The Hero and the Guillotine
The Hero and the Guillotine
Balkun had been considerably flustered by the Hero's sudden appearance, but like the professional he was, he quickly composed himself and began examining Siegfried's greatsword.
"Huh, you swing around something this size?"
"He swings it lightly, like a longsword."
"Remarkable. Meeting the Hero in person in my lifetime is astonishing enough, but this is even more so."
It wasn't as if there weren't knights who used heavy weaponry, but the reality was that there was no particular reason to use such weapons. Even if you reinforced your body with aura to lift it, the aura consumption would increase proportionally, which could ultimately lead to a disadvantage in prolonged battles. There was a reason people were appalled when they saw Yekaterina's weapon, after all.
Without the privilege of what appeared to be storage magic like Siegfried's, and without the Hero's physical capabilities, it was something no one could even attempt. After examining it for a long while, Balkun spoke, sounding a bit troubled.
"There's no problem with forging it, but the materials are no small matter. For a Hero, who would surely have a talent for both magic and spirit arts, a magic sword would be the best choice—but to make one of this size, I'd have to throw in nearly everything I currently possess. Will that be acceptable?"
"It's perfectly fine by me."
Grinning, Siegfried pulled out a check stamped with the imperial seal of the Empire. That alone would have made other blacksmiths' eyes bulge out of their heads. Even I, if something like that had suddenly appeared from somewhere else, would have been shocked. How could it possibly be easy to stay calm at the sight of an item that could turn even the rarest trade guild gold coin into a mere 'trifle'?
"Heh heh heh, I was thinking too narrowly. There's no way the Empire would skimp on support for the Hero, after all."
Balkun, having received the check from Siegfried, fetched an abacus and writing implements, then proceeded to continue his calculations and explanations simultaneously right before our eyes.
"It is called a magic sword, but I won't be embedding spell-triggered magic or anything of the sort. It would be unnecessary magic for the Hero anyway. Instead, I'll craft it using spell alloys so that it can also serve the function of a magical staff. There's an effect that stabilizes the body's internal Mana flow somewhat. You'll feel it once you hold the finished product. It varies from person to person, but there are cases where efficiency has improved by as much as double. And..."
Just listening to the explanation was enough to make my head spin, but the sight of him carrying out both the calculations and the explanations without a single moment's hesitation or fumbling made it clear that Balkun was a master artisan. Siegfried's face filling with anticipation as he listened was downright unsightly, so I slipped back a bit—and Eselua cautiously approached and spoke to me.
"Eldmia? May I have a moment?"
The completely unexpected summons caught me a little off guard, but I had no reason to refuse, so I nodded and stepped closer. She quietly began to speak.
"The anomalous incident at the academy before we came here—there's a possibility that a demon was the cause."
"...Do you have some idea of what it might be?"
If someone else had said that, it would have warranted a rebuke asking if they had a wiretap stuck in their ear, but when it came from a person who had just days ago beaten down a demon that had infiltrated the Holy Light Cross Order, it wasn't something I could dismiss so high-handedly.
"The truth is, to avoid panic, they only publicly announced a large-scale demon subjugation—remnants still remain. It seems they weren't merely digging into the Holy Light Cross Order alone, but were colluding with the rebel forces within Itisel as well."
Fuck.
It was so genuinely detestable that for a moment I nearly jerked my whole body backward, but I endured it with superhuman patience and just barely managed to keep my expression under control. So what you're saying now is, those leftover demon-worshipping bastards crawled into the academy and possibly coordinated with the reactionary scumbags?
Feeling a dizzying sensation, I closed my eyes briefly before opening them and spoke the answer I'd already guessed.
"The ancient waterways?"
"Yes. It's one of the few weaknesses of the nation that maintains and repairs the most ancient waterways on the continent."
A past glory as great as magic. The ancient underground waterways.
Thanks to that architecture that surpassed its era, many cities were spared the experience of having shit and piss splattered across their streets. But it was also a structure whose drawback was that if entrances beyond the maintained areas were discovered and misused, it created unexpected variables like this. Yet it was so immensely useful that such drawbacks were easily chewed up and ignored—so much so that the kingdom would rather periodically expend manpower and funds to maintain it than ever consider abandoning it.
"Considering the distance between the headquarters and the capital, it's certainly no coincidence."
"The Holy Light Cross Order reached the same conclusion. Because they only belatedly realized it wasn't solely the order's problem, things have become a bit tangled."
So they had gained legitimacy with the help of the saintess and the Hero and set out to purify the order, which was all well and good—but as rotten as they were through and through, they were connected to Envelde as well? It seemed the bastard had indeed been diligently setting his schemes into motion in his own way.
