Chapter 11: Episode 11

Just before Yuren and Rie’s duel.

From a distance, Helna, who was watching the two, had a premonition of losing the bet.

“That boy… why is he like that?”

She couldn’t understand.

Given Yuren’s talent, he should have been on the verge of breaking through a wall, or already have broken through it.

But.

There was no significant difference from when she last saw him.

“Could it be… that the rumor of him falling into a life of indulgence was true?”

Helna had also heard rumors about Yuren.

Rumors that Yuren had become a good-for-nothing.

She couldn’t believe it, and didn’t believe it.

The idea that someone who possessed monstrous talent, yet never rested on his laurels and trained like a madman, could become a good-for-nothing.

She considered it absurd.

However, now she came to believe that those words were indeed true.

“Oh no… this is serious…!”

The problem wasn’t the bet with her daughter, but that it would cause great damage to the Garcia family.

“Is there… no other choice?”

Helna rummaged around and pulled something out from within her clothes.

“….”

Helna, silently staring intently at ‘something’, pondered it many times.

Something that absolutely should not be done.

Yet, something she had no choice but to do for the sake of her own mistake.

That something was.

“For my disciple… and for myself.”

A mask.

Helna tightly gripped the pink mask that would completely conceal her face.

Helna had decided to intervene in the duel being observed by the Imperial Family.

“Right. It’s not a crime if you don’t get caught.”

She was confident she wouldn’t be caught.

Who would think she had intervened in the duel? No one.

If there was anyone, it would be one person.

Only Rie.

Just as Helna, having made her firm decision, pulled the mask over her face and was about to rush off to disrupt the duel.

“Hmm…?”

She sensed an unusual atmosphere.

Wasn’t Yuren, who had been at a slight disadvantage, growing as he fought?

Soon enough.

To the point of completely surpassing Rie.

“He’s truly… a monstrous fellow…!”

But.

The outcome was obvious.

Even if Yuren tried his best, if her daughter used the Saintess’s power, Yuren’s defeat was certain.

Sure enough.

Her daughter unleashed the Saintess’s power, and Helna instinctively knew that her time to intervene had finally come, but.

“…!”

Yuren had won.

And against her daughter, who had unleashed the Saintess’s power.

“…Which means?”

The corners of Helna’s lips twitched.

Everything had gone according to her original plan.

Wasn’t this the perfect situation?

“Ahahaha, I’ll get to see quite a show!”

The result of the bet: Helna’s victory.

Helna was greatly amused imagining her daughter fulfilling the conditions of the bet she had made.

Behold.

Isn’t her daughter there, unable even to lift her face from embarrassment at the thought of keeping the bet?

Furthermore.

“Hopefully, this will also cure that child’s chronic problem.”

She had lost to an opponent who was clearly weaker than herself.

She couldn’t even make the excuse that she hadn’t fought with all her might.

Since she had unleashed the Saintess’s power.

It was a clear fact that her daughter had faced her disciple with her full power.

“More than that… my disciple is truly cruel…!”

Helna admired Yuren’s behavior, as he reveled in the so-called ‘victor’s right’ by proclaiming his victory in front of her embarrassed daughter, maximizing her daughter’s misery, and teasing her.

****

“Th-this can’t be!!!”

After the Garcia family’s victory was confirmed, Count Pigmine denied reality, shouting into the air.

He had never thought he would lose.

He had his trump card, the mercenary Laisha, and another trump card, the mercenary Cale.

Both were highly skilled individuals.

But then.

As if drawing upon all future luck, even the ‘Sword Maiden’ had joined him.

He had never once considered defeat.

“Wh-what’s the problem…!”

Could it be… that the problem was not hiring Cale for the commission, to save some money after the Sword Maiden joined?

“…No.”

Even if Cale had been there, he didn’t think Cale would have defeated the Free Knight Bilharn.

Not hiring Cale for the commission must have been the right choice.

He had saved money too.

In that case.

“Could it be… the Sword Maiden… that b*tch…?”

The word ‘betrayal’ swirled in his mind.

“…Yes. It’s clear.”

It didn’t make sense.

Why would Helna, the previous Sword Maiden, and her daughter help him?

And against her own mother’s disciple.

It was suspicious from the start that the previous Sword Maiden entrusted her daughter to him.

It was all a scam.

There’s no way the Sword Maiden would lose a sword duel to a mere merchant’s son.

He shouldn’t have trusted those bitches.

So naively.

