The orientation didn’t register in my ears.
I had intended to share the situation with Lobelia, but I decided to postpone that as well.
Raven was dead. And Ollie had probably joined Under Chain.
And I hadn’t even begun to guess that any of it was happening.
There had been so many clues.
If I had just tried to check once, I could have found out easily.
I know. I know it can’t be undone.
I also know that right now, I need to assess the situation calmly.
But…
There were still things that could be undone.
Click.
I moved immediately.
The moment Elder Thalia who was now a teacher left her seat, I prepared to head out.
Ollie wasn’t dead. Even if she intended to join Under Chain, she probably hadn’t committed any crime yet.
There was still a chance to turn things around. There was even a precedent in Melana.
“Johan.”
But someone blocked my way.
Yuna, wearing an unusually awkward smile, spoke.
“Let’s go on a date.”
“Yuna.”
“I’ll go along with whatever you want today. Maybe tonight we’ll finally cross the line?”
The reason Yuna was stopping me was obvious.
She was trying to keep me from rushing off recklessly. That’s why she was throwing every sweet temptation she could at me.
I know. I was wrong. Yuna was right. Even if I ran out without thinking, what could I actually accomplish?
It took me forever just to find Chris. If Ollie had deliberately gone into hiding, there was no way I’d be able to track her down.
I needed to judge the situation more calmly and think through a solution.
But…
“Yuna, did you know?”
The words slipped out as if I were accusing her. Only then did my head begin to cool.
“No, I…. sorry. I wasn’t trying to blame you.”
“Puhihi, you’ve calmed down? That’s a relief.”
“……”
Sometimes I find myself disgustingly hateful.
But what can I do?
The person I’m being compared to is Yuna.
In front of her, I can’t help but see how small I am.
“I didn’t know either. More than that, I never even considered that side of things.”
“I know.”
“But I do know why you’re like this right now. It’s because of Ollie, right? You’re worried about her.”
“Yeah…”
“Hmm, judging from everything so far, it’s probably Under Chain, isn’t it?”
Unlike me, Yuna reached the correct answer without any real clues.
I hadn’t even noticed the sound of chains Ollie was practically broadcasting. Maybe you really can’t ignore someone’s true calling.
“Johan, I’ll look into it. This kind of thing is my specialty. Of course, that means you’ll be without a bodyguard for a while, but you can handle that, right?”
“Yeah.”
She spoke as if soothing a child.
That alone showed how much she cared about me.
“Good. Then you do what you can do. I’m not going to stop you. You’re going to do it anyway once you’ve made up your mind. I suppose this is the trade-off for all the times you run away from your usual responsibilities.”
“Yuna, you know me too well.”
Even if Yuna went to gather information, I had no intention of sitting still. Once I’d decided to act, I would see it through.
I’d been lazy long enough. It was about time I worked diligently for once.
“Don’t push yourself. If it seems dangerous, call Miss Ariel.”
“I will.”
“And if Miss Ariel says she’s busy… hmm.”
“I’ll accompany you.”
Someone stepped into our conversation.
A presence that dominated the entire room simply by existing. It was Lobelia.
“Your Highness.”
“A moment ago you were looking at me so passionately, and now you’re already cheating?”
“Cheating…?”
“Fufu, I’m joking. It must mean something urgent has come up. Well, I have a rough idea. I do know that Raven was your friend.”
Is it because I have such a small circle? Everyone seems to figure out what’s wrong right away.
It’s embarrassing, having everyone worry about me and root for me like this.
“I’ll hear what you wanted to tell me later.”
Lobelia smiled with deliberate composure.
It was a façade of composure. I already knew, from what the Emperor had told me, that Lobelia’s position had grown considerably narrower.
But still.
“Please help me, Your Highness.”
“That’s something I haven’t heard in a while.”
It would be difficult to call Lobelia a perfectly virtuous person.
She is pragmatic to a degree and just to a degree.
Which means that asking her for help also means paying an appropriate price. Even now, just remembering how much I had to toil because of that makes my teeth grind.
“If this lets me repay even a fraction of the debt I owe you, I’ll help as much as you need.”
Lobelia said she owed me a debt. That was true. But the fact that she said it like this also meant she intended to remain on my side going forward.
