Mushoku Tensei – JOBLESS REINCARNATION. Volume. 17.
Adulthood – Asura kingdom arc (Part 2).
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‘Chapter 9: Ariel’s Battlefield.’
OUR SETTING was one of the Silver Palace’s grand reception halls, primarily used for large gatherings and parties. Today, there was a single long table in the room. It was adorned with large, beautiful flower arrangements; plates, glasses, and cutlery were already arranged on the tablecloth. All the seats were assigned beforehand to one of the expected guests. Once the party got underway, the food would presumably be carried out to them on silver platters.
The hall was so lavishly decorated that you’d never suspect that the whole event had been thrown together in just ten days. There was something thrilling about looking out over the room, ready and waiting for its guests, before anyone else arrived.
I was officially here as a member of the staff. Eris and I stood near the entrance to the waiting room, studying the faces of the attendees as they arrived. The waiting room itself wasn’t too cramped. There was something of a pre-party going on there, with the guests milling around between tables of refreshments. Some of them wore eager, hopeful expressions. Others looked anxious. But many of them had arrived quite early.
Most of the conversation in the waiting room involved speculation about what Princess Ariel was going to say today, and how Prince Grabel’s faction might react. The tone of that chatter was mostly light—probably because none of the big names had arrived. Most of the early guests were lesser nobles who wouldn’t be too seriously affected regardless of who took the throne.
The first major player arrived a little late. It was Pilemon Notos Greyrat, accompanied by his eldest son.
Pilemon paused at the entrance to glare at me with undisguised hostility. “Hmph. Do you really think you can worm your way back into the Notos Greyrat house after all these years?”
I was a bit taken aback by the venom in his voice. “The idea never even crossed my mind, honestly.”
“Remember this, boy: by all rights, you shouldn’t even be permitted to call yourself a Greyrat.”
“Uhm… right. Okay.”
After delivering this confusing attempt at an insult, Pilemon studied the faces of the guests in the waiting room, and then disappeared into a private room reserved for the high nobility.
“What is his problem?” hissed Eris quietly. She seemed much more upset than I was.
Come to think of it… back when I was staying with the Boreas Greyrats as a kid, they all seemed to assume I was uncomfortable about my family’s awkward social position. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. But what if Paul had asked the Notos family to take me in, instead of the Boreas? What if I’d ended up tutoring one of their children? With the likes of Pilemon around, that might have been seriously miserable…
Well, it was all in the past now. Pilemon might be Paul’s little brother and my uncle, but he was also an enemy Ghislaine would kill before too long. It was for the best that I couldn’t stand the guy.
Following Pilemon’s arrival, the rest of the important guests began showing up at a steady pace. The parents of Ariel’s attendants and several members of Triss’ family were among them. The other heads of the four great houses all showed up as well. The Euros clan came first, then Zephyros, and finally Boreas.
Who’s the new head of the Boreas house again? Thomas? Gordon? It’s definitely a talking train engine kind of name…
Oh, right. James.
Much like Pilemon, he’d strode into the room with his eldest son at his side. The man looked more like Sauros than Philip had, and he had a muscular build, but his face was noticeably haggard. From what Ariel told me, he’d resigned his post as a High Minister to assume his new role as the liege lord of Fittoa. Since everything in his territory had disappeared in the Displacement Incident, he was still struggling to get his feet under him.
In a way, it was impressive that the house of Boreas hadn’t just folded under the pressure completely. Maybe they were leveraging the value of all their empty land somehow. Or maybe James was keeping them afloat through heroic personal effort.
…Heroic effort, huh?
Well… the redevelopment of Fittoa was proceeding very slowly, but the exhaustion on James’ face was proof that he wasn’t just sitting around all day. He probably had to fight hard for his own survival in the aftermath of that disaster. Although I wasn’t sure how many of the victims of the disaster would feel that much sympathy for his position…
After a brief glance our way—at Eris, in particular—James headed to a private waiting room as well.
