—God, Buddha, and Lord Od Laguna. I vow never to share tales from my life.
△▼△▼△▼△ "If you call yourself a father, then keep your hands off the kid!!"
Those words struck harder than the fist that had punched straight through his face. —Watching that scene unfold, Old Man
Trusting in his own durability, Heinkel had launched a counterattack against Fram and Glacius in the aftermath, but it was thwarted at the last moment by
"My, my, that's quite something..."
While confirming that the twin sisters were unharmed after escaping their opponent's grip, Rom's gaze flicked briefly to the girl perched on his shoulder — to Petra's profile.
"..."
Petra narrowed her large, round eyes, her delicate features tightened with concentration as she directed her unwavering attention across the two battlefields.
The battle against
The plan had been to break apart this dangerous group and defeat them one by one, and it was no exaggeration to say that Petra held the key to whether that strategy would succeed.
The plan had been built around
Without her, this battle could never have begun. —And that was still true now.
"—!"
Petra bit her lip and dug her nails hard into the shoulder of the seated Rom. A girl's nails were nothing to him in terms of pain, but the state of mind that drove her to do such a thing unconsciously was beyond imagining.
The
Someone lacking in direct combat prowess, but ideally positioned on the battlefield for their quick thinking and judgment.
Rom and Petra were exactly that. In the end, which side they belonged to made all the difference, but the role Petra filled was one Rom might have shouldered himself.
That was why Rom had resolved that while recovering
"Flowers, three — Queen. Lightning, two — Noble. Flowers, five — Hunter."
Rom barked his orders across the battlefield, making sure Petra on his shoulder could hear. Each time she activated her ability in response, the nail marks on his shoulder grew deeper and more numerous.
Basically, "Compression" came into play mainly on the Gluttony front. Roy seemed to understand that Rom's group was interfering with the battle's structure, but
Even with "Compression" factored in, the battle was a razor's-edge affair — a back-and-forth stalemate — because of the sheer number of moves and cards Gluttony had at his disposal. On the other hand, the other battlefield was a stark contrast, with its overwhelming deficit in both moves and cards.
"Guh..."
His groans lost amid the sounds of blows, Heinkel continued to be pummeled.
With Gaston joining the twin sisters Fram and Glacius, what was unfolding was less a fight and more a one-sided beating — the twins' speed and agility now supplemented by raw, brutal power. But as long as their opponent refused to go down, Fram and the others couldn't ease up either.
Both battlefields needed a catalyst to shift the momentum. —That thought had barely crossed Rom's mind when— "Old Man Rom," Petra called, and their eyes met.
Their gazes locked, and in that instant alone Rom understood that he and Petra had arrived at the same conclusion. Without even pausing to nod, Rom focused his eyes on the optimal moment.
And then— "Sun, five — Queen—!"
The command shot out. Petra, whose hand rested on Rom's shoulder and whose round eyes burned with intensity, activated "Compression"—and the coordinated assault of Ram and the other two drilled into Roy with devastating force.
"Yes—!"
Roy's small body was caught in the wind, battered by the attacks of the Swine King and two other mabeasts, and sent flying. Spraying blood as he was launched into the air, Roy had undoubtedly sustained serious injuries.
Just before a finishing blow could land, Roy attempted to unleash the Authority of "Gluttony" on Ram, but when that fizzled out, the fatal opening it created was equally significant. —Rom could only marvel again at the composure Ram — no, Ram Leite — had shown in setting that trap and pulling it off, and at the ingenuity of the suggestion Petra had made.
That was Ram, or rather, Ram Leite. The artificially adopted family arrangement, which exploited the system in reverse — it had been a stratagem applied to every member of the front-line group who could have been targeted by "Gluttony," one that turned the Sin Archbishop's plans against him.
"Well, that moves things along..."
With the situation finally shifting — the very move they'd needed to break the stalemate — Rom clenched his enormous fist.
And riding that momentum, he turned to shift the other situation as well— "...Nobody move. If you value this person's... this lady's life—"
—only to face the worst possible development on that front as well: Heinkel had Felt in a headlock with a blade pressed against her throat.
△▼△▼△▼△ —God, Buddha, and Lord Od Laguna. I vow never to tell tales I enjoy.
