Unmotivated Hero's Tale

The remnants of the Imperial Army are withdrawn, and the Royal Claris Army forces all soldiers to be withdrawn to the King's City.

Then, reports of victories told by them made a fuss all over the city.

The miraculous victory of the Royal Army over overwhelming disadvantage only made most of the people see the collective magic of the Imperial Army solicit a sense of defeat with a sense of despair, which pleased all those living in Ertbourg.

Whether in Castle Town or Royal Castle, people rejoice and embrace each other's safety and victory.

As he climbed above the walls, Yui sat on the edge of the wall looking somewhere lonely at such a sight as to come off such a circle of joy.

"Aren't you going to be in that ring?

Yui is surprised for a moment by the voice that was inadvertently hung from behind her.

But because of his familiar voice, he responded to her without looking back.

"I don't mind. Because I don't like to get tired. And so many people are delighted from the bottom of their hearts. Such a lovely view is best from here."

"Hehe, is that right? Well, let's just say I'll keep it with your companion."

With a satisfying grin on Yui's reply, Elise walks up to him and sits on the edge of the wall.

"Can I stay here? I don't think it's a good idea to celebrate a victory without a princess."

"Oh, it's not convincing that this time the greatest merit man would say that."

Listening to Elise's point, Yui shrugs her shoulders.

And he stood on one knee on the spot, and he put his cheek cane on.

"Well, I'd like to ask you a few questions about the upside of this one, can you tell me, Mr. Hero?

Yui responds with a bitter laugh to Elise's gaze as she stares intriguingly.

"In the meantime, stop being a hero. Uh, so what the hell am I supposed to talk about?

"Well... it was before me first. Can you tell me about your dispute with the Duke of Yalm? Now I think, maybe that was your crazy talk, wasn't it?

"Ha, you're right. In fact, I had a meeting with the Honourable Reinberg the day before, and the Honourable One gave the Duke of Yalm a diagnosis of such a play. The Duke himself didn't seem to be much of a rider at first, but if you ask him later, he seems to have put a lot of effort into acting."

Elise, who received that Yui statement, gives a slightly obstinate look.

And I glanced at him slightly as it was.

"You didn't tell me at all... Rheinberg, anyway, even told Yalm about this plan"

"Excuse me, because these things don't make sense unless you fool them from within."

Yui unwittingly looks over the sky to escape the gaze of the obstinate princess.

Before that manoeuvre to escape pursuit, Elise sighed her next question.

"... well, fine. Then the second question, how did you bounce the Imperial Army's collective magic? Speaking of which, you used to bounce back their wind magic when I was kidnapped... or can't you really use magic in the first place?

Yui gives up wondering if she can hide any more in that Elise inquiry.

And he turned to her and revealed his abilities.

"When it comes to commonly used magic, I can't even try to stand upside down myself. All I did was taunt the magic that others had knitted. Capability name is Cracking. This is the magic I can handle."

"Magic?

Hearing the unheard word, Elise turns to Yui and asks back.

"Yes, it's magical. Right, does Master Elise know how magic is used in the first place?

"Of course it is. To catalyze your magic, to synchronize your braided magic with the laws of the world, and to write on top of that a new law of your own drawing on the laws of the world. Am I wrong?

Yui nods loudly once to tell her that Elise's answer, which can be called an exemplary answer, is correct.

"No, you're right. So in order to use magic, you will need two kinds of abilities: the magic of harmony needed to be in tune with the laws of the world, and the magic for writing. But I was born to specialize in magic to write, and I don't have the magic to be in tune."

"I mean, you can't use magic on your own because you can't synchronize your magic with the world... is that it?

"Yes, we call the laws of the world that we synchronize when we use magic the source, and the task of writing down the events we want to happen there is called hack. I'm an esse magician who specializes only in this ability to hack."

Yui explains that with a bitter laugh, he continues to talk again after scratching his head twice.

"This time, they were trying to destroy this castle wall with the collective magic of immense magic. That's why I rewrote some of that magic formula they were writing into the laws of the world. Specifically, we've rewritten the part of the landing point where the coordinates were this wall to the center of their army."

"That's what... really?

Elise unexpectedly loses her words to what she hadn't even imagined coming out of Yui's mouth.

"Yeah, it's true. As you said earlier, I've shown you before, haven't I? When I entered Talim to help Master Elise, the wind magic was unleashed against me. Even then, I turned the wind toward Talim by rewriting the landing point. Well, this time, can you say that you've just made the object of rewriting a little bigger?"

"... I don't think it's something I can say. I can't believe I found out about your abilities. But if that were the case, wouldn't you have bothered to act like you were going back to sleep with your enemies? You could have done that if you'd stayed with us and bounced that collective magic back in front of the wall."

While surprised by Yui's ability never heard of before, Elise accepts his explanation as it is from what she has actually done for the second time.

But because she recognized that ability, she remembered the question of whether she could have fought enough, even while serving as the King's Capital Defense Commander.

"Ha, I thought they'd say that. Unfortunately, there are some limitations to my cracking. One is that the point of occurrence of magic, that is, the point of synchronization with the world, must be placed under sight from the stage of synchronizing magic. And the other limitation is that you can't crack two or more magic at the same time. So I decided to act like I was going to go back to sleep."

