The abnormal situation in the royal capital continued after Jijinbou had been defeated. However, the summoned undead were all low-level enemies, and once the initial commotion with Jijinbou was over, it wasn’t much longer before all of the undead in the capital had been eradicated.
Most likely, Jijinbou had never truly intended to destroy the capital. If he had, it would have affected the wedding between the crown prince and the empire’s princess, scheduled to take place two months from now. That was probably why all of the undead he’d summoned had been weak. And with the combined effort of the capital’s guards, knights dispatched from the royal palace, and the most capable priests the temples had to offer, the undead threat was gone by the following day.
Even with the incident over and my business in Horus concluded, however, I wasn’t able to immediately return to Ishka. First, Duke Dragonaut interrogated me in detail about everything that had happened, naturally. After all, everyone in the garden had heard my conversation with Jijinbou, so the cat was out of the bag. Besides, after all he’d done for me, I felt I owed it to him to come clean.
I told him everything I knew. Then Astrid joined the conversation, and to make a long story short, we all agreed to keep my true ability and involvement in the incident a secret—from the empire, of course, but also from the rest of Kanaria. Duke Dragonaut had taken Jijinbou down, and the old man was the only one who’d mentioned Onigashima and Ad Astera.
That was the story we decided on. At a glance it might seem like the duke was trying to take credit for my achievement, but in fact, I’d made the suggestion myself. At the moment, I really didn’t want to make my debut on the stage as Sora Mitsurugi, so I’d decided it’d be best to conceal my identity underneath the duke’s shadow. And as for why I didn’t want to show myself yet, it was all to buy time. Jijinbou had been an experienced Shinsou user. And if the other Illusory Blade masters back on the island learned that he’d been killed by Sora Mitsurugi, exiled from Onigashima five years ago, the Mitsurugi family would take notice.
I knew my father wasn’t the type to talk things out. Now that I’d been disowned, I was no more than a stranger to him. And if a complete stranger took out one of his Banners of Seirin, he’d use every resource at his disposal to crush them, even if that stranger was his own flesh and blood. I wasn’t afraid to go up against my father, but to be completely honest, I wanted to delay our clash just a little longer.
I was currently Level 10. Back when I’d arrived at the capital, I’d been Level 9. Then I’d lost a level in the process of transferring my soul to Lunamaria, and lost two more levels after that doing the same to Claudia. Killing Jijinbou had boosted me four levels at once, making me one level higher than when I’d first arrived at the capital. I was proud of the fact that I’d defeated a master Shinsou user, of course, but as I’d said in the middle of the fight, Jijinbou had essentially been demoted from his position; otherwise he would have still been on the island. If my fight had been against one of the higher-seated Banners instead, I probably would’ve had a much tougher time.
So before I antagonized my father, I needed to get stronger. Luckily, with Iria’s acquisition, I now had two sources of soul energy to draw from. I wanted to go up at least another level or two before going to war with my former family.
With my name hidden, the Mitsurugi family would no doubt go after the duke instead. However high his position, they wouldn’t stand for him taking out a Banner of Seirin. I apologized to the duke, explaining that my suggestion would most likely put him in danger, but the man just laughed it off and told me not to worry about it. After all, he’d said, it was the Mitsurugis who’d antagonized him first when one of their own had cursed his daughter and caused her to suffer for over a year. They’d just be getting what was coming to them. And even if we did decide to announce my name instead of his, it wouldn’t reduce the Mitsurugis or the empire’s hostility toward the duke. Now that the empire’s intent to attack Kanaria had been exposed, Pascal Dragonaut was just an obstacle in their eyes. The empire and the Mitsurugis would continue to target him regardless of who we said had killed Jijinbou.
“Therefore, you needn’t worry about putting me in danger with your plan,” the duke had said with a wry smile.
Once that was all decided, Astrid spoke up. “I just have one question for you, Mr. Sora. What was that man talking about when he asked you whether his suggestion that I cursed Claudia proved useful?”
“Oh, that?” There was no need to hide it, so I explained that I’d met Jijinbou alone in the cemetery before removing Claudia’s curse. When I detailed the reasoning Jijinbou had given for suspecting her older sister, Astrid frowned, looking uncomfortable. Not with me, of course, but Jijinbou’s logic.
But then she sighed in resignation. “As unpleasant as that reasoning is...I have to admit it’s not without merit.”
“Huh? You mean you’re actually jealous of me, Astrid?” Claudia asked.
“Of course not,” she said, rapping her sister on the head. Claudia dramatically put her hands up to her head as though in pain, but she had an impish smirk on her face. “The queen’s throne is a lonely seat, after all. I feel much more comfortable flying through the sky on a wyvern. If anything, I pitied you, dear sister.”
“Then we felt the same way about it. It was honestly exhausting, you know, pretending to be that prince’s ideal girl.”
The two sisters continued to converse like old friends. Anyone who knew how close these two were would have immediately recognized Jijinbou’s accusation of Astrid as nonsense. Truthfully, I was surprised I’d been able to hold back from bursting out in derisive laughter when he’d said it. That was when I’d known for certain that Jijinbou himself had cursed Claudia.
To begin with, I could tell the man’s level was extraordinarily high just by looking at his soul, far higher than anyone else’s I’d seen in the kingdom. Coupled with his behavior, he had obviously been the culprit. There was simply no room for doubt. Ideally, I’d wanted to kill him right then and there in the public cemetery where there were no witnesses and no innocent bystanders. Then the estate and everyone in it never would have been attacked, and the undead wouldn’t have been set loose on the capital. But at the time, I hadn’t been certain I could beat him in a serious fight. If he’d ended up beating me instead, Claudia’s curse wouldn’t have been removed.