△▼△▼△▼△ "I'm sorry for what I've done. In every sense, I've put too much of a burden on you, Dad."
Aldebaran offered that apology after he had ruthlessly beaten down Heinkel, who had been about to rush forward while Felt was speaking with him.
Heinkel, for his part, was painfully aware that he'd been on the verge of doing something irreversible and accepted that he had no right to complain about being punched. There was no option but to accept the apology.
However, there was one fact Felt had caught onto — that, he absolutely could not leave unaddressed.
Heinkel's wife, who continued to sleep — Luanna Astrea.
The fact that his beloved wife's slumber was caused by his own son, Reinhard.
"Well, hold on. I'm not gonna pry into every little thing that happened between you and Miss Felt. But I told you, didn't I? —I'm sorry for dumping everything on you, Dad, and that's that."
"I... don't follow. You apologize, and then what?"
"Of course I'm not saying 'sorry, so please keep putting up with it from now on too.' For now, we'll take care of Miss Felt on our end."
"Take care of her...?"
"We won't do anything dangerous. It might be rough, though."
At Aldebaran's shrug, Heinkel's expression hardened.
He was a man of unfathomable intentions — hard to read, impossible to predict. Still, Heinkel understood that the grief of losing Priscilla had become his driving force, and that he had begun making enemies of the world.
At Aldebaran's core, there was indeed that fierce devotion to the "Sun Princess."
However, there was still a thin thread of decency left in Aldebaran — he wouldn't go so far as to sacrifice everything for that purpose. But that thread had finally snapped, and it felt as though his restraints had been completely removed.
"What... what are you planning?"
"I'm not going to do anything bad to Dad. I just want to confirm one thing."
Heinkel swallowed, his throat clicking, and felt a powerful thirst. He wanted to hear what came next, yet he didn't — the kind of foreboding that only a coward carries.
Pretending not to notice Heinkel's inner turmoil, Aldebaran spoke the question.
It was— "Fifteen years ago, a member of the royal family was kidnapped — that's the name that comes up—"
To speak that name was, for Heinkel — no, within the
Fifteen years ago, kidnapped from the royal castle, and since then, her whereabouts entirely unknown — the daughter of the king's younger brother.
In the kingdom's long history, there had certainly been royals who lived unfortunate lives. But among those born with blessings, she was the only one whose growth and whose end went entirely unspoken.
"—Fiore Lugunica."
The daughter of
Of course, that accusation of kidnapping had been a false charge — but circling around and around, Heinkel had ultimately committed an unforgivable act of disrespect against the royal house he'd sworn loyalty to, and against Ford, to whom he owed an immeasurable debt.
That was a clearer betrayal of the royal family and its bonds of friendship than even treason against the kingdom.
"—Itadakimasu."
The wretched, grotesque ritual performed before his very eyes.
From Aldebaran's question, Heinkel had sensed this was coming — and perhaps even harbored a secret hope. Even knowing that this ritual had been the trigger for so many tragedies, he still— Because if it worked, Heinkel wouldn't have to kill her.
"Gochisousama deshita."
Putting his hands together to mark the ritual's completion, Heinkel stared at the small back of Roy. He had looked away from the sight, retreating into his own thoughts to literally miss what was happening before him.
Each time he committed acts unbecoming of a knight, he found it darkly comic that some part of him still recoiled. But as Heinkel stepped forward in Roy's place — Roy laughing with undisguised glee— "—Lady Fiore."
Heinkel knelt on one knee and addressed her by that name.
What kind of answer had he been hoping for, really? If she answered that she was herself, it would mean the ritual had failed. If she answered that she didn't know what any of it meant, that too would have left Heinkel in anguish.
And sure enough, the answer Heinkel — who didn't even have an answer for himself — received was— "Who might that be? No, more fundamentally..."
"—"
"—Who am I, exactly?"
That answer, which confirmed the ritual's success, ended up hurting Heinkel and tormenting him all the same.
"Fiore... so that's my name... it doesn't quite feel right, does it?"
Having had her "Memories" devoured, Fiore's bearing was truly that of a different person.
Everything about her — her gestures, her movements, her speech — radiated a refinement and gentleness that made her earlier coarseness seem like a lie. It left Heinkel genuinely astonished.
If not for the tragedy fifteen years ago, she would have been one of the royals beloved by all.
