At a time when everyone was so shocked they couldn't say a word.
"Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Ahh...! Ahhh...!"
The white-haired boy, Bell Cranel, worriedly looked down at the woman he had rescued, checking the extent of her injuries.
At first, Cassandra could only stare blankly, unable to say anything at all.
But then she realized she had just barely survived a brush with death.
And that she had only just been saved by her own efforts.
The dam of her emotions broke.
Before long, she was pouring out tears and sobbing pitifully.
"Hic, waaahhh!"
"Ah, um..."
Bell Cranel looked flustered at her sudden tears, not knowing what to do.
He tried his best to comfort her in his awkward way, but it didn't do much good against how heartbreakingly she was crying.
Still, that was understandable.
It wasn't simply because she had escaped death.
"Hic, th-thank you. Rea-really... really, thank you...!"
Before the [War Game] began, the revelation she had seen in her dream.
In that premonitory dream, she had been forced to experience the exact same events as before.
The Magus grew angry, and from that rage the giant of the earth rose up, handling them as if they were toys and driving everyone into crisis.
Hyakinthos and Daphne tried to counterattack and turn the tide, but naturally they failed after falling into a trap the Magus had prepared in advance.
Up to that point, everything had been the same.
But the ending had been completely different from what had just happened... and from the reality she now stood in.
"I-I didn't die... I didn't die...! Daphne too... hic, hic!"
Covered in tears and snot, not even realizing what she was saying.
Cassandra clung tightly to the boy's arm as she wailed.
In the dream, she herself had clearly died, unlike in this reality.
She had been seized by the golem, then thrown straight at Daphne, who was trapped and unable to move, and the two of them had been crushed into a bloody pulp and killed.
That was the future she had seen, the fate that had been laid out.
An inescapable despair, pure and simple.
But that dream... that future she had thought impossible to avoid had changed.
By the hand of a single rabbit-like boy.
She and her childhood friend had escaped the fate of that predetermined ruin.
"I'm glad you're safe."
He didn't fully understand what she was feeling inside.
But at the very least, he could tell that the tears she was shedding now were absolutely real.
The fear and relief behind them were unmistakable.
So the boy, Bell Cranel, gently patted her back to calm her down.
And in doing so, he was able to reaffirm his own choice once more.
"Mr. Andersen."
"Oh my, what might you be doing, boy?"
He looked at the Magus with his ruby-colored eyes, the same color Hestia had once praised as beautiful, and steeled his resolve.
The Magus looked back at him as well.
But the emotion in those eyes was completely different from the boy's.
"I think I roughly understand why you came here... but just in case, I'll make this offer only once."
Displeasure? Or anger? No, anticipation? Amusement?
I don't know.
For Bell, who still lacked much experience with people, the Magus's gaze always felt complex and subtle whenever he saw it.
At times, it even seemed similar to the eyes of the gods looking down on the humans of the lower world.
No, perhaps his vision really was looking at something akin to those immortal beings.
To Bell, who held such thoughts, the Magus spoke in a low, calm voice, as if trying to persuade the boy standing in his way.
"Move aside. The time for punishment is... the execution show isn't over yet."
"Mr. Andersen."
"Tch! I told you to call me Magus."
"... Mr. Magus."
The Magus looked at Bell with a composed expression.
In contrast, the boy looked back at him with a tense face and opened his mouth.
He had to persuade him somehow, no matter what.
"The outcome is already decided. We defeated Hyakinthos, the defense side's captain, so we won the [War Game]."
"That's right. And?"
"So there's no reason to keep fighting..."
"There is. Oh yes, there is."
The story he had brought up with a sliver of hope was denied from the very beginning.
As if it wasn't even worth considering for a second.
The Magus looked at the young adventurer before him and spoke.
The beginning of a brief lesson for this naive boy.
"My people were almost hurt. I suffered damage. Those fools voluntarily gave up my final offer out of foolish arrogance. From this point on, they are both scapegoats and sacrifices, to serve as an example so that such things may be prevented in the future.
