CLOP, CLOP!

The horse picked up speed.

“So that mage is obviously a fake, right?”

I pulled a small potion bottle from inside my coat. The liquid inside swayed softly, like water scattered with finely crushed pearl dust.

“And this potion looks real enough, at least?”

“Yeah... But watch the front.”

Khalid spoke low and kept his gaze ahead. My own eyes flashed briefly in his, and there was still a faint reddish tint left in them.

It’s been a while since I used Wigeria’s power this much to make something.

A blood-relationship-determining potion.

After hearing the basic appearance and rough mechanism from Princess Sebelena, I had thrown one together in a rush.

Of course, without the core herb ingredient from the real potion, this was only an imitation. Really, making a fake that looked genuine was harder than making the real thing.

Especially in this little time. Honestly, I only tried calling Wigeria because I didn’t have time to draw a magic circle. Thank goodness Wigeria answered.

Wigeria had been acting like a sulky adolescent boy around me lately.

It was probably ever since I started studying the stele formulas on my own.

Surely Wigeria wasn’t actually upset over that.

Do I need to schedule a meeting or something?!

Still, Wigeria had lent me power again today for the first time in a while, so I supposed I should let it slide.

I tucked the bottle away and said, suddenly awkward, “Sorry for riding with you. But Dad told us to move as quietly as possible until we reached the cabin... This draws less attention than moving several horses, doesn’t it?”

“I know. And...”

“Hm?”

“I like this better.”

At that moment, a hard gust of wind whipped past.

I think he said something after that.

It was too quiet to make out.

I swallowed and stared ahead.

My eyes caught on the hand gripping the reins. Maybe because of the riding gloves, it looked even bigger and harder than usual.

The solid torso against my back. The thick thighs bracing the huge black horse beneath us.

I bit my lip and remembered the face I had just seen on Khalid. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

...The back of his neck was kind of red.

What was I supposed to do?

This time, I felt like he’d taste like apples.

I took in a shaky breath. Over the past few days, my friend-biting disease had already moved past the early stage and was racing toward the middle and terminal stages.

Ugh...

Get it together, Rubian. Khalid is your friend.

Not just any friend, either. Your one and only comrade-in-arms, your childhood friend, the person you’ve shared life and death with!

And you’re having those, those, those @#$% feelings for a friend like that? How grossed out would Khalid be if he found out?

I shook my head hard.

Then suddenly, a pained groan drifted from behind me.

“...The smell is too... close...”

Right! In the middle of this fresh forest road, full of clean woodsy air!

“I’m seriously going to lose my mind...”

The hand gripping the reins clenched tight.

Lost in my own thoughts, I naturally had no idea what Khalid was actually suffering over.

Oh nooooo, what am I supposed to do?

I even wanted to bite that hand.

I think I’d turned into some kind of full-blown degenerate!

*****

On the outskirts of the capital.

An old cabin, set in a deserted place.

The mage trembled as he stared at the man before him.

A man dressed in black from head to toe sat with one leg crossed, looking down at him.

They were clearly seated across a table from each other, yet the mage still could not shake the sense that the man was looking down on him.

His clothes were far too loose and careless for a grand noble.

Then again, he did not look like a war hero who had saved the continent, either. The slightly tilted chin and the hand tossed carelessly over his thigh gave off an air of boredom and laziness.

Then what is this pressure?

The mage swallowed.

His restless gaze darted about, then collided head-on with cold violet eyes.

It was only eye contact, yet gooseflesh ran over his entire body. It felt like he had just woken a beast sleeping deep in a forest.

“How did you escape the Magic Kingdom?”

The flat voice made the air vibrate.

“B-by ship...”

Only then did the mage realize it.

He was being utterly crushed beneath Leviathan Zebbert’s presence.

He barely forced himself back under control, wrenching his frozen voice out through sheer effort.

“I l-launched it after slipping past surveillance. More people than that attempted it together, but only those who arrived with me managed to escape successfully. The Kingdom’s barriers aren’t all that hard to get out through from the inside, and if you can make it through the illusion fog, after that it’s just a matter of sailing...”

Leviathan narrowed his eyes.

At the same time, Leon, who had been standing in one corner of the cabin like a shadow, pulled the items he had been holding from inside his coat and placed them on the table.

“You sent things like these and asked to meet me. Why?”

As Leviathan spoke, the mage spotted the old bundle on the table, bit his lip, and answered in a trembling voice.

“I... I want to see the youngest princess...”

“......”

“Just once. Did you see the portrait inside? That face... was it truly the youngest princess Your Grace adopted?”

Tears welled in the man’s eyes in an instant.

“A very long time ago, I lost a child.”

Leviathan found himself clenching his teeth.

