Dida's eyes gradually—yet unmistakably—began to turn a deeper and deeper shade of red.

It was just like the first time I met Ion.

Black tattoos writhed across his body, and his eyes turned as red as blood.

Dida had told a lie under a contract that mandated he speak only the truth. As punishment for that lie, Dida now bore the Prison Crest.

However, this was still within my expectations.

"Ha... ha-ha... I can't muster any strength... So this is the Prison Crest..."

Dida muttered in a half-dazed state.

In this country, a Prison Crest is proof that one is a high-level criminal. One forsaken by the gods. One who has defied the divine name. However, if it was Dida, the Solo family would likely take him into their custody and purge the crest using spirit stones.

Normally, such people were detained as major criminals, but this country wasn't that strict about procedure—especially when dealing with the powerful. Generally speaking, those branded with the Prison Crest were abandoned even by their families, but someone as influential as Dida wouldn't be cast aside so easily.

That was precisely why he had chosen the Prison Crest over the disadvantage of speaking the truth.

And I had no intention of pressing him any further.

Rather, Dida was exactly what I suspected. I hadn't obtained a direct confession, but his involvement was beyond doubt.

"...Dida-san. I understand you bore that crest with a certain amount of resolve, but I really wanted you to tell the truth. That was my only wish... It's a disappointment."

During my sleepless night on the sofa, I had thought of several ways to handle this. Of course, I knew the probability of this outcome was high—but the feeling of "so it really turned out this way" was still strong.

If Dida had told the whole truth without lying, I had intended to use "Time Reversal Magic"—meaning Diana's recovery magic—to make it as if the conversation never happened, causing him to forget it, and then let him go.

Of course, I would have taken some money and bound him with a Spirit Contract never to interfere with us again.

But that didn't happen.

Now... I had no choice but to kill him.

I quietly pressed the "Stop Recording" button on the camera.

I had been filming everything up to this point using the recording function on my digital camera. People of this world (excluding my inner circle) didn't know what a camera was. Dida looked a bit suspicious of it, but he hadn't said anything.

The "best" method of condemnation I had envisioned was to have Dida confess everything on camera, have him forget the confession and release him, and then show the footage to the Priestess-chan so she could use the law to corner him.

That way, the risk of blowback on us would be low, and his fate would be left to the hands of justice. Naturally, the result would likely be a death sentence. There was even the possibility of his entire family being executed. But even if that happened, it would have nothing to do with me.

But it didn't work out.

Once a Prison Crest "scorches" into someone, Diana's recovery magic can't heal it, and I can't just let him go.

"Um, everyone... thank you for trusting me and watching over this. I've decided how to handle Dida."

"Jirou-sama. What will you do? You succeeded in making him bear the Prison Crest; will you call it even with that? Forgive my intrusion, but for a man like this, that much is—"

"I've decided to kill him."

Once it had come to this, there was nothing else to be done.

If he was left alive, he'd only be a threat to those of us who knew his secrets.

"Hee... ha-ha-ha-ha! You're going to kill me?! In the end! Kill me then! Go ahead! Once it has come to this, I'm as good as dead anyway!"

Dida screamed like a madman.

The loss of a Blessing.

To me, it might not seem like much, but to the people of this world, a Blessing is that heavy.

And a Prison Crest, even more so.

Honestly, I didn't want to choose the option of killing him.

I wanted to find some reason to let him go home alive.

It was truly a shame.

"You know, Dida-san. I intended to forgive you if you told the truth and made it through without losing your Blessing. In fact, I told you at the start I'd forgive you, didn't I? In the end, you couldn't do it."

"You think... I could have believed such a thing?"

"Whether you believed it or not was up to you... Besides, a Spirit Contract was placed on me as well: 'If I lie, I lose my Blessing.'"

While Dida received a modified contract, the contract stating 『I lose my Blessing if I lie』 had been firmly established on my end too.

Now that Dida's Blessing was lost, the contract itself had been nullified.

"Now then, Dida-san. The talk about the previous Emperor and all that was actually just a bonus. The main point of this whole affair was that you tried to kill me. So, if I had forgiven you, it would have been settled. Originally."

"I know nothing... of the previous Emperor. I only mentioned having heard rumors."

"Heh. Then why don't you tell me those rumors?"

Since I was at it, I decided to listen.

There was no contract anymore, so there was a high chance he was lying, but still.

"There is a princess who went missing, is there not? The rumor is that she, the third child of the previous Emperor, poisoned her father so that she could become Emperor herself."

Whoops.

Even at this late stage, he wanted to deny the Solo family's involvement.

But... this man had just stepped on a landmine.

"If she successfully poisoned him, why did she go missing?"

"The rumor is that her brother, the current Emperor, learned the truth by some means and had her handled in secret."

