BUEC 13

Chapter 13

It didn’t really matter, but Yurian had an

excellent sense of direction. When she had been exiled from Ratem and dumped in an unfamiliar forest, she had trusted nothing but her instincts and still managed to find a village.

Which meant that she had returned from the spot she’d been teleported to without getting lost, and that not even thirty minutes had passed since the brawl had broken out.

And yet—what on earth was this scene in front of her?

“…What the hell happened here?”

Yurian frowned as she looked down at the gray masses sprawled across the courtyard, tightly bound with ropes. Wrapped in robes like cocoons, they were clearly the same mages who, until just before her disappearance, had been arrogantly lifting their chins and flicking their heads at her.

“Seriously. What the hell happened?”

“Lady Yuri!”

At that moment, Sol spotted Yurian hesitating at the entrance and came running from afar. With eyes damp with concern, Sol carefully examined Yurian’s body. The other knights, who had only just noticed her return, stopped stacking the mages like luggage and greeted her with delighted faces.

“Lady Yuri, are you all right? Are you injured anywhere?”

“That’s what I should be asking. What is this mess? And that person over there—?”

“We saw those despicable mages dare to attack you. We merely made them pay the price.”

Sol glared at Lucas, the Tower Master, who was the only one bound not with rope but with chains among the gray cocoons. Judging by the bruises scattered across his face, he’d taken quite a beating—yet annoyingly, his handsome looks remained intact. Still, his complexion was deathly pale, as if all the blood had drained from him. Anyone might have thought his soul had been sucked out.

“You didn’t kill him, right?”

“We merely sealed his mana. Shall I cut off his breathing?”

“Ugh—damn it.”

Sol sounded more than willing to make today the Tower Master’s memorial day, but as if on cue, Lucas regained consciousness. Or perhaps he’d only been pretending to be unconscious and opened his eyes once the situation turned unfavorable.

Arms crossed and one leg cocked, Yurian looked down at him with rational suspicion. The moment Lucas opened his eyes and spotted her, a flicker of surprise crossed his face—but he quickly glared back, refusing to yield.

“Hah. I only caught a glimpse and wondered, but… I can’t tell whether you’re just hard to kill or simply stubborn. You’re alive, Duchess of Baph.”

“Yeah. You too.”

Yurian replied lazily, utterly devoid of spirit, to the Tower Master who was grinding his teeth trying to provoke her. She wasn’t particularly angry. The situation was the exact opposite of three years ago. Back then, she’d been the one kneeling on the ground. Today, she didn’t even have to crane her neck—her view was comfortably above him. When she smirked down at him, Lucas lost his temper and went off on his own.

“You think I lost too easily, don’t you? That the Tower Master is more pathetic than you thought?! Don’t be mistaken! The Knight Alliance branch has a barrier that seals mana—that’s the only reason I struggled. If I’d been able to use my full power, that ‘rabid dog’ wouldn’t have stood a chance!”

“I wasn’t thinking that explicitly—but sure, let’s go with that. By the way, what’s that on your face?”

“D-Don’t touch me!”

Lucas, clearly seething, twisted his body to try to break free, but it was useless. Every time he moved, the robe covering his head swayed along with him. And in that brief moment, Yurian spotted something familiar on his forehead.

Certain of what she’d seen, she reached out. Lucas flailed wildly, shaking his head with all his strength. He resisted fiercely, and in the struggle, both of their hoods were pulled off at the same time.

“Hah. On such a bright spring day, I wondered why you were wearing your robe so tightly…”

“—You?!”

The brands on their foreheads were revealed. Infuriatingly, they were even in the exact same spot. There was no mistaking it—it was the unmistakable mark of a criminal. Seizing the moment, Lucas sneered at her with undisguised mockery.

“Hah, I see now. So that’s why a woman who’d been hiding so thoroughly suddenly showed up. You’re the sinner of the oracle, aren’t you? I suppose if you searched the entire continent, you still wouldn’t find a villainess quite like you. Serves you right.”

“What nonsense. Look who’s talking.”

The words of a defeated man wrapped up like a cocoon were nothing but pathetic, carrying not a shred of impact. If anything, Lucas now found himself on the receiving end of openly contemptuous looks from Yurian and the surrounding knights—looks that clearly said, Is this guy an idiot?

Tower Master? Me and Sol, Tower Masters? Didn’t they say only seven are chosen across the entire continent? How can the acquaintance ratio be this high? Is this some kind of nepotistic hiring?

Meanwhile, Yurian’s thoughts were in turmoil. She had no doubt whatsoever that the Tower Master had committed some sort of crime. He was the type of man so obsessed with money that he’d snatch candy out of a child’s hands if paid enough. He’d only stayed safe because of his position—otherwise, it wouldn’t have been strange for him to be stabbed by some blind blade on the street.

But why am I being lumped together with him?

That was precisely why it irritated her even more that she and Sol were being tied to the likes of Lucas. As Yurian’s expression darkened, Sol noticed her displeasure and whispered in a low voice.

“As expected—arrogant, shameless, and without dignity. Shall I kill him?”

“Calm down, Sol. I get why you’re angry, but let’s avoid extreme measures. The aftermath would be a hassle.”

Yurian replied loudly on purpose, and though Lucas ground his teeth, he wisely kept his mouth shut. Shrewd as he was, he had already realized that his life now rested in Yurian’s hands. Even if it was borrowed authority, seeing the mighty Tower Master forced to read the room gave Yurian a small sense of satisfaction.

Well, no matter what, it’s not like we can just casually dispose of a Tower Master.

He was the head of tens of thousands of mages and wielded power comparable to a nation’s authority. Sol had won this time by luck, but if this incident escalated into a full-scale conflict with the Mage Tower, the Knight Alliance would undoubtedly suffer losses akin to war.

So what should they do with this nuisance?

After pondering Lucas’s fate for quite some time, Yurian suddenly snapped her fingers, struck by a brilliant idea.

“Let’s hand him over to the Holy Knight Order.”

“You vile monster!! Just kill me instead!!”

At the mere mention of the Holy Knight Order, Lucas—who had been crumpled on the ground—started foaming at the mouth. Seriously, just what on earth did the Holy Knights do to earn such a reputation?

Regardless, Sol ignored Lucas entirely, focusing only on Yurian.

“But if we do that, there’s a chance he might reveal information about you, Lady Yuri. It’s too dangerous.”

“True. Then should we extort money from him instead and let him go? He can’t report us anyway. If anything, we could report him.”

“Even without this wretch’s filthy money, I can ensure that you live more than comfortably with my abilities.”

“Then what do you suggest we do with him? Keep him here? Raise him?”

Frustrated, Yurian snapped, and the mental image of putting a leash on Lucas, feeding him, and throwing a disc for him to fetch made her feel sick.

Sol’s complexion darkened as well. A perfect life of serving and protecting Yurian was bad enough without Lucas’s slick, insufferable face intruding on it.

“I hate this the most, you know?!”

Lucas shouted indignantly, but no one paid him any attention. From the moment he was captured by the Knight Alliance—an organization hostile to him—his right to make decisions had ceased to exist.

“Commander! Commander!!”

“What is it?”

The one-sided bullying of Lucas came to a halt when the Alliance’s gatekeeper came running toward them, looking as though he’d seen a ghost. The face that had flushed tomato-red at the sight of Sol earlier was now so pale it put a sheet of paper to shame.