The Ambush (1)
Elaine had said they would part ways at once, but regrettably, the road down was one and the same.
She seemed set on heading straight for the Inner Castle without so much as a word to the commander of the First Knights Division.
Only natural, if so. The tavern called the Footprint of the Snow Leopard stood in the territory proper, not at the garrison.
"Ellen is the Grand Duke's niece. My cousin, in fact."
The Grand Duke had only one sibling, and that man was dead.
Which meant Ellen was the daughter of the head of the Intelligence Bureau. The current Bureau chief was Grand Duke Aratus's sister-in-law.
So that was why she had been an intelligence agent.
A cadet branch. What a daringly unconventional identity to wear.
No wonder it had all felt so half-hearted. The sex was different, but the hair and the eyes were left exactly as they were. Come to think of it, those ran in the Serzila blood.
"Now that I look, the two of you do resemble each other."
"Cousins."
"Come to think of it, even your names sound alike."
"Northern names are all much of a muchness, aren't they."
Elaine was like a machine. The answers sprang out as if she had rehearsed them.
"Are the two of you close?"
"Not especially. We rarely cross paths."
It had been an amusing question to ask, but Elaine's dead-serious answer was funnier still.
So she had already drilled all of this. No doubt with the head of the Intelligence Bureau — Grand Duke Aratus was hardly the type for such games.
"A fact only those in the know would know. The Bureau chief does prefer secrecy."
The identity of a Serzila cadet branch was, in truth, a perfectly reasonable one. Ellen had to be an intelligence agent and, at the same time, a woman belonging to nothing and no one — and she had to be free. Say the words "cadet branch," and every one of those problems solved itself.
"Don't be too hard on Ellen. I doubt she ever meant to keep it from you."
"You know her well, for someone who claims you hardly ever meet."
"Blood runs deep for good reason. Close or not, we know everything there is to know about each other."
"……."
Harad thought better of pressing further. If he pushed and either Elaine or Ellen turned guarded and cool in response, the loss would be his alone.
"Understood. Nepo hire."
"……She has her own share of troubles too, I'd wager. She simply never lets it show. Truth be told, Ellen is likely busy in her own way as well."
"Busy drinking?"
"……."
It was fun.
Harad washed at the annex and stepped out of the Inner Castle.
Every eye followed him on his way out, and among the watchers were knights of the Second Knights Division, off-duty at that. Word had spread that Harad had joined the hunt — that he had ridden out with them and returned with them, no less.
It would have reached them as one message: Serzila's heir had acknowledged the hostage magician.
That alone was astonishing enough. Only Harad, who remembered his past life, found anything to lament in it. To every other eye, it was simply astonishing.
Ellen was not at the tavern, the Footprint of the Snow Leopard. Apparently she had yet to arrive.
She isn't one for long baths.
The Elaine of his past life had despised bothersome things. She avoided them wherever possible, and when avoidance failed, she disposed of them quickly. Bathing fell into the latter category.
So did the Third Prince affair that Ellen had lived through in her dreams.
Back then, Elaine had cut down three apostles of the Order and chased down the Third Prince — and, astonishingly, nothing had come of it. Neither the Order nor the Empire could touch Serzila. Precisely speaking — on the Serzila that belonged to Elaine.
Such was the being Elaine had been in those days. A power who could make the whole continent hold its breath.
Truthfully, measured against what the future held, it was almost laughable. Serzila had fallen, and even that Elaine had been broken in the end.
The Regression Stone.
What would have happened without it? It was a what-if Harad returned to now and then. Not a difficult one to work through. He and Elaine would have died together, and the continent would have passed into the Outlands' hands.
And after that?
Was the Outlands' purpose simply the conquest of the continent, and done? Was conquest itself the end? Or what came after it?
And why?
Revenge for being driven to the edge of the continent? A craving for warm, gentle land in place of a merciless one?
The will of a god?
The Order of his past life had called the war against the Outlands a holy war. Claimed magicians were zealots worshipping outer gods.
As far as Harad was concerned, it was horseshit. There were no gods in the Outlands. What those people believed in was not gods, but Origins.
Thud! Right at that moment, someone set a liquor bottle down hard on his table. The sound was loud enough that Harad, chin propped in his hand, bounced briefly out of his seat.
"So this is the loafer, is it? Doing nothing but eat, drink, and chain-smoke his tobacco?"
"Ah. There you are, Lady Cadet Branch."
"……You're actually going to call me that?"
"You're late, nepo hire."
"Ah, shit……."
Ellen swallowed the rest of the curse and took the seat across from Harad.
"It wasn't that I meant to hide it. One thing led to another, that's all."
"It doesn't bother me."
Harad let it pass.
"Really?"
"Of course. You could have kept it secret to your grave and it wouldn't have mattered."
"Why?"
For some reason, Ellen's eyes narrowed to slits.
"What does pedigree matter? What matters is that we meet like this as often as we do."
