Episode 31

“Who are you—!? Where are you hiding?”

“Find them! Protect Her Highness!”

The Royal Guard Corps reacted instantly, rushing to Arnica and guiding her to the edge of the hall.

The knights searched for the intruder, but found no sign. Even magical detection failed to catch them.

“Now, now, calm down. The night has only just begun, you know?”

“Silence, you lawless cur! You disrupt this glorious gathering and think you can just walk away!?”

A middle-aged man commanding the Royal Guard Corps drew his sword and barked the words.

“Don’t get so hot-headed. I only came to tell the truth, that’s all.”

Information was relayed by mages, and the outside of the hall—and the surrounding area—had already been sealed off by security knights.

“There is no escape! Regret setting foot in the royal castle with such shallow thinking!”

“I didn’t come to pick a fight, though. But, you know—if you people let me slip in so easily, I don’t think you can catch me…”

“Y-you—!?”

The speaker toyed with the Royal Guards, verbally dancing around them. They continued searching corner to corner, but still could not find the intruder. From behind the Royal Guards rushing about, Arnica calmly analyzed the situation.

(This presence…)

Aktor watched from a short distance. Perhaps he had sensed something as well. For a moment, their eyes met.

“Only influential people were invited here, right? Then you should understand—the contradictions this kingdom carries.”

“Lies.”

“Contradictions.”

From those words—and from the presence she felt—Arnica could tell it was not nonsense. The enemy meant to publicize the truth with full knowledge of it. From the royal family’s standpoint, they could not allow that. But Arnica lacked both the power and the authority to stop it.

“A country endures because it has laws and order, right? Even nobles and the wealthy get punished if they do wrong… that’s common sense, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about…”

“Squeezing money out with heavy taxes, executing people for crimes that don’t exist, not managing your lands at all—aren’t those crimes?”

The Royal Guard faltered, as if the words struck home.

“Did you know? There’s a territory where people die of poverty every year. When they begged for tax relief, they were cut down. Awful, isn’t it?”

Arnica understood at once where the intruder was going—what kind of flow they were aiming for.

“You know what I’m talking about now, don’t you? Why hasn’t the House of Lagias—the great villain that sucks the lifeblood of its subjects—been punished? It’s not just commoners. If nobles do wrong, they get punished too—sometimes even those with royal blood… so doesn’t this seem strange?”

Every gaze in the hall—nobles, merchants, knights, Royal Guards—snapped to Zeke. There was some pure confusion, but most eyes were soaked in hatred.

“There must have been people who demanded the king condemn Lagias, right? But the king never moved, and Lagias has always done whatever he wants. Even though this kingdom has those ‘behind-the-scenes’ people close to the royal family. So why is Lagias the only one being overlooked?”

Zeke stood exposed to a storm of hateful stares.

The scene shifted from “knights wary of an intruder” to “everyone aiming hostility at Zeke.” The hall’s malice focused on him alone.

(How can he remain so calm… in this situation?)

Zeke remained unmoved—by the mysterious voice or by the dense hatred. He stood steady, unruffled.

(If the enemy reveals the royal family’s secrets… then I’ll be next.)

Not everyone would swallow it whole, but some would grow suspicious. Doubt would become suspicion, and suspicion would harden into certainty. If that happened, the royal family would lose its pull.

(This is Diabalet’s—our—sin. Perhaps the time has come to accept everything.)

“It’s almost like there’s some connection, isn’t it? Like you can’t just erase him. Well—actually, that’s exactly right!”

The invited guests began to murmur.

“Truth is, Lagias is the victim. A puppet the royal family used and used. Poor thing, so if you see him, be nice to him, okay?”

The unseen figure cackled in laughter. After laughing their fill, they began speaking in a serious tone.

“This world is all lies. A reality that suits some people somewhere. —You doubted me just now, didn’t you? Then let me show you proof.”

The strange discomfort Arnica had been sensing sharpened.

(Could the one behind that voice be…? No—this is fine. It’s true we kept lying. From here, it’s for the people to decide…)

Arnica felt like a criminal awaiting execution. She worried about their reactions, but the last thing her eyes caught was Zeke.

(If this eases even a little of what he carries as Lagias… then that’s enough.)

“The Diabalet royal family arbitrarily—――!?”

The malicious voice cut off abruptly. At the instant Arnica lifted her face in surprise, a thunderous crash and shockwave struck.

At the center of the hall stood a massive table laden with lavish food and drink—and it shattered into fragments.

In Arnica’s barely stable view, she saw Zeke slam a small figure down.

“—Guh!?”

“You’ve got a slick mouth for a brat.”

The impact shattered the table, scattering food and drink everywhere. Having been drenched in red wine, Clotted and Tsaity were stained crimson.

“W-why… why are you here, you Lagias bastard!?”

“Did you mistake this for a daycare? Showing up without doing your homework—how stupid can you be?”

“That’s impossible—! Lagias at a place with royalty…!”

—THUD!!

Zeke drove his fist down once.

The hall shook again from the shock.

“As I thought. You’re not the real body either.”

