Bonds of Blood (3)
About five minutes later.
"Now then. I hereby call the second emergency roundtable meeting to order."
The Smell Officer spoke with an expression of unbearable gravity. The Five Senses Officers and Erzena, seated once more around the roundtable, all nodded along, faces taut with tension.
"First, we are most fortunate to report that the unpleasant incident which occurred mere moments ago has been swiftly contained. Our thanks to everyone for their calm response."
Just as the werewolf said, the recovery room was still and silent. Peaceful, solemn—an atmosphere as though nothing had happened at all.
But there was one difference from the first meeting held five minutes earlier.
"Mmmph!! Mmmmph!!"
Noah Kell was tied securely to a chair and laid out in the very center of the roundtable like a trophy catch.
Watching the Central Officer's sister flop around like a fish straight off the boat, the Touch Officer muttered under his breath.
"...If the Central Officer finds out about this, we're all dead."
A deep sigh escaped from everyone's lips.
"We should have locked the door."
"It couldn't be helped. She already saw Lady Erzena. What were we supposed to do?"
"I-I'm sorry. I was just so startled..."
"No. If we're assigning blame, the Hearing Officer who lied is the biggest problem here."
"...I'm ashamed of myself."
It was belated remorse, to be sure—but spilled water could never be scooped back up.
The Touch Officer spoke one final time.
"...So what do we do now?"
The most fundamental of questions, tossed onto the roundtable. No one dared open their mouth.
Faced with a situation so outlandish none of them had ever encountered its like, they could only gaze at Noah in silence.
The Smell Officer scratched at his head irritably and muttered.
"Damn it, we can't exactly tell her 'please pretend you saw nothing.' I have no idea how to handle this."
Everyone shook their heads in perfect agreement.
"B-But the main office has a way!"
The Taste Officer sprang up from his seat.
"Back in my homeland, when this happens, you smash their head against a rock! You only have to keep doing it until they can't recognize anything anymore!"
"That usually kills them, Taste Officer."
"Can't we just hit gently? Lady Erzena's here, so healing is an option too."
Nomads, always—barbarism of the lowest order.
"Anyone have another suggestion?"
That was when it happened.
Creeeak.
The recovery room door opened.
"Apologies for the interruption during your rest."
And stepping into view was the very person they feared most.
"Central Officer?"
Nathan entered, glancing around the room as if searching for someone.
"Everyone, have you by any chance seen a woman with the same black hair as min— What are you all doing right now?"
He stared at the five of them huddled together in bewilderment. Then his gaze dropped to the roundtable—where his own sister lay trussed up like a banquet centerpiece.
"Noah? What are you doing over there?"
"Mmmph!!"
At the sight of her savior finally arrived, Noah shouted something or other, eyes brimming with tears.
"Uuummmph! Urrzenah! Uuuuh uuuummph!"
But every word she screamed was nothing more than muffled garble.
The Central Officer's gaze wavered helplessly, tangled up in alarm, shock, and confusion all at once.
The Smell Officer spoke as calmly as he could manage.
"C-Central Officer. There were... circumstances here. We can explain everything."
"...Explain this?"
He looked around the room. The recovery room, its windows curtained, its lamps extinguished and only a few sinister candles burning. His subordinates gathered in a solemn circle around the large roundtable, deeply discussing something. And at the very center of that table, writhing with limbs and mouth bound, his sister—whom he hadn't seen in four years. And finally, Erzena, sitting there not merely failing to hide her divine power, but flaunting it outright.
"Nathan... I'm sorry."
"...Ah."
Nathan was quick to catch on. Slowly, his expression steadied itself.
Creeeak.
He walked unhurriedly to the table and took one of the empty seats. Then, with a gravity to match everyone else's, he spoke.
"I hereby open the first emergency roundtable meeting."
"...Second, Central Officer."
"...I hereby open the second emergency roundtable meeting."
And so the meeting's membership grew by one.
Not much changed in the second session.
For one, we untied Noah and sat her beside me. For another, we strung up the Hearing Officer—the culprit behind this entire debacle—from the ceiling by his ankles. That about covers it.
"C-Central Officer... I was wrong... spare meee..."
Perhaps from the blood rushing to his head, the Hearing Officer whimpered pitifully, his face bone-white.
"If you're sorry, you can stay right where you are."
You had to go and play a prank, didn't you? That's the only reason any of this got found out, you pointy-eared bastard.
I turned my gaze on the other Five Senses Officers, all of them stealing nervous glances at me.
"And the rest of you—what exactly possessed you to bind the Central Officer's sister? An entrant, no less? Are you all out of your minds?"
"B-But we were so startled..."
"You process it according to regulation. What did you think, that she was going to kidnap someone?"
