White Hair Tribe, Part 2
“If you value your life that much, hand it over. Now.”
She shot me a glare thick with hostility.
If that look had had a physical form, it would have already pierced straight through me and made me cough up blood. Her killing intent was that sharp.
Before I knew it, Adina had slipped behind me, fidgeting nervously as she tried to gauge the mood.
“Not only did you get yourself exiled, you even had the gall to steal a tribal relic? There are limits to how much mercy one can show. Don’t you dare soil the tribe’s honor any further. That is all I came to say.”
She looked back and forth between Adina and me without saying a word, then spoke again.
And yet she still didn’t even spare me much of a glance. It seemed her business really was with Adina alone.
Did she not say anything yet?
Of course, the theft of the rune—the thing that started all this—had indeed been Adina’s crime. But in the end, the one who’d swallowed it was none other than me.
I’d taken the rune as the condition for accepting Adina into the group.
Given the situation, I had expected her to name me first in a panic, coward that she was. So, to be honest, I was a little surprised by her unusual show of loyalty.
I cut into the conversation in a calm voice, as if it were no big deal.
“Are you the White Hair Tribe’s chief?”
At my question, she frowned and snapped back, “A third party should keep out of clan matters. And...”
Her gaze slowly shifted to Arkan.
In a low, oddly restrained voice, she said, “Great Lord. What business do you have here? You’re not thinking of involving yourself in another clan’s affairs, are you?”
“Hm? Why would I?” Arkan replied lightly. “Let the family drama stay in the family. I’ve got no intention of interfering as long as it doesn’t cause me trouble.”
“Then I’d appreciate it if you stepped aside. My business is with that girl alone.”
That was when I felt another presence approaching.
More White Hair Tribe members, watching the situation from behind.
As expected of beastfolk, I couldn’t even tell how many had been brought along just to catch one person. At a glance there seemed to be twenty or so, and the whole thing had the air of a battle formation, which made my expression harden on its own.
Adina tugged at my sleeve, looking anxious.
“W-w-well...? What do we do?”
“No idea. I’m not really sure either.”
At a glance, this didn’t look like something we could just smooth over and walk away from. The look in their eyes was ferocious enough to suggest they’d start a war if it meant getting what they wanted.
The aggressiveness beastfolk were known for did not apply equally to every tribe. In fact, the older and more legitimate a tribe’s bloodline was, the more intense their pride and belligerence became. And the White Hair Tribe stood at the very peak of that tendency.
And naturally so—their ancestor was the divine beast White Hair Nine-Tailed Fox, the first to set foot upon the miracle of transcendence.
Because of that, the White Hair Tribe’s history was so old it was fair to say it ran parallel to the history of beastfolk as a whole, and every member of the tribe was formidable in their own right.
Especially the woman glaring at me now. As the current chief of the White Hair Tribe, she was no weaker in raw power than the lords of the Monarch Assembly.
“Hiiik...!”
Knowing that, it was no wonder Adina was trembling like that.
Honestly, the only people here capable of stopping her were Arkan, and...
Me, I guess.
I turned toward Arkan.
She was watching us with a strange smile, like she’d stumbled across a bit of entertainment after a long drought. I could tell immediately that hoping for her help was a futile dream.
I swallowed a sigh and said evenly, “That’s enough.”
“The human should leave.”
“That would be a little difficult. As you can see, I’m with them.”
“With them? You, a human?”
She glared at Adina, then said through gritted teeth, “...So you really do live with humans.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong? A White Hair Tribe member dares to consort with humans? What an idiot, with not even a shred of honor, staining the tribe’s face with filth.”
“Honor? You mean the kind of honor that drives a little one out of the pack just for being afraid?”
“...What?”
“Among our own kind, especially children, White Hair Tribe honor meant taking them in no matter the reason. If that’s the standard, then you’re the one staining the tribe’s face—not this girl who doesn’t know any better.”
I met her eyes.
I could tell even at a glance that she was the one in charge here.
“So leave. Stop forcing your way through someone else’s territory.”
This time, I was the one issuing the warning.
