Beneath the ground of the royal capital's central district, a little apart from the palace.
In a solitary cell where a dim, silent air hung heavy, footsteps echoed sharply.
Reacting to the sound, the figure in the cell lifted its face. Halting before it and looking down, another figure... spoke.
"Yo, Your Majesty."
The figure within---King Fried---went wide-eyed.
Seeing that, the other figure---Laplace---twisted his mouth in amusement.
"Laplace... if you've come back, then surely it can't be---"
"As expected of a king, rotten as he is; your head still turns well enough. ...And just as you predicted."
Quietly, yet as if slamming it down, he announced it.
"---The Estia Magna, whose whereabouts you refused to spit out no matter what.
I got my hands on it, nice and proper, and came right back."
The king, captured and unable to do a thing all this time, had one and only one means of resistance left to him.
And now, in this very moment, came the declaration that it had all come to nothing.
"That... can't be... when, when did you..."
"Came back just yesterday. The Boss started the 'breaking-in' right away after that, so... well, at a generous estimate, I'd say maybe a week more."
One week remaining.
As for what limit that pointed to... the king, who knew everything---the true nature of the Estia Magna, and what its falling into Chrono's hands meant---understood it perfectly.
As if groaning, he spoke.
"......So. It's over, then."
He had come to realize it was impossible.
One week. In so short a time, to grasp the anomaly now beginning to unfold in the capital, rally the nobles who remained there, and respond to this threat. A noble with the practical ability, the fighting strength, and on top of that the charisma to pull off such a thing---among those the king knew, none could possibly exist.
"..."
Fried hung his head. Laplace glanced at the sight with cold eyes.
"...Your Majesty. For what it's worth, I actually thought well of you."
"!"
"In terms of ability, you probably rank pretty high even among the successive kings, don't you? The magic you hold is first-rate, your practical ability's quite high, and you had political vision in the top class of this country too."
What came next was, unexpectedly, quite a high assessment of Fried. And it would be fair to say it hit the mark rather squarely.
With such a king in place, how had it come to this?
As for the reason---Laplace went on to state it plainly.
"---It's just that your luck and your timing were overwhelmingly bad."
"...!"
"Made to take over from that 'Witch of the Sky'---a role too great for a king to bear in the first place. Not one decent man left among the nobles under your direct command. Your children all lacking badly in either ability or character. If it were only that, you could've somehow scraped by, but...
---of all times, our scheming began in that very same period. And on top of it, you had to deal with 'that thing' too. Of course it was impossible; there was no way your hands could reach as far as domestic affairs or the education of your princes and princesses. The only one who could've managed it is some monster like that Witch lady."
What was spoken were words of comfort, as if to console.
But Fried had noticed.
"...For someone saying that to me, your tone sounds awfully uninterested."
"Hm? Ah, well, of course it does. I'm not interested anymore."
To that observation, Laplace answered just as plainly.
"It's not just you. I've always been...
the type
whose interest
and emotion
toward
anything
run thin
all around. Even the reason I go out of my way to run my mouth like this is---because if I don't keep talking, I'm liable to carelessly forget even my own malice."
"Wha---"
"Man, I really got told all kinds of things over this. 'Full of yourself,' 'quit acting cocky,' 'insolent,' and on and on. I even went to the trouble of picking up noble-ish manners, and I can't count how many times I thought about just casually killing them all."
The nature Laplace spoke of... it was somehow familiar.
And that a man holding such a nature had been cooperating with Chrono---had chosen to cooperate.
The person that was Laplace was coming, dimly, into view... but.
Even so, still. It was all water under the bridge now.
"If there were even a few guys who'd stand up and defy me properly, I'd feel some motivation, but... now that it's basically a decided win, honestly my motivation's plummeting something awful. So there it is, Your Majesty---I've got no interest in you either, now that your heart's already broken... well, just one last word."
As declared, without the slightest hesitation, he stood. And as he turned to leave, casting truly one final glance.
"---
Breaking down right there
. At that very moment, I'd say you already had no right to be king."
Leaving only that behind.
After that he departed, without so much as another glance at the head-hung Fried.
◆
Stepping out of the solitary cell, he ran into an unexpected person.
"...You, huh, Trackia."
"And His Majesty the King?"
"That one's no good, completely broken. If he still had any will left, there'd have been better uses for him, but now that he's like that, about all that's left is to make an example of him at some convenient moment."
"I see. Well, it was as expected, I suppose."
Jürgen von Trackia.
The man who had betrayed the Third Princess's faction and joined the organization now faced Laplace. Just so, Laplace turned suspicious eyes upon Jürgen.
"...For the record, I'll say it. I still don't completely trust you."
"I'd imagine not."
"Right? The most suspicious thing was that business with the 'Witch of the Sky.' Weren't you supposed to arrange things so she alone wouldn't come?"