“How… did you get into my space?”

“Are you an idiot? You think I’d lose to the same magic twice?”

“Back then I prepared an entrance! This is a completely severed space… it can’t be—”

Only a few people here could accurately grasp what was happening. But they could see one thing: Zeke had dragged out the hidden intruder—and was utterly overpowering them.

With the Royal Guard Corps and knight order unable to interfere, Zeke flipped the situation alone. The air in the hall began to change.

“Your Highness, are you unharmed?”

“Aktor… who in the world is he…?”

What was Zeke?

Even to Arnica—no warrior—his power was plainly abnormal. A Lagias who excelled in combat was unheard of even in the kingdom’s history.

She had heard plenty about Zeke, but perhaps only seeing him with her own eyes allowed her to truly recognize what he was. Her gaze was drawn to him.

“Why…? Why did he stop it? If he’d let it play out, the way people look at Lagias might have changed…”

“He probably has no interest. His way of thinking is fundamentally different from ours.”

From their earlier exchange, it was clear Zeke held resentment toward the Diabalet royal family. Arnica could not understand why he wasted such a perfect chance to vent it.

Not that everything Lagias had done could be forgiven—but if the world’s truth came to light, criticism would shift toward the royal family.

“The ducal house—our side—had already acknowledged his existence. A Lagias with power. Depending on how he’s handled, that can become either a plus or a minus.”

Aktor spoke as if recalling something.

“My answer was to dispose of him if circumstances demanded it. —He was that anomalous.”

Arnica felt a hard-to-name emotion from Aktor: fear, anxiety, regret—many things tangled together.

In a sense, she thought, Aktor might be a victim too. Like the other successors, he carried a burden—forced into a ducal role from birth. No one could truly want to kill others by choice.

“In the end, I failed. He is not something humans can deal with. —I nearly got erased.”

Aktor spoke of it with bitter self-mockery.

It was rare for an intelligence arm to reverse a decision once made. Even the Ciel matter had felt exceptional—yet something even more irregular had occurred.

“I don’t know how Your Highness—the royal family—will face him, but if you choose to oppose him… I suggest you steel yourselves.”

“…I don’t know. Considering your past, the current relationship is nothing but contradiction.”

“Yes. I feel the same.”

Zeke completely suppressed the intruder, who was still trying to resist. They couldn’t hear what was said, but it looked like Zeke was speaking to them.

“I don’t know what purpose drives him. Nor why he has such power. —But…”

A cross formed of ice magic appeared. The cross that bound the intruder rose high into the air above the hall, forcing everyone to look up.

“He may be resisting something. That is what I felt.”

“…”

“If it’s him… perhaps he can correct the world that was altered by the Wisher—Diabalet… our mistake…”

Zeke stared straight at the intruder. What was reflected in those eyes?

“Thousand Swords.”

A thousand chilling blades appeared around the floating cross, radiating cold. The intruder struggled desperately, but could not escape the restraint.

“Later. Scatter.”

With Zeke’s words, the cold swords speared into the intruder all at once. One, dozens, hundreds—every blade pierced the uninvited guest without stopping. Some people covered their eyes at the sheer brutality.

Zeke clenched his fist once. As if that were the signal, the cross and the cold swords began to shine—and then detonated in a single burst.

When those who had shut their eyes and ducked opened them again, the intruder was gone without a trace.

As the crowd stood speechless at the whiplash of events, Aktor delivered a single line.

“Everyone, you see it clearly. —Betray the kingdom, and that is what happens.”

Zeke stood alone in the center of the hall, looking bored, muttering that it was nothing special.

It was an event burned vividly into the memories of the guests and guards alike. Everyone understood: you must not recklessly lay a hand on Lagias.

By Arnica’s decision, the gathering was ended.

It was unprecedented for the royal family’s long-standing traditional event to be canceled due to an intruder’s invasion.

Countless incidents had shaken the kingdom over the past two years. The clever suspected this was connected as well.

The great power’s firm foundation was beginning to tremble.

“What do we do, big brother…”

“How should I know!? Use your head for once!”

Clotted and Tsaity were still drenched in wine, stained bright red. Normally they would have raged and immediately fixed their appearance, but they had no room for that now.

“The plan is finished. He got killed by Lagias. N-next… we’re next…”

“Damn… we have power, don’t we?”

“That power was given to us by him too! …And Lagias erased him so easily. The ducal house was there. Maybe they’re already—right outside—”

Tsaity trembled violently. The Zeke he had seen at the gathering was pure demon. Just imagining that demon coming for their heads made the shaking uncontrollable.

“We can’t back out now! …Our target isn’t that devil—it’s Aaron! We’ve got power, and we’ve got the thing. There’s no way I’m inferior to him!”

In Clotted’s hand was a small bottle. An uncanny liquid glimmered with a suspicious light.

“If the operation succeeds, we can change as much as we want. Even if the ducal house has noticed our rebellion, it won’t matter.”

“T-then the operation goes…”

“Tomorrow. The moment it starts, you go to the location I told you. His other allies should be there. There’s no turning back now.”