I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

The King of Seedrun

A few hours had gone by since the slum riots started, and it was now midday. Fran could be seen among the people, two thousand strong, all armed and all marching towards the royal palace.

Sellimea and Miriam could be seen at the head of the crowd. They were protected by their envoy of bodyguards, but the fact remained that they were at the front lines. Among their guards were Salut, Fran, Carla, and some other cloaked figures.

The masses were mostly composed of slum dwellers. After Sellimea and Miriam bowed their heads to them after their assault on the soldiers who had invaded their homes, the slumfolks immediately pledged their cooperation to the princesses. Sellimea explained that going up against Suarez’s soldiers was going to be dangerous, but their minds were made up.

“A small risk as long as we get to be useful to you, Lady Sellimea.”

“Without your help, we would’ve died that year we couldn’t get any fish.”

“You gave my mom free medical treatment when she was sick.”

Sellimea had gone out of her way to help these people during the reign of the previous king, and they all expressed their gratitude to her. The slums now stood with her, eager to repay her kindness.

After a little digging, it turned out that the slumfolk had known of Sellimea’s whereabouts all along. Still, they had continued to cover for her and protect her without her even knowing. Thinking about it now, it was impossible to keep the hidden paths a secret from the people who lived near them. The slumfolk all agreed that they wouldn’t let any information linked to Sellimea leak to the outside.

Sellimea and Miriam were completely oblivious to this fact, thinking all along they had done a good job of keeping their operations a secret from the civilians around them. Both of them blushed when the slumfolk told them the truth. They were undoubtedly embarrassed upon finding out their efforts at subterfuge only succeeded because they were helped by the people around them.

Their subordinates who had been tasked with blending into the slums knew about it but kept it a secret from their masters anyway. They didn’t want Sellimea to think that her presence was a bother to the people she lived among.

The princess loved her people, and her people loved her back. There was a bond of kindness between them.

Truth be told, I didn’t think royalty would be able to rule a kingdom based on good intentions alone. Still, I wanted to see Sellimea heal this broken country, and Fran felt the same way. On the other hand, a ruler like Suarez, who abused his power to milk his people dry, had stirred up resentment among the masses.

If you were to look at the reason behind the slum people’s revolt, eighty percent of it could be attributed to their love for Sellimea, but twenty percent of it was anger towards Suarez. Seedrun’s citizens weren’t the only ones up in arms, either. They had helpers like us thrown into the mix.

There were about two thousand of us when we started out, but the mass started accumulating more people by the time we got closer to the palace. Now, there were about three thousand of us in total. What goes around comes around, as they say, and this mob was the embodiment of it. Every act of kindness and evil would be repaid.

Suarez had prepared three thousand soldiers to respond to Sellimea’s mob. It wasn’t much, but it couldn’t be helped given the current circumstances. Suarez had to increase security for the royal palace, but he still had to safeguard the military ports as well. Three thousand was the maximum number of soldiers he could mobilize on such short notice.

Not that Suarez was necessarily going to lose. Although we were about equal in terms of number, our mob still consisted mostly of civilians while Suarez commanded an army of troops. His men were also better equipped and better trained. Sellimea’s militia had no chance of winning.

At least, under normal circumstances.

“We have the upper hand,” Miriam said, noting how the tide of battle was in Sellimea’s favor. Seedrun was originally founded by pirates, after all, which amounted to most Seedrunians being quick tempered, hot-blooded fishermen. Most of them worked menial labor all their lives, and it showed through their thickly muscled bodies. Untrained as they might be, they could wreak quite a bit of havoc when left to their passions as the Seedrunian soldiers were quickly learning.

Compared to the civilians, the Seedrunian soldiers were clumsy and unmotivated. Their superiors were stuck in petty conflicts for power which decreased the quality of their physical training. They were hated by Seedrun’s people, and their compensation was cheap. No wonder their motivation was through the floor. There were some scumbags in the army who did atrocious acts, but most of the soldiers only stayed in the army to put food on the table. Motivation and drive made up for the difference in equipment. The end result was Sellimea’s followers ragdolling most of Suarez’s forces about.

Things might have played out differently had Valuza’s Dragon Fangs and the palace’s imperial guard been a part of the battle, but they were nowhere to be seen. Having former imperial guards on our side bolstered our troops’ morale as it meant Sellimea was among her followers. We weren’t going to lose this charge.

I was going to have Fran help with the assault if it came down to it, but there was no need so far. She continued to stay by Sellimea’s side as her guard. Sellimea was supposed to wait in the safe house, at first. She was our commander, after all, and we weren’t going to lose as long as she remained alive. And yet, she had insisted on coming along to the frontlines. She said letting the people fight for her while she stayed hidden in her safe house didn’t sit right with her. Miriam tried to convince her otherwise but Sellimea’s mind was set. The younger princess meekly conceded to her older sister, in fact. If Miriam wasn’t opposed to it, then we weren’t going to muddle things further.

Besides, there was no guarantee that hiding out in the slums was a safe choice. There was no place to run if someone torched the place, as the late Dwight had suggested the other night. There might be traitors in the midst, too. Therefore, it was much easier to safeguard her where we could see her.

“They’re running away!”

“Serves ’em right!”

“Do not pursue! Killing soldiers is not our main goal!”

The mob quickly vanquished Suarez’s troops who were now retreating. Miriam prevented the mob from chasing the soldiers down in their fever pitch. She couldn’t stop them all, however, and the more hotheaded of our number strayed off to terrorize some terrified soldiers. At least most of the mob listened to her orders.

“Onwards! To the royal palace!”

“YEAH!” The mob roared as they resumed their advance towards the palace. We were now passing through a residential district. Military resistance had decreased to the point of being inconsequential; they weren’t even attempting to stop us at this point. A lot of civilians joined the mob upon seeing Sellimea in the lead, further bolstering the mob’s morale.

Suddenly, Fran stepped out of the mob.

What is it, Fran?

“There.”

Fran pointed to several men who appeared to be surrounding a shop. As we got closer, I figured out what they were up to.

“Give us all your money, old lady.”

“O-oh no…”

Having people like this in the mob was inevitable as our numbers grew larger. They had been warned beforehand that they would be punished if they acted violent toward any civilian.

Still, I suppose some people joined the mob so they could have an excuse to loot and plunder when things got frantic. The men had surrounded a shopkeeper who was in the middle of running away and was now stripping her down for cash. One of them skipped the formalities and was in the middle of looting foodstuffs from the shopkeeper’s store.

“What are you looking at?”

“Hey, that girl’s part of the princess’s guard.”

“This kid? You serious?”

The men looked down on Fran with the same unpleasant eyes as the soldiers she had killed.

“Let go of the old woman.”

“What’s that? You ordering us around?”

“Sellimea wouldn’t allow this.”

“We’re helping our princess out, you know. For free! She’d let this kind of petty behavior slide.”

“That’s right. How about we give you a piece of the action, too?”

The things they said and did were no different from Suarez’s men. Men like them would only get in our way and sully Sellimea’s good name. Fran seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“Haa!”

“Gah!”

“Blurk!”

She closed her distance with a speed too fast for the eye to see, and knocked the men out with her bare hands. She delivered excellent liver shots, and the men crumpled to the ground, silenced by the intense pain. She took out the other two men and then turned to the old woman who was trembling in fear. Fran’s youth worked in her favor for once, as her looks had a calming effect on the old shopkeeper. She bowed her head to thank her.

“I’m so sorry about this.”

“Oh, there’s no need for you to apologize, young lady. The fault lies in no one but these bad men. Why, I can’t believe they would dirty Lady Sellimea’s name like that.”

The shopkeeper was too old to fight, but she was squarely on Sellimea’s side.

“Thanks. You should close early today.”

“I was just about to do that.”

“See you.”

“Aah, hold on. Take this with you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Consider it my way of saying thank you.”

The old lady gave her a rice cake wrapped with leaves. Fran took it, bowed her head, and left the store. She dragged the men along, of course. She brought them to Sellimea and Miriam, who were too far ahead for the rest of the crowd to see.

“I took care of some idiots.”

“Well done.”

“Good job, Fran!”

“There might be others.”

“True… These can’t be the only fools trying to take advantage of the chaos of a revolution.”

“Hm.” Sellimea darkened at Miriam’s statement. She must be thinking that it was somehow her fault. The corners of Miriam’s eyes raised upon seeing her sister’s grief-filled expression. We finally approached the men as their pain subsided and they were able to regain their footing.

“Princess, hand her over to us!”

“Why?”

“Why?! Look at what she did to us!”

“We are volunteer soldiers for Princess Sellimea. That girl shamed courageous men like us!”

“You lot were the ones who started looting innocent civilians!”

The men smirked at Miriam’s judgment before blurting out their dirty excuses.

“Perhaps, but surely you understand our reasons.”

“That’s right. We’re working for you without compensation here. Surely you don’t expect us to walk away empty-handed?”

“You guys think so, too, don’t you?”

The men started inciting the people around them. Most of them looked disgusted at the men’s behavior, but there were some among them who nodded in agreement. They might have disagreed with robbery, but looting seemed all right in their books.

Punishing the men would tell the mob that the princess disapproved of such uncouth behavior. We might lose a lot of followers if that happened. Did Suarez send these men specifically to turn the mob against us? That couldn’t be. Fran only caught them in the act by pure chance. However, the fact that they were stirring up trouble remained.

Miriam showed no hesitation.

“I see… Hmph!” Miriam brought the blunt side of her lance down upon him.

“Aiee?!” “Wh-what do you think you’re doing?!” the remaining men shouted at Miriam for knocking their friend out cold.

