me the same as him.”

“You are not the same! In Ains-sama’s case, the food that dares to spill from his noble mouth is the evil one.”

Talidge pointed around Ains’s tableware with his fork and directed Sophia’s gaze there.

“I’m starting to worry about how your brain recognizes things… In that case, as his servant, you should deal with those crumbs that committed evil against your master.”

Talidge continued with a cynical smile, as if testing Sophia.

“Can you pick that up, eat it, and deal with it?”

“Of course! Rather, it would be a reward. I would want to ask Ains-sama for it myself.”

Sophia looked at Ains with a serious gaze.

Ains stopped the hand he had been eating with and gave a wry smile.

“…Sophia, that might be a little much…”

Sophia, having been put off by Ains, dropped her shoulders as tears welled in her eyes.