Tomorrow, natural disasters will collide.

If you’re living in this world, it’s something that would’ve exploded sooner or later, but it came early.

In the first place, when whales fight, it’s always the shrimp that gets crushed in the middle. But that’s only if the shrimp is caught right in the middle of the whales’ fight.

From a bit farther away—if I disappear after grabbing what the whales want first—there’s no reason to get swept up in a pointless big fight.

Besides, I’m a bit too big to be called a shrimp now. More like a swordfish.

Pop—

Right after 『Infinite Mirage』 was dispelled, the flickering projectors instantly returned to normal. The dazed agents also came to their senses.

“Hm? What was that?”

“Why is everyone gathered here? Ah, right, the screen flickered.”

“It’s fine now. Must’ve been a bug—we’ll have to check the system.”

The agents started returning to their stations and resumed their work as if nothing had happened. Here, only Gray and I remembered what had occurred.

‘Stay well hidden.’

Gray nodded, even as fear lingered in her eyes.

When I returned to the restaurant area on the first floor of the casino, people were still laughing and chatting, having a great time.

For a calm before the storm, this was quite the sight.

It was only possible because two [Constellations] were gritting their teeth, doing everything they could to hide the situation from the outside world.

‘Originally, this was planned as a 48-hour operation.’

With just 24 hours, time was tight. The parts of the plan that could be accelerated needed to be pushed further.

Dante: Elize, Kendreik. Push forward the schedule for locating and preparing to cut off the magic power supply unit as much as possible.

Elize: Understood!

There was no reply from Kendreik. He seemed busy.

Dante: Balmung. Gray successfully entered the control room, so it’s time for you to begin “cooking.”

Balmung: Understood. Acknowledged.

Balmung’s voice through the comms was filled with force. Like he was tense in front of a powerful enemy.

He must’ve felt it too. The killing intent and mana that spread in a flash from the Black Star⚉.

‘Up to this point, there’s no problem yet.’

Just as I was heading toward the room, my steps came to a sudden halt.

“Hey! I said if you don’t meet the dress code, get out!”

Thud!

A guard shoved a man.

He was a man wearing shabby armor, and when he fell, the woman next to him snapped.

“What do you think you’re doing? We’re not here to gamble, okay? It’s not even open hours yet!”

“So what? Whether you came to gamble or to take a stroll, get your dress code in order first, lady! What are you doing walking around in some ragged cloth and beggar maid outfit?”

At that moment, I was genuinely startled inside, because the woman’s face was too familiar.

‘Adele?’

But the expression wasn’t familiar. The usual soft or gentle smile she wore was nowhere to be seen. It was full of icy sharpness.

“Beggar maid outfit?”

Adele was angry.

“Hey. Did you just say everything you meant to say?”

Looking closely, I saw a † cross-shaped tattoo on her cheek.

In other words, this was Adele Muang of Kreutz.

The cleric of the Hero’s party.

Which meant the guy who had just been shoved and knocked over was...

‘The Hero.’

The man staggered back to his feet. The Hero Glory. What the hell was he doing here? I thought for a moment, and then went ‘ah.’

Of course he had to be here.

Because it’s the main story.

And the name of that story is “Holy Sword Capture Battle.”

“Let’s go...”

“No no, hold on a second. We’re not going like this.

Hey, you meatball. Do I look like a pushover to you?”

“W-what?! Meatball??”

The guard jumped up.

What should I do? I thought about it for a second and chose to watch.

Adele Muang seemed to have quite the temper. She wasn’t backing down even against the burly guard and started shouting back.

“Let’s go... Don’t do this...”

The depressed Hero didn’t know what to do.

“Let me go! Did that bastard just say ‘beggar maid outfit’ to my face?!”

“What else should I call a beggar maid outfit if not a beggar maid outfit!”

“This outfit was handmade by my mother, you f***ing bastard! Who the hell are you to call it a beggar maid outfit?!”

Adele Muang charged forward and smacked the guard with her wand.

Smack!

“Gah!”

The guard’s head twisted sideways.

Although Adele was a cleric, from the way she swung, she seemed to have been a paladin once.

“Hey! Freeze! Drop your weapon and cease resistance!”

“If you don’t surrender immediately, we will open fire! Cease resistance now!”

Soon, the security personnel came rushing in and dragged the two of them away. The Hero offered no resistance. He simply stared at the ground, stumbling when pushed and pulled as he was taken away.

At that moment, those gloomy, sunken, sky-blue eyes lifted—and met mine.

“......”

“......”

The bastard was staring at me.

At that moment, I thought for a second. Ultimately, the reason I’m trying to obtain the 「Peacemaker†」 is to hand it over to that bastard. But right now, maybe it’s better if he doesn’t have it.

So I waved at him.