“What, you ask? I am merely bringing justice upon the fiends who hurt the innocent!”

“S-stop! Gyaaargh!”

Miriam knocked the second man out. The wound was heavy, albeit not fatal. Miriam was furious despite her calm exterior.

“Please, stop! Gyaaa!”

“Justice must be dealt. That goes for you, too!”

“Ow, argh!”

“Noo!”

Miriam had all four men crawling on the ground in a matter of seconds. The sudden burst of violence silenced the heretofore restless crowd. They watched Miriam with bated breath. As bad as the men might have been, she still beat down people who were on their side. It wouldn’t be out of the question to think that they saw Miriam as ruthless and heartless.

I looked over at Sellimea, expecting the sheltered princess to find scenes of public caning excessive and distasteful. However, I found no trace of fear on her face or trembling in her stature. She seemed prepared for the contingency and stepped forward with determination. She stood in front of Miriam as if defending her and raised her voice to the people without so much as a flinch.

“People of Seedrun, lend me your ears! We are not here fighting to fulfill our selfish desires.”

Her tone wasn’t forceful, but it still reached the ears of her citizens.

“We fight to restore law and order to our land. We must uphold law and order no matter the cost.”

Sellimea moved her hands and body to appeal to her people. Her silver-purple hair glowed as it danced in the sunlight. The effect was enough to draw the mob’s attention. She had taken hold of her audience’s vision and hearing; all of them looked upon her as if entranced. The riotous air which was bubbling up within the mob dispersed completely as they all leaned in to listen to Sellimea.

She had gained complete control of her audience.

“We must stand tall, maintain our dignity! We must do the right thing!”

Sellimea’s tone of voice and expression were not manufactured, reaching the hearts of her citizens. Perhaps, it only touched their hearts because she was so genuine.

“You have been oppressed for too long. I understand that you must want to oppress in return. But that is precisely why we cannot afford to become oppressors ourselves…”

Sellimea’s words struck a chord with her people as they tried to digest them. Her words even touched my heart despite my slight cynicism. The people felt like they must think through what she was saying.

“We do not live on good intentions alone. Unfortunately, there will always be people like these who live for their own selfish desires.”

Sellimea had managed to win her people over in such a short period of time. She looked upon the men pitifully, and most of the people followed suit. This was proof that many agreed with Sellimea’s genuine words and actions.

“But we shall not look to them for help. We, upholders of justice, will not turn to those who seek to ignore it.”

Her hair blew in the wind as beads of sweat trickled down her cheek. She looked divine, like a goddess in a play. The people continued to listen, then knelt to her. I could understand why.

“I implore you! Stand tall! Stand tall that no one may dominate us and that righteousness may flourish!”

The crowd exploded as soon as Sellimea finished her speech.

“YEAAAAAH!!!”

They pumped their fists to the sky with a look of exaltation on their faces. The fear of battle and resentment towards their king had been wiped clean, and it was now replaced with a strong look of passion. Now they no longer fought because of their love for Sellimea or their hatred for Suarez. They were now fighting as the proud Seedrunians that they were.

All right, time for a bit of insurance.

Insurance?

Yup.

Using dirty tricks right after Sellimea’s impassioned speech felt a bit wrong, but I was a dirty kind of guy who didn’t mind resorting to trickery to win. Although I did feel like I had to apologize to Fran for involving her in my scam.

No problem. I’m an adventurer. As long as it doesn’t break the law, it’s all good.

Heheheh. True that.

Fran waited for the excitement of the mob to die down before opening her mouth.

“I’ve seen these four before. They’re Suarez’s men.”

I had figured out that they weren’t, of course; we had run into them by pure coincidence. But even if it was coincidence, it was much better that they were thought as such. It wasn’t like anyone could verify the truth at this point anyway.

“What? Are you sure?”

“Hm. No doubt about it.”

“Did you hear that, everyone? The fool king sent his spies to rile up unrest among us! Do not be deceived by his dirty tactics!”

“OOOH!” went the crowd.

The effects were immediate. Sellimea’s moving speech had united her citizens, and now their anger towards Suarez was sharpened to a point. There was no way the mob would betray us or run away in fear now.

Miriam nodded at us. She knew the game we were playing, but she was prepared to play dirty so Sellimea wouldn’t have to. They really made a good team.

“All right… Advance!”

“Julius, how goes the rebels’ advance?”

“My lord. They are headed towards the royal villa as expected.”

“Do we have enough guards for the royal palace?”

“Of course. We’ve laid out our troops for an ambush as well. We’ll apprehend them all in one fell swoop.”

“Very good. According to our agent, they plan on making a show of attacking the royal villa before diverting to the royal palace to capture me. A brilliant plan had it not been leaked!”

“Indeed. It seems they’ve ordered their followers to attack the royal villa, as well.”

“Heheheh. How unfortunate that they have not realized the traitor is still in their midst.”

“Indeed. But is it all right for us to leave the Phyllian twins there?”

“It can’t be helped. Not now. If Sellimea’s spies spot them in the royal villa, they would know of our plot. My life would be in danger.”

“Are you basing it off the information our Raydossian spy gave us? That demons would protect the Phyllian royalty if their lives were in danger?”

“We have no way of verifying the truth… Galloudie seems unaware of it, so why would that man know?”

“They say he’s been spying on the Phyllians for a long time now.”

“I see… Well, I’m not going to put my life on the line to verify the rumors. It would be calamitous if demons started raiding the royal palace.”

“Indeed. Our Water Dragons would be ineffective against them as well.”

“Exactly. You’ve posted some of our elite troops in the royal villa, yes?”

“I have, Your Majesty. Thirty of our most loyal men, none with any sympathy towards the Phyllians. We’ve also told them not to leave the royal villa in case of unforeseen circumstances.”

“So the Dragon Tail are securing the villa?”

“Yes. Their numbers may be few but they are an elite fighting force as strong as Dragon Fang.”

“I heard the man called Sellid has disappeared. Do you know of his whereabouts?”

“Apologies, Your Majesty. However, we managed to chop off his left arm, and he leapt into the sea under the cover of night. He should be dead as dead can be.”

“Very well. All this will be over in a day. He is irrelevant to us should he survive anyway.”

Sellimea’s combined forces, which consisted of the initial mob plus defectors from the enemy’s side, now totaled over five thousand people. We had run into a few skirmishes here and there, although none of them was an all out battle. Most of our enemies lost their will to fight after seeing the congregation of the masses. Some of the noblemen still tried to go after Sellimea, setting up ambushes from within their mansions, but they couldn’t get through the wall of people in the end.

The mob was well armed now, too, equipped by the weapon store vendors who had pledged their allegiance to Sellimea and the enemy soldiers who had defected. The sailors, who made up our frontline, were particularly fierce combatants. They even made trained soldiers look like pansies. Did this country even need a military? I didn’t think its people needed defending, and it was unlikely they could be occupied by invading forces. Having gone through the fires of battle, it was as if the fishermen had changed classes to pirates. Not that the class change actually took place, but it sure looked like it did.

We got closer to the royal palace and villa.

“We’re almost there,” Salut called out to Miriam.

“Yes. Although I must apologize to you in advance.”

“It is all right. As long as we get to save the prince and princess in the end.”

“Indeed. People of Seedrun! We are almost to the royal villa! Break through and free its prisoners! Then, the royal palace!”

“YEAAAH!”

“We’re almost there, Sir Salut.”

“Indeed, Madam.”

We carried on marching for thirty minutes before Salut approached Miriam again.

“We are almost to the royal villa, Lady Miriam.”

“Indeed.”

“Lady Miriam?”

“Worry not. This is all part of the plan.”

“Right…”

He dropped back again, dissatisfied. I could understand why. We had leaked our plan of making a show of attacking the royal villa, but now we were actually attacking it. We had told Salut that we were going to turn and attack the royal palace in order to ambush Suarez and seize the country. Despite that, Sellimea and Miriam were continuing their advance towards the royal villa; it was no surprise that he was beginning to get suspicious.

Thirty minutes later.

“Lady Miriam, what is the meaning of this?!”

“Why are so upset, Sir Salut?”

“Th-this is not how it was planned!”

“There are too many people in our forces, now. It would take too much time to carry out our plan exactly as we planned it.”

“What… So what are you planning to do now?!”

“I’m afraid we have to give up on killing the king for now. We shall carry on our advance toward the royal villa.”

“I will not have it!”

“What’s got you so upset? Is this not better for you? You will be able to save the Phyllian prince and princess sooner.”

Salut looked anxious despite his masters’ liberation being close at hand.

“I-I see. Right!”

“Very good. Cheer up, Sir Salut. I believe things are better this way. The lie we told our people ended up being the truth, after all.”

“Urgh. I suppose so. Hahaha.”

Another hour passed since the exchange.

Sellimea’s forces overwhelmed the royal villa with little trouble. It wasn’t heavily guarded to begin with, so the military gave us little resistance. All it took was a wooden battering ram we had prepared earlier to break down its gates.

There were fifty archers guarding its courtyard, but Fran and I deflected their arrows with our Wind Magic.

Some of the villa’s defenders were decently strong, but they were nothing compared to Valuza’s men. Their stats were pretty good, though not good enough that Fran wasn’t able to dispose of them with a single cut. Perhaps they increased their stats by using magical drugs to intimidate their enemies. To make matters worse, their combat experience and skill levels were awful.

Still, they bragged about being stronger than Dragon Fang. Don’t make me laugh. Do you know how excited Fran was when she thought she’d get a challenging fight? She was in a terrible mood after being so let down. It took me a while to cheer her up.

“All right, let’s go save the prince and princess.”

“Hm.”

“Sir Salut, you take point.”

