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–––Magna’s viewpoint

Because of my idiot brother’s surprise attack, my life had changed dramatically. I had been working hard trying to find a way to restrain him, who spent all his time wasting taxpayer money like it grew on trees, and then he does this. I always knew he did not have much filling his head, but he was still royalty, so I always thought he would take a smarter approach. I really had overestimated him.

I had never thought he would use such a direct method. But thanks to that, all the allies I had gathered were being taken down one after another, and I did not even know if most of them were safe. When the enemy attacked they mostly targeted my knights, so at least I hope many nobles managed to escape… Though seeing all the people I nurtured and reared through the ranks perish like that still hurt deeply.

I am the most grateful to my allies that informed me my life was in danger and gave me time to escape.

While fleeing, I thought of staying with one of my allies outside the capital city. We had lost a lot of leverage in the city, but the seed was still there, so if we were careful we could build up momentum again and take the city back from Stied. But I quickly changed that thought, because of two main reasons.

First of all, we did not have enough people. Stied’s mysterious black knights had taken out most of my knights, so we could not resist for longer. The strongest knights might have been able to hold their ground when fighting one against one, but they were far more numerous. On top of that I needed the knights to command my soldiers, and I was already lacking in leaders. It would be impossible to stand against their army like this.

The second reason, if a civil war broke out in our country, other countries, or even the demons would take advantage of our vulnerable state and attack. Just remembering the face of the idiot that led a coup during a time when we need to stand as strong as possible made my blood boil, and no matter how much I cursed him in my mind I never felt better.

But if I left him to do with the country as he pleased, the kingdom of Bordaule would fall soon enough. After consulting with my allies, I came up with a plan.

I told my allies to start building up an army in the provinces away from the capital, and told them to let the capital know about that. They would also lie saying that I was hiding somewhere with them, so that my braindead brother would believe it and mobilize most of his army out of the capital, trying to finally kill me. Meanwhile we would secretly form a small group of highly skilled individuals in the capital, and sneak into the castle to take Stied down.

I still felt unsure about our current power, and I was pretty much gambling on him dispatching most of his men outside the capital, but I had no other choice. We had scheduled the attack for this night, but there was an unexpected attack.

“What happened?!”

There was a lot of noise in the mansion all of a sudden. I raised my voice when I heard the distant clang of swords, and a knight on guard duty came, his body riddled with wounds. He gasped for air trying to breathe properly, his mouth flapping before he could talk.

“W-We’re under attack! They’re low in numbers, but they’re incredibly strong, we can’t stand up against them! Please hurry and escape!”
“Is it the black knights?!”
“No, two girls! But they’re even stronger than the black knights…! We can’t hold out for much longer!”

Two girls?! I thought the knights I brought to this mansion were strong enough to defend against an attack from the black knights, but they could not handle those two?! I had never heard of Stied getting strong allies like that. When did that happen…? But I would need to worry about that later, getting out of here came first. I hastily stand up to follow the knight, but before we reach the door, it gets kicked off its hinges from outside.

“Guh! Stand back, Your Highness!”
“I’ll protect you with my life!”

I watched how my knights stood in front of me, ready to lay their lives for me, but I had made a choice. If those two had already broken in this far, a handful of knights would make no difference. I hated giving up like this, but at least I would be granted the blessing of not having to watch this country fall at my brother’s inept hands. I decided it would be less painful if I ended my own life, so I took a sword in my hand, something I had never done in the past, and pointed it at myself when I heard a sleepy voice from outside the door.

“Look look, there he is, Ciel.”
“Oh god…what even is happening here? You really went overboard Karin.”

Just as I was told, they were two girls. One of them a warrior, the other wearing robes, so she was probably a magician. Both of them are quite strong.

“Err okay, just in case, you’re Prince Magna, right?”

One of the two, who was called Ciel by the other, asked me, as my knights surrounded me with their swords ready. That much was enough to give them an answer, but somehow I felt like talking with them for a bit.

“Yes, that’s correct. I’m Magna. I guess it’s safe to assume you’re working for Stied, considering the lengths you went through to get here?”
“Ah, no, we’re actually not. We aren’t your enemies.”
“…Huh?”

That answer made no sense, making me reply in a strange voice. Not my enemies? They got all the way here through brute force and now they claim they aren’t against me? What did they want? Was that a tactic to confuse us? But they were skilled enough they could kill me without needing to do that. Just what was their goal?

“The hell do you mean?! Aren’t our comrades lying at your feet already!”

One of the knights shouted in anger, knowing his comrades had perished. But that was promptly denied by the other girl, Karin.

“That’s just a misunderstanding! Sure, I did clobber them a little, but it was never with the edge! They’re all unconscious, I haven’t killed a single one!”

She desperately waved her hands in front of her, it sounded like she was being honest. But it was still hard to believe. They forcefully pushed their way here to meet me, the man with the biggest bounty on his head in the entire country. Such a story would sound like a joke if anyone unrelated heard about it.

“I’m really sorry for all the ruckus. But please believe us, we’re not your enemies. We’re Luvias’ friends.”
“What?! Luvias you said?!”

More than a month had passed since my sister had seemingly vanished from the surface of the earth after she said she would go train, so hearing her name was shocking. But that also jostled my memory, and I seemed to recall seeing these two before. I had never met them directly, but I faintly remember seeing them in the documentation about Luvias’ friends. Now it made more sense…these two were certainly strong enough to work with a hero. And they had been granted the title of Dragon Slayers in the past, on top of being Gold Rank adventurers. That explained their incredible strength.

“Luvias asked us to check how the capital was doing, and investigate any leads about your location… But then there was a little misunderstanding and things ended in this mess. We’d like to talk in better terms if possible, so could we get the swords out of the way for a bit?”

The knights scratched their heads uncomfortably seeing Ciel. They turned to look at me wondering what to do, and after a bit I sighed loudly and shrugged.

I felt bad for the knights that had been hurt because of a misunderstanding like that, but if they were telling the truth, no one had died. It was best to deescalate the situation.

“…I’ll listen to what you have to say. And you guys can sheathe your swords. Go treat anyone who might be injured.”

Sometimes I wonder how my sister’s mind even works! It would have been a million times better if she had told me these two monsters were coming my way beforehand! I scold Luvias in my mind, and go sit down on a couch.