When Diello rushed down after receiving the report, the basement was already in chaos. The first thing he noticed was the stench of blood, not water.

His eyes narrowed.

Dozens of informants were scattered, collapsed on the ground. Only a few informants were still standing. Rick seemed to be barely holding on.

“My lord!”

Rick, who had seen Diello, stepped forward to protect him. Seeing that he looked even more battered up close, he must have suppressed Venia’s power.

No one but the head or a senior member of each family could have removed that necklace.

As his gaze turned to Venia’s neck at the thought, the necklace that had been around her neck had vanished without a trace.

“…How?”

Diello frowned at Venia.

Moreover, she was using her water control very skillfully and powerfully. How could someone who was originally an Argenta have done this? In addition, the nature of her power was strange. It was unstable as if she were drawing on the power of the source, yet it was unusually strong.

“My lord, we have figured out Ferro’s condition.”

Rick said before he could finish assessing the situation.

“….!”

Venia reacted more strongly than Diello to his words. A torrent of water surged towards Rick, who was standing in front of Diello.

Just as the sharp jets of water were about to engulf Rick—

Crash!

—Diello’s flames instantly enveloped the jets of water.

There couldn’t have been this much water in the basement. The space, which had been kept dry to imprison someone with water powers, had somehow turned into a damp underground cave. So where did all this water come from…?

Just as he wondered…

Hiss!

The acrid smoke rising from the flames made his expression harden.

The gruesome sight of the informants came back to him. He had thought they had simply collapsed from their injuries, but that wasn’t the case. Some of them were so disfigured that it was hard to recognize their former appearance, and there wasn’t a drop of blood where they should have died.

That was the true nature of the jets of water he had just seen.

Boom!

The moment he realized this, Diello’s face twisted in fury. A huge sword made of fire appeared in his hand. Flames that burned more fiercely than usual shot out and struck the jets of water.

Bang!

As an acrid smell filled the air, he parted his lips and asked.

“What is the condition?”

Meanwhile, Venia’s water surged forward once more.

Diello released his magic power.

Whoosh!

The moment the hot air surged forward, the surrounding liquid boiled and gave off an acrid smell before subsiding. In place of the evaporated moisture, a huge wall of fire stood.

Hiss!

Despite being a wall of fire, not a single drop of water could penetrate it, evaporating into thin air.

In the meantime, Rick spoke quickly.

“For Argenta, it must be fire; for Alors, water; and for Cartiel, a strong wind. And they must have been in danger with the head.”

Thud!

Venia collapsed to the ground after finally hearing what he had to say. Jets of water mixed with anger shot up, but they could not overcome his flames.

“…You’re weak, they say, a weak head!”

She shouted, her voice filled with rage at her now incomparably stronger abilities. Diello merely sneered at her words and did not reply.

Instead, he thought.

“Danger…”

The other conditions he had found out earlier were likely to have been met by Krua—a relationship close enough to be on a first-name basis, conditions such as gender. The decisive difference was that ‘they must have faced danger together in a fire.’

Krua hadn’t been Ferro because she had not met this condition.

However….

“Would you have thrown Krua Alors into a fire?”

Sensing his mood, Venia asked with a mocking laugh. Diello Argenta, who loved her so much, being trapped in a fire with her.

“Of course not.”

He’d rather be trapped in a fire himself.

At those words, Venia’s face twisted into a smile.

“Argenta is in this state because it has such an unrealistic head!”

Diello Argenta was truly and ridiculously in love with Krua Alors. How long did he think a family like this could last without Ferro?

“You’ve been stuck in a pit of fire all your life, so do you think there are only one or two women who meet that condition? The turn of Krua Alors, whom you desire so much, will never come!”

She shouted, fueled by malice, though Diello didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

“I’ll make it happen.”

As he spoke, he thought.

The problem was timing. Krua had not yet been in danger with him in a fire, so if Venia died, it was likely that the mark of Ferro would pass to another woman immediately.

