The day we went home!

For one last outing, I went into the capital with my brothers, Khalid, and Grandpa to play around in the city.

Boyd had apparently fallen into shopping addiction and was scooping up every bit of random junk he could find, including a diary, while Liam, naturally, made a beeline for the bookstore.

Grandpa swept through the weapon shops, and Kal, as always, wandered around looking at the things I was looking at with that indifferent face of his.

“You know, this is weird. I didn’t buy anything, so why do I have the most luggage?”

I stared at the gift boxes piling up in the carriage and muttered it with complete sincerity.

“Maybe they reproduce.”

Dad said it offhandedly and lifted me into the carriage in one smooth motion.

Inside, Mom was already there, scrubbing down her bow until it squeaked.

“Ruby, I think once we get back to the North, I really need to teach you properly how to shoot.”

“Yeees! I’d love that!”

“Hoho. Then I’m riding a horse! I’m in too good a mood not to~”

And I’ll clear the road too~

Before Dad could stop her, Mom lightly switched over to horseback.

Liam and Boyd were in the second carriage, and Khalid and Grandpa were in the carriage right behind us.

(Sorry, Kal.... I’ll switch seats with you later.)

While comforting the Duke, who looked oddly downcast now that his wife ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) had ridden off, I unfolded the little table and wrote letters to Sortie and Jerdin.

The carriage started moving.

At last, after all the chaos of life in the capital, we were finally going back!

“Ruby. Your pocket feels kind of hot.”

Dad, pressed close beside me while criticizing my earthworm-like handwriting, said that.

“Huh?”

I hurriedly opened the little handbag slung across me at an angle. Inside was a scrap of paper trembling faintly.

“Oh, this. It’s magic paper....”

The edge of the paper was slowly burning away in blue.

It was a magic tool that let you exchange short messages with whoever held the matching piece.

Once the magic built into the paper ran out, that was the end of it. It was almost disposable.

The woman who gave this to me....

By now, she’d probably crossed the Babilon border.

“Mm....”

After sneaking a glance at Dad, I slowly set the paper down on the table.

For some reason, I still felt a little embarrassed using magic in front of him.

Of course, this one just has magic built into it, so it’s not like I’m using my own power.

Still... somehow....

The moment I laid a hand on it, glowing blue letters rose above the paper.

“Ha.”

Dad, resting his chin on one hand, let out a short sigh of amazement. Then a large hand dropped onto my head.

“To think a brave, capable, adorable little mage like this is my daughter.”

It felt like the number of adjectives had increased....

“Heh....”

“Still, that paper certainly has all sorts of uses.”

“It can only exchange short messages, though....”

Dad stared at the paper, which had now grown to about half a bookshelf page in size.

“So. She got away all right? That woman.”

“...Yeah! Thanks to you!”

On the paper floated the words:

< Thank you, Rubian. >

That familiar handwriting belonged to the second.

“Dad! Don’t kill her!”

That day, I had barely managed to stop Dad from killing the second.

His sharp blade had avoided her vital points and pierced straight through the place where her mark lay before stopping.

At the moment when the Mage King’s magic had swelled to its fullest—

I immediately shattered the second’s magic core.

Once the vessel that held her magic was broken, the mark’s connection was severed, and the Mage King’s magic dissolved into nothing.

Of course... it had been an enormous gamble.

A mage whose core was destroyed could die on the spot, and no one would find that strange.

But I’d seen it happen before, back in Canalan Gorge....

I had let the boy mages from the mage corps go that way too.

“......I broke your magic core. Your injuries are severe, so with that frail body of yours, who knows how much longer you’ll live....”

“Hngh....”

“But your mark should have lost its power.”

Dad secretly had someone carry her into the townhouse dungeon and treat her.

I pretended to hole up in my room and kept watch over the second.

“Consider it repayment for the records. I think I’ve done my part too....”

The second had asked me to erase her mark.

The second had wished not to die a pointless death.

