"Like what you did to that man at the conference?"
Felt still rembered the way Gojo had stepped in for her that day. It wasn't sothing she was going to forget.
"Exactly that."
"If physical thods are off the table, ntal ones are what's left."
Gojo shrugged, smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"Sorry, Reinhard. Looks like your prep work goes to waste."
"No trouble at all. Solving the problem is what matters."
The knight waved it off with a small smile, though he had, in fact, picked up another Divine Protection in those few minutes.
"Betty, you're up next."
Gojo drew her over and ruffled her hair.
"You're not going to leave sothing behind as proof that you actually handled him?"
"Don't co crying to later and ask to let this one back out for evidence."
Betty's small nose wrinkled up in warning.
"Hm?"
"You can actually let him back out once you've banished him?"
Gojo's brow climbed. That particular wrinkle hadn't occurred to him.
"Of course I can. Don't underestimate Yin magic."
Watching the indignant pout on her face, he rubbed his chin. "Fair point. So how do we prove it?"
He thought a mont, then turned to Reinhard. "If you used the Conversation Mirror to call Marcos, have them watch it happen live, would that work as evidence?"
The knight considered. "It should. Though I can't say for certain. I'll need to ask the Commander first."
"No ti to dawdle. Get him on the line."
Gojo couldn't say how long this one would stay under Unlimited Void, so Reinhard needed to move fast.
He had no appetite for a do-over over sothing this trivial.
Reinhard produced the Conversation Mirror and raised Marcos without delay.
The knight hauling half the White Whale's skull back to the Royal Capital hadn't arrived yet. He was still on the road. After hearing Reinhard's summary, he went silent for a mont and then gave his instructions.
"I've checked with the Commander. It works as evidence. But you'll want witnesses from the Knight Order. More eyes, stronger the case."
"No issue. Whenever you're ready, Reinhard."
The conditions Marcos laid out were easy enough to satisfy.
While Reinhard got the Knight Order lined up, Betty started threading together the magic to banish Regulus.
For a Great Spirit of the Yin Attribute, even high-tier magic like this ca easy.
The mont Reinhard gave the all-clear, a deep purple array of runes blood under Regulus's feet.
A seam split open in the air, and like so patient beast of appetite, it began swallowing him inch by inch.
Frozen in place, unable to move, Regulus could feel every step of it happening.
A brain packed to capacity with aningless information had no room left to react.
However deep his rage ran, however fiercely he wanted to refuse, however desperately he wanted to resist.
None of it changed a thing.
The banishnt continued.
Until the figures of Gojo and the others vanished from his view entirely, and he found himself drifting in a vast, featureless nothing, adrift with nowhere to settle.
Only then did it finish.
"Yes!"
"Done!"
"Another Sin Archbishop taken care of. Another massive bounty!"
Watching Regulus wink out of existence completely, Felt let out a whoop, face splitting into a grin so bright it could have lit the plain.
"Handled."
Betty dusted her hands with an air of pride. "A re Sin Archbishop. Nothing to it, I suppose."
"See, our Betty really is the most capable one here."
"That's public knowledge. No need to say it."
Her mouth protested. Her expression was all pleased to be praised.
"You know, we didn't do too badly on this trip. A White Whale and two Sin Archbishops in one outing."
With everything wrapped up, Subaru's tension had finally bled off. The brittle edge in his voice was gone, replaced by open cheer.
"This is only the start. Once we get back, that's when the real celebrating begins."
"You'll have people lining up to back you, Felt. Just watch."
Bounty money. Noble support. Coin piling on coin.
Felt's eyes went big and round. Her pupils practically reshaped themselves into Holy Gold Coins.
Anticipation, concentrated.
"That sounds amazing. I can't wait to start counting."
She rubbed her hands together with the look of a woman who saw the world in currency.
"All right. Let's help finish up with the White Whale."
"Getting ho early is what counts."
Gojo watched the group run off toward the carcass with bright faces, then sidled up next to Reinhard and nudged him with an elbow.
"So, Reinhard. Willing to share what Divine Protection you landed this ti?"
"It's ready to go."
"Mind telling what it is?"
He was genuinely curious. What kind of Divine Protection the knight had talked the world into giving him, on short notice, against a banishnt to another dinsion.
"It's rather simple. A Divine Protection of Never Getting Lost."
"It'll let reach any destination I set my mind on."
Reinhard said it gently, wearing the sa mild smile as always, the tone making it sound like nothing at all. The content was anything but.
"Never getting lost..."
Gojo clicked his tongue.
Absurd, frankly.
That the Divine Protection had shown up on demand was one thing. The scope of it sounded outright broken.
"So if you wanted to find your way into so girl's heart, you wouldn't get lost there either?"
The na of the protection was begging for it.
"I couldn't tell you. I haven't given that sort of thing any thought."
Reinhard's expression shifted toward apologetic.
"Don't make that face. You'll make look like a pervert."
"You aren't that kind of person, Satoru. Neither am I."
The knight chuckled, caught off guard.
With Reinhard pitching in, the White Whale, ordinarily tough enough to be a headache for the common laborers, was reduced to transportable chunks at a brisk clip. Efficiency jumped.
Even so.
The group ended up spending another night under the great tree.
The White Whale was enormous. Processing it was a slow, awkward business.
And the convoy workers were ordinary people.
