📍 The Ritual Chamber — Elfior Mansion | Day 30
Thirty days under Nanime.
Kiyoshi's body had opinions about this that he mostly ignored.
Every morning before sunrise, every evening past dark. Nanime did not believe in rest as a concept separate from sleep. She believed in using every hour that wasn't sleep, and she trained them accordingly — Sakura on footwork and closing openings, Kiyoshi on everything that wasn't healing. His sword work improved. His body continued its quiet resistance every time his rank pushed against him from the inside, but he was learning to push back.
On the thirtieth day, the ritual.
The chamber was white marble — floor, walls, ceiling, all of it. The flame burned in a pit at the centre, one metre wide, green and steady. It had probably been burning for longer than anyone in the room had been alive. The air around it was warm but not hot, and it smelled like forest after rain.
Every member of the royal family stood in a circle around the pit in white ceremonial dress. Kiyoshi stood among them, the only outsider permitted inside. He kept his hands still at his sides.
The doors at the far end of the chamber opened.
Princess Evani walked through.
She was young — the youngest of the royal children, just past her hundredth year. Her dress was gold and green and white, unlike the others, ceremonial in a way that marked this as hers specifically. She walked slowly. Her face was calm in the way that covered something larger underneath.
She reached the edge of the pit.
She stepped in.
The flames took her dress immediately — the fabric gone in a breath. But her skin was untouched. She stood in the green fire and her eyes slowly shifted colour, irises turning vivid green, and she was still.
A plant grew.
Kiyoshi looked at the plant and thought: ask.
"Goddess of the forest," he said quietly. "Please bear the fruit."
It came up through the flame from nothing — stem, leaves, a single bud that opened into fruit within seconds. The whole room was silent.
The light came without warning.
Everyone closed their eyes or looked away. When they opened them again, Evani stood in the pit transformed — golden eagle feathers across her arms and shoulders, her eyes sharp and amber, small wings folded at her back, her legs restructured into the long angular form of a raptor. She looked like something from an old story.
She looked like what she was supposed to be.
Lord Garion made a sound Kiyoshi had not heard from him before. Relief, raw and unguarded, before the lord caught it and composed himself.
"This is the lost trait," he said. His voice was steady but his eyes weren't. "Returned."
Nanime was staring at Kiyoshi. "That prayer was the crudest thing I have ever heard in a sacred chamber."
"The goddess answered it anyway," the lord said.
Kiyoshi bowed his head. "I'm sorry for what she went through."
Evani stepped out of the pit and the transformation released — feathers and wings and amber eyes fading back to the girl underneath, who then folded at the knees. Nanime caught her before she hit the floor.
"Food and rest," the lord said quietly. "Take her."
Nanime lifted her younger sister and carried her toward the door without another word.
The lord watched them go.
Then, behind Kiyoshi, he heard the queen's voice — low, meant only for her husband.
"This boy's blessing is too high. We bring him to our side permanently, or we remove the problem."
The lord said nothing in response.
📍 The Garden — Elfior Mansion | Later
"Kiyoshi."
"Yes, my Lord."
They were walking the garden path, just the two of them. The morning light was coming through the canopy in long gold strips.
"How would you feel," the lord said, "about marrying Nanime?"
Kiyoshi stopped walking.
"...My Lord?"
Lord Garion turned to face him. His expression had the same quality it always had — composed, direct, reading. "I am presenting an official proposal from Duke Garion Elfior. Your answer."
Kiyoshi's mouth opened. Nothing useful came out.
"One year before the marriage takes place," Garion continued. "You would receive noble status upon engagement. The thirty gold from Princess Evani is yours regardless." A pause. "You have one day to decide."
Kiyoshi bowed because it was the only thing his body remembered how to do. "Thank you, my Lord."
📍 The Treetop Chamber | That Afternoon
Sakura listened to the full explanation without interrupting.
Then: "Are you into older women?"
"That's not — no. I couldn't say no to his face. He's a duke. He'd kill me."
"She's the leader of the Yamogi Gang. She's S rank. She's five hundred years older than you."
"I know that."
"We're here to get to A rank. Find the maid. Go home. Save the world." Sakura crossed her arms. "That's the plan."
"I know the plan."
"Then what are you thinking about?"
Kiyoshi looked at his hands. "I'm thinking that saying no to a duke in his own garden with his assassins ten metres away is not something you just do."
Sakura was quiet for a moment. Then, more carefully: "It's not a bad alliance. If it came to that. She's powerful. The family has resources." She looked away. "The choice is yours."
"I want to think about it."
She nodded once and said nothing else.
📍 The Treetop Chamber | Night
Sakura lay on her side facing the wall.
