Do Not Be Afraid

Roberto drove the sword into Ethan's thigh again. Ethan let out only a strangled groan and offered no resistance at all. In that instant the crown prince's eyes went flat, the amusement draining out of them as quickly as it had come.

A chill prickled over Roina's skin. The crown prince had no interest in anyone who would not fight back. This game of his would be over in a moment.

As if answering the thought, Roberto leveled the blade at Ethan's throat. Ethan simply closed his eyes, resigned.

No.

If Ethan died here, it would be entirely her fault. She was the one who had dragged that knight down into sudden melancholy and despair, and now she would be the one who killed him. She could not allow it.

Then she felt it—the vast current of mana filling the space, brushing against her senses. Perhaps…

Yes. Perhaps—!

Roina reached for the mana wrapped around her, the mana sleeping in the air itself. All through the room it began to tremble, a low hum rising as if in answer to her.

"No…"

The murmur reached the crown prince, and light leapt back into his eyes. He curled his mouth in a playful smile, drew the sword up as if to swing, and brought it down without a moment's hesitation.

"No!!!"

It happened in an instant.

A fierce light flooded the room. The black magical implement coiled around her recoiled as if scorched, released her, and fled into the dark. The Empire's famed blade, mid-swing toward Ethan, snapped under that light, and the broken edge flew straight at the crown prince. He barely twisted aside, and he could not hide how badly it had shaken him.

"Wh-what? What just happened? The mana suppression device—! Damn it!"

As if in revolt against the force pouring out of her, a black magical implement like a choker surfaced at Roina's throat—only to crumble a heartbeat later, unable to withstand the light streaming from her.

Brilliant gold glittered in her eyes. Around her bare white body, golden mana roared into a violent whirl. With every step she took, power surged outward in waves, as though a god had truly descended into that room.

The crown prince clicked his tongue once and turned to run. It was the first time Roina had unleashed power like this, but this secret chamber—at the very heart of the crown prince's palace—was bound by a formidable barrier handed down from ancient times. Seal her inside and wait a few days, and the strength would have no choice but to bleed out of her.

Roberto threw the door open without hesitation, meaning to lock it behind him. He would have managed it, if someone had not been waiting on the other side.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince. Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

Steel flashed as a sword punched clean through his stomach. A woman in a black mask and black assassin's garb smiled, the only visible part of her face creasing at the eyes, and Roberto collapsed with a look of pure shock.

"Hah. Some weakling."

"……Mayli?!"

Still wrapped in light, Roina stared at the woman before her, eyes round with astonishment.

"…How? The crown prince's palace is supposed to be—"

"There's al~ways a way."

Mayli gave a proud little shrug, just as she had that day in Roina's room. A lockpick dangled from her hand. Roina could only gape at her, dumbfounded—and then the golden radiance vanished, and she sank to the floor where she stood. There was no strength left anywhere in her body. This was the price of dragging mana up by brute force without truly knowing how.

"See? You can't do a thing without me, can you? Hmph."

Mayli shot her a sidelong look, fetched the crown prince's gown, and dressed her in it.

"Ugh… I know it's disgusting, but bear with it a little. I'll buy you new clothes later."

"No… that isn't the problem… Thank you."

Roina accepted the kindness with genuine gratitude. Mayli committing treason as if it were nothing left her reeling, but this was no time to sort any of that out.

"Let's go."

Mayli said it and held out a hand for her to take. Roina looked at that hand and hesitated, as if turning something over.

"Wait. Just a moment. There's something I have to do."

She turned her head. At the end of her gaze, a knight hung his head, bleeding. Whether he had heard her or not, he lifted his face and slowly closed his flickering eyes, then opened them again.

"Ethan, can you move?"

Ethan nodded. Roina looked to Mayli, who pressed a hand to her brow as if her head already ached.

"For heaven's sake, is this really the time to worry about someone else?"

She said it, and still she caught Roina's hand and braced her so she could move as she wished. Roina staggered toward Ethan and reached out.

