If Aisha passed the second trial as well, the next heir would be decided by a vote among the assembled vassals.
Given how these people had been fussing over her —
She’s going to win.
It wasn’t fair.
It was only because she was direct line. That was the only reason.
What good was an Affinity if they wouldn’t even acknowledge it? I’m just a collateral branch member, so no praise for anything I do!
“This is so unfair… it really is…”
Tex’s clenched fist trembled.
________________________________________
Meanwhile, Aisha had stayed beside the Winter Wolf, pressing both hands over the wound until the bleeding slowed, making sure it felt no unnecessary pain while it was removed.
When the bleeding had stopped to some degree —
“Ha — Uncle! Did you see?!”
She looked up with eyes bright and brimming with joy.
From the day she had been formally adopted into the direct bloodline, she had been determined to earn her place. The positive reactions coming from around her had her grinning from ear to ear.
“You haven’t won yet, you.”
“His Grace is smiling rather broadly, though.”
Calypse did his best to temper her enthusiasm —
But Knox interjected, observing both of them.
And now that he mentioned it — Calypse was smiling without even realizing it.
He finally gave in to a low laugh and leaned back against his chair.
“You wouldn’t understand. You’ve never had children.”
“Fair enough. I do find Young Lady Aisha delightful and admirable — though I wouldn’t say I smile quite the way you do, Your Grace.”
Knox shrugged.
“And for the record, the biological reason small children appear endearing is to protect their physically vulnerable bodies from—”
“Mouth.”
“Hmph.”
I can never get more than a minute of conversation out of this man.
Calypse shook his head with a look of weary resignation and turned his eyes back toward Aisha —
“……?”
Something was wrong.
Aisha had been bouncing around happily just a moment ago. The Winter Wolf that had been lying there struggling and whimpering was gone.
“Knox. The Winter Wolf — has it been handled?”
“We were about to do so.”
“Then why is the Winter Wolf —”
The words died in his throat. Calypse stood, his expression sharpening.
“Aisha!”
“What is it, Uncle… huh?”
A Creature that should not have been moving was moving.
And it was directly above Aisha, mid-leap, its massive jaws wide open.
________________________________________
Winter Wolf characteristics?
This wasn’t information I had from my spy background.
In preparation for the succession trial, I had spent the past few days studying the historical records of every Creature type that had appeared in previous trials.
Pack behavior. The cruelty that turned vicious toward anything not of its own kind.
Even so — because of its relatively weaker hind legs, a Winter Wolf was actually a fairly favorable matchup for me.
“Yes! With this, five of them can be handled like this and then like this!”
If you don’t know what I mean by that, then I’m afraid you’ve just failed this round of the succession trial.
Heh heh… I’m going to win. I’m going to win and become a golden seed.
I reached into my pocket and drew out the wire I had prepared in advance.
Weapons of any kind were permitted inside the trial arena, so I had come equipped.
But then —
“Aisha!”
Out of nowhere, Uncle was calling to me with a face drained of color.
He had been smiling warmly just a moment ago.
Something was wrong.
“What is it, Uncle… huh?”
The world went dark.
A thick, sticky sensation — something watching me.
“……?”
I followed the feeling and looked up.
Beneath the sky, a vast gaping maw foaming at the edges came crashing toward me.
Thud-thud —
I managed to dodge, but I’d shifted my weight too suddenly onto my left ankle.
“…ow.”
A thick, swollen, vivid red swell rose where my left ankle had twisted with a dull crack.
That ruled out running and jumping.
Maybe I can throw the dagger and hit it.
But somehow, the Winter Wolf was far more agitated than before — it was moving much too quickly.
Uncle was right. I hadn’t won yet and I’d already started celebrating. Some lesson.
Reflect on yourself.
I pursed my lips at my own expense and assessed the situation in front of me.
That Winter Wolf was definitely not normal.
Its rear legs — which should have been useless by now — were somehow holding it upright against all anatomical logic.
Foam was rolling off its muzzle in waves.
Grraauuugh —
The black pupils in its violet eyes were simply gone.
Something was deeply, profoundly wrong.
“See?! There’s no way something that massive goes down from one dagger!”
Applause broke out.
The source was Tex, who had risen from his seat in what appeared to be profound relief.
“It’s still not a pass, right? That’s right, isn’t it, aide?”
“…Doesn’t something seem off to you?”
“It looks a little angry to me, but isn’t that normal? Creatures are all a little off, aren’t they?”
The murmuring of the crowd around me.
Knox, visibly alarmed.
Calypse, who had already left his seat and was making his way down from the audience area —
“Capture the Winter Wolf now!”
At the Duke’s order, the surrounding knights readied their chains.
But then —
“I suppose that would naturally make Tex the heir.”
A derisive voice cut cleanly through all the noise.
“If the trial is being stopped because the Winter Wolf is dangerous — that sounds to me like a declaration that this child has no right to the succession.”
“It doesn’t matter — get the child to safety now!”
Even under the Marquess’s needling, Uncle didn’t stop.
The problem was that his words had frozen me where I stood.
If that happens, Tex becomes the heir.
No.
“No! The trial continues!”
I shouted with everything I had as I backed away, and the knights who had been moving to intercept the Winter Wolf stopped short.
So did Calypse.
“Uncle — if you take one more step, I’m calling off the adoption!”
“Do you have any idea how complicated canceling an adoption is?! You’re in danger, Aisha!”
“Don’t you dare stop this trial!”
Here is one of life’s harder lessons —
“Aisha, you—”
Reality is nothing like a novel. Even when the magical girl is mid-transformation, even when the hero is in the middle of a pivotal speech, the enemy arrives exactly when it wants to.
Disaster moves fast.
In the second that my attention was pulled to the fear of the trial being stopped —
“No!”
A pair of crimson eyes went wide — staring directly at me with sudden, absolute alarm.
I felt it — the wrongness — and turned.
And just inches from my face, a maw full of foam and sharp, jagged molars was bearing down on me.
Ah.
I’m going to die.
I don’t want to die. Uncle worked so hard to bring me back.
Then —
“Dandelion.”
A familiar voice came from somewhere.
It was Lucas.
Lucas’s voice is the last thing I hear at the edge of death.
I’m close with him, but I didn’t think we were quite that close.
Fear had my clenched fist shaking.
But something was strange.
When I thought about it — I hadn’t felt the searing pain of being torn apart, or heard screaming from the crowd.
“……?”
I raised my eyelids slowly, wondering —
“The authority of House Krost has fallen rather far, hasn’t it.”
Black hair streaming in the wind.
“Using some ridiculous poison to drive a Creature mad and try to kill a five-year-old child?”
That familiar, irritated voice — young but cutting.
The back of a boy who stood exactly one head taller than me.
And beyond him — a Creature suspended inside a pillar of ice, frozen mid-motion like time had stopped.
“…Pardon me, but that young man — his resemblance to His Grace is remarkable…”
“Could that be — a direct heir of House Krost?”
“Were not both of the young lords reported missing?”
The crowd buzzed.
Some of them were glancing between Calypse and Lucas with widening eyes, their color going pale as something clicked into place.
“Don’t tell me — could that be—”
“Why can’t anyone just say he looks like the Duke’s son? Is there some kind of law against it?”
Tap —
Lucas kicked a pebble aside and put the crowd’s questions to rest. The seated vassals rose to their feet in reflex.
“…What did you say?”
“Is that — Lord Lucas Krost, who went missing at age three?”
“…Lucas.”
A low voice fell from directly above me.
“?”
I looked up, and there was Uncle — who had somehow appeared at my side without my noticing — closing his arms around me.
________________________________________
