A gust of wind passed by: did the voice of the boy standing quietly beside her summon it, or was his voice the gust itself? A single phrase that passed by with a cold breeze in heated air. Rajas must have heard it as well.
“A... magician.”
Rajas frowned and repeated Suimei’s words. He didn’t recognize Suimei for a moment due to his different clothes, but soon made an expression of recognition.
“Yes, you’re that…. annoying mage kid from that time.”
Suimei remained silent, leaned sideways and stared down at Rajas. Rajas spoke in bemused tone as if he was pleasantly surprised.
“So, a mere mage managed to get here past all my subordinates. There should have been quite a lot of them, hmmm?”
“Yea, needlessly many. You seem to have scrapped all kinds of trash together. I almost threw up.”
“Seems like you had quite the fun with those trash. Considering your state, I can feel the genuineness of your words. Kuhahahaha!!”
Rajas smiled mockingly while twisting his words. But Suimei’s appearance was indeed pitiful. There were no visible wounds, but his black clothes were torn everywhere. Neither his stance nor movement felt spritely, his rough breathing felt somewhat laboured and there were even faint sword marks on his face. It showed that getting here must have been quite a chore.
Rajas looked at Suimei and asked as if he was still interested.
“― So? How did you get here? Did you go through them all or did you try to run?”
“I simply removed the ones blocking my path.”
“Hoo.. Talking big when you look like that.”
Rajas laughed mockingly again. Perhaps he saw Suimei and thought of it only as a bluff of a wounded person. The way Suimei talked confidently only appeared as a bluff from someone who did not like losing.
“So tell me. Why did you go through all that to come here?”
“I don’t think now’s the time to be nitpicky about a small detail like that.”
“... You’re not going to say you came to rescue that girl over there, are you?”
“What if that’s the truth?”
Suimei replied to Rajas’ question. He came to rescue her. To be her strength. Even though she refused his hand for help. Even though she didn’t need to do that. It was too late now.
Rajas noticed Suimei’s will and exploded into laughter a beat later.
“What?! HAHAHAHAA!! You really said something like that!! You came to save a girl in this situation?! You must be out of your mind!”
That was right. Just like Rajas said, he was out of his mind. He couldn’t have been thinking rationally to go through an army of mazokus to walk into the jaws of death. There was nothing he could gain by coming here. There was nothing a human could want. He would only have things to lose by coming here. But why?