Wasn’t This Supposed To Be a Strategy Game? – Chapter 110

Author: B0ucha

“Waugh!”

Startled rigid, Eden barely had time to react before Asmun swiftly pulled her into his arms, grabbed the terrace railing, and steadied them.

“Kyaa!”

“Get clear!”

With screams and commotion rising inside, Eden and Asmun snapped a look at each other—

Then, in the same instant, they left the terrace and sprinted into the banquet hall.

Stepping into the chaos, they saw a black magic circle drawn high across the ceiling.

“Gasp…”

It was an attack by black magi.

‘Again…?!’

They clearly no longer cared about timing or tact—even at the Imperial Palace.

Hah. Eden swept the hall with a disbelieving look. Knights were already busy cutting down monsters.

Asmun snatched a soldier’s sword—anyone’s, the nearest—then slashed down the monsters diving for Eden.

Fortunately, the monsters appeared to be low rank. Off in the distance, Patrian, too, was busily cutting down beasts, playing at protecting the noble ladies.

“Ha…?”

Eden let out a breath of incredulous scorn.

Black magi, again, at a palace banquet protected by wards—obviously Patrian’s scheme—and he had the gall to put on such a performance.

“Up there! On the chandelier!”

Someone pointed at the great chandelier. All eyes turned to see a figure in a black robe standing atop it.

“Seize him!”

Archers loosed at once, arrows streaking toward the chandelier—but every shaft glanced off a transparent shield and rang away.

Watching, frustrated, Eden suddenly noticed the chandelier’s cable and shouted,

“Cut the chandelier’s cable!”

Soldiers immediately took the hint and aimed for the line suspending it.

A hail of sharp arrows bit into the thick cable; the chandelier wobbled, then, unable to bear its weight, tore free and crashed down.

“Grab him!”

Everyone surged toward the black mage sprawled beneath the fallen chandelier. A ring formed around him, dozens of blades shoved close.

He rose with his head still bowed; the blades flinched and tracked his movement.

Even surrounded, the black mage spoke in an utterly unconcerned voice.

“…You will all be annihilated in the end.”

He began to chant, ready to break the encirclement—

Thudthudthudthud—!

A sound like an earthquake rolled through the hall as, all at once, a long fissure ripped across the floor.

Like lightning, the crack raced forward and stopped beneath the fleeing black mage’s feet in the blink of an eye.

“…!”

Every gaze fixed where he stood—

KUKU-KUNG! With an ear-rattling roar, something burst up through the floor and, in an instant, coiled around the man’s body, binding him tight.

A single glance told it was a massive vine, saturated with magic.

“Urk…!”

He thrashed to break free, but the more he struggled, the tighter the vine constricted, choking off his breath.

At last his eyes rolled back and he slumped unconscious. The screams that had filled the hall moments ago collapsed into a deadly hush.

All eyes traced the long trail of magic etched across the floor.

At its end stood Patrian.

“Shackle him with magic-suppressing cuffs and drag him away.”

Patrian brushed the flushed hair from his brow and gave the order, calm.

The Imperial Knights, stunned a moment before, scrambled over the vine, clapped cuffs on the unconscious man’s wrists and ankles, and took him into custody.

“Your Highness…!”

As everyone stood frozen, Fernando stepped through the tense air, voice full of awe, and planted himself before Patrian.

“Your Highness can use magic as well? By the heavens…! With such power—why have you kept it hidden all this time?”

Eden watched their shameless little play, looking as if she’d just taken a heavy blow to the back of the head.

Patrian exhaled lazily to catch his breath, then answered levelly,

“Until now, I saw no reason to step forward and make matters of rank more complicated.”

Asmun watched the scene with a blade-cold gaze.

In other words, Patrian had concealed his magic out of noble restraint, to yield the throne to Kyris as a proper younger brother.

But now that Kyris had… ended as he had, there was no longer any need to hide it—which meant…

‘You’re saying you’ll be Emperor now.’

Eden finally grasped the filthy aim of this banquet in full.

Trying to disgrace her was merely optional; the true purpose was to prove, in front of everyone, that Patrian himself possessed magic powerful enough to wield.

To neutralize Asmun’s unique advantage while simultaneously asserting his own legitimacy.

To announce, to all, that he was openly joining the fight for the throne.

A brazen declaration of war.

‘So this is what you were after…’

Stability of the people, peace of the Empire—mere pretexts. Having completed his show, Patrian addressed the Captain of the Imperial Knights in an even voice.

“Inform His Majesty that we’ve captured a member of the black magi. With one in hand, we may be able to trace their source. Regrettably… tonight’s banquet must end here.”

Even at the word the banquet was over, cheers rose throughout the hall. Applause broke out; voices called Patrian’s name, showering praise on the man who’d caught a black mage by the tail.

Patrian acknowledged them as if already Emperor—nodding, waving—and strolled out of the hall.

Asmun watched it all with an unmoving face; when Patrian had vanished, he turned back to Eden.

Eden stood staring up at the ceiling where the chandelier had been, a strange look on her face.

『【!】Basic Quest

: In the secret vault hidden beneath the Imperial Palace, find the “Monster Compendium Fragment.”』

She gazed silently at the new quest window occupying the space where the chandelier had hung.

***

“…”

Hegenti walked in silence. With each step, fallen leaves rustled underfoot.

The little village was quiet as a grave. He didn’t remember it being this quiet before.

No—truthfully, all his memories were jumbled and broken into pieces, so he couldn’t be sure.

But Hegenti had managed to recall one place from the very end of his memory: a small house in the woods, with a forge attached.

「Then you must not leave the capital. All right? And if anything happens, even if you don’t want to, go to His Highness the Third Prince—that’s how I’ll know. Then I’ll come for you. I promise.」

He was sorry to break Eden’s final injunction—but he couldn’t stop searching for his memories.

From the moment he met Eden, his memories had begun to return, bit by bit—and the key to breaking his curse, whose cause and cure no one could find, lay only in those memories.

For the past full-moon cycle, the headaches had returned.

「The only way to end this pain is to die.」

There had been a time he’d holed up in a cold castle, waiting hungrily for the sweet death that would someday be his.

He had wished, with all his heart, to die soon and end everything—but now he no longer wished to die.

He only wanted to break this curse, be free, and stay by Eden’s side. That was all he wanted now.

At last, arriving before the house from his memory, Hegenti slowed to a stop. Someone stood out front, steam billowing from the house behind.

“Huh? Who’re you?”

A burly man, sharpening a blade in a yard left to wild grass, spotted Hegenti and called out, puzzled.

“…”

Instead of answering, Hegenti stared into the man’s face as if to bore through it—someone who seemed to exist hazily in his memory. It was certainly familiar.

“Hey, I asked who you are.”

When no answer came, the man’s face turned hard.

Hegenti tried to bring the man’s name to mind. It was like searching for a single grain of sand on a beach blanketed in fog.

“Who are you! Huh?! If you don’t answer, I’ll report you!”

Impatience spent, the man raised his blade high and came on—when Hegenti’s eyes flashed and fixed on him.

“Pavelop.”

At that, the man froze mid-step. He frowned and looked Hegenti up and down.

“…A customer? Been a long time since you’ve come by?”

Pavelop.

That was his name. Hegenti’s eyes flickered with a rush of emotion. But nothing more came.

So, Pavelop was…

Just as he tried, elated, to dig up more—