BXBX NOVEL Volume 6, 5 – Sacrifice
Volume 6, Chapter 5 - Sacrifice
As we walked outside, the hallway was bustling with activity. When we left the cave, all eyes were upon us.
-What!?
I was holding Louise in my arms and I felt this situation was bad. In fact, the eyes of the assembled people spoke for themselves.
Why…
-Could this be the sacrificial girl …?
-I heard the voice of the tree. This is…
- What are we going to do?
…The people outside could also hear the voice of the Sacred Tree. I gritted my teeth and then gave Luxon some instructions.
—Luxon, if the worst were to happen---
[Do you want Louise to escape? If so, the sooner the better. I will prepare a small pod. After that, I can flee to the kingdom of Holfault in Einhorn or Licorn.]
I immediately tried to run away with Louise, but she pulled away from me.
"Thanks, Leon, but everything will be fine now.”
-Hey?
Louise was surrounded by armed knights who ran towards her.
The knights also approached Lelia, but Serge threatened them."What do you think you’re doing?"
"Serge-sama, you will give us that young lady.”
“I also have no idea what is happening here, but the Sacred Tree asked for a sacrificial girl. The moment I heard those words, a dazzling light came from inside the cave, if one of these two is the girl to be sacrificed…”
"Don\'t touch Lelia!"
Louise stopped Serge from trying to fight the knights."Wait!"
I saw Alberg-sama running from afar.
But before I could run here … Louise stepped forward.
"It was I who was chosen as the sacrifice. That girl has nothing to do with this. The knights heard Louise\'s words and looked at each other.
I grabbed Louise’s arm to try to convince her.
-What are you talking about!?
-It\'s okay. I heard him. My brother, Leon, is suffering inside the Sacred Tree. Didn’t you hear Leon\'s anguished voice in there?
I looked at Luxon, but he moved his eye from side to side in denial. [I did not hear anything.]
I gripped Louise\'s arm tightly as she tried to follow the knights.
I didn\'t know what the hell was going on, but something inside me was screaming at me not to let her go.
-Something is wrong. This is not OK.
Although I tried to persuade her, Louise had already decided.
"I\'m sorry I got you involved in these things, but you see, I want to go to my brother\'s side. I couldn\'t do anything for him before, but if I can meet that boy one last time, that\'s fine.
Louise gently released my hand and walked away with the knights. Then Alberg-Sama grabbed Louise\'s shoulder.
- Louise, what happened !? Why is it that you are going to sacrifice yourself?
"It is as it is. Father, I\'ll tell you what happened.” I just stood there, unable to do anything about it.
Serge shoved his hands into his pockets and walked past me.
"Leon, Leon … that woman really only thinks about her brother, right? Is her dead brother that important to her? I do not get it.”
Then Serge laughed at me, while I looked stunned.
"If there is a real one, your part in this is over. Now get out of here.” Serge, without feeling the hatred he had felt earlier, called Lelia."Lelia, let\'s go."
"Uh-huh."
The two of them walked away from me. I don\'t care what Serge says.
But why would the Sacred Tree ask for a sacrifice? I haven\'t heard anything about it from Marie.
Lelia also showed a puzzled look, as if she did not expect it.
… Something was wrong.
It was the same in the kingdom when things didn\'t work out as in the game, but I felt a disconcerting feeling.
"Luxon, let\'s find out what\'s going on."
[When I am with the Master nothing is boring.] "Something feels weird."
I\'ll go back to Marie.
[Do you have any clues?] "My bad feeling was right." I am not that intuitive.
But a bad feeling was always right.
When I came out of the noisy living room, I took one last look at the tree.
◇
As Lelia and Serge were walking, Emile appeared from the crowd.
His suit was messed, but this didn’t bother him as he stomped up to them."Emile."
Before Lelia could say anything, Emile grabbed Serge.
"Serge, explain yourself! I heard you forced Lelia into the cave. How could you do this to me!?”
Emile was not mad at his fiancée, but Serge on the other hand… He looked upset.
-You are annoying. I\'m busy, my father is calling me.
Serge was also present when Louise was chosen to be the sacrifice.
Alberg had called Serge to hear the details.
The expression on Serge\'s face, who thought what happened next was troublesome, must have seemed silly to Emile.
"Is this how you\'re going to escape?"
Emile grabbed Serge by the chest with his small body, but due to the difference in size, he was easily pushed away.
"Whoa."