Don’t get cocky and just rest in prison for now.

***

While Dante’s assassination team was carrying out their roles, I too had work to do with Rebecca.

Rebecca was sitting with her legs crossed, looking disgruntled.

“You heard?”

“......”

She nodded at my question. As expected, Rebecca was able to resist 『Infinite Mirage』.

Her circumstances were odd. She came here to buy something, ran into me, then got dragged into my ‘vault heist’ without even realizing how, and ended up joining in.

She seemed quite displeased with that.

“Professor. I’m a cleric now. And clerics don’t break into vaults.”

“I’m the one breaking in.”

“Then I’ll be going now. May I?”

Layme, beside her, was glaring at me like she wanted to kill me.

The look said, ‘How dare you keep the princess tied up here.’ Yet despite that, her expression looked unwell, probably due to the lingering effects of the poison.

I checked the time.

The evening opening hour of the casino was 30 minutes away.

In other words, it was a complete downtime at the moment.

That worked in my favor.

There was a question I had meant to ask earlier, but the timing hadn’t worked out.

“Rebecca. You said you used to train in swordsmanship?”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious? The Hiaka royal family is a family of swordsmen.”

That was true. And I also remembered how Rebecca’s hands and feet were rough and callused.

“Then why didn’t you continue swordsmanship and instead entered the assassin academy?”

That’s where my curiosity began.

“......”

She still avoided my gaze and began fiddling with the ends of her hair.

“...Because I had no talent.”

“How about as an assassin? Did you have talent in that?”

“I didn’t.”

“Then what about now, being in the Virgin Church?”

“Can one even have talent in faith?”

Yes, one can.

In real life, maybe not. But in this game, it clearly exists as a stat.

“Does the Virgin respond to you often? Or do you possess more divine power than the other cardinal candidates?”

“......”

Rebecca turned her head away with a visibly uncomfortable face.

Even so, she answered honestly.

“...Not really.”

Yeah.

Of course that’s how it is.

She had no talent as a swordswoman. No talent as an assassin. And no talent even as a cleric.

I listed everything I had figured out about Rebecca up until now.

‘The bearer of mana.’

A civilian who could see through even my illusion technique and appraise the worth of [Unappraised] items—an extremely high-level trait of Lv.9.

‘Potential 2.9’

Higher even than other outstanding Dormant Dragon cadets.

‘One of the two people who didn’t trigger the 【Script】 from the beginning.’

The other was the Hero, Glory.

And just now, as I came face to face with Glory, I realized something.

‘And finally, the fact that she instinctively moved the moment the main story began—’

......My gaze stopped near the ceiling. The swaying chandelier felt frozen like a still life. The noise of the people faded. A sensation like puzzle pieces snapping together.

Considering all of this, Rebecca was......

‘The Mage of the Hero’s Party—’

At the same moment, the System⧉ drove the final nail in.

⧉ Tip: Rebecca is the Mage of the Hero’s Party.

So that was it.

She was the Mage of the Hero’s Party.

Once I completed that deduction, the foul-tempered blonde sitting in front of me began to look a little different. The blink of her sulky eyes seemed different, too.

I’d thought that with a personality like that, I could just write her off. I must’ve thought that way at first.

‘Hero’s Party.’

The hazy photo in my mind became clearer. The Demon Lord War. A future that would arrive in just three years, but which I hadn’t been able to grasp, was now starting to take shape.

Warrior, Assassin, Mage, Cleric.

In this world’s setting, the Hero’s Party consists of four members. And now, with Glory, Adele Muang, and Rebecca, I’d identified three.

‘I can feel it now—how I’m standing right in the center of the main story.’

And at the same time, a question began to rise.

Swordsmanship training in the royal palace. Then Hiaka’s Department of Assassination. Then, the Church of the Virgin.

She had lived with such relentless effort.

“......Rebecca. Why didn’t you study magic?”

At that, Rebecca, who had been avoiding my gaze, showed a more visibly drained expression. My question must’ve annoyed her.

“...What kind of nonsense is that now?”

“Isn’t it a valid question? If you can see mana particles with your eyes, wouldn’t it be natural to assume you have talent in magic?”

“I have no talent for magic.”

“You’re saying {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} you tried?”

“Of course I tried. I picked up the sword because I had no talent in magic.”

That couldn’t be true.

Rebecca was under a major misconception.

To be the ‘Mage of the Hero’s Party’ meant she was the only mage capable of slaying the Demon Lord—meant she was the number one mage across this entire world setting.

‘Starting from the ability to see mana particles.’

Even that “intuition” she constantly talked about. That was another way of describing ‘magical foresight.’ It meant Rebecca could sense the flow of the world, of the future, with her instincts.

“Still, you should try learning magic one more ti—”

“I.”

