–

「This is sudden but I have something important to say. It"s fine even if it"s just for a bit, just listen.」

The New Year parade at the royal capital Lordgalia had ended safely. It was the next morning after a day of rest.

The students of the Academy including the Syvalles planned to return to Cross Field.

Lisha arrived using horse carriage to the high cla.s.s inn that was reserved for Lux and others.

No, it wasn"t just Lisha. Krulcifer, Philuffy, Celis, Yoruka, in addition even the Triad and Airi, everyone were gathering at the entrance of the inn at the first floor.

「Eh, don"t tell me Lishsama. This is the love confession thing? Could it be you and Lux-chi──……muguh!」

Tillfur tried to poke fun like that, but Noct"s hand blocked her mouth in the middle while Sharis pinioned her from behind.

They sensed that it wasn"t time to say joke.

「The next day after the parade, a threatening letter was sent to Hahue──her majesty queen Raffi. The sender was a bunch called Azure Division.」

「Azure Division……? I"ve never heard that organization"s name but, Princess Lisha. What in the world──」

Sharis who was also a daughter of the army"s vice commander immediately asked, but Lisha let out a slight sigh.

「I don"t know. It"s also my first time hearing the organization"s name, but we"re considering that most likely they are a group of bandit formed of Drag-Knights similar like the Dragon Marauder. Those guys stole Grand Force from the Garden during the parade, at the same time they also kidnapped Aeril who was at the Academy.」

*Murmur*. Tension ran through all the students who were still in the mood of parade or languid from hangover.

The existence of Grand Force was a confidential information, but the students were also told about it.

It was a large crystal with super high degree of purity that was an item to activate Ruin, and one of the seven keys for controlling Avalon completely.

The students were shaken hearing the situation that it was stolen.

「Lies……. How can there is still enemy even after we have fought that much……」

「Aeril is also kidnapped, isn"t this actually really bad?」

「A threatening letter for her majesty, just what in the world──?」

The disturbing news erased the joy of the victory celebration and clouded the faces of the students.

But, Lisha puffed up her chest with a resolute att.i.tude.

「Don"t be fl.u.s.tered. We are military cadet and exist in order to support the New Kingdom military of the future generation. Besides the appearance of new enemy is common when managing a country. But, right now even the New Kingdom is lacking in battle strength. Because of that during the time until the true ident.i.ty of Azure Division is exposed, we Syvalles will stay here. For the moment the plan is for us to go back as soon as we have bright prospects, but during that time I"ll leave Cross Field in everyone"s hand. Naturally you all mustn"t say any word of this to anyone else.」

Lisha concluded like that, and then the headmaster Relie told everyone of the plan from here on formally.

The announced plan was that the stay of Syvalles in the royal capital was extended for around ten days, while the other students would be sent back to Cross Field immediately.

「Please be careful. We will protect Cross Field too so…….」

「Surely it will be fine right? Syvalles is also all present here, but the Seven Dragon Paladins seems to have gone home already though──」

The expressions of the students recovered their vitality after hearing Lisha"s speech.

The people of the royal capital would be told that the extension of Syvalles"s stay was because of a change of plan for military exercise. That was the pretext.

After telling everyone to breakup for the time being, Lisha walked toward Lux.

「Lux……. Can you gather all Syvalles member and come to the castle after this? There is an important talk.」

「Yes. I understand.」

Her confident att.i.tude just now completely changed. Lisha was showing an anxious expression.

An hour later, Lux and others headed to the castle riding horse carriage.

They reunited with Lisha who was returning to the castle earlier than them in the castle"s war council room.

「And, what is the full story? The talk before this wasn"t everything, isn"t that right?」

The elite members of Syvalles with the addition of Relie were sitting around the table. Right after that Krulcifer was the first one to open her mouth and asked Lisha.

「Yeah……. Honestly speaking, I"m also troubled.」

Lisha muttered that without hiding her weak-hearted expression.