“What? Why me…?”

“Look at the confusion around you, man. The prince and princess might be on their guard right now. If they see a familiar face leading our crew, we would be able to avoid any unnecessary conflict.”

“B-but…”

And so it was decided that Salut would take the lead; Fran and Jet close behind him. We had summoned Jet by now, mostly to guard Sellimea by sheer force of intimidation.

We went through the royal villa at a quick pace. Fran had located Fult and Satya using her Presence Sense, and all she had to do was instruct Salut on which way to go. We carried on until we reached a large room located in the center of the villa.

The door itself spelled luxury. It looked like the doors to an expensive wedding venue. Not that I had ever gone through one! The only weddings I’d ever gone to were of my boring supervisors.

“In there.”

“I-I see.”

“What’s wrong? Open it.”

“Yes. Excuse me!”

Salut made up his mind and gave the door a forceful push. The ones we had been looking for were waiting for us inside.

“Salut! Where have you been?!”

“We were looking for you.”

“Well, I…”

Prince Fult and Princess Satya looked the same as the day we were separated. Some of their attendants were with them, too.

“I think that should be enough, Fran. It’s time to bring this operation to a close. I trust you can do it.”

“Hm.”

Miriam gave Fran their agreed upon signal, and Fran narrowed her eyes.

Miriam called out to Salut.

“What’s this? A moment, Sir Salut. You seem to have something on your back.”

“My back?”

“Fran, take it off for the man, if you will.”

“Got it.”

Salut bent down, plainly showing Fran his back.

“What are you doing, Fran?!” he yelped when Fran suddenly pinned his hands behind him. She removed the object in question—a magical device which allowed for long distance communication—and tossed it to Jet.

“Jet.”

“Woof!”

Jet retreated to the shadows, the device still in his maw. As expected, I couldn’t pick up the device’s mana signature once Jet was in his realm. I wasn’t able to send telepathic messages while I was in there myself. The device was rendered useless now, even if it was able to continuously eavesdrop on conversations.

“Y-you…!”

“It seems we have angered you, Sir Salut. Or should I say, traitor?”

Salut’s face tightened upon Miriam’s remark. “Traitor? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you, Sir Salut.”

“I-I don’t know what makes you think that… Are you not jumping to conclusions?”

“Still trying to get away with it even now?”

“Such slander… What reason do you have for calling me a traitor? This is an act of slander towards the kingdom of Phyllius itself!”

He sure had nerve to bring up the name of the kingdom he betrayed.

We had figured out Salut was the traitor in our midst from the time we first infiltrated the royal villa. I thought he was on our side until then. I found out about his betrayal not by deduction or any suspicious act on his part, but by pure chance. I immediately activated Essence of Falsehood and kept it on upon finding out there was a traitor in our midst. I didn’t know whether the traitor was in our infiltration party, but I turned it on just in case.

I just happened to find out when Salut declared Sellid as the traitor and confirmed it again when Valuza supported his statement.

Everything Salut said after that had been a lie. Everything from his eulogy of the slain Yorth and his promise of saving the prince and princess. Salut was our Raydossian mole. His goal was to infiltrate the kingdom of Phyllius.

I thought of a way to use this situation to our advantage. I found out early on that he had a device which allowed him long-distance communication. I let him leak false information to Suarez to manipulate his strategy. Everything worked according to plan by the looks of it. Believing Salut’s false information, Suarez had tightened the royal palace’s security.

We had told Miriam of Salut’s betrayal during our escape from the royal villa. I took the risk of talking to her via Telepathy. I left out the part where I was a talking sword, of course, and instead used Jet as my cover. Talking to her in broken grammar had been exhausting.

“Me, Jet. Lady Fran’s familiar.”

Now expand that to span an entire conversation. I only told her the vital details, such as Salut being the traitor and that he had a device which allowed him to communicate with his masters. Seeing that Miriam had believed me, my broken language paid off.

By the time we left the underground tunnels and returned to the slums, Miriam made up various excuses to prevent Salut’s audience with Sellimea. She had also sent him to a more cramped room to hinder him from sending out information.

We had seen through his deception thanks to the power of our Skill. The unique skill wasn’t one we used perpetually, so it was by pure chance that the circumstances lined up perfectly. Miriam asked me for more details but I didn’t tell her everything, of course. Fortunately, it was common courtesy in this world not to expose one’s strong skills, and so Miriam didn’t press the matter.

“We’ve saved Fult and Satya, but you don’t look happy. Why?”

“Preposterous! I’m ecstatic! These accusations will not stand!”

“The plan we told you was a complete lie. Suarez seems to know about it since the royal palace is packed with soldiers. Why is that?”

“I-I can’t be the only one who could’ve leaked it!” Salut frantically denied Fran’s questioning.

“But the only ones who know about this plan are Sellimea, Miriam, myself, and you.”

“Wha—” He knew he had been caught in his contradictions. Salut’s face flushed with anger. He now turned to the Fult and Satya to appeal to them.

“Your Highness, there has been a mistake! Sellid was the Raydossian spy, not me!”

Salut was now talking like a perpetrator in a detective story. Fult wasn’t falling for it.

“Sellid was the spy? Is that what you’re saying, Salut?”

“Yes! And I have proof!”

That was another lie. He didn’t have a single shred of evidence. Although, he must’ve figured he could make stuff up since he thought Sellid was more or less dead.

“They seem to think that I have betrayed you… Perhaps they are trying to drive a wedge between us. You must not believe their lies! Not when it is clear that Sellid was the Raydossian spy!”

What a bad sport. Before Fran had a chance to defend herself, Fult immediately denied Salut’s accusations.

“Sellid would never betray us.”

“What…? Wh-what makes you so sure? We’re talking about Sellid!”

“Yes, Sellid can be loud and overly concerned about social hierarchies, but he would never betray the kingdom of Phyllius, let alone the royal family.”

“How do you know for sure?” It was Fran’s turn to wonder now. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe Fult’s statement, but she had wanted an explanation.

“I can’t tell you the specifics… Let’s just say it has to do with the Divine Sword’s protection.”

“It is something only the royal family understands. Sellid will never betray us.”

“Besides, we have evidence for our accusations.”

It was upon Fran’s declaration—

“Give it a rest, Salut.”

—that the cloaked man revealed himself.

“Wha…”

Salut’s eyes bulged upon the sight of the man who was missing his left hand. His shock drained the blood from his face.

“S-Sellid! You’re alive?!”

The mysterious cloaked man was Sellid, who had managed to escape all by himself. He had been separated from the prince and princess, and confined ever since we got off the ship. Valuza had been sent to kill him afterwards, but he managed to muster up enough strength to escape, though he ended up falling into the sea, in the end. His left arm was cut off, and although he took a dive into the winter sea, he still managed to survive. Impressive, but his survival seemed linked to the Divine Sword’s protection Fult mentioned earlier. It must’ve been triggered when Sellid’s life was in danger.

Sellid escaped to the slums to go into hiding, and that’s where we found him. It was right after we escaped the royal villa and Fran was in the middle of handing out meals. Right about the time Fran explained my plans to Sellimea. I have to say, I was quite shocked at the time when I sensed his familiar aura.

Sellid responded to Salut with his usual regal stature. “Who are you calling a traitor?”

“Y-you! How can it be anyone else?!”

“Then I ask that you produce your evidence.”

“I-I don’t have it with me…”

Everyone in the room directed their piercing stares at Salut. He knew then that he had no allies left. He tossed glances left and right, but he soon hung his head as he figured out the jig was up. Had he also realized there was no escape?

“Salut, we won’t hurt you if you don’t resist.”

P-Princess Satya, you shouldn’t just approach him like—

“Don’t move.”

As Salut feigned a fainting spell, he rushed towards Satya to attack her. I knew this would happen. We should’ve been more careful…

He drew the knife which hung from his waist and instantly brought it up to Satya’s neck. Black mana emanated from his entire body. He had used his Class Skill, Shadow Aura, which greatly increased his strength and agility at the cost of halving his health. I didn’t expect him to be able to use it so quickly and for the buff to be so significant. I didn’t have enough time to react.

“Enough of this farce!”

“You really are the traitor.”

“That’s right! And you naive Phyllians never suspected me for a moment! Prince, take out a slave contract if you will!”

“An item bag?”

Salut tossed a leather bag which hung from his waist at Fult. I could feel mana emanate from it.

“And take out a slave collar while you’re at it. And once you’ve signed your name on the contract, go ahead and wear it.”

“What… Salut, stop this foolishness!”

Miriam and Sellimea tried to stop him, but Salut wasn’t having it.

“Silence! Get on with it, Prince! I don’t have to kill her, you know. I can pop one of her eyeballs here and now…”

Salut edged his knife from Satya’s neck to her eyes. We couldn’t afford to be brash with the knife so close to her. Even if I could manipulate the knife with Telekinesis, the slightest miscalculation would leave her severely injured.

“All right.”

The prince nodded, signed his name on the contract, and immediately wore the slave collar without a trace of hesitation.

The refined boy with golden hair now had a heavy iron collar hanging from his neck. Young ladies with certain peculiar tastes would have blood gushing out of their noses by now. Lacking those peculiar tastes, I just found the sight pitiful.

“Brother…”

Tears welled in Satya’s eyes. The guilt of having done this to her brother was too much for her.

“Satisfied?”

“Bring me that contract.”

“Here. Now, let go of Satya.”

Having received Fult’s contract, however, Salut only laughed. “Fuhahaha! I won’t!”

“That’s not what you said earlier.”

“And you think I care?! Why should I listen to you after receiving such great power!”