Beastfolk weren’t the sort of people you could talk into backing down politely, which only made them more irritating.
I could feel Adina staring at me in disbelief from the side. She probably hadn’t expected me to so openly take her side.
But I didn’t have a choice.
Once I’d swallowed the rune, I could no longer pretend the responsibility didn’t touch me.
“You’re crossing the line.”
The hostility cutting into my skin grew even sharper.
The White Hair Tribe members who had been watching in silence began to spread out and surround us in a wide ring.
As the atmosphere darkened, Adina started trembling all over, her face draining into a sickly black pallor.
I glanced at Rudine.
The corner of Rudine’s mouth was slowly lifting.
The thick, almost tangible killing intent filling the air seemed to excite her.
Her eyes, opened by the Red Eye, flashed with crimson light, and the power of the Heavenly Slaughter Star seeping from her soul began little by little to fill my Mental Image.
“I’ll ask one last time. Where is the stolen relic?”
“Do I really have to answer?”
“Answer the question properly.”
I curled one corner of my mouth.
“You mean this?”
I’d played dumb earlier, but now that the situation had come this far, it was no longer something I could avoid.
From the moment I first absorbed the Time Rune, I’d known this kind of situation might come to pass.
Since things had already gone this far, honesty was probably the better option.
And with Arkan watching, trying to wriggle out of this with a lie didn’t seem especially wise either.
So I said exactly what I’d prepared.
“I used it.”
“...What?”
“I said I used it. Personally.”
What else was there to do?
I might as well brace myself and let things go where they would.
That was what I intended, anyway.
“Hah.”
Wooooong.
Above her right palm, a brilliant blue spiral sphere rose into being, sharp as a star.
And then—
“You’ll pay for your nonsense with your life.”
RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE!!
The spiral sphere shot up into the sky.
It floated in the air, releasing a fierce wave of lightning.
Its endless rotation quickened and quickened, and the aftershock of that power tore at the ground beneath it.
Kiiiiiiiii—!
Enduring the screeching, ear-splitting shriek, I lifted my head.
At the edge of that flashing blue light, dozens of streaks converged into a single point.
It compressed.
It ripped through space.
And it pierced.
BOOOOOOM!!
The rain of blue bombardment swept over the spot where I stood.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!
The place where the lightning barrage had raged was reduced to a vast smear of char and ash, everything there erased by high-voltage current.
Arkaban, chief of the White Hair Tribe, assumed that would be the end of it.
It was a barrage unleashed with the aid of five White Rings, the tribe’s unique trait that amplified magical power.
And that wasn’t all.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
After her strike, the attacks of the tribesmen who had come with her followed in a chain.
The thick dust made the view murky, but it was obvious no one could have come through that unharmed.
Adina, whose natural resistance to magic made her unusually durable, might have survived. Anyone else would not have.
No ordinary defense would have helped, either.
All energy ultimately came from mana, and the White Hair Tribe’s mana possessed a predatory trait that devoured the mana of others.
The tribe’s pride was a spear that could pierce any defense.
Yes.
That was how it should have been.
“...What?”
Beyond the dust, a dark silhouette emerged.
They were standing there just fine, as though none of it had touched them at all. Not even a single fold of clothing was out of place.
Before them, an impossible scene spread out as though time itself had stopped.
The brilliant blue bombardment that had been raining down was frozen in midair, and the same was true of the tribe’s spells following behind it.
The dust flung skyward, the haze born of electricity, all of it had stopped.
As though the flow of time itself had frozen solid.
Everything forged from mana had been pinned in the air like a specimen.
Arkaban was stunned before she could stop herself.
She couldn’t understand it. It was a shock.
To bind electricity made of mana in midair was something far beyond simply blocking it.
Within that eerie sight, the man in front of her walked forward slowly.
Step, step.
One step.
Then another.
He stopped in front of the stunned Arkaban and looked straight into her eyes.
“Didn’t I say so?”
Then he spoke slowly.
“The one staining the tribe’s face with filth is you.”
The tattoo beneath his right eye shone blue.
That was where the Time Rune had been engraved.