Boooooom!
Fireworks in the middle of the night.
Just as I laid down on the bed, a loud explosion came from Ariel’s room.
Something must’ve happened.
“Yuna, that brat couldn’t even wait a moment!”
“What did I do?”
“Ah, no… Why are you in my room…?”
Yuna dropped from the ceiling as naturally as ever.
Well, it’s not the first time she’s done this, but given everything that’s happened recently, I couldn’t help but be startled.
Even after kissing, she still doesn’t stop stalking me?
If nothing else, she’s consistent.
“This is training… to get used to it.”
“If only you didn’t talk…”
Anyway, it didn’t seem like Yuna had gone to provoke Ariel.
Then does that mean Ariel, now fully recovered, has started rampaging again?
What the hell has Lobelia been doing?
Useless as always…
“For now, go wake that bastard Dietrich and send him over.”
“……”
“…Don’t look at me like I’m trash, Yuna.”
“Ah, sorry. It just came out so naturally, like water flowing downhill.”
“I didn’t say it to throw Dietrich in as a sacrifice. I just figured if the two of us showed up in front of Ariel, it’d only provoke her more.”
“You sure about that?”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I do.”
Maybe love and trust really are two different things.
Watching Yuna quietly avert her eyes, I could only sigh.
People’s emotions are really hard to understand.
***
Dietrich snapped to attention the moment he heard the explosion in the middle of the night.
Living on the run with Helena, constantly walking the line between life and death, had made this kind of situation almost routine for him.
“Huh? Me? You want me to go there?”
But in response to Johan’s words, he couldn’t help but shake his head.
No….he wanted to shake his head.
“Yeah. Go check it out, and if something’s happening, help out.”
“B-But… wasn’t Senior Ariel supposed to have become an Archmage?”
“She did. You saw it too, didn’t you? You even helped in subduing her.”
“That’s true. Then… are you two coming with me?”
“Nope. Yuna and I aren’t going.”
“……?”
Why not?
Why aren’t they going, and why am I the only one who has to go?
“There’s a reason.”
“I’m counting on you, junior!”
Dietrich glanced at Helena instinctively, then quickly turned his head away.
It was an unpleasant feeling. Like he’d just glimpsed his own weakness.
Sure, with the power of the Prophet, even an Archmage might not pose a problem.
But sending a child like her into a battlefield was still a terrible thing to do.
“Should I go instead, big brother Dietrich?”
“…Huh?”
But clueless Helena seemed excited by the tense situation, as if it were part of some secret mission.
“I’ll just do it myself…”
With dead eyes, Dietrich trudged off toward the direction the explosion had come from.
If he didn’t want Helena to get dragged into this, he’d have to do better himself.
***
The second battle against the Archmage had begun.
But unlike last time, things were different.
In that short amount of time, Ariel had already grown accustomed to her newfound powers as an Archmage.
“Where is Johan?”
And this time, she’d added a dash of madness to the mix.
Ariel’s power, using telekinesis to its absolute limit, had now surpassed even the bounds of common sense.
“The magic bends…!”
Baaang!
As Dietrich approached from behind Ariel, he was caught in a bizarrely warped spell and sent flying.
Telekinesis. The power moved by thought alone.
Since ascending to the realm of an Archmage, that power had grown to the point where it could interfere not just with physical forces, but with all forces in the world.
She could even forge fire into new shapes or bend the direction of light and sound.
“Ariel, doing things like this won’t make Johan like you.”
“No, Johan is different.”
“…I have no idea what makes you say that. Ariel, I remember you being intelligent.”
“Once you reach this realm, the way you see the world changes.”
“If that’s really the case, I suppose it’s something we should ask the Headmistress about.”
Archmages were by no means common, so from Lobelia’s perspective, it was hard to judge whether Ariel was suffering from some kind of aftereffect—or if becoming an Archmage just made people lose their minds like this.
But at the very least, among the Archmages she knew, none had shown symptoms like this.
“Haah…”
Lobelia glanced sideways at Dietrich, who had been caught in Ariel’s magic.
He was dusting off the debris and slowly getting to his feet.
