“Come with me.”
“...Start by explaining where you’ve been.”
“There’s no time. I’ll explain, so come with me. There’s somewhere we need to go.”
When Leopold didn’t move, Teron let out a small sigh.
His ash-gray eyes swept over Leopold.
The sight was startlingly out of place, and strangely, it looked pitiful too. It sounds absurd, but Leopold thought he saw a trace of pleading soaked into that gaze.
Refusing would be the normal thing to do. And to go a step further, perhaps he should have doubted whether that man was even Teron at all.
And yet, because of that strange look he’d never seen before...
The moment Leopold met Teron Meyer’s eyes, he ended up taking a step forward.
Without a word, Teron drew a magic circle.
The world spun before his eyes, and in an instant a wave of nausea washed over him.
When Leopold came to his senses, he had been dropped into an unfamiliar place.
He looked to the side and saw Teron kneeling, head bowed, retching something up.
The liquid surging back up out of his mouth was blood.
At first Leopold wondered if he was seeing something wrong, but he soon realized this scene was real.
He went over to Teron, but couldn’t bring himself to touch him, and only fidgeted helplessly.
After vomiting blood for a long while, Teron snapped at Leopold with a drained face.
“Don’t make such a fuss.”
“You’ve really and truly lost your mind.”
Leopold no longer obeyed his words.
He didn’t care whether Teron got irritated or threw a tantrum. He kept pressing and pressing to know why he was doing this.
In the end, insisting on seeing a doctor, he began dragging Teron along by force.
Teron gave up on bending Leopold to his will and secretly drew a magic circle right where he stood.
“...You, again!”
Once more, the teleportation spell succeeded. After that, the two of them quarreled bitterly. It went beyond arguing into an outright scuffle.
“Let go of me, before I kill you!”
“No. Enough already! I’m taking you to a doctor, so give it up. Your body’s in no state to do anything, so what are you even trying to do?!”
“I told you not to make a fuss- you crazy little brat, let go, ugh.”
“Your madness has flared up again, so this isn’t going to work. Talk to me again when you’re acting like a person and not a dog. Until then, don’t expect to move a single step.”
The very moment he’d pinned him down and had him lying still, Leopold was hit with a third teleportation.
Realizing that there was no method at all by which he could stop Teron Meyer, his face went pale.
In the end, the First Prince begged Teron, who now truly looked as if he might die any moment, to stop.
It’s all my fault, I’m sorry, what do you want me to do, I’ll do whatever you say, just stop...
Wiping the bloodstains from the corner of his mouth, Teron sneered.
“We’re here, idiot.”
“...Where is ‘here’?”
They were indoors. Looking around, he saw walls made of wood. There was a fireplace, and a carpet of sorts laid over the floor. But the place was bare, and dust could be seen here and there.
“It’s a villa.”
Teron answered, and pulled his black robe up over his head.
When he headed off toward the exit as he pleased, Leopold chased after him.
Outside it was chilly and thick with trees. Leopold realized this place was deep in a mountain.
“Teron Meyer... why did you come here?”
He desperately held back his harsh words as he asked. Teron didn’t answer and slipped off into the forest. Leopold had no choice but to follow.
After walking endlessly onward, deeper and deeper, Teron suddenly began doing something bizarre.
“Come out. I’m going to kill you.”
“...Teron?”
“Let’s see if you still won’t come out after this.”
He grew feverishly excited, like a madman, and then abruptly drew a magic circle. Hot fire burst out of it.
Leopold stared in horror at Teron, who was starting a forest fire, and then immediately dealt with it. He too drew a magic circle and conjured water.
Hurriedly he splashed it over where Teron had set the fire, and thankfully the danger of a wildfire was quelled.
Leopold seriously worried that Teron might have gone completely off the rails. He observed him, but Teron only seemed more excited than usual and showed no particular problem otherwise. In a subdued voice, he said,
“Teron, let’s go back. Hm? There’s no point in staying here.”
“Wait.”
“...Hold on. What’s that sound?”
“That’s right, it’s coming now.”
The two boys, who had spoken almost at the same instant, whipped their heads around at exactly the same moment.
Leopold came face to face with an enormous creature.
That was unmistakably a monster. But it was the largest of all the monsters he had ever seen.
