⁂
Time passed, and it became the eve of the finals.
Which meant a council of war. A dinner, really, doubling as the customary rallying party.
“So what do we actually do, Ephthal? You can obviously flatten whoever it is without breaking a sweat, but…”
“That’s the thing. Against people who can use Level 5, the two of us just can’t manage!”
“Merlin-sama’s a guaranteed forfeit, right? And Sheryl can’t go all out either, for a whole pile of reasons.”
“Um, er… so in the end it has to be Master and me and Maria-san winning all three?”
Fair concerns, both of them. Going by the catalog specs alone, you’d think exactly that.
“There’s nothing to work out. It’s simple.”
“Hm? Simple? How do you mean?”
“Go at it with everything you’ve got. I haven’t been putting either of you through soft training, and you both had outstanding combat sense to begin with.”
“Right, but they can use Level 5. The gap in raw power—”
“Up in the higher world that’s ordinary, so from here on you’d do well to get in the habit of watching how magic power is handled and how a formula is built. Maria, when that lot used a Level 5, I think it just knocked the wind out of you.”
“Hm? Seriously, what do you mean?”
“Their power is borrowed. It’s not much different from a swordsman with something to prove swinging a greatsword that’s taller than he is. I gave the two of you Level 4 formulas as well, didn’t I, and I’ve had you drilling them over and over until you can actually use them.”
Their side is trading lifespan for the use of that power. Which means they can’t cast in practice, so what they’ve become is inevitable in its way.
“…Master? Which means…?”
“Keep your heads, think, respond, and you’ve got a chance. Specifically: their accuracy and the time it takes them to get a formula off are both abnormally slow. That’s as far as advice from me goes.”
Maria nodded, hard.
“Right! In that case, Anastasia! It’s on you!”
“Eh? On me? What is?”
“Think up every dirty trick and cheap gimmick you can! That’s your specialty!”
“Ehh! What kind of person do you take me for!?”
“Er… a soft and fluffy fiend girl?”
What in the world is a soft and fluffy fiend girl. I had to laugh.
“Well, understood. In that case… I’ll think! Of a way to win!”
Both of them are easy to fire up, basically. Getting them looking forward is a good thing, and there’s a decent chance of an actual win. Under normal circumstances it would be very hard, but catch the other side off guard and it should be manageable, and the sense for that is something both of them have.
That was when Sheryl stood up without a word and started for the dining room door—the way out.
“Sheryl? Where are you going?”
“…Ephthal… a messenger came from Brother today. He insists that we live together.”
Sheryl opened the door, took a single step through it, and turned back to go on.
“…And I have understood what Brother intends to do. So I have to go.”
She slipped a hand in through the collar of her robe and drew out a necklace.
“…Because I am the only one who can stop him. In the semifinals, my words did stop him. If I face Brother sincerely, he should not do anything foolish.”
The jewel on the necklace burst with a sharp crack, and out of it poured an enormous torrent of magic power, carrying cold.
“…If I cannot stop him, the whole academy will suffer terribly. So I cannot let you go outside. Until the final match is over… please wait here quietly.”
White haze.
Cold crawled along the walls of the room, and as we watched, the walls were sheathed in thick, magic-laden ice.
“…Perfect Ice Guard. The last of the magic items the first Ice God Emperor left behind to protect his descendants. To protect us.”
And last of all, the doorway itself was sealed behind thick ice.
“…I am sorry. And goodbye, Ephthal.”
Maria, thoroughly dumbfounded, raised her voice.
“Hold on, hold on!? What is going on here!? We just got shut inside ice with an absurd amount of magic power in it, in a single instant!?”
“A Level 9 barrier… huh. Using a defensive barrier to shut people in. Sheryl thought that one up.”
And I cracked my knuckles.
“Yes, Ephthal-sama. This is Isaac-sama’s technique, no question.”
I stood, stretched lightly, and rolled my neck until it cracked.
“And what do you intend to do?”
“I planted a Trace spell on her right before she used the magic item. I’ll let her run.”
“Let her run?”
“There’s still background here I can’t read. This is a matter with the Fire God Emperor’s hand in it, so sloppy work isn’t an option.”
“Meaning?”
“If I can manage it, I intend to save Brad too.”
“…Not only Sheryl…?”
“Isaac’s a special man to me too. So I can’t have Sheryl crying.”
“How do you mean?”
“My wife. Bridget. Every year on her birthday he’d send a bouquet of rare flowers he’d picked himself, with a poem attached. Insufferably smooth bastard, but Bridget was pleased, so what was I supposed to do, stop him?”
“…I’m not following the story.”
“Bridget never knew. But he loved the same woman I did.”
That was part of why, when he lost his head over a spirit past forty, somewhere underneath I was cheering him on. I knew what it had cost him to take his hands off Bridget without ever saying a word.
Merlin’s eyes went wide.
“You really are… But what of the barrier? I could not undo that quickly, at least.”
“Who exactly do you think you’re talking to, Merlin?”
I snapped my fingers, cracks ran through the ice, and at once it began coming apart, loudly.
“My apologies, Ephthal-sama. Still, you really do have a habit of picking up troublesome things, don’t you?”
“Yeah. Same as I picked you up at the Demon King’s castle.”
Merlin laughed, as though exasperated.