YoukaiRaz10-12 minutes?17.05.2021

That was a bluff. If there was a skill so brutal that it made you unable to use skills for five minutes, the admins would receive a mountain of patch requests from the players. The actual time is 30 seconds at most. The effect will wear off soon.

However, Irene hasn’t realized this yet. No, she’s suspicious of it. Irene silently looks on with a stern expression as she attempts to ascertain its authenticity. When I talked about magic with Alexia, Irene never involved herself in the conversation, so I assumed that meant she doesn’t know much about magic, but that assumption seems to be correct.

It’s a bluff that factors in both Blitz Rush’s cooldown time and Skill Sealing’s effect time. I’m making a show of confidence to Irene to act like I’m convinced that it’s absolutely impossible for her to use the skill. I’m actually completely nervous on the inside, but I absolutely cannot let her notice that. Irene has been convinced that she can’t use Blitz Rush for a while, and until then..!

“Then I’ll simply force my way through!” Irene says as she attacks with determination despite her skills being sealed.

It worked!?But it’s still too soon to be relieved. I haven’t incapacitated Irene yet, after all.

Anyway, all I can do now is lead Irene into a trap.

“Chain Bind!”

“Do you think that would work twice?!”

Having seen through my movements, she easily dodges it. No backup from the others yet, huh? Other spells won’t work. She’s too close!

In my moment of indecision, Irene lunges at me and I become entangled with her. By the time I realize what happened, Irene is on my back. There’s no time to feel any embarrassment at the fact that a young woman is on top of me in a position like this. All I feel is panic.

My arms are caught between her legs. Even if I try to escape with all my strength, I can’t break out of it. I’m completely trapped.

“This ends now!”

From the sound of wind from Irene’s fist, I can tell how fast her attack is whether I want to or not. I’m done for. I’m so scared that I nearly end up shutting my eyes.

Just then, a bright light shines from behind Irene. Irene, noticing her shadow grow strangely dark, turns around.

I’m not sure what Irene saw, but her expression grows panicked.

“Saint Arrow!”

One of the Healer’s few attack spells, Saint Arrow. It’s the type of spell where its power increases as you charge it. Healer.. It’s Emilia! Emilia shoots arrows of light that piece Irene. Irene screams and slumps against me.

I get worried that she might have died, but she’s breathing. She hasn’t lost consciousness either. But she has no more strength. I break free and our positions reverse, with me on her back with my staff pointed towards her.

“Irene, please stop resisting.”

“Guh.. I see. So I’ve lost.”

For a moment, Irene tries to break free, but after noticing that Liam and Havoc are back on their feet and nearby, she stops resisting.

We won. It was a close one, but we still managed to incapacitate Irene. It’s a complicated feeling. I’m glad it went well, but I hate that I had to fight and hurt her this much.

“Why did this fight have to go this far?”

That’s why I can’t help but say it.

With a calm expression, Irene gradually starts talking.

“..I was jealous that you alone are the same as before. The way you fight alongside your comrades is just the same as before. Even though Lady Alexia and I were the only comrades who fought alongside you until a short while ago. I was deeply jealous that you remained the same this whole time without knowing the situation we were in. I felt as if you didn’t even care about us and began to hate you. I know that I’m only taking it out on you. It isn’t your fault. It’s only that the environment surrounding Lady Alexia, the chains of obligation wouldn’t allow it.”

“Chains of obligation? What happened to Lady Alexia after I left?”

“After making great achievements in the battle at Brandenburg, Lady Alexia was worshipped as a saint, as the hero who saved the nation. Despite this, the head of the family only thought of Lady Alexia as a convenient tool for him to use. In addition, she received a call for military service from His Majesty the emperor and was made to participate in this war. Lady Alexia is a noble. Therefore, she was told that she cannot abandon her people. She could not run away. So, she hardened her heart.”

She was worshipped as a hero. So a kid even younger than me was made to bear the weight of all that pressure from those around her, just like I was back then. Just how much did it wear away at her heart?

I was able to run away from there. But Alexia couldn’t even run away.

“You couldn’t stop her?”

“I tried to stop her! But Lady Alexia would not listen to me. Although, if you were there, she may have listened to you.”

So Alexia might have listened to the one she calls Teacher, huh? It may be an assumption, but if she had listened, she may not have had to fight like Irene.

“Chaos. I want to ask you. Why are you siding with the vampires?”

“What? Hold on a second. I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. I didn’t come here to side with the vampires.”

Siding with the vampires? I knew it, the Weichsel Empire thinks that the Allied Commune has already been taken over by vampires.

