A short while later.

Leviathan rubbed his tired eyelids.

Standing at the cave entrance and watching the children gathered in little clusters cry at the sight of him made him feel fatigue he had not even had before.

“Guys, don’t cry. I said don’t cry, okay?”

The girl who looked the most capable among the children planted her hands on her waist and spoke.

“Look. They all put away their swords. They’re not planning to attack us.”

“Hic. R-really?”

She seemed to be acting as the leader of this group. Was she about twelve?

Leviathan sat on a rock and watched the children, who were gradually calming down, and the girl with silver-gray hair with complicated eyes.

“W-we broke all the magical beast stones, so when can we go back?”

“Just hold on a little longer. The order to come back will arrive soon. So don’t cry, okay?”

Damn it.

Leviathan dragged a hand down his face again.

He was trying not to, but that girl and Rubian’s childhood kept overlapping in his mind.

Because Rubian, wandering through a battlefield, must have been exactly like that.

Because she must have been scared herself, yet swallowed her fear down, taking care of and soothing the children around her first.

That fucking bastard.

If the Mage King had been in front of him, Leviathan felt as if he could have given him the most painful death possible.

While he was suppressing the rage boiling inside him, Leon returned with Khalid, carrying the supplies from above the cliff.

They had simple snacks and water in both hands.

“Wow.”

The children must have been starving all this time. With soot on their faces, they gulped down the jerky, dried fruit, and other food Leon handed out.

The leader girl stood there, unable to do anything with the single piece of fruit she had been forced to take. After a moment, as if she had made up her mind, the child approached Leviathan.

“Mister.”

“...Yeah.”

“Are you going to kill us?”

At her clear, ringing voice, the children eating food froze mid-motion.

“No.”

“Then are you going to lock us up?”

“Ha. No.”

“...Then?”

“I’m going to wash you, feed you, and put you to bed. You grubby little...”

Leviathan rubbed his eyelids again.

“Grubby little things.”

In the end, he thought of Rubian again.

At those words, the children who had been sniffling behind her with soaked eyes burst into tears all over again.

“Waaah.”

This time, they seemed to be crying from relief.

“B-but we did something bad... We kept hiding inside a huge barrel, came all the way here, and broke this...”

“Who told you to do that?”

A boy, hesitating and chewing on his words, mumbled.

“...O-our king...”

“Father.”

The one who cut him off and finished the sentence was the leader girl. Leviathan fixed his gaze on the child with a long sigh.

“You...”

“Hey. You haven’t become ‘the eighth’ yet.”

The boy glanced at Leviathan and scolded her.

“He said if I did this job well, he’d make me one! Then we won’t have to sleep in dirty places anymore. We won’t have to eat filthy things anymore! I told you I’d make that happen for all of you too, right?”

“...”

“We’ll live really, really richly, even without illusion magic!”

“B-but I think this is good too... Don’t you?”

“That’s true...”

The children began gnawing on the food again.

“This is driving me insane. Truly.”

Seeing that, Leviathan roughly mussed his hair. Then he turned his head toward the knight standing tall beside him.

“...Khal. What do you think?”

“That girl’s magic is fairly strong. It looks like she cast illusion magic deeper inside the cave. I don’t think going in any farther is a good idea.”

At the calmly spoken words, Leviathan rose to his feet.

The rocky cave was much deeper than it looked from outside. After glaring into that pitch-black darkness for a moment, he let out a heavy sigh.

“Leon, take care of the kids. For now, we need to get out of here and think.”

“Yes.”

Leon and Khal each picked up the children one by one and began climbing the cliff.

The only one left was the girl, standing there with a wary face.

“Little leader brat, come here.”

Leviathan grabbed the hem of the girl’s clothes. Honestly, as someone who had raised four children around this age, handling her was easy.

“L-let go of me! If I follow you, I’ll become a runaway mage!”

“Just do it. Run away. A little runt I know did that at ten.”

“Oh...”

At the unconscious admiration that slipped out of her, Leviathan thought that a child was still a child and gave a short laugh.

Just as he was about to scoop her up, the girl stumbled back deeper into the cave. Her pitch-black eyes stared hard at him.

“Ah, th-then that means... you really are Duke Zebbert? The seventh’s dad... right?”

“Yeah. I don’t know about any ‘seventh.’ I do have a daughter named Rubian, though.”

“...”

“What. Why.”

When he asked bluntly, the child pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her clothes.

“Nooo. It’s just, I was told to give you this if Duke Zebbert caught me.”

She was told to give it to him?

By whom?

Leviathan unfolded the note.

As if it had been waiting, words written in blue magic rose onto the paper.

< How does it feel to have had something stolen from you without even knowing it was stolen? >

“What... is this...”

Leviathan’s eyes narrowed harshly.

Before he could reply, the next sentence and the sentence after that appeared on the paper in order. His gaze raked over the note as if he would tear it to pieces.

< You will learn that you were always the one losing. >

< That since eighteen years ago, there has not been a single moment when you defeated me. >

< You will learn it soon. >

“This crazy—”

Then the child’s calm voice continued.

“Sorry. I’m scared of runaway mages too.”

The child rustled through her clothes and took out a small bead.

“I’ll get going now. He said I could use this if I met Duke Zebbert. A teleportation magic tool.”

The instant Leviathan saw her face, smiling with expectation, his mind snapped back into focus.

A teleportation magic tool?

There was no such thing in this world—

“I’ll definitely come back for the kids later! Hee, I’ve got a Father now—”

“No!”

Bang!

A huge explosion rang through the cave.

He managed to snatch the self-destruct magic tool from the child’s hand and throw it away, but he could not avoid the blast itself.

“Aaaah!”

The ceiling collapsed toward the child, and boulders poured down. Without hesitation, Leviathan threw himself forward, shielded the child, and pushed her toward the cave entrance.

Rumble, Kuuuuung!

In an instant, the falling stones blocked his view.

Boulders and gravel struck his body with dull impacts, but compared to the shock of the note he had read just before the magic tool exploded,

this was nothing.

The final sentence that had appeared.

< You will be stolen from by me again, and lose forever. >

What did that mean?

The words in the sentence thrashed wildly through his head.

Eighteen years ago.

Stolen.

...

What had been stolen?

*****

“Ah, damn it.”

Khalid clicked his tongue as he stared at the cave entrance, now completely sealed off. Beside him was the girl, crying in a thin, startled wail.

“I-I’m sor—”

“Ha. Be quiet.”

At the voice that sent cold wind slicing through the air, the child swallowed with a hiccup and shut her mouth. She had thought Duke Zebbert was the scariest person in the world, but as it turned out, this man was the scariest.

“Can you do it, Khalid?”

Leon asked as he checked the child for injuries. Khal sighed and shook his head.

“If I cause another explosion with my magic here, not only the cave, but this entire cliff will collapse.”

That was when it happened.

A presence came from inside.

“Khal, can you find another exit?”

“Your Grace? Are you injured?”

“Yeah... Well.”

At the voice that sounded unharmed, Khal and Leon swallowed brief sighs.

“I’ll look. If it’s a cave of this size, there should be another exit somewhere.”

A squirrel that had appeared from somewhere squeezed through the cracks between the rocks with a struggle and slipped inside.

“Good. And Rubian...”

“Yes?”

Blocked by the thick wall of stone, his voice sounded terribly faint.

Was that why?

Why the duke’s voice sounded as if it were trembling?

“Can you contact Ruby for me?”

“That’s possible, but why...”

The duke spoke with pauses between his words, as if catching his breath.

“Tell her Dad will come see her, so just a little longer.”

“...”

“Tell her to wait just a little longer.”