Epilogue | How Lugh Tuatha Dé Chooses to Live
A lot happened after the duel.
Despite further time devoted to searching for him, neither Setanta nor his spear ever turned up.
Even though the noble faction had withdrawn and promised to uphold Setanta’s oath, Count Viekone decided the risk of the nobles seeking revenge was too high. As such, he distributed his wealth among his surviving vassals and ordered them to leave the domain.
Count Viekone said he’d rely on one of his many personal connections to hide, build up strength, and then one day return to have his revenge.
Dia was going to live in the Tuatha Dé domain, beginning life as a different person.
Dad got to work creating a foolproof new identity for her, and Count Viekone had said he had a way to trick everyone into thinking Dia was still in Soigel.
Perhaps it was selfish of me, but the idea of spending time with Dia every day was very welcome, and our spell-development research was sure to progress much more quickly now that we could see each other all the time.
Unfortunately, I’d revealed an ace in the hole I’d been hoping to save for the hero—and in front of a large crowd of people, too. I doubt anyone understood the theory or nature behind Gungnir, but I didn’t think it prudent to continue to trust it as a guaranteed win anymore.
I was going to need new magic—something even stronger than Gungnir. To that end, Dia’s cooperation was likely to be extremely necessary.
Carrying Dia in my arms, I made my way back home.
Running like this was more tiring than carrying her on my shoulders, and my left arm still hurt a little after receiving surgery and further self-healing. I still preferred to hold her in my arms, however. That way I could enjoy her warmth and her softness.
“Dia, are you okay with all this?” I asked.
“… I’m sad that things ended up the way they did, but thanks to you, we avoided serious tragedy. Thank you,” she replied softly.
In the end, House Viekone lost its land, wealth, and retainers. Even if it had come at a heavy price, the worst-case scenario had still been avoided.
“It may be hard for you until you get used to the Tuatha Dé lifestyle, but you’ll be fine if you hang in there.”
“There’s no need to worry about that. Remember, I once spent two weeks there. I love the Tuatha Dé domain. And you’ll be there, too.” Dia spoke as cheerfully as possible, likely so as not to cause me any more concern.
Dia is a tough girl , I thought.
The sun had already set. It was the perfect time for our escape across the border.
“Hey, Lugh. Why did you risk your life to come and save me? House Tuatha Dé probably had nothing to gain from it.”
“I did it for you. I promised I’d come running if you ever called for me.”
“… You did, didn’t you? Thank you, Lugh. I’ll have to do what I can to return the favor.”
“There’s no need for that. I made that promise to return a favor I owed to you in the first place. If you try to return it, we’ll be stuck in a never-ending loop.”
I’d made my promise to Dia after asking something unreasonable of her, saying I would do anything in return. After all these years, I’d finally paid her back.
“That’s true, but exchanging favors for the rest of our lives sounds kinda cool.”
“You’re not wrong.”
While the haze over my heart had not yet cleared, I did feel like a little light was starting to break through.
Somehow, we made it back to Tuatha Dé.
It truly was fortunate that I had the Rapid Recovery skill.
Dia had fallen asleep in my arms at some point during the trip. She must have been exhausted after pushing herself so hard during the battle.
My ears caught the sound of footsteps as soon as I returned to the Tuatha Dé estate.
Tarte approached, her eyes welling with tears as soon as she saw me. She clapped her hands together over her chest.
“Welcome home, my lord. You came back safely! I’m glad. Truly,” she said.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t slept this whole time?” I guessed.
“No, that’s…not true,” Tarte lied. Anyone could’ve seen she’d been up for the entirety of my absence.
To have not slept for this long after giving everything she had to help me preserve my stamina on the way to the Viekone domain was ridiculous. Unlike me, she didn’t have Rapid Recovery. Still, this was hardly the time to get angry and scold her.
“Thanks, Tarte. Your help was what enabled me to keep my focus until the very end.”
Gungnir was magic that pushed me to the very edge of my limit. The calculations were complicated, and the spells required fine precision. I couldn’t allow the slightest deviation when releasing the lance, and I needed to guide my target to the exact spot the spear was going to land. It all required an enormous amount of mental energy.
If my concentration had slipped for even a second, I would’ve failed. Tarte’s help had allowed me to take it easy during that first hour of travel to the Viekone domain. I was sure that extra energy was what had allowed me to triumph.