Finally, after everyone else had already shown up, High Minister Darius arrived. His only companion was a single bodyguard.
As soon as he laid eyes on me, Darius looked away with a fearful grimace. But the bodyguard headed in my direction.
It was interesting to get a good look at the man in broad daylight for once, although it didn’t make him any less peculiar. He was dressed casually, his hair made him look like a poisonous mushroom, and there were four swords at his waist.
“It’s a great pleasure to meet you, sir. I am the North Emperor Auber Corbett, although I’m commonly referred to as Peacock Blade.”
I glanced downward and saw that Auber was standing comfortably on both legs. He didn’t even seem to have a limp. But given how wealthy Asura was, it was no surprise they had healers who could patch up an injury like that in no time.
“The pleasure’s all mine. I’ve heard quite a lot about you. My name is Rudeus Greyrat.”
“Ah, Quagmire Rudeus… or, perhaps you’d prefer Rudeus the Dragon’s Dog?”
Hmm. Would that make Orsted the new Kennel Master? How nostalgic. Back in my adventuring days I was the one holding the leash, but the tables had apparently turned. Orsted probably wouldn’t bother trying to improve the reputation of my people, though…
“My apologies, sir,” Auber continued with a smile. “I understand your party’s come under attack several times in recent days?”
“…I’m afraid so.”
“They say you warded off the cowardly ambushes of your opponents with great skill, however.”
Uh, you’re calling yourself a coward? Okay…
Auber was smiling lightly, like this was all just a little joke between us. But his eyes didn’t look amused at all. “Next time, perhaps you’ll have a fairer fight.”
For just a moment, his face became uncharacteristically serious. And then he turned and walked away.
Was that his way of declaring war?
In our two encounters so far, he seemed to have targeted me in particular. Maybe he really was the third disciple.
In any case, the single most important guest, First Prince Grabel, wasn’t coming to the waiting room at all. Instead, he was expected to show up directly in the main hall once the party began.
In other words, all the players were now assembled.
The party had now begun in earnest.
The nobles entered the hall in a specific order, and took their seats along the massive central table. I watched this all of this from the periphery of the room, where I stood along with many other bodyguards. Ariel had arranged it so that there were almost no palace guards on duty, so most of the nobles had brought their own. Eris and Ghislaine were by my side, keeping a wary eye on our surroundings.
Sylphie wasn’t here at all. She had an important part to play in the ceremonies to come, and was currently waiting elsewhere.
Ariel stood behind the place of honor at the head of the table. Once all the guests had settled into their seats, she took a step forward.
“Thank you all so much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to attend this party.”
At first, her speech of welcome was conventional enough. She began by mentioning the king’s illness, made a few remarks about the state of things in Asura, and spoke about how she’d felt watching events from afar during her studies abroad… that sort of thing.
But soon enough, her attack began.
“Now then. There is a specific reason why I’ve gathered all of you here today, as it happens. I have two people who I’d like to introduce to you.”
As Ariel spoke these words, a voluptuous woman in a beautiful dress stepped through the entrance. Without saying anything, she slowly strode across the hall to stand at Ariel’s side.
When he got a look at her face, Darius’ eyes went wide. A few other nobles at the table rose to their feet, the color draining from their faces. Those were probably the representatives of the Purplehorse family.
“This is Tristina, the second daughter of House Purplehorse. By sheer coincidence, I met her on my travels—in the most unlikely of places.”
Plucking at the hem of her dress, Triss executed a flawless curtsy. It was far smoother than anything Eris could have managed, at the very least. “Thank you very much for the introduction, Your Highness. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tristina Purplehorse.”
There was a stir of voices all around the hall. “Didn’t she go missing?” “I thought she was dead!” “That girl’s alive?” “She’s certainly blossomed into a beauty…”
Within a few moments, however, the comments began to concentrate on one question in particular.
