"...Ma..."
My body feels heavy...
"...Te...ma..."
I can't move...
"...Ten...ma..."
Something nostalgic, a scent I recognize...
"Tenma!"
"Wha... Mom...?"
Mom is right in front of me.
"Hm? Tenma, you're awake?"
Dad is here too.
"You were tossing and turning like crazy, you know."
"A... ah, was I...?"
Without a doubt, this is a dream. Mom and Dad are both gone from this world. And though I couldn't pinpoint exactly why, something about the Mom and Dad in front of me felt different somehow.
"Mom, Dad... My body won't move, though..."
"Well, what do you expect? You were attacked by a pack of Fenrir, after all."
"Yes, when I first saw you, I thought both you and the Fenrir were dead. Your injuries were that severe, so it might take a considerable amount of time to recover. The fact that you're alive is a miracle in itself... If only, though... if only..."
Despite sensing something strongly off about their words, I found myself more bothered by what Mom had muttered under her breath than by the content of what they'd said.
"Hey, Tenma. Are you really unable to move? Not even a little?"
"Ah, no, I can move a little, but it feels really heavy."
I couldn't lift my hand, but if I concentrated, although I couldn't channel any force, I could slowly close my fingers.
When I told this to Mom,
"I see... Well, then there's no choice."
Mom murmured that, and with cold eyes, she drove a knife into my chest.
"Eh... Mom..."
"Hey, Celia! You'll ruin the bed!"
"Fa...ther..."
I couldn't comprehend either the fact that Mom had suddenly stabbed me with a knife, or that Father was more worried about the bed than me.
"It doesn't matter, does it? Once we sell this thing that killed the Fenrir, we can buy as many new beds as we want. Besides, it's more trouble to keep this useless thing alive."
"Well, that's true. But make sure to wrap it in a sheet so its blood doesn't get on the floor. We'll dispose of it together later."
"Yes, please do. Still, I didn't know what to do when you picked this up on a whim. I couldn't tell you to throw it away in front of everyone."
"But still, it made money in the end, so isn't that fine?"
"True. Just looking after it for a few years got us three Fenrir materials. If we only look at the result, it's excellent."
"Right! And I've never heard of a Fenrir cub being obtained in pristine condition. If we taxidermy it, collectors will pay any price!"
Watching the two of them twist their faces in ugly sneers, my consciousness faded...
"Tenma! Shiromaru is going to leave!"
"Huh? What?"
"Shiromaru! He's running off somewhere!"
It seemed I had been asleep for a little while, as my consciousness cleared at the sound of Jeanne's slightly angry voice.
"Hurry and go get him!"
"R-right, got it!"
Urged on by Jeanne, I leapt from the carriage and chased after Shiromaru, who had shrunk to the size of a bean, but no matter how hard I pushed, I couldn't close the gap.
I kept pursuing for a while and was finally just about close enough to grab Shiromaru's tail when I noticed someone standing ahead of him.
"Watch ou—huh?"
The instant I thought that person and Shiromaru would collide, Shiromaru slipped right through them. No, maybe it only looked that way, but the fact was Shiromaru kept running without hitting the person at all.
"Tenma!"
"Grandpa..."
The person standing in Shiromaru's path was Grandpa. However, I wasn't surprised to see him there — or rather, I didn't even have time to be surprised. Because the moment Grandpa appeared in front of me after Shiromaru had passed through him and I hastily slowed down, he bashed me with his beloved walking stick.
"If you had used 'Tempest' back then... when the Dragon Zombie appeared, you could have saved Celia, Ricardo... and so many others from the village! But instead, you were too afraid to risk your own life and let them all die! Because of you, everyone is dead! Die and atone for it!"
While I lay on the verge of death with my face crushed from the first blow, Grandpa brought his stick down on me again and again...
"It has been a long time, Tenma. Have you been keeping well?"
"Huh... ah, yes, it's been a while. I've been—guh!"
Even though this was in front of the King, I froze for a moment, not understanding how I had ended up in a place like this, but I quickly remembered that I had been reunited with Grandpa and was meeting the King and the others in the royal castle.
And the instant I bowed my head, I sensed someone aiming at me from behind a pillar, so I tried to dodge the attack and identify who it was, but my feet refused to leave the floor as if they were glued to it, and in my confusion, an arrow struck my neck.
Normally, this would be a fatal wound, but I figured that if I pulled the arrow out immediately and healed myself with magic, I shouldn't die, so I hurried to act — but maybe there was some kind of paralytic agent on the arrow, because I couldn't move my arms at all and collapsed right where I stood.
I could still move my head, just barely, so I looked in the direction the arrow had come from, and the one who had shot it revealed herself. Stepping out from behind the pillar was... Tida.