"Ethan, if you can move, come with us. If you stay here like this, you'll die."

"……"

The loyal knight stared at her hand and, for a while, could not find his voice. He looked into Roina's clear eyes. He had never seen them shine like this. For an instant a fierce longing rose in him to take that hand—but he shook his head.

"……I will remain here."

"Ha?"

Before Roina could react, Mayli let out an incredulous snort beside her. Ethan went on, perfectly calm.

"Without His Highness, I would already be dead. My life belongs to His Highness Roberto."

His face was blank, his tone even, and yet he seemed almost comforted by his own words—as if, apart from her, he had no regrets left at all.

"So do not concern yourself with me. Please go. His Highness bears the dragon's protection. He will wake before long."

Roina could find nothing to say. He was the first person in this world who had shown her anything that might be called love between a man and a woman, and now she had to leave him behind after betraying that faith. The thought was agony.

But Ethan's resolve did not waver. Mayli caught Roina by the shoulder and shook her head. Roina bit down hard on her lip, left Ethan where he was, and forced herself to walk.

When she and Mayli stepped out of the dark chamber, the crown prince's vast room opened before them. In one corner, from the very pillar she remembered, a clear blue light poured out and filled the chamber.

A warmth like water. That person. Roina did not need to see him to know. She understood it by instinct: the magic that had only just begun to sprout before had taken root in the crown prince's room, seeped into it, and only now come into full bloom, splitting the space open.

"No matter how many times I look at it, it's incredible."

Mayli's mutter reached her from the side. It struck Roina, faintly, that the other woman seemed oddly more easygoing than before.

"I mean—well, not that I really understand it."

As if suddenly self-conscious, Mayli cleared her throat and slipped back into that prim little voice. This one, Roina suspected, was the act.

"They say if you pass through this blue light, it'll take you to the Archmage's tower."

"…I see."

Even before Mayli said it, the knowledge had already unfolded in Roina's mind. She already knew the space would lead to the master of this blue mana. What she understood only now was that he was the Archmage. Then again, there could not be many people who moved mana so freely.

Then what about me…?

The thought surfaced in the confusion of her mind, and she set it aside at once. She would have the answer soon enough.

Roina and Mayli—or, more precisely, Mayli, who had been supporting Roina and then simply gathered her up into her arms—strode toward the gate spilling blue light.

"You dare stab me and run? You?"

A voice shook with rage.

The crown prince had appeared. Blood soaked his formal uniform as he staggered after them, eyes blazing. This time that black energy seethed dangerously all around Roberto.

The same crawling dread washed over Roina again. She did not know what the black energy was, but her instincts recognized the danger. The space, briefly overtaken by the blue light, began to shudder. Cracks ran through the door the blue radiance had opened, and the space itself started to shrink.

"Tch."

Mayli clicked her tongue and sprang, meaning to bolt clear of the black energy. The crown prince was no slower. The darkness swelled into a vast shadow and lunged after them—serpentine, close enough that it seemed ready to tear into Mayli's ankle, to chew and spit it out.

The moment that black energy actually touched her, Mayli's ankle blackened and snapped. Golden hair whipped through the air, and Mayli went down.

They hit the floor in a crash.

Mayli fell, and Roina fell with her.

"…!!!"

Roina wanted to cry Mayli's name, but with the crown prince there she could only work her mouth in silence.

Mayli shouted with everything she had.

"Go!!"

Roina's pupils contracted. In the instant Mayli cried out, the shadow warped.

"Ghk!"

A dying groan tore out of the crown prince as his body folded at the waist. Behind him stood Ethan, who had thrown his whole self into the blow.

Mayli did not waste the opening. She caught Roina around the waist and leapt into the gate of blue light.

"Ethan!!"

Through the blue gate as it sealed, she caught one last glimpse of the steadfast knight—run through by the crown prince's sword, swallowed by the dark. Even as he vanished, his lips shaped words.

Go.

That must have been what he said. A single tear slipped from Roina's eye and fell.