Ishura - Volume 7 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15- The Immaculate Silver Sword

The situation changed on the day of the tenth match.

In the fifth fortress, set in a slightly northwest position from the center of Aureatia, the Twenty-Nine Officials who occupied a leading position in Iriolde’s camp were gathered around a war table.

Eighteenth Minister, Quewai the Moon Fragment. An uncanny genius who rose to the Twenty-Nine Officials despite his innately poor interpersonal skills with an intellect that far made up for it.

Former Twelfth Minister, Hidow the Clamp. A young recluse who, due to his highly astute wits, was drawn from Rosclay’s camp over to Iriolde’s after he willingly gave up his seat on the Aureatia Assembly.

Twenty-Seventh General, Haade the Flashpoint. The final old general who, despite stepping over piles of corpses to survive to his age, still had the fierce fires of war ignited inside him.

Former Fifth Minister, Iriolde the Atypical Tome. The true mastermind who never lost any of his power despite being expelled from the Assembly and who had constructed this large force through his latent influential power.

“First will be Yukis’s fungi soldiers. We’ll have these things attack the city indiscriminately,” Haade said nonchalantly.

The freight cars that the transport squads deployed to all regions of Aureatia were filled with fungi in a dormant state. They were simple organisms, and it was possible to precisely adjust when exactly they would awaken.

“In order to suppress this, we’ll deploy our army. Naturally, the reform faction guys don’t know this. Once they head out to take care of the fungi, they’ll end up clashing with our forces. Turn the scene into a chaotic mess, and it’ll be all ours. Moving out according to plan, we launch a one-sided, preemptive strike. For the pretext…just let it get out that the reformation faction attacked us, or accidentally shot at civilians, whatever works. Once the battlefield opens up, there are bound to be some people who that will actually happen to, anyway.”

Tracing the map of Aureatia, Haade continued the summary of the operation.

“Quewai, you’re in charge of contacting Yukis. Creating the script to rouse all the citizens, that’ll be you, Hidow. Though using Iriolde’s connections will probably be enough to get most things through anyway.”

“…What about Rosclay?” Hidow said, looking weary and fed up.

He had been swept along in the course of events until he now found himself in this position, but he still wasn’t satisfied with any of it.

Not with the plan to overthrow Aureatia, nor the fact that he had ended up like this.

“No matter how strong this old fart’s influence may be, Rosclay the Absolute’s a whole different story. If that guy gets up in front of people and says a word or two, any legitimacy we’ve got’s gonna bottom out.”

“Well, that’s why we picked the day of Rosclay’s match. As far as his actions are concerned, we have a means to forestall ’im. I’ve sent Tuturi out to that operation already.”

Twenty-First General, Tuturi the Blue Violet Foam. She had been considerably wounded in the battle during the ninth match, but…even then, there was no way she’d simply be absent from such an important mission.

“…Secretive bastard. If that’s the case, then hurry up and fill us in.”

“Make you feel left out, did I? Poor guy.”

Haade smiled, looking completely unapologetic.

“…Haade.” Iriolde spoke up. “You see, I have no talent for war. Naturally…I’ve entrusted you with all the military decision-making, yes… However, regarding Rosclay… I find it a slight bit strange. Are you sure it’s wise…to not limit it to just Tuturi, and deploy Romzo the Star Map with her…?”

Iriolde was fully informed about the plan to neutralize Rosclay, as if it was only natural.

Hidow clicked his tongue.

Am I the only one who wasn’t informed; is that it?

“Hidow. Tuturi’s heading out to a specific area based on information we got from Romzo the Star Map. Thing is, he’s another one who used to be in Rosclay’s camp, just like you.”

“Holding it against me; that it?”

“Gwaha! Don’t get so upset. Apparently, Rosclay makes periodic contact with someone out in the second borough of the Eastern Outer Ward. No one besides Romzo ever noticed. That’s the amount of caution he puts into meeting them, whoever they are.”