Great power? Fran tilted her head, wondering what the madman was talking about. Fult had received full combat training and so was quite strong compared to other youths of his age, but the fact remained that he was still a thirteen year old boy. His stats were much lower compared to an adult male, and his skills were only slightly better compared to the average soldier. I didn’t see why enslaving the prince would grant Salut great power.

“That’s right. Power! Fult, Satya, kill everyone here except for me!”

Still, Salut confidently ordered his newly attained slaves.

Fran, I don’t know what’s going to happen here. Keep your guard up.

I know.

Fran didn’t blink and dropped into her usual fighting stance. She was covering Sellimea, who was standing behind her, and kept her eyes on Fult and Satya, her hand already gripping my hilt.

“You might not know this, but the Phyllians have the blessing of their Divine Sword. They’re demon users! And now this terrible power is mine to command! Muhahaha!”

“…”

The Divine Sword of Phyllius, of course! I remembered that it had something to do with summoning demons, but I didn’t think they could use it without the sword being physically present. This might not end well. Were we going to have to cut Fult down? I didn’t think Fran would let it come to that.

Fran, if you see any demons, we’re going to have to let loose the strongest spells we have!

Got it.

Get ready…!

But then, nothing happened.

“…What are you doing? I told you to slaughter them all!”

“That’s enough, Satya. There’s no need to show this man any more sympathy.”

“I see… What a shame.”

“Why won’t you do what I say?! Your name is on this contract, Fult! You are my slave!”

“As you have said, the Phyllian royalty is under the protection of the Divine Sword’s blessing; demons protect us. It protects us from severe harm and eliminates whatever it is that causes it.”

“S-so?”

“Why haven’t you been eliminated? Because your actions are not severe enough to warrant the demons’ protection. Protected by the Divine Sword, these slave collars are little more than iron necklaces to us. We have no need to obey your commands.”

“What…? Then how were you captured in Dars? Were you doing it for fun?!”

They were wearing slave collars when we found them in the slavers’ hideout, although I was now beginning to suspect that the contracts had no effect on them.

“The men who captured us had the other children in captivity. We let ourselves be captured so we could free them.”

“So the Divine Sword has the power to do even that? I thought it was limited to controlling demons…”

“We didn’t need to unleash any demons on our captors because Fran came and saved us. Oh, I see now. Were you the one who hired them? I apologize for your wasted effort.”

Salut screamed, furious at Fult’s words. “Damn it all!”

He brought the point of his knife into Satya’s eye.

And that’s when it happened.

A dim light prevented the knife from going any further, stopping it a hair’s breadth away from Satya’s eye. Salut angrily pressed down on the knife harder, but he couldn’t penetrate the dim light.

Was this the demonic protection of the Divine Sword? Now, black mist emanated from behind Satya, blowing Salut away.

Good! The princess is away from Salut now!

Fran, Jet, now’s your chance!

Fran leapt forward, taking advantage of Salut’s carelessness as the latter was preoccupied with Satya.

“Haa!”

“Argh! You little bitch!”

Fran lopped off Salut’s right foot, and I blew away his sword as he crouched down in pain. That should greatly reduce his combat capabilities. However, Fran ignored him and instead went to stop Satya from falling to the floor. The black mist was gone from her now. It seemed that it only interfered when it sensed its masters in danger.

“Satya, are you okay?”

“Thank you, Fran… I’m all right.”

“Hm. Are you sure?”

“Haha, I’m sorry. I suppose I’m not as all right as I thought,” Satya said, shifting her gaze to Salut. Her longtime protector, to whom she had entrusted her life, had just tried to take it from her. There was no one who wouldn’t be hurt by the experience. Fran continued holding the princess as she trembled and tears welled up in her eyes. Fran then gently patted her back.

“Thank you…”

“Hm.”

Miriam had captured Salut in the meantime. His life was already halved by Dark Aura, and he was close to bleeding out because of Fran’s abrupt amputation of his foot. Miriam poured some potions on him. The low-tier potions only served to close his wounds, though.

“Sellid, take care of Satya.”

“I shall. And I thank you. Truly.” Sellid bowed his head. We hadn’t spent too much time together, but I could tell he wasn’t a bad guy. He was just a little too concerned about his country and the royal family’s authority and social standing. His primary concern was appearances, but even then it wasn’t so much his own but of the royal family of Phyllius.

He acted the way he did towards Fran and the other kids out of sheer respect of the royal bloodline. In fact, it felt as if Sellid had to compensate for the prince and princess’s lack of concern about the thing. He protected the nobility of the royal bloodline by playing the role of the mean noble. Someone had to toot Phyllius’s horn, and if the royal twins weren’t up to it, Sellid was. Maybe that’s just how he was naturally, but this natural trait served him well in his role as royal horn-tooter.

“Hm.”

Now, it was time to have a chat with Salut.

Traitor that he was, he still served the Phyllians for a long time. We didn’t want to show Satya the pain that awaited him. Sellid understood this, so he took Satya to another room while consoling her.

And Fult? Well, he would be all right. The prince was a man, after all. It was a good lesson for him, and he said confidently that he preferred to stay. His eyes were calm; he didn’t look like he was squeamish enough to have to go to another room.

“Salut, I’m going to question you now. You have served us for many years, so in return I will not kill you as long as you tell me the truth.”

“Just kill me…!”

Things were proceeding as expected. The only question now was how resilient Salut was.

Or so I thought…

“Eaaargh! P-please, no more!”

It didn’t take ten minutes for him to start squealing. Not to say he was spineless, but the prince had been merciless. With all due respect, he was very knowledgeable about intense torture methods. He even made Fran cover her ears at one point. He made stabbing Salut with a sword and healing him perpetually look like a cakewalk.

I won’t describe the prince’s methods of torture, but suffice it to say that it had to do with fingernails, eyeballs, and needles. The pain inflicted went beyond excruciating and right into demonic.

It made me realize that countries with long lifespans had with it an equally dark history.

“Aah, I see.”

Fran, no! This is nothing to be impressed about! You are not to imitate Fult! If you do, my cold steel is going to start streaming hot tears!

As I was frantically explaining the virtue of kindness to Fran, Fult finished gathering the information he needed.

“I see. You’ve been working us for a long time…”

Salut had infiltrated Phyllius over ten years ago. His mission was to enslave the royalty and steal their Divine Sword. Aside from his periodic reports to Raydoss, he was a loyal servant of Phyllius and slowly worked his way into their inner circle. He had even gone so far as to apprehend the errant spy or two. It was a long story, but it underlined the value of a Divine Sword.

When Salut had failed to capture and enslave the prince and princess in the city of Dars, he was forced to change his plans. The assassin who had snuck into our inn afterwards was under his employ. He didn’t expect him to succeed and instead planned for him to get caught to cause suspicions of betrayal and conspiracy to fall onto Sellid.

In any case, once the Dars operation failed, Salut planned to kidnap the royals in Bulbola instead. However, the storm and an encounter with the Midgardsormr forced him to change his plans again. Our spy was terribly unlucky. He refused to give up, though, and his refusal to yield made me think of a cockroach.

The greatest crisis for him came when we had a run-in with the pirates. The prince might have demons under his command, but all of it would be for naught if the ship he was on sank to the bottom of the ocean. Salut’s goal was to capture the prince and princess alive to turn them into slaves for Raydoss. He couldn’t afford to let them be captured by the pirates, either. Phyllius would pay any amount of money to have their prince and princess back, and they would immediately be returned to their homeland. He wanted to avoid that if at all possible.

However, Salut thought of a way to turn that crisis into an opportunity. He would get on a lifeboat with the prince and princess and escape while letting Sellid and the other hindrances deal with the pirates. This plan failed when Fran defeated all the pirates and brought their captain to our boat. We really got in the way of every step of Salut’s plan.

One unexpected circumstance piled on top of another until we were captured by the Seedrunian navy. He contacted his superior, and fellow Raydossian, Galloudie. At the time, Salut didn’t know that Raydoss was trying to get its hands on Seedrun. He had cooperated with Suarez so Seedrun could play right into Raydoss’s hands. He told them he would trick the prince and princess and ship them over to Raydoss; doing so would make Suarez complicit.

Dwight was the one who originally suggested this idea, and he came up with it when he captured Fult and Satya. He wanted to sell them to Raydoss as slaves and initiate the honeymoon period between Seedrun and Raydoss.

This plan would undermine Salut’s labor. In fact, it would make Galloudie, the Raydossian envoy, look like the hero instead. Salut didn’t seem to care, though. As long as it served the empire of Raydoss, he didn’t mind taking a hit to his status.

As much of a traitorous snake that Salut was, his loyalty to Raydoss had been genuine. Maybe they brainwashed him. Even so, his loyalty shattered in the face of Prince Fult’s torture course.

“Fult, are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine.”

“Okay. Good job.”

“I am the prince of Phyllius. This is not enough to break me.”

“Good luck.”

“Haha. Thank you.”

Fult may have laughed, but he sounded lonely. Fult was a prince, after all, and being betrayed by his aide had definitely been a blow to him. He put up a front, and Fran had seen right through it. She had grown so much ever since she met Fult and Satya… She had grown not as a warrior but as a human. It was necessary to get stronger in general, and I was glad that she was getting the opportunity.

“Fran, Prince Fult, I would like to hear your opinions on our next move.”

We let Carla watch over Salut as we discussed what to do next. We had successfully saved Fult and Satya, but we were far from our happy ending. We still needed to overthrow the king to save the oppressed people of Seedrun. Our fight wouldn’t end until the king either abdicated or died. If we stopped our rebellion and escaped, the king would snuff out the people who had been involved.

“Allow us to be of service. It brings shame to Phyllius to have been led around this long.”

