A TERRIBLE REUNION

What do I do?

How can I win against Sophia?

In fact, how can I even damage Sophia?

Is it even possible for me to defeat her?

Still being held up by Hyrince, I rack my brain until Fei's large wings suddenly block my view of Sophia.

"What's this? Finally done observing?"

At Sophia's words, I realize that Fei hasn't participated at all in the fight so far.

I thought for a moment that she figured her giant dragon form would get in our way, but I guess I was wrong.

"I suppose."

Speaking through Telepathy, Fei's voice sounds somehow different than usual.

"Anyway, I'd like to surrender. Think you could spare our lives?"

I stare at Fei's back in disbelief.

It can't be.

This isn't like her at all.

Even in our old lives, Fei has always been stubborn and a sore loser.

I can't believe that she would admit defeat before even fighting.

But at the same time, contradictory as it might be, part of me thinks it's exactly what Fei would do.

Fei actually cares about us a lot.

Maybe when she saw that I couldn't lay a hand on Sophia, she determined that we can't win this fight, and that's why she's raising the white flag.

To protect us.

"Hmm."

Sophia taps her chin thoughtfully at Fei's declaration. There's a faint smile on her face, as if she finds the whole thing funny.

"So you can tell what will happen if you try to fight me, hmm?"

"More or less," Fei responds.

Which means she knew even before the battle began that we could never beat Sophia.

"Well, it can't have been Appraisal. A dragon's intuition, perhaps?"

"Something like that. It's sort of a gut feeling, not the kind of thing I can explain, you know?"

Fei knows just how strong Sophia is.

The second she first laid eyes on her back at the capital, she immediately chose to flee without a fight. She must have known ever since that moment that we can't win against Sophia.

"Why didn't you stop your friends, if you knew they didn't stand a chance of winning?" Sophia inquires.

"Even if I told them, Shun wouldn't have listened to me."

Her answer hits me right in the gut like no other answer could.

It's my fault?

It's true that even if Fei tried to tell me we couldn't win, I probably would have said something about having to fight anyway and kept leading us down the path to battle.

And this is where that led us.

Fei predicted all of this and has just been waiting for the right time to surrender, I guess.

I'm so ashamed.

I dragged my friends into a battle we had no chance of winning, and now one of them has to protect me and beg for our lives. I'm so ashamed, I could die.

"What? That's ridiculous," Sophia says dubiously.

Her expression says that she really, truly doesn't understand this logic. I guess only my friends who understand me would get it.

"It's his pride as a man, basically."

"Pride, eh…?" Sophia's reaction to Fei's explanation is surprisingly serious.

I was expecting her to be more mocking about it.

"Life and pride. There are times when you have to fight for your pride rather than your life, I suppose. Not that I've ever done it myself," Sophia murmurs contemplatively. "Very well, then. I shall defer to that pride and spare your lives. Then again, I never intended to take any reincarnations' lives here in the first place."

She giggles, not unlike a child who's pulled off a funny prank.

With her already lovely features, it makes for an unexpectedly pretty expression, but all that does is make me feel even worse.

"Well, thanks for that. Not that we asked you."

As Tagawa's voice rings out, Merazophis lands unceremoniously at Sophia's feet. His body is in tatters. However, it's not blood that leaks from his wounds but something like a black mist.

"Oh? They got you, did they?"

"I'm terribly sorry." Still on the ground, Merazophis bows his head humbly.

"Your real body might be one thing, but did you really think you could stop us with a double?" Tagawa glares irritably at Merazophis.

Or rather, evidently, a copy of him made with some sort of skill. Unlike Kusama's duplicates from earlier, evidently this skill makes copies strong enough to hold their own in battle. Tagawa and Kushitani aren't unharmed, either.

Tagawa's armor is bloodied in a few places, purple lightning still crackling along his blade. Although I can't see any injuries on Kushitani as she holds her wind-clad staff, she's definitely breathing hard, her shoulders heaving.

Between them, I can tell they had a hard battle against Merazophis's double. And that was only a double. How strong must the real thing be?

"Please forgive my worthlessness in being unable to protect you." Merazophis is still expressionless, but his voice is pained.

"You're always protecting me, Merazophis. Don't say you're worthless," Sophia responds with a gentle expression I've never seen on her before. I don't know much about these two, but from that exchange, it's clear they share a trusting master-servant bond of some kind.

"All right. We're just about done here. You focus on commanding the army."

"Yes, madam." Merazophis's body disappears, melting away into the ground.

"The real Merazophis is going to lead the invading army now. If you want to fight him, why not head over there?"

"Yeah. We'll do that later. But first, we're going to defeat you." Tagawa and Kushitani face down Sophia.

Are they really planning to fight her?

Both of them certainly are strong. But their stats aren't much different from mine. They're lower, in fact.

They can't beat Sophia. And there's no way they don't realize that. Still, their eyes are blazing, ready for battle.

"I'm sorry, Fei. I don't think I can give up after all." Inspired by the two of them, I extract myself from Hyrince's arms and stand. That's right. I knew from the beginning that I couldn't win. I've known it since we ran away in the capital. But ever since then, I haven't been able to let it go. I can't help feeling that I have to surpass her somehow. I don't see how I can win. Even so, I have to face her. That's just how it is. I'm sure my brother Julius wouldn't be running away at a time like this. Which means I can't run away, either.

"Oh, all right, then." Sensing my determination, Fei assumes a battle posture, too. Seeing that our group is ready to fight again, Sophia smiles sweetly. "If you insist. I suppose I'll play with you a bit lon—"

"There's no time for that." For a moment, I don't understand what's happened. Tagawa starts bleeding and collapses, and Kushitani hits the ground at the same time.

Standing before their now-prostrate figures is a man who wasn't there moments earlier. Just figuring out what's going on takes me several seconds. And it takes even longer for my brain to fully process the situation.

The man came down from above and cut Tagawa. Tagawa reacted quickly and blocked him but was cut down along with his dragon-made magic sword. Near Tagawa's fallen form, the magic sword lies in two pieces. After cutting down Tagawa, the man grabbed Kushitani with his other hand and slammed her into the ground. Just like that, both of them are out of commission. Two strong allies, down in an instant.

"Hmm? My, you're early."

"No, I'm not. You're just late." The man addresses Sophia in a calm tone as if he hadn't just knocked Tagawa and Kushitani out cold.

But the pair lying on the ground and the overwhelming bloodlust rolling off the man who did it tell me that it was no illusion. There's a terrifying distance between his quiet tone and his powerful presence, frightening even to look at. If Sophia's presence is that of subtle strength, this man's is like an unsheathed sword.

"You didn't kill them, did you?"

"Nah, they're not dead. But it'd be a bad idea to let them take up any more time, so I decided to shut them up for a little while."

However, these reasons aren't why I'm so startled by the man's abrupt appearance. It's not the fact that he was strong enough to beat Tagawa and Kushitani in an instant or the overwhelming sharpness of his presence. No, it's that this particular person is here at all.

"Hey, it's been a while. Or have you forgotten me after all these years?" The man looks back at me and speaks in a familiar tone. There's no way I could ever forget. Many of my memories of our old world have faded, but I still remember his face very clearly. I've been searching for him for so long. And after what Ms. Oka told us, I had been bracing myself a little. I thought this might happen. And now here he is, right before my eyes.

"Kyouya."

Katia's and my closest friend from our previous lives, Kyouya Sasajima. That's the man who's standing before us now.

On the administrators' side, along with Sophia.