“The holy sword…,” someone murmurs.

  The blade has risen into the air, and now it descends, scattering glittering particles of light—

  “Ah— Ah, Aaaaaaaaaaah!!”

  The dreamlike sight is shredded by Ares’s scream. Everyone turns to look and is shocked into silence.

  Darkness is swallowing the light generated by the holy sword. Instinctively, everyone understands that it’s the fiend dragon. The inky substance overflows from the band on Ares’s right arm, gradually staining that arm black. Baal shouts, “Ares, take that thing off!”

  “M-my body…won’t…obey—”

  “Goodness, did Serena’s blood splash onto the armband just now?” Lilia giggles cruelly. “If it did, then of course the fiend dragon’s true body locked inside would naturally grow stronger.”

  “Out of the way!”

  Shoving Lilia aside, Aileen swings the sacred sword at Ares’s armband. The moment it connects, there’s a crack, and the band splits and falls, rolling across the ground. Ares sits down hard.

  “…What does she mean, ‘the fiend dragon’s true body’? Why would a thing like that emerge from your armband?”

  “Th-this is— She has it wrong, there must be some sort of mistake. It’s not the fiend dragon— I mean, the dragon possessed me! So—”

  As Ares is stumbling through an incoherent excuse, the miasma that’s flooded out of the armband traps his arm. One bloodred eye opens, then swells. Before he can even scream, Ares is engulfed by the miasma as if he’s fallen into a swamp.

  “Eep…!”

  “Th-the fiend dragon devoured General Ares!”

  The dragon tangles around soldiers’ legs and swallows petrified harem attendants headfirst. The attacks aren’t random, though. Only people Ares brought in are being taken. Isaac tsks. “Anyone who helped lock the fiend dragon up, run for it! You’re gonna get eaten!”

  However, his warning and the screams and confusion are all blotted out by the light rays the red eyes shoot toward the sky. As if they’re conspiring, the fiend dragon in the sky roars. The two are attacking the barrier from both sides, above and below.

  Instantly, with a sound like shattering glass, the barrier fails. To anyone who can see sacred power, those glittering fragments must look like the harbinger of despair.

  Freed from the armband and having fed on humans, the true body rises into the air and merges with the dragon hanging in the sky.

  Baal promptly recasts the barrier, and the fiend dragon strikes at it again. An incredible gale blasts from the gaping maw. The dragon’s attacks haven’t reached them yet, but those light rays are getting closer and closer. Baal is struggling.

  “I thought your defense was supposed to be perfect!”

  “The intensity of the attacks is clearly different from what it was a moment ago! That isn’t just magic!”

  “Yes, it’s been amplified by Serena’s power. That alone would be serious enough, but since it’s taken in humans as well, neither magic nor holy power can slay it now,” Lilia explains, her tone alarmingly calm.

  Resisting the desire to strike her, Aileen shouts, “All of you, evacuate the harem! Master Baal, once everyone has fled, take down the barrier!”

  “What are you planning to do? There’s no telling whether even the holy sword will work on that thing now…!”

  “I’ll hit it with a cheat!”

  She grabs the holy sword, which no one is attempting to take up at this point. With her other hand, she grabs Lilia by the scruff of the neck; the woman was about to evacuate with everyone else. “Where are you going? Take responsibility! You’re the one who—!”

  “I’ll be cheering the dashing Lady Aileen on from a distance!”

  “Oh, I see. In other words, you’re saying you’re more useless than Serena, and worth less than the Daughter of God, correct?”

  Lilia’s eyebrows twitch. Aileen pushes the holy sword into her hands.

  She doesn’t actually want to leave this to Lilia. She’d rather die than work with her. However, the fiend dragon has swallowed Ares and other humans, and thanks to Serena’s blood or whatever it was, this has already gone well beyond the game’s plot. On top of that, to Aileen, victory doesn’t mean slaying the dragon.

  “Ares and the others are probably still alive. After all, sacred power isn’t supposed to work on a dragon that possesses living humans. On the other hand, if we drag the humans out, that’ll just leave a regular demon that’s just been boosted by Serena’s power. The sacred sword ought to work then.”

