Curses… I really overdid it this time!!
Fighting the Machina Soldiers had forced him to loose eighth-order spells in rapid succession. Trying to claim those powerful attacks were all the result of his Holy Sword’s power would’ve been a stretch.
“Honestly, I had my suspicions you were that Dark Lord before.”
“…!”
“So is there anything you’d like to tell me?” Sakuya approached Leonis, who was doing his best to keep silent, and started poking his cheek. “Well, kid?”
Poke, poke. Poke.
“Kuh…” There was no point in hiding it anymore. Leonis exhaled with clear exasperation.
“You’ve seen right through me, despite my best efforts to disguise myself.”
“I can’t say you did a very good job of that,” Sakuya shot back mercilessly.
“Huh? But I was certain—”
“I admit it was probably easier to figure out because we’re in the same platoon. I had my suspicions judging by how Zol Vadis presented himself and how you seem to punch way above your weight class now and then.”
Sakuya held up an index finger as she continued.
“You acted strangely during the Holy Sword Dance Festival, but I think what clinched it was when you pulled a combat vehicle from your shadow. That was probably overdoing it. You didn’t pick that thing up on the Third Assault Garden. You bought it through the capital’s black market, didn’t you?”
Leonis sighed irritably.
Blast it all, Shary; they all saw right through you!
During the Holy Sword Dance Festival, Shary had taken Leonis’s place. Apparently, both Riselia and Sakuya had noticed something was off.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before they found out.
At this point, there was little reason to deny the truth. Leonis cleared his throat.
“…And what are you going to do now that you know?” He directed a sharp look at the girl, meeting her gaze.
Depending on Sakuya’s response, he might be forced to erase her memories.
Sakuya paused to consider.
“Nothing, I guess.”
“Nothing?”
“I don’t intend to report you to Excalibur Academy, and I won’t tell the others, either,” Sakuya explained, shrugging.
“But why…?” Leonis asked.
“So long as I get revenge on the Void that destroyed my homeland, nothing else matters, really. I don’t stay at Excalibur Academy because I want to defend humanity or anything. It just makes it easier to hunt Voids.”
Sakuya stretched as she went on.
“Besides, I’m the one who accepted a Dark Lord’s help for power. I willingly accepted the power of this mystic eye…”
Her left eye shone a faint amber.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a Dark Lord, kid,” Sakuya said with a smile. “That doesn’t change our relationship. I’m still a member of Excalibur Academy’s eighteenth platoon and a swordswoman in service of a Dark Lord.”
At this, Leonis quietly replied, “…I see. Sakuya Sieglinde, that makes you my accomplice and coconspirator.” He flashed an evil smile.
“Hmm. Is that your true nature, kid?” Sakuya asked with a hint of amazement, her eyebrows rising.
“W-well, I wouldn’t call it my true nature…” Leonis flushed, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden.
Occasionally, it felt like his mind was second to his young body. Recently, he’d started to lose sight of which side was his true self.
Acting this way really doesn’t work without my Dark Lord facade!
As Leonis hung his head, Sakuya brought her lips to his ear. “Don’t worry. Dark Lord or not, you’re still a cute boy.”
“…?!”
The sensation of Sakuya’s breath against Leonis’s earlobe made his pulse quicken. Sakuya flashed an impish smile and pulled back.
“Does Miss Selia know the truth about you?”
Leonis shook his head. “I haven’t told her about Zol Vadis.”
Riselia was serious to a fault. If she found out he was the leader of an anti-imperial underground organization, she’d probably pass out on the spot.
“Heh-heh-heh. Oh yeah? I guess that makes it our little secret, then.”
“…We can leave it at that, I suppose.”
“A private relationship is kind of thrilling, isn’t it?” Sakuya stood with Raikirimaru in hand. “Okay, let’s go save Miss Selia.”
“Right.” Leonis wore a serious expression as he nodded in agreement and got to his feet.
“Do you have any idea where she was taken?” Sakuya asked.
“I do. I don’t think it could’ve been very far.”
The seal informed him that his minion was still nearby.
“Is that one of your Dark Lord powers?”
Leonis’s expression faltered a bit. “Er, yes, I suppose so…”
He preferred to keep the fact that Riselia was his undead minion secret, for his sake and hers. Sakuya cast a look at Regina, still unconscious.
“What do we do about Miss Regina? We can’t leave her here.”
She had a point. There was no telling when more Machina Soldiers might show up.
“I don’t think we have many options. I’ll have to put her to sleep inside my shadow.” Leonis snapped his fingers, and Regina’s shadow coiled around her. With her body now bound up like she was in a cocoon, she slowly sank into Leonis’s shadow. “Okay… Let’s go.”
Sakuya smirked. “Allow me to accompany you, my lord.”
“…”
“What?”
“…P-please stop calling me that.”
Leonis’s embarrassed request caused Sakuya’s grin to bloom into a smile.
Riselia couldn’t tell for how long she’d fallen. After what felt like an eternity, her descent finally came to a stop. Riselia’s body bobbed in midair for a second before landing safely on the ground.
“Wh-what now?”
She looked around, confused. Unlike the chamber with the sphere from earlier, there was some light here, albeit faint. It came from strange glowing patterns etched into the stone walls. The surroundings struck Riselia as oddly familiar.
I feel like I’ve seen this place before. After a few steps, she remembered. This is just like the ruins where I found Leo…
She felt something sail over her head, and she looked up in alarm. It was the orb of light.
“Whoa! D-don’t surprise me like that!” she cried. The orb ignored her, however, floating down the passage. Riselia reluctantly followed. “What is this place? It feels different from where we were…”
“This is the Dark Lord’s mausoleum.”
“…The Dark Lord?” Riselia repeated the words with her brow furrowed.
“The one I consider my master has ordered me to guard the slumbering Dark Lord.”
The light orb glided to a stop before a gigantic set of doors at the end of the corridor. Luminous letters appeared on the sphere’s surface, running across it rapidly. Only a second later, the doors opened with a heavy rumble.
“…?!”
A massive crystal waited on the other side of the door. It was pure black, so lustrous that it seemed to emit a pitch-colored light.
“It’s…” Riselia recognized this crystal. “It’s the same as the one Leo was sleeping in…”
She beheld the sight with eyes wide. This crystal was much larger than the one she’d found, and she couldn’t see what it contained.
“Since the day the world was torn in two, I have protected this place as its guardian.”
“…What are you talking about? What is this thing?”
“This is the casket of a slumbering Dark Lord,” the orb’s emotionless, inhuman voice explained. “Only one who has inherited the goddess’s soul may awaken him.”
“Goddess?”
Just as Riselia mouthed the word in confusion, the crystal suddenly erupted with light.
“…?!”
The radiance seemed to fill Riselia’s mind with a torrent of images.
What…is this…?!
And then…her consciousness sank into the dark.
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