"I see. So you're saying the Solo family was never involved at all."

"Of course. We are merely merchants."

Well, I supposed it was only natural for him to make excuses like that.

After all—

"He'd never imagine the person herself is right here, would he..."

"...Huh? What are you talking about...?"

I took a single step back, and Ion took a single step forward.

As expected, few involved parties could stay quiet during this development.

Not just Ion, but Rebecca-san and Hetty-san were also radiating an intensity that felt like they were about to draw their swords at any moment.

"...Ayase-san, I'm sorry."

No sooner had Ion stepped in front of Dida than she tore off her mask. Her true face was revealed.

"Dida Barbacro. It has been a long time... To think you could so brazenly spout such nonsense about me poisoning my father."

"...Heh? ...Eh?"

Ion gazed straight at Dida with her cool, almond-shaped eyes.

"Im... impossible... such a...!"

Dida's face contorted with shock.

It was hard to tell because of the Prison Crest, but this was exactly what it looked like when the blood drained from someone's face.

In the end, I had been undecided on what to do about Ion.

To be blunt, I had considered letting Ion herself achieve her revenge if we were going to kill him.

But there were risky aspects to that, and I didn't know if it was truly the "right" thing to do, so I had kept it on hold—but.

"I won't let you say... that you've forgotten my face."

This was a public judgment.

"P-Princess Lucrion... You were supposed to be dead...!"

"Who knows? Perhaps Zack's lingering regret gave me this chance for revenge."

Ion slowly drew a dagger from her clothes.

A replica of the dagger Isaac had received from the emperor.

The blade she had always kept close to her.

"Ion!"

"Ayase-san... I'm sorry... I know you told me... that being happy is the best revenge, and that Isaac would be happy for me... but...!"

Ion threw aside the sheath, revealing the beautiful blade of the dagger. The tip, sharp enough to kill a person, glinted in the sunlight.

"Weren't you... dead...?"

"As you can see. I was surprised to find out you were also my father's enemy, but if that is the case, then I must kill you all the more... Ayase-san, it's alright, isn't it? I promise to serve you for the rest of my life. So, just for now... let me achieve this one revenge."

There was no time to stop her.

Ion silently, gracefully leaped at Dida's chest and plunged the blade in.

* * *

"I'll leave the rest to you, Hetty-san."

"Leave it to me. Jirou-sama... please take care of Ion."

"I will."

Hetty-san hid the bag containing the body in the carriage's luggage compartment and drove away. I watched her leave while holding Ion, who was still sobbing.

"...Well, anyway. That's the end of that, for now. Ion... you okay?"

"Ugh... yeah... I'm fine. I just got emotional... I wonder if this will give my father and Isaac a little peace."

"I think so."

To be honest, I didn’t know if this was really for the best.

Even if we were going to kill him, I had resolved to do it myself, but in the end, Ion did it. While it was true there was no time to stop her, I still felt like I should have been the one to do it.

...Well, there was no point in grumbling about it now.

"Well, from now on, let's live thinking only about happy things. Revenge is over."

"You're right. I did promise to serve you for the rest of my life, didn't I, Ayase-san? I'll be in your care from now on."

She said that and gave me a tight squeeze.

I wondered about Isaac-san. Or maybe she had finally been able to move on now that revenge was complete.

"Whether it's for a lifetime or not... it's good to have you back."

I felt as though from this day on, "Princess Lucrelion" had truly become "Ion".

To cut off the shackles of the past, perhaps this revenge was necessary for her to truly move forward.

Incidentally, Dida's body was moved secretly to his regular inn.

I had left the Automata there, stripped naked along with the body, in an active state. I had fed the Automata some of Dida's hair.

Since the Prison Crest disappears upon death, the scene was set to look like he had been killed by the Automata—scalped or bitten after trying to do something lewd with it.

Or rather, I just needed to fool the Solo family side. Commoners don't know about Automata, so they'd wonder why he died or was killed, but the Solo family would likely conclude "the Automata was the culprit."

In a world without forensic science, this should be a sufficient cover-up.

Well, regardless of that, there was a chance someone from the Solo family might come here for questioning.

If that happened, we'd deal with it then. Until then, I would make sure to grow the Knights and the shop even bigger.

* * *

—Some days later.

Word arrived that Dida's body had been found in his bedroom at the inn.

Because the discovery site was suspicious, a priest was dispatched from the temple to examine the scene.

Since an assassination magic tool was found nearby, it was processed as a case where he was killed by his own magic tool—either a malfunction or an accident.

The doll was taken into temporary custody by the temple, but apparently it was later transported to the Imperial Capital along with the body, which had been treated with preservation spirit magic after the wounds were cleaned.