nd girls sharing a room went, Stella still had some problems with it even now, so she wasn't very sympathetic, but...

That's right...

Because of the great pains it caused, she would listen to the important matter displayed before them that was on their mind, and Stella preemptively threw out a question.

"..Madam Chairman, what's happening with Ikki's selection battles? They're not being counted as default loss by absence, right?"

"I'm not staking my prestige on that kind of thing. Kurogane is having bouts conducted with opponents during that sham battle with the League's Japanese branch. Of course even one of the school's teachers is accompany him as a referee. Because we know not to leave the judgment to those people."

"Can we go to support him, I wonder?"

"No, that's impossible. Until the inquiry is over, all face-to-face meetings are prohibited."

"He's being completely isolated, then..."

However, Kurono's firm promise that Ikki won't lose by default for absence was reassuring. As expected, having him lose because of his current confinement was too much. One worry was diminished, and Stella took a breath of relief, then pressed Kurono for the next matter.

"Then what did you need me for?"

Regarding that, Kurono replied with a short "Oh", and got to the point.

"About what's happening right now, I want to hear what your parents back in Vermillion think."

Why was Kurono concerned about something like that? That kind of problem existed, but it wasn't like they were hiding it, and after Ikki was spirited away, Stella had contacted her parents by phone and told them the situation honestly.

"Mother understood my judgment. But.. Father was completely against it. He was very angry, and shouted 'He laid a hand on our daughter without getting my permission, Kiyo!"

"He loves you, no?"

"He has no ability to let go of his children. Because he was so threatening, it looks like he'll be coming to Japan soon."

"And how long will that be?"

"Three weeks from now, I suppose."

"Right when the selection battles end, huh? ..Exactly as we get near our goal."

"Goal?"

Stella tilted her head in confusion at Kurono's coughed words. What did she mean by goal?

Kurono explained her grumbled words to Stella.

"If the King of Vermillion himself visited, as expected it wouldn't be just an inquiry or confinement without visitors. Even those red-suited people would have no choice but to table Kurogane's matter. And with that, if you and your fellows were to hold a discussion, you would definitely reach a conclusion about all of this. The drift of the argument made by those people who developed Kurogane as scandal right now, that wouldn't be part of such a discussion, because they only want to arbitrarily direct it as they please with no more than speculation. If the King of Vermillion himself approved of Kurogane, those people will have the basis of their argument overturned. If that happened, it would be their turn to be investigated."

"A counterattack?"

"Exactly. For entangling my own student on my own territory in their design, I'll have them regret it until they die."

At Kurono's words and her expression, Stella body had goosebumps.

"Scary..."

Just by being close, she felt pressed by Kurono's mood. This intensity that made students weakly fall back, it was expected of the knight who was formerly the world's third strongest.

But that's certainly the goal, yes.

The claim of the red-suited Ethics Committee, it was that Ikki so thoughtless that it could create an international problem. In that case, if her father the sovereign of Vermillion were to approve of Ikki, it would settle everything.

The problem was.. would that father obediently approve of his daughter's lover?

"..Ooh. I'm not confident, somehow. Because he probably already decided and won't listen to me."

For example, during a school event once in middle school, she went camping in the mountains, and he dressed up in a bear skin and watched over her from the forest the entire time. He was that kind of father. At the time, she thought he was a real bear and was going to kill him. Well.. when she found out it was really her father, she still wanted to kill him. He was that kind of parent, so she couldn't see him welcoming Ikki. Stella was at her wits end, and Kurono spoke while giving her a gentle smile with an unusual sense of motherliness.

"It'll be fine. He's someone who brought up a daughter as honest as you, so there's no way he wouldn't understand Kurogane's caliber."

It was a reason that one couldn't say was based on anything. But Kurono's words removed Stella's anxiety with alarming ease.

Right, he wasn't a bad father. Stella also loved her father from the bottom of her heart. That was why Stella thought so. That he would want to like the boy who loved her.

