Saint Elise didn’t allow any cover-up of the incident at the royal castle.
Because of the queen’s accidental death, the king’s illness, and the immaturity of the two princes, who were not qualified to succeed to the throne, she issued a decree that the rule of Judore would once again be entrusted to a council of shrines and experts. Elise, ever the actress, cried enough to convince my papa to join the panel of experts.
And in the process, a shocking revelation! My beloved Gilbert was actually the king’s older brother. He actually had blond hair and blue eyes, the colors of the royal family, instead of black hair to match mine. He had changed his hair color using magic.
“Serephi... I apologize on behalf of the royal family. I was next in line to be king, but I was shot in the eye...by my own side, too, instead of the enemy. It was decided that I was unfit to rule because of my disability, so Thomas was made the new successor to the throne.”
So there’s been conflict in the royal family for generations.
“I figured that things would work out without me, so I left the castle and joined Trundle through my family connections.”
The former king and my grandfather Geintz had been master and servant. Their children, who were close in age, first became childhood friends and then engaged. The engagement was called off after my mother fell in love with my father, though.
I finally understood why Gilbert had looked after me sometimes sternly, yet mostly tenderly. He loved me as if I were his own daughter.
I wondered if my father felt guilty about Gil’s misfortune. He’d never let it slip who Gil was or ever said anything bad about him. He didn’t stop me from associating with Gil either. But he did scare Gil enough that he called him a demon king!
“So, Thomas...was poisoned and made into a puppet... You took Trundle onto your shoulders, so I’ve prepared myself as well.”
The new king of Judore was now Gil, without any need to wait for the formalities from the shrines. Trundle would back Gilbert up as our new king. The civil war between the two princes had now lost its reason for existence.
✦ ✦ ✦
A truce was called, thanks to Schneider’s pity (?). What that meant for me was that it was time to take my test to level up into Serephione G., S-Rank Adventurer!
I was the master of Trundle, so it was essential that I be at the strongest rank in Trundle. Being the strongest here meant being the strongest in the world. And can the strongest girl in the world be just an A-rank adventurer? Nay!
“Salutations!”
Ziek grinned. “Are you ready, Miss?”
“Yessir!”
The arena in the back of the guild was abuzz with excitement! It was Trundle’s first cause for celebration in a long time after the string of bad events recently. The room was almost completely full of people.
Is it okay to have everyone important in Trundle in one place, you ask? No problem! My father had strategically placed Granzeus soldiers nearby, so it was kind of like a festival. Thanks, papa!
I wished my grandmother could be there to see the fight, but she was still resting. My father was watching over her himself at the Trundle mansion.
That meant my evaluators this time were the S-rank Ziek and Gilbert. And my challenger...
“Don’t hold back, okay, Serephione?”
...was my older brother!
Nobody had anything bad to say about it being a fight between relatives.
“You can do it, Serephi!”
“Go, Serephi!”
“Watch out for those shurikens!”
“I’ll buy you kebabs if you win!”
“Stop making that face, Larouza!”
I heard Alma, Nick, Kodak, Matt, and Lara shouting, as well as some quiet crying from the senior members. I didn’t blame them, since this was a showdown between the grandchildren of their beloved Geintz and Erza.
I definitely wanted Matt to buy me some tasty chicken kebabs...but this was going to be a tough fight to win. Looking at my perfectly guarded brother, I found myself smiling.
I was in my gray ninja outfit. This was my brother, after all, so I needed all the defense I could get. This wasn’t the time to be coy.
My brother was wearing a black shirt and pants with boots. It was a casual outfit, but he looked just as cool as usual with his hair tied back!
“Focus, Sere!”
“Yep, sorry.”
“Can I ask one thing, guildmaster?” My brother suddenly spoke up.
“What is it?”
“I plan to do my best, of course, but Serephione has to fight Schneider soon. Would you allow her to use defensive magic?”
Ziek looked out at the seniors in the audience, who all gave the okay sign.
“Thank you. Go ahead and use as much as you want, Serephione.”
“Okay!”
I’m already protected by Gillain’s plate and my brother’s earrings... I thought as I cast magic on myself. At the same time, I felt a thin film of water from Miyu surround me like a cushion.
“You can do it, Miss Sere!”
“Show Larouza how much you’ve grown, Sere!”
Miyu jumped off of my chest and into Lou’s fluffy back fur. He then sat down in a well-behaved manner at the end of the floor where he could see all the action and settled in.
