Fiance (3)
"Q-Quickly, use spatial transfer!"
Just as I was getting used to the pressure pressing down across my entire body, a desperate shout rang out.
Fwaaaash—!
A blue magic circle appeared beneath the mages' feet.
'Judging from the coordinates engraved into the spell, they're planning to flee back to Ailasis territory?'
After causing all this chaos in the middle of someone else's domain, they wanted to run away.
Just as I was about to order the waiting Skeletons to fire—
"Where do you think you're going?"
A compressed spike floating in the air shot forward and pierced straight through the forehead of the mage casting the spatial transfer spell.
SPLAT—!
"Pierced" wasn't even enough to describe it.
His entire head exploded.
"Damn it, Lady Ciel!"
"Do you truly intend to make an enemy of the main house?!"
The remaining three mages tried to sound intimidating, but the sight was almost laughable.
'Shaking in fear while trying to act tough. Like frightened dogs barking.'
The situation had spiraled unexpectedly, but I couldn't just stand here and do nothing.
"All forces, prepare to fire."
The moment I raised my hand and gave the order, the Skeletons summoned across the rooftops simultaneously aimed their stone crossbows.
"Kh...!"
"We can't win this. Retreat! We're retreating!"
With no visible escape route left, the remaining three mages made their decision quickly.
Wooooong—!
Two of the mages stepped forward and simultaneously deployed identical defensive barriers.
"Mila! Hurry!"
"I know!"
Meanwhile, the female mage who had been arguing with me earlier began chanting a group transfer spell.
But only for a moment.
"W-What?!"
"What is this?! Why are we being pushed backward?!"
The two mages maintaining the defensive barriers hurriedly stumbled backward.
As though something invisible was forcing them away.
"Don't you dare lower your shields. Understood?"
With those words, Ciel calmly took several steps forward.
And at the same time, the mages chanting their spells were pushed farther back.
'...She's planning to crush the shields themselves?'
The instant that thought crossed my mind, the mages' faces turned pale.
They too had realized Ciel's intention.
"M-My Lady?! Please stop!"
"To die crushed by our own magic—this, this is...!"
"Isn't it amusing?"
Ciel's voice, her hands gently folded before her, sounded incomparably gentle.
"If you keep the shields up, you get crushed to death along with them. But if you lower them, your heads get pierced by compressed spikes."
Craaaack—!
The woman standing furthest back had her jawbone shattered under the pressure.
"Mmmgh—! Mmmghhh—!!"
Hearing her pain-filled screams, Ciel continued speaking with visible satisfaction.
"As punishment for ruining my memory date with Klein, don't you think this is quite an entertaining game?"
Even as she spoke, the pressure crushing the mages continued to intensify.
Crack! Craaack—!
"Mmph—! Mmmphhh—!"
At this point they couldn't even open their mouths to chant spells anymore.
All they could do was wait to be crushed like insects as the shields pressed closer and closer toward them.
"No...! Don't...!"
The irony of being crushed by the very shields they themselves had cast.
'Yeah, this is going too far.'
Watching the scene, I extended my arm and blocked Ciel's line of sight.
"That's enough, Ciel."
At my words, the shields crushing them came to a halt.
As the horrific pain ceased, the mages looked up at me and Ciel with trembling eyes.
The arrogant attitude they had displayed earlier had vanished long ago.
"If you kill them all, we won't be able to interrogate them."
Only after I added that remark did the pressure suffocating the area completely disappear.
"Huff...! Haaah...!"
"Fuck...! What, what the hell was that...?!"
Freed from the pressure, the mages gasped desperately for breath.
Like pigs released from a slaughterhouse, they wept in relief.
Watching them, Ciel looked at them with icy eyes, as though she had already lost interest.
"If we leave them alone like this, they might try to run away again."
"No, they won't."
Dusting off the dirt on my clothes, I answered her calmly.
"Our knights aren't that incompetent."
And the moment I said that—
"Over here!"
"Surround them!"
Along with Dunkel's voice, armored knights rushed in from every direction.
"Leinrant...?"
"H-How did they arrive so quickly?!"
The knights had departed the estate the moment the spatial transfer magic activated.
The Banshee I had stationed in the sky had already placed them under surveillance.
According to the original plan, all I had to do was buy time until the knights arrived.
'Though I definitely didn't expect things to escalate this much in such a short time....'
As if none of it had happened, Ciel's expression had already returned to calm serenity.
While I recalled the grotesque magic she had displayed, Dunkel finished surrounding the enemies and approached me.
"Young Master, are you unharmed?"
"No problem. Bind those people first."
The moment I pointed at the mages, they flinched violently.
The knights' blades were already aimed at their throats.
If they tried to chant even a single spell, their windpipes could be cut open instantly.
"These scoundrels used fire magic in the middle of the city."
At the testimony of me—the young master of Leinrant—the eyes of the knights immediately flared with fury.
"Fire magic?"
"These bastards...!"
Magic.
And among all magic, fire magic was practically taboo to northerners.
The climate here was dry year-round, and most buildings were made of wood.
In this region, the most dangerous disaster of all was none other than fire itself.
'To bring idiots into the North who don't even understand something this basic.'
Maybe the situation had been so urgent they had no choice.
Or perhaps they simply didn't care enough to think about it.
Either way, it was equally absurd.
"W-We are mages of Ailasis! We have diplomatic immunity—!"
THUD!
