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"I have a report! There is an enemy knight bearing down on this main camp at
incredible speed!" a soldier shouted, rushing into the main camp.
It was just as I was finishing making my request to Carla.
...Thank goodness, I thought. It looks like I made it in time.
Carla's eyes were wide in surprise, and she gnashed her teeth and glared at me.
"Is that... an order?"
"No, I don't think it needs to be," I said. "I'm sure you'll accomplish it whether I
make it an order or not."
I went to touch Carla's slave collar, but she batted my hand away.
Immediately, Carla groaned in pain. She had struck her master while wearing a
slave collar, so of course she did.
"Urgh... Don't be ridiculous..." Carla said, glaring at me even as she was in agony.
"Carla?! What are you doing?" I asked.
"Don't be ridiculous! I could never listen to that request!" Carla flew into a rage,
as if the constricting collar meant nothing to her.
"No, I'm just saying that if the worst should happen..." I said.
"Agh! Enough! Don't talk back to me! Just give me the order to 'kill him'!" Carla
shouted, pointing in the direction the enemy knight was coming from. "Because of
this slave collar, I can't leave your side without permission! Just give me permission
already! I'll deal with him!"
"...You're willing to fight for me?" I asked.
I couldn't believe it, but Carla gave an indignant "Hmph!"
"I'm not doing it for you," she said. "I'm only doing it because I don't want Liscia
to see you with that face."
What face? What sort of face was I making right now?
Was it a scary face? Was it full of grief? Was it pitiful?
As I touched my own face, trying to figure it out, Carla stomped her feet
indignantly and demanded it again.
"I told you, give me the order! For Liscia's sake, tell me to 'kill him'!"
"...I'll allow it," I said at last. If she said it was for Liscia, I could probably trust her.
"Please, Carla. Kill that knight and end this war."
"Understood!"
With those words, Carla bowed her head and then took one long sword from
each of the two nearby guards. Then she spread her wings and took flight.
She floated in midair for a little while as she searched for her target, then she
dove like a falcon that had found its prey and flew to the south.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Carla... I'll transfer my ownership of you as a slave to Liscia."
That was what Souma had suddenly said to Carla.
Certainly, it was possible for a slave collar to transfer its ownership to another if
its master willed it. However, if he did that, Carla would be able to harm Souma. So
why was it that he had suddenly said that?
When Carla had asked him, Souma had pointed towards the incoming suicide
squad.
"That suicide squad is targeting me. Even in the worst scenario, they'll burn out
after they've taken my head. It should be easy to wipe them out at that point. So, I
have a request. If I fall in this battle, tell Liscia, 'I give the throne to you.' Well... It's
my last will."
"Your last will? Are you joking?"
When she'd asked him that, Souma's face had taken on a serious expression, and
he'd said:
"I'm dead serious. I'm the king, so I have to consider the worst case scenario. I'd
feel bad for pushing things off on her with the job only half-done, but, well, if we can
just take down Gaius, Van will fall easily enough. If she does what Hakuya tells her
from there, everything will be fine."
After saying that, Souma had smiled.
When she saw him smile... Carla realized she had misunderstood something.
The king was the most powerful person in the country, so she'd thought he could
control everything. Looking at things as a warrior who served the king, that was
what she had come to see a king as.
That was why Carla had thought Souma had usurped the throne.
She'd thought he had been seduced by that tremendous power, deceiving the
kindhearted king Albert into giving it to him, and that he had forced Liscia into an
unwanted engagement, trying to use her to cement his power. While she had later
found out from Liscia's letters that she was wrong, she had still harbored those
doubts in some corner of her heart. That was why she followed Castor to the bitter
end when he chose to die for his friendship with Georg.
Had Souma truly not been seduced by that power and authority? Even as she
stood as a prisoner at his side, Carla had been pondering that question.
However... with his words earlier, it had become clear to her.
"Carla, I may be a 'fake.'"
"After all... If I can't get into the role of king, I can't send soldiers off to the
battlefield."
He had to get into the role. That was proof that he was aware he wasn't a king.
Souma never wanted to be king...
If he'd had a carefree attitude and had been able to ignore the responsibility that
came with that power, he might have become king without worrying too much about
it. However, for one who understood that responsibility, power was nothing but a
burden. Souma was managing to bear that burden by playing a role.
The things she thought he had stolen had in fact been forced onto him by others.
By Sir Albert, the former king, by Liscia, by his vassals, by the people of this country,
he's been forced to bear every kind of burden, Carla thought. When I heard Souma
speaking so easily about his own death, I thought he might be feeling sick, but... I was
wrong. If there's something wrong with him, it's not his body, it's his mind.
Souma's mind was slowly being eaten away at by the pressure.
Liscia sensed that. That's why she's been trying so earnestly, so gallantly, to support
Souma.
Carla realized it now, but it was too late.