“But… what is she doing here?”
“When I found her and took her into my protection, Tristina was in a terribly weakened state,” Ariel said. “But she told me that she had several things to say to all of you, and so I’ve brought her with me to this gathering.”
Triss stepped forward right on cue—and approached Darius, who was seated at a high place at the table. Looking at him with the disdain of someone studying a particularly filthy pig, she began to tell her story.
She didn’t speak in the rough tones of a bandit. Her words were clean, elegant, like those of a proper noblewoman. She spoke of her betrayal by her family, and of her purchase by High Minister Darius. She spoke of how he’d kept her like a pet, a dog. And she spoke of how she’d nearly lost her life following the Displacement Incident.
She told the story of how she’d survived: the bandit gang that purchased her, and her life as their leader’s plaything. Finally, she explained how Ariel had rescued her.
Triss delivered the entire (slightly dramatized) tale in a calm, steady tone of voice. It was a story carefully tweaked to tug at the heartstrings of anyone who heard it. She left out the part where she’d become a bandit herself, implying that she’d simply endured all the abuse until our party happened to rescue her.
A number of the nobles conspicuously broke into tears during the story. I had a feeling Ariel had asked them to do so beforehand. But many of the others, especially those allied with Darius, had clear expressions of shock and dismay on their faces. The members of the Purplehorse family in particular were white-faced with fear and sweating visibly.
Darius himself, however, maintained a placid expression. he gave no sign of losing his composure—on the surface, at least. It was the face of a man who’d slipped his way out of tougher spots than this before.
“And that’s the entirety of my story.”
Triss finally wrapped things up. And as she stepped back, Ariel moved forward.
“Now then,” the princess said, flashing her usual vibrant smile. “This is all quite surprising, Minister Darius. I certainly didn’t expect to have such shocking events revealed in front of everyone like this. It’s truly hard to believe… could you really have abused your power so blatantly? Kidnapped a girl of noble birth, and treated her as your personal slave?”
Her tone, calm at first, began to heat up rapidly as she continued. By now, she was spitting out the words at Darius with righteous fury in her voice.
“Is this truly how a High Minister of Asura comports themselves? Is this truly the behavior of a man who administers our entire kingdom? What an utter disgrace. Do you have anything to say for yourself, sir?”
With a disdainful snort, Darius rose slowly to his feet.
“Princess Ariel, you take your little games a bit too far today.” His narrow eyes shone with malice, he turned to face Triss. “I hardly expected you to grab some woman off the street and insist on calling her a daughter of House Purplehorse. Oh, I know that my enemies delight in spreading vicious rumors of this sort behind my back—but truly, this is the first time anyone has thrown such lies directly in my face.”
Chortling loudly, he turned to look around the room, silently encouraging the other nobles to agree that Triss was an impostor.
“You claim her story is untrue, then?” said Ariel.
“Naturally. Now, I have a question of my own for you, Princess Ariel. Do you have any proof whatsoever that this… Miss Tristina is indeed the second daughter of House Purplehorse?”
“Tristina.”
At Ariel’s prompting, Triss reached into the bosom of her dress and retrieved something.
It was a ring. It had a beautiful purple jewel at its center, with the image of a horse carved into its surface.
“Ah! An amethyst with the image of a horse. To be sure, that is what the members of House Purplehorse use to prove their identity.”
Darius had admitted all this easily enough, but his face hadn’t lost any of its composure. If anything, his smile had grown even sharper and more hateful.
“I see, I see. Since this lovely girl carries that ring, it would seem she truly is a Purplehorse…” Pausing for effect, Darius looked over both Ariel and Triss like the dirty old man he was. “Or so one might initially believe.”
The smug grin on his face in that moment was sickening to look at.
“As it happens,” he continued, “I have news of my own to share concerning Tristina Purplehorse. I’m afraid she was identified quite recently.”
“Identified?” said Ariel, tilting her head slightly.