He didn’t seem to be seriously injured….just exhausted.
Looks like I can still squeeze more out of him.
A thought that would’ve made Dietrich shed tears of blood if he’d heard it.
“Why are you stopping me in the first place, Your Highness? I don’t understand.”
“How about putting your hand over your heart and thinking it through, Ariel?”
“Hmm.”
Ariel did as Lobelia said and placed a hand over her chest.
She was quite obedient in that regard.
After some serious thought, she came to a new conclusion.
“I still don’t get it. It’s not like I’m doing anything to Miss Yuna. I just want to see Johan.”
“And what exactly do you plan to do when you see him?”
“Experience our fated love, of course.”
“No… You’re going to need more than a vague phrase like that if you want me to understand…”
Ariel frowned at Lobelia’s response and asked,
“Weren’t you the one who used to support the relationship between Johan and me, Your Highness?”
“…That’s true.”
“Then why are you getting in the way now? Could it be that, with all the recent rumors, Your Highness has… developed feelings of your own?”
“…What?”
For a moment, Lobelia just stared blankly, unable to comprehend what Ariel had just said.
And then, as she belatedly realized the meaning behind Ariel’s words, Lobelia quietly let out a spark of thunder.
“That insult…I can’t let it slide.”
Ruuumbleeee!!
Red lightning rained down across the Damus mansion.
Lobelia’s telekinetic power expanded, unleashing an even greater force.
Crack!
Her movements were faster than before, and her power far more destructive.
In a flash, she closed the distance between herself and Ariel and swung her arm wide, calling down lightning.
A red line streaked through the space between invisible forces. It was a destructive power so intense that even Ariel’s telekinesis was shattered.
“Ariel. That’s an order. You’re banned from contacting Johan for the time being. Consider yourself under disciplinary action.”
Ariel gazed at the red lightning that filled her vision.
She took in Lobelia’s full power with her eyes.
Was this the might of imperial blood?
Or simply the fruits of hard work?
Whatever the case, Ariel could now truly feel how far Lobelia had come.
While she herself had been holding back her growth due to the unfinished transcendent syndrome treatment—
Lobelia had kept moving forward.
And that growth brought a smile to Ariel’s face.
“I’ll accept your command.”
But…
“Let me see him just once before that.”
Ruuuumbleee!!
The current Ariel was even stronger.
With Lobelia’s current power, she might have easily defeated Ariel before she was cured of the transcendent syndrome.
But a mage who has reached the realm of an Archmage was on a completely different level.
Ariel, who had split the lightning flying toward her clean in half, slammed Lobelia to the ground with a bright smile.
“This is just… unbelievable.”
Through the force pinning her down, Lobelia could tell that Ariel was trying to subdue her.
Even at this moment, Ariel still had energy to spare.
Ariel’s power had become something beyond growth. It was a force of a different nature altogether.
In the face of that strength, which could not be overcome even with full power, Lobelia fell to her knees.
“I have one question.”
“What is it?”
“When one truly reaches the realm of an Archmage, does the world look different?”
“That’s… huh?”
Just as Ariel was about to nod, she realized that Lobelia’s question hadn’t been directed at her.
Lobelia wasn’t the type to ask questions she already knew the answers to.
She had been seeking the opinion of someone else. And the only person she would ask such a question…
“The world doesn’t change. It’s not like you suddenly start seeing invisible things. It’s just that the way you perceive it shifts. So it’s no surprise some fall into the illusion of omnipotence.”
A middle-aged man calmly descended behind Ariel.
“You’ve reached the realm, haven’t you, Ariel?”
Tronios Ether.
The empire’s most powerful mage had flown straight to the Damus County at Lobelia’s call.
“I don’t know how the world looks to you now, but it’s all just empty delusion. Don’t let yourself be misled.”
“Father…?”
“Ariel, are you wielding your power right now? Or are you being wielded by it? If you can’t even tell the difference, stop immediately.”
“I’m fine. I’m not being controlled by my power.”
“Is that so? Because from where I stand, it looks different. Doesn’t your ability feel like an extension of your own body? Like arms and legs?”