Lelia ran to Emile, who was thrown.
When Serge saw her, he got angry and said something that would strain their relationship.
"Come to me when you get tired of that pitiful fellow Lelia. I will always welcome you. You\'d rather have someone trustworthy like me, right? --- I will invite you again next time. We will have fun.”
At those words, Emile looked at Lelia.
Lelia felt something suspicious, but remembered that she had been kissed in the cave.
Thus, she couldn\'t strongly deny it.
Serge left without any further problem, but Lelia and Emile stayed behind.
Emile gripped both Lelia\'s shoulders tightly.
"Lelia, you need to tell me the truth." Did something happen between you and Serge !?
"N-Nothing happened."
-Look me in the eyes. I, I…!
Emile started to cry, but Lelia felt some eyes staring at her and she looked around her. A group of onlookers gathered around them."Could it be young Emile of the Pleven family?"
"Isn\'t that girl from the Lespinasse house?"
"Well, then the conversation with Serge earlier was …"
They were whispering and talking around her, Lelia felt embarrassed so she grabbed Emile\'s hand and stood up.
With things going like this, she left. However, Emile was in no mood to do so."Lelia, you have to answer me directly!" Such Emile was annoying to Lelia.
-That’s enough! "… Lelia?"
"I really don\'t like when you’re like this, Emile. Always acting proper, yet always doubting me. Nothing happened, so trust me.
"B-But that you were both in the cave was too much! You said you would come in with me! You can’t do that in front of everyone. This is like Serge is making fun of me. I am also one of the faces of the six noble families.
This makes me look bad!” Lelia\'s impression was cold.
That is too much of a stretch. What is the appearance of a nobleman in the first place? You should worry about me. That\'s dumb.
For Lelia, the appearance of the nobility that Emile valued was something that was difficult to understand.
Due to her previous life experience, she could not find any value in such things. And Emile seemed to value that more than her.
Lelia could feel the feelings she had for Emile cooling rapidly.
I chose Emile for my future … but I may have been wrong.
-Yes. You care more about your appearance than you do about me."Lelia?"
"If you want to fight Serge, you can. But I will despise you Emile. This is stupid.”
"W-Why!?
"Don\'t say why!! You are driving me crazy! Stop making excuses like that.”
Because I don\'t want to hear any more of those excuses.
Forgetting what she originally intended to do here, Lelia left Emile behind.
Emile was lying on his stomach and she felt miserable when she saw him.
Why did I choose Emile? It might have been better if I chose Serge from the beginning.
I returned to Marie\'s mansion and told her about the events of the New Years Festival, and how Louise had been chosen to be a sacrifice.
I also told her that she had heard the voice of her dead brother suffering, which motivated her to want to be sacrificed.
Marie looked like she didn\'t understand anything.
"Why would she volunteer to be sacrificed if her dead brother was suffering? Isn\'t it weird?”
If you ask me, it didn\'t make any sense.
-I do not know. But I think it is too much to accept being a sacrifice just because her brother died.
We were in an unused room, with Luxon and Clare also in the meeting.
This talk was something that the others couldn\'t hear, so it was more like a secret meeting.
-Well wait. I don\'t remember there being any sacrifice in the second game.
Mainly, the purpose is to show the people around her that she is dating the boy who became her lover at the New Years Festival.
"What was Louise\'s role? What happened next in the story? What happens in the story after that?”
I asked question after question, but Marie sensed my impatience and answered honestly.
-All right. I think it’s okay if you stop this from happening.
I don\'t remember the details, but there is no way Louise will be chosen as a sacrifice, because in the end she will be doomed.
Leaving aside the story of being condemned, it is not possible that Louise, who has that role to play until the end, is narratively sacrificed.
In that case, there is a complete irregularity.
"… What the heck happened? Do we need to do something about it …?”
I put my hand over my mouth to think about it, and Clare scoffed at me.
[ Aren\'t they getting involved again? That said, if we\'re going to save her, let\'s do it
quickly. We’ll end up doing it anyway, right? ] From the beginning I had intended to save her. I\'m not going to let her be a sacrifice.
But the problem is that she has already accepted the idea of sacrificing herself.
It will not be easy to convince her. Are we going to have to force her out?
"Let\'s sneak her out and see what happens." Luxon, we\'ll get out of here soon… Luxon? He was less receptive than usual.
Luxon\'s attitude was different than usual. He was very cautious.
Before, he would have had the luxury of being able to simply destroy the new humans at any time.