Asu had business in Galé. He hadn’t seemed happy to leave. It was too bad for him that he couldn’t laugh at me getting beaten up! Thanks, Gillain!
My brother and I faced each other in the center. He didn’t have any weapons on him, at least not any I saw. That meant he was using shurikens and magic. I’d lose if I stayed too far away!
“Ready... Go!”
I had to finish this quickly! I closed the distance between us at full speed. Catching him by surprise with my first move was my only chance at winning. I took my orlox kunai from my wrist and aimed at his neck with a jump.
He raised his left arm to block me, but I aimed a kick at his chest with my left leg. It missed, though, and my leg only touched his ribs.
He caught my foot with his right hand! I fell onto the ground, rolled to get his arm off of me, and took a big step back to put distance between us.
There goes my biggest chance at winning...
“That was a good kick, Serephione. But I don’t think you weigh enough for that. It was light. The emperor must not be feeding you enough. I’ll have to submit a complaint.”
“Ahh! Stop!”
He was a bit angry, with a crease between his eyebrows! I only rarely saw my brother angry! It was at Gillain, of course, not me!
“I have something to do. Let’s get this over with!”
“Sorry to hear it!”
I hurried to put my hands to the floor. It was wooden boarding, but below it...I gathered the sand up all at once and instantly lit it ablaze! It was the scalding sand that Lou had taught me! It surrounded my brother suffocatingly densely. He tried to blow it away with wind magic, but I’d planned for that. I increased the mass so it wouldn’t scatter easily! I hadn’t told him about scalding sand before, so this was his first time seeing it. It would be hard to evade on the spur of the moment!
“Agh!”
“Do you surrender yet?”
His shurikens came flying out from the sand! He had used wind magic on them...one after the next...over a hundred of them! It was enough to lower the density of the sand. The shurikens stuck into the ground, surrounding me in an evenly spaced pattern. No way... Did he calculate where to throw them?
He started to generate electricity with his right hand, which rained down from above onto the shurikens in the ground! It connected together, trapping me in a birdcage of lightning!
“Serephi!”
“Serephi is trapped!”
“Take him down with your shurikens!”
“You can do it, Miss!”
This was similar to the technique Gillain had used against him at the magic tournament... Was he trying to tell me Gillain had trapped me?! Mean!
“Tch, he wins in numbers,” Lou groaned.
“Where in the world does he keep all those shurikens?” Miyu wondered aloud.
I may have been young at that tournament, but I remembered the match clearly! I had the way he broke out of the cage burned into my memory!
I took my rarely used knife from my ankle and instantly electrified it. Then I threw it through the cage toward his right hand, out of reach of his long legs, sticking it into the ground!
The electricity that he’d been generating from his right hand all started to flow toward my knife. The current was changing! The electricity formed one thick pillar, directly on the knife!
“I see... It’s silver?”
The knife I threw was pure silver. Silver was the best conductor of electricity available in this world, and electricity was attracted to what it was most compatible with. The orlox kunai didn’t stand a chance.
“That was a good idea, Serephione... Oh?”
“Huh?”
“Hey...”
“Oh no...”
Crackle... Crackle, crackle...
Sparks flew from the excess of electricity on the knife...close to the already hot sand particles that were already there...igniting them?!
Zappp! Crash! A huge explosion!
The next thing I knew, my brother was holding me in his arms. I lifted my head, heard the cheerful chirping of birds, and saw the clear winter sky stretching endlessly before me... The roof had been blown off.
“A dust explosion, huh...?”
Oh... That thing I used to hear about on the news when lightning struck factories filled with flour...
Lou and Miyu had managed to use defensive magic at the last second, so luckily, nobody was harmed. But everyone’s hair in the room, young and old, had turned into an afro. Matt, who was proud of his mohawk, was crying in anguish that his style was ruined.
“You can just...give her S-rank already...” muttered the afro-headed King Gilbert, gazing into the distant mountain range.
“You’re right... We can’t measure her power any more...” sighed a very fluffy-haired Ziek.
“No objections...”
The rest of the afroed audience agreed, at a loss. S-rank required unanimous approval.
“Sere? Uhh... Congrats?” Lou’s fur had evolved into an even more voluminous form.
“Congrats, Miss Sere...?” Miyu’s thin azure beard and mane were all curly.
My brother and I looked just like the black thunder god from tales in my past life. The similarly electrified Lara charged us eight million gold to repair the roof.