Settlement
Settlement
After leaving the tribunal, in the grip of a sense of crisis, as Envelde reviewed the whole situation, what he felt was a profound sense of futility.
"You sure... went and made a huge mess, Eldmia."
There was no evidence. But there was an uncanny certainty. A certainty that the one standing at the center of this whole chain of events with a sneer on his face was that insolent little brat.
If it wasn't that bastard, there was no one else in the capital right now who could have so recklessly torn through things that had held up for years—not in a week, not in three days.
The slave merchant company had been stripped not only of its secret vault but its critical documents. The map recording the locations of the thieves they'd done business with long-term had also disappeared, and considering the fact that the brat kept an elf by his side, in the worst case, even the bandits might have been completely wiped out. If an elf joined in, no half-rate thieves could ever defeat him in the forest.
And that wasn't all. Even after using an emergency communication method, there had been no response, so it was highly likely that the Servant of the Dream was either dead or had fled. Envelde preferred either possibility to having them captured alive.
He hadn't bought the life of the Servant of the Dream along with their services. They were the sort who would betray him and hand over information without hesitation once their own life was on the line. That was why he'd assigned them to the person he considered the least risky, yet he had no idea how their trail had been found.
In a serious case, he'd even have to consider an internal traitor, so it was impossible not to feel suffocated.
"And on top of that, today they moved around riding a wyvern too."
If they'd just flown off without a thought or for some other reason, that'd be one thing... but was it really just coincidence that the direction overlapped with the area where the Hawk's Talon Band was operating? And that they'd taken off openly from the Ogatorf family's parade grounds, not the capital wyvern station?
"There's no fucking way...!"
Envelde, who'd nearly lost his temper and hurled the wine glass he was holding, took a deep breath and fought to calm himself. He tried to look at the situation as positively as possible, tried to reassure himself that it was still okay.
But the damage wasn't so minor that calmness would come from that, so in the end, instinct took over his brain.
-Shatter!
"With this kind of bullshit, the plan gets thrown off again!!"
The wine glass, thrown while he'd even forgotten his dignity, shattered into pieces and began to leave red stains on the wall, but his anger didn't subside. According to the watcher's report, they'd returned only after a wyvern had come and gone once, so it was clear something had happened to the mercenary band. He'd dispatched someone in a hurry, but they'd bring back information late tomorrow at the earliest.
Three more years. No, if he'd just had two more years, he could have solidified his foundation.
It had reached the point where he wanted to ask the gods just how the hell he'd ended up entangled with something like that.
"Hoo... Fine, still, it'll all be over soon. If I just check him so he can't act recklessly..."
He'd dispatched six knights who had reached Expert level, all six of them veterans of the war against the Demonfolk. They weren't his most elite troops, but even counting every noble house's forces still in the capital, they were fighters anyone could confidently call top-tier.
Even if they were men whose spirits had broken and who had fled the battlefield, their skills were genuine, so if luck just went his way, he might even hear news of that bastard's death before the day was over. Finishing that thought, Envelde let out a deep sigh and turned his gaze out the window.
The sudden autumn rain had grown steadily fiercer, now pouring down like a torrential downpour. Because of it, though it was the hour when the fading sun would normally still be visible, the capital was already submerged in a murky darkness.
"It'd be nice if he just up and died out there in this rain."
It had been a ridiculously enormous misjudgment. If he'd known the man was a mad dog who ran wild without a hint of common sense like this, he should have purged him immediately. A variable with both skill and madness—Envelde had thought he'd seen it all and done it all, but this had completely exceeded all his predictions.
Was some trend of treating nobles lightly emerging? How could he charge in with no plan and no fear and just smash things to pieces? Even though Envelde himself was in a position of challenging royal authority, this case was different on a whole other level.
"The world's really gone completely insane..."
Before he could even finish the lament that slipped out of his mouth without him realizing it, a strange sight caught his eye.
Truthfully, calling it strange was a bit of an exaggeration. It was nothing more than a person walking toward his manor.
"That brat, why... no, how...?"
But seeing a man strolling leisurely toward his manor in the murky gloom, twirling a clearly visible sword in one hand and paying no mind to the downpour, was strange enough.
And all the more so when that person was Eldmia Ega.
◈
"I shouldn't have done such a thing~ I didn't know that fact~"
It felt like I hadn't sung that song in a really long time. Now there weren't many songs from my past life I could remember, but this one just wouldn't be forgotten.
