Chapter 6 - Who Killed the Hero?
"Your Majesty."
The next day, in Tia's office.
Urgent letters from various regions were piled high on her desk, but Tia merely sat in her chair, stamping documents.
"Your Majesty."
Stop.
At the repeated call, Tia put down her stamp and looked up.
Her office assistant flinched at her seemingly soulless face.
"The Archmage from the Blue Magic Tower has arrived."
"...Archmage?"
Tia tilted her head.
"I didn't summon the Archmage."
"The Staff requested it."
"The Staff?"
Tia's expression soured.
"Neither the Imperial Knights nor the Royal Guard Captain have returned, so why summon a mage when I didn't order it?"
It was then, as the office assistant tensed, watching her eyes turn hysterically distorted.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the office door.
Tia turned her gaze towards it.
Knock, knock, knock.
The knocking sounded again.
Tia sighed, remembering her instruction that when she was in her office, there should be no other sounds, only knocking.
"Tell them to come in."
At Tia's instruction, the office assistant moved to open the door slightly and stepped outside.
Clunk.
The door, which the office assistant had closed upon leaving, opened again.
And then, the figures who appeared were the maids opening the door, and...
"Tia."
Yuru, the genius mage of the Blue Magic Tower and its current Archmage.
Blue hair, expression hidden by a wide-brimmed hat, flowed down her shoulders.
In her hand, she held the spellbook she always carried.
Despite her simple appearance, immense magical power and an oppressive aura emanated from her.
But her greatness wasn't just in that atmosphere.
As the youngest Archmage, she had vaporized the Demon King's forces countless times, and even had the prowess to personally beat the Arch-Sorcerer Grinif, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, to death with her enhanced staff after rendering him unable to channel magic.
It was no exaggeration for the world to call her the Iron Sage.
"Why did you call?"
However, even Yuru would generally show courtesy in front of a nation's emperor.
Of course, as she had risen to Archmage, they should have exchanged mutual courtesies.
Nevertheless, Yuru disregarded that custom and treated Tia without formality.
"...Yuru."
Tia looked at Yuru with a cold expression.
"My Staff summoned you without my permission. I don't need help, so please return to your tower."
"..."
"Go back."
Tia continued to speak, but Yuru did not respond.
Then Tia asked, "Do you have something to say?"
"Yes."
"Say it."
Yuru walked up to Tia's office desk.
Her sudden action startled the office assistant, who moved, but Tia raised a hand to stop him.
"You shouldn't have let the Hero, my brother, die."
At those words, the maids nearby, including the office assistant, widened their eyes.
Those were words that shouldn't be spoken in front of Tia.
Nevertheless, Yuru continued.
"The Holy State Alliance used my brother as a pretext. If you didn't accept their demands, they would have branded our nation as one that sheltered a heretic, my brother, and eventually waged a holy war."
"Yuru."
"I know. That evidence emerged proving my brother was truly the Demon King's spy. That's why we both stood by. You and I."
Crunch.
Yuru clenched her hand, holding the spellbook, even tighter.
"But I think we made a mistake."
The Emperor, the Archmage—they had to choose for the greater good.
They were burdened with such a duty.
So they followed the outcome derived from clear evidence.
They considered the repercussions of their choices rather than their emotions.
Thus, they abandoned the Hero.
"We shouldn't have let him die."
At the time, they thought it was what those bearing such a heavy burden had to do.
No matter how heavy the consequences, enduring even that was considered a necessary virtue for one who would become the ultimate sage.
"I should have just fallen as a heretic too."
"Ar-Archmage!"
The startled office assistant cried out.
But Yuru didn't care.
She spoke to Tia as if she had made up her mind.
"We have to correct this mistake."
She opened her spellbook.
"I've found everything. A way to bring my brother back."
At those words, Tia's eyebrows twitched.
Yuru didn't see it and declared, "I will sort out my brother's soul from the world of the dead and reincarnate him."
She confessed that she had come because she needed the Imperial family's help for this.
"Get me the tools I need from the Imperial family. I've made a list, so just acquire those. And... this one thing, above all else, is absolutely necessary, so you must get it."