"What's the Empire's position?"
"In truth... it's a very awkward situation. Siegfried intends to finish the matter by executing the demon worshippers, but we are ultimately Imperial citizens. If we were to unilaterally intervene in a matter that also involves traitors, it would damage the royal family's standing."
The outcome pointed to by all this information I had never wanted to know was one thing.
"Both the Imperial Household and the Royal Family will want me to intervene."
"...That is precisely correct."
Siegfried had no intention of letting the demons go. The Royal Family wanted to save face. The Empire, having unintentionally dug deep into the Royal Family's internal affairs, wanted only to offer help as an apology. But if things continued as they were, on the surface it would appear that the Empire had used underhanded tricks and various pretexts to arbitrarily meddle in the Kingdom's affairs.
The Empire cast as a scheming aggressor, Itisel as an incompetent nation—conditions were ripe for that framing to stick.
But if the Guillotine of Levien, who had executed the traitor Envelde, stepped forward, the narrative would become much simpler. Even if they wanted to say 'The Hero acted out of line on his own,' the situation—by some breathtaking coincidence—was one where no one would believe it. And even from the Empire's perspective, already branded with the disgrace of being incapable of even managing the Hero, and from the Kingdom's perspective, already saddled with the infamy of clinging to the Empire to resolve all its affairs at any cost.
Without any complications, a single, very pleasant story—that the Hero, out of purely personal ties, had stepped forward at the request of the Guillotine of Levien to deliver justice against evil—could make everyone get along happily ever after.
"This is insane."
Everyone except me, that is.
With one single blow, despite all my efforts up to now, my fate as the face of the hero, the national icon, would be sealed in an instant. I had managed to kill Envelde in such a loud and turbulent fashion that even the opposition faction that loathed my existence could have gained some leverage—but now, there was no getting out of this.
It was a situation that naturally furrowed my brow, so I couldn't help but twist my face without restraint.
"As I always say, demon bastards are never any help in life."
For the first time in a while, the thousand and one Eldmias pooled their collective intelligence and diligently began searching for a way out of this situation.
Someone I could push forward ahead of me, someone whose involvement in the academy's affairs wouldn't seem unnatural, someone with the proven ability to fight against demon-worshipping bastards and traitorous scum convincingly—the optimal candidate, possessing cooperativeness, skill, and legitimacy in equal measure...
"...There is someone?"
There was.
Right next to me.
"Sheryl. Come here for a second."
I called Sheryl, whose lips were curled into what, by her standards, could generously be described as a grin. She approached me, a hook practically collecting above her head. I casually threw an arm around Sheryl's shoulder and spoke in the quietest voice I could manage.
"It seems the demon worshippers who shook the Holy Light Cross Order and Envelde's subordinates may still be inside the academy."
At those words, Sheryl's pickled-radish eyebrows flared with fury, and her gaze alone began demanding an explanation. I quickly finished explaining while pointedly ignoring Eselua, who was looking at me with eyes that practically said 'How can you just blurt that out so casually?' Having listened and quelled her anger, Sheryl nodded and spoke.
"It's plausible. Even without that, there were quite a few students who vanished overnight after Envelde's death. Everyone had assumed they had joined the treason and fled, but... it's entirely possible they burrowed into the underground waterways and were scheming something else."
There was no need to explicitly ask her to help. What she was thinking was already far too obvious, and she would understand why I had brought this up to her in the first place. Sure enough, Sheryl instantly formulated a plan, identifying students in her year who were tight-lipped and trustworthy to track the bastards down.
Now, the righteous students of the Royal Academy would eagerly wear out their soles to personally deliver justice to the traitors of humanity who had not only committed treason but had worshipped demons as well.
However, still unable to overcome the rashness of their youth, they would move to resolve the incident solely with their own strength. At that point, Eldmia—drawing upon the bond of having once been the personal butler to Sheryl, their focal point, and leveraging his position as an academy teaching assistant—would extend a helping hand to the students. And riding the extension of coincidences that had been carrying forward all along, the Hero's party would naturally come attached to that help.
Once the incident was resolved that way, both the Royal Family and the Noble Council would eagerly lend their support to the heroic tales of these talented youths who could be called the Kingdom's future. And even if the Guillotine of Levien and the Empire's Hero were part of it, the ones who solved this incident would be remembered as them.
Some would surely not want the daughter of the Ogatorf family to gain renown, but... was that any of my business?
If they had a problem with it, they should have handled things properly before it ever reached my ears.