It had three eyes set in its head, and the texture of the hide covering its body, a mix of brown and green, looked harder than a lump of iron. Its size exceeded the trees on the mountain. Even the white fur scattered here and there looked grotesque...
Teron Meyer finally opened his mouth in earnest.
“That is a monster treated as a legend across the continent. It lives only in mountains that are extremely high and deep. Normally it burrows down into the earth inside the mountain, and it comes out when someone tries to start a fire.”
“...”
“That monster lives in Deluah... but this mountain has such rough terrain that no one comes and goes here, so nobody knows. For your reference, that monster is strong enough to have once wiped out an entire principality.”
“...”
“There was an old book in the royal palace library. Do you know how the Sword Master who existed on this land three hundred years ago died?”
Watching the monster take a step closer, Teron began speaking faster and faster.
“He died of an infection from the wounds he got fighting that monster, apparently.”
And as though his explanation were finished, he personally took a sword and pressed it into Leopold’s grip.
“Leopold, you have to kill it. Otherwise we both die.”
It was then that Leopold saw the monster’s finger move.
A finger as big as their whole bodies was descending toward the ground to kill Leopold.
He ran at full speed to dodge it and shoved Teron aside as well. Teron went flying a great distance in an instant, crashed down, and began coughing all by himself. The monster worked its fingers again to seize them.
Beyond mere absurdity, Leopold experienced, for the first time in his life, the sensation of being so angry that his ears rang.
Teron Meyer, this lunatic!
Leopold cut off the monster’s finger with all his strength. Blue light radiated from his sword.
One enormous finger fell away, and at the same time blood sprayed all over his body. Even so, the monster paid it no mind. It let out a cry as if enraged. It was ear-splitting.
Leopold tried once more to sever the fingers the monster worked so quickly to kill them with, but the monster wouldn’t let him. Sharp claws even sprouted from it. It cut his side and cut his leg. Terrified that Teron might die, he lured the monster away to keep it from reaching him.
He swung the sword, but its hard hide wouldn’t take any real gash.
After dozens of exchanges of the blade.
He could see Teron’s face growing paler and paler. But there was no turning back. Leopold let out a rage-soaked roar and clambered up onto the monster.
“Get out of the way, Teron!”
“...Leopold, feel the mana. The moment light comes out of your sword, watch how your gut moves.”
As he leapt up onto the monster’s body and swung the sword once more, the blade glowed and shot out light. What should he call it? He could only call it energy, so... sword energy?
There was no precedent, and no experience. Even controlling energy this abnormally powerful was overwhelming. Leopold gave it everything he had. The blue light sliced the monster’s body.
Teron shouted.
“Feel it, feel the mana inside your body! Why is it so weak? Can’t you pour out more light?”
“You crazy bastard! Now I finally understand why people call you mad! Get out of the way, right now!”
“Your Highness, concentrate. The moment the light comes out, you have to feel what’s happening inside your body.”
And Teron, watching Leopold desperately hold back the monster’s movements, muttered,
“You can’t die...”
“What did you say? The one who’ll die is you! Just wait until this is over. You’ll die by my hand.”
Thankfully, after that Leopold fought well. He carved dozens of gashes into the monster’s body and cut off a few more fingers. And yet it wouldn’t die.
Meanwhile, Leopold gradually grew more skilled at handling that strange phenomenon of the emerging light.
Now the light spilled beyond the sword and shimmered in midair. He could even freely bend its direction as he wished. When the blue light leaked out into the air and then gashed the monster just like that, Leopold sucked in a stunned breath. Teron chewed at his lip, then his eyes went wide.
Even so, he was wounded and exhausted. His whole body was being overtaken by the stiffening reek of blood. Drenched in his own blood and the monster’s all mixed together, Leopold, fighting the creature for his life, no longer looked like a handsome prince. He was nothing but a murderous fiend, eyes glinting, covered head to toe in blood.
The fight went on for hours. That no one had died yet, even so, was both immense luck and immense frustration. Engulfed in despair, the First Prince’s water-colored eyes wavered.
He gasped for breath. He re-gripped his sword once more.
The monster, ragged with wounds, let out a great cry. Its severed, crushed hand turned toward Teron.
Leopold ran toward the black-haired boy who was just standing there staring at it stupidly. Ah, no... the monster’s hand looked like it would crush Teron to death right there. No, it was on the very verge of killing him.
“Teron-!”
