The next day.
“You’re here, Young Master.”
When I stepped outside, a middle-aged knight was quietly waiting for me.
With chestnut-brown hair and a finely groomed beard, he looked unusually free-spirited for a knight.
Deckard Lamont.
He was the knight who would be guarding me today.
“You’re early, Sir Deckard.”
“I could hardly keep you waiting, Young Master.”
Deckard gave a faint chuckle as he answered.
“Shall we? I’ll escort you to the Forest of Longing.”
“It barely takes any time to get there.”
“Of course it does not. But if you intend to look sickly, will it not take rather longer than you think?”
“Fair point.”
I had already started playing the part of the sickly young master from the moment I left my room.
But Deckard was one of the people who knew I was only pretending to be sickly.
The reason I did not hide my true self from him was simple.
‘I trust him.’
Because I knew the man he had been in my previous life.
“You really are good at this. Who could possibly look at you like this and think you were healthy?”
“Father knows.”
“His Grace does not count.”
His Grace is an exception, Deckard added with a laugh.
“Young Master, you have always been rather unusual.”
“I have.”
“Haha. You are not even going to deny it?”
“What can I do when I’m exceptional?”
“Ah, if you were my squire, I’d have smacked you once by now. What a shame.”
“Haha, but I outrank you, don’t I? You can’t hit me. That’s how hierarchy works, right?”
“You’re driving me insane.”
Deckard let out a small sigh and shook his head.
“Lady Selaine and the young lady really ought to see this side of you.”
“Mother and Sister should only ever see my good side. That’s filial piety and knowing how to conduct yourself in society.”
“Ah, yes…….”
Deckard gave a halfhearted nod, his expression going flat.
“In any case, what brought on this sudden change of heart? Until now, you have always been so reluctant to leave your room.”
“There’s something bothering me.”
“……Something bothering you?”
“Yes. This Trial. Don’t you think it presents too good an opportunity? From the First Wife and First Young Master’s perspective.”
“……!”
“The Trial is harsh. There have been members of the bloodline who died during it in the past.”
“……Are you saying the First Wife may interfere with this Trial?”
“That’s what I think.”
Deckard’s expression completely hardened.
“If that is true, this is an enormous matter. If it comes to light, blood may well flow throughout the House.”
“There’s no physical evidence. Even if we caught them at the scene, they probably wouldn’t have left anything that could be traced back to them.”
“…….”
“Besides, Father didn’t seem completely unaware either. I don’t know exactly what he’s thinking, though.”
“Hmm…… In that case, informing the others in the House would be a poor course of action, would it not?”
“Yes. A considerable number of people in the House have probably already been brought over to the First Wife’s side. It would definitely be a poor move.”
“Then the best course of action would be…….”
“There’s a variable the First Wife would never have considered right here.”
I pointed at myself.
“Me. That’s the best move.”
“……What?”
Deckard stared at me with wide eyes.
Then, apparently sensing what I meant, he looked at me pleadingly.
“Surely…… you do not mean what I think you mean?”
“Haha.”
“No, Young Master, please!”
“Hahaha.”
I merely laughed.
***
“Will this be enough?”
The First Wife asked her son, Schubert, with a vicious smile.
“I prepared everything exactly as you wanted. I even secured an ‘excellent individual’ who will never reveal any connection to my family or to us.”
“Good.”
Schubert smiled.
He had received considerable support from his maternal family for this plan, and had personally invested a great deal of time and money as well.
All for one purpose.
To eliminate Arwin.
If he could get rid of Arwin, the future of Messiah would fall into his hands.
After all, no one else would remain who could become Messiah’s successor.
The First Wife looked at him worriedly.
“Still, I wonder whether that black mage we secretly infiltrated into the forest will actually do his job properly.”
“You mean Rasel?”
“Yes. I heard he was a failure who was expelled from the Magic Tower.”
“Ah, you do not need to worry about that. He was not expelled because he lacked ability. He was simply unlucky.”
Rasel, the black mage at the heart of this plan, had not originally been a black mage.
However, he had committed a grave crime the Magic Tower could not tolerate and had been expelled, causing him to fall into black magic.
“……Unlucky?”
“Yes. Human experimentation, apparently. He was caught after abducting several demihumans and experimenting on them.”
“Oh, dear…….”
The First Wife shook her head.
Then she continued with an expression of genuine pity.
“How unfortunate. It would have been fine if he had simply not been caught.”
“Exactly. He is far more capable than you seem to think. He has quite a talent for creating chimeras.”
“I see.”
The First Wife nodded.
There was nothing particularly wrong with human experimentation.
Was it not all a noble sacrifice for the advancement of magic?
All that mattered was not getting caught.
“Do you intend to eliminate that wench with a chimera?”
“Yes. We have prepared a curse as well, so it should be more than enough to eliminate her.”
Schubert had no doubt whatsoever that the plan would succeed.
The chimera prepared beneath the forest.
Furthermore, because the Sanctuary was sacred ground, there was no chance the chimera’s existence would be discovered.
‘Even Father should not be able to perceive everything that happens inside the Sanctuary.’
The plan was as good as successful already.
The First Wife spoke.
“Your grandfather has quite high expectations for this.”
“Yes. Do not worry, Mother.”
Schubert replied with a vicious smile.
“There is no possibility of failure.”
***
Before carrying out my plan, I went to see Arwin first.
She was standing at the entrance to the forest, calmly taking deep breaths as she prepared herself.
“Are you all right, Sister?”
“Ah, little brother.”
Arwin smiled at me, visibly pleased to see me.
“So you came after all. Honestly, when you’re still in poor health…….”