[Teacher, I have some bad news.]
-Bad?
[Louise\'s rescue has a low success rate.]
-… What do you mean? Even you can\'t do it? What do you mean that the success rate is low?
[I cannot fulfill the condition of secretly taking it out. This is because of Ideal.]
-Ideal? What about him?
[The security equipment manufactured by Ideal has been used in the mansion. I have also confirmed that defense equipment has been installed.]
"Hey, didn\'t you think Lelia would turn against you ?! Did Lelia betray us?
No, in the case of that chick, he\'s hostile to Louise in her position. Did you think it would be better if it disappeared?
But she\'s not that clever.
For better or for worse, she carries on with her previous life just like me. When Marie heard Ideal\'s name, she asked for a detailed story.
The second game … Marie didn\'t pay the bills and didn\'t know much about Ideal.
"Ideal, you mean the cheat level battleship from the second game, right?
What’s he like? Luxon explained it briefly, but inexplicably seemed to have some doubts.”
[It\'s a transport ship created by old humanity. However, the possibility has arisen that they have a greater intelligence gathering ability than I do.
This is not natural.]
Clare had the same question.
[ Does a transport ship need that kind of performance? But why doesn\'t my data show that? ]
[I\'m also confused. He has recently dated, and I can only say that he has been hiding from me until now, and that considers him a threat.]
With the arrival of Ideal, we could not move as easily as before.
Just when I think we have someone troublesome on our hands, Marie asks me for a solution.
"Brother, what do we do now? It\'s getting harder and harder to get in and out, right? If you screw up, won\'t it be a kind of international problem for which there will be no excuse?
"Things have gotten more difficult, haven\'t they?"
If I had to say a problem, it is that for the Alzer Republic when the Sacred Tree is involved, it becomes a ritual.
Even if it is a sacrifice, it is the Republic that offers it if the Sacred Tree demands it. Even if I try to help Louise, it will surely interfere with me.
"Oh!" So why don\'t you make Luxon and the others burn the flowers of the holy tree? And then maybe the sacrifice talk would go away?
"I wish I could, but I can\'t … Luxon moved his eye to the side.
[Ideal\'s defensive team has been set up. If we take action, if we attack the Sacred Tree, there will be a big problem between the Kingdom and the Republic.]
Marie\'s head jerked when she heard that Ideal was on the road.
- Then what should we do !?
I don\'t know that and that\'s why I\'m in trouble. Luxon asked my opinion.
[Master, what do you want to do? If we’re going to fight Ideal, we won\'t lose, but he\'ll also hurt us. Furthermore, there are many unknowns in Ideal\'s performance.]
--- In other words, it could be dangerous even for me with Luxon. I was thinking of the worst case scenario.
It\'s a hostile situation with Ideal.
I don\'t care if it\'s against Lelia, but it\'s not good if it\'s against Ideal. Should we have a card up our sleeve for that case?
"I\'m going to gather information first." And then … if I can\'t infiltrate, I\'ll just go head-on. Marie, find me if you remember anything. Luxon will come with me. And Clare ---
[What\'s going on?]
"You are going back to the kingdom." [ … Eh? ]
"Think about it, you\'re useless now." Come find me when Anjie and Livia get back. So, goodbye. For once, Luxon agreed with me.
[It certainly won\'t be a problem if I\'m here. Let Clare work in the kingdom.] When we told her to go home, Clare was hinted at and showed resistance. [ Wait! I don\'t want to be the only one left out! ]
-See you!
[ Stupid master! ]
Marie reached her hand out to Clare as she left the room, crying.
"W-Wait! Brother, are you sure you want her to go back? I think Clare is quite helpful.”
-I know what I\'m doing. Luxon, walk.
-Yes Master.
◇
The six great nobles were having an emergency meeting.
The matter of Louise being chosen as a sacrifice was on the agenda, and all five, except for Alberg, agreed.
"Are they going to sacrifice my daughter?"
The decision of the six great nobles is that they would hand over Louise if the Sacred Tree wishes. There were no doubts there.
For the Six Great Nobles, no, for the people of the Republic, the Sacred Tree was that sacred.
Lambert looked amusedly at Alberg\'s disrepair.
"If she\'s been chosen by the Sacred Tree, shouldn\'t you be happy to offer her to it? I\'m jealous.”
Behind the lines of envy and other heartless lines, Alberg\'s dependency could be seen.