“Yes, my lord! It was worth it… This is Dia, I presume.”
Tarte had heard about Dia many times from me, but this was her first time seeing her in person. She looked her up and down with great interest.
“I’ll introduce you once she wakes up. It looks like she’s going to be living here,” I said.
“She’s so beautiful, like a doll. I’m so jealous,” Tarte said with a sigh.
Tarte was quite beautiful herself, so she really had no reason to be envious. Saying something like that would’ve been embarrassing, though, so I kept the thought to myself.
I sensed someone else enter the room, and I looked over to see Dad.
“I see you’ve completed your mission. Great job,” he praised.
“I’ll give a detailed report later, but unfortunately, this was my first ever failed assassination.”
I was supposed to get Dia out of Viekone and take her here after faking her death, but all the enemy soldiers had fled after my duel with Setanta, so we’d been left with no witnesses for the staged suicide.
“If Dia is alive, I should think that is good enough. You didn’t make any mistakes that exposed your identity or where you are taking Dia, did you?” asked my dad.
“Definitely not.”
“Good. You should get some rest… You have my thanks for fulfilling a request that I, your worthless father, could not.” My dad paused for a minute before continuing. “Moving on… I have an urgent message to deliver to you. After you left, we received word that the hero has appeared. He’s a young man born here in Alvan. The appearance of the hero means that monsters will be on the rise, and demons will soon be reborn. I want you to keep this in mind, Lugh.”
If there was word of such a person in Alvan, that meant Setanta couldn’t have been the hero. It was good news, but it also made me uneasy. This turn of events raised the question of how Setanta had gotten so powerful.
It meant that something existed in this world that allowed a normal person to achieve incredible power. I would have to launch a thorough investigation into Setanta’s history in the coming days.
“Yes, I’ll be careful. What are we going to do about Dia?” I asked.
“I already have her identity prepared in the family register. She will live in Tuatha Dé. Dia’s silver hair really stands out. The only people with silver hair in this country are you and Esri. That said, it would be really regrettable to have her dye it…so I’ll use the little-sister identity I already have in the family register. I had prepared this for a different purpose, but we may as well use it now. It wouldn’t be unnatural for your little sister to have silver hair.”
I didn’t get the meaning of making Dia my little sister. I understood that it’d make her silver hair less conspicuous, of course, but…
“Why little sister and not big sister?!”
“Have you forgotten that I prepared a little sister for you on the family register? It was for next month.”
“Ah.”
I had indeed forgotten. It would’ve been a problem if Dia assumed an identity that wasn’t a younger sibling.
“Dia is short, her face is still childlike, and, hmm… Yeah, little sister will be just fine.”
I made a point to remember that Dad said that after looking at Dia’s chest.
She certainly did look like Mom.
“Understood. I’ll inform Dia when she wakes up.”
I expected her to be angry about being made out to be younger than me, but I trusted she’d come around once I explained things.
“Yes, please… One last thing. Word is the hero is the same age as you. If that’s the case, you’ll actually be meeting him at a certain place before very long,” my dad said.
My heart began to pound in my chest.
There was a law that had been decided on in this country five years ago. As a result of that rule, nobles became unable to marry at the previously eligible age of fourteen years old. Instead, getting engaged at fourteen and getting married at sixteen became the norm.
If the hero was my age, and he followed that practice, we were definitely liable to cross paths soon.
“I’ll do my best not to offend him.”
“The hero will probably search for a companion while there. We have an obligation to this country. I don’t want to invite any unnecessary trouble, but… If necessary, I wouldn’t mind if that became your top priority. I doubt even the royal family would complain.”
I was finally going to be able to lay eyes on the target I’d been assigned to kill.
I’d have to keep a careful watch on him. The hero wasn’t to die until after he’d killed the Demon King. Until that time, I was going to focus on studying his every ability and work to uncover as many potential weaknesses as possible.
Concurrently, I also had a plan to search for a way of saving the world without killing the hero. Unlike my previous self, I wanted to avoid any unnecessary deaths.
There was also the matter of Dia, Tarte, Maha, and everyone else I’d come to know and love. If I had no choice but to kill the hero to save the world and everyone in it… I trusted myself not to hesitate when the time came.
If I was to assassinate the hero, it was only going to be because I had decided to do it of my own free will. That was how Lugh Tuatha Dé had chosen to live.
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