“I thank you. The power of a demon user is worth over a hundred men.”

“Oh no, please don’t expect too much from us. Satya and I are able to borrow the power of demons, yes, but only under extreme circumstances. And we can’t use them forever, either. It would be difficult for us to strike the king by our own power.”

“I see…”

The soldiers at the royal palace were going to be our major obstacle. They were an impenetrable wall which protected the king.

While we were thinking of a way to get around this problem, Fran said, “Hey, what if we used that long distance communication device Salut had on him?”

Fran explained her plan. By the sound of it, it had a pretty good chance of working.

We asked Salut how his device worked. Not only could it constantly listen in on conversations, charging it with mana allowed the user to talk to another holder of the device for several minutes. Its effective range was ten kilometers which made it a very useful tool.

We ironed out the details of Fran’s plan. Then, we resumed the march of our mob. It was moving from the royal villa to the royal palace now, with Sellimea and Miriam leading the charge.

“Now is our chance to retake the undefended royal port! People, lend me your strength!”

“YEAAAAH!”

Sir Galloudie, can you hear me? This is Salut.

“Salut? What’s going on out there?! The mob is not assaulting the royal palace! King Suarez is furious!”

I apologize, sir. The mob has grown too big and Sellimea couldn’t put them in order. Th-they changed courses and headed straight for the royal villa instead.

“Damn it. I can’t believe they would change their battle plan over such a petty reason. She really is letting her people rule over her.”

Y-yes. In any case, they have saved the Phyllians and are now headed to the royal port. Once they’ve captured it, they plan to hijack a ship and flee Seedrun immediately.

“What?! Really?”

They say they’re going to destroy all the other ships save their own. Afterwards, they plan to flee to Phyllius and seek asylum there.

“All right, I shall inform the king immediately. Good work!”

Thirty minutes had passed since the exchange. Fortunately, Galloudie was in too much of a panic to notice the trembling in Salut’s voice. We were intimidating Salut the entire time just in case he tried to warn his superior, but it didn’t seem necessary in the end. I guess he really didn’t want to be tortured by the prince a second time.

We tied Salut up and let Sellid handle him. We had a few of Miriam’s men guard him, just in case.

“Now, I think Suarez will redistribute some of his men to secure the royal port.”

“It should work. The royal port is vital to the strength of this kingdom. The threat of the destruction of the royal navy should be enough to divert them.”

“True.”

“It would be to our advantage even if he still focused on defending the royal palace. It would make it easier for us to capture the royal port.”

As Miriam and Fult discussed our battle plans, Fran was talking to Satya on the side. It was an innocent conversation regarding the princess’s hunger. Fran was trying to cheer her gloomy friend up. Fran ended up slightly jealous over the luxurious amount of food served in the villa, and Satya ended up soothing her instead.

You’re supposed to be doing the soothing here, Fran. Well, Satya did seem better for the conversation, so all’s well that ends well.

Soon, the royal palace was within our sight. We would sneak in once we had made sure that the guards were moving to the royal port. We needed as few soldiers in the royal palace as possible to make our assault.

“Huh, the gates are open.”

Fran pointed towards the palace gates which had indeed been left agape. What followed was an outpouring of soldiers; five thousand of them, all frantic. They needed all the soldiers they could get to suppress our fisherman uprising.

If Suarez was part of this mass of soldiers, our plan would fail. Fran pointed this out, but it didn’t seem that Suarez was part of the offense.

“You can spot my brother’s gaudy armor a mile away.”

“Not to mention the gaudy golden armor of his personal guard. He would be impossible to miss.”

“Hm. Good.”

We carried on sneaking into the palace as per our original plan. Infiltrating any royal palace would’ve been reckless, but we had two princesses on our side. They knew the ins and outs of the hidden paths, and even the danger rooms, making it possible for us to sneak in.

“Now, let’s go. It is time to bring my fool brother’s reign to an end!”

“Hm.”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

“We shall help however we can,” Fult said.

“I shall aid my brother as well,” Satya added.

Now that I thought about it, we had a lot of royalty in our party of seven. Aside from Fran, Carla, and Byke, the remaining four were all royals. The aristocracy was the majority for once.

“There is an emergency path here. If we take it, we’ll make it inside in no time.”

“Are you sure you can tell us such confidential information? We’re not even from this country.”

“Not a problem. We have no time to fuss over such petty matters. If we don’t act quickly, more innocent lives will be lost.”

“I apologize, and I respect the love you have for your citizens.”

Miriam touched the walls and found the hidden escape tunnel. She pushed one of the bricks to open the wall next to it. She led us down the path until we exited into a large anteroom. The room looked intimidating with its red carpet and grand chandelier hanging from the ceiling. We looked to be close to the center of the royal palace.

“The royal waiting room is beyond this, which leads right into the throne room.”

“Come. Brother is definitely sitting on his throne.”

“He’s always loved the spotlight. We’ll definitely find him there.”

I felt the presence of a few people in the large room ahead of us; most of them on the way to the waiting room and the throne room. One aura in particular felt familiar to me. Their strategy reminded me of our initial raid on the royal villa. There weren’t many guards stationed here, but all of them were elites.

When Miriam burst into the waiting room, she was met with the intense gaze of a man we knew all too well.

“Valuza,” Fran muttered.

“You remember me? I’m honored,” Black Fang Valuza answered, sounding genuinely honored to be recognized. Seedrun’s strongest man had been waiting for us in this room.

“I’ll take this one. You guys go ahead.”

I agreed. It looked like Satya and Fult had used up their demonic protection for the day. It really was a trump card they could only use for a short amount of time. We’d reduce our odds of incurring casualties if we let Fran keep Valuza busy instead of relying on the twins’ capricious ability.

Jet, go with Sellimea and protect them.

“Woof!”

“But…” Miriam looked worried, but Sellimea made her mind up for her.

“All right. Come, everyone.”

“B-but she’s going up against Valuza!”

“Miriam, are you going to undermine this honorable duel?”

“…Understood. I’m sorry for doubting you, Fran.”

“That’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. We’ll eat some good food once this is all over. I’ll treat you to one of my favorites. Stay alive until then.”

“Good food? Details?”

“You’ll have to live on to find out.”

“Okay! I can’t wait!”

I kept my eyes on Valuza as they had their conversation, but he seemed to be content with waiting.

“Are you ready?” he asked with a grim steadiness, sensing the end of our conflict.

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

Valuza let Sellimea and the rest of our crew pass without a word. His seeming negligence perplexed me, and even Fran looked suspiciously at him.

“Are you sure?”

“You wanted me to let them pass, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t see any problems then.”

“Uhh, I guess?”

“Besides, I only signed up with Suarez so I could get a chance to fight powerful quarry. I’ve been waiting for someone strong to make an attempt at his life.”

This guy was a bloodthirsty knight, too. He didn’t care what happened as long as he had the chance to fight someone strong. I understood his position, since Fran was more or less the same. He wanted to fight her with no reservations. That’s why he didn’t ambush her and why he let Sellimea pass. He needed Fran to be at the top of her game without any distractions.

None of this meant that we were going to start thanking him. In the end, Valuza still acted to satisfy his own lust for battle.

“Now that the distractions are gone, let’s start killing each other.”

“Hm!”

The intense fight began with a clashing of swords.

“Hah!”

“Hahaha! You’re good at this!”

One lethal slash followed another while both sides managed to either dodge or parry them all. The harsh sound of clanging metal echoed throughout the room. It was accompanied with the high-pitched shatters of broken pottery and furniture.

It didn’t take long for the room to look like an absolute shipwreck. It was like a tornado had blown through it. Still, Fran and Valuza remained relatively unscathed save for some scratches on their cheeks. The scratches hadn’t even been produced by their swords, instead by wooden shrapnel their intense fighting threw up into the air. Effectively, the damage they had dealt each other was still zero.

Fran had the higher Sword Mastery level, while Valuza had more battle experience. The situation produced a stalemate.

“Raaah!”

“Hahaha!”

Valuza was excited, howling with laughter. His initial nihilistic smile had been replaced with bloodcurdling cackling.

The death match grew more intense, but the tide was slowly turning in Fran’s favor. You see, there was a slight difference in how each combatant handled their dodges. Having shifted into high gear, Fran had definitely received more damage compared to Valuza. The Black Fang had landed several cuts on her, and it showed.

On the flip side, Valuza had dodged every attack Fran had attempted. In fact, that was her goal. Fran had taken several of Valuza’s cuts on purpose. She kept dodging so as to not fall into a critical state, but she always made sure to launch a counterattack afterward. I would heal her superficial wounds, so there was no problem there.

Meanwhile, Valuza focused only on dodging Fran’s attacks. He was cautious of her sword thanks to his previous encounter with the Venom Fang. Against an opponent who fought so adeptly, being poisoned once would turn the tides of battle in Fran’s favor. Dodging all of Fran’s attacks was taking a toll on his stamina, however, and Fran slowly managed to pressure him.

“Muahaha!”

Not that it stopped his beastly cackling. I think he knew he was in a bad spot, though. He threw the sword he had been using at Fran and jumped back. This was the last thing we expected, and we made blocking the projectile blade our first priority. I wondered what he would do after disarming himself.

That was when Valuza produced a sword out of the item pouch on his belt. He managed to protect this blade against Identify by leaving it inside.

Name: Soul Drain

Attack: 900; MP: 300; Durability: 300

Mana Conductivity: A-

Skill: Drain an opponent’s power to make itself stronger.

The power the sword obtained would go to the sword itself, not Valuza. It was an interesting ability. Kind of like myself, I suppose.

