“…I’ve wanted to tear you Tower Masters to pieces for a long time!”

There were no longer two voices coming from Forcite.

Only one grotesque voice resonated as he drew a sword made of black energy.

Threatening auras swirled around Ariel.

These gaseous forms soon became sharp thorns, surrounding Ariel with deadly intent, poised to pierce him at any moment.

“If it weren’t for you lot, I could have controlled magical beasts and reigned above the Empire!”

“Pfft.”

But Forcite’s mouth corners dropped at Ariel’s burst of laughter.

“…Did you just laugh?”

It wasn’t just his mouth corners.

His eyebrows, eyes, and entire nose wobbled precariously, on the verge of collapse.

Anyone else would have felt nauseated at the sight, but Ariel disregarded it and simply looked him over.

“Yeah. You’re trembling.”

With quite a mocking tone.

“……”

Forcite’s entire body began to tremble. He shouted in a split voice.

“…I’ll tear you to shreds and chew you up! Tower Master!”

The thorns that had threateningly surrounded Ariel immediately struck down at him.

“…?”

But nothing happened.

Ariel hadn’t even removed his hands from his waistband.

The sharp thorns that had flown toward Ariel simply shattered with a cracking sound.

Forcite’s body instinctively stepped back.

Ariel frowned and brushed himself off, concerned that thorn fragments might have gotten on his clothes. He didn’t even look at Forcite.

“You know it too, right? That you can never win.”

Then he slowly took out one hand and extended it toward Forcite.

His expression showed disgust, as if finally dealing with something annoying.

“Trying to do something with mere magical beasts was doomed from the start.”

“…I have become one with the prince! It’s not just about magical beasts!”

Forcite shouted while wildly swinging his sword, but cold sweat poured down his forehead madly, as if he could imagine what was about to happen.

Dozens, hundreds of ominous sword energies flew toward Ariel.

Ariel deflected all of this effortlessly and squinted one eye.

He would have liked to blast both of those guys away right there.

But troublesome scenarios that would follow played out in his mind.

Merrien would have something to say, and relations with the Empire… Ah, he didn’t want to think about it anymore.

He absolutely detested headache-inducing matters.

“Prince. You should know you’re lucky.”

It wasn’t meant to be heard.

Ariel, muttering to himself, seemed to approach Forcite in a very brief moment and lightly stepped onto his shoulder.

And when he looked down at him, their gazes locked through the blackened eye.

Forcite’s pupils were so enlarged with shock that they nearly filled half his face.

“…How?”

To him, Ariel felt as if he were at an immeasurable height.

“This is why you’re no good.”

Ariel bent his upper body to meet him at eye level.

His hand went smoothly into Forcite’s eye.

AAAAGH-!!!

With a scream that seemed to tear apart, sparks flew from Ariel’s forearm.

“First, the gate.”

Following Ariel’s calm voice, the finely flowing current soon stopped.

In that brief moment, the gate had been shattered.

Ariel brushed off the slight current that remained on his arm.

“Next, you.”

One corner of his mouth rose playfully without even using any strength.

To anyone facing this sight up close, only overwhelming fear would be felt.

Ariel nonchalantly tried to put his hand into his eye again.

Suddenly, Forcite knelt down, trembling.

“P-please, spare me just this once. Tower Master…”

Tears flowed from the consumed eye. His pupils were filled with fear.

Looking closely, there was fear of the Tower Master, despair at never being able to win, and even inferiority.

Emotions that had been engraved over a long time.

“No, I won’t.”

Ariel, who spoke coldly, put his hand in without hesitation.

AAAAAAAGH-!!!

A fiercer scream was heard, and this time something black came out attached to Ariel’s hand.

That thing, which had been thrown down, bounced several times before collapsing on the floor.

It was just a B-sized sphere that had been inside a top-tier magical beast, at best.

“…Ha, this is all it was?”

Ariel looked at what he had pulled out and let out a hollow laugh.

Indeed, once extracted, it was just a small sphere, nothing more.

He had roughly expected it to be something like a dragon’s grudge-filled obsession, but he didn’t expect it to be this pathetic.

It was something that couldn’t possibly be called a dragon, something embarrassing to even call that.

“……”

Moreover, once outside, it couldn’t even open its mouth or roll by itself.

It was a being that couldn’t do anything unless it had a host.

Ariel looked down at the sphere with a bland expression.

Black liquid dripped from the sphere, as if shedding tears.

But Ariel felt no emotion seeing that sight.

Crunch-. His shoe stepped on the sphere.

“Ah, what will Seren say?”

Belatedly, he felt troubled imagining the Tower’s magicians wailing, ‘This important research material!’ at the sight of the shattered sphere pieces, but he had no intention of taking back his action.

In the end, the root cause of all these incidents disappeared just like that.

“Come to think of it, I should also visit the Tower.”

After resolving the matter so easily and anticlimactically, he thought about the welfare of the magicians.

Ah, forget it. Judging by their contact, they must have handled it themselves.

If it had been something they couldn’t resolve on their own, they wouldn’t have had time to contact him at all.

Ariel brushed off the fragments on his feet with a disgusted expression and raised his head at the sound of footsteps coming from afar.

He could tell just by the sound of footsteps now.

“Merri.”

A smile escaped even before confirming who it was.

In the distance, Merrien was running toward him, looking only at him.

“Me…rri…”

And Forcite, who was lying weakly beside Ariel with his eyelids barely raised, was also calling Merrien’s name.

Forcite had no idea what had happened.

Even in the midst of such dizziness, he clearly recognized who the blurry figure running toward them was.

Forcite reached out his hand toward Merrien.

***

“Forcite, let’s live together when we grow up!”

“…Sure.”

In Forcite’s memories, Merrien was always bright.

They made a promise in a place full of flowers. To live together someday in the distant future.

When she said she was becoming a Saint and going to the temple, he regretted joining the knight order.

He had only joined for the sake of living together later.

He thought if he quickly resolved his duties in the knight order, he could return to Merri’s side, but instead, his responsibilities increased.

Being called the ‘Hero of the Empire,’ being asked to participate in magical beast subjugation.

Cross-border missions became more frequent.

He eventually rose to the position of Knight Commander.

‘…If I had known this would happen, I would have just stayed by Merri’s side.’

He probably couldn’t have become a temple priest without even minimal Holy Power, but he could have worked as a handyman doing odd jobs.

Still, it was somewhat bearable.

[Forcite, a sun that resembles your eyes has risen. I really like the temple. Today…]

[Forcite, a sun that resembles your eyes has risen! I received flowers as a gift from a believer…]

Letters flew in from Merrien every week.

The beginning of the letters was always a greeting that praised his red eyes, which he had considered a curse.

But one day.

[Forcite. Get me out of the temple.]

The writing style in the letter changed.

‘……’

The usual “A sun that resembles your eyes has risen” that she had deliberately written was nowhere to be found.

There were no praises about the temple that she used to proudly share as a Saint.

There was only the gloomy talk of getting her out of the temple.

On the day he received that letter, Forcite became anxious.

[Merri. I’ll come rescue you.]

It’s okay. Merri is Merri.

She might have been troubled that day.

Merri is someone who values others more than herself, truly like a Saint.

Yes, Merri was like that when he visited the Hartez mansion.

Hearing that Duke Hartez was so sickly he was dying, she wouldn’t have been able to just watch.

Merri, who is too kind, pitiful Merri.

That Duke Hartez must have cunningly wormed his way into her heart and seduced her.

Thinking about it, Forcite couldn’t easily fall asleep.