"Hm."
Whether the answer pleased her or not, Ellen gave a light snort.
"It isn't a burden on you?"
"I'm the sort who looks at the person."
When they had met Kubel, Harad had told Ellen to see the man, not the magician. It was the same principle. Harad looked at the person, not the status.
"And I'm not much for reading the room, either."
"Not very magician-like of you."
"That's exactly how I got caught."
"……."
Ellen was struck speechless for a moment.
"I can't tell what's a joke with you."
"Go ahead and try."
Harad meant it.
The Elaine of his past life had been at ease with him. And the moment Harad swore at her, she would stop.
"Forget it. What is wrong with you? Even a beast wouldn't act like that."
"Is that so?"
"It is. I can't speak for other people, but I won't ever be like that."
Other people, perhaps. But not her. The words tickled Harad.
Ellen seemed to be thinking back on the Elaine of her dreams. There was no need to guess which dream. The Elaine of the past life had always been mischievous whenever the two of them were alone together.
Not that I'm in any position to talk.
Ellen had simply not yet dreamed enough. Truth be told, Harad was no different. Elaine had been the most comfortable company of anyone he had ever known. It hadn't started that way — but somewhere along the line, it had simply become so.
"Anyway — do you know about this?"
"Put that way, then no, I don't."
Harad shook his head.
"An intelligence agent, and yet no way with words on you. Is that the nepo hire in you?"
"I am not a nepo hire. No — that's not what's important right now."
"Then what is important?"
"The Grand Duke's heir was ambushed."
Harad tilted his head. If they meant Elaine, she had been right in front of him.
"When?"
"Just now."
Looking closely, he could see a small smear of blood on Ellen's sleeve.
So that was why she was late.
Ellen had, in effect, just reported her own ambush.
"A madwoman, that one."
"How did you know? That the culprit was a woman?"
"Lucky guess."
"Oh."
"……."
Playing the fool on purpose turned out to be harder work than he had expected.
The ambush had taken place around the time Harad finished his bath. Ellen said that by then, Elaine had already bathed and left the Inner Castle.
"Isn't her bath time a little short?"
"……I suppose she just washes quickly."
"And what business does she have leaving the Inner Castle in the dead of night?"
"……She must be busy. She is the Grand Duke's heir."
Ellen went on. The place had been an alley. She didn't explain it in detail, but Harad knew the path — a shortcut that linked up with the Footprint of the Snow Leopard. Elaine had the geography of the territory mapped in her head to the last lane.
"She said someone suddenly drove a dagger into her back."
"That's even possible?"
The question escaped Harad before he could stop it. That Elaine would permit an ambush?
"Yes. She noticed only after she'd been stabbed."
Then the possibilities narrowed to two. A magician of concealment, or a knight stronger than Elaine.
"It was a magician, she said."
Elaine had felt mana in the dagger. Nothing threatening. The blade had failed to pierce her back — failed against her innate Heavenly Might.
Elaine subdued the culprit on the spot, and the culprit bit through their own tongue and died.
"A magician?"
Harad's eyes narrowed. Why would a magician come for Elaine?
"Could it be because of us?"
Us. Meaning Harad and Ellen. Ellen suspected it might be because the two of them had killed an Ivory Tower magician and a Red Tower magician out in the Boundary.
"If that were the reason, they would have come for me or for you."
Harad stated it flat. Still, he could guess why Ellen had thought of it. Because she was Elaine, most likely.
"Truthfully, we could rule you out as well. If this were vengeance, they should have come for me. I fell Ios by my own hand too."
Jeshult and Hervis had died at Harad's hands. So had Ios. If this ambush was the Ivory Tower's doing, they ought to have targeted Harad.
"It isn't revenge. And it isn't the Outlands either."
"Why couldn't it be the Outlands?"
"Have they ever done such a thing before?"
Ellen shook her head. In all her life, Elaine had never once been ambushed by a magician.
"The Outlands has no reason to lay hands on Serzila's heir. It would be scratching an itch into an open sore, nothing more."
Had the Outlands chosen covert scheming in the past life for nothing? They shunned all-out war with Serzila. An Outlands like that, laying hands on Elaine? Inconceivable.
It never happened in the past life.
Frankly, that was the most decisive fact of all. Thanks to it, Harad could be certain.
"This isn't the Outlands' work."
"But the culprit was a magician."
"So am I. So is Kubel."
Magician did not mean Outlands.
"True. And if this were a lone actor, the culprit wouldn't have killed themselves on the spot. The culprit belongs to an organization. A tightly bound one at that."
The assassin had taken their own life the instant the ambush failed. Plainly, so as not to give anything up.
"What tier was the assassin?"
"Around third tier?"
However stealthy an Origin might be, it meant nothing if the weapon could not cut. In fact, Elaine had let the ambush land and walked away untouched.
"There is no one in the North who doesn't know of the heir's martial prowess. Pull any stranger off the road and ask, and they could tell you."
