“No thanks.” I replied automatically.

Beside me, Liandra stiffened. It was clear that she wasn’t expecting this sort of development, and neither was Radeca.

The elven princess cast a questioning gaze toward a heavily armored man in the room. I assumed that he was the soldier she had spoken so highly of while we were on the road.

The man returned Radeca’s gaze with a look of apology, shrugging his shoulders slightly in an expression of helplessness. Although it was supposed to be a discreet gesture, the clinking of his metal pauldrons made it anything but.

“Don’t be like that, Ryuuko. I knew something like this was going to happen, just not... like this. You see—”

“You can go fuck yourself.” I said, cutting Cyrus off immediately. I wasn’t in the mood for his bullshit right now. “I helped you out of the goodness of my heart, and you didn’t even have the decency to trust me with the details? Come on now.”

He probably thought that he had some kind of leverage on me since we were all trapped in a room inside of a fortress that was controlled by the Sylphid Alliance. Unfortunately for him, he picked a room with a window, so I wasn’t concerned.

If he really had the balls to try and throw hands with me just because I had to worry about Radeca getting in the way, he was sorely mistaken.

Besides, just when the hell did I get into the habit of saving princesses? What kind of cursed cliche is this!?

Cyrus’ eyes had widened at my sudden interruption. Clearly, he wasn’t expecting me to cut him off so vehemently, but he quickly recovered.

“Unfortunately, seeing as Princess Sella was in the vicinity, I could not discuss Liandra’s mission with you in the open. The princess abhors dishonorable acts like assassination. While I strive to be loyal to her, there are simply things that must be done in order to create the future that she dreams of.”

Huh. So Sella wasn’t aware of the bullshit that Cyrus was pulling behind the scenes. But even so... Doesn’t that just make Cyrus seem even more nefarious?

Although Cyrus’ words were clearly expressing his zealous loyalty toward Princess Sella, I couldn’t help but think that he had some sort of hidden personal agenda. 

It would’ve been pretty convenient if there was some sort of skill that allowed me to discern whether someone was telling the truth or not, but all the skills with such capabilities in the [Rulebook] were quite conspicuous and required the use of magic.

Assuming that my silence was an invitation for him to continue, Cyrus launched into a lengthy explanation of some sort of bullshit plan that involved us raising an army with Radeca as the figurehead, but at this point, I was done with being used and letting him use people.

In the first place, all this had done was reinforce that I’d forgotten something very important ever since two months ago:

Unification.

It had been my sole goal coming into this world, but events throughout my journey had constantly thrown me off the path.

Yeah, there were a few times when I realized that I was veering way off the tracks, and there were even times when I tried to justify my actions by saying that it was to progress my eventual goal of unification.

But was that really the truth? Nah, probably not.

I’d started to grow content with my life here in this world. I was pretty damn strong already. Strong enough to even defeat the Demon Lord two years later, probably.

I’d completed the final technique that my master passed down to me, I’d learned the meanings of affection and family, and most importantly, I’d found friends.

This world was still far from perfect, but at the very least, I’d managed to find here what I could back there.

Still, was it enough for me to give up on this revenge? This petty goal that seemed so far away that it was almost impossible?

I could probably live happily here as long as I stayed near the Zaltsel clan. Hell, maybe I could even fall in love. Even if I ended up losing to the Demon Lord, at least I’d be able to enjoy the best two years of my life, right?

What a joke.

There was something far more important to me now than revenge. At last, I finally understood what it was that I wanted.

I wanted to protect this world at all costs, no matter who was threatening it, be it God or someone else. Right now, I didn’t know what the fuck Cyrus was planning, but it was suspicious as hell.

Why would he even want Radeca to start what was essentially a civil war in the first place?

It didn’t matter. I already knew what my answer to him was going to be.

“We’re leaving.” I said abruptly, interrupting him mid-speech. “Are you going to try and stop us?”

Cyrus stared at me as if I was a fool. Ironically, my head had never been clearer.

His left eye twitched at my remark, and I could feel the tension in the air. It was obvious that he was deciding whether or not he actually had the courage to face me in a head-on confrontation. I didn’t want to make the first move since it was obvious I’d destroy him, and picking on someone who was vastly weaker wasn’t really my style.

In the end, he let us go.

“Oh yeah, one more thing, Cyrus.” I said as the three of us began walking through the fortress’ gate. I paused mid-step and jerked a thumb toward the halo-like collar that was still floating above Liandra’s head.

It wasn’t as if I fully trusted her, but I didn’t want that collar to be tracking her location wherever we went. Besides, if she was actually stupid enough to try and fight me, I’d just kick her shit in again.

“You’re making a huge mistake, Ryuuko.”

As if I hadn’t heard that line before, dumbass. You shouldn’t have tried to play puppetmaster.

I held out my hand for the key wordlessly. After a few moments, Cyrus begrudgingly dropped it in my palm, allowing me to free Liandra from her bonds at last.

Reflexively, I tensed up and prepared myself for a surprise attack, but it never came.

“Seeya ‘round, Cyrus.”

I turned, and the three of us walked forward with nothing else but hope and the company of each other.