The Nebulis palace, Star Spire.
The Lou head of family’s personal chambers, the Stardust Skyscraper.
As Liliel lay on her sickbed, she exchanged glances with Schwartz.
“How has my daughter been lately?”
“I apologize, my lady. I have no idea how this happened to her…”
Mirabella had been acting strangely for some time.
There was something slightly off about her—something only her mother and tutor could have noticed.
She had started growing more animated.
Day in and day out, she would pass the time silently honing her knives. Though she refused to use makeup, she had begun bathing at least every other day, and when she left the palace, she would command her attendants to iron her battle uniform.
It almost seemed…
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…as if she were dressing up to see a lover.
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She began to act fussier about her clothes. Though in this case, that meant her battle uniform rather than her royal garb.
“She has told me that she’s going on self-directed training sessions. But she seems too secretive. She never tells me when or where she’s going.”
“Schwartz, can’t you figure out where she’s headed, at least?”
“I’m afraid…even when I tail her, she jumps out of the palace windows to go out.”
He couldn’t catch her leaving even if he watched the front gate.
The Nebulis palace had several hundred windows. Mirabella would jump out of one at random, so they would need to monitor all of them to follow her out. Naturally, that was an impossible endeavor.
“She said she was enjoying herself…”
“Her training, you mean?”
“Yes. If we are to believe what she says. She told me her sessions are ‘meeting her expectations,’ which is why she has been enjoying herself…”
“What expectations?”
The head of house knit her brows dubiously.
“Who does she mean?”
“W-well… What I do know is she must have a sparring partner.”
But who was it?
Mirabella was the strongest queen candidate, so if she said that about her opponent, then that meant…
The pair lapsed into thought for some time.
Mirabella’s mother and Schwartz could hardly even imagine who this person might be.
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“That brat!”
Central state, city outskirts.
Shut inside a small, old cabin few people would come upon, Salinger trembled as he sat on his bed.
“How is she such a monster?!”
Princess Mirabella was too powerful.
She knew how to use her astral power, how to fight at close quarters, and even how to take advantage of psychological warfare.
……So she’s the strongest queen candidate in history.
……Of course. She’s obviously different. She’s an aberration.
He didn’t feel like he was fighting a person.
Mirabella didn’t even seem like a beast, or a living thing at all, for that matter. She was like a war machine that someone had programmed for slaughter.
“A living doll…”
She would try to gut him with her knives and strangle him with her hands. She had nearly torn him apart with her Ballistic astral power dozens of times.
And through it all, her expression never changed.
……It’s like nothing is holding her back.
……If I were anyone else, she would have killed me thirty times over by now.
However…
“I’m still alive.”
He balled his red and swollen hand into a fist.
That was right. Even though they had fought time and time again, he had survived each clash.
He had survived because he was himself.
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I’m the only one. I’m the only opponent fit for her.
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At some point, Salinger’s fixation on facing the royal family had disappeared, though this fact had escaped his notice.
He just wanted to win. He just wanted to beat the princess.
If you could put his resentment on a scale, his hatred for that single girl would outweigh that for the entire royal family.
“Speaking of the royal family… How is that analysis going?”
He still had the brooch he had stolen from the Hydra. There had been a strange memory chip inside. He had gathered a large amount of funds in order to have an engineer analyze it.
……The analysis should be long done by now.
……Did the guy take the money and run?
He didn’t care about it anymore.
Now his mind was solely dedicated to his fight against that Battle Automata.
“Next time, I’ll— Tsk.”
He opened his cupboards to find he was out of food. His obsession had so wholly overtaken him that he had forgotten to replenish his provisions.
But perhaps there was a silver lining to this? Because he was so obsessed with Mirabella, rumors had started going around that he had disappeared.
……The people think the transcendental sorcerer tucked tail and fled from the central state?
……They can believe what they want.
He would have to walk the market streets out in the open. The military police’s surveillance was lax. Even if they did happen to see him, he would figure it out.
However, his faith that things would be okay resulted in the biggest humiliation of his life.
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For he crossed paths with her.