Rebecca raised her voice slightly.

“I hate magic.”

A heavy silence fell.

Rebecca clearly wanted to shut down the conversation entirely.

“.......”

“.......”

In fact, I wanted to ask her. If she had no talent even for magic—

“...Then what do you have talent for?”

The child who seemed ready to command the world, who acted like she had everything—was she in fact someone without any talent at all?

“.......”

A few seconds passed. Rebecca stared at me blankly, then gave an answer I hadn’t expected.

“Effort.”

“Effort?”

“Yes. Effort. Working hard even when I don’t want to. Persisting even when there’s no progress. Not comparing myself to others even when I want to—just walking my own path. That’s my talent.”

“...Really?”

That’s not it.

That too is a kind of great talent—but that’s not what Rebecca’s talent is.

If it were, she should have kept learning the sword. But Rebecca had given it up.

At that moment, Rebecca suddenly stood up, an unpleasant expression on her face.

“Where are you going?”

“The bathroom.”

Then she turned her head sharply and snapped.

“Professor. Have you ever considered respecting me a little more? Maybe tone down that obsessive control freak side of yours?”

“.......”

“I’m a princess, you know. Sure, I’m getting treated like crap now, but I’m still a princess of a nation. Do I have to report it to you every time I go take a piss?”

With that, Rebecca stormed off.

Boom!

The door slammed like it might shatter.

Then Layme, looking flustered, spoke up.

“...Professor Dante. Are you insane? Why would you say something like that?”

“I wanted to hear her answer.”

“Hear her answer, my ass! Don’t you get it? If you really don’t, then never bring up magic around Princess Rebecca again.”

Why?

I asked, and Layme whispered.

“Princess Rebecca’s adoptive father was a mage. And he sold her to the royal palace for pocket change.”

“Sold her?”

“Yes. It’s a harsh way to put it, but the king tried to respect the adoptive father’s will. But it was a sale. He got paid. So what else would you call it?”

“.......”

“Don’t bring up magic to the princess. It was a royal taboo. Right now she’s in front of you, and her temper’s calmed down a bit, so it ended there. But back in the day? She used to threaten to kill people over it.”

I see.

‘What a pain in the ass.’

Never mind the Holy Sword Capture Battle—this was a problem in itself. Rebecca, who was supposed to grow into the Mage of the Hero’s Party, was wasting her time fiddling with beggar children in the Virgin Church.

I needed a way forward.

As I was thinking that, time passed, and the casino’s opening hour arrived.

“.......”

Rebecca returned from the bathroom after thirty minutes, looking completely deflated.

“.......”

“.......”

Neither of us apologized. We weren’t close enough for that anyway.

But I kept thinking. And finally, I recalled a place where I could draw out Rebecca’s “true talent.” Unexpectedly, that place was our very next destination.

“Princess Rebecca.”

“.......”

Sharp eyes looked up at me.

Sir Layme had just fallen asleep from the lingering poison.

“Yes?”

I tempted a princess who had probably never touched vice in her life.

“You want me... to gamble?”

Rebecca furrowed her brows again.

***

“Professor. Are you out of your mind?”

Thus, both of us, with anonymous masks on to conceal our faces, were on our way to the Goldenfield Casino. Rebecca was snapping nonstop.

“Why should I gamble? Even if you’re doing it, it has nothing to do with me, and I don’t even want to go.”

“I’m not just a princess anymore, I’m a cleric in the Virgin Church. Not just any cleric, but a candidate for cardinal. Don’t you know the Church has a doctrine against gambling?”

“What kind of adult encourages a kid to gamble anyway? Is that the kind of person you are, Professor?”

I've thought this before, but Rebecca and I really don’t mesh well.

Every time she opens her mouth, she takes the exact opposite position from me.

“Rebecca.”

“What?”

“You know, you can’t just call yourself a ‘kid’ when it’s convenient. You were an adult last year. And the year before that too.”

“Whatever!”

“Whatever it is, let’s try it once. I’m using my money anyway—how does it burden you?”

“No! I won’t do something as sinful as gambling! That goes against my faith!”

Even so, considering I hadn’t grabbed her by the collar, it was strange how she kept walking along with me.

“Excuse me. Professor!”

At that moment, Rebecca stepped in front of me.

“You know what? You act like such a good person, but you’re actually a really dangerous man.”

“And you act like the world’s most dangerous person, yet you flinch at mere gambling?”

“Who cares what I am? Whether I’m dangerous or not—what’s it to anyone?”

“Alright. We’re almost there.”

I passed her and kept walking.

“...Seriously, how can someone be so damn self-centered??”

.

.

.

.

.

The moment Rebecca stepped into the casino, she was taken aback.

“...Huh?”

Chips started piling up like crazy.