“I’m sure you all remember, ladies and gentlemen, a certain operation we conducted in the capital about a month ago,” said Darius. “Its purpose was to round up all the members of certain criminal organizations that had taken root within the royal capital. In the course of that exercise, I’m afraid that the body of Miss Tristina was discovered.”
Ariel drew a sharp breath at this.
A month ago? He’d been preparing for this in advance, then?
“Of course, her signet ring had already been sold on the black market, so it was difficult for us to conclusively establish her identity. However, Miss Tristina’s body had a distinctive feature that only her family knew about: a crescent-moon shaped birthmark at her breast…”
Now that was just a lie, wasn’t it? Triss didn’t have any birthmark of that kind. At least, not in any place that I’d seen… and she wore very revealing clothing.
“I believe the head of House Purplehorse will be able to confirm all this for us. Isn’t that right, Lord Freitus Purplehorse?”
Still, we had no good way to prove that Darius was lying. If the head of House Purplehorse backed him up on this, this falsehood would become the truth. And if Darius then demanded that Triss expose her skin, he could “prove” her an impostor.
What now, Ariel? Were you ready for this one? Did we engrave seven scars on her chest just in case?
The princess still had her poker face smile on, but that didn’t tell me much. Hopefully she wasn’t screaming internally right now.
A man who seemed to be the head of the Purplehorse family rose quietly to his feet.
Studying him closely, I could see a definite resemblance to Triss…although his ashen face and quivering lips suggested he wasn’t much like his brazen bandit of a daughter.
“Go on, Lord Freitus. You identified the body yourself, didn’t you? You know as well as I do that Tristina is deceased, not missing.”
Like a devil whispering in your ear, Darius murmured his words in an almost soothing tone. The smile he’d turned on Freitus was probably an attempt at looking friendly.
“The woman standing before you is an impostor who has assumed Tristina’s name. Perhaps you could testify to that effect, sir? If only to bring an end to this distasteful farce? Unless you do so, I’m afraid we’ll have to ask the lady to expose herself in public, which would be most regrettable.”
Darius looked completely sure of himself. Ariel’s slight smile hadn’t left her face, either.
Freitus, on the other hand, was trembling like a newborn calf. The tension in the air was thick. I was just looking on from the sidelines, and my mouth had grown completely dry.
“M-My daughter…”
Slowly, haltingly, Freitus began to speak.
“My daughter was stolen from us… by Minister Darius…”
His words were… not exactly what I’d been expecting.
“Lord Freitus!” shouted Darius. “What are you saying?!”
“That woman standing there is my daughter, Tristina Purplehorse! There’s no doubt in my mind! Princess Ariel, I beg you—give this man his rightful punishment for the abduction and abuse of my child!”
Darius leaned forward over the table, knocking his chair back in the process. “Don’t be absurd, Freitus! You placed your seal on that identification document personally!”
Ariel smiled very slightly. “No such document exists, Lord Darius.”
“Wha—”
Ah, okay. Now I get it. Sure, that makes sense…
Ariel had already won over House Purplehorse to her side. She’d anticipated the kind of trick Darius might pull, and she’d undermined it in advance.
I had a lot to learn from this woman. Seriously.
“Now then, High Minister. Given this testimony from the head of House Purplehorse…”
Ariel still had her smile pasted on her face, but I was starting to sense some malice of her own behind it.
“It seems that you truly did kidnap, imprison, and rape an innocent girl of noble birth. Regardless of your importance to this kingdom, such crimes cannot be excused. I expect you will be punished in accordance with our laws.”
Darius’ face contorted horribly in fear and rage, and his eyes darted around the room. He no longer had a single ally sitting at that table. Now that he’d been outplayed this thoroughly, his fall was guaranteed. If his old friends had risen to his defense, perhaps he could have wriggled free. But it seemed like none of them wanted to assume the risk of being branded as his co-conspirator.