“I didn’t know about that, either… So, Tuturi and Romzo are going to take them hostage, is that it? But the Eastern Outer Ward’s second borough? There’s no way to tell if they’re even alive after Alus the Star Runner laid waste to it.”

“Hostage…isn’t exactly it. First off, for a guy like Rosclay, taking hostage of someone he’s close with ain’t gonna work. If they do happen to be there, the best we could do is kill ’em and try to piss him off. Tuturi and I were considering a different possibility.”

There was someone whom Rosclay had been secretly making contact with when the beginning of the Sixways Exhibition was close to starting. He was a man who would make any and all preparations necessary in the pursuit of turning a single victory into a certainty.

“There’s a chance he’s keeping a secret weapon for himself on par with the hero candidates. If that was the case…we gotta use a surprise attack with Romzo to take the initiative and stop ’em from doing anything. As long as we can crush that element of uncertainty, then stopping the man himself from doing anything won’t be that hard at all.”

“If you say so, I guess.”

If this piece coming out into the open would spell defeat for them, it just had to stay hidden.

If this coming out would mean defeat for him, then they would just have to force it out.

Unlike the other hero candidates, Rosclay the Absolute was nothing more than a simple knight.

He couldn’t possibly win in a contest against one of Aureatia’s military parties, and if they cornered him into a position where he was cut off from his outside assistance, they had a chance of successfully pinning him down. At the end of the day, though, Haade had a longer relationship with Rosclay than Hidow did.

While Hidow had been forced against his will, herein lay part of the reason why he was supporting this power. Haade the Flashpoint, well aware of how fearsome Rosclay the Absolute was, wouldn’t be plotting a rebellion with no chance of victory.

Haade was a warmonger who loved war more than anything else, but while that was true, it was exactly why the man hated being forced into fighting a losing war above all. If he continued winning more and more, he would be able to savor the next battle. That was how he put it.

Realistically speaking, their chances of success were plenty high enough—the camp had Haade, who controlled a majority of Aureatia’s military, and Iriolde, who still controlled Aureatia behind the scenes. The National Defense Research Institute, and the multiple self-proclaimed demon kings that belonged to it, could produce more than enough constructs to lay waste to the city, and were even researching the weapons of the Beyond that they had requisitioned from Kaete’s camp.

“The plan is to not cause any meaningless damages, right?”

“We’re not thinking up some blitzkrieg attack to rush the palace and declare victory this time or anything like that. You know what the most important point is when tearing down a country? It ain’t winning. It’s about how much more superior we make ourselves look. We’ll exterminate the fungi soldiers before anyone else can and crush the reformation faction who’ll harm the citizens in all the chaos. With that, once the military’s claimed superiority, we’ll fill the heads of the people with the inside details about the Sixways Exhibition, and the true story behind Lucnoca the Winter’s demise… Whether it’s fear or fervor, it’ll get a lot easier to deceive ’em if we give ’em somewhere to direct all that, right?”

The Lucnoca the Winter matter will get the people on our side. If things go well, it’ll be totally bloodless. Heck, even Rosclay’s camp might want to strike a deal at a reasonable point of compromise themselves…

Rosclay’s camp, on the side of the system, was right now facing several problems that they needed to deal with all at once. Political instability that had swelled with the Sixways Exhibition.

The first problem was the Free City of Okafu and the goblin nation—a foreign threat that was scheming to permeate and infiltrate Aureatia by backing Zigita Zogi the Thousandth. Now that Zigita Zogi had fallen and their original plan had broken down, there was the possibility they would use more forceful means in order to secure a position of political superiority.

Having used hero candidacy privileges to slip into Aureatia, if they were to launch a simultaneous insurgent attack, they were sure to become a difficult enemy that orthodox countermeasures couldn’t keep up with.

The second was Obsidian Eyes. Now that the existence of the invisible army had been brought to light by Jelky the Swift Ink’s speech, it was possible they had no need to keep their identity a secret anymore.

