Everything had been going so well.
They were here as Roswaal's honored guests, saviors of a Royal Candidate, collecting the rewards they'd earned. And now look at them.
Gojo, that absolute idiot, had torn the mansion apart piece by piece.
Even while helping Rem with repairs earlier, the sight of that first hole in the wall had put a knot in Felt's stomach. She'd worried it might cost them their payment. A gap that size would mean compensation even in an ordinary house, let alone a nobleman's estate, where every brick and beam was worth more than anything a commoner could afford.
We're not going to end up owing money instead of getting paid, are we?
The thought nearly made her vision go dark.
"Get down here, you moron!" Her voice cracked with urgency. If he apologized now, right now, maybe Roswaal would go easy on them. Maybe the damages wouldn't be catastrophic.
Because her savings weren't going to cover this.
Felt's luck had been rotten from the moment she'd crossed paths with Satoru Gojo. Not a single good thing had come of it. This trip was supposed to be fine food and comfortable beds and getting paid. Instead she was staring down bankruptcy.
"Sorry, sorry."
Gojo floated down from the second floor with Beatrice in his arms, landing in front of the group.
"Mr. Gojo, I trust you have an adequate explanation. Otherwise, what we're looking at is a guest destroying his host's property on a rather impressive scale."
Ram stood in front of Roswaal, her expression frigid. The words were polite enough. The tone was not.
"Easy, easy. You're scaring me with that look, Miss Ram."
His attempts at a calming gesture were undermined by the fact that he was still holding Beatrice, making the whole motion look faintly ridiculous.
"Besides, I'm sure Roswaal doesn't mind. Right?"
"I wouldn't be so certain." Roswaal's smile held, but it had cooled by several degrees. That theatrical drawl stretched each word thin. "This home carries a great many memories for me. Watching it get demolished does sting, I'm afraid."
Gojo shook his head. "Come on. Don't be hostile. I did something good here. Probably."
"Probably?" Felt's eyes narrowed. If there was a silver lining, some angle that could reduce the damages, she needed to find it. But could this man do something good? She had serious doubts. Causing disasters, sure. Good deeds were another matter entirely.
"How about we go inside first? Betty's going to wake up soon."
Only then did everyone notice the state Beatrice was in. Her eyes were open, wide and glassy, but her body was locked rigid. A doll frozen mid-thought.
Roswaal studied her for a moment and nodded. "Inside, then."
The group filed into the mansion.
"The study," Gojo said, smiling at Roswaal.
Roswaal glanced at the others. "The rest of you, carry on."
Emilia and Subaru exchanged a look. Felt clicked her tongue. The message was obvious: private conversation, outsiders not welcome.
Inside the study, Gojo had barely settled into his chair when Beatrice snapped out of the Unlimited Void's hold.
He hadn't kept her under long. The point had been to stop her from interfering, nothing more. And with her strength and centuries of experience, her mind adapted faster than most.
Color flooded her face the instant awareness returned, a deep flush climbing from her neck to her cheeks at visible speed.
Before she could speak, Gojo said it.
"I destroyed the Forbidden Library."
Across from him, Roswaal's smile froze solid.
"What?"
He stared at Gojo as if unsure his ears still worked, then asked again.
He didn't seem to notice that his usual eccentric inflection had vanished completely.
"I destroyed the Forbidden Library."
This time, Beatrice's voice shattered the repetition.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?!"
Her face was scarlet, her voice raw.
After losing the Book of Wisdom, she'd made her decision. She would stay in the Forbidden Library for the rest of her existence. However long it took. However it ended. Even if that end meant extinguishing herself when she could bear no more.
And Gojo had demolished that resolution along with everything else.
Inside the Void, trapped and paralyzed, she had perceived every move he made with perfect clarity. She'd felt the Mana gathering at his fingertip. She'd understood what he intended to do. She had screamed inside her own mind, thrashing against the invisible chains, desperate to stop him.
It hadn't mattered. She could only watch.
If the Book of Wisdom had been her last anchor, the Forbidden Library was her only home. Now both were gone. She was a person with no shelter and no future, cast adrift in a world she hadn't chosen to face.
"Mr. Gojo, if this is a joke, it isn't funny."
Every trace of amusement had drained from Roswaal's face. He spoke with the precision of a man choosing each word like a weapon.
"Is Beatrice's reaction not proof enough?" Gojo met his gaze evenly. "Or do you think she and I are close enough that she'd help me pull a prank on you?"
Roswaal fell silent.
Pressure rolled off him in waves, invisible but suffocating. The man who dressed like a court jester, who spoke in that absurd singsong lilt, who looked nothing like a nobleman and even less like the Kingdom's Head Magician, now radiated the kind of force that held an entire frontier in check.
Gojo didn't seem to notice. His eyes were on Beatrice.
"I'm sorry about the Book of Wisdom. And I didn't ask your permission before destroying the Library."
"But."
"I think this was the best outcome for you. So I did it."
"What do you know?!" Tears spilled down her cheeks. "That was Betty's promise to her mother! The place Betty chose to protect with her own free will! And you... you..."
