“Wait—”
Before Rashiel could stop her, Elsez had already stepped out of the storage room.
Caught off guard, he immediately followed, barely having time to check their surroundings.
Thankfully, no one was outside.
Elsez turned to him and asked,
“Do you have a way to prove the crown prince’s crimes?”
“…Shouldn’t you have asked that before running out?”
Rashiel raised an eyebrow at her completely backward approach.
Elsez simply grinned.
“I figured this was all part of your plan anyway.”
It was reckless, but it was also the kind of thing someone who knew him well would say.
And Rashiel, recognizing that, let out a quiet chuckle of defeat.
“For now, we need to stall for time. After that—”
“Human!”
Before he could finish, Reti suddenly cut in.
The voice from Elsez’s brooch made Rashiel’s eyebrow twitch higher.
“…A child?”
Elsez was just as startled.
“W-why are you speaking out all of a sudden?!”
“Now that your friend knows your true identity, I should be allowed to speak about myself as well!”
A swirl of dark mist flickered proudly from the brooch.
“Ahem! As for this great being before you—”
Is now really the time for introductions?!
Elsez quickly silenced Reti before turning back to Rashiel.
“Uh, he’s… my friend. I’ll explain later—”
“Ah! Right! Human, an ominous presence is approaching!”
As if only now remembering the real reason for appearing, Reti shouted in alarm.
At the same time, footsteps approached from nearby.
Rashiel’s gaze turned sharp as he shifted his attention to the incoming presence.
Elsez immediately prepared to attack—until she heard the approaching person’s voice.
“Lady Elsez?”
“…Your Holiness?”
Though the man wore a mask, his smooth, composed voice was unmistakable.
When he removed it, as expected, Astaire’s face was revealed.
So the ‘ominous presence’ Reti sensed was…
Only then did Elsez realize—Reti had been referring to Astaire, whose power was naturally in direct opposition to his own.
“I suspected it was you earlier.”
Astaire, his voice carrying a note of relief, took a step closer—only to halt when he noticed Rashiel standing behind her.
He still suspects Rashiel of being the one who opened the dimensional rift.
Recalling their past relationship, Elsez quickly spoke up in Rashiel’s defense.
“I don’t have time to explain everything, but the one behind the demon cult’s recent incidents is the crown prince.”
“So, as I suspected, Rashiel wasn’t responsible.”
“You had suspicions?”
“To some extent. The way things were orchestrated… didn’t match how he usually handles things.”
Astaire glanced briefly at Rashiel.
Despite reuniting after years, there was no warmth in his gaze.
Still the same as ever.
“We were comrades once, after all.”
Elsez nodded in understanding.
“Did the Guild master come with you?”
“Ah, Cassian is searching upstairs. We were looking for you and… him.”
Almost as if on cue, a loud crashing noise echoed from above.
Just like her, they had come to stop Rashiel.
Elsez glanced between Rashiel and Astaire, and before she knew it, a small smile formed on her lips.
Standing with the two of them like this—
It felt like stepping back in time.
Back when they fought with their backs against each other.
And just like then, she had a good feeling that this battle would end well.
Astaire alternated his gaze between her and Rashiel before asking,
“You two… know each other?”
“Ah, that’s a long story too…”
But before she could explain, two knights appeared behind Rashiel.
“There they—”
Elsez moved in a flash, knocking them both unconscious before they could finish speaking.
She straightened and looked back at the two men.
“Let’s get out of here first. I’ll explain later.”
Elsez started toward them but abruptly stopped when she caught sight of Rashiel’s back.
There were shards of glass embedded in his skin—small and large wounds scattered across his shoulders.
These injuries…
He had shielded her from the exploding chandelier debris earlier.
Despite the pain, he had never once shown it.
A sigh escaped her lips.
“Your Holiness, would you mind healing him?”
At Elsez’s request, Astaire readily approached Rashiel.
But Rashiel stepped back, avoiding his touch.
“Leave it. He wouldn’t be able to use magic right now anyway.”
As Rashiel spoke, Elsez recalled the moment on stage when arrows had rained down on him—yet he hadn’t been able to cast a single spell.