These lunatics. Do you have any idea how shocked I was?
They'd found out she'd seen classified information, so they trussed a child up like some wild beast. Watching the sister I'd reunited with after four years have her arms and legs bound within forty minutes was not good for anyone's mental health. Especially with the werewolf Smell Officer present—she genuinely thought she was about to be eaten.
"If it weren't for Erzena, I would have slammed the emergency bell. Do you understand?"
"We're sorry..."
With nothing left to offer in their defense, the officers quietly reflected on their sins.
Then I turned my head.
"And Noah."
"Y-Yeah?"
Noah, still rattled from barely escaping her bonds, flinched and looked up at me.
I gave her a stern rebuke, voice level.
"I distinctly remember telling you to wait in the administration building. I don't recall telling you to wander around. And why did you enter a restricted zone? Do you not know civilians are punished for that? A merchant who breaks regulations that easily won't survive long, you know."
"...I'm sorry."
Instead of her usual bright, confident self, Noah answered meekly, like a sulky cat. Four years had passed, and yet she still lapsed into these impulsive streaks. Some things never changed.
Pressing down the flicker of longing that rose unbidden, I spoke firmly.
"Not to me. Apologize to the Five Senses Officers and to Erzena. She's the one who's been put in a difficult position."
"Okay..."
At the sight of it, the officers whispered among themselves as though watching something rare.
"...I've never seen the Central Officer talk that comfortably in informal speech before."
"Right? He never does it with us except when he's chewing us out."
"They really are family."
Noah bowed her head deeply to the people seated across from her.
"As the next head of the Kell Merchant Company, I offer my sincere apologies for violating the administration's regulations and causing you all such trouble..."
"N-No, please! We're the ones who should apologize—we restrained the Central Officer's sister far too heavily. Please don't hold it against us."
Then she turned to the one woman who had recognized her.
"Holy Maiden. You'd been hiding from the Order, and I was far too careless. Please forgive me."
"How did you...?"
Erzena blinked in surprise at Noah, who had grasped the situation in an instant. My sister, whose eyes were exactly like my own, held her gaze steadily.
"Otherwise there'd be no reason at all for the Holy Maiden to be here."
"...Well, to be honest, I'm not a holy maiden anymore. Just Erzena."
"Whaaat??"
This time it was Noah's turn to be astonished.
"Erzena. That's enough."
At that point, I cut in. I had no interest in letting the story run any longer, or in revealing any more information than necessary.
Steering the conversation back on track.
"Good. Then there are no hard feelings on either side."
Wrongs on both sides had been acknowledged and forgiven. The situation had been more or less settled, and nothing had spiraled further—it could end here.
But one thing still remained to be done.
"Which brings us to the matter of Noah's punishment."
Namely, her violation of discipline. Noah, whose expression had just begun to brighten again, whipped her head around.
"Huh? I-isn't this supposed to end on a nice note?"
"What are you talking about? If a handshake settled everything, why would regulations exist at all?"
Cutting her hope down with a single stroke, I said quietly:
"There are no exceptions at the border."
The iron rules must be upheld. Family, friends, enemies, lovers, acquaintances—it made no difference what the offender was to you. The line drawn upon the earth stands equal before all. And naturally, when that line was crossed, punishment must fall just as equally.
"But you just forgave me..."
"I forgave you. But principle is principle. Family doesn't get a pass."
And I had no intention of letting my sister walk all over the border so lightly, either.
"Th-That's..."
Noah stared at me, flustered. But then, she nodded along with the other officers.
"He's right, though."
"Letting family slide would be a disaster."
"Once one exception appears, the second comes that much easier."
Even Erzena chimed in:
"Miss Noah, if you're injured during your punishment, I'll heal you, so don't worry."
She had long since absorbed our philosophy whole.
"Touch Officer. What is the standard punishment for a civilian in a case like this?"
"Hmm... unauthorized entry into a restricted zone, failure to comply with an examiner's directive, witnessing classified information—and given her status as a merchant, she's deemed a high risk for information leakage."
The charges rattled off in one smooth, unbroken stream. With each one, Noah's expression died a little more.
"However, since none of it was a deliberate act committed for the purpose of acquiring information, a binding confidentiality oath should settle the matter."
Fortunately, it was neither summary execution nor detention. Something far lighter—a magically enforced gag order.
"Phew..."
"A confidentiality oath, then."
I murmured the words. Only one person present could cast that spell.
I raised my eyes upward.
"...Shushukanim..."
Hanging upside down from the ceiling, dangling limply, the Hearing Officer groaned out my name, barely conscious. I snapped my fingers at once.
"Touch Officer. Release him."
"Yes, sir."
Swish—thud!
Only then did the tentacle binding the elf's ankles unwind, gifting the Hearing Officer a freedom known as the floor.
