Isierd was silent for a long moment.
Riersha called his name with quiet uncertainty.
“Isierd?”
“…Oh.”
“…Are you okay? You’re not sick, are you?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Isierd quickly composed himself and smiled brightly.
“Thank you, Riersha. Thanks to you, I’ll be able to return to the imperial palace. You’ve been working on my behalf without me even knowing, haven’t you? That means a lot.”
Riscal, who had been watching the exchange with his arms folded behind his head in a leisurely lean, narrowed his eyes.
That guy’s in a bad mood right now, isn’t he?
Yeah. Looks like it.
Glances passed between the Arachrene siblings.
Isierd was, in fact, not in a good mood.
To be precise, it had started the exact moment the news was delivered — the news that he would be able to return to the imperial palace.
It seemed Isierd himself had noticed the shift. His divine power was flickering with instability, so it would have been strange not to. The problem was that even he didn’t seem to know why.
Riersha noticed the change too.
That’s odd. He doesn’t seem particularly happy.
She studied Isierd carefully, with quiet eyes.
But his expression had already been smoothed over, sealed shut in a way that made it impossible to read.
“Congratulations, Your Highness the Prince. The days remaining before you must take my lessons are growing few indeed.”
Risideon offered the greeting with a polite incline of his head.
“Thank you, Risideon.”
Isierd replied with calm indifference.
Riersha chewed a piece of meat and blinked her round eyes.
Did I imagine that just now?
Right. He was finally going to return to the imperial palace and reclaim his place there — there was no reason he wouldn’t be happy.
Riersha smiled more brightly than she ever had.
“I’m so glad! Congratulations, Isierd!”
Isierd simply stared at her in silence. Throughout the rest of the meal, he never once replied.
⁂
After a satisfying breakfast, Riersha arrived at the Tower of Truth.
She settled into her seat at the desk with barely contained excitement.
She had been looking forward to this day for a long, long time.
“You seem quite eager, Miss Riersha?”
“Yes!”
Of course she was.
Because today was the day—
“Then let us begin the debate lesson. Today we will be discussing the position the Arachrene family should take with regard to the relationships between the imperial palace, the temple, and the mage tower.”
It was the day of the debate lesson she had been waiting for.
“The temple and the mage tower too? Today’s topic is rather difficult. It’s Riersha’s first time, after all.”
Riersha glanced sideways in the direction of the voice.
She met the eyes of Ricador, who had his chin propped on one hand and was spinning a pen lazily between his fingers.
The debate topics have gotten considerably more advanced.
Riersha had to agree.
When she had only studied with Carden, the two of them had simply gone back and forth between themselves—
Riersha began mentally sorting through everything she knew, laying it out one piece at a time.
The temple.
The mage tower.
Both were institutions shrouded in mystery, with precious little publicly known about either.
The temple was generally held in high regard among the empire’s citizens — its members travelled the length and breadth of the Declair Empire, working to preserve the peace of the continent and tending to the welfare of common people. The image of a holy Pope and Saintess wielding sacred divine power made it easy to inspire goodwill.
The mage tower, on the other hand, was responsible for governing forbidden dark magic, and its precise location had never been disclosed. As a result, people paid it almost no attention at all.
I think I heard it was somewhere in the north of the Declair Empire…
Even that much wasn’t certain.
The mage tower was that secretive. The number of people who knew its location could be counted on one hand.
Both institutions and the imperial family governed the Declair Empire in a constant tension of competing power.
“If it were me, I’d keep close ties with the mage tower,” Riscal offered his opinion first. “The temple and the imperial family already support each other, so the mage tower would need an ally willing to offer it some strength too.”
Risideon shook his head immediately in opposition.
“Keeping close ties with only one of them is far too dangerous a way of thinking.”
“Then do you have some clever way of staying friendly with the imperial family?”
Riscal asked, and Risideon gave a small shrug.
It meant he had no such clever way.
But even from where Riersha stood, Riscal’s approach seemed far too extreme.
Riersha snuck a glance at Carden.
He was writing something down.
Is he using this to gauge each heir’s tendencies?
After all, one of the four heirs would become the future head of the Arachrene Ducal House…
It seemed Carden was using these lessons to observe each of their values and report them in detail to Arcmund.
…Uh oh.
The moment Riersha caught Carden’s eye, she quickly looked away.
Ricador nodded thoughtfully.
“I understand Riscal’s reasoning, though. The temple despises any human who can wield mana.”
“So the temple still hates the Arachrene family now?”
“Yes. They believe those of us who are born already knowing how to control mana are cursed.”
“…What?”
Riersha was struck by a wave of shock.
This was something she had never known.
She would never have dreamed the temple saw the Arachrene family that way.
Cursed?
“It isn’t as though we simply inherit magical power.”
Risideon offered a brief explanation.
“Beings who are born with special abilities from birth are not considered purely human in their eyes.”
“Then what do they think we are?”
“Impure beings who should be completely wiped from this world.”
“And the one the temple pledges its loyalty to is none other than the Emperor.”
Riscal added to Ricador’s words.
The most sacred being in all the world — born with the divine blessing of a god somewhere upon his person. And among those, the one who stood above all others was the one who came to rule the Declair Empire.
That was the Emperor.
“That means…”
That even her relationship with Isierd might one day fracture?
Because no one could know what shape the future would take.
That’s why Father brought Isierd here.
It hadn’t been simply a matter of standing in opposition to the Empress and the Emperor.
He had been looking further ahead than that — much further.
Isierd, who had no maternal family to speak of, had only the Arachrene family’s backing as his sole source of power. If that same Isierd were to one day ascend to the throne, he would never be able to act against the wishes of the Arachrene family.
Does Isierd know this?
Surely he had known from the very beginning.
Because the one most acutely aware of what works against them is always the person it concerns most.
Riersha’s heart grew heavy.
If a day ever came when she could no longer even be his friend…
The weight of her thoughts deepened.
“Now then. We have only Miss Riersha’s opinion remaining.”
Carden drew her back from her reverie.
“If you were to become the head of the Arachrene family, Miss Riersha — what would you do?”
“I would…”
But her words never reached their end.
Because—
BOOM—!!
A thunderous, explosive roar tore through the air from the direction of the Arachrene main estate’s front gates. A thick cloud of earth and dust surged high into the sky.
Riersha flinched violently and went rigid. A fine trembling ran through her entire body. That sight — it was just like—
“What’s wrong? Are you scared? The knights have gone to find out what happened, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Oh…”
“Riersha?”
“…”
“Riersha!”
Risideon’s face went hard the moment he realized something was wrong.
He reported the situation calmly.
“Riersha’s mana is unstable. It seems to be because of that disturbance just now.”
Normally, at a time like this, the right thing would have been to stay at her dedicated knight’s side — but…
Ricador’s face clouded with worry.
“Riersha, it’s alright. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
But the moment she heard Ricador’s voice, Riersha’s body shuddered harder.
“What are you doing standing there, you idiot! Can’t you see what’s happening?! You need to run, right now!”
The dawn of the day the Arachrene family was destroyed.
…It felt exactly like that day.
Everyone was watching Riersha with anxious eyes when the classroom door swung open and Pernoa stepped through. The moment the commotion broke out, he had come straight to the Tower of Truth, where the children were.
Riersha’s eyes went wide.
“Father…?”
“Come here, Riersha. Nothing is going to happen.”
At those single words, Riersha’s trembling stopped.
