"…I already knew you were insane. But swindling even monsters? You must be the only one capable of that."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
I let Camilla's rebuke in one ear and out the other.
"Isn't this better? Free from the Duke's surveillance, and the perfect place to conspire together."
"Still, it's…."
"But it's an amazing experience! To have a proper conversation with a monster! Back in the South, this would've been unthinkable!"
"Lady Evergreen, you're mistaken about something. Not just the South—this doesn't happen anywhere. It's only because… my fiancée is peculiar."
At Freesia's typically Freesia-like sentiment, everyone chuckled.
Everyone except the saintess, who kept her expression stiff as she whispered toward me.
"…Are you really sure this is okay?"
"Good grief. My little sister really does doubt too much. If he truly intended to kill us?"
I drew my thumb across my throat.
"We'd already be corpses by now."
"But it's strange! In the raid, there was only the mourning ritual and the reward. Nothing like this!"
So she'd really only seen the very first raid.
The fact she knew nothing of the giant mummy's storyline meant she hadn't reached this far in the original.
'Well, of course. If you got blocked at Luciana, you'd never get to see this story.'
Not quite as late as the Northern arc, but the Western arc also took place in the latter half.
…After clearing Luciana.
That is, after Luciana died.
"…Tch."
"Oppa, what's wrong? Is there really a problem? Why do you look so scary…."
"No. I said don't worry about nonsense."
I understood her, though.
She was also a possessor.
As someone who'd enjoyed the original game, it was natural she'd be wary about any unknown territory.
"At least as far as I know, he won't harm us."
"…Really?"
"You quit halfway. How dare you doubt the one who saw the ending?"
For pointless worries like that, the only cure was a smack.
I rapped her lightly on the head.
"Ugh… that hurts."
Rene clutched her aching forehead and glared at me, but I brushed her off and turned back to the group.
"As a man, I can't very well share a room with you ladies. I'll just cuddle up with a monster instead."
"Will that be okay? Sharing quarters with a monster…."
Still, my sister looked at me worriedly, and I nodded.
"Don't worry. You know me. I always keep a bolt-hole ready. Just make sure you seize the opportunity you've been given."
"…Only you could so calmly call this a 'chance' in the middle of a crisis."
"I'm just stating the truth. How often does one get to be personally instructed by the Western Indigenous King?"
And since all the members here were mages, it was perfect.
It wasn't their choice, but to receive guidance from an Archmage who had transcended even death—there could be no better chance.
"I shall enter."
Speak of the devil and he appears.
From beyond the door came a familiar voice.
The king reduced his massive size and strode inside.
Even his voice, once booming enough to shake the caverns, had shifted into something that sounded almost human.
"Then, Your Majesty, we leave them in your care."
"…I shall not take this lightly. For I too long more than anyone else for death."
His body may have shrunk, but his magic remained undiminished.
The aura of an Archmage who had carved his name into history was still there.
With that majesty in his short reply, his blue glowing eyes swept across the group.
"Let me test if your eye was true."
"Of course. As I said, I've selected them carefully. You'll be pleased."
The saintess born with the fate to face catastrophe.
A High Elf, a race born of miracles.
The daughter of a count from the North, hardened by ceaseless war.
And even a vengeful one, plotting against her own father.
Even with high standards, surely this lineup satisfied him.
Besides…
'For a king bound here, unable to leave, it's not like he has other options.'
He had already entrusted me with his relic, believing in me.
I smirked faintly.
Clatter.
"No need, I've brought my own rations."
Of course I understood the skeletons' intentions, eager to serve an honored guest of their lord. Their loyalty was commendable.
But I wasn't about to eat freshly grilled rat meat out of desperation.
"You've waited."
After I politely refused the skeleton's persistent offer of rat steak, the Western Indigenous King approached me, having finished testing the others.
"Well?"
"…They each fulfilled their role admirably."
So much so, in fact, that the mummy brought a hand bone thoughtfully to his jaw, satisfaction radiating from him.
"There were even things beyond my reach."
"Beyond even the great Archmage?"
"The priestess girl and the other-race mage. They've already strayed from the orthodox path, walking their own way. There was little for me to add."
Well, true enough.
Holy magic and spirit arts were very different from what people normally called "magic."
"So I gave only light advice."
"Even that alone will mean a lot to them."