Looking at the sky, where the sun slowly began to fall, Yui speaks of the cracking drawbacks he had not spoken to many others before.

"... I see. So you need to be near them to see exactly where the magic happens. But the fact that you can't crack more than two things, is that some reason?

"If they didn't put in all the magicians and use collective magic...... for example, if they split the magicians into two or three units and unleashed collective magic individually, one shot would always be a direct hit from not being able to hack them at the same time. Even our army was numerically disadvantaged, and if they had taken the operation they said that, they would have ended up losing us. So I wanted to meet their generals and tell them that the walls were thick and that I feared massive magic."

When she finishes hearing that Yui explanation, Elise once again takes a serious peek into his face.

"Someone named you… I'm really glad you didn't go to the Empire"

"Ha, I tried to turn back to the Empire this time, but their army is too disciplined. You're being too serious, aren't you? I talked to him at work, but he didn't even deal with me... and I probably can't do that in the Imperial Army."

Yui tells Elise so in a self-derisive manner as she shakes her neck from left to right.

Listening to the words, Elise changed her expression and looked at Yui with serious eyes and said one question.

"Yui, what are you going to do now?

"Are you going to…? For once, you have publicly resigned from all positions. I think you can either retire from the army and wander somewhere, or you can relax and farm in the country."

When Yui says so with a grin, Elise makes her expression rude as soon as possible and confirms his will again.

"... are you serious?

"Yeah. Nothing. I didn't come about wanting to be a soldier, I'm just a person who joined the army to eat. If there's any other way to eat it, I don't think so."

In response to Elise's inquiry, Yui says why she joined the army.

But the moment she heard the answer, Elise grabbed Yui's left sleeve softly with her own right hand when it became the expression of the girl who was about to cry out now.

That's a very modest way to grab Yui, who is also grabbed by her sleeve, if you don't see her with your own eyes.

But there was a willingness there to never let go.

"... No, Yui. 'Cause you promised me.' Continue with the SS leadership position until other suitable successors are found '. Yet I can't believe you quit..."

Elise's hand, which grabbed his sleeve, looked a little trembling.

When Yui shifts his gaze away from Elise, who looks up to him, he shifts his gaze to the folk who raise the cup one after the other and recommends another to her.

"... I think Eince is a good enough successor."

In response to that Yui word, Elise looks lonely and drops her gaze.

But when she strengthened her ability to grab her sleeve a little, she approached him with a strong tone of appeal.

"I'm not dissatisfied with him. But this country, exhausted by this battle, needs you. Heroes for this country."

"It's okay. Even if there is no hero, the people of this country can do it. 'Cause doesn't Clarice have you? I love this country more than anyone, if you"

Yui smiled and said so, but Elise did not answer that.

That's how silence flows between them.

After a while Yui turned her gaze again to Elise, who sits next to her, and she was weeping a great deal from those jewel-like eyes.

"Chi... it's not"

With her cheeks wet with tears, Elise shakes her neck left and right again and again.

Yui, who saw the appearance, could not grasp Elise's sincerity.

"What do you mean?

"I lied earlier. This country needs you as a hero."

Speaking that far, Elise grabbed Yui's left arm with both arms and confessed her determination reflected in her beautiful eyes wet in tears.

"What I needed... was me. I, Yui... need you. Isn't that the only reason you're here?

Admiration, respect and affection.

In front of Elise's eyes, where those emotions mix in intricately, Yui cannot distract from her gaze and becomes a form of staring back as she is.

That's how the two gaze continues to overlap, and Yui exhales one, trying to put his own will into words as he scratches his head.

But shortly before the response was to be spun out of his mouth, Elise's maid, who was looking for them, the main guest of the celebration, came from afar to find the two figures and wave.

"Dear Elise, Isterz! Were you in a place like this... the guest of honor should not be in a place like that. Please come back soon because this is a victory celebration!

Elise takes a loud, deep breath once she hears the samurai's voice.

And as I switched from the girl's face earlier to the princess's, she replied to the samurai.

"... I'll be right there. Come on, come on, you too."

When Yui laughs bitterly at her words and actions, she rises slower than the edge of the castle wall where she was sitting.

"You have no choice. Do you dare to spoil the role of hero Istarz for today? Even heroes who are so unmotivated are apparently wanted."

When he says so, Yui gently reaches out to Elise, who will be lit by the sunset.

And she grabbed his hand and gracefully rose from the spot.

"What about today?

Elise asks that by putting her face close to his ear so that only Yui can hear her.

When Yui scratched his head twice just to tell him to do it, he turned to her for a dialogue he couldn't say earlier.

"No, not for a while now... at least while someone in this country and somewhere needs me"

The moment he speaks so, a smile as bright and soft as the spring sun pictures Yui's sight.

And Elise held his hand hard, staring into Yui's eyes.

"If so, that's always been true. This country and I will never let you go."

Soon the sun sets at the end of the horizon, and the two, wrapped in the sunset, look over the southern plain, which became a battlefield from the walls with their hands together.

The battles, screams and prayers that were supposed to have been waged on that plain were all fogged up in the atmosphere as if they were going to be covered and hidden in the darkness, and at the end of their gaze, everywhere and everywhere, the green plain spread far beyond.