Her protests crashed against the calm of his gaze and broke apart. Word by word, her voice dropped, the fire guttering.
She had no ground to stand on, and she knew it.
It had started as a joke. Destroy the book next time. Then she'd watched him obliterate the Library with her own frozen eyes.
All of it.
Every piece of destruction.
After the initial shock and panic had faded, what remained was something she hadn't expected.
Relief.
As long as "that person" never appeared, as long as the Forbidden Library still stood, her Contract bound her to that place. No matter how many years passed. No matter how many centuries stretched ahead. She couldn't even end her own life, because the Contract wouldn't allow it.
There had been times, alone in the Library's silence, when she'd fantasized about an enemy finding the hidden space. Someone who would kill her and end the vigil. But the Mathers family had thrived for generations, and the Library had been protected along with the estate. An extra layer of security around her cage, whether anyone intended it that way or not.
When Gojo had spoken inside the Library, when she'd seen the light gather at his fingertip, her instincts had rebelled. Every fiber of her being had fought against what was happening.
But deeper than instinct, buried beneath centuries of duty, a small and desperate hope had stirred.
She could lie to anyone. She could not lie to herself.
Now that the Forbidden Library was gone, now that it was fact and not fantasy, the feeling that filled her chest wasn't grief.
It was freedom.
Gojo's actions were difficult to condemn. He had shattered the Contract she'd sworn to her mother. But he had also freed her from a prison that had been slowly killing her for four hundred years. He'd dragged her out of a life with no future and forced her to face one that might have possibilities.
"Mr. Gojo." Roswaal's voice cut through the room like a blade laid flat. "You aided Lady Emilia. You were, by right, an honored guest of the Mathers family. But your actions have crossed every acceptable boundary. The Forbidden Library held immense significance for the Mathers household. Its destruction is unforgivable."
His eyes found Beatrice's tears, and something shifted behind them. His expression hardened further. The Mana in the room began to respond, stirring like the surface of a lake before a storm.
Roswaal spoke coldly, both palms open before him. Four points of light materialized above his hands, each no larger than a fingertip. Red, yellow, blue, green. They swayed and flickered, casting prismatic light across every surface of the study, filling the room with a luminous beauty that carried an unmistakable threat beneath it.
Gojo read the situation at a glance. Negotiations were over. The destruction of the Forbidden Library had genuinely angered the Family Head, and talking wasn't going to fix it.
"I think we could still chat about this."
"If you go through with this, you're going to regret it."
Even facing the full pressure of the Kingdom's Head Magician, Gojo's expression didn't waver. That slightly irreverent smile stayed exactly where it was, as though the threat occupying every corner of the room simply didn't register.
"Once you've paid the appropriate price, perhaps I'll consider giving you that chance."
The lights in Roswaal's palms erupted.
Gojo sighed through a quiet laugh and shook his head.
Didn't want to play certain cards this early. He'd been holding information back, things he hadn't planned on telling Roswaal yet. Let's hope he doesn't regret this.
The thought formed as he reached for Beatrice, intending to pull her behind him before the fight began.
His hand closed on empty air.
"Enough, Roswaal."
Deep violet light exploded into the kaleidoscope of color already filling the room. Yin Attribute Mana, blazing like a star, fierce and overwhelming, drowning out everything else.
And the voice at its center was one Gojo knew well.
Betty.
"Beatrice. Do you understand what you're doing?"
The light faded. Roswaal stood behind his desk, staring at the small figure who had placed herself between them. His voice was cold.
"He destroyed the Library you were sworn to protect. That is your failure, and his crime. And yet you shield him?"
Beatrice turned her head, just slightly, and glanced back at Gojo. The look on her face was complicated. Then she faced Roswaal again.
"Betty is the Forbidden Library's guardian. This is Betty's affair. Not yours."
"This is the Mathers estate, and I am the Family Head. This is not something you get to decide alone."
Roswaal gave no ground. His stance was iron.
"Furthermore, Beatrice. As a Spirit, without the Forbidden Library supplying your Mana... do you believe you can match me?"
"That's not your concern!"
She didn't flinch. Her voice rang with a certainty that hadn't been there before.
Gojo's actions had violated the old Contract. He'd annihilated the place she was sworn to guard. By any reasonable measure, she should despise him for it.
But she could not lie to her own heart.
Even without the Library feeding her Mana. Even if depleting her reserves meant death. That kind of ending was better than rotting away in that cage for another four hundred years.
"Doesn't look great for you. Want a hand, Betty?"
The flippant voice came from right beside her ear. A large hand settled on top of her head, ruffling her hair.
"Idiot." Her voice broke. "Do you even realize what you're... you..."
Roswaal's eyes flickered, something unreadable passing through their depths. Then he attacked.
Mana surged through the air in a torrent.
Beatrice sensed it the instant it moved. As a Great Spirit, her perception of magical energy was razor-sharp, her reflexes honed by centuries. She gathered what little Mana she had left and launched it to intercept.
This time, Roswaal wasn't holding back.
Spells and strikes cascaded toward her in an unbroken wave, each one flowing into the next, relentless as a tide.
...
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