Lululee cried desperately at Zepha, “Lowe never showed us forbidden techniques until just now. No matter what the situation, he protected his promise with you. He only showed us forbidden techniques this once, today—and besides, this kind of treatment when he’s been helping you all this time is just too cruel.”
“Just once? What a thing to say. Do you not understand the meaning of forbidden techniques being known by so many people?”
“Meaning…?”
“Many people saw Flama today—soon enough, it will be researched and released to the masses, ways to counter it will be devised, and its strength and value will degrade… Flama has lost its value as a forbidden technique. That was one of the valuable techniques devised silently over the course of years, as we of the Dark Guild, our forebears, were laughed at by the world of skill supremacy, held in contempt, swallowing our frustration and holding back our arguments…and now it has been stolen.”
“…”
“Those with skills would never understand…this frustration…”
The silence fell heavily upon them.
He had nothing to argue back with against Zepha’s heavy remark.
“Leader, Lululee, thanks. You’ve done enough,” Lowe said with a little smile. “Just because I was exempted from memory erasure and I’ve been helping the Dark Guild, that doesn’t mean I can be forgiven for bringing forbidden techniques into the light. I knew that much. I took that exemption fully knowing all that, and I fought today… I have no regrets.”
“…Lowe…”
“Hold on a sec,” Alina, who had been silent all this time, cut Lowe off.
With a serious, harsh look on her face, she tilted her head. “I haven’t really managed to get a grasp on the situation…but in other words, we have to defeat that old man there, or Lowe will be killed?”
“Alina…” Jade raised his chin with a gasp.
Alina said very briefly, “Then I’ll beat him down.”
Just as she had declared, a white magic sigil deployed at her feet, and she once again clasped her war hammer in hand.
Recognizing her hostility, Zepha pulled up the corners of his lips. “We’ve got another brash one here—”
Zepha looked at Alina with her war hammer over her shoulder…and then he quickly withdrew his smile. “…Who are you, miss?”
“? I’m a recep—er, no. I’m the Executioner.”
As Alina furrowed her brow quizzically, Zepha eyed her closely for a few seconds, then immediately looked away. “Hmph. So be it. However many you want, come at me. It will all be over in the blink of an eye.”
Instantly, Zepha vanished. At the same time, there was a little tup sound, and before they knew it, he was right beside Lowe.
“! Lowe!”
Jade turned back to Lowe, breath catching. Zepha’s right arm had pierced Lowe’s side. It was, of all places, the spot where he had been deeply wounded by Gald.
“Ah…”
Lowe slumped to his knees.
“Lowe!”
Lululee went pale and ran up to him, and Alina started taking a step toward him, fully ready to attack…when Jade suddenly stopped her.
“What?”
“No, he hasn’t attacked…!”
“Huh?”
His eyes shifted from the puzzled Alina to Lowe. Lowe was slumped down on the ground, looking at his side in confusion.
“The wound…?”
That was the spot that had been gouged into by Gald’s attack. Though it had been healed somewhat by Lululee’s skill, it had still been a painful wound, the flesh not completely restored yet. But then now, suddenly, the wound had been cleanly and completely healed, with even his flesh completely back to normal.
Seeing that, Lululee was even more shocked than Lowe. “He’s completely healed?! But even my Sigurth Revive couldn’t heal that!!” she shrieked, both her hands on her cheeks.
Zepha did a complete one-eighty from his earlier cold air, cackling in amusement. “You don’t understand what healing is all about. You’re still a whelp, a dinky little healer.”
“Dinky little healer?!”
“Old man, why would you heal me…?” Beside Lululee, with her eyes wide in shock, Lowe panicked and looked up at Zepha.
“I’m postponing your punishment.”
“Postponing it…?”
“Gald and Gose are not the only pact-breakers who have left the guild during this incident. This lot who became pact-breakers and vanished all at once apparently had a troublesome backer…known only as them.”
“Them…?!”
Jade widened his eyes at the familiar address.
During this incident, the one who had informed Gald about the dark gods had been “them.” “They” had taken advantage of Gald’s twisted need for approval, with his dissatisfaction about how mages were treated. When Glen had been controlled, too, “they” had used his deep sadness over having lost his daughter. They’d used nasty tricks that time with Glen, too—so that was who was reaching out not only to Gald but to other pact-breakers as well?
“Lowe. I order you to deal with those pact-breakers in communication with them. If you resolve this very much troublesome-seeming business, then I will exempt you from punishment.”
“Really?” asked Lululee.
“I don’t lie, dinky girl.”
“Hey, stop calling me dinky!”
“…You’re pretty nice, for a Dark Guild with iron laws,” Lowe said, looking like he still couldn’t believe it.
“Nice? Nonsense. Even if it wasn’t only your fault, you used Flama in front of people and destroyed the value of an important forbidden technique. I need to have you clean up your own mess, at least, or it won’t be worth it for me,” Zepha said, but he looked away.
Seeing him refusing to be honest about his feelings, Lowe finally seemed satisfied, and he gave a little smile. “So you’re gonna work me like a dog again? Well, if that’s it, then from now on, I’m gonna fight as I please.”
Zepha’s expression relaxed into a smile. His profile looked just a bit lonely.
“Secret techniques are powerful precisely because they’re secret. Forbidden techniques have value precisely because no one knows of them, giving their users, the mages of the Dark Guild, a unique value. That value produces work, and work produces money, and if we have money, then we don’t die like dogs…”
“…”
“We of the Dark Guild have long since protected our own with these methods. Even now, we haven’t been able to find any other way to save those mages who have been left in the cold, without having skills and with the value of magic lost. If we were to indulge in the desire for acknowledgment and casually flaunt our techniques, then after gaining temporary fame, we would be destroyed, with all of our own going down with us. Can you eat fame? Gald never understood that…”
Zepha’s gaze turned toward Lowe, and the grief in his eyes vanished for a moment.
“Lowe. You’ve found some good friends. I will give Flama to you,” the old man said, his cackling ringing out through the arena.