"Of course, she probably would've died of the same illness as the rest of the royal family eventually."
At Aldebaran's heartless remark, Heinkel bristled — but it was the truth. That mysterious epidemic that seemed to target royals would have claimed Fiore too, had she remained in the castle. —What that meant, Heinkel was beginning to grasp, but he closed his eyes and refused to look directly at it.
He was already at his limit, heart and mind alike. With his lifelong wish finally within reach, the relentless succession of shocking truths kept pushing him past what his soul could endure.
"If you have any concerns, perhaps?"
Fiore herself posed that question to Heinkel, who had unconsciously covered his face with his hand.
Despite having no "Memories" and being in a far more uncertain position than anyone else, her concern for another — Heinkel saw in that the true blood of the Lugunica royal family.
At the same time, it confirmed the cruel truth — that the moment the Authority of "Gluttony" had activated, it proved beyond doubt that she was none other than Fiore Lugunica.
And yet— "...So this is the end of the Royal Selection, then?"
"Why would you say that, Dad?"
"What do you mean, why? The whole point of the Royal Selection is to find the next person worthy of the throne. In other words, it was the second-best option because the royal line had been severed — and if it turns out that isn't the case, of course everyone's going to change their tune."
Ironically, it was Priscilla's death, Aldebaran's rampage that had freed "Gluttony," and the fact that the truth had been uncovered by the real Fiore's question — before she'd had her "Memories" taken — that had revealed it all.
It was almost as if the world itself had conspired to put Fiore on the throne.
Naturally, Heinkel wasn't tactless enough to say aloud that even Priscilla's death might have been part of that design. And ultimately, if Fiore took the throne, that was exactly what he wanted.
To awaken Luanna. If that one wish was fulfilled, everything else would fall into place — that was Heinkel's hope.
So if the "Witch of Envy" withdrew and Fiore ascended to the throne, he couldn't ask for more.
"Alta, this is the smoothest way to settle things. Got any complaints?"
"—Barely managed it. It was the only way I could compromise without hurting the girl. I think it's a fine solution, Origin. But—"
"But?"
"Did you come up with this on your own, Origin? Didn't seem like you."
"—"
While Heinkel tried to convince himself that this was acceptable, Aldebaran and the "Divine Dragon" were arguing over how to handle Fiore. That said, at least the problem Heinkel had been wrestling with was being set aside. Of course, this created a new problem — that they'd now be carting around a Fiore with no "Memories"— "Well then, that won't be a problem at all~ Right, Al-sama?"
Yae popped her face into view from right beside him, and Heinkel drew a sharp breath.
She seemed to see right through his unease, casting him a mocking sidelong glance before turning to Aldebaran and coaxing him sweetly.
Heinkel felt no sense of dissonance toward Yae's patronizing attitude. The dissonance lay in how Aldebaran responded to her.
"...You're right. I did promise the old man, after all."
"Huh? Promise?"
"That we'd take care of Miss Felt — or rather, Miss Fiore — on our end."
With that, Aldebaran — casually, yet with an unmistakable coldness — proceeded to carry out his "taking care" while Heinkel could only watch in bewilderment.
It was that detached attitude — for better or worse, entirely beyond restraint — that left Heinkel shaken.
The shift in Aldebaran and Yae's relationship, the "Divine Dragon's" feelings toward Fiore, the expanded scope of actions permitted to "Gluttony," the truth about Fiore that had come to light — they were hardly a united group, but Heinkel could feel the distortions and misalignments growing ever larger.
Amid all this, Heinkel resolved to hold onto his own sanity if nothing else.
No matter how suffocating the predicament grew, the last thing he needed was for this group to collapse before his goal was achieved.
And so— "At least I'll hold it together..."
As he accepted the result of Aldebaran's "taking care" — Fiore, reduced to a black sphere no larger than a hacky sack — Heinkel made that vow.
He vowed.
"If you don't want Lady Fiore to get hurt, back off...!"
—And yet.
Cornered, Heinkel threw that resolve aside and took the grown Fiore in a headlock, pressing his blade against her slender neck.
"Felt...!"
At Heinkel's hostage-taking, a well-built man called out Fiore's other name with anguish.
