Nothing But Lies (2)

“Lord Kardia intends to—”

—to kill you.

She saw Panselinos’s lips form the words. She heard the sound.

And yet she could not understand what they meant.

“—…Eh?”

At last she forced out a word—far too helpless a sound.

A furrow gathered between Panselinos’s brows. The pained look on his face made it clear he was thinking of Noi’s body and mind.

“Lord Kardia cherishes you. That much is certain. Only—there is someone he hates even more.”

Noi’s eyes flew wide.

In an instant a thought sprang to mind, and she crushed it inside herself—That couldn’t be.

(I purified that—myself. The Starseer’s divinations never miss.)

Noi trusted not only in her own magic, but even more in the Starseer. In all her life, she had never once seen his fortune-telling fail.

(So such a thing is impossible.)

A bad premonition seized her.

Her heartbeat thundered so loudly it felt like it would be heard outside.

Into Noi’s ears, a cruel fact came crashing.

“—the wicked King of Devils that nests in Lord Kardia’s body.”

Noi dropped the cup she was holding to the floor.

On the thick carpet, the cup went rolling, clatter-clatter.

“…The Demon King.”

“You know of it?”

At Noi’s small murmur, Panselinos raised one eyebrow.

Even though the cup had fallen, Noi could neither pick it up nor answer his question.

(Did I… fail to purify it…?)

Staring at the tea stain spreading across the carpet, Noi stood stupefied.

Panselinos continued quietly to the speechless, stunned Noi.

“If you know, that spares us time. Lord Kardia intends to use you to slay the Demon King.”

Panselinos’s voice went in one ear and out the other.

“I hear you are well-versed in magic circles. There should be, somewhere in this house, a circle Lord Kardia inherited from his master.”

“Your Majesty, Teacher would—”

“You might understand something if you saw it. Look, then judge as you will. If you feel the need to ask for help, tell Ornis. I shall lend my strength.”

When Ornis, who had been watching the woods through the kitchen window, called to Panselinos, he rattled the words off quickly.

But Noi was so shaken she could not even manage a reply.

“There’s Luxe in the yard, isn’t there—ah, of course. A bored old man came over to play.”

As Noi fell silent, the front door opened. It was Kardia, who on mausoleum days should not have returned until past midnight.

Perhaps he had seen a Zephyrai from the woods and cut things short.

“‘Old man,’ you say? To someone younger?”

“I’m not a grandfather yet.”

Panselinos, who had just been speaking to Noi with such grave sincerity, chatted with Kardia in a tone that betrayed none of it. Noi, however, could not even lift her head; she kept her face bowed.

Seeing Noi pale and trembling, dazed where she stood, Kardia’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“…Panselinos. Don’t tell me you were bullying my bride?”

“Caught me, did you. She was so very lovely that rather than becoming the bride of a cur like Lord Kardia, I was trying to woo her into being my grandson’s bride. You interfered most admirably.”

“Then I arrived at the perfect time. Bride, there’s no need to take such nonsense seriously.”

Kardia lifted Noi into his arms. But when she did not lean into him as usual, he raised his brows, puzzled.

“Bride?”

Noi had meant to smile back the way she always did.

But when Kardia drew a breath, she knew she had failed.

“Found it…”

Reaching behind the wardrobe, Noi grasped a stack of papers.

—In the old days, when Kardia hid something, he always hid it here.

She had not imagined it would be unchanged after a hundred years—but perhaps human nature did not change.

Panselinos, who had left Noi weakened, had been chased off by Kardia. She had told him she was “just nervous in front of a king,” but whether Kardia believed it was doubtful.

Saying she was tired and needed to rest, Noi had skipped dinner and returned alone to Kardia’s room. She spread the papers she had pulled from behind the wardrobe across the floor, which the setting sun struck.

There were sheets brand-new and sheets very old—of all kinds. On all of them were complex designs—magic circles.

Planting her slim hands on the floor, Noi peered down at the pages.

“…Transfer magic.”

Noi studied the papers down to the last corner.

The more the pages went on, the more minutely the whole had been tuned, the more adjustments had been made so the magic would operate at its best.

“—I see.”

Magic circles had meanings; where there was meaning, one could read.

This was the transfer circle Noi herself had once been developing.

With Noi’s unfinished circle left behind, Kardia had produced the magic device called the Water-Illusion Post. Because it did not interfere with beings that possessed mana, the Water-Illusion Post was a comparatively feasible magic.

Of course, it had only been possible thanks to Kardia’s quick grasp, tireless effort, and the long years he could devote to magical research; an ordinary mage would have failed halfway.

Only, Noi had misunderstood—she had thought that by making the Water-Illusion Post, Kardia had thereby completed transfer magic.

But she had been wrong.

The Water-Illusion Post—which did not interfere with mana—was only an exercise. Using it as a foothold, Kardia had devised a transfer magic that could relocate even beings that did possess mana.

“…Ah. He was always… watching.”

She traced the circle with a fingertip. In Kardia’s transfer circle, there was embedded the interference-with-mana array Noi had brute-forced into her purification magic. Just as she had overpowered it with her vast mana, Kardia meant to overpower it with the prodigious mana he bore.

Noi leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

“…He means to move the Demon King into me—and then kill me.”

The Demon King had the property of multiplying its host’s mana manyfold. Kardia’s ability to wield mana without limit now was no doubt tied to that trait.

For the moment, his will seemed to be suppressing the Demon King—but there was no telling when that master-servant balance would invert.

(—That he had lived a hundred years, that the quality of his mana had changed, that he had the power to keep an island like this aloft… once you see it, it’s simple…)

The Demon King was still inside Kardia’s body.

How had she failed to think of something so simple? Noi was appalled at her own complacency.

(Saying I would protect him, and yet—I left everything on that boy’s shoulders…)

Noi covered her trembling lips with her small hands.

(…He cried and said he was afraid.)

Surely even Kardia himself did not know when the reversal might come.

It could be today; it could be tomorrow. Frightened of each day like that, unable to die because his death would resurrect the Demon King—he had lived on—alone.

And then he had found Noi.

Noi, who had no mana.

The Demon King’s magnifying trait meant nothing if there was no mana to magnify.

As zero times anything was still zero, Noi had no mana.

Even if the Demon King emerged after killing Noi, a Demon King with no mana would be easy to purify.

(Kardia chose the best path.)

Noi knew the Demon King’s strength with her own body.

(To kill the Demon King—there is no other way left.)

Proud as she was of being the greatest mage in the realm, she arrived at the shortest optimal answer.

And yet—ah—

“‘This is sudden, but I think I fell in love at first sight.’”

(All lies.)

A hard squeeze seized the depths of her chest.

“…Ah. I see. So that’s it.”

It didn’t hurt because she hated him.

When she next saw Aidoni, she would have to tell her.

Noi pressed a hand to her chest and pushed down firmly.

“It hurts—because I love him.”