"It would be.. nice if that happened."

"Well, you'll also assist him when they meet. It's advice from a married person, but greeting a girl's parents is a group effort to go forward with before cutting the cake. Don't just leave it to the man. It's suitable for him to see how his own daughter might protect the man."

"I-I'll make the best of it."

"Ha ha, ah, do your best. ..But anyway. I think it's best to be honest, but your relief is making you more energetic than I expected.

"A good little sister happened to revitalize me a little while ago."

Touching the crack put into in her right arm, Stella smiled a bit, and made a decision in her heart. That's right, leaving it all to the man was something that a good woman doesn't do. She would fight too.

「Stella, I love you, and I want to say so proudly in front of everyone.」

Right now, Ikki was putting into practice the words he had exchanged with her. In that case—

Me too, I will protect my promise.

The tenth underground level of the Japanese League branch. Ikki Kurogane was being detained there.

"I've left food on the table. There is another hearing tomorrow morning at six, so hurry up and sleep."

Saying that discourteously, a red-suited person with a bad complexion engaged the electronic lock on the room and left.

The room had only a stained bed and a table and chair that looked as if they would break any moment, and nothing else. However, Ikki who had been standing on his feet the entire day for the hearing was still grateful for it.

He heaved a sigh that had all of his fatigue in it, and sat down on that shabby chair. The inquiries went from six in the morning to eleven at night. The Ethics Committee had chairs, and with their four rotations each day, they didn't become tired, but to stand on one's feet from morning to night, it really did make one weary as expected. If it continued for a week, even Ikki who trained on a regular basis would become sluggish without knowing it.

But it probably wasn't just because of the fatigue that he was accumulating.

"I really miss having decent rice, I guess."

In front of Ikki's eyes as he grumbled in disgust, his evening meal was left there. There were two bars of crude portable food. When he looked at the calorie information on the back, there was certainly true that those two bars supplied enough calories and nutrition for one meal, but it couldn't be enough to satisfy the appetite of Ikki who was both a knight and a growing teen. Because these were the meals every day down here, Ikki was tormented by chronic hunger.

And moreover―

"As usual, there's nothing to drink either."

Even consumption of water was restricted. It seemed that for some reason, the drinking water that was part of the rationed meals was missing. And the room that Ikki was imprisoned in was suffering a water outage since some weeks ago, so even the toilets did not have running water.

It was quite simple harassment. Naturally, since he was not given water during the inquiry, he used the toilet during the times he was allowed to take a shower and when he went between the inquiry chamber and his room, and during those times he took as much water as he could.

By getting through the days that way, he wouldn't fall apart from fatigue. He was alone among enemies. Surrounded on all sides, fighting alone.

But it's fine.

He was used to that kind of thing. He had always acted alone. Depending on no one, being taught by no one. It was certainly not the first time he had fought like this. Closing his eyes, he could remember it even now. The scenes of of his youth, him hiding in the mountain behind his parents' home, swinging his sword silently. As far as Ikki was concerned, most of his life felt like that. Therefore, it wasn't a big deal to withstand this at this point. Whether isolation or animosity, he was quite used to them. Therefore whatever method Akaza and the others used to get from Ikki the testimony that "he admitted it was a mistake", stuff like this wouldn't break Ikki's tenacious determination.

If it's like this, I can tolerate it.

If they did it like this, no matter who it was, he'll be going to meet the king of Vermillion soon enough, probably. It was a serious affair with his important daughter. There was no way Stella's father would let the man in question go free. In that case, what he should do was stubbornly stick to his principles against petty third-parties until that day. If he did so, eventually Akaza and the others would lose their right to intervene in the media uproar.

Rather, it's there that my real crisis begins, I guess.

He would get the approval of Stella's father. That was the momentous event that Ikki had never gotten before in his life. Just thinking about it made his heart pound furiously from nervousness. But he couldn't run away from it. Not that. From the moment he fell in love with the girl called Stella Vermillion, it was an inevitable conclusion. That was why from that moment, Ikki had always been thinking about how to greet the king and make a good impression.