  “……”

  Lilia doesn’t respond, but she doesn’t deny it, either. In other words, Aileen’s correct.

  “I’m going to rescue all the humans who got eaten. While I do, you use the holy sword to stop the dragon.”

  “Anyone can use the holy sword. It doesn’t have to be me.”

  “Whether they’re using the sword or not, no one will be able to stop that demon except you or me! You can do it, can’t you? I don’t trust you, but I do believe in you.”

  Lilia sighs, and her shoulders slump. She pouts, tilting her head prettily. “…That isn’t fair, Lady Aileen. Saying a thing like that to your enemy is terribly gallant.”

  With that, she picks up the holy sword. Once again, the blade shines.

  It’s a power that surpasses both the Daughter of God and the Maid of the Sacred Sword. The corners of the woman’s lips rise in a devilish grin. “Just this once, all right?”

  “I don’t want to do this again, either.”

  “Hey, it won’t hold up much longer! You’re ready, aren’t you?! We’re leaving this in your hands!!”

  At Baal’s shout, Lilia steps lightly forward. Aileen comes up beside her, and they look up at the fiend dragon together. The barrier winks out. They haven’t done anything, but that horde of red eyes roll down to focus on them. Apparently the dragon knows who its enemies are.

  “Let’s go. Try not to hold me back.”

  “And you, Lady Aileen. Do your best to finish before I kill the dragon.”

  Aileen holds up her hand. The sacred sword materializes, followed by something else. The holy king’s barrier is gone now, and so, using her shadow as a medium, Aileen cloaks the sacred sword in Claude’s magic.

  There is nothing this blade can’t sever.

  After all, the title of this game is Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens.

  Just what sort of monsters are they keeping over in Ellmeyer? Two of them, at that. That’s Baal’s first thought when he sees them.

  Even the holy king’s barrier had trouble with the fiend dragon’s attacks, but Lilia repels them easily, while Aileen charges ahead as if the miasma isn’t even there.

  “…We really were wise to avoid war, weren’t we? —Whoops.”

  The fiend dragon fires light rays from all over its body in every direction. Blocking all of them, Baal sighs. He doesn’t have to maintain a huge barrier anymore, but apparently the task of protecting the kingdom still falls to him.

  “Good grief, there’s no time to rest.”

  “Hey. Here.”

  Someone shoves the broken armband in front of his face. It’s the man who was at Ares’s side earlier. Baal looks at him, impressed he’s picked up an object the fiend dragon manifested from.

  “The armband’s from the Queendom of Hausel; it was created to imprison the fiend dragon. There’s some sort of magic circle drawn on the inside. That’s evidence.”

  “We seem to recall that you were Ares’s aide.”

  “Never mind that, just hang on to this thing. Auguste is…not here, huh. Hey, what’s-your-name. Serena.”

  “…What?” The woman who’s been wrapping her cut arm with a bandage glares their way.

  “You can move, right? Head back to the general’s mansion and collect some more evidence. Anything’s fine.”

  “Who said you could boss me around? Can’t you see I’m wounded?”

  “Not that badly. You’ll get a bonus for each piece of evidence.”

  “Deal.” Summarily changing her mind, the woman climbs to her feet and sets off.

  Baal, who’s watched their exchange, looks down at the armband. So this means… “Hey, don’t tell me all of you are—?”

  “Your Majesty, something’s coming!”

  The scream of a lower-ranking consort snaps his attention back to the action. He’s braced himself for a dragon attack, but then he sees a human arm protruding from the incoming black mass. Reflexively, he catches it with sacred power. A human smeared with mud-like miasma hits the ground. When the figure groans, the surrounding crowd lets out its collective breath and starts shouting.

  “It’s one of the people who were devoured! …They’re still alive!”

  “Th-they’re okay…?!”

  “—Hey! Split up and go grab the people they’ve rescued from the dragon, right now,” the man who was Ares’s aide shouts. He emphasizes the word rescued, impressing the fact that they’re protecting people onto his listeners. “I mean every last one of them. They’re vital witnesses; don’t let them die! They should get General Ares out soon, too. Catch him; don’t let him slip past you! That’s what we should do, isn’t it, Your Majesty?”

