"Wait, ah... what?"
The announcer’s voice trailed off, sounding completely blindsided.
It made sense. Edward was royalty. Killing a member of the royal family usually meant a swift execution for regicide.
But in that moment, he had stood before me not as a prince, but as "just Edward."
A single warrior—no, a man.
He had truly desired that match, and he had come at me with the genuine intent to kill.
I had no regrets.
Accountability? Between my ongoing feud with the House of the Duke and having just slaughtered the son of a Marquess, I felt it was a little late to start worrying about that.
More importantly, the second the lightning struck Edward, the barrier vanished.
I suppose I’d just have to go with the flow of whatever national upheaval followed.
From Edward’s perspective, he must have timed this perfectly.
Why was he so obsessed with fighting me? Why throw his life away just for that?
I couldn't ask him anymore, and I didn't really care to.
He simply wanted a fight where everything was on the line. He didn't need a reason beyond that. He just wanted to feel something after casting aside all his worldly burdens.
"Selfish to the end, aren't you?"
Ever since he’d formed that contract with Wendy, he seemed to have found some sort of inner resolve.
Once he went bald, I actually didn't mind him that much.
Given a few more matches, he might have actually had a chance to beat me.
It was a shame we couldn't go again, but I decided then and there to hold onto the memory of this fight for the rest of my life.
『—What is happening? Competitor Edward’s body is... it’s floating!』
"Huh?"
Just as the sentimentality was settling in, the announcer’s voice jolted me.
I looked up. He was right. Edward was drifting.
His body was charred and broken, yet he floated in the air with all his limbs still attached.
"You’ve got to be kidding..."
That lightning strike was powerful enough to have killed even me if I’d taken it directly. There was no way he should have been in one piece.
Wait—does no one realize the barrier is gone?
Perhaps the battle had been too overwhelming; the audience sat with bated breath, their eyes glued to Edward’s drifting form.
『Is he... is he safe...?』
There was no way in hell he was safe.
Instead of worrying about a baldy who was below an infant in the Right of Succession, they should have noticed the Guardian Barrier had collapsed.
Patricia and the shadows behind her were finally making their move.
I glanced toward Patricia.
"...?"
She was still in the guest seating, staring into the sky.
But she wasn't looking at Edward. She was staring far above him, into the void where the Guardian Barrier used to be. She looked puzzled, as if she hadn't anticipated this specific turn of events.
What was going on?
『Someone... someone is holding Competitor Edward!』
I looked back. A figure had materialized out of thin air, holding the motionless prince in a princess carry.
He was a man with crimson hair, dressed in a sharp black tailcoat.
His eyes were pits of black with piercing red pupils.
One glance was all it took to know exactly what he was—a Demon.
"...Belial."
I heard Patricia whisper the name.
Was that his name?
I only knew of one Named Demon, but unlike the one that had possessed Jelasis or the low-level garbage I’d summoned back in the summer, this one felt ancient. They were the kind of entities that appeared at the pivot points of history.
They were harbingers of chaos, though usually, the humans who summoned them were the real source of the problem.
"That voice... is it Patricia Kindred?"
The demon called Belial tilted his head toward her.
"You’re still alive? What a tenacious woman."
"Who summoned you?"
『Wh-wh-what is this?! The guest from the Duchy knows this mysterious figure?! Who is this man who appeared from nowhere to rescue Competitor Edward at the final second—』
"Noisy."
As the announcer tried to narrate the chaos, Belial muttered a single word. The announcer’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed instantly.
I admired his dedication to the job, but he really should have read the room.
"I came because the offering was insufficient, yet all I find are eyesores."
The Demon spoke again, his words saturated with a crushing amount of Magic Power. Every single person in the stands lost consciousness at once.
In the entire stadium, only Patricia and I remained standing.
"I intended to silence everyone except Patricia Kindred. Yet there is another here accustomed to Demons...? Hmph. A rare specimen indeed."
Belial’s gaze shifted to me.
"Who are you? What do you want with Edward?"
"I am simply collecting this corpse since the initial offering fell short."
Belial surveyed the arena.
"From the look of things, this was a duel. He was a fated rival you killed, yes? Then you should have no complaints. This body will suffice as payment."
"What are you planning?!"
Patricia shouted before I could get a word in, leaning over the railing to glare at him. "Who called you here?!"
"You are as loud as ever, woman. One question per person."
I agreed with him on the 'loud' part, but he was surprisingly polite about answering. Was he kind for a Demon, or was this just some fundamental rule of his existence? These things were enigmas to me.
"Then ask him what his purpose is! You, Brave! Ask him who summoned him!"
"Give me a break..."
I wasn't about to take orders from her.
"I’ll just beat the answers out of him."
I kicked off a barrier beneath my feet and launched myself into the air.
Using the baldy’s body as an offering?
Not on my family’s pride.
Morality has nothing to do with killing, but you have to show respect to an opponent who fought you with everything they had. I wouldn't allow anyone to mock him.
"Give him back. He's not yours."
"The answer to 'beating the answers out of me' is—"
As I closed the distance, Belial lazily extended a hand tipped with razor-sharp claws. He thrust it toward my chest.
Even for a Named Demon, there was no way he could pierce my barrier. I had reconfigured it specifically to be impenetrable.
I’d just smash through his core and end this. As I prepared to drive a Spear Hand through Belial's chest—
Shatter.
The sound of my barrier splintering into a thousand pieces rang in my ears.
"What—?"
Sharp claws sank into my chest, punching through my heart and splintering my spine.
"—simply impossible."
He ripped his arm out in one smooth motion, then followed with a horizontal swipe.
A flash of agony at my throat, and then I felt my head slide away from my shoulders.
"AAAAAAAAAA!"
I tried to bite him in a frenzy of desperation, but he caught me by the hair.
I heard the heavy thud of my body hitting the arena floor below.
Belial stared at my severed head.
"Still conscious even after decapitation? Truly, yours is a tenacious, wretched bloodline. Heh... but I’m out of time. Farewell, Hero. I believe I owe Patricia an answer."
Darkness swallowed my vision.