For the greeting, he should probably wear a suit, right? His hair.. part it on one side? He imagined it a little.

..Whoa, that's terrible.

A strained laugh spilled out at the thought of him looking like a salaryman.

But more than just by how he looked, how would he convey his important sincerity? In the end, it was this that couldn't be done with trickery. Or rather, trickery would backfire instead. There was nothing but to uprightly facing each other with complete sincerity, and appeal with as much earnestness as possible.

Since time is precious, should I practice a little bit?

Trickery was useless, but the idea of performing without practice was making him nervous after all. He needed to rehearse.

Thinking that, Ikki closed his eyes and focused his thoughts. What appeared on the inside of his eyelids was the face Stella's father, the king of Vermillion. Because Stella had showed him a picture once, he could remember it. The same blazing hair as Stella. A lion-like majesty that could be felt from a gigantic stature close to two meters tall, with sideburns linked to a beard.

When he recalled that vision and opened his eyelids―before his eyes, there was no doubt that man was standing there.

Of course, the real thing wasn't there. It was only a virtual image brought forth by Ikki's concentration that had been honed to the utmost. Picturing the image of the supposed other party, and then practicing a paired kata. It was a basic technique for a practitioner of martial arts. This was a practical application. However, if it was an expert like Ikki, the image would have a gaze, heartbeat, and temperature unlike a normal image. It would have an overwhelming realism even to the point of an audible pulse. With that realism, it would even shake the spirit of Ikki who had created it.

The king of Vermillion who had the severe features of a lion didn't speak and didn't move, only staring at Ikki with the same crimson irises of his honest daughter. At that gaze, Ikki felt pressure that seemed to burn the outer surface of his skin. Sweat poured from his whole body, and his throat went dry in exchange.

But if he couldn't handle a virtual image, he couldn't stand in front of the real thing. Ikki took a deep breath, and directly returned the king of Vermillion's gaze. Then and there, he got down on both knees, lowered his head as if pressing it onto the bed, and―

"Please give me your daughter!"

―expelled all of the breath in his lungs in his cry. And at that moment―

"I won't give you my daughter."

A voice shook Ikki's ears with a rejection that was as heavy as lead. Hadn't Ikki been serious enough?

..No, no no no no. Wait. Wait just a second.

No matter what it was, no matter how much pressure the real thing would have, an image was just an image after all. There was no way it could reply.

Then what was that voice? Ikki raised his head, and―

"I would never give Shizuku to you."

―his real father, Itsuki Kurogane, was staring down on Ikki with cold gray eyes.

"F-F-F-F-Father!?"

After that, Ikki brought over the one chair that was in the room confining him. Itsuki sat in that chair, facing Ikki across the table. They faced each other for five minutes. Up to then, the two people did not ask questions or converse.

Th-This is awkward...

Ikki felt a strange sweat appearing on his back.

Well, it was understandable. They had just met with that kind of impression, but moreover, Ikki hadn't met his father Itsuki face to face since he was five years old. Honestly, after meeting him all of a sudden, he had no idea what to talk about. He didn't know what kind of face he should show.

Or for that matter, what does this person want with me to come here after such a long time in the first place?

And as Ikki tried to read Itsuki's thoughts...

"Ikki."

Itsuki broke the silence and spoke the first words.

"Y-Yes."

Ikki responded in a voice with a little bit of excitement in it. The sweat on his back increased. His chest began a strange throbbing. Just.. what was this person going to say with his next words?

Because he's the kind of man who goes too far, there's a bit of anticipation―

"You, do you love Shizuku as a woman?"

"Bu!"

"Incest is forbidden. It's immoral, but more than anything else, you've been together since she was born so you shouldn't see her as―"

"W-Wait, wait! That was me doing a simulation of my greetings to Stella's parents! Shizuku is very important to me, but I'll never look at my little sister as someone of the opposite sex!"