“This is an enchanted blade crafted by a disciple of the Godsmith. With this, I can evenly match the strength of your sword! So, let us begin round two!”

Now brandishing an enchanted sword, Valuza leapt into battle.

And with that, the bloodthirsty battle to the death resumed.

“Uncle Julius, Gladio, where is my brother?”

“A very good question. Still, I’m impressed you were able to infiltrate the royal palace with so few people. Very brave of you.”

“They may be few, but they are stronger than you will ever be. This is the end. Might I ask you to surrender so we can avoid further bloodshed?”

“The end of what, exactly? All we need do is kill you and that will put an end to your little revolution. Or do you think your peasants will be enough to overthrow us? They have yet to face the full strength of our military. The sight of your severed head will stop your revolutionaries cold in their tracks.”

“You are not the only ones who have means of communicating through long distances. Prince Fult has a similar ability. If he were to request the aid of the kingdom of Phyllius, you will be on the receiving end of their wrath, not us. I’m sure the ambassador of Granzell would likely agree with them.”

“Wh-what?! You mean you would ask for the assistance of another kingdom for the sake of your revolution? Have you no shame?! This is treason!”

“My act of ‘treason’ pales in comparison to your wishes of being ruled by Raydoss. In fact, both Phyllius and Granzell have agreed to lift their sanctions if the current king steps down.”

“You…you whore! I’ll kill you for that!”

“I would like to see you try.”

“How dare you! You were raised in the safe confines of the royal palace… Don’t think for a second that you can beat a war veteran such as I!”

“I am a member of the Seedrunian royalty. I know how to fight.”

“It looks like things are heating up between Father and Sellimea. Perhaps we should engage in light conversation.”

“Hmph. Quiet, Gladio. I have nothing to discuss with you.”

“What an awful thing to say.”

“I told you to be quiet. The sound of your voice is enough make my ears rot.”

“Careful now, little girl… Do you want me to do you again?”

“What a bad joke. ‘Do’ what exactly? The little girl you tried to rape kicked you so hard in the bollocks that I’m pretty sure you don’t have them anymore. Oh, the tears you cried as you ran away. I’ll never forget how pathetic you looked that day.”

“Silence! I never would’ve attempted it had Father not ordered me to! I will enjoy beating you to a bloody pulp… I’ve always dreamt of this day!”

“The feeling is mutual. Do you know how I felt when the Water Dragon which was rightfully mine was bequeathed to you? I’ve regretted not taking your life when I had the chance many times over!”

“I am better than you! What madman would give the Water Dragon to a little girl? If not for your royal bloodline, you are nothing more than a mere brute!”

“And you would be nothing more than a rapist if not for your father’s connections! Enough talk! We will settle who is the stronger between us, here and now!”

“Have at you, Miriam!”

“Wind Arrow!”

“Hahah!”

Wind Blower!

“Useless!”

Fran and Valuza’s duel had become a game of avoidance. We couldn’t use fire magic in the palace for fear of burning it down, so we were limited to wind magic. However, his sword kept absorbing all of our spells and reflected it back at us. This fierce battle was going to last for quite some time.

At least that’s what I thought before the stalemate was broken. It happened without warning.

“Urgh!”

“Fuhahaha! What’s wrong?!”

What happened?!

His sword disappeared out of sight and a gash appeared in Fran’s shoulder the next instant.

No, I knew what had happened. Valuza’s sword had struck too fast for our eyes to see.

Heal!

“Kahaha!”

“Argh!”

Heal! Back off, Fran!

“You’re not going anywhere!”

“Ugh!”

Valuza had activated his Class Skill, Flash Sword! As its name implied, it allowed him to wield his sword at blinding speeds. However, its mana cost was so great that he shouldn’t be able to use it repeatedly. It was a skill reserved for the deciding moment of a battle.

And yet, Valuza had used it five times in such a short amount of time.

It’s that sword of his.

Valuza was using the mana Soul Drain had absorbed. The enchanted sword acted like his external mana tank. The damn thing really was like me!

“I see your sword is quite powerful! The large amount of mana Soul Drain absorbs every time our blades clash is proof of that!”

It was my fault! I thought his mana regeneration was abnormally fast, but he had been draining my mana to fuel his attacks!

“Tch!”

“I’ve seen that move before! You’re getting slow, little girl!”

“Raaah!”

“Much too slow!”

This was bad. Fran’s movements were beginning to slow down. Valuza had also memorized Fran’s attack patterns. The difference in experience was going to be our downfall.

Valuza got stronger every time we clashed swords, and he was the better swordsman. Our spells would only feed his enchanted sword. Not only that, but Valuza was not shy in immediately using our freshly drained mana.

He’ll have the upper hand if this goes on for much longer!

Hm…

What should we do…?

As I thought about our next move, a mysterious power begins welling up inside me.

Uh, what’s going on?

I wasn’t doing anything, and yet, my blade began glowing with a jet-black light. The light grew more intense, and eventually, my blade was glowing pitch black.

Wait, uh. What’s this? Hello? What?!

Teacher?

I’m not doing this, Fran! I’m not the one causing this!

“What’s that you have there…?”

Valuza backed off, growing cautious.

I would be quick to praise myself if any of this had been my doing. Instead, the automatic amalgamation of energy raised fear in my heart.

A similar thing had happened at the Floating Island, although my blade glowed blue that time. It was a result of my and Fran’s powers growing stronger at the same time. We hadn’t activated it by our own will, and it activated automatically when we were deeply focused in the fight. We only knew because Jean had told us afterwards.

The black light emanating from my blade was similar to the extent that we weren’t in control of it. The aura it gave off was absolutely ominous, however.

Something bad might happen if I let go of it.

In fact, I didn’t even know how this great power was going to release itself.

Teacher? Are you all right?!

Fran, you need to—

“You need to let go of me,” was what I intended to say before the world fell silent. Fran and Valuza were now frozen in time. Not frozen, I suppose, but they had been slowed down to the point of only moving a few millimeters at a time. The scene felt similar to Spacetime Magic albeit at a higher level.

What the hell is going on?!

I looked at my pitch-black blade as I desperately tried to figure out what was happening. Then suddenly, a voice called out to me.

Hey, there! It’s been a while.

That voice…

It was the first voice I heard when I came into this world. I remembered talking to it that time I had used Unleash Potential.

I’m a lot stronger now, what with the Festival of the Moons coming up. Still, I can only keep up this conversation for three minutes! We don’t have much time, so listen up!

The voice sounded distressed. It seemed to recognize that we were in a state of emergency. I decided to listen.

A-all right.

Things have taken a turn for the worse. The vital seal inside you has been suddenly weakened!

A seal…? Am I sealing something away?

Something like that! Anyway, this seal has no business being undone! But because of that episode with Unleash Potential last time, their powers have been weakened!

Their? Was the voice talking about the P.A.?

Cracks have begun appearing in the seal, and the seal is weakening because of that! I think it’s because of that enchanted sword that guy’s using!

I see. So when Soul Drain absorbed my mana, it took away mana that would’ve gone to reinforcing the seal.

Well, it’s too late to do anything about that, now. Anyway, we have to release this energy otherwise it’s going to go berserk!

B-berserk?

Yeah. It’ll blow the roof right off this palace.

Oh my God!

I know. So we have to release this pent up energy somehow!

Wh-what are we going to do?

Give me control of the sword for now!

Like the time I gave P.A. the reins during Unleash Potential?

Yeah! It won’t take long!

A-all right! I trust you!

No worries!

Time began to flow again.

Fran, listen to me!

Hm? Who are you? You’re not Teacher! There’s so much energy coming from him!

You could call me a friend of his. Things have gotten bad, so I was talking to Teacher about it here on the inside.

Huh?

He’ll explain it to you later! We don’t have time!

Wait, they couldn’t expect me to explain something I barely understood!

Anyway, I’m going to release a crazy strong attack. Huddle yourself in a corner and try not to get caught up in the blast!

Okay.

Good girl! Let’s go!

I felt the wolf crest on my hilt squirm as soon as the mysterious voice finished talking. It was as if something was crawling out of it. The serpentine entity wrapped over my blade, cocked its head, and glared hatefully at Valuza.

The jet-black entity my wolf crest sealed away was large enough to swallow a man whole. The sight of the black thing wrapped around my blade was otherworldly.

“Wh-what is that? Is this your secret weapon? Hahaha!” Valuza jerked back, his laughter wavering.

But of course. Although Valuza lacked Mana Sense, he had enough Presence Detection to know that this thing was a dangerous threat. The energy I emanated was great enough to match even that of the Lich. Being in its mere presence was overwhelming.

No man could stand against it. In fact, I’d applaud anyone who could stand straight in its presence.

“GROOOOOARGH!” The jet-black thing howled, opening its giant maw. Then a great beam of light burst out of its mouth. The black beam tinted the entire room.

I saw Valuza try to block the black light with his sword, and when the beam hit it, his body was flung backwards into the wall like a pinball. The impact of Valuza’s collision cracked the sturdy palace wall.

The black beam carried on its trajectory, through the palace walls, until it eventually disappeared into the horizon. The beam’s shock waves had left the room in absolute ruin. If Fran hadn’t braced herself against a corner, she would’ve been caught up in it.

The wall was gone, and we could see the outside.

I saw a gigantic explosion go off in the direction of the naval base. Even underwater ordnance wouldn’t be able to make a pillar of water that gigantic. It was closer to the level of an underwater volcano. The explosion capsized the naval ships that had made port there, and the soldiers were washed away by the ensuing tidal wave.

W-well, the enemy took the brunt of the punishment, so all’s well that ends well, I suppose.

