Chapter 29: Decisive End

──Not here.

"Hey, I came to save you."

There had been plenty of other chances. When Pilemon returned to Ariel’s faction. In the days after Ariel declared she would hold a party. On the way back after they fought off interference and finished setting up the venue. There were plenty of earlier moments to act, long before this.

The First Prince’s faction was already checkmated. Their patron Darius had been exposed for imprisoning and exploiting Tristina. Auber and the others had been caught blackmailing Pilemon and attempting a royal assassination. And finally, the Dragon King Perugius himself had descended upon the royal castle Silver Palace for the first time in centuries to support Ariel as heir to the throne.

Even if they lashed out here and killed Ariel, the First Prince would still be condemned, and the Kingdom of Asura would fall into chaos. Acting out recklessly, ignoring factional struggles and the peace of the nation, just because he was a Human God’s Apostle—it didn’t make sense.

"Why here… why would the Water God show up now?!"

Luke’s words spoke what everyone—friend and foe alike—was thinking.

──────────Ghislaine’s Perspective──────────

By the time we defeated Wii Taa and rushed to Rudeus’s side, his battle was already over. He was rifling through Auber’s corpse.

"You did it, Rudeus! That’s amazing!"

"In the end, we left it all to you. Well done."

"Eris! Ghislaine! I’m glad you’re saf—whoa… wait, Ghislaine, how are you just walking around like that?"

"This much won’t kill me. As long as the blade stays in, it doesn’t bleed as much as it looks."

When Rudeus turned toward us with a relieved smile, his face went pale as he saw me covered in cuts with a sword sticking out of my side. He hurriedly handed an antidote he’d taken from Auber’s body to Lady Eris and immediately began treating me.

Looking down, I noticed Rudeus’s robe had been sliced cleanly from his right shoulder down to his left hip, exposing his bare skin. It had been a fight on a razor’s edge. Judging by his expression, he didn’t even know himself how he’d managed to win.

"Put this on already!"

"E-Eris…!"

While I was watching Rudeus, my lady came over and draped the cloak she’d worn during the attack over him. I hadn’t been looking at him in that way, so I wish he’d stop reacting like that.

Rudeus, teary-eyed with both hands pressed to his mouth, only made me more exasperated. He’d always had a way of acting out just like Zenith when she got carried away, but seeing it on a face that looked so much like Paul’s was unbearably unsettling.

After finishing treatment for everyone, Rudeus’s ring lit up—it seemed the princess’s side had settled things as well.

"Let’s go meet up with Sylphy and the others."

"Got it!"

"Yes."

──

"Rudeus-sama, what happened on your side?"

"Auber… I killed him. Wii Taa is right here."

On the princess’s side, no one had died, but aside from Sylphy, most of the fighters had been half-crippled and were now receiving treatment. Nuckelgard must have gone on quite the rampage. The fact that no one had been killed was a miracle.

I showed them Wii Taa, slung over my shoulder. He was still alive, so we’d treated him and brought him along. He’d originally been hired by Pilemon, so as long as things were settled peacefully, there’d be no need to kill him.

"Lord Pilemon… forgive me…"

"Wii Taa…! Damn it, Paul’s brat, is this enough for you…?!"

Pilemon, bound in ropes, twisted his face in hatred when he saw us. After everything, after forcing Rudeus to bear such humiliation, he still dared to look at us like that. Truthfully, since he’d had a hand in Lord Sauros’s death, I wanted nothing more than to silence him right then and there, but a promise was a promise.

Rudeus looked troubled for a moment at Luke shrinking before his father’s cold rejection. He stepped forward. A faint squeak of fear slipped from Pilemon’s mouth.

"Uncle Pilemon, please… listen to what Senior Luke has to say. I couldn’t make it in time… for my father."

That was all he said before gently pushing Luke forward and stepping back to us.

Paul had apparently died in the labyrinth where Zenith had been teleported—saving her and protecting Rudeus. It was unthinkable, compared to the man he used to be.

Lady Edith had heard the story at home, and even before meeting him, she apologized for having despised Paul. As for me, who had been his comrade yet still despised him, I could only feel awkward.

(If I had written to Rudeus, maybe Paul wouldn’t have died… Then Edith might have been able to meet him as well.)

…It’s thoughts like these, creeping in at moments like this, that make my master call me soft.

──

After a long talk with Luke and the others, Pilemon finally lowered his head, looking like he was about to cry. Forgiven by his liege, shielded by his son, surrounded by comrades.

