“What’s so funny?” the young man snapped. “Come on. Out with it!”
“Oh, nothing in particular,” Rashid answered.
“Don’t make me ask again. That smile of yours sickens me. Yours too, Barbarian Princess.”
“Nothing about this is funny,” Lynne said. “I am simply relieved.”
The slender young man frowned, almost gawking in disbelief. “Has the sting of defeat cost you your sanity? Or are you such a fool that you don’t understand the situation you’re— Huh?”
A quiet clatter rang out as the tip of the young man’s knife struck the floor, severed cleanly from the rest of the blade. He stared at it in a daze, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as he struggled to form words.
“To tell you the truth, I was hesitant,” Lynne said, exhaling slowly. “As pressing as the circumstances were—as much as I knew these atrocities couldn’t be ignored—I found myself wondering whether it was truly right to resolve these matters through force.”
Slowly, the princess turned to face the young man still pressing his knife against her throat. Her fingers wrapped around the hilt of a slender sword—an old companion of hers.
“So, in that regard, I must express my gratitude,” she continued. “Because of you, that last whisper of reluctance has faded.”
As her final words left her lips, genuine relief flooded her expression—and the heads of hundreds of golems throughout the venue toppled from their bodies.
“H-Huh?”
“What did you call me, again?” she asked softly. “A savage barbarian? Well, I can’t deny that. Resolving matters by force does come more naturally to me. As the saying goes, it is easier to lead with the strength of one’s arms than the acuity of one’s mind. I’d do well to remember that. From now on, I shan’t get lost in my thoughts.”
She turned, and the golems’ arms were next to tumble through the air.
“Wh-What?” the slender young man sputtered. “H-How?”
“Brother! It’s that beastfolk!” his plump accomplice exclaimed. “It has to be!”
“Tsk! You!” The thinner of the two brothers rounded on his new target. “You fought alongside that freak in the recording, didn’t you?! How we overlooked you this long, I have no idea! Cease what you’re doing at once!”
“I haven’t done anything,” Shawza responded, the picture of calm.
“Excuse me?”
Lynne watched in silence, her expression somber, as hundreds of stony limbs crashed to the floor. She sighed quietly and narrowed her eyes.
“Honestly, how could I have forgotten?” she pondered aloud. “My old self would have been right to hesitate. After all, these golems are the symbol of fear that upholds the status quo of the entire nation of Sarenza. But as I am now... Instructor Noor and Shawza have already been kind enough to show me how to combat them. So, while they might have posed a threat before—”
She raised a hand, and a brisk wind stirred through the venue.
“Now, they might as well be oversized dolls.”
In the blink of an eye, the last of the golems were beheaded, their severed remains striking the floor with a dull, echoing thud.
“In hindsight, there was no need for me to participate in this farce,” Lynne said. “Why did I ever think otherwise?”
“Eek!”
“N-No! This can’t be happening!”
The girl paid no attention to the brothers, who were already cowering on the floor, and turned calmly to face the children on the stage. “Are they okay, Rolo?” she asked.
“Mm-hmm. They are now. Thanks for buying me enough time, Lynne.”
“Wh-What?” The slender young man wheeled around to the pale-haired boy and the armor-clad woman—both of whom had been at the princess’s table only moments before—as they gently laid the unconscious demonfolk children on the floor.
“We safely removed their control collars,” Rolo explained. “It wasn’t that hard, so we shouldn’t need to worry about any lasting consequences.”
Lynne breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. Well done, Rolo.”
“You did what?!” the thinner brother screamed. “No, that’s impossible! Those collars were custom-made by first-rate magical engineers! You couldn’t have removed them so easily!”
“Sarenza does not have a monopoly on first-rate magical engineers,” the princess explained. “And as it so happens, Rolo is an expert himself. His talent is recognized by one of the best in the field.”
“So it was just a convenient coincidence, was it? Preposterous!” In his panic, the young man remembered the elite assassins in his employ and turned to them. “What are you doing?! Did you forget how much I’m paying you?!”
To his horror, every one of his men was pinned to the wall, held fast by countless arrows.
“O-Our deepest apologies, Master Ari!” one stammered.
“H-How—?!”
“My lady,” came a calm voice. “I thought it best to deal with anyone suspicious first and ask questions later.”
“Thank you, Sirene,” Lynne replied.
“H-How can this be?!” the young man spat. “This wasn’t supposed to happen!”
Rashid studied his younger brothers with unrestrained amusement. “When you two were little, I taught you the tricks of gathering information. I said that if you cut corners, you’d regret it.” He shrugged. “That you made such a grave mistake in choosing your opponent tells me you’re still sorely lacking in the basics.”
“A-Ari, let’s run!” the plump boy shouted. “It’s over! They’re freaks—every last one of them!”
Lynne retrieved a small magic wand from her hip and gave it a flourish. “[Cocytus].” A biting chill swept through the venue as a layer of ice froze the brothers’ feet to the floor.
“Eek! C-C-Cold!”
“M-My legs! I can’t move! S-Someone—help!”
“Don’t worry. It’s not lethal,” the princess reassured them. “But I would advise against struggling, lest you cause your legs to shatter.”
“Eep!”
The girl who had single-handedly seized control of the auction gave the shivering brothers a gentle smile. “There’s no need to be so afraid,” she said. “We’re just going to have a little chat, okay?”