"H-Headmaster...?"
Why was the Headmaster—why was Verloid Hahn here?
Lest was utterly bewildered.
This was a battlefield. It was no place for an educator like him.
"Rest-kun, please, just stay still like that."
The Headmaster whispered to him.
There was no hostility in his voice. Rather, it carried a tone of deep concern for Lest.
"You're taking things too far, Gascoigne-san."
"It's still too early, Yoichiro-kun."
And then... a beat later, Lest realized.
The Headmaster was not the only one who had suddenly interrupted the fight.
Beside Gascoigne, a tall young man had appeared and seized his arm, while behind Jin, a young woman had materialized with her arm wrapped around his neck.
Lest recognized neither of them apart from the Headmaster. They were strangers to him.
"Do not stop me, Kanesada."
"Don't interfere, Natsuki."
Gascoigne and Jin addressed the man and woman restraining them, respectively.
However... neither of the newcomers, nor the Headmaster for that matter, released their hold.
"Growing short-tempered with age won't do. You just renewed your body, so please don't be reckless."
"Calm down, Yoichiro-kun. A full-scale clash here would be bad."
The woman pointed her index finger toward the sky.
Following the line of her finger, Lest looked up... and saw multiple silhouettes high in the sky, at the level of the clouds.
"What are those...?"
"The 'Council of Sages' and 'Takfir Kahen' have gathered in full force, you see."
The Headmaster answered Lest's question.
Lined up at the altitude of the clouds were two distinct factions.
Ten people on the western side, and ten people on the eastern side. Keeping some distance between them, they glared at one another across the divide.
The atmosphere was taut; it felt as though a balloon filled with murderous intent might burst at the slightest provocation.
"Van Wally, Nuada Kedis, and Kanehira Ichijo are all there. Even if we have a full-scale clash with them here, we won't live to see our ambitions fulfilled... right?"
"...You're right. My apologies."
At the woman's words, Jin apologized and raised both hands.
The humanoid figure in red vanished into thin air, and the suffocating tension relaxed.
"So there is no other choice... is there?"
Gascoigne murmured as well, making the light dragon dissipate.
The premonition of death hanging over Lest's body scattered like mist and disappeared.
"Jin Yoichiro, what do you say we call this a draw for now?"
"Understood. Let us look forward to the next time."
Jin agreed to Gascoigne's proposal without seeming to deliberate at all.
Then, shifting his gaze away, Jin turned his eyes toward Lest.
"Brave boy. You have my respect for how you fought."
"..."
"Allow me to introduce myself once more... My name is Jin Yoichiro. A Japanese, and the leader of 'Takfir Kahen.'"
Jin spoke in a clear, resonant tone.
"I am a comrade of Shoko Sanada, the former Queen Dowager of your country, as well as the superior of Shindo and Amagi, whom you killed."
"..."
For an instant, Lest wondered who he meant... but the faces of the sand-wielding man and the water-wielding woman immediately came to mind.
"And incidentally... I am an Imperial Prince of the Geisel Empire. Though it is not a status I ever asked for."
"Huh...?"
"Later on, a formal letter proposing a ceasefire will be sent from the Empire. Feel free to accept it or refuse it as you please. Neither outcome inconveniences me."
Leaving the stunned Lest behind, Jin conjured a monster bearing a striking resemblance to a winged dragon.
Straddling the beast's back alongside the woman, he took off into the air, and the ten figures in the eastern sky vanished one after another.
"Let us withdraw as well... Mr. Hahn, I leave the rest to you."
Gascoigne, too, flew off in a direction different from the one Jin had taken.
The ten individuals on the western side, along with the man who had restrained Gascoigne, disappeared elsewhere as well.
"..."
"Good work. That must have been quite an ordeal, ho-ho."
Placing a hand on the dumbfounded Lest's shoulder, the Headmaster offered him words of comfort.
The 'Council of Sages.'
'Takfir Kahen.'
(And... an Imperial Prince of the Empire? That man?)
Come to think of it... his future mother-in-law, Airish Rosemary, had mentioned it before.
That there was a troublesome prince in the Empire.
He seemed to recall her saying that the prince desired war with the Aiwood Kingdom, too.
(A ceasefire... Is the war really going to end...?)
It should have been welcome news, but... why?
The anxiety welling up in Lest's chest did not fade. Instead, dark, ominous storm clouds hung over his heart, like the oppressive sky just before a summer torrential downpour.