Since the rain was coming down nicely anyway, and there was no one around, and there was only one person to listen, I was singing freely for the first time in a while.
"What's the point of regretting it now, I've become a fool~"
"Uh, Eldmia? Are you really going to keep going like this?"
That single listener was Mongsun. She kept sticking close to the buildings as she moved and spoke to me as if trying to stop me, but in contrast to her tense voice, her movements were as natural as a passerby on the street. The constant fussing at my side was a bit annoying, but just like earlier when I'd been able to handle those six bastards easily because she'd stuck close and fed me information while they tracked me, I answered back in a friendly tone.
"Even if someone dies, it'll be me dying, so why are you so worked up about it?"
"I told you. I said I'd repay you for saving me. This is nothing more than suicide from every angle."
Hmm, I hadn't thought that repayment would include wise advice to prevent possible suicide. The services of a Servant of the Dream were surprisingly comprehensive. Considering she was now forced to stand in a downpour without an umbrella because of some other guy, honestly she'd have every right to be annoyed.
Even as I evaluated her broad-spectrum goodwill like that, I didn't slow or stop my steps, so Mongsun's words sped up a little.
"He's someone the royal family will deal with and punish soon anyway. You know very well that the situation could become more complicated if you, Eldmia, step in right now, don't you?"
"I know."
"Then why..."
"If I'd bothered to worry about every little thing like that, would I have suddenly barged into the place you were staying and chopped off the head of that Rubilla or whoever the hell?"
"Th-this isn't a problem of that level, is it?"
"I don't weigh the severity of things when some piece of shit messes with me."
A little brat passing me on the street and bumping me while calling me a beanpole, some village elder butting in out of nowhere to go on about 'kids these days,' or Sheryl trying to drive a knee kick into my face—those I could overlook as cute. If there'd been clear malice aimed at me, I would've considered how to deal with it, but those actions weren't done out of malice toward me.
In Sheryl's case too, at first I'd wondered why this tiny thing seemed to suffer from selective anger-control issues, but after going through Esmue, the situation had changed somewhat. I'd just been too dense to notice. I still couldn't agree with why she acted that way, but I'd at least reached the point where I could understand it.
Because if I saw someone similar to me going around bowing their head everywhere, I'd probably smack the back of their head too.
"The reason I stayed relatively quiet until now was nothing more than because they were just being cheeky with political fights. Sending people to kill me directly is a different story."
"But even if you storm in like this with no evidence whatsoever..."
"That's not your problem to worry about, it's mine. If you don't want to get caught up in it, stay clear."
I bit because it was a target worth biting. I looked at her with a dubious expression, but as I kept closing the distance, I eventually yelled out to the guards who were adjusting their grip on their spears. At the same time, I admired once again how Mongsun's presence completely vanished.
"I! Am Eldmia Ega!"
"Thank you for identifying yourself, but your sword..."
"I'm telling you to get out of the way if you don't want to die. I'm not stopping until I part that Envelde bastard's head from his body."
Maybe it was the kind of unexpected verbal abuse? Even though the rain was pouring, I'd spoken clearly enough to be heard, but the guards' faces were filled with nothing but confusion as if they hadn't grasped the situation at all.
Well, that was their problem. I'd kindly warned them already, so now I just had to use everything at my disposal to make good on what I'd said.
Confirming that my physical abilities had surged to their limit as I drove my Magic Power output and duration right to the edge, I wrapped my sword in Magic Power as well and charged forward without hesitation.
"Envelde!!"
Closing a distance that had been less than fifty meters in an instant, I sliced through the tips of the spears the guards were holding and slammed a kick into the center of the tightly shut manor gate.
-CRASH!
"Guh-urk!"
"Agh!"
The iron gate made of steel bars crumpled halfway outward on both sides and burst open so violently that it rebounded like a spring-loaded swing door and smacked the guards who hadn't reacted in time and knocked them flying—a delightful miscalculation.
Honestly, I'd kicked it with every intention of ripping it clean off, but the hinges were disgustingly sturdy, so it creaked and groaned a couple more times before it finally snapped and tumbled across the ground.
"You swung those spears around so confidently, but did you swing them ready to get cut yourself, you fucking bastards?!"
There didn't seem to be any need to worry about whether my voice might not carry through the downpour.
Because in that instant, soldiers and knights started spilling out from all over the manor.
"Let's shoot a movie."
For me, an action flick. For you all, a disaster flick.