The third was the Old Kingdoms’ loyalists. The independent armed group considered the current Queen Sephite an invader who usurped the throne from Aureatia’s previous King Aur, and advocated a return to the Old Kingdom.

With Haade’s military rising up in revolt, it’s impossible for Aureatia to handle these threats. Either way…the reformation faction can’t crush the military faction. What does Rosclay plan on doing?

The train of thought coming to an end, Hidow lifted his head.

“Uneasy, are we, Hidow the Clamp?” Iriolde inquired, as if he had seen into his mind at that moment.

“…Iriolde.”

Ever since he had been expelled from the Assembly— No. Even before that, since the era of the Central Kingdom, Iriolde the Atypical Tome had given support and supplied personnel from the shadows to those who suited his own goals. The result was this camp of writhing evil unbound, and the National Defense Research Institute.

The darkness of Aureatia had swelled to far too big a size for anyone to confront.

“This is fine. Just fine. My…my feelings of ambition, revenge, have all long withered away. We won’t do any sort of thing…that you would worry about. Neither to Aureatia, nor its people…,” Iriolde mildly explained.

He made it sound as though he was truly speaking from the heart, even toward Hidow, who was still harboring doubts.

“…I simply wish to see the stagnation crumble. I want this deadlocked Aureatia to be reinvigorated with young…and new strength. If you all are able to accomplish that…then, why, I couldn’t want for anything more.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

Haade’s camp, under Iriolde’s control. Their objective was ultimately just like the Old Kingdoms’ loyalists: the dissolution of the current government. Not only that, but it was also an operational undertaking on a scale that none of the other ragtag powers at play could compare to.

Destroying the pretext of the Sixways Exhibition, claiming prestige behind slaying Lucnoca, and getting their hands on the seat of power in Aureatia. What would happen from there, Hidow wondered.

Expunge Rosclay the Absolute, the symbol of their opposing faction, and make him out to be the mastermind behind the queen’s assassination. Or perhaps, instead, leave the queen unharmed and keep her close by as a puppet.

These guys… We’re the fourth problem.

The time to begin the operation was close. The situation was bound to transform into a complex one far exceeding his imagination.

Who would act? Where would the fighting break out?

Not a military officer himself, Hidow didn’t truly know about the chaos of war.

He was sure that the only one who had a complete understanding of it was Haade the Flashpoint.

Nevertheless, it was highly likely that the opportunities for everyone to make their moves would overlap.

Who will it be?

It had already been scheduled…since it was the day that Rosclay the Absolute, known to all the people of Aureatia, would have his movements restricted the most.

Which power is going to act?

It was morning.

The day of the second round, match ten.

Eastern Outer Ward, second borough. Along the waterway, a lightly equipped group was spread out in fixed intervals.

Most of them were dressed like civilians. Nevertheless, an experienced eye would likely understand that they were part of a regularly trained and commanded armed force.

They were dispersed in dozens of small squads because they anticipated an immediate deployment.

It wasn’t a militarily important position. And yet, if their enemy had gotten wise to their movements, they couldn’t afford to sit back without responding. Twenty-First General Tuturi’s squad, by going on ahead to this region, had also been tasked with getting an idea of how Aureatia’s army would respond to the military action from Haade’s camp.

“…Koff.”

Tuturi coughed quietly and folded up her binoculars.

Ever since the battle at the Mali Wastes, her coughing wouldn’t stop, as if she had come down with a cold.

The frostbite covering half of her body was wrapped in several layers of bandages.

“There are no signs that the reformation faction’s observing the target. Yup, this has gotta be a dud. Koff,” she said to the man standing behind her.

“Well. Perhaps to young Rosclay…this person is someone so important, he needs to keep it a secret, even from his men.”

Romzo the Star Map, survivor from the First Party. It went without saying that Tuturi didn’t trust the man one bit.