  “That’s fine. We’ll leave it to you.”

  The soldiers haven’t had much to do until now, and they spring into action. This is probably easier than just holding their breath and watching the fiend dragon. Keeping an eye on them, the man gives an exaggerated sigh. It’s as if he’s thinking That’s one job finished… Even though the fight isn’t over yet.

  “You’re one of Ellmeyer’s men, aren’t you?”

  The man doesn’t nod, but Baal’s sure of it. This fellow, and the second prince’s fiancée, and the woman who just left for the mansion— How many traps has Aileen set here? The second prince, who’s apparently at Ares’s mansion, may be bait as well.

  “…‘Friends,’ hmm? Making a friend of that woman is one hell of a waste.”

  The aide’s eyebrows twitch. Oh-ho, thinks Baal, but the man promptly gives him a wry smile. “Go ahead and negotiate that with our demon king.”

  “Come to think of it, is that man alive?”

  “Honestly, if there’s a way to kill him, I’d like to hear about it… Although I guess you might be able to manage it.”

  “Never fear. We’re through loving the wrong women.” After he says that, Baal finds himself looking into the distance. He wonders what Sahra is planning to do, now that she’s fled.

  …She was…an ordinary girl.

  She possesses slightly more sacred power than normal. People had counted on her, so she’d mustered up her courage and tried to give it her best. That’s probably all there is to her, and yet, because he and Ares had fallen for her, her life had been warped.

  She’d never been the sort of woman who could serve as the holy king’s queen.

  Would it be possible to simply let her escape? What would Roxane say, if he proposed it?

  More than Sahra’s excuses, he’s dying to hear from Roxane. He wants to know what she’s thinking. He wants to hear what she sees when she looks at him.

  He wants her to tell him whether she’ll love him. Whether she’ll be his wife.

  “—It must be all right by now. Would you go and rescue our principal consort?”

  The man’s eyebrows draw together slightly, and he chooses his words carefully. “Shouldn’t you be the one to do that?”

  “We are the king. We must defend this place.”

  At the moment, the fiend dragon’s attention is focused on Aileen and the other woman, but there’s no telling when the beast might attack the rest of them. The harem has been emptied out and half-demolished, but even so, someone needs to protect it.

  “…All right. The demon king may have saved her already, but I’ll go look.”

  “Please do.”

  “Be a good king.”

  Encouragement doesn’t come any more insolent than that. The holy king blinks, then laughs in response.

  On the way to the harem’s dungeon, they run right into each other. It’s completely out of the blue, and Isaac freezes up.

  “I-I-I-Isaac.” She’s flustered, too.

  Thanks to that, he recovers first. “What are you doing?”

  “U-um, I thought I would go check on Lady Roxane and Master Claude…”

  So that’s why her arms are full of spare clothes and a first aid kit. Isaac nods. “It’s okay to let those two out now. I’ve got the keys. Let’s go.”

  “A-all right. Um— If, um, you’ll give me the keys, I could go alone—”

  Before Rachel finishes her suggestion, a strong gust of wind blows past them, buffeting her. She stumbles forward. Catching her, Isaac glares upward, tsking. “Can’t they fight a little more quietly up there? Unbelievable.”

  “I-I’m sorry, I—”

  Hastily, Rachel puts some distance between them. Isaac doesn’t have any legitimate reason to stop her. He’s able to take half what she’s carrying, though. “The holy king asked me, so I’m going, too. It’s my job.”

  He’s freed up one of Rachel’s hands, and at first she looks startled. Then she smiles, nodding. “All right. Oh, I gave that note to Lady Aileen. Did it go well?”

  “—Yeah. Thanks. Uh… About earlier…”

  “It’s fine. I’m glad I was useful.” And because she’s gone and said something that plucky and sweet… “…What? Um, I, huh?!”

  “I can’t have you getting blown away again, can I? C’mon, let’s go.”