"Is that so? Good."

This was bad. Ikki could've just been thought of as a very dangerous person. Itsuki looked like he was about to give a very serious lecture.

No, if he was really in such a situation, that response probably would be reasonable..."

―However, thanks to Ikki yelling out so impatiently, some of the stiffness in the room had been removed. Ikki boldly asked something of his father.

"U-Umm, Father. Why are you here?"

"My son was in a place one elevator trip away. I came to see his face at a whim, I suppose."

"..Is that right?"

Ikki didn't know whether those words were Itsuki's real thoughts. At any rate, Itsuki always had a sour expression, and those gray eyes were as impossible to read as ever. However, even if he couldn't understand Itsuki's real thoughts...

What.. is this?"

Ikki felt his heart throbbing. And a tingle was spreading across both his cheeks.

I.. could it be that I'm happy?

At this meeting with his father after ten years, Ikki was hesitant to analyze his own reaction. Itsuki, in contrast, wasn't even having much strain, and some words came out.

"It seems that you've had very good progress, haven't you?"

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"The record for the selection battles that were introduced at Hagun this year. I heard you've had sixteen consecutive victories so far."

"Oh, yes... If you included the result of the match from yesterday, it would be seventeen wins, I think."

"It seems you weren't fighting only weak opponents either. ..It was considerable."

"..Yes."

What was that just now? Did he just receive.. praise?

What should I do? ..I'm really happy.

In that moment, Ikki became more and more sure. He was happy.

He was able to meet his father face to face. He was able to hear his father's voice. Indeed, Ikki Kurogane loved Itsuki Kurogane even now. That was why he answered that he wanted to stay connected to Itsuki, when Stella asked him in that small mountain shack.

As far as he was concerned, Itsuki was his one and only father. However badly he was treated, even if he wasn't accepted, a child couldn't hate his parent. Parents could loathe children, but children could only adore parents. Ikki was not an exception. Ikki knew that this inquiry, being shut up here, all of it was with his father's participation. But even so, even so.

His father was looking at him. His father was speaking to him. Ikki couldn't help but be happy about that.

For that reason, he thought...

If by any chance...

If it was right now, now that he was different from how he was in the past, maybe―couldn't he get this person acceptance?

「You can't do anything, so don't try.」

Wouldn't he receive a response different from the last words they exchanged? Thinking that, Ikki began to speak.

"U-Umm, Father."

"What is it?"

"..Th.. I-I'm fighting on.. now. My rank is still F, but still, I've won against strong people, and I don't intend to lose after this either. I'm already different from when I couldn't do anything. I'm fighting and training.. so that I won't become the Kurogane family shame, and I think I'll become splendidly strong. S-So, so..."

His voice was shaking with nervousness, and he drew a tiny struggling breath.

"Father..

If I can become the champion at the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival, will you.. accept me then?"

"If I can become the champion at the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival, will you.. accept me then?"

Ikki mustered as much of his courage as he could and begged that of his father Itsuki.

In contrast, Itsuki stared back at Ikki wordlessly for a short while―

"..I see."

―and quietly closed his eyes.

"I never understood why you became distant. But now I understand. You thought that I did not accept you because you were weak."

"Yes..."

Ikki nodded. It wasn't like that was the entire reason he left the house, but it was no mistake that he thought so. But if that was the case, now that he had become strong―

"If that is the case, then you've made a big mistake. I have always accepted you as my son."

"Wh..."

At the unexpected words, Ikki's eyes grew wide and hard. What had his father said just now?

―Always.. accepted him?

"Th-That's a lie!"

"It's no lie. Otherwise, would I have come to see your face?"

"B-But.. haven't you never done anything with me? Management of my Blazer abilities, or training in martial arts that even the branch family children were given, anything at all!"

