The tournament grounds dissolved into chaos in an instant.
“Cough, cough…!”
Riersha squeezed her eyes shut against the gust of wind that swept through after the thunderous boom, coughing into her sleeve.
Her hair whipped wildly around her face.
In the spectator stands, people shoved and stumbled over one another, each desperate to be the first one out.
“What in the world is happening…! Move, I need to get out of here!”
“Knights…! With things in this state, where are our escort knights?!”
Everyone had lost their composure. Panic was written plainly across every face.
Then the Imperial Knight Order moved quickly to establish a perimeter around the area.
“Prioritize the protection of His Majesty and Her Majesty the Empress!!”
“This way, please! We are activating the magic circle!”
It appeared they had prepared a transport gate connected to the imperial palace in anticipation of any unforeseen emergency.
“Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Empress, and His Imperial Highness Prince Isierd — please, this way at once…!”
The apprentice mage dispatched from the Magic Tower could be seen moving swiftly into position.
That was when it happened.
Isierd, who had been in the middle of his match against Kyle, abandoned the field without a moment’s hesitation and came running straight toward Riersha.
“Riersha!”
“I — Isierd?! …Why are you coming over here? You need to evacuate to the imperial palace right now! What are you going to do if you get hurt?!”
Of course, the Imperial Knight Order stationed in Knoum Forest and the Arachrene household would already be working to contain the situation — but members of the imperial family were supposed to be the first ones evacuated. That much was simply the rule.
Riersha shouted at him to go, and Isierd’s brow furrowed in quiet displeasure.
He cast a brief glance in the direction of the transport gate, then explained in his usual flat tone.
“The magic circle is broken.”
“…How would you know that?”
“Every last person stationed there rushed over, and they still haven’t managed to activate a single gate.”
It was an irritatingly convincing argument.
Come to think of it, the fact that the gate hadn’t been activated yet did seem strange.
Riersha turned her gaze toward where the transport gate had been set up.
Transport gates were relatively simple to operate, provided the coordinates were set correctly. All that was required was channeling a sufficient amount of magical energy — nothing more.
That was precisely why it wasn’t uncommon to see apprentice mages assigned to manage transport gates.
Even accounting for the fact that they’re apprentices, anyone who passed the Magic Tower’s entrance requirements should have more than enough skill to handle this.
Something was clearly wrong.
Unless someone had deliberately sabotaged the transport gate, this shouldn’t have been possible.
In other words, everything unfolding right now was someone’s carefully orchestrated plan.
Riersha’s expression hardened.
“That makes this even worse, doesn’t it, Isierd.”
“The failure to evacuate to the imperial palace falls squarely on the Magic Tower’s responsibility. That’s not something you need to concern yourself with.”
“…”
“The same goes for Knoum Forest. Skilled knights have been posted there.”
Riersha understood what Isierd was trying to say.
He was telling her to stay still and do nothing.
It was buried beneath that rigid tone of his, but this was Isierd’s way of expressing concern.
“The safest thing right now is to stay by the Young Duke of Arachrene’s side — until the truth comes to light, Riersha.”
“…But Father is right now…”
He would be moving to get the situation under control.
But why hasn’t Sona come to find me yet…?
With something like this having erupted, Sona should have arrived by now…
“…No. Something’s wrong here.”
“What do you mean, something’s wrong?”
Riersha murmured in uneasy confusion, and Yuta beside her questioned her immediately.
“My personal knight still hasn’t come for me…”
At those words, Isierd’s expression went rigid.
He was one of the few people who knew better than almost anyone just how capable the Arachrene personal knight was.
And knowing Sona as he did, she would have been the very first to come protect her charge.
“If what you just said is true, then there’s only one explanation — this location and the outside have been severed from each other.”
In the middle of the uproar, Yuta spoke with quiet gravity.
His words cut through the chaos and rang sharp and clear against Riersha’s ears.
But in the next breath, Yuta shook his head, looking uncertain.
“That can’t be right, though.”
If Knoum Forest and the tournament grounds had been separated…
“Didn’t several nobles flee just a moment ago? …Then how does that work? Where did they go?”