What greater reason could there be to continue fighting? With such obvious reasons, why should I stop? Hm? If you're a man in name as well as body, then you should know that in times like this, you don't back down."
"But the Apollo Familia has already lost the will to fight. At this rate, it'll really..."
"Really what? I'll kill them? Every last one of them. Of course, since I made a promise in advance, it'll be indirect."
"That's...! Mr. Magus!"
"Hmm, that's a face I haven't seen before. No, did you show me something like that once in your fight with that bull-man? I was worried you only looked like a harmless little good boy. That was needless concern. That expression of yours right now is very nice to see."
The Magus's smile was satisfied, yet somehow cold.
Bell, feeling a chill run down his spine at that eerie expression, found himself taking a step back without realizing it.
The Magus saw the boy's reaction, but deliberately ignored it and continued.
"If anything, your words sound stranger to me, boy. Why is that? They are our enemies. Have you perhaps developed pity for the enemy?
If so, I'm a little disappointed. Even if you are still young, you are an adventurer all the same. That statement of yours just now is not at all adventurer-like. Not manly."
"... I won't say that isn't true."
At those words, Bell Cranel lowered his head for a moment.
He thought about it.
The Apollo Familia had suddenly picked a fight with them.
The Familia home had been shattered to pieces and turned into ruins.
The anxiety and fear he had felt while being chased all over the city with his goddess.
And the frustration that had felt like it was boiling his insides.
"But still...!
Even so!
"I don't think this is right! To torment and toy with people who have completely lost the will to fight. Things like that... things like that..."
"Why? Do you think it's unjust? Do you think it's not the right thing to do?"
"Of course I do...!"
"Then was the Apollo Familia's behavior righteous justice?"
"That's...! Th-that..."
A dark shadow fell over Bell's face once more.
Looking at the boy, the Magus nodded as if to say exactly that.
"Yes, it wasn't. Apollo Familia started this from the very beginning. And their motive and process were all nothing but rotten, low-grade malice. It was by no means a righteous or just act. Isn't that right, Bell boy?"
That was true.
In the end, it was Apollo Familia that had lit the fuse of conflict.
And it was Hestia Familia that had been caught up in that one-sided provocation.
This shabby conflict and confrontation had made the line between good and evil painfully clear from the very start.
"From the beginning, all of this happened on the assumption that we were weaker than them. That's why their behavior was even more malicious. If that perception hadn't existed, this never would have happened in the first place.
And if I hadn't stepped in, those bastards wouldn't have shown even the slightest sign of reflection or regret. Right now, the positions would have been reversed, and you and your companions would be the ones suffering that humiliation."
That too was obvious.
As he said, if the Magus had not stepped in, if he had not displayed his power.
Then at this very moment, it would have been the boy and his companions who were enduring that miserable humiliation in his place.
"In other words, all of this is simply the result of their own making. The perpetrators and the sinners are them; the victims and the judges are us. The evil that deserves judgment is unquestionably them, and our righteous revenge is our rightful due.
And I even accepted the Guild's mediation as a bargain, giving them one last chance. They rejected that, that sliver of mercy, with arrogance and not even a shred of remorse. The moment they did, the story was already over. They kicked their own fortune away with their own feet, so who could blame me?"
In every way, it was all correct.
That was why the Magus could say it so boldly in front of the boy.
"There is not the slightest hesitation in this heart or these actions. This and nothing else is 'justice'!"
Then the story becomes very simple and very clear.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Violence answered with violence.
"So move aside."
The Magus's expression twisted fiercely.
Inside it burned unmistakable anger.
And that anger now extended to the boy blocking his way.
"I will exact our rightful revenge on them in the exact same way they did to us. And this process isn't over yet. We're still a long way from the end."
The explanation had gone on needlessly long, but in the end, the conclusion was only one thing.
I'm not satisfied yet, so don't stop me.
That was all the Magus had to say.