And yet they had sent a third-tier assassin. When even a fourth tier would have fallen short.
"They never meant to kill her. Not from the very start."
Meaning the objective was never the heir's death.
"A warning, then? To whom? The heir? Serzila? And if it's a warning — a warning about what?"
Harad spat the words out fast. It might have been questioning, might have been thinking aloud. Ellen decided it was both. Harad was looking at her.
"Nothing rings any bells for me."
"For me, something does. Myself."
"What?"
Harad pointed at himself.
"An heir who has never once faced an assassin met an assassin. That means something has changed."
Ellen nodded.
"And that change must displease someone. The assassination exists to plant distrust of that change."
"……."
"And that change is me."
His conclusion reached, Harad gave a slow nod. Ellen was staring at him, her face demanding the full explanation.
"It was the first attempt ever made on the heir's life. And no true assassination at that — the assassin was a mere third tier."
The timing was what mattered.
"Right after the two of us returned from the hunt. A coincidence, that is."
Rumors that Elaine had acknowledged Harad had been flying thick. The first assassination attempt of her life had come hard on their heels — today.
"So someone sent an assassin because the Grand Duke's heir seemed to be getting close to you?"
"To be precise, they sent one so that she wouldn't get any closer. A message not to trust a magician."
Which was why the assassin had been a magician. With the Outlands as the North's enemy, no assassin could have been better chosen to sharpen that vigilance.
"Isn't that a bit of a leap?"
"It may be. But I don't believe it is."
"Why not?"
"Because it is the conclusion I arrived at."
Harad was certain. It was the kind of certainty only a regressor could hold. Ellen could not understand him. Even for overconfidence, it seemed like far too much.
"……Fine. Say it's so."
"Do that. And I'll assume you've understood."
"Then who is behind it?"
To borrow Harad's own framing: the mastermind did not welcome Elaine growing close to a magician — to Harad. So they had sent a magician as their assassin. The object was not her death. It was to seed distrust of magicians in Elaine.
"Fine — as you say, the Outlands comes off the list first."
"Take the Order off as well. The assassin was a magician. The Liberation Tower too — they aren't mad enough for this."
"The Empire comes off as well. They don't even know you exist."
Harad was a classified secret.
"Then there's nothing left."
"Why nothing? One remains."
"What?"
Harad pointed at the floor.
"Serzila remains, does it not?"
Not the tavern's floor. This land.
There was no need to produce proof naming the culprit. No matter how many suspects piled up. Dismiss them one by one — gathering grounds for innocence here, reasoning it through there — and in the end, only a single suspect is left standing.
"So nothing remains but Serzila."
"And that same Serzila is the reason you're standing here."
"It was the Grand Duke's will. Not Serzila's."
"……That is an extremely dangerous thing to say."
The North was one. The Grand Duke's will was the will of the North.
"True enough. But nothing in this world is absolute. If even the world cannot manage it, why should Serzila?"
"……Are you saying there are retainers who chafe at the Grand Duke's will?"
"Retainers of that sort? More than enough to spare."
Hadn't the First Knights Division been exactly that, in the beginning?
"No matter how much use I prove myself, there will always be those who despise me. Because I am a magician."
This world was full of people constitutionally incapable of accepting a magician. The North was better than most — but it could not be everyone.
"I believe this is the work of someone like that. Does anyone come to mind?"
"No."
Ellen's answer was instant.
"You put great faith in the retainers."
"They are people I have no choice but to trust."
Ellen shook her head, her face set firm.
"There's sense in it. But it doesn't add up. The culprit was a magician."
Harad's reasoning was more than plausible. If only the assassin had not been a magician.
"A retainer of Serzila hired a magician? To keep her from getting close to a magician — to you?"
What kind of nonsense was that supposed to be?
"You said it yourself. There are no magicians in the Inner Castle."
Harad could tell a magician apart on sight. And that same Harad had said the Inner Castle held none.
"Right. There were none in the Inner Castle."
"But……"
"The knights do not remain within the Inner Castle."
Bang! Ellen slammed her palm down on the table and shot to her feet — and the table collapsed outright.
"You don't appear ready to hear what I have to say."
"……You're suspecting the knights. Right now?"
"Didn't I tell you? Doubt everything."
Some time ago, Harad had told Ellen to doubt everything.
"And back then, you told me it would be easy."
"……."
"Seeing it now — that was a lie."
"They're knights. Knights you have to rule out."
Knights bore aura. Magicians could not bear aura. Harad had said nothing in this world was absolute — but this much was bedrock truth of the continent.
"I said doubt everything. Not everything except the knights."
Harad had never once denied that truth.
He had merely deceived.
"Aura can be imitated."
"What?"
"It's only that magicians audacious enough to pass themselves off as knights are few and far between."
In his past life, Harad had been Elaine's guard knight.
Not her guard magician.