Chapter 58
Chapter 58
8. Hunter Alliance -10
Hori knew.
She knew she was going to get beaten this badly.
It was a fight she could never have won from the start. Hori might be fairly strong among D-rank hunters, but Joero was a man at the very top of D-rank. On top of that, he went around with his subordinates in tow, which made it even more so.
If you were inferior in both numbers and quality, defeat was a foregone conclusion. So the right call would have been to ignore a fight like this entirely, tuck her tail so low it swept the dirt, and keep her head down.
So why had she gone and moved?
"Kyaaaak!"
"Move it, get inside that red circle, you little beasts!"
The radical faction Alliance members whipped the beastman children as they drove them toward the altar. Joero supervised the scene and spoke to Hori, who was sprawled at his feet.
Maybe it was closer to talking to himself. He muttered without even glancing at Hori.
"I remember when we first met. There was resentment and venom in your eyes. In this world, those who can show that look survive longer than those with talent⋯⋯ That's why I took you in."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"Because only those who will use any means necessary can reach higher places. To hold back the plant invasion, that's obviously what you have to do, and it's the right thing. How did you change so much?"
Right.
Hori, born a hybrid of human and beastman, had grown up enduring every kind of torment and contempt from her tribe.
Beastmen were strong. Their skin was tough as leather, and their strength could shatter stone without even picking up a weapon. But Hori, diluted with human blood, couldn't do that.
She was weaker than others.
In a beastman tribe, weakness was sin. So Hori had been a sinner from birth.
Young Hori learned how a weak animal survives. Lower your tail and submit, prick up your ears and stay on guard. Food rations got pushed to the very last turn, and even then she often got nothing, so she dug through the dirt and ate bugs if she had to.
Never resist what a strong animal does. Even if she bared her teeth and tried to fight, the result was obvious. After being put through a dominance beating, the weight of injury and pain would pile onto an already brutal day.
There had been a time when she raged at all of it. Why should the strong be allowed to exploit the weak? Why won't anyone take pity on me?
Why, of all people, did my mother have to be human⋯⋯
"Heh, heheh⋯⋯"
Looking back, it was truly laughable.
That had been childish whining. The tribe had tormented Hori, but they hadn't killed her, and they'd thrown her scraps fit for a dog, but they'd let her survive. She'd been able to keep her life going.
She learned the difference in the year she turned fifteen.
-Oh, they're coming! The blue army is coming! Stop them!
-Hraaaagh!! M-my legs, they're rotting⋯⋯
The beastman tribe couldn't hold back the colossal Gate.
That night, deep as it was, the sky was blue. Because a blue Gate had covered the entire celestial sphere. And beneath that blueness, plant monsters rained down like a shower.
The beastmen didn't dare fight back.
Watching the tribe members who had been so strong die like bugs, Hori accepted it deep in her heart. So that's how it is. The world was made this way, and complaining about it means nothing. That.
That nothing but survival had any real value.
The small are eaten by the large. The weak are eaten by the strong. The law of the jungle was the fundamental principle by which this universe ran. Hori, less than a speck of cosmic dust, had no way to defy that providence.
The reason she survived the day her planet fell was thanks to a certain B-rank hunter dispatched to that stage at the time.
-If there is anyone left alive on this planet, I will open passages to other planets across the surface, so flee!
A booming voice that seemed to shake the sky.
Back then she didn't even have the strength to look directly at that being, so she'd thought the wolf god her tribe traditionally served had intervened. Hori fled through the passage, following that voice, and so she escaped by the skin of her teeth and survived.
It was much later that she learned that being's name was 『Master Binder (主縛)』.
Where Hori landed was an uninhabited planet. It had an ecosystem, but no primates capable of speech or writing had been born there yet. She lived there day by day, and.
[Connection complete. Granting System connection authority to the individual with the most outstanding talent on this planet.]
Then one day, she obtained the System.
It was only natural, since Hori was the only person there.
Hori was captivated by the System, which could let her surpass her own constitution, and she worked hard. Wanting to stand even once in the role of the strong she had only ever looked up to, she used any means necessary.
Fortunately—unlike in her tribe, this vast universe was full of people far weaker than Hori. There were plenty of humans so frail they couldn't even overcome the bloodline of a half-breed beastman.
Hori was strong.
Even if only in a small pond, she was unmistakably strong!
She acted exactly as she had learned in life. As if trying to forget her past hunger, she devoured power indiscriminately. That path caught the eye of the Hunter Alliance radical faction, and Joero recruited Hori.
Hori, glaring up at Joero while crawling on the floor, quietly cast a skill with her left hand hidden behind her back. The incomplete C-rank skill bestowed by 『Master Binder (主縛)』⋯⋯
"『Degradation (劣化): Puppet (傀儡)-』⋯⋯ Gah!"