There was an easy explanation for this: they believed that First Prince Grabel was now assured the throne, even without Darius’ help. The foundations for their victory had been laid by Darius and Grabel in Ariel’s absence, and those foundations were solid. Basically, Darius’ removal from the board at this stage would only change one thing: all of them would move up one rank in the hierarchy of their faction. And whoever managed to secure Darius’ former position would become the most powerful noble in all of Asura.
All of the High Minister’s former allies, the men and women who’d eaten from his hand for years, had now abandoned him.
Darius was done.
Ariel had destroyed him. At this point, she could probably just step back, and the other nobles would drag him down all on their own. Even if he got off lightly in court, no self-respecting member of the Asuran aristocracy would miss a chance to crush one of their own.
There was only one person at this party who’d be inconvenienced by Darius’ fall. Someone who risked having his role in the man’s many schemes exposed.
“This party seems more… boisterous than I’d expected.”
The man in question had now appeared. It was almost like he’d been waiting for this very moment.
A blond, middle-aged man with a businesslike face. And his name was First Prince Grabel.
Entering the room from behind the seat of honor, he fixed his eyes sharply on Ariel—but kept his face calm and neutral.
Round two was about to begin.
***
Grabel Zafin Asura strode straight toward his younger sister without sparing a glance for anyone else in the room.
“What’s the meaning of this disgraceful commotion, Ariel? Have you forgotten that our father is seriously ill?”
“What commotion? I’m simply defending the honor of our nobility as a whole.”
“I’m saying there’s a time and a place for these things,” Grabel said, shaking his head irritably. “With our father incapacitated, the Kingdom of Asura can hardly afford to lose the many talents of our High Minister.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, his crimes are real.”
“Even if these accusations are true, Darius is a high noble, and the members of House Purplehorse are of the middle rank. It should be obvious which of them is more valuable to our kingdom.”
In my previous life, where we’d come around to saying everyone was equal, a remark like that would have gotten this guy fired from his job in no time. But this was the Kingdom of Asura; people were definitely not born equal here, and no one pretended that they were.
“I don’t dispute that, Grabel. But while I hesitate to repeat myself: his crimes are real. As a kingdom of laws, we can’t simply ignore them.”
“And so he must be punished? I see. You’re not entirely wrong, Ariel… But you know as well as I do that there are many others in this room who ought to have their deeds exposed and punished. Do you intend to toss every one of them into a jail cell?”
“Of course. If it becomes necessary.”
Reading between the lines just a little there, Ariel was promising that she wouldn’t punish anyone who was “necessary” to her. Nobody batted an eye at that, of course. It was amazing just how stinking rotten this kingdom really was.
“Hmph. So you’re convinced that punishing Darius is necessary, then. And I believe the opposite.” With a small snort of laughter, Grabel smiled condescendingly at his sister. “It seems we’re at something of an impasse, then!”
“I suppose we are,” Ariel replied.
Shaking his head theatrically, Grabel finally turned his attention to the others in the room. “Regrettably, the two of us are unable to reach a decision on this matter. The High Minister would usually mediate such disputes, but as this concerns him personally…”
Pausing, he looked around the table, studying the faces of the nobles one by one.
What’s he up to now?
“In accordance with custom, we ought to put the matter to a vote. Conveniently, it seems we have nearly all of Asura’s foremost men and women in this very room. Would you all be so kind as to decide which of us is in the right?”
It sounded almost democratic. But of course, he was only talking to the aristocrats. And what he was really asking them was: “Do you think I’m going to win this fight, or Ariel?”
There was an unspoken threat there, too. Anyone who voted against Grabel was going to be added to his list of enemies, and likely purged from power once he had the chance.
The nobles didn’t seem particularly startled by this development. They’d probably known something like this would happen in the near future. Maybe a similar event had taken place before, when Grabel was competing with the Second Prince.