  …He takes her hand and pulls, pretending it isn’t a big deal. The girl is confused anyway; she’s not going to notice he’s flushed all the way to his ears, and besides, this is an emergency.

  An explosion rumbles above them. As Isaac and Rachel look back, the fiend dragon gives a howl—the loudest one yet.

  The moment she grabs the hand submerged in darkness, she’s sure of it: This is Ares, the last one. His hand doesn’t tighten around hers, but it’s warm. He’s still alive.

  When she thrusts with the sacred sword in her left hand, the dragon flinches backward. She tries to take that opportunity to pull Ares up, but the enraged dragon forces her back with a blast.

  She flips in midair, then lands. She isn’t able to kill her momentum, and her heels skid across the stone paving. She really liked these shoes, and now the heels are ground down to nubs.

  She’s on the clock tower, the highest point in the harem. It’s been damaged in the fighting, and its bell is missing, so she has a very good view. Aileen gazes up at the dragon. Judging by the noticeably lower height, they’ve definitely weakened the demon. However, those countless eyes are growing redder and redder with anger, and the roars are almost nonstop now.

  “It doesn’t look as if we’ll be able to drag General Ares out, does it? Shall we give up and put an end to it with the holy sword?”

  Lilia lands lightly beside her.

  “After all this work? Don’t even joke about that. Master Baal!” Calling his name, she descends to the ground.

  Baal, who’s saved her from several of the fiend dragon’s attacks, turns around. “What?”

  “Please lend me your strength. The dragon refuses to release General Ares. Could you use a sacred barrier to keep our friend in place? Even a few seconds will do.”

  “Don’t ask the impossible. Neither sacred nor profane power alone is enough to stop that thing now.”

  “Even if you feel it won’t work, it’s better to try than do nothing. If sacred power alone won’t do, I shall provide support with magic—”

  Behind her, the fiend dragon moves again, firing an enormous light ray at her. Baal blocks the attack squarely with a barrier, but it shatters in the blink of an eye.

  “Oh n—”

  As the light bears down on her, Aileen gets a better grip on the sacred sword. And in that moment, a black shape suddenly appears in front of her. After an incredibly loud explosion, the light ray dissipates.

  “Good grief. Why don’t you turn to me at times like these?”

  Finding the grumble very familiar, Aileen blinks.

  Claude is there, holding Roxane. Both his streaming black hair and his beautiful face are perfectly unmarred.

  Oh…

  The things she’d steeled herself to witness once all of this was over are nowhere to be seen, and the flood of relief makes her knees go weak.

  There isn’t a scratch on Roxane, either. As Aileen is feeling reassured, the woman abruptly vanishes from Claude’s arms.

  “That’s our consort. Return her.”

  It seems that Baal has forcibly teleported her. Roxane looks dazed, but when she realizes she’s in her husband’s arms, a flush steals over her pale cheeks. They don’t say a word to each other. However, since they share the same resolution, perhaps there’s no need.

  That’s true of Aileen and her husband as well, and so she only calls his beloved name. “Master Claude…”

  “Why didn’t you come to save us first thing? As soon as the barrier was gone, I recovered, and then it was too late. You’ll practically never get another chance to see me whipped and bloodied, you know.”

  She expected this, but the laid-back way he says it turns her worry into anger. “This is an emergency! If you have time to say things like that, then stop the fiend dragon, if you would!”

  “The dragon, hmm? …Such a shy thing before all this, but look at how the little one’s grown…”

  “This is no time to be impressed! If this goes on, we’ll be forced to kill—”

  “I swear, humans are always so…”

  At the sight of the demon king’s cold eyes, Aileen falls silent. At this rate they’ll have to dispose of the fiend dragon, but Claude will never agree to it.

  “The dragon won’t listen to me; that human who got swallowed is getting in the way. If we pull him out and calm the poor thing down, everything should go back to normal.”

  “Are you sure? Wouldn’t it be safer to kill it?” Lilia says, intentionally goading him.

  Claude gives her a thin smile. “If you wish to kill the dragon, go ahead. However, it may spell the end for this country.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22