It's too late... Yes, far too late...
She was already a criminal awaiting judgment. Even if she fought for Souma now,
nothing would come of it.
Even so, when she saw Souma trying to leave the throne and his last will to Liscia
when his own life was in peril, Carla couldn't simply leave him be. If Souma died
here, Liscia would be sad.
My blind stubbornness has already brought Liscia enough grief. I won't let Liscia be
sad anymore!
Carla readied her two swords.
"That is why I will slay you!" she shouted at the general on horseback who was
rushing towards the main camp alone.
"What?!" the man screamed.
Carla glided down, throwing her full momentum into a downward swing with the
swords in both her hands. She planned to end it in an instant with that surprise
attack.
However, the enemy general blocked with two swords of his own. She thought
she had caught him off guard, but he must have been a very capable warrior.
Carla bent her body into an V-shape, using her remaining momentum to land a
kick on his open torso.
"Urgh..."
The enemy general was thrown from his horse, tumbling across the ground.
However, he immediately rose to his feet, readying his sword and glaring towards
Carla.
"You... You're a dragonewt, aren't you?" he demanded.
"I suppose you must be a well-known general," she responded. "I am Carla,
daughter of Castor Vargas."
"Castor? Didn't he rebel against the king?"
"...Yeah. That would be why I'm in this pitiful state," Carla said, pointing to the
slave collar around her neck.
When the enemy general saw it, he roared, "Then step aside! My only target here
is to take Souma's head!"
"Sadly, I can't let you do that anymore," she said.
"Isn't Souma supposed to be your enemy, too?!"
"He was, but he's also the man my best friend loves. I can't let you kill him."
"You make no sense! Very well, then you can die with him!" The enemy general
swung at Carla.
Carla crossed her swords to block, but that powerful blow forced her to take a
knee.
"What?! Was that really a human's power?!" she gasped.
To make a dragonewt, far more powerful than a human, take a knee... It was hard
to believe that this general was human.
"While you in the kingdom have sat on your laurels, we have polished our magic
and martial prowess!" the man shouted.
"...I see. Earth magic, huh."
As mentioned when reinforcements came from the Dark Elf village, Earth magic
manipulated gravity. He must have increased the power of his slash by making the
tip of his blade heavier at the moment of impact.
The enemy shouted as he tried to crush Carla. "Our royal family's long-held wish
is to take revenge on Elfrieden! For that, we have polished our fangs and sharpened
our claws! I will accomplish the wish of three generations of our royal family here
and now!"
"I see... So you're Gaius, are you?" she asked.
Having discerned the enemy general's true identity, Carla turned his heavy blade
aside with a smooth motion of her right-hand sword, then used her left-hand sword
for a diagonal upwards slash. Just when she almost had him, Gaius leapt backwards.
Carla pointed her blade towards Gaius. "If you're the sovereign prince... shouldn't
you worry about your people before your revenge?"
"Hmph!" Gaius spat. "I would be in a sad state if I let myself think like the
weaklings of Elfrieden's royal family. In the Principality of Amidonia, a king is one
who can use his strength of will and arms to keep the people in check!"
"...Right," said Carla. "When I look at you, Albert starts to look like a great ruler by
comparison."
He may not have been especially good or bad, but Albert's reign had at least been
peaceful. Gaius had started a war because he cared more about his own desire for
revenge than how his people lived. She could never accept a man like that as a king.
"I wouldn't want Souma to become a king like you..." she muttered.
"Hmph, I don't need my enemies to love me... Hah!" Gaius suddenly shoved his
hand to the ground.
In an instant, spikes began to rise out of the ground around Carla. The thorns
growing out of the ground rushed towards her.
Carla avoided a direct hit, but because the ground around her had as many spikes
growing out of it as a hedgehog, her wings were caught and she was unable to move.
In a strange coincidence, Carla found herself captured by the same tactic Liscia had
used to catch Castor.
"Dammit!" she shouted, trying hastily to get free.
"Now you will pay for blocking my path," said Gaius. He thrust his sword out
towards her.
Carla shut her eyes tight despite herself. Thud... She heard the sound of
something being stabbed.
...However, there was no pain. When Carla hesitantly opened her eyes, there was
a roly-poly something or other right in front of her. It was round, big, and white.
When she looked closer, it was a doll big enough for a person to get inside. That rolypoly doll had gotten between Carla and Gaius, blocking Gaius's sword with its body.
""Wha...?!""
Both Carla and Gaius's eyes went wide at the doll's sudden appearance.
Then...
"Get away, Carla!"
Carla snapped back to her senses when she heard the voice that called out to her.
She cut herself free from the ground that was binding her and escaped. When she
regained her balance and looked to the source of the voice, Carla's eyes went wide
once again.
"You... are you Souma Kazuya?!" Gaius shouted.
It seemed Gaius had figured it out, too.