「So far, we have investigated as much as possible, but there isn"t any information about Azure Division at all. If I"m forced to say, they are like a mafia that originated from Marcafal Kingdom but──……」

She cut off her words, and then she averted her gaze from everyone in hesitation to speak.

「The problem is the ringleader. I don"t want to believe it at all but, if it"s actually true then this will become something outrageous. It"s the reason I couldn"t say it at that place when the other students were there.」

「Do you know the name of the mastermind?」

Lisha nodded slightly at Celis"s question. Before long she resolved herself and opened her mouth.

「The boss of Azure Division, is Almatea Atismata. My little sister who should be separated from us by death five years ago.」

Because Lisha herself never told anyone about that existence and name to anyone other than Lux, this was the first time everyone in this place heard about it.

After that, Lisha gave a simple explanation about the whole story.

The threatening letter that Lisha"s little sister Almatea sent had this written in it.

The girl knew about the truth regarding the founding of the New Kingdom five years ago. She had grasped the fact of the betrayal of Queen Raffi at that time betraying the great man Count Atismata.

In addition she accused the queen of scheming in the attempt of monopolizing Avalon. She introduced herself as the only legitimate successor of the New Kingdom.

Naturally, the content of the letter and the existence of Azure Division weren"t told to the people of the New Kingdom.

At present even the senior statesmen were at their wits" end thinking of how to treat the girl.

「It"s another troublesome problem……. Even so, I wonder why she comes forward at this kind of timing……. I don"t get it at all.」

Tillfur joined her hands behind her neck and grumbled.

「It"s because it"s this kind of timing isn"t it? Rather I can understand if it"s like that.」

Airi spoke her opinion at the side with a subdued tone.

「Yes. The troublesome powerful enemy that is the Lord has vanished, and the movement of Sacred Eclipse has also been halted. What"s left is only to distribute the ancient technology and legacy from Avalon to each country. And then all the countries without exception have their army decreased. Everyone is exhausted to the degree that it"s impossible to make any large scale military action. They"re taking advantage of that opening and acted to take over Avalon along with the New Kingdom. Perhaps the enemy"s aim is something like that.」

Lux knew that in reality Sacred Eclipse was still active and it was possessing Raffi, but he didn"t say anything in this place.

It was because the event of the three days parade that got repeated multiple times by the world revision of the transforming Drag-Ride Uroboros of Fugil──Raffi"s secret maneuver wasn"t known by the other girls, and Lux also had his own motive.

「That"s-not-it-at-all. Even though we finally finished the long fight where it felt like we would die, why would they then do something like this-, that"s what I"m angry about here!」

「Tillfur, restrain yourself. Today you can"t read the atmosphere more than usual you know?」

Sharis patted the brown haired head *pon pon* in admonishment.

Lux lifted his face to return the flow of the talk that was interrupted.

「And, Lishsama. What are we going to do after this?」

「A, about that……. I also tried discussing it with her majesty but, for the time being we will be observing on how the opponent will act it seems.」

Azure Division had stolen the important keys for operating Avalon that were Aeril and a Grand Force.

If they had also sent a threatening letter, than next they would present their demand of what they wanted in exchange of those. That was the prediction of Queen Raffi.

The cooperation of the four great n.o.bles had also been asked. It seemed they wanted to keep Syvalles in reserve until the enemy objective was made clear.

Regarding the investigation, soldier Drag-Knights were already dispatched to search the royal capital and its surrounding.

They wanted Lux and others of Syvalles to move after a strategy had been decided by the war council.

The schedule of the ten days from now would be training at the arena during the day, while at night they would gather and had strategy meeting based on the gathered information every day.

「Ten days……? Why ten days? I don"t know how much battle strength the Azure Division has, but if they are an opponent that can kidnap Aeril and a.s.sault the Garden, won"t it be better for us to remain here for a while?」

Lisha folded her arms and groaned toward Airi"s reasonable question.

「Aa……. Well, I also thought like that but, it seems Hahue has some kind of thinking. For the time being we are asked to stay here with ten days as the rough estimate.」

There was nothing more that could be said if they were told like that.

