Waalthe’s leader, Wahash, a man who looked to be in his fifties but carried the bearing of a seasoned warrior and, above all, the majesty of a king, was walking through the capital city of the Wethered Kingdom with his daughter.
The people they passed all wore smiles, and none could have guessed he was the head of an assassination organization.
“Father, shouldn’t we have spoken with Jared Murphy?”
Rosa Roen, her red hair grown long and now dressed in a frilled apron rather than combat attire, asked hesitantly.
Though her hobbies gave him a slight headache, he had no intention of restricting his daughter in any way when she wasn’t on the battlefield as a warrior. He gently averted his gaze from his beloved daughter, clad in her cute uniform.
“It’s fine. Since we’ll be based in the capital for a while, I can meet him anytime. Besides… the person himself doesn’t seem to want to talk to me, so I don’t want to force it.”
Rosa had only recently learned that Jared was her nephew. She had been told a little about having an older half-sister, much older than her, but she was no longer around when Rosa became aware of the world. She couldn’t help but be surprised when she was told that he had become a Court Mage of a kingdom, married a noble, and even had children.
“I don’t know a sister named Liz Murphy.”
“To be precise, you should say you don’t remember her. She looked after you when you were young.”
“Is that so… But why did she leave the organization?”
Wahash stopped at his daughter’s question. He looked up, squinting at the cloudless blue sky, and a smile graced his lips as he thought of his deceased daughter.
“She wasn’t originally part of the organization. She was the type who always found opportunities to go on adventures. She became engrossed after learning magic, and perhaps it was because her mother was a skilled magician, but after learning the basics of being a fighter, she simply disappeared, wanting to live as a magician.”
“Did you forgive her?”
“Yes, I forgave her. Her personality didn’t fit within the organization, and her power was extraordinary. You, too, have more than enough talent, but it’s as a warrior. Liz, however, had a talent specialized in being a magician. Waalthe couldn’t control her.”
At that time, the organization had already become an assassination organization, and Wahash’s policy was to prohibit the use of magic. For Liz Murphy, who demonstrated her talent as a magician and was more a magician than a fighter, Waalthe was simply too small an organization.
“When she left me, I thought I had severed our parent-child bond, but she still returned without a care. Every time, she doted on you.”
“It’s a shame I don’t remember.”
“Indeed. Perhaps so. Even though I told her to leave since I had cut ties, she said that she hadn’t cut ties with Rosa and told me not to involve me in my own affairs, she was like a storm. When I heard that Liz had become a Court Mage, I was dumbfounded, and when I heard she had gotten married and had a child, I was utterly speechless.”
Wahash still remembered. She was the only daughter who wouldn’t listen to him, but as a parent, he was happy that she lived as she pleased. It went without saying that he was surprised by her husband. However, the biggest shock was—her death, which came too soon.
“Liz was my first child. Perhaps that’s why, when I heard she had died, I couldn’t do anything for a while. It was also an event that made me realize I still possessed such human emotions.”
“Father, do you know why my sister died?”
“I do. To tell you the truth, I only recently learned everything. I had been mistaken until now.”
“…What do you mean?”
“The cause of her death was poisoning. But there’s no way my daughter wouldn’t notice if she was poisoned.”
While poison resistance varies from person to person, Liz, being Wahash’s daughter, wouldn’t die from a mere poison, and more importantly, she wouldn’t carelessly ingest it. However, she was treated as having been poisoned, and the culprit has yet to be apprehended. The cause of death has not been properly investigated, nor has the culprit been searched for.
“I came to the capital to kill Dolf Ein, but there was another reason.”
“Could it be…”
“Yes—to kill the one who killed my daughter.”
Even his daughter Rosa felt a chill run down her spine from the killing intent Wahash exuded. Though she didn’t know the reason, as her sister, she couldn’t forgive the fact that the culprit was not caught and punished. Still, she pitied the unseen culprit. It would have been much better if she had been caught by the country and received a just trial—she would undoubtedly be subjected to a fate that would make her think so. And she wouldn’t stop herself, even if she pitied herself. She even wished that the culprit would die in agony.
“You shouldn’t be radiating such killing intent in the middle of the street, Wahash-chan.”
As Rosa, her father’s murderous intent drawing her in, was also thinking dangerous thoughts, a girl’s sweet voice echoed.
“…Are you Almeida?”
Wahash’s killing intent dissipated, and his eyes widened. Before them stood a beautiful girl who still retained a youthful air, wearing a dress adorned with copious frills and holding a parasol. The girl, whose pink hair was cut short, looked at Wahash’s face and narrowed her eyes as if she found him familiar.
“It’s been a while, Wahash-chan.”
“…As always, you have a taste for girlish things that don’t suit your age.”
“And you, you’re always an old man.”
The ease with which they spoke to each other was as if they were meeting old friends. Looking only at their appearances, they seemed to be separated by a generation, but it was apparently not the case. Recalling that Wahash had lived beyond human lifespans, it was likely that Almeida, his acquaintance, had too.
“I’d like to celebrate our reunion, but let me ask—what brings you here?”
“It goes without saying, it’s about my beloved disciple, whom I find so incredibly cute.”
Almeida said with a smile, like a girl in love. Wahash replied with a single sentence:
“Then let’s change locations.”
With that, the three lightly kicked off the ground and vanished from the spot.