Every word the man spoke sounded far too familiar.

“Then I learned the Mage King had taken the child from me. The Mage King’s ‘seventh’...”

“You’re saying the Mage King took the child on purpose?”

“Yes. Whenever he finds a child with exceptional magical talent, he takes them by any means necessary and makes them his own child.”

“And after your child was stolen, you just stood there and watched?”

“I tried with everything I had to get the child back, of course!”

The mage shouted it almost like a seizure, then lowered his head. At the nape of his neck, visible between roughly hacked-off strands of hair, was the crest of the Magic Kingdom.

“...For a low-ranking mage like me, defying the king was something beyond imagination. Of course I was always looking for a chance to get my child back, but... then the human-demon war broke out, and by the end of the war I heard the child had ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ disappeared.”

The man wiped at his tears roughly and went on.

“Then, several years ago, the Mage King returned after suffering a great injury. At the same time, the gates of Arcadia closed. Most of what happens inside the royal palace is confidential, so I couldn’t know the details, but some stationed mages had returned from the continent around then, and I bought information from them.”

“And my name came up.”

“...Yes. I heard magical beasts had appeared in the capital of the Babilon Empire, and that Duke Zebbert had defeated them. I instinctively thought the Mage King must have been involved somehow, and then I heard about the youngest princess of House of Zebbert.”

The man bit down on his lip.

“Your Grace... I beg your pardon for asking.”

Blue eyes lifted to Leviathan. The tears clouding them spilled down in heavy drops.

“Is the youngest princess... perhaps a mage? Is that why the Mage King attacked?”

“......”

“Whether the ‘seventh’ who escaped the Magic Kingdom... is truly Princess Rubian Zebbert. Only that, please...”

The man sprang to his feet, then threw himself flat onto the freezing floor. He began banging his forehead against it over and over as he pleaded desperately.

“Please, please. Let me see the youngest princess just once. Just let me confirm whether the child I lost is alive or not. If you do only that, I won’t care if you take this life of mine at any time!”

His wailing filled the cabin.

Leviathan stared down at the man’s back in silence.

Whether the child I lost is alive or not...

That was all he wanted to confirm?

And if he could, he would give up his life?

Even knowing there was a high chance it was all lies, the words still struck him in the chest.

Really.

If all of this was fabricated, then whoever had written these lines deserved praise.

He had never felt such raw sympathy for someone else’s words before.

Of course... to him, there was no real hope in words like that. There was someone in his life who would not come back, no matter what price he paid.

I’m getting overly sentimental.

Mocking himself, he flicked his gaze toward the window.

Rubian should be arriving soon.

But if he really is Ruby’s birth father...

Then maybe part of what he had said just now was true.

For example—

The part about the Mage King taking little Rubian away.

Damn it.

There was no way his emotions wouldn’t rise.

He barely managed to swallow the curse.

*****

Quiet.

The mage, who had been sobbing, glanced up at Leviathan.

A chill ran across his skin at the ominous air around him.

The Duke, who looked as though you could stick him with a needle and not get a drop of blood, remained silent, sunk deep in thought.

If I hadn’t gotten caught in the south by that blue-haired knight, I wouldn’t have gone through any of this hell.

After flicking a glance toward Leon as well, he swallowed his resentment.

Judging by the Duke’s presence... there’s no way he’ll let me see the princess willingly.

That much was expected.

It was common knowledge that Duke Zebbert treasured the youngest princess more than his own life.

But that didn’t matter.

There were plenty of ways to get close to Rubian.

A blood-relationship-determining potion.

That very item everyone on the continent had apparently been talking about lately.

That was what he intended to use.

Of course, he didn’t have the potion with him now. But the King of Casalia, who was currently staying in the capital of Babilon, was on their side.

So if I can just get through this meeting and make contact with the king...

He could obtain the potion and tamper with it using the method the Mage King had taught him. Once the blood test was done, the proof would be undeniable, and approaching the princess while pretending to be her real father would not be difficult.

I should beg one last time here, then back off at the right moment. Looking at that foul expression, it definitely won’t work.

He bowed his head again.

“Pleeease!”

“Fine.”

“Just once—... what?”

The mage snapped his head up.

“I said fine.”

The Duke’s face as he gave permission looked absolutely filthy. Anyone who saw it would have thought he was refusing.

Leviathan let out a long breath, then spoke rapidly, as though trying to get it over with.

“No matter how I look at it, the face in that portrait does seem to be Rubian’s. And if you really are Ruby’s bi—... whatever.”

He seemed to add something like, “Just saying it makes me sick,” but the window rattled at that exact moment, so the mage couldn’t be sure.

“Then it’s only proper that I let you meet her.”

“Uh...”

This... worked?

...Why did this work?