In any case—they were going to decide, here and now, which side they were really on. Many of them had been secretly allied to one faction or the other for some time now, but this would be a public declaration of their loyalties. They were going to evaluate the situation as it stood, and make their decision on that basis.
Darius was broken. That was a serious loss for Grabel’s faction. However, they still had numerous other nobles of great influence and power on their side. That included Notos and Boreas of the four great houses, alongside several other high nobles.
Grabel’s forces were simply stronger. His victory was essentially guaranteed.
But just as the nobles were beginning to reach this conclusion, Ariel spoke up with a bright smile on her face. “That sounds very reasonable, Grabel. But before we come to that, there was one other person I wanted to introduce to everyone.”
“What?”
Ariel snapped her fingers. Ellemoi, who’d been waiting on the terrace outside, sent the signal using her ring.
With an ear-splitting roar, a huge column of fire spiraled up into the air just beyond the palace windows.
It was the Intermediate spell Flame Pillar, its size greatly magnified through the use of silent spellcasting techniques. The flame rose on and on into the sky, scorching the palace walls as they went. Probably went without saying, but this was all Sylphie’s handiwork.
“What is the meaning of— Wha—?!”
“Hm?!”
“It can’t be!”
The nobles had risen to their feet to watch the flames go by. The spell itself hadn’t astonished them, however. It was easy enough to see magic of that quality in the capital of Asura, if you wanted to. Instead, their eyes were fixed on what was beyond it. Something massive moved through the night sky, illuminated by the soaring flames. And it was something you didn’t see every day, even in a city like Ars.
“Is that the floating fortress?!”
“When did it arrive in Asura?!”
The floating fortress Chaos Breaker had made its arrival.
Perugius’ majestic castle approached at a speed that was downright frightening, flying so low that it seemed likely to smash right into us. And as the trembling aristocrats watched, riveted, through the windows…
It stopped right above us.
The floating fortress hung in the sky just above the Silver Palace.
The room had gone absolutely silent.
I found myself wondering exactly how Perugius was planning to get down here. He wasn’t going to jump or anything, right?
Don’t be stupid, Rudeus… The guy’s an expert on Summoning and Teleportation. He can probably beam himself down here just fine.
“Wait… is he coming?!”
“…”
“No, that can’t be true… and yet…”
The nobles were beginning to whisper to themselves now, the tension and fear on their faces giving way to excitement as they stared outside the windows.
Ellemoi had positioned herself by the door at the foot of the hall. Some of the aristocrats seemed puzzled by this—someone murmured “Wouldn’t he enter by the seat of honor?”—but no one had an explanation for them.
After a little while, we heard footsteps approaching. Based on that sound, it seemed there was only one person out there. But as some of the bodyguards had clearly sensed, he wasn’t actually alone.
There were twelve others silently accompanying him.
Those who’d noticed this were trembling where they stood. They’d realized that the stories were true.
The footsteps stopped just outside the door.
“Our guest has arrived,” said Ellemoi. It seemed like everyone in the room was holding their breath now.
But when that door finally swung open, the mood changed immediately.
“…Oh! Oh! It’s him! It’s truly him!”
A silver-haired, golden-eyed man in a white cloak walked into the room. He wasn’t a perfect match for his portrait, true; but his overpowering presence, and the twelve servants who followed close behind him, left no room for doubt.
Some of those who saw him shuddered, or flinched in fear. Others stared with deep respect and admiration in their eyes. Indifferent to all of this, he strode across the room, parting the crowd of nobles as he went.
Finally, he reached Ariel and Grabel.
His twelve spirits split into two groups of six, and positioned themselves on either side of the hall. One group now stood beside me, Ariel’s bodyguard; the other beside Auber, who served Darius. Sylvaril, who looked a little dressed up for the occasion, took the spot directly at my side. It was hard to say for sure because of his mask, but I had a sense he was in an unusually good mood.
“My thanks for your kind invitation, Ariel Anemoi Asura… But it seems I’m a bit late for the party, perhaps?”