Fram and Glacius, who had been attacking relentlessly, also froze, their gazes directed at Heinkel with a mixture of anger, contempt, and — probably — concern and confusion.
For them, the shock came in double.
Like them, Fiore had appeared and disappeared repeatedly, and now she had suddenly appeared in Heinkel's hands — only for Heinkel to call her by a different name.
It was only natural that fear and confusion would show plainly in their eyes.
"I apologize, but I have no intention of handling this gently. You'll have to cooperate."
Holding Fiore in a headlock, Heinkel spoke those words while hating his own deception.
He had tried. He had tried his hardest not to drag Fiore into this battle that had started so suddenly. But he had given up. As always, his efforts had come to nothing.
So he had shattered the black sphere Aldebaran had entrusted to him, released Fiore from its confines, and now used her as a hostage to threaten the enemies who had appeared.
"Don't move. You wouldn't want this lady to get hurt, would you?"
Even as he stooped to the lowest of acts, the fact that he still maintained the pretense of courtesy toward Fiore was proof that a shred of decency still lingered within Heinkel.
While he'd still been uncertain whether she was truly Fiore, he'd been able to dismiss her beautiful golden hair and crimson eyes — the marks of royalty — as mere coincidence. But now that he was certain she was Fiore, he could no longer treat her the same way as before.
If asked whether he changed his attitude depending on the person, the answer was yes. —Heinkel had been raised by his parents to show loyalty to the people of the Lugunica royal family.
"—"
Fiore — his last card, played too late — had her chin lifted, and a thin sound escaped her throat.
Having just been released from that black sphere, Fiore's consciousness still seemed hazy, or perhaps she was simply overwhelmed by the sudden upheaval — she submitted entirely to Heinkel's handling.
That was frustrating, but the threat was working, and the enemy's movements had dulled. Seizing that opening, Heinkel — while worrying about Aldebaran's group who had vanished — first tried to secure the safety of himself, the hostage, and Roy, who was trapped in a similar situation on the same battlefield— "—FELT!!"
That cry was different from the strained voice the well-built man had squeezed out earlier. This one carried real power.
It was a voice that wove together the joy of reuniting with someone precious, a faint anger that was the flip side of deep affection, worry for her well-being, and fierce determination to bring her home — all fused into one ringing call that echoed across the battlefield.
"—"
In Heinkel's arms, Fiore stirred.
Even without "Memories," even in a position where she couldn't tell friend from foe, perhaps the weight of such powerful emotion directed at her still came through. Slowly, she blinked her crimson eyes — a mark of her royal blood — and locked gazes with the aged giant calling to her from afar.
Her lips parted, and she wove words. And those words were— "—Old Man Rom! Pull Gaston and the others back! That thing's coming!!"
It was the fierce, powerful cry of the "Golden Lion" — a voice that had torn away the refined, princess-like composure she'd held just moments before, as though the lost "Memories" had been ripped back into her by force, summoned by the call of someone dear.
△▼△▼△▼△ —God, Buddha, and Lord Od Laguna. I vow never to call anyone by a nickname.
△▼△▼△▼△ —Naturally, the reason Felt was able to cry out to her allies was not some heartwarming miracle of feelings that Heinkel had imagined.
The cruelty of the Authority of "Gluttony" had been thoroughly demonstrated by the tragedies of both its victims and those around them. To suggest that such a vast history of tragedy could be resolved by something as simple as how Felt felt about someone — that was absurd.
Therefore, the reason Felt had been able to switch from "Fiore" back to "Felt" was simple and straightforward: Felt had never actually had her "Memories" eaten by Roy in the first place.
"So here's the thing — it seems we need to eat your 'Memories,' Felt-chan. —Won't you cooperate with us?"
Roy had said that right after Aldebaran had decided to "take care" of Felt — who had caught on to something she shouldn't have and become a liability who could fracture the group's cohesion.
The plan was to have Roy eat not just Felt's "Memories" along with the inconvenient fact she'd uncovered, but also to dispose of her stubbornly defiant personality in the process.
He'd probably say something like "as long as we don't take your life," but the moment your "Memories" were gone and you ceased to be yourself, that was effectively murder. Felt didn't appreciate Aldebaran's methods one bit.
"But that doesn't mean I'm going to start liking you. And what kind of plan involves me cooperating with a creep like you anyway?"