Isierd answered flatly.
“Someone arranged it so that the exit toward Knoum Forest would remain accessible.”
“So what you’re saying is…”
At that moment, the sound of a nobleman who hadn’t managed to escape came from somewhere behind them — curled in on himself, trembling and sniffling.
“M-maybe something happened in the forest because of the monsters…? Are we going to be eaten alive…?! I said I didn’t want to come to something like this…!”
The three of them looked at one another.
“Surely… it’s not that exiting here connects directly to the forest, right?”
From all appearances, that was exactly what it meant.
⁂
BOOM—!!
“Screeaaam!”
“W-what is this! We can’t get outside! …S-save us!”
A thunderous explosion ripped through Knoum Forest, and the nobles screamed and bolted from their seats, scrambling desperately in every direction.
But something invisible blocked their path, and one by one, people crashed into a transparent wall and were flung back like ragdolls.
Damn it all, what in blazes is going on here!
Bahamut, newly and officially appointed as the head of the Imperial Knight Order, ground his teeth.
Of all the days for something like this to happen — my very first real day on the job!
The greatest problem was that no word whatsoever had come from inside the forest.
Bahamut decided his first priority was calming the people around him.
In truth, Bahamut himself had never been properly drilled on how to handle a situation like this.
That was simply the reality of it — the Declair Empire had gone so long without any truly exceptional incident that no one had been prepared for one.
Damn it all to hell!
Struggling to mask his own anxiety, Bahamut raised his voice and called out.
“Please remain calm! Once the situation is brought under control, you will all be able to leave safely — I ask that you maintain order!”
A middle-aged nobleman who apparently heard him came striding over with heavy, forceful steps.
“You’re telling us to calm down after that explosion, Sir Bahamut? The Imperial Knight Order hasn’t even managed to give us a proper explanation of what’s happening!”
“We are currently in the process of assessing the situation…!”
“Enough of that. Where is the Young Duke of Arachrene, and what is he doing? Young Duke Pernoa has far more actual combat experience than the knight commander — he should be here right now protecting us!”
The nobleman cut Bahamut off mid-sentence.
Bahamut looked down at the man grabbing him by the collar, vomiting out his fear, and his expression twisted with visible irritation.
The Imperial Knight Order was already suffering from a plummeting reputation — constantly being ranked below the Arachrene army in terms of skill — and now someone had the nerve to say it directly to his face.
“Release me,” Bahamut said coldly. “If you continue to obstruct the situation like this, I will have no choice but to file a formal complaint against you, Count.”
“What?! Do you think you can say whatever you want?! Who do you think is responsible for letting things get this far?! If the Imperial Knight Order had done its job properly, none of this would have happened!”
“You there!”
Still held by the collar, Bahamut called out to a nearby knight.
“Yes, sir!”
A young knight came rushing over. The look on his face suggested he was on the verge of tears, which wasn’t exactly inspiring — but Bahamut wanted out of this situation as quickly as possible.
He shook the middle-aged nobleman off with an air of profound annoyance and issued his orders sharply.
The monsters in that forest are at most low-class. Why is everyone so terrified?
Besides, low-class monsters were well within his own ability to handle.
“Organize a unit immediately and prepare to move into the forest. And… have all the nobles causing a disturbance restrained.”
“…Sir? Restrain the nobles? But if the monsters attack while we’re doing that, what then?”
“Do as I say. We don’t want to provoke the monsters any further and make things worse.”
Bahamut had never actually seen a monster in person, but he spoke with authority as he drew from vague recollections of what he’d read in books.
The justification was more than sufficient as far as he was concerned.
After all, the Imperial Knight Commander had the authority to issue orders even to nobles of higher rank in emergency situations.
“And start preparing to move into the forest right now. …Most likely someone just failed to keep a monster properly contained and this whole thing is a minor disruption. It’s nothing serious.”
Bahamut couldn’t hide his irritation as he turned and began making his way toward the forest.
Then it happened.
Once more, the earth shuddered — this time beneath the force of an earth-shaking, tremendous roar.
