Seeing her distraught expression, Canus opened his eyes wide in delight.
“Do you think all that would’ve happened if we hadn’t?”
That was the last push Canus needed to break Lupus’s mind.
She lost the feeling in her legs below her knees, and her vision darkened. What could possibly be her reason for existing? Every decision she thought she had made herself had been orchestrated by Ross.
And there was more. The despair, the grief, the agony—those feelings had all been fabricated by other people. When she realized this, the next emotions that welled up were of intense regret and anger.
Lupus twisted her face, blue veins popping and deep wrinkles etching into her beautiful complexion.
Then her eyes glowed blue. Silently, she started constructing a self-taught Code.
“Aarrrrrghhhh!” Lupus screamed, hitting Canus with the full weight of her hostility.
Yet his expression remained serene. If anything, it was uplifted, as if he had been waiting for this.
“That’s what I like to see! Those eyes are proof of your tainted blood! You’re an Informationist at your core. And so I’ll kill you as one here and now. That’s what my master and I desire!”
Princess Lupus Filia wouldn’t be recognized as a member of the imperial family. Instead, she would be disposed as a descendent of a dirty Informationist. That was Ross Ruber’s wish, and the only explanation that could justify Canus killing a member of the imperial family.
By threatening Canus as an Informationist, Lupus had effectively granted him permission to kill her. Sucked into a swirling vortex of emotions, she had been unable to see she was playing into his hand.
However, there was one thing that could stop her in her tracks.
At the precise moment Lupus’s Code was about to execute, a heat ray came down on Canus’s head, saving her. The mysterious red-and-white light shot through the roof of the train and struck Canus like an iron hammer.
“Wha—?!”
There were only a handful of level-eleven Informationists in the world, and Canus was one of them. But his insolence and lack of experience had put him in harm’s way.
Canus was a little slow to react to the attack, making his eyes glow and generating ash to create a wall to protect himself. But this just slightly altered the trajectory of the ray. The burning light grazed his soft, flawless face before crashing into the floor.
He had only faltered for a moment, but it was enough for the left side of his face to get burned. Fresh blood spurted from his skin.
“Aghhhh!”
This time, it was Canus’s turn to scream.
As this was happening, Tsushima came crashing through the window. His jacket was covered in a surprising amount of ash. His bangs, which normally fell messily over his face, were swept back, revealing bloodshot eyes glowing blue.
“Tsushima!” Lupus shouted reflexively when she saw him. She was lightheaded, and she felt like she might collapse on the spot.
Tsushima embraced her with the momentum he had from jumping into the train car. It appeared she had reached her limit just from standing. She collapsed into Tsushima as he held her in his arms.
“Sorry for the wait,” Tsushima whispered from closer than he had ever been before. He looked at Lupus. Under the blue glow of his eyes, his irises—dark as a bottomless abyss—met her tear-filled gaze. An indescribable feeling passed between them, and Lupus buried her face in Tsushima’s chest to hide her tears.
As she did, she felt something damp and lukewarm at Tsushima’s abdomen. When she looked down at the palm she had touched him with, her eyes widened. Her pale hand was stained bright red with blood.
“Tsushima…! Isn’t this…?!”
His face was extremely pale up close, but he responded to Lupus with a smile, as if saying the wound was no big deal.
“Does a little blood displease Her Highness?” Even at a time like this, Tsushima responded with his usual sarcasm. He pulled the flustered girl firmly against his chest and fixed his gaze on Canus.
“You bastard!” Canus yelled. “I’ll never forgive you for scarring my face, you lowly insect!”
Canus quivered with pain and rage, hiding his injured face with his hands while directing his wide, glaring eyes at Tsushima.
However, the boy was in no shape to be able to construct or execute Codes correctly. His mind was chaotic with rage. There was no trace of the immense skill he had shown before. That was just how incensed he was.
As Canus shook with fury that bordered on grotesque, Tsushima glanced aimlessly out the window. The train was starting to go over a bridge that crossed a large river flowing through a valley between the mountains.
Tsushima checked the window, then took a cigarette seemingly out of nowhere and put it between his lips.
“Quit huffing and puffing. Squawking over a little scratch. Guess you can’t expect much from a brat whose pubes haven’t even grown in.”
Tsushima put his index finger to the end of his cigarette and lit it with his signature heat generation phenomenon. Canus grew even angrier as he watched the spectacle.
“Don’t think I’ll give you a painless death!” Canus yelled angrily.
Ignoring him, Tsushima flicked his cigarette at the boy.
The cigarette traced a graceful arc through the air. The instant it passed between the two of them, it emanated a blinding light. That ordinary cigarette had been rigged with a Code that converted heat into light.
In the second Canus was distracted, Tsushima shattered the window and flung himself out of the train. Below them was snowmelt from glaciers. If he and Lupus jumped in, they would have an easy time hiding.
Understanding what Tsushima was trying to do, Canus roared with such intensity that he could be heard clearly, even from outside the train.
“TSUSHIMAAAAAAAA!”
Listening to Canus shriek like a beast, Tsushima faced the boy and flipped him off, rubbing in his victory while stifling the pain from the wound in his abdomen.
As they plummeted to the surface of the large river and the sight of Canus leaning out of the train disappeared from view, Tsushima’s face twisted in agony for the first time. Then the two of them sank into the large winter river with a big splash.