Elaine's Shield (2)
Cassion was of the 5th Tier, but he was vermin — a mere tool, if an exceptional one. That was why he knew so little about the Outlands. All the same, sparing him had not been without its point; even the most trivial of things might prove necessary to someone.
"Coexistence? Ah, that's right, I did say that."
The Red Tower and the Tower of the Moon coexisted. There was nothing remarkable in that. A magic tower was, in the end, a gathering of humans — some groups got along well, and some did not.
What had piqued Harad's curiosity was why the Tower of the Moon opposed the Long-Cherished Wish.
"For much the same reason as the Red Tower. The Tower of the Moon is not yet ready. What that preparation entails, I do not know."
The Outlands' Long-Cherished Wish meant the conquest of the continent. The Red Tower wished to see that Wish fulfilled by their King — and so they opposed the Outlands' southward march, waiting for and searching after that King.
Just as the Red Tower did, the Tower of the Moon, too, seemed to require some preparation before enacting the Wish.
"What sort of preparation?"
"I don't know."
He couldn't say what it might be, but Harad could only suppose it mattered to the Tower of the Moon as much as the King did to the Red Tower.
"Our King belongs to a woman. That was the prophecy as I heard it. I had it from Hervis of the Red Tower."
"Hervis? What Tier is he?"
"3rd Tier."
"Then what I know would be more accurate."
Cassion declared it flatly.
"You're a bug, though, aren't you?"
"…The orders handed down to me included searching out the prophecy."
Given the same standing, the higher the Tier, the more one knew. And the "King" of the Red Tower meant the Sun.
"Who issued the prophecy?"
"The Moon of long ago handed it down."
"Has it ever been wrong?"
"Never. Not once."
Cassion was certain of it. Yet to Harad, the Origin called the Moon weighed even heavier than that unbroken record. Was it not a concept on a scale akin to the Sun's? Thinking of his past life, the Prophecy of the Moon was bound to come true.
"You…."
Cassion looked at Harad. His eyes were troubled.
"This — any idea what it is?"
Harad held out the orb. It was transparent now; the half that had remained of its silver mana had all been spent on his healing. Not a trace of that silver mana was left, yet Cassion seemed to recognize it all the same — his eyes went wide.
"…Where did you get that?"
"A rabbit in the Boundary gave it to me."
"A rabbit?"
Harad described the rabbit for him. A magical beast a touch on the large side, its body colder than the Boundary itself, and monstrously powerful.
"Good heavens. That is the Moon's divine beast — though it does not seem to have reached its full form yet."
That thing wasn't even full-grown? Harad was more staggered by that than by the words divine beast.
He had heard that a divine beast in its entirety was more than human eyes could hold — its true size simply would not fit within them.
Listening alongside them, Elaine's face went stiff. She had been blown apart by a rabbit that wasn't even fully grown.
"Is there a divine beast for every tower?"
"It is because there is not that it is called a divine beast. Search the Boundary and you would likely find great magical beasts similar in nature to each tower, but…"
"What's the difference?"
"The rabbit you saw is the guardian of the Tower of the Moon."
"A magical beast is?"
"That is precisely why it is a divine beast."
It meant the rabbit was every bit as wise and singular as that implied.
A beast touched by the divine. It was no name to be pinned on mere magical beasts.
"That is a rare experience. Almost no magician of the Tower of the Moon has ever met the divine beast."
"It never attacked me. It even gave me this orb. Why?"
The creature had seemed to welcome Harad — or more precisely, to welcome his Origin.
"I don't know. Why did you not ask it?"
"What?"
"I have heard the Moon's divine beast speaks the human tongue. Did it not?"
Cassion asked him right back. He knew a great many things, but the depth of that knowledge was woefully shallow — for Cassion was a Gu tool.
"It didn't."
"I expect it did not feel like it. Or perhaps it could not — being a cub, after all."
Cassion turned his gaze to the orb. It was likely an outer relic of the Tower of the Moon — and a special one at that.
The rabbit was the Tower's guardian. A relic carried by such a creature would hardly be ordinary.
Hadn't Harad felt that specialness firsthand? Healing was a precious power. It was why the Church's sway ran so deep.
"I doubt it handed it over out of some cozy arrangement between the Red Tower and the Moon Tower."
Harad was inclined to agree. Or perhaps that arrangement held a specialness Cassion knew nothing of.