Cutting off the mage mid-protest, I kicked upward into his jaw.
"Gghk...!"
"You used fire magic in the middle of a northern city, and you're talking about immunity?"
Even though I hadn't intended it, anger seeped into my voice.
The other knights likely felt the same way.
"Go scream all you want in the underground prison."
At that single command, the knights rushed forward and shackled the mages with restraining devices.
"W-Wait...!"
"This is tyranny! We will formally send a letter to the main hou—Aaaagh?!"
They didn't even have time to properly protest.
Perhaps due to Head Butler Berkman's arrangements, an escort carriage that had already been prepared loaded them up and immediately sped toward the estate.
"Haa...."
"There's already a mountain of work to do, and now there's another mountain beyond it."
A member of the Ailasis ducal family murdered by the duke's own daughter.
I couldn't even begin to imagine how I was supposed to report this to Heinkel.
"That's such a shame. It was our first date."
Inside the carriage returning to the estate.
Sitting across from me, Ciel gazed sadly between my face and the city of Leinrant growing distant behind us.
The corners of her reddened eyes were damp, as if she were genuinely upset.
"...Today isn't the only day we have. If the chance comes, we can go again."
"R-Really?"
"Yes."
The square lump of flesh Ciel had created, and the blood splattered everywhere.
Looking at it, I let out a low sigh.
On the surface, she looked like an exceptionally beautiful young lady.
But from my perspective, being around Ciel was pure suffering.
'That face... and she turned those mages into that....'
A perfectly square mass of flesh made by crushing a human being.
The moment I pictured that horrifying scene together with her innocent-looking face, chills naturally ran down my spine.
'Break off the engagement. As quickly as possible.'
The conclusion I'd reached when I first met her only became firmer.
I already didn't know how to deal with ordinary noble ladies, and now my future spouse was supposed to be a lunatic like this?
And on top of that, a mage stronger than I currently was?
No thanks.
Absolutely no thanks!
I'd rather be beaten to death!
"Shall I kill them?"
"Cough—!?"
Ciel suddenly spoke as though responding directly to the scream inside my heart, making me choke on my breath.
"Are you alright, Klein?"
"I'm fine...! Fine. More importantly, what exactly did you mean just now...?"
Trying desperately to calm my startled heart, I asked.
Ciel answered without hesitation.
"The mages who were escorted away. I was thinking it might be better to simply eliminate them."
To speak so casually about killing members of her own family.
'She really isn't sane.'
Even while thinking that, I shook my head and replied.
"If we had killed them all on the spot, it would've become a pretext for conflict between the houses."
"A conflict?"
"Yes. They were probably sent while anticipating that possibility to some degree."
Deliberately sending members of a noble house into danger, then using their deaths as justification to seize territory.
One of the classic scripts nobles often used.
"But if we keep them alive instead?"
"Ah...!"
By the time I reached that point, Ciel seemed to understand and finished my explanation herself.
"We can use their testimony to prove our innocence and place responsibility on the Ailasis side?"
"Exactly."
Even though it involved screwing over her own family, Ciel kept letting out impressed exclamations as if she found it fascinating.
...Well, that family had tried to kill her.
Thinking that, we continued talking for a while longer.
"Young Master. We've arrived."
Along with the coachman's voice, the carriage door opened.
"Hooo—!"
This damned household never had a peaceful day.
Still, perhaps sacrificing myself to buy time had been worth it.
The estate, which I had returned to after only half a day, looked noticeably cleaner.
"Paul, I'm back. Open the gate."
After guiding Ciel, our guest, to a private room, I called out to the gatekeeper standing watch at the estate entrance.
Then I waited absentmindedly for the gate to open when—
"Y-Young Master Klein Leinrant, Second Young Master of the House, has just returned—!"
"Whoa, you startled me?!"
Normally, he would've lazily greeted me while casually opening the gate.
But for some reason, today he was standing ramrod straight and shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Hey, what's wrong with you? Did you eat something weird?"
"No, sir—!"
"No, seriously, why are you yelling all of a sudden? You can just open the gate like usual—"
"No, sir—!"
My head already hurt enough because of Ciel, and now this too?
Shaking my head, I entered the estate—only to tilt it again in confusion.
"...Did these people all collectively lose their minds?"
The knights who usually strutted around in training clothes showing off their muscles were all dressed neatly in formal uniforms.
The guards. The maids.
Even Delline, of all people, stood atop the second-floor staircase looking immaculate as if he were acting in a stage play.
"Ah, K-Klein! Y-You're back?"
Hearing Delline's painfully awkward laugh, I strode straight up the stairs.
Bringing my face close to his, I asked in a chilling voice.
"What is this?"
A tone closer to a threat than a question.
But Delline only laughed awkwardly.
"W-What do you mean? This is just our estate as usu—"
"Quit talking nonsense. What the hell happened for everyone to act like this? Is the Emperor coming or something?"
Sweating profusely while avoiding my gaze, Delline continued trying to dodge the question with his eyes.
Then, from behind me, a voice spoke.
"I'm relieved to see you still get along so well, Klein."
An unfamiliar voice.
And yet, one I recognized immediately.
At once, tension filled my waist.
"T-This voice...."
Barely managing to steady my trembling body, I slowly turned around to confirm the owner of the voice.
"You haven't forgotten your own mother's voice, have you?"
A middle-aged noblewoman dressed in an elegant gown stood there looking at me.
It was Marchioness Priscilla.