Originally, he had acted as the Old Kingdoms’ loyalists’ adviser, offering support to Gilnes the Ruined Castle. However, he abandoned them for unclear reasons and defected over to Rosclay’s camp. It was no exaggeration to say that his actions drove Gilnes the Ruined Castle to his death.

Now he had even double-crossed Rosclay’s camp, switching to Iriolde’s side. The reasons behind this were equally unclear. The same thing was bound to occur a third, even fourth, time.

Romzo… The joke here isn’t that you had some difference in ideals…or that you’re an undercover agent for Rosclay, is it?

The First Party. Boasting likely the greatest individual fighting prowess of any minian, and surviving his clash with the True Demon King, Romzo had never seized any glory at all. The champion who had seen the True Demon King in person was a failing shadow of his past self, unable to stop himself from running roughshod over any trust or good reputation anyone gave him.

He was close to peerless when it came to his individual fighting power. However, he couldn’t be left behind to guard the operational headquarters either.

There was the possibility that a betrayal of some kind, or a simple flight of Romzo’s fancy, would lead him to murder everyone in the leadership. The apprehensions certainly weren’t overblown.

Even within Iriolde’s camp, where all manner of monsters were tolerated, this man couldn’t be.

…I’ll do just like Jelky’s aiming to do with the Sixways Exhibition. If this guy’s a pawn that’s guaranteed to betray us, I’ll force him to go up against someone just as strong before that happens…and crush him. If possible, right here, right now, before my very eyes.

<General Tuturi.>

There was a report from the radzio strapped to her hip. It was from the soldier keeping watch over the urban area.

<There appears to have been a notification to the various merchants from the Assembly that the tenth match has been postponed. Their reasoning is that Soujirou the Willow-Sword’s wounds are too deep, and it would be impossible to hold a consummate match in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen.>

“They went and did it after all, huh? Playing out like they expected this.”

<Have they seen through our operation?>

“Oh yeah, of course. Rosclay can easily look at things from our position and figure we’re preparing an attack for the day of his match… They pretended the schedule was going to go as planned right up to the day of to prevent us from adjusting the operation at the last minute. Even Rosclay knew from the very start that today was the do-or-die moment.”

“…Would that then mean”—Romzo, standing next to her, interrupted with a question—“that he’s seen through Haade’s movements as well? Haade convened everyone early this morning, didn’t he? Setting up a sudden attack at a time when it would be easily found out seems like a mistake to me.”

“Hmph… Still, there’s a meaning behind setting this all up last-minute. It’s not that we have to aim for the day of the match to stop Rosclay. But on any other day, it would be impossible to put a stop to Jelky until everything else is all over. As long as he had no conclusive evidence that the operation would get started today, he wouldn’t have any reason to smooth things over among the merchants and related people… Koff, Jelky now needs to use a hundred percent of his business skills to push for postponing the match, and in some cases go to the various involved parties and negotiate directly. Then, once he’s in that situation, we make him deal with a combined assault. That’s the target…koff.”

Rosclay’s camp, on the side of the system, could no longer abandon the Sixways Exhibition itself. The resources and sacrifices squandered on this plan were far too great to do that.

“Even tens of thousands of lives are a suitable price,” was that it?

Tuturi flashed a flippant smile.

The recon solder had just plunged into their targeted shack.

Tuturi immediately called through the radzio.

“Well… Koff, anyone there?”

<No. No one is here. It’s just a storeroo—>

The call was cut off with a crack.

Flames swelled up from the inside of the building. A sound of an explosion.

The light and a roar echoed through the slum, still in the middle of its renovations.

“A trap…!”

Someone had seen through their movements. Even though this was within expectations, for them to get attacked with such precision…

“…Rosclay!”

“General Haade! The tenth match has been postponed! Elpcoza Peddler’s Union, Leafshade Snake Guild, Melp Six Moon Accord, Insa Moseo Co., and Rekzard’s received the notification from the Aureatia Assembly all at the same time!”

“Really? Going as planned, then.”

