SBTMK Chapter 6

Knights who had not received formal investiture had no names. They were called "test subjects." Or Ruel.

The mission to capture Flora had deployed not only formally ranked knights but Ruels as well. Of those, only three Ruels had survived. They felt nothing about the ones who hadn't.

Ruel84 had Flora slung across his back and was smiling.

Their eyes held only the reward coming ahead.

The legendary Flora—the one who'd escaped Meryn Castle—captured alive. The compensation would be exceptional. Formal induction into Cenkan's knight corps. A name granted.

And——

We'll finally be free of those experiments……

Ruel88 and Ruel90 following behind Ruel84 looked equally delighted.

"Stop. You there."

They hadn't gotten far down the mountain when something stepped into their path.

Expensive clothing, torn. Right thigh wrapped in cloth—clearly injured. The face, despite all of it, was unreasonably handsome.

"What's this?"

Ruel84's voice dropped. His hand went to his weapon.

"Leave the woman."

The woman meaning Flora. He'd said it outright, smiling pleasantly. Ruel84's temper rose in a single motion.

'What the fuck is wrong with this person.'

They'd worked to take her. And this person was standing there telling them to put her down, smiling about it.

"Who are you. Get out of the way."

"Now, now. This is my land. Why would someone try to walk off with something from my land without asking? I won't have so much as a pebble taken without permission. Put her down while I'm still asking."

The mountain's owner, then. Absurd.

"Move or I'll kill you."

"Same terms, then."

In Ruel84's eyes, the man in front of him was something to be stepped on. A wealthy fool who'd wandered in from somewhere. The provocation produced nothing but contempt.

He looked expensive. Kill him and take the valuables—suitable as a souvenir.

"We'll stomp you flat."

Ruel84 dropped Flora onto the ground without care. The man's expression went cold.

Hm.

Ruel84 smiled at the reaction.

"I see. So that's how it is. You've been warming yourself with this woman while she ran from us. Cenkan's finest, and she ends up spreading herself for some man she found in a forest…… filthy."

The man's eyes sharpened with each word.

"Why are you after Flora?"

Something in the quieted voice pressed outward. Ruel84 kept his face together.

"She told you her name. How much do you know about us?"

"Regrettably—nothing. Feel free to educate me. I have several questions."

"Why bother telling a dead man. Just be grateful you get to die at the hands of a future hero of——"

The Ruels raised their weapons.

The man in front of them did not assume a defensive stance.

"——gh!"

Arrogant, Ruel84 thought, and then a short cry rose from behind him and both of his companions hit the ground.

"What——!"

He spun to check.

Figures he hadn't sensed had drawn a perimeter. He hadn't heard them arrive. No trace. Nothing.

'I underestimated this.'

Tension arrived in Ruel84's eyes. He was still an unnamed test subject—experience to match. But even he could feel through his body that the people surrounding them were not ordinary.

"Cowards!"

Ruel84 snarled. The man laughed—short, involuntary, not quite suppressed.

"You entered someone else's land with dozens of men to capture a single woman. You don't have standing to discuss cowardice."

"……"

"Tell me where you're from. I'll let you live."

The cold that ran down his spine had no clear source. An intangible weight settled across his entire body.

This was not the man he'd assessed from the other side of thirty seconds ago. A wealthy caretaker. That reading had been wrong.

"Or how you crossed the magic barrier. That would do."

Ruel84 twisted his mouth upward—the only covering he had for the fear.

He said nothing. The man looked past him to the figures behind him. Ruel84 braced for a counterattack.

The strength went out of his legs.

"——gh."

"Interesting that your own life holds so little weight for you. Makes me increasingly curious about whoever sent you."

Kuh. A metallic taste came up, and his vision blurred.

He had no idea how fast the blow had come. Ruel84 didn't register that he'd been hit until he was on the ground coughing blood.

He managed to lift his head just before the end.

Cold. Eyes without a single fraction of mercy. That was the last thing in his vision.

"Are you unharmed, Your Majesty."

"Fine."

Simen turned away once Ruel84 was dead, as though he'd lost interest. He crossed to where Flora had been dropped and gathered her up.

"Your Majesty—allow me to——!"

"No need. Erne—with me. The rest of you, sweep the area. Check for anyone else."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"The barrier anomalies we've been seeing—this might be connected. One of them reacted when I mentioned it. Check their bodies for magical instruments."

"Yes."

"I'd take one apart personally for a look, but I can't ask the mages, and Eden would be horrified."

Erne, standing beside him, sent a look that could be read as agreement.