As Alberg painfully grasped his hands together, the other heads of the family began to talk about the future.
"But nothing like this has happened before. This event should be well documented.”
"We will need people from the Six Great Houses." We will also need an escort for Miss Louise. She intends to sacrifice herself, but we can\'t make her change her mind at the last minute.
"Then we will send guards from the other houses."
Alberg was angry that the meeting continued without him.
He had taken the initiative to join the conversation, including Fernand, whom he had once adored.
He seems to be desperate to build a new relationship abandoned by Alberg. And he was trying to get everything fully prepared to sacrifice Louise.
"Ladies and gentlemen, there is one more thing we should know. It\'s about the hero of the Kingdom.”
Some of the heads of the families nodded when the topic of Leon came up.
"Why do we need to discuss him?" This is the problem of the Republic.
"That foreigner has nothing to do with this."
However, Fernand had been beaten by Leon and was quite cautious."He is close with Louise personally."
"What about it?"
The other heads of the families still had a questioning expression on their faces.
"The reason was, if Leon messed with the Republic for that level of things, it would be a big problem."
Ordinary nobles wouldn\'t rescue Louise for that level of reason. However, there was a head of a family who agreed with Fernand. It was the Barriere family, which had been hurt by Leon. “Fernand is right.”
Alberg, who had been silent until now, laughed in his mind, thinking that he hoped Leon would help them.
That\'s probably why … he didn\'t want the other heads of the families to be too alarmed.
"I don\'t think I’ll try to do anything."
When Alberg said that, Bellange glared at him.
"This is how I lowered my guard, and that guy hurt me!"
But the heads of the families, who had not been injured by Leon, seemed cold.
"That\'s your story, right?" "He won\'t do anything."
If Leon makes a move, this trend isn\'t bad for Alberg. Plus, it could force Louise to go back.
Okay, this is the way to go …
But Lambert, Fernand, and Bellange, whom Leon had beaten so badly, made a strong statement.
"He\'s insane! It is impossible to know what he is going to do!”
People around him felt sorry for Leon when Lambert called him insane. However, Fernand agreed with them.
"It\'s too late to do anything about it. We need to be prepared.” Bellange looked at Alberg.
-Yes. Some people would fight if it was their cute daughter. I don\'t think the acting president would do that, but we need to be careful.
Alberg clicked his tongue internally.
As a man who cut off his own son so easily, you wouldn’t know.
Alberg knew the nobles here didn\'t understand how much he cared for Louise. It\'s because it\'s more of an anomaly for a noble like him.
However, some of the heads of the families did not think that Leon would make a move, and the conversation about weaponry was half-hearted.
Fernand and Bellange had a bitter expression on their faces, while Alberg was worried about what the outcome of this would be.
Louise, I\'ll bring you back no matter what …
◇
At the Rault family castle, Louise was lying on her bed.
It had been a few days since she returned from the New Years Festival, but she was tired, as if she hadn\'t rested well.
Sitting next to the bed were Alberg and his wife, his parents.
His mother was wiping away her tears.
-How…? How can it be possible !? Why do they have to take Louise from us after Leon? Why are they taking all my children !?
Louise held her mother\'s tearful hand and smiled."It\'s okay, mother." Leon is waiting for me.
She also had that same expression.
She imagined the scene when her brother Leon got sick and couldn\'t get out of bed. That alone made her heart ache.
He was a good boy, who suffered, but despite that he cared about the people around him.
With a brother like that … Louise couldn\'t do anything to help him. That has always been a burden and regret for Louise.
In fact, he felt incapable of not being able to do anything to wield the great power of the Sacred Tree as one of the six great nobles.
Alberg crossed his hands and made a harsh sound.
"… There is no record of the Sacred Tree flourishing or calling for a sacrifice." Louise, I won\'t let them put you down or whatever.
"Father … you can’t stop this, can you? Heard there was a meeting shortly after that. The knights from the other houses have come to our castle to watch over me, haven\'t they?”
The knights and soldiers of the other five families had been sent to the Rault castle as Louise\'s guards.
It\'s an escort on the surface, but it\'s actually surveillance. Alberg looked down at her helplessly.
"They all agreed except me. It is true that most decided to sacrifice you.”
“Are you going to let Louise die like this !?
As his mother moaned through tears, Alberg slowly got up. There was determination in his expression.
"Father, no." I will be sacrificed. Leon is waiting for me.
