Roxy, who had turned into an angel, flew straight to where Eris and Libra were .
[Fai! What in the world is thatā¦]
[What the! Such a huge thingā¦]
She stopped as soon as we saw what appeared from beyond the horizon .
A huge object was flying through the sky .
Its shape was similar to a ship⦠but the ships I knew of could only float on water .
[Black Ship . ]
Those words unintentionally escaped my mouth .
Its jet black color made it stand out like a sore thumb in the midst of broad daylight .
[I can feel signs of those two coming from the ship . What do we do?]
As Roxy said, itās true .
Thereās no point in staying here .
[Letās go . ]
[Indeed . ]
Itāll be faster to attack if we come closer .
Otherwise, we probably could still negotiate with Libra .
The available options couldnāt be narrowed down as long as we didnāt know what the other side was doing .
Fortunately, the black ship was still far away from Hausen .
Even if a battle occured, itād at least be in this uninhabited wilderness .
There might be very little casualties, but I preferred that we didnāt have to fight .
The other side might misunderstand if we were to approach speedily .
Thatās why Roxy had been flying at a lower speed .
The black ship itself was approaching us with similar speed .
[They have not made any drastic movements so far . ]
[Yeah . Eris and Libra donāt seem to be moving out from that ship either . ]
Are they telling us to come in!?
Thatās really weird to say the least .
But Libra didnāt seem to show any hostility toward us this time .
[I saw them! I saw Eris-sama and Libra! Eris-sama seems to be alright . ]
Was she being restrained or something?
Thatās what both of us thought .
However, contrary to our expectation, Eris was standing there alongside Libra .
She hated him so much, yet they now stood very close together .
Thatās not the only strange thing here . Eris was wearing a maid outfit instead of her usual getup .
When Libra noticed us, he smiled and waved his hand to us .
[He doesnāt seem like heās looking for a fightā¦]
[Shall we land?]
[Please do . Iāll go talk to them, so put me down on the black ship first . Roxy should stay put as a precaution . ]
[Alright . ]
I simply donāt believe Libra .
He tried to demolish Hausen once .
Thereās no way I could trust this guy .
Roxy dropped me off on the black shipās deck .
Libra was standing at the front . While Eris stayed on the back .
[Hi, Fate . You look well . ]
[What are you coming here again for this time? And what did you do to Eris?]
Eris looked strange alright . Her eyes seemed hollow .
Itās like sheās not even there .
[You toss out so many questions when we only just met . Canāt you at least enjoy our moment of reunion?]
[Like you have the right to say that . Put your hand on your chest and recall back what youāve done to us . ]
He actually did put his hand on his chest .
[Have I done something particularly bad?]
[You⦠. . ]
When I moved toward Libra, someone else got in my way .
That strand of blue hair, itās Eris .
Wordlessly, she stood between us as if protecting Libra .
[Eris?]
[⦠. . ]
No reply came from her .
No matter how I tried to get to Libra, Eris wouldnāt let me pa.s.s .
[Whatās wrong? Please, say something . ]
[⦠. . ]
Thereās no reaction at all .
That is, until Libra spoke .
[Enough, return behind me . ]
Eris obediently returned to where she was before .
[What have you done to Eris?]
[I simply return her to where she should be . Sheās been running loose for way too long now . I had to put a firm leash on her to get her back . ]
[Where she should be?]
[She is my slave, or you could say a cute pet . She let loose herself, travelling to the outside world with this airship without permission, even creating a Kingdom, doing whatever she wanted . ]
[Pet!? Sheās a human!]
[Her beautiful appearance was due to controlled inbreeding . Well, a pet who has bitten its masterās hand must be disciplined . Itās par for the course . ]
[You⦠. . ]
From what I understand, Libra did something to Eris, putting her under his beck and call
Iāve been keeping my hand around my black sword from the moment we started talking .
I had no choice but to draw it now .
[Youāre quick on the uptake . ]
Libra nodded as he approached me .
[As you might know already, Eris is in my hand . For example, if I want her to die, then she would do so unquestioningly . ]
Eris pulled out her black bayonet and attempted to stab herself in the neck .
[I get it already, so please stop . ]
[Itās good if you understand . ]
Libra gave Eris a look .
In turn, she lowered the black bayonet .
[Youāre taking Eris hostage?]
[Didnāt you hear me? She simply returned to where she should be . ]
Libra turned his back on me, gazing toward the south .
[Now, what should I do with that? Itās troubling me right now . Something like that is floating high in the sky . What should stay on the ground is instead in such a place . Isnāt it so unsightly?]
[Are you talking about Gallia?]
[What else? Ahh⦠if only I could find someone to sink that thing back to the ground?]
Libra gave me a sideway glance .
Despite what he said, heās actually telling me to do it .
[Why being so cryptic . Canāt you just say it clearly?]
[Ahaha, donāt be angry . There must be a mutual benefit in an agreement . thereforeā¦]
Libra put Eris in front of him .
[If you can do that properly, Iāll give this to you . How about that as a condition?]
[Donāt treat Eris like an object . ]
[You only carry with you half the blood of the sacred beastkin . I give you that . Which is why Iām making a lot of concessions already . But you shouldnāt offend me too much . ]
Now that Eris had been taken hostage, I had no choice but to accept .
Besides, to handle the matter of the floating Gallia, it would be better to have Libra cooperating with us instead of the other way around .
Weāre using each other here .
I could care less about Libra .
[Very well . Letās cooperate . ]
[I knew Fate would say that . Youāre Deanās son after all . We were such good friends in the past, enough for me to call him my best friend . Itās beyond me why he ended up doing something like that against me . I really donāt understand . ]
[You and Dad? Friends� ]
[Back in the old days . But thatās not the case anymore . Though I feel like we can get along well . Iām actually looking forward to it . ]
[Kuhh⦠. . ]
Libra offered me a handshake as he said that .
I didnāt want to shake his hand, but I had to .
[Deal . Weāll be cooperating from now on . ]
As soon as our hands firmly held, I tried activating ćMind Readingć .
(Such a bad boy, you are . But I donāt hate this kind of mischief once in a while)
But Libra saw through it .
He couldnāt be read at all .
[Well then, you should let Roxy who is waiting in the sky know about our agreement . And the Wrath down there too . She looks extremely angry there, whatās with that piercing glare that sheās been directing toward me for a while now . ]
In other words, Libra could still afford to stay calm even while knowing that I, Roxy, and Myne might join hands to kill him .
Is a clue on how strong he really is?
[Alright, letās begin . Onward to Gallia . ]
Libra didnāt seem to care anymore about us . He turned toward where the floating Gallia was, where Dad was waiting .