Haade was reclining far back in his chair as he polished his gun.

He didn’t turn around at the messenger who rushed into the command room to give his report.

“If they’ve done that, it means the enemy’s already started deploying squads somewhere. Gather all the communication from each location and investigate any suspicious areas.”

“Yessir!”

As he listened to the footsteps of the soldier depart, Haade murmured, “Trained them real well, Iriolde.”

“…What’s this? Capable personnel don’t only gather under the banner of the Aureatia army, you know. I…discreetly picked out such individuals and gave the necessary environment, nothing more. Besides, Haade, this is just as much your accomplishment.”

“Oh yeah? What do you mean?”

“They say wars aren’t started by generals, but…it was the presence of a general with as much unifying power and strength as yourself that made it possible to bring all those standing up against the system together. That is something that someone like myself, only able to work in the shadows, simply does not have…”

“Hmm. ‘Wars aren’t started by generals,’ huh?”

The corner of Haade’s mouth raised ever so slightly into a smile.

The gun he was caring for at the moment was an early model, far removed from the pistols that had begun to circulate in recent years, but it had been his partner across many long years of war. The grip he had tightly held from the age of the True Demon King was soaked deep with blood and smoke, and accustomed to his hand, as if adhered fast to his skin.

“Iriolde. Do you have any grandchildren?”

“…No. I was never very suited to starting a family… In certain respects, my compatriots are like my children. I grow jealous of you all from time to time.”

“That so? Well, I’m still gonna keep going anyway. Know you won’t mind. Lately, my grandchild, he’s learned how to stand and walk, see…and now he picks pick up all sorts of stuff to play with, so my son and his wife have started grumbling about how much of a handful he is! Kwah-hah-hah-hah!”

Haade the Flashpoint had previously withdrawn from his seat among Aureatia’s Twenty-Nine Officials.

His seat as Twenty-Seventh General was so high because he had come back to service after retiring once before.

Even after distinguishing himself on the battlefield and obtaining a peaceful life where he wouldn’t need to expose himself to danger—even after the era of the True Demon King—he still wanted to throw himself into the flashpoint of strife more than he could stand.

“So, well, this happened just the other day… My grandchild, he was playing with a wood-carved gun. You know the ones, Iriolde. Some shop carves ’em out for little kids, those ones. When that happened, let me tell you…it really hit me hard. Made me realize that I’m hopelessly in love with war.”

Right then, an explosion echoed from right outside the building.

Hidow was the first to jump back, moving away from the windows and getting down on the ground.

“…An enemy attack?!”

“Don’t piss yourself, Hidow,” Haade replied, remaining calm. “…I don’t think Rosclay’s guys sniffed this place out, but best to be sure. Iriolde, have someone go check on the situation. Hopefully, it’s just a little accident.”

Iriolde coolly laughed.

“Kweh, heh. My oh my… I don’t really think after getting this far that you’d be outwitted like that. Looks like everything doesn’t always go according to plan, does it, Haade?”

“That’s how it is on the battlefield. Not often that everything conveniently goes your way.”

Iriolde raised a fingertip and slowly gave his orders. Two from his four-person elven bodyguard team left the room without making a sound.

“An explosive means Kaete might be behind this, Haade.”

“You mean like that cheap trick he played during the sixth match…? Eh, trust me, no need to worry. Just calm down, Hidow.”

“…C’mon. We really gonna be okay?”

“Gotta finish what I was saying. Iriolde.”

Brushing Hidow’s apprehensions aside, Haade cracked his neck.

“Watching my grandkid play… See, that’s when it came to me. I…love war so much, hard to believe it myself. I bet there isn’t anyone who loves watching minia dying or getting killed than me… Ah well, except maybe for Soujirou.”

“Oh, but of course I know that. A man like Rosclay can never understand such a breakdown. That man is far too respectable… I allow it. You are free to fight however you wish. Demon kings, heroes…are all too trivial compared to the deeds people engage in.”