It also meant she had no intention of refusing my requests in the future.
“So? What’s your plan?”
“It’s not a certain method, but…”
Everything had happened too suddenly.
Finding Ollie’s whereabouts was important, but tracing the root of it all wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
“There may be a way to locate the Great Sage.”
***
In the past, I was kidnapped by the Great Sage along with Cattleya Tales.
It’s a small memory now that Loki was completely dealt with at the time.
Anyway, back then we were forcibly taken to Under Chain’s headquarters.
To escape, we received help from the Scriptwriter, who calculated the coordinates and sent a rescue.
“If it’s Prince Theseus, he should know the location of Under Chain’s base.”
“Hmm.”
Honestly, this method probably didn’t sit well with Lobelia.
She already despised Theseus. The thought of having to ask him for a favor must make her grind her teeth.
But there was no one else.
Right now, Theseus was holed up deep inside the Imperial Palace. Even if I wanted to meet him, I wouldn’t be able to.
The only people who could see him were high-ranking officials of the imperial court or imperial members like Lobelia.
“Very well. I’ll make the request.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not trash enough to bargain when someone is that desperate.”
“Huh? But before, you—”
You didn’t treat me that way.
I was being chased by Eden at the time, and you still tried to negotiate.
“Do you have something you’d like to say?”
“No…”
It’s fine. It’s all in the past anyway.
People can change.
There’s no point nitpicking at someone who’s offering to help.
“So?”
“What’s your plan, Johan?”
Just as the discussion was more or less wrapping up, Lobelia and Yuna stepped in front of me.
It was as if they both knew this wasn’t the end of it.
“……”
That’s right. I’d given them tasks only they could handle, so now it was time for me to do what I could.
Yuna agreed to track down Ollie’s whereabouts.
Lobelia agreed to confirm the location of Under Chain’s base.
And as for me…
“For now, I’m going to ask Mephi.”
“About what?”
“The Great Sage’s location.”
I was thinking of meeting the enemy leader face-to-face.
“Isn’t that too dangerous?”
“Not necessarily.”
Lobelia voiced her doubts.
Meanwhile, Yuna simply folded her arms and waited for me to continue.
As expected, Yuna understands me better.
She knew I wasn’t the type to recklessly throw myself into danger.
“If the Great Sage had intended to kill me, he’s had plenty of chances. But thinking back, he’s never once tried to.”
Not when we first met.
Not recently, either.
The Great Sage has never shown me any hostility.
He only ever made proposals. He never forced anything on me.
He’s a monster with ridiculous power, but he doesn’t worship violence.
True to his title as the Great Sage, he prefers resolving things through dialogue rather than force.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he refuses to use violence altogether…
It would be more accurate to say he responds in kind to how he’s treated. So he won’t try to kill me.
“Then it seems we’re roughly settled. Let’s move quickly. We need to persuade Ollie again before she crosses the line.”
The last time I saw Ollie, she hadn’t yet been tainted by malice.
The Chain was a power that even ruined Melana who was stronger than her.
From the moment she used the Chain, her hair turned gray-white and her complexion grew pale.
It was that dangerous.
But Ollie was different.
Her complexion was still that of an ordinary person, and her hair remained a glossy brown.
She hadn’t used the Chain yet. That meant there was still time.
***
Johan went to find Mephistopheles.
Lobelia headed straight for the Imperial Palace, and Yuna made directly for Cattleya.
“That idiot?”
“Seems like Johan does have some sense of shame. He said it’d be hard to face you.”
“What is he, a little kid?”
“We are still kids.”
“That almost sounds like you’re calling me old.”
“Isn’t that just paranoia? Puhihi.”
Yuna joked lightly with Cattleya.
Cattleya, watching her, asked with a sour expression, as if she’d bitten into a bug.
“So? What did he say?”
“Oh, I’m not here because Johan sent me. I actually have a favor to ask.”
“You? From me? Hmm…”
Cattleya frowned, clearly annoyed.
“And why should I?”
From her perspective, there was no reason to grant Yuna a favor.
If it were Johan Damus, her official beneficiary, that would be one thing. But she had no intention of helping Yuna as well.