If that attack had been allowed to go berserk, Fran and I would probably not be left standing.

I think that should do it. I’ll get back to reinforcing the seal. You won’t have to worry about it anymore.

A-are you sure?

Ye—See—yo—la—er—

Hey, wait! At least, give me your name!

—

Every time with these people, I swear!

Well, they’d helped me out each time I was in a pinch, so I guess they were on my side…

Teacher?

Fran? Are you all right?

Yeah, I’m fine. Who was that?

I’ll explain later. You have to focus on Valuza!

All right.

Well, that bought us time!

“Your blade…has such terrifying power…”

Valuza emerged from the rubble in shambles. He was still alive, after all. However, the blade of his enchanted sword had been broken. The only thing left of it now was its hilt. The man himself was broken and battered, his left arm twisted at an odd angle, his left eye blinded.

“Do you still want to do this?”

“Of course. I intend to keep fighting until my last breath.”

His battlelust raged on despite his broken frame. I expected nothing less from Seedrun’s greatest warrior.

“All right.” Fran nodded, intent on living up to the man’s expectations.

“Ready?”

“Hm.” Valuza picked up an ordinary sword from the floor and dropped into his battle stance. Fran did the same with me. “Haaa!”

“Kaaah!”

The duel lasted all but a second.

Valuza took Fran’s slash with his broken left arm and put his weight into thrusting his sword. He was trying to take the win with a counterattack, but before the tip of his blade reached Fran, it was stopped by an invisible barrier.

I got the idea for a barrier of compressed air after seeing Satya’s barrier in action. We had been using it this entire time, but we only managed to block Valuza’s expert sword handling by focusing all my mana into it. I guess practicing Wind Manipulation paid off.

His sword broke, and Fran wasted no time in exploiting the hole in Valuza’s defense.

“Haa!”

My blade plunged right through Valuza’s body.

“Gaaah…”

“I win.”

“Yes…you did… That was a brilliant fight to the death…”

“I lost to your swordplay.”

“Hah! The winner…is the one left standing…at the end.”

“Hm…”

“A beautiful fight, indeed…”

“I had fun, too.”

Valuza died with a satisfied smile on his face. The man loved his deathmatches. I couldn’t resent him after seeing his smile.

Sorry about that, Fran. I got in the way of your fight.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault, Teacher. I would’ve won the fight on my own if I were stronger. I’m the one who had to rely on you in the end. Besides, you and I are one. This victory is ours.”

You think so?

“Yeah!”

Once the fierce battle with Valuza was over, we decided to go over to Sellimea to provide backup. We left from the giant hole in the wall, never thinking about how costly the repairs were going to be. Soon, we saw some familiar faces on our way to the throne room.

“Fult. Satya.”

The prince and princess of Phyllius. They were probably holding the line here so Sellimea and Miriam could go ahead. The twins weren’t the dainty little royals my Identify had made them out to be, but I knew that already. They could defeat a whole host of enemies with their power to control demons.

That being said, they were still quite ruthless. All of the corpses littered about the floor were in odd states of disarray. There was a corpse which was cut vertically in half, a corpse which had countless holes in it, a corpse which looked withered away for some odd reason; all of them looked like they died horrible deaths. One thing that all of the corpses shared was the expression of fear on their faces.

It didn’t look like a fight had broken out here as much as a torture session.

Not a drop of blood had gotten onto either Fult or Satya, further underlining the battle prowess.

“Fran? I sensed great magical energy just now, are you all right?”

“No problem.”

“So that was your secret weapon that went off.”

“You could call it that.”

They asked no further questions. They weren’t about to talk about their Divine Sword, either, so they must’ve known the importance of keeping your powers and abilities a secret.

This is quite a sight, though.

“Hm.” Fran agreed after looking at the state of the dead around us.

“Um, Fran… You must understand that we didn’t do this because we wanted to.”

“Satya!”

“Look, if Fran thinks I’m some kind of pervert who enjoys torturing her enemies, I’ll…”

“Oh, fine…”

We didn’t think that for a second. These were all Raydossians; Galloudie being among the dead. It was tough to pick him out with Identify, though, since he died with his eyes and mouth stretched open to their absolute limit. His death didn’t seem easy.

The only thing that crossed our minds was they had resorted to torture only to extract information from these men.

“We only did this because we have a reputation to uphold.”

“Reputation?”

“That terrible things would happen to people who would dare lay a hand on Phyllian royalty. We must appear to be ruthless and merciless.”

“I see.”

They had to demonstrate the power of Phyllius’s Divine Sword somehow. What better way than to have their enemies die horrifying deaths?

“So please don’t hate us…”

“Don’t worry. I can’t imagine hating you two.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Thank you!”

Satya smiled and hugged Fran. Fult let out a sigh of relief. Oh, you little tsundere! Don’t think you can start dating Fran so easily! If you really fell for her, you’ll have to go through me without your demonic lackeys!

“We should go help Lady Sellimea.”

“Hm.”

“Y-you’re right.”

“That said, we will be of no further use in battle. We’ve exhausted the Divine Sword’s blessings for the moment.”

“Got it.”

We would have to settle any encounter we ran into by ourselves from here on out. Fran took the lead as we rushed to the throne room. When we got there, the bodies of the Dragon Tail—also present at the royal villa—littered the floor. Their bite marks indicated that Jet made quick work of them.

“Sellimea, Miriam!”

Two battles were ongoing within the throne room. Miriam and Gladio were one of the two, and we walked in just as Miriam was driving the point of her spear through Gladio’s body.

“Gurk…”

“I win, Gladio!”

“Dammit…! Why…why can I never…?!”

And with that, Gladio crumpled to the ground.

Now, we were left with Sellimea and Julius. I never thought the princess would actually get her hands dirty. She was covered in wounds, and she looked like she was about to fall over. Still, Sellimea continued blocking Julius’s sword with dogged determination.

“Gladio! Useless boy! I can’t believe he let himself get killed by a woman!”

“Careful, Uncle Julius. The same thing might just happen to you.”

“It’s all that damned wolf’s fault!”

Julius tossed multiple glances at the walls around him. He was getting ready for Jet to lunge at him. The sight of Jet slaughtering his men seemed to have made quite an impression on him. The fear only made Julius’s movement sloppy.

“Don’t worry. I told him not to interfere in our fight.”

“You expect me to believe you?!”

The line sounded like little more than a paltry threat despite coming from a man of Julius’s stature. He wouldn’t be able to defeat Sellimea in a battle of strength. Despite being a general, he was awfully weak. He must’ve been granted the position solely by the accident of his birth. He wasn’t weaker than Sellimea, but he wasn’t able to focus on attacking her since he was distracted by Jet.

Now that Fran and the Phyllians were here, he knew there was no way out. His eyes began to rove around. Unfortunately for him, Fran and Jet blocked off all his escape routes.

“Damn it! Damn it all!”

He flailed his sword wildly at Sellimea as a last ditch effort; his panic only left him open to attack.

She was able to parry the foolish strike and knocked the sword out of his hand. Julius fell on his bottom, and Sellimea pointed the sword at his neck. The fight was over.

“I…have lost…”

With that, he uttered his miserable surrender.

“Now, where is Suarez?”

“The naval port.”

“How? It didn’t seem like my brother was part of that battalion.”

“Avoiding detection in that large of a force would be easy enough if he wore plain military armor. I advised him to take a small boat and head to the naval port. We would be able to crush this little rebellion so long as we had the power of a Water Dragon.”

Julius spilled everything without the hint of a lie. He was banking on the chances of escaping with his life as long as he told Sellimea the truth.

Julius had initially planned to benefit from a battle between Suarez and Fult. He had cajoled Suarez into using his Water Dragon to crush the rebel forces—us. He was hoping the ensuing battle would’ve been enough to crush both Suarez and Sellimea at the same time.

At that point, he would make a deal with the Raydossian ambassador and ask them to have his back on this matter. In the end, they would possess Julius and Gladio’s Water Dragons and use them to dispose of Suarez’s and Sellimea’s, thereby securing Seedrun for themselves.

“Such foolishness.”

“I am royalty as well… Is it wrong for me to want to be king?!”

He had been resentful of the previous king ever since a young age and watched hungrily for a chance to usurp the throne. How many years must it have taken? Julius wasn’t physically impressive nor was he of noble demeanor, but I had to give him credit for holding on to his grudge for so long.

“Let’s go to the naval port. We have not won this battle until we’ve captured Suarez.”

“Yes. It’s quite a distance from here. We must hurry.”

“Fult, Satya, you can take a break if you want.”

“I could say the same for you, Fran.”

“I’m an adventurer. I’m fine.”

Fran struck a double flexed biceps pose to underline her point. She was strong all right, but there wasn’t much muscle on her arms.

“I don’t want to put you two in further danger, as well.”

“I understand the risks…but leaving us out when we’ve come this far is quite rude.”

“I agree. We’re coming with you.”

Well, when they put it that way…

“Okay. Jet.”

“Woof!”

“Take care of Fult and Satya.”

On Fran’s orders, Jet sat down behind the twins. Sellimea nodded and clapped her hands, agreeing to the plan.

“That’s a load off our shoulders then.”

“Woof!”

“And thank you so much for earlier. You saved me.”

“Arf!”

The two had grown close during the battle in the throne room. Sellimea stroked Jet’s chin with her slender arms. A single stroke was all she needed to melt the direwolf’s expression. Sellimea was indeed a force to be reckoned with.

It was nice that neither Satya nor Sellimea were afraid of him.

“Coochie coochie coo!”

“Arf…”

Okay, you’re enjoying yourself a little too much there, Jet.

“Sister, we should get going.”

“Ah, you’re right. Over here.”