“Heh-heh-heh… That’s not what I’m trying to talk about here.”

Haade was unable to hold back his laughter.

It sounded as if his curiosity and anticipation endlessly welled up and came spilling out.

“My grandkid… When I saw him playing with that toy gun, see, I felt genuinely jealous of him. Seriously envious of such a…kawaka, such a tiny, innocent kid. Listen. What do you think? After this, even after I grow senile and keel over…that little kid’s gonna be able to go to war himself! Enjoy something this damn fun!”

Taking in Haade’s monologue with a peaceful smile, Iriolde finally stopped saying anything.

Standing up from his seat, Quewai the Moon Fragment ardently backed away.

Hidow opened his mouth and gazed at Haade’s fierce visage.

“So, I thought to myself.”

Iriolde’s elf bodyguard was the first to act.

Faster than she could unsheathe her thrusting sword, her skull was split open by a bullet.

Hidow heard the gunshot.

“War belongs to me! I’m going make sure something fun ends here with me!”

Who had shot her?

There was only one person sitting at the table, holding a gun in their hands and capable of sending out quick-drawn shots to best Iriolde’s bodyguard.

“…Haade!”

For the first time, Iriolde grew enraged.

It may have been the first time in his life the man had raised his voice.

Faster than his angered words could continue, a bullet pierced his throat.

“Gwaugh, nnngh, glrg, ah.”

Gunshot. Gunshot. Gunshot. Gunshot.

The rain of bullets nailed the remaining bodyguard together with Iriolde to the seat, never even giving them a moment to stand. Amidst the storm, brains and blood burst everywhere.

The mastermind who controlled the dark side of Aureatia turned into a mass of flesh mixed up with the chair, and perished.

“Keh, heh-heh.”

Haade laughed, showered with gruesome blood splatter.

When he dropped the emptied guns from both his hands, the guns fell to the floor with a sticky splat.

It was fun. That was why he was laughing.

“Kwa-ha, hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah!”

Gunshot.

He shot the soldier guarding the entrance to the room from behind his back with a newly drawn gun.

The inside of his long overcoat was fully loaded with the latest models of small firearms.

All of them loaded with live rounds. From the very start.

Two soldiers went to draw their swords, but a slash from a different direction cut them down. An attack from a soldier directly under Haade’s command. Cut down, and before they could even collapse, their skulls were then shot through with a bullet.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…!”

Gunshot. Gunshot. Gunshot. Gunshot.

His coat fluttered from the wind pressure of the gunpowder.

Calmly walking atop the long war table, deranged Haade seemed to make his bullet fire come out like a song.

Left. Right in front. Below. Left. Right.

Catching his targets using only his peripheral vision, he continued shooting down Iriolde’s soldiers with terrifying speed.

Violence, hatred, death, all of it scattered, spread out, and filled the room.

Hidow was terrified.

“Wh-what…what are you doing, Haade?!”

“Ahh…kwah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah! War…nothing can compare!”

“Haade…”

Hidow gulped mid-sentence.

Behind Haade, he saw Quewai with his face down on the war table.

He wasn’t asleep. The blood from the bottom of his head spread out endlessly and ran down the table.

Haade had automatically and casually killed Quewai, who had moved to attack at a moment’s judgment.

On top of the war table, the devilish walk clicked with the sound of his boots.

There were six survivors: Hidow, and the few soldiers directly under Haade’s command.

All the rest were dead.

“Since when…?” Hidow mumbled. He had discerned what was going on.

Now…the person he was truly terrified of wasn’t Haade the Flashpoint exposing his nightmarish insanity. This event didn’t just happen now, but had been happening far, far before this moment.

The person Haade had joined forces with was the true terror.

No one at all had realized it. Such an idea never even crossed his mind.

When Haade was finished walking to the end of the table, he sat down on the edge.

Turning around, Hidow shouted. “Since when?! Haade!”

Haade had produced a small radzio from his breast pocket. Haade reported in.