The words she then uttered were truly shocking.
"I need the Crown Prince of Holy Kratia, who has received multiple blessings. I will use him as a vessel."
The maids and the office assistant were now speechless, simply staring at her with open mouths.
"I heard there's a banquet soon that the Crown Prince will attend. You'll have to kidnap him. I could do it, but I need time to perform the ritual. I specialize in large-scale magic, so a kidnapping would be too conspicuous. You kidnap him and buy me time."
And then, she concluded, "Then I will reincarnate my brother into that body."
"..."
Reincarnation, not possession.
The insane idea of killing the Crown Prince's soul and reincarnating Clay into his body.
However, the fact that she clearly designated the Crown Prince, who could withstand various curses and magical side effects, as the target of her crime, showed that she was truly serious about this.
While everyone around them was speechless at her seemingly deranged words and actions, only Tia spoke after a long pause.
"If you want to do it, do it alone."
Tia looked at her with a gaze that barely shone through her tear-stained, dark-circled eyes.
"I am the Empress of Iser."
As Empress, she had already made her decision.
It was none other than her who had executed Clay.
"I cannot possibly participate in such an act, which is clearly an abnormal magic."
"...Really?"
Tia did not answer Yuru's question immediately.
Tia's hand was trembling.
Lowering her shaking hand under the table, Tia gritted her teeth.
"Don't test me, Yuru."
"You're the one testing me."
Yuru's tone suddenly became harsh.
"You bear the greatest responsibility for this."
"Responsibility?"
"You could have saved Clay if you had just given the order."
"What if I had given a different order there?"
Tia's expression crumpled like a crumpled piece of paper in the wind.
"Iser would have become an enemy of the Holy State Alliance. We would have been seen as a nation that harbored the most dangerous heretic."
She, in turn, reproached Yuru.
"If you wanted to save him so badly, you should have blown all those people there away. Then at least Iser could have been saved, and you could have escaped."
"If I had done that, the magic towers, which are barely united now, would have fragmented again."
"See?"
Tia scoffed.
"You're just a fool bound by justifications too."
"What...?"
"It was you who killed Clay, not me."
She placed her trembling hand back on the table and, standing up, shouted, "You could have saved Clay then! Is the fragmentation of the magic towers a big deal?! I was bearing a greater burden!"
"Hey."
Unspeakable fury entered Yuru's eyes.
"You bitch."
The rule that the Imperial family should not be blasphemed was broken in the very presence of the Empress.
"You said you'd kill my brother, so I couldn't do anything. The Holy State Alliance sent overseers, and other magic towers even sent their Archmages, you bitch. If we fought, it wouldn't have saved my brother, it would have been a path to everyone's death."
A magic circle formed beneath Yuru's feet.
Seeing the ominous magic circle glowing red and spinning, the office assistant stumbled backward against the wall in fear and fell.
"They used Guardian Knights dispatched by the Holy State Alliance from the moment they arrested my brother until they sent him to the execution ground. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't even get a glimpse until he was at the execution site."
"I..."
"It happened because you allowed everything, you idiotic bitch!"
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The spell was ready for casting.
"You should have died. If you had died, my brother wouldn't have."
"...I."
"Shut up!"
Yuru roared.
The surrounding air swirled like a storm.
Papers on the office desk flew, and even her hat was knocked off.
Rustle.
As her long blue hair whipped around, her hidden face was revealed.
She looked like a wreck, as if she hadn't slept properly for days.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and her lips were parched and torn.
"Help me."
She spoke to Tia once more.
"That's all you need to do. Nothing else."
"..."
Tia silently stared at her.
Then, suppressing her rising emotions, she gritted her teeth.
Holding on and holding on, she lowered her gaze and clenched her hands, digging her nails into her palms, then suddenly lifted her head.
"Clay, he was the one who was wrong."
Her blue eyes gleamed.
"If he hadn't been the Demon King's spy, everything would have been fine."
"What...?"
"Do your disgusting deeds alone, Yuru."
She rationalized her actions.
Because she knew she couldn't endure any longer otherwise.
"I don't regret it."
Tia de Mezzeler.
All that was left for her now was lies.