Indeed. Ikki remembered the oppressiveness of that family even now. Itsuki had locked Ikki out of everything, and the people who saw Ikki being locked out persecuted him as someone the head of the family despised. That pain, bitterness, isolation―even now his heart tightened at the memories.

That was why Ikki had to ask.

"If you accepted me, why didn't you look after me like everyone else!?"

To that question, Itsuki's expression didn't shift even a little bit.

"There was no need to instruct you, so I didn't. That was all. Because even if I taught an incomplete technique to someone who did not have ability, however much I teach and teach, it would be futile."

Giving an answer that was extremely on-the-nose, he continued with a few words of "no".

"If it ended at being futile, that would be fine. The worst case was if it turned out like how you are now, creating an incomplete outcome due to incomplete strength."

"Wh-What do you mean!?"

Ikki asked the question, not being able to understand the words just now.

In response, Itsuki opened his eyes again, and spoke his true meaning with that voice as heavy as lead.

"..The Kurogane house is a family of mage-knights from a lineage of Blazers stretching back to the era when they were called samurais. We have a responsibility to bring knights of the entire country together. However, creating the unity needed for knights to be one organization is difficult. It is because knights are superhumans, each with paranormal powers. Because every one of them holds too much excess power, they cannot exist as normal humans. For such people to be organized, there must be a system of rank. We established the visible form of that hierarchy, and classified every separate ability into an appropriate rating. In doing so, we made everyone aware of his individual role, with organization we maintained harmony. This was necessary. A mechanism has its big and small cogs, but by being aware of every pertinent part and knowing each individual's appropriate behavior, for the first time there was accurate function. Whether above or below, everyone was in his appropriate place. A person above could look down upon a person below and think, 'I surpass her", and in his conceit would not forget his own duties. ..That is why, Ikki, the existence of someone like you harms the organization. When someone like you who cannot do anything says 'I'll do something', the people below embrace unproductive conceits. That they must be able to do something. Becoming arrogant, they try to do things and forget their own place. And it brings about unproductive waste to the majority of cogs in the mechanism. If you want to know why rank is absolutely fixed and not corrected every now and then, it's to make overturning it an extremely rare thing. That kind of unproductive effort must be protected against. That was why I told you this.?You can't do anything, so don't try."

Itsuki spoke those words with disinterest. The principles behind the conduct of people like Itsuki existing in them. Today, they made Ikki understand people like Itsuki Kurogane for the first time.

The family called Kurogane had fulfilled its inherited duty for generations. For the sake of that duty, it charged itself with an iron law, an order to its life. That was.. his father, the mage-knight who carried the nickname?Iron Blood.

But...

"Wait.. wait..."

But that...

"Then Father, didn't you tell me not to do anything because I became the shame of the family?"

"Obviously. As far as the family is concerned, you're inconsequential. The duty of the Kurogane house is to protect the harmony between the knights of this country. And for the sake of that, people who can't do anything have a duty to not do anything. ..Ikki, I've said I accept you as you wanted. So―stop pursuing knighthood at once."

Ikki shook.

"You can't do anything, so don't try. In the past or in the present, I have only desired one thing from you."

Ikki was convinced that those few words carried his father's true feelings.

But it was a truth that he could not possibly accept. Why?

Then .. what am I to this person..?

His father did not truly hate him. But rather than that.. he'd prefer being hated over not showing the ability he wanted. Because not being hated.. it was just a small desire.

However, the truth was not like that. Itsuki had no hopes, no expectations for Ikki.

That kind of thing.. it wasn't too much, right..?

Hating him, not hating him, it wasn't about that. It was no different from being a stone on the side of the road. Favor or malice. Ikki felt like an idiot who couldn't get either one.

Ikki was that kind of existence for Itsuki. Realizing that, believing that, an icy grief flowed out from within Ikki.

"Hmm? What's with you? What are you crying about?"

Tears fell,?*drip drop*, from Ikki's eyes.

Seeing them, Itsuki frowned as if baffled.