After all it seemed that even the New Kingdom"s soldiers hadn"t even finished investigating the Garden and collecting information.

「Also, I too have something personal to say here, is it alright?」

There Lux talked about a certain circ.u.mstance. Everyone was worried about his health and he was urged to leave the meeting early.

Right after that, Lisha straightened her back as though she had been waiting for it and took a deep breath.

「Ah, also──. I have one more important topic. Hahue suggested it, about a trial that we should challenge.」

The sentence that was told with a bit of tension filling it caused the experienced Syvalles members to hold their breath.

「……Fuu」

A few hours after the meeting in the castle was over.

Lux retired to the reserved inn and took a bath before pa.s.sing the time in the guest room of his shared room with Airi while wearing his sleep-wear.

The members of Syvalles frequently came to this room to play, but as expected no one came today.

It was also to prepare for the situation where it was unknown where they would have to move out for a battle against Azure Division. And another reason must be because everyone was being considerate about Lux"s condition that was told to them before this.

「For some reason it feels out of place instead for the room to be this quiet. Thinking really carefully, it"s also amazing how I"m feeling like that just from seeing there is no girl around Nii-san.」

「No, well……」

Lux could only smile wryly toward the meaningful stare from Airi.

Before he would be able to say that it was because the girls were his comrades in Syvalles……but, Lux couldn"t laugh now that he had learned the girls" feeling from repeating the three days of parade multiple times.

The girls were really harboring feeling toward Lux.

And then unfortunately, he wouldn"t be able to respond to their feelings…….

「Hey……. Airi, about the New Kingdom and the Academy, this place where we belongs── you……like it, aren"t you?」

Hearing Lux"s question, Airi who was sleeping on the next bed quietly turned her face toward him.

「Now see here……. We were criminals you know? When I first came to Cross Field, although I wasn"t receiving any hara.s.sment openly, it was like a bed of nails for me.」

After all in the New Kingdom, Lux and Airi"s appearance was characteristic. From a glance anyone would understand that they were from the imperial family.

「I didn"t want to worry Nii-san though, so I stayed quiet. At the beginning everyone was avoiding me openly. They treated me like I was a tumor, well, the imperial family was villain after all. But, there wasn"t any bullying or the like. Thanks to the Triad.」

「The Triad was??」

This was his first time hearing about this even though they had been together for this long.

Come to think of it, he also had never heard about the beginning of Airi and Noct"s friends.h.i.+p.

He only knew that they got acquainted as roommate in the dormitory but──.

「Relie-san talked to the Triad who was already famous since that time. She wanted them to become my friend and protect me so that I can be accepted in the Academy. The Triad readily accepted that request. Noct and others asked me to not tell Nii-san about this, and I also didn"t have any intention to say it but, I said it. This is a secret okay.」

Airi"s expression seemed like she was having fun while saying that.

Even Lux understood the intention of the Triad who expressly asked Airi to not tell him about this.

Surely they didn"t want Lux to feel needlessly indebted or fussing about it.

「But, both I and Nii-san don"t know when we will die. So I"ll raise their evaluation too beforehand.」

「I see, so Airi right now also love the people of this country.」

When he pointed that out, Airi glared at him with a blus.h.i.+ng face.

She then puffed out her cheeks and looked aside. But before long she muttered with a small voice.

「Please sleep quickly Nii-san. You cannot make anyone more worried than this.」

「……Right. Good night, Airi.」

They only exchanged those words, then Lux closed his eyes.

After a while, a small sleeper"s breathing came from the side and time was pa.s.sing on.

Surely that conversation of this night wasn"t noticed by anyone.

「Good morning Lux. How are you feeling?」

The next morning, the room"s door was knocked at the same time when Lux woke up.

When Lux opened the door with sleepy eyes, Celis was standing there.

「Ah, good morning Celis-senpa ─, eeeeh!?」

He spontaneously stiffened when he opened the door.

Setting aside how Celis was visiting Lux alone, he couldn"t hide his surprise at her appearance.