Ah — it was as they reached the tunnel that Cassion spoke without warning.
"The Red Tower has a divine beast as well."
Divine beasts belonged to the Sun and the Moon alone.
"I don't know the details. I was never entangled with the Red Tower."
"You don't even know where it is?"
"It will be in the Boundary. Most likely, at the far end of that direction only you can see. Where the outer relic of the Red Tower's King lies sleeping."
At that, Harad let out a hollow laugh. He should have led with that.
Harad looked down at the orb. A thoroughly plausible hypothesis had just clicked into place.
Of course, first he would have to take the blow.
Harad screwed his eyes shut.
…?
But nothing hurt.
Harad lifted his face. Grand Duke Aratus was looking quietly down at him.
"You're not doing it?"
"Do what."
The Grand Duke wore a face of perfect incomprehension. He was pretending.
Because of Elaine.
Because he had no wish to show his daughter a violent side? No — that couldn't be it. The Grand Duke was violent by his very existence.
It must be the merit I've earned.
The Grand Duke had ordered Harad to uncover the mastermind, and he had just returned from doing exactly that — down to the truth of Cassion's identity. In all likelihood the Grand Duke had known everything already, so the order had been closer to a test than a command. Even so, the merit was beyond dispute.
Serzilla never failed to reward a meritorious deed. Which meant the Grand Duke now had to hand down a reward — not a beating. Not with Elaine watching.
"It was a joke."
Harad rose to his feet as naturally as he could manage.
The Grand Duke gave a slight nod, though his expression was far from pleased. The Elaine Shield was evidently not invincible.
Not something I can use every day.
It seemed reserved for genuine emergencies only.
"I have completed my assignment."
"You have not completed it."
A reminder that Cassion still breathed — which was to say, the Grand Duke truly did know everything.
"Your order was to expose him. Not to kill him."
"You think he will come to heel?"
Crack. A murderous sound popped from the Grand Duke's fist.
"Your Grace."
"Denied."
Elaine had caught the gist of the exchange, but the moment she tried to cut in, her mouth was sealed for her. The Grand Duke overflowed with sheer force.
Is he like this even alone with his daughter?
He might well be. The Grand Duke was a man incapable of honesty.
"I take it you already knew."
The Grand Duke did not answer. It was affirmation all the same.
"Then why did you not kill him yourself?"
Elaine's eyes went round above her sealed lips. Today marked the first time she had ever seen anyone talk back to the Grand Duke. Even Moresz Palaz, the most venerable of his knights, could not answer the man back.
"He looked down on what is Serzilla's."
So said the Grand Duke, and Harad nodded jerkily.
That was why Cassion had died in his past life. Not because he was a magician. Not because he was a spy. Cassion died because he looked down on Harad — a man the Grand Duke had brought in with his own two hands.
Left alone, he would die for the same reason in this life as well.
Cassion had tried to send Harad down into the Outlands this time around, too. Which meant that had he simply never touched Harad, the Grand Duke would have let him be — fully aware of what Cassion was.
"I know Your Grace's objective is the Tower of the Moon."
…
The Grand Duke's face grew more fearsome still. But the weight did not crush Harad. That was thanks to Elaine.
"Cassion knows nothing. He will be of little use."
"His existence alone is of use."
From that response, Harad knew instinctively that his hypothesis was right. The Grand Duke's Imperial Sabbatical and the Tower of the Moon were connected.
Had Cassion not died, he might one day have risen to the Grand Duke's own guard. The Grand Duke had been deliberately keeping Cassion as bait between his teeth — until the Tower of the Moon bared its fangs.
"I will likely prove more useful."
"Continue."
"The outer relic of the Red Tower's Lord. Its location is known to me alone."
The Grand Duke's face stayed indifferent. He had no interest in the Red Tower's outer relic.
What the Grand Duke desires lies in the 1st Boundary. Harad had surmised as much once before. No telling what it is, though. But its connection to the Tower of the Moon — and to the Sabbatical — seemed beyond doubt.
"I met a magical beast called the Moon's divine beast."
"The rabbit."
The Grand Duke had known all along. Harad swallowed a laugh.
"Far from attacking me, it went so far as to heal me."
Harad drew out the orb and held it up. The Grand Duke laughed, rough and fierce. He seemed to have recognized at a glance that it was a special outer relic.
