Chapter 142: Sword Saint, do you want three hundred thousand people to be buried with you?

[Within the collapsed ruins of Pandaemonium, the sword-strikes that had rung out now and again, along with the violent peals of thunder, gradually fell silent.]

As the dust and smoke cleared, a red-haired youth walked out from within, seeming to mark himself as the true victor of this life-or-death battle.

Yet his condition at that moment looked far from reassuring.

His once pristine white knight's uniform was caked in dust and torn to tatters, several blood-soaked strips of cloth fluttering about him in the wind.

Sword wounds covered his body, a battered ruin from head to toe, blood dripping ceaselessly to the ground.

But Reinhard paid it no mind. Instead he held the dragon sword level before him, his face wary as he stared at his surroundings, as if guarding against something.

And yet, the radiance running along the blade of Reid, the "dragon sword" passed down through generations of House Astrea, grew faint in his hand, until at last it vanished entirely.

Only then did Reinhard belatedly realize that the madman, the sword fiend who chased ever greater strength, had most likely seized the chance to flee and was already gone from this place.

It was no fault of Reinhard's. After all, he'd never imagined the man who had blocked his path with such a loyal air only moments before would abandon his master and run for his own life the very next second.

And here he'd thought the man would fight to the very last… Never mind. This was better for him anyway. It saved time.

"Reinhard!"

No sooner had the red-haired knight sheathed the dragon sword than a voice called out his name from not far off.

And it was a voice he knew well.

Reinhard turned his head to look and found a silver-haired girl walking slowly toward him, graceful with every step, like a princess of ice crystal.

"Lady Emilia! I'm so glad to see you safe and sound!"

A trace of joyful surprise crossed Reinhard's face as he bent slightly to bow.

But at the sight, Emilia raised a hand to stop him.

"Wait, Reinhard. I didn't come here to flee this place at your side."

Emilia's gaze was heavy and still, meeting Reinhard's silence for a few seconds.

"Then, for what purpose has Lady Emilia come?"

Reinhard's brow furrowed faintly. Something about the way Emilia carried herself set his instincts on edge.

"Reinhard, I'm begging you—could you spare Subaru just this once, and let us go?"

Emilia pressed one hand to her chest, gazing at the Sword Saint with pitiful, pleading eyes as she begged mercy for Natsuki Subaru.

At the same time, her other hand raised three fingers in an oath.

"I promise, if you let Subaru go, we'll find some remote country and live in seclusion. I'll never let Subaru harm another soul again!"

"It's true! As his wife, I'll keep proper watch over him!"

"Forgive me, but I must refuse… Lady Emilia!"

In an instant, the red-haired Sword Saint barked out loudly, cutting off Emilia, who was already beaming with anticipation for the future.

Just like the protagonist of a storybook tale—the knight of absolute justice, whose eyes could tolerate not a single grain of sand.

More than that, he had no right to choose forgiveness on behalf of all those the Purge King had killed.

"For slaying the Margrave, and for the slaughter across the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko, the Southern Empire of Vollachia, the City-State of Kararagi, and the dragon-allied Kingdom of Lugnica—one hundred twenty-six thousand seven hundred and two lives in total!"

Reinhard's voice was low, and in that moment his gaze was sharp as a blade, too fierce to meet.

"That many died by his own hand directly—and those slaughtered indirectly are beyond counting!"

"As his friend, I feel shame that I failed to guide Subaru onto the right path…"

"But! Now that so monstrous a wrong has been committed, let Subaru come and repay this debt of blood himself!"

Reinhard spoke every word with gravity, laying bare cause and consequence. He hoped Emilia would abandon her delusion and return with him to Lugnica.

However—

"Heh… hahaha, how magnificent. Just like a hero!"

Emilia suddenly broke into laughter, crisp as silver bells, laughing until tears spilled out.

After slowly wiping the tears away, she curled her lips and spoke to Reinhard.

"So what of it? I don't care in the least how many others have died. The only one I care about is—Subaru."

"They were killed because they stood in Subaru's way, so they deserved to die. To be cleaned away like trash—that was their good fortune!"

Emilia clasped her hands behind her back, a smile hanging on her face. And just as she'd said, she had long since resolved to walk alongside Natsuki Subaru, to give him her unconditional trust.

This was her… "love"!

Reinhard's eyes went wide in shock, as if he'd never expected such words from her.

"Lady Emilia, you've already… fallen to darkness."

He looked at Emilia with a complicated gaze, but then his eyes hardened, as though he'd made up his mind about something.

And the Sword Saint's change did not escape Emilia's notice.

So, knowing she could never stand against the Sword Saint, she shouted out loudly before he could move.

"Stop! Or do you mean to drag the hundreds of thousands in Lugnica's Royal Capital down with you into the grave?"

"Lady Emilia, what—do you mean by that?"

At her words Reinhard frowned, his steps slowing for a moment—yet still he pressed on, firmly, toward where Emilia stood.

"Aren't you the least bit curious why Puck, the great spirit bound to me by contract, isn't at my side right now?"

Emilia said swiftly.

"I've already dissolved my contract with Puck. He has returned to his original form."

"Which is to say—the one who slew Melakuera, the 'Arbitrator,' one of the four great spirits: the 'Beast of the End,' from the eternal frozen tundra!"

"And now, Puck no longer needs to suppress his own power. He can draw all the mana he requires freely from the world, so his travel speed will be blindingly fast!"

"I've ordered Puck to head at once for the Royal Capital of Lugnica, and the moment he arrives, to begin the ritual to summon one of the four great Mabeasts—the Great Rabbit!"

"When that happens, with you absent, the hundreds of thousands throughout the Royal Capital will surely be slaughtered to the last, caught between the Great Rabbit and the Beast of the End working together!"

A fine sweat beaded on Emilia's forehead as she laid every one of her chips out in plain view.

She meant to tell Reinhard outright: she would threaten him with the lives of every single person in the Royal Capital!

And this plan was the result of long, agonizing deliberation.

At first, she truly had been helpless against an enemy like Reinhard, the world's foremost fighting power.

Stab him in the back as she once had, and then have Puck block him?

But that method had already been proven utterly useless.

So Emilia began to think: if she were Subaru, what would she do?

Whether the Purge King Natsuki Subaru from her memories, or the Greed IF Natsuki Subaru, both were beings of extraordinary intellect.

And as it happened, Emilia herself had immense capacity for growth.

In her mind she raced through the behavioral patterns of those two Natsuki Subarus, alike yet unalike.

She kept analyzing Reinhard's character as well, and arrived at a single solution.

And that was to threaten Reinhard, and thereby lure him away!

But even so, this was no easy thing.

Even the threat that Puck, with his power unsealed, might pose to the Sword Saint would likely not be enough.

So Emilia thought of the Great Rabbit, one of the four great Mabeasts she had seen back in the Sanctuary. That mechanism of his, one that could truly be called unsolvable, would surely have no one able to stop it in a Royal Capital without Reinhard!

And conveniently, Natsuki Subaru had told her about the Great Rabbit—especially its habits!

The Great Rabbit was drawn to snowy weather and vast quantities of magic power, and those conditions—Puck happened to satisfy them all. Conjuring an enormous snowy environment through magic would almost certainly draw the Great Rabbit near.

And this was her trump card to threaten the Sword Saint!

"So, what is your choice, Reinhard?"

"If you don't hurry back in time, then the Royal Capital you'll see will be nothing but a sea of blood."

Watching the grim look on Reinhard's face, Emilia felt herself gradually relax.

Because she knew—the first step of her plan was already close to success…

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