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“WHAT? Is this really where Luke is?”
“According to my map magic, without a doubt. I’ve gotten good at working out the rough whereabouts of people I know. But what’s he doing somewhere like here?”
Me and Kazuya are walking through a gloomy, poorly lit part of town with a disconcerting atmosphere to it, completely different than the neighborhood we came from where our inn is. We haven’t seen any trace of other people for a while now. Is this really where Luke and his companion are?
“All right, we’re here. This is the place.” Amid all the buildings lined up, Kazuya gestures to a particularly suspicious-looking mansion. Crows caw on its eaves. Very creepy.
“Let’s take a look at a more detailed map.” Kazuya says. He casts a spell, and with a flash and a soft pop, a map appears in front of us.
Yep. There’s definitely a person mark on it labeled “Luke”. There are also three other marks showing there’s four people in the building in total.
“Oh? Leila’s here, too?”
“Looks like it. Plus two people we don’t know. I bet one of them is that Merlin guy, but I don’t know who the other person—Hmm.” Kazuya’s face hardens grimly.
“What’s wrong?”
“This is weird. Luke and Leila’s marks have debuffs on them.”
“What? Does that mean…”
“Let’s get a move on. We don’t have time to take it easy.” Kazuya shoves the front door of the mansion. It isn’t locked and opens with a heavy creak. The foyer is empty, pitch black, and reeks of dust.
“Do you think this place was abandoned years ago?”
“Maybe. Luke and the others are this way, underneath ground level. Hurry.”
I nod and follow Kazuya to a hidden basement. We stand at the top of the stairs looking down at another door when—
“Ah ha ha ha!”
A shrill cackle pieces the air, followed by faint thudding. It sounds like somebody’s punching or kicking someone else.
I hear Luke groan.
For a split second, my head goes blank. Then I break into a fierce dash to race down the stairs.
“Hey, what are you doing?!” Kazuya shouts after me. He mustn’t have heard the voices just now.
But I can’t stop. There’s no way.
At the bottom of the stairs, I hurl open the door.
Having come from darkness, the sudden light given off by a lamp in the room is dazzling and makes me squint. I can’t risk a moment not taking in the scene, though, so I keep peering.
There’s a guy half-crouched, half-lying in the room, covered in blood. It’s—
“Luke!”
I bolt toward him.
“Sa-Sakurako… No, don’t come… Not you…”
It’s impossible not to go to him when he’s all battered and telling me not to! I run to him anyway, but before I reach him, a block of ice hurtles onto the ground in front of my legs with a clatter. I take a step back to dodge.
“Stop, or this woman will die,” somebody says.
I turn to face them, only to see Leila tied to a chair, with Merlin—the so-called hero of magic—pointing a knife at her.
What’s going on? What the hell is this?
“They’ve taken Leila as a hostage so that they can torture Luke to death. Luke’s the main target here, meaning this is related to the troubles in their kingdom. Merlin was a fake; they used him to trap Luke,” Kazuya explains. He entered after me, but he’s grasped the situation faster than me.
…They took Leila hostage?
“Who’s this, then? This girl. She your girl, Luke?” someone else says.
I turn to see a man trampling Luke with his foot while sweeping his gaze over me from top to bottom, like he’s checking me out. He has a stupendously creepy vibe… but never mind that.
Get your foot off of Luke.
“I don’t know if she’s Luke’s girl or not, but I’m pretty sure these two were with him before. They’re in his party.”
“Hmm. She’s not too bad. Don’t mind if I do…” the gross man says, licking his lips lasciviously.
This appalls me even more. Luke is hurt, they’ve got Leila, and this guy… It’s making me light-headed. I’m so furious, I’m about to lose my mind.
“Sakurako, calm down. Right now, our top priority is ensuring Leila is safe,” Kazuya says.
“I know!” I snap in response. Sorry, Kazuya. But I can’t control my temper enough to talk normally.
My yell causes Leila to stir and slowly open her purple eyes.
“Huh? What’s going on? Where are we…?” Although she’s dazed, the instant she catches a glimpse of Luke in her line of sight, her eyes fly wide open and she screams, “Luke! Luke! What have they done to you?!”
“M-Mother…” Luke lifts his head slightly.
“Well, well. Look who’s gone and woken up. Be a good hostage for me, please, or else I’ll cut your neck,” the heinous mongrel who called himself Merlin says.