"… Even if Leon is alone and trapped in the Sacred Tree, I can\'t bear to sacrifice you." Even if I have to fight the other five families, I will definitely stop it.
When Alberg opened the door to leave the room, a butler entered.
- Alberg-Sama! The… Count Baltfault is here to see you.
-What?
There were no plans to meet with him and there wasn’t an original need, but Alberg decided to meet Leon.
-Very well. Send him to my office.
◇
They took me to Alberg-Sama\'s office.
As I sat on the couch, he told me the general situation.
… I wonder if he really is a villain or if he is thinking of starting a war for his daughter.
Well, people will not be happy if you start a war for that reason.
If one person\'s sacrifice is enough to complete it, it is human to turn a blind eye. But I don\'t hate it.
- War? It is not peaceful.
"…When you become a father, you will understand." No, if you are a noble, you should be able to point out that I am wrong in my judgment. I am certainly wrong. Still, we go to war.
"You go to war for your daughter … I don\'t hate it."
-I did not expect it. I thought that you, a gentleman from abroad, would ask me to sacrifice my daughter.
That\'s impossible.
Since it is unorthodox, you choose one person to sacrifice many."You\'re the type of person who prefers people you know to strangers." See, it\'s unorthodox, right?
? Hahaha! I see. It is your way of life. You\'re right it\'s unorthodox. I am not averse to that. But as a custodian of my country, I am not qualified.
? And you would go to war for that?
Honestly, the benefits of making the sacrifice are unknown. And we don\'t even know the downsides of not doing it.
From the Republic\'s point of view, it was scary to think that the Sacred Tree could take away the benefits they had gained so far from being in a bad mood.
The decision to keep the sacrifice as intended is not necessarily a mistake. But I do not like.
"I couldn\'t do anything about it when I lost my son." But now it is different. I would start a war to protect my daughter, even if it meant that I just did it.
"It\'s one against five." They outnumber us.
-Of course. But the balance in my mind, between the country and my daughter, it leaned towards my daughter. That\'s it.
I realized there was no point in saying anything in front of his keen eyes. It would not be good to line up beautiful things.
People will suffer! But I think he would respond by saying, "So what!" I shrugged and showed him.
"So what if there\'s a way to do it that doesn\'t involve war?" Alberg-Sama seemed to have guessed what he was thinking.
?Do you think you will take Louise? Can you make it work? If you fail, you will be a wanted person.
-Do not worry. Actually, I\'m pretty good at this.
-I know.
I thought he would be concerned about my abilities, but he seems to have developed a strange kind of confidence.
…I do not know what to think.
Don\'t you think I\'m a coward who\'s good at hiding behind your back? "So what are you going to do about it?"
"First of all, can you help me with one thing?"
-Help you? Yes.
-Thank you. Now can you tell me your son\'s story, Leon?
◇
When Leon left Alberg\'s room, the butler entered the room."Alberg- Sama, Count Baltfault has been sent to Miss Louise\'s room."
-… I see.
Alberg looked out the window and answered the butler\'s question.
"Your will to go to war hasn\'t changed, has it?"
-I know. Sorry about this, but nothing will stop me now."Even Count Baltfault couldn\'t persuade you, could he?" "Could the butler convince me what Mr. Leon couldn\'t?" He seemed to be thinking like that.
Alberg smiled a little …"Alberg-Sama?"
"We will continue preparations for war, but from here it will depend on the count.”
“Is there something planned?"
"I can\'t say now.… However, he is truly unorthodox.”
After listening to Leon\'s suggestion, Alberg was able to understand why he was called unorthodox. He felt ashamed of himself for trusting Leon like this.
-Unorthodox? But Count Baltfault doesn\'t seem like someone unorthodox, does he?
"You\'ll find out soon."
Why are only my children sacrificed?
Isn\'t Alberg being cursed by the Sacred Tree?
Could it be for the crime of destroying the Lespinasse house?
This is how he was thinking.
◇
Louise was surprised to see Leon visiting her room.
-Leon? Why are you here?
"I\'m here to see you. You look very tired.”
Leon sat in a chair near the bed and placed a fruit on the table. Louise replied with a smile.
"Won’t I look more beautiful if I was thinner?”
"I think a healthy woman is more beautiful. You\'re not sleeping, are you?”
Louise turned to face Leon, who instantly saw through her condition. His expression darkened.
"I dream every night. I am trapped in the Sacred Tree and my brother is asking for help and I can\'t do anything.