“That’s how it was…! Those dog-like bastards!!!”

Count Pigmine, who had concluded the reason for his defeat in his mind.

He was enraged.

“…This is all a scam…! Yes, it’s a scam.”

Therefore, he wanted to shout that this territorial war was invalid… but Count Pigmine knew, unless he was a fool.

That it couldn’t be invalidated.

Who would believe that the Sword Maiden would fake a defeat, even going so far as to abandon her own reputation?

Public opinion would naturally deem it a legitimate defeat, and the odious son of Count Garcia would be hailed as a young hero of the Empire.

He didn’t want to see that.

It was something that shouldn’t happen, but it was an inevitable outcome that couldn’t be stopped.

Therefore.

He chose not to see it.

“Carlton, we’re returning immediately.”

“…Yes.”

“All preparations are complete, aren’t they?”

“They are, but… isn’t it a bit much to be with them?”

“Carlton. I warn you. Never question my choices again.”

Count Pigmine glared at Carlton with eyes stained with madness.

Having been by his side for a long time, Carlton knew.

That those words were sincere.

And even the fact that it was usually best to obey quietly in such situations.

“Yes, I understand.”

One last thing.

Carlton mentioned.

About the girl who could be seen as the root cause of all these events.

“Seraphie… what are you planning to do with that girl?”

“Carlton, didn’t I tell you?”

“….”

“What I’ve set my sights on, I never lose.”

As if he had all the methods, Count Pigmine replied with a sneering smile.

And as always.

“…As expected of Count Pigmine.”

Carlton also responded with trust to Count Pigmine’s demeanor, as if everything had been planned.

****

Immediately after praying.

Seraphie regretted it.

‘I really shouldn’t have prayed….’

What she had so earnestly wished for, as if it would never be granted.

No matter how much she prayed, it wasn’t answered.

So she stopped praying.

But.

With the desperate hope of grasping at straws, and because praying was all she could do, she knelt and prayed devoutly, but it was the same as before.

Rather.

She even felt as if the situation had escalated into a catastrophe because of her prayer.

“Th-the Sword Maiden…!”

“Can Master Yuren win?”

“…It’ll be impossible.”

On the Garcia side, an atmosphere of certain defeat already pervaded.

Even.

“….”

Even Mea was visibly despairing.

The Sword Maiden.

Seraphie, being unworldly, didn’t know who or what kind of person she was, but she could tell from the reactions around her.

That her master’s opponent was undoubtedly close to the worst possible.

“It’s… it’s all my fault….”

Guilt overwhelmed her.

She shouldn’t have prayed.

The will of God, who would never grant her prayers, was now unfolding before her eyes.

She was scared.

What sin had she committed to make God hate her so much?

And what sin had her master committed to be entangled with her and suffer such a setback?

‘What… what can I do….’

If she had known it would come to this… she wouldn’t have prayed.

Already, in Seraphie’s mind, her master’s defeat was set, caused by her own prayer.

Somehow.

In any way possible.

She had to atone for the mistake she had made.

Thus.

As Seraphie, who was so lost in thought that she couldn’t even watch Yuren’s duel, was surrounded by an ominous black aura subtly beginning to emerge and show itself.

“Oh my! I believed in the young master!”

Seraphie snapped out of it at Mea’s excited voice and belatedly began to watch Yuren and the Sword Maiden’s duel.

And then.

“Ah…!”

Her master was there, casually disregarding God’s wicked trick of never granting her wishes, and instead doing the opposite of her prayers.

“…Master!”

Seraphie felt an inexpressible, strange emotion swelling within her.

Her master, who was steadily seizing victory.

My master.

My master.

What exactly should this feeling be called?

Seraphie couldn’t take her eyes off the scene unfolding before her.

Her master was about to win.

Her master was winning.

Suddenly, Count Pigmine’s figure, far in the distance, entered Seraphie’s vision.

A clearly flustered appearance.

The sneering smile he wore when he came to collect debts from the Esnor family was nowhere to be found on Count Pigmine’s face.

And the moment the outcome of the duel was decided.

“Seraphie!!! Our young master won!!!”

“….”

“Uh… Seraphie? You…!”

Mea saw.

The corners of Seraphie’s mouth, always tightly closed in a straight line, forming an arc for the first time.

A clear, unmistakable emotion was revealed on Seraphie’s face.

However, she herself was unaware of that fact.

She was merely staring intently at one person, immersed in an inexplicable ecstasy.