It was a low, merciless voice, as if to completely chill the heat from the bullet fire.

“I couldn’t wait for this…Rosclay. Cerebrum to brain stem.”

Any and all rebellion was meaningless.

The Sixways Exhibition to determine a single victor.

However, if there was one person there who was able to determine the inevitability of victory from the very start…

“Terminus excision is complete.”

The information detailing the annihilation of the command center for Iriolde’s camp reached the Aureatia’s Central Assembly Hall far after the fact.

Receiving the report was the man maintaining a position of neutrality and in charge of administrative affairs, First Minister Grasse the Base Map, along with Eighth Minister Sheanek the Word Intermediary. They were hard-pressed handling the sudden cancellation of the tenth match and had no reason to be aware of the outbreak of even further strife.

The minute he heard the news, Grasse spread out any documents he could get his hands on, and Sheanek immediately picked the decisive set of meeting minutes from them.

“Okay, let me just ask to be sure, Sheanek…did you realize it?”

“…Of course not. Even you hadn’t imagined it, did you, Minister Grasse?”

“Rosclay and Haade…were working together from the very start while they participated in the Sixways Exhibition… This’ll turn everything on its head.”

Grasse recalled the debate he had with Sheanek before about the settled tournament matchups.

Despite wielding the authority to sculpt the layout to ensure that he would win, Rosclay the Absolute had failed to construct it properly—even the two of them, with their bird’s eye looking over the matches, believed as such.

Sheanek hurriedly looked over the tournament bracket.

“This would then mean that in order for Rosclay to win the tournament, if anything, he needed to make it look like the bracket would make it impossible. Otherwise, with one person clearly set to be the winner, the remaining fifteen would all be on guard against him… Before the opening of the tournament, all of them would have tried to dispose of their greatest threat while still in peak condition. And in fact, Cayon… Kaete, Enu, everyone prioritized scheming against the opponent at hand! Despite the fact that by actually fighting by any means necessary…Rosclay would come out the winner!”

“…No. There were some trying to defeat Rosclay from the start, weren’t there? But…if someone intended to defy Rosclay…the one who would realistically try to do that was Haade…so they’d side with his camp…! Made sure to cut down that possibility right before the damn thing kicked off…”

Those rebelling against a mighty power were exactly the ones to seek out an equally mighty, different power.

Rosclay’s scheme, to back Haade as his own antagonistic force, had been a fatal trap, holding the very psychology of such rebels in the palm of his hand.

Aureatia’s military leader had even managed to drag out Iriolde the Atypical Tome, who had escaped Aureatia’s clutches and continued to scheme behind the scenes. He threw absolutely everything he had built up through his conspiring on a feigned chance of victory conveniently prepared for him.

“With this…when looking at the tournament bracket with this in mind, how does it end up?”

“…His first-round opponent was Jivlart the Ash Border. Nothing changes there. After all, if Rosclay chose someone he definitely couldn’t beat from round one, some would’ve started to think something was fishy.”

“Although he was actually forced into a much more difficult battle than he expected. Kia the World Word was simply an anomaly—yes?”

“C’mon, there isn’t anybody out there that could’ve imagined a monster like that. Not even Rosclay.”

Despite being exposed to an unimaginable and terrible threat in the first round, he had won.

From there was the third match, which would determine who would serve as his second-round opponent.

“Ozonezma the Capricious versus Soujirou the Willow-Sword…”

“Ah right, I remember. Right in the middle of the match…there was a rumor that Haade contacted Dant, wasn’t there? That if Soujirou was to lose, he’d join Ozonezma’s side… At least, that was what I thought it was about. But thinking about that now…”

Haade had deployed troop strength so grand in scale he didn’t care how it may have looked against Ozonezma the Capricious, to sabotage his arrival at the arena. As if he hadn’t taken any consideration whatsoever to Rosclay coming in from the sidelines to intervene.