Advice from an Archmage who could casually whip up artifacts like the Tuut just because opening doors was bothersome? Of course it would help.
"And the other two?"
"Those two… indeed had talent. Even compared to the shining mages of our age."
For the first time, some life entered his usually detached tone.
"One of them—whether from battle experience—used flame magic with surprising skill. Her talent, and more than that, her judgment, were commendable."
That must've been from her Northern coming-of-age and military command experience.
I found myself nodding at his generous praise.
"And the user of earth magic…"
"You mean Lady Camilla Roberc."
"Yes. She had potential, as you said. But the flow of mana inscribed upon her heart was a mess."
"…What?"
I hadn't the faintest.
Hearing that the part I'd hoped to rely on was actually faulty, I pressed my temple.
"Instability in mana—the consumable resource—means instability in output. There's no physical defect, but… does she have some other problem?"
"…That's true enough."
Learning that her mortal enemy was her father.
And that his blade might turn against her next.
It'd be stranger if she were sane.
"Without correcting that, she'll hit a ceiling, no matter what."
"Don't worry. The issues of the heart are a trial she must overcome herself."
Camilla would endure.
In the original, she proved it as the avatar of vengeance.
"You trust her quite a bit. Are you two… a pair?"
"Hardly. For me, she's far too exalted a bond."
"Well, young love is difficult for one like me to grasp—standing as I do between life and death."
At his odd, almost joking comment—so different from his earlier majesty—I smirked.
Mana bloomed in his hand.
"Your champions have been tested. Now it is your turn."
"Me?"
"You too are a mage, are you not?"
True, but… was this necessary?
"I am honored by your offer, but I must decline. Forgive me, but I already have a master."
"Oh? One greater than I?"
"Not stronger, perhaps. But at least, one who knows me best."
I didn't draw mana through my heart like normal mages.
I used the flowing blood through my body—Bloodflow Sorcery.
How could a skeleton with no blood possibly teach me?
"…Arrogant words. Yet, indeed, your strange mana flow, even aura… You tread a path so far from orthodoxy that I cannot meddle."
"My talent pales compared to theirs. If I don't walk such crooked ways, I'll never keep up."
"Chaotic. Unfathomable."
Unlike his earlier evaluations, this one was harsh.
"Think of it as the struggles of the weak."
"Not necessarily. Chaotic does not always mean weak. Rather, let me ask you this."
He tilted his skull curiously.
"If you fought them with all your heart, would you lose?"
"…Heh. That's a funny joke."
Rene?
Her blessing made her a troublesome foe.
Freesia?
She was like a superior version of me—both aura and magic.
Elizabeth and Camilla?
Their elemental magics easily outstripped mine.
And yet… could they beat me?
"I wouldn't seek victory, but neither would I fall so easily."
"Just as I thought. You never doubt your own victory."
As expected of an Archmage—his insight was sharp.
"Thus, my teachings shall wait. We must speak of something more important."
"Something more important?"
"How to bring you death."
At that, a flicker of displeasure crossed his glowing eyes.
"Potential you may have, but you are still but a sapling. Not yet rooted, yet you speak of granting me death? Absurd."
Scorn. His jaws clicked together.
"Grant me death? That is what I have long desired. A blessing, even. But do you know what such words truly mean?"
His reaction was understandable.
After all, the being who cursed him with undeath was no ordinary foe.
And realistically, our power now was nowhere near enough.
"Of course. Do you think I'd have dared demand your relic otherwise?"
"…What?"
There was surprise in the nameless king's voice.
"You claim to know?"
"I do."
"Impossible. It has been centuries since the record was lost. None should remember…."
Since he'd been sealed underground, I told him something of the outside world.
"You weren't the only one who feared the Calamity. The goddess of this land does too."
"…The goddess knows the Calamity?"
He had entrusted his relic, endured endless false hopes.
Surely he deserved at least this dividend.
'And by now, he should be getting desperate….'
That was how stocks worked, wasn't it?
No one cared when the chart was flat.
But the moment a hint of red appeared, they couldn't look away.
So this was no mere reward.
This was bait—meant to reel in greater profit.
'Maybe he'll drop a relic even better than Tuut?'
With that selfish hope, I grinned.
"The Calamity of Death you sealed. Don't you think it's time we granted it death—true to its name?"
His glowing eyes trembled violently.
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