To Itsuki's response, Ikki.. realized. Somewhere in Ikki's heart, he wanted a relationship with the one person who was his father. He wished that someday, the moment they would reach mutual understanding would come. But...

..Oh, I see.

Itsuki didn't understand the meaning of these tears, even to that extent...

This person and I are definitely cutting ties...

In that moment―with a?*snip*... Something in Ikki's heart...

Something precious made a sound, then fell silent. And starting from there.. the thing called Ikki Kurogane began to fall apart.

After that, Ikki who had abruptly burst into tears, did not respond to any inquiry except with sobs. Because of that, Itsuki left the room saying that there was no helping it.

And as it was, he returned to his top floor office by elevator. There, a red-suited man with a barrel-like physique was waiting.

"Hello, hello, good afternoon Clan Head. Ah, I guess it became good evening a long time ago?"

"Akaza, is it?"

"So how did it go, I wonder? The situation with that boy?"

"The boy is as difficult to understand as ever. Though not as much as his brother Ouma, I suppose."

"Without speaking on personality, hasn't his physical condition been broken?"

"What do you mean?"

"He he he. Well, his food has been just sliiightly adjusted, and some drugs to ruin the health of his body and heart simultaneously has been added."

..Truth serum, inherited from the military police era? You've made your move extremely directly, haven't you?"

"Like how he knows us well, we also know his stubbornness veeery well. We didn't think from the start that something along the lines of this inquiry would break him. The inquiry was purely an excuse to isolate him. The present state of affairs has changed from what we hypothesized entirely. After this, he will meet with the king of Vermillion―"

"You don't have to explain it. I can imagine the main point."

Saying so, Itsuki silenced Akaza who was beginning his presentation.

"I am entrusting this matter to you. I don't care what methods you use. Do as you like."

However―

"I won't forgive failure. Banish Ikki without fail."

"Yes, I understand. He he he. Well, please watch it as it comes along."

Speaking thus, Akaza withdrew.

Becoming alone in the room, not thinking anything, Itsuki casually shifted his gaze to the portraits of successive directors hanging on the wall of his office. More than half of them were people who had the surname Kurogane. Just counting the number of portraits showed how many generations they had inherited the responsibility. Here right now, Itsuki was also one such person. For that reason, he was carrying out the responsibility without exception. Picturing the best for the majority himself...

The way of life within my means that doesn't expand my own territory. It is the way of life that brings happiness to the majority of mankind.

Because people like Ikki, powerless people who were pushed aside, were few. Useless aspirations or self-confidence received as gifts, they only brought loss to both the person himself and to the organization. In that case, such things weren't needed. Naturally, the managing organization would make sure they didn't exist.

Therefore, I will use any method to eliminate them.

For example, even if it was his own son, he would show no mercy.

That is my duty.

Everything was for the sake of the iron law. In the past or in the present, that was "Iron Blood" Itsuki Kurogane's sense of righteousness.

It was the tenth day after Ikki had been taken away by the Ethics Committee. Due to the League's Japanese branch, Ikki's eighteenth selection battle had passed. The opponent had been a nameless E-rank.

Following that was the homeroom teacher, Yuuri Oreki. Before the match, Shizuku, who had heard about it from Kagami, brought Arisuin to wait for Oreki in front of the main gate. At the time that the sun was beginning to slide under the horizon, Oreki came back alone. Shizuku and Arisuin immediately rushed over to her, and asked about the outcome of that day's match.

"Oreki-sensei, Onii-sama.. how was he? Did he win?"

To that question,

"Eh? Ah.. yes. He got his eighteenth victory safely."

Oreki replied with a somehow vague tone. Of course, Arisuin immediately pressed the questioning.

"Is there something worrying you, I wonder?"

For a brief while, Oreki brooded without speaking, but she was also conversing with Ikki's blood relative Shizuku, so she answered without hiding anything.

"..The truth is, Kurogane-kun's physical condition seemed -->>

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