I would be alone. The thought sat in her chest, heavier than she expected. He'd be engaged. He'd have a household, a title, a partner who can actually protect him properly. That's better for him.
So why does it feel like this.
Just say no, Kiyoshi. Please just say no.
She didn't say any of it out loud.
Kiyoshi stared at the ceiling.
A duke. Rejecting a duke meant both of them in danger. Accepting meant — he didn't finish the thought about what accepting meant, because it led somewhere he didn't want to look at directly.
She'd be alone, he thought. Who heals her when she goes too far. Who's there when it's dark and she won't admit she's scared.
She's the only person I have in this world.
He didn't say that out loud either.
📍 The Treetop Chamber | Dawn
Kiyoshi woke first.
Sakura was still asleep. Her eyes were dry now but they hadn't been a few hours ago — he could tell. He pulled the blanket up to her neck because the morning was cold.
He looked at her for a moment.
Then he left to meet the duke.
📍 The Garden — Elfior Mansion | Morning
Nanime was already there when he arrived. She walked to him and spoke close to his ear, her voice flat and quiet.
"Say yes and you live comfortably for sixty or seventy years until you die. Say no and you both die tonight. This marriage is for your blessing. You would be a useful tool with a pleasant life." She stepped back. "Choose."
The duke watched from across the path.
"Your answer, Kiyoshi."
Kiyoshi's mouth was dry.
"I have a girlfriend," he said. "I promised her I would only marry her. The promise was made under a death magic contract." He kept his voice even. "If I break it, I die."
There was a silence.
"Who is she," the duke said.
"Sakura."
The duke looked at him for a long moment. Then at Nanime. "Bring her."
Sakura arrived to find Kiyoshi looking at her with one clear message in his eyes.
Please.
She looked at the duke. She looked at Nanime. She understood the shape of the situation in about three seconds.
"Is it true," Nanime said. "The death magic contract."
Sakura looked back at Kiyoshi.
He lied. There's no contract. He made this up to get out of it and now I'm in it with him.
She held Nanime's gaze. "Yes," she said. "It's true."
The duke was quiet for a moment. Then he waved his hand.
"You may both leave."
📍 The Garden Path — Outside the Pavilion
They were twenty metres away when Sakura turned to him.
He spoke first. "I'm sor—"
"Don't." She kept walking. "Just don't get us killed."
He matched her pace. "We're fine."
"We'd better be."
They walked in silence for a few seconds.
"Thank you," he said.
She didn't answer. But she didn't pull ahead either.
📍 The Pavilion — Lord Garion's Study | Moments Later
"She's lying," Nanime said.
The lord stood at the window with his back to the room.
"There is no contract," she continued. "I would have sensed the binding magic on either of them. There's nothing."
The lord said nothing.
"He refused you," Nanime said. Her voice was controlled. Just under the control was something else. "In your own garden. With a lie."
Garion turned from the window. His face had the particular stillness of a decision already made.
"Sakura's head before tomorrow morning."
Nanime's jaw tightened. "And the boy?"
"He stays. Alive." A pause. "He will cooperate once she is gone. A blessing that strong does not get wasted."
Nanime looked at him for a moment. Then she turned and left.
Behind a thick curtain of flowering brush, Evani stood very still.
She had heard every word.
✦ CODEX — Chapter Fifteen ✦
World Archive: Entries Relevant to Chapter Fifteen
ENTRY 060 — THE BEAST RITUAL: EVANI'S RESULT
Princess Evani Elfior, youngest of the royal children, underwent the Beast Ritual on the thirtieth day of Kiyoshi and Sakura's stay. Her beast form: Golden Eagle — feathers, wings, raptor legs, amber eyes. Classified as the lost trait by Lord Garion, meaning this form had not appeared in the Elfior line for at least one generation.
The ritual's success was directly tied to Kiyoshi's prayer. Without the goddess's blessing, the fruit would have been bitter and the transformation incomplete or absent. The family now understands the full value of what he carries.
ENTRY 061 — THE DEATH MAGIC CONTRACT
A real magical binding in which two parties agree to terms under an enchantment. If the contract is broken by either party, a pre-agreed consequence activates automatically. Consequences can include death, injury, loss of a skill, or other penalties. The binding leaves a detectable magical signature on both parties.
Kiyoshi invented this contract. No such binding exists between him and Sakura. Nanime identified the lie immediately.
ENTRY 062 — LORD GARION'S ORDER
Sakura: death before morning.
Kiyoshi: kept alive. To be used as a blessing-slave once Sakura is removed.
The lord's reasoning: Kiyoshi's blessing is too valuable to destroy. Sakura is the obstacle. Remove her, isolate him, and he will have no choice but to comply.
Only three people know: Garion, Nanime, and Evani.
End of Chapter Fifteen Codex.