"On that matter, I apologize. But I did everything I could. On top of which, it's simply that there was no human alive who could control her."
"Is that so. ...Well, your power's needed for the finishing touches of the plan. You'll at least promise your full cooperation on that, won't you?"
"Of course. I just heard the plan's finale from Lord Chrono anew a moment ago, but---"
Breaking off the conversation there, Jürgen gazed out at the royal capital from the surface, having emerged from the cell.
"That I can take part in the plan to turn the capital, and the nobles dwelling in it, into 'that'.
Ah, that is---
just imagining it
is a delight
"
"---Hah."
Seeing that expression, Laplace laughed, and at the same time grew certain.
This man himself couldn't quite be trusted.
But...
this man's hatred
could be trusted without a shred of doubt.
Chrono had surely scouted him with an eye to exactly that, and once that was clear, there was nothing more Laplace needed to say of his own accord.
So he switched the topic, asking about one other thing that had been on his mind.
"How's the Third Princess's faction doing?"
"About that... word came in the other day that they'd 'rallied the nobles and set out for the capital.'"
"...Oh, really?"
At that, a rather intriguing reply came back.
"By your own reckoning, wasn't it supposed to be impossible for the current members of the Third Princess's faction to rally those trash nobles?"
"If it were the Third Princess's faction alone, that would have been true without a doubt. ...So it's correct to see it as them having used 'other talent.' Naturally, anyone besides those girls is outside my jurisdiction; take your complaints to His Holiness the Pope, who so carelessly let them slip away."
"...Ah, got it, I roughly understand. The Second Princess did something, didn't she?"
Though the detailed methods were beyond even him to work out, Laplace swiftly deduced the gist of what had happened from the scant information.
"...Guess even I can't have everything go exactly as I wish and exactly as planned."
"For someone saying that, you look awfully pleased."
"Shut up, I'll kill you. ...While we're at it, let me ask: do you think that Third Princess's faction can even reach this capital?"
"---They can't. Impossible."
There was no hesitation in the answer.
As for the grounds for asserting it so flatly, Laplace had more than enough notions of his own.
"For one, it wouldn't be strange if they fell apart mid-air before even reaching the capital, and along the way there are organization members stationed as both blockade and scouting personnel. And---"
As for that notion.
The two of them each spoke it plainly.
"---Before the capital, 'that one' is waiting."
"Ah, that one, yeah. ...That guy, at worst, might be stronger than me."
Then Laplace let a wry, faint smile cross his face.
"No, it made a lot of things click. The current king shouldn't be utterly incompetent, yet why did he leave the inside of the country neglected to that extent?
...When you consider he had to contend with something like that essentially single-handed, well, of course the inside would get neglected."
That monster.
A completely
aberrant existence
that the king
was supposed
to have kept
held in check
until now
.
"In that sense, we got lucky on our end. It'd have been a pain if 'that one's' fangs---or rather its interest---turned our way, but we managed to steer it well and drive it into wearing itself down against other parties."
"For that, I'm grateful to your skill. ...In any case, thanks to that one, even the nobles within the country can't carelessly venture outside now. ...The Third Princess's faction that's surely headed there will, ten times out of ten, be scattered and finished."
"It's only once the 'Witch of the Sky' joins the fray that it barely gets back to even. ...Even if they somehow managed it, they'd have no reserves left."
In other words, no matter how they struggled, the Third Princess's faction would never reach this capital. On the point of logic, Laplace fully agreed with Jürgen's assessment.
(---And yet.)
Was, perhaps, the bad habit of his that made him think that way.
By nature he was thin on interest toward anything. Even the one matter he'd promised to cooperate on with genuine, heartfelt concern and conviction---his business with Chrono---with the plan's completion as planned drawing near, his motivation naturally sank right through the floor.
Of course, he intended to see the plan through with everything he had. His loyalty to Chrono was genuine, he had not the slightest intention of slacking off on what absolutely had to be done, and he was more than eager to have his own side win in the end.
But---
the more
the process
up to that point
is thrilling
the better
.
(...Well now, how will it turn out.)
Tedium, and expectation, and loyalty---and a faint touch of curiosity.
Aware that, even within his thin heart, all manner of things swirled with the plan's completion before him... Laplace vanished once more into the darkness of the royal capital, off to carry out what had to be carried out.
The time limit is one week. And a tale that the 'wall' up to that point is not Laplace and his lot alone.
From next time, I plan to return to Ermes and the others' story!
And 'Creation Magic' volume three at last goes on sale the day after tomorrow!
It seems to already be on the shelves at some stores.
I've also changed the image link at the bottom of the screen to the volume-three edition!
As usual, you can read a portion of the preview plus the frontispiece,
so if you'd be so kind as to consider purchasing it, I'd be very glad indeed...!
Thank you, as always, for your continued support of 'The Recreator of Creation Magic'!