“Not at all. The guest of honor should always be the last to enter.”
Perugius had a small smile on his face, and Ariel was beaming with delight.
Grabel, on the other hand, seemed to have no idea what to do with himself. He was just staring at Perugius with his eyes wide open.
Turning his way, Ariel called out in a voice that rang with confidence. “Everyone, allow me to introduce you to the Armored Dragon King—one of the legendary Three Godslayers.”
Perugius didn’t bow, but simply ran his eyes over the crowd in the manner of a lord. As the nobles met his gaze, they dropped hurriedly to their knees and bowed their heads in tribute.
“Greetings. I am Perugius Dola.”
It was almost comical how good he was at the role of king. He had real authority here. Real prestige. In terms of clout, he might command even more than the actual king.
“Now then, everyone, please do raise your heads. I join you tonight as a guest, nothing more, nothing less. There’s no need to show such deference to a man you’ll soon break bread with.”
At these words, the nobles rose uncertainly to their feet. Soon, the guests had all taken their places once again.
“Oh?” said Perugius, looking around the table curiously.
There were only three open seats remaining: the place of honor at the very head of the table, and two others to the side. Three attendees were still standing. Ariel, Grabel, and Perugius himself.
“Well, this is something of a problem. It seems we only have three seats available. Tell me, Ariel Anemoi Asura, Grabel Zafin Asura—which of them should I occupy?”
Grabel inhaled sharply, and others at the table swallowed audibly. This was all a farce. And if I knew that, so did everyone else in the room. They’d all picked up on who Perugius had spoken to, and in what order.
“By all means… please take… the seat of honor, Lord Perugius,” said Grabel, his voice trembling.
He couldn’t have said anything else in that moment. He was as overwhelmed as anyone else. Perugius had no authority to decide the next king, or to assign himself a seat at this table. There was no need for Grabel to yield so easily.
Someone at the table could have pointed this out. Ordinarily, someone would have. But in this moment, most of the guests were incapable of considering the matter so calmly and so coldly. There were probably a few exceptions, but they were too reluctant to swim against the current and place themselves in danger.
By this point, they understood why Ariel had destroyed Darius just before she staged this scene.
Perugius spoke, in a tone of voice that was almost casual, and no one dared to interrupt him.
“No, I think not. I’ve spent too many years away from this country to plant myself in the seat belonging to its next ruler.”
Reaching over, he pushed gently at Ariel’s back—at the same time as he spoke the words next ruler.
“Ariel, you take it instead. I’ll content myself with the chair at your side.”
In that moment, every noble in the room knew that Ariel would be queen.
***
Ariel had triumphed.
She had used me to ward off Auber, her own talents to control Luke, Triss to bring down Darius, and Perugius to defeat Grabel. And now her victory was assured.
Of course, she’d probably have many other battles to fight in the coming years. But in this moment, she had triumphed. Darius and Grabel had no cards that could trump Perugius.
But of course, those two weren’t the only players in this game.
“…Lord Perugius!”
Just as Sylvaril cried out those words, the ceiling of the hall caved in.
A grand chandelier smashed to the ground, crushing a noble underneath it. Flying fragments of stone and metal wounded several others.
The scale of the damage wasn’t particularly large. It was only the section of ceiling at the very center of the table that had fallen.
No—it wasn’t the ceiling that had fallen. It was a woman. She’d plunged down from above, ripping straight through it. She was small in stature, and her skin was wrinkled with age. She held her gorgeous golden-yellow sword as if it was a walking stick.
There was a little old lady standing in the middle of the rubble.
“Good grief. Guess this is what that prophecy was about…”
She murmured to herself as she hopped down onto our stage. And with a fierce glance around the room, she called out to one player in particular.
“Well, I suppose I’m here to save you.”
It was the Water God Reida Lia, and she’d spoken those words to Darius.
The Man-God had just played his final card.
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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.
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