Crunch. Crack.
Joero stomped down on Hori's back. The impact and pressure felt like a massive boulder dropping and crushing her spine.
Without a trace of surprise at Hori's ambush attempt, he continued speaking.
"I knew you had a connection to 『Master Binder』. And Muyeon of the traditional faction is his direct subordinate⋯⋯ I can understand switching lines to that side. If you have a way to catch a higher-ranked hunter's eye, of course you should take it."
"Kh, ugh⋯⋯"
"What disappoints me is how you are now. Hori⋯⋯ why did you attack when you couldn't win? Did I look that weak to you?"
No.
Hori's combat style, shifting between long-range sniping and close-range assassination, had originated from Joero. She had stolen his techniques with sidelong glances. In a sense they could be called master and student, so she knew Joero's strength to the bone.
And now, he'd added monstrous power from whatever skill he'd obtained⋯⋯
"Or, don't tell me—is it because I'm about to offer those young beastmen as sacrifices?"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"I hope it's not that. It must not be that. Where else would you find such hypocrisy? Haven't you already drained your fill of those weaker than you⋯⋯? Even if you change course now, your footprints won't be erased."
Crrrunch!
"Kyaaagh⋯⋯!!"
The force in Joero's foot doubled. Her spine creaked. Blood streamed through Hori's clenched teeth as she gasped for breath. And she thought.
⋯⋯Was that it? Was the reason I stepped in atonement?
No. No. She had never dared think such a thing. She didn't even consider it a sin. What part of upholding nature's providence was sinful?
So those beastman children, beaten and thrown onto the magic circle like that—that too was a truly natural and just sight.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
She knew that better than anyone, so why did it cut so deep?
In her rapidly darkening vision, Hori racked her brain. Joero was not a man who left anyone alive after they bared their teeth at him. So whatever happened, Hori herself would die here.
In her hazy mind, a voice from the past echoed.
-Why'd you do that? If you pull something like this, you won't even be able to make excuses. You want me to convince the traditional faction and go to all-out war with the radical bastards?
Shut up, Noah Won. I don't know either. Don't get on my nerves. Annoying bastard.
Ah.
Right⋯⋯ this guy seemed like the type to jump in and save people without a second thought. Like an idiot who doesn't know the rules of the universe. Is it fun, walking into certain death on your own? I'm not having any fun right now.
But, but how⋯⋯ how can you not hesitate?
How can you act like that?
Amid the unanswerable question, a thought flashed through her mind. Right, that bastard Noah Won was supposedly coming soon. He'd said he'd join up here after rescuing his comrade.
It might just be a lie to mess with her.
If so⋯⋯ then let's just collapse here and pretend to be unconscious. And when Noah Won arrives and causes a commotion, she could slip out in the chaos. She might survive.
So just wait quietly. Don't try to fight.
"President Joero! The placement is all done! Shall we begin?"
"Good. When I ascend to the central circle, begin the ritual."
Whether those weak little things die in droves or not, just stay quiet—
Fuck.
Hori felt as if Noah Won's demon had latched onto her back. And before she knew it, to delay that ritual even a little until Noah Won arrived.
She used the only part of her body she could still move freely—her tongue.
"⋯⋯President Joero! You ran your mouth about how I've changed, but you've changed just as much! What, did you turn into a toothless old dog with age, huh?!"
"⋯⋯So that's how you want to play it."
"You talk like you haven't changed a bit, and it's so pathetic I can't stand it! I remember you clearly. You gathered up the radical faction kids and told them—don't hesitate to kill people, because it's unavoidable if we're going to survive the plants, so push forward without wavering!"
"I did. I still don't think I said anything wrong. Rather than everyone dying while doing nothing, tangled up in worthless things like morality, someone has to survive."
Hori screamed as if in desperation.
"Fine! I think that's right too! If there are ten starving people in a cave—rather than all starving to death together, I think you should kill them one by one and survive! But! That's only when there's actually 'something' out there to do!"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"You, Joero. I can tell by the smell. You reek, you hear me?! You stink of a loser who's tucked his tail between his legs!"
Twitch.
The muscles in Joero's face moved minutely.
It was a baseless slander she'd only spat out to buy time, yet the evidence of his agitation appeared clearly. So clearly that Hori, the one who'd said it, felt bewildered.
"You've really lost your mind. Don't run your mouth about things you know nothing about."
"Nobody gives me orders! You old fossil!"
"Let me shut you up for good. When you die and go to the next world, look down on this one and reflect and regret. There, you'll be able to accept that my choice was the best one—"
Joero drew his bow and nocked the string. The arrowhead aimed clearly at Hori.
There was no hesitation in the motion. The arrow, once loosed, would shoot a wolf dead. Hori let out a faint sigh at the sight. This was the end.