"It appears not only the Red Tower but the Tower of the Moon regards me as special."
The orb was the Tower of the Moon's outer relic, and Harad was a magician whom the Moon's divine beast held in special regard. Either way, the Tower would find itself bound — whether to reclaim its relic or to covet Harad himself.
"If what Your Grace desires is the Tower of the Moon, then I will make better bait than Cassion ever could."
"Your merit stands."
The Grand Duke rose. His intent was obvious enough — he meant to go and kill Cassion. With finer bait now on hand, Cassion was no longer needed.
Harad blinked once, and the Grand Duke had already thrown open the window.
Before the Grand Duke could pass through it, Harad hurried to speak.
"How many does this merit cover?"
"One."
The same as when he had brought in Kubel. This time, too, he had earned the right to place one magician inside the Inner Castle.
"Then I will spend it on Cassion."
…
The Grand Duke's fist trembled violently. That vibration rode down his aura — and that alone set every inch of Harad shaking. But it did not crush him. Thanks, as ever, to Elaine.
Elaine really is the best, this time too.
Before the regression, and now. At least on that point, nothing seemed to change.
"You were right. He truly did know."
Elaine spoke with a stiff face. To Harad's eye, she felt betrayed.
Unlike her, Grand Duke Aratus had seen straight through Cassion's true identity.
"There's a reason the man is Grand Duke."
His mind was a sharp one; he simply never felt the need to use it, his strength being so overwhelming. Elaine, who had worn the Grand Duke's seat in her previous life, was no different. In Harad's eyes, she and Aratus were cast from the very same mold.
"You could rise to that seat on strength alone — but it is a seat that must not be taken on strength alone."
"Indeed. I ought to apply myself as well, then."
A few days prior, such a remark would have crossed the line; Elaine brushed it aside as nothing. Harad felt as though he were facing Ellen. Elaine was treating him exactly as she had back when she was Ellen.
She trusts me even more than she did in the Ellen days.
This affair had lifted that trust another notch. And Elaine had changed by just that much. Even now, the choice to let Cassion live struck him as extraordinary.
"By the way — have you always delivered your reports like that?"
Harad tilted his head.
"I truly thought you'd gone mad."
She had assumed the aftereffects of Projection had scrambled his brain.
"I've never once seen anyone say everything on their mind in front of the Grand Duke."
"His Grace happens to like the audacious."
"That was a shade past audacious."
It had been outright insolence. That was why she had been all the more astonished.
"A wonder you're still breathing, my friend."
"All thanks to the Grand Duke's heir."
"Me?"
"He is ordinarily a touch more violent. He held back on your account."
"He hardly seems the type."
Elaine clearly knew little of her father's love — the man was miserly with its expression, after all. Even Harad could not begin to imagine Aratus looking warm and affectionate.
"In any case, thank you. I'm in your debt."
Elaine owned up to it readily.
"If not for you, Cassion would be dead."
Cassion would remain as Commander of the 2nd Knight Order. That he was a magician would never be made public until he revealed it himself. Such was the reward for the merit Harad had earned this time — a merit, and a reward, that existed only because he had regressed.
Which meant that, in Harad's own reckoning, it fell short of a true debt. But if Elaine wished for something, he was bound to grant it.
"So how am I to repay you?"
Elaine, who still knew nothing, seemed to chafe under the weight of it.
"Magicians cannot dream."
Their Origins, the magicians supposed, were the reason — though that was only ever surmise.
"So many of them are curious about it. What dreams are. What they feel like."
What manner of causality it might be — in truth, Harad wasn't the least bit curious. Knowing would change nothing.
"I'm much the same way."
"You're asking me to tell you whenever I dream, from now on?"
Harad nodded. The Regression Stone — its restriction had not budged an inch. Which meant dreams were the only channel through which the regression could be shared.
"That's all you want?"
Elaine's expression was a strange one. She seemed to sense something off about it — and to Harad, that was a most welcome sign.
"It matters a great deal to me."
Harad said it with utter seriousness — hoping that the dissonance Elaine felt would only grow.
"Well, all right, then. It's hardly a difficult thing."
…If only she would put that head of hers to use once in a while.
"For now, let's go get something to eat. I hear that magician Kubel of yours is quite the cook?"
Elaine's mouth watered.
Not Ellen — not yet.
Harad resolved to be satisfied. The change was already quick enough.