Very natural, and emotionally, completely right.
And the boy's answer, after hearing all of that...
"No."
He lowered his hand and drew the weapon at his waist.
The Magus's expression slowly hardened.
By contrast, Bell's face gradually grew calmer.
"I was frustrated too. I felt wronged. I was scared."
But this still isn't right.
The boy's confession came from someone who had every right to feel wronged, someone who should have been angrier than anyone else.
He was the clear victim.
And yet he abandoned that advantage and stood here proudly today.
Not as a revenger, but as a savior.
The boy drew his sword not for himself, but for someone else.
"Unlike you, Mr. Magus, I'm not that smart. I'm just a fool who doesn't know the world, just like you said, so I don't even know what the right thing to say is, or whether I can even persuade you."
But... even so!
"I can't just back down quietly like a real idiot, like a coward who doesn't know anything."
"Oh?"
"I'm different from you."
Bell raised his weapon and took his stance.
A proper battle posture.
And his target was the man before him.
Their benefactor and teacher.
"Cassandra didn't do anything to us."
She was certainly a member of the Apollo Familia.
So she wasn't completely unrelated to this incident.
But that was all.
Only that much guilt, only that much resentment.
There was no reason for her to suffer this much.
And yet she had to tremble in fear.
She had to face death together with her precious childhood friend.
She had to suffer and cry in despair, thinking there was no way out.
"The whole of the Apollo Familia isn't guilty enough to deserve dying in a place like this."
The boy had seen it.
Just a little while ago, when they were being chased around unfairly for such ridiculous reasons, the members of the Apollo Familia who had attacked them.
Half of them were maliciously enjoying the situation.
The other half were indifferent.
But even so... even so, there were definitely some among them.
A small number of good people who hesitated and blamed themselves over their own conscience and their own wrongdoing.
Those who were simply lacking courage.
There had definitely been people there who looked at their enemies with pity in their eyes.
"I can't just pretend I didn't see them!"
He extends a helping hand to those who ask for help.
That was what the boy knew a hero to be.
And the boy... Bell Cranel wanted to become such a hero.
Since childhood, the one called "that person" had told him stories of them.
He longed to become like those great figures.
So that one day, he too could stand proudly before "that person"...
"My goddess... Lady Hestia isn't wishing for something like this. I don't want this either, and neither does Lili!"
Right before the [War Game], the boy's goddess had looked at the Magus, who had suddenly decided to join in, with a deeply worried expression.
Bell did not fully know or understand the meaning behind that expression.
He didn't fully understand the relationship between the goddess and the Magus.
The relationship between the boy and the Magus wasn't at that level yet.
But even Bell could understand one thing for certain.
That if things continued like this, his goddess would... tears would fall from the eyes of that kind and merciful goddess.
He was more certain of that than anyone.
"The 'adventure' we... I want, and the 'encounter' I want, isn't this!"
The boy was still young.
That was why he could not walk the same path as the Magus.
He could not let his 'justice'... his revenge be carried out.
So he would stop him.
The man before him, their benefactor.
The Magus, Hans Christian Andersen.
And the Magus's answer to that was:
"Foolish."
A clear rejection.
A clear sneer.
"How stupid. Truly absurdly so."
But...
"That's enough."
That was the minimum qualification, at least.
After hearing Bell's confession, his resolve, the Magus smiled.
However, that was not enough to make him stop.
"Boy, I heard your story well enough. I understand it perfectly."
"Then...!"
"And so what?"
The Magus, his expression hardened, declared calmly.
Nothing would change because of that.
The revenge play he had planned was not yet at the point where the curtain could fall.
"Let's stop wasting time on pointless nonsense here."
Snap!
- Uoooooooh!
"Mr. Magus!"
The sound of two fingers snapping together rang out.
At that signal, the golem that had been standing still began moving again.
Its targets were, of course, the Apollo Familia members at its feet.
"Please stop! This doesn't mean anything...!"
"Why would it not mean anything?"