Unbelievably, she was dressed as maid.

It was an orthodox maid uniform with black base color and pure white maid headdress, but because of her sensual chest and waist, it made him felt an air of immorality instead from it.

「I, I"m sorry! A, as I thought, for me to wear this kind of clothes, this appearance doesn"t suit me isn"t it?」

The girl who was usually giving a dignified air was unusually blus.h.i.+ng bright red with her gaze averted to the corner.

How should he say it, at first he was surprised but, Lux thought that this appearance was nice.

「N, no. It"s lovely. But, why is Celis-senpai dressed like──」

「Did the Triad prank you again Celis-senpai? Even though we"re in this kind of situation, how can they……」

The instant Airi who was in the same room saw her appearance, she pressed her forehead and sighed.

It seemed she had an idea of the particulars of how this situation came to be and she felt extremely exasperated about it.

「Well, don"t say that. Just in case she is wearing a pilot suit under it, and she is also carrying her Sword Device. The security for Lux is flawless.」

Seeing the smiling face of Sharis who popped up from behind Celis, Lux also somehow guessed what happened.

「And so, I and Celis will be in charge of looking after Lux-kun this whole day. Best regards Lux-kun.」

「Eh, ah, yes……」

Lux could only nodded even while he was feeling bewildered.

Yesterday, during the meeting in the castle. Lux told everyone that in these ten days Lux would devote himself to rest without doing any fighting.

It was in order to allow Lux to fight alone without any students of the Academy noticing it.

Lux intentionally made a fake announcement that the fatigue from the rigorous battles was piling up and he became unable to wear Drag-Ride.

The beginning of this strategy dated back to the late night of the day before yesterday.

The hideout in the royal capital Lordgalia that was owned by Magialca.

It was a building that looked like an abandoned n.o.ble"s villa in a glance. Lux and others were talking at its bas.e.m.e.nt.

There were three people inside the dimly lighted parlor.

The boss of Kilzrake Family that was a mafia in Marcafal Kingdom and the captain of Seven Dragon Paladins, Magialca Zen Vanfrick.

She was a person who noticed the world"s revision loop that was caused by the transforming Drag-RideArtifact Uroboros, and offered a cooperation to Lux to fight it together.

She was heavily wounded from the previous war and became unable to fight as Drag-Knight anymore, but she was giving support to Lux with the organizational capability she possessed.

Aeril vi Arcadia was a blood relative of the Lord. She was a girl who connected with the center of Avalon at the surface.

In reality it was Raffi who was possessed by Sacred Eclipse who was in possession of the right to control Avalon, but due to the world revision, no one knew about it except of the people here.

At present the leaders and senior statesmen of every country were thinking that the right was owned by Aeril.

And then──Alma Kilzrake.

She was the biological younger sister of Lisha and thought to be dead. She was the second daughter of New Kingdom"s great man Count Atismata.

Five years ago.

Due to the information that was leaked by Queen Raffi at that time to Waybra who was a spy of the Old Empire, Alma"s hideout was attacked by Old Empire"s army. Alma who went through that wretched experience found her way to Marcafal Kindom where she was picked up by Kilzrake Family. She lived under their roof as a Drag-Knight.

Because of her firm will and proud personality, she hated Lisha and Raffi who betrayed Count Atismata and joined the Old Empire and held a belief toward the Black Hero.

From Queen Raffi"s perspective Alma was an extremely troublesome existence. Her status could possibly become a powerful trump card against the New Kingdom.

Lux, Aeril, and Magialca and Alma"s Kilzrake Family.

The Azure Division was an organization that was made up from the alliance of these four.

Destroying Sacred Eclipse that a.s.similated with Queen Raffi and liberating the new kingdom from the control of Fugil and Arshalia.

In order to accomplish that objective, they were going to commence the last battle.

「Tonight will be the last time we have a talk here. From here on Alma or Aeril will receive Lux"s instruction, and from them I will be the relay that convey the instruction to the whole Azure Division.」

「I think that will be fine. Although Queen Raffi won"t be able to make any big movement from now on, it will be too conspicuous for Lux-kun to walk around even using that method.」

Aeril also nodded at Magialca"s comment.

