Gaderia Lord's Manor.
A page covered in dense ink was touched to a lighter, caught flame, burned, and crumbled to ash — then scattered into a glass tank, where it mingled with the cinders until there was no telling one from the other.
As the last ember died, the severity on Aaron's face slowly eased. He drew a long breath in, then let it out just as slowly.
"You look considerably more relaxed. What was that document you just burned?"
Lugner stood on the far side of the desk, watching the glass tank heaped with ash, and asked without expression.
"A contingency plan I drew up a while back. It's no longer needed."
Aaron ran a hand over his bare scalp, one eyebrow arching upward, tracing a faint line of creases.
"Was it about Gaderia's future?"
"It was. Care to guess what it said?"
"A letter of reconciliation and surrender to the Empire?"
"Wrong. I would never compromise with the Empire — and the Empire would never let us off the hook regardless. Try again."
"A relocation plan to defect to the Central Lands nations? I still think that's the most viable option at the moment."
"Wrong again. Gaderia's population is enormous. Setting aside whether the Central nations would even have the will or the capacity to take us in, moving everyone is a massive problem in itself."
"It couldn't possibly have been a plan to fight the Empire head-on. Gaderia is short on funds and allies as it is, and in a direct confrontation our forces wouldn't stand a chance."
Lugner shook her head expressionlessly, making clear she had no desire to keep guessing.
"Lugner, you're among the sharpest minds in Gaderia's Demon Race — but sometimes your thinking is a touch too rational for its own good."
"Then what would you have done, in the current situation, if that Lady had not returned?"
Lugner found herself genuinely curious about this human's thinking.
"That document listed a number of countries in the Central Lands. My plan was that if Gaderia were ever truly cornered, I would march on them — seize their territory and their resources."
The ever-composed Lugner blinked when she heard that particular 'contingency.' Then, mirroring Aaron, she let a slow, meaningful smile spread across her face.
"I see. Quite a bold idea — more than I expected from you. Though Gaderia and those Central nations are effectively allies. Wouldn't that mean breaking a sworn agreement?"
"The ones who broke the agreement first weren't us. Those nations are far from united — some of them have been quietly looking down on Gaderia's territory for years, and plenty of them are fence-sitters who'd blow whichever way the wind goes."
Aaron was entirely unconcerned. Through his intelligence network, and during the war with the Empire, he had already picked up traces of certain Central nations covertly siphoning Gaderia's resources for themselves.
"Nothing more than a bandit backed into a corner falling back on old habits. Compared to what it would take to keep the Free City alive and intact, breaking a promise with people who already broke it first — that's nothing."
"Human, you are genuinely fascinating."
It dawned on Lugner, all at once, that the human standing before her might well be more cunning and ruthless than herself.
"But none of that needs to concern us any longer — she has returned."
As he said it, Aaron's expression softened. It was as though he had seized hold of something he could call hope.
"You place a remarkable amount of trust in Lady Nanoda."
"Of course. She is the one who has saved Gaderia, again and again — and she has never once failed."
At that same moment, in the Fortified City of Weise.
"Your backup is quite capable."
Sensing the two enormous surges of mana colliding violently not far away, Macht tugged at his cuff and drew from within it a short golden dagger.
His expression was calm. His gaze fixed on Nanoda, not far ahead, as he slowly lowered his tall frame into a crouch.
"It seems you came well-prepared this time."
Nanoda could feel it with perfect clarity — the moment she had stepped into the Golden Land and come face to face with Macht, the Mana-to-Gold curse had begun eating into her body once more.
And faster than before.
The words had barely left his mouth when Nanoda activated her Paradox Magic of Stillness and Motion. It spread outward from her body, and everything within a small radius lost the ability to move — including Macht, mid-crouch.
In the span of a single blink, she had closed the distance, slashed with the broken horn, and withdrawn.
And in that same blink, Macht's overwhelming mana fought back against the Paradox Magic and broke it.
What caught Nanoda off guard was this: the strike — which should have found no vital point to dodge with the paradox of stillness and motion leaving him no escape — had been tanked by Macht outright.
A faint numbness traveled up through the hand gripping the broken horn. Nanoda's expression shifted — something rarely seen from her.
"He turned himself to gold the instant before my magic activated..."
Gold conjured by the Mana-to-Gold Magic was indestructible. Even a severing strike imbued with ordinary Severance Magic could not break through it in that moment.
The moment the Paradox Magic expired, the gold coating Macht's entire body gradually receded. With his mobility restored, he dropped into a full crouch and drove the golden dagger down into the gilded ground.
His face was impassive. His voice was level. "It seems the gamble paid off for me — and your magic appears to have gotten weaker."
Nanoda now lacked the oppressive pressure she had carried ten years ago. Macht felt, perhaps for the first time, that he might have some chance of winning.
"So you've adapted to the attack habits I had back then..."
It was exactly as Macht said. After genuinely mastering a part of the Paradox Magic, Nanoda had gained preliminary control over her body's instincts — but in exchange, she had lost the raw, uncontrolled power of those berserk episodes.
"That strength you had back then — you can't draw on it anymore?"
"The situation has changed a little from then. I've learned some new magic — though if I use it, there's a good chance you'll die rather badly."
Nanoda did still have a trump card in reserve, though it was of a peculiar nature. She had never actually tested it in practice. It was a technique more terrifying than her instinctual rampage had ever been.
"Then I'll force you to use it."
The golden earth shuddered violently the moment the dagger was driven in. The surface layer of the ground cracked apart into chunks and rose into the air; an invisible gravitational force gathered the golden fragments together, and in an instant they had formed themselves into a great golden dragon that coiled and wound itself around Macht.
"The look on your face — you're trying to stall again until the Mana-to-Gold Magic has completely consumed me, aren't you."
"It's the only method I've thought of that could beat you."
Macht's voice drifted out from between the coils of the golden dragon.
Nanoda tried lifting the arm that had gone entirely numb. As expected — roughly a quarter of her upper body had already turned to gold.
The golden lacquer had crept silently up the side of her neck, and one of her thighs was growing steadily more rigid.
The Mana-to-Gold Magic was like a parasite that bored through every crack without exception. No matter how great one's mana reserves or magical resistance, there was no avoiding it.
No counter-curse magic. No spell to undo the gilding. Her body was being devoured by a slow poison.
And yet Nanoda felt no urgency whatsoever. If anything, she was suffused with a stillness she had never known before — a calm unlike anything she had experienced.
"Not too bad yet."
All she needed was one strike to break the deadlock.
The mana all around her surged in answer to her will, flooding toward her body and concentrating.
____
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