To Bell's attempt to persuade him once more, the Magus replied coldly.
He said there had never been any compromise beyond this in the first place.
"Yes. From the very beginning, this was never justice or punishment or anything of the sort. It was nothing more than a simple amusement for me to relieve my stress.
But precisely for that reason, it has its own meaning."
Ssshh...
The Magus's body began to vanish slowly, starting from below his feet.
Like a desert mirage.
Ignoring the shocked reactions around him, he declared quietly:
"You want to stop me? You want to save them? Then there is only one answer."
Prove yourself with the power you have.
The Magus, now almost completely gone, fixed the boy with a cold stare.
Yet what lay within that gaze was not anger or contempt, but something like anticipation.
Before long, his body vanished completely.
And when only his voice remained hanging in the sky:
"Now then, rest is over! It's time for Act Two!"
Go on, struggle all you like, ants.
And with that, the story was over.
- Goooooooh!
The giant speaks with its whole body and declares it.
That the children's mud play up until now is over here.
That from this point on, hell will begin once more.
"Kgh!"
As if sensing that violent momentum.
Bell Cranel took his stance again and steeled himself.
To overcome the trial wall of the giant before him.
To take the hands of those behind him who were asking for help.
And... to become, someday, like the heroes "that person" had once told him about.
"I'm going...!"
The boy ran.
He surged forward and ran on.
Once again, it was time to begin an 'adventure.'
*
Cassandra looked at the back of the boy who had stood in front of her, younger than her, braver than her, and kinder than anyone else, and thought.
"Dream, final, revelation..."
In the dream, she had died together with her friend Daphne.
Normally, a revelation would end there.
Because everything ends with the death of Cassandra, the one who receives the premonitory dream.
But strangely enough, the prophecy had continued for several more lines after that.
As if it had already foreseen that the dream's ending would change, just like now.
- All of this is nothing more than a passing nightmare of one night. And yet, if things go wrong, one may never awaken from the dream at all.
- What is needed is courage to overcome fear, the dreamer, and the children who turned away.
- Lead the young orphan and the blood of the spirit beneath the fallen sun.
- There lies the back side of the stage curtain. There, the young orphan shall undergo his trial.
- The mask shall swallow him. The mask shall break him.
- Strip away the mask with the sacrifice of the witch.
- When the fairy's wind and the god of war's sword stop the giant's steps.
- The pure white sword of fire shall cut through the giant's heart.
- At last, by rain, the curtain of the play shall declare the final act.
"Nightmare, courage, orphan, spirit, mask, sacrifice..."
To her present self, it was all a jumble of things she couldn't understand at all.
That was why Cassandra agonized alone.
She had no choice but to agonize.
"I don't really understand it, but..."
From the feel of the story, and from everything she had experienced so far, these final lines were the key to hope.
That was why she had to decipher them somehow.
If she could not...
"One may never awaken from the dream at all."
What an ominous prophecy.
From everything she had experienced so far, Cassandra was certain.
That this was the ending of her own mistaken choice.
That the Magus's anger was... by no means bluff or falsehood.
"Bell... Cranel."
And so, with considerable expectation, she looked at the boy's back as he ran far ahead of her.
The ending of the dream had changed simply because he appeared.
The despair of a death that could have been avoided.
If... if that was truly the case...?
"What is needed is... courage to overcome fear..."
Cassandra agonized.
With her head bowed, lost in thought, she agonized again and again, dozens of times over.
After a long while...
"I-I'm scared..."
She forced her collapsed body back up.
But her whole body was still trembling with fear.
But if she stayed still like this, something even more terrifying might happen.
In the end, that was why.
"Damn it, I still can't move! Hey, Cassandra! Come here and help me...!"
"Help me, Daphne! I need your strength!"
"... Huh?"
Still far from enough, still clumsy.
But Cassandra Iliion, the prophetic witch, also steeled her own resolve in her own way.
What was needed was only a small courage to overcome fear.
That was all there was to it.
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