“Then there’s no longer any reason to come after me.”
“While it’s probably not a major goal of theirs, you’re still an eyesore. That’s not the concern, though. The problem is the sealed Arch Elf and the items there. The Arch Elf is especially problematic… If his seal is undone, only a High Elf with the power to oppose him will be able to seal him away again.”
If using the power of the High Elf was our only way of stopping the Arch Elf…then we needed to defeat the Church followers before the seal could be undone.
But the only ones who could even go to the Sanctuary were…
“The elves of the imperial family.”
“Besides me, of course,” Mother repudiated. She had married into the imperial family, so she obviously didn’t have any imperial blood in her. Which meant…
“Father, me, and Lilou, are the only ones capable.”
There was also my older sister, though she had married into another family.
“We need to put a stop to the Church of the Malevolent Lord’s plans at any cost.”
In which case, someone would need to take a small squad along and go into the Sanctuary.
Lilou was still young, though. While she may have been able to get through the Sanctuary with a tight guard troop around her, who could possibly bring themselves to drag a terrified child in there?
Father, meanwhile, was someone who needed to remain in the castle. There was a chance it could take until tomorrow to gather the resources and get a squad together. However, it was possible that the Church would have plundered all sorts of items from the Sanctuary by then, unless we headed over there now.
“I’ll go.”
I was the one who needed to go. If the worst happened, and I lost my life, my death wouldn’t have nearly the same impact as my father’s.
“I just knew…you’d say that.” Mother looked happy, yet slightly sorrowful at the same time. “Your mother is overjoyed to see how much you’ve grown, Ludie. I’m sure I have Tsukuyomi Magic Academy and your friends to thank for that.”
Just then, I heard a voice come from behind me.
“If you’ll excuse me, my lady.”
I turned around, and one of the guards who had just been with Father grabbed me. I immediately put two and two together.
“What do you think you’re doing? Stop this at once!”
I needed to free myself from their grip and flee from here immediately—that was what ran through my mind. It was plain as day, Mother was trying…
“Claris!”
…to stop me from going.
Despite my cries, Claris couldn’t move—Mother was standing right in front of her. She couldn’t raise a hand against her employer.
“Yet no matter how proud I am, what kind of parent would willingly expose her daughters to danger?”
“The elves’ treasures may be sitting in the Sanctuary. But my treasure is my family. Lilou, Ludie, and my Sophia.”
Father came up in front of me and stared into my eyes.
“I don’t think I could go on living if I were to lose any one of you.”
“Darling… I feel the same,” Mother said before gripping Father’s hand tightly.
“I can’t expose my daughters to danger. I’m going.”
Father gently let go of Mother’s hands before turning his back to me.
“If anything happens, keep Sophia and Lilou safe. Take Ludie away.”
Mother watched Father’s resolute and magnificent figure depart, looking ready to burst into tears at any moment. Then at long last, she turned away.
From there, I was shuffled off by the guards into my room. Several guards were posted outside to keep me from escaping.
“Now what am I going to do?”
…First, I needed to calm down a bit and think things through. I sat down on my bed and took a deep breath.
There were several avenues I could take.
The easiest of them was to simply wait it all out here. Entrust everything to Father without getting involved and wait until the whole incident blew over.
But I thought this was a bad move.
First, there was the matter of Father. It would be terrible if anything happened to him right now. He was the person the empire needed the most at this moment. With this series of terrorist attacks striking fear in the hearts of his citizens, he needed to stand before them and lead the nation.
The empire could not afford to lose him. Father may have been skilled with magic, but that didn’t necessarily translate into him being proficient at combat.
I could think of countless other reasons why Father was needed. We needed to keep him alive at all costs.
Time was another problem. The Church of the Malevolent Lord’s objective was clear, and it was a race against the clock to stop them from achieving it. Action needed to be taken immediately.
At this rate, the Arch Elf would be revived.
“The Arch Elf has to bear a grudge against this country.”
If he was revived, it was conceivable he would indiscriminately kill the population. Not just the citizenry, but even Lilou, Mother and Father, too…
I shook my head to dispel the awful imagery.
“We can’t let that happen. Before any of that, I want to try doing something myself.”
There was a problem, though: How was I supposed to get through to the Sanctuary?
The Church of the Malevolent Lord’s followers weren’t the only ones in the Sanctuary. The place was teeming with powerful monsters. Forget the showdown with the Church followers—it was dubious whether I could even manage to catch up to them.
I would require strong companions to fight with me. Several people I could trust at the very least, who were as strong as Claris or more.
Companions who would risk their lives for me. Did I even have any friends like that in the first place?
I simply didn’t know what I should do. I limply sat down in my chair and deflated. The people that came to mind were those who I wished to protect. The citizens, Mother and Father, Lilou.
Suddenly, a single man came to mind. Someone who would never give up, no matter how disadvantaged he was, someone who overcame any unfavorable situation he found himself in.