Encounter
Encounter
The mercenary's name was Gwens.
According to Gaendal, he cooperated so actively that trying to torture him would've felt pointless, so they just brought him back as he was.
"He even said he's willing to discuss the treason with you at length. Our objective was simply to stop them, so I'll leave what to do with this bastard to your judgment."
With that, Gaendal shoved him toward me. The bastard walked over managing his expression as if he had no complaints whatsoever, then naturally knelt and bowed his head as he spoke.
"The name's Gwens. If you spare my life, I'll tell you anything and everything."
It was a matter of necessity. The guy had survived by being sharp enough to save his own skin, so I'd dragged him along like a random sack of barley. Given how cooperative he was, I wanted to think the situation was unfolding pretty damn conveniently.
But now that we were face to face, I just wanted to kill him and be done with it.
It'd been a while since my personal feelings had intruded this strongly, but knowing he was one of the bastards who burned that village down really stuck in my craw.
"Your name was Gwens, wasn't it, friend?"
"That's correct."
"I'm starting to feel skeptical about whether you've got any information worth keeping you alive for. What do you think from where you're kneeling?"
The way he flinched told me he was plenty tense, but he managed not to lift his head. The silence that followed suggested he was racking his brain, trying to figure out how to stay alive.
Honestly, I figured this was just a matter of whether I wanted to do things the easy way or the annoying way. The royal family had clearly been preparing for some time to thoroughly dismantle Count Bosha anyway. Whether their preparations were shoddy or solid, I intended to smash that bastard to pieces with everything within my power.
Keeping this guy alive might yield useful intel, and that intel might give me a sharper edge to slit Count Bosha's throat a little more easily. Then again, it might not help much at all.
"I make a point of sending cooperative types off alive. Honestly, even when I caught you earlier, I planned to bring you to the capital alive if you cooperated, regardless of what you'd done. But completely separate from you, this whole scene keeps poking at some bad childhood memories, and I'm finding it harder and harder to stomach my original plan."
I was the one who'd once spared some bastard—Pabiera or Pabaera, whatever his name was—who'd been hired as a mercenary to slaughter poor adventurers, all for the sole reason that he cooperated. Finding this guy's actions so revolting now was purely my own personal problem.
Asilie was still holding me from behind, but she said nothing. It felt less like she was fully respecting my decision and more like she was waiting to see what choice I'd make.
If things were going to be half-assed, just lopping his head off in honor of the dead and being done with it seemed like the better move for my mental health.
"I served as vice-captain of the Hawk's Talon Band, handling practically all of the mercenary company's critical operations. I can testify to everything from the paperwork to the communication network with the traitors. You will absolutely not regret keeping me alive."
For all that, he was an extremely useful witness.
"What? Vice-captain? You're not bullshitting me about everyone else being dead, are you?"
"N-no, I'm not. Why would I tell a lie here that's bound to get found out?"
Starting with Mongsun, one big fish after another kept falling into my lap, so I couldn't help being suspicious. Unable to shake my dubious expression, I bent down low enough to reach his ear and asked quietly.
"The traitor's name. Say it."
"It is Count Envelde da Bosha."
Heh. It's the real deal.
Beyond that, I tested him with a handful of fragmentary questions about things I already knew, and every answer that came back was the correct one.
In several ways it was an unintended windfall, but ultimately every factor was telling me to let this bastard live. Fine. Might as well take it as a good thing and spare him, then.
Once a decision's made, you move fast. I hoisted the bastard up as he was and walked over to Gies, who'd landed.
"Gies. Can you toss this over to House Ogatorf for me?"
"Huh? Toss what... wait, why are you talking about a person like he's a piece of luggage? That's confusing."
Even as he said it, Gies knew perfectly well what the bound man was, so he naturally started adjusting the wyvern's saddle as he spoke.
"Let's just tie him up like luggage and be done with it."
"Glad we understand each other so well."
The flight wouldn't take long, so there was no particular need to be considerate. The bastard didn't utter a single complaint the whole time he was being bound—maybe he didn't have to piss either.
"Then will you be helping those people head to the gate city, Eldmia?"
"Looks like that's the plan for now. It'd be unsettling to split up here and then have them get tangled up with more weird shit."
Besides blowing up a mercenary company, the only other thing I could do today was hit up a library or somewhere and get my hands on some magic texts to study. When there are things you can only do today and things you can do anytime, obviously you handle the former first.
While I stood there watching the wyvern fly off into the rising sun with the bastard strapped on like a bundle of luggage, Asilie linked her arm through mine.
"That was admirable, Eldi. Not letting your emotions sweep you away when things are hard isn't something just anyone can do."
"Getting praise from you alone makes it a decision worth making."
"The things you say."
It wasn't an empty platitude or anything, but Asilie just smiled as if she figured I was joking.
Everything that followed went smoothly, as they say. Even in the midst of grieving their lost families, the survivors swiftly finished preparing to follow our lead toward the city.
Despite having lost their families to human hands on the very land where they'd sought refuge from Demonfolk, the way most of these people moved resolutely forward, the light not fading from their eyes—that was genuinely something to marvel at.
"They're strong people."
"They just aren't carrying weapons. They're already warriors."
Yekaterina and Gaendal shared their impressions of the survivors after completing the departure preparations, but... I found it hard to sympathize. Call it a kind of shared trauma, I suppose. I could tell that courage and steadfast will weren't the only fuel driving them forward.
What was etched into many of their eyes—if not all—was unmistakably madness. The same kind of madness I would've harbored myself if this weren't my second life.