Of course, if Johan insisted, she would have no choice. The only reason she was being prickly now was because she wanted that idiot to come in person and explain what happened before.
But Yuna smiled faintly and held a dagger up in front of Cattleya’s eyes.
“One person.”
“H-Huh?”
“One person. I’ll eliminate one for you. How about it? Does that make it worth your while?”
A chill ran down her spine.
Only then did Cattleya remember that the girl before her was the assassin who had pulled out her fingernails while torturing her.
Safe Clown.
The one called the King of Assassins.
It was a radical offer.
Precisely because of that, Cattleya had no choice but to be cautious.
“What do you want from me?”
“I need to find someone. As quickly as possible.”
“…Who?”
“Ollie Vanilla.”
“That’s a cute name. What’s your relationship?”
“Hmm……”
Yuna seemed to ponder for a moment, then answered with a bitter smile.
“Maybe someone I have to kill.”
“……I won’t ask any more.”
Sensing that something about Yuna’s mood was off, Cattleya closed her mouth.
“Let’s see.”
For Cattleya Tales, finding someone was not particularly difficult. After all, there had been people who had used her for exactly that purpose until now.
“Found her.”
She had long since built a system specifically for tracking people down.
“You said you ran into her not long ago, so I figured she couldn’t have gone far. Actually, she’s still in the capital.”
Cattleya quickly wrote down Ollie’s location for Yuna.
Ollie was currently at the Andvaranaut Merchant Guild’s carriage rental depot.
“What should we do? Want me to have her held there for a bit? Or should I just tell you her destination?”
“Just tell me the destination. And if something happens, let the coachman know he should run for it.”
“……All right.”
At Yuna’s blunt declaration that she intended to attack the carriage outright, Cattleya nodded tearfully.
I’ll just consider the carriage a loss.
She gave up on the idea of ever recovering it.
It was a gut feeling.
“Well then……”
Just as Cattleya opened her mouth after mentally revising her ledger—
“Is she already gone……?”
Yuna had already disappeared.
***
She was faster than anyone.
By the time Johan was tormenting Mephistopheles and Lobelia had just arrived at the imperial palace, Yuna had already ambushed the carriage Ollie was riding in.
“Hi!”
“…….”
Ollie looked up at Yuna, who had overturned the carriage, her face completely expressionless.
Perched on the door of the toppled carriage, Yuna spoke to Ollie.
“You know why I’m here, right?”
“Yes. More or less.”
“Then I’ll ask you straight out. Are you planning to come back? Before you cross the line, why not give up on this foolish idea?”
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
Ollie shook her head.
It seemed Yuna was giving her a chance, but unfortunately, it was already too late.
“I’ve already crossed the line.”
Slash!
It happened in an instant.
Yuna lightly sprang away from the carriage, as if simply brushing herself off.
Boom!
A moment later, the carriage split clean in two and began to melt apart. From inside, Ollie stepped out with a scythe in her hand.
“That’s strange……”
Ollie was wrapped in chains.
They were heavy, intricately linked chains. Perhaps even more than the ones Melana had used.
Everything about it felt unnatural.
How could she possibly control those chains?
Ollie shouldn’t have reached that level yet. To put it bluntly, she was nowhere near that class.
Even if, by some chance, her soul was special enough to handle the chains well, something still didn’t add up.
It hadn’t been that long since Ollie had joined Under Chain.
Did it make any sense for someone like her to possess that many chains?
Chains were a symbol of executive rank. Regardless of strength, they were granted only to those who had devoted themselves to the organization for many years.
“Let me clarify a few things. I never joined Under Chain.”
“What……?”
“These chains? I just took them from them.”
Ollie tightened her grip on the scythe.
The scythe radiated an intense, oppressive power on its own, yet Ollie seemed completely unfazed.
Even though it was a force far beyond what someone at her level should have been able to endure.
“And as for my ability……”
Ollie gave a bitter smile.
It was the kind of smile that suggested she hadn’t wished for it herself.
“It’s called ‘Absorption’.”
That single word was enough for Yuna to understand what Ollie had done. And why she could never enter Under Chain.
“You…… just how many people have you killed?”
“So what? I’m only using those who deserved to die.”
Ollie was wielding her power by using other people’s souls as fuel.
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