As if she hadn’t noticed my presence until I spoke up, Claire slowly turned to look at me. Her motions were remarkably mechanical, her usual smile taking a moment to switch back on.
“I thought so too. Pretty good results for my first battle, don’t you think?” she said with a bright smile, patting the corpse of the manticore beneath her.
A ripple went through the gathered citizens of Evaloti, Tafman’s eyes going just as wide as the rest. Someone with no court rank like Claire being so casual with me, a demon prince, was like signing her own death warrant.
Speaking of which, she usually at least feigned some formality around me in public. I saw a mischievous grin creep onto her face as she waited to see how I’d respond. What was with her? Was she trying to get under my skin? If she was being this defiant, had she already given up on any future for herself?
I made a big show of sighing. “Come on, I told you not to be so friendly with me in public. You remember I’m royalty, don’t you?”
The people of the autonomous zone were shaken even further. Tafman’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. Even Charlotte wore a very incredulous expression on her face.
Claire giggled. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Apologies for my utmost rudeness, Your Highness.” Apparently pleased by my response, she shifted back into a more formal tone.
“A bit late for that,” Ante commented.
Yeah...my dignity in the autonomous zone was absolutely shot.
“Okay then. Sorry, but I’ll have to ask you to come with me. We need to talk,” I said while putting on a serious face and a stern tone. This was an order.
“Yes, sir,” Claire replied flippantly as she hopped off the manticore’s carcass. But then she staggered, one of her legs too damaged to hold her weight.
“Claire!” Tafman shouted, jumping forward to catch her before she hit the ground. He didn’t hesitate, not even with the stench of the manticore’s guts still clinging to her. For the first time since I’d arrived at the scene, Claire returned Tafman’s gaze.
“By the way, thanks for the drink. It was...really good.” She gave him a bright smile before dropping her expression entirely and stepping away from him, dragging her damaged leg behind her as she made her way to my side.
Tafman opened his mouth to say something—perhaps a plea to stop her—but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
So I took Claire and left.
“Well, Mr. Prince, where are we headed?” Claire asked once we had left the village. Though she was as flippant as ever, the nervousness in her tone was unmistakable.
“I suppose our first stop will be the castle. Let’s just say I have some personal questions to ask you,” I replied with a casual response of my own. Then I turned to look at her again. “To be honest, I’m surprised. I didn’t think you’d go against Enma’s vision to such a degree.”
“I’m...surprised myself,” she murmured, smile vanishing.
So she was surprised too. My question was pretty risky, but her response had been better than I hoped.
“So, what will you do with her?” Ante asked, tone grave as we soared through the air.
I was on Layla’s back of course, but Claire was hanging from her claws. Claire couldn’t retract all the blades that were now protruding from her body, so riding in the saddle would have been too dangerous. On that note, it was quite a shock to learn she had such deadly weapons concealed inside her in the first place. And with them, she had dealt a fatal blow to a manticore. I really couldn’t underestimate Enma’s craftsmanship.
“Considering that skill, should you not expect Claire’s body to house some sort of trap? Perhaps a contingency to prevent betrayal or others from dissecting her body. If you act recklessly here and now, you may be in store for an undesirable consequence.”
That was true. But like Claire had said earlier, it was a surprise that she had been able to defy Enma’s plans. In other words, whatever mechanisms Enma had in place to ensure Claire’s loyalty might have been easier to deal with than I had initially anticipated.
And besides, if I didn’t make a move now, the question ultimately became when would I? Even with my access to Hunting Ground and thinking up numerous ways of dealing with Enma, I still had two big issues. First, how could I confirm what Claire really wanted? Second, how could I get Claire out from under Enma’s control?
From that perspective, was there any better time than now? As a demon prince, I had the authority to pass judgment on Claire for betraying Enma’s objectives. Enma would have no argument against me. She might get anxious about whatever info I extracted out of Claire in the process, but it was a bit late to worry about that.
On the other hand, if I let Claire go, there was a good chance I’d never see her again. Either Enma would dispose of her, or Claire would go into hiding deep underground and stop meeting with me. If I was going to tell Claire the truth, now was my last chance. Consequences be damned.
“You’ve already accepted that, haven’t you?”
I had to. If I were Enma, I wouldn’t give away my deepest secrets to my students. That way, no matter how hard they tried, I’d always know exactly what countermeasures they had cooked up to use against me.
My single brightest hope was that if Claire cooperated, I could extract and preserve her soul. Once I had perfected my Necromancy, I could take a crack at truly freeing her from Enma’s grasp. That would still be a long way off, but it sure beat messing with her soul without any preparation.
But to even reach that point, we needed to talk. And that would have to be a very careful conversation.
“Are we still heading back to the castle, then? Or should we find somewhere else to land?” Layla asked through Konectus. Though she was doing her best to maintain her composure throughout our conversation, I could feel her unease and concern for Claire through our bond.
Thanks, Layla. I have a place in mind where we can land. There was a hill not too far from here. It reminded me a lot of an area near our old village from back when we were alive. That would be a good spot for our conversation.
“Understood,” Layla sent back as I pictured the spot in my head, flapping her wings to pick up speed. We started to descend, the hill I was thinking of coming into view.
Layla lowered Claire to the ground before gently landing herself.
“There we go,” I said, jumping off her back with Liliana in my arms. I could tell my nerves were making my movements a bit awkward. Liliana gave a small bark and licked my cheek, trying to comfort me. I put her down and ruffled her hair to show my thanks. Then, I turned to Claire. She was staring back at me, her undead body still in tatters.
“So you plan to erase me here, huh?” Claire said, a faint smile taking to her face. “But considering your relationship with the professor, I don’t understand why you’d come all the way out here... Oh, you want a peek at how my body works underneath, is that it? I guess it is a great example of the professor’s craft,” Claire laughed as she rubbed herself seductively.
Instead of indulging in her joke, I quickly looked away and pulled out the pendant I had received from Spinezia. I deployed the Hunting Ground magic infused within it, creating a barrier that prevented the use of magic inside its domain. A tightening sensation settled over me as the barrier activated.
“What’s this?” Claire asked.
“It’s a pendant enchanted with the Sauroe family’s Bloodline Magic. With it, any attempts at magic inside the barrier are made extremely difficult. Basically, you must be incredibly strong to use magic.”
“Ha ha! So it’s to seal me in? You’ve really thought of everything.”
I noticed a faint wavering in Claire’s magic. It seemed like she maybe had tried to cast some sort of spell, but evidently it had failed. Her eyes were darting all over the place like crazy. She must have been really anxious. I guess from her perspective, she was really backed into a corner. But of course, I had no intention of hurting her. And so, steeling myself for the worst, I tried to put her at ease.
“Isn’t this nostalgic?” It certainly was for me. Even though pretty much all the memories of my past life had worn away at this point.
“What?”
“There was a hill like this just outside our village. We went there for picnics all the time, didn’t we?”
It had a great view, and was clearly visible from the village. That way, the adults could keep an eye on us without a worry in the world whenever we went there to play. I think. At the top of the hill there was this big tree, so we would lay out our mat under its shade and eat sandwiches. At least if my memory served me right. I also seemed to remember being pranked there on more than one occasion...
“What are you talking about? What village?”
“Tancrette.”
At that, Claire froze.