Astaire attempted to use healing magic, but just as Rashiel had predicted, the spell failed to activate.
“The crown prince moved the magic suppression barrier here.”
“…He moved the magic suppression barrier?”
“That lunatic.”
Both Astaire and Elsez responded in shock.
The magic suppression barrier was an artifact created by the first emperor of Artes, a grand mage, in collaboration with the first Tower Master.
It had been designed solely for the security of the imperial palace and the protection of the royal family.
Tampering with such a relic—using it for personal schemes—was unthinkable.
“Your Holiness, what’s the situation outside—”
Before Elsez could finish her question—
KUUUUNG—
A violent tremor shook the entire building. A deafening roar erupted from the stage.
“Kieeek—!”
An eerie shriek followed, neither human nor beast.
The moment she heard it, Elsez knew.
“…They opened a dimensional rift inside the theater.”
Someone else had been sacrificed.
All in the name of a twisted, so-called greater cause.
Her teeth clenched in fury.
Rashiel turned to Astaire.
“I need you to handle something.”
After quickly explaining his plan, he glanced at Elsez before adding,
“Take her and get out of here.”
Elsez frowned.
“And you?”
“I’ll stay and buy time. Cedric’s after me.”
“Denied.”
Before either man could even attempt to convince her otherwise, Elsez turned to Astaire first.
“A healer who can’t use healing magic.”
Then she looked at Rashiel.
“A mage who’s injured and can’t cast spells.”
Finally, she placed a hand on her own chest.
“And a perfectly healthy melee fighter.”
“……”
“If someone needs to stay behind and hold them off, shouldn’t it be the one best suited for the job?”
Her logic was irrefutable.
And so, in the end, both men surrendered.
****
Three knights, searching the backstage offices for Elsez and Rashiel, stepped into the hallway leading to the general audience seats on the first floor.
At that moment, wolf-like monsters lunged at them from the front.
“Hurk!”
Instinctively, they swung their swords, slashing the beasts apart.
“W-what the hell?! Where did these monsters suddenly—AARGH!”
One of the knights, scanning his surroundings, let out a scream as he fell backward.
A massive floating eyeball—easily the size of a grown man—hovered right in front of him, staring directly at them.
A crimson glow flickered within its pupil, energy gathering ominously.
The knights were so paralyzed with fear that they couldn’t even think to run.
But just before the eye unleashed its attack—
Elsez leaped across the audience seats and drove her foot into the monstrous eyeball.
The beam of energy that had been gathering fired just a fraction too late, scorching a section of the wall beside the knights.
Ssssshhh—
The knights swallowed hard as they stared at the charred, blackened wall.
Had Elsez arrived even a second later, they would have been reduced to ashes.
With a reinforced punch, Elsez struck the eyeball again, shattering it in a single blow.
The burst eyeball dissolved into a wisp of black smoke.
Turning to the knights, who were staring at her in stunned silence, she gestured toward the exit.
“If you don’t want to die, head outside and take care of the small fry. Stop them from reaching the city.”
“Y-you’re that woman from before…!”
“Or stay here and let them kill you.”
She jerked her chin toward the center of the stage.
There, a deep, endless void had opened.
More monsters were emerging—including another half-dozen floating eyeballs identical to the one she had just destroyed.
The knights recoiled in horror and bolted toward the exit.
But the doors were already destroyed, and dozens of monsters had already escaped into the streets.
Elsez turned and approached Rashiel, who was fending off the creatures with a sword he had taken from an unconscious knight.
“We need to take out those eyeball creatures first.”
Even for her and Rashiel, high-destruction monsters like those were a serious threat.
She began systematically eliminating them one by one.
But despite their slow movements, they were airborne—and there were too many of them.
Meanwhile, more creatures kept flooding out of the rift and into the city.
Rashiel was holding back as many as he could, but a sword wasn’t the best weapon for him. Without magic, he had limits.
Elsez bit her lip as she watched the monsters spill into the city.
“Damn it… If only we had one more person—”
Just then, a floating eyeball that had slipped past her notice lunged at her.
But before it could strike—
A presence leaped down from the third floor—
And in an instant, the monster was cleaved in half.
Comments (0)