The Grand Force of Garden was pulled out and the function of Avalon was drastically weakened.

Because the energy would be insufficient to move the eight Automatas like before, it should be difficult to continue monitoring Lux constantly.

Currently Lux was asking Yoruka to search the surrounding using Yato no Kami"s detection ability to confirm that there was no reaction before he was acting, but considering the possibility that the monitoring on Lux could be strengthened after this, it would be too dangerous for all of them to gather like this.

Therefore, it was decided that Lux would become the actual leader of Azure Division from now with Alma or Aeril challenging the new kingdom as his subordinates.

「Right. After this I"ll think of the strategy for the next ten days, so can I borrow the 『Coffin』 right away?」

The Coffin was an appliance for human to enter. It was an equipment made by ancient technology to apply Baptism and strengthened the body.

The other day, they collected it during their attack at the Garden, but Alma had used it earlier to strengthen her mental strength.

Lux also intended to use it to strengthen a part of his physical ability as special trait.

「Alright. But, if you are going to use it, it will be just for a bit. The amount of Elixir that has been administered to Lux-kun should be really near the limit already after all……」

Aeril stared at Lux worriedly.

Body strengthening by blending Elixir into the body──Baptism, it wasn"t something that could be done as many times as one liked.

The user wouldn"t just receive considerable pain, they would also die if the dose was over the permissible level.

Thus, using the remaining few capacity.

Like how Yoruka strengthened her left eye to turn it into magic eye that read the opponent"s presence, Lux too could only specially strengthened his body and mind in preparation for the battle against Fugil.

「But, that will be a big gamble you know? You will be suffering from the side effect for several days, and it will be hard for you to even move properly. In the first place it"s also unthinkable that you will be able to win against that Fugil even if you do that.」(Magialca)

Fugil"s strength that could only be defeated after gathering six of the strongest Drag-Knight of each country──the Seven Dragon Paladins.

The capability of the transforming Drag-Ride Uroboros was in a different dimension.

In addition Raffi too would surely dispatch the strengthened Automatas at the critical moment.

Even if Lux succeeded in strengthening himself with Baptism, there was a boundless gap of battle strength there.

But,

「I"ll do it. There are still many more big gambles that will be necessary in order to defeat Fugil. Even so, I have to do it──」

「……Looks like you have resolved yourself. Aeril, activate the Coffin at the next room.」

「I understand. Come, Lux-kun. Take off your clothes and come over here.」

「Eeh……!?」

「What, are you embarra.s.sed? You had peeped at us in the bath before this, so this is payback.」

Lux flinched when Aeril told him that with a smile as though it was only natural. He then used the Coffin.

After that──, Lux safely went through the Baptism and returned to the inn after finis.h.i.+ng the planning session.

And then right now in the guest room of the reserved inn where Lux was at.

Of course that event of two days ago wasn"t told to anyone. He simply said that he couldn"t use Drag-Ride because of his acc.u.mulated fatigue. But it was unexpected that Celis would visit him who was resting.

No, he had considered about someone coming to visit him, but as expected he was surprised at the idea of them sticking close to him and nursing him for almost the whole day.

Furthermore when it was Celis wearing maid uniform who would do such thing…….

「That"s, is it a bother for you? Even though you"re unwell」

「N, no! There is no such thing. I"m happy that Celis-senpai come.」

Celis who saw Lux"s smile instantly blushed. Then her expression brightened in a flash.

「Thank you very much. I"ll do my best.」

Beside him Airi was showing a really conflicted glare, but before long she headed toward the room"s door along with Noct.

「Airi, where"re you going?」

「I think I"ll be in the way of you two. Besides there are various things that I want to investigate while Nii-san is resting.」

She only said that and left the room with Noct.

Lux felt a discomfort for a moment, but he couldn"t express it in words well.

Like that, a day of Celis nursing him began.