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Karin smiled for a moment, but then she turned her head down. Her face was full of regret as she tightly tugged at the bedsheets.

“You can’t. I won’t let you do something like that, ever. I’m also frustrated, I want to give them payback, but I don’t want you two to become criminals because of that. I know how much I mean to you two, but I also think you two are really precious to me, you know? So I can’t just sit here and watch as you two do something stupid for my sake.”
“…”
“…”

Two tears formed in Karin’s eyes, which quickly rolled down. It was clear enough, the most frustrated one here was Karin. She would have won alone, but then they hit her with a surprise attack. If I wanted to know how vexing that was, I just had to look at Karin. She was always cheerful and never cried once, but now she was so frustrated she was crying. She was holding herself back, so Ciel and I could not ignore her feelings.

“They said they were Leble’s officially recognized heroes. If you do anything to them, no excuses will save you from being punished. So please, try to hold back.”

Karin was begging, even though she was an innocent victim. I looked up at the ceiling, regulating my breath while pushing back the flames of anger blazing in my heart. After everything she said, I could not allow myself to be selfish.

“…If that’s what you want, then I’ll hold back. You’re the one suffering the most after all.”
“Lapis…”
“I’m still annoyed, but you have a point. I wonder what would’ve happened if we just charged ahead…”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”

The infirmary door was opened out of the blue, and the person who appeared behind it and entered the room was the Guild Master Krieck himself.

“Master?”
“Rejoice, you three. The government has given you permission.”
“Permission…?”

I had no idea how long he had been listening. I was so driven by anger that I had not noticed his presence nearby at all, even though normally I could when something approached me. As opposed to the three of us standing frozen there, Krieck smiled boldly.

“I just received a report about how Karin was attacked by Leble’s hero. I sent the healer here as soon as I could, and then ran to the governor’s palace to inform him of the situation. After all, Lable’s hero assaulted one of his subjects.”

Knowing how capable the governor is, he probably would be able to impart some sort of punishment on them. But against our expectations, Krieck denied that instantly.

“Even though he’s the governor, a hero is a person recognized by the entire country. He doesn’t have the authority to punish someone like that.”
“But then…!”
“So he’s letting them go?!”

Krieck shook his head in an attempt to calm us before we acted up again.

“Calm down. I’m still not done talking. As soon as the governor heard about the situation, he used a magic device to contact the royal palace directly.”
“Contact? But who?”
“His Majesty the King, of course.”
“!”

But even if that was true, from the king’s point of view this was a very trivial matter. Maintaining a good relationship with Leble took far more priority than the revenge of a single person— at least that is what a regular diplomat would do. But it seems our king here in Bordaule was no regular person.

“Apparently as soon as His Majesty heard the story, he was maddened. That was obvious enough, as a hero is supposed to represent a country, but this one assaulted Karin, one of His Majesty’s subjects, while using his privilege as an umbrella for any punishment. So he was enraged.”
“In other words… Those heroes sullied the good faith the King of Bordaule placed in them to act independently?”
“Exactly that. If they are let go, it would bring shame to the royal name. He said he wouldn’t allow Leble to trample on our name like that.”

I had never met the king before, but somehow…I felt like I would get along with him. Rather than a king, he sounded more like one of the many hot-headed members of a guild after all.

“So does that mean he gave us permission to hunt them down?”
“Not quite, that’d be going too far. No matter how rotten a personality they might have, a hero is still a hero, so murdering one would spell international problems… Though maybe that’s the very reason why they appointed people like that as heroes…”

That sounded like a plausible story. Leble had an ambitious disposition and always looked to expand their territory, but they could not start a war for no reason at all. But if a hero was killed in Bordaule’s territories, then Leble would openly antagonize Bordaule. After all, heroes are the hopes of people incarnated, so killing a hero was an act of malice against all humanity…or some excuse like that. Either way, it was better for me to stop theorizing and listen to Krieck.

“So the permission His Majesty granted you is the removal of a ban on fights for personal reasons. In other words, as long as you stay in this country, you can subject them to as much pain as you desire, as long as they remain alive. This case has many witnesses that confirm it’s a personal grudge, so the country can claim being unrelated to it.”
“Ohh!”
“Hehh, then we can chase after them right now and make them go through hell.”
“The country’s secret service knows their current location. They seem to be completely oblivious to the fact they’re being tracked, and they pulled no stops with their deeds so it’s easy to find them anyway.”

If we had the government’s permission, then we could do anything without worrying. I’ll make those s̲h̲i̲t̲t̲y heroes prefer death over touching my friends again. I felt the raging fire I had pushed down in my heart resurfacing. There was no need to hold back now.

“Karin, we’ll go pay them back so just rest here.”
“We’ll hit him for your part as well.”
“…Wait!”

As Ciel and I were about to leave the room, Karin stopped us once again. Even though we had the government’s approval, I was afraid she was going to tell us to stop again… When I hesitantly turned around, I was surprised to see Karin standing up with her sword in hand.

“I’ll go against him…against the hero. You two make sure the others don’t interfere.”
“Karin!”

Her early half-dead appearance had vanished into thin air. Her body looked full of life and her face was motivated. She was going to fight her own rival. That willpower…that’s what Karin always was about! I could not contain smirking now.

“Lapis, your face…”
“Eh? Ahh, right, got it.”

Ciel tried to warn me about it, but no matter what I tried I could not get rid of it. While I was still smirking, Karin offered me her hand.

“Let’s go, Lapis. You’ll help me get my revenge, right?”
“Of course. I’ll carry you to them in the blink of an eye.”

Grabbing her hand, I assured her that.

§　§　§

According to the secret information Krieck gave them, the Leble’s hero party was in a city forty kilometers to the northwest called Cabina. It was a somewhat small city with few inns, so finding our target will be easy enough. Getting there by foot would normally take around two or three days, but I was carrying both Ciel and Karin while flying at literally max speed. Because of the speed, they started having trouble breathing so I had to slow down as I looked at the two half fainted girls with apologetic eyes.

“…I thought I’d die before fighting the hero…”
“…Think a bit before you move. We aren’t built as sturdy as you are, Lapis.”
“…sorry.”

Even with them scolding me through their heavy breathing, we arrived in less than an hour at Cabina. The town was around half as big as our city, and even though it was time for dinner, there were barely any people outside. Normally a town would be bustling at around this time, with people eating in food stalls in the streets, and taverns filled with people, but now we could only see a few drunkards in the street. Avoiding those people, we walked through the bigger street until we arrived at a district with only inns.

“In which one could they…that one, it’s obviously that one.”
“Yeah.”
“They’re being just as rowdy as always it seems.”

How did we know which one it was? The answer was simple, there was one inn with multiple injured employees thrown at the entrance. Their faces were blue and swelled so it was obvious they had been abused. We walked closer to that inn and asked with a cheerful voice.

“Excuse me.”
“…Hm? What is it?”