Sellimea went over to where Miriam was standing. She wasn’t at the exit, rather she was behind the throne. Miriam began fiddling with the wall there. We had seen her do this many times before. Soon, another hidden passage opened up. It revealed a spiral staircase which went down deep under the earth.

“Let’s go.”

We followed Sellimea down the staircase and were greeted with an odd sight.

We were now in an underground lake. However, the ceilings and shoreline were too organized, hinting that it was man-made.

I didn’t expect to find a place like this underneath the royal palace.

Comparing it with an Olympic swimming pool wasn’t going to be of any use. To put it simply, you could fit two Tokyo Domes in this place.

A gigantic ship had made port here. I thought Dwight’s battleship was big, but it looked like a dinghy next to this ship. The hull was plated with gold, and there were cannons on the ship’s sides and deck. This ship was made for warfare, no doubt about it.

The ship was a glory to behold, as well. The statue of a goddess which graced its bow looked like it belonged in a place of worship, and carvings of trees and vines wrapped around its hull. Was there really a need to decorate a battleship to this extent? The cost of fixing this thing if it got damaged made my head hurt.

“Are we going to use this to get to the naval port?”

“Yes.”

“But operating a ship of this size…”

Fult was justified in his doubts. You would need lots of experienced sailors to man this ship. A bunch of inexperienced neophytes couldn’t hope to get this ship out of port.

“There’s something here…!”

Yeah.

I knew why Fran was keeping quiet. We had been sensing a great amount of mana coming from beneath the water ever since we got here. The mana signature was terrifyingly huge. If I had to classify it, it would belong to a B-Rank monster.

The main reason we didn’t drop everything and run was because it wasn’t hostile towards us. It didn’t feel murderous or violent. On the contrary, it felt gentle.

“Come out, Warnate!”

“Kuooooon!”

A giant dragon broke the water’s surface.

“Whoa.”

“W-wow!”

“So this is a Water Dragon?”

“That’s right. This is my Water Dragon, Warnate.”

“Kuoon!”

“Oooh, it’s been so long! I’m glad you’re doing okay.”

“Kuon!”

The light red dragon drew its head near Sellimea. Was this all right? Even its smallest fang was the size of the princess herself.

I had expected a Water Dragon to have the smooth skin of a plesiosaur, but I was mistaken. It did have the shape of a plesiosaur, but its scales were rough and bumpy. It also had wings which had been repurposed as giant fins. Its tail was very long, and its limbs looked like a cross between hands and flippers, much like a sea lion. It could probably move about on land.

“Warnate’s going to take us where we need to be. We should be all right as long as it moves at its lowest speed.”

“We’ll use this to make it to the halfway point. Come on, everyone!”

“Hm.”

“A-all right.”

“W-will it be okay?”

We hopped on the Water Dragon and had the best boat ride of my life. The Water Dragon had the ability to manipulate water, so it was very hydrodynamic while making for a smooth ride. The sea was quite wavy that day, but the Water Dragon barely swayed. It was really fast, too, like the ferries back home on Earth. And this was its slowest speed?

“This Water Dragon’s great.”

“Yes, I’ve heard rumors, but now I see why fighting Seedrun is a fool’s errand.”

Fult looked out at sea with a grim look on his face.

The Water Dragon was fast, had tight handling, and had the guns to level a small island state. It was indeed the strongest vessel at sea.

I understood why this boat was so gloriously decorated, too. It was hard to imagine this thing getting hit with anything to begin with. The maker of this ship was confident that it could dodge any barrage that came its way. Also, the brilliant decoration served to intimidate any enemies that came within sight of it.

Soon, we reached the naval port.

“I can see it! We’re almost there!” Miriam declared.

“But it looks like something strange is occurring…” Sellimea said, peering through a magical device which worked like a telescope. Had she spotted something out of the ordinary?

“Is that…my fool brother?! He’s all wrangled up!”

“What…?”

The Seedrun princesses were right. In the distance, we could see a man dressed up in gaudy armor, hanging upside down by his legs. I think the mob had repurposed a pulley ordinarily used for big fish for this public shaming. It was quite the hilarious sight.

Next to them was a Water Dragon which had been anchored to the port. It looked more or less like the Water Dragon we were riding, only that the ship part of it was in tatters. Only a third of its mast was left standing. The Water Dragon part was washed ashore, looking quite the worse for wear. Its back was badly wounded, covered in scrapes and burn marks. It looked like it had taken a large cannonball to its back.

“What on earth…” Miriam muttered, dumbfounded.

I might know what happened to it. Actually, I was sure that it had taken the brunt of the black beam I shot off. I could only see the column of water from the royal palace, but now I knew that the Water Dragon had suffered a direct hit from my black beam. The mysterious voice sounded like it was able to see the things that occurred around us, so it might have aimed it at the monster for our sake.

Even a Water Dragon wouldn’t be able to brush off such a powerful attack. I was more amazed by the fact that it was still alive.

“Sister, we must hurry!”

“You’re right.”

We docked the Water Dragon at the naval port and were greeted with loud cheering courtesy of the people of Seedrun, Sellimea’s supporters.

Miriam hurried to find her subordinates to get an explanation of what had happened. They had rushed to the naval port, ready to put their lives on the lines, but the battle was over before they even got there. Half of Suarez’s forces were wiped out by the explosion and the ensuing wave the eruption produced. Meanwhile, the other half was too terrified to organize themselves into a fighting position.

The people made quick work of the frightened soldiers but not before witnessing the impossible.

Next to the collapsed Water Dragon, thought of as the guardian of Seedrun, was a familiar man in a sorry-looking state.

“So that’s where they found my fool brother.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Led on by their fury, the people of Seedrun proceeded to tie Suarez up and hung him like the big fish that he thought he was. Not that the people thought much of him; they only wanted to make it easier to stone the tyrant.

Suarez was already covered in bruises by the time we got to the naval port. The stoning didn’t do any favors for his face, either. He would’ve been difficult to identify if not for his gaudy armor. At least, that’s what Miriam told me. I just took her word for it having never seen the man in my life.

Suarez was arrogant, notorious for never apologizing to anyone. But he was very meek by the time we got him down from the fish pulley. The wrath of the people had broken not only his face, but his pride. He was tearful and thankful when we stopped the public stoning.

“Hank hoo… Hank hoo ho huch…!” he bawled, prostrating himself before Miriam.

The final boss of this kingdom had been beaten and reformed before we even got to him. I was kind of disappointed. The black beam shot out of me, but it wasn’t as if I wanted to fire it. Happy as I was for the people of Seedrun, I was left unsatisfied by the conclusion.

Now, Sellimea went up to the people of Seedrun, and began.

“Good people of Seedrun—”

The angry mob stopped, hanging on Sellimea’s every word.

“The king has fallen.”

She walked over to Miriam.

“The conspirators involved with his tyranny have been duly taken care of by Commander Miriam.”

She took Miriam’s hand and held it up. The crowd burst into applause for Miriam. She was quite popular among the island nation’s women; the higher-pitched voices seemed to eclipse the lower pitched ones.

“The royal family of Phyllius have also helped our nation in her time of need. I owe these people my life.”

Fult and Satya gracefully bowed their heads. They looked good doing it, too. I expected nothing less of royalty. The people of Seedrun accepted them with thunderous applause. This act pretty much sealed an alliance with Phyllius. Raydoss would think twice about invading Seedrun.

“Furthermore—”

Sellimea looked over to Fran. It was her turn now.

Wait, is she serious?

Sellimea walked over to Fran and rested her hand on her shoulder.

Fran immediately shook her head and made an X with her hands with a look of alarm on her face. “I don’t like standing out.”

Fran’s refusal startled Sellimea. The princess must’ve found it hard to believe since she herself was raised with a lot of attention on her.

Sellimea respected Fran’s wishes, however, and carried on with her speech.

“Furthermore, we have our brave soldiers to thank for opening the path to victory for us.”

Carla and her knights shouted a cry of triumph, prompting the mass of people to do the same.

Are you sure? Folks would’ve recognized you as a hero as soon as tomorrow.

I’m sure. I just wanted to save my friends.

True.

Hm.

To Fran, saving her friends was top priority. She just happened to save Seedrun in the process.

Which was very much like her, I thought.

“And finally… I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to those without whom all of this would be impossible.”

Puzzled murmurs broke out among the people. “Deepest gratitude? Who could that be?”

Sellimea waited for her words to sink in before continuing.

“Who is it?”

“Not Lady Miriam?”

“Then who—”

She broke her silence then, and bowed deeply, her hands resting on her lap. The crowd’s gaze immediately fixated on the man who was in front. Said man could only wave his hands in front of his face, sternly denying that he had anything to do with it.

“My deepest gratitude goes to the people of Seedrun, the courageous and glorious people who captured the king and saved our kingdom!”

The crowd exploded into a thunderous roar then. One that seemed loud enough to shake the earth itself. The people thrust their fists in the air, punctuating their victory over their corrupt government. The joyous celebration could not be stopped.

And then someone in the crowd began to sing Seedrun’s national anthem. It was a cheerful song, one that you could imagine Seedrun’s old pirates singing as they fared the seas under a clear blue sky.

Everyone was smiling as they belted out their anthem. Even Sellimea and Miriam were clapping their hands to the beat. Fran swayed to the rhythm, enjoying the song with a calm expression on her face.

The singing kept going, spreading throughout the harbor, reaching the nobles’ district, and eventually making it all the way to the slums. All of Seedrun joined in the celebration of her liberation.

Seeing the people standing side by side, singing their songs of praise loudly to the sky, made me think that Seedrun had a wonderful future ahead of it.