"Well done, Tida!"
"Yes, truly... A hero who slays dragons doesn't get to live a happy life. As long as there's a chance you could damage the royal family's authority and interests, it's far more convenient if you're dead — much easier to use you that way, for all sorts of things."
Looking down at me collapsed on the ground, the King and Maria sneered and praised Tida.
"I think it would be better to frame it as Prince Tida having prevented an adventurer who harbored grudges against the nobility over the Kukuri Village incident and was targeting an audience with His Majesty to carry out their crime."
Hardly had I heard Din's voice from behind me when four swords plunged into my prone body.
"Jeanne, chop off this guy's head already!"
"I'll leave that honor to the captain."
"My sword would get dirty."
"I don't want to get mine dirty either, and besides, the captain's sword is already stained with his blood, isn't it?"
"I'm saying I don't want to get it any dirtier! Do it now — that's an order!"
"Fine, fine... There!"
Jeanne's greatsword came swinging down, and my head soared high through the air,
"Gross! Get away from me!"
I was kicked away by Luna, who happened to be where I rolled.
What swam into my spinning vision was the ceiling and floor of the room, and watching me tumble with sneers — the King, Maria, Tida, Luna, and Din along with the other royal guards...
"Ha!"
"...What?! Damn it!"
When I came to, a fist was bearing down on me. It was Amour's attack. I managed to brush the punch aside at the last moment, but then a kick was launched straight at my temple.
I must have been momentarily knocked unconscious by some attack, because it finally dawned on me that this was the Individual Battle finals of the martial arts tournament. I ducked under the kick and simultaneously aimed a surface kick at Amour's pivot leg.
It seemed like perfect timing, but Amour used the momentum of his own kick to lift his pivot leg ever so slightly, minimizing the damage.
Amour seemed to be in peak form today. Even lighter on his feet than usual, he launched a fierce assault as if the surface kick had never happened. Not only was he more agile, but his strength seemed to exceed his usual levels too — each blow hit with considerable weight.
However, if asked whether this made him superior to Branca, the answer was still no. As long as I stayed calm and composed, I could handle him with ease.
I calmly deflected each attack one by one, and when I judged that Amour was starting to tire, I moved behind him. And then —
"Give up!"
I tried to finish the match with a rear-naked choke. I told him to give up, but it was locked in so cleanly that Amour would probably pass out before he ever conceded.
A few seconds after the choke took hold, when the arms that had been struggling to resist went limp and dangled uselessly—
"The match is—"
The referee judged that Amour was incapacitated and was about to announce my victory, but just then—
"Uwoah!"
A sudden blow struck my head from behind.
"Who the..."
The one who had crashed into the one-on-one finals was Branca. I couldn't believe that Branca of all people would pull a stunt like this, but given that she was actually here holding something that looked like a bloody club, this was undeniably real.
"Opening!"
With Branca's intrusion setting him free, Amour sent me flying like a soccer ball.
Even though this was an obvious foul on Amour's side, the referee not only failed to stop it but declared the match would continue. The crowd roared in response...
Everything was clearly wrong, yet nobody here was pointing that out, and the two of them had their way with me for a good while.
"Enough, I'm bored..."
Right after those words, Amour stomped on the face of me, who had collapsed to the ground—
"The winner of the Individual Battle of the Martial Arts Tournament is Amour!"
Accompanied by the referee's announcement of Amour's victory, the audience's applause and cheers enveloped the arena...
"Tenma, a bunch of nobles just showed up."
I must have been a bit tired, because I apparently just stood there in a daze until Jeanne called out to me from atop her scorpion-type Golem. Looking around again, I saw corpses and body parts of kidnappers scattered everywhere. One of them looked vaguely familiar, but try as I might, I couldn't remember where I had seen them before.
"Got it, I'll head over right away. But I wonder who came?"
As I figured that someone I couldn't remember was probably nobody important, I acknowledged Jeanne's call and turned my body in the direction she was pointing to go speak with the noble who had arrived, when—
"Tenma, behind you!"
Jeanne's panicked voice directed at my back.
"There's a survivor! ...Wait, there's no one there—Ugh!"
I spun around instantly, thrusting out an arm to cast a spell, but there was nobody there.
As I lowered my arm, wondering what Jeanne meant by 'behind you', something heavy and hard suddenly crashed down from above, and I was crushed.
"Baron Mustang is going to take me as his adopted daughter. It seems he needs to negotiate with you about it since you're a slave, but if that Tenma were to die, things would proceed much more smoothly, wouldn't they? In this situation, we can say Tenma got caught up in the coup d'état and died—as long as there's no proof, they might suspect it, but the story will hold together. Fortunately, my future adoptive father, Baron Mustang, is an influential figure in the Neutral Faction, so it should be easy to cover this up."