I felt a bitter taste in my chest—but also surprise that I hadn’t drawn my sword in anger at that scene. When I glanced at Rudeus, he too was gazing at Luke, smiling wistfully, his face tinged with sadness.

"Ghislaine, Rudeus! We won!"

My lady pulled both our heads close against hers.

…I must have looked just as battered as Rudeus. Seeing her then call out, "Sylphy, you come here too!" and dragging her in, Rudeus and I glanced at each other and laughed.

──

"Nobody move—unless you want to end up like this."

Two of Perugius’s summoned spirits tried to resist the Water God, only to be slashed apart by golden sword flashes and vanish into drifting motes of light. A high noble who tried to flee first had his hamstrings severed and was knocked unconscious with the flat of the blade.

The hall we had prepared—securing Perugius’s alliance, reconciling with our companions, laying suspicions about Orsted to rest, and defeating the North Emperor—had in an instant been transformed into a coffin, locking us inside the Water God’s range.

The phantom secret art that had made even North Emperors step aside, allowing her to reign as Water God for decades: “Severing Sword Realm.” Now we were made to experience its absurdity firsthand.

But…

"Run if you want, Darius. You really think a mere North Saint can save you here? The moment you failed to hire Auber, you were already finished."

Yes, Darius had failed to hire Auber.

Unable to win over the eccentric faction that had renounced dirty work, he stuffed money into Pilemon’s hands and forced him to hire the Three Swordsmen as guards to attack the princess. And there, they had been defeated by us.

If the Water God had trusted the North Emperor with the finishing blow, they would surely have won. But a North Saint wasn’t enough. If even one of us ran wild, both Darius and the North Saint would be dead—and in the meantime, half of us might be cut down by the Water God. But among those cut down would not be the princess, nor Perugius.

Rudeus had said it: without Darius, the First Prince’s faction had no means of restraining Ariel and Perugius. And Darius had no resolve to die just to hand victory to the First Prince.

Carried by the North Saints he had brought as guards, Darius fled the royal castle.

When pressed for her true intentions by the princess, the Water God spoke. She attacked this hall to repay a life-debt long overdue.

What a farce. The Water God declared she would destroy her homeland, the Water God style itself, even her own granddaughter—if that was what it took to save that wretch.

"Then so be it. We shall treat this attack as your lone rampage… and the Water God style shall not be held guilty."

"Ha… and what are you saying in a situation like this, girl…?"

Even so, the princess—no, Her Majesty Ariel—smiled.

"We have ‘North King’ Wii Taa waiting outside the castle. Darius will not escape."

"What… what are you saying, girl…?! The ‘North King’ you lot had killed—how could he capture Darius now…?!"

"The ones we struck down were ‘North Emperor’ Auber and ‘North King’ Nuckelgard. Wii Taa was originally Lord Pilemon’s guard—in other words, my subordinate. Why would we kill him?"

Auber had safeguarded evidence—blackmail and bribes—that Darius had sent to Pilemon, for the moment of their defeat.

This way, only Wii Taa and the others could be counted as Darius’s hired attackers, while Pilemon could claim to be nothing more than a victim, threatened and assaulted. No matter who won, both Pilemon and Wii Taa had a chance to survive.

And now that Auber had been defeated, neither Darius nor the Water God, ignorant of our circumstances, could possibly have foreseen Wii Taa’s survival.

"Ha… hahaha… you’ve changed, Ariel’s little lady. I came here ready to die if it meant letting Darius escape… but you won’t yield a single thing, will you…?"

"You said it yourself: the moment Darius failed to hire the North Emperor, he had lost. There is nothing to be gained from a losing battle."

At the very moment Her Majesty Ariel finished speaking, golden flashes of the sword lashed out at her. The Water God had taken the bait.

The Water God style, the polar opposite of Sword God style, had pursued ultimate defense. Yet now its stance was broken, turning to offense. Compared to the Severing Sword Realm, the slash was two, three steps slower—but it still flew toward the Queen.

And it was blocked by Perugius’s guardian, “Sylvaril of the Void,” who stood at her side.

The second strike immediately batted Silvaril’s weapon aside, but the third never came.

Rudeus’s “Quagmire” robbed the Water God of footing, sealing off the stance of the Severing Sword Realm, and the next moment, my lady and I pressed our blades to her throat.

"Ahh… damn it… I’ve lost."

The moment Darius fled beyond her reach, the Water God’s defeat had already been decided. That wretch had abandoned even the last ally who came for him out of sheer goodwill—and in this very instant, even that ally had given up on him.