"……They're tenaciously pursuing us."
The capital of the Habsburg Republic, Munich. The eastern wall.
Elizabeth looked ahead and furrowed her brow. She had expected as much, but the enemy's pursuit was no trivial matter. They could have stopped to loot the corpses, but instead they were rushing toward them frantically, as if driven by something.
Kurz brushed the dust from his helmet and spoke.
"Surely they don't intend to finish us off completely this time around?"
"Hmm. The enemy has no siege equipment. They'd gain nothing by approaching any closer……."
"Hmm," Elizabeth murmured.
Most of the soldiers had escaped safely into the city. Currently, company commanders across each unit were hurriedly rallying and reassuring their troops. Units that had finished regrouping climbed the city walls, preparing in case a siege materialized.
"Look over there, Your Excellency. Those guys are completely reorganizing too."
Kurz pointed toward the plain ahead.
Below Munich's walls lay a wide and deep moat. Outside the moat, sturdy wooden palisades stood five or six layers deep. The city occupied a vast plain, so it could hardly be called impregnable, but it was by no means a city that could be taken easily.
But across the plain, the Habsburg Imperial Army was reorganizing its units. Brigade commanders moved back and forth, guiding the soldiers into position. As time passed, their battle lines were forming up with increasing neatness.
"No matter how you look at it, they're not setting up camp."
"Hmm. So they do intend to attack right away."
"That's how it appears to me as well."
The doubts deepened.
Charging headlong at a city of Munich's scale without siege weapons was reckless. Their mage forces were roughly equivalent as well. In this situation, picking a fight would only result in devastating losses for the enemy. Elizabeth found it difficult to guess what the other side was thinking.
"For now, order all troops to prepare for a siege. The enemy won't attack without any plan whatsoever. They must have some hidden card up their sleeve."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
Kurz Schleiermacher issued his orders to his adjutants.
For roughly an hour, the Imperial forces and the Republican forces each organized their respective battle lines. As if to signal that another fierce battle had been reserved for today, both armies ate more lavishly than usual.
Elizabeth, too, was having a meal together with her senior officers. At that moment, an intelligence agent approached and whispered into Kurz's ear. Kurz's face crumpled.
"Your Excellency."
Kurz Schleiermacher spoke in Kalmar.
"I have some bad news to relay. Barbatos, who was being held in the underground detention of the intelligence bureau, has escaped."
"..."
Elizabeth's silver spoon, which had been lifting soup to her mouth, came to an abrupt halt.
"That... do you perhaps remember the attendant that the girl called Daisy used to have around?"
"...The blond boy, you mean?"
"He turned out to be quite skilled with a blade. One Sword Master guarding the intelligence bureau was killed, and another was seriously wounded. The bureau's agents are currently doing everything they can to pursue him, but—"
Elizabeth wiped the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief. Her gaze darkened into a heavy silence.
"There's hardly a less reassuring report than 'doing everything we can.' Intelligence Director Schleiermacher. Barbatos has already slipped from our grasp. Would you say that is your own assessment as well?"
"I regret to say that is correct."
Kurz let out a sigh.
"Nearly all the Sword Masters originally assigned to the intelligence bureau had already been sent to the front lines. Moreover, with Dantalion's adopted daughter gone, we no longer thought it necessary to maintain such stringent security. Who would have guessed that even the attendant would be a fighter surpassing a Sword Master... This was my oversight."
"Where did he escape to?"
"He fled through the west gate, where security was at its thinnest."
Elizabeth covered her forehead with her palm. Deep fatigue seeped from around her eyes.
"They deliberately staged an appearance as if planning a siege... to weaken our vigilance. And we fell for it completely."
"So is that just another bluff, Your Excellency?"
"Probably."
Elizabeth murmured.
"The problem is that this was a pre-planned escape. The moment Dantalion's adopted daughter disappeared and we let our guard down, Barbatos fled. In that case, the very act of Barbatos surrendering to us in the first place was likely a lie."
"......"
"This war was technically triggered by the existence of Barbatos. And now it turns out the cause of the war might have been a lie. How utterly exhausting."
Kurz wanted to object that it couldn't possibly be true. How ruthlessly and thoroughly had they interrogated the girl named Daisy in the intelligence bureau? If the girl had harbored any hidden intentions, they surely would have been exposed during the interrogation.
But Elizabeth looked so utterly exhausted, and his own mistakes had been so grave, that he kept his mouth shut. Elizabeth continued muttering.
"We may need to prepare for the worst-case scenario."
"The worst-case scenario? You mean the possibility of Barbatos defecting to Dantalion?"
Kurz winced at his own words, his head throbbing at the very thought.
If Barbatos made it back to the Empire unscathed and testified that he had been held captive by the Republic the entire time, the Republic's position would become extraordinarily dire. Nearly every nation on the continent would probably condemn the Republic viciously. The Republic's Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had already despaired over his own future, might genuinely hang himself......
Elizabeth shook her head heavily.
"No. The exact opposite."
"What?"
"The worst-case scenario would be if Barbatos didn't defect to Dantalion's side but instead was assassinated without anyone noticing."
Kurz furrowed his brow.