“It was right for me to come.”
When I took Arwin’s hand, the trembling in it stopped.
“……Yeah. I suppose it was.”
Arwin nodded, then spoke to Deckard behind me.
“Please look after my little brother, Uncle.”
“Er…… yes. Do not worry.”
Deckard glanced at me with a distinctly uncomfortable expression as he answered.
Had things ended there, it might have been a perfectly pleasant send-off with no problems whatsoever.
But things in this world rarely went exactly as one hoped.
“So this is where you were.”
An irritating voice reached my ears.
“Arwin, and…… Oh, is that Sigmund? Haha! I never expected to see you here!”
It was Schubert.
Arwin’s hand, still holding mine, tightened slightly.
“……You came.”
“It is my little sister’s first Trial. Of course I had to come personally.”
Schubert looked at Arwin with eyes practically dripping with affection, as though he were genuinely concerned for her.
“Do your best, Arwin. I know you can do well.”
“……Yes.”
Arwin merely gave a slight nod.
For her, simply refraining from openly displaying hostility was probably already the best she could manage.
Just then, a knight approached.
“My Lady, it is time.”
“Okay.”
Arwin nodded and stood before the entrance.
RUMBLE—!
The entrance sealing off the Forest of Longing slowly began to open.
“So it begins.”
Schubert looked tense.
But hidden within his eyes was a base sense of anticipation.
What an ironic thing.
The person who hated him most had ended up understanding him best.
While I was thinking that, my sister entered through the opening.
Schubert stared at the entrance she had disappeared through for quite some time before speaking to me.
“Come to think of it, Sigmund. Has your health improved lately?”
“Yes, it has…… cough, cough! Improved considerably, Brother…….”
“My, my…….”
Schubert looked at me with an expression of sincere concern.
“The same blood flows through our veins. As your elder brother, I truly worry about your health.”
“…….”
What absolute bullshit.
I nearly swore aloud, but forced it back down.
Schubert looked at me and spoke gently.
“Sigmund.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“For a moment, <Sit.>”
The nuance was slightly different.
Until now, his words had merely sounded like ordinary conversation.
But this time, there was compulsion embedded within them.
And I…… knew very well when he spoke like that.
‘This bastard, don’t tell me…….’
Was he giving me an order to check how far the curse had progressed?
You?
Ordering me?
Murderous intent surged up inside me.
If all I wanted was to kill Schubert, cutting his throat right here would not have been impossible.
But I considered it for only a moment.
Thump.
I dropped straight to the ground.
For now, I would play along exactly as he wanted.
“Huh? Wh-Why are my legs…….”
“Ah, dear…… Your health truly must still be poor.”
After confirming that I had collapsed, Schubert helped me to my feet with a concerned expression.
Of course—
‘He’s smiling.’
He had not quite managed to stop the corners of his mouth from curling upward.
“Take care of yourself.”
Schubert lightly patted my shoulder a few times before walking away.
Deckard, who had watched the entire exchange from behind, approached and asked,
“What did the First Young Master just do? You suddenly collapsed.”
“Just a dirty little trick.”
It left a bad taste in my mouth, but there was nothing to be done about it.
At least now Schubert would mistakenly believe that the curse he had placed on me was working properly.
“Let’s go, Sir Deckard.”
“……You truly intend to do this?”
Deckard asked again, looking thoroughly reluctant.
“We have to. I already told you. This is the best course of action.”
“That is exactly what I mean…….”
Deckard looked toward the forest and sighed before speaking again.
“So there is currently a dangerous black mage waiting inside the forest to assassinate the young lady, and your grand plan for stopping him is for you and me to secretly infiltrate the Sanctuary, cut off the black mage’s head, and come back out. And you are calling that the best course of action?”
“You understand perfectly.”
“…….”
Deckard fell silent and pressed his fingers against his forehead.
“……If it weren’t for the request of that damned friend of mine, I wouldn’t be going through any of this.”
“I know this puts a burden on you too. That’s why I prepared a reward.”
“A reward……?”
Deckard tilted his head.
“I guarantee you’ll be extremely excited once you hear what it is. I’m certain you’ll be satisfied.”
“……What are you trying to sell me this time?”
“Sell you something? I have never made an empty boast in my life.”
“Ah, yes. Of course.”
Deckard answered halfheartedly and started walking.
“Let us go. Whether my head gets cut off because something happens to you, or because I infiltrated the Sanctuary, there is not much difference anyway.”
“I told you, that won’t happen.”
“It is fine. What is there to life? If I die, I die. Haha.”
He really did not trust a word I said.
Well, his eyes would probably pop out once he received his reward later.
In any case, since the Sanctuary was the site of the Trial, it was sealed off.
But that did not mean there was absolutely no way inside.
Avoiding the surrounding gazes, Deckard and I secretly headed toward a hidden entrance to the forest.
At a glance, there was nothing unusual about the place.
Trees blocked the path, making it appear impossible to go any farther, but they were merely an illusion.
“These trees are illusions, so you can just walk through them.”
“……How in the world do you know about a place like this?”
“Who knows?”
I evaded the question.
There was no way to explain that I knew because of memories from my previous life.
“We do not know what may be inside, so I shall enter first.”
Deckard immediately pushed through the illusion and stepped inside.
I followed him.
“Oh, this is…….”
The moment he saw the state of the forest beyond the entrance, Deckard’s expression completely hardened.
“This is certainly no ordinary matter.”
“Right?”
The space before us was filled with pitch-black mist.
Demonic energy, the source of black magic.
It was proof that the black mage had prepared thoroughly.