“Once the major wounds heal, run. If you want to live, I mean. You too... find yourself a place to belong.”

“Seventh....”

“You know, my name is Rubian.”

“.......”

“Rubian Zebbert. You should make yourself a decent name too. Oh, and the one on that restorer application wasn’t bad.”

The second clenched her teeth while tears streamed down her face.

A woman like a painting, one who had stood at the Mage King’s right hand.

A bystander and hypocrite who valued her own life above all else, yes, but still... even so.

“......Seventh, put this wound-regeneration salve on it. I’ll leave the formula here too, so take it.”

“.......”

“Don’t say I gave it to you. My father hates it when I get involved myself....”

Because sometimes, that hypocrisy, hurled like a stone inside the Magic Kingdom, had made it just a little easier for me to breathe.

Well. I have no idea whether someone who spent her whole life in the royal palace will actually manage to survive out there.

A life harsher than death might be waiting for her.

Still, whatever happened next was her life.

Of course, it’s not like I saved the second because I’m just that nice.

The second was a woman who knew all kinds of things about the Magic Kingdom.

......When the day comes to bring that Kingdom down.

The information she held would help somehow.

The blank space on the magic paper wasn’t large.

So we had agreed to use it only when necessary.

I hesitated for a moment, then moved my finger.

There was one last thing I wanted to ask the second.

< Do you... remember what I was like before I went to war? I mean when I was very little...? >

Careful not to let Dad catch on, I slowly wrote the words.

< Like who gave birth to me. >

My early childhood, the part I couldn’t remember.

One day, all at once, a question had come to me.

A question so fundamental that I couldn’t believe I had never thought of it until now.

When I was born... had Wigeria already been there?

Then where was I born? Where had this body come from?

The blue letters sank in.

Rustle.

The edge of the paper burned away with blue light.

< No. >

The words rose a little slowly, full of hesitation.

< You... were brought in one day out of nowhere by the Mage King. No one knew where you came from. >

I stared silently at the paper.

< But I thought the Mage King would have told you. If you don’t know either, then.... >

Rustle.

Ash rose from the paper and drifted out the window.

< Then where did you come from? >

*****

Khalid sat inside the rocking carriage with his hands clamped over his ears.

“You little brat. I’m talking to you, and you’re making it obvious you don’t want to listen?!”

“Please, just leave me alone....”

“What was that?! If you say it like that, it just makes me want to hover around you more!”

“Ah!”

Ruby, please, switch seats with me....

Kal writhed in misery.

“Your Grace, Your Grace. Please look at this blueprint. A rather fine piece came into one of the capital’s shops, didn’t it?”

Fortunately, Morris rescued Kal.

“Hmm. That’s true. Let’s see now. Shall we start by marking the parts that would drive that bastard Madix insane? We should black those out first.”

“You are truly evil.”

“Heh heh heh.”

Balrok and Morris instantly sank into the world of blueprints together.

Only then did Kal finally get a moment of peace to sink into his thoughts.

He remembered a note he had carried inside himself the whole time.

The one I copied down from the cave where I was imprisoned....

That exact phrase had been written on the inside of the iron shackles that bound him.

Nag-re Me Rop.

But that wasn’t it.

“Ancient language has several writing orders.”

Rubian had said that.

Then if it wasn’t meant to be read the way you read an ordinary book...

If it’s read backward.

Pro Me Regna.

He repeated the words silently to himself.

Before leaving the capital, Kal had secretly gone to see Yuliope Moulton without Rubian knowing.

“Hmm? You’re curious about this phrase?”

The professor, his face haggard, had been delighted that so many students had suddenly taken an interest in ancient language these days.

“Yeah, well.”

“Ah, this isn’t a particularly difficult phrase.”

Kal wet his lips nervously.

“This is a script that was used quite often in ancient royal palaces.”

“......Royal palaces?”

“Pro Me Regna.”

Yuliope smiled gently and added,

“It means, ‘For my king.’”