The face of someone who would, in fact, be horrified floated briefly through Simen's thoughts. He laughed—pfft—small, barely there.

"When the sweep is done—handle the bodies so no one finds them. I don't need the rumors."

"Understood."

"And tell the idiots at the base of the mountain I've already headed back to the palace."

Simen's gaze came down to Flora in his arms.

Small face. Eyes, nose, mouth—arranged neatly, as though carefully considered. Her silver hair had come loose and moved in the light, and even in disarray it caught the light with something that resembled stars.

What had happened to put her in this kind of flight.

She hadn't told him, and the refusal had sharpened his interest rather than blunting it.

"……Was it her."

An unidentified body. And the anomalous presences that had been crossing the barrier on a pattern.

Their target: this woman.

Something here.

The hypothesis settled, and Simen's expression went slightly colder.

"Why! Still no word? Why?"

Ayden circled the laboratory. He couldn't keep still—he pulled at his own hair, struck his own face, and kept moving.

"Flora! Why!"

He chewed his nails as he walked the room's circuit, again and again, and the answer he was waiting for did not come.

'Just a little longer. A little more. Just a little more——!'

Ayden giggled abruptly.

"Flora! You're mine. You'll come back in the end. You're supposed to."

He was calling her name in a voice soaked through with something unstable when it happened.

A sound. Ka-ra-rak—something small and brittle, breaking.

Ayden's face went flat. His eyes moved to the desk.

"That—that can't be…… no!"

Every knight and Ruel: dead.

"Why?"

The magical instrument that had displayed their survival status lay in pieces across the surface. Ayden struck his own face once, in disbelief.

This time had been perfect. He hadn't let feeling interfere. He'd known her hiding location and still taken the time to prepare a capture rather than a strike. He'd sent more people than ever before specifically because of that. And yet——

'Did I still underestimate her.'

Ayden was sinking into the chair with despair on his face when the door opened without a knock. His mood was already rotten, and his hand moved to the small knife on the desk—whoever had walked in was going to die.

"Oh—were you going to kill me?"

What registered first: the clothing, which left thick arm muscles visible. Then the red hair. Then the sharp set of the eyes. The long scar along the cheek.

The knife left Ayden's hand. He swallowed wrong and recovered.

The sun-browned skin was warm in color, but the light-brown eyes read as something separate from it—incongruous, somehow. Ayden had thought, in childhood, that they looked like the eyes of a predatory animal.

"Ayden."

The pressure radiating from that body—the same from when they were young and the same now—brought Ayden to heel. It always had. Ayden had registered him, from their first meeting, as someone who required absolute obedience. That reading had not changed.

The one creature to whom the mad dog answered.

The King of Cenkan. Laviu Obelia.

Ayden pressed himself flat to the floor.

"……Your Highness."

"Rise. Ayden."

Ayden came up at Laviu's order. Laviu closed the distance until he stood directly before him.

The height and the frame—at least two full hand-spans taller—put Ayden in shadow.

"Were you just going to kill me?"

"How could I ever—to Your Highness——"

"I've heard that even dogs occasionally scratch their masters."

Laviu's hand closed around Ayden's throat. One hand, and the full throat was in it—a light application of force and it would be over without resistance.

"Flora?"

"Ugh—I, I am pursuing every possible——"

An unsatisfying answer. Laviu's jaw set. He shoved Ayden without any particular care.

Bang. Ayden's back met the corner of the desk. A thin sound escaped him.

"That isn't every possible means. If you had used every possible means, Flora would already be here. Isn't that right?"

Laviu's voice was level. The anger threaded into it was exactly what frightened Ayden. He nodded rapidly.

"Ayden. There is nothing you cannot do. I haven't raised objection to your murders, committed as though madness were your right. I placed as much wealth in the hands of a worthless starving creature as I placed in my own. Why?"

Because you are a loyal dog. And Cenkan's finest alchemist.

The words had been placed inside him so many times they had become structural—something closer to inscription than memory.

Ayden murmured them back in a voice going small. Laviu patted his head once: good.

"Flora is as valuable to Cenkan as you are, Ayden. You understand this."

"……Yes. Your Highness."

"Don't disappoint me again."

Ayden registered that Laviu's voice had gone slightly softer. His lips trembled. He nodded. He reached up and straightened his crooked glasses and looked up.

Ayden's eyes had filled.

It looked like a dog that wanted only to hear it had done something right.

"I believe you can do this. Bring Flora back."

"……"

"A better occasion for our next meeting."

Laviu cupped Ayden's chin lightly. Released it. A faint smile arrived on his face.

Ayden's held tears fell.