Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Volume 18 prologue

「Lizharte. You will succeed the unfulfilled will of your father, the great hero Atismata, and become the princess of the New Kingdom. That is the responsibility that you ought to take up.」

The voice felt really far away, like it was something that happened a really long time ago.

However, she was able to remember this memory of five years ago vividly like it was only yesterday.

Inside the stone castle that was burnt along with the crumbling of the Old Empire.

Prime Minister Nulph who was her father's adjutant at that time rescued Lisha from the hidden passage inside the well and told her that.

At that time Lisha didn't understand.

She who was taken hostage was abandoned by her father. After that she betrayed her father because she didn't want to die.

The inerasable mark of her submission toward the Old Empire was remaining in her body.

How could her current self introduce herself as a princess who succeeded her father's dying will?

However, if she refused this then Lisha would have nowhere to go.

She could only let herself being toyed around by fate. Like that she gradually settled into her position as princess.

Her real self that wished to be saved by someone.

The wound of her heart from being abandoned by the father she trusted.

Lisha who felt hatred inside her heart toward the title as the great hero's orphan immersed herself into developing and using Drag-Ride.

She could only deceive her current self by doing that.

Because she believed that she didn't have any qualification to correctly lead the New Kingdom as the daughter of the great hero.

At the surface she acted as Crimson War Princess, the leader of the new generation, but she was actually suffering inside.

Someone who knew and able to accept her real self, someone who she could trust.

She wanted such existence all this time.

Then Lisha encountered that young man.

「Lu, x……?」

While it felt like the time was stopping for eternity, snow was fluttering down at the surrounding.

It was a romantic snowy landscape within the Ancient Forest.

The true indentify of the Drag-Knight who was giving instruction to her little sister──Alma who should be the leader of Azure Division that proclaimed war to the New Kingdom.

Lisha even doubted this definite reality, wondering if it might be a deception.

The young man before her eyes. Lux, the one who Lisha trusted the most, was none other than the ringleader who carried out this coup d'etat. This scene was telling her that.

「Is this, some kind of mistake? What am I, seeing right now?」

It was like the time was still stopping. The young man in front of her wasn't moving.

His body didn't stir at the slightest, he was unable to.

「Are you, betraying me and Hahue?」

Was Lux under the manipulation of someone else, or perhaps──.

How comfortable it would be if she could believe that?

But, the grim look that appeared on Lux's expression when Lisha called to him told her that this was the truth.

「Answer me Lux! Did you do this!? In order to destroy the New Kingdom」

In contrast Lux couldn't say anything back.

His plan to hide his true identity till the end and took down Sacred Eclipse without Lisha ever learning about it was already crumbling.

However, he was unable to tell the truth and persuade Lisha while she was under the effect of world revision.

In the first place, he also didn't know whether the binding on Lisha's perception had been dispelled or not, and even if the binding was dispelled he didn't want to tell her the truth.

If he did that, Lisha who finally obtained a family would become burdened by even more tragic fate.

She would be forced to take down her step mother who was possessed by the Ruin's system called Sacred Eclipse with her own hand like that.

Was there no other choice but to tell Lisha everything, persuade her, tell her to kill her mother, and placed even more shackle of sin on her?

The answer that he derived at the end of his complication was──.

「You are……an impostor. There is no way, that Lux will betray me and Hahue……. You're, fake!」

Something that looked like red vapor surged out from Lisha's body. She pulled out her Sword Device from her belt.

Seeing that abnormality, Lux realized that it was the power of physical strengthening that she obtained from Baptism.

At the same time, he also realized that she was seeing him as enemy and she would face him with all her strength.

「──Awaken, founding ancestor. O dragon king of the gods who formed an army by your lonesome. Tiamat!」

A huge crimson Divine Drag-Ride was summoned before Lisha's eyes. It split into countless parts.

「──Connect On!」

And then, it transformed into armor that covered Lisha's whole body. Its movement made mechanical sound that sounded like a roar.

「Hero-dono, please──escape from here for now!」

Seeing that, Lisha's little sister Alma urged Lux to retreat in panic.

But, it was too slow.

「Alma! Get away!」

Lux somehow gave that instruction within the short time before unsheathing his Sword Device and lifting it up.

He would summon the Divine Drag-Ride Bahamut and wore it in order to confront Lisha and held her back.

That day when Lux first came to the academy, the two of them also fought.

The curtain of the stage was opened once more, as though to trace the beginning that was their encounter.

Chapter end