“……”
“I’ll ask again, Ariel. Since the moment you awakened your power, have you ever once stopped using it?”
Tap!
Tronios Ether lightly struck his staff to the ground.
At that moment, intense mana took form and spread out in all directions.
The chaotic telekinesis surrounding Ariel became visibly covered in a blue barrier.
“You assume others know what you know. That’s why your conversations always run in parallel.”
“I didn’t know Father was such a talkative person.”
“If you feel that way, then you should be proud, Ariel.”
Rambling words.
Words that made no sense caused Ariel to frown.
“That is… if you still remember what my power is.”
But the words that followed made a chill run down Ariel’s spine.
Tronios Ether’s ability. Word Magic.
The power to manifest phenomena through words.
“Ah…”
Blood trickled down Ariel’s nose.
There were no signs that she had been attacked.
There didn’t seem to be any spells hidden in his words, either.
Ariel remembered every word Tronios Ether had spoken—
The sentences, the phrasing, every single part of it.
There were no spells in those words.
But it was the words themselves.
“Even with talent, that doesn’t mean you can fill the gap of experience. Ariel, you’re still far too weak.”
Every word he spoke had been magic.
It didn’t need to be a specific word.
There was no need to visualize a concrete form.
That the words themselves were magic—
That meant that merely hearing them with your ears was the same as falling under his spell.
Every word, every sentence structure was forcibly committed to memory, overloading the brain.
Thud.
In the end, Ariel couldn’t support her own body and collapsed to the ground.
Tronios Ether lifted the fallen Ariel with magic, then calmly rose into the air.
“Now then, if you’ll excuse me, Your Highness.”
“…Very well.”
At Tronios Ether’s light farewell, Lobelia swallowed dryly.
She had always known he was powerful.
But the sheer scale of his strength was impossible to grasp, making it hard to even comprehend.
And now?
Even with Ariel having reached the realm of an Archmage and demonstrating overwhelming power, Lobelia had felt despair.
Yet Tronios Ether had subdued that same Ariel with ease.
Just how powerful was Tronios Ether?
All Lobelia could do was stare blankly as he disappeared with Ariel.
“Uhh… Are we really letting him go that way?”
“…What?”
Lobelia, still dazed, came to her senses at Dietrich’s words.
The direction Tronios Ether had gone wasn’t toward the capital—
It was toward the place where Johan was hiding.
***
An uninvited guest arrived.
“You have a tendency to treat my daughter poorly.”
“……”
It was my father-in-law.
The moment he descended leisurely and laid eyes on me, those were the words he spoke and I couldn’t say a thing in response.
Not because I had nothing to say, but because I was too afraid to open my mouth.
I mean, I never treated her poorly.
In fact, I’m the one who’s been mistreated. Specifically, in ways that have completely stripped me of my physical and mental freedom.
But how could I say that? Who in their right mind would say such a thing to the father of a daughter?
Especially when that father is a one-man army capable of wiping out an entire nation on his own.
“Ariel won’t be seeing you for a while.”
“…Huh?”
“If we let her loose in society like this, she’s bound to cause trouble. Until her training is complete, she won’t be returning to the Cradle either.”
“Ah…”
Admittedly, he wasn’t wrong.
Only someone with equivalent power can manage a person who’s reached the level of an Archmage.
Olga Hermod might qualify, but she has an entire Cradle to oversee. There’s no way she could devote all her attention to Ariel alone.
I suppose he decided that home education is the best way to train her for social life.
“So, before you part ways, spend a little time together.”
“…Huh?”
With those words, Tronios Ether gently set Ariel down in front of me.
Didn’t he just say she’s being taken away because she’s not socially adjusted and needs training?
Is it really okay to leave Ariel in that state with another person right now?
“Then we’ll give you two some privacy.”
At last, even Yuna was pulled away by magic as my father-in-law left the room.
Dragged helplessly by the spell, Yuna was too terrified to resist, let alone speak.
And just like that, the two of us were left alone.
“…We finally meet again, Johan.”
Ariel who had been collapsed on the floor slowly pushed herself up while swaying unsteadily.
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