“Perhaps I could stand to learn from his single-minded tenacity.”
“If you turn out like him, Liscia will cry,” Carla, who was standing at his side, said.
“Yeah, I guess she would…”
With those words, Souma walked up next to Gaius’s unmoving remains, put his hands together, and prayed. Unsure what the gesture meant, Carla tilted her head to the side in confusion.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Everyone becomes a Buddha once they’re dead… a god, in other words. It’s a custom from my old world. That’s why I’m praying so he can find his way to Nirvana.”
“You’re praying for this revenge-obsessed monster?” she asked incredulously.
“That’s all the more reason,” he said. “You wouldn’t want him coming back to curse me as a ghost because he had regrets in this world, would you?”
“That’s a very calculating religion you’ve got there.”
Souma stood up with a laugh, then looked down at his hands and sighed again. “…This is my first time seeing someone be murdered.”
When Souma said that, Carla looked at him incredulously. “What are you saying, after everything you’ve done? I’m sure you must have ordered your soldiers to kill people before this.”
“You sure don’t hold back, huh…”
As they were arguing, their comrades who had learned of the main camp’s crisis finally arrived. Liscia, Aisha, Ludwin, Halbert, and Kaede reacted with surprise when they saw Gaius’ fallen body.
Liscia rushed over and hugged Souma. “Souma, you fought, too?! Are you okay? You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
As Liscia searched all over his body, Souma wore a wry smile. “I’m fine, really. The two of us managed to handle him somehow until help arrived.”
“I see,” Liscia said. “…Thanks, Carla. For protecting Souma.”
“…It just sort of happened.” Carla was too embarrassed to say “I did it for you,” so she turned her head to the side and kept quiet.
While he was watching the two of them, Souma clapped his hands to get their attention. “Well, things are settled here. Let’s go ride into Van.”
As he and his companions began moving, he saw Gaius’s body being carried away. From the glimpse he saw of the man’s face, he really did seem satisfied.
For you, with your martial prowess… perhaps this was the only path you could choose, Souma thought. You truly believed that taking revenge on the kingdom would lead the people of the principality to happiness. I don’t want to completely deny that way of thinking.
In order to avoid ruining the victorious mood, Souma offered his prayers in silence.
I don’t think you were right. But I don’t think you were entirely wrong. Even so, now that I’ve defeated you, I will move forward…
…to protect Liscia, and all those I consider family.
Some hours later, Van, the capital of Amidonia, opened its gates under the condition that the city’s defenders would be spared, that all those who wished to leave be allowed to depart (they would not be allowed to bring more luggage than they could carry themselves), and that Gaius’s remains be returned. When Souma brought his entire army into Van, the series of battles that would come to be known as the One Week War came to a close.
However, it was only the battles that had ended.
Epilogue: The True Raising of the Curtain
It happened around the time that Souma and the others were fighting the final battle in Amidonia.
The prime minister of the Elfrieden Kingdom, Hakuya Kwonmin, was in Red Dragon City sorting things out in the aftermath of the war. Because Souma had had to leave to fight the principality before he could do any real work on the process, Hakuya was handling it on his behalf.
While he was the prime minister, he was also a bureaucrat, so for Hakuya this was his battlefield.
In Castor’s governmental affairs office, the only sound was the scratching of Hakuya’s pen.
It was quiet in the castle. The master of the castle, Castor, had already been transferred to Parnam. The majority of the Vargas family servants had turned to Castor’s wife, Accela, who had been left with Excel, and they had departed for Lagoon City. Because of that, the only ones in the castle were the guards and a small number of bureaucrats.
Tap, tap.
There was a hesitant knocking at the door.
“Come in,” said Hakuya.
“…Excuse me. I brought some papers for you,” Tomoe said as she entered the room.
Tomoe would soon be departing for Amidonia to negotiate with the rhinosauruses. Still, they couldn’t very well bring a child like Tomoe to the battlefield, so she would be staying with Hakuya until things settled down.
Hakuya stopped writing, and his cheeks loosened just a little. “That’s kind of you. You don’t have to do this for me, you know?”
“No… I wanted to do something to help, too…” When Tomoe said that, her tail drooped, but her wolf ears perked up and moved around restlessly.
Seeing Tomoe acting like that, Hakuya smiled wryly despite himself. “Are you worried about His Majesty and the others?”
“Ah!..Yes.” Since he had been on the mark, Tomoe’s ears flattened down. “At times like this… I can’t do anything.”
“You could say the same of me,” Hakuya said, patting Tomoe’s head as he took the documents from her. “We worked hard to refine the plan. Between Duke Carmine’s plot and Duke Vargas’s opposition, there were a number of events we hadn’t predicted, but things are going well for the most part. You needn’t worry. I am sure His Majesty, the princess, and everyone else will come back safely.”
“…Okay!” Tomoe was encouraged by Hakuya’s perfect composure, and she gave him a cheerful response.
That was when it happened.
A single soldier rushed into the office and said, “I have a report! His Majesty Souma’s army intercepted the Amidonian army near Van and successfully routed them! It was a major victory for our side!”
He was reporting their victory in battle.
Tomoe smiled.
Clatter.
When he heard that report, Hakuya jumped to his feet so quickly that he knocked his chair over. His face showed signs of his excitement, a rarity for the usually-subdued Hakuya.
Tomoe stared blankly at him.
When Hakuya noticed that, he awkwardly cleared his throat.
“…For an advisor, even if he has some reservations about his own plans, he must never let that show. It wouldn’t do for him to stir up uncertainty,” he said, the words sounding like he was just trying to hide his embarrassment.
Tomoe suppressed a laugh, giving her mentor, the Prime Minister, a firm salute. “Yes, sir. I toooootally understand.”
When Tomoe, the honorary little sister of his master and also his pupil, gave him a response like that, Hakuya sulked a little.
The black-robed prime minister, who was famed for his cleverness, couldn’t keep up that image in front of his adorable student.
Before entering Van, the capital city of the Principality of Amidonia, I gave an order to the entire army.
“We will now enter Van, but this area is already under the rule of the Elfrieden Kingdom!” I announced. “Therefore, the people who live within are already citizens of the kingdom! Killing, harming, raping, or robbing them will absolutely not be tolerated! If anyone should violate this order, regardless of their social stature or the severity of their crimes, I will have that person decapitated and their head put on display! Understand that now!”