It had been a clearly abnormal fixation on gaining victory over a nameless and unidentified hero candidate. Yet no one had suspected a thing.

“The second round. This fight in the second round was what they were after. Haade… Even if Ozonezma had been victorious, he planned on interfering with Ozonezma from within… Isn’t that right?! From the very start, he didn’t have any intention of making his own candidate win at all! Just like Rosclay… Haade only needed to be on the side of the winner in the first round by any means necessary!”

“In other words…no matter who claimed victory in the third match, Rosclay’s opponent couldn’t win in the second round… If Haade…and Aureatia’s largest military faction were to use the full extent of their power as sponsors to obstruct their candidates…then, yeah, there’s no way they’d win!”

Much more, the candidate Haade backed was Soujirou, who lacked any knack for intrigue and had no political patron to back him up. If anything, Haade had made sure Soujirou was just such a man, and then nominated him.

As a candidate he could force to lose in the second round against Rosclay.

“How exactly did you intend to fight in the semifinals?”

This question that Hiroto the Paradox had previously thrown Haade’s way had been, for him, an inconvenient one.

From the very beginning, he never had any intention of fighting in the third round.

“…The third round. For this one…”

“Well… For that, the answers have already been abundantly clear by now. Rosclay never had any intention of fighting in it at all! Common sense dictated that either Alus or Lucnoca was guaranteed to advance to the third round! Just like what happened after the eighth match—they intended to designate them self-proclaimed demon kings and eliminate them before the match! Victories up until the third round, then this would be the only win by default… No one would find it suspicious at all. Since Alus, Lucnoca…the dragonkin are threats to the minian races…!”

“…Even assuming so,” Sheanek murmured.

Following back through Rosclay’s scheme like this made it clear.

Threads of intrigue had been woven into the gathering of the strongest shura across the horizon. Kia the World Word. Lucnoca the Winter. There were several elements that could destroy Rosclay’s plan.

In the longer term, the more elaborate a plan became, the more that overthrowing a single presumption would necessitate revising it all.

“This means that…everything was revised. Not only that, but in regard to the Lucnoca matter, he managed to turn it into an objective that incited Iriolde’s camp to whittle away at their fighting force. Qwell the Wax Flower’s disappearance is also all too convenient for Rosclay as well. Above all, though…up until he reached this stage, where nothing can be overturned…he successfully kept his true strength hidden from the eyes of forces who proved the biggest conspiratorial threat—the Free City of Okafu and the invisible army…”

“To pull off such a feat…Rosclay…!”

He looked. No matter how many times he did, the facts of the tournament bracket didn’t change.

It had already been decided, from the moment the Sixways Exhibition had begun.

He confirmed the bracket Rosclay belonged to.

Psianop the Inexhaustible Stagnation. Dropped from the tournament due to the death of his sponsor.

Toroa the Awful. Dropped out after his defeat in the first match.

Alus the Star Runner. Dropped from the tournament after his defeat in the second round and his self-proclaimed demon king designation.

Lucnoca the Winter. Dropped from the tournament due to a large-scale military operation and her defeat in the ninth match.

Ozonezma the Capricious. Dropped out after his defeat in the third match.

Kia the World Word. Dropped out after her defeat in the fourth match.

Soujirou the Willow-Sword. Dropout assured by the defection of his sponsor.

“All of them wiped out!”

Rosclay the Absolute would win through to the finals.

Looking back now, they understood that all of it had been part of the operation to make him continue forward.

Haade’s machinations, appearing to guide Soujirou to victory, in truth had been a maneuver to pair him up against Rosclay and make sure Rosclay advanced forward. A tournament bracket, all for this purpose.

However, those who didn’t know were assuredly unable to realize it.

“F-from the very beginning…”

Whatever actions anyone took, or whatever wiles they used to claim victory, absolutely everything had been devised on an even higher level.

The Sixways Exhibition. A true battle in order to determine the sole Hero.

“This group…never included a single person who could win against Rosclay!”