Leaving them there on their own could have ant a Mabeast stumbling out of the treeline, or any number of other headaches.
There was no choice but to stay until it was done.
When the last chunk of White Whale at was loaded onto a Dragon Carriage, Gojo and the others' work was finally behind them. Ti, at last, to rest.
The return trip didn't involve riding back with the convoy, either.
That would have cost another day or more.
Following Gojo's suggestion, Betty once again replaced the Dragon Carriages, teleporting the whole group back to the Royal Capital.
"Finally. Ho."
"I'm exhausted. I want a bath and then I want to sleep."
Having just stepped into the Astrea Family's Royal Capital residence, Felt stretched her arms overhead and angled straight for the interior of the house.
She hadn't been fighting these past two days.
But she hadn't been idle either. Trailing along with them, running back and forth, pitching in to haul White Whale at with her own hands.
Sleep had been in short supply. Her body was owed.
Except.
No sooner had she said it than Lady Carol approached, expression apologetic.
"My apologies, Lady Felt. I'm afraid rest may have to wait."
"Huh?"
"Why?"
Felt blinked at her, baffled.
"The news about the White Whale and the Sin Archbishop of Sloth has swept through the Royal Capital. Your na is on everyone's lips."
"Guests began arriving last night, hoping for an audience."
"And today, the numbers have grown considerably..."
Felt's mouth twitched. The refusal was right there on the tip of her tongue.
Then she rembered what these people were coming here to hand over. The refusal didn't quite make it out.
After an agonized pause, she squeezed her eyes shut, resigned.
"Fine."
"Let bathe first, at least. Change clothes..."
"Hot water is already drawn. Clothes are laid out."
Carol spoke with a warm smile, already turning to escort her.
"Felt, co find when you're out. There's sothing we need to go over."
Gojo called after her before she could disappear.
"Got it."
The voice that ca back was flat, lifeless. Felt's whole figure had drained to a washed-out grey.
By the ti she resurfaced, clean and changed, she looked like a toy soone had played with too roughly.
She slumped down into a cushioned chair and let her eyes go unfocused.
"What do you want."
"Just to run through how you want to handle the people waiting on you."
He looked at her and fought down a smile. These nobles and rchants weren't going anywhere. And Felt, bone-tired as she was, was about to grit her teeth through every eting because coin was involved.
"Unless you've already worked out what you want to say to them?"
That got her to sit up a few inches.
If he hadn't flagged it, she wouldn't have thought about any of it at all.
"Tell , quick. I'd forgotten about all of this."
The thought of walking into those etings empty-handed put her stomach in knots. Without Gojo's foresight, she'd have walked out with no coin and a reputation for being a lightweight.
"It's not complicated. A few points to keep in mind."
"First. We want money. Lots of it. As much as we can squeeze out."
"Goods or resources or whatever else, those are secondary."
"If soone genuinely can't offer coin and only has stock on hand, we turn around and sell it to Emilia. Roswaal will eat the cost, provided he isn't ready for open war with us yet."
"Two benefits for one move. We're supporting Emilia, and we're supporting ourselves."
"Second. Let's set tiers for the support..."
He laid out, in clean strokes, the frawork Reinhard had built during the previous loop.
Lifted wholesale, technically. Gojo's conscience did not trouble him. If Reinhard ever learned about it, the knight wouldn't mind. This was the point of Return by Death, after all.
Felt's eyes grew brighter with every sentence.
This was exactly what she'd been missing.
With those standards in hand, she'd have solid ground to stand on when she was looking a noble or rchant in the eye and asking for coin.
"Wait, slow down. I can't rember all of it. I'll grab a pen and paper..."
Already halfway out of the chair.
Gojo stopped her with a hand and held out a sheet of paper, its back covered in his close, dense script. Everything he'd just said, written down.
"What did you think I was doing while you were in the bath?"
One look at the sheet and she was on her feet, wrapping him in a hug.
"I knew it. You're the most reliable man alive."
"Save it. I'm not Subaru. Flattery bounces off."
"Tch. That wasn't what I ant."
"Besides that, there's one more thing that'll push your na even higher and bring in a serious pile of money."
He sketched out the Knight Order gambit, another one technically stolen, this ti from Felt herself.
"Ha!"
"See, this is why we're partners. We're on the sa page."
"I was thinking the sa thing. Didn't expect you to beat to it."
"I'll leave that one to you. Get word spread however you want, send out a crier, whatever. Once you've lined up the Knight Order, let know."
"Betty steps in first. Then ."
"Relax, relax. I've got it. Not going to disappoint."
Felt rubbed her palms together, every inch a woman who saw gold in the distance.
A deal like this, pulled off clean, was another few hundred Holy Gold Coins. Not the kind of thing a person missed.
"Right. What's the plan for the White Whale at?"
"Stowed in a warehouse for now. I was going to find Emilia tonight and have her freeze it."
"If we don't, we can't really hand it to a guild for sale on short notice."
"Go handle the nobles and rchants. Subaru and I will take care of Emilia."
"It's yours."
Felt stretched luxuriantly, got to her feet, and let the grin bloom back across her face.
"The rate we're going, we're close to our goal."
Gojo rolled his eyes. "Was it ten thousand Holy Gold Coins total, or ten thousand per person?"
"Either way, we're still nowhere near the mark."
...
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