To someone he didn’t even remember.

“How…”

His expression twisted. How could he meet those conditions?

However, he didn’t have time to ponder for long.

Swoosh!

Once again, that torrent of water, the cruel torrent tinged with the crimson that had once been part of Argenta’s body, surged toward him. It was then that he gritted his teeth and swung the spear made of flames.

Woosh!

Another force came at him from behind. This time, too, it was Alors’ power.

“….!”

Trapped between Alors, he opened his eyes wide.

‘…Surely not.’

He looked back.

And the moment his eyes met someone’s, his breath hitched.

* * *

I was on my way back from the upstream of the river to set a trap for Duke Alors. Since the trap using the artifact was set up cleanly, all I had to do was detonate it at the right time.

After that, I sent a message to Alors at the river that I had finally gotten rid of the lily. And I had checked that the civilians near the manor which would become the battlefield had been evacuated and that troops nearby were ready.

“Okay, let’s go back!”

I was in a good mood because I was returning sooner than expected, thinking it was an unusually sunny day.

Something strange happened right after I returned to the mansion.

Boom!

As soon as I arrived at the mansion, I saw the annex shaking with a huge explosion.

…An attack?

The moment of doubt was short. Above all…

“…Alors’ power?”

The surge of power indicated that water power was running rampant in the basement of the annex.

“How the hell did Alors…”

Surely they haven’t invaded already? Then, the intelligence department wouldn’t have known!

Neigh!

I rode my horse and rushed toward the annex as it was. Even though I could feel my horse getting scared, I kept urging it on.

“….!”

Then, the informants followed me half a beat late as if they were surprised by something. Did they also sense the water, or…

When I arrived at the basement of the annex with my eyes narrowed—

Rumble!

—I could see a huge torrent of water shooting in as if to pierce through Diello.

“….!”

There was no time to be surprised, and I tried to draw in the surrounding water.

“Huh?”

…Wasn’t there this little water around the annex? The water was much farther than expected.

That was when my expression hardened.

Screech!

I could see Diello blocking the water with flames.

And soon after, the water I had drawn from the main building arrived. The clear water I had guided from afar and the crimson water collided.

Woosh!

Even though I tried to take away the power over the water that the opponent was using, unlike other water, it wasn’t easy to take away the power. The water felt like it was moving with a will. I felt a strong, repulsive force.

Besides, that crimson hue, surely…

It was then that I saw the basement, which was so badly damaged that it was hard to recognize its shape and the fallen people.

At the same time, I smelled a strange smell.

The basement was filled with a foul stench—the smell of something burning that shouldn’t be burning. And Diello was looking back at me in his blood-splattered clothes.

“…Diello?”

And beyond him was a woman I had never seen before. The woman with a fierce expression who had obviously been fighting him until just now was the one who had used the water power.

“Diello, who is this…”

“Who is this? Isn’t this Krua Alors?”

It was the woman who reacted first to my words. With a face full of ecstasy, she moved the water again.

Thud!

I pushed the water to the floor.

Even though I couldn’t take away the water she was using, it wasn’t difficult to suppress it with my water. The woman opened her eyes wide as if surprised by the strong water ability.

“How do you have such power…?”

Instead of answering, I looked back at Diello.

“Who is this person?”

A possibility pierced through my mind.

Our eyes met.

* * *

“Who is this person?”

Diello’s lips were sealed shut.

He was standing at the crossroads of lies and truth, and he vaguely realized that this was the last chance given to him. If he tried to maintain the lie here, he would be able to maintain it perfectly just like he had ordered Rick to decorate the dungeon as the altar of a God as soon as he saw her having doubts about the basement.

However, if he did that, he would never be able to reveal the truth. The later the truth was revealed, the more disappointed Krua would be.

And shamelessly, he thought he wouldn’t be able to bear it if she left.

“….”

After the silence, he finally opened his mouth.

“…The real Ferro, Venia Karta.”

—