Saying that, Jeanne commanded the scorpion-type Golem to begin snipping off the limbs of my dying body with its pincers.
"I'll remember you a little, Tenma. Thanks to you, I wasn't sold to a pervert, and more importantly, I was able to meet Baron Mustang."
After finishing cutting off my four limbs, Jeanne—
"Goodbye, Tenma... Crush him."
—in a final, emotionless voice, ordered the scorpion-type Golem to crush my head...
"Tenma-san, are you listening?"
"Hm? ...Ah, sorry, I think I dozed off for a bit."
Maybe I'd tired myself out making so many things lately, but I'd nearly fallen asleep while talking to Primera.
"Um... it was about the stroller improvement proposal, right? Sorry, but could you tell me again?"
Even though it was only a few seconds ago, I honestly couldn't remember what Primera had said, so I apologized and asked her to explain once more.
"Shall we stop here for today? You've seemed a bit tired lately, Tenma-san, and there's still time before the baby arrives."
With that, Primera stood up and began preparing tea.
"A rare herbal tea was sent over from my family's home, so I'll brew that. Apparently, it's effective for relieving fatigue and helps you sleep well."
Primera pulled a small bottle from her desk drawer and began preparing with practiced hands.
"Quite the unique aroma."
The herbal tea was a beautiful color like red wine, but the peculiar smell made you hesitate before taking a sip. Perhaps it was more of a medicinal brew than a casual tea. Incidentally, Primera seemed to dislike the smell as well — she wore a slightly disgusted expression while brewing it, and after placing it in front of me, she sat a bit farther away than before.
"Hm? Unlike the smell, the taste is actually good. There's a slight bitterness, but there's a refreshing aftertaste."
Tastes may vary, but for my part, it was easy enough to drink without much bitterness at all.
I sipped the herbal tea slowly while chatting with Primera, and just as the cup was nearly empty —
"I'm starting to feel a bit drowsy... Sorry, but could we talk about the baby carriage tomorrow instead?"
Hit by a sudden wave of sleepiness, I excused myself to Primera and stood up to return to my room — but my legs tangled beneath me and I collapsed right there.
"W-what's... happening... P...ri...me...ra..."
Despite the violent palpitations and chest pain, I desperately reached out to Primera for help, but —
"It's finally kicking in, I see. Father told me it was 'a poison that would kill a normal person within seconds of a single sip,' but as expected of Tenma-san — no, I suppose this one really is a monster after all."
Primera coldly stepped on my outstretched arm. When I grimaced in pain at that —
"So even a monster still feels pain when it hurts, does it?"
She sneered at those words.
"Primera, what are you doing?!"
Bursting through the door with enough force to kick it open were Albert and the other two.
Albert closed in on Primera with a stern tone, but it wasn't to save me —
"If we don't finish it off quickly, it'll start moving again!"
"It's a monster, so recovery is probably going to be fast."
"But Albert, even if Primera knows her way around a sword, driving the killing blow into this thing while she's pregnant is going to be tough, right? That's exactly why we came."
"Still, if you jam it in through the eyes or mouth, even Primera in her current condition could pull it off."
"That's probably true, but if you tried to deliver a sloppy finishing blow and it squeezed out its last bit of strength, things could get ugly. So waiting for us was only natural. Although, stepping forward like that was maybe a little reckless of her."
"Well then, shall we get to killing it!"
Albert looked down at the thing like it was garbage, Cain grinned with amusement, and Lion gleefully swung his sword through the air in warm-up strokes...
"Big brother, before that, please give me a moment."
Primera held up a hand to stop the three of them, and then:
"It would be cruel to let him die without knowing what comes next, so I'll tell you a few things about the future. First, the Ootori house... it will be managed under the Duke Sanga household, with only the name remaining. Well, that's only for this child's generation, though."
As she spoke, Primera gently rubbed her belly, which had visibly grown larger than before.
"As for the technology and assets, they'll be shared with the Royal Family, but the bulk of it will belong to the child I'll be raising. And as for that child... it's a shame the Ootori name won't be attached, but they'll be raised alongside their real father and loved dearly, so there's no need to worry. Now then, Lion — if you would."
"W-Wait—"
"Alright, here I come! ...Haaah!"
Ignoring my words, Lion brought his sword down on my neck with a cheerful expression... but—
"Crap! I missed!"
"What are you doing, Lion?!"
"I'm all for making him suffer, but don't waste time on this! Stop fooling around and do it properly!"
"Exactly. I'll be using this manor going forward, so please keep the bloodstains and damage to a minimum."
"Sorry, sorry... Alright! This time for sure!"
Even the second swing failed to take my head off, and so the four of them took turns hacking at my neck...