Translator: Raizu

  Editor: Mirp

  Roxy, who had turned into an angel, flew straight to where Eris and Libra were .

  [Fai! What in the world is that……]

  [What the! Such a huge thing……]

  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, it’s true .

  There’s no point in staying here .

  [Let’s go . ]

  [Indeed . ]

  It’ll be faster to attack if we come closer .

  Otherwise, we probably could still negotiate with Libra .

  The available options couldn’t be narrowed down as long as we didn’t know what the other side was doing .

  Fortunately, the black ship was still far away from Hausen .

  Even if a battle occured, it’d at least be in this uninhabited wilderness .

  There might be very little casualties, but I preferred that we didn’t have to fight .

  The other side might misunderstand if we were to approach speedily .

  That’s 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 don’t seem to be moving out from that ship either . ]

  Are they telling us to come in!?

  That’s really weird to say the least .

  But Libra didn’t 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?

  That’s 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 .

  That’s 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 doesn’t seem like he’s looking for a fight……]

  [Shall we land?]

  [Please do . I’ll go talk to them, so put me down on the black ship first . Roxy should stay put as a precaution . ]

  [Alright . ]

  I simply don’t believe Libra .

  He tried to demolish Hausen once .

  There’s no way I could trust this guy .

  Roxy dropped me off on the black ship’s 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 .

  It’s like she’s not even there .

  [You toss out so many questions when we only just met . Can’t 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 you’ve 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, it’s 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 wouldn’t let me pass .

  [What’s wrong? Please, say something . ]

  […… . . ]

  There’s 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 . She’s 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!? She’s a human!]

  [Her beautiful appearance was due to controlled inbreeding . Well, a pet who has bitten its master’s hand must be disciplined . It’s par for the course . ]

  [You…… . . ]

  From what I understand, Libra did something to Eris, putting her under his beck and call

  I’ve been keeping my hand around my black sword from the moment we started talking .

  I had no choice but to draw it now .

  [You’re 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 . ]

  [It’s good if you understand . ]

  Libra gave Eris a look .

  In turn, she lowered the black bayonet .

  [You’re taking Eris hostage?]

  [Didn’t 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? It’s 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 . Isn’t 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, he’s actually telling me to do it .

  [Why being so cryptic . Can’t you just say it clearly?]

  [Ahaha, don’t be angry . There must be a mutual benefit in an agreement . therefore……]

  Libra put Eris in front of him .

  [If you can do that properly, I’ll give this to you . How about that as a condition?]

  [Don’t treat Eris like an object . ]

  [You only carry with you half the blood of the sacred beastkin . I give you that . Which is why I’m making a lot of concessions already . But you shouldn’t 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 .

  We’re using each other here .

  I could care less about Libra .

  [Very well . Let’s cooperate . ]

  [I knew Fate would say that . You’re Dean’s son after all . We were such good friends in the past, enough for me to call him my best friend . It’s beyond me why he ended up doing something like that against me . I really don’t understand . ]

  [You and Dad? Friends……? ]

  [Back in the old days . But that’s not the case anymore . Though I feel like we can get along well . I’m actually looking forward to it . ]

  [Kuhh…… . . ]

  Libra offered me a handshake as he said that .

  I didn’t want to shake his hand, but I had to .

  [Deal . We’ll be cooperating from now on . ]

  As soon as our hands firmly held, I tried activating.

  (Such a bad boy, you are . But I don’t hate this kind of mischief once in a while)

  But Libra saw through it .

  He couldn’t 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, what’s with that piercing glare that she’s 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, let’s begin . Onward to Gallia . ]

  Libra didn’t seem to care anymore about us . He turned toward where the floating Gallia was, where Dad was waiting .

  His face was like a kid who had found a new toy .