Louise covered her face with her hands and remembered when her brother died.
"There was nothing I could do when my brother suffered. I didn\'t realize that he was suffering after being in the Sacred Tree for more than ten years … My brother has been alone all this time, crying because no one is with him.”
Leon listened in silence to Louise\'s story.
When Louise let out a sob, he gently rubbed her back.
-It was difficult. Do you dream about it every time you fall asleep?
Louise nodded and told him that she couldn\'t see her brother suffer in his dreams.
? "Come here," Leon called. At the very least, he should be there for her, since… the situation was bad."… You really loved your brother, didn\'t you?"
-Yes. I have to admit that I was surprised when I first saw you. He looked so much like you that it made me wonder if Leon would have looked like this if he was still alive.
She only knew him as a young man, but somehow she felt that when he grew up, Leon would have been just like me.
It wasn\'t just Louise, her parents thought the same way.
-It\'s strange. It is so strange that now you are showing up and my brother is asking me for help.
Louise felt there was something fateful about it. Leon listened to her without making fun of it.
"Are we really that similar? But from what I can tell, he\'s not like me. I was a good and modest boy. A shy and reserved child.”
Hearing the way Leon spoke made Louise miss him.
"The way you say it, the way you spit those lies, you really do sound like him." But yeah, Leon stood out more? Oh, I wonder if that\'s just because it is you, Leon. You\'ve been in the Republic for less than a year and you\'re already a celebrity.
"The people around me won\'t leave me alone." He was like her brother, after all.
Louise had realized that when she spoke to Leon.
Having the guardian emblem, saving Noelle from Loic … if Leon were here, I\'m sure he would have done the same as you.
Louise moved closer to Leon\'s face and touched his cheek. At that moment Leon did what he came to do.
"Can you tell me a story about your brother?"
-All right. I will tell you lots of funny stories about my brother because I am afraid to go to sleep. Well, I\'ll start with her…
◇
Louise was lying on the bed, breathing sleepily. Luxon appeared next to me.
[Teacher, I used a potion to put Louise to sleep. She should be able to sleep without dreaming.]
"You are very useful." So what about the hassles?
While listening to Louise\'s story, Luxon was exploring the interior of the castle. [I\'m afraid, with Ideal\'s defense team, it won\'t be easy to get her out of here.]
"Oh, is it possible that Ideal is better than you?"
[Although we are losing in certain areas, we are winning overall. It would be a mistake to judge our superiority by seeing only part of the image.]
Apparently he cares. But, my goodness.
From the way he puts it, Luxon is losing to Ideal in certain areas.
Even if Luxon is superior in terms of overall skill, Ideal\'s strength is unknown at the moment.
It is also possible that Luxon would lose.
"I wonder why Ideal has put his defense team here."
When I mumbled a simple question, Luxon seemed curious.
[Isn\'t it because Lelia ordered it? Or it could be that it has nothing to do with Louise\'s case.] "That needs to be confirmed too." Okay let\'s go. It is getting dark.
I spent the night listening to the story, but thanks to that I learned a lot.
Luxon, who knew what I was going to do, asked me if I was really going to continue like this.
[Master, are you sure about that? Louise will hate it.] I am very sure of that.
-Better! If that person survives, no problem. [It\'s really very clumsy, isn\'t it, Master?]
I don\'t want a clumsy artificial intelligence to tell me.
◇
It was after Leon left the castle.
Serge was lying on the bed in his room."… Tsk, what should we do?"
It was almost a given that Louise would be euthanized at the New Years Festival.
As for Serge, he wasn\'t too interested in the story of the sacrifice to the Holy Tree.
Yet he was curious about Louise.
As he looked up at the ceiling, he thought of the day he first saw Louise. He kept remembering that day.
"If I save her, will I be recognized too?"
If I help her, will she recognize me as part of her family?
Feeling that way, Serge got up and scratched his head roughly.
"What\'s the point now?" All they want is a replacement for their dead brother. That\'s right, it\'s always Leon this, Leon that.
As a child, Louise had enjoyed her life talking about Leon.
And I was sad because Leon was not here, and the atmosphere in the castle was somewhat dark. Serge had thought he had been brought here as a replacement for Leon.
That was also true.
The Rault family, who wanted an heir, adopted Serge, who is from a branch of the family, as their son.
… As a replacement for Leon.
"I won\'t be able to be part of the family now …
Somewhere, you want to be recognized as a member of the family, but you can\'t sort out your feelings.