"Haha, that attitude gives me goosebumps. But don't worry, Felt-chan. We're not really the type for meticulous strategies or perfect plans, you know? What we want you to do is dead simple — just pretend your 'Memories' were eaten."
"...Go on."
Felt narrowed one eye, deciding Roy's proposal was worth hearing. At her reaction, Roy grinned from the bottom of his heart — "There we go!" — and continued: "Sticking with the helmet guys isn't the worst, but if we don't make a move, we'll end up as disposable pawns sooner or later... See, they've got us marked with curse seals, so our situation is pretty dire. So—"
"So?"
"While you pretend to have lost your 'Memories,' you bide your time and look for a chance to strike back, just like always. Meanwhile, we'll try to use whatever opportunity you might create to escape this whole 'captive Sin Archbishop' situation—"
"—You know, I could just tell the helmet guys your plan and start a nice little mutiny. Get rid of you real easy."
"Yes, yes, that's exactly the spirit! Go ahead and do that!"
Roy clapped his hands in delight. Felt considered probing his true intentions deeper, but quickly abandoned the idea. She couldn't see through him even if she tried, and to her eyes, Roy seemed to be entirely sincere.
And honestly, from Felt's perspective, it was a godsend. —Left to her own devices, she would eventually lose her "Memories" whether she liked it or not.
"Of course, to eat you, we need your name. That's why my brothers were having such a rough time, gagging and all."
"Yeah, that figures. But Felt-chan, somewhere deep down, you already know, don't you? That your real name is the same as that princess from the kingdom's tragedy—"
"—"
"Oh, or maybe you want to test it? If the Eclipse works with that name, our 'Memories' get taken for real — but it'd prove it, wouldn't it? What do you say?"
"Tch. Weak bait. —But fine. I'll bite."
Felt snorted as Roy leaned in, his long tongue lolling out, peering at her face.
Who she really was. —That pointless question meant nothing to Felt. She knew there were people who cared about it — but it was the same logic as before: if losing her "Memories" was the same as being killed, then the life she'd built as "Felt" was all that mattered.
She didn't need anything else. And so she would ride even this detestable scheme of "Gluttony's" to her own advantage.
"I'm the only one who wins."
"Kufufu, ahaha! I knew you'd say that! I was counting on it! But we'll do our best to make sure you can't walk away with all the victories, Felt-chan, okay?"
"Insurance? Don't give me that pathetic talk. Put everything on one shot."
"That bravery of yours is real cool, but what matters to us isn't pride or anything like that. —Eat or be eaten. That's all there is."
With that, Roy clacked his teeth together as if celebrating the conclusion of their secret pact.
And true to his word, Roy later pretended to eat Felt's "Memories" and left her exactly as she was. Felt, for her part, honored the secret pact she'd made with the half-suspicious Roy and played the part of the Memory-less Fiore Lugunica — a royal she didn't know a thing about.
"Sorry, but you were the only one I could think of for an impression."
The victim of having their "Memories" devoured by "Gluttony" — when it came to that, the first person Felt thought of was Crusch. Modeling Fiore after Crusch's radically altered demeanor and speech apparently hit the mark with Aldebaran's group, and especially with Heinkel.
Fortunately, she didn't have to play Fiore for long, and Felt was soon sealed away by Aldebaran's magic into a strange black sphere. The sensation inside that sphere had been suffocating and deeply unpleasant, but— It saved her.
Because the less time she spent as Fiore, the fewer chances there were to slip up. If Felt did accidentally reveal herself, Roy's "insurance" would kick in — that was the threat.
Even if Felt hadn't agreed to the plan, Roy had structured things so she'd have no choice; and even after she'd agreed, it was a measure to prevent betrayal — a literal "insurance."
And that insurance was— "—Get the hell out of my shadow!!"
Even with Heinkel's arm around her neck and a blade at her throat, she screamed those words.
The "Gluttony" Sin Archbishop, Roy Alphard, had prepared a hidden card to deceive Aldebaran's group and escape their grasp — a final member of the three great mabeasts alongside the "
—The mabeast "Black Serpent," the pestilent source that had killed more living things than any other in the world since its birth, had been summoned to the all-out battlefield of both factions in response to the violation of the secret pact.