“I see,” Azuello replied with a nod. Azuello grunted and placed his two forepaws atop the man’s body before dropping his muzzle on him too. And sit! Good boy!
“Gwaaaaagh!” The man gave an unpleasant scream, but no one was bothered by it.
If she had still been the same little Sophelia she had been just a few days ago, she likely would’ve batted an eye or two, but the one who stood before them now was Sophie—just a normal person who wasn’t about to let the man get away with the terrible things he’d said about Lunetta.
Rather than showing concern for the man whose name she didn’t even know, Sophie was worried about whether or not Lunetta had been hurt by the man’s words—that was all. Sophie glanced over at her friend.
Lunetta’s expression remained unchanging as she blinked and stepped toward the man being pinned to the ground.
“How many of you are there?” she asked.
“L-Like I’d tell you!”
“Where are the rest of them?”
“I’d sooner die than tell you!”
It was no surprise that Vyce met this with an unsettling laugh. “Is that so?”
“Color me surprised!” he went on. “You still think you’ve got the upper hand here? You’ve got guts, I’ll give ya that. But from where I’m standing, magic wielders seem awfully uninformed when it comes to war.”
Vyce nudged the man below his boot. “You listenin’? The first man to misjudge the situation dies. They don’t have to mess up to die. Doesn’t matter if they’re a saint or a sinner—people still die on the other end of a rifle. That’s how war works. Aren’t you aware?” Vyce gave a hearty laugh as if he were truly entertained, but beneath it was nothing but pure anger.
Considering those magicians think they’ve got the whole world right in the palms of their hands, they really don’t have a clue, do they? Not too much rolling around in their heads to weigh them down. They’re unencumbered by any cares, whether they’re going off on a picnic or a journey. And of course, going off to war too! It’s a good thing to travel light, right?
“What you speak of, Usurper King, isn’t war.”
“The hell you talkin’ about?” Vyce asked.
So just where was this conversation going to lead? Not that it was any of Sophie’s business.
“Well, what the hell else would you call it when you’ve got one country startin’ a fight with another?” Vyce demanded.
“You think our kingdom started this...?!” the man replied. “It was you who acted first! Why, had it not been for you, we’d...!”
“And here I thought we were under an alliance both kingdoms agreed to,” Vyce said. “And just look—here you are pullin’ this scheme in someone else’s kingdom! Is that king of yours a damn fool? Or did he just go senile? Well? If you’re so good at magic, then why don’t y’all fix him up with it, huh?”
Wow. Sophie couldn’t help but be impressed—by Vyce, that was.
She’d started to seriously lose track of just who was supposed to be the bad guy here. Then again, “bad” was the sort of ambiguous concept that changed depending on where you stood. It was as trifling a concept as it was unreliable. From the other kingdom’s perspective, Vyce was likely the epitome of villainy.
But the man had caused a dark cloud to fall over Lunetta’s porcelain-white face, insulted a king, cast terrible magic on Azuello as if it were nothing, and even captured monsters before presumably setting them loose on an unsuspecting town. That made him a villain in Sophie’s book.
Perhaps Vyce and Lunetta might’ve been plotting something in the shadows, and perhaps this man was trying to obstruct that plot. If one were to look at only one side of things and immediately write off the opposing side as evil, then they’d be just the same as the tweeting little birds that had demanded Sophelia step down from her place as the crown prince’s fiancée despite knowing nothing of the situation. For what it was worth, if Sophelia could’ve stepped down, she would’ve gladly taken the opportunity. She hadn’t been able to, however—which was exactly why she’d run away.
Come to think of it, would those little birds be using their bright, shining red beaks to peck away at Sophelia’s half sister who’d presumably taken her place as the crown prince’s fiancée? Sophie considered it for a moment and shook her head. Her half sister had been popular in the social sphere, so she probably didn’t have to worry about anything like that. Even without Sophelia, everyone was sure to just go on living happily ever after. Without Sophelia around, everything would work out juuuuust fine.
Sophie couldn’t help but feel like she’d missed out not running away sooner, but if she’d run away entirely on her own, she was sure she’d have wound up leading a life of misery in the end.
Even if it looked like she’d been wrapped up in some sort of nasty business, the reason that Sophie was able to trust in Vyce and Lunetta and stand around so absentmindedly was because Livio was with her.
Livio had sent the man flying with a nonchalant look on his face. There was no way he’d ever leave Sophie’s side. With his broadsword stretched across his back as if to ensure he could move at any moment, Livio’s gaze was glued to the man. The look on his face was piercing and serious yet simultaneously valiant and tremendously beautiful.
“Now’s the only time you’ll get to act so high-and-mighty...!” the man said. “I don’t know why you’re here, but all your men on the main road should be dead by now!”
“How kind of you to worry,” Lunetta said flatly.