"Uuurgh... I'm gonna throw up..."
"Hearing Officer. On your feet."
"Y-Yessir!"
The elf scrambled upright, dripping sweat. His face, drained pale from nearly half an hour in the air, was almost pitiful to look at.
"Have you reflected on your actions?"
"...I saw my life flash before my eyes. By the World Tree, my mother tree, I swear it will never happen again."
His answers came easily enough.
I fixed him with a chilly stare.
"I will grant you a chance to redeem yourself. The confidentiality oath—can you cast it right now?"
As a former member of the Mage Society, she would certainly know it.
"I'll have it ready immediately!"
The Hearing Officer, normally sluggish as molasses, whipped out a pen at superhuman speed and began scrawling runic script across a scrap of wastepaper.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
And before long—
Woooong.
With an eerie glow, the impromptu scroll was complete.
"Here it is, Central Officer!"
"..."
I stared at it in silence. On the reverse side of the paper, dense with runic script, was printed: Monthly Report: Hourly Entrant Statistics.
In all my life, I had never seen such a bizarre magical scroll. But given the circumstances, there was no helping it.
"Very well. Let us begin at once."
I rose from my seat and squared my shoulders.
"Regulation violator Noah Kell. Stand up."
"Y-Yes!"
"You have accessed classified state information without authorization, and you bear responsibility for this. Do you acknowledge?"
"I acknowledge."
"Accordingly, you will receive punishment commensurate with the offense. Do you agree that you have no complaints regarding it?"
"Yes."
Admission of guilt, and consent to punishment. All requirements received.
Tap.
I took my sister's hand and placed it upon the scroll.
"Hearing Officer."
At my signal, she began reciting the spell at once.
"O pact woven of mana and the laws of this world, bound to these characters and to thee—I call the name."
"Noah Kell."
"Noah Kell, child of humanity, regarding all that you have seen this day, and all that shall transpire over the period of one week—"
The Hearing Officer's fluent recitation trailed off at the end, and she shot me a sly sideways glance. I held up seven fingers.
"—do you swear seven years of silence upon it?"
"S-Seven years? Isn't that a bit long? And everything? So I can't even tell Mom and Dad about the talk I had with Oppa?"
She's filing an objection mid-punishment.
"Keep it up and you'll get an exit ban and lose the whole gold rush business. Your choice."
"I swear! I swear it firmly! You write the letter to Mom and Dad yourself!"
Noah agreed in a flash.
Fssshhh...
The moment she voiced her consent, the wastepaper scroll flared with light and slowly crumbled to ash. Noah stared down at the cinders at her feet, tense.
"Is... is it done?"
"Let's find out. Try it. Say something about Erzena."
"The Holy Maiden Erzena is currently at the Crossli— Mmmph!?"
Noah's mouth, opening wide for a loud declaration, snapped shut all at once.
"Mmmmph—phwaaah!"
Her lips popped open again roughly three seconds later.
"The Holy Maiden Erzena is at the Crossli— MMMMPH!!!"
A second attempt produced the same result.
"Reliably effective, I see. Even a rushed job—not bad."
"Oppa, you're so mean!"
Had the oath been cast through the proper Mage Society procedures, the penalty would doubtless have been far more severe. But this was sufficient for now. If I knew my sister, she understood that this oath wasn't merely a spell—that my trust, and Erzena's very identity, hung upon it.
And in a week's time, before she departed, we could simply bind her with the formal version. What we'd done today was a provisional measure, after all.
"Ah, and about where you're staying..."
"Hm? You said earlier to just grab an inn."
She no longer had any reason to remain at the administration building. All she had to do was walk out the door and savor her freedom.
But every lodging and inn in the vicinity was booked solid.
"Follow me."
"Where are we going?"
"My house."
"...Huh? What did you say?"
"You're staying at my place for the next week."
"Really!? But you said no earlier!"
I held my silence for a moment, then sighed.
"I just reunited with my little sister after four years. I can't exactly make her sleep in the street."
And with the confidentiality oath sealed, there was no longer any reason to keep the classified information from her. Whatever Noah saw, heard, and felt over the coming week would remain inside her forever. So I might as well accept it.
At last, I smiled.
"There's a lot I want to talk with you about. So stay at my place and rest before you go."
"Ehehe... You haven't changed one bit about this sort of thing, Oppa. I love it."
"Ah, one thing before I forget, though."
I added a final word to Noah as she bounced with excitement.
"Don't be too shocked when we get home. There are... a few people living there."
"Aha, so you've got roommates. I knew it."
My sister, fully reverted to her black-cat manner, narrowed her eyes at me.
"Relax, relax. What could be more surprising than the Holy Maiden, right?"
Oh, there was more.