"Wouldn't that actually work in our favor? Then all evidence of us having abducted Barbatos would disappear too. There seems to be nothing to worry about."
"You're a born intelligence man, so I suppose your angles of analysis are always fixed in one direction."
Elizabeth gave a wry smile.
"Think about it not from our perspective, but from that of another nation. The Empire claims Barbatos was abducted, while we deny it. But then, right after the Imperial Army achieves victory, the Demon Lord's Castle suddenly crumbles to dust. What would the nations of the world think?"
"......!"
Kurz held his breath.
"Damn it. They'd think we destroyed Barbatos!"
"Yes. They'd suspect we strangled him in the Republic to erase all traces of the abduction... That suspicion would arise nine times out of ten."
Elizabeth took a sip of the watered-down wine. The sour taste, close to vinegar, stung her mouth sharply. Thanks to that, her thoughts grew a little clearer.
"On the contrary, if Barbatos were to safely reach Dantalion, it would actually work in our favor. They'd wonder whether the Empire staged the whole kidnapping farce itself. How could Barbatos, who was supposedly abducted, simply reappear unscathed? The nations would look upon us with suspicious eyes......"
But that was never going to happen.
Elizabeth sighed once more.
"Is the small comfort that they have only suspicion but no hard evidence? No... I should hope that Dantalion truly loves Barbatos, as the rumors suggest. I have no choice but to bank on the hope that Dantalion will spare Barbatos's life, even if it means disregarding political advantage."
Elizabeth simply found it nearly impossible to imagine Dantalion choosing a lover's life over political gain when both hung in the balance. If Dantalion truly possessed that much of a 'human' side, then Elizabeth would never have had reason to fear Dantalion in the first place.
'And here I am, a human, wishing for a Demon Lord's well-being.'
Elizabeth let out a brief, self-deprecating laugh.
"In any case, the chances of combat resuming today are slim. Take your time with your meal."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
Luke quickened his pace, panting heavily.
"Haa, huff... haah."
Right after Daisy had charged onto the battlefield, Luke had slipped covertly into the Intelligence Division and seized Barbatos. Even then, the security hadn't been completely lifted — two Sword Lords had been standing guard over the Intelligence Division. Luke had dispatched them with practiced ease.
Barbatos was still soaked in narcotics, his limbs severed, fast in a deep sleep. Luke hoisted Barbatos firmly onto his back and slipped out of the Intelligence Division. In that moment, Luke felt a chill sweep through his chest, as though a single wisp of wind had brushed past.
'Daisy is dead!'
Luke came to an involuntary stop.
'Daisy. Oh, Daisy!'
Luke instinctively felt that the Slave Brand had vanished.
He was free now. But Luke found no joy in that freedom. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes and traced lines down his pale cheeks.
He had lost his master.
He had lost his blood.
And above all else, he had lost the woman he loved.
His one and only first love — gone forever.
"......"
Luke wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
The burning in his eyelids wouldn't stop, but he forced himself to endure it somehow. Daisy was dead. But — but — the last command Daisy had left him with still hadn't been fulfilled. Luke told himself that, steadying his resolve.
"......I have to move. To where Father is......hurry."
Luke hefted Barbatos's body over his shoulder and strode off.
'Just as planned, Daisy died by Godfather's hand. Now Godfather will see Barbatos as nothing more than a victim who was framed entirely by Daisy's scheme.'
To avoid catching the eye of any guards, he moved by leaping methodically from shadow to shadow between the buildings. The guards on the castle wall never noticed Luke approaching.
'Godfather won't be able to kill Barbatos. That's right. Barbatos and Godfather both end up as victims, comforting each other — that's the ending. That's all I need.'
While a guard momentarily turned his head the other way, Luke scrambled swiftly up and over the castle wall.
He hadn't cleared it silently enough — a guard spotted the intruder. The guard bellowed and drew his sword, but by then Luke had already scaled the wall and was leaping down toward the ground below.
'Yeah. Daisy said that would be enough to satisfy her......so I'm satisfied too.'
A heartbeat late, the guards spotted Luke and hastily loosed their bowstrings. Arrows flew from atop the castle wall. They plunged uselessly into the ground exactly where Luke had been a moment before. Luke ran on, huffing, huffing, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
'Because I've decided to live for Daisy.'
That was the oath Luke had sworn.
He had been so foolish and ignorant that he'd had no idea Daisy had been suffering for five long years. Luke wanted to spend every last breath of his life atoning for that sin. Even if Dantalion looked upon him in wrath and struck him down just as he had killed Daisy, Luke would harbor no complaints whatsoever.
'We can be satisfied.'
How long had he been running?
Luke felt as though he had fled a great distance from Munich. Thinking he must be far enough beyond the reach of the anti-magic field by now, he pulled out his spellbook. Luke channeled his mana into the teleportation spellbook.
A radiance as pure as sacred white light enveloped him.
'That's right, isn't it, Daisy?'
A moment later.
Luke had been teleported from the western side of Munich to the eastern side. It was a densely wooded forest. As Luke cautiously surveyed his surroundings and made his way out of the trees, he spotted military tents in the distance beyond, with the banners of the Habsburg Empire fluttering in the wind.
His liege lord would be staying in that camp.
Luke set his heavy foot forward and began to walk.