Then Serge was greeted by Ideal. [Goodnight.]
-It\'s you? What are you doing here?
[Nothing, I\'m here to tell you that I\'ve found some interesting information.]
"Do you think it\'s funny? I’m not in the mood to listen to any funny stories right now.
Ideal approaches Serge, who was lying down again.
[Oh? Is it sad that your first love, Louise, was chosen as a sacrifice?] At that moment, Serge grabbed Ideal with one hand.
He squeezed it so hard he could hear a creak.
With his bloodshot eyes and veins sticking out on his forehead.
The deranged Serge was about to destroy Ideal with all his might at any moment.
-… What did you just say?
[There is no point in destroying the cordless extension. Even if you destroy it, the replacement unit will be activated immediately. Oh well, by the way, check this out.]
As the light emanated from the red lens, it projected an image onto the wall. There was a picture of Alberg talking to Leon.
They seemed to have a lot of fun talking to each other."W-What is this?"
[The video was taken a few hours ago.]
-… What did you say? I haven\'t heard anything!
[I guess the castle people didn\'t inform you. The count looks like Alberg\'s dead son. Furthermore, it was known that he had a dispute with Master Serge.]
Unbeknownst to him, Leon had walked in and was talking to Alberg about something. Seeing him was strangely annoying for Serge.
He has never shown me a face like that before.
The expression he usually saw on Alberg\'s face was an angry or troublesome expression.
He felt somewhat distant.
But what about her expression towards Leon? He did not feel cautious. As he cracked his back teeth, the image changed.
[This is a video of Louise\'s room. It seems like he\'s having a lot of fun.]
The smile Louise showed Leon was the smile he saw that day, the smile he saw as a child.
It was the smile that captivated him.
But now this smile was no longer directed towards him.
The gleam in Serge\'s eyes faded, and he stared at the image as it grew weaker."… Do you really want a man who looks so much like your brother?"
Ideal then reported on the content of their conversation. [This is the audio of the two.]
Louise and Leon\'s conversation replayed.
“It\'s like I\'m really having a conversation with my brother. That was fun, Leon."
"I had a good time too."
"Really --- you are --- than my brother." That was where the audio stuttered.
[Oh, there is some noise in the audio data. It needs to be improved.] Before he knew it, Serge had thrown Ideal.
He then looked up at the ceiling and laughed.
? LOL!
[Master Serge?]
"It\'s nothing, sorry." I\'m glad you showed me. You are right, this is interesting information. I knew he was just a scapegoat for this house …
sh*t!
Serge, who was laughing, got up and kicked a nearby piece of furniture. He rampaged and began to devastate her room.
Seeing that figure, Ideal, called Serge.
[However, the interesting part was not here. In fact, Mr. Leon has a lost object that is just like me. Look, here, here.]
-… What do you mean?
[He is the cause of Leon\'s rampage in the Republic. As for me, I am one of them, so I want to get along with him. No, but he\'s an amazing person to take someone of my kind and fight the Republic.]
Serge didn\'t know much about Leon.
He was a foreign student, and he was only aware of the fact that he did something a bit remarkable.
This was due to the fact that the people in the castle did not talk to Serge about Leon as much as possible.
"Have you fought with the Republic?"
[Didn\'t you really know? Since then he has studied in the Republic and has destroyed two of them, Pierre of the House of Faiviel and Loic of the House of Barriere, with the power of Lost Objects. He is a very radical man.]
Serge realized now that he learned nothing about it since he returned.
-Why didn’t anyone tell me!?
[I don’t know either. Besides, didn’t Miss Lelia know? It is widely known in the Republic. The "Evil Knight" of the Kingdom.]
-Diabolical? Hey, so my dad… No, did Alberg seem to have a good conversation with that guy? He is almost an enemy of the Republic!
[Yes sir. I understand that he has the face of his son, and you cannot hate him for the damage he would do to the Republic.]
Serge was fed up with everything.
"What the hell, that…"
More than the adopted son that I am, even if he is the enemy, the whole family together accepts him. And with me they don\'t!
Serge decides on one thing.
"Hey, Ideal. Help me with something.”. [It is understood.]
Serge saw Leon\'s reflection on the wall.
“People who go crazy with lost objects need to be punished, right?”
He was someone he could have easily defeated at the New Years Festival. Serge thought that if he wasn’t around, he too could do whatever he wanted.