Perhaps it was the final moment of her life.
Hori still didn't know why she had moved.
Twang-!
Hearing the sound of the arrow tearing through the air. She quietly closed her eyes amid the unanswered question—
"『Azure Wind Wanderer: Fishing Rod』."
The wind blew.
Fwooooosh—!!
"—Kyah?!"
Hori was yanked out like a cat being sucked into a giant vacuum cleaner. Thunk-! The arrow struck where she had been, buried so deep the fletching wasn't even visible above the ground.
Thump.
Hori, who had floated up and flown through the air, landed in the arms of a dirt-covered blonde woman. The woman smiled brightly and greeted her.
"Hello?"
"Uh, uhh⋯⋯"
As Hori looked around, wondering what was happening, she saw a familiar face. White hair swaying in the lingering wind, and those strange eyes that saw through every movement in a way that was infuriating.
"I told you to wait, Hori."
It was Noah Won.
"⋯⋯I would've answered, do I look like a pet dog that waits when you say wait, Noah Won!"
"Hm."
Honestly, Hori was so glad to see him that her nose stung a little. Anyone would be moved to have their life saved at the last possible moment.
The timing was right.
Hori was barely hanging on but still alive, and the ritual didn't seem to have started yet. According to Elijah's count, not a single beastman child had been sacrificed yet.
The ritual site was inside a closed airport building. The lighting was dim and the shutters were down, and every last window was blocked off, so not a single ray of sunlight got in—it was dark. A half-repaired airplane sat far off in the distance.
And beneath our feet, a magic circle. Like the one I'd used for the 『Rite of Order』, it was drawn in red pigment with circles of various sizes in complex patterns.
So that man with his face wrapped in bandages was Joero.
Joero seemed to recognize me too. A glint of interest flickered in his eyes.
"White hair⋯⋯ and if you're someone disrupting the Alliance's event, you must be that ruffian Noah Won. It seems you're also one of the ignorant sort who doesn't understand how the world works."
"How it works?"
"Didn't you come here for some reason like saving people's lives? How laughable that is can be rebuked with a single question."
This was good for me anyway. I tilted my chin as if to say, go on, let's hear it.
"When people are cornered, they ultimately have no choice but to use others as stepping stones. If one of the two—your planet or Hori's planet—had to die, which would you choose? Go on, answer."
So that's what he was getting at.
I straightened my posture and said flatly.
"I'm sorry, President Joero. That question seems a bit childish and distorted."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"The plant bastards are invading indiscriminately from all directions. I agree with the opinion that we need an overwhelming powerhouse, but the world also has the option of cooperation, not just plunder."
Joero filled his eyes with disgust, as if looking at an idealist. As if plunder were the most efficient strategy. But that was looking at the world far too narrowly.
The plant bastards' offensive grows steadily stronger over time. They never rest just because you repelled them once. Earth, too, was probably slowly accumulating contamination on some uninhabited continent.
Say I sacrificed everything for my own strength alone.
Then in the end, the only meaningful fighting force would be me alone. If I left Earth to grow stronger, the place would get robbed blind in an instant, and if I stayed tied to Earth, I couldn't grow, so I'd eventually wither and die.
The System doesn't have Party Matching and Support Request functions for nothing.
⋯⋯But there was no reason to ramble on about all that, and I didn't want to. This wasn't a philosophy debate.
"President Joero. That statement just now was very telling. 'When cornered, you have no choice but to use others as stepping stones'⋯⋯ Does that apply to the 『Hunter Alliance』 as well?"
"What do you mean?"
Thud. Thud.
Footsteps echoed from afar. Not just one person. The sound of many people.
Hearing that sound, Joero's expression began to harden. Right, he could feel the atmosphere turning strange. He'd probably been thinking, what could just two people possibly do? Too bad.
I timed it internally and raised my voice a little more.
"It seems you were already prepared, President. Like that new Alliance member 『Da』 who took all the support he could get and then ran off irresponsibly—you're ready to toss even this Alliance aside like a worn-out shoe at any moment—"
"P-President! We've got a problem! Outside⋯⋯!"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!!"
Rumble. The footsteps of countless people resounded.
From the lowest rank to the highest. Every hunter who had been at the 『Hunter Alliance』 D-rank branch entered. Hundreds of people poured into the closed airport where the ritual was taking place in an instant.
From now on, this place—
"I, Noah Won, stand here as a C-rank hunter acting under authority delegated by the System debt collector, 『Glass Sword Lord』. Defendant Joero, president of the Hunter Alliance radical faction, please answer in good faith. Otherwise, you'll be seeing a bounty placed on your face."
"What is the meaning of⋯⋯?!"
"The defendant shall explain the 『Elf』 charges against him."
It would become not a ritual hall, but a courtroom.