Leila freezes. She looks down to see the knife he’s holding to her neck, and her face twitches with terror as she comprehends the situation.
What do I do? As things stand, neither Kazuya nor I can make a move. If we don’t do something soon, we won’t be able to help Luke and Leila. But if we do something… I’m at a total loss!
Leila’s lips quirk upwards in a smile. “Oh, I see. I understand. It’s been a while, Prince, you useless firstborn.” She glares at the man who is crushing Luke with his foot.
Firstborn prince? Oh, come to think of it, Luke told us his brother was trying to kill him because he was chosen as a hero. Is this who he mentioned?
“Ah ha ha ha! Too late waking up now, Leila! You’re all doomed!” the scoundrel firstborn prince laughs brashly.
Every single thing he does grates on my nerves, making my rage-meter keep ticking up.
“You couldn’t hope to win against Luke without taking me hostage. I’m flattered you’ve stooped to committing an act so unbecoming of royalty.”
“Silence, commoner! You’re nothing more than a plebian who took advantage of my father’s temporary infatuation!”
“Ha. Perhaps it was an infatuation, but I saw to it he took full responsibility for us. I hated him for a while, but I’ve forgiven him now, because of the treasure he gave me—The one and only Luke.” As she speaks, Leila grows more and more radiant, until she is the most breathtakingly beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
I have a hunch she’s gearing up to do something, when she turns to me.
“Sakurako. The rest is up to you. I’m…sorry.” She twists her body, thrusts her head forward, and plunges her neck down onto the knife that Merlin’s holding against her throat.
From that moment, everything starts moving in slow motion. The blood that splatters forth from Leila’s neck dyes my vision deep red.
“M-Mother! Mother!” Luke shrieks.
“Ugh, she went and did it herself,” Merlin mutters, the knife still in his hand.
“Stupid woman. I was planning to have fun with her later,” the foolish, wretched firstborn prince says. “Well, Luke’s already at death’s door. We don’t need a hostage anymore anyway.”
Everything feels far away.
“What a stupid woman,” the fake wizard repeats with a sigh, and delivers a hard kick to Leila’s chair while she’s still tied to it with blood flowing from her neck.
I steady the chair before it falls over.
“Wh—…?! When did you get there?!”
Bastard. He’s nothing to me.
With a light swish of my hand, the fake wizard soars through the air and slams against a wall with a resounding crash. I feel absolutely zilch for him.
“Kazuya! Can you help Leila?!” I cry. It looks like Leila is breathing faintly.
He rushes to us, quickly checks her over, nods, and fishes a vial out of his pocket. “There’s still a chance we can save her. So calm down, Sakurako.”
Calm down? I’m completely calm. I couldn’t get any calmer. I’m cooler than an icy-cold cucumber.
“Hey, Lagoras! Is that all it takes to blow you away? A single shot from a feeble little woman?!” the reprobate firstborn prince yells.
The moment our eyes meet, the firstborn prince begins trembling. He stares back at me with abject terror.
I know that look well. Everyone always looks at me like that when I get angry.
“S-stop right there! D-don’t come any closer!! Don’t come near me!” He swings the rope whip he was using to hit Luke and takes a step back, then another and another, trying to put some distance between himself and me.
But suddenly, he trips and lands on his butt. Luke has caught hold of his leg.
“It’s all… over… my brother…” Luke struggles to catch his breath, close to death.
“You asshole, Luke! Let go of me! Let me goooo!” The firstborn prince uses his free leg to kick Luke’s hand off of him, then tries to scramble away.
I stand in his path and crush his foot.
“Gyaah! AAAAAAAAAH!”
“How could you do this? To your own brother? How could you do something so tragic?” I keep asking questions, but for some reason the asshole just keeps crying, without answering.
Why don’t you answer? Can’t you hear me?
I try to take another step closer so he can hear me clearly, but find myself stuck in place. I look down to see my feet frozen to the floor.
“Trapped you in ice! You monster!” The fake wizard I sent flying into the wall says, flicking what looks like a magic wand at me. Oh, is this ice encasing my feet magical? Crystal tendrils of it climb up my calves, then my thighs.
“My ice magic is on par with the real Merlin’s!” the wizard sneers. What do you know, he’s not a hundred percent fake. He too is grating on me more and more.
My mind starts to slip away.