The kind of thirst for revenge that makes people lose all reason.
"Isn't there something you could say to them?"
Whether she'd read my mood or what, the moment I felt like I'd recognized it, Asilie spoke as if she'd read my thoughts too.
"Me?"
"I think there are things only you could say, Eldi."
"...I don't know. They might be grateful I saved them, but wouldn't it be kind of ridiculous for a fifteen-year-old brat to advise them on how to live the rest of their lives? It's not like I can go around giving unsolicited advice every time I meet people like this."
"If that's how Eldi sees it."
For someone who'd brought it up, Asilie wrapped things up rather blandly and leaned against me, waiting for departure as if nothing had happened.
No, wait. You bring something up just to trouble a person's mind and then wrap it up all breezily like that? That puts me in a tough spot, you know.
"That's it?"
"Mm. I’ll respect Eldi’s judgment. You made your decision, and you’re acting on it."
Asilie was perfectly nonchalant, as if asking had been her only goal. Thanks to that, even as I moved out following Gaendal's orders, I ended up with my head churning through all sorts of thoughts.
Having stewed in that dilemma the whole time we walked the forest path toward the gate city, my brain got no rest even during the rest breaks.
Just as the conclusion of that dilemma was gradually tilting toward 'say nothing and just keep escorting them,' a group of women gathered and approached me during one of the breaks.
"Thank you for saving us."
It started as an expression of gratitude, but I understood in an instant what they actually wanted to talk about. Most of the women I'd earlier sensed that madness from were gathered here, so it wasn't hard to figure out.
The rest break was roughly fifteen minutes, so I decided to cut straight to the point.
"You can't have that bastard from earlier."
The shoddily constructed mask of calm shattered at that single sentence, venom flickering in their eyes.
"......And why is that?"
"Because I'm the one who caught him."
The eyebrow of the woman standing at the very front twitched.
It was impossible for five or six people crowding over and radiating an unusual atmosphere to go unnoticed, so Gaendal started to approach, but I lightly raised a hand to stop him.
"Let me make this clear. You lot cannot have your revenge. Because the root cause of this incident is about to die very soon."
Madness turned into hostility and poured out. Threatening it might not be, but it wasn't a pleasant sight either, so I openly furrowed my brow and continued.
"And the bastard I sent off on the wyvern will provide crucial testimony related to that. He may not be declared innocent, but he'll go to prison under the judgment of legitimate law. If you decide to personally track him down and murder him the day he's released, whenever that is—well, I won't exactly stop you. But do keep in mind that it would be a crime. In any case, until then, there's nothing you can do for revenge."
"By what... by what right?"
I wondered what the hell she was on about, but it seemed they'd just skipped my entire courteous explanation and decided to take it as me saying I'd block their revenge.
"By what right exactly are you trying to steal our chance at revenge?"
On one hand, I genuinely wondered if this was a normal thought process, but on the other, I figured when you're out of your mind and your eyes are rolling, that might well be possible. So I decided to just give an appropriately tailored answer.
"By the right of having fought a 40-strong mercenary band head-on, killed the bastards, and taken a witness as spoils."
It sounded like wordplay, but it was also true. Even if the spoils happened to be a person, spoils were spoils. Just like catching thieves and selling them to a slave trader, it was perfectly common sense in this other world.
"We lost our families to them."
"I know. I also lost everything to Demonfolk, so I'm hard at work preparing my own revenge. But that doesn't mean the lives of the Demonfolk who burned our village belong to me. If someone else kills them, obviously I just have to sit on my hands and suck my thumb."
After I said it as composedly as possible, I felt the hostility pouring toward me falter for a moment. Though I wasn't quite sure what made them falter. Did they believe the part about me also being a war victim and take a step back?
Honestly, I'd even braced for reactions like 'Don't lie to us!' but apparently they weren't that unreasonable.
"B-but even so, you're saying you'll stop us from getting revenge?"
"No. I have no intention of stopping you. I merely informed you of the fact that you're unable to get revenge."
"That's the same thing...!"
"It's different. I'm telling you the targets you want revenge on are all about to die soon, okay? How can you take revenge when the targets of your revenge have all disappeared? I simply made you aware of that fact."
"And you expect us to believe that?"
"It doesn't matter if you don't. The outcome won't change. Those bastards were part of a faction plotting treason, and the Itisel royal family has no intention of dealing with it lightly."
With everyone's attention focused on us, the word 'treason' caused an enormous stir. Even the women who'd been on the verge of venting their rage at me understood what it meant and began to panic. Everyone else besides Gaendal and Asilie was far more flustered.
Ah, come to think of it, I'd only told Gaendal. Seeing even Gin's eyes go round in surprise made me feel a bit sorry for no good reason.
"...So, so it ends just like that? Without us being able to do anything...?"
"I'd prefer if instead of feeling like you 'couldn't do anything'... you felt like you got results without lifting a finger, but yes. Anyway, this is where it ends. Of course, if that bastard from earlier doesn't vanish under the guillotine's blade, you'll have a chance to kill him just like I said at the start. Though you'd become criminals then. Naturally, I don't recommend it."
Calmly, and utterly matter-of-factly, I shattered what they'd held as their reason to live, right in front of their faces.
And as if affected by that, every one of the women who'd approached me collapsed to the ground with vacant expressions. In the awkward silence, other women who'd been quietly sitting nearby slowly came over and began consoling them. But seeing how they'd lost all responsiveness, as if their very souls had left them in that brief moment, maybe this rest break needed to go on a little longer.