“I came to save the princess of this country. And to stop you and Lady Alexia from going through with this pointless war.”

“Pointless war?”

“That’s right. This whole war is pointless. Oh yeah, where is Lady Alexia?”

“Lady Alexia headed further in. She should be searching for this country’s king right now.”

Searching for the king? I have a bad feeling about this. This country’s king became a vampire and is already dead. The Weichsel Empire doesn’t even know that?

“King? The king of Commune is dead.”

“Is that true? On our way to Clermont after defeating Duke Mayenne, we were sent an official letter with the king’s signature. It seems that it was a rather impolite letter. In addition, the messenger who brought this letter was a vampire.”

It doesn’t seem like Irene is lying. Did there just happen to be a misunderstanding? No, the king died way before we received the report that Duke Mayenne was defeated. The timing doesn’t line up for them to have received an official letter from the king. There’s clearly a contradiction here.

“There’s no way that could’ve happened,” Liam objects, butting into the conversation. “The Weichsel Empire killed the messenger that was sent to request a ceasefire and sent back his head. So from our point of view, the Weichsel Empire came to invade, not to slay the vampires.”

“That’s absurd. It’s true that we slew the messenger since he was a vampire, but we never sent Clermont his head. And in the first place, the cause of all this was that Commune killed the messenger we sent regarding the attack on Brandenburg. Wasn’t this land taken over by vampires? We came to slay the vampires.”

“I dunno about other places, but this city was freed from the vampires just recently,” Havoc says.

As I thought, the circumstances known to both sides don’t line up. In other words, this is..

“So we were deceived by the vampires,” Irene says, grinding her teeth.

Considering the discrepancies between the Clermont side and the Weichsel side, that seems to be correct. I can only understand it vaguely, but there’s no doubt that the vampires were pulling the strings on the war between the two countries from the shadows. They caused fellow humans, fellow nations to go to war with each other.

“But couldn’t this war have been avoided if you had just talked to each other before fighting? If you had investigated, you should have been able to tell whether they were vampires or not.”

“Chaos, that’s not possible,” Havoc says. “If the messenger was killed, then there’d be no way to communicate. And since even merchants stopped traveling there and back, we’re not receiving information from the northern region that Weichsel is occupying. Weichsel probably thinks it’s impossible to have a discussion with monsters, and Commune misunderstood Weichsel’s motive as invasion. I doubt they’d be able to communicate with each other.”

“There were also human soldiers who were incited to war by the vampire-turned lord of the northern region,” Irene says. “No soldier would listen to their enemies in the middle of combat. They had no choice but to fight. If they didn’t fight, they would have been killed. If they’ve taken control and refused to put down their weapons, we cannot leisurely investigate whether they’re vampires or not.”

And as a result, the people who have died in the war cannot rest in peace. I can’t stand the fact that if they’d noticed even a single discrepancy, the war might not have happened.

“Let’s end this war.”

“It’d be stupid to let the vampires manipulate us into fighting. But if we can’t stop the guys from the Weichsel Empire, there’s nothing we can do,” Havoc says.

“We’ll just have to explain the situation to those in command of the battlefield. If we can stop the nobles with the strongest influence, we’d have a chance,” Emilia says.

“Then, we would just have to convince Lady Alexia. The emperor thinks highly of her. If we reveal the truth to Lady Alexia and have her persuade His Majesty, then it should end this war,” Irene says.

We might be able to stop the war. There’s still hope.

“Come on! Let’s hurry and end this.”

“W- wait a second!” Liam stops us in a panic as he’s looking outside. “A ton of Weichsel soldiers are advancing on the castle. If they make it inside, it’ll be tough to go look for this Lady Alexia person!”

This is bad. Even if I managed to identify their location to some extent, there’s no guarantee that Alexia and Roseline will be there. If they’re not there, we’ll have to search the whole castle. Then we would have no choice but to fight any Weichsel soldiers we encounter. That would prolong the war.

“..There’s no other way. I’ll have to stay behind. The soldiers wouldn’t trust any of you. I’ll persuade the soldiers and stop the attack.”

Irene turns on her heel.

“Chaos, you can laugh and call this shameless or selfish. But, please. I’m sure your words would reach Lady Alexia. Please, stop her,” she says, bowing her head. Irene must want to go to Alexia. Even so, she decided to stay behind to attempt to bring the situation under control.

